Social Psychology for Dummies
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www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info Social Psychology www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info Social Psychology by Daniel Richardson, PhD www.it-ebooks.info Social Psychology For Dummies® Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, www.wiley.com This edition first published 2014 © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex. Registered office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com. The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved. 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ISBN 978-1-118-77054-2 (pbk) ISBN 978-1-118-77053-5 (ebk) ISBN 978-1-118-77051-1 (ebk) Printed in Great Britain by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 www.it-ebooks.info Contents at a Glance Introduction ................................................................ 1 Part I: Getting Started with Social Psychology ............... 5 Chapter 1: Introducing the Science of Social Psychology ............................................7 Chapter 2: Exploring the Territory of Social Psychology ...........................................21 Chapter 3: Kitting Out: The Tools of Social Psychology .............................................41 Part II: Understanding Attitudes and Actions............... 65 Chapter 4: Appraising Atâtitudes: The Troublesome Atoms of Social Psychology ..........................................................................................................67 Chapter 5: Uncovering Implicit Attitudes and Associations ......................................81 Chapter 6: Investigating the Link between Behaviour and Attitudes .......................97 Part III: Thinking about Ourselves and Others ............ 111 Chapter 7: Asking the Perennial Question: Who Am I? .............................................113 Chapter 8: How Fantastic Am I! Looking at Self-serving Bias ...................................123 Chapter 9: Attributing Causes to People’s Behaviour...............................................135 Chapter 10: Making Judgements about Other People: Bias and Prejudice ............149 Part IV: Comprehending Social Influence ................... 163 Chapter 11: Appreciating the Power of the Situation................................................165 Chapter 12: Carrying Out Orders: Obedience ............................................................179 Chapter 13: Getting into Line: Conformity and Social Norms ..................................195 Chapter 14: Persuading People to Part with Their Pounds ......................................205 Part V: Assessing Relationships, Groups and Societies ........................................................... 219 Chapter 15: Interpersonal Relations: Liking, Loving and Living with Other People ............................................................................................221 Chapter 16: Examining the Benefits and Dangers of Social Groups .......................245 Chapter 17: Bridging Cross-Cultural Dif ferences .......................................................261 Part VI: The Part of Tens .......................................... 273 Chapter 18: Ten Questions for Getting the Most from Psychology Articles ..........275 Chapter 19: Ten Great Ways to Delve Deeper into Social Psychology ...................287 Index ...................................................................... 295 www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................. 1 About This Book ..............................................................................................1 Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................2 Icons Used in This Book .................................................................................2 Beyond the Book .............................................................................................3 Where to Go from Here ...................................................................................3 Part I: Getting Started with Social Psychology ............... 5 Chapter 1: Introducing the Science of Social Psychology . 7 Looking Down the Social Psychologists’ Microscope .................................7 Rummaging through the social psychologists’ toolkit .....................8 Mastering the power of the experiment ............................................. 9 Digging for the foundations of social psychology ...........................10 Understanding What People Think and What Makes Them Act .............11 Asking people what they think ...........................................................11 Measuring what people really think ..................................................12 Predicting people’s behaviour ...........................................................12 Who Am I, Who Are You and Why Did They Do That? .............................13 Constructing your sense of self .........................................................13 Loving yourself .....................................................................................14 Explaining the actions of others ........................................................14 Judging and labelling others ..............................................................15 Measuring the Power of Social Forces ........................................................15 Controlled by the situation.................................................................16 Obeying authority ................................................................................16 Being one of the crowd .......................................................................17 Persuading and convincing ................................................................17 Living the Social Life .....................................................................................18 Liking, loving and respecting .............................................................18 Thinking and deciding .........................................................................18 Living in different cultures .................................................................19 Looking Back Up the Microscope ................................................................19 Chapter 2: Exploring the Territory of Social Psychology . 21 Looking at the Disciplines that Comprise Social Psychology ..................22 Surveying the surveys of personality psychology ...........................22 Entering the laboratory of cognitive psychology ............................23 www.it-ebooks.info viii Social Psychology For Dummies Playing with the gadgets of neuroscience ........................................25 Engaging with sociology .....................................................................27 Tracing the ideas of evolutionary biology ........................................28 Social Psychology in Action .........................................................................31 Asking the right questions ..................................................................31 Finding answers with social psychology ..........................................35 Chapter 3: Kitting