--- title: Social Psychology description: This discipline investigates how individual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual or implied presence of others. Learners will understand group dynamics, social influence, prejudice, conformity, and interpersonal relationships. category: social-sciences subcategory: psychology difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/social-psychology --- # Social Psychology This discipline investigates how individual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual or implied presence of others. Learners will understand group dynamics, social influence, prejudice, conformity, and interpersonal relationships. ## Available Resources 7 Books • 3 Courses • 4 Websites ## Courses ### 1. Introduction to Psychology What are people most afraid of? What do our dreams mean? Are we natural-born racists? What makes us happy? What are the causes and cures of mental illness? This course tries to answer these questions and many others, providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. It explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making, persuasion, emotions, and social behavior. We will look at how these aspects of the mind develop in children, how they differ across people, how they are wired-up in the brain, and how they break down due to illness and injury. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/introduction-psychology **Tags:** psychology, cognitive-science, mental-illness, social-behavior, intro-course ### 2. Social Psychology Ever wonder why people do what they do? This course—which includes more than $1,000 of video and reading materials—offers some answers based on the latest research from social psychology. Students taking the course for a Certificate will also receive free membership in Social Psychology Network (SocialPsychology.org). COURSE DESCRIPTION FROM PROFESSOR PLOUS: Each of us is dealt a different hand in life, but we all face similar questions when it comes to human behavior: What leads us to like one person and dislike another? How do conflicts and prejudices develop, and how can they be reduced? Can psychological research help protect the environment, and if so, how? This course offers a brief introduction to classic and contemporary social psychology, covering topics such as decision making, persuasion, group behavior, personal attraction, and factors that promote health and well-being. Our focus will be on surprising, entertaining, and intriguing research findings that are easy to apply in daily life. The course will also draw from the websites of Social Psychology Network, the world's largest online community devoted to social psychology. I hope you'll join me for this course, have fun, and learn some useful information that enriches your life. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Duration:** 6 weeks of study, 4-6 hours/week (plus a mid-course break) | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/social-psychology **Tags:** courses, humanities-social-sciences, psychology ### 3. Social Norms, Social Change This is a course on social norms, the rules that glue societies together. It teaches how to diagnose social norms, and how to distinguish them from other social constructs, like customs or conventions. These distinctions are crucial for effective policy interventions aimed to create new, beneficial norms or eliminate harmful ones. The course teaches how to measure social norms and the expectations that support them, and how to decide whether they cause specific behaviors. The course is a joint Penn-UNICEF project, and it includes many examples of norms that sustain behaviors like child marriage, gender violence and sanitation practices. This is Part 1 of the Social Norms, Social Change series. In these lectures, I introduce all the basic concepts and definitions, such as social expectations and conditional preferences, that help us distinguish between different types of social practices like customs, descriptive norms and social norms. Expectations and preferences can be measured, and these lectures explain how to measure them. Measurement is crucial to understanding the nature of the practice you are facing, as well as whether an intervention was or was not successful, and why. In Part 2, we will put into practice all we have learned in Part 1. New! Please use this link for a 30% discount on the recommended book that accompanies this course! https://global.oup.com/academic/product/9780190622053/?cc=us&lang=en&promocode=AAFLYG6 **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Duration:** 4 weeks of study, 2-3 hours/week | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/norms **Tags:** courses, humanities-social-sciences, psychology ## Podcasts ### 1. Invisibilia **Author:** NPR Unseeable forces control human behavior and shape our ideas, beliefs, and assumptions. Invisibilia—Latin for invisible things—fuses narrative storytelling with science that will make you see your own life differently. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510307/invisibilia **Tags:** social-psychology, human-behavior, behavioral-science, narrative-journalism ## Books ### 1. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion **Author:** Jonathan Haidt Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that moral judgments come from intuition first and reasoning second, and presents moral foundations theory to explain why liberals, conservatives and religious groups disagree. Readers gain a research-based framework for understanding political polarization and moral conflict. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/0307455777?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** moral-psychology, moral-foundations-theory, political-polarization, social-intuitionism, religion ### 2. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion **Author:** Robert B. Cialdini Robert Cialdini's research-based account of six principles of persuasion: reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity. Drawing on experiments and his fieldwork among salespeople and fundraisers, it teaches readers to recognise compliance tactics and resist unwanted influence. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Robert-Cialdini/dp/006124189X?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** persuasion, social-influence, compliance, social-psychology, cognitive-bias ### 3. The Righteous Mind **Author:** Jonathan Haidt Jonathan Haidt's account of moral psychology, arguing that moral judgments come from intuition before reasoning, setting out Moral Foundations Theory, and explaining how religion and group loyalty bind people. Readers understand why liberals, conservatives and libertarians disagree so persistently. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307455777?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** moral-psychology, moral-foundations-theory, political-psychology, religion, social-psychology ### 4. The Social Animal **Author:** Elliot Aronson Edited collection of the classic social psychology papers and essays behind Elliot Aronson's textbook, covering conformity, persuasion, prejudice, and aggression, letting readers work from original studies rather than second-hand summaries. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1429206179?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, psychology ### 5. Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) **Author:** Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson Tavris and Aronson trace how cognitive dissonance drives self-justification, using cases from courtrooms, therapy, medicine, and politics to show why people defend bad decisions instead of correcting them, and what breaks that cycle. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1905177216?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, psychology ### 6. Social Psychology **Author:** Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, and Robin M. Akert Undergraduate textbook by Aronson, Wilson, and Akert covering attribution, attitudes, conformity, group processes, prejudice, attraction, and helping behaviour, grounded in the experiments that established each finding and their applications to law, health, and the environment. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0131217879?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, psychology ### 7. Influence **Author:** Robert B. Cialdini Cialdini's account of six compliance principles (reciprocity, commitment, social proof, liking, authority, scarcity) drawn from field studies of sales and fundraising, letting readers recognise and resist these tactics in everyday persuasion attempts. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0321011473?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, psychology ## Websites ### 1. socialpsychology.org Socialpsychology.org is the hub of the Social Psychology Network, offering articles, teaching resources, and up-to-date research and news in social psychology. It also provides directories, job listings, and professional resources for students, educators, and researchers. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://socialpsychology.org **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, psychology ### 2. greatergood.berkeley.edu From UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, this site offers science-based articles, videos, podcasts, quizzes, and practical guides on social and emotional well-being. It covers empathy, compassion, mindfulness, resilience, and emotional intelligence with actionable tips for daily life. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://greatergood.berkeley.edu **Tags:** websites, personal-development, life-skills ### 3. spsp.org SPSP.org is the official site of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, a hub for social psychology resources and community. It features news, research resources, conference and journal information, and guidance for students, researchers, and educators. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://spsp.org **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, psychology ### 4. nobaproject.com/social NOBA Project's Social Psychology section is a free, open-access resource that provides a modular social psychology textbook along with quizzes, activities, and teaching materials. It covers core topics such as attitudes, persuasion, social cognition, conformity, stereotypes, and group dynamics, with ready-to-use resources for instructors and students. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://nobaproject.com/social **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, psychology --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/social-psychology