Can you tell me who the founder of the sociocultural (or social) psychology is and the founder of feministic psychology?

-- Jessica Otte (jeotte@hotmail.com), April 18, 2001

Answers

19.4.2001

I am not sure whether one can identify a single person as the founder of social psychology. Here are some suggestions:

The Italian Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) might be considered an early pioneer of social psychology (more often he is mentioned as a pioneer of ethnology) (Scienza nuova ...)

Steinthal (1823-1899) and Lazarus are often considered the founders of Völkerpsychologie (folk psychology, cultural psychology, social psychology – no clear translation from the German). They published in 1860 the Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie (journal of folk psychology).

Wilhelm Wundt published 10 volumes of his Völkerpsychologie (Folk Psychology) between 1900 and 1920. It concerned language, art, myths, social customs, law, morals, etc.

In England you might think about H. Spencer as a pioneer of social psychology.

In the USA social psychologists might have a different understanding of their history.

I am not sure about feminist psy

-- Thomas Teo (tteo@yorku.ca), April 19, 2001.

Hi Jessica, as for social psychology is a big field which is closely wrapped up with personality theory and industrial psychology. So you might look at the journals of personality and social psychology, the early issues for the key players. But just before World War II there is a major shift in the field of social psychology introduced by Kurt Lewin, and you might want to begin your study with him. With Lewin as a pivot point you can look at what preceeded him and what came after him. But many of the psychologists who did research in personality would have considered themselves social psychologists, like Allen Edwards. Also, you might look at those psychologists who were hired by businesses to assess worker satisfaction, or people like Goulder at Columbia University or Milton who did research in corporation settings. Another approach, over the years there have been various hand books of Social Psychology, usually chapter one of these hand books as a short history on the subject. You look them up in your college library under handbook of social psychology. Best of Luck, David

-- david clark (doclark@yorku.ca), April 19, 2001.

Hard to answer, but check out for references my chapter on Feminist Psychology and Humanistic Psychology in Don Moss (Ed.), Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology (Greenwood, 1999) for a stab at identifying the most important elements. The question is hard to answer because there are various schools of feminist thought, and one has to decide if you want founders of 'formal' movements or informal contributions. So you could name women like Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Susan Stone--who were liberal feminists and social reformers but were not psychologists. You could name 'Marxist feminists' such as Jane Addams, Margaret Sanger, and Charlotte Gilman--who also were serious reformers but not psychologists. Then there were researchers on sex differences, etc.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@fuller.edu), June 12, 2001.