Norms, Groups, Conflict, and Social Change

Rediscovering Muzafer Sherif's Psychology

Ayfer Dost-Gozkan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351502863
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Science & Technology Biographies
• Index: Technology & Engineering

This book is about the life and work of a Turkish-American social scientist, Muzafer Sherif (19051988). He was known for his seminal work on norm and group formations, social judgment, and intergroup conflicts and cooperation. Although Sherif is identified as one of the founders of social psychology, his contribution to the science of psychology goes beyond the limits of social psychology as it is generally defined today.This volume aims to rediscover the theory and research of its subject in the socio-historical context of his time, as well as his relevance for contemporary psychology. Chapters cover a range of topics: an in-depth portrayal of Sherif's life and intellectual struggle in Turkey and in the United States; his metatheoretical considerations on the science of psychology; his theory and research on group and intergroup relationships, social norms and social change; formation and change of frames of reference, ego-involvements and identity; and psychology of slogans.Sherif had profound life experiences in different cultural contexts from the Ottoman Empire and World War I to American universities, which enabled him to see the essentiality of the historico-cultural context in the formation of human phenomena. Sherif's psychology is an elegant exemplar of an integrative science of psychology that is worth rediscovering.

Part I

Early Years: Turkey and the United States

In this first part of the book, two Sherif scholars with a vast knowledge of Sherif’s life and works focus on the early years of Sherif in two chapters. Sertan Batur takes the reader through a journey in time, a journey contextualizing Sherif’s early life and struggles as well as setting the tone for the entire book for understanding Sherif’s way of thinking and his work in a socio-historical context. To date, Batur’s chapter is the most detailed account of Sherif’s early years written in English. We believe the reader will learn as much from the footnotes as from the text itself.

The second chapter continues to explore the historical context in which Sherif became the scholar as most of the academic world knows him. Starting with a nod to the first chapter and a description of Turkey years, Ersin Aslitürk guides the reader through Sherif’s life in the United States with an emphasis on the early years. Building on the depth of historical context provided in the first chapter, Aslitürk delves deeper into the main influences that shaped Sherif’s thinking and work after moving to the United States.

We consider both of these chapters as must reads for anyone who is interested in understanding the socio-historical context of the early 20th century that shaped the next several decades of social-psychological and sociological work.

1

A Young Scientist in a Changing World: Muzafer Sherif’s Early Years

Sertan Batur¹

Childhood in a Changing Country

Muzafer Sherif, also known under his Turkish name Muzaffer şerif,² was born in 1905 in a village named Bozdağ in the borough ödemiş in Izmir, the most important harbor town on the western coast of Turkey.³ His family was one of the well-known landholding families in ödemiş.⁴

Unfortunately, we do not know very much about his childhood. But we should remember that after the Young Turks’ revolution in 1908,⁵ as Sherif was three years old, constitutional monarchy was proclaimed. But in a short time Ottomans found themselves in a period of sustained wars from 1911 until 1922, a period which led to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the foundation of the Republic of Turkey.

After attending the Elementary School of ödemiş (çetik, 2007), Sherif went to Izmir International College in 1918, which was founded by American missionaries in 1891, upgraded in 1913 into a campus in the American mission “Paradise” (today şirinyer) located near Buca.⁶ This school was the only American school that remained open during World War I. Because the majority of young men were at the military front, there were only small numbers of students in the school (Peterson, 2004, p. 56). It is said that in those days, there was some tension between the school’s administration and its Muslim students.⁷

By 1922, as Sherif was 17 years old, he had lived 11 years of his life in a country at war.⁸ He witnessed political and social events and catastrophes like the coup d’état of Young Turks in 1913, the Armenian genocide in 1915,⁹ the occupation of Izmir by Greek troops including the killing of civilians in 1919, the reoccupation of Izmir by Turkish troops, and the Great Fire of Izmir in 1922.¹⁰ Sherif was attending International College during both occupations of the region, first by the Greeks in May 1919 and then reoccupation by the Turks in September 1922. Giles Milton states in his book (2009) based on memoirs of western eye witnesses like Alexander MacLachlan, that Armenians and Greeks, escaping from the Turks, sought refuge in the school, where an American flag was being hissed. In Milton’s book, many tragic events are reported, like how a Turkish officer helped MacLachlan who was robbed by Turkish irregular soldiers and was almost killed by them. Some missionaries in the College, like Jacob and Caleb Lawrence, formed a helping committee for Christians escaping from Turkish troops. It is not known what Sherif did during those days. But it is known that he witnessed all the events and he survived, in his own words, as a result of a “miracle.”¹¹

