The Histories of Social Psychology

At this year’s BPS Social Psychology Section Conference we mark 50 years of conferences. These 50 years have seen the emergence, growth and diversification of social psychology as an area of study in the UK, Europe, the US and around the world. A number of institutional milestones reflect the establishment of social psychology as a field of study in the UK: the establishment of the British Journal of Social Psychology, the foundation of the Social Section of the BPS, the Annual Conference and the development of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in social psychology at a number of universities. This institutional framework, which we often take for granted, was set up and maintained by previous generations of social psychologists. The past 50 years has also been a period of controversy and debate within and outside social psychology and while the level of activity associated with social psychology has increased there is little consensus about the disciplinary formation; indeed the area of study appears to be highly fragmented in theory, methods and normative commitments. The history of social psychology is no exception and there are various ‘histories’ on offer. In this paper, I take the occasion of the 50th conference to review recent writing on the history of social psychology.