JQURNAL

Some

OF EXPERIMENTAL

SOCIAL

Impending
Some

Thoughts

PSYCHOLOGY

3,

Reorientations
Provoked
WILLIAM

124-139 (1967)

in Social
by

Kenneth

Psychology:
Ring

J. MCGUIRE

Columbia University
The creative tension between basic and applied research gives rise
from time to time to feelings of uneasiness such as those recently expressed by Kenneth Ring (1967). Just as anxiety in the individual can
have the beneficial function of signaling an imbalance among the contending aspects of his personality, so such expressions of concern about
current emphasesin our scientific establishment can be a useful warning
sign that the dynamic equilibrium between basic and applied research
has been disturbed by a temporary perturbation too far in one direction.
Ring discerns a current stress in favor of basic, theory-oriented research.
His choice of some paragraphs of mine to illustrate this overemphasis is
apparently the reason why I have been asked to comment on his article,
even though no offense was, I feel, implied and none certainly is inferred.
It seemsundeniable to me that, as Ring contends, the basic and applied
streams of research in psychology have been flowing progressively further
apart during the past 10 or 15 years, and that the emphasis on basic
research has been increasing. I would also agree (though I recognize this
point to be more debatable than the foregoing) that these trends have
proceeded to an extent that is unfortunate. Indeed, I am in agreement
with most of the substance of Rings paper and differ mainly in that I
regard the undesirable trends which he points out as less of a worry than
he does. His comments do make me want to describe publicly some
coming trends in social psychology that I have been urging privately
for some time. Hence my comments constitute an extension, rather than
a refutation, of Rings remarks. My emphasesfall on somewhat different
points from his, and I do not repeat all of his theses, so Rings paper
deserves a rereading in its own right lest these additional points of his
be lost.
Where I would disagree with Ring is on his seeming expectation that
the separation of the two streams of research and the overemphasis on
basic research show signs of being continued and even accentuated for
the foreseeable future in social psychology. I would like to argue here
that, on the contrary, we shall in social psychology soon be witnessing a
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