The Social Animal
By:
Elliot Aronson
Buy it now at Amazon.com!
Lowest New Price: $45.01
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Description:
A landmark text that maintains its relevance and unique approach edition after edition, The Social Animal offers a brief, compelling introduction to modern social psychology. Through vivid narrative, lively presentations of important research, and intriguing examples, Elliot Aronson probes the patterns and motives of human behavior, covering such diverse topics as terrorism, conformity, obedience, politics, race relations, advertising, war, interpersonal attraction, and the power of religious cults.
Publisher: Worth Publishers
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Social Psych - I am finding The Social Animal to be quite interesting. It seems to cover the relevent information thoroughly, and yet fails to be boring in doing so. Aronson is,of course, the father of social psychology, and that alone would make this a must read for anyone interested in the subject, but Aronson also makes the subject fun as well as educational.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Read it or Weep - This is one of those books that you only come across by chance. I became aware of this book by snooping around a friends office and saw it on the shelf with ruffled pages and post it notes sticking out of it. At first I couldn't tell if it was a bible or not, but it seems it was my friends bible.
After memorizing the title, which I did forget, and searching all over the internet for it, I finally found it. I guess I was too embarrassed to ask my friend, because I don't think he would like the idea of my snooping around.
After reading a few pages I came to realize what the big deal was with my friend. This book covers many theories behind people's less than intuitive behavior. He explains how rewarding children for undesirable behavior will lead to less of that bahavior. For example, if you want children to play with a boring toy, just leave it in a room of other more attractive toys, but demand that the children play with the more attractive toys and even give the children some candy or some money to play with these toys and eventually these children will gravitate toward the boring toy. It doen't make sense on the surface, but when you read that these behaviors are backed by a lot of research and explained theory you will start to see how it makes sense.
There are tons of examples in this book all backed by research and with clear explanations.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Where Psychology meets Culture - Aronson's emminently readable volume is packed with useful--if not always profound--insights and information that go a long way towards explaining many of the abnomal "normalities" of our own society. Although Aronson's volume is far from being preachy, it is difficult not to make certain connections within our own society that have the character of being drawn directly from Aronson's experiments. Racism, for instance can now be explained entirely in social psychological terms. Both white and non-white behaviror--actions and interactions--follow the models of Aronson's experiments precisely. Alienation within our society and the attendant lost of a sense of community is another example of one of the secondary effects of social psychological processes made so profoundly clear from this book. Aronson leaves us with a lot to digest and think about, and this in my view is what books of this sort should do. This is a real tour de force. I highly recommend it.
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Excellent for beginners - Elliot Aronson captured a wide range of subjects making his book the perfect primer to social psychology.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
The Social Animal by E. Aronson - I really enjoyed The Social Animal, it was an excellent book! And it was actually fun to read (compared to other college books). I read this book for my social psych class @CU. There are a lot of really interesting studies cited in the book about everday things that you wouldn't notice unless it was pointed out to you. And it has some very interesting points on prejudice and self-justification. Even if you're not going to be a social psychologist or, maybe, you're not even in a social psych class, I think it's important to read. I highly recommend it!
--> Find out more about "The Social Animal" at Amazon.com or Order Now
| 