Levels of Explanation in Social Psychology

In this original survey of the nature of explanation in social psychology, Willem Doise elaborates a novel conceptual framework, in order to provide a constructive way of integrating the diverse range of analysis offered in the field. Doise describes four levels of analysis: the intra-personal; the inter-personal; the positional; and the ideological. The levels thus defined overlap in many studies, and Doise uses this interconnection of levels of explanation - which he terms articulation - to put recent research in an exciting new perspective. The idea of articulation is applied, in particular, to three areas of research in experimental social psychology - social factors in cognitive development, social influence and intergroup relations - which are usually explained in terms of only one level of analysis, but which, as Doise convincingly demonstrates, can be enriched by also applying the other levels of explanation.