FOUR THEORETICAL LENSES FOR SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Abstract

Augoustinos, M, Walker, I & Donaghue, N (2006) Social cognition: An integrated introduction. 2nd ed. London: Sage Publications (1995). ISBN 978-0-7619-4219-X pbk. Pages 364.

This book, both a textbook and a monograph, is good because it foregrounds theory, often relatively neglected in mainstream books on social psychology. I liked the first edition (in 1995) and this second edition, entirely reworked, is a whole lot better. The approach is to take four major theoretical perspectives – social cognition, Social Identity Theory (SIT), social representations, and discursive psychology – and compare how each understands particular phenomena, such as attitudes, attribution, prejudice, perception, the self, intergroup relations and ideology. The brief concluding chapter suggests a path towards integration (as the sub-title states) arguing that each of the current streams is limited in terms of concepts, methodology and epistemology. At the same time the authors hold a view critical of individualism and its potentially conservative consequences; here a person cannot be grasped in isolation from social processes. One of their aims is an old Tajfellian objective: to re-establish the social in social psychology.