The analysis of rule-governed behavior in social psychology

This article describes part of the common ground on which behavior analysts and social psychologists can meet for fruitful discussions to further their research: Both groups of investigators share an interest in rule-governed behavior. I describe four lively research areas of mainstream social psychology to illustrate that shared interest-time horizons, optimism and pessimism, attribution, and equity theory. Numerous experiments in each area are designed to (a) discover individuals' self-rules and (b) analyze their implications for various activities in daily life.