De experimentele methode in de sociale psychologie II

Samenvatting

Part II of a progress report on the use of the experimental method in social psychology. Part I emphasized the high degree of objectivity in that method. But this very objectivity makes the method difficult to apply to real life situations. Its high degree of abstraction tends to ignore individual peculiarities; the individual is viewed as a 'point' in social space. However, methods have been developed to study the individual in interaction with 'the others' within a definite milieu. The methods of psychodrama and sociodrama developed by J. L. Moreno, and of standard role play situation used by Rosemary Lippitt and the author at the Neuro-Psychiatric Institute of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor are described in detail. The experimental method has also been applied to field research, eg by A. Leavitt in his research on the connection between labor structures, productivity and workers' satisfaction. But such applications have as yet been few, and there is need for a better coordination between exp'al and field research. There is also need for cooperation between phenomenological and experimental research with reference to definite problems, although a beginning has been made in the Netherlands by M. Mulder and B. J. Kouwer. I. Langnas.