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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
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Chapter 10
Chapter 11
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Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
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,
j
j
About the Author
David Myers received his psychology Ph.D.
from the University of Iowa. He has spent
his career at Hope College, Michigan,
where he is the John Dirk Werkman
Professor of Psychology and has taught
dozens of introductory psychology
sections. Hope College students have
invited him to be their commencement
speaker and voted him "outstanding
professor."
Myers' scientific articles have, with
support from National Science Foundation
grants, appeared in more than two dozen
scientific periodicals, including Science,
American Scientist, Psychological Science,
and the American Psychologist. In
addition to his scholarly writing and his
textbooks for introductory and social
psychology, he also digests psychological
science for the general public. His
writings have appeared in three dozen
magazines, from Today's Education to
Scientific American. He also has authored
five general audience books, including The
Pursuit of Happiness and Intuition: Its
Powers and Perils.
David Myers has chaired his city's Human
Relations Commission, helped found a
thriving assistance center for families in
poverty, and spoken to hundreds of
college and community groups. He bikes
to work year-round and plays daily pick-up
basketball. David and Carol Myers have
raised two sons and a daughter.
I Brief Contents I
Preface x1x
Prologue: The Story of Psychology
1
CHAPTER 1
Thinking Critically With Psychological
Science 19
CHAPTER 2
Neuroscience and Behavior
53
Motivation and Work
CHAPTER 14
Nature, Nurture, and Human Diversity
95
CHAPTER 5
Sensation
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 16
Psychological Disorders
Social Psychology
CHAPTER 7
271
CHAPTER 8
313
723
APPENDIX A:
Careers in Psychology
by Jennifer Lento
Learning
639
CHAPTER 18
237
States of Consciousness
595
CHAPTER 17
Therapy 685
197
Perception
139
549
CHAPTER 15
Personality
CHAPTER 4
Developing Through the Life Span
469
CHAPTER 13
Emotion 513
Stress and Health
CHAPTER 3
A -1
APPENDIX B:
Answers to Test Yourself Questions
CHAPTER 9
Memory
CHAPTER 12
349
CHAPTER 10
Thinking and Language
CHAPTER 11
Intelligence
395
B-1
Glossary G-1
References R-1
Name Index NI -1
Subject Index SI -1
431
ix
I Contents I
Preface
XIX
(P RO !_Q GU_!_:
)
The Story of Psychology
Psychology's Roots
2
Prescientific Psychology
2
Psychological Science Is Born
1
Thinking Critically About: Desegregation and the Death
Penalty- When Beliefs Collide With Psychological
Science so
3
Psychological Science Develops
6
Contemporary Psychology
Psychology's Big Debate
Frequently Asked Questions About
Psychology 44
CHAPTER -
'---------..-.--
8
Neuroscience and Behavior
9
Psychology's Three Main Levels of Analysis
Psychology's Subfields
10
Neural Communication
Neurons
12
Close-Up: Your Study of Psychology
54
55
How Neurons Communicate
15
57
How Neurotransmitters Influence Us
The Nervous System
CHAPTER
....._
The Need for Psychological Science
The Limits of Intuition and Common Sense
19
19
The Central Nervous System
63
The Endocrine System
65
The Brain
68
70
23
Older Brain Structures
The Scientific Method
24
The Cerebral Cortex
26
The Case Study
26
62
67
The Tools of Discovery
The Scientific Attitude
Description
58
61
The Peripheral Nervous System
Thinking Critically With Psychological
Science 19
53
Our Divided Brain
74
83
Thinking Critically About: Left Brain/Right Brain
87
The Survey
27
Naturalistic Observation
Correlation
29
30
Correlation and Causation
Illusory Correlations
32
33
Perceiving Order in Random Events
Experimentation
36
Exploring Cause and Effect
Evaluating Therapies
34
36
37
Independent and Dependent Variables
Statistical Reasoning
Describing Data
38
39
40
Making Inferences
42
xi
Xii
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
--
3--:---J
Nature, Nurture, and Human
Diversity 9 5
Behavior Genetics: Predicting Individual
Differences 96
Genes: Our Codes for life
Twin Studies
Adoption Studies
100
Temperament Studies
Heritability
96
97
102
102
Gene-Environment Interaction
104
The New Frontier: Molecular Genetics
105
Evolutionary Psychology: Understanding Human
Nature 107
Natural Selection
107
An Evolutionary Explanation of Human Sexuality
Critiquing the Evolutionary Perspective
Parents and Peers
112
Close-Up: Autism
114
152
Social Development
Parents and Early Experiences
Peer Influence
110
114
Adolescence
117
154
164
Physical Development
165
Cultural Influences
119
Cognitive Development
Variation Across Cultures
120
Social Development
170
Emerging Adulthood
173
Variation Over Time
121
Culture and the Self
121
Adulthood
Culture and Child-Rearing
124
Developmental Similarities Across Groups
Gender Development
The Nature of Gender
The Nurture of Gender
Social Development
126
131
Continuity and Stages
134
Stability and Change
CHAPTER
Developing Through the Life Span
139
Prenatal Development and the Newborn
139
Conception
139
Prenatal Development
140
The Competent Newborn
142
Close-Up: Research Strategies for Understanding Infants'
Thinking 143
Infancy and Childhood
Physical Development
Cognitive Development
144
144
147
181
185
Reflections on Two Major Developmental
Issues 193
129
Reflections on Nature and Nurture
175
Cognitive Development
126
Gender Similarities and Differences
175
Physical Development
125
167
Hearing
215
193
193
CONTENTS
The Ear
T: )
215
The Stimulus Input: Sound Waves
217
States of Consciousness
218
Hearing Loss and Deaf Culture 220
Close-Up: Living in a Silent World 222
Close-Up: A Noisy Noise Annoys
Other Important Senses
271
Consciousness and Information Processing
Sleep and Dreams
27 4
274
275
Why Do We Sleep? 279
Sleep Disorders 283
Dreams 285
Biological Rhythms
224
The Rhythm of Sleep
224
229
Smell 231
Touch
Taste
Body Position and Movement
233
Hypnosis
Perception
290
291
Facts and Falsehoods
••
CHAPTER
Is Hypnosis an Altered State of Consciousness?
237
Drugs and Consciousness
Selective Attention
2 37
Perceptual Illusions
240
Perceptual Organization
Dependence and Addiction
Psychoactive Drugs
294
296
296
298
304
Influences on Drug Use
242
Near-Death Experiences
243
Depth Perception 245
Motion Perception 249
Perceptual Constancy 250
309
Form Perception
Perceptual Interpretation
Perceptual Adaptation
Perceptual Set
Learning
254
255
257
313
265
Putting ESP to Experimental Test 266
315
316
Extending Pavlov's Understanding
261
264
Premonitions or Pretensions?
How Do We Learn?
Pavlov's Experiments
Is There Extrasensory Perception?
Claims of ESP
313
Classical Conditioning
256
Perception and the Human Factor
0
CHAPTER
Sensory Deprivation and Restored Vision
xiii
264
Pavlov's Legacy
321
323
Close-Up: Trauma as Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Skinner's Experiments
326
327
Extending Skinner's Understanding
Skinner's Legacy
325
333
336
Contrasting Classical and Operant Conditioning
Learning by Observation
Bandura's Experiments
339
341
343
Applications of Observational Learning
343
CHAPTER - b
Memory
349
The Phenomenon of Memory
Information Processing
349
351
Encoding: Getting Information In
How We Encode
What We Encode
353
356
353
271
XiV
CONTENTS
Storage: Retaining Information
361
Making Decisions and Forming judgments 401
Thinking Critically About: The Fear Factor- Do We Fear the
Right Things? 404
Belief Bias 406
Sensory Memory 362
Working/Short-Term Memory 362
Long-Term Memory 363
Storing Memories in the Brain 364
Language 410
Retrieval: Getting Information Out
Retrieval Cues 371
Close-Up: Retrieving Passwords
Forgetting
370
Thinking and Language 418
371
Language Influences Thinking
Thinking in Images 420
37 5
Encoding Failure 376
Storage Decay 377
Retrieval Failure 378
Do Animals Think? 423
Do Animals Exhibit Language?
The Case of the Apes 425
382
Misinformation and Imagination Effects 382
Source Amnesia 384
Discerning True and False Memories 384
Children's Eyewitness Recall 386
Repressed or Constructed Memories of Abuse?
