Social Psychology

Framed by Gender: How Gender Inequality Persists in the Modern World

Cecilia L. Ridgeway

How does gender inequality persist in an advanced industrial society like the United States, where legal, political, institutional, and economic processes work against it? This book ... More

How does gender inequality persist in an advanced industrial society like the United States, where legal, political, institutional, and economic processes work against it? This book draws on empirical evidence from sociology, psychology, and organizational studies to argue that people's everyday use of gender as a primary cultural tool for organizing social relations with others creates processes that rewrite gender inequality into new forms of social and economic organization as these forms emerge in society. Widely shared gender stereotypes act as a “common knowledge” cultural frame that people use to initiate the process of making sense of one another in order to coordinate their interaction. Gender stereotypes change more slowly than material arrangements between men and women. As a result of this cultural lag, at sites of social innovation, people implicitly draw on trailing stereotypes of gender difference and inequality to help organize the new activities, procedures, and forms of organization that they create, in effect reinventing gender inequality for a new era. Chapters 1 through 3 explain how gender acts as a primary frame and how gender stereotypes shape interpersonal behavior and judgments in contextually varying ways. Chapters 4 and 5 show how these effects in the workplace and the home reproduce contemporary structures of gender inequality. Chapters 6 examines the cultural lag of gender stereotypes and shows how they create gender inequality at sites of innovation in work (high-tech start-ups) and intimate relations (college hook-ups). Chapter 7 develops the implications of this persistence dynamic for progress toward gender equality. Less

Free Will and Consciousness: How Might They Work?

Roy F. Baumeister, Alfred R. Mele, Kathleen D. Vohs (eds)

This volume is aimed at readers who wish to move beyond debates about the existence of free will and the efficacy of consciousness and closer to appreciating how free will and ... More

This volume is aimed at readers who wish to move beyond debates about the existence of free will and the efficacy of consciousness and closer to appreciating how free will and consciousness might operate. It draws from philosophy and psychology, the two fields that have grappled most fundamentally with these issues. In this wide-ranging volume, the contributors explore issues such as how free will is connected to rational choice, planning, and self-control; roles for consciousness in decision making; the nature and power of conscious deciding; connections among free will, consciousness, and quantum mechanics; why free will and consciousness might have evolved; how consciousness develops in individuals; the experience of free will; effects on behavior of the belief that free will is an illusion; and connections between free will and moral responsibility in lay thinking. Collectively, these state-of-the-art chapters by accomplished psychologists and philosophers provide a glimpse into the future of research on free will and consciousness. Less

Going Broke: Why Americans Can't Hold On To Their Money

Stuart Vyse

This book offers a psychological perspective on the financial behavior of the many Americans today who find they cannot make ends meet, illuminating the causes of wildly self-destructive ... More

This book offers a psychological perspective on the financial behavior of the many Americans today who find they cannot make ends meet, illuminating the causes of wildly self-destructive spending habits. Bringing together fascinating studies of consumer behavior, the book argues that the mountain of debt burying so many of us is the inevitable by-product of America's turbo-charged economy and, in particular, of social and technological trends that undermine self-control. The book illuminates everything from the rise of the credit card, to the increase in state lotteries and casino gambling, to the expansion of new shopping opportunities provided by toll-free numbers, home shopping networks, big-box stores, and the Internet, revealing how vast changes in American society over the last thirty years have greatly complicated man's relationship with money. Less

Great Flicks: Scientific Studies of Cinematic Creativity and Aesthetics

Dean Keith Simonton

The main purpose of the book is to understand what it takes to make a great film. As noted in the Chapter 1 prologue, however, this review of cinematic creativity and aesthetics will be ... More

