Do people have free will, or this universal belief an illusion? If free will is more than an illusion, what kind of free will do people have? How can free will influence behavior? Can free will be studied, verified, and understood scientifically? How and why might a sense of free will have evolved? These are a few of the questions this book attempts to answer.
People generally act as though they believe in their own free will: they don't feel like automatons, and they don't treat one another as they might treat robots. While acknowledging many constraints and influences on behavior, people nonetheless act as if they (and their neighbors) are largely in control of many if not most of the decisions they make. Belief in free will also underpins the sense that people are responsible for their actions. Psychological explanations of behavior rarely mention free will as a factor, however. Can psychological science find room for free will? How do leading psychologists conceptualize free will, and what role do they believe free will plays in shaping behavior?
In recent years a number of psychologists have tried to solve one or more of the puzzles surrounding free will. This book looks both at recent experimental and theoretical work directly related to free will and at ways leading psychologists from all branches of psychology deal with the philosophical problems long associated with the question of free will, such as the relationship between determinism and free will and the importance of consciousness in free will. It also includes commentaries by leading philosophers on what psychologists can contribute to long-running philosophical struggles with this most distinctly human belief.These essays should be of interest not only to social scientists, but to intelligent and thoughtful readers everywhere.

The ability to regulate and control our behaviors is a key accomplishment of the human species, yet the psychological mechanisms involved in self-regulation remain incompletely understood. This book presents contributions from leading international researchers who survey the most recent developments in this fascinating area. The chapters shed new light on the subtle and often subconscious ways that the people seek to regulate their thoughts, feelings and behaviors in everyday social life. The contributions seek answers to such intriguing questions as: How can we improve our ability to control our actions? How do people make decisions about which goals to pursue? How do we maintain and manage goal-oriented behavior? What happens when we run out of self-regulation resources? Can we match people and the regulatory demands of to specific tasks so as to optimize performance? What role does self-regulation play in sports performance, in maintaining successful relationships, and in managing work situations? The book offers a highly integrated and representative coverage of this important field, and is suitable as a core textbook in advanced courses dealing with social behavior and the applications of psychology to real-life problems.

You are a member of a social world on a planet that is home to about 8 billion people. This social world is filled with paradox, mystery, suspense and outright absurdity. Explore how social psychology can help you make sense of your own social world with this engaging and accessible book. Roy F. Baumeister and Brad J. Bushman's SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND HUMAN NATURE, 4th Edition, can help you understand one of the most interesting topics of all -- the sometimes bizarre and baffling but always fascinating diversity of human behavior, and how and why people act the way they do. After reading this book, you will have a much better understanding of people. Thoroughly updated with the latest research and thinking, the new edition includes expanded coverage of social media use and loneliness, findings on mimicry, nonbinary gender theory, anti-LGBTQ+ prejudice and more.

You are a member of a social world on a planet that is home to about 7 billion people. This social world is filled with paradox, mystery, suspense, and outright absurdity. Explore how social psychology can help you make sense of your own social world with this engaging and accessible book. Roy F. Baumeister and Brad J. Bushman's SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND HUMAN NATURE, International Edition can help you understand one of the most interesting topics of all-the sometimes bizarre and baffling but always fascinating diversity of human behavior, and how and why people act the way they do.

How to live well and the search for meaning have long been of intense concern to humans, perhaps because Homo sapiens is the only species aware of its own mortality. In the last few decades, empirical psychology made a major contribution to this quest. This book surveys groundbreaking work by leading international researchers, demonstrating that social psychology is the core discipline for understanding well-being and the search for meaning. Basic conceptual and theoretical principles are discussed, drawing on philosophy, evolutionary theory and psychology, followed by a review of the role of purposeful, motivated activity and self-control in achieving life satisfaction. The role of emotional and cognitive processes and the influence of social, interpersonal and cultural factors in promoting a happy and meaningful life are discussed. The book will be of interest to students, practitioners and researchers in the behavioral and social sciences, as well as to laypersons for whom improving the quality of human life and understanding the principles of well-being are of interest.