(CHAPTER
Thinking
10;)
39 5
425
CHAPTER
387
Intelligence
431
What Is Intelligence? 431
391
Thinking and Language
Concepts 396
Solving Problems
418
Animal Thinking and Language 423
Memory Construction
Improving Memory
Language Structure 410
Language Development 412
395
Is Intelligence One General Ability or Several Specific
Abilities? 432
Emotionallntelligence 436
Intelligence and Creativity 438
Is Intelligence Neurologically Measurable? 439
Assessing Intelligence 442
397
The Origins of Intelligence Testing 442
Modern Tests of Mental Abilities 444
Principles of Test Construction 446
The Dynamics of Intelligence 450
Stability or Change? 450
Extremes of Intelligence 452
Genetic and Environmental Influences on
Intelligence 454
Genetic Influences 455
Environmentallnfluences 457
Group Differences in Intelligence Test Scores
The Question of Bias 464
CHAPTER
Motivation and Work
469
Perspectives on Motivation 470
Instincts and Evolutionary Psychology
Drives and Incentives 471
Optimum Arousal 471
A Hierarchy of Motives 472
470
459
t
CONTENTS
Expressed Emotion
XV
524
Nonverbal Communication 524
Detecting and Computing Emotion 526
Culture and Emotional Expression 528
The Effects of Facial Expressions 530
Experienced Emotion
532
Fear 533
Anger 535
Happiness 537
Close-Up: How to Be Happier
545
Stress and Health
Stress and Illness
The Physiology of Hunger 474
The Psychology of Hunger 477
Promoting Health
The Physiology of Sex 481
The Psychology of Sex 483
Adolescent Sexuality 485
Sexual Orientation 487
Sex and Human Values 493
495
Motivation at Work 498
Close-Up: 1/0 Psychology at Work 500
Personnel Psychology 500
Harnessing Strengths 500
Close-Up: Discovering Your Strengths 501
Organizational Psychology: Motivating Achievement
Close-Up: Doing Well While Doing Good: "The Great
Experiment" 506
Emotion
C H A PTE R
Personality
504
13 :)
Embodied Emotion
513
516
517
Physiological Differences Among Specific Emotions
518
519
Thinking Critically About: Lie Detection
~-S:D
595
The Psychoanalytic Perspective
596
Exploring the Unconscious 597
The Neo-Freudian and Psychodynamic Theorists 601
Assessing Unconscious Processes 6o2
Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective 604
609
Abraham Maslow's Self-Actualizing Person 609
Carl Rogers' Person-Centered Perspective 610
Assessing the Self 61o
Evaluating the Humanistic Perspective 611
Emotions and the Autonomic Nervous System 516
Physiological Similarities Among Specific Emotions
Cognition and Emotion
562
The Humanistic Perspective
513
Theories of Emotion
556
Coping With Stress 562
Close-Up: Pets Are Friends, Too 565
Managing Stress 567
Thinking Critically About: Alternative Medicine- New Ways to
Health, or Old Snake Oil? 570
Modifying Illness-Related Behaviors 575
Close-Up: For Those Who Want to Stop Smoking 580
Close-Up: For Those Who Want to Lose Weight 589
Sexual Motivation 481
(c H A PTE R
549
Stress and Stressors 550
Stress and the Heart 555
Stress and Susceptibility to Disease
Hunger 473
The Need to Belong
549
520
The Trait Perspective
Exploring Traits
614
Assessing Traits
615
613
Thinking Critically About: How to Be a "Successful"
Astrologer or Palm Reader 616
XVi
CONTENTS
Rnxiety Disorders
649
Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder
649
Phobias 650
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder 651
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 652
Explaining Anxiety Disorders 653
Thinking Critically About: Dissociation and Multiple
Personalities 656
Mood Disorders
658
Major Depressive Disorder 659
Bipolar Disorder 659
Explaining Mood Disorders 66o
Close-Up: Suicide 662
Schizophrenia
669
Symptoms of Schizophrenia 669
Subtypes of Schizophrenia 671
Understanding Schizophrenia 672
Personality Disorders
The Big Five Factors 618
Evaluating the Trait Perspective
677
Antisocial Personality Disorder 677
Understanding Antisocial Personality Disorder
619
The Social-Cognitive Perspective
623
Rates of Psychological Disorders
Reciprocallnfluences 623
Personal Control 625
Close-Up: Toward a More Positive Psychology 628
Assessing Behavior in Situations 629
Evaluating the Social-Cognitive Perspective 630
Therapy
685
Psychoanalysis 686
Humanistic Therapies 689
Behavior Therapies 690
Cognitive Therapies 694
Group and Family Therapies
The Benefits of Self-Esteem 632
Culture and Self-Esteem 633
Self-Serving Bias 633
680
lli
The Psychological Therapies
Exploring the Self 631
678
686
697
Evaluating Psychotherapies 700
Psychological Disorders
639
Perspectives on Psychological Disorders
640
Defining Psychological Disorders 640
Thinking Critically About: ADH D- Pathologizing
Rambunctiousness or Genuine Disorder? 641
Understanding Psychological Disorders 642
Classifying Psychological Disorders 644
Labeling Psychological Disorders 645
Close-Up: The "un-DSM": A Diagnostic Manual of Human
Strengths 646
Thinking Critically About: Insanity and Responsibility 647
Is Psychotherapy Effective? 700
Thinking Critically About: "Regressing" From Unusual to
Usual 701
The Relative Effectiveness of Different Therapies 704
Evaluating Alternative Therapies 705
Commonalities Among Psychotherapies 707
Culture and Values in Psychotherapy 708
Close-Up: A Consumer's Guide to Psychotherapists 709
The Biomedical Therapies 711
Drug Therapies 711
Brain Stimulation 715
Psychosurgery 717
Preventing Psychological Disorders 719
,.....
~
CONTENTS
.xvii
J
{[P PENDIX A
Careers in Psychology
by Jennifer Lento
R-1
Preparing for a Career in Psychology A-1
The Bachelor's Degree
Postgraduate Degrees
A -1
A- 2
Subfields of Psychology
A-4
Preparing Early for Graduate Study in
Psychology A-8
@ PPEND~?' B
)
Answers to Test Yourself Questions
Glossary G-1
References
CHAPTER
.._
__
-
Name Index NI-1
Social Psychology
Social Thinking
723
Subject Index SI-1
723
Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Situations
Attitudes and Actions
724
726
Close-Up: Abu Ghraib Prison: An "Atrocity-Producing
Situation?" 729
Social Influence 730
Conformity and Obedience
Grouplnftuence
731
737
Social Relations
7 42
Prejudice 743
Close-Up: Automatic Prejudice
744
Aggression 749
Close-Up: Parallels Between Smoking Effects and Media
Violence Effects 755
Conflict
Attraction
Altruism
756
758
764
Peacemaking
R-1
767
B-1
l
I
I
L
I Preface I
Two decades of time's ever rolling stream have flowed swiftly by since publication of
this book's first edition. And what an amazing two decades it has been. Hardly a day
goes by without my feeling gratitude for the privilege of assisting with the teaching of
psychology to so many students, in so many countries, through so many different
languages. To be entrusted with discerning and communicating t he wisdom of this
humanly significant discipline is both an exciting honor and a great responsibility.
What sustains my motivation is, first, my continuing appreciation for psychological science and its ever-expanding understandings, and, second, my commitment
to the students and teaching colleagues with whom this book enables me to have conversation. I love the mind-expanding learning that comes from my day-to-day reading
of psychological science, and I love connecting with so many people (many hundreds
of whom have written to share their experiences and gentle words of advice).
Although each new edition of this text appears every three years, it is a rare day
in between those editions when I do not harvest new information about the field I
love and its application to everyday life. Week by week, new information surprises us
with discoveries about, for example, the neuroscience of our moods and memories,
the reach of our adaptive unconscious, and the shaping power of our social and cultural context. No wonder this book has changed dramatically since I set to work on
the first edition 23 years ago. Today's psychological science is more attuned to the relative effects of nature and nurture, to gender and cultural diversity, to our conscious
and unconscious information processing, and to the biology that underlies our behavior (see TABLES 1 and 2, page xx). We today can also harness new ways to present
information, both in books and via electronic media. These changes are exhilarating!
Keeping up with new discoveries fills each day and connects me with many colleagues
and friends.
The thousands of instructors and millions of students across the globe who
have studied this book have contributed immensely to its development. Much of this
has occurred spontaneously, through correspondence and conversations. For this edition, we also formally involved over 800 researchers and teaching psychologists,
along with many students, in our efforts to gather accurate and up-to-date information about the field of psychology and the content, pedagogy, and supplements needs
of instructors and students in the introductory course. Moreover, we look forward to
continuing feedback as we strive, over future editions, to create an ever better book.
What Continues?
