ABSTRACT
Social psychology, too, received its primary impetus from a series of important findings. All sciences seek to make discoveries about the world, and these findings are essential to the patrimony of the field. Discoveries are eternal additions to the patrimony, whereas theories are continuously challenged. Even the most successful theories, such as Isaac Newton’s, are ultimately modified or replaced. In both the natural sciences and the social sciences, new findings are a frequent form of interaction among specialties. Findings are less obviously beneficial, destroying accepted theory without suggesting any better alternative. Besides creating fields, discoveries can enrich existing specialties. Psychologists discovered that stimuli are conditioned by the contexts in which they are located: colors, for instance, are perceived differently depending on the background color; rats run mazes differently depending on where the windows in a room are.
