Mastering Social Psychology

by Baron, Robert A.; Byrne, Donn R.; Branscombe, Nyla R.

• ISBN13: 9780205495894
• ISBN10: 0205495893
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-11-13
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

Robert Baron and Donn Byrners"s text sets the standard for the social psychology courseand continues to offer the most up-to-date research and fresh insights to help students take social psychology out of the classroom and apply it to their lives. Nyla Branscombe recently joined the renowned AUTHOR team, bringing her expertise in areas such as prejudice, the self, group processes, and gENDer. Now this best-selling text is available in a briefer paperback format for those who prefer not to cover topics in as much detail. The popular student-interest and helpful study features from the comprehensive version are also included in this new format. bull; bull;The Science of Social Psychology: Making Sense of Common Sense sections show how the findings of social psychology have reversed or refined some common sense ideas. bull;Ideas to Take with Youand Use! sectionsat the END of every chapter highlight important concepts that are relevant to students' daily lives. bull;Connections tables at the END of every chapter help explain the relationships between topics in the field of social psychology. bull;Critical Thinking questions follow the "Connections" tables. bull;Key Points at the END of every major section help students review what they have read. bull;Key terms are bolded within the text to help students find definitions. bull;Summary and Review of Key Points sections at the END of chapters help students assess what they have read.

Author Biography

Robert A. Baron is Professor of Psychology and Wellington Professor of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1968. Professor Baron has held faculty appointments at Purdue University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Texas, the University of South Carolina, and Princeton University. In 1982 he was a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University. From 1979 to 1981 he served as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation (Washington, DC). He has been a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and is also a Fellow of the American Psychological Society. In 2001, he was appointed an Invited Senior Research Fellow by the French government, and held this post at the Université des Sciences Sociales at Toulouse, France.

        Professor Baron has published more than one hundred articles in professional journals and thirty-five chapters in edited volumes. He is the author or coauthor of forty-two books, including Behavior in Organizations (8th ed.), Psychology: From Science to Practice, and Entrepreneurship: A Process Perspective. Professor Baron holds three U.S. patents based on his research, and served as president of his own company (Innovative Environmental Products, Inc.) from 1992 to 2000. Professor Baron’s current research focuses mainly on the social and cognitive factors that influence entrepreneurs’ success, and on various forms of workplace aggression.

 

Donn Byrne holds the rank of Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University at Albany, State University of New York. He received his Ph.D. in 1958 from Stanford University and has held academic positions at the California State University

at San Francisco, the University of Texas, and Purdue University, as well as visiting professorships at the University of Hawaii and Stanford University. He was elected president of the Midwestern Psychological Association and of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. He headed the personality program at Texas, the social-personality programs at Purdue and at Albany, and was chair of the psychology department at Albany. Professor Byrne is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and a Charter Fellow of the American Psychological Society.

        During his career, Professor Byrne has published over 150 articles in professional journals, and twenty-nine of them have been republished in books of readings. He has authored or coauthored thirty-six chapters in edited volumes, and fourteen books, including Psychology: An Introduction to a Behavioral Science (four editions plus translations in Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese), An Introduction to Personality (three editions), The Attraction Paradigm, and Exploring Human Sexuality.

        He has served on the editorial boards of fourteen professional journals, and has directed the doctoral work of fifty-two Ph.D. students. He was invited to deliver a G. Stanley Hall lecture at the 1981 meeting of the American Psychological Association in Los Angeles and a state of the science address at the 1981 meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality in New York City. He was invited to testify at Attorney General Meese’s Commission on Obscenity and Pornography in Houston in 1986 and to participate in Surgeon General Koop’s Workshop on Pornography and Health in 1986 in Arlington, Virginia. He received the Excellence in Research Award from the University at Albany in 1987 and the Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality in 1989. In 2002, he participated in a Festschrift honoring his scientific contributions at the University of Connecticut organized by his graduate students (past and present) from Texas, Purdue, and Albany. He delivered the William Griffitt Memorial Lecture at Kansas State University in 2004. Professor Byrne’s current research focuses on the determinants of interpersonal attraction, adult attachment styles, and sexually coercive behavior.

