Why do we think about and interact with other people in the particular ways that we do? Might these thoughts and actions be contemporary products of our long-ago evolutionary past? If so, how might this be, and what are the implications? Research generated by an evolutionary approach to social psychology issues profound insights into self-concept, impression formation, prejudice, group dynamics, helping, aggression, social influence, culture, and every other topic that is fundamental to social psychology. Evolution and Social Psychology is the first book to review and discuss this broad range of social psychological phenomena from an evolutionary perspective. It does so with a critical and constructive eye. Readers will emerge with a clear sense of the intellectual challenges, as well as the scientific benefits, of an evolutionarily-informed social psychology. The world-renowned contributors identify new questions, new theories, and new hypotheses—many of which are only now beginning to be tested. Thus, this book not only summarizes the current status of the field, it also sets an agenda for the next generation of research on evolution and social psychology. Evolution and Social Psychology is essential reading for evolutionary psychologists and social psychologists alike.
What a pity it would have been if biologists had refused to accept Darwin's theory of natural selection, which has been essential in helping biologists understand a wide range of phenomena in many animal species. These days, to study any animal species while refusing to consider the evolved adaptive significance of their behavior would be considered pure folly--unless, of course, the species is homo sapiens. Graduate students training to study this particular primate species may never take a single course in evolutionary theory, although they may take two undergraduate and up to four graduate courses in statistics. These methodologically sophisticated students then embark on a career studying human aggression, cooperation, mating behavior, family relationships, or altruism with little or no understanding of the general evolutionary forces and principles that shaped the behaviors they are investigating. This book hopes to redress that wrong. It is one of the first to apply evolutionary theories to mainstream problems in personality and social psychology that are relevant to a wide range of important social phenomena, many of which have been shaped and molded by natural selection during the course of human evolution. These phenomena include selective biases that people have concerning how and why a variety of activities occur. For example: * information exchanged during social encounters is initially perceived and interpreted; * people are romantically attracted to some potential mates but not others; * people often guard, protect, and work hard at maintaining their closest relationships; * people form shifting and highly complicated coalitions with kin and close friends; and * people terminate close, long-standing relationships. Evolutionary Social Psychology begins to disentangle the complex, interwoven patterns of interaction that define our social lives and relationships.
The classic Handbook of Social Psychology has been the standard professional reference for the field of social psychology for many years. Now available in a new edition, Volume 2 of this internationally acclaimed work brings readers up to date with new chapters on social neuroscience, mind perception, morality, and social stratification. The editors have structured Volume 2 in a way that highlights the many levels of analysis used by contemporary psychologists. All academics, graduate students, and professional social psychologists will want to own a copy of this landmark work.
This book seeks to combine the study of human social cognition - the way we think, decide, plan and analyze social situations - with an evolutionary framework that considers these activities in light of evolutionary adaptations for solving problems of survival faced by our ancestors over thousands of generations. The chapters report recent research and theories illustrating how evolutionary principles can shed new light on the subtle and often subconscious ways that cognitive mechanisms guide peoples’ thoughts, memories, judgments, attitudes and behaviors in social life. The contributors to this volume, who are leading researchers in their fields, seek answers to such intriguing questions as: how can evolutionary principles help to explain human beliefs, attitudes, judgments, prejudice, and group preferences? Are there benefits to behaving unpredictably? Why are prototypical faces more attractive than atypical ones? How do men and women think about, and select potential mates? What are the adaptive functions of negative affect? What are the evolutionary influences on the way people think about and respond to social exclusion and ostracism? Evolution and the Social Mind offers a highly integrated and representative coverage of this emerging field, and is suitable as a textbook in advanced courses dealing with social cognition and evolutionary psychology.
"This is the first ever handbook to comprehensively cover the historical development of the field of social psychology, including the main overarching approaches and all the major individual topics. Contributors are all world-renowned scientists in theirsubfields who engagingly describe the people, dynamics, and events that have shaped the discipline"--
This wide-ranging collection demonstrates the continuing impact of evolutionary thinking on social psychology research. This perspective is explored in the larger context of social psychology, which is divisible into several major areas including social cognition, the self, attitudes and attitude change, interpersonal processes, mating and relationships, violence and aggression, health and psychological adjustment, and individual differences. Within these domains, chapters offer evolutionary insights into salient topics such as social identity, prosocial behavior, conformity, feminism, cyberpsychology, and war. Together, these authors make a rigorous argument for the further integration of the two diverse and sometimes conflicting disciplines. Among the topics covered: How social psychology can be more cognitive without being less social. How the self-esteem system functions to resolve important interpersonal dilemmas. Shared interests of social psychology and cultural evolution. The evolution of stereotypes. An adaptive socio-ecological perspective on social competition and bullying. Evolutionary game theory and personality. Evolutionary Perspectives on Social Psychology has much to offer students and faculty in both fields as well as evolutionary scientists outside of psychology. This volume can be used as a primary text in graduate courses and as a supplementary text in various upper-level undergraduate courses.
