Social Psychology: Goals in Interaction

by Douglas T. Kenrick, Steven L. Neuberg, Robert B. Cialdini

Social Goals in Interaction explores how social behavior is goal-directed and a result of interactions between the person and the situation. In addition to an overhauled design in the 4e, Social Goals in Interaction has two elements that continue to set it apart from other social psychology textbooks. A unique integrated approach to social Rather than providing a laundry list of unconnected facts and theories, the authors organize each chapter around the two broad (1) what are the goals that underlie the behavior in question? (2) what factors in the person and the situation connect to each goal? The book thus presents the discipline as a coherent framework for understanding human behavior. The new subtitle, “Goals in Interaction” underscores this integrated approach to understanding behavior. Opening Each chapter begins with a mystery of social behavior, designed not only to grab student interest, but also to organize the ensuing discussion of scientific Why would a poor black washerwoman give away her hard-earned life-savings? What psychological forces led the Dalai Lama, the most exalted personage in Tibet, to forge a lifelong friendship with a foreign vagabond openly scorned by Tibetan peasants? Why would a boy falsely confess to murdering his own mother?

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Communication, Sociology, Education, College

672 pages, Hardcover

Published December 10, 2006

About the author

Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University. His research and writing integrate three scientific syntheses of the last few decades: evolutionary psychology, cognitive science, and dynamical systems theory. He is author of over 170 scientific articles, books, and book chapters, the majority applying evolutionary ideas to human cognition and behavior.

His father and brother both spent several years in Sing Sing, but he broke the family tradition and went to graduate school to study psychology. He studied social psychology under Robert B. Cialdini and received his Ph.D. from Arizona State University in 1976. He has edited several books on evolutionary psychology, contributed chapters to the Handbook of Social Psychology and the Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, and been an author of two multi-edition textbooks (Psychology, with John Seamon; and Social Psychology: Goals in Interaction, with Steven Neuberg and Robert B. Cialdini). He writes a blog for Psychology Today magazine, titled Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life. He has a forthcoming book of the same title.

Reviews

[Dmitry · Rating 5 out of 5]

(The English review is placed beneath the Russian one)

Эта книга способна заменить сотни книг по психологии.

Когда я сталкиваюсь со многими популярными книгами по психологии, в них часто говорится не только об общеизвестных вещах и не только об идеях, что встречаются во многих других похожих книгах, но все они являются как бы небольшими фрагментами одной большой темы, темы социальной психологии. Можно предположить, что такие книги призваны упростить материал и даже разбить одну большую тему – социальная психология – на множество мелких. Однако правда состоит в том, что сама тема «социальная психология» никогда не являлась особенно сложной. А с появлением этой книги и книги с таким же названием за авторством Дэвида Майерса, тема социальной психологии стала понятна абсолютно всем. Оба этих автора написали очень интересные и лёгкие университетские учебники по социальной психологии. Обе эти книги настолько доступные для понимания, что я уверен, они с лёгкостью могут заменить университетский курс по социальной психологии. Я прочитал обе книги «Социальная психология» и за авторством Роберта Чалдини и за авторством Дэвида Майерса. Не могу сказать, что они сильно отличаются, и так же не могу сказать, какая из этих двух книг лучше.

Что касается описываемой книги. Как и все учебники для студентов, она разделена на несколько глав, которые и знакомят читателя с социальной психологией. Каких-то новых и неизвестных тем я тут не увидел, поэтому любой, кто знаком с предметом, даже не открывая книгу, поймет, о чём будет идти речь. Да, все знаменитые учёные и их эксперименты по социальной психологии тут присутствуют. Перечислять темы, как и имена этих психологов, нет смысла, ибо они и так у всех на слуху, а с оглавлением можно легко познакомиться самостоятельно. Как я сказал, это классический учебник по социальной психологии.

И ещё один момент, почему я настоятельно рекомендую эту книгу. Если кому-то понравилась книга Роберта Чалдини, т.е. его главная и самая известная книга, «Психология влияния», то я бы рекомендовал такому человеку ознакомиться и с этой книгой. Мне кажется, что и в данной книге сохраняется авторский стиль. В любом случаи, обе книги очень похожи стилистически. И с большой вероятностью тот, кто остался в восторге от книги «Психология влияния», скорее всего, полюбит и эту книгу. Более того, возможно даже она расширит те представления, которые появились у читателя после прочтения книги «Психология влияния».

И последнее. Вся книга построена так, что каждая глава открывается небольшой историей, как например история Мартина Лютера Кинга или история двух человек, которые сначала наисильнейшим образом враждовали друг с другом, а потом стали лучшими друзьями. А после, т.е. всю оставшуюся главу, авторы объясняют эти истории сточки зрения социальной психологии. Т.е. они объясняют действия, решения, и мотивы этих людей как это видит социальный психолог.
В общем, эта книг является одной из тех немногих книг, которые стоит причитать каждому гражданину (наравне с учебником экономики Игоря Липсица).

