In this wide-ranging and strikingly original book, William Swann not only dissects the mistaken assumptions that underlie current self-esteem programmes, but also incisively analyses the nature of self-worth and the 'self-traps' that make achieving and sustaining a sense of self-esteem so difficult. Self-Traps offers a fascinating, controversial exploration of how self-esteem conflicts develop and are played out in all our relationships. It shows how the authentic achievement of self-esteem is often undermined by social norms of competence and love, and discusses what could be done to encourage and sustain feelings of self-worth in society.

Katharine Cramer Walsh shows how political conversation friendship, and identity evolve together, creating stronger communities and social ties. But she also reveals how such informal discussion can have negative effects, reinforcing boundaries and encouraging exclusivity.

Pragmatic political reasons exist for insisting on the possibility of thinking about women as some kind of group. An argument is presented for reconceptualizing social collectivity or the meaning of social groups as what Jean-Paule Sartre describes as a phenomenon of serial collectivity in his "Critique of Dialectical Reason."

The goal of the Pipeline Project, part of the Stanford Campus Diversity Initiative funded by a grant from the James W. Irvine Foundation, is to analyze the factors that affect academic career choices, particularly of underrepresented minorities and women, with the goal of increasing faculty diversity.