Book Review: Essentials of Behavioral Research: Methods and Data Analyses

conducting research in spheres that historically have been of more concern to sociologists be closely examined since ideal inter-disciplinary opportunities now appear to be emerging. Despite the optimism expressed in Beckman's chapter, Sheldon Stryker (chapter seven) asserts that the structural barriers between the disciplines of psychology and sociology have, unfortunately, made a true merger impossible owing to historical institutional separation. Further, he posits that if a merger were to occur, sociological social psychology would disappear because of the disproportionate number of practising psychological social psychologists. In any case, he argues, 'a creative tension between the disciplines benefits the social psychology of both and avoids the potential for their bland homogenization' (p. 10). Most social psychological theories tend to be frameworks or perspectives rather than theories in the sense of being testable propositions that are capable of being empirically falsified. As such, argue the editors, these 'theories' tend to emphasize isolated effects rather than cumulative developments. Moreover, the absence of any generic theory in social psychology has resulted in its failure to link research to specific levels of analysis resulting in frequent misrepresentation between the two social psychological models. The text suggests that positive contact between these two species of psychology might best be encouraged through joint academic endeavours so that both variants could work toward a gradual structural integration of, for instance, the contents and editorial boards of social psychology journals. To obviate future segregation of these two currently very different types of social psychology the authors argue that undergraduate students should be encouraged to take a range of courses in the parent disciplines. Quite simply, 'if social psychology is the intersection of sociology and psychology, then it is impossible for an individual to be a competent social psychologist without some grounding in both disciplines . ' (p. 53). The text makes an interesting observation that, on the whole, sociology undergraduates tend to have considerable exposure to psychology whereas psychology undergraduates very often have little, if any, formal grounding in the field of sociology. This is unfortunate, maintain the authors, given that the objective is to produce a future generation of social psychologists with an interdisciplinary orientation. Regarding research considerations, the text contends that there is an urgent need to convince psychologists of the benefits to be derived from using a greater range of methodological procedures, particularly in comparison with that usually associated with sociological research. For instance, while social psychologists have tended to adhere closely to the natural scientific and relatively narrow notion of empirical quantitative research, sociologists tend to use a variety of research procedures both quantitative and qualitative. Although psychologists usually use a more sophisticated level of statistical data analysis than sociologists, there is an irony, assert the editors, in the observation that there tends to be an inverse relationship between the degree of statistical sophistication used by psychologists and the meaningfulness of much of their research. In other words, psychology should learn from sociology the need to take into account larger social contexts when 'building theories, S. -Afr.Tydskr. Sielk.1993. 23(2)