For an old shape of social sciences, i.e. against the „instead of” methodology

Abstract

Since the 1970s, social psychology has investigated real human behavior to an increasingly smaller degree. The author of the article suggests that the phenomenon of cognitive revolution in psychology naturally boosted the interest of researchers in such phenomena like attitudes, values, social judgments and stereotypes; at the same time, it decreased interest in others important topics like aggression, social influence or altruism. In recent decades, we have also witnessed a growing conviction among social psychologists that explaining why people perform certain actions holds greater importance that demonstrating the conditions under which people really display particular reactions. The key question appears in this situation of whether social psychology remains of science of (real) behavior, and whether the current condiction of the discipline is desirable or rather pathological.