| Description | | - Argues, contrary to widely held opinion, that culture shaped the direction of human evolution, and indeed evolution designed us primarily to take part in culture
- Looks at what most or all cultures have in common, a radical departure from a study of culture dominated almost entirely by interest in cultural differences
- Tackles a similar project to Freud, but with a new wealth of information
| What makes us human? Why do people think, feel, and act as they do? What is the essence of human nature? What is the basic relationship between the individual and society? These questions have fascinated both great thinkers and ordinary humans for centuries. Now, at last, there is a solid basis for answering them, in the form of the accumulated efforts and studies by thousands of psychology
researchers. We no longer have to rely on navel-gazing and speculation to understand why people are the way they are - we can instead turn to solid, objective findings.
This book, by an eminent social psychologist at the peak of his career, not only summarizes what we know about people - it also offers a coherent, easy-to-understand, through radical, explanation. Turning conventional wisdom
on its head, the author argues that culture shaped human evolution. Contrary to theories that depict the individual's relation to society as one of victimization, endless malleability, or just a square peg in a round hole, he proposes that the individual human being is designed by nature to be part of society. Moreover, he argues that we need to briefly set aside the endless study of cultural
differences to look at what most cultures have in common - because that holds the key to human nature. Culture is in our genes, although cultural differences may not be.
This core theme is further developed by a powerful tour through the main dimensions of human psychology. What do people want? How do people think? How do emotions operate? How do people behave? And how do they interact
with each other? The answers are often surprising, and along the way the author explains how human desire, thought, feeling, and action are connected. |
| Contents |
Preface and Acknowledgements
1.
Beasts for Culture
2.
The Human Psyche at Work
3.
What People Want
4.
How People Think
5.
How and Why Emotions Happen
6.
How People Act and React
How People Interact
Epilogue
References.
|
| Authors, editors,
and contributors |
Roy F. Baumeister, Francis Eppes Eminent Scholar and Professor of Psychology, Florida State University
|
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