Social Psychology

Copyright
About the Authors
Brief Contents
Table of Contents
Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
A Letter from the Authors
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Introducing Social Psychology
	What Is Social Psychology?
	What Are Social Psychology’s Big Ideas?
		We Construct Our Social Reality
		Our Social Intuitions Are Often Powerful but Sometimes Perilous
		Social Influences Shape Our Behavior
		Personal Attitudes and Dispositions Also Shape Behavior
		Social Behavior Is Biologically Rooted
		Social Psychology’s Principles Are Applicable in Everyday Life
	I Knew It All Along: Is Social Psychology Simply Common Sense?
		Focus On: I Knew It All Along
	Research Methods: How Do We Do Social Psychology?
		Forming and Testing Hypotheses
		Sampling and Question Wording
		Correlational Research: Detecting Natural Associations
		Experimental Research: Searching for Cause and Effect
		Generalizing from Laboratory to Life
	Concluding Thoughts: Why We Wrote This Book. . . and a Preview of What’s to Come
Part 1 - Social Thinking
	Chapter 2: The Self in a Social World
		Spotlights and Illusions: What Do They Teach Us About Ourselves?
			Research Close-Up: On Being Nervous About Looking Nervous
		Self-Concept: Who Am I?
			At the Center of Our Worlds: Our Sense of Self
			Self and Culture
			Self-Knowledge
			The Inside Story: Hazel Markus and Shinobu Kitayama on Cultural Psychology
		What Is the Nature and Motivating Power of Self-Esteem?
			Self-Esteem Motivation
			The Trade-Off of Low Versus High Self-Esteem
			Self-Efficacy
		What Is Self-Serving Bias?
			Explaining Positive and Negative Events
			Can We All Be Better Than Average?
			Focus On: Self-Serving Bias — How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways
			Unrealistic Optimism
			False Consensus and Uniqueness
			Explaining Self-Serving Bias
		How Do People Manage Their Self-Presentation?
			Self-Handicapping
			Impression Management
		Concluding Thoughts: Twin Truths — The Perils of Pride, the Powers of Positive Thinking
	Chapter 3: Social Beliefs and Judgments
		How Do We Judge Our Social Worlds, Consciously and Unconsciously?
			Priming
			Intuitive Judgments
			Overconfidence
			Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts
			Counterfactual Thinking
			Illusory Thinking
			Moods and Judgments
			The Inside Story: Joseph P. Forgas: Can Bad Weather Improve Your Memory?
		How Do We Perceive Our Social Worlds?
			Perceiving and Interpreting Events
			Belief Perseverance
			Constructing Memories of Ourselves and Our Worlds
		How Do We Explain Our Social Worlds?
			Attributing Causality: To the Person or the Situation
			The Fundamental Attribution Error
		How Do Our Social Beliefs Matter?
			Focus On: The Self-Fulfilling Psychology of the Stock Market
			Teacher Expectations and Student Performance
			Getting from Others What We Expect
		Concluding Thoughts: Reflecting on Illusory Thinking
	Chapter 4: Behavior and Attitudes
		How Well Do Our Attitudes Predict Our Behavior?
			When Attitudes Predict Behavior
		When Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes?
			Role Playing
			Saying Becomes Believing
			Evil and Moral Acts
		Why Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes?
			Self-Presentation: Impression Management
			Self-Justification: Cognitive Dissonance
			Self-Perception
			Comparing the Theories
		Concluding Thoughts: Changing Ourselves Through Action
Part 2 - Social Influence
	Chapter 5: Genes, Culture, and Gender
		How Are We Influenced by Biology?
			Genes, Evolution, and Behavior
			Biology and Gender
			Gender and Hormones
			Reflections on Evolutionary Psychology
			Focus On: Evolutionary Science and Religion
		How Are We Influenced by Culture?
			Culture and Behavior
			Focus On: The Cultural Animal
			Research Close-Up: Passing Encounters, East and West
			Peer-Transmitted Culture
			Cultural Similarity
			Culture and Gender
			Gender Roles Vary with Culture
			Gender Roles Vary over Time
		How Are Females and Males Alike and Different?
			Independence versus Connectedness
			Social Dominance
			Aggression
			Sexuality
		What Can We Conclude about Genes, Culture, and Gender?
			The Inside Story: Alice Eagly on Gender Similarities and Differences
		Concluding Thoughts: Should We View Ourselves as Products of Our Biology or Our Culture?
	Chapter 6: Conformity and Obedience
		What Is Conformity?
		What Are the Classic Conformity and Obedience Studies?
			Sherif’s Studies of Norm Formation
			Research Close-Up: Contagious Yawning
			Asch’s Studies of Group Pressure
			Milgram’s Obedience Studies
			The Inside Story: Stanley Milgram on Obedience
			The Ethics of Milgram’s Studies
			What Breeds Obedience?
