4 i2 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— J. 



Anthropologists studying primitive peoples have acquired valuable ex- 

 perience in the application of method (d), which is often the only one open 

 to them. When psychologists have critically examined the practice and 

 implications of current anthropological field technique, it should yield 

 important results in the social psychological investigation of more complex 

 cultures. 



Mr. C. A. Oakley. — Some of the psychological problems of a depressed area 



( I °45)- 



This paper is in three parts, dealing with : (a) the characteristics of the 

 jobless worker ; (b) the effectiveness of different plans for occupying his 

 time and interests ; (c) the difficulty of getting him a new job. 



Fundamental in the attitude of the unemployed workers to-day is irrita- 

 tion at being thwarted in their accustomed forms of creative expression and 

 of general living. During their first period of unemployment, they are also 

 in a state of fear, but apathy often follows. They are unable to say how they 

 have passed their time. Interest is lost in politics. Religion is treated in 

 different ways, some workers turning to it and some scoffing at it. Old 

 feuds are forgotten but petty quarrels sometimes flare up. Their affectional 

 relationships are undermined. The school work of their children de- 

 teriorates. References are made in the first part of the paper to published 

 studies of unemployed workers in other countries such as the United States, 

 Italy and Austria. The second part is based upon views expressed to the 

 author by persons engaged in community service work. The third part 

 deals with the cumulative psychological effects of ' bad times ' on owners of 

 factories as well as workers, and with the difficulties of attracting new 

 industries to depressed areas. 



Co-ordinated Social Researches in a Scottish Area (11.30). 



Dr. O. A. Oeser. — Methods of empirical research in social psychology. 



A survey of past systems of social psychology and of efforts made to measure 

 social forces and behaviour is followed by an analysis of the methods in use 

 by, or adaptable from, experimental psychology, sociology and ethnology. 



The synthesis of methods is justified and illustrated by a survey of the 

 field work in social psychology now being carried out in a Scottish industrial 

 city by a research staff consisting of psychologists trained in different 

 branches, an economist-historian, and a medical psychologist. The central 

 problem is The Psychology of Juvenile Unemployment. This is shown in its 

 complex social setting in an industrial city. Some results of the prelim- 

 inary descriptive survey and of the functional penetration of the field are 

 discussed. 



Mr. H. Hillmann. — The relation of economics to social psychology 

 (12.15). 

 The complexity of modern society may be well reflected in a particular 

 industrial area. To cope with the problems which arise when the attempt 

 is made to disentangle that complexity is the task of economists, sociologists, 

 psychologists, and other social scientists. In the realistic study of a Scottish 

 area the purely economic approach encounters certain factors the neglect 

 of which would limit the validity of the findings of the economist and not 



