Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems

by Jamie A. Gruman (Editor), Frank W. Schneider, Larry M. Coutts (Editor)

Applied Social Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems is an excellent introductory textbook that helps students understand how people think about, feel about, relate to, and influence one another. The book is unique in that it provides a balanced emphasis on social psychological theory and research. Editors Frank W. Schneider, Jamie A. Gruman, and Larry M. Coutts examine the contributions of social and practical problems in several areas including everyday life, clinical psychology, sports, the media, health, education, organizations, community psychology, the environment, and human diversity.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Social Science

464 pages, Paperback

First published February 2, 2005

About the author

Jamie A. Gruman, (Ph.D., University of Windsor) earned his doctorate in Applied Social Psychology with a specialization in organizational psychology. He is currently an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and has previously taught in both the psychology departments and business schools at the University of Toronto and the University of Windsor. An award-winning researcher, he has published articles in such journals as Basic and Applied Social Psychology, Human Resource Management, the Journal of Vocational Behavior, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Human Resource Management Review, Human Resource Development Quarterly, and the Journal of Managerial Psychology. His current research interests pertain largely to positive organizational psychology, and his point of entry into this topic is often the organizational socialization process. He is also the founding Chair of the Canadian Positive Psychology Association.

Reviews

[Ellen]

now all that's left to do is to learn all those theories by heart...

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Note. I did not read this book from cover to cover, I read about half of the chapters*

Generally speaking, this textbook was well organized and well written. Due to the fact that each chapter is written by different authors, the writing style does fluctuate throughout the text and, for that reason, some chapters were better than others.

Some parts of this textbook felt like common sense or like material that certainly would have been covered in an entry-level intro social psychology class.

On a final note, some of the vignettes at the beginning of the chapters seemed unrealistic or were unrelatable. There were times where it was rather painfully obvious that the authors were writing about a group of people (e.g. teenagers) of which they were not a member of.

[Hellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

It didn't help that this book was used for an advanced Applied Social Psychology course. This is much more fitting for a beginner's course.