Beyond Three Faces: Toward an Integrated Social Psychology of Inequality

Abstract Purpose We propose an elaboration of the social structure and personality framework from sociological social psychology that is intended to promote integration across social psychological traditions and between social psychology and sociology, using the study of inequality as an example. Methodology/approach We develop a conceptualization of “generic” proximate processes that produce and reproduce inequality in face-to-face interaction: status, identity, and justice. Findings The elaborated framework suggests fundamental questions that analysts can pose about the macro-micro dynamics of inequality. These questions direct attention to the “how” and “why” of macro-micro relations by connecting structural and cultural systems, local contexts, and the lives of individual persons; highlighting implicit processes; making meaning central; and directing our attention to how people act efficaciously in the face of constraint. Practical implications Applying this framework, scholars can use existing theories and generate new ones, and can do so inductively or deductively. Social implications Research on inequality is enriched by social psychological analyses that draw on the full complement of relevant methods and theories. Originality/value We make visible the social psychological underpinnings of sociological research on inequality and provide a template for macro-micro analyses that emphasizes the centrality of social psychological processes.