Social Psychology: Revisiting the Classic Studies 1st Edition

This volume provides an interesting and extremely useful commentary on many classic studies in the field of social psychology and all the authors and editors are to be congratulated on both the scholarship and the level of analysis that they have provided. Social psychology is a science and that brings with it the expectation that there will be both an accumulation of knowledge and also that certain experiments and studies will become essentially obsolete, in the sense that the findings and or the methodology have been overtaken by later studies. Social psychology is, however, also very dependent upon a small number of experiments which provide iconic and symbolic significance in establishing what can be studied and how those phenomena should be studied. The classic studies by Zimbardo, the Stanford Prison Experiment, by Milgram and the studies of obedience, the Asch conformity studies and the Sherif norm formation and Robbers Cave experiments define the nature of such investigations,.While these are classic, the interpretations of them, the accrual of data from other areas which attach to them, all develop over time and add to the weight and significance of these for the understanding of the field. Teachers of the discipline can benefit from a refreshing look at the early studies and students can be provided with an elegant insight into the basis of the discipline. I certainly would not take any of the chapters out of the volume; all the studies portrayed have significance for the field. Perhaps what could have been added were Festinger and Schachter's studies on communication in groups and the treatment of deviance in groups, Festinger and others studies of social comparison processes, the Schachter studies on affiliation and also those on misattribution. The experiments arising from Harold Kelley's analysis of Fritz Heider' attribution theory would have been an interesting target, as would also perhaps the experiments arising from Kelley and Thibaut's studies of groups. These latter studies all have significance both in the impact they had on direction of the field and also in the development of later awareness of flaws in methodology and theory which may have in some cases led to a misdirection of the field. Perhaps the editors had considered these and thought that there were good reasons for not including them. Inclusion would have added significantly to the size and focus of the book.Also absent is any reflection on Kenneth Gergen's analysis of social psychology as a form of history. Such reflection upon a discipline characterised as a form of science would have been an interesting frame on the fundamental nature of the discipline of social psychology. But again, perhaps this is expecting too much of a slim volume with a target audience of undergraduate students. The volume remains useful and I am sure that it will continue to do so for several years.

Interesting experiment summaries. Understandable even at my amateur level. I'm already learning a lot. I think I've heard the term "Cognitive Dissonance" used several times on TV since I started reading this book. I also like the way each experiment is isolated to it's own chapter, so you can skip to the subjects that you're most interested in.

Really pleased with this book, it has fantastic information about studies and how they relate to more recent research. Very helpful for writing critical evaluations, essays and exam revision at degree level. Highly recommend, I have now both the other topics too!

This is so detailed I love it! Very useful, especially for finding references for studies

This critique of classic studies gives additional insight to early social psychology studies than is normally provided in the standard text book.

Great condition

Very educational