Lesko, Readings in Social Psychology: General, Classic, and Contemporary Selections 7/e

This collection of readings gives students exposure to a wide variety of perspectives in the field of social psychology. Each of the fifteen chapters begins with an introduction and is followed by three articles: one general (popular), one classic, and one contemporary. The articles are followed by critical thinking questions that ask students to examine different aspects of the articles, as well as to assess the implications of psychological research in their own lives. Topic integration questions conclude each chapter to further promote critical thinking.

The topical organization of the collection parallels Baron/Byrne/Branscombe’s Social Psychology, Twelfth Edition, and Mastering Social Psychology.   However, Readings in Social Psychology can be used with any social psychology textbook or as a stand-alone reader in courses that do not use textbooks.

Forty-seven percent of the articles are new to this edition, including:

• Detecting lies in children and adults 
• Pluralistic ignorance and hooking up
• One woman’s behavior affects the attractiveness of others
• Revisiting the Stanford Prison Experiment:  A lesson in the power of the situation
• Guns, testosterone, and aggression:  An experimental test of a mediational hypothesis

“I really appreciate that the articles are presented verbatim.  Students should be taught how to read primary sources, rather than paraphrased accounts.  I also like that each section includes a popular press, classic and contemporary article.  This is a unique approach that allows instructors to provide a comparison of trends in the field and allows students to understand empirical sources versus presentation of information to the general public”.

            -Kimberley J. Duff, Cerritos College

“I think this book has great potential to be a stand-alone book.  It is ideally laid out with classic and contemporary pieces. Including the popular view was an aspect I didn’t even know I would want, but appreciate.”

            -H. Colleen Sinclair, University of Missouri

Lesko’s Readings in Social Psychology: General, Classic, and Contemporary Selections, Sixth Edition, provides a unique combination of popular, classic, and recent pieces on each topic, inviting students to experience the different sources of information in the field.

Each of the fifteen chapters in this collection of readings begins with an introduction and is followed by three articles: one general (“popular”), one classic, and one contemporary. The articles are prefaced with a short introduction and followed by critical questions designed to facilitate comprehension and encourage discussion. A new feature of this edition is the inclusion of chapter integration questions designed to bring together the articles in each section. The use of both popular readings and research articles gives students a broad range of views and theories within the discipline of social psychology.

The topical organization of the collection parallels Baron/Byrne/Bramscombe's Social Psychology, Eleventh Edition. However, Readings in Social Psychology can be used with any social psychology textbook or as a stand-alone reader in courses that do not use full textbooks.

The Sixth Edition includes 23 new articles, with new separate chapters on forensic psychology and health psychology.

1. The Field of Psychology.

Article 1: Folk wisdom: Was your grandmother right? by Robert Epstein.

Article 2: Human use of human subjects: The problem of deception in social psychological research, by Herbert C. Kelman.

Article 3: Lessons Learned from a lifetime of applied social psychology research, by Abraham S. Ross.

2. Social perception.

Article 4: The once-over:  Can you trust first impressions? by Carlin Flora.

Article 5: The warm-cold variable in first impression of persons, by Harold H. Kelley.

Article 6: Detecting true lies: Police officers’ ability to detect suspects’ lies, by Samantha Mann, Aldert Vrij, and Ray Bull.

3. Social cognition.

Article 7: Some systematic biases in everyday judgment, by Thomas Gilovich.

Article 8: Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional states, by Stanley Schachter and Jerome E. Singer.

Article 9: The fundamental attribution error in detecting deception: the boy-who-cried-wolf effect, by Maureen O’Sullivan.

4. Attitudes.

Article 10: Don’t even think about it!  by Michael Ventura.

Article 11: Cognitive consequences of forced compliance, by Leon Festinger and James M. Carlsmith.

Article 12: I’m a hypocrite and so is everyone else: Group support and the Reduction of cognitive dissonance, by Blake M. McKimmie, Deborah J. Terry, Michael A. Hogg, Antony S. R. Manstead, Russell Spears, and Bertjan Doosje.

