The Oxford Handbook of Social Influence


Book Description

The Oxford Handbook of Social Influence restores this important field to its once preeminent position within social psychology. Editors Harkins, Williams, and Burger lead a team of leading scholars as they explore a variety of topics within social influence, seamlessly incorporating a range of analyses (including intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intragroup), and examine critical theories and the role of social influence in applied settings today.




The Oxford Handbook of Analytical Sociology


Book Description

Analytical sociology is a strategy for understanding the social world. It is concerned with explaining important social facts such as network structures, patterns of residential segregation, typical beliefs, cultural tastes, and common ways of acting. It explains such facts by detailing in clear and precise ways the mechanisms through which the social facts were brought about. Making sense of the relationship between micro and macro thus is one of the central concerns of analytical sociology. The approach is a contemporary incarnation of Robert K. Merton's notion of middle-range theory and presents a vision of sociological theory as a tool-box of semi-general theories each of which is adequate for explaining certain types of phenomena. The Handbook brings together some of the most prominent sociologists in the world. Some of the chapters focus on action and interaction as the cogs and wheels of social processes, while others consider the dynamic social processes that these actions and interactions bring about.




The Oxford Handbook of Media Psychology


Book Description

The Oxford Handbook of Media Psychology explores facets of human behaviour, thoughts, and feelings experienced in the context of media use and creation.




The Oxford Handbook of Social Influence


Book Description

The study of social influence has been central to social psychology since its inception. In fact, research on social influence predated the coining of the term social psychology. Its influence continued through the 1960s, when it made seminal contributions to the beginning of social psychology's golden age. However, by the mid-1980s, interest in this area waned, while at the same time, and perhaps not coincidentally, interest in social cognition waxed. Now the pendulum is swinging back, as seen in growing interest in non-cognitive, motivational accounts. The Oxford Handbook of Social Influence will contribute to a resurgence of interest in social influence that will restore it to its once preeminent position. Written by leading scholars, the chapters cover a variety of topics related to social influence, incorporating a range of levels of analysis (intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intragroup) and both source (the influencers) and target (the influenced) effects. The volume also examines theories that are most relevant to social infl uence, as well as social influence in applied settings. The chapters contribute to the renaissance of interest in social influence by showing that it is time to reexamine classic topics in social influence; by illustrating how integrations/ elaborations that advance our understanding of social influence processes are now possible; by revealing gaps in the social influence literature; and by suggesting future lines of research. Perhaps the most important of these lines of work will take into account the change from traditional social influence that occurs face-to-face to social media-mediated influence that is likely to characterize many of our interactions in the future.




The Oxford Handbook of Integrative Health Science


Book Description

Most health research to date has been pursued within the confines of scientific disciplines that are guided by their own targeted questions and research strategies. Although useful, such inquiries are inherently limited in advancing understanding the interplay of wide-ranging factors that shape human health. The Oxford Handbook of Integrative Health Science embraces an integrative approach that seeks to put together sociodemographic factors (age, gender, race, socioeconomic status) known to contour rates of morbidity and mortality with psychosocial factors (emotion, cognition, personality, well-being, social connections), behavioral factors (health practices) and stress exposures (caregiving responsibilities, divorce, discrimination) also known to influence health. A further overarching theme is to explicate the biological pathways through which these various effects occur. The biopsychosocial leitmotif that inspires this approach demands new kinds of studies wherein wide-ranging assessments across different domains are assembled on large population samples. The MIDUS (Midlife in the U.S.) national longitudinal study exemplifies such an integrative study, and all findings presented in this collection draw on MIDUS. The way the study evolved, via collaboration of scientists working across disciplinary lines, and its enthusiastic reception from the scientific community are all part of the larger story told. Embedded within such tales are important advances in the identification of key protective or vulnerability factors: these pave the way for practice and policy initiatives seeking to improve the nation's health.




The Oxford Handbook of Social Psychology and Social Justice


Book Description

"The twentieth century witnessed not only the devastation of war, conflict, and injustice on a massive scale, but also the emergence of social psychology as a discipline committed to addressing these and other social problems. In the twenty-first century, the promise of social psychology remains incomplete. We witness the reprise of authoritarianism and the endurance of institutionalized forms of oppression such as sexism, racism, and heterosexism across the globe. This volume represents an audacious proposal to reorient social psychology toward the study of social injustice in real-world settings. Contributors cross borders between cultures and disciplines to highlight new and emerging critical paradigms that interrogate the consequences of social injustice. United in their belief in the possibility of liberation from oppression, the authors of this book offer a blueprint for a new kind of social psychology." --




The Oxford Handbook of School Psychology


Book Description

The Oxford Handbook of School Psychology focuses on significant issues, new developments, and scientific findings that influence current research and practice in the ever-growing field of school psychology. Additional sections discuss building a cumulative knowledge base to better facilitate students' academic, social, and personal competencies, including the promotion of positive mental health and subjective well-being.




The Oxford Handbook of Social Neuroscience


Book Description

This title marks the emergence of a third broad perspective in neuroscience. This perspective emphasizes the functions that emerge through the coaction and interaction of conspecifics and the commonality and differences across social species and superorganismal structures.




The Oxford Handbook of the Psychology of Appearance


Book Description

We live in a society in which messages associating physical attractiveness with success and happiness are pervasive.This book gives a detailed, authoritative account of research, policy, and practice in psychological aspects of appearance, including the role of the media in shaping people's attitudes and behaviors towards appearance.




Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology


Book Description

Over one billion people use the Internet globally. Psychologists are beginning to understand what people do online, and the impact being online has on behaviour. It's making us re-think many of our existing assumptions about what it means to be a social being. For instance, if we can talk, flirt, meet people and fall in love online, this challenges many of psychology's theories that intimacy or understanding requires physical co-presence. "The Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology" brings together many of the leading researchers in what can be termed 'Internet Psychology'. Though a very new area of research, it is growing at a phenomenal pace. In addition to well-studied areas of investigation, such as social identity theory, computer-mediated communication and virtual communities, the volume also includes chapters on topics as diverse as deception and misrepresentation, attitude change and persuasion online, Internet addiction, online relationships, privacy and trust, health and leisure use of the Internet, and the nature of interactivity. With over 30 chapters written by experts in the field, the range and depth of coverage is unequalled, and serves to define this emerging area of research. Uniquely, this content is supported by an entire section covering the use of the Internet as a research tool, including qualitative and quantitative methods, online survey design, personality testing, ethics, and technological and design issues. While it is likely to be a popular research resource to be 'dipped into', as a whole volume it is coherent and compelling enough to act as a single text book. "The Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology" is the definitive text on this burgeoning field. It will be an essential resource for anyone interested in the psychological aspects of Internet use, or planning to conduct research using the 'net'.