International Journal of Hospitality Management 36(2014)188-196 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Hospitality Management ELSEVIER journal homepage:www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman The application of social psychology theories and concepts in CrossMark hospitality and tourism studies:A review and research agenda Liang (Rebecca)Tang* Department of Apparel,Education Studies.Hospitality Management,College of Human Science,lowa State University,12 MacKay Hall,United States ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: The purpose of this study was the review of 282 papers that pertain to the application of social psychology Social psychology theories and concepts presented in 12 leading academic journals published between 1999 and 2012.The Review papers were sorted by theory and concept,application level,journal,publication year.subject area,and Theory Concept statistical technique.The most frequently used theories were found to be social exchange,equity,and cognitive dissonance theories.The present paper offers a pioneering attempt to evaluate the use of social psychology theories and concepts in hospitality and tourism studies as well as identifying future research opportunities. 2013 Elsevier Ltd.All rights reserved. 1.Introduction managers and other consumers(Singh,2008).Social psychology which places an emphasis on the individuals within the social inter- It has been widely accepted that interactions between psychol- action paradigm,has been widely used as a theoretical foundation ogy and hospitality and tourism management(HTM)studies have to explain human behavior in this field(Huan and Beaman,2004) been fruitful (Woodside and Mazanec,2004).Knowledge of psy- Previous studies which examine social psychology have largely chology in relation to human resources and consumers is valuable adopted specific components(i.e.,theories or terms)from this field in determining the success of hospitality and tourism ventures to explain phenomena in the hospitality and tourism disciplines (Ross.1998).Psychology offers a broad canvas of subfields.Pearce For example,Kwon and Jang (2012)explained the effects of com- and Stringer(1991)stated that pensation for service recovery with equity theory.Nunkoo et al. ..the analysis of psychology's contribution to tourism proceeds (2010)examined island residents'identities and their support from by considering psycho-biological and ergonomic studies,cog- tourism using the social exchange theory and the identity theory. nition,individual difference approaches,and the work in social Usakli and Baloglu(2011)identified the brand personality oftourist psychology as applied to tourism. destinations with the application of the self-congruity theory. Although piecemeal social psychology theories and concepts Stringer and Pearce(1984)further suggested that more empha- have been widely used by academic researchers to identify and sis should be given to the "models of man"and to the applications understand various issues that may arise in hospitality and tourism of social psychology in the hospitality and tourism disciplines. disciplines,the only existing review of this research was con- Social psychology has been defined as a social science that aims ducted around 30 years ago (Pearce,1982:Stringer and Pearce. to examine and comprehend the influence of the actual,imagined 1984).Pearce(1982)collated scattered research from diverse dis- or implied presence of others on an individual'thoughts,experi- ciplines to create a social psychological account of tourist behavior ence,and behavior (Allport.1984).Social psychological behavior He examined the economic,geographical,anthropological,and takes into consideration not only what is occurring socially to sociological backgrounds of tourism,investigated the social role of the individual,but also what occurs mentally and emotionally tourists,tourist motivation,and social contact between tourists and within a person,which,in turn,impacts social behavior (Brown hosts.He also evaluated the relationship between tourists and envi- 2006).The hospitality and tourism industry is also called a service ronmental features.Stringer and Pearce (1984)briefly mentioned industry(Darnay.1998).A significant number of studies in this that social psychology could serve as an academic discipline which field have stressed that the consumer's consumption experience might serve tourism research.However,to the author's knowledge, is influenced by many other people,including workers,employees, no such comprehensive study has been conducted which applies specific social psychology theories and concepts to a review of HTM studies. *Tel.:+15152948489:fax:+15152946364 The current study aims to fill this research gap.It attempts E-mail address:rebeccat@iastate.edu to give an updated and comprehensive overview of prior HTM 0278-4319/S-see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd.All rights reserved. http:/dx.doi..org/10.1016i-ihm.2013.09.003International Journal of Hospitality Management 36 (2014) 188–196 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Hospitality Management journal homepag e: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman The application of social psychology theories and concepts in hospitality and tourism studies: A review and research agenda Liang (Rebecca) Tang∗ Department of Apparel, Education Studies, & Hospitality Management, College of Human Science, Iowa State University, 12 MacKay Hall, United States a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Social psychology Review Theory Concept a b s t r a c t The purpose ofthis study was the review of 282 papers that pertain to the application of social psychology theories and concepts presented in 12 leading academic journals published between 1999 and 2012. The papers were sorted by theory and concept, application level, journal, publication year, subject area, and statistical technique. The most frequently used theories were found to be social exchange, equity, and cognitive dissonance theories. The present paper offers a pioneering attempt to evaluate the use of social psychology theories and concepts in hospitality and tourism studies as well as identifying future research opportunities. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction It has been widely accepted that interactions between psychol￾ogy and hospitality and tourism management (HTM) studies have been fruitful (Woodside and Mazanec, 2004). Knowledge of psy￾chology in relation to human resources and consumers is valuable in determining the success of hospitality and tourism ventures (Ross, 1998). Psychology offers a broad canvas of subfields. Pearce and Stringer (1991) stated that . . .the analysis of psychology’s contribution to tourism proceeds by considering psycho-biological and ergonomic studies, cog￾nition, individual difference approaches, and the work in social psychology as applied to tourism. Stringer and Pearce (1984) further suggested that more empha￾sis should be given to the “models of man” and to the applications of social psychology in the hospitality and tourism disciplines. Social psychology has been defined as a social science that aims to examine and comprehend the influence of the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others on an individual’ thoughts, experi￾ence, and behavior (Allport, 1984). Social psychological behavior takes into consideration not only what is occurring socially to the individual, but also what occurs mentally and emotionally within a person, which, in turn, impacts social behavior (Brown, 2006). The hospitality and tourism industry is also called a service industry (Darnay, 1998). A significant number of studies in this field have stressed that the consumer’s consumption experience is influenced by many other people, including workers, employees, ∗ Tel.: +1 515 294 8489; fax: +1 515 294 6364. E-mail address: rebeccat@iastate.edu managers and other consumers (Singh, 2008). Social psychology, which places an emphasis on the individuals within the social inter￾action paradigm, has been widely used as a theoretical foundation to explain human behavior in this field (Huan and Beaman, 2004). Previous studies which examine social psychology have largely adopted specific components (i.e., theories or terms) from this field to explain phenomena in the hospitality and tourism disciplines. For example, Kwon and Jang (2012) explained the effects of com￾pensation for service recovery with equity theory. Nunkoo et al. (2010) examined island residents’ identities and their supportfrom tourism using the social exchange theory and the identity theory. Usakli and Baloglu (2011)identified the brand personality oftourist destinations with the application of the self-congruity theory. Although piecemeal social psychology theories and concepts have been widely used by academic researchers to identify and understand various issues that may arise in hospitality and tourism disciplines, the only existing review of this research was con￾ducted around 30 years ago (Pearce, 1982; Stringer and Pearce, 1984). Pearce (1982) collated scattered research from diverse dis￾ciplines to create a social psychological account of tourist behavior. He examined the economic, geographical, anthropological, and sociological backgrounds of tourism, investigated the social role of tourists,tourist motivation, and social contact between tourists and hosts. He also evaluated the relationship between tourists and envi￾ronmental features. Stringer and Pearce (1984) briefly mentioned that social psychology could serve as an academic discipline which might serve tourism research. However,to the author’s knowledge, no such comprehensive study has been conducted which applies specific social psychology theories and concepts to a review of HTM studies. The current study aims to fill this research gap. It attempts to give an updated and comprehensive overview of prior HTM 0278-4319/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2013.09.003