Is human nature cooperative? Man is often said to be a social animal – but what does that mean? Michael Argyle believed that one of the most important components – our capacity to cooperate – had been overlooked and indeed that the whole notion of cooperation had not been properly understood. In this book, originally published in 1991, the author showed he was critical of earlier approaches, and put forward a new and extended understanding of what cooperation consists of, showing the form it took in different relationships and its origins in evolution and socialisation. He offered new solutions to intergroup and other social problems and took a new look at language and communication as a cooperative enterprise.

Is human nature cooperative? Man is often said to be a social animal – but what does that mean? Michael Argyle believed that one of the most important components – our capacity to cooperate – had been overlooked and indeed that the whole notion of cooperation had not been properly understood. Originally published in 1991 the author was critical of earlier approaches, he put forward a new and extended understanding of what cooperation consists of, showing the form it took in different relationships and its origins in evolution and socialisation. He offered new solutions to intergroup and other social problems and took a new look at language and communication as a cooperative enterprise.

Until the 70s and 80s anthropologists studying different cultures had mainly confined themselves to the behaviour and idea systems of adults. Psychologists, on the other hand, working mainly in Europe and America, had studied child development in their own settings and simply assumed the universality of their findings. Thus both disciplines had largely ignored a crucial problem area: the way in which children from birth onwards learn to become competent members of their culture. This process, which has been called ‘the quintessential human adaptation’, constitutes the theme of this volume, originally published in 1988. It derives from a workshop held at the London School of Economics which brought together fieldworkers who in their studies had paid more than usual attention to children in their cultures. Their experience and foci of interest were varied but this very diversity serves to illuminate different facets of the acquisition of culture by children, ranging in age from pre-verbal infants to adolescents. Evolutionarily primed for culture-learning, children are responsive to a rich web of influences from subtle and indirect as in their music and dance to direct teaching in the family guided by culture-specific ideas about child psychology. Some of the salient things they learn relate to gender, status and power, critical for the functioning of all societies. The introductory essay provides the necessary historical background of the development of child study in both anthropology and psychology and outlined how future research in the ethnography of childhood should proceed. The book concludes with an annotated bibliography providing a guide to the literature from 1970 onwards.

Originally published in 1987, this book presents papers from the First Conference of European Clinical Psychologists, held at the University of Kent Canterbury in July of that year. It shows some of the most exciting and recent developments in research and innovations in professional practice from many European countries with an overall theme of the WHO strategy of ‘Health for all by the year 2000.’ The whole range of clinical psychology is covered, including: cognitive therapy, clinical psychology and WHO strategy, the mental health of ethnic minority groups, health psychology, care in the community, and many other topics. The book is likely to be of interest for anyone concerned with the recent history and policies in clinical psychology.

Originally published in 1986, the central topic of this book is the analysis and application of control-related beliefs and behaviours for theory and practice in the psychology of aging. The volume was written for two specific interrelated purposes aimed at cross-fertilization between the psychology of control and the field of gerontology. The first purpose was to summarise available research and theory on the psychology of control for researchers and professionals interested in gerontology at the time. The second was to enrich the field of the psychology of control.

Originally published in 1988, this title presents a longitudinal research project ‘Individual Development and Adjustment’ (IDA), planned and implemented at the Department of Psychology, University of Stockholm. This title concerns the theoretical background of the project, the planning and collecting of data during the second phase of the project when the participants had reached adulthood, and the presentation of some empirical, illustrative studies based on the collected data.

Originally published in 1957, this book presented an up-to-date account of psychological research into human social behaviour of the time. There are chapters on interaction between pairs of people, behaviour in small social groups, and human relations in industry. The author avoided the adoption of any particular theoretical position, and concentrated on the established empirical findings of the time. The results of several hundred investigations are summarised and compared, so that the principal generalisations which emerge can be seen. Stress is placed on rigorous methods of research, and a critical account is given of current techniques of social research, showing the importance of experimental and statistical methods. Careful consideration is given to the danger of the investigator disturbing what is being investigated. Use is made of recent ideas about theory and explanation, and the different kinds of theory used in experimental psychology were considered for the first time as possible ways of accounting for group behaviour. This book was intended not only for students of psychology and of the other social sciences, but also for industrialists, administrators and indeed all who were interested in the laws underlying social behaviour. Today it can be read and enjoyed in its historical context.