If anyone deserves the title "father of social cognition," it is William J. McGuire who, along with his wife and colleague Claire V. McGuire, has written the target article for this volume. The culmination of many years of work, the article discusses their highly developed theory of human thought systems, and establishes many new directions for theoretical and empirical inquiry. Equally important, however, are the chapters -- written from many different theoretical and empirical perspectives -- that challenge various assumptions underlying the McGuires' work. In addition to examining implications not explicitly considered in the target article, these contributions explore the new directions that future research and theorizing might take.

Until recently, most theory and research in social information processing has focused attention on the cognitive activity that underlies responses to stimulus information presented in the immediate situation being investigated. In contrast, people's thoughts outside the laboratory often concern life events that either have occurred in the past or are likely to occur in the future. Thoughts about such past and future events can be spontaneous and, once elicited, can affect the ability to respond effectively to the demands of the present situation with which one is confronted. This ninth volume in this series focuses on this type of cognitive activity and examines both its determinants and consequences. The lead article, by Leonard Martin and Abraham Tesser, develops a theoretical formulation of ruminative thinking that conceptualizes rumination as a class of conscious thought with a common instrumental theme that recurs in the absence of immediate environmental demands. The authors also give particular attention to the ways in which perceptions of the consequences of past and present events for long-range goal attainment affect both controlled and uncontrolled thinking about these events. They also examine the implications of their theory for the ability to suppress unwanted thoughts, the interplay of emotion and cognition, and the cognitive consequences or rumination for the performance of daily life activities. The entire formulation integrates a number of cognitive phenomena that are not usually considered within a single theoretical framework. The companion chapters, many written by the field's foremost contributors to the literature on emotion and cognition, suggest important refinements and extensions of the conceptualization proposed in the target article. They also make important conceptual contributions in their own right, covering topics that include the role of mental models in cognitive functioning, the dynamics of thought suppression and attentional inhibition, stress and coping, personality correlates of ruminative thought, and attitudes and persuasion. As a result, this volume makes a valuable contribution to research and theory not only in social cognition but also in numerous other areas.

Social psychology and politics are intricately related, and understanding how humans manage power and govern themselves is one of the key issues in psychology. This volume surveys the latest theoretical and empirical work on the social psychology of politics, featuring cutting-edge research from a stellar group of international researchers. It is organized into four main sections that deal with political attitudes and values; political communication and perceptions; social cognitive processes in political decisions; and the politics of intergroup behavior and social identity. The contributions address such exciting questions as how do political attitudes and values develop and change? What role do emotions and moral values play in political behavior? How do political messages and the media influence political perceptions? What are the psychological requirements of effective democratic decision making, and why do democracies sometimes fail? How can intergroup harmony be developed, and what is the role of social identity in political processes? As such, this volume integrates the role of cognitive, affective, social and cultural influences on political perception and behavior, offering an overview of the psychological mechanisms underlying political processes. It provides essential reading for teachers, students, researchers and practitioners in areas related to power, social influence and political behavior.

This collection of essays by William J. McGuire covers many of the topics that make up social psychology. Studies of the phenomenal self report how people think about themselves, which characteristics are salient in their sense of self and why. Another series of studies show how people's thought systems are organized to balance logical consistency, realistic coping, and hedonic gratification. Studies of persuasive communication show what kinds of people are most persuadable, how people can be persuaded by Socratic questioning, and how they can be immunized against persuasion. Other chapters report findings on language and thought, history and psychology, and creative techniques.

This edition of the Handbook follows the first edition by 10 years. The earlier edition was a promissory note, presaging the directions in which the then-emerging field of social cognition was likely to move. The field was then in its infancy and the areas of research and theory that came to dominate the field during the next decade were only beginning to surface. The concepts and methods used had frequently been borrowed from cognitive psychology and had been applied to phenomena in a very limited number of areas. Nevertheless, social cognition promised to develop rapidly into an important area of psychological inquiry that would ultimately have an impact on not only several areas of psychology but other fields as well. The promises made by the earlier edition have generally been fulfilled. Since its publication, social cognition has become one of the most active areas of research in the entire field of psychology; its influence has extended to health and clinical psychology, and personality, as well as to political science, organizational behavior, and marketing and consumer behavior. The impact of social cognition theory and research within a very short period of time is incontrovertible. The present volumes provide a comprehensive and detailed review of the theoretical and empirical work that has been performed during these years, and of its implications for information processing in a wide variety of domains. The handbook is divided into two volumes. The first provides an overview of basic research and theory in social information processing, covering the automatic and controlled processing of information and its implications for how information is encoded and stored in memory, the mental representation of persons -- including oneself -- and events, the role of procedural knowledge in information processing, inference processes, and response processes. Special attention is given to the cognitive determinants and consequences of affect and emotion. The second book provides detailed discussions of the role of information processing in specific areas such as stereotyping; communication and persuasion; political judgment; close relationships; organizational, clinical and health psychology; and consumer behavior. The contributors are theorists and researchers who have themselves carried out important studies in the areas to which their chapters pertain. In combination, the contents of this two-volume set provide a sophisticated and in-depth treatment of both theory and research in this major area of psychological inquiry and the directions in which it is likely to proceed in the future.

