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Just Published
Cover of Principles of Social Psychology v3.0
Published: 
September 2024
Page Count: 
412
ISBN (Digital): 
978-1-4533-4171-1

Principles of Social Psychology

Version 3.0
By Charles Stangor and Sue Frantz

Included Supplements

Key Features

  • Connects the principles of social psychology to everyday experiences and behavior
  • Strong integration of diversity by including often-overlooked historical figures who are people of color; consistently diverse photo selections; the experiences of people of color; people of different cultures; people who define themselves as nonbinary; and people with disabilities
  • Emphasizes that social psychological principles are universal, even when there are cultural differences that can affect how the principles play out in reality
  • Explores how social psychological principles can be used to address serious social justice issues and as tools to make the world a better place
  • Excellent coverage of social learning and cognition, social affect, and self
  • Embedded hyperlinks to streaming videos enrich online courses, engage students, and reinforce or augment many of the presented topics
  • Appeals to a wide variety of students by weaving applications from many disciplines throughout, such as business and consumer behavior, politics and government, health and behavior, and law
  • Integrates applications rather than describing them in separate modules or appendices
  • Rich learning structure
    • Chapter Openers showcase an engaging, real-world example often accompanied by a video, to set the stage for key topics covered in the subsequent chapter
    • “Learning Objectives” preview each main head section and help focus the reader’s attention
    • Interactive self-assessments engage students’ interest and build self-awareness
    • “Research Focus” provides detailed information about a study or research program through a mix of classic and contemporary research, highlighting both what’s interesting and what’s pedagogical
    • “Social Psychology in the Public Interest” describes and reinforces how social psychology principles can be used for prosocial purposes
    • Key Terms feature pop-up definitions when read online, or as a marginal glossary when printed
    • “Key Takeaways” at the end of every main head section encourage retention by prompting the reader to chunk new information while it is fresh
    • “Exercises and Critical Thinking” can be used to stimulate discussion and help students apply the chapter section content to real-world situations and their own lives. Answer guidelines are included in the instructor’s manual
    • New “Applying Social Psychology” sections at the end of every chapter prompt students to use the principles of social psychology to think about contemporary issues
    • “Chapter Summary” helps students understand the “big picture” significance of the preceding chapter
  • Fully customizable

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Principles of Social Psychology is suitable for courses called Social Psychology, Introduction to Social Psychology, Principles of Social Psychology, Social Behavior or similar titles offered in psychology departments. This course is generally taught at the undergraduate level at most two- and four-year colleges and universities.

Principles of Social Psychology is a comprehensive survey of the field that features a balanced mix of classic and contemporary studies. This new version welcomes a co-author, Sue Frantz, who has worked with a diversity of students over the years. As a result, Sue contributes many fresh, classroom-based insights to enliven the text and bring it fully up to date. By leveraging recent events, cultural factors, and applications from across a broad spectrum of disciplines, this book immediately appeals to students from a diversity of backgrounds, life goals, and career plans. Its strong emphasis on using the principles of social psychology to address serious social justice issues encourages students to engage with the subject. As a result, students learn how to use psychological knowledge as a tool to make the world a better place.

New in This Version

Overall

  • The narrative now employs “we,” “us,” or “our” pronouns, which many students find more inviting and engaging
  • New “Applying Social Psychology” section at the end of every chapter
  • References reflect classic, replicated studies while ensuring all other citations are current
  • In-Text citations are collected in footnotes rather than embedded to enhance ease of reading
  • Practice quiz questions are now embedded in the online reader so they can be autograded

By Chapter

Chapter 1 Welcome to Social Psychology

  • New collectivism/individualism world map
  • New observational research study on mask-wearing during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic
  • “Common-causal variables” are renamed as “third variables”
  • Expanded discussion and a research example for deception in social psychology experiments

Chapter 2 The Social World: Learning and Cognition

  • New chapter opener: “What Is Your Medical Doctor Schema?”
  • Chapter opener introduces the idea of cognitive misers

Section 2.1

  • The term “classical conditioning” replaces “associational learning”
  • “Clock-time culture” and “event-time culture” introduce schemas as social knowledge
  • New “Research Focus” feature on attitudes toward child vaccination as an illustration of confirmation bias

