15 Chapter #2 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: DISCIPLINE, INTERDISCIPLINE OR TRANSDISCIPLINE? James Moir Abertay University, Scotland, UK ABSTRACT Social Psychology sits at the confluence of two disciplinary discourses: the psychology of sociological matters and the sociology of psychological processes. Of course these are not simply discourses but represent the entire disciplinary organisation of social psychology as a subject and what it counts as legitimate areas of enquiry within its academic boundaries. These boundaries cut across the apparent divide between psychology and sociology, between the individual and the social, between the intra-psychic world and the world of human actions. However, this interdisciplinary appeal can also be considered as tapping into two broader discursive frameworks based upon the maintenance of an inner-outer dualism on the one hand and a rational and emotive dualism on the other. This chapter considers the way in which these discursive dualisms have given social psychology its raison d'être and its distinct dynamic and appeal as an academic subject. However, the recent turn to discourse within the discipline has not only provided it with the radical potential to study the construction and operation of these dualisms, but has also thrown into relief its interdisciplinary tensions again. This discourse on discourse involves a struggle for explanatory power in terms of either examining the ways in which psychological accounting is implicated in a flexible way as part of social practices at a ‘local’ level, or moving up an explanatory notch to a consideration of the operation of discourses on a more deterministic ‘global’ level. The chapter concludes by considering this new discursive territory, rooted in social psychology’s origins. Keywords: cognitivism, discipline, discourse, dualism, interaction. 1. INTRODUCTION It was over a century ago in 1908 that two books were published that first bore the title ‘social psychology’. Although these books addressed social psychology, they did so in divergent ways that were to set the course of this academic area as a discipline, interdiscipline and eventually perhaps, a transdisciplinary endeavour. The British psychologist William McDougall in his book examined basic instincts and the emotions that accompany them. Whilst, his book has had little influence on modern social psychology, he nonetheless set out the course for psychological social psychology (PSP) as being concerned with explanation ‘down’ at the level of the individual, including how people behave in relation to others. For example, McDougall sought to explore the nature of the gregarious instinct and how this is manifested in relation to others. In the same year sociologist Edward Ross published his book on social psychology which considered imitation and the mob mind. This book set the course for sociological social psychology (SSP) in terms of people’s behaviour and thought processes as the result of social interaction and in particular related to ‘social problems’. This has persisted over the ensuing century with topics such as rioting and violence attracting considerable research funding for social psychologists, and linked to seeking the means of social control. These psychological and sociological strands have remained largely distinct and segregated during the course of the past century. This twin focus on the social and the