Throughout its eight editions, however, my vision for Psychology has not wavered: to
merge rigorous science with a broad human perspective in a book that engages both mind
and heart. My aim has been to create a state of the art introduction to psychology,
written with sensitivity to students' needs and interests. I aspire to help students understand and appreciate the wonder of important phenomena of their lives. I also
want to convey the inquisitive spirit in which psychologists do psychology. The study
of psychology, I believe, enhances our abilities to restrain intuition with critical
thinking, judgmentalism with compassion, and illusion with understanding.
Believing with Thoreau that "Anything living is easily and naturally expressed in
popular language," I seek to communicate psychology's scholarship with crisp narrative and vivid storytelling. Writing as a solo author, I hope to tell psychology's story in
xix
XX
PREFACE
Table 1: Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioral Genetics
In addition to the coverage found in Chapter 3, the evolutionary
perspective is covered on the following pages:
In addition to the coverage found in Chapter 3, behavior genetics is
covered on the following pages:
Aging, p. 178
Intelligence, pp. 459-461
Language,pp.410,414-415
Abuse, intergenerational
transmission of, p. 343
Perception, pp. 254-261
Anxiety disorders, pp. 654-655
Attraction, pp. 111-112, 758-759
Love, p.187
Aggression, p. 749
Psychological disorders:
Biological predispositions in
learning, pp. 321-323, 335-336
Need to belong, p. 495
Biomedical therapies, pp. 711-718
anxiety disorders, pp. 649-650
Obesity, pp. 581-582
Depth perception, p. 245
Brainstem, p. 71
Overconfidence,p.403
Drives and incentives, p. 471
biopsychosocial approach,
p.643
Charles Darwin, p. 9
Puberty, onset of, pp. 173-174
Drug use, pp. 305-307
mood disorders, pp. 658-668
Risk taking, p. 111
Emotion and cognition,
pp.521-523
personality disorders, pp.
656-657,677-679
Electromagnetic spectrum,
sensitivity to, p. 204
Emotion, pp. 404-405, 529, 530,
534
Emotion-detecting ability, p. 464
Sensation, pp. 198, 224
Sensory adaptation, pp. 202-203,
256
Sexual attraction, pp. 111-112
Personality traits, pp. 619-621
schizophrenia, pp. 669-676
Fear, pp. 534-535
Happiness,pp.542-544
Romantic love, p. 187
Hunger, taste preference,
pp.477-478
Sexuality, p. 481
Smell, pp. 231-233
Evolutionary perspective, defined,
p.11
Sexual orientation, pp. 490-491
Exercise, p. 569
Sexuality, p. 481
Intelligence, pp. 423, 440,
452-464
Fear, pp. 404-405, 533-534
Signal detection theory, p. 199
Learning, pp. 321-323, 335-336
Hearing, p. 215
Sleep, pp.276,282
Stress, personality, and illness,
PP·555-556,559-561,570-571
Motor development, p. 145
Smell, pp. 231-233
Traits, p. 460
Hunger and taste preference,
pp.477-478
Obesity and weight control,
pp.585-587
Instincts, pp. 47o-471
Stress and the immune system,
pp.557-558
Sexual orientation, p. 490-491
Table 2: Neuroscience
In addition to coverage found in Chapter 2, neuroscience can be
found on the following pages:
Antisocial personality disorder,
pp.677-678
Fetal alcohol syndrome and brain
abnormalities, p. 142
Autism, p. 152
Hallucinations and:
Biofeedback, pp. 561-572
sleep, p. 288
Brain activity and
hallucinogens, pp. 302-303
aging, pp. 179-180, 183- 185,
376
near-death experiences, p. 309
Hormones and:
Mirror neurons, pp. 341-342
Perception:
Neuroscience perspective,
defined, p. 11
brain damage and, pp. 198,
210-211
Neurotransmitters and:
color vision, pp. 212-214
biomedical therapy:
depression, pp. 664-665,
713-715
feature detection, pp. 209-210
transduction, p. 115
visual information processing,
pp. 208-211
aggression, p. 522
abuse, p. 159
ECT, pp. 715-717
dementia and Alzheimer's,
pp. 180-181, 365
development, pp. 129-130,
165-167
obsessive-compulsive
disorder, p. 697
Schizophrenia and brain
abnormalities, pp. 672-673
psychosurger~
Sensation:
disease, p. 220
emotion, pp. 516-517
dreams, pp. 287-288
memory, pp. 365-367
emotion, pp. 166, 233, 366,
517-520,522
sex,pp.129-130,165-166,176,
463.482-483.516
sleep, pp. 275-278
Brain development:
adolescence, p. 166-167
pp.717-718
schizophrenia, pp. 672-673,
711-712
child abuse, p. 159
deafness, pp. 22o-221
stress, pp. 516-517, 533,
551-553.555.557.566
depression, pp. 643, 664-665
hearing, pp. 219-221
drugs,pp.298-299.300-303
sensory adaptation, p. 203
weight control, pp. 475-476
exercise, p. 568
smell, pp. 231-233
taste, pp. 229-231
experience and, pp. 114-116
Hunger, pp. 475-476
narcolepsy, p. 284
infancy and childhood,
pp.144-145
Insight, p. 398
obsessive-compulsive disorder,
p.697
sexual differentiation in utero,
p.130
Language, statistical learning,
pp.415-417
Consciousness, p. 273
Drug dependence, p. 306
Emotion and cognition,
pp.521-522
Fear-learning, p. 654
body position and movement,
pp.233-234
Intelligence, pp. 440-441, 455
Memory,
physical storage of, pp.
364-366,368,369
s~e~p~283,287-288
Sexual orientation, pp. 489-492
Sleep,
schizophrenia, pp. 672-673
memory and, p. 283
smoking, p. 578
recuperation during,
pp.282-283
Pain, pp. 226-229
phantom limb pain, pp. 226-227
Parallel vs. serial processing,
p. 210
~
....
"'
PREFACE
a way that is warmly personal as well as rigorously scientific. I love to reflect on connections between psychology and other realms, such as literature, philosophy, history, sports, religion, politics, and popular culture. And I love to provoke thought, to
play with words, and to laugh.
Although supplemented by added story telling, this new edition retains its predecessors' voice and much of its content and organization. It also retains the goalsthe guiding principles-that have animated the previous seven editions:
1.
To exemplify the process of inquiry I strive to show students not just the outcome
of research, but how the research process works. Throughout, the book tries to excite the reader's curiosity. It invites readers to imagine themselves as participants
in classic experiments. Several chapters introduce research stories as mysteries
that progressively unravel as one clue after another falls into place. (See, for example, the historical story of research on the brain's processing of language on pages
413-417.)
2.
To teach critical thinking By presenting research as intellectual detective work, I
exemplify an inquiring, analytical mind-set. Whether students are studying development, cognition, or statistics, they will become involved in, and see the rewards
of, critical reasoning. Moreover, they will discover how an empirical approach can
help them evaluate competing ideas and claims for highly publicized phenomenaranging from subliminal persuasion, ESP, and alternative therapies to astrology,
hypnotic regression , and repressed and recovered memories.
3· To put facts in the service of concepts My intention is not to fill students' intellectual file drawers with facts, but to reveal psychology's major concepts-to teach
students how to think, and to offer psychological ideas worth thinking about. In
each chapter I place emphasis on those concepts I hope students will carry with
them long after they complete the course. Always, I try to follow Albert Einstein's
dictum that "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
4· To be as up-to-date as possible Few things dampen students' interest as quickly as
the sense that they are reading stale news. While retaining psychology's classic
studies and concepts, I also present the discipline's most important recent developments. Nearly 500 references in this edition are dated 2004 or 2005.
5· To integrate principles and applications Throughout- by means of anecdotes, case
histories, and the posing of hypothetical situations-! relate the findings of basic
research to their applications and implications. Where psychology can illuminate
pressing human issues- be they racism and sexism, health and happiness, or violence and war- I have not hesitated to shine its light.
6. To enhance comprehension by providing continuity Many chapters have a significant issue or theme that links subtopics, forming a thread that ties the chapter together. The Learning chapter conveys the idea that bold thinkers can serve as
intellectual pioneers. The Thinking and Language chapter raises the issue of human
rationality and irrationality. The Psychological Disorders chapter conveys empathy
for, and understanding of, troubled lives. "The uniformity of a work," observed Edward Gibbon, "denotes the hand of a single artist." Because the book has a single
author, other threads, such as behavior genetics and cultural diversity, weave
throughout the whole book, and students hear a consistent voice.
1· To reinforce learning at every step Everyday examples and rhetorical questions encourage students to process the material actively. Concepts presented earlier are
frequently applied, and thereby reinforced, in later chapters. For instance, in Chapter 5 students learn that much of our information processing occurs outside of our
conscious awareness. Ensuing chapters reinforce this concept. Learning Objectives,
Learning Outcomes, self-tests, a marginal glossary, and end-of-chapter key terms
lists help students master important concepts and terminology.
