Modern Pioneers in Psychological Science: An APS-Psychology Press Series – serie

This volume brings together a diverse group of authors who have been associated with Robyn Dawes over the years. The breadth of topics covered reflects Dawes’s wide-ranging impact on psychological theory and empirical practice. The two themes of rationality and social responsibility are well developed in the book. Dawes had always urged investigators to take seriously the question of how individuals can reconcile self-interest (i.e. rationality) with the collective good (i.e. social responsibility). The area of judgment and decision-making poses a similar challenge: here, rational judgment is the most responsible judgment because it minimizes errors. To attain rationality in this domain, individuals need to accept the limitations of their own intuitions.This volume presents an up-to-date overview of how far psychological science has come in its struggle to reconcile what is true with what is good. Each chapter is a stimulus for new research and a reminder not to forget the hard-won lessons of the past – in particular, those taught by Robyn Dawes.

This volume brings together a diverse group of authors who have been associated with Robyn Dawes over the years. The breadth of topics covered reflects Dawes’s wide-ranging impact on psychological theory and empirical practice. The two themes of rationality and social responsibility are well developed in the book. Dawes had always urged investigators to take seriously the question of how individuals can reconcile self-interest (i.e. rationality) with the collective good (i.e. social responsibility). The area of judgment and decision-making poses a similar challenge: here, rational judgment is the most responsible judgment because it minimizes errors. To attain rationality in this domain, individuals need to accept the limitations of their own intuitions.This volume presents an up-to-date overview of how far psychological science has come in its struggle to reconcile what is true with what is good. Each chapter is a stimulus for new research and a reminder not to forget the hard-won lessons of the past – in particular, those taught by Robyn Dawes.

The scope of these chapters reflects the strong influence that Sandra Wood Scarr’s scholarship—her empirical research and theoretical contributions—has had on what we know about experience and development via the lens of the psychological sciences, especially the fields of developmental psychology, behavior genetics, early education and child care.

Elliot Aronson is among the 100 most influential psychologists of the 20th Century. He is best known for his theorizing and research on cognitive dissonance theory -- one of the most provocative and enduring theories in contemporary psychology -- and for his design of the "jigsaw classroom," an applied method of reducing conflict and prejudice in multiethnic schools. Throughout his illustrious career, he has championed the application of social-psychological theory and methods for solving such pressing social problems as prejudice, energy efficiency, conflict and miscommunication in relationships, and the reasons why many people justify their mistakes rather than learn from them. Aronson is the only psychologist in the history of the American Psychological Association to have won all three of its top awards: for research, teaching, and writing. In this Festschrift, friends, colleagues, and former students write with warmth, clarity, and humor about Aronson’s enduring influence on the field of social psychology and on their own professional lives as researchers, writers, and teachers. Topics covered include contemporary research on cognitive dissonance theory; the changing face of experimentation in social psychology; and applied research on energy policy, education, the legal system, intergroup conflict, and prejudice and discrimination.