Social psychology, social systems and ideology

Abstract

The author discuses two sets of questions related to the epistemological status of social psychology. The first set is centred on the relation between social psychology and ideology and it registers the oposition between those who try to separate sociopsychological praxis from ideological problems and those who think that the two are absolutly linked. The second set is related to the problem of experimental methodology in social psychology and it shows the oposition between those who believe in the possibility of an ideological neutrality of methods and those who point to the ideological nature of experimentation.
After a close discusion of the implications of the different positions, the author, experimentalist by conviction, points to the ideological character ofn the experimental praxis and the object of social psychology. Finally he calls for the constitution of an experimental methodology which would be able to investigate complex social systems in natural settings without excluding its ideological dimensions on the basis of epistemo-methodological pretexts.