XXi
xxii
PREFACE
8. To convey respect for human unity and diversity Especially in newly revised Chapter 3, Nature, Nurture, and Human Diversity, but also throughout the book, readers
will see evidence of our human kinship-our shared biological heritage, our common mechanisms of seeing and learning, hungering and feeling, loving and hating.
They will also better understand the dimensions of our diversity-our individual diversity in development and aptitudes, temperament and personality, and disorder
and health; and our cultural diversity in attitudes and expressive styles, child rearing and care for the elderly, and life priorities.
What's New?
Despite the overarching continuity, there is change on every page. In addition to
updates everywhere and 900 new references-comprising 24 percent of the bibliography! have introduced the following major changes to Psychology, eighth edition:
Increased Coverage of Cultural and Gender Diversity
This edition presents an even more thoroughly cross-cultural perspective on psychology
(TABLE 3)-reflected in research findings, and text and photo examples. Coverage of
the psychology of women and men is thoroughly integrated (see TABLE 4). In addition,
I am working to offer a world-based psychology for our worldwide student readership.
Table 3: Cultural and Multicultural Experience
From the Prologue to Chapter 18, coverage of culture and multiculture experience can be found on the following pages:
rates of, pp. 68o-681
Aging population, pp. 177-178
Dieting, p. 582
Life-expectancy, pp. 177-178
Aggression, pp. 749, 752, 753
Life satisfaction, pp. 538-541
schizophrenia, p. 643
AIDS,pp.190,406,558-559
Drugs, psychological effects of,
p.300
Management styles, p. 509
susto, p. 643
Alcoholism, pp. 299-300
Emotion:
Marijuana use, p. 307
taijin-kyofusho, p. 643
emotion-detecting ability, pp.
524-525
Marriage, p. 187
Attractiveness, pp. 110-111, 759-762
expressing, pp. 526, 528-531,
536.537
Meditation, pp. 571-572
Psychoanalysis, p. 687
Behavioral effects of culture, pp.
47-48, 103-104
experiencing, pp. 535-536, 537,
540-541
Memory, encoding, pp. 360, 559
Psychotherapists and values, pp.
708-710
Anger, pp. 535-537
Animal research ethics, p. 47
Categorization, p. 397
Medical risk, p. 460
Mental illness rate, p. 68o
Enemy perceptions, p. 758
Need to belong, pp. 495-496
Conformity, pp. 731, 733, 734
Flynn effect, pp. 447-448
Obesity, pp. 586-587
Corporal punishment practices,
pp.332-333
Gender:
Observational learning:
Cultural norms, pp. 120, 131-132
Culture and the self, pp. 121-123
Culture context effects, p. 260
Culture shock, pp. 120-121, 553
roles, pp. 131-132
social connectedness, p. 170
Grief, expressing, p. 191
Happiness, pp. 539-541, 543-544
television viewing, p. 160
television and aggression, pp.
344-345
Pace of life, pp. 30, 120-121
Psychotherapy:
EMDR training, p. 706
Puberty and adult independence,
pp. 173-174
Self-esteem, pp. 543-544, 633
Self-serving bias, p. 634
Sexual attraction, p. 111
Sexual orientation, pp. 487-488
Size-distance relationship, pp.
251-252
Hindsight bias, p. 21
Parapsychology, pp. 264, 268
History of psychology, pp. 3-7
Participative management, p. 509
Homosexuality, views on, p. 27
People with disabilities, p. 539
Social-cultural perspective, pp.
10-13
Human diversity/kinship,
PP·47-48,120-124
Perception, pp. 237, 252
Social clock, p. 186
adolescence, p. 165
Hunger, p. 477
Poverty and inequality, p. 31
attachment, pp. 157-161
Individualism/collectivism, pp.
121-124
Prejudice, pp. 743-748
Intelligence, pp. 446-448,
459-461
Psychological disorders:
Deaf culture, pp. 83, 86, 88,
220-223,411,412,413-414,417,
420
Depression, p. 662
Development:
child-rearing, p. 124
cognitive development, p. 154
developmental similarities,
p.125
bias, pp. 464-466
Personal space, p.120
Prejudice prototypes, p. 397
antisocial personality disorder,
p.679
moral development, p. 168
Language, pp.119,411,414-415,
418-420
motor development, p. 142
dissociative personality
disorder, p. 657
Leaving the nest, pp. 173-174
eating disorders, pp. 478-480,
643
social development, p. 157
Smoking, pp. 575-581
j
~
Stress:
adjusting to a new culture,
PP·553-554
poverty and inequality /lifeexpectanc~pp.563,564,565
Suicide, p. 662
Teen sexuality, pp. 485-487
Testing bias, pp. 464-466
See also Chapter 18, Social
Psychology, pp.722-772
~
,.
..
~
PREFACE
xx:iii
Table 4: The Psychology of Men and Women
Coverage of the psychology of men and women can be found in the
following pages:
Sexual attraction, pp. 111-112
ADHD, p. 641
Fear, p. 534
Life expectancy, p. 178
Aggression, pp. 749, 750
Freud's views, pp. 598-599, 604
Marriage, p. 566
Sexual disorders, p. 482
Alcohol use, pp. 298-300
Maturation, pp. 165-167
Sexual fantasies, pp. 484, 485
Behavioral effects of gender, p. 46
Gender and child-rearing, pp.
132-133. 479. 486
Gender roles, pp. 131-132
Biological sex/gender, pp. 129-130
Body image, p. 479
Autism, p. 152
Changes in physical development,
pp.176-177
Menarche, p. 166
Sexual orientation, pp. 487-493
Menopause, pp. 176-177
Sexuality, pp. 110-111, 481-485
Gender prejudice, p. 745
Midlife crisis, pp. 185-186
Sleep, pp. 280, 281
Gendered brain, pp. 130-131, 479,
482,484,492
Obesity, pp. 582-584
Smoking, pp. 111, 141, 579-580
Pornography, pp. 484, 752-754
Social connectedness, pp. 565-566
Generic pronoun "he," p. 419
Prejudice, pp. 397, 745-746
Stereotyping, p. 261
Stress, pp. 555-556
Depression, pp. 659, 667
Happiness, p. 544
Dieting,p~582-583,587
Heart disease, pp. 555-556
Psychological disorders, rates of,
pp.68o-681
Dream content, pp. 286-288
Help-receiving, p. 766
Rape,pp.325,753-754
in marriage, pp. 565-566
Drugs and addiction, pp. 299, 300
Hormones and:
REM sleep, arousal in, p. 278
sexualabuse,p.566
response, p. 553
Eating disorders, pp. 478-480
aggression, pp. 750
Risk taking, p. 111
Suicide, pp. 662-663
Emotion-detecting ability, pp.
464,526-527
sexual behavior, pp. 482-483
Savant syndrome, pp. 433-434
sexual development, pp.
129-130, 165-167
Schizophrenia, pp. 669, 671
Weight discrimination, pp.
583-584
Women and work, p. 189
Emotional expression, pp. 190,
524-526
Immune system, p. 557
Empty nest, p. 188
Intelligence, pp. 461-464
Father care, pp. 157, 486
Sense of smell, p. 232
Sexualabuse,pp.109,158-159,
299.567
bias, p. 465
Thus, I continually search the world for research findings and text and photo examples,
conscious that readers may be in Melbourne, Sheffield, Vancouver, or Nairobi. North
American and European examples come easily, given that I reside in the United States,
maintain contact with friends and colleagues in Canada, subscribe to several European
periodicals, and live periodically in the U.K. This edition, for example, offers 82 explicit
Canadian and 142 British examples, and 82 mentions of Australia and New Zealand. We
are all citizens of a shrinking world, thanks to increased migration and the growing global
economy. Thus, American students, too, benefit from information and examples that internationalize their world-consciousness. And if psychology seeks to explain human behavior (not just American or Canadian or Australian behavior), the broader the scope of
studies presented, the more accurate is our picture of this world's people. My aim is to expose all students to the world beyond their own culture. Thus, I continue to welcome
input and suggestions from all readers. Our revised Chapter 3, retitled Nature, Nurture,
and Human Diversity, encourages students to appreciate cultural and gender differences
and commonalities, and to consider the interplay of nature and nurture.
Each chapter opening art page now includes a brief literary excerpt from varied
cultural perspectives. These excerpts, from Maya Angelou, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Jhumpa
Lahiri, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Gwendolyn Brooks, and others offer "Another Voice" on the
chapter's topic. In addition, many new photos showcase the diversity of cultures
within North America, as well as across the globe. In addition to significant crosscultural examples and research presented within the narrative, these new photos with
informative captions freshen each chapter and broaden students' perspectives in applying psychological science to their own world and to the worlds across the globe.
