M.M. Gergen – författare

3. Greater sensitivity to European work: We have can cut common experience so close to the bone. long felt very close to European social psychol­ In the present volume we wish to share what we ogy, and the European responsiveness to the first believe to be some of the most significant and edition suggested that we were communicating stimulating insights to emerge from social psy­ with this audience. Further, there has been a chology, from its birth to the present. Our writ­ steadily increasing awareness among American ing has been guided in particular by the follow­ and Canadian social psychologists of significant mg concerns: work in Europe. We thus made a special effort in the second edition to reflect this work. No, we Theoretical coherence The emphasis on the­ did not succeed in capturing all the work of im­ oretical ideas begins in the first chapter; we portance. Space limitations and organizational compare the behaviorist, cognitive, and rule­ requirements also meant that work of many wor­ role orientations. We believe that these para­ thy colleagues in the United States and Canada digms form the generating context for subse­ was not included. However, we do feel that the quent chapters. We show how these perspectives present volume is superior to all others in its have influenced the questions that have been integration across continents. asked and the explanations that have been of­ fered for various kinds of social behavior.