Bringing the Group Back Into Political Psychology: Erik H. Erikson Early Career Award Address

Erik H. Erikson, after whom the Early Career Award is named, was a distinguished psychologist who made many contributions to the study of the individual. His fame comes in part from his contribution to the idea that the individual develops in context. The course of human development is shaped by historical, social, and cultural forces. Human beings are capable of tremendous growth because they are able to integrate multiple influences from a variety of sources, internal and external. I wish to elaborate on some research ideas that are linked to Erikson’s insight that individuals must be understood in their context. Context is a huge word with rich meanings, and I have something more specific in mind. What I care about here is a particular facet of context—social groups. The study of individuals in groups is old and well established. Think of Allport’s classic study of prejudice, which launched the study of group prejudice; Sherif’s Robber’s Cave experiment, a founding study of group identity and conflict; Sherif’s autokinetic effect, which established the notion of self-perpetuating group norms; Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo’s prison simulation, which showed the power of a group’s role expectations; Asch’s study of perceptual distortion, which established the power of groups to shape perception; or Milgram’s studies of conformity, which implied that group leaders derive considerable power from the authority imbued in their roles. All of these have remained well known for