The ninth edition of Social Psychology continues to integrate classic and current research in a highly readable and engaging fashion. This classic text retains the hallmark of its own past success: up-to-date coverage of the quickly evolving subject matter, written in a lively manner that has been embraced by hundreds of thousands of students around the world.

The fascinating field of social psychology is pertinent to the lives of every reader of the text. Taking note of this fact, the authors have introduced a new theme —“taking social psychology with you” — which centers around the following idea: Social psychology offers a unique and valuable way of looking at the social world and a set of basic principles that everyone should use in their own lives. In other words, students who read this book should take social psychology with them when the course is over. This theme is reflected in the book in several ways:

A new feature called “Beyond the Headlines: As Social Psychologists See It” takes real-life news events and examines them from a social psychology perspective. This feature illustrates how the topics can be applied to many aspects of human behavior.

Another new feature “Ideas to Take With You” highlights important concepts at the end of every chapter that will impact the life of the student long after the course is completed.

Other recent trends in the field of social psychology have been included in the ninth edition:

The biological perspective has been embraced by much of the academic community, and the authors discuss this perspective at numerous points in the text. A “Biological” icon marks the discussions of this topic in the margins of the text.

In addition, diversity continues to be a current and important theme in the field. Special sections of the text, called “Social Diversity: A Critical Analysis” are devoted to the topic of cultural and ethnic diversity. In addition, the authors incorporate the coverage of diversity throughout the text. This coverage is annotated with a diversity icon in the margin of the book.