Exploring Social Psychology, 6th Edition

Book Preface

This is a book I secretly wanted to write. I have long believed that what is wrong with all psychology textbooks (including those I have written) is their overlong chapters. Few can read a 40-page chapter in a single sitting without their eyes glazing and their mind wandering. So why not organize the discipline into digestible chunks—say forty 15-page chapters rather than fifteen 40-page chapters—that a student could read in a sitting, before laying the book down with a sense of completion?

Thus, when McGraw-Hill psychology editor Chris Rogers first suggested that I abbreviate and restructure my 15-chapter, 600-page Social Psychology into a series of crisply written 10-page modules, I said “Eureka!” At last a publisher willing to break convention by packaging the material in a form ideally suited to students’ attention spans. By presenting concepts and findings in smaller bites, we also hoped not to overload students’ capacities to absorb new information. And, by keeping Exploring Social Psychology slim and comparatively economical, we sought to enable instructors to supplement it with other reading.

As the playful module titles suggest, I have also broken with convention by introducing social psychology in an essay format. Each is written in the spirit of Thoreau’s admonition: “Anything living is easily and naturally expressed in popular language.” My aim in the parent Social Psychology, and even more so here, is to write in a voice that is both solidly scientific and warmly human, factually rigorous and intellectually provocative. I hope to reveal social psychology as an investigative reporter might, by providing a current summary of important social phenomena, by showing how social psychologists uncover and explain such phenomena, and by reflecting on their human significance.

In selecting material, I have represented social psychology’s scope, highlighting its scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another. I also emphasize material that casts social psychology in the intellectual tradition of the liberal arts. By the teaching of great literature, philosophy, and science, liberal education seeks to expand our thinking and awareness and to these goals. Many undergraduate social psychology students are not psychology majors; most will enter other professions. By focusing on humanly significant issues such as belief and illusion, independence and interdependence, love and hate, one can present social psychology in ways that inform and stimulate all students.

This new sixth edition features updated coverage throughout. In addition, the sixth edition features technology components designed to assist both professor and student. Icons throughout the text guide the student to the Online Learning Center (www.mhhe.com/myersesp6e) to gather more information on each module by viewing excerpts from the Social Connection video modules, participating in interactive exercises, and taking module quizzes to test their knowledge. The Social Connection video modules, produced by Frank Vattano at Colorado State University, enrich classic experiments by re-creating or providing footage from classic experiments, seasoned with interviews of leading social psychologists.

A comprehensive teaching package is also available on the Online Learning Center. The acclaimed Instructor’s Resource Manual has been revised to reflect changes in the sixth edition text. The OLC also includes a Test Bank, which has also been revised to include a higher concentration of conceptual questions, and a set of PowerPoint slides to use in the classroom. All instructors’ resources are password-protected.