The Atlas of Interpersonal Situations provides a systematic theoretical account for understanding the impact of situations on patterns of social interaction. Structured around descriptions of twenty-one of the most common situations that people encounter in everyday life, the authors aim to provide readers with the tools needed to understand how those situations influence interpersonal behavior. These descriptions are intended to be freestanding, each one providing analysis, research examples, and everyday descriptions of the prototypical situation. The authors build upon the tools of interdependence theory, which stresses the manner in which people's outcomes are determined by the structure of their interaction with each other. This analysis makes clear exactly what is 'social' about 'social psychology'.

Harold H. Kelley has won numerous scientific awards, including the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, the American Sociological Association’s Cooley-Mead Award, the Society for Experimental Social Psychology’s Distinguished Career Contribution Award, and the International Society for the Study of Personal Relationships’Distinguished Career Contribution Award. He is the coauthor of The Social Psychology of Groups and of Interpersonal Relations: A Theory of Interdependence.

John G. Holmes is a three-time winner of the International Society for the Study of Personal Relationships’ Distinguished New Contribution Award, former Executive Committee Chair of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, and former Associate Editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Norbert L. Kerr is the coauthor of Group Process, Group Decision, and Group Action, former Associate Editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and of the Personality and Social Psychology Review, and a former Executive Committee Chair of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology.

Harry T. Reis is the President of the International Society for the Study of Personal Relationships, executive officer of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, former Editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and coeditor of the Handbook of Research Methods in Personality and Social Psychology.

Caryl E. Rusbult is winner of the National Conference on Family Relations’ Reuben Hill Award and the International Society for the Study of Personal Relationships’ Distinguished New Contribution Award, and former Associate Editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology; she holds the William Friday Professorship, an endowed professorship, at the University of North Carolina.

Paul A. M. Van Lange is scientific director of the Kurt Lewin Institute, an Interuniversity Graduate School of Social Psychology and Its Applications in The Netherlands, Associate Editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and former Associate Editor of the European Journal of Social Psychology.