P R E F A C E

Preface (34.0K)

These are exciting times for social psychologists! In the past few years, world events have kept many concepts from social psychology in the headlines. We read about children in New York raising money for the victims of the tsunami that devastated parts of South Asia in 2004 and applaud their altruistic act. We hear about the abuse of prisoners by military guards and interrogators and wonder why no one did anything to prevent it. And in the policy arena, some officials ask whether the emphasis in the public schools on developing self-esteem has left too many young adults unable to read and write well enough to get a decent job. These stories are inherently captivating, but they also hint at other great stories, stories about social psychology research on altruism, on self-awareness, and on the possible negative effects of high self-esteem.

One of the most important lessons I have learned as a teacher is that you should always have a good story to tell. Fortunately, social psychology is a dynamic science consisting of many fascinating stories. These “scientific stories” form the basis of this text, and my goal as an instructor and a textbook author is to emphasize the process of research in social psychology: to engage students in an exploration of how what we know about social psychology has evolved, to put students in the mind-set of the social psychologists who have left their mark on the field. Together, we explore the stories behind these classic and contemporary studies.

As a textbook author, I've learned that the text, too, must have its own story—one that resonates with students and instructors alike and helps tie all of the various theories and concepts together. In this fourth edition, I continue to emphasize a central theme—one that has worked well for me and my students—that I believe is essential to how we think about social psychology, and one that will encourage students to think about their own stories as they explore the concepts in this course.

THE SELF: AN INTEGRATED THEME

Social psychology is sometimes described as a scientific discipline consisting of loosely connected research topics with no “grand theory” to connect everything. Although we have no single theory that neatly packages social psychology for our students, I end the analysis of the topic areas in each chapter with a discussion of how these particular theories and studies “fit” into our overall understanding of social behavior. Throughout the text I emphasize a core concept in social psychology: the self. Social psychology is the study of how the individual, as a self, interacts with the social world. As selves we become active agents in our social world, not only defining reality but also anticipating the future and often changing our behavior to be in line with the anticipated reality. This essential fact of social living has always been at the heart of this book, and it reflects the orientation of social psychology in the twenty-first century.

To that end, the theme of the self is reflected in this text through the following:

• In Chapter 1, a section titled “The self is shaped by—and shapes—the social environment” introduces this central theme.

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• The central theme of the self is integrated through the discussion of key concepts, including the following examples: Chapter 4's discussion of self-serving attributions that enhance and protect self-esteem; Chapter 5's analysis of the motivated-tactician model; Chapter 6's self-perception theory and attitudes; Chapter 7's look at the role of the self in persuasion; Chapter 8's analysis of self-regulation and prejudice reduction; Chapter 9's discussion of compliance and self-consistency; Chapter 10's coverage of reduced self-awareness and deindividuation; Chapter 11's research on gender differences in the relational self; Chapter 12's analysis of the self-inclusionary process of intimacy; Chapter 13's look at the self-regulation of aggressive thoughts; and Chapter 14's research on how giving and receiving help can affect self-esteem. • Beginning with Chapter 3's analysis of The Self, each chapter concludes with a “Big Picture” summary. These summaries discuss how we, as self-reflective creatures, can use the social psychological knowledge covered in the chapter to understand and actively shape our social world.

EMPHASIZING SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY'S RESEARCH BASIS

Often I hear from instructors that students enter the course assuming that social psychology is “just plain common sense.” It's a common goal among most social psychology instructors to emphasize that social psychology is research based and relies heavily on the experimental method.

With this common goal in mind, I emphasize research methods throughout the book in the following ways:

• Chapter 2, “Research Methods in Social Psychology,” expands on the introductory chapter's distinction between the scientific process and everyday thinking. This chapter explores the process of conducting research, diverse scientific methods and research strategies, emerging new scientific methodologies and measuring instruments, and includes comprehensive coverage of survey construction, meta-analysis, and ethical issues. • Each chapter contains new neuroscience research on social behavior. • Featured Study sections at the end of every chapter summarize the purpose, method, and results of a recently published scientific article that is relevant to the chapter content. These studies are presented in the general format and style of a journal article, although they are much shorter and do not contain the statistical analyses. • Applications sections at the end of Chapters 3-14 demonstrate how the theories and research in a particular area of social psychology can be applied to real-world settings and to your life. • The Social Sense Student CD-ROM that accompanies this text features video-integrated reviews of research methods and concepts addressed in Chapter 2, as well as other video-based exercises. In many of the video segments, prominent social psychology researchers are featured. Following the videos, students are asked to answer a series of questions that test their ability to understand how these researchers designed, conducted, and concluded the experiments they discuss. All of the video segments on the CD-ROM are keyed in the text with verbal references and marginal icons directing students to them.