 

Nyla R. Branscombe is Professor of Psychology at University of Kansas. She received her B.A. from York University in Toronto in 1980, a M.A. from the University of Western Ontario in 1982, and her Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1986. Professor Branscombe held a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Illinois at Urbana—Champaign in 1987. In 1993 she was a Visiting Fellow at Free University of Amsterdam. She served as Associate Editor of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin for three years, and presently serves as Associate Editor of Group Processes and Intergroup Relations.

        Professor Branscombe has published more than eighty articles and chapters in professional journals and edited volumes. In 1999, she was a recipient of the Otto Kleinberg prize for research on Intercultural and International Relations from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. In 2004, she coedited the volume, Collective Guilt: International Perspectives. Professor Branscombe’s current research focuses primarily on two main issues: the psychology of privileged groups, in particular when and why they may feel guilt about their advantages, and the psychology of disadvantaged groups, especially how they cope with prejudice and discrimination.

Table of Contents

Special Features	xxi
Preface	xxiii
Acknowledgments	xxix
The Field of Social Psychology: How We Think about and Interact with Others	3	(26)
Social Psychology: A Working Definition	5	(7)
Social Psychology Is Scientific in Nature	6	(2)
Social Psychology Focuses on the Behavior of Individuals	8	(1)
Social Psychology Seeks to Understand the Causes of Social Behavior and Social Thought	8	(4)
Social Psychology: Its Cutting Edge	12	(4)
Cognition and Behavior: Two Sides of the Same Social Coin	12	(1)
Social Neuroscience: Where Social Psychology and Neuroscience Meet	13	(1)
The Role of Implicit (Nonconscious) Processes	14	(1)
Taking Full Account of Social Diversity	15	(1)
Answering Questions about Social Behavior and Social Thought: Research Methods in Social Psychology	16	(13)
Understanding Research Methods: What's in It for You	16	(1)
Systematic Observation: Describing the World around Us	17	(1)
Correlation: The Search for Relationships	17	(2)
The Experimental Method: Knowledge through Systematic Intervention	19	(3)
Interpreting Research Results: The Use of Statistics, and Social Psychologists as Perennial Skeptics	22	(1)
The Role of Theory in Social Psychology	23	(2)
The Quest for Knowledge and Rights of Individuals: Seeking an Appropriate Balance	25	(1)
Summary and Review of Key Points	26	(1)
Ideas to Take with You---and Use!	27	(1)
Key Terms	27	(2)
Social Cognition: Thinking about the Social World	29	(30)
Schemas: Mental Frameworks for Organizing---and Using---Social Information	32	(3)
The Impact of Schemas on Social Cognition: Attention, Encoding, Retrieval	32	(2)
The Self-Confirming Nature of Schemas: When---and Why---Beliefs Shape Reality	34	(1)
Heuristics and Automatic Processing: How We Reduce Our Effort in Social Cognition	35	(6)
Representativeness: Judging by Resemblance	35	(1)
Availability: ``If I Can Think of It, It Must Be Important''	36	(1)
Anchoring and Adjustment: Where You Begin Makes a Difference	37	(1)
Automatic Processing in Social Thought: Saving Effort---But at a Cost!	38	(1)
Controlled versus Automatic Processing in Evaluating the Social World: Evidence from Social Neuroscience	39	(2)
Potential Sources of Error in Social Cognition: Why Total Rationality Is Rarer Than You Think	41	(8)
Negativity Bias: The Tendency to Pay Extra Attention to Negative Information	41	(1)
