Handbook of Social Psychology

Abstract

Although it builds on two edited volumes on social psychology published in 1981 and 1995, this new volume differs from them in two interesting ways: it is not sponsored by the American Sociological Association’s Social Psychology Section and there is no reference to “sociological perspectives” in its title. Instead, Delamater adopts the title of Gilbert, Fiske, and Lindzey’s psychology-oriented social psychology handbook (the fourth edition of which appeared in 1998) as his own, suggesting that this volume may give greater emphasis to explicitly psychological approaches as well as sociological ones. But Delamater emphasizes in his preface that he sees his book as a successor to the 1981 and 1995 volumes, comments on resemblances and differences with those volumes, and pledges like those earlier editors to donate part of his royalties to ASA’s Social Psychology Section. Thirty-one of the thirtynine contributors are housed in sociology departments, and most authors try to highlight what a sociological perspective can contribute to our understandings of processes linking individuals, groups, and their social and cultural contexts. Delamater reports that the final chapters conform to his own final outline, except that he was unsuccessful in commissioning a chapter (or chapters?) organized around race and/or gender. There is no extended rationale for the specific topics chosen, which seem to vary in breadth, except for some discussion about his choice of the five theoretical chapters: He echoes Rosenberg and Turner’s 1981 inclusion of chapters on symbolic interaction and social exchange, but departs from them by omitting chapters on reference groups or role theories and including instead chapters on social structure and personality, expectation states, and evolutionary perspectives. The twenty-one chapters are grouped into five major sections: theories; development and socialization (childhood, adolescent, and adulthood); intrapersonal processes, including chapters on self and identity, language and social interaction, social cognition, ideologies, values, attitudes and behaviors, and emotions and sentiments; interpersonal processes, including chapters on attraction and interpersonal relationships, interaction in small groups and in social networks, and social structure and psychological functioning; and a final grouping described as chapters discussing contributions of social psychology to topics of general interest to sociologists (labeled “individual in socio-cultural context”); these include treatments of deviance, crowds and social movements, and intergroup relations, which could have been in earlier sections, and a final chapter on cross-cultural social psychology. Interestingly, Delamater describes the rapid development of evolutionary perspectives and their application to social psychological topics as the most visible theoretical changes to have occurred in the field; but the authors of that chapter, Douglas Kenrick, Josh Ackerman, and Susan Ledlow, argue that evolutionary social psychology remains misunderstood and underutilized, and devote their chapter to a well-organized and spirited defense of the approach and rebuttal of misperceptions about it, suggesting that its impact remains more potential than actual. Terri Orbuch and Susan Sprecher’s chapter on attraction and interpersonal relationships is similar in aiming to arouse greater awareness and interest among sociological social psychologists and to encourage them to contribute more to what they describe as the flourishing science of interpersonal relationships. These introductions to less visible approaches and topics, and calls for greater sociological participation, are interesting innovations in the present volume. In his preface, Delamater expresses the hope that this volume will serve as the graduate student textbook of choice for the next several years. Overall, the chapter authors are successful in introducing and summarizing social psychological arguments and studies. Relatively few authors explicitly link their approaches in these chapters to those of the earlier volumes or talk about major shifts since 1995. This seems like a missed opportunity, especially for a book aimed at graduate students. Some chapters, such as Sheldon