An Introduction to Social Psychology
Chapter 1: Science and the Environment
Luther Lee Bernard
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THE NATURE OF SCIENCE—Science is tested and classified knowledge. It is not a matter of primary importance whether this knowledge comes from the laboratory or from some form of observation properly controlled and tested and generalized. The source of the knowledge is of secondary importance. Its accuracy is the primary consideration. It must be tested or verified to be science, that is, trustworthy knowledge. Hypotheses supported by all relative facts which are known, and not contradicted by other data or hypotheses, are also usually regarded as scientifically dependable or as science content.
To be most useful, that is, readily available, for the one who works with scientific data, it should not only be tested, but it should also be classified knowledge. Classification is the storekeeping of science. It brings each fact or principle ready to the mind of the user, as a tool to the workman. Thus both the testing and the classifying of knowledge are essential procedures in rendering science available for both the professional investigator and thinker and the intelligent layman who makes use of facts in adjusting himself immediately to his environment and in thinking out a livable theory of his world.
THE SCIENCES—CLASSIFICATION—It is generally agreed that the field of science may be segregated into certain major divisions and into various sciences, which we call collectively the sciences. The general or basic sciences, which are commonly recognized, are mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, and social science. The subdivisions under these generic headings are of two general kinds: (I) the special sciences, such as arithmetic, geometry, algebra, etc., under mathematics, for example; or bacteriology, physiology, anatomy, neurology, botany, etc., under biology; and (2) the applied sciences, The applied sciences do not always come so
(4) regularly under any one heading as do the special sciences mentioned. They fall between two general sciences, or they may even be dependent, more or less indiscriminately, upon a number of general and special, or even other applied, sciences. Thus, astronomy is frequently regarded as an applied branch of mathematics, but it is also dependent upon physics and chemistry. Mechanics, which is more frequently considered to be an applied science, is dependent upon both mathematics and physics. Social psychology is a special science resting directly upon psychology and sociology, but indirectly also upon biology, and all of the other sciences in less degree. It also has interrelationships with other special sciences, such as educational psychology, economics, and political science, and with such applied sciences as the psychology of advertising, educational and political administration, etc.
Some writers on methodology might not regard the type of sciences represented by astronomy and mechanics as applied sciences at all, but rather as special sciences arising out of two or more general sciences, and this view is probably correct. The older special sciences mentioned above by way of illustration are all tributary to some one general science. But it is only within the limits of expectation that as the general sciences overlap, there will arise from them hybrid or multiple special sciences, as in the cases mentioned. The older special sciences apparently became integrated before the general sciences to which they logically belong were given composite or conceptual existence. But the newer special sciences were split off to cover and integrate special problems arising in human consciousness after the general sciences were established. Hence the fact that they often depend upon more than one general science. The later the special science develops the more likely it is to have specific relationships with several general sciences.
Some obviously applied sciences have already been mentioned. There are many of this type and the number is constantly growing. As our collective life becomes more complex and as the physical, biological, and social phenomena which we must take into consideration in making our adjustment processes become more numerous, we organize these new fields of knowledge into special and applied sciences. An applied science
( 5) is a system or classification of knowledge arranged in such form as to make it readily and immediately available for purposes of technology. It is drawn directly out of the more generally classified and logically arranged data of the special, sometimes of the general, sciences, or it may grow up directly out of experience and experiment and observation. In this latter case it becomes an important source for the development of a special, or of a general, science, instead of being merely drawn from these more abstract sources. Perhaps the technologies have always been the primary feeders for the abstract sciences, but in our time scientific investigation, which is being pursued more and more as an immediate end in itself, is becoming increasingly the source of such tested and classified general knowledge.
THE UNITY OF THE SCIENCES—The dividing lines between the three types of sciences here mentioned are not always easily drawn. Not even the general sciences can be kept uniformly separate. For example, the distinction between physics and chemistry tends to disappear at certain points, especially where both merge in physical chemistry. In a similar way psychology and sociology tend to find a common ground in social psychology. And some social scientists are inclined to anticipate a development of these two basic sciences in which social psychology will absorb the most important content of both psychology and sociology. Some sociologists already define the subject matter of sociology as the psychic interstimulation and response of people living in society, and the author of this book knows at least one psychologist of reputation who believes that the introduction of the college student to the science of psychology should be through the doorway of social psychology.
Likewise, it is sometimes difficult to determine whether a science should be regarded as independent and general or as subsidiary and special. For example, are economics and political science special subdivisions of the general science of sociology; or are they equally general and coordinate with sociology; or are they along with sociology but subdivisions of and subordinate to a developing and emerging general social science on the analogy of the synthetic sciences of mathematics,
( 6) physics, chemistry, or biology?. Are political science and economics independent sciences at all, or are they rather applied sciences? Unquestionably both have their applied aspects and apparently the pure and applied science aspects of these sciences have not yet been clearly differentiated—at least not as clearly separated as in the case of some of the older sciences.