We can assume that this childhood left an indelible mark on his personality. That is maybe why he dedicated his life to understanding relations between groups and to solving historical problems like wars and fascism. Sherif’s childhood would have an important role in his lifelong disapproval of wars and fascism, and for his endorsement of peace and humanity.

In 1967, Sherif narrated those days as follows:

As an adolescent with a great deal of curiosity about things, I saw the effects of war: families who lost their men and dislocations of human beings. I saw hunger. I saw people killed on my side of national affiliation; I saw people killed on the other side. In fact, it was a miracle that I was not killed along with hundreds of other civilians who happened to be near one of the invasion points the day Izmir (Smyrna) was occupied by an army, with the blessing of the victorious Western colonial powers at the end of World War I . . . I was profoundly affected as a young boy when I witnessed the serious business of transaction between human groups. It influenced me deeply to see each group with a selfless degree of comradeship within its bounds and a correspondingly intense degree of animosity, destructiveness, and vindictiveness toward the detested outgroup—their behavior characterized by compassion and prejudice, heights of self-sacrifice, and bestial destructiveness. At that early age, I decided to devote my life to studying and understanding the causes of these things. (Sherif, 1967, p. 9)

Besides such severe experiences, one of the International College’s main contributions to Sherif’s development was his education in the English language, knowledge that opened doors to American and British scientific work. Sherif’s interest in psychology was piqued at the very time in which American social psychology began to develop. French and German psychologies were already known among intellectuals in Turkey. But, a crisis in psychology gradually began to appear on the agenda of European psychologists by the end of the 1920s. With rise of Nazism, the crisis turned into a decline. Meanwhile, American psychology was beginning its “golden era.” Sherif found a chance to take part in this prosperous period of American psychology. Different from his other colleagues in Turkey, he dealt with American psychology from the very beginning. It is interesting symbolically that he did not only learn English at the International College, but his name also changed to Muzafer Sherif, at least as far as his American teachers were concerned.

After the war, as Sherif was still a student at the College, he witnessed the peace negotiations, as well as the abolition of the monarchy and the caliphate, resulting in the emergence of the Republic of Turkey. As he finished school in 1924, he was deeply influenced by nationalism and panturkism, like many young people of those days who experienced war and the birth of the Turkish nation-state. Although Sherif changed his thoughts during his education in the United States,¹² he remained faithful to a moderate form of Kemalist nationalism his entire life.

Sherif himself related his relation to nationalism as follows:

It was the period of final dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of nationalism within the disintegrating empire. The rise of Turkish nationalism, which fascinated me as it did all other youngsters of my generation, resulted in the new Turkish republic, born against great odds, against obstacles created by colonial powers. Having firsthand experience in the mystique of a rising nationalism has helped me greatly in studying and understanding the social movements that mold new nations in Africa and Asia. (Sherif, 1967, p. 9)

Darülfünun of Istanbul

After garnering his bachelor’s degree, Sherif began to study philosophy in Darülfünun¹³ of Istanbul in the winter term of 1924 (çetik, 2007). As a part of German educational aid that aimed to weaken French influence in Ottoman intellectual life, German and Austrian teaching staff was sent to Darülfünun in 1915 by the German Kaiser.¹⁴ The first psychology laboratory in Turkey was established in this university by German psychologist Georg Anschütz in the same year. Because of military mobilization, there were just a few students at the university and therefore, Anschütz could not leave any significant impact on the history of psychology in Turkey as he left Istanbul with the end of the war in 1918.¹⁵ His laboratory was closed and forgotten.

After Anschütz, Turkish scholars continued teaching psychology classes. Pedagogy scholars like Ali Haydar (Taner) gave lectures on experimental psychology using Anschütz’ lecture notes, whereas others like İsmail Hakki (Baltacioğlu) who was influenced by Bergsonian philosophy and Mustafa şekip (Tunç), who in turn was influenced not only by Bergson but also by Theodule Ribot, lectured pedagogy and general psychology.

