Chapter 12 Introduction

12Social Psychology

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  • Social Behavior: Interacting with People

    • Survival: The Struggle for Resources
    • Reproduction: The Quest for Immortality
    • THE REAL WORLD Making the Move
    • Divorce: When the Costs Outweigh the Benefits

  • Social Influence: Controlling People

    • The Hedonic Motive: Pleasure Is Better Than Pain
    • The Approval Motive: Acceptance Is Better Than Rejection
    • CULTURE & COMMUNITY Free Parking
    • OTHER VOICES 91% of All Students Read This Box and Love It
    • The Accuracy Motive: Right Is Better Than Wrong

  • Social Cognition: Understanding People

    • Stereotyping: Drawing Inferences from Categories
    • HOT SCIENCE The Wedding Planner
    • Attribution: Drawing Inferences from Actions

TERRY, ROBERT, AND JOHN HAVE SOMETHING IN COMMON: They’ve all been tortured. Terry was an American journalist working in Lebanon when he was kidnapped by Hezbollah guerrillas; Robert was a semipro boxer living in Louisiana when he was arrested and sent to prison; and John was a naval aviator when he was shot down and captured by the North Vietnamese. All three men experienced a variety of tortures, and all agree about which was the worst.

John:

It’s an awful thing. It crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment.

Robert:

It was a nightmare. I saw men so desperate that they ripped prison doors apart, starved and mutilated themselves … it takes every scrap of humanity to stay focused and sane.

Terry:

I’m afraid I’m beginning to lose my mind, to lose control completely. I wish I could die. I ask God often to finish this, to end it any way that pleases Him.

The cruel technique that these three men are describing has nothing to do with electric shock or waterboarding. It does not require wax, rope, or razor blades. It is a remarkably simple technique that has been used for thousands of years to break the body and destroy the mind. It is called solitary confinement. John McCain spent 2 years in a cell by himself, Terry Anderson spent 7, and Robert King spent 29.

When we think of torture, we usually think of techniques designed to cause pain by depriving people of something they desperately need, such as oxygen, water, food, or sleep. But the need for social interaction is every bit as vital. Extensive periods of isolation can induce symptoms of psychosis (Grassian, 2006), and even in smaller doses, people who are socially isolated are more likely to become depressed, to become ill, and to die prematurely. In fact, social isolation is as bad for your health as being obese or smoking (Cacioppo & Patrick, 2008; House, Landis, & Umberson, 1988).

Terry Anderson, Robert King, and John McCain each spent years in isolation and described it as the worst form of torture.
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© Ann Harkness
© Brooks Kraft/Corbis

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WHAT KIND OF ANIMAL GETS SICK OR GOES CRAZY when left alone? Our kind. Human beings are the most social species on the planet, and everything about us—from the structure of our brains to the structure of our societies—is influenced by that fact. Social psychology is the study of the causes and consequences of sociality. We’ll start by examining social behavior (how people interact with each other), then we’ll examine social influence (how people change each other), and finally we’ll examine social cognition (how people think about each other).

social psychology

The study of the causes and consequences of sociality.