Preface.
Acknowledgements: Some Words of Thanks.
About the Authors.
1. Psychology: What It Is...and What It Offers.
The Field of Psychology: What It Is and How It Originated.
The Origins of Modern Psychology: Multiple Roots.
Psychology: Grand Issues, Key Perspectives.
Key Perspectives in Psychology: The Many Facets of Behavior.
Psychology in the Twenty-First Century: Expanding Horizons.
Evolutionary Psychology: A New Perspective on “Human Nature.”
The Exportation of Psychology: From Science to Practice.
Growing Commitment to a Multicultural Perspective.
Psychology and the Scientific Method.
The Scientific Method: Its Basic Nature.
Advantages of the Scientific Method: Why Common Sense Often Leads Us Astray.
The Scientific Method in Everyday Life: The Benefits of Critical Thinking.
Research Methods in Psychology: How Psychologists Answer Questions About Behavior.
Observation: Describing the World Around Us.
Correlation: The Search ForRelationships.
The Experimental Method: Knowledge Through Systematic Intervention.
Psychology: What's in It For You?
Using This Book: An Overview of Its Special Features.
Psychology Lends a Hand: How to Study Psychology—or any Other Subject—Effectively.
Summary and Review of Key Questions.
Psychology: Understanding Its Findings.
Making Psychology Part of Your Life.
Key Terms.
2. Biological Bases of Behavior.
Neurons: Building Blocks of the Nervous System.
Neurons: Their Basic Structure.
Neurons: Their Basic Function.
Neurotransmitters: Chemical Keys to the Nervous System.
The Nervous System: Its Basic Structure and Functions.
The Nervous System: Its Major Divisions.
The Endocrine System: Chemical Regulators of Bodily Processes.
The Brain: Where Consciousness Dwells.
The Brain Stem: Survival Basics.
The Hypothalamus, Thalamus, and Limbic System: Motivation and Emotion.
The Cerebral Cortex: The Core of Complex Thought.
Two Minds in One Body? Our Divided Brains.
How Psychologists Study the Nervous System and the Brain.
The Brain and Human Behavior: Where Biology and Consciousness Meet.
How the Brain Functions: A Modern View.
Plasticity of the Human Brain: How the Brain is Shaped By Experience.
The Brain and Human Speech.
The Brain and Higher Mental Processes.
Heredity and Behavior: Genetics and Evolutionary Psychology.
Genetics: Some Basic Principles.
Disentangling Genetic and Environmental Effects: Research Strategies.
Evolutionary Psychology: Genes in Action.
Psychology Lends a Hand: Reducing High-Risk Behavior Among Young Males.
Summary and Review of Key Questions.
Psychology: Understanding Its Findings.
Making Psychology Part of Your Life.
Key Terms.
3. Sensation and Perception: Making Contact With the World Around Us.
Sensation: The Raw Materials of Understanding.
Sensory Thresholds: How Much Stimulation Is Enough?
Sensory Adaptation: “It Feels Great Once You Get Used to It.”
Vision.
The Eye: Its Basic Structure.
Light: The Physical Stimulus For Vision.
Basic Functions of the Visual System: Acuity, Dark Adaptation, and Eye Movements.
Vision.
Vision and the Brain: Processing Visual Information.
Hearing.
The Ear: Its Basic Structure.
Sound: The Physical Stimulus For Hearing.
Pitch Perception.
Sound Localization.
Psychology Goes to Work: The Harmful Effects of Noise: Let's Turn Down the Sound.
Touch and Other Skin Senses.
Pain: Its Nature and Control.
Smell and Taste: The Chemical Senses.
Smell and Taste: How They Operate.
Smell and Taste: Some Interesting Findings.
Kinesthesia and Vestibular Sense.
Perception: Putting It All Together.
Perception: The Focus of Our Attention.
Psychology Lends a Hand: Exceeding the Limits of Our Attention: The Dangers of Using Cellular Phones While Driving.
Perception: Some Organizing Principles.
Constancies and Illusions: When Perception Succeeds—and Fails.
Some Key Perceptual Processes: Pattern and Distance.
Psi: Perception Without Sensation?
Psi: What Is It?
Psi: Does It Really Exist?
Summary and Review of Key Questions.
Psychology: Understanding Its Findings.
Making Psychology Part of Your Life.
Key Terms.
4. States of Consciousness.
Biological Rhythms: Tides of Life—and Conscious Experience.
Circadian Rhythms: Their Basic Nature.
Individual Differences in Circadian Rhythms: Are You a Morning Person or a Night Person?
Disturbances in Circadian Rhythms: Jet Lag and Shift Work.
Psychology Lends a Hand: Dealing With Disruptions to Our Circadian Rhythms.
Waking States of Consciousness.
Controlled and Automatic Processing: Two Modes of Thought.
Self-Awareness: Some Effects of Thinking about Ourselves.
Sleep: The Pause That Refreshes?
The Basic Nature of Sleep.
Sleep: What Functions Does It Serve?
Effects of Sleep Deprivation.
Sleep Disorders: No Rest For Some of the Weary.
