What is social psychology? The construal principle.

Abstract

Standard definitions of social psychology, such as "the study of the way in which people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people" (Aronson et al., 2019, p. 3), fail to capture much of what social psychologists actually do and do not capture the basic theoretical foundations of the field. I suggest the field is founded on the construal principle, which holds that to understand and predict human behavior, one must focus on people's proximate (current) construals of themselves and their environment. The construal principle empowers social psychology in three key ways: It (a) accounts for the power of the situation, by acknowledging that construals are highly attuned to social norms; (b) is amenable to study with the experimental method; and (c) provides a unique theoretical framework for how to change human behavior. I discuss the origins and implications of the construal principle and how it distinguishes social psychology from related subdisciplines, including evolutionary social psychology, personality psychology, and social neuroscience. Whereas each subdiscipline is good at accomplishing the tasks it has set for itself, social psychology has unique advantages.

Group Members with High Group Identification Pursue Specific Leadership Opportunities

“…These include a perceived need for a leader, agreeing with the group's mission or purpose, having the self-efficacy to lead their group, and perceiving support from other group members. Study 1 supports the influence of group identification on leadership processes (Hogg, 2010;Hogg et al, 2012;Reicher et al, 2005), the role of construal (Wilson, 2022) or categorization (Turner et al, 1987) processes on leadership pursuits, and the interaction of group-and individual-level processes in a person's decision to pursue a leadership opportunity (Haslam et al, 2022).…”

“…Concurrently, explanations for why a person pursues a leadership opportunity or emerges as a group leader often focuses on individual-level constructs (e.g., overall personality traits or skills, perceived self-efficacy, motivation to lead, or their leader identity). However, leadership isa social psychological process (Hogg, 2010) rooted in group-identity (Hogg et al, 2012;Turner et al, 1987) or self-construal processes (Wilson, 2022). The present research contributes to this literature by identifying whether individual-level constructs sufficiently explain why a person pursues a specific leadership opportunity or if group identification and related factors can influence these processes.…”

“…However, leadership is a group-level process (Ashforth & Mael, 1988;Reicher et al, 2005) that is rooted in social psychological processes of social influence (Hogg, 2010) and their identity or construal (Turner et al, 1987;Wilson, 2022). Leadership involves group identification and relationships between fellow group members (Hogg et al, 2012).…”

“…Group identification, the benefits derived from group membership, and subsequent social and self-categorization processes affects how a person views leadership processes within their group (Reicher et al, 2005). Leadership is inherently a social psychological processes (Hogg, 2010) that depends on how a person construes their world overall (Wilson, 2022) and their group identification (Turner et al, 1987). According to the social identity theory of leadership (Hogg et GROUP MEMBERS PURSUE LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES 5 al., 2012) and identity leadership (Steffens et al, 2014;van Dick et al, 2018), a group leader advances the practical and identity-related needs of their group.…”

Structuring the situation: Organizational goals trigger and direct decision-making

“…Answering this question requires consideration of the decisionmaker construal of the situation. Construal processes are central in the Carnegie School (see March and Olsen, 1975), just as they are central in social psychology (Ross and Nisbett, 1991;Wilson, 2022), 1 but theoretical and empirical work has relied on the concept of simple-minded search to such an extent that less attention has been devoted to construal. This theoretical stance has resulted in studies that were not designed to examine the construal process and its effects, so we are currently left seeking to draw implications from studies that had different goals.…”