Methodological Innovations in Social Psychology

A hallmark of contemporary social psychology is the methodological inventiveness of its researchers. Social psychologists are relentless in their pursuit of novel methods with which to advance their understanding of social behavior. Indeed, some of the most important new methods of the past three decades have come out of social psychological laboratories, and the result is the rapid advance of the social psychological toolbox.

This five-volume collection brings together a diverse assortment of the most important contributions in this area, combining methodology with substantive empiricism, and including papers that represent many of the most important methodological innovations to emerge from the past few decades of research. Compiled and introduced by a leading voice in the field, this major work has been created to serve as a ...

Editor's Introduction: Methodological Innovations in Social Psychology

HarryT.Reis

Methods are the lifeblood of all sciences. The knowledge that a science can acquire depends crucially on its roster of methods–which theories and principles can they support and which can they not support. Consumers of research – that is, students and the lay public – are often unaware of the extent to which knowledge is limited by methods. Researchers, however, are all too aware of how their findings – and, for that matter, how the questions they can consider – are constrained by the tools available for their investigations. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that Nobel Prizes in the sciences have more often been awarded for methodological advances than for theoretical contributions (Greenwald, 2012). This is because ...

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