A Revised and Thoroughly Considered Pedagogical Program
In addition to the new chapter-opening literary excerpts, this edition includes the following new study aids.
• New numbered Learning Objectives introduce significant sections of text
(around 15-30 per chapter) and direct student reading. These Learning
Objectives organize the Study Guide and the Test Banks and are listed in the
Instructor's Resources.
Women in psychology, p. 6
See also Chapter 18, Social
Psychology, pp.722-771
XXiV
PREFACE
• New Learning Outcomes, found at the end of each major section of text, repeat
the Learning Objectives and address them with a narrative summary.
• The Learning Outcomes sections also include at least one Ask Yourself question,
which encourages students to apply new concepts to their own experiences.
• Chapter-ending Review sections contain 3-5 short-answer Test Yourself questions
(with answers in an appendix) that assess student mastery and encourage big picture thinking, followed by page-referenced Terms and Concepts to Remember.
Greater Emphasis on the Biological-PsychologicalSocial/Cultural Levels of Analysis Approach in Psychology
This edition now systematically includes coverage of the biological, psychological, and
social-cultural influences on our behavior. A significant new section in the Prologue
introduces the levels-of-analysis approach, setting the stage for future chapters, and
new levels-of-analysis figures in most chapters help students understand concepts in
the biopsychosocial context. Richard Straub's new, accompanying interactive Visual
Concept Review booklet also includes levels-of-analysis visual summary reviews.
Greater Sensitivity to the Clinical Perspective
With helpful guidance from clinical psychologist colleagues, I have been more mindful in this edition of the clinical angle on various concepts within psychology, which
has sensitized and improved the Personality, Psychological Disorders, and Therapy
chapters, among others. For example, I now cover problem-focused and emotionfocused coping strategies in the Stress and Health chapter, and the Intelligence chapter includes several mentions of how intelligence tests are used in clinical settings.
New Teaching and Learning Resources
Our supplements and media have been celebrated for their quality, abundance, and
accuracy. The package available for Psychology, Eighth Edition, raises the bar even
higher. New media items include the ActivePsych classroom activity CD-ROMs, the
new Online Study Center 2.0 for students, and enhanced course management solutions. New print supplements include Martin Bolt's Instructor's Media Guide,
Richard Straub's Visual Concept Reviews, and a thoroughly revised Test Bank. See
page xxvi for details.
~
New Careers in Psychology Appendix, by Dr. jennifer Lento,
University Of San Diego
This highly applied and research-based appendix provides guidance to students considering a psychology major and/ or career. Topics covered include the benefits of
studying psychology and obtaining a psychology degree, psychology careers available
and the job market landscape for students at all levels (bachelors, masters, doctorate), career options within the sub-fields in psychology (such as clinical, counseling,
community, school, forensic, and sports psychology), and early preparation tips for
those considering graduate school.
.....
J
Enhanced Critical Thinking Coverage
I aim to introduce students to critical thinking in a very natural way throughout the
book, with even more in the narrative that encourages active learning of psychology's
key concepts. In addition to the new Learning Objectives and Learning Outcomes,
which encourage critical reading to glean an understanding of important concepts,
the eighth edition includes the following opportunities for students to learn or practice their critical thinking skills.
'IOj
PREFACE
XXV
• Chapter 1 takes a unique, critical thinking approach to introducing students to
psychology's research methods, emphasizing the fallacies of our everyday intuition and common sense and, thus, the need for psychological science. Critical
thinking is introduced as a key term in this chapter (p. 24). The discussions of
Statistical Reasoning encourages students to "focus on thinking smarter by applying simple statistical principles to everyday reasoning" (pp. 3 9-40).
• ~~Thinking Critically About ... " boxes are found throughout the book, modeling
for students a critical approach to some key issues in psychology. For example,
see the new box "Thinking Critically About: ADHD-Pathologizing Rambunctiousness or Genuine Disorder?" on p. 641.
• Detective-style stories throughout the narrative get students thinking critically
about psychology's key research questions.
11
•
Apply this" and 11Think about it" style discussions keep students active in their
study of each chapter.
• Critical examinations of pop psychology spark interest and provide important
lessons in thinking critically about everyday topics.
See TABLE 5 for a complete list of this text's coverage of critical thinking topics
and Thinking Critically About boxes.
Table 5: Critical Thinking and Research Emphasis
Critical thinking coverage, and in-depth stories of psychology's
scientific research process, can be found on the following pages:
~
,
,.
,
r
....
Thinking Critically About . ..
boxes:
Critiquing the evolutionary
perspective, pp. 112-113
Thinking Critically with
Psychological Science:
Why do we dream?, pp. 287-289
Desegregation and the Death
Penalty-When Beliefs Collide
With Psychological Science,
p.5o
How great is the power of
parenting?, pp. 116-117
The limits of intuition and
common sense, pp. 19-22
Is hypnosis an altered state of
consciousness?, pp. 294-295
Sensory restriction, pp. 255-256
"Critical thinking" introduced as a
key term, p. 24
How do we store memories in our
brains?, pp. 364-369
The scientific attitude, pp. 23-24
Left Brain/Right Brain, p. 87
Is there extrasensory perception?,
pp.264-268
The scientific method, pp. 24-26
Memory construction,
pp. 382-390
Lie Detection, pp. 520-521
Can hypnosis enhance recall?
Coerce action? Be therapeutic?
Alleviate pain?, pp-292-293
Correlation and causation,
PP·32-33
Do animals exhibit language?,
pp.425-428
Alternative Medicine: New Ways
to Health or Old Snake Oil?,
pp.570-571
Has the concept of "addiction"
been stretched too far?,
pp.297-298
Illusory correlation, pp. 33-34
How to Be a "Successful"
Astrologer or Palm Reader,
pp.616-617
Near-death experiences,
pp. 309-310
Why do we feel hunger?,
PP·474-477
What determines sexual
orientation?, pp. 488-493
The Fear Factor-Do We Fear the
Right Things?, pp. 404-405
ADH D- Pathologizi ng
Rambunctiousness or Genuine
Disorder?, p. 641
Do animals exhibit language?,
pp.425-428
Evaluating therapies, pp. 37-38
Statistical reasoning, pp. 39-40
Making inferences, pp. 42-44
The pursuit of happiness: Who is
happy, and why?, pp. 537-545
Insanity and Responsibility,
p.648
Scientific Detective Stories:
Why-and in whom-does stress
contribute to heart disease?, pp.
555-556
Spirituality and faith
communities, pp. 572-575
Dissociation and Multiple
Personalities, pp. 656-657
Is breast milk better than
formula?, pp. 36-37
How and why is social support
linked with health?, pp. 564-567
How valid is the Rorschach test?,
pp.602-603
Language in the brain, pp. 80-82
Our divided brains, pp. 83-88
Self-esteem versus self-serving
bias, pp. 633-636
The twin and adoption studies,
pp.97-101
What causes mood disorders?,
pp.658-668
How a child's mind develops,
pp.147-154
Do prenatal viral infections
increase risk of schizophrenia?,
pp.673-674
Is repression a myth?, pp.
604-605
Is Freud credible?, pp. 604-607
...
Exploring cause and effect,
pp.36-37
Is aerobic exercise therapeutic?,
pp.567-569
"Regressing" from Unusual to
Usual, p. 701
..
Why do we sleep?, pp. 279-283
Critical Examinations of Pop
Psychology:
Post-traumatic stress disorder,
pp.652-653
Do Video Games Teach or Release
Violence?, pp. 754-756
Is psychotherapy effective?,
pp. 700-705
Perceiving order in random
events, pp. 34-35
Evaluating alternative therapies,
pp.705-707
Do we use only 10 percent of our
brains?, pp. 79-80
Aging and intelligence, pp.
183-185
Parallel processing, pp. 210-211
How do we see in color?,
pp.212-214
Is psychotherapy effective?,
PP·700-705
Why do people fail to help in
emergencies?, pp. 765-766
XXVi
PREFACE
Innovative Multimedia Supplements Package
Psychology, Eighth Edition, boasts a host of new electronic and print supplements
titles.
Media Supplements
New! ActivePsych Instructor's Classroom Exercise CD-ROMs include interactive activities designed for in-class presentation and group participation, as well as a robust
library of new clips and animations. These activities require very little instructor
preparation (just load the CD and launch the activity) and are designed to foster
class discussion and critical thinking. The ActivePsych suite of instructor presentation CO-ROMs includes the following:
• More than 30 interactive activities, including animations, video clips, illustrations,
photographs, and critical thinking questions. A number of activities have been
adapted from Martin Bolt's Instructor's Resources and Thomas Ludwig's PsychSim 5.0 (and are now classroom presentation-friendly). ActivePsych also includes a significant number of completely original, creative activities, all
authored (and class-tested) by veteran introductory psychology teachers.