Young Sherif was not impressed by Bergson’s anti-deterministic psychology. He was widely influenced by Durkheim’s sociology represented by Ziya Gökalp. But, what really impressed him were the concepts of purposive psychology from William McDougall. Drumming up the names of McDougall and Sherif together may lead one to think about a connection through social psychology. But it seems that there was no such direct connection. In this period, Sherif probably read McDougall’s Group Mind (1920), Physiological Psychology (1905), An Outline of Psychology (1923) and An Outline of Abnormal Psychology (1926) and McDougall’s hormic psychology, which tried to explain social and individual processes with the help of instincts, was very attractive for young Sherif. But, until his studies at Harvard University, his first works were not really related to social psychology or group relations.

We can mention his first two studies: First, according to his final paper in Darülfünun, he translated McDougall’s Physiological Psychology (1905) into Turkish (çetik, 2007). Secondly, Sherif also translated another text for the Journal for Philosophy and Sociology (Felsefe ve İçtimaiyat Dergisi), which was first published in 1927 by the Turkish Philosophical Society. This translation was a chapter on behaviorism from Charles Kay Ogden’s book Meaning of Psychology (1926).¹⁶ The reason why Sherif translated the chapter on behaviorism was probably to make recent developments in experimental psychology known to Turkish readers.

Sherif graduated on June 20, 1928 from the Department of Philosophy at Darülfünun in Istanbul. He was one of seven students who graduated from the department in the same term.¹⁷ He also graduated from the Teacher Training College (Yüksek Muallim Melktebi), where he was a scholarship student. He was one of the twenty-eighth graduates of the school in the summer term (Yücel, 1994, p. 85). On March 30, 1929, he was appointed as an intern in philosophy at the Izmir Teacher Training School (İzmir Erkek Muallim Mektebi). In the same year, he passed the exam which was necessary for students wanting to study abroad, usually in Western countries. So he was sent to the United States with a scholarship from the Ministry of Education in order to study philosophy (çetik, 2007).

Sending students to Western countries through the government was not new in Turkey. Already in the 19th century, Ottoman governments had sent many students to Europe. After the proclamation of the Republic in 1923, one of the first actions of the government was to send students abroad in order to create an educated elite for a new Turkey. After some regulations in 1924, 22 students were sent to France and Germany in January 1925 (şarman, 2005, p. 23).

Don Routh showed in his study (2011) based on Sherif’s archives at the University of Akron that Sherif contacted William McDougall and another professor at Duke University in order to find financial support for his sojourn in the United States. But he could not find any financial resources there and so, he received aid from the Ministry of Education.

It is not hard to guess why Sherif chose to pursue his master’s degree at Harvard University. Harvard was a better known university in Turkey. Mehmet Ali Ayni, one of the older scholars of Darülfünun, attended the Sixth International Congress of Philosophy between September 13 and 17, 1926, in Harvard University. There he presented a paper on İsmail Hakki Baltacioğlu (Ayni, 1927). Furthermore, William James, who worked at Harvard University for a long time, was a very famous scholar who impressed the Turkish intellectual world. Sherif’s teacher, Mustafa şekip Tunç, was a supporter of James’ pragmatism before he became a Bergsonian. Another teacher of Sherif, Mehmet Emin Erişirgil (1891–1965), also tried to adapt James’ philosophy to Turkey in his writings.¹⁸ Two students of Sherif, Granberg and Sarup (1992, p. 5), say that Sherif was an “admirer of James’ writings, that is, Principles of Psychology (1890), but especially a short essay James had written in 1910 entitled ’The Moral Equivalent of War.’” According to them, “Carolyn Sherif would later cite this essay as the most important source of inspiration for their work on intergroup relations, the Robbers Cave experiment, and the concept of superordinate goals.” But the reason why Sherif decided to go to Harvard was probably not only William James, but also the...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Series Editor’s Foreword
• Introduction
• Part I: Early Years: Turkey and the United States
• Part II: Years in the United States after 1945
• Part III: Contemporary Psychology in Light of Sherif’s Work
• About the Contributors
• Name Index
• Subject Index