J.F. Forrester et al - Studies in the Social Psychology of Adolescence

STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE

THE SOCIOLOGY OF YOUTH AND ADOLESCENCE

In 12 Volumes

STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE

by

J. E. RICHARDSON, J. F. FORRESTER,
J. K. SHUKLA and P. J. HIGGINBOTHAM

edited with a foreword by
C. M. FLEMING

First published in 1951
by Routledge

Reprinted in 1998, 2000, 2002
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Transferred to Digital Printing 2007

1951 J. E. Richardson, J. F. Forrester,
J. K. Shukla and P. J. Higginbotham

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library

Studies in the Social Psychology of Adolescence
ISBN 0-415-17669-7
The Sociology of Youth and Adolescence: 12 Volumes
ISBN 0-415-17828-2
The International Library of Sociology: 274 Volumes
ISBN 0-415-17838-X

Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint bur points our that some imperfections in the original may be apparent

T HE study of children in their social relationships, the effect of membership of groups, the school as a social therapeutic institution. These are relatively novel phrases and like all such fresh phrases they point to a new emphasis in the observation of human beings and in the formulation of basic hypotheses as to their nature. Much that they denote is very recent in its structure and its procedure. Much that they connote is very old and has its roots in the long history of educational thought.

This book of studies in social psychology, while offering a distinctive contribution, is therefore admittedly in its contents both very old and very new. Much of its language and its interpretation is not to be found prior to the fourth or fifth, decade of this century. Certain of the procedures it describes have been in use for many hundreds of years. All had their recent antecedents in the play-way, the individual work, the project methods, the group activities, to which educational discussion was devoted in the 1910's and 1920's; but their more immediate origins may be traced in the experimental work of the 1930's and the 1940's conducted in the University of London Institute of Education with the co-operation of the late Professor H. R. Hamley.

In the 1920's and the 1930's a transition was being effected in psychological interpretation from the study of individual children in laboratories and the treatment of individual patients in consulting rooms to some awareness of the significance of the school life and home background of problem pupils and some study of the social environment of juvenile delinquents. This recognition of society as a background to humanity affected teaching methods first through an emphasis on the social relevance of the curriculumin terms of an arithmetic which led to more intelligent utilisation of public resources and a study of English usage which contributed to better citizenship. The concern of reformers in the middle years was with the child and societythe pupil and his social background. More recently it has passed beyond this to an endeavour to understand the meaning for a child of his membership of groups, the influences of groups upon individuals and of individuals upon groups, the interactions and tensions within groups, the social forces which operate in homes and schools and clubs, and the effect of differing types of social climate and group atmosphere upon the behaviour of pupils in classrooms and children in their homes.

The studies here presented deal with group experiences as observable in the teaching of English and of citizenship, with surveys of attitudes, and with enquiries into the accompaniments of friendship. They cover a period of about six years from the time of Forrester's enquiry into the attitude of adolescents towards their own development to the years in which the sociometric techniques of Moreno and his associates were deliberately applied to classroom procedures in the fashion described in the record of experimental work given in Part I. All of them fall into place when seen in the present-day setting of an interpretation in terms of the socialising effect of school membership, the therapy of groups and the admittedly great complexity of a human nature for whose description the earlier individualistic terminology is now believed to be inadequate. Each of the investigations is relatively small in itselfdealing with a few dozen or a few hundred pupilsbut in their totality they are highly significant and they are in accord with many other enquiries whose scope is indicated by the bibliographies appended.

Together also they form a contribution to educational research which is of value not merely to teachers but to parents, club-leaders, employers and magistrates. To all such workers they bring evidence not only as to the methods being adopted to foster successful learning in schools, but as to the attitudes held by boys and girls towards their own development. They serve further to confirm the belief that the most effective incentives are not merely materialistic, competitive or individualistic in nature.

Human beings are inescapably social. They have been born into membership of groups and are conditioned to such membership. They are so made that their primary attribute is co-operation and their first need that of receiving appreciation from, and making contributions to the intimate small circle of their closest associates.