This volume provides an integrative theory firmly grounded in current psychology of the self, and offers a fresh, compelling account of one of psychology's most enigmatic behavior patterns. Professor Baumeister provides comprehensive coverage of historical and cross-cultural theories and empirical data on masochism and presents recent, original data drawn from a large data set of anonymous masochistic scripts of fantasies and favorite experiences. Drawn from the latest social psychological research and theories, Professor Baumeister returns the emphasis to the original and proto-typical form of masochism -- sexual masochism - - and explains these phenomena as a means of releasing the individual from the burden of self-awareness. It is the first volume to present a psychological theory compatible with the mounting evidence that most masochists are not mentally ill nor does masochism derives from sadism. Instead, Professor Baumeister finds that masochism emerges as an escapist response to the problematic nature of selfhood and he attempts to foster an understanding of sexual masochism that emphasizes both "escape from self" and "construction of meaning" hypotheses. The book is directed at all those interested in the self and identity in paradoxical behavior patterns and in the construction of meaning, presenting specific clinical recommendations.

The ability to regulate and control our behaviors is a key accomplishment of the human species, yet the psychological mechanisms involved in self-regulation remain incompletely understood. This book presents contributions from leading international researchers who survey the most recent developments in this fascinating area. The chapters shed new light on the subtle and often subconscious ways that the people seek to regulate their thoughts, feelings and behaviors in everyday social life. The contributions seek answers to such intriguing questions as: How can we improve our ability to control our actions? How do people make decisions about which goals to pursue? How do we maintain and manage goal-oriented behavior? What happens when we run out of self-regulation resources? Can we match people and the regulatory demands of to specific tasks so as to optimize performance? What role does self-regulation play in sports performance, in maintaining successful relationships, and in managing work situations?

The book offers a highly integrated and representative coverage of this important field, and is suitable as a core textbook in advanced courses dealing with social behavior and the applications of psychology to real-life problems.

This volume provides an integrative theory firmly grounded in current psychology of the self, and offers a fresh, compelling account of one of psychology's most enigmatic behavior patterns. Professor Baumeister provides comprehensive coverage of historical and cross-cultural theories and empirical data on masochism and presents recent, original data drawn from a large data set of anonymous masochistic scripts of fantasies and favorite experiences. Drawn from the latest social psychological research and theories, Professor Baumeister returns the emphasis to the original and proto-typical form of masochism -- sexual masochism - - and explains these phenomena as a means of releasing the individual from the burden of self-awareness.
It is the first volume to present a psychological theory compatible with the mounting evidence that most masochists are not mentally ill nor does masochism derives from sadism. Instead, Professor Baumeister finds that masochism emerges as an escapist response to the problematic nature of selfhood and he attempts to foster an understanding of sexual masochism that emphasizes both "escape from self" and "construction of meaning" hypotheses.
The book is directed at all those interested in the self and identity in paradoxical behavior patterns and in the construction of meaning, presenting specific clinical recommendations.

The study of human sexuality has often been approached from clinical, medical, physiological, and technical perspectives, but until recently the social aspect of sexuality has been neglected. This volume presents a selected group of influential articles dealing specifically with the social aspects of sexuality. It offers an excellent introduction for students wishing to understand sex as an activity that human beings do with each other, and it complements the how-to and biological approaches that prevail in many current textbooks. Topics covered include crucial differences between male and female sexuality, losing virginity, the competing versus complementary influences of nature and culture, sexual harassment, rape and coercion, jealousy, social influences on sexual orientation, and the sexual exploits of students on spring break.
The book begins with an original chapter by Roy Baumeister. It comments on the current state of research in the social aspects of sexuality and then goes on to sketch out an integrative overview of how social processes can shape a broad variety of sexual behaviors. Following that, the key readings are presented in a series of thematic sections. Each article, or pair of articles is presented with a conceptual introduction to provide its broader context, including discussion of other relevant works. After the readings there are discussion questions and suggestions for further reading.
Nearly all the articles are recently published, and so the reader will quickly obtain an up-to-date acquaintance with much of the best new work on the topic. This currency also reflects the recent upsurge of interest in how social psychology has much to offer the study of sexuality.