Section 2.2

  • New “Research Focus” feature on lying as a cognitively intense activity
  • Added firearms deaths as an example of the availability heuristic (with helpline information)
  • “False consensus effect” replaces “false consensus bias”
  • “Anchoring bias” replaces “anchoring” and “adjustment” and includes additional examples
  • Added “planning fallacy”
  • New Section 2.3. “Applying Social Psychology: Social Learning and Social Cognition on the Job”

Chapter 3 Social Affect

  • New chapter opener: “Fear and Anxiety Influence Our Decision to Purchase Insurance”

Section 3.1

  • Expanded discussion of cultural differences in emotional responses
  • Added research on the association between weather and mood
  • Added “affect heuristic”

Section 3.2

  • Added section on social sources of stress: social relationships (including widowhood and intimate partner violence), bullying, and minority stress
  • Added section on social coping strategies

Section 3.3

  • Revamped as reflected in the new section title “Happiness in Our Social Lives”
  • Added the PERMA model of subjective well-being
  • Added section on the social sources of happiness and subjective well-being, including social relations
  • New Section 3.4. “Applying Social Psychology: Emotion Regulation in a Social Context”

Chapter 4 The Self

  • New chapter opener: “What Makes Us Human?”

Section 4.1

  • Added discussions of self-concept clarity, the spotlight effect, and the illusion of transparency

Section 4.2

  • New table reflecting eight self-presentation strategies

Section 4.3

  • Added discussions of intersectional and “cutting off the reflected failure” (CORFing)

New Section 4.4. “Applying Social Psychology: The Self and Social Media”

Chapter 5 Attitudes, Behavior, and Persuasion

  • New chapter opener: “The Culture of Choice”

Section 5.1

  • New video on the theory of planned behavior in the context of marketing

Section 5.2

  • Added will.i.am's “Yes We Can” video to illustrate how public attention can be used for persuasive purposes
  • Added “Love Has No Labels” public service announcement to illustrate how ads can influence our attitudes
  • Coverage of persuasion has been reframed in terms of the central and peripheral routes
  • The peripheral route includes discussion of reciprocity, liking, social proof, authority, scarcity, commitment
  • “Resisting persuasion” replaces "preventing persuasion"
  • New discussion and related video of a study that found inoculation decreased resistance to misinformation

New Section 5.4 “Applying Social Psychology: Purchasing a New Phone”

Chapter 6 Social Perception

  • New chapter opener: Sportsmanship hinges on the attributions we make

Section 6.1

  • New point-light displays video

Section 6.2

  • New coverage of correspondence bias, controllability as a type of attribution, self-handicapping
  • Expanded coverage of attribution theory to include the global/specific dimension
  • New sub-section titled "Attributional Biases" that includes a new diagram illustrating the differences among biases
  • “Self-serving bias" and "self-critical bias” replace "self-serving attributions"

Section 6.3

  • Added “implicit self-theory”
  • “Entity (fixed mindset) theorists” replaces "entity theorists"
  • “Incremental (growth mindset) theorists" replaces "incremental theorists"
  • New Section 6.4 “Applying Social Psychology: Impostor Phenomenon”

Chapter 7 Conformity, Obedience, and Leadership

  • New chapter opener: “The Power of Social Influence”

Section 7.1

  • “Information social influence” replaces "Informational conformity"
  • “Normative social influence" replaces “normative social influence conformity”
  • Added new section on individual differences

Section 7.2

  • Revised discussion of Stanford Prison Study as an illustration of research demand characteristics
  • Revised section on leadership to reflect new research
  • New Section 7.4 “Applying Social Psychology to Conformity and Obedience During the Pandemic”

Chapter 8 Relationships

  • New chapter opener: “Becoming Sisters”

Section 8.1

  • Section is now titled "Initial Attraction" to better reflect its approach
  • Subsection "Physical Attraction" replaces “Physical Appearance” to better reflect its approach
  • New coverage of baby-face overgeneralization and cultural differences in perceived attractiveness

Section 8.2

  • New discussions of consensual non-monogamy, ghosting, and constructive and destructive communication


Section 8.3

  • New section on intimate partner violence

New Section 8.4: “Applying Social Psychology: The First Date”

Chapter 9 Helping

  • New chapter opener: “Truck Drivers Who Helped Others”