The main purpose of the book is to understand what it takes to make a great film. As noted in the Chapter 1 prologue, however, this review of cinematic creativity and aesthetics will be confined to scientific studies, studies carried out by a multidisciplinary group of researchers. Chapter 2 then concentrates on movie awards, including the Oscars and Golden Globes, and how those awards relate to critical acclaim. Do great films receive both shiny trophies and five stars? Chapter 3 studies more closely how these awards cluster together and which of these clusters best predict cinematic success. How do the dramatic awards compare with the visual, technical, and music awards? Chapter 4 adds a new consideration, namely the film’s financial performance: How does box office compare with critical evaluations and movie awards? The following four chapters focus on specific contributions to a film’s impact: Chapter 5 covers the script (including writers), Chapter 6 the director (or “auteur”), Chapter 7 the actors (especially gender differences), and Chapter 8 the music (both score and song). Chapter 9 addresses the question of whether the same cinematic factors that make some films great also make other films bad: Are bombs the exact opposite of masterpieces? The book closes with an epilogue on future directions in scientific studies of cinematic creativity and aesthetics. What do researchers need to do if we want a complete understanding of what it takes to create a powerful cinematic experience? Less

Group Creativity: Innovation through Collaboration

Paul B. Paulus, Bernard A. Nijstad (eds)

Creativity often leads to the development of original ideas that are useful or influential, and maintaining creativity is crucial for the continued development of organizations in ... More

Creativity often leads to the development of original ideas that are useful or influential, and maintaining creativity is crucial for the continued development of organizations in particular, and society in general. Most research and writing has focused on individual creativity, yet in recent years, there has been an increasing acknowledgment of the importance of the social and contextual factors in creativity. Even with the information explosion and the growing necessity for specialization, the development of innovations still requires group interaction at various stages in the creative process. Most organizations increasingly rely on the work of creative teams where each individual is an expert in a particular area. This book summarizes the exciting new research developments on the processes involved in group creativity and innovation, and explores the relationship between group processes, group context and creativity. It draws from a broad range of research perspectives, including those investigating cognition, groups, creativity, information systems and organizational psychology. The first section in this book focuses on how group decision making is affected by factors such as cognitive fixation and flexibility, group diversity, minority dissent, group decision-making, brainstorming and group support systems. Special attention is devoted to the various processes and conditions which can inhibit or facilitate group creativity. The second section explores how various contextual and environmental factors affect the creative processes of groups. The chapters explore issues of group autonomy, group socialization, mentoring, team innovation, knowledge transfer and creativity, at the level of cultures, and societies. Less

Health Behavior Change and Treatment Adherence: Evidence-based Guidelines for Improving Healthcare

Leslie Martin, Kelly Haskard-Zolnierek, M. Robin DiMatteo

Each year, millions of people resolve to take better care of their health and almost a billion medical visits take place. Yet as many as half of these visits result in patient ... More

Each year, millions of people resolve to take better care of their health and almost a billion medical visits take place. Yet as many as half of these visits result in patient nonadherence, and most people who successfully begin necessary health behavior changes fail to maintain them. Healthcare professionals often struggle to provide their patients with the tools necessary for successful maintenance of healthy behavior. This book synthesizes the results from an overwhelming number of empirical research articles on adherence and health behavior change, providing simple, powerful, and practical guidance for health professionals. A set of effective evidence-based strategies for putting long-term health-relevant behavioral changes into practice includes the straightforward 3-ingredient Information–Motivation–Strategy model that has been supported by decades of outcomes research. In order to change, individuals must (1) know what change is necessary information; (2) desire the change (motivation); and then (3) have the tools to achieve and maintain the change (strategy). Numerous clinical examples illustrate the important practice principles offered. Health Behavior Change and Treatment Adherence brings together major research findings in a succinct, readable, practical, and usable format for making real changes. It is written for a wide variety of practitioners and students including those in medicine, chiropractic, osteopathy, nursing, health education, physician assistant programs, dentistry, clinical and health psychology, marriage and family counseling, social work, school psychology, and care administration. This book is also for anyone who wishes to take an active role in their health. Less

Ideology, Psychology, and Law

John Jost

Jon Hanson (ed.)

