An author’s work in preparing new editions is mostly not making words march up the screen; it is reading one’s discipline and identifying its most important, applicable, and readily communicated new fruits. In addition, it is collaborating with editors and reviewers to determine which of the book’s characteristics and features to preserve and which ones to modify, and creating new features that will maximize the book’s effectiveness. The results of this work for the ninth edition include:
Current research: A thorough updating, with more than 400 new citations
and abundant new examples, keeps the text on the cutting edge.
Research Close-Up: New to the ninth edition, this feature offers in-depth looks at scientific explorations of fascinating questions as varied as “When do people yawn?” and how pedestrians in different cultures interact. The “Research Close-Ups” provide students with a detailed understanding of how social psychologists use various research methods—from laboratory studies, Internet experiments, and creating virtual realities to naturalistic observation and the harvesting of archival data—to explore puzzling questions and reveal important insights. For example, Chapter 2’s “Research Close-Up” explores Daniel Wegner and colleagues’ experiments on the illusion of conscious will. Chapter 4’s “Research Close-Up” presents work by Brad Bushman and Angelica Bonacci on how attitudes toward Arab Americans influence behavior toward them. And Chapter 13 gives students an in-depth look at studies by Jacquie Vorauer, Nicole Shelton, and Jennifer Richeson on how misperceptions can preclude interracial friendships.
The Inside Story is the new name of the feature that offers first-person essays by social psychologists (called “The Story Behind the Research” in the previous edition).
Improved summaries: To enhance clarity and promote chunking of material, the “Summing Up” that concludes each major section is now in bulleted format.
Fine-tuned writing: Supported by my engaged and skilled editor, Elsa Peterson, I have revisited every sentence and paragraph to ensure that they present a logical flow of ideas and support the chapter’s learning objectives. Our goal has been to make this new edition of Social Psychology the clearest and most effective learning tool of any edition so far.
Shorter length: Just as the brain matures not only by growing new connections but also by selectively pruning ones no longer needed, so does this book.
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2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education