At the start of this chapter, we said that to learn about psychology as a whole, social psychology is the place to start. By looking ahead to other topics in psychology, you can see why. Psychologists who study thinking processes must grapple with discoveries about social thinking, including the way thinking styles vary across cultures. Students of learning must explain how people learn skills, behaviors, and opinions when they interact with others. Research on emotion must include study of emotions that occur only in the social world: jealousy, envy, pride. Students of development must explain how both biological and psychological development occurs as people interact with the social world—the world we need in order to develop into fully human persons.

Chapter Review Now that you have completed this chapter, be sure to turn to Appendix B, where you will find a Chapter Summary that is useful for reviewing what you have learned about social psychology.