Section 9.1

  • “Prosocial behavior” replaces “altruism”
  • New graphic describes the amount of DNA we share with our genetic relatives
  • New coverage of how we are more likely to help those who are similar to ourselves
  • “Reciprocal helping” replaces “reciprocal altruism”
  • Added video made for children that shows people behaving prosocially

Section 9.2

  • Removed reference to Kitty Genovese
  • “Knowing how to help" replaces “implementing action” and includes information on to better prepare ourselves to help in an emergency

Section 9.4 This section is renamed and refocused to be "The Role of Personality and Attributions”

Section 9.5

  • New “Research Focus” feature on a longitudinal study of prosocial behavior

New Section 9.6 “Applying Social Psychology: Helping”

Chapter 10 Aggression

  • New chapter opener: “The World's Most Dangerous Cities”

Section 10.1

  • Reorganized to focus on goal direction, modality, and immediacy
  • New coverage of cyberbullying

Section 10.2

  • Expanded discussion of sociobiology, hormones, and genetics and epigenetics

Section 10.4

  • Added discussions of trait aggressiveness, trait irritability, trait anger, and trait hostility
  • New coverage of rumination, hostile attributional style, and narcissistic personality
  • Expanded discussion of gender and aggression
  • Revamped “Research Focus” feature on the culture of honor

New Section 10.5 “Applying Social Psychology: Preventing Violence”

Chapter 11 Group Performance and Decision Making

  • New chapter opener: “Group Decisions with Disastrous Consequences”

Section 11.1

  • Expanded discussion of group development

Section 11.3

  • New discussion of strategies to reduce the likelihood of groupthink

New Section 11.4 “Applying Social Psychology: Forming a Group”

Chapter 12 Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination

  • New chapter opener: “Discrimination in U.S. Healthcare”

Section 12.1

  • New video illustrates how the categories we use to divide people can be altered
  • Revised “Social Psychology in the Public Interest” feature now includes “stereotype lift”

Section 12.2

  • Expanded discussion of the ultimate attribution error

Section 12.3

  • Renamed to be "Reducing Discrimination" to better reflect its approach
  • Updated research findings include differential treatment of people based on their group categorization and using social norms to reduce prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory behavior
  • New “Robber's Cave” video
  • New coverage of a field study that illustrates the power of recategorization

New Section 12.4 “Applying Social Psychology: Hate Crimes”

Chapter 13 Competition and Cooperation

  • New chapter opener: “Climate Change”

Section 13.1

  • New example of social fairness: the installation of a new wind turbine farm in Denmark

Section 13.2

  • “Tragedy of the Commons” replaces “The Harvesting Dilemma”
  • “Public Goods Dilemma” replaces “Contribution Dilemma”

Section 13.3

  • “Tit-for-Tat Strategy” is folded into the privatization subsection

New Section 13.4 “Applying Social Psychology: Climate Change, COVID-19, Misinformation” 

  • About the Authors
  • Acknowledgments
  • Preface

    • Chapter 1: Welcome to Social Psychology

  • 1.1 Defining Social Psychology: History and Principles
  • 1.2 Affect, Behavior, and Cognition
  • 1.3 Conducting Research in Social Psychology
  • 1.4 Chapter Summary

    • Chapter 2: The Social World: Learning and Cognition

  • 2.1 Sources of Social Knowledge
  • 2.2 Using Our Expectations
  • 2.3 Applying Social Psychology: Social Learning and Social Cognition on the Job
  • 2.4 Chapter Summary

    • Chapter 3: Social Affect

  • 3.1 Moods and Emotions in Our Social Lives
  • 3.2 Stress in Our Social Lives
  • 3.3 Happiness in Our Social Lives
  • 3.4 Applying Social Psychology: Emotion Regulation in a Social Context
  • 3.5 Chapter Summary

    • Chapter 4: The Self

  • 4.1 The Cognitive Self: The Self-Concept
  • 4.2 The Feeling Self: Self-Esteem
  • 4.3 The Social Self: The Role of the Social Situation
  • 4.4 Applying Social Psychology: The Self and Social Media
  • 4.5 Chapter Summary

    • Chapter 5: Attitudes, Behavior, and Persuasion

  • 5.1 Exploring Attitudes
  • 5.2 Changing Attitudes through Persuasion
  • 5.3 Changing Attitudes by Changing Behavior
  • 5.4 Applying Social Psychology: Purchasing a New Phone
  • 5.5 Chapter Summary