This new handbook presents, synthesizes, and integrates the existing knowledge of methods, theories, and data in attitudes. The editors' goal is to promote an understanding of the broader principles underlying attitudes across several disciplines. Divided into three parts: one on definitions and methods; another on the relations of attitudes with beliefs, behavior, and affect; and a final one that integrates these relations into the broader areas of cognitive processes, communication and persuasion, social influence, and applications, the handbook also features an innovative chapter on implicit versus explicit attitudes. With contributions from the top specialists, this handbook features unique collaborations between researchers, some who have never before worked together. Every writer was encouraged to work from as unbiased a perspective as possible. A "must have" for researchers in the areas of social, political, health, clinical, counseling, and consumer psychology, marketing, and communication, the handbook will also serve as an excellent reference for advanced courses on attitudes in a variety of departments.

In the United States, as in many parts of the world, people are discriminated against based on the color of their skin. This type of skin tone bias, or colorism, is both related to and distinct from discrimination on the basis of race, with which it is often conflated. Preferential treatment of lighter skin tones over darker occurs within racial and ethnic groups as well as between them. While America has made progress in issues of race over the past decades, discrimination on the basis of color continues to be a constant and often unremarked part of life. In Color Matters, Kimberly Jade Norwood has collected the most up-to-date research on this insidious form of discrimination, including perspectives from the disciplines of history, law, sociology, and psychology. Anchored with historical chapters that show how the influence and legacy of slavery have shaped the treatment of skin color in American society, the contributors to this volume bring to light the ways in which colorism affects us all--influencing what we wear, who we see on television, and even which child we might pick to adopt. Sure to be an eye-opening collection for anyone curious about how race and color continue to affect society, Color Matters provides students of race in America with wide-ranging overview of a crucial topic.

Attitudes are evaluations of people, places, things, and ideas. They help us to navigate through a complex world. They provide guidance for decisions about which products to buy, how to travel to work, or where to go on vacation. They color our perceptions of others. Carefully crafted interventions can change attitudes and behavior. Yet, attitudes, beliefs, and behavior are often formed and changed in casual social exchanges. The mere perception that other people favor something, say, rich people, may be sufficient to make another person favor it. People’s own actions also influence their attitudes, such that they adjust to be more supportive of the actions. People’s belief systems even change to align with and support their preferences, which at its extreme is a form of denial for which people lack awareness. These two volumes provide authoritative, critical surveys of theory and research about attitudes, beliefs, persuasion, and behavior from key authors in these areas. The first volume covers theoretical notions about attitudes, the beliefs and behaviors to which they are linked, and the degree to which they are held outside of awareness. It also discusses motivational and cultural determinants of attitudes, influences of attitudes on behavior, and communication and persuasion. The second volume covers applications to measurement, behavior prediction, and interventions in the areas of cancer, HIV, substance use, diet, and exercise, as well as in politics, intergroup relations, aggression, migrations, advertising, accounting, education, and the environment.

The Biographical Dictionary of Psychology provides biographical information and critical analysis of the influences and reception of over 500 people who have made a significant contribution to the field of psychology. Written by an international team of contributors, this volume charts the development of the practice of psychology worldwide from its emergence in the 1850s up to the present day. Biographies range from important historical figures to those who have had a more recent impact on the field, including: * Chris Argyris * Donald Broadbent * Kay Deaux * Leon Festinger * Sigmund Freud * Erich Fromm * Francis Galton * Eleanor Gibson * Doreen Kimur * Ulric Neisser * Jean Piaget * Herbert A. Simon * B.F. Skinner * Amos Tversky Entries are alphabetically organized and similarly structured for ease of access and allowing comparison of information. Introductory biographical details cover main fields of interest, nationality, principal appointments, honours, and places and dates of birth and death. This is followed by full bibliographic details of principal publications, as well as secondary and critical literature which provide a useful route into further research. Following on from there is an invaluable critical appraisal of the major achievements, influences and reception of the psychologists themselves. Thorough indexing allows the reader to access information by American Psychological Association subject division, key concepts, name and institution.

*Major New York Times Bestseller *More than 2.6 million copies sold *One of The New York Times Book Review's ten best books of the year *Selected by The Wall Street Journal as one of the best nonfiction books of the year *Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient *Daniel Kahneman's work with Amos Tversky is the subject of Michael Lewis's best-selling The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds In his mega bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, world-famous psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions. Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Topping bestseller lists for almost ten years, Thinking, Fast and Slow is a contemporary classic, an essential book that has changed the lives of millions of readers.