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Have men really been engaged in a centuries-old conspiracy to exploit and oppress women? Have the essential differences between men and women really been erased? Have men now become unnecessary? Are they good for anything at all?
In Is There Anything Good About Men?, Roy Baumeister offers provocative answers to these and many other questions about the current state of manhood in America. Baumeister argues that relations between men and women are now and have always been more cooperative than antagonistic, that men and women are different in basic ways, and that successful cultures capitalize on these differences to outperform rival cultures. Amongst our ancestors---as with many other species--only the alpha males were able to reproduce, leading them to take more risks and to exhibit more aggressive and protective behaviors than women, whose evolutionary strategies required a different set of behaviors. Whereas women favor and excel at one-to-one intimate relationships, men compete with one another and build larger organizations and social networks from which culture grows. But cultures in turn exploit men by insisting that their role is to achieve and produce, to provide for others, and if necessary to sacrifice themselves. Baumeister shows that while men have greatly benefited from the culture they have created, they have also suffered because of it. Men may dominate the upper echelons of business and politics, but far more men than women die in work-related accidents, are incarcerated, or are killed in battle--facts nearly always left out of current gender debates.
Engagingly written, brilliantly argued, and based on evidence from a wide range of disciplines, Is There Anything Good About Men? offers a new and far more balanced view of gender relations.

Summarizing and integrating the major empirical research of the past twenty years, this volume presents a thorough review of the subject, with a special focus on what sets people with low self-esteem apart from others. As the subject is central to the understanding of personality, mental health, and social adjustment, this work will be appreciated by professionals and advanced students in the fields of personality, social, clinical, and organizational psychology.

Contents:
R.F. Baumeister, The Nature and Structure of the Self: An Overview. Part 1: Self-Knowledge. J. Shrauger, T. Schoenema, Symbolic Interactionist View of Self-Concept: Through the Looking Glass Darkly. S. Taylor, J. Brown, Illusion and Well-Being: A Social Psychological Perspective on Mental Health. Part 2: Self-Conceptions. W. James, The Self. H. Turner, The Real Self: From Institution to Impulse. Part 3: Motivational Roots. M. Leary, E. Tambor, S. Terdal, D. Downs, Self-Esteem as an Interpersonal Monitor: The Sociometer Hypothesis. J. Greenberg, S. Solomon, T. Pyszczynski, A. Rosenblatt, J. Burling, D. Lyon, L. Simon, E. Pinel, Why Do People Need Self-Esteem? Converging Evidence that Self-Esteem Serves an Anxiety-Buffering Function. Part 4: Self and Information Processing. H. Markus, Self-Schemata and Processing Information about the Self. T. Rogers, N. Kuiper, W. Kirker, Self-Reference and the Encoding of Personal Information. E.T. Higgins, Self-Discrepancy: A Theory Relating Self and Affect. Part 5: Self-Presentation M. Leary, L. Tchividjian, B. Kraxberger, Self- Presentation Can Be Hazardous to Your Health: Impression Management and Health Risk. D. Tice, Self-Presentation and Self-Concept Change. The Looking Glass. Self as Magnifying Glass. Part 6: Self-Esteem. B.J. Campbell, Self-Esteem and Clarity of the Self-Concept. R.F. Baumeister, L. Smart, J. Boden, Relation of Threatened Egotism to Violence and Aggression: The Dark Side of High Self-Esteem. Part 7: Self-Regulation. A. Bandura, Self-Efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavior Change. C. Carver, M. Scheier, Control Theory: A Useful Conceptual Framework for Personality- Social, Clinical and Health Psychology. R.F. Baumeister, E. Bratslavsky, M. Muraven, D. Tice, Ego Depletion: Is the Active Self a Limited Resource? Part 8: Self and Culture. H. Markus, S. Kitayma, Culture and the Self: Implications for Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation. Part 9: Motivations and Self-Knowledge. C. Steele, The Psychology of Self-Affirmation: Sustaining the Integrity of the Self. W. Swann, J. Griffin, S. Predmore, B. Gaines, The Cognitive-Affective Crossfire: When Self-Consistency Confronts Self-Enhancement. C. Sedikides, Assessment, Enhancement, and Verification Determinants of the Self- Evaluation Process. Part 10: Strategies. E. Jones, S. Berglas, Control of the Attributions about the Self Through Self-Handicapping Strategies: The Appeal of Alcohol and the Role of Underachievement. R. Cialdini, R. Borden, A. Thorne, M. Walker, S. Freeman, L. Sloan, Basking in Reflected Glory: Three (Football) Field Studies. A. Tesser, Toward a Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model of Social Behavior. Appendix: How to Read a Research Article in Social Psychology. Author Index. Subject Index.