• Approximately 30 completely new short video clips, drawn from a variety of sources,
and numerous new animations.
• New! Scientific American Frontiers Teaching Modules, Third Edition, which have
been housed in ActivePsych and edited by Martin Bolt. The Third Edition offers
you 15 edited clips from Scientific American Frontiers segments produced between 2003-2005.
HOW 00 NEURONS COMMUNICATE WITH ONE ANOTHER?
A•QUT
New! Instructor's Media Guide (based on trusted Instructor's Resources author
Martin Bolt's work) expands the Lecture Guides and offers instructors a simple way
to incorporate instructor media, presentation, and video resources into their course.
New! Online Study Center 2.0 for Psychology, Eighth Edition The customized
Online Study Center ( OSC) offers students a variety of tools to help them master the
course:
j
j
J
..
~
PREFACE
~
Welcome to the Online Study Center
... where students can test their understanding of key
concepts and follow their progress through the introductory psychology course! Featuring Study Plans that integrate interactive resources and tutorials, the OSC offers
students a sophisticated online learning experience with
tools to address their individual needs.
About
•
•
•
•
,
,..
,..
r•
...
.......
,...
....
Take a Guided Tourt
How to Use This Site
System Requirements
More about the
Online Study Center
;'fi Check Your Understanding
Take a Sell-Test, work through a detailed
Study Plan, and take additional Self-Tests to
determine your overall mastery of the material.
\:&} Browse Resources By Chapter
Get quick, chapter-based access to
interactive resources and assessments.
student register >
mstructor register >>
log in
~
'' Search Resources By Topic
Enter a term or phrase and we'll search
our multimedia library for all related
resources.
~'r Create a List of "Favorites"
Save and add notes to your favorite
resources for future reference.
• A Chapter-by-Chapter Self-Guided Study Plan with Diagnostic Tests. Students may
take a 20-25 question Self-Test to assess their current knowledge of a particular
chapter, then view a Study Plan that identifies areas of weakness and offers a variety of resources for learning those concepts.
• Self-Paced Tutorials that allow students to revisit and master course concepts on
their own.
• Multiple Assessment and Review Tools, organized by chapter. In addition to the
Study Plan, students can Search by Topic or Browse by Chapter to access interactive demonstrations and review materials.
• Dozens of Hands-On Activities. Your students will be able to tackle classic experiments (condition a rat, probe the hypothalamus electronically), encounter perceptual illusions, test their memory, interpret facial expressions, and more.
• Digitized Video Demonstrations (for example, the effects of teratogens on development) and Animations (such as neural communication) bring text concepts to
life.
• A Sophisticated Search Engine (similar to Google®) that allows students to search
quickly by topic (not just by chapter).
• Interactive Study Tools. Students are able to add resources to their Favorites and
even add Notes to specific resources .
New! Enhanced Course Management Solutions (WebCT, Blackboard,
Desire2Learn, Angel) allow adopters to access all of this edition's teaching and learning
resources in one, central location (through their course management system) through
one, seamless, guided experience.
New! eLibrary for Psychology, Eighth Edition brings together the supplementary
resources, such as the Instructor's Resources, PsychSim 5.0, and PsychOnline, in a single, easy-to-use Web site. Through sophisticated and seamless search and browse
functions, the eLibrary allows instructors to quickly build free, premium student Web
pages, construct lectures, and organize resources .
New! Expanded and Improved Book Companion Site The Psychology, Eighth
Edition, Book Companion site offers students a virtual study guide, twenty-four
hours a day, seven days a week. Best of all, these resources are free and do not require
xxvii
:xxviii
PREFACE
any special access codes or passwords. In addition to self-tests, review materials,
annotated web links, simulations, and demonstrations, the site now includes an
interactive, historical timeline and new Spanish-English Flashcards. The passwordprotected Instructor Site offers a full array of teaching resources, including a new
suite of Power Point slides, electronic Lecture Guides, an online quiz grade book, and
links to additional tools.
New! iclicker Radio Frequency Classroom Response System Offered by Worth
Publishers, in partnership with iClicker and available for fall 2006 classes, iClicker is
Worth's new polling system, created by educators for educators. This radio frequency
system is the hassle-free way to make your class time more interactive. The system allows you to pause to ask questions and instantly record responses, as well as take attendance, direct students through lectures, gauge your students' understanding of the
material, and much more.
Revised! Instructor's Resource CD-ROM Customized for Psychology, Eighth Edition, this CD-ROM contains pre-built PowerPoint presentation slide sets for each
chapter, a digital photograph library, an electronic version of Martin Bolt's Instructor's Resources and Lecture Guides, and a complete illustration library. A new intuitive
browser interface makes it easy to preview and use all elements in this CD-ROM.
• Chapter Art PowerPoint® Slides feature all of the text art and illustrations (including tables, charts, and graphs) within the Power Point format. This program also
offers a number of layered PowerPoint slides for key biological and process
diagrams.
• Revised! Lecture PowerPoint® Presentation Slides Developed by a longtime adopter
of Psychology and informed by 20 reviewers, these slides focus on key concepts
and themes from the text. The slides feature tables, graphs and figures from the
text and from outside sources.
• New! Step Up to Psychology: A PowerPoint Review Game by john Schulte, University
of North Carolina-Wilmington. This PowerPoint-based review adopts a gameshow approach where students divide into teams to compete for points by answering questions related to chapter material. The questions are ranked for
difficulty (four levels), and include both factual/ definitional and conceptual/
application questions.
• New! Digital Photo Library gives you access to all of the photographs from the
eighth edition, organized by chapter.
PsychSim 5.0, Thomas Ludwig, Hope College, CD-ROM and Booklet These 42
interactive simulations involve students in the practice of psychological research by
having them play the role of experimenter (conditioning a rat, probing the hypothalamus electrically, working in a sleep lab) or participant (responding to tests of memory or visual illusions, interpreting facial expressions). Other simulations provide
dynamic tutorials or demonstrations. In addition, 5-question multiple choice quizzes
are available for each activity on the Companion Web site.
Psychlnquiry for Psychology, Eighth Edition: Student Activities in Research
and Critical Thinking CD-ROM, Thomas Ludwig, Hope College Customized to
work specifically with this new edition, this CD-ROM contains dozens of interactive
activities designed to help students learn about psychological research and to improve
their critical thinking skills.
PsychOnline (Course Management Version), Thomas Ludwig, Hope College
Housed in both WebCT and Blackboard, PsychOnline is a comprehensive instructor
and student online solution for introductory psychology. Designed for use as a supplement for either web-enhanced lecture courses or complete online courses, Psych Online
offers a rich, web-based collection of interactive tutorials and activities for introductory psychology.
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PsychOnline 2.0 (Web-Based Version), Thomas Ludwig, Hope College
PsychOnline 2.0 is a comprehensive online resource for introductory psychology.
PsychOnline 2.0 looks like a Worth Web site, includes more than 100 interactive
tutorials and over 2 50 activities, and also contains the following new features:
• A Web-based interface that is easy to use and incorporate within your course
• A self-guided study plan that includes a multiple-choice Diagnostic Test for each
topic. After the student completes the Diagnostic Test, the student is given a Diagnostic Test Report that offers test results and suggestions for re-examining and
studying material.
• 20 modules from Thomas Ludwig's PsychSim 5.0
Diploma Computerized Test Bank (Available in Windows and Macintosh on
One CD-ROM) The CD-ROM allows you to add an unlimited number of questions,
edit questions, format a test, scramble questions, and include pictures, equations, or
multimedia links. With the accompanying grade book, you can record students'
grades throughout a course, sort student records and view detailed analyses of test
items, curve testS, generate reports, add weights to grades, and more. This CD-ROM is
the access point for Diploma Online Testing. Blackboard and WebCT formatted versions of the Test Bank are also available within the Course Cartridge and ePack.
Diploma Online Testing at www.brownstone.net With Diploma, you can easily create and administer exams over the Internet, with questions that incorporate multimedia
and interactivity. Students receive instant feedback and can take the quizzes multiple
times. Instructors can sort and view results, and can take advantage of various grade book
and result-analysis features, as well as restrict tests to specific computers or time blocks.
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Online Quizzing at worthpublishers.com/myers Now you can easily and securely
quiz students online using prewritten multiple-choice questions for each chapter. Students receive instant feedback and can take the quizzes multiple times. As the instructor,
you can view results by quiz, student, or question, or you can get weekly results via email.
