THE TECHNOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Changes in technology after the ability of people to express competence, to interact with others, to be active rather than passive, and to exercise influence. For the most part, these changes in psychological processes are accidental by-products of technology’s attempts to solve the practical problems of society. Because of the close relation between technology and social behavior, we argue that technology should be included as an explanatory variable in social psychology’s construction of behavior. Several benefits should result from developing a social psychology of technology. For one, social psychology will be better able to account for the variance of critical social behaviors such as competence, autonomy, social influence, and social isolation. Second, the study of technology will provide a historical perspective for examining changes in social behavior. Finally, the application of social psychological constructs and methods to the study of technology will provide insights that are not available from studies of this topic by economics, philosophy, and political science. © 1991, Association for Psychological Science. All rights reserved.