Psychology has worked hard to explore the inner self. Modem psychology was born in Wundt's laboratory and Freud's consulting room, where the inner self was pressed to reveal some of its secrets. Freud, in particular, devoted most of his life to explor ing the hidden recesses inside the self-hidden even from the conscious mind, he said. From Freud's work right down to the latest journal article on self-schemata or self-esteem, psychologists have continued to tell us about the inner self. More recently, psychology has turned some of its attention to the outer self, that is, the self that is seen and known by other people. Various psychologists have studied how the outer self is formed (impression formation), how people control their outer selves (impression management), and so forth. But how is the outer self related to the inner self? There is an easy answer, but it is wrong. The easy answer is that the outer self is mostly the same as the inner self. Put another way, it is that people reveal their true selves to others in a honest and straightforward fashion, and that others accurately perceive the individual as he or she really is. Sometimes it works out that way, but often it does not. The issue is far too complex for the easy answer."

How to live well and the search for meaning have long been of intense concern to humans, perhaps because Homo sapiens is the only species aware of its own mortality. In the last few decades, empirical psychology made a major contribution to this quest. This book surveys groundbreaking work by leading international researchers, demonstrating that social psychology is the core discipline for understanding well-being and the search for meaning. Basic conceptual and theoretical principles are discussed, drawing on philosophy, evolutionary theory and psychology, followed by a review of the role of purposeful, motivated activity and self-control in achieving life satisfaction. The role of emotional and cognitive processes and the influence of social, interpersonal and cultural factors in promoting a happy and meaningful life are discussed. The book will be of interest to students, practitioners and researchers in the behavioral and social sciences, as well as to laypersons for whom improving the quality of human life and understanding the principles of well-being are of interest.

"The most important book at the borderland of psychology and politics that I have ever read."-Martin E. P. Seligman, Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology at that University of Pennsylvania and author of Learned Optimism Why are we devastated by a word of criticism even when it's mixed with lavish praise? Because our brains are wired to focus on the bad. This negativity effect explains things great and small: why countries blunder into disastrous wars, why couples divorce, why people flub job interviews, how schools fail students, why football coaches stupidly punt on fourth down. All day long, the power of bad governs people's moods, drives marketing campaigns, and dominates news and politics. Eminent social scientist Roy F. Baumeister stumbled unexpectedly upon this fundamental aspect of human nature. To find out why financial losses mattered more to people than financial gains, Baumeister looked for situations in which good events made a bigger impact than bad ones. But his team couldn't find any. Their research showed that bad is relentlessly stronger than good, and their paper has become one of the most-cited in the scientific literature. Our brain's negativity bias makes evolutionary sense because it kept our ancestors alert to fatal dangers, but it distorts our perspective in today's media environment. The steady barrage of bad news and crisismongering makes us feel helpless and leaves us needlessly fearful and angry. We ignore our many blessings, preferring to heed-and vote for-the voices telling us the world is going to hell. But once we recognize our negativity bias, the rational brain can overcome the power of bad when it's harmful and employ that power when it's beneficial. In fact, bad breaks and bad feelings create the most powerful incentives to become smarter and stronger. Properly understood, bad can be put to perfectly good use. As noted science journalist John Tierney and Baumeister show in this wide-ranging book, we can adopt proven strategies to avoid the pitfalls that doom relationships, careers, businesses, and nations. Instead of despairing at what's wrong in your life and in the world, you can see how much is going right-and how to make it still better.

