Scholars have approached social psychology from two perspectives: a sociological one and a psychological one. Although two perspectives have mostly developed in a parallel way, both has paid much attention into a common area: societal changes and their psychological impacts. Past sociological research on Chinese societal changes has focused on two aspects: changes in society or social structure, and changes in people. The former mainly involves urbanization, social class, social mobility, and family structure; the latter mainly involves Chinese experience, social mentality, group psychology, and organizational psychology. Research suggests that while modern individualism has been on the rise, traditional collectivism has been declining. Compared with psychological approach, sociological approach tends to adopt more emic concepts and qualitative analyses, pays more attention to group psychology as well as the influences of politics and policy, and employs more macro-historical perspective. In future research, Chinese social psychologists from the two perspectives need to learn from and collaborate with each other, ultimately achieving a better understanding of the change of Chinese people and Chinese society.

社会心理学有着社会学和心理学两种取向。虽然多数时候相对独立发展,但两者都对现代化带来的社会转型和变迁非常关注。社会学家从社会或社会结构的变化和人的变化两个方面对社会转型进行了大量研究,前者涉及城市(镇)化、社会阶层、社会流动性、家庭结构等,后者主要涉及中国体验、社会心态、群体心理、组织心理等。总体上,现有研究显示,现代社会个体主义上升,同时许多传统集体主义价值在式微。和心理学取向的研究相比,社会学取向的研究具有这些特点：倾向于采用本位概念、质性研究方法,特别关注中观群体心理,关注政治和政策影响,更具历史宏观视野等,这些都是心理学取向的社会心理学家需要学习和借鉴的地方。期待两种取向的社会心理学家在未来的研究中能有更多的合作,共同促进对转型过程中的中国和中国人的理解。

2017年度国家社会科学基金重大招标项目“中国社会变迁过程中的文化与心理变化”(17ZDA324)的阶段性成果