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Despite widespread acknowledgment that both personal and
situational factors influence behavior, researchers in the area of
social influence have been slow to examine individual differences
in their work. Indeed, social influence investigators often point
to their findings to illustrate the power of situational variables
relative to personal causes of behavior. However, as the articles
in this volume demonstrate, social influence researchers can obtain
a greater understanding of the phenomena they study by
incorporating individual difference variables into their research.
Despite widespread acknowledgment that both personal and
situational factors influence behavior, researchers in the area of
social influence have been slow to examine individual differences
in their work. Indeed, social influence investigators often point
to their findings to illustrate the power of situational variables
relative to personal causes of behavior. However, as the articles
in this volume demonstrate, social influence researchers can obtain
a greater understanding of the phenomena they study by
incorporating individual difference variables into their research.
This book is a cumulation of a research program that began in the
sum mer of 1978, when I was a doctoral student at the University of
Missouri. What started as a graduate student' s curiosity about
individual differ ences in need for personal control led to a
personality scale, a few pub lications, some additional questions,
and additional research. For reasons I no longer recall, I named
this personality trait desire for control. One study led to
another, and questions by students and colleagues often spurred me
to apply desire for control to new areas and new questions. At the
same time, researchers around the globe began using the scale and
sending me reprints of articles and copies of papers describing
work they had done on desire for contro!. In the past decade or so,
I have talked or corresponded with dozens of students who have used
the scale in their doctoral dissertation and master's thesis
research. I have heard of or seen translations of the Desirability
of Control Scale into German, Polish, Japanese, and French. There
is also a children's version of the scale. I estirnate that there
have now been more than a hundred studies conducted on desire for
contro!.
This book is a cumulation of a research program that began in the
sum mer of 1978, when I was a doctoral student at the University of
Missouri. What started as a graduate student' s curiosity about
individual differ ences in need for personal control led to a
personality scale, a few pub lications, some additional questions,
and additional research. For reasons I no longer recall, I named
this personality trait desire for control. One study led to
another, and questions by students and colleagues often spurred me
to apply desire for control to new areas and new questions. At the
same time, researchers around the globe began using the scale and
sending me reprints of articles and copies of papers describing
work they had done on desire for contro . In the past decade or so,
I have talked or corresponded with dozens of students who have used
the scale in their doctoral dissertation and master's thesis
research. I have heard of or seen translations of the Desirability
of Control Scale into German, Polish, Japanese, and French. There
is also a children's version of the scale. I estirnate that there
have now been more than a hundred studies conducted on desire for
contro ."
Each year millions of American adults visit a childhood home. Few
can anticipate the effect it will have on them. Often serving
several important psychological needs, these trips are not intended
as visits with people from their past. Rather, those returning to
their homes have a strong desire to visit the places that comprised
the landscape of their childhood. Approximately one third of
American adults over the age of thirty have visited a childhood
home. This book describes some of their experiences and the
psychology behind the journeys. Most people who visit a childhood
home are motivated by a desire to connect with their past. Seeing
the buildings, schools, parks, and playgrounds from their youth
helps to establish the psychological and emotional link between the
child in the black-and-white photographs and the person they are
today. Many people use the trip to get in touch with the values and
principles they were taught as children, often as a means to get
their lives back on track. Others use that journey to strengthen
emotional bonds between themselves and loved ones. Still others
return to former homes to work through psychological issues left
over from sad or traumatic childhoods. No matter the reason, there
are few experiences in one's life that can move a person as deeply
and unpredictably as returning home.
The study of social influence has been central to social psychology
since its inception. In fact, research on social influence began
all the way back to the late 1800s, predating the term 'social
psychology' as we know it today. And while the area's influence
continued through the beginning of social psychology's golden age,
by the mid-1980s, interest declined while interest in social
cognition increased. Today, however, the pendulum is swinging back,
and is evident from the growing interest in non-cognitive,
motivational accounts of the field. Edited by Stephen G. Harkins,
Kipling D. Williams, and Jerry M. Burger, The Oxford Handbook of
Social Influence is a landmark contribution to the resurging
interest in social influence, restoring this important field to its
once preeminent position within social psychology. In this volume,
Harkins, Williams, and Burger lead a team of leading scholars as
they explore a variety of topics within social influence,
seamlessly incorporating a range of analyses (including
intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intragroup), and examine critical
theories and the role of social influence in applied settings
today. The Oxford Handbook of Social Influence contributes to
emerging interest in social influence in a variety of ways.
Chapters cover classic topics in the context of what has been
learned since the original research was conducted, while other
contributions showcase how integrations and elaborations that
initially advanced our understanding of social influence processes
are now within reach. Additional chapters also reveal the gaps in
social influence literature, and go on to suggest future lines of
research and exploration.
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