You are a member of a social world on a planet that is home to about 8 billion people. This social world is filled with paradox, mystery, suspense and outright absurdity. Explore how social psychology can help you make sense of your own social world with this engaging and accessible book. Roy F. Baumeister and Brad J. Bushman's SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND HUMAN NATURE, 5th Edition, can help you understand one of the most interesting topics of all -- the sometimes bizarre and baffling but always fascinating diversity of human behavior, and how and why people act the way they do. After reading this book, you will have a much better understanding of people. Thoroughly updated with the latest research and thinking, the new edition includes expanded coverage of social media use and loneliness, findings on mimicry, nonbinary gender theory, anti-LGBTQ+ prejudice and more.

Social psychology uses clever, even ingenious, research methods to explore the most essential questions of the human psyche: Why do we help some people and harm others? Why do we pay so much more attention to high-powered people than they pay to us? If humans evolved from great apes, why are human selves so much more elaborate? How does our attachment to our parents when we are infants influence the success or failure of our romantic relationships when we are adults? Can behaving morally "license" us to behave immorally shortly afterward? How do social relationships make us more versus less prone toward physical illness? This volume - an update to the original, 2010 edition - provides a graduate-level introduction to social psychology. The target audience consists of first-year graduate students (MA or PhD) in social psychology and related disciplines (marketing, organizational behavior, etc.), although it is also appropriate for upper-level undergraduate courses. The authors are world-renowned leaders on their topic, and they have written state-of-the-art overviews of the discipline's major research domains. The chapters are not only scientifically rigorous, but also accessible and engaging. They convey the joy, excitement, and promise of scientific investigations into human sociality.

Why does a bad impression last longer than a good one? Why does losing money affect us more than gaining it? What makes phobias so hard to shake? The answer is the negativity bias - or in other words, the power of bad. As John Tierney and Roy F. Baumeister show, we are wired to react to bad events more strongly than good ones. It makes sense in evolutionary terms, but in our modern world the lure of bad is more powerful than ever. It governs our moods, drives marketing and dominates the news. It can explain everything from why wars start or couples divorce, to why we mess up job interviews or feud with neighbours. But there is good news. By using smart strategies from new science, we can train our brains to get better at spotting our own negativity bias, fighting back with our rational minds to manage the bad in our lives - and even using its power for positive results.

Pioneering research psychologist Roy F. Baumeister collaborates with "New York Times" science writer John Tierney to revolutionize our understanding of the most coveted human virtue: self-control. Drawing on cutting-edge research and the wisdom of real-life experts, "Willpower" shares lessons on how to focus our strength, resist temptation, and redirect our lives. It shows readers how to be realistic when setting goals, monitor their progress, and how to keep faith when they falter. By blending practical wisdom with the best of recent research science, "Willpower" makes it clear that whatever we seek--from happiness to good health to financial security--we won't reach our goals without first learning to harness self-control.

'Immensely rewarding...filled with ingenious research, wise advice and insightful reflections on the human condition' New York Times Book Review Can you resist everything except temptation? In a hedonistic age full of distractions, it's hard to possess willpower - or in fact even understand why we should need it. Yet it's actually the most important factor in achieving success and a happy life, shown to be more significant than money, looks, background or intelligence. This book reveals the secrets of self-control. Here, Roy Baumeister, one of the world's most esteemed and influential psychologists, and journalist John Tierney, turn this notion on its head. They show us that willpower is like a muscle that can be strengthened with practice and improved over time. Based on years of psychological research and filled with practical advice, this book will teach you how to gain from self-control without pain, and discover the very real power in willpower. The results are nothing short of life-changing.

