Introduction and Definition
It is almost mandatory for an introductory text to begin by providing a definition of the particular field of discussion. Such a definition would conventionally contribute toward a synoptic introduction of the reader to what social psychology is and what it is concerned with. It is the case, however, that given the state of the discipline in question what a definition would actually do would be nothing but presenting one’s own acceptation of social psychology’s subject matter, thus overlooking and, at the same time, obscuring the problematic character of the definition as such. In fact, the terrain of social psychologyis a field of dispute and antagonism of competing versions of social reality, of conflicting views of what it means to be a person, and of various sociopolitical agendas. In this antagonistic and conflictive field, what eventually comes to prevail as the most widely used, hegemonic, and generally accepted perception of what social psychology...
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Marvakis, A., Mentinis, M. (2014). Social Psychology. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_291
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