Social Psychology (9th Edition) [Hardcover]

Robert A. Baron (Author), Donn Erwin Byrne (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0205279562 | ISBN-13: 978-0205279562 | Publication Date: July 8, 1999 | Edition: 9

The ninth edition of Social Psychology continues to integrate classic and current research in a highly readable and engaging fashion. This classic text retains the hallmark of its own past success: up-to-date coverage of the quickly evolving subject matter, written in a lively manner that has been embraced by hundreds of thousands of students around the world. The fascinating field of social psychology is pertinent to the lives of every reader of the text. Taking note of this fact, the authors have introduced a new theme -"taking social psychology with you" - which centers around the following idea: Social psychology offers a unique and valuable way of looking at the social world and a set of basic principles that everyone should use in their own lives. In other words, students who read this book should take social psychology with them when the course is over. This theme is reflected in the book in several ways: A new feature called "Beyond the Headlines: As Social Psychologists See It" takes real-life news events and examines them from a social psychology perspective. This feature illustrates how the topics can be applied to many aspects of human behavior.Another new feature "Ideas to Take With You" highlights important concepts at the end of every chapter that will impact the life of the student long after the course is completed. Other recent trends in the field of social psychology have been included in the ninth edition: The biological perspective has been embraced by much of the academic community, and the authors discuss this perspective at numerous points in the text. A "Biological" icon marks the discussions of this topic in the margins of the text. In addition, diversity continues to be a current and important theme in the field. Special sections of the text, called "Social Diversity: A Critical Analysis" are devoted to the topic of cultural and ethnic diversity. In addition, the authors incorporate the coverage of diversity throughout the text. This coverage is annotated with a diversity icon in the margin of the book.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This balanced overview of the field of social psychology introduces and integrates the theories, research, and applications of the discipline -- capturing the excitement of this diverse field as it is evolving today. It examines both the traditional areas of the field as well as recent findings, showing how social psychologists apply their discipline to help solve significant social problems -- including those relevant to students' everyday lives. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

PREFACE

A glance at any daily newspaper illustrates the extremes of human social behavior. We see violence, heroics, war, political scandal, terrorism, bravery, and a multitude of other manifestations of the extraordinary range of social conduct. At the same time, our own personal lives—involving friends, family, neighbors, lovers, acquaintances, and even chance encounters with total strangers—reflect the stuff of social behavior.

Each of our experiences with our social environment raises a host of questions. What are the sources and consequences of kindness and cruelty? Why and how are people susceptible to the influence of others? How do we develop and maintain our relationships with other individuals? How do people come to grips with the meaning of their social environment? How does our culture influence our behavior?

The discipline of social psychology addresses such questions. Embracing a vast range of human behavior, the field seeks to answer the fundamental issues that underlie our social world. It is a discipline that holds the promise of providing real improvements in the human condition.

The central challenge in writing an introduction to social psychology is to capture the essence of a dynamic, ever-changing discipline. Social psychology must be presented in a way that fosters readers' intrinsic interest in social psychological phenomenon, doing so with scientific integrity and accuracy. THE GOALS OF THIS BOOK

To meet this challenge, the third edition of Social Psychology has been written keeping in mind three major goals. First and foremost, it provides a broad, balanced overview of social psychology. It introduces readers to the theories, research, and applications that constitute the discipline, examining both the traditional areas of the field as well as more recent innovations. The book pays particular attention to the applications developed by social psychologists. While not slighting theoretical material, the text emphasizes what social psychologists know and how this knowledge may be applied to real-world problems. In fact, the very structure of the book is designed to make the applied material as prominent as the theoretical material by integrating more applied chapters throughout the text, rather than relegating them to the end of the book.

The second major goal of the text is to explicitly tie social psychology to students' lives. The findings of social psychologists have a significant degree of relevance to students, and this text illustrates how these findings can be applied in a meaningful, practical sense. For instance, applications are presented within a contemporaneous framework. The book includes current news items, timely world events, and contemporary uses of social psychology that are designed to draw readers into the field. Numerous descriptive scenarios and vignettes reflect everyday situations in students' lives, explaining how they relate to social psychology. For example, each chapter begins with an opening prologue that provides a real-life situation relating to the chapter subject area. This scenario is reconsidered at the end of the chapter, where integrative, critical-thinking questions tie the prologue to the chapter content. Furthermore, all chapters also have The Informed Consumer of Social Psychology section, which explicitly suggests ways to apply social psychological findings to students' experiences. Each chapter also includes a feature called Applying Social Psychology that discusses ways social psychology research is being used to answer problems of an applied nature.

Finally, the third goal of the text is to make the field of social psychology engaging, accessible, and interesting to students. The book is user friendly and written in a direct, conversational voice, meant to replicate as much as possible a dialogue between author and student.

Social Psychology, third edition, is a text that students can understand and master on their own, without the intervention of an instructor. To that end, it includes a variety of pedagogical features. Each chapter contains a Looking Ahead overview that sets the stage for the chapter, a running glossary, a numbered summary, a list of key terms and concepts, and an epilogue. In addition, each chapter has three Review and Rethink sections that provide enumeration of the key concepts and questions that promote and test critical thinking.

In short, Social Psychology seeks to blend and integrate theory, research, and applications. Rather than concentrating on a few isolated areas and presenting them in great depth, the emphasis is on illustrating the breadth of social psychology. Concentrating on the scope of the field permits the examination of a variety of evolving and nontraditional areas of social psychology. Finally, the text seeks to illustrate social psychology as it now stands and is evolving, rather than providing a detailed historical record of the development of social psychology. While covering the classic studies, the decided emphasis is on the field in its current state.

