ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights a subtle feature of Muzafer Sherif's approach that is easily overlooked: the priority given to collective processes and context. It provides a perspective on Sherif in relation to broader trends in psychological science in the 21st century. "The chapter explores the theme of "from societal to individual processes," which reverses the traditional perspective of starting from the micro individual level and moving to the societal level. It argues that, like Lev Vygotsky, Sherif was pointing to the orientation that psychological research should adopt, of taking collective processes. Students of Vygotsky will of course recognize a parallel development in how the Great Russian and Turkish psychologists conceptualized the relationship between context and the individual. The chapter examines the materialist theme in Sherif's scholarship. It discusses an underlying theme in Sherif's life and work: power relations. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.
