Social Psychology, 14th edition

For courses in Social Psychology

Revel™ is Pearson’s newest way of delivering our respected content. Fully digital and highly engaging, Revel replaces the textbook and gives students everything they need for the course. Informed by extensive research on how people read, think, and learn, Revel is an interactive learning environment that enables students to read, practice, and study in one continuous experience — for less than the cost of a traditional textbook.

Show how the ever-changing field of Social Psychology is useful in students’ everyday lives

Revel Social Psychology, Fourteenth Edition retains the hallmark of its past success: up-to-date coverage of the quickly evolving subject matter written in a lively manner that has been embraced by thousands of students around the world. Authors Nyla Branscombe and Robert Baron — both respected scholars with decades of undergraduate teaching experience — generate student excitement by revealing the connections between theory and real-world experiences. The Fourteenth Edition offers updated content to engage students, as well as new “What Research Tells Us About…” sections in each chapter that illustrate how research findings help answer important questions about social life.

Learn more about Revel.

• Integrated within the narrative, interactives empower students to engage with concepts and take an active role in learning. Revel's unique presentation of media as an intrinsic part of course content brings the hallmark features of Pearson's bestselling titles to life. Revel's media interactives have been designed to be completed quickly, so students stay focused and on task.
• End-of-chapter quizzing affords students opportunities to check their understanding before moving on.
• The Revel mobile app lets students read, practice, and study — anywhere, anytime, on any device. Content is available both online and offline, and the app syncs work across all registered devices automatically, giving students great flexibility to toggle between phone, tablet, and laptop as they move through their day. The app also lets students set assignment notifications to stay on top of all due dates.
• Revel’s writing functionality enables educators to introduce writing — among the best ways to foster and assess critical thinking — into the course without significantly impacting their grading burden. Self-paced Journaling Prompts throughout the narrative encourage students to express their thoughts without breaking stride in their reading. Assignable Shared Writing Activities direct students to share written responses with classmates, fostering peer discussion.
• Highlighting, note taking, and a glossary let students read and study however they like. Educators can add notes for students, too, including reminders or study tips.

Engaging, student-friendly features highlight the utility of the discipline

• Chapter-opening vignettes illustrate how the ever-changing field of Social Psychology is useful in illuminating our everyday lives. Focusing on current trends and events, these stories draw students in and show how the chapter’s concepts apply to real life.
• Research methodology is presented in context throughout every chapter. At appropriate points in the narrative, the authors integrate research and findings relating to several basic themes:
  • Emotion
  • The effects of culture
  • Social neuroscience
  • The pervasive influence of gender
  • The role of the internet and other technologies on social interaction
  • The evolutionary perspective
• Essays of several types integrated throughout the narrative help students relate key concepts to their own lives.
  • Social Life in a Connected World essays show students how the discipline of social psychology is working to understand the nature and scope of the recent dramatic changes in our social world.
  • Social Life in a Changing World essays emphasize and reflect current trends in social psychological research and the field’s responsiveness to social change.
  • Emotion and... essays in each chapter emphasize recent research on emotion, ensuring that coverage of this important topic is integrated into every chapter.

Pedagogical tools in each chapter guide students through the material, boosting understanding and retention

• Key points summarize the highlights of each major section.
• A summary and review at the end of each chapter provides a guide to the major content covered.
• Key terms and their definitions appear in a running glossary in the margin of the page where the term is first mentioned, and are listed at the end of each chapter.

New content on contemporary topics reinforces the relevance of course material

• NEW! “What Research Tells Us About…” sections in each chapter illustrate how research findings help answer important questions about social life. These sections touch upon both important societal changes and cutting-edge research, making them both informative and enjoyable. Dozens of new topics have been added to reflect exciting current research trends. Examples of the topics added to this edition include:
  • The role of nonverbal cues in job interviews
  • Biases in our beliefs about inequality
  • People’s preference for the status quo
  • The importance of belonging and group ties
  • Prosocial crowdfunding: providing funds to help others develop their products
  • Why not controlling ourselves can make us feel good
  • The role of existential threat in prejudice
  • Self-esteem and group memberships
  • Why some people conclude they are superior to others
  • Social modeling and eating
  • Aggression in the workplace
  • Why some people are happier than others
  • Two factors that can destroy love: jealousy and infidelity
  • The importance of being treated with respect
  • Using scarcity to gain compliance
  • The role of social class in prosocial behavior
  • Reducing post-traumatic stress disorder among returning veterans
  • How people react to being helped
  • Narcissistic rage and the hostile attributional bias
  • Culture and attitude processes
• NEW! The fourteenth edition focuses on the implications of changes in the larger social world — such as the increased use of Facebook and other social media — upon social behavior.
• NEW! The fourteenth edition emphasizes how culture and group memberships affect identities — “who we think we are” — and influence social thought and behavior. Most chapters illustrate the importance of culture and identity for:
  • Attitudes
  • Feelings of control
  • Decision making
  • Social relationships
  • Social influence
  • Prejudice

• Revel’s assignment calendar allows educators to indicate precisely which readings must be completed on which dates. This clear, detailed schedule helps students stay on task by eliminating any ambiguity as to which material will be covered during each class. When they understand exactly what is expected of them, students are better motivated to keep up.
• Revel’s performance dashboard empowers educators to monitor class assignment completion as well as individual student achievement. Actionable information, such as points earned on quizzes and tests and time on task, helps educators intersect with their students in meaningful ways. For example, the trending column reveals whether students' grades are improving or declining, helping educators to identify students who might need help to stay on track.
• Revel’s Blackboard Learn™ integration provides institutions, instructors, and students easy access to their Revel courses. With single sign-on, students can be ready to access Revel’s interactive blend of authors' narrative, media, and assessment on their first day. Flexible, on-demand grade synchronization capabilities allow educators to control exactly which Revel grades should be transferred to the Blackboard Gradebook.