Social Psychology (8 ed.)

Abstract

This is the eighth edition of our Social Psychology. The original idea to write a European social psychology text was born in Oxford in 1992 from meetings with Farrell Burnett, who was then psychology editor at Harvester Wheatsheaf. We decided to write the text because we felt there was a need for a comprehensive social psychology text written specifcally for university students in Britain and continental Europe. Such a text, we felt, should approach social psychology from a European rather than American perspective not only in terms of topics, orientation and research interests but also in terms of the style and level of presentation of social psychology and the cultural context of the readership. However, a European text cannot ignore or gloss over American social psychology – so, unlike other European texts, we located mainstream American social psychology within the framework of the text, covered it in detail and integrated it fully with European work. We intended this to be a selfcontained and comprehensive coverage of social psychology. You would not need to switch between American and European texts to understand social psychology as a truly international scientifc enterprise – an enterprise in which European research now has a signifcant and well-established profle. The frst edition was published in 1995 and was widely adopted throughout Europe.