ORGANIZATION

The book opens with a chapter that introduces the discipline of social psychology and discusses its history and organizing principles. This chapter also makes a distinction between scientific analysis and everyday thinking.

Chapter 2 expands on this discussion by describing the research process and the scientific methods that social psychologists employ. The chapter also examines ethical issues in conducting research and the effect of values on scientific inquiry and on the application of scientific knowledge. The purpose of these two chapters is to provide the background knowledge necessary for students to critically analyze the social psychological topics covered in the chapters that follow.

The remainder of the book is divided into four major sections:

• Part One examines the scientific analysis of perceiving people and events and contains chapters on the self, self-presentation and social perception, and social cognition. • Part Two evaluates our social world and includes chapters on attitudes, persuasion, and prejudice. • Part Three seeks to understand our place within the group in chapters on social influence and group behavior. • Part Four focuses on our interactions with others and contains chapters on interpersonal attraction, intimate relationships, aggression, and prosocial behavior.

HALLMARKS AND NEW FEATURES OF THE FOURTH EDITION

Revising a textbook is like renovating a building. The goal is to retain those designs and features that are essential in maintaining the integrity and attractiveness of the original product, while enhancing and updating the contents so that it will continue to serve a useful function. Just as successful architects base their renovations on the feedback of those who actually live in the buildings being restored, I have substantially based my “renovations” of this fourth edition on the opinions expressed by professors and students who used the third edition. For those of you who “inhabited” previous editions, I think you will find many familiar features among the new additions. The primary goal of this updating process was to make the fourth edition of Social Psychology an even better structure for teaching and learning.

The fourth edition offers the following familiar features:

• More than twenty self-report questionnaires directly ask students to consider how the specific text material relates to their own lives. The self-report questionnaires are those currently used by researchers, and the results of studies employing them are part of the text material. Thus, as students learn about various social psychological theories and relevant research findings, they also learn something about themselves. • Critical thinking questions encourage students to examine their own social surroundings while they simultaneously digest social psychological theories and research. These questions often invite students to guess a study's hypotheses, results, or alternative interpretation of findings. The questions, many of which are new, are either inserted in the captions of figures, tables, photos, and cartoons, or are displayed in prominent critical thinking sidebars. Answers to the former can be found on the same text page; while the end-of-book appendix offers a possible answer to the latter. • Coverage of diversity and cultural analysis is fully integrated in each chapter, rather than treated as a separate boxed insert or separate chapter. As in previous editions, I seek to foster a sense of inclusion for all readers. For example, in the discussion of social behavior in a cross-cultural context, the particular aspect of culture highlighted is individualism versus collectivism. Why? Throughout the history of American social psychology, the concept of individualism has been an influential, yet unexamined, force directing our analysis of social life. All too often American social psychologists have generalized their findings about social life in this country to all the inhabitants of the planet. Now, with the emerging influence of social psychology in Europe and in developing countries, some of the basic assumptions of the relationship of the individual to

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the group have been questioned. This text discusses how people from individualist and collectivist cultures respond to similar social situations, helping students to understand the richness and flexibility of social life. • The evolutionary perspective illuminates how a universal pattern of social behavior might have developed. One of the benefits of cross-cultural research is that it not only allows us to identify those aspects of social behavior that vary from one culture to the next, but it also allows us to identify social behaviors that are not culturally constrained. When a universal social behavior is identified, discussion turns to how this pattern of behavior may have evolved. Throughout the text I examine how evolutionary forces might have left us with certain behavioral capacities, while also recognizing that current social and environmental forces encourage or discourage the actual development and use of these capacities. • Bulleted end-of-section summaries provide a concise presentation to better facilitate students' studying.The bulleted summaries in the third edition were well received and have been retained in the new edition. • Appendix: The Profession of Social Psychology For students who are interested in learning more about how one becomes a social psychologist, this appendix offers an overview of the profession as a career option, highlighting the process of graduate school education and career opportunities. This guide also discusses the discipline's possible future interconnections with other disciplines. Other new features of the fourth edition are as follows: • Updated research and theories 450 new citations, studies, theories, and examples • Approximately 50 new figures and tables describe and illustrate new theories and research • New neuroscience research and theories

New discussion in each chapter of neuroscientific studies employing the latest cutting-edge technology