Originally published in 1952, the study of social psychology as a separate subject was a comparatively recent one. There was the classic work of McDougall, and in a very different sort, Trotter; while twenty years previously Professor Ginsberg gave the subject a new orientation. But the study of man in society, from being a mere appendage of general psychology, had suddenly been revolutionized by the American cultural anthropologists; and just as the early study of the “mind” was superseded by Freud’s discoveries about the unconscious, so now the individual threatened to become a mere planet in the larger culture-pattern system.

Professor Sprott’s aim was to provide a book which would both set the subject in its proper perspective, defining its relation to general psychology and sociology, and at the same time to give the student a solid and judicious account of the modern work that had been done, the conclusions that may be drawn and the applications that have been made. Today it can be read in its historical context.