The Social Animal

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely magnificent! A must-read!
Review: A very interesting and tremendously well-written book--a pure delight to read. In writing this book, Aronson not only demonstrates his wide-ranging knowledge of Social Psychology, but also attempts (very successfully, in my opinion) to transmit to the reader his infectious enthusiasm for the subject. By consciously choosing not to employ pretentious language (alas, the bane of academia!), Aronson allows the subject to speak for itself. This is an immensely readable book (any high-school student would have no problems with it) but is nonetheless very informative. It would not be an overexaggeration to say that having read this book during my freshman year in college was one of the first in a series of steps that culminated in my decision to go on to graduate school in Social Psychology. Read it!

Rating:
Summary: Where Psychology meets Culture
Review: Aronson's emminently readable volume is packed with useful--if not always profound--insights and information that go a long way towards explaining many of the abnomal "normalities" of our own society. Although Aronson's volume is far from being preachy, it is difficult not to make certain connections within our own society that have the character of being drawn directly from Aronson's experiments.

Racism, for instance can now be explained entirely in social psychological terms. Both white and non-white behaviror--actions and interactions--follow the models of Aronson's experiments precisely. Alienation within our society and the attendant lost of a sense of community is another example of one of the secondary effects of social psychological processes made so profoundly clear from this book.

Aronson leaves us with a lot to digest and think about, and this in my view is what books of this sort should do. This is a real tour de force. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Where Psychology meets Culture
Review: Aronson's emminently readable volume is packed with useful--if not always profound--insights and information that go a long way towards explaining many of the abnomal "normalities" of our own society. Although Aronson's volume is far from being preachy, it is difficult not to make certain connections within our own society that have the character of being drawn directly from Aronson's experiments.

Racism, for instance can now be explained entirely in social psychological terms. Both white and non-white behaviror--actions and interactions--follow the models of Aronson's experiments precisely. Alienation within our society and the attendant lost of a sense of community is another example of one of the secondary effects of social psychological processes made so profoundly clear from this book.

Aronson leaves us with a lot to digest and think about, and this in my view is what books of this sort should do. This is a real tour de force. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: A great ideas book but short on experiments and research
Review: Covers every major area in social psychology that undergraduates in this area need to know. Fantastic review for graduate students. Full of classic and current references and has a glossary. Aronson writes in his usual captivating style to get the reader interested in social cognition issues and much more.
Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent for beginners
Review: I am a current undergraduate student at the University of California at Santa Cruz. This past quarter, I had the honor of being in Elliot Aronson's last ever lecture class at Santa Cruz. It was amazing. His teaching and writing inspired me to re-evaluate my actions and myself as a person. Aronson's heart shows through in his writing--and even more in his lecturing. The book truly causes one to look at his actions and reactions to various interactions with those around him. The Social Animal focuses on why, how, and when people formulate different ideas about society and the people contained in it. One definitely gains an understanding of himself and his interactions, views, ideals, predjudices, etc. after reading this critical analysis of human social behavior. Again, I feel honored to have been enlightened by Elliot Aronson.

Rating:
Summary: THE book of social psychology
Review: I am a graduate student and forever labor at parties under the misconception others have about what it is that I study. This book was panacea for me -- I bought it and gave copies of it to my parents and various assorted others. In lay-person's prose, Aronson explains the major, and most influential, of social psychological achievements. He accurately explains what social psychology is and why it's helpful without ever sounding like a professor talking down to students. It is a must-read for everyone, not only because it is so clear and cogent, but because it can explain and clarify to many the basic processes underlying most of everyday life.

Rating:
Summary: This book is not for critical thinkers
Review: I had to read The Social Animal in it's entirety for my degree required Social Psychology class. This book would have been "tolerable" if Aronson had done one simple thing. Instead of doing what most proffesional writers do, and leave their personal social/political opinions on the back burner when dealing with scientific material, Aronson decides to let his personal bias take up plenty of space. For anyone with a functioning brain it's quite easy to see that he is a token bleeding heart liberal, with a mindset that's stuck in the 60's. His ironic and blatant use of the poor nego and the persecuted post-WWII Jew, living in a torturously oppressive society, being held down by the evil white man is laughable at best. I guess he doesn't realize this isn't the 60's anymore, and it's fashionable to hate white people, because he (like most people) doesn't even acknowledge any negative behavior directed towards white people by non-whites, in any of his "un-biased" examples. I guess all the LSD he was using during his beatnik get-togethers made him incapable of getting a real science degree. But it doesn't surprise me, liberals love to use speculation as opposed to factual and historically supporting evidence, so what the heck, why not major in a pseudo-science like Social Psychology? Unless you are a blatant humanitarian, or just dense as a rock, avoid this author like the plague. Unless you like searching for hypocritical dogma, and asinine rethoric, this book will make you wish you had dropped the class and taken Physics.

Rating:
Summary: The Social Animal: Bible of the Psychology of Society
Review: This a fantastically user friendly guide to understand whether or not things we say about much of human behavior is true. For example "Is beauty really in the eye of the beholder?" "If I want people to believe me, should I speak first or last?" "What attracts people to each other?" "Will seeing violence on TV matter?" Elliot Aronson, author of 15 books, noted scientist, and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, concisely explains a number of social issues with the light of scientific truth. Internationally recognized for sixteen years, The Social Animal, offers plain and often funny insight as to what psychologists know about human behavior in the social context. Used as both text book and sophisticated reading, few books offer enlightenment about what happens in social cirmstances, with such easily understood and scientific presentation.