How does socializing and "hanging out" with friends play a key role in our lives? This book explores the world of socialization as it occurs in the United States as well as other cultures. Socialization and enjoying downtime with friends is an activity we regularly participate in but often take for granted. "Hanging out" may be something most people don't ponder, but socializing across our lifetimes is a key part of the human experience, and it plays an important role in our lives at the individual level as well as in social interactions within larger numbers of people: groups of friends, communities, entire countries or cultures, and even global society. A new title in Greenwood's The Psychology of Everyday Life series, Hanging Out: The Psychology of Socializing applies theories and concepts from psychology and sociology to explain the functions, benefits, harms, and consequences of how we spend our free time. Readers will learn about the many forms of socializing, discover why socializing is so important, and understand the positive and negative effects of socializing. The information—presented in a straightforward manner that is easily understandable to high school students and general readers—is drawn from classical theory as well as contemporary, cutting-edge empirical studies, affording readers a well-rounded understanding of socializing based on theoretical and empirical evidence. The book explores topics such as the physical and psychological benefits of socializing, the "dark side" of socializing, how the established "protocols" of socialization differ across cultures, and the differing viewpoints surrounding current controversies with respect to socializing.