Source - Amazon
“The influences that people have upon the beliefs, feelings, and behavior of others”
-Elliot Aronson
The Social Animal is an absorbing and useful read for students who would like a general orientation towards science. Aronson is both missionary and educator in his book.
As a teacher few can compare to what he has done to promote social psychology to the masses, continuing to teach undergraduate studies despite the objections of his mentor, Festinger.
In the end, even Festinger admits that Aronson is the only researcher he knew whose teaching enhanced his research, perhaps the only time he ever admitted publicly that he was wrong.
Introduction
Book’s Name - The Social Animal
Author’s Name - Elliot Aronson
Genre - Non-fiction
Language - English
About the Author
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| Source - Psychwire |
Elliot Aronson is an American psychologist and researcher. He helped refine the theory of cognitive dissonance and has received several prizes and awards for his work and research, and he has taught, among other universities, at Harvard University.
About the Book
The book, as Aronson mentions, covers only select topics, and students who want a more comprehensive read should refer to the textbook he co-authored with Timothy D. Wilson and Robin M. Akert – Social Psychology: The Heart and the Mind. Conventional topics such as law, business and health are not covered in The Social Animal.
But the conversational tone and unpretentious language makes the book so intelligible that even the layman with no inkling of what the science is all about, will be able to comprehend at the end of the book – what exactly are the issues at stake in the world and how social psychology may be able to help.
Aronson helped bridge the gap between the discipline and the real world, writing as what he has always been doing for the most of his life – when he chose social psychology over economics, when he participated in encounters groups, continuing to teach despite the discouragement from Festinger – and that is to always follow his heart.
Story Review
The book is written as a text for the student social psychologist, but that is as far as it being a textbook goes. Aronson intended it to be the antithesis of what it means to be a textbook, styling the language in the manner in which he speaks and displaying less than social psychology’s fair share of academic discourse.
He admits that the topics he touched on were his personal favorites adding that while he would like to cover all that the discipline has to say governing human behaviour, few things could be more boring.
The reader can expect to be pleasantly surprised with the presentation of the text, considering that it deals with scientific material. No doubt the main reason why the book has gone into its sixth edition, sold hundreds of thousands of copies, translated into eleven languages and read by more than just college students.
One of our major goals as human beings is to maintain and enhance a positive view of ourselves. The self-serving bias is such an example. We think that others’ success is often because of situational circumstances but we think our success is because of the disproportionate qualities we have. The Journal write up includes important messages and crucial passages from the book.
We often rely on other people as a means of determining reality.
Growth is an exciting (and often painful) experience-but no one person can ‘grow’ another. A person indicates that he’s ready to grow when he takes that first step on his own, and not because he is being coerced.
A judgment is nothing more or less than a feeling that is inadequately understood or inadequately expressed.
In this society, we tend to glide through life protecting ourselves; in effect, each of us wears a suit of behavioral armor so that other people can’t hurt us. This results in a lot of inauthentic behavior-we mask our true feelings from others.
The goal of conformity is to: Be ‘correct’ and stay in the good graces of other people by living up to their expectations.
Finally, he says there are three kinds of social influence responses:
1. Compliance: Conforming to ideas, beliefs, etc from an outside force. E.g. Laws
2. Identification: Conforming to ideas, beliefs, etc from someone you relate to (identify if). E.g. Role Model.
3. Internalization: Conforming to the ideas, beliefs, etc that you conceive as part of your self-concept. E.g. orals.
Personal Verdict
I was almost afraid of summarizing The Social Animal. There is so much great information in this book that you can’t really summarize it. Consider this to be an appetizer.
Aronson ended The Social Animal the way he started it – by dwelling on the subject of social psychology. His need to justify social psychology as a legitimate science stems from his observations while he was at Harvard, that students normally drift towards the hard sciences, and his own belief that science has much to offer for the benefit of humanity.
He lays out the methodology that social psychologists use in validating their hypotheses and makes the claim that the experiments conducted are every bit as impactful and meaningful as those in the hard sciences. He also addresses the ethical concerns that come with conducting experiments in the laboratory.
The Bottom Line
The Social Animal is simply the best and most comprehensive book on psychology available today. I am satisfied after reading the book; it is a very good book.
The amount of wisdom and information in “The Social Animal” is simply staggering. That doesn’t mean you won’t need any other book on the topic: if you’re hungry for knowledge, you do.
My ratings for the book - 4.5 on 5
You can get the book from Amazon - The Social Animal
Written By - Resmita Barai
Edited By - Umme-Aiman
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