			Focus On: Personalizing The Victims
			Reflections on the Classic Studies
		What Predicts Conformity?
			Group Size
			Unanimity
			Cohesion
			Status
			Public Response
			Prior Commitment
		Why Conform?
		Who Conforms?
			Personality
			Culture
			Social Roles
		Do We Ever Want to Be Different?
			Reactance
			Asserting Uniqueness
		Concluding Thoughts: On Being an Individual within a Community
	Chapter 7: Persuasion
		The Inside Story: Stephen Reicher on Human Behavior during the Pandemic: A Social Psychologist Advises His Country
		What Paths Lead to Persuasion?
			The Central Route
			The Peripheral Route
			Different Paths for Different Purposes
		What Are the Elements of Persuasion?
			Who Says? The Communicator
			Research Close-Up: Experimenting with a Virtual Social Reality
			What Is Said? The Message Content
			How Is It Said? The Channel of Communication
			To Whom Is It Said? The Audience
		How Can Persuasion Be Resisted?
			Attitude Inoculation
			Implications of Attitude Inoculation
		Concluding Thoughts: Being Open but Not Naïve
	Chapter 8: Group Influence
		What Is a Group?
		Social Facilitation: How Are We Affected by the Presence of Others?
			The Presence of Others and Dominant Responses
			Crowding: The Presence of Many Others
			Why Are We Aroused in the Presence of Others?
		Social Loafing: Do Individuals Exert Less Effort in a Group?
			Many Hands Make Light Work
			Social Loafing in Everyday Life
		Deindividuation: When Do People Lose Their Sense of Self in Groups?
			Doing Together What We Would Not Do Alone
			Diminished Self-Awareness
		Group Polarization: Do Groups Intensify Our Opinions?
			The Case of the “Risky Shift”
			Do Groups Intensify Opinions?
			Focus On: Group Polarization
			Explaining Group Polarization
		Group Decision Making: Do Groups Hinder or Assist Good Decisions?
			Symptoms of Groupthink
			The Inside Story: Irving Janis on Groupthink
			Experimental Evidence for Groupthink
			Preventing Groupthink
			When Groups Perform Better
			The Inside Story: Behind a Nobel Prize: Two Minds Are Better Than One
		The Influence of the Minority: How Do Individuals Influence the Group?
			The Influence of Individual Group Members
			The Influence of Leaders
			Focus On: Transformational Community Leadership
		Concluding Thoughts: Are Groups Bad for Us?
Part 3 - Social Relations
	Chapter 9: Prejudice
		What Is the Nature and Power of Prejudice?
			Defining Prejudice
			Defining Discrimination
			Prejudice: Implicit and Explicit
			Racial Prejudice
			Gender Prejudice
			LGBTQ Prejudice
		What Are the Social Sources of Prejudice?
			Social Inequalities: Unequal Status and Prejudice
			Socialization
			The Inside Story: Sohad Murrar on Pro-Diversity Social Norms
			Systemic Supports
		What Are the Motivational Sources of Prejudice?
			Frustration and Aggression: The Scapegoat Theory
			Social Identity Theory: Feeling Superior to Others
			Motivation to Avoid Prejudice
		What Are the Cognitive Sources of Prejudice?
			Categorization: Classifying People into Groups
			Distinctiveness: Perceiving People Who Stand Out
			Attribution: Is It a Just World?
		What Are the Consequences of Prejudice?
			Self-Perpetuating Prejudgments
			Discrimination’s Impact: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
			Stereotype Threat
			The Inside Story: Claude Steele on Stereotype Threat
			Do Stereotypes Bias Judgments of Individuals?
		Concluding Thoughts: Can We Reduce Prejudice?
	Chapter 10: Aggression
		What Is Aggression?
		What Are Some Theories of Aggression?
			Aggression as a Biological Phenomenon
			Aggression as a Response to Frustration
			Aggression as Learned Social Behavior
			The Inside Story: Brett Pelham on Growing Up Poor in the “Culture of Honor”
		What Are Some Influences on Aggression?
			Aversive Experiences
			Arousal
			Aggression Cues
			Media Influences
			The Inside Story: Craig Anderson on Video-Game Violence
			Group Influences
			Research Close-Up: When Provoked, Are Groups More Aggressive Than Individuals?
		How Can Aggression Be Reduced?
			Catharsis?
			A Social Learning Approach
			Culture Change and World Violence
		Concluding Thoughts: Reforming a Violent Culture
	Chapter 11: Attraction and Intimacy
		How Important Is the Need to Belong?