Social psychology is a flourishing discipline. It explores the most essential questions of the human psyche (e.g., Why do people help or harm others? How do influence professionals get us to do what they want, and how can we inoculate ourselves against their sometimes-insidious persuasion tactics? Why do social relationships exert such powerful effects on people's physical health?), and it does so with clever, ingenuitive research methods. This edited volume is a textbook for advanced social psychology courses. Its primary target audience is first-year graduate students (MA or PhD) in social psychlogy, although it is also appropriate for upper-level undergraduate courses in social psychology and for doctoral students in disciplines connecting to social psychology (e.g., marketing, organizational behavior). The authors of the chapters are world-renowned leaders on their topic, and they have written these chapters to be engaging and accessible to students who are just learning the discipline. After reading this book, you will be able to understand almost any journal article or conference presentation in any field of social psychology. You will be able to converse competently with most social psychologists in their primary research domain, a use skill that is relevant not only in daily life but also when interviewing for a faculty position. And, most importantly, you will be equipped with the background knowledge to forge ahead more confidently with your own research.
This handbook provides a broad overview of the field of social psychology and up-to-date coverage of current social psychological topics. It reflects the recent and substantial development of the field, both with regard to theory and empirical research. It starts out by covering major theoretical perspectives, including the inter actionist, identity, social exchange, social structure and the person perspectives. Next, it discusses development and socialization in childhood, adolescence and adulthood. In addition to updated discussions of topics that were included in the first edition, the part examining personal processes includes entirely new topics, such as social psychology and the body and individual agency and social motivation. Interpersonal processes are discussed from a contemporary perspective with a focus on stress and health. The final section examines the person in sociocultural context and includes another topic new to the second edition, the social psychology of race and gender and intersectionality.
Evolutionary psychology is concerned with the adaptive problems early humans faced in ancestral human environments, the nature of psychological mechanisms natural selection shaped to deal with those ancient problems, and the ability of the resulting evolved psychological mechanisms to deal with the problems people face in the modern world. Evolutionary psychology is currently advancing our understanding of altruism, moral behavior, family violence, sexual aggression, warfare, aesthetics, the nature of language, and gender differences in mate choice and perception. It is helping us understand the relationship between cognitive science, developmental psychology, behavior genetics, personality, and social psychology. Foundations of Evolutionary Psychology provides an up-to-date review of the ideas, issues, and applications of contemporary evolutionary psychology. It is suitable for senior undergraduates, first-year graduate students, or professionals who wish to become conversant with the major issues currently shaping the emergence of this dynamic new field. It will be interesting to psychologists, cognitive scientists, and anyone using new developments in the theory of evolution to gain new insights into human behavior.
Recipient of the 2019 Most Promising New Textbook Award from the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) Watch the short video below for a tour of Thomas Heinzen and Wind Goodfriend’s Social Psychology, including its features, tools, and resources. Invite your students to discover social psychology’s relevance to their lives with Social Psychology, a new introduction to the field from award-winning teacher-researchers Thomas Heinzen and Wind Goodfriend. The authors present social psychology as an evolving, science-driven conversation. Every chapter builds on core questions central to scientific inquiry, while a methods-in-context approach cultivates psychological literacy. Heinzen and Goodfriend capture student attention by weaving stories drawn from their own personal experiences with compelling examples from everyday life, all carefully placed in historical context. Because understanding application is key, the book concludes with eight mini chapters on topics including behavioral economics, environmental sustainability, law and the courtroom, positive psychology, and more. Students will become active participants in the social psychology dialogue, finding their fascination with the field and realizing its significance in their daily lives and future careers. INSTRUCTORS: Social Psychology is accompanied by a complete teaching and learning package! Contact your rep to request a demo, answer your questions, and find the perfect combination of tools and resources below to fit your unique course needs. SAGE Premium Video SAGE Premium Video in the Interactive eBook includes Ask the Expert interviews with commentary by the authors, as well as Social Psychology in Action animations. Learn more. Interactive eBook Your students save when you bundle the print version with the Interactive eBook (Bundle ISBN: 978-1-5443-3031-0), which includes access to SAGE Premium Video and other multimedia tools. Learn more. SAGE coursepacks SAGE coursepacks makes it easy to import our quality instructor and student resource content into your school’s learning management system (LMS). Intuitive and simple to use, SAGE coursepacks allows you to customize course content to meet your students’ needs. Learn more. SAGE edge This companion website offers you and students a robust online environment with an impressive array of teaching and learning resources. Learn more. Case Studies Also written by Heinzen and Goodfriend, Case Studies in Social Psychology presents brief, entertaining case stories to illustrate the historical context and evolution of major theories within the field of social psychology. Bundle it with the core text for only $5 more! Learn more.
This is the first book to overtly consider how basic evolutionary thinking is being applied to a wide range of special social, economic, and technical problems. It draws together a collection of renowned academics from a very disparate set of fields, whose common interest lies in using evolutionary thinking to inform their research.
Psychology is of interest to academics from many fields, as well as to the thousands of academic and clinical psychologists and general public who can't help but be interested in learning more about why humans think and behave as they do. This award-winning twelve-volume reference covers every aspect of the ever-fascinating discipline of psychology and represents the most current knowledge in the field. This ten-year revision now covers discoveries based in neuroscience, clinical psychology's new interest in evidence-based practice and mindfulness, and new findings in social, developmental, and forensic psychology.
