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The subject under study is not social behavior but only those selected aspects of social psychology which lend themselves to experimental and statistical methods. As may be expected in a psychological or sociological work which is both 'scientific' and 'up-to-date', no theoretical position is adopted and hundreds of empirical investigations are summarized.
Argyle, who is Lecturer in Social Psychology at the University of Oxford, has made a determined effort 'to put facts before theory'. The ironic result is that the preliminary discussions of method and theory are more rewarding than the so-called facts. Nevertheless, the techniques of validation are such that the titans of psychological and social theory are inevitably neglected: Freud is discussed superficially; Durkheim fares no better; and Weber receives only a passing nod.
The author devotes much space to the study of interaction, between pairs of people, in small groups, and in industry, yet curiously enough, he pays scant attention to the contributions made in this area by Arensberg, Chapple, and Homans. His brief criticism of Arensberg and Chapple reveals ignorance of, or indifference to, their researches and publications over the past eighteen years.
It is significant that the important processes of socialization are deliberately excluded from this study. Socialization, like personality, requires a type (or level) of hypothesis and generalization with which the 'scientific' psychologist is unprepared to work.