1970s social psychologists thought the field was in "crisis" https://sci-hub.tw/10.1016/j.shpsc.2011.11.010

Areas of concern included experimenter demand, lack of relevance to important social problems, overly simplistic and inadequate theory, and even the field's basic philosophical foundations

These accusations of overly grandiose conclusions from classic (but small and inadequate) classic studies feel surprisingly modern

Modern theoretical critiques would probably focus more on (1) the lack of repeatability of basic phenomena and (2) the lack of formalism of social psychological theory. Still, modern "crisis" dialogue also laments the inadequacy of modern theory for understanding SP phenomena

I've also wondered about the weird separation between SP in psychology and sociology. These two subdisciplines have the same name, study the same things, yet have nothing to do with each other!

I'm not aware of any worries about this separation now, though

Ironically, this particular critique -- that social psychological phenomena are fundamentally non-repeatable -- is now deployed as a *defense* of the status quo in social psychology

This is a pretty weird reversal!

Faye seems to think that the 1970s crisis stemmed mainly from a general malaise in North America.

I'd say this is a major difference from the current crisis -- the current one stems mainly from events within the discipline, like Bem's precognition paper and the Stapel incident

Here's another difference. I think the current crisis has already brought about, and will continue to bring about, lasting changes in social psychology. I hope these changes are for the better, but that remains to be seen

This was an interesting read. There are similarities between the 1970s crisis and the current one, but I also see some substantial differences. Nevertheless I think this paper is worth a read