Finally, it is sometimes maintained that the social sciences are synthetic sciences organized primarily out of materials taken from the older and better developed sciences and from each other, with an increasing body of data and principles resulting from their own investigations. Thus sociology is supposed to be based primarily upon psychology and biology and it might therefore be considered as a special science depending upon these earlier developed sciences. Yet sociology did not originate in this way, but as an attempt to organize tested knowledge about the major field of human relationships in general. However, it would be possible for a special science to develop into the status of a general science through growth in volume and in importance as a means of adjustment. It might be contended that just this is happening to social psychology. But such a conclusion would probably be premature at this stage of its development.
THE ORIGIN OF THE SCIENCES—Such questions can be settled, or rather understood, only if we examine the method by which the sciences arose. Also, we must not forget that science is simply tested knowledge, which is all the more available for the worker if it is also classified. Any particular science, as distinguished from science in general, comes into existence with the organization of a considerable body of this tested knowledge about the statement of some problem situation. It is immaterial, as far as the particular science is concerned, whether this tested knowledge was drawn from other sciences—borrowed—or whether it was produced, so to speak, to order, through laboratory or other investigations, in an attempt to solve the specific problems outstanding. There is no exclusive ownership of scientific data, as far as the several sciences are concerned. Tested knowledge passes current in all principalities of science, and there is no customs barrier or
( 7) other tax or embargo upon it. It is free to every scientist who understands its symbolism, although he may not use the form in which it is cast without permission. The form is art rather than science.
Some sciences are organized on the federal principle. As suggested above, the special sciences may arise before the related general. science and only in the course of time come to be organized or synthesized into a general science. Whether this is a principle of universal application is open to question, but it. certainly has been the case with mathematics, which had its beginnings in the special sciences of arithmetic, geometry, algebra, and trigonometry. Only relatively recently have we come to think of mathematics as a unit science instead of as independent sciences, which we now call mathematical. Possibly a similar movement towards federalism in the social sciences is under way. If this is the case, we shall probably adopt the generalized term social science to cover the conceptual unity of the various social sciences. Possibly a general social science is just now being integrated conceptually out of the special social sciences, as formerly mathematics was integrated out of arithmetic, geometry, algebra, etc. Or, as some writers seem inclined to believe, we might possibly regard sociology as in part a federal synthesis of the abstract findings of the special social sciences, even though sociology began as an independent science.
The reverse tendency, for special and applied sciences to split off from the earlier formal and more general sciences, is perhaps the more common one. We are so familiar with this process that it requires no elucidation or illustration. The relations of the sciences to each other are constantly changing, with the result that the relative importance of any science, general or special, varies from time to time. The social sciences have come into very great importance in recent decades and their significance is likely to increase rather than diminish. Social psychology in particular has obtained a noticeably increased hearing for itself, because eve bare begun to study human society with greater earnestness and we recognize that the most important phases of human relationships are those which involve neuro-psychic stimulation and response.
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THE FUNCTION of SCIENCE—When viewed from the standpoint of society, the function of science is adjustment. It is often said that science has no other concern than the truth, and this is unquestionably the case in so far as investigational method is concerned. No bias or prepossession should be allowed to distort technique or to color conclusions. Otherwise the cardinal principle of the definition of science—the tested quality of its data and principles—is violated.
When viewed from an androcentric standpoint, however—and science is a human product—its function is to collect the data and principles which enable man the better to control his relationship to his world. Man is the collector of tested knowledge and presumably his object in gathering facts and principles is not a purely esthetic one, but is primarily practical. Originally the practical motive was probably dominant in the individual, although mere curiosity may have played a part in the origins of science. All collections of data were relative to some problem or interest which was of great importance to the collector. In our highly complex society, however, where the investigator often lives relatively detached from the concrete and urgent elementary problems of life, it is possible for him to have only an abstract interest in his results. This detachment from the stress of life, which enables the scientist to concentrate on the method and process of investigation without being concerned as to what social effect it will ultimately have, favors the impartiality of his conclusions. Consequently we are apt to approve what we sometimes call the "pure science" attitude of the investigator.
But society as a whole is likely to demand practical results. The motives of those who endow scientific research may be merely esthetic, although they are more likely to be practical, or to be concerned with social welfare or industrial development. The problems of investigation, the foci around which the collections of data constituting science are organized, are set primarily by practical adjustment situations. The desire for knowledge for knowledge's sake, although a growing conception, usually has back of it the realization that its findings will ultimately be utilized in some practical situation.
The older or so-called natural sciences of course investigate
(9) many subjects only indirectly related to the problems of human adjustment. The questions of the distance and composition of stars, the constitution of matter, the qualities of chemical elements, or even the causes of climatic cycles, may appear to have little immediate concern for the practical problems of life. They are more interesting as intellectual than as social problems. But there is little knowledge which does not in the last analysis have some bearing upon the problem of an intelligent organization and control of our world. The recognition of this fact is perhaps the strongest moral justification we have for our individual and social support of scientific investigation.
