Product Description

Critical Social Psychology introduces students, in a straightforward, practical and accessible way, to key themes and debates arising from this burgeoning - and often complex - field. The authors contrast mainstream experimental and critical understandings of various social psychological topics and bring together a range of critical work in contemporary social psychology situating the discipline and its subject - the individual - firmly within society.

Difficult concepts such as 'discourse', 'social constructionism' and 'subjectivity' are clearly described and illustrated with reference to contemporary research in areas such as gender, race, prejudice and conformity. In their review of 'classic' social psychology topics from a critical perspective, the authors use many research examples to facilitate student understanding of complex concepts and debates and to encourage critical reflection.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54862 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Review
'The problem with most texts so far in this field is that they are written in a jargon-laden way, assuming theoretical starting points that many just do not understand. These authors keep their eye firmly on a student audience unfamiliar with these issues, accessibly covering the debates surrounding traditional social and critical social psychology by deliberately reproducing the format of a traditional social psychology textbook, and tracking the issues and debates from mainstream work as they introduce critical ideas.' - Professor Ian Parker, Manchester Metropolitan University

'I am very impressed. By offering a synthesis in a clear and accessible style it is doing something many of the other available texts do not...A refreshing change... [It] makes excellent use of engaging and relevant everyday examples while simultaneously reviewing an impressive range of literature and citing the most salient research.' - Susan Lea, Teaching Fellow and Associate Head of Psychology, University of Plymouth

About the Author
BRENDAN GOUGH is Lecturer in Qualitative Psychology at Leeds University. He was previously Lecturer in Psychology at Sheffield Hallam University. During his six years there he taught courses on Critical Social Psychology and developed research on masculinities.

MAJELLA McFADDEN is Lecturer in Psychology at Sheffield Hallam University where she has worked for six years and teaches Critical Social Psychology. Her research is on female sexualities and includes project work with young women.

Customer Reviews

Waffly
Don't waste your money. I had to buy this book because the author was my lecturer for a module pretty much based on the book. It is a very poorly written book, full of waffle and imprecise points. I'm sure there are better books out there, don't get this one.

Dull Dull Dull
How boring is this book???? Honestly, when trying to revise from it and summarise it's key points I struggled...... because there dont seem to be any. This book makes social psychology very hard to understand by not being concise. A much better book to buy is by Hogg and Vaughan 'Social Psychology' I used this to decipher things from the Critical Social Psychology book as it uses a much simpler, more succinct approach. Believe me, if you're ever recommended to buy this, dont, find a different book.

Terrible
This book is not well thought out. Its not until you read other books, do you realise how terrible this book is. The book does little to raise the level of debate and many of the ideas are 30 years out of date (i.e. compared to sociological works) and the reliance on psychoanalytic theory in places is woefully misplaced.

I had this book, as a module text and it was very frustrating to be taught this. I needed it to pass, because the lecturer insisted it was important; its not...