The Student's Guide to Social Neuroscience

by Jamie Ward

Shortlisted for the British Psychological Society Book Award 2013! Social neuroscience is an expanding field which, by investigating the neural mechanisms that inform our behavior, explains our ability to recognize, understand, and interact with others. Concepts such as trust, revenge, empathy, prejudice, and love are now being explored and unraveled by the methods of neuroscience. Many researchers believe that evolutionary expansion of the primate and human brain was driven by the need to deal with social complexity, not only to understand and outwit our peers, but to take advantage of the benefits of cooperative living. But what kind of brain-based mechanisms did we end up with? Special routines for dealing with social problems, or more general solutions that can be used for non-social cognition too? How are we able to sacrifice our own self-interests to respond to the needs of others? How do cultural differences in the organization of society shape individual minds (and brains), and does the brain provide constraints on the possible range of cultural permutations? The Student’s Guide to Social Neuroscience explores and explains these big issues, using accessible examples from contemporary research. The first book of its kind, this engaging and cutting-edge text is an ideal introduction to the methods and concepts of social neuroscience for undergraduate and postgraduate students in fields such as psychology and neuroscience. Each chapter is richly illustrated in attractive full-color with figures, boxes, and ‘real-world’ implications of research. Several pedagogical features help students engage with the material, including essay questions, summary and key points, and further reading. This book is accompanied by substantial online resources that are available to qualifying adopters.

Genres: Neuroscience, Science

352 pages, Hardcover

First published October 14, 2011

About the author

Dr Jamie Ward is one of the world's leading experts on synesthesia. He has contributed to the understanding of science through numerous talks and media coverage in newspapers, radio and television including documentaries produced by the Discovery Channel and BBC Horizon"

Reviews

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the better textbooks I've read during my time at University. As per usual with textbooks, there were numerous spelling and grammar mistakes. However, with how complicated this class subject was (social and affective neuroscience), Ward did a great job explaining the concepts. With only class lectures, I would not be able to fully understand most of the concepts. This textbook really helped me with understanding fully what each experiment indicates for the topic. It was also organized well, with the harder material in the beginning. I cannot give it 5 stars, because I simply dreaded reading it for most of the semester. Each chapter contained so much information, it felt overwhelming at times. Overall, a solid textbook, but not something I would read again if it were up to me.

[Hannah Dubbels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learned a lot and got straight As for my postgrad course at uni thanks to this book. I'm more into social psychology and didn't know a lot about neuroscience prior to this semester but now I feel much more confident and have at least some idea what some parts of the brain might do.

[Estrella]

Gelezen voor de cursus: Neuroscience of Social Behavior and Emotional Disorders.

[boraqued · Rating 5 out of 5]

I genuinely enjoyed studying this book, I believe it will be forever memorable to me as a cognitive neuroscience student and likely to guide my topic selection for further research