General Changes We are pleased to add two new features to this edition that we believe will appeal greatly to students. The first is a section at the end of each chapter called, "Critical Thinking: How Could You Use This?" We pose questions to students about their everyday lives-ones that they should find interesting and intriguing-and ask them to address the questions using one or more of the major concepts from the chapter. In Chapter 9, for example, we point out to students that sooner or later they will be part of a group that needs to make an important decision, and invite them to think about they might use concepts from the chapter to ensure that the group makes the best decision it can. The purpose of this feature is to encourage students to think critically about the material and apply it to their own lives. In addition, we end each chapter with sample test questions that are designed to communicate how to study and learn the material. These questions, which are mostly from our own test files, are critical-thinking type questions that are designed to encourage students to understand social psychological concepts and apply them to new situations, rather than viewing the material as a set of facts to be memorized. Both of these new features, we believe, will be of substantial help in teaching students how to approach the material presented in the book. Chapter-By Chapter Changes Chapter 2 , "Methodology: How Social Psychologists Do Research"includes a new section entitled, "New Frontiers in Social Psychological Research.

" This section discusses new methods and approaches that social psychologists have adopted in recent years, including cross-cultural research, evolutionary psychology, and social neuroscience. New opening case study on the Family Matters Institute Sex, Violence and the Internet. Chapter 3 , "Social Cognition: How We Think about the Social World" has been updated with over 40 references to recent research. We added a major new section entitled, "Cultural Differences in Social Cognition" that discusses cultural influences on schemas and recent research on holistic versus analytic thinking in different cultures. New Opening Case Study on terrorism and the Jean Charles de Menezes shooting Chapter 5 has been reorganized and renamed, "The Self: Understanding Ourselves in a Social Context," to reflect the fact that it is includes a broad coverage of research on the self and not just self-knowledge. There is a new opening example that students should find interesting, namely the fact that some famous athletes (Michael Jordan and Mia Hamm) may have been so successful not only because of raw talent, but because of their self-views (that their talents were not fixed abilities but skills that needed to be practiced). We discuss Carol Dweck''s research on self-views in more detail, under a new heading called, "Mindsets" Understanding Our Own Abilities" (which relates back to the opening example of Michael Jordan and Mia Hamm). Reflecting the broader coverage of research on the self, there is a new major heading called, "Self-Control: The Executive Function Of The Self" that discusses recent research on self-regulation.

There is also increased coverage of cultural differences in the self. New Cpening Case Study on success in sports (esp. football and athletics) - European/Global focus. Chapter 6 , "The Need to Justify Our Actions" We have sharpened and updated our coverage of self-justification and included some new research on cultural differences. We have also included some recent research showing cognitive dissonance in Monkeys. We have also expanded our coverage of research by Harmon-Jones showing differences in brain activity during the experience of dissonance and dissonance reduction. Chapter 7 , "Attitudes and Attitude Change: Influencing Thoughts and Feelings" includes over 50 references to recent research. There is an expanded discussion of implicit attitudes, including recent research on the origins of implicit attitudes.

We added a new section with the heading, "Confidence in One''s Thoughts and Attitude Change" that discusses recent research by Petty and Briñol and colleagues. FFinally, we revised substantially the section on subliminal advertising, with new research examples, and added a section on the effects of the media on attitudes toward weight in men and women. New Connections Case Study , How Effective are South African HIV/AIDS Awareness Campaigns Chapter 9 , "Group Processes: Influence in Social Groups" has a new opening vignette that discusses President George W. Bush''s decision to initiate the Iraq War. The later Connections feature, "Was the Decision to Invade Iraq a Result of Groupthink?", has been revised and updated, based on recent books by Bob Woodward, Scott McClelland, and others. The section on "Why People Join Groups" has been revised to include research on social rejection and social identity, and the section on gender and leadership is updated with a discussion of recent research on the "glass cliff." Chapter 11 , "Prosocial Behavior: Why Do People Help?" We replaced or revised two of the Try It! exercises, to make them more easy for students to carry out if they so choose. A discussion of group selection has been added to the section on evolutionary theory.

In the section on Batson''s empathy-altruism theory we added a section on what causes people to feel empathy, including a discussion of research by Mikulincer and Shaver on attachment theory and research by Twenge et al. on the effects of social rejection. Finally, we added a brief discussion of research on religion and prosocial behavior. Chapter 12 , "Aggression: Why We Hurt Other People" We have added Craig Anderson''s recent (2009) of the possible effects of global warming on aggression. We have also discussed Bushman''s (2007) research on scriptural violence and aggressive behavior. We have also included some recent research on building empathy as a way of curbing aggression. Chapter 13 , "Prejudice: Causes and Cures" One of the major additions to this chapter is of course, the election of an African-American to the Presidency. It has produced what one social psychologist has dubbedthe Obama effect.

Shortly after the election of Barack Obama, researchers were able to show two consequences of that election. Plant et. al. 2009)showed a decrease in prejudice against African-Americans; Dillon (2009) showed a decrease in stereotype threat among African-American test-takers. Social Psychology in Action 1, "Making a Difference with Social Psychology: Attaining a Sustainable Future," was new to the previous edition. We believe it was a timely addition, given current interest in global warming and other environmental issues, as well as the more general question of how social psychology can be used to address important social problems. We updated the chapter in this edition with a discussion of recent research, including studies by Goldstein, Cialdini, and Griskevicius (2008) on getting hotel guests to reuse their towels, research by Graham, Koo, and Wilson (in press) on how to get college students to conserve energy by driving less, and a study by Holland, Aarts, and Langendam (2006) on getting people to recycle more. Finally, in the section, "What Makes People Happy?" we added a description of a study by Dunn, Aknin, and Norton (2008) showing that helping others makes people happy.

new Opening Case Study on Global Warming. Social Psychology in Action 2: "Social Psychology and Health" includes a new opening vignette, namely a true story about a woman who showed remarkable resilience after losing 12 family members in a four-year period. The section on Social Support is completely revised, including the addition of recent reseach by Shelley Taylor and colleagues on cultural differences in social support and research by Niall Bolger and colleagues on visible versus invisible social support. Social Psychology in Action 3: "Social Psychology and the Law" has been updated considerably. For example, the section on line-ups and how to improve them is updated with an example of recent research by Gary Wells, research on individual differences in detecting lies by Bond and DePaulo (2008), and a study on recovered memories, by Geraerts et al. (2007).