THE FUNCTION OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES—It is the business of the social sciences especially to assist man in making his adjustment to his world. The social sciences deal with human relationships. But it is not with the interrelationships of people alone that the social sciences are concerned. They are interested in man's adjustment to nature or to the external and non-human world or environments. This is sometimes the adjustment of the individual to his environment, but it is more frequently the adjustment of a collection or organization of individuals to their common environment.
This sort of collective adjustment may be either an aggregate adjustment or a coöperative adjustment. The former term refers more particularly to those collective adjustments which are not primarily purposive on the part of the participating members and for which no special preparation has been made in the way of conscious organization. Even among modern civilized men we can find examples of merely aggregate adjustment on the part of people who are thrown together adventitiously, as in a storm or at an amusement place or on a journey. But even in such cases people are never wholly unprepared by their previous experiences and by traditions and customs and conventions for acting together. Consequently their responses to the common environment will soon become consciously coöperative, if the difficulties are sufficiently great to call forth mutual aid.
In a certain sense all collective human adjustment to environment is coöperative and purposive. The very fact of being born into a coöperating society and of having one's character
( 10) molded by it gives each person the technique for a larger measure of coöperation, even under adventitious circumstances. Coöperative adjustment involves a certain amount of organization, which tends to become both more extensive and intensive the closer and more effective the coöperation is. Of course this organization is primarily psychic in character, and when it becomes relatively fixed and permanent we speak of it as institutional. Not all coöperation is institutional in character, but the more ephemeral types of organization tend to become institutionalized as they grow older, especially if the conditions of coöperation are not changing rapidly. Nor are all institutions self-conscious or purposively coöperative. But all modern institutions tend to become highly self-conscious and purposively coöperative, perhaps because the problem of maintaining a continuity of integration under a fairly rapid change of environmental pressures becomes increasingly difficult and can be solved only as the result of conscious effort.
It is clear, therefore, that much of this problem of adjustment of man to his environments falls within the range of social psychology and must be solved in the light of the data of this special social science. Since the content of institutions, the chief forms of coöperative collective or coadaptive adjustment, is mainly psycho-social, it is necessary constantly to make use of the data of psychology to interpret and apply the processes of adjustment. It is largely through social psychology that sociology makes its contact with psychology.
THE FACTORS IN SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT—we have spoken of the function of science, considered as an anthropomorphic and anthropocentric system, as being to aid in the adjustment of man to his environment. Also, it may be truly said, the content of the social sciences is the technique, in theory and in practice, of the adjustment processes. In order to understand adequately these adjustment processes it is necessary to analyze all of the factors and conditions of these processes. These include the inner or psychic processes in the individual, the social contact processes, the maintenance and social sustenance processes, and the social organization and control processes. And to these must be added an analysis of the environments
( 11) which serve as the conditioning factors for individual and collective behavior.
In this work it will not be necessary to do more than outline the various environments and to indicate how they function as conditioners of adjustment processes. Nor shall we be further concerned with the maintenance and sustenance processes, except as they constitute an aspect of the environment. Likewise the individual psychic mechanisms are of interest to us as students of social psychology only in so far as they mediate collective adjustments or condition social or collective responses. Social psychology is concerned, however, with the analysis of the growth and exercise of psychic behavior processes in response to social stimuli, in the analysis of those contact situations which afford effective stimuli to such responses, and even in the forms of social organization and the means of social control which condition and modify those stimuli.
SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT—Science in general, and the social sciences in particular, are the product of the study of objects—including organisms—and their relation to their environments. The concept environment has developed particularly in the field of the biological and social sciences, but we find it also in those sciences dealing with fields of physical forces converging upon a center, as in the case of electrical phenomena. C. M. Child apparently would extend it to all phases of science. The objects and organisms may be studied as materials for direct analysis, or they may be considered in relation to other objects and groups of objects, that is, as environment for other objects or as themselves subject to the influence of environing objects or organisms.
The various social sciences are the products of the study of the relation of the various environments to man and of man to his environments. Thus economics is the tested and organized data relative to man's adjustment to his physical environment and of the exchange and productive contacts of men with each other iii pursuit of this adjustment. Political administration embodies the data of the publicly supervised contacts of men, especially in the economic field, but also in other
( 12) fields. Ethics is the organized data concerning the valuation of human contacts in terms of their effect upon personalities, isolated and as members of groups. Educational psychology is the study of the effect of the environments, mainly social, upon the individual behavior as determined through personal direction or training. Social psychology is the study of the influence of the environments, mainly social, upon the individual and collective behavior, or of the response of individual behavior in collective situations to all sorts of stimuli. The analysis of the organism and of its environments, and of the types of individual reaction to these environments, will be undertaken in Part II. The reactions of individuals to social situations will be considered in Part III. The collective processes themselves, which embrace both individual responses in social situations and environmental forms, are discussed in Part IV.
