Abstract
This article serves two major purposes. First, it provides a description of the origins and evolution of a new multidisciplinary initiative sponsored by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) aimed at fostering a social science of the arts. Second, it highlights the questions, methods, and findings from a series of empirical investigations on individuals' production of and responses to photographs. In one study, children (aged seven to eight years) and adults (college students) were asked to produce and evaluate their own photographs. In a second, college students with different levels of photographic experience rated others' photographs and explained their ratings. In a third study, students in a photography appreciation course were asked to identify and explain an image that was important to them. The data provide insights into some of the ways in which photographic production and appreciation change with age and with experience, and more generally illustrate ways in which the SSRC Program on the Arts is having an impact on social science scholarship.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Ammerman, M. S., & Fryrear, J. L. (1975). Photographic enhancement of children's self-esteem. Psychology in the Schools, 12, 319-325.
Calhoun, C. (2000). Proposal for a fellowship program on the arts and social science. Internal document. Social Science Research Council, New York, October.
Cosden, C., & Reynolds, D. (1982). Photography as therapy. Arts in Psychotherapy, 9, 19-23.
Finn, D. (1994). How to look at photographs. New York: Harry Abrams Publishers.
Freeman, N. H., & Parsons, M. J. (2001). Children's intuitive understandings of pictures. In B. Torff & R. J. Sternberg (Eds.), Understanding and teaching the intuitive mind: Student and teacher learning (pp. 73-91). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Gable, E. (1998). Appropriate bodies: Self through the other in Manjaco and Portuguese representation, 1946-1973. Visual Anthropology Review, 14, 3-18.
Gardner, H. (1970). Children's sensitivity to painting styles. Child Development, 41, 813-821.
Gardner, H. (1972). The development of sensitivity to figural and stylistic aspects of paintings. British Journal of Psychology, 63, 605-615.
Halle, D. (1991). Displaying the dream: The visual presentation of family and self in the modern American household. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 22, 217-229.
Halle, D., & Robinson, L. (2001). The impact of new technology on the arts. Paper presented at the UCLA Conference on New Cultural Frontiers, Los Angeles, May.
Harrell, S., & Christopher,M. (2001). What visitors did and didn't take away from an ethnic art exhibit. Paper presented at the UCLA Conference on New Cultural Frontiers, Los Angeles, May.
Housen, A. (1983). The eye of the beholder: Measuring aesthetic development. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA.
Kintsch,W. (1972). Notes on the structure of semantic memory. In E. Tulving & W. Donaldson (Eds.), Organization of memory (pp. 247-308). New York: Academic Press.
Kintsch, W., & van Dijk, T. A. (1978). Toward a model of text comprehension and reproduction. Psychological Review, 85, 363-394.
Liben, L. S. (2000). The role of the arts in developing Lives: Proposal to the SSRC Committee on the Arts. Internal document, Social Science Research Council, New York, January.
Liben, L. S. (in press). Spatial development in children: Where are we now? In U. Goswami (Ed.), Blackwell handbook of childhood cognitive development. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.
Liben, L. S., & Szechter, L. E. (1999). Teaching children photography: Beyond point and shoot. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, Chapel Hill, NC, October.
Liben, L. S., & Szechter, L. E. (2001). Understanding the spatial qualities of photographs. In L. S. Liben (Chair), Cognitive development: A photographic view. Symposium conducted at the biennial meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, Virginia Beach, VA, October.
London, B., & Upton, J. (1998). Photography, 6th ed. New York: Longman.
Miholic, V. (1998). Using photography to heighten critical thinking. Journal of College Reading and Learning, 28, 111-116.
Milford, S. A., Fryrear, J. L., & Swank, P. (1983). Phototherapy with disadvantaged boys. Arts in Psychotherapy, 104, 221-228.
Newbury, D. (1996). Reconstructing the self: Photography, education, and disability. Disability & Society, 11, 349-360.
Parsons, M. J. (1987). How we understand art: A cognitive developmental account of aesthetic experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sontag, S. (1977). On photography. New York: Anchor Books.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Szechter, L. E., & Liben, L. S. (1999). Joint picture book reading: Early lessons in pictorial comprehension. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Albuquerque, NM, April.
Tarulli, N. J. (1998). Using photography to enhance language and learning: A picture can encourage a thousand words. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 29, 54-57.
Thomas, G., Davison, L., & Sharpes, M. (2001). The development of children as photographers. In L. S. Liben (Chair), Cognitive development: A photographic view. Symposium conducted at the biennial meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, Virginia Beach, VA, October.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Liben, L.S., Szechter, L.E. A Social Science of the Arts: An Emerging Organizational Initiative and an Illustrative Investigation of Photography. Qualitative Sociology 25, 385–408 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016086030554
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016086030554