Worth Image and Lecture Gallery at www.worthpublishers.com/ilg Using
the Image and Lecture Gallery, you can browse or search and download text art, illustrations, outlines, and pre-built PowerPoint slides for ALL Worth titles. Users
can also create personal folders for easy organization of the materials.
Video/DVD Resources
New! Moving Images: Exploring Psychology Through Film Available in VHS and
DVD and edited by Martin Bolt (Calvin College), this completely new series (drawn
from the Films for the Humanities and Sciences) contains 25 one-to-eight minute
clips of real people, real experiments, and real patients. The series combines historical
footage with cutting-edge research and news programming. Highlights include:
"Brain and Behavior: A Contemporary Phineas Gage," "Firewalking: Mind Over Matter," and "Social Rejection: The Need to Belong."
...
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Moving Images:
Exploring Psychology Through Film
(edited by Martin Bolt)
...
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PREFACE
Scientific American Frontiers Teaching
Modules, Third Edition
(edited by Martin Bolt)
New! Scientific American Frontiers Teaching Modules, Third Edition. Housed
on ActivePsych Instructor's Classroom Exercise CO-ROMs and also available separattely on CD-ROM, DVD, and VHS, this series was edited by Martin Bolt (Calvin College). The Third Edition of this acclaimed series offers you 15 new clips from
contemporary segments produced between 2003-2005. Featuring Alan Alda, the series presents both current research and real-world applications, and offers yet another terrific way to encourage discussion and debate in your introductory psychology
course.
Worth Digital Media Archive (available in dual platform CD-ROMs, VHS,
and DVD) This rich presentation tool contains 42 digitized video clips of classic experiments and research. Footage includes Bandura's Bobo doll experiment,
Takooshian's bystander studies, Piaget's conservation experiment, Harlow's monkey
experiments, and Milgram's obedience studies. The Digital Media Archive CDROM clips are available in MPEG for optimal visual presentation, and are compatible with PowerPoint.
Psychology: The Human Experience Teaching Modules This series includes
more than 3 hours of footage from the Introductory Psychology telecourse, Psychology: The Human Experience, produced by Coast Learning Systems in collaboration
with Worth Publishers. Footage contains noted scholars, the latest research, and
striking animations.
The Many Faces of Psychology Video (available in VHS and DVD) Created and
written by Frank J. Vattano, Colorado State University, and Martin Bolt, Calvin College (produced by the Office of Instructional Services, Colorado State University),
this video is a terrific way to begin your psychology course. The Many Faces of Psychology introduces psychology as a science and a profession, illustrating basic and applied
methods. The 22-minute video presents some of the major areas in which psychologists work and teach.
Scientific American Frontiers Video Collection, Second Edition (available in
VHS and DVD) Hosted by Alan Aida, these 8-12 minute teaching modules from the
highly praised Scientific American series feature the work of such notable researchers
as Steve Sumi, Renee Baillargeon, Carl Rosengren, Laura Pettito, Steven Pinker, Barbara Rothbaum, Bob Stickgold, Irene Pepperberg, Marc Hauser, Linda Bartoshuk, and
Michael Gazzaniga.
The Mind Video Teaching Modules, Second Edition (available in VHS and
DVD) Edited by Frank J. Vattano, Colorado State University, with the consultation of
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Charles Brewer, Furman University, and myself in association with WNET, these 3 5
brief, engaging video clips dramatically enhance and illustrate your lectures. Examples include segments on language processing, infant cognitive development, genetic
factors in alcoholism, and living without memory (featuring a dramatic interview
with Clive Wearing).
The Brain Video Teaching Modules, Second Edition (available in VHS and
DVD) Edited by Frank J. Vattano and Thomas L. Bennet from Colorado State University, and Michelle Butler, from the United States Air Force Academy, this collection of
32 short clips provides vivid examples for myriad topics in introductory psychology.
Print Supplements for Instructors
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New! Significantly Revised and Enhanced Printed Test Bank, Volumes 1 and 2,
John Brink, Calvin College Broken down into two volumes of tests, the Test Bank
provides over 5,000 multiple-choice factual/ definitional, conceptual/ application,
and conceptual questions, plus essay questions. In response to review input from over
a dozen reviewers, Brink has changed the number of distracters from 5 to 4 to avoid
confusion, and he has carefully edited each question for effectiveness and comprehension. As a result, this eighth edition set includes over 20 percent new and significantly revised questions. Each question is keyed to a learning objective from the text,
page-referenced to the text, and rated for level of difficulty. Also included are copies
of the Student Book Companion site quizzes. The first Test Bank includes optional
questions from the Study Guide (for instructors who incorporate or require the Study
Guide in their courses) . The second Test Bank includes optional questions on key
Worth media tools, such as PsychSim 5.0, The Brain and The Mind video series, the
Scientific American videos, the Digital Media Archive, and Moving Images: Exploring
Psychology Through Film.
New! Instructor's Media Guide: This handy guide quickly and visually organizes
the extensive instructor and student media resources available for Psychology, Eighth
Edition, including every video, animation, student web activity (including PsychSim),
Power Point®, and more-all organized by chapter.
Instructor's Resources, Martin Bolt, Calvin College (also available electronically within the eLibrary) Well-known in the psychology community for its comprehensiveness and innovative teaching ideas, Martin Bolt's revised Instructor's
Resources feature more than 30 percent new, revised, and updated material and include the following:
• Outline of Resources, organized by text topic, includes the relevant Instructor Resource items by type (classroom exercise, lecture/ discussion topic, etc.) with appropriate Instructor Resource page number.
• Chapter Objectives from the text highlight main concepts and terms and detail the
key points of each text chapter. They can be used as essay questions in classroom examinations. Test Bank and Study Guide fill-in questions are keyed to the Objectives.
• Chapter Outlines follow the major text section headings (with page references),
providing relevant instructional materials for each topic-including dozens of
ready-to-use detailed lecture/discussion ideas, student projects, classroom exercises (many with ready-to-use handouts for in- or out-of-class use), and suggestions about how to use the videos provided by Worth Publishers (see above),
PsychSim modules, and feature films (as they apply to psychological concepts
discussed in the text). Note that the films and videos from other sources are outlined in the Book Companion site. Other Web sites are also listed and described
here and the feature film descriptions are repeated on the Book Companion site.
Martin Bolt's Lecture Guides, available in both print and easily modifiable Microsoft Word formats (as well as at the end of the Instructor's Resources), offer you a
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PREFACE
terrific integrating resource for lecture preparation. For each text chapter, the Lecture
Guides summarize the main ideas by major section and by Learning Objective. The
Lecture Guides also list the lecture/ discussion topics, exercises, projects, feature
films, transparencies, PsychSim modules, and video segments (from the Worth library) that complement the topics within each major section.
Overhead Transparencies Our transparency set includes over 150 text images,
charts, and tables from Psychology, Eighth Edition, and other sources.
Print Supplements for Students
New! Visual Concept Reviews, Richard Straub, University of MichiganDearborn This full-color booklet-available for free when shrink-wrapped with the
book or Study Guide-offers fill-in-the-blank style concept charts that allow students
to apply their understanding of the concepts to real-life situations (with answers in
an appendix). Some of the Concept Reviews focus on the biopsychosocial approach,
thus extending the levels of analysis theme that I have further applied in the text for
this edition.
Study Guide, Richard Straub, University of Michigan-Dearborn Following the
text's content, Richard Straub offers a Chapter Overview and Chapter Review, divided
by major section (each group of fill-in-the-blank and short-essay questions is preceded by the relevant Learning Objective from the text). The Study Guide also includes three self-tests (one of which encourages students to think critically about the
chapter's concepts), answers (with page references for the self-tests and explanations
of why a choice is correct or incorrect), and a Focus on Language and Vocabulary section, which explains idioms and other phrases from the text that may not be clear to
some readers.
Pursuing Human Strengths: A Positive Psychology Guide, Martin Bolt, Calvin
College By using the scientific method in its efforts to assess, understand, and then
build human strengths, positive psychology balances the investigation of weakness
and damage with a study of strength and virtue. This brief Positive Psychology Guide
gives instructors and students alike the means to learn more about this relevant approach to psychology.
Critical Thinking Companion, Second Edition, Jane Halonen, University of West
Florida, and Cynthia Gray, Alverno College Tied to the main topics in Psychology,
this engaging handbook includes six categories of critical thinking exercises: pattern
recognition, practical problem solving, creative problem solving, scientific critical
thinking, psychological reasoning, and perspective taking, which connect to the six
categories used in the Critical Thinking Exercises available in the Student Study
Guide.
