Edward Ross
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ScribdTranslationsFounders of Social Psychology
James Schellenberg presents as founders of Social Psychology
aFreud,Mead, Lewin andSkinnergiving rise to four currents
theoretical frameworks of decisive impact for social Psychology: the approach
psychoanalytic, symbolic interactionism, thetheoryof field and the approach
conductist
Those on whom there is greater consensus to consider them
The founders of social psychology are: Edward Ross (1866-1951) and
William Mc Dougall. These two authors publish amanualtitled of
Social Psychology in 1908, but at the same time Gabriel Tarde had published
inFranceIn 1898 a work titled 'Studies in Social Psychology' would not be
considered, however, as the founder for his individualistic approach.
EDWARD ROSS
American sociologist. His work is focused on social psychology.
sociological. It takes the notion of interdependence, individual-society (Cooley)
and the concept of suggestion-imitation (Tarde).
It proposes social psychology as the study of the psychic interplay.
between man and his environment, society. (social interaction).
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of the 20th century when this discipline takes on academic and scientific form.
Pioneering names such as the mentioned McDougall would contribute to this.
Ross.
For Ross (1908), the main explanatory mechanisms of
social behavior and social uniformities are imitation and the
suggestion. Ross reproduced in his manual and publicized the laws of imitation of
He analyzed late, in addition, the role of interaction and association between
individuals in the determination of individual behavior. However, their
the sociological approach was more successful among sociologists than among the
psychologists (Gil-Lacruz, 2007). In fact, Ross was a sociologist and although
McDougall was a doctor; his 46 instinctivist positions were the
rulers, at their moment, within the psychologist orientation. Psychology
social, according to Edward Ross, should be framed within sociology,
since its object of study deals with the causes and conditions that
make the individual a social being (Pepitone, 1981). According to Ross, psychology
social seeks to understand and explain the uniformities in thoughts,
beliefs and volitions that are a consequence of the interaction of beings
humans among them. However, it also considers that the person possesses,
for itself, an independent entity, for it indeed understands the human being
as an agent of social change, thus introducing its third mechanism
explanatory of behavior in society: the agent activity. Although they usually
to mark differences between the assumptions of Ross and those of McDougall, some
authors like Garrido and Álvaro (2007) or Munné (1994) argue that, despite
the differences in emphasis, there is a common background in both, since for Ross the
imitation, due to being considered innate in human beings, is nothing else
something that is an instinct. However, these same authors clarify that the
Ross's instinctivism is underlying, while McDougall's is not only it.
explicit, but it also radicalizes it. On the other hand, the defense of the
racial inequality of McDougall was also shared by Ross, who in the
In the second decade of the 20th century, he published several articles about the supposed
superiority of Anglo-Saxon Americans over immigrants
arrived from southern Europe, although this stance is nuanced in his work
later, orienting towards a more democratic ideology (Collier et alii,
1996)
