Social Cognitive Psychology is the first text to provide comprehensive coverage of the field, including thorough discussions of its historical foundations cross-referenced with significant recent developments. Highlights include

;the discipline's origins in pragmatic philosophy and the need for a second social psychology;
the contributions of cognition, affect, and direct perception to social knowing, and
the development of positive and negative self theories in social context.

This valuable reference contains comprehensive chapter summaries, lists of key terms and concepts, and graphs of processing models from various theories.