Social Psychology and Social Theory

Social Psychology and Social Theory is a major new book that looks at a variety of approaches to social psychology through the lens of social theory. It introduces the student and researcher to many elements of social theory that are relevant to social psychology and gives them a strong grounding in the relevant literature (i.e. Foucault, Habermas, Lyotard, Derrida, Bourdieu etc), helping them to understand major social psychological theories - from social identity to social influence - in this context. It keeps the discussion of social theory clear and relevant at every step.

The book contains and addresses the following: a discussion of the dispersal of social psychological topics across the humanities and social sciences; a view of social psychology as a variety of schools of thought with divergent theoretical origins (i.e. social constructionism, political critique, discursive traditions etc); an outline of the various approaches to social theory and their relevance in principle to different areas of the study and approaches to social psychology; and several chapters where key implications of social theory for a variety of areas of social psychology are discussed in depth including social identity, social representations, new paradigms in social psychology, social influence, social cognition and qualitative methodology.

Social Psychology and Social Theory will be important reading for advanced students and researchers in social psychology and sociology. It should also be of interest to those studying theory and psychology as well as philosophy of the social sciences courses.