Social Identity, Scientific Practice, and the Production of Social Knowledge: An Ethnographic Investigation of American Social Psychology Laboratories
type: CreativeWork
description: Social identity has the ability to permeate a multitude of domains in everyday life. Therefore, the science of social psychology—influential due to its impact in education, social and public policy, and the law—rightfully foregrounds the presence of social identity categories in the theorizing and empirical work of the discipline. Many researchers consider social identities such as race and gender to be socially constructed categories. This allows researchers to understand these identities in light of their history, complexity, and relationships to each other. However, the practical application and use of social identities as socially constructed “objects of study” is uncommon in social psychology. Despite some criticism, many social psychologists treat social identity categories as fixed, discrete objects in order to study them experimentally. This dissertation examined the research practices of experimental social psychologists as these researchers typically study the impact of the social environment on human behavior in a laboratory or online setting, which impacts the way social identity categories can be used in the execution of their work. This dissertation explored how social psychologists characterize and use social identity categories in light of the requirements and restrictions of experimental psychology. Through ethnographic observation and text network analysis I examined the reciprocal relationship between social psychology, social psychologists, and the broader society in which they conduct their work as a way of better understanding the theoretical and practical underpinnings of their scientific choices with social identity categories. One on one discussions with social psychologists revealed that disciplinary actors do not maintain a shared scientific language to discuss social identity categories, which is reflected in both their theoretical and practical moves. Themes from the interviews indicated that social psychologists locate themselves in the…
abstract: Social identity has the ability to permeate a multitude of domains in everyday life. Therefore, the science of social psychology—influential due to its impact in education, social and public policy, and the law—rightfully foregrounds the presence of social identity categories in the theorizing and empirical work of the discipline. Many researchers consider social identities such as race and gender to be socially constructed categories. This allows researchers to understand these identities in light of their history, complexity, and relationships to each other. However, the practical application and use of social identities as socially constructed “objects of study” is uncommon in social psychology. Despite some criticism, many social psychologists treat social identity categories as fixed, discrete objects in order to study them experimentally. This dissertation examined the research practices of experimental social psychologists as these researchers typically study the impact of the social environment on human behavior in a laboratory or online setting, which impacts the way social identity categories can be used in the execution of their work. This dissertation explored how social psychologists characterize and use social identity categories in light of the requirements and restrictions of experimental psychology. Through ethnographic observation and text network analysis I examined the reciprocal relationship between social psychology, social psychologists, and the broader society in which they conduct their work as a way of better understanding the theoretical and practical underpinnings of their scientific choices with social identity categories. One on one discussions with social psychologists revealed that disciplinary actors do not maintain a shared scientific language to discuss social identity categories, which is reflected in both their theoretical and practical moves. Themes from the interviews indicated that social psychologists locate themselves in the…
author: Brown, Donald V, Jr
keywords: History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Philosophy of Science, Science and Technology Studies, Social Psychology, social identity, science studies, laboratory ethnography, experimental social psychology, American psychology, research methods
date published: 2023-02-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:00:35Z
provider: City University of New York - Graduate Center
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York