ABSTRACT
Sooner or later, anyone who teaches social psychology is asked an integral question: “Where’s the social in social psychology?” We typically answer in one of several ways. We may point out that social behavior is powerfully influenced by beliefs about and perceptions of social entities, and much social psychological research is designed to shed light on these basic processes. Another common reply involves listing the many topics whose social component is readily apparent: altruism, aggression, conformity, prejudice, intergroup behavior, etc. A third possibility is to suggest that the processes studied by social psychologists, although not necessarily social in central emphasis, provide the fundamental building blocks of social behavior.
