INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL
Prepared by:
Alan Swinkels
Social Psychology
Eleventh Edition
By
ELLIOT ARONSON
TIMOTHY D. WILSON
SAMUEL R. SOMMERS
ELIZABETH PAGE-GOULD
NEIL LEWIS, JR.
, Aronson, Wilson, Sommers, Page-Gould, Lewis, Jr.: Social Psychology, 11th edition
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Introducing
Social Psychology
CONTENTS
Learning Objectives
Chapter Outline
Key Terms
Critical Thinking and Discussion Questions
Revel Shared Writing
Lecture Launchers
In-Class Exercises
Integrating “Try It!” Active Learning Exercises
Student Projects and Research Assignments
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Copyright © 2023, 2016, 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
, Aronson, Wilson, Sommers, Page-Gould, Lewis, Jr.: Social Psychology, 11th edition
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1.1 Define social psychology and distinguish it from other disciplines.
1.2 Summarize why it matters how people explain and interpret events, as well as their own
and others’ behavior.
1.3 Explain what happens when people’s need to feel good about themselves conflicts with
their need to be accurate.
1.4 Explain why the study of social psychology is important.
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Copyright © 2023, 2016, 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
, Aronson, Wilson, Sommers, Page-Gould, Lewis, Jr.: Social Psychology, 11th edition
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Defining Social Psychology
Learning Objective: 1.1 Define social psychology and distinguish it from other disciplines.
• Social psychology is the scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings,
and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people.
• Social influence shapes our thoughts and feelings as well as our overt acts, and it takes
many forms other than deliberate attempts at persuasion.
A. Social Psychology, Philosophy, Science, and Common Sense
• Psychologists have looked to philosophers for insights into the nature of
consciousness and how people form beliefs about the social world. Social
psychologists address many of the same questions philosophers do, but they
do so using the empirical methods of science.
• The problem with common sense, or folk wisdom, is that it’s often
contradictory (“birds of a feather flock together” and “opposites attract”).
Social psychologists would say there are some conditions under which one
aphorism is true, and other conditions under which the other aphorism is true.
The social psychologist conducts the research that specifies those conditions.
• Social psychologists have devised an array of scientific methods to test their
ideas about human social behavior, empirically and systematically, rather than
by relying on folk wisdom, common sense, or the opinions and insights of
philosophers, novelists, political pundits, and grandmothers.
• Performing experiments in social psychology presents many challenges,
primarily because social psychologists are attempting to predict the behavior
of highly sophisticated organisms in complex situations.
B. How Social Psychology Differs from Its Closest Cousins
• Social psychology is related to other disciplines in the physical and social
sciences, including biology, neuroscience, sociology, economics, and political
science. Each discipline examines the determinants of human behavior, but
social psychology’s level of analysis emphasizes how people interpret the
social world.
• Evolutionary psychology attempts to explain social behavior in terms of
genetic factors that have evolved over time, according to the principles of
natural selection.
• Explaining people’s behavior in terms of their traits is the work of personality
psychologists, who generally focus on individual differences: the aspects of
people’s personalities that make them different from others. Social
psychologists believe that this ignores the powerful role of social influence.
• In particular, social psychologists analyze people’s construal of social
situations. Construal refers to how people perceive, comprehend, and interpret
the social world.
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Copyright © 2023, 2016, 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