Our species is misnamed. Though sapiens defines human beings as "wise" what humans do especially well is to prospect the future. We are homo prospectus. In this book, Martin E. P. Seligman, Peter Railton, Roy F. Baumeister, and Chandra Sripada argue it is anticipating and evaluating future possibilities for the guidance of thought and action that is the cornerstone of human success. Much of the history of psychology has been dominated by a framework in which people's behavior is driven by past history (memory) and present circumstances (perception and motivation). Homo Prospectus reassesses this idea, pushing focus to the future front and center and opening discussion of a new field of Psychology and Neuroscience. The authors delve into four modes in which prospection operates: the implicit mind, deliberate thought, mind-wandering, and collective (social) imagination. They then explore prospection's role in some of life's most enduring questions: Why do people think about the future? Do we have free will? What is the nature of intuition, and how might it function in ethics? How does emotion function in human psychology? Is there a common causal process in different psychopathologies? Does our creativity change with age? In this remarkable convergence of research in philosophy, statistics, decision theory, psychology, and neuroscience, Homo Prospectus shows how human prospection fundamentally reshapes our understanding of key cognitive processes, thereby improving individual and social functioning. It aims to galvanize interest in this new science from scholars in psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy, as well as an educated public curious about what makes humanity what it is.

Self-regulation refers to the self's ability to control its own thoughts, emotions, and actions. Through self-regulation, we consciously control how much we eat, whether we give in to impulse, task performance, obsessive thoughts, and even the extent to which we allow ourselves recognition of our emotions. This work provides a synthesis and overview of recent and long-standing research findings of what is known of the successes and failures of self-regulation.
People the world over suffer from the inability to control their finances, their weight, their emotions, their craving for drugs, their sexual impulses, and more. The United States in particular is regarded by some observers as a society addicted to addiction. Therapy and support groups have proliferated not only for alcoholics and drug abusers but for all kinds of impulse control, from gambling to eating chocolate. Common to all of these disorders is a failure of self-regulation, otherwise known as "self-control."
The consequences of these self-control problems go beyond individuals to affect family members and society at large. In Losing Control, the authors provide a single reference source with comprehensive information on general patterns of self-regulation failure across contexts, research findings on specific self-control disorders, and commentary on the clinical and social aspects of self-regulation failure. Self-control is discussed in relation to what the "self" is, and the cognitive, motivational, and emotional factors that impinge on one's ability to control one's "self."
Key Features
* Discusses the importance of the concept of self-regulation to general issues of autonomy and identity
* Encompasses self-control of thoughts, feelings, and actions
* Contains a special section on the control of impulses and appetites
* First book to integrate recent research into a broad overview of the area

The idea of the self is immediately familiar to everyone, yet elusive to define and understand. From pioneering researcher Roy F. Baumeister, this volume synthesizes a vast body of knowledge to provide a panoramic view of the human self--how it develops and functions, why it exists, and what problems it encounters on the journey through life. What are the benefits of self-knowledge, and how attainable is it? Do we have one self, or many? What is the relationship of self and society? In 28 concise chapters, Baumeister explains complex concepts with clarity and insight. He reveals the central role played by the self in enabling both individuals and cultures to thrive.

What makes us human? Why do people think, feel, and act as they do? What is the essence of human nature? What is the basic relationship between the individual and society? These questions have fascinated both great thinkers and ordinary humans for centuries. Now, at last, there is a solid basis for answering them, in the form of the accumulated efforts and studies by thousands of psychology researchers. We no longer have to rely on navel-gazing and speculation to understand why people are the way they are - we can instead turn to solid, objective findings. This book, by an eminent social psychologist at the peak of his career, not only summarizes what we know about people - it also offers a coherent, easy-to-understand, through radical, explanation. Turning conventional wisdom on its head, the author argues that culture shaped human evolution. Contrary to theories that depict the individual's relation to society as one of victimization, endless malleability, or just a square peg in a round hole, he proposes that the individual human being is designed by nature to be part of society. Moreover, he argues that we need to briefly set aside the endless study of cultural differences to look at what most cultures have in common - because that holds the key to human nature. Culture is in our genes, although cultural differences may not be. This core theme is further developed by a powerful tour through the main dimensions of human psychology. What do people want? How do people think? How do emotions operate? How do people behave? And how do they interact with each other? The answers are often surprising, and along the way the author explains how human desire, thought, feeling, and action are connected.