What makes human social behavior look so special? Integrating psychology with the social sciences

Abstract

Psychology has never integrated well with the other social sciences, despite covering much of the same material. In attempting to integrate these materials, have found several problems and complexities with both psychological and behavioral analyses, and have suggested ways to overcome these problems. I first state nine complexities of analyzing social behavior, and why these problems exist. I then analyze two cases in more detail—the role of generalized social exchange in everyday social behavior and the problems with theories of catharsis and uncertainty reduction. In both these cases it is shown how more detailed analyses can be made by utilizing social anthropology and sociology, which also allows for a better integration of psychology with the social sciences. The more general conclusions point to psychology making longer and more detailed analyses of social behavior, and replacing theories with contextual descriptions. The other social sciences have been doing both these for some time and we can learn from them.