Individuals and groups in social psychology*

In a recent paper, Taylor & Brown have argued that, although research in social psychology needs to take into account the social context of social behaviour, the theories should aim at the explanation of individual behaviour. The present paper argues against this view as it applies to some important issues in social psychology. First, it is contended that the ‘individualistic’ bias of research in social psychology derives from the nature of the theories dominating the discipline. Second, a theory of inter‐group behaviour is briefly outlined in order to show that its structure and aims are different in some important ways from the individualistic theories. The bias of these theories which is due to their assumption that social behaviour takes place inside homogeneous and unstructured social systems is illustrated using as examples the theory of belief similarity in prejudice and equity theory.