Language and Social Psychology

Abstract

Social psychology is conventionally defined as the scientific study of how the actual or imagined presence of others influences an individual's thoughts, feelings, and behavior. The social psychology of language (SPL) concentrates on the role of language in the dynamics between individuals and their social world; language use is argued to affect and be affected by both psychological and social variables. Scholarship in SPL has incorporated aspects of the broader discipline, including a theory‐ or variable‐driven approach, along with its preferred quantitative methods, particularly survey techniques and laboratory experiments (→ Survey; Experimental Design). Unlike mainstream social psychology, SPL has also welcomed contributions from other disciplines, including communication studies, sociolinguistics, anthropology, and other disciplines. Correspondingly, constructivist perspectives and qualitative methods, which are better recognized in these other disciplines, have found a receptive community in SPL (→ Qualitative Methodology; Constructivism). Furthermore, SPL scholars herald from around the world, and different “schools” of scholarly activity have developed in many regions, including Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe, Australasia, and the United States. Because of the range of perspectives that inform SPL, it cannot be said that any single paradigm characterizes this field of inquiry; indeed, a hallmark of research in this area is its variety of theoretical and methodological approaches.

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