New text connects social psychology concepts to students’ lives through storytelling: SAGE Publishing releases Social Psychology

Addressing Harry Potter, Mean Girls, and other pop-culture references, the new text Social Psychology takes a storytelling approach to teaching the science of how people influence each other’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Written by award-winning teacher-researchers Thomas Heinzen and Wind Goodfriend, the text is available now from SAGE Publishing.

“Each topic in this book is important because it is relevant to thousands, if not millions of people,” writes Heinzen and Goodfriend.

The text includes self-report surveys on the concepts covered (e.g., conformity, rejection sensitivity, belief in a justice world, etc.), enabling students to discover the concepts’ relevancy to their own lives and their own behaviors while simultaneously teaching psychological literacy. It also fosters critical thinking skills through chapter questions that challenge students to relate to, reflect on, and discuss in class what they’ve read.

Advancing students’ research skillsets within the context of actual studies, the text addresses research methods in each chapter and contains a standalone chapter on the topic. Additionally, end-of-chapter material includes key terms, summaries, review questions, and personal reflections from the authors, designed to help students review and retain what they’ve learned.

The text contains eight mini-chapters on key topics such as behavioral economics, environmental sustainability, law and the courtroom, and positive psychology. Additional online content includes a case study series and a companion website that contains eFlashcards, practice quizzes, and more.

The interactive eBook version comes with access to SAGE Premium Video, a collection of video content curated and produced specifically for the text that is designed to reinforce student understanding of key course content. The videos include an “Ask the Experts” interview series, containing insights from social psychologists and the authors, animations, which bring course concepts to life, and more. Instructors can also use a SAGE Coursepack to integrate these teaching and learning resources into their universities’ learning management systems.

For more information on the text, or to read sample chapters, view the Social Psychology website.

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Sara Miller McCune founded SAGE Publishing in 1965 to support the dissemination of usable knowledge and educate a global community. SAGE is a leading international provider of innovative, high-quality content publishing more than 1,000 journals and over 800 new books each year, spanning a wide range of subject areas. Our growing selection of library products includes archives, data, case studies and video. SAGE remains majority owned by our founder and after her lifetime will become owned by a charitable trust that secures the company’s continued independence. Principal offices are located in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC and Melbourne. www.sagepublishing.com

Thomas Heinzen is a full time teacher/researcher at William Paterson University of New Jersey. He conducted evaluation research for the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, consulted on preventing tractor roll-overs at the New York Center of Agricultural Health and Medicine in Cooperstown, New York, and conducted statistical analyses for a temporary commission on homeless veterans in New York State. He invests in students' lives by mentoring student articles and presentations, designing a novel internship program at his university, and creating a lab that tests game-based interventions with the aim to increase rates of college completion among at-risk students.

Wind Goodfriend has been teaching psychology at Buena Vista University, a Midwestern liberal arts school for twelve years. Wind is a three-time Faculty of the Year award winner. She became Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies in 2017. She also serves as the co-director of the trauma advocacy program and volunteers as the chief research officer for the Institute for the Prevention of Relationship Violence. Wind has written 13 book chapters on psychology in pop culture, covering topics including Game of Thrones, Wonder Woman, Doctor Who, Star Trek, and more. She has developed a wide variety of undergraduate courses including special topics classes such as Psychology of Colonialism, Psychology in Popular Film, and Relationship Violence. She received her B.A. from Buena Vista University and both her Master’s and Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Purdue University