ABSTRACT

Contemporary psychology seems to become aware of the ‘crisis state’ of its theoretical system and methodological knowhow. This awareness shows itself in different areas of psychology in different forms. Perhaps social psychologists have been the most explicit in their calls for re-organization of their discipline (e.g., Gergen, 1982; Gergen and Gergen, 1985; Gergen and Davis, 1985; McClintock, 1985; Thorngate, 1986). However, psychologists in other areas have been wrestling with similar issues (e.g., Brandt, 1973; Cronbach, 1975; Luria and Artemieva, 1970; Meehl, 1986; Toulmin and Leary, 1985; Valsiner, 1987; Vroon, 1986). There seem to be two focal topics that underlie the crisis of contemporary psychology: the intentional nature of thinking and acting by human beings, and the interdependence of individual consciousness with its social context (Hales, 1986a, 1986b; Vollmer, 1986). Neither of these issues have been satisfactorily handled by psychology. The intentional nature of human conduct has been overlooked in traditional experimentation (Danziger, 1985; Toulmin, 1986), and personality has been usually conceptualized outside its relationships with its social surroundings (Valsiner and Benigni, 1986). At the same time, a research tradition has emerged at the intersection of cognitive and social psychologypredictably labelled ‘social cognition’ research.