    • Chapter 6: Social Perception

  • 6.1 Initial Impression Formation
  • 6.2 Inferring Dispositions Using Causal Attribution
  • 6.3 Individual and Cultural Differences in Person Perception
  • 6.4 Applying Social Psychology: Impostor Phenomenon
  • 6.5 Chapter Summary

    • Chapter 7: Conformity, Obedience, and Leadership

  • 7.1 Conformity
  • 7.2 Obedience and Leadership
  • 7.3 Applying Social Psychology to Conformity and Obedience during the Pandemic
  • 7.4 Chapter Summary

    • Chapter 8: Relationships

  • 8.1 Liking
  • 8.2 Close Relationships: Liking and Loving over the Long Term
  • 8.3 Intimate Partner Violence
  • 8.4 Applying Social Psychology: The First Date
  • 8.5 Chapter Summary

    • Chapter 9: Helping

  • 9.1 Understanding Prosocial Behavior
  • 9.2 The Role of Affect
  • 9.3 The Role of the Social Context
  • 9.4 The Role of Personality and Attributions
  • 9.5 Applying Social Psychology: Helping
  • 9.6 Chapter Summary

    • Chapter 10: Aggression

  • 10.1 Defining Aggression
  • 10.2 The Biological and Emotional Causes of Aggression
  • 10.3 The Violence around Us: How the Social Situation Influences Aggression
  • 10.4 Personal and Cultural Influences on Aggression
  • 10.5 Applying Social Psychology: Preventing Violence
  • 10.6 Chapter Summary

    • Chapter 11: Group Performance and Decision Making

  • 11.1 Understanding Social Groups
  • 11.2 Group Process: The Pluses and Minuses of Working Together
  • 11.3 Improving Group Performance
  • 11.4 Applying Social Psychology: Forming a Group
  • 11.5 Chapter Summary

    • Chapter 12: Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination

  • 12.1 Social Categorization and Stereotyping
  • 12.2 Ingroup Bias and Prejudice
  • 12.3 Reducing Prejudice and Discrimination
  • 12.4 Applying Social Psychology: Hate Crimes
  • 12.5 Chapter Summary

    • Chapter 13: Competition and Cooperation in Our Social Worlds

  • 13.1 Conflict, Cooperation, Morality, and Fairness
  • 13.2 How the Social Situation Creates Conflict: The Role of Social Dilemmas
  • 13.3 Strategies for Producing Cooperation
  • 13.4 Applying Social Psychology: Climate Change, COVID-19, and Misinformation
  • 13.5 Chapter Summary
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    Charles Stangor University of Maryland, College Park

    Charles Stangor is former Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland. He has also taught at the University of Tübingen in Germany. He received his B.A. from Beloit College and his Ph.D. from New York University. Dr. Stangor is the recipient of research grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and from the National Science Foundation. He has published seven books and over fifty research articles and book chapters, and has served as an associate editor of the European Journal of Social Psychology. Dr. Stangor's research interests concern the development of stereotypes and prejudice, and their influences on individuals who are potential victims of discrimination. He is a charter fellow of the American Psychological Society and currently serves as a member of the executive committee of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology. Dr. Stangor regularly teaches Social Psychology (Psyc 221), Research Methods (Psyc 420) and, at the graduate level, Group Processes (Psyc 742). Dr. Stangor has also won a distinguished teaching award from the University of Maryland.

    Sue Frantz Highline College

    Sue Frantz, Emerita Professor of Psychology, Highline College and Affiliated Faculty, New Mexico State University (MA, University of Kansas), is a first-generation college student. She has taught psychology in community colleges since 1992 and has been at Highline College in the Seattle area since 2001. Sue has served on several American Psychological Association (APA) boards and committees, and was proud to serve the members of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology as their 2018 president. In 2013, she was the inaugural recipient of the APA award for Excellence in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at a Two-Year College or Campus. She received in 2016 the highest award for the teaching of psychology—the Charles L. Brewer Distinguished Teaching of Psychology Award. She presents nationally and internationally on the topics of educational technology and the pedagogy of psychology. She is co-author with Doug Bernstein and Steve Chew of Teaching Psychology: A Step-by-Step Guide, 3rd ed.

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