Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

Prejudice and Discrimination
The Foundations of Prejudice
Neuroscience in Your Life:
The Prejudiced Brain
Measuring Prejudice and Discrimination: 
The Implicit Personality Test
Reducing the Consequences 
of Prejudice and Discrimination
What are the major sources and tactics of 
social infl uence? 
Why are we attracted to certain people, and 
what progression do social relationships follow?
●
What factors underlie aggression and prosocial 
behavior?
M O D U L E 5 5
Positive and Negative 
Social Behavior
Liking and Loving: Interpersonal 
Attraction and the Development 
of Relationships
Applying Psychology in the 21st Century:
Friends Online—Is Facebook 
the New Student Union?
Aggression and Prosocial Behavior: 
Hurting and Helping Others
Helping Others: The Brighter 
Side of Human Nature
Neuroscience in Your Life:
Moral 
Decisions and the Brain
Becoming an Informed 
Consumer of Psychology:
Dealing Eff ectively with Anger
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Prologue
A Gift of Life
Ten weeks pregnant, Katie Purdom had just picked up daughter 
Victoria Leigh, 4, from preschool in Lebanon, Ky., on a misty 
afternoon . . . when a neighbor’s dog ran in front of her SUV. She 
swerved to avoid it, causing the car to fl ip over and land in a 
4-ft.-deep creek; her seat belt locked, Katie was pinned, as was 
Victoria, who was belted into her booster seat in back. “The water 
was coming in everywhere,” says Katie, 31, a nonswimmer who 
works in the bakery at a local Wal-Mart. “Tori kept saying, ‘I’m 
cold, Momma, help!’ It was terrifying.” As she tried to reach back 
to hold her child’s face above the rising water, Katie heard a man’s 
voice: It was Perry Bland, 52, who had spotted them while driving 
on the route he’s covered for 27 years. With calming words, he 
pulled out his plastic letter opener and started to saw away at the 
seat belts. Ten minutes later both mother and daughter were free, 
having escaped with only minor scratches. Now seven months 
along with a baby boy, Katie says, “I owe Perry our lives.” Perry, 
who has become something of a local celebrity, is just thankful it 
all worked out. “I still get choked up,” he says. “I know how close 
it could have been.” (Mascia & Servis, 2009, p. 109) 

Looking
Ahead 

What led Perry Bland to behave so heroically? Was it simply the 
circumstances, or was it something about the kind of person 
Bland was? What, in general, drives some people to help others—
and conversely, why do other people show no concern for the 
welfare of others? More broadly, how can we improve social 
conditions so that people can live together in harmony? 
We can fully answer these questions only by taking into 
account fi ndings from the fi eld of social psychology, the branch 
of psychology that focuses on the aspects of human behavior 
that unite—and separate—us from one another. Social psychology 
is the scientifi c study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and 
actions are aff ected by others. Social psychologists consider the 
kinds and causes of the individual’s behavior in social situations. 
They examine how the nature of situations in which we fi nd 
ourselves infl uences our behavior in important ways.
The broad scope of social psychology is conveyed by the kinds 
of questions social psychologists ask, such as: How can we 
convince people to change their attitudes or adopt new ideas 
and values? In what ways do we come to understand what others 
are like? How are we infl uenced by what others do and think? 
Why do some people display so much violence, aggression, and 
cruelty toward others that people throughout the world live in 
fear of annihilation at their hands? And why, in comparison, do 
some people place their own lives at risk to help others? In 
exploring these and other questions, we also discuss strategies 
for confronting and solving a variety of problems and issues that 
all of us face—ranging from achieving a better understanding of 
persuasive tactics to forming more accurate impressions of 
others. 
We begin with a look at how our attitudes shape our behavior 
and how we form judgments about others. We’ll discuss how we 
are infl uenced by others, and we will consider prejudice and 
discrimination by focusing on their roots and the ways we can 
reduce them. After examining what social psychologists have 
learned about the ways people form friendships and relation-
ships, we’ll conclude with a look at the determinants of aggres-
sion and helping—two opposing sides of human behavior.