Social Psychology and Human Nature, Brief Version

by Roy F. Baumeister, Brad J. Bushman

You are a member of a social world on a planet containing about 7 billion people. This social world is filled with paradox, mystery, suspense, and outright absurdity. Explore how social psychology can help you make sense of your own social world with this engaging and accessible book. Roy F. Baumeister and Brad J. Bushman's SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND HUMAN NATURE, 2ND EDITION can help you understand one of the most interesting topics of all--the sometimes bizarre and baffling but always fascinating diversity of human behavior, and how and why people act the way they do.

Genres: Psychology, Textbooks, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Sociology

544 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2006

About the author

Dr. Roy F. Baumeister is Social Psychology Area Director and Francis Eppes Eminent Scholar at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. He is a social psychologist who is known for his work on the self, social rejection, belongingness, sexuality, self-control, self-esteem, self-defeating behaviors, motivation, and aggression. And enduring theme of his work is "why people do stupid things." He has authored over 300 publications and has written or co-written over 20 books.

DOB from Wikipedia

Reviews

[Zachary Ransom · Rating 3 out of 5]

USM, B.S. in Psychology, Social Psychology class

[Desirea Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had to read it for class. Easy to digest the information

[Tiffany · Rating 1 out of 5]

What is the deal with otherwise decent and informative Psychology textbooks tarnishing themselves with ignorant evolutionary psychology speculation? Oh, all women like to hold out for sex (and play hard to get) based on some evolutionary need to have the best Baby Daddy? And men will spread their seed to anything with a vagina because they don't have to pay for their decisions for nine months? Outdated and irresponsible to have things like this in a scholarly textbook.
Also, the "checkmate feminists" discussion on David Reimer claiming this case is proof that all gender constructs are inherent. Ask any well-educated feminist their opinion on David Reimer's tragic situation and they will likely respond that his confusion and unhappiness was caused by a society that has such strict, binary gender expectations. If David were able to express himself as genderqueer comfortably and without spectacle, perhaps his situation would have been different. Baumeister did not seem to research the feminist perspective on this topic before writing that this case really proved them wrong.
Again, many textbooks like this one are filled with great information. It's just a shame that hints of bias and misinformation pop up every few pages.

EDIT to add one more cringe-worthy excerpt from this textbook. Regarding Spring Break hook-ups - men benefit from casual hook-ups so their male friends encourage them to do so, while women do not really benefit from casual sex (because, you know, women want relationships and financial benefits from sex), so their female friends attempt to hinder hookups. I am highly disappointed that this is being taught in my graduate program.

[Tashie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was better than my other soc psych textbook, but it is still just such a dry collection of information that I found it hard to get into or read for my assignment.