The Optimistic Bias: Our Tendency to See the World through Rose-Colored Glasses	42	(2)
Counterfactual Thinking: The Effects of Considering What Might Have Been	44	(2)
Thought Suppression: Why Efforts to Avoid Thinking Certain Thoughts Sometimes Backfire	46	(1)
Limits on Our Ability to Reason about the Social World: Magical Thinking and Ignoring Moderating Variables	47	(1)
Social Cognition: Some Words of Optimism	48	(1)
Affect and Cognition: How Feelings Shape Thought and Thought Shapes Feelings	49	(10)
The Influence of Affect on Cognition	50	(1)
The Science of Social Psychology: Making Sense of Common Sense---Is Being in a Good Mood Always a Plus? The Potential Downside of Feeling ``Up''	51	(2)
The Influence of Cognition on Affect	53	(2)
Summary and Review of Key Points	55	(1)
Connections	56	(1)
Ideas to Take with You---and Use!	57	(1)
Key Terms	57	(2)
Social Perception: Perceiving and Understanding Others	59	(32)
Nonverbal Communication: The Language of Expressions, Gazes, and Gestures	61	(7)
Nonverbal Communication: The Basic Channels	62	(2)
Recognizing Deception: The Role of Nonverbal Cues	64	(2)
The Science of Social Psychology: Making Sense of Common Sense---Does ``Women's Intuition'' Exist? And If So, Is It Based on the Ability to Use and Interpret Nonverbal Cues?	66	(2)
Attribution: Understanding the Causes of Others' Behavior	68	(11)
Theories of Attribution: Frameworks for Understanding How We Attempt to Make Sense of the Social World	68	(4)
Attribution: Some Basic Sources of Error	72	(5)
Applications of Attribution Theory: Insights and Interventions	77	(2)
Impression Formation and Impression Management: How We Integrate Social Information	79	(12)
A True Classic in Social Psychology: Asch's Research on Central and Peripheral Traits	80	(1)
Implicit Personality Theories: Schemas That Shape First Impressions	81	(1)
Impression Formation: A Cognitive Perspective	82	(1)
Other Aspects of Impression Formation: The Nature of First Impressions and Our Motives for Forming Them	83	(1)
Impression Management: The Fine Art of Looking Good	84	(3)
Summary and Review of Key Points	87	(1)
Connections	88	(1)
Ideas to Take with You---and Use!	88	(1)
Key Terms	89	(2)
Attitudes: Evaluating the Social World	91	(34)
Attitude Formation: How Attitudes Develop	94	(1)
Social Learning: Acquiring Attitudes from Others	94	(5)
Classical Conditioning: Learning Based on Association	95	(1)
Instrumental Conditioning: Rewards for the ``Right'' Views	96	(1)
Observational Learning: Learning by Example	97	(1)
Role of Social Comparison	97	(2)
Attitude Functions: Why We Form Attitudes in the First Place	99	(3)
The Knowledge Function of Attitudes	99	(1)
The Identity Function of Attitudes	99	(1)
The Self-Esteem Function of Attitudes	100	(1)
The Ego-Defensive Function of Attitudes	100	(1)
The Impression Motivation Function of Attitudes	101	(1)
Role of the Social Context in the Link between Attitudes and Behavior	102	(1)
When and Why Do Attitudes Influence Behavior?	102	(3)
Situational Constraints That Affect Attitude Expression	103	(1)
Strength of Attitudes	103	(1)
Attitude Extremity	103	(1)
Role of Personal Experience	104	(1)
How Do Attitudes Guide Behavior?	105	(2)
Attitudes Based on Reasoned Thought	105	(1)
Attitudes and Spontaneous Behavioral Reactions	106	(1)
The Fine Art of Persuasion: How Attitudes Are Changed	107	(6)
Persuasion: Communicators and Audiences	108	(1)
The Science of Social Psychology: Making Sense of Common Sense---Fear Appeals: Do They Really Work?	108	(3)
The Cognitive Processes Underlying Persuasion	111	(2)
Resisting Persuasion Attempts	113	(3)
Reactance: Protecting Our Personal Freedom	113	(1)
