Overview

Social Interaction Systems is the culmination of a half century of work in the field of social psychology by Robert Freed Bales, a pioneer at the Department of Social Relations at Harvard University. Led by Talcott Parsons, Gordon W. Allport, Henry A. Murray, and Clyde M. Kluckhohn, the Harvard Project was intended to establish an integrative framework for social psychology. one based on the interaction process, augmented by value content analysis. Bales sees this approach as a personal involvement that goes far beyond the classical experimental approach to the study of groups. Bales offers a new ""field theory,"" an appreciation of the multiple contexts in which people live. Bales does not aim to eradicate differences, but to understand them. In this sense, the values inherent in any interaction situation permit the psychologist to appreciate the sources of polarization as they actually exist: between conservative and liberal, individualistic and authoritarian, libertarian and communitarian. Bales repeatedly emphasizes that the mental processes of individuals and their social interactions take place in systematic contexts which can be measured. Hence they permit explanation and prediction of behavior in a more exact way than in past traditions. Bales has offered a pioneering work that has the potential to move us into a new theoretical epoch no less than a new century. His work holds out the promise of synthesis and support for psychologists, sociologists, and all who work with groups and organizations of all kinds.

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9780765808721

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Reviews

Social Interaction Systems continues the trend that began with The Symlog Practitioner....[It] is a valuable compendium of the work of a remarkable scholar - Richard B. Kettner-Polley, Society

""Social Interaction Systems continues the trend that began with The Symlog Practitioner....[It] is a valuable compendium of the work of a remarkable scholar"" - Richard B. Kettner-Polley, Society""

Author Information

Robert Freed Bales is professor emeritus of social relations at Harvard University. In 1983, he founded Symlog with colleagues in San Diego. He is the author of Interaction Process Analysis; Personality and Interpersonal Behavior; and co-author, with Talcott Parsons and Edward Shils, of Working Papers in the Theory of Action. He has well over 100 professional papers in the major journals of sociology and psychology.

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