P.S. Если выбирать между этой книгой и книгой Роберта Сапольского «Биология добра и зла. Как наука объясняет наши поступки» (которая лично для меня стала полным кошмаром и сплошным разочарованием), я рекомендую выбрать книгу именно Роберта Чалдини «Социальная психология».

This book is capable of replacing hundreds of psychology books.

When I come across many popular books on psychology, they often contain not only the well-known things and ideas encountered in many other similar books, but they are all like small fragments of one big topic, the topic of social psychology. One might assume that such books are meant to simplify the material and even break up one large topic - social psychology - into many smaller ones. However, the truth is that the topic of "social psychology" itself has never been particularly difficult. And with the appearance of this book and the book of the same title by David Myers, the topic of social psychology has become clear to absolutely everyone. Both of these authors have written very interestingly and easy-to-follow university textbooks on social psychology. Both of these books are so easy to understand that I am sure they could easily replace a university course in social psychology. I have read both Social Psychology books by Robert Cialdini and by David Myers. I can't say they are much different, nor can I say which of the two is better.

As for the book being described. Like all textbooks for students, it is divided into several chapters which introduce the reader to social psychology. I did not see any new and unknown topics here, so anyone who is familiar with the subject, even without opening the book, will know what will be discussed. Yes, all the famous scientists and their experiments in social psychology are present here. There is no point in listing the topics as well as the names of these psychologists because they are on everyone's lips as it is, and the table of contents can be easily consulted on your own. As I said, this is a classic textbook on social psychology.

And one more point why I strongly recommend this book. If someone liked Robert Cialdini's book, i.e., his main and best-known book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion", I would recommend that person to read this book as well. It seems to me that this book retains the author's style as well. In any case, both books are very similar stylistically. And it is very likely that someone who was delighted with the book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" is likely to enjoy this book as well. Moreover, it may even broaden the ideas that the reader had after reading "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion".

One last thing. The entire book is structured so that each chapter opens with a little story, like the story of Martin Luther King or the story of two people who first feuded with each other in the most violent way and then became best friends. And afterward, that is, for the rest of the chapter, the authors explain these stories in terms of social psychology. That is, they explain the actions, decisions, and motives of these people as seen by a social psychologist.
In general, this book is one of those few books that every citizen should read.

P.S. When choosing between this book and Robert Sapolsky's Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst (which, for me, was a complete nightmare and a complete disappointment), I recommend choosing Robert Cialdini's book "Social Psychology: Goals in Interaction".

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the very few texts books that I not only read everything, but enjoyed reading. It is very well written and is interesting. The layout is great. The authors tell a story at the beginning of each chapter, and then use that story throughout to illustrate different points, and then revisit it again at the end to bring it all together. I enjoyed this book a lot. It made me rethink my career goals! A career in Social Psych would never be fascinating!

[Leonopteryx · Rating 2 out of 5]

to be completely honest i was just desperate to finish my reading challenge

[London Summers · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kenrick is an evolutionary psychologist, and that is immensely obvious in this text.

The text is very cisgender heterosexual, European focused. LGBTQ+ folks are only mentioned in the chapter about relationships, and then it's only about the LGB, and saying they are such a minority that the author did not bother to include many studies about them.

Even if I had not read up on Kenrick, I could have guessed he was a evolutionary psychologist because of his over reliance on "men are from Mars women are from Venus" theories.

However, the thing I feel is most problematic about this book is that it simplifies the topics and the cited research in such a way to present information as fact, even when the data cited is over 50 years old.

[Thomas Koziara · Rating 5 out of 5]

The chapter on relationships and love is epic.

[Dre Battles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to use this text book for my intro to social psychology class. There are many good qualities about this book on being, and in my opinion the best, is that it is an easy read. Unlike a lot of textbooks this one is not a dull dry read with vocabulary no one really uses.
The book also have very interesting true stories that tie in to the theme of the chapter.

The down side is that the book is very conversational (could be a good quality for some but most in my class saw it as a fault). It takes the writers a while to state their point. You'll read endless amount of details then get to the end of the paragraph or page and there in one or two sentences will be everything they said previously but shorter. Makes you wonder why write endless details?

Overall it's a good textbook, easy read, and it's short.

[Ryan Lang · Rating 3 out of 5]

The textbook is a good overview of the topic, but is quite vague when it comes to hard facts, leaving much of the message ambiguous in meaning and with little cited scientific support. For a more in depth, accurate, and sensible discussion of social psychology for those seriously interested, I recommend Advanced Social Psychology: The State of the Science, by Roy F. Baumeister and Eli J. Finkel.

[Courtney Chappell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was for my social psychology class at PLU. I actually preferred it more than most, however I didn't read the last few chapters. I liked the story at the beginning and the end of the chapter to give a real life example of the topic discussed. This book was good for school, but I will be selling it asap.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far, this textbook is really easy to read. It is also interesting. I think some of the ease may have to do with my professor. She rocks.

[Shauna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is easy to understand and easy to read. I actually enjoyed reading a textbook! It is an overview if you will, of social psychology. It's not too in depth but it gives a good overview.