It has occurred to me, in the course of my reading, that I may have misidentified my thesis' burden of proof. My current proposal aims to demonstrate that social psychology can be used to design better social software than the current body of literature. However, I now realize that the current literature is somewhat lacking in specific, concrete design guidelines.
Rather, there are just a lot of questions about human behavior and how software can accomodate it. This provides me a different opportunity than I originally thought: to demonstrate that social psychology can answer the current literature's pressing questions.
I see this as a positive change in focus, because modern social psychology (of precisely the kind that's never referenced in the current literature) is replete with tested theories on disinhibition, diffusion of responsibility, power and authority, social scripts, and so on. I shall not suffer from a lack of things to say!
Posted by pond0009 at September 3, 2004 7:09 PM