Understanding Social Psychology Across Cultures: Engaging with Others in a Changing World - Hardcover

Smith, Peter B; Fischer, Ronald; Vignoles, Vivian L.; Bond, Michael H. (Harris)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1446267105 ISBN 13: 9781446267103

Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2013

Synopsis

Understanding Social Psychology Across Cultures Second Edition starts by asking why social psychology needs a cross-cultural perspective. It then examines cultural differences and their origins, before addressing traditional social psychological themes cross-culturally, for example group processes, self and identity, intergroup relations. Themes of contemporary relevance including migration, ethnic conflict and climate change are also covered.

Key features:

• Presentation of concepts and theories made accessible to the reader using practical examples and everyday life experiences from diverse parts of the world
• Biographical portraits of key researchers in the field
• Coverage of the appropriate methods for conducting state-of-the-art cross-cultural research

This textbook is appropriate for students of social and cross-cultural psychology. It will also interest practitioners wanting to understand the impact of culture on their fields of work, such as international relations, social policy, health promotion, ethnic relations and international business.

About this title

Review:

'... For anyone eager to learn about how members of different cultures are fundamentally different - and yet sometimes remarkably similar - this book provides a great read.'
Roy F. Baumeister
Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA

'Understanding Social Psychology across Cultures 2e is an intellectual tour de force of the latest developments in cross-cultural social psychology. It is an essential resource for anyone interested in culture and human behavior.'

Michele J. Gelfand
University of Maryland, College Park, USA

'The new edition of this leading textbook in cross-cultural social psychology is the perfect introduction to the field. It has extraordinarily broad and up-to-date coverage of virtually all the important topics that have been studied.'
Shalom H. Schwartz
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

By far the most interesting section of the book for me was the third one entitled "The World in Flux." Here, speech, levels of contact and group behaviour are brought together in plausible narrative at every level from individual interactions to intra- and intergroup dynamics. Acculturation, coping with cultural identity threat as well as bicultural identity development and integration are explored, relevant to many of today’s burning cultural conflicts. What is the impact of globalization and its subtext of concomitant modernity and economic pressures in the mobility of people and cultural discourse?

(Dr. George F. Simons 2014-01-17)

About the Author:

Peter B. Smith was born near Colchester, UK, in 1937. and obtained his PhD from Cambridge University in 1962. After working at Leeds University, he joined the University of Sussex in 1966 and never found a good reason to leave. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Social Psychology. He has studied cross-cultural aspects of leadership, conformity and informal influence processes, as well as cultural differences in styles of communication. He is the author of eight books and more than 180 other publications. He is former president of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, and has served as Editor of the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.

About this edition

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1446267105
• ISBN 13: 9781446267103
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 480