APA Handbook of Personality and Social Psychology : Volume 1: Attitudes and Social Cognition Volume 2: Group Processes Volume 3: Interpersonal Relations Volume 4: Personality Processes and Individual Differences

This four-volume handbook summarizes the current state of knowledge on major topics within the fields of personality and social psychology.

Coverage is contemporary, is provocative, and sets an agenda for future work in the area.   Volume 1 focuses on attitudes and social cognition, describing the two main directions in which this domain has moved over the past quarter century.

First, there is increasing focus on the phenomenology of daily life, with emphasis on the contents and drivers of mundane daily life.

These include emotional experience, religious beliefs, feelings of control and agency, the function of conscious thought, and how all of these underpin our sense of self and important social behaviors.

The second trend has been toward a deeper understanding of basic human nature, with increasing focus on unconscious or implicit cognitive processes that influence virtually all facets of daily life (e.g., how power transforms how we think about others and what qualities we associate with leadership).   Volumes 2 and 3 provide a broad framework to guide theorizing and research with respect to group processes and interpersonal relations in social psychology.

Topics of discussion include theory and research on prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination; intergroup and intragroup processes; and the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of relationships.

Together, the chapters reflect a wide range of theoretical perspectives at different levels of analysis, including perspectives from disciplines outside of psychology (e.g., biology, neuroscience, health sciences, sociology).   Volume 4 contains sections on personality processes and individual differences as well as sections on more holistic approaches, such as The Person in Context and The Person as a Whole.   Authors provide not only the foundational material on their topic but also discuss the big issues or bones of contention and what they see as the ways forward to resolve these issues.