Originally published in 1987 this third edition won praise from students and instructors alike for its challenging "no nonsense" approach to the field. Thoroughly updated to reflect current research of the time, the text retains the qualities that had become its hallmarks: a cognitive approach to the process of socialization, and an emphasis on the ideas that give the discipline continuity. It offers clear, conceptually integrated discussions of all of the major topics in social psychology from the time.

Shaver's focus on the concepts of social psychology provides a framework for...