Social Psychology Without Borders: Fifty-Five Years of Development and Achievements

Abstract

The article examines the research work of the first Russian psychological science department of social psychology, established at St. Petersburg (Leningrad) University in 1968, celebrating its 55th anniversary. Thanks to the intellectual and time resources of the Department's staff and faculty, a tremendous breakthrough has been made — from the first attempts to define the subject and methods of social psychology, to contemporary large-scale research involving a variety of scientific fields. One of the main problems of the department remains such phenomena as social capital of personality and organization, trust in organization, proactive work and career design, subjective well-being of employees in organization and many others. In this article we summarize the experience of numerous studies, present the scientific results and outline the prospects for further research and development of the Department of Social Psychology at St. Petersburg State University.