Going to a party or seeing a doctor are familiar events for most of us, but recent research has shown that such social situations may have a psychological approach to the analysis of everyday social situations terms of their basic structure and features -- goals, rules, roles, physical setting, language and concepts, etc. -- which offers an explanation for the existence of categories of situations and of their particular properties.

The book not only documents the authors' own studies of real-life social situations, but also provides an extensive review of other literature in this field. Michael Argyle and his colleagues are particularly concerned with the practical applications of situational analysis -- to social-skills training, mental health and deviance, intergroup behaviour, personnel selection and consumer research. In addition, by concentrating on situational variables, the volume makes an important contribution to the study of personality, since personality -situational interaction is at least as important in determining behaviour as are general personality, traits.

During recent years there has been extensive criticism of the conduct of research in social psychology. Social Situations points the way forward to a resolution of the crisis in the discipline. It marks an important advance in our understanding of social behaviour will interest social and clinical psychologists and sociologists.