5. Social Identity.

Article 13: The many me’s of the self-monitor, by Mark Snyder.

Article 14: The measurement of psychological androgyny, by Sandra L. Bem.

Article 15: Understanding sexual aggression in male college students: The role of self-monitoring and pluralistic ignorance, by Janice D. Flezzani and James M. Benshoff.

6. Prejudice and discrimination.

Article 16: Why we hate, by Margo Monteith and Jeffrey Winters.

Article 17: Attitudes vs. actions, by Richard T. LaPiere.

Article 18: Christian orthodoxy, religious fundamentalism, and right-wing authoritarianism as predictors of implicit racial prejudice, by Wade C. Rowatt and Lewis M. Franklin.

7. Interpersonal attraction.

Article 19: Why I hate beauty, by Michael Levine and Hara Estroff Marano.

Article 20: What is beautiful is good, by Karen Dion, Ellen Berscheid, and Elaine Walster.

Article 21: “If only I were think like her, maybe I could be happy like her”: The self implications of associating a think female ideal with life success, by Peggy Chin Evans.

8. Close Relationships.

Article 22: Great expectations, by Polly Shulman.

Article 23: “Playing hard to get”: Understanding an elusive phenomenon, by Elaine Hatfield, G. William Walster, Jane Piliavin, and Lynn Schmidt.

Article 24: Romantic behaviors of university students: A cross-cultural and gender analysis in Puerto Rico and the United States, by Jose A. Quiles.

9. Social influence.

Article 25: Obedience in retrospect, by Alan C. Elms.

Article 26: Behavioral study of obedience, by Stanley Milgrim .

Article 27: Pluralistic ignorance and college student perceptions of gender-specific alcohol norms, by Jerry Suls and Peter Green.

10. Prosocial behavior.

Article 28: Why don’t moral people act morally? Motivational considerations, by C. Daniel Batson and Elizabeth R. Thompson.

Article 29: “From Jerusalem to Jericho”: A study of situational and dispositional variables in helping behavior, by John M. Darley and C. Daniel Batson.

Article 30: The effects of smiling on helping behavior: Smiling and good Samaritan behavior, by Nicholas Gueguen and Marie-Agnes De Gail.

11. Agression.

Article 31: Bad girls, by Barry Yeoman.

Article 32: Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models, by Albert Bandura, Dorothea Ross, and Sheila A. Ross.

Article 33: Types of media violence and degree of acceptance in under-18’s, by Miguel Angel Vidal, Miguel Clemente, and Pablo Espinosa.

12. Group Behavior.

Article 34: Groupthink, by Irving L. Janis.

Article 35: The effect of threat upon interpersonal bargaining, by Morton Deutsch and Robert M. Krause.

Article 36: Group decision fiascoes continue: Space Shuttle Challenger and a Revised groupthink framework, by Gregory Moorhead, Richard Ference, and Chris P. Neck.

13. Business Psychology.

Article 37: The new-boy network: What do job interviews really tell us? by Malcolm Gladwell.

Article 38: One more time: How do you motivate employees? by Frederick Herzberg.

Article 39: Relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership style: A gender comparison, by Barbara Mandell and Shilpa Pherwani.

14. Forensic Psychology.

Article 40: Illusory causation in the courtroom, by G. Daniel Lassiter.

Article 41: Beautiful but dangerous: Effects of offender attractiveness and nature of the crime on juridic judgment, by Harold Sigall and Nancy Ostrove.

Article 42: Effects of defendant age on severity of punishment for different crimes, by Christine E. Bergeron and Stuart J. McKelvic.

15. Health Psychology.

Article 43: Research to the heart of the matter, by Rebecca Clay.

Article 44: The social readjustment rating scale, by Thomas H. Holmes and Richard H. Rahe.

Article 45: Have there been lasting effects associated with the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks among inner-city parents and children? by David B. Henry, Patrick H. Tolan, and Deborah Gorman-Smith.