Scientific American Reader I hand picked these 14 classic and current articles to
provide another tool for enhancing lectures, encouraging discussions, and emphasizing the relevance of psychology to everyday life.
Scientific American Mind This special issue explores riveting breakthroughs in
neuroscience and related fields, and investigates, analyzes, and reveals new thinking
on: Dreaming and Consciousness, Intelligence and Cognition, Imagination and
Emotions, Depression and Mental Illness, and Perception and Understanding.
Improving the Mind and Brain: A Scientific American Special Issue This singletopic issue from Scientific American magazine features findings from the most distinguished researchers in the field.
Scientific American Explores The Hidden Mind: A Collector's Edition This collector's edition includes feature articles that explore and reveal the mysterious inner
workings of our minds and brains.
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xxx:iii
In Appreciation
If it is true that "whoever walks with the wise becomes wise" then I am wiser for
all the wisdom and advice received from expert colleagues. Aided by nearly a thousand consultants and reviewers over the last two decades, this has become a better,
more accurate book than one author alone (this author, at least) could write. As
my editors and I keep reminding ourselves, all of us together are smarter than any
one of us.
My indebtedness continues to each of the teacher-scholars whose influence I
acknowledged in the seven previous editions, and also to the innumerable researchers
who have been so willing to share their time and talent to help me accurately report
their research. This new edition also benefited from the creative input and assistance
of Jennifer Peluso, Florida Atlantic University, in revising Chapters 9 (Memory) and
10 (Thinking and Language).
My gratitude extends to the colleagues who contributed criticism, corrections,
and creative ideas related to the content, pedagogy, and format of this new edition
and its supplements package. For their expertise and encouragement, and the gifts of
their time to the teaching of psychology, I thank the reviewers, consultants, and focus
group participants listed below.
t
Julie Allison,
Pittsburg State University
Suzanne Brayer,
North Canyon High School
Kathleen Cramm,
Community College of Aurora
Aneeq Ahmad,
Henderson State University
June Breninger,
Cascade College
Katherine Demtrakis,
Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute
Emir Andrews,
Memorial University
Gayle Brosnan-Watters,
Slippery Rock University
Vicki Dilillo,
Ohio Wesleyan University
Willow Aureala,
University of Hawaii Center, West Hawaii
Jay Brown,
Southwest Missouri State University
Roberta Eveslage,
johnson County Community College
Debra K. Bagley,
Mount Aloysius College
Michelle A. Butler,
United States Air Force Academy
Ellie Ezatti,
Santa Monica College
David Barkmeier,
Northeastern University
Hazel Caldwell,
Central Georgia Technical College
Gaithri Fernando,
California State University, Los Angeles
Marcelle Bartolo-Abela,
Holyoke Community College
Cari Cannon,
Santiago Canyon College
Gloria Fisher,
Mississippi College
Scott Bates,
Utah State University
William Canu,
University of Missouri-Rolla
jim Frailing,
Neenah High School
Rochelle Battersby,
Sanford H. Calhoun High School
Maureen Carrigan,
University of South Carolina Aiken
Sue Frantz,
Highline Community College
Susan Becker,
Mesa State University
Pamela Carroll,
Three Rivers Community College
Rick Froman,
john Brown University
Stefanie Bell,
Pikes Peak Community College
Richard G. Cavasina,
California University of Pennsylvania
Gary Gargano,
Merced College
Suzanne T. Bell,
DePaul University
Gabriela Chavira and her graduate student
teachers,
California State University-Northridge
Carol B. George,
St. johns School
Sheryl Bereziuk,
Grande Prairie Regional College
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Denise Berg,
Santa Monica College
Kathleen Bey,
Palm Beach Community College
Patricia Bishop,
Cleveland State Community College
Marilyn Blumenthal
Farmingdale State University
Linda Bradford,
Community College of Aurora
Dorothy Chin,
Santa Monica College
Stephen M. Colarelli,
Central Michigan University
Kaye Cook,
Gordon College
Mary Coplen,
Hutchinson Community College
Pamela Costa,
Tacoma Community College
Andrew R. Getzfeld,
New jersey City University
Kristy Gould,
Luther College
David Gramling,
Austin Preparatory School
Nicholas Greco,
College of Lake County
Toby Green,
Santa Monica College
laura Gruntmeir,
Redlands Community College
XXXiV
PREFACE
Mary Hannah,
University of Detroit Mercy
Jann Longman,
Liberty High School
William H. Overman,
University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Peg Hanson,
College of Lake County
Wade C. Lueck,
College of Eastern Utah
Dan Patanella,
john jay College of Criminal justice
Chris Heavey,
University of Nevada-Las Vegas
Angie Mackewn,
University of Tennessee at Martin
Marcus D. Patterson,
University of Massachusetts-Boston
Paul Hillock,
Algonquin College
laura Madson,
New Mexico State University
Marilyn Patterson,
Lindenwood University
len Hudzinski,
Lake Tahoe Community College
Brian Malley,
University of Michigan
Andrew Peck,
Pennsylvania State University
Steven lsonio,
Golden West College
Nancy B. Mann,
Southern Wesleyan University
jennifer Peluso,
Florida Atlantic University
Charles lvey,
Winter Park High School
Cindy Marriot,
Schoolcraft College
Pete Petersen,
Johnson County Community College
Maria Janicki,
Douglas College
jerry Marshall,
Green River Community College
john Petraitis,
University of Alaska
Robert jensen,
California State University-Sacramento
Diane Martichuski,
University of Colorado Boulder
Stephen Phillips,
Broward Community College
Andrew T. Johnson
Park University
Cathy Matresse,
North Idaho College and Bay Mills Community
College
Michelle Pilati,
Rio Hondo College
Suzanne R. jones,
Webster University
Oscar joseph Harm,
University of South Carolina Aiken
Misty Hull,
Pikes Peak Community College
Wendy Kallina,
Macon State College
Cindy Kamilar,
Pikes Peak Community College
jeffry Kellogg,
Marian College
Arthur D. Kemp,
Central Missouri State University
Raymond Kilduff,
Community College of Rhode Island
Rosalyn King,
Northern Virginia Community College-Loudon
Kristina T. Klassen,
North Idaho College
Gary Klatsky,
SUNY Oswego
Timothy Klitz,
Washington and Jefferson College
Jean E. Kubeck,
Adams State College
Samuel H. lamb Ill,
Tidewater Community College
Claudia Lampman,
University of Alaska
jackie Lanum,
Santa Monica College
Elizabeth levin,
Laurentian University
Deborah Licht,
Pikes Peak Community College
Rachelle Lipschultz,
Anne Arundel Community College
Nancey lobb,
Alvin Community College
Donna Wood McCarty,
Clayton State University
David McCone,
United States Air Force Academy
lisa McCone,
Pine Creek High School
Donna McEwen,
Friends University
lesley Mcintyre,
SUNY Cobleskill
Polly McMahon,
Spokane Falls Community College
jennifer Meehan Brennom,
Kirkwood Community College
Joni Mihura,
University of Toledo
Antoinette Miller,
Clayton College and State University
jeannie Mitchell,
Rend Lake College
Mark Mitchell,
Clarion University of Pennsylvania
Marta Mohr,
Kilian Community College
joann Morgan,
Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute
Karlyn Musante,
Santa Monica College
Barbara Nash,
Bentley College
Nathaniel Naughton,
Arlington Catholic High School
Michael Nelson,
University of Missouri-Rolla
Benjamin Newberry,
Kent State University
Cynthia O'Dell,
Indiana University Northwest
Peggy O'Neii-Chromey,
Northfield Mount Hermon School
Colleen Pilgrim,
Schoolcraft College
Debbie Podwika,
Kankakee Community College
Scott Pious,
Wesleyan University
Kathryn Potoczak,
Saint Lawrence University
Michael Poulin,
University of California-Irvine
Psi Chi Honors Society and other students,
Montana State University
jennifer Puente,
William Rainey Harper College
Diane Quartarolo,
Union Institute and University
Christopher Randall,
Troy University, Montgomery Campus
louise Rasmussen,
Wright State University
judith S. Rauenzahn,
Kutztown University
Celia Reaves,
Monroe Community College
Brad Redburn,
johnson County Community College
Darrel Regier,
American Psychiatric Association
leonard Riley,
Pikes Peak Community College
Alan Rob'erts,
Indiana University
june Rosenberg,
Lyndon State College
Steve Rouse,
Pepperdine University
lisa Routh,
Pikes Peak Community College
Patricia Sampson,
University of Maryland Eastern Shore
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Don Saucier,
Kansas State University
Ross B. Steinman,
Rowan University
Jeanne M. Viviani,
LaGuardia Community College
Sherry Schnake,
Saint Maryofthe Woods College
Betsy Stern