2013 APS Award Address: Roy F. Baumeister

Roy F. Baumeister is a recipient of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) William James Fellow Award for his lifetime of significant intellectual contributions to the basic science of psychology.

To explain the extraordinary phenomenon of human selfhood, Baumeister reviews evidence that human groups thrive precisely by differentiating selves. Contrary to recent claims that the self is an illusion or fiction, he concludes that the self is quite real — but only as part of a cultural system.


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