Psychology Lends a Hand: How to Get a Good Night's Sleep.
Dreams: “Now Playing in Your Private, Inner Theater....”
Hypnosis: Altered State of Consciousness...or Social Role Playing?
Hypnosis: How Its Done and Who Is Susceptible to It.
Hypnosis: Contrasting Views About Its Nature.
Consciousness-Altering Drugs: What They Are and What They Do.
Consciousness-Altering Drugs: Some Basic Concepts.
Consciousness-Altering Drugs: An Overview.
Psychology Goes to Work: Drug Testing at Work—What Are Your Rights?
Summary and Review of Key Questions.
Psychology: Understanding Its Findings.
Making Psychology Part of Your Life.
Key Terms.
5. Learning: How Were Changed By Experience.
Classical Conditioning: Learning That Some Stimuli Signal Others.
Pavlov's Early Work on Classical Conditioning: Does this Ring a Bell?
Classical Conditioning: Some Basic Principles.
Classical Conditioning: The Neural Basis of Learning.
Classical Conditioning: Exceptions to the Rules.
Classical Conditioning: A Cognitive Perspective.
Classical Conditioning: Turning Principles into Action.
Operant Conditioning: Learning Based on Consequences.
The Nature of Operant Conditioning: Consequential Operations.
Psychology Lends a Hand: Spare the Rod; Spoil The Child?: The Wisdom of Using Punishment with Children.
Operant Conditioning: Some Basic Principles.
Operant Conditioning: A Cognitive Perspective.
Applying Operant Conditioning: Solving Problems of Everyday Life.
Psychology Lends a Hand: On Becoming a Better Student: Using Learning Principles to Improve Your Study Habits.
Observational Learning: Learning from the Behavior and Outcomes of Others.
Observational Learning: Some Basic Principles.
Observational Learning and Aggression.
Observational Learning and Culture.
Observational Learning: Some Practical Applications.
Summary and Review of Key Questions.
Psychology: Understanding Its Findings.
Making Psychology Part of Your Life.
Key Terms.
6. Memory: Of Things Remembered...and Forgotten.
Human Memory: An Information-Processing Approach.
Our Different Memory Systems.
Working Memory: The Workbench of Consciousness.
Memory For Factual Information: Episodic and Semantic Memory.
Memory For Skills: Procedural Memory.
Forgetting: Some Contrasting Views.
Forgetting as a Result of Interference.
Forgetting and Retrieval Inhibition.
Memory Distortion and Memory Construction.
Distortion and the Influence of Schemas.
Memory Construction: Fuzzy-Trace Theory and Remembering What Didn't Happen.
Memory in Everyday Life.
Repression: Do We Choose to Forget What's Too Painful To Remember?
Autobiographical Memory: Remembering the Events of Our Own Lives.
Memory For Our Own Emotions: Coping With the Present By Reconstructing the Past.
Memory and Diversity: Own-Race Bias in Remembering Faces.
Psychology Goes to Work: Using Memory Principles to Boost the Fairness, Accuracy, and Favorableness of Your Own Performance Appraisals.
Memory and the Brain: Evidence from Memory Impairments and Other Sources.
Amnesia and Other Memory Disorders: Keys For Unlocking BrainMemory Links.
Memory and the Brain: A Modern View.
Psychology Lends a Hand: Improving Your Memory—Some Useful Steps.
Summary and Review of Key Questions.
Psychology: Understanding Its Findings.
Making Psychology Part of Your Life.
Key Terms.
7. Cognition and Intelligence.
Thinking: Forming Concepts and Reasoning to Conclusions.
Basic Elements of Thought: Concepts, Propositions, Images.
Reasoning: Transforming Information to Reach Conclusions.
Reasoning: Some Basic Sources of Error.
Psychology Lends a Hand: How to Reason More Effectively.
Making Decisions: Choosing Among Alternatives.
Heuristics: Using Quick—But Fallible—Rules of Thumb to Make Decisions.
The Accuracy of Heuristics: The Fast and Frugal Model of Decision Making.
Framing and Decision Strategy.
Escalation of Commitment: Getting Trapped in Bad Decisions.
Problem Solving: Finding Paths to Desired Goals.
Methods For Solving Problems: From Trial and Error to Heuristics.
Factors That Interfere With Effective Problem Solving.
Creativity: Generating the Extraordinary.
Contrasting Views of Creativity.
Research on Creativity: Evidence For the Confluence Approach.
Psychology Lends a Hand: On Becoming More Creative: Some Useful Tips.
Language: The Communication of Information.
The Development of Language.
Language and Thought: Do We Think What We Say or Say What We Think?
Language in Other Species.
Intelligence: Contrasting Views of Its Nature.
Intelligence: Unitary Or Multifaceted?
Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences.
Sternberg's Triarchic Theory: The Value of Practical Intelligence.
Cattell's Theory of Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence.
Measuring Intelligence.
IQ: Its Meaning Then and Now.
The Wechsler Scales.
Intelligence Tests: Some Basic Requirements.
The Cognitive Basis of Intelligence: Processing Speed.
