In this final chapter we will undertake an analysis of some general theoretical issues that are largely implicit in the preceding chapters. In particular, we would like to focus on the common sociological frame of reference of this volume. In our introductory chapter we highlighted the importance of cognition, emotion, and action in our understanding of the self-society link. Here we will take a more macro approach and turn to the common themes reflected in the various conceptualizations of society.

For the most part, the contributors to this volume are representative of a body of American social psychologists whose theoretical roots can be traced to the early American pragmatists. Indeed, the influence of James, Peirce, Cooley, and especially Mead is evident in many of the preceding chapters. This early pragmatic tradition can be said to have been the source of a number of distinct theoretical perspectives in both psychology and sociology, with psychology drawing more heavily from James, and sociology from Mead (cf. Lewis & Smith, 1980). Although there is no doubt a gulf between the psychological and sociological traditions on a number of theoretical issues, the self has served over the years as a conceptual bridge linking the two social psychologies. A particularly good example of this common conceptual focus can be found in the chapters by Stryker (chapter 1), Gecas (chapter 8), and Rosenberg (chapter 6) where the traditional psychological concerns of cognition, motivation, and emotion are explicitly developed from a sociological perspective.