Review of Group relations at the crossroads

Abstract

Reviews the book Group relations at the crossroads , edited by M. Sherif and M. O. Wilson (see record 1954-07369-000 ). This volume is a collection of papers emphasizing social-psychological concepts and explanations, prepared for a conference at the University of Oklahoma (April, 1952). Despite the heterogeneity of aims and methods of each of the papers, the reviewer will hazard presenting some overall impressions of the book: (1) While such general psychology topics as perceptual development have been included, contributions from many of the largest research programs on group relations such as the Ohio State Leadership Studies and the Michigan Survey Research Center are excluded. Anthropology is also absent. (2) Some of the papers could have been more of a contribution had they more extensively surveyed the literature. Yet, in general, most papers tended to maintain a high standard of excellence. (3) Social psychologists seem to be trying hard to adopt sociological concepts and to integrate their work via "interdisciplinary" research with the other social sciences. It may be both more parsimonious and profitable for social psychologists to integrate their research with the general psychology of learning, perception and motivation. This does not mean that rejecting many sociological concepts will lead to ignoring the nature of the stimulating situation while studying social behavior. Rather, the situation will be described in terms which will lend themselves more readily to integration with psychological concepts describing the other equally important determinants of social, and all behavior, i.e., the behavioral history, motivation and biological level of the behaving organisms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)