Three failures of social psychology, and a phenomenological way forward

Abstract

This article finds fault with three practices in  social psychology. The first, interpretative condescension, is visible in social psychology's use of the “person” as a term, concept, notion, and so on. Generally, “persons” are taken to be “cultural dopes”, for no compelling reason or justification. The second questionable practice, the absence of culture in psychology is the failure, in various kinds of social psychology research, to acknowledge the role or indeed the existence of ‘culture’. The third, the absence of phenomenological spirit, is another critical absence, but I use it as a point of departure in search of new ways of building social psychological knowledge.