In this book twenty-five of the world's most eminent social psychologists address what they see as the principal lessons to be learned from the study of social psychology. In doing this they provide their own provocative and original answers to the key questions for social psychology and other related social sciences, as well as a wealth of specific, up-to-date insights into the practical applications of social psychology, its key phenomena and theoretical ideas, the history of the field, and the practice conducting social psychological research.
Introduction and a short history of social psychology, C. McGarty and
S.A. Haslam; the theory of cognitive dissonance - the evolution and
vicissitudes of an idea, E. Aronson; discursive, rhetorical and ideological
messages, M. Billig; on the social origins of human nature, M.B. Brewer;
organizing social psychological explanations - W. Doise; predicting,
understanding and changing socially relevant behaviours - lessons learned, M.
Fishbein; let social psychology be faddish or, at least, heterogeneous, S.T.
Fiske and J-Ph. Leyens; social psychology as social construction - the
emerging vision, K.J. Gergen; social life as rule-governed patterns of joint
action, R. Harre; beliefs, knowledge and meaning from the perspective of the
perceiver - need for structure-order, O.J. Harvey; three lessons from social
psychology - multiple levels of analysis, methodological pluralism and
statistical sophistication, M. Hewstone; biases in social cognition -
aboutness as a general principle, E.T. Higgins; dynamic social impact - the
societal consequences of human interaction, B. Latane; going beyond
limitation of Bubbapsychology - a perspectivist social psychology, W.J.
McGuire; situations, belongingness, attitudes and culture - four lessons
learned from social psychology, A.S.R. Manstead; non-material beliefs -
theory and research in cultural social psychology, A. Pepitone; evolution of
persuasion theory - from single to multiple, R.E. Petty; the relevance of
language for social psychology, G.R. Semin; integrating the psychological and
the social to understand human behaviour, E.R. Smith and D.M. Mackie; "in the
beginning there is society" - lessons from a sociological social psychology,
S. Stryker; the social psychology of "Invictus" - conceptual and
methodological approaches to indomitability, P. Suedfeld; a cross-cultural
perspective on social psychology, H.C. Triandis; the socially structured
mind, J.C. Turner and P.J. Oakes.
