The Future of an Illusion: American Social Psychology

Abstract

American social psychology is regarded by some to be suffering a crisis of confidence. The crisis can be assessed by examining the implicit assumptions which dominate American social psychology, and the illusions which stem therefrom. One such assumption is that a science of the person can be formulated, an unlikely premise when cross-cultural research is taken into account. A second assumption is that empirical social science is a value-free endeavor which proceeds cumulatively toward truth. A corollary is that training American social psychologists has become increasingly specialized, is linguistically isolated, and is victimized by incestuous relations within the power structure.