Offering a refreshingly new approach, while maintaining the standard chapter topics of traditional social psychology texts, Susan Fiske's SOCIAL BEINGS conveys the excitement and vitality of this fascinating field, and captures students' imaginations by connecting the material to their everyday lives. Fiske provides a highly readable and engaging narrative flow based on the five core social motives repeatedly identified by personality and social psychologists: Belonging, Understanding, Controlling, Enhancing Self, and Trusting. Throughout, the book integrates material showing the field's relevance to human problems and incorporates motivation, social evolution, and culture, not as after-thoughts, but as intrinsic features of the text.