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AM KIUCA N PSYCHOLOGIST
but pithy, facet of behavioral research, the "ecological validity" (see Brunswick, .1947) of our
observations, that is, their generalizability outside of
the experiment proper. And if this "generalization
gap" permeates all areas of psychological inquiry,
it is perhaps most visible in social psychology.
.But. the past decade has offered encouragement
for a way out of our dilemma, in the form of a
viable, widespread movement within social psychology. Heralded by the discoveries of Orne,
Rosenthal, Rosenberg, and others (reviewed in
Rosenthal & Rosnow, 1969) on the many sources
of artifact in human psychological research, the
movement has led to extensive recvaluations of
methods and data in such traditional areas of
social psychology as conformity (Schulman, 1967;
Strieker, Mcssick, & Jackson, 1967), group dynamics (Criswell, 1958; Mills, 1965), and attitude
change (Silverman & Shulman, 1970). The core
concept of the movement is that the model of psychological subject as object that has pervaded our
research since postintrospectionist times is painfully
flawed, and the data we acquire may relate very
much to the motives and feelings and thoughts of
subjects about their role in the experiment and
very little to their lives outside of it.
This movement deals also with the issue of "relevance," but in the broader, scientifically credible
sense of the relevance oj data to the construct to
which they pertain. U, too, seeks more valid research models for social psychology, but it does not
attempt this by assumption or edict, but by painstaking conceptual and empirical analyses of the
deficits of the present model. Thus, the "new
social psychology," if we are allowed one chance
to develop from within, may well lead to the
direct study of social problems in some cases and at
some stages, but it may as readily lead to improved
methods for studying the more basic questions
that have traditionally absorbed us, perhaps along
the lines of nonreactive strategies as discussed by
Webb, Campbell, Schwartz, and Sechrcst (1966).
It may lead, too, to models for social research that
are not yet apparent.
The critical point is that the movement from
within should not be distracted or hampered by
the movement from without. I f we have learned