Social psychological theory and research on the novel coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) pandemic: Introduction to the rapid response special section

Practicality was a valued attribute of academic psychological theory during its initial decades, but usefulness has since faded in importance to the field. Theories are now evaluated mainly on their ability to account for decontextualized laboratory data and not their ability to help solve societal problems. With laudable exceptions in the clinical, intergroup, and health domains, most psychological theories have little relevance to people’s everyday lives, poor accessibility to policymakers, or even applicability to the work of other academics who are better positioned to translate the theories to the practical realm. We refer to the lack of relevance, accessibility, and applicability of psychological theory to the rest of society as the practicality crisis. The practicality crisis harms the field in its ability to attract the next generation of scholars and maintain viability at the national level. We describe practical theory and illustrate its use in the field of self-regulation. Psychological theory is historically and scientifically well positioned to become useful should scholars in the field decide to value practicality. We offer a set of incentives to encourage the return of social psychology to the Lewinian vision of a useful science that speaks to pressing social issues.

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Social Neuroscience and its Contribution to Social Psychological Theory: Introduction to the Special Issue

Social Cognition ◽

10.1521/soco.2010.28.6.663 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 28 (6) ◽

pp. 663-666 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jeffrey W. Sherman

Keyword(s):

Psychological Theory ◽

Social Neuroscience ◽

Special Issue ◽

Social Psychological ◽

Social Psychological Theory

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Tinder: A Game with Gendered Rules and Consequences

Social Currents ◽

10.1177/23294965211019486 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 232949652110194

Author(s):

Dana Berkowitz ◽

Justine Tinkler ◽

Alana Peck ◽

Lynnette Coto

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Impression Management ◽

New Technologies ◽

Psychological Theory ◽

Sexual Scripts ◽

Social Psychological ◽

Men And Women ◽

College Age ◽

Patterns Of Interaction ◽

Social Psychological Theory

The popularity of Mobile Dating Applications has increased in recent years, with Tinder transforming the dating landscape for college students. Drawing upon 249 peer-facilitated interviews with college-age men and women, we explore how this population uses Tinder. Informed by social-psychological theory and research on impression management and stereotyping, we show how Tinder’s marketing strategy and game-like platform appeal to college students’ desires to reduce uncertainty and risk in forming romantic and intimate connections. However, by upending existing interaction norms, the Tinder environment creates new forms of ambiguity, which, in turn, incentivizes conformity to traditional heterogender norms and encourages racist and classist swiping behavior. Our study advances the literature on inequality and intimate marketplaces by generating insight about how contemporary dating and sexual scripts are constructed, accomplished, and negotiated when new technologies disrupt established patterns of interaction.

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Social and Cognitive Psychology Theories in Understanding COVID-19 as the Pandemic of Blame

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.672395 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Ayoub Bouguettaya ◽

Clare E. C. Walsh ◽

Victoria Team

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Psychology ◽

Political Parties ◽

International Relations ◽

Health Communication ◽

Health Professionals ◽

Modern Society ◽

Racial Groups ◽

The Novel ◽

Social Psychological ◽

Novel Coronavirus

When faced with adverse circumstances, there may be a tendency for individuals, agencies, and governments to search for a target to assign blame. Our focus will be on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, where racial groups, political parties, countries, and minorities have been blamed for spreading, producing or creating the virus. Blame—here defined as attributing causality, responsibility, intent, or foresight to someone/something for a fault or wrong—has already begun to damage modern society and medical practice in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. Evidence from past and current pandemics suggest that this tendency to seek blame affects international relations, promotes unwarranted devaluation of health professionals, and prompts a spike of racism and discrimination. By drawing on social and cognitive psychology theories, we provide a framework that helps to understand (1) the effect of blame in pandemics, (2) when people blame, whom they blame, and (3) how blame detrimentally affects the COVID-19 response. Ultimately, we provide a path to inform health messaging to reduce blaming tendencies, based on social psychological principles for health communication.

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Living Apart, Living Together? The Role of Intergroup Contact in Social Integration

Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 162, 2008 Lectures ◽

10.5871/bacad/9780197264584.003.0009 ◽

2009 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

MILES HEWSTONE

Keyword(s):

Social Integration ◽

Intergroup Contact ◽

Psychological Theory ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Social Psychological ◽

British Psychological Society ◽

Living Together ◽

Different Types ◽

Social Psychological Theory

This lecture presents the text of the speech about the role of intergroup contact in social integration delivered by the author at the 2006 Joint British Academy/British Psychological Society Lecture held at the British Academy. It explores the different perspectives on mixing and considers what can be learned from available data. The lecture discusses different types of intergroup contact and explains the policy implications of intergroup contact based on social-psychological theory.

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