Forewarning: Prior Knowledge of Persuasive Intent	113	(1)
Selective Avoidance of Persuasion Attempts	114	(1)
Actively Defending Our Attitudes: Counterarguing against the Competition	114	(1)
Inoculation against ``Bad Ideas''	115	(1)
Cognitive Dissonance: What It Is and How We Reduce It	116	(9)
Is Dissonance Really Unpleasant?	117	(1)
Is Dissonance a Universal Human Experience?	117	(1)
Dissonance and Attitude Change: The Effects of Induced or Forced Compliance	118	(1)
When Dissonance Is a Tool for Beneficial Changes in Behavior	119	(2)
Summary and Review of Key Points	121	(1)
Connections	122	(1)
Ideas to Take with You---and Use!	123	(1)
Key Terms	123	(2)
The Self Understanding: ``Who Am I?''	125	(28)
Thinking about the Self: Personal versus Social Identity	127	(7)
Who I Am Depends on the Situation	128	(3)
Who I Am Depends on Others' Treatment	131	(1)
Self-Awareness	132	(1)
Possible Selves: The Self over Time	132	(2)
Self-Esteem: Attitudes toward the Self	134	(4)
The Measurement of Self-Esteem	135	(1)
Self-Serving Biases	136	(1)
Is High Self-Esteem Always Positive?	137	(1)
Do Women and Men Differ in Their Levels of Self-Esteem?	137	(1)
Social Comparison: Knowing the Self	138	(6)
Self-Presentation and Self-Regulation	141	(1)
The Science of Social Psychology: Making Sense of Common Sense---Is Looking Inward the Best Route to Self-Insight?	142	(2)
The Self as Target of Prejudice	144	(9)
Emotional Consequences: How Well-Being Can Suffer	144	(3)
Cognitive Consequences: Performance Deficits	147	(1)
Behavioral Consequences: Stereotype Threat	147	(2)
Summary and Review of Key Points	149	(1)
Connections	150	(1)
Ideas to Take with You---and Use!	151	(1)
Key Terms	151	(2)
Prejudice: Its Causes, Effects, and Cures	153	(34)
The Nature and Origins of Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination	156	(11)
Stereotyping: Beliefs about Social Groups	156	(5)
Why Do People Form and Use Stereotypes?	161	(1)
The Science of Social Psychology: Making Sense of Common Sense---Shifting Standards: Does No Difference in Evaluations Indicate No Difference in Meaning?	162	(5)
Prejudice and Discrimination: Feelings and Actions toward Social Groups	167	(12)
The Origins of Prejudice: Contrasting Perspectives	170	(5)
Discrimination: Prejudice in Action	175	(2)
Consequences of Exposure to Others' Prejudice	177	(2)
Why Prejudice Is Not Inevitable: Techniques for Countering Its Effects	179	(8)
On Learning Not to Hate	179	(1)
The Potential Benefits of Contact	179	(1)
Recategorization: Changing the Boundaries	180	(1)
Can We Learn to ``Just Say No'' to Stereotypes?	180	(2)
Social Influence as a Means of Reducing Prejudice	182	(1)
Summary and Review of Key Points	183	(1)
Connections	184	(1)
Ideas to Take with You---and Use!	184	(1)
Key Terms	185	(2)
Interpersonal Attraction: Meeting, Liking, Becoming Acquainted	187	(26)
Internal Determinants of Attraction: The Need to Affiliate and the Basic Role of Affect	190	(5)
The Importance of Affiliation for Human Existence	190	(1)
Affect as a Basic Response System	191	(1)
Affect and Attraction	192	(3)
External Determinants of Attraction: Proximity and Observable Characteristics	195	(8)
The Power of Proximity: Unplanned Contacts	195	(2)
Observable Characteristics: Instant Evaluations	197	(1)
Physical Attractiveness: Judging Books by Their Covers	198	(5)
Interactive Determinants of Attraction: Similarity and Mutual Liking	203	(10)
Similarity: Birds of a Feather Actually Do Flock Together	203	(1)
The Science of Social Psychology: Making Sense of Common Sense---Complementarity: Do Opposites Attract?	204	(3)
Attraction: Progressing from Bits and Pieces to an Overall Picture	207	(1)
