Social Psychology (6th Edition)

Book Preface

This is the sixth edition of our Social Psychology. The original idea to write a European socialpsychology text was born in Oxford in 1992 from meetings with Farrell Burnett, who was then psychology editor at Harvester Wheatsheaf.We decided to write the book because we felt there was a conspicuous need for a comprehensive social psychology text written specifically for university students in Britain and continental Europe. Such a text, we felt, must approach social psychology from a European rather than American perspective not only in terms of topics, orientations and research interests but also in terms of the style and level of presentation of social psychology and the cultural context of the readership. However, a European text certainly cannot ignore or gloss over American social psychology – so, unlike other European texts we located mainstream American social psychology within the framework of the book, covered it in detail and integrated it fully with European work. We intended this to be a self-contained coverage of social psychology. You would not need to switch between American and European texts to ensure a proper understanding of social psychology as a truly international scientific enterprise – an enterprise in which European research has an established and significant profile. The first edition was published in 1995 and was widely adopted throughout Europe.

Subsequent editions followed fast upon earlier editions – no sooner did one edition appear in bookshops than, it seemed, we were hard at work preparing the next. The second edition was prepared while Graham Vaughan was a visiting fellow of Churchill College at Cambridge University and Michael Hogg was a visiting professor at Princeton University. It was published early in 1998 and launched at the 1998 conference of the Social Section of the British Psychological Society at the University of Kent. This edition was a relatively modest revision aimed primarily at improving layout and presentation, though the text and coverage were thoroughly updated, and we raised the profile of some applied topics in social psychology.

The third edition was published in 2002. It represented a major revision to accommodate significant changes in the field since the first edition. The structure and approach remained the same but some chapters were dropped, some entirely rewritten, others amalgamated, and some entirely new chapters written. In addition the text was updated, and the layout and presentation significantly improved. Such a large revision involved substantial input from our Advisory Editorial Board and from lecturers around Britain and Europe, and many meetings in different places (Bristol, Glasgow and Thornbury) with Pearson Education, our publishers.

The fourth edition was published in 2005. We expanded our Editorial Board significantly to include seventeen leading European social psychologists to represent different aspects of social psychology, different levels of seniority and different nations across Europe. However, the key change was that the book was now in glorious full-colour. We also took a rather adventurous step – the sleeve just showed empty chairs, no people at all; quite a departure for a social psychology text. Auckland harbour was the venue for initial planning of the fourth edition, with a series of long meetings in London, capped by a productive few days at the Grand Hotel in Brighton.

The fifth edition, published in 2008, was a very substantive revision with many chapters entirely or almost entirely rewritten. We liked the ‘empty chairs’ sleeve for the fourth edition so decided to continue that theme but be a bit more jolly – so the sleeve showed those Victorian-style bathing booths that used to be common at British and French beach resorts. Initial planning took place at our favourite writing retreat (Noosa, just North of Brisbane in Australia) and then a string of long meetings with the Pearson team in Bristol, London, Birmingham and even Heathrow.We went back to Noosa to finalise plans and the actual writing was done in Auckland and Los Angeles.

This sixth edition is a relatively modest revision in which we have updated and reconfigured some material to reflect changes in the field, but have not made any dramatic changes. Chapter 13 is now Prosocial behaviour, bringing it closer to Chapter 12 (Aggression), a more natural juxtaposition. We have retained the structure and approach of previous editions, and the book is framed by the same scientific and educational philosophy as before.

To prepare this edition we obtained feedback on the fifth edition from our Editorial Board, and as many of our colleagues and postgraduate and undergraduate students as we could find who had used the text as teacher, tutor or student.We are extremely grateful for this invaluable feedback – we see our text as a genuine partnership between us as authors, and all those who use the book in various different capacities. We are also indebted to our wonderful publishing team at Pearson Education in scenic Harlow – in particular Janey Webb our acquisitions editor, and Tim Parker our desk editor. We were sustained and energised by their enthusiasm, good humour, encouragement and wisdom, and were kept on our toes by their timeline prompts, excellent editing and breathtaking efficiency.

To start the ball rolling Graham spent a week in November 2007 at Mike’s new home in the Santa Monica Mountains just outside Los Angeles – for inspiration we were of course compelled to visit the wineries in the nearby Santa Ynez valley.Mike had a number of planning meetings with Janey Webb and her crew at Pearson’s swanky London office on The Strand – particularly memorable was one in mid-2008 where we adjourned to a nearby lunch venue and did not resurface until late afternoon, and then another in July 2009 where we ventured to the ‘posh’ Carluccio’s in Covent Garden and Janey almost missed her flight to a meeting in Stockholm. The writing itself was done in late 2009 and early 2010 while Mike was in Los Angeles and Graham was in Auckland.

Writing a big book like this is a courageous undertaking, with a great deal of drama and even more hard slog. We wish to thank John Haller, David Rast and Heather Stopp, members of Mike’s social identity laboratory, for undertaking the painstaking task of checking references in the text and references section. As with previous editions, we thank all the people around us, our family, friends and colleagues, for their never-ending patience and understanding. The most special thanks goes of course to our partners, Alison and Jan.