Neuroscience Approaches in Social and Personality Psychology

Social neuroscience is an interdisciplinary approach to studying the social mind and behavior by considering their neural and biological underpinnings. This chapter describes the methodological approach of social neuroscience and research that has applied this approach to address the interplay of the person and situation in the domains of social cognition, attitudes, emotion and motivation, intergroup relations, and personality. This chapter illustrates the contribution of neuroscience to classic questions about personality and social psychology, with an emphasis on how the social neuroscience approach promotes the integration of dispositional and situational accounts of the mind and behavior.