MULTIPLICITY AND DIALOGUE IN SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGY - AN ESSAY IN METATHEORIZING

This exercise in metatheorizing goes beyond the 'two social psychologi es' tradition and such talk as crisis or fragmentation to be solved by merger, unification, or remaining incommunicado. Metatheorizing clari fies underlying categories and beings implicit images into focus by th e twofold moves of analysis and interpretation. it emphasizes internal and intellectual criteria as more fundamental than external and insti tutional contexts such as department or discipline. Seen metatheoretic ally, contemporary social psychology is a complex and expanding domain of inquiry with plural perspectives that in principle can interrelate dialectically if specialized practitioners engage in bridging dialogu es that lead to syntheses or further differentiation with a focus on s hared problems or the discovery of new ones. A useable, if temporary, discourse of dialogue is one payoff from metatheorizing.