This text, first published in 2006, presents the most important and influential social psychological theories and research programs in contemporary sociology. Original chapters by the scholars who initiated and developed these theoretical perspectives provide full descriptions of each theory and its background, development, and future. This second edition has been revised and updated to reflect developments within each theory, and in the field of social psychology more broadly. The opening chapters of Contemporary Social Psychological Theories cover general approaches, organized around fundamental principles and issues: symbolic interaction, social exchange, and distributive justice. Following chapters focus on specific research programs and theories, examining identity, affect, comparison processes, power and dependence, status construction, and legitimacy. A new, original piece examines the state and trajectory of social network theory. A mainstay in teaching social psychology, this revised and updated edition offers a valuable survey of the field.

The year 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication Erving Goffman's landmark work, Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Through this edited volume, we commemorate the continuing contribution of Goffman's work on stigma to social psychology. As Goffman originally used the term, stigma implies some sort of negative deviance, or in his words, ‘an undesired differentness from what we had anticipated.’ Since Goffman’s pioneering treatise, there have been thousands of articles published on different aspects of stigma. The accelerating volume of articles is testimony to the growing importance of stigma research, with almost three out of four of the stigma-related publications in the research literature appearing in the last 10 years. In this volume, a collection of up-and-coming and seasoned stigma researchers provide both theoretical insights and new empirical findings. The volume should be of interest to both established researchers and advanced students seeking to learn more about the depth and breadth of stigma research. This book was originally published as a special issue of Basic and Applied Social Psychology.

This book is intended to be a resource for students, a guide for future researchers, and a call to concerned citizens to use this wealth of information to guide their own efforts to mitigate the pernicious effects of stigma in their daily lives.

Classic and Contemporary Perspectives in Social Psychology illuminates the dynamic linkages among social organization, interaction processes, attitudes, and the self. It exposes students to the broad range of topics of interest to social psychologists and to the diverse methods that they use. Bringing together a wide variety of captivating classic and contemporary selections, this anthology includes work from a symbolic interactionist perspective as well as studies informed by expectation states theory, experimental social psychology, and life course sociology. The selections address the social psychological underpinnings and outcomes of group dynamics, social stratification, bureaucracy, deviant behavior, globalization, and technological change. The reader's innovative structure allows students to experience the foundational work of influential sociologists and psychologists through the lens of cutting-edge issues. This groundbreaking collection features brief excerpts from the classic literature of social psychology (by Emory Bogardus, Melvin Kohn, Stanley Milgram, Muzafer Sherif, Philip Zimbardo, and others). These texts are paired with explanatory comments by the editors and contemporary writings that show the earlier studies' relevance to contemporary social issues. Classic and Contemporary Perspectives in Social Psychology is enhanced by several pedagogical features, including introductory comments that highlight the connections between the classic and contemporary selections, highly engaging discussion questions for each article and unit, and a wide variety of supplemental resources (readings, websites, films, and radio programs). It is ideal for both undergraduate and graduate courses in social psychology.

The importance of justice cannot be overstated. As one author has put it, "A better understanding of how justice concerns develop and function in people's lives should enable us to plan more effectively for institutional and other social change to deal with the problems that confront humankind" (S. C. Lerner, 1981, p. 466). The volume in which that statement appeared-an earlier one in this same series-was devoted to exploring the impact that dwindling resources and an increasing rate of change have had upon people's concern for justice. In contrast, the present volume places greater emphasis on the word under standing, as it was used in the context of the preceding quotation, than upon effective planning, social change, and ways of dealing with human problems. Nothing in that statement of purpose is meant to belittle the urgency of translat ing understanding into action, because the social significance of justice concerns is a major factor that has prompted the authors of the chapters in this book to do research in the area. Rather, this volume receives its emphasis from Kurt Lewin's famous dictum there is nothing so practical as a good theory. The need for good theory is ongoing, and these pages are dedicated to a search for new pathways toward better theory.

A fascinating exploration of the relationship between gender and emotion.

Research in collective memory is a relatively new area capturing the interest of scholars in social psychology, memory, sociology, and anthropology. The core idea is that collective attitudes and behaviors are created and shared through common experiences and communication among a cohort of people. For example, people born between 1940 and 1960 are often defined via the JFK assassination and the Vietnam War. Their parents typically experienced lesser impact from these events. Papers about collective memory have appeared in the literature under different guises for the last hundred years. Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents, Jung's ideas on the collective unconscious, and McDougall's speculation on the group mind posited that identity and action could be viewed as resulting from the shared development of a culture. Halbwachs, a French social psychologist (1877-1945) who was the first to write in detail about the nature of collective memory, argued that basic memory processes were all social. That is, people remember only those events that they have repeated and elaborated in their discussions with others. In the last several years, there has been a resurgence of interest in this general topic because it addresses some fundamental questions about memory and social processes. Work closely related to these questions deals with the nature of autobiographical memory, traumatic experience and reconstructive memory, and social sharing of memories. This book brings together an international group of researchers who have been empirically studying some basic tenets of collective memory.

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.

This book provides a broad and contemporary overview of aggression and violence by some of the most internationally renowned researchers in the field. It begins with an integrative theoretical understanding of aggression and shows how animal models shed light on human aggression and violence. Individual risk factors for aggression and violence from different research perspectives are then examined. First, there is a cognitive neuroscientific, neuropsychological, and psychophysiological study of the brain. It then explores the developmental psychological factors in aggressive behavior, incorporating work on gender and the family. Other perspectives include the role of testosterone, individual differences, and whether humans are innately wired for violence. The following sections moves from the individual to the contextual risk factors for aggression, including work on the effects of adverse events and ostracism, guns and other aggressive cues including violent media, and drugs and alcohol. Targets of aggression and violence are covered in the next section, including violence against women and loved ones; aggression between social groups; and the two very contemporary issues of cyberbullying and terrorism. The book concludes with work showing how we may make the world a more peaceful place by preventing and reducing aggression and violence. The volume is essential reading for upper-level students and researchers of psychology and related disciplines interested in a rigorous and multi-perspective overview of work on aggression and violence.