Mutual Evaluations: Reciprocal Liking or Disliking	208	(1)
Summary and Review of Key Points	209	(1)
Connections	209	(1)
Ideas to Take with You---and Use!	210	(1)
Key Terms	211	(2)
Close Relationships: Family, Friends, Lovers, and Spouses	213	(32)
Interdependent Relationships with Family and Friends versus Loneliness	215	(8)
Family: Where Relationships and Attachment Styles Begin	216	(3)
Beyond the Family: Friendships	219	(1)
Loneliness: Life without Close Relationships	220	(3)
Romantic Relationships and Falling in Love	223	(22)
Romance: Moving beyond Friendship	223	(2)
Selecting a Potential Mate: Different Criteria for Men and Women	225	(1)
The Science of Social Psychology: Making Sense of Common Sense---Written in the Stars or We Met on the Internet?	226	(1)
Love: Who Can Explain It? Who Can Tell You Why? Just Maybe, Social Psychologists	227	(5)
Marriage: Happily Ever After---and Otherwise	232	(1)
Marital Success and Satisfaction: Similarity, Personality, and Sexuality	233	(1)
Love and Marriage: Careers, Parenthood, and Family Composition	234	(2)
When Relationships Fail: Causes, Preventives, and Consequences	236	(4)
Summary and Review of Key Points	240	(1)
Connections	241	(1)
Ideas to Take with You---and Use!	242	(1)
Key Terms	243	(2)
Social Influence: Changing Others' Behavior	245	(28)
Conformity: Group Influence in Action	247	(11)
Asch's Research on Conformity: Social Pressure---The Irresistible Force?	248	(2)
Factors Affecting Conformity: Variables That Determine the Extent to Which We ``Go Along''	250	(1)
Situational Norms: Automaticity in Normative Behavior	251	(1)
The Bases of Conformity: Why We Often Choose to ``Go Along''	252	(2)
Resisting Pressures to Conform: Why, Sometimes, We Choose Not to ``Go Along''	254	(2)
The Science of Social Psychology: Making Sense of Common Sense---Do Women and Men Differ in the Tendency to Conform?	256	(1)
Minority Influence: Does the Majority Always Rule?	257	(1)
Compliance: To Ask---Sometimes---Is to Receive	258	(4)
Compliance: The Underlying Principles	258	(1)
Tactics Based on Friendship or Liking: Ingratiation	259	(1)
Tactics Based on Commitment or Consistency: The Foot-in-the-Door and the Lowball	259	(1)
Tactics Based on Reciprocity: The Door-in-the-Face and the That's-Not-All Techniques	260	(1)
Tactics Based on Scarcity: Playing Hard to Get and the Fast-Approaching-Deadline Technique	261	(1)
Symbolic Social Influence: How We Are Influenced by Others Even When They Are Not There	262	(2)
Obedience to Authority: Would You Harm an Innocent Stranger if Ordered to Do So?	264	(4)
Obedience in the Laboratory	264	(2)
Destructive Obedience: Why It Occurs	266	(1)
Destructive Obedience: Resisting Its Effects	266	(2)
Social Influence Goes to Work: Influence Tactics in Work Settings	268	(5)
Summary and Review of Key Points	269	(1)
Connections	270	(1)
Ideas to Take with You---and Use!	271	(1)
Key Terms	271	(2)
Prosocial Behavior: Helping Others	273	(28)
Responding to an Emergency: Will Bystanders Help?	275	(6)
When a Stranger Is Distressed: Heroism or Apathy?	275	(1)
Five Crucial Steps Determine Helping versus Not Helping	276	(1)
The Science of Social Psychology: Making Sense of Common Sense---Do More Witnesses to an Emergency Mean That More Help Is Given?	277	(4)
External and Internal Influences on Helping Behavior	281	(8)
Situational Factors That Enhance or Inhibit Helping	282	(2)
Emotions and Prosocial Behavior	284	(2)
Empathy and Other Personality Dispositions Associated with Helping	286	(3)
Long-Term Commitment to Prosocial Action and the Effects of Being Helped	289	(4)
Volunteering	289	(1)
Self-Interest, Moral Integrity, and Moral Hypocrisy	290	(1)
