Social Psychology

Social Psychology: Goals in Interaction explores how social behavior is goal-directed and a result of interactions between the person and the situation. In addition to a beautiful new design in the 4e, Social Psychology: Goals in Interaction has two elements that continue to set it apart from other social psychology textbooks: A unique integrated approach to social behavior: Rather than providing a laundry list of unconnected facts and theories, the authors organize each chapter around the two broad questions: (1) What are the goals that underlie the behavior in question? (2) What factors in the person and the situation connect to each goal? The book thus presents the discipline as a coherent framework for understanding human behavior. The new subtitle, "Goals in Interactions" underscores this integrated approach to understanding behavior. Opening mysteries: Each chapter begins with a mystery of social behavior, designed not only to grab student interest, but also to organize the ensuing discussion of scientific research: Why would a poor black washerwoman give away her hard-earned life-savings? What psychological forces led the Dalai Lama, the most exalted personage in Tibet, to forge a lifelong friendship with a foreign vagabond openly scorned by Tibetan peasants? Why would a boy falsely confess to murdering his own mother? The latest scholarship, engaging writing, engrossing real-world stories and the authors' strengths as renowned researchers and expert teachers, all come together to make the fourth edition of Social Psychology: Goals in Interaction an accessible and engaging read for students, while providing a modern and cohesive approach for their teachers.Q: Does your current text make the connections between the different facets of social psychology? A: Kenrick, Neuberg, and Cialdini is the only social psychology text on the market to provide an overarching and integrative framework that links together the diverse findings of social psychology. Q: Would you like your students to use a textbook that is engaging, accessible and student friendly? A: The authors use the metaphor of social psychologist as detective. Students love this approach, and several users have even commented that the book reads like a novel. Each chapter of Social Psychology, 4/e contains:The Mystery. Each chapter begins with a real-life puzzle designed to raise the questions that guide the research in the field. For example, why would a low-income washerwoman give away her hard-earned life savings to people she had never met?The Goals. Next, the reader is introduced to the goals underlying the behavior covered in each chapter, by asking "What purpose does this behavior (aggression, prosocial behavior, discrimination) serve for an individual?" The authors consider factors in the person, the situation, and in their interaction that lead to the achievement of those goals.Investigations. This marginal feature offers periodic critical-thinking prompts connected to chapter content. Person, Situation and Interaction icons. Placed in the margin of the book, these graphic elements alert students to basal text coverage of these three key themes throughout each chapter. Revisiting the Mystery. At the end of the chapter, the student sees the concepts of each chapter applied to solve the opening mystery.Q: Would you like to use the most up-to-date research in your course? A: Topics related to research are integrated throughout each chapter in focus sections: Focus on Application - relates research to problems and solutions in business, law, health/medicine, and education.Focus on Method - extends the detective metaphor to explain the investigative tools social psychologists use to solve their mysteries.Focus on Social Dysfunction - capitalizes on students' fascination with disorder, to show the connection between normal and apparently abnormal processes such as obsessive relationships, rigid authoritarianism, and mass hysteria.The final chapter of Social Psychology, 4/e revisits the central themes raised at the book's opening. Chapter 14 reinforces the message that the field is an integrated whole. Competing texts have no comparable chapter.