Ultimately, this text seeks to provide a broad-based overview of social psychology, emphasizing its theories, research, and applications. It is meant to show the relevance of social psychology to students' lives while acquainting them with the scientific basis of the discipline. It is designed to be a user-friendly text, one that captures the excitement—and promise—of a growing, developing scientific field.

CHAPTER-OPENING PROLOGUES
Each chapter begins with a short vignette that describes an individual or situation that is representative of basic social psychological phenomena. For instance, chapter prologues tie descriptions of ethnic cleansing, James Byrd Jr.'s murder at the hands of white extremists, and a couple falling in love to social psychological principles presented in their respective chapters.

APPLYING SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
This feature, found in every chapter, describes current social psychological research or research issues applied to everyday problems. They include descriptions of ambivalent stereotyping, the slime effect (explaining why we dislike likeable behavior), and attitude change over the course of the life span.

SPEAKING OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
These boxes report interviews that were conducted with people who use the findings of social psychology, either explicitly or implicitly, in their work. For the most part, interviewees are not social psychologists but rather people whose professions employ social psychological findings. For example, interviewees include a newspaper reporter (social cognition), an advertising executive who uses celebrity endorsements (interpersonal attraction), and a trial consultant (law and politics).

SOCIAL.WEB
Four essays describing the impact of technology and the World Wide Web are interspersed throughout the book. These include discussions of the impact of violent video games, finding love in cyberspace, use of email, and social stigmas.

EXPLORING DIVERSITY
These sections, integrated within every chapter, highlight issues relevant to the multicultural society in which we live. They illustrate social psychological issues relevant to race, ethnicity, and culture. For example, various Exploring Diversity sections examine cultural influences in attribution, cultural determinations of health, ethnic differences regarding the stigma of obesity, relationships among gay and lesbian couples, and gender and cultural patterns of leadership.

THE INFORMED CONSUMER OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Every chapter includes information on specific uses that can be derived from research conducted by social psychologists. For example, various chapters discuss how to draw appropriate conclusions from others' behavior, overcome stereotypes, deal with anger, and resist persuasion.

REVIEW AND RETHINK
Interspersed throughout each chapter are three short recaps of the chapters' main points, followed by questions designed to provoke critical thinking.

SOCIAL LINKS COMPANION WEBSITE (CW)
These marginal icons indicate that relevant material can be found on the World Wide Web by going to the Feldman Social Psychology Website (prenhall/feldman). By referring to the specific book page where the Social Link is found, readers will find a link to a relevant Web page.

END-OF-CHAPTER MATERIAL
Each chapter ends with a numbered summary (Looking Back), list of key terms and concepts, and an epilogue containing critical-thinking questions about the chapter-opening vignette. WHAT'S NEW IN THIS EDITION?

A considerable number of new topics and areas have been added to the third edition. For instance, advances in such areas as culture, emotions, close relationships, psychophysiology.; and evolutionary approaches to social phenomenon receive expanded and new coverage.

In addition, a wealth of contemporary research is cited in this edition. Hundreds of new research citations have been added, most from the last few years. A sampling of topics either newly included in this edition or expanded also illustrate --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 650 pages
• Publisher: Allyn & Bacon; 9 edition (July 8, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0205279562
• ISBN-13: 978-0205279562
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #796,349 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A comprehensive and balanced view of a complex field., July 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Social Psychology: Understanding Human Interaction (Hardcover)

As a university psychology instructor who favors a text demonstrating good science, I appreciate the careful documentation of research contained in this book. I also appreciate the personal touch of the anecdotes at the beginning of each chapter as a way of making the subject matter relevant to students. The authors do a masterful job of presenting a complex field, such as social psychology, to the college student. Teaching psychology as a science is a real challenge today and this text offers instructors a powerful tool for that purpose.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Social Beings in a Social World, August 8, 2002

By 

Olga Loaiza (Dallas, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Social Psychology (9th Edition) (Hardcover)

I highly recommend "Social Psychology" to practically any adult who can read. We are social beings and understanding each other helps us to create better relations. A better world. This book is excellent to examine and understand not only others' behavior but also ours.

Here is an excerpt that caught my attention: "how we interpret, analyze, remember, and use information about the social world-suggests that we are far from perfect in our ability to think clearly about other persons and reach accurate decisions or judgments about them."

"Social Psychology" covers many branches of psychology but the chapters give you enough information to learn just the basics. I think that this is great for lay people or new students in Psychology. I found that the personal stories that both authors used, helped me to better understand the topic of the chapters; however the, I met this psychologist and have been friends with since, led me to believe that this reaction was due to a schema. Perhaps our society has created a schema in which others' names define who we are. I particularly don't sympathize much with this.

The colorful pictures and cartoons in the book, I enjoyed greatly. I tend to be very visual in many occasions. In fact, I feel that many of the pictures were more thought provoking than the text. I found them very helpful to understand the subject. I also sensed that the targeted audience was mainly young students since many of the studies were conducted or focused on young students. I just wished that the authors had not forgotten that there are older people (like this book reviewer) who go back to school or who want to learn about social psychology. Once again, I highly recommend this book to anyone. You'll learn to view the world under a new perspective.

4.0 out of 5 stars Ajoop. S, January 9, 2012

By 

Ajoop. S - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Social Psychology (3rd Edition) (Hardcover)

Social Psychology by Robert S. Feldman is the prescribed textbook for my course. It's a good text with good, concise information. The anecdotes and experiments are very relevant and it is very easy to understand. But it took me a while to warm up to this text. I prefer using this along with another textbook like Baron's Social Psychology.