		What Leads to Friendship and Attraction?
			Proximity
			Focus On: Liking Things Associated with Oneself
			Physical Attractiveness
			The Inside Story: Ellen Berscheid on Attractiveness
			Similarity versus Complementarity
			Liking Those Who Like Us
			Focus On: Bad Is Stronger Than Good
			Relationship Rewards
		What Is Love?
			Passionate Love
			Companionate Love
		What Enables Close Relationships?
			Attachment
			Equity
			Self-Disclosure
			Focus On: Does the Internet Create Intimacy or Isolation?
		How Do Relationships End?
			Divorce
			The Detachment Process
		Concluding Thoughts: Making Love
	Chapter 12: Helping
		Why Do We Help?
			Social Exchange and Social Norms
			The Inside Story: Dennis Krebs on Life Experience and the Study of Altruism
			Evolutionary Psychology
			Comparing and Evaluating Theories of Helping
			Genuine Altruism and Empathy
			Focus On: The Benefits — and the Costs — of Empathy-Induced Altruism
		When Will We Help?
			Number of Bystanders
			The Inside Story: John M. Darley on Bystander Reactions
			Helping When Someone Else Does
			Time Pressures
			Similarity
			Research Close-Up: Ingroup Similarity and Helping
		Who Will Help?
			Personality Traits and Status
			Gender
			Religious Faith
		How Can We Increase Helping?
			Reduce Ambiguity, Increase Responsibility
			Guilt and Concern for Self-Image
			Socializing Altruism
		Concluding Thoughts: Taking Social Psychology into Life
	Chapter 13: Peacemaking
		What Creates Conflict?
			Social Dilemmas
			Competition
			Perceived Injustice
			Misperception
			Research Close-Up: Misperception and War
		How Can Peace Be Achieved?
			Contact
			Research Close-Up: Relationships That Might Have Been
			The Inside Story: Nicole Shelton and Jennifer Richeson on Cross-Racial Friendships
			Cooperation
			Focus On: Branch Rickey, Jackie Robinson, and the Integration of Baseball
			Communication
			Conciliation
		Concluding Thoughts: The Conflict Between Individual and Communal Rights
Part 4 - Applying Social Psychology
	Chapter 14: Social Psychology in the Clinic
		What Influences the Accuracy of Clinical Judgments?
			Illusory Correlations
			Hindsight and Overconfidence
			Self-Confirming Diagnoses
			Clinical Intuition versus Statistical Prediction
			Implications for Better Clinical Practice
			Focus On: A Physician’s View: The Social Psychology of Medicine
		What Cognitive Processes Accompany Mental Health Issues?
			Depression
			The Inside Story: Shelley Taylor on Positive Illusions
			Loneliness
			Anxiety and Shyness
			Emotions and Physical Health
		What Are Some Social-Psychological Approaches to Treatment?
			Inducing Internal Change Through External Behavior
			Breaking Vicious Cycles
			Maintaining Change Through Internal Attributions for Success
			Using Therapy as Social Influence
		How Do Social Relationships Support Health and Happiness?
			Relationships and Physical Health
			Relationships and Happiness
		Concluding Thoughts: Enhancing Happiness
	Chapter 15: Social Psychology in Court
		How Reliable Is Eyewitness Testimony?
			The Power of Persuasive Eyewitnesses
			When Eyes Deceive
			The Misinformation Effect
			Retelling
			Reducing Error
			Research Close-Up: Feedback to Witnesses
		What Other Factors Influence Juror Judgments?
			The Defendant’s Characteristics
			The Judge’s Instructions
		What Influences the Individual Juror?
			Juror Comprehension
			Jury Selection
			“Death-Qualified” Jurors
		How Do Group Influences Affect Juries?
			Minority Influence
			Group Polarization
			Research Close-Up: Group Polarization in a Natural Court Setting
			Leniency
			Are Twelve Heads Better Than One?
			Are Six Heads as Good as Twelve?
			From Lab to Life: Simulated and Real Juries
		Concluding Thoughts: Thinking Smart with Psychological Science
	Chapter 16: Social Psychology and the Sustainable Future
		Psychology and Climate Change
			Psychological Effects of Climate Change
			Public Opinion about Climate Change
		Enabling Sustainable Living
			New Technologies
			Reducing Consumption
			The Inside Story: Janet Swim on Psychology’s Response to Climate Change
		The Social Psychology of Materialism and Wealth
			Increased Materialism
			Wealth and Well-Being
			Materialism Fails to Satisfy
			Toward Sustainability and Survival
			Research Close-Up: Measuring National Well-Being
		Concluding Thoughts: How Does One Live Responsibly in the Modern World?
Epilogue
Name Index
References
Subject Index/Glossary