The Neural Basis of Intelligence: Basic Building Blocks.
Human Intelligence: The Role of Heredity and the Role of Environment.
Evidence For the Influence of Heredity.
Evidence For the Influence of Environmental Factors.
Environment, Heredity, and Intelligence: Summing Up.
Group Differences in Intelligence Test Scores: Why They Occur.
Group Differences in IQ Scores: Evidence For the Role of Environmental Factors.
Emotional Intelligence: The Feeling Side of Intelligence.
Major Components of Emotional Intelligence.
Emotional Intelligence: Evidence on Its Existence and Effects.
Summary and Review of Key Questions.
Psychology: Understanding Its Findings.
Making Psychology Part of Your Life.
Key Terms.
8. Human Development.
Physical Growth and Development During Childhood.
The Prenatal Period.
Prenatal Influences on Development.
Physical Development During Our Early Years.
Perceptual Development During Childhood.
Cognitive Development During Childhood: Changes in Our Ability to Understand the World Around Us.
Piaget's Theory: An Overview.
Piaget's Theory: A Modern Assessment.
Beyond Piaget: Childrens Theory of Mind and Research on the Information-Processing Perspective.
Moral Development: Reasoning About “Right” and “Wrong.”
Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Understanding.
Evidence Concerning Kohlbergs Theory.
Psychology Lends a Hand: Why Knowing How Children Think Is Important—and Useful.
Social Development During Childhood: Forming Relationships with Others.
Temperament: Individual Differences in Emotional Style.
Attachment: The Beginnings of Love.
Friendships and Loneliness: Key Factors in Social Development.
Psychology Lends a Hand: Combating Childhood Obesity.
From Gender Identity to Sex-Category Constancy: How Children Come to Understand That They are Female or Male.
Childrens Growing Sophistication With Respect to Gender.
Gender Development: Contrasting Explanations of How It Occurs.
Adolescence: Between Child and Adult.
Physical Development During Adolescence.
Cognitive Development During Adolescence.
Social and Emotional Development During Adolescence.
Development During Our Adult Years.
Erikson's Theory Revisited: The Crises of Adult Life.
Physical Change During Our Adult Years.
Cognitive Change During Adulthood.
Social and Emotional Development During Adulthood.
Psychology Goes to Work: Choosing a Career: Some “Do's” and Some “Don'ts.”
Death and Bereavement.
Meeting Death: Facing the End of Life.
Bereavement: Coming to Terms With the Death of Loved Ones.
Summary and Review of Key Questions.
Psychology: Understanding Its Findings.
Making Psychology Part of Your Life.
Key Terms.
9. Motivation and Emotion.
Motivation: The Activation and Persistence of Behavior.
Theories of Motivation: Some Major Perspectives.
Psychology Lends a Hand: Managing Your Own Motivation.
Hunger: Regulating Our Caloric Intake.
Psychology Lends a Hand: Winning the “Battle of the Bulge”: Some Helpful Tips.
Sexual Motivation: The Most Intimate Motive.
Achievement Motivation: The Desire to Excel.
Intrinsic Motivation: How, Sometimes, to Turn Play into Work.
Forgiveness: When Compassion Replaces the Desire for Revenge.
Emotions: Their Nature, Expression, and Impact.
The Nature of Emotions: Some Contrasting Views.
The Biological Basis of Emotions.
The External Expression of Emotion: Outward Signs of Inner Feelings.
Emotion and Cognition: How Feelings Shape Thought and Thought Shapes Feelings.
Subjective Well-Being: Causes and Effects of Personal Happiness.
Psychology Lends a Hand: Becoming a Very Happy Person.
Summary and Review of Key Questions.
Psychology: Understanding Its Findings.
Making Psychology Part of Your Life.
Key Terms.
10. Personality: Uniqueness and Consistency in the Behavior of Individuals.
The Psychoanalytic Approach: Messages from the Unconscious.
Freud's Theory of Personality.
Research Related to Freud's Theory: Probing the Unconscious.
Freud's Theory: An Overall Evaluation.
Other Psychoanalytic Views: Freuds Disciples...and Defectors.
Psychology Lends a Hand: Too Much Freud
For Our Own Good? Questioning Freudian Assumptions in Everyday Life.
Humanistic Theories: Emphasis on Growth.
Rogers's Self Theory: Becoming a Fully Functioning Person.
Maslow and the Study of Self-Actualizing People.
Research Related to Humanistic Theories: Links to Positive Psychology.
Humanistic Theories: An Evaluation.
Trait Theories: Seeking the Key Dimensions of Personality.
The Search For Basic Traits: Catell's Source Trait Approach.
The “Big Five” Factors: The Basic Dimensions of Personality?
Research on Trait Theories: Effects of the “Big Five.”
Trait Theories: An Evaluation.
Cognitive-Behavioral Approaches to Personality.
Social Cognitive Theory: A Modern View of Personality.
Evaluation of the Cognitive-Behavioral Approach.
Psychology Goes to Work: Are You Suited to Becoming an Entrepreneur?
Psychology (My Psych Lab Series)
