Theorizing in Social Psychology1

Abstract. The perpetual crisis in social psychology has several facets: the unstable balance between the social and the psycho-and the concrete; and the chronic gap between our aspirations and our capabilities with regard to solving social problems. A perspective for theorizing is presented which is oriented toward making social psychology more relevant to specific indi-viduals in particular situations. The author’s recent theorizing on distributive justice is summarized. It is concerned with specifying the conditions under which a given value--"equity," "equality, " or "need " will be the value underlying a group’s system of distributive justice. Comments on the &dquo;crisis&dquo; in social psychology. Al Pepitone called me up several months before the SESP meetings and said he had just read my paper in the European Journal of Social Psychology (Deutsch, 1974a)