How Does It Feel to Be Helped?	291	(2)
The Basic Motivation for Engaging in Prosocial Acts	293	(8)
Empathy--Altruism: It Feels Good to Help Others	294	(1)
Negative-State Relief: Helping Makes You Feel Less Bad	295	(1)
Empathic Joy: Helping as an Accomplishment	295	(1)
Genetic Determinism: Helping as an Adaptive Response	295	(2)
Summary and Review of Key Points	297	(1)
Connections	298	(1)
Ideas to Take with You---and Use!	299	(1)
Key Terms	299	(2)
Aggression: Its Nature, Causes, and Control	301	(32)
Theoretical Perspectives on Aggression: In Search of the Roots of Violence	303	(4)
The Role of Biological Factors: From Instincts to the Evolutionary Perspective	303	(1)
Drive Theories: The Motive to Harm Others	304	(1)
Modern Theories of Aggression: The Social Learning Perspective and the General Aggression Model	305	(2)
Causes of Human Aggression: Social, Cultural, Personal, and Situational	307	(13)
Social Causes of Aggression: Frustration, Provocation, and Heightened Arousal	307	(2)
Exposure to Media Violence: The Effects of Witnessing Aggression	309	(2)
Violent Pornography: When Sex and Aggression Mix---and Perhaps Explode	311	(1)
Cultural Factors in Aggression: ``Cultures of Honor'' and Sexual Jealousy	312	(2)
Personal Causes of Aggression: Type A, Narcissism, Sensation Seeking, and Gender Differences	314	(3)
Situational Determinants of Aggression: The Effects of High Temperatures and Alcohol Consumption	317	(3)
Aggression in Long-Term Relationships: Bullying and Workplace Violence	320	(3)
Bullying: Singling Out Others for Repeated Abuse	320	(1)
Workplace Violence: Aggression on the Job	321	(2)
The Prevention and Control of Aggression: Some Useful Techniques	323	(10)
Punishment: Just Desserts versus Deterrence	324	(1)
Cognitive Interventions: Apologies and Overcoming Cognitive Deficits	325	(1)
The Science of Social Psychology: Making Sense of Common Sense---Catharsis: Does ``Getting It Out of Your System'' Really Help?	326	(1)
Forgiveness: Compassion Instead of Revenge	326	(3)
Summary and Review of Key Points	329	(1)
Connections	330	(1)
Ideas to Take with You---and Use!	330	(1)
Key Terms	331	(2)
Groups and Individuals: The Consequences of Belonging	333
Groups: Why We Join ... and Why We Leave	335	(6)
Groups: Some Basic Aspects	336	(2)
The Benefits---and Costs---of Joining	338	(3)
Effects of the Presence of Others: From Task Performance to Behavior in Crowds	341	(5)
Social Facilitation: Performing in the Presence of Others	341	(3)
Social Loafing: Letting Others Do the Work	344	(1)
Deindividuation: Submerged in the Crowd	344	(2)
Coordination in Groups: Cooperation or Conflict?	346	(6)
Cooperation: Working with Others to Achieve Shared Goals	346	(3)
Conflict: Its Nature, Causes, and Effects	349	(1)
Resolving Conflicts: Some Useful Techniques	350	(2)
Perceived Fairness in Groups: Its Nature and Effects	352	(2)
Basic Rules for Judging Fairness: Distributive, Procedural, and Transactional Justice	352	(1)
Reactions to Perceived Unfairness: Tactics for Dealing with Injustice	353	(1)
Decision Making by Groups: How It Occurs and the Pitfalls It Faces	354
The Decision-Making Process: How Groups Attain Consensus	355	(1)
The Science of Social Psychology: Making Sense of Common Sense---Are Groups Really Less Likely Than Individuals to ``Go over the Edge''?	355	(2)
Potential Dangers of Group Decision Making: Groupthink, Biased Processing, and Restricted Sharing of Information	357	(3)
Summary and Review of Key Points	360	(2)
Connections	362	(1)
Ideas to Take with You---and Use!	362	(1)
Key Terms	363
Glossary	1	(1)
References	1	(1)
Name Index	1	(10)
Subject Index	11