Formally, the law purports to be based solely in reasoned analysis, devoid of ideological bias or unconscious influences. Judges claim to act as umpires applying the rules, not making ... More

Formally, the law purports to be based solely in reasoned analysis, devoid of ideological bias or unconscious influences. Judges claim to act as umpires applying the rules, not making them. They frame their decisions as straightforward applications of an established set of legal doctrines, principles, and mandates to a given set of facts. As scholars who carefully study the law understand, that frame is a façade, and the impression that the legal system projects is an illusion. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. made a similar claim more than a century ago when he wrote that “the felt necessities of the time, the prevalent moral and political theories, intuitions of public policy, avowed or unconscious, even the prejudices which judges share with their fellow-men, have a good deal more to do than the syllogism in determining the rules by which men should be governed.” A century later, though, we are much closer to understanding the mechanisms responsible for the gap between the formal face of the law and the actual forces shaping it. Over the last decade or so, political scientists and legal academics have begun studying the linkages between ideologies, on one hand, and legal principles and policy outcomes on the other. During that same period, mind scientists have turned to understanding the psychological sources of ideology. This book is the first to bring many of the world’s experts on those topics together to examine the sometimes unsettling interactions between psychology, ideology and law. Less

Image Bite Politics: News and the Visual Framing of Elections

Maria Elizabeth Grabe, Erik Page Bucy

Image Bite Politics is the first book to systematically assess the visual presentation of presidential candidates in network news coverage of elections and to connect ... More

Image Bite Politics is the first book to systematically assess the visual presentation of presidential candidates in network news coverage of elections and to connect these visual images with shifts in public opinion. Presenting the results of a comprehensive visual analysis of general election news from 1992-2004, encompassing four presidential campaigns, the authors highlight the remarkably potent influence of television images when it comes to evaluating leaders. The book draws from a variety of disciplines, including political science, behavioral biology, cognitive neuroscience, and media studies in order to investigate the visual framing of elections in an interdisciplinary fashion. Moreover, the book presents findings that are counterintuitive and which challenge widely held assumptions; yet are supported by systematic data. For example, Republicans receive consistently more favorable visual treatment than Democrats, countering the conventional wisdom of a “liberal media bias”; and image bites are more prevalent, and in some elections more potent, in shaping voter opinions of candidates than sound bites. Finally, the authors provide a foundation for promoting visual literacy among news audiences and bring the importance of visual analysis to the forefront of research. Less

The Impacts of Lasting Occupation: Lessons from Israeli Society

Daniel Bar-Tal, Izhak Schnell (eds)

The present book engages with the phenomenon of protracted occupation, which it perceives as both attention-grabbing and puzzling in the 21st century, an era in which it has become an ... More

The present book engages with the phenomenon of protracted occupation, which it perceives as both attention-grabbing and puzzling in the 21st century, an era in which it has become an exceptional and very rare phenomenon. The analysis begins with a view which suggests that occupation, by its very nature, has in most cases acquired a negative connotation because in the great majority of cases it is carried out coercively, against the will of the occupied population. In the discourse on this phenomenon, therefore, the focus of the interest is frequently on the occupied society, became it bears the very heavy tangible and intangible burdens of the occupation. Indeed there is growing literature on this issue. It is consequently requisite upon us also to analyze the relatively neglected effects of the occupation on the occupying society, effects that are not always explicit and easily observed. The present book focuses on a particular case of prolonged occupation – that of the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Israel following the Six Day War in 1967. Of importance for us is the fact that since 1967 Israel has been occupying Palestinian territories and the Palestinian population has been living for over four decades under this occupation. We focus on the relative gap in the interactive analysis in the context of occupation – the effects of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and of the Palestinian people, on the State of Israel and its society. The consequences of the occupation are felt in wide range of aspects of life from political, societal, legal and economic to cultural and psychological. Less

Implicit Motives

Oliver Schultheiss, Joachim Brunstein

This chapter provides an overview of the history of research on implicit motives. Six common principles of implicit motive research are laid out: (1) Implicit motives are nonconscious, ... More

This chapter provides an overview of the history of research on implicit motives. Six common principles of implicit motive research are laid out: (1) Implicit motives are nonconscious, (2) motive arousal is associated with characteristic changes in thought content and behavior, (3) motives act as affect amplifiers, (4) motives interact with situational incentives to shape behavior, (5) motives affect multiple levels of psychological functioning, and (6) the number of implicit motives is biologically constrained. The chapter also provides an overview of the structure and topics of the book. Less