Theory and research in Mexican social psychology

Abstract

Social psychology in Mexico has its roots in the early 20th century as a fi eld with the objective of recognizing the ethnic character of its people. Infl uences from the United States and Europe, combined with indigenous thinkers gave way to the growth of a psychological, a sociological and a cultural perspective. In addition, as it occurs in spaces were smooth and amiable interpersonal relationships are paramount, and social, economic and political problems thrive, a unique applied tradition has emerged. In order to offer a concise but at the same time broad view of Mexican social psychology, theory and research trends, both classical and contemporary are reviewed, offering examples of prevailing methodologies and fi ndings.Scrutiny of social behavior literature leads us to recognize three major social psychological orientations that are crossed by multivariable phenomena. The in depth analysis should also account for the processes related to the creation and establishment of a human-made environment within each socio-cultural group, that consists of the subjective construction of beliefs, attitudes, norms, traditions, roles and values, and the concrete, objective creations, such as diets, forms of transportation and communication, etc. In addition, the idiosyncratic way in which humans process information, including the heuristics to sift through mountains of stimuli, based on information processing techniques, such as generalization, integration and discrimination must be considered. Finally, the study of the forms and sources of social infl uence through which subjective and objective information generates culture, which is transmitted and learned through the processes of socialization, enculturation and acculturation close the circle of human endeavors.In Mexico, the three conceptual positions regarding social psychology have infl uenced the development of the discipline, based both on the ecosystem in which the research is conducted, and the academic training each individual researcher received. In other words, the cultural reality in which researchers are immersed has impacted not only the subjects they study but also their own development and orientation. In addition, researchers trained in Mexico favor indigenous explanations, those trained in the United States prefer psychological social psychology and those who have studied in Europe, particularly in France, are inclined towards a sociological view of social psychology.At least as far as social psychology is concerned, Mexican researchers manage to inject sociocultural roots into even the purest psychological research, paying homage to prescriptions stating that Mexican culture is imbedded in familism and collectivism. Given this collectivist orientation topics like family, affect, norms, cooperation and interpersonal relationships have upstaged themes like achievement motivation, equity, attitudes and cognitive dissonance that receive more attention in individualistic cultures (Díaz Guerrero, 1985). Additionally, collectivist researchers prefer holi...