A Sherif & Sherif source page

Originally published as:

Muzafer Sherif, "A study of some social factors in perception: Bibliography." Archives of Psychology, 1935, 27, No. 187, 53-54.

Editors' notes

It often surprises us how infrequently this paper appears in list of significant contributions to social psychology. The research described here is central to the argument that makes social psychology possible. The experiments demonstrate why it is necessary to approach human behavior — especially behaviors being observed in the laboratory — as embedded in highly structured situations that contain and constrain the scope of activity, including such internal processes as those involved in perception, processes that would seem immune to social effects.

As the introductory chapter makes clear, this is not simply a caveat for laboratory research. It is a bridge between some rather abstract studies of perception under conditions likely to obtain in day-to-day life on one hand and more detailed work on social organization of day-to-day life on the other. That bridge was built within a context that psychologists could understand.

The studies bring to the surface two important aspects of those social effects. First, group interactions can shape the responses of the participants. Second — and possibly more importantly — the shaping of those responses endures. This aspect of the study would be the focus of later research.

For those interested in playing with data, the Appendix contains several data matrices generated in the course of the study. Anyone left unsatisfied by Sherif's treatment of the data can reanalyze the work for themselves.

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A Study of Some Social Factors in Perception

Bibliography

Table of Contents | Previous

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Allport, F. H. Psychology in Relation to Social and Political Problems, Ch. VII, Psychology at Work, ed. Achilles, P., N. Y., McGraw-Hill, 1932, 236.
Beebe-Center, J. Pleasantness and Unpleasantness. N. Y., Van Nostrand, 1932,6-7.
Benedict, R. Anthropology and the Abnormal. J. Gen. Psychol., 1934, 10, 60-64.
Boas, F. The Mind of Primitive Man. N. Y., Macmillan, 1911, 119, 228.
Boring, E. G. Attribute and Sensation. Amer. Jour. Psychol., 1924, 35, 301-304.
Bressler, J. Judgment in Absolute Units as a Psychophysical Method. Arch. Psychol., 1933, No. 152.
Carr, H. The Autokinetic Sensation. Psychol. Rev., 1910, 17, 62-68.
Chapman, D. W. Relative Effects of Determinate and Indeterminate Aufgaben. Amer. J. Psychol., 1932, 44, 163-174.
Cope, L. Calendars of the Indians North of Mexico. Calif. Publ. Arch. Ethnol., 1919, 16, 124; 137.
Farnsworth, P. R., Beaumont, H. Suggestion in Pictures. J. Gen. Psychol., 1929, 2, 362-366.
Fernberger, S. W. On Absolute and Relative Judgments in Lifted Weight Experiments. Amer. J. Psychol., 1931, 43, 560-578.
Frank, J. D. Individual Differences in Certain Aspects of the Level of Aspiration. - Amer. J. Psychol., 1935, 47, 119-128.
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