Neuroscience Approaches in Social and Personality Psychology

Social neuroscience is an interdisciplinary approach to studying the mind and behavior, noted for its appreciation for the dynamic interactions of situational and dispositional processes as they relate to neural and biological mechanisms. In this chapter, we describe the methodological approach of social neuroscience and review 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. We provide critical discussion of how neuroscience may contribute to classic questions in personality and social psychology, and we describe how the social neuroscience approach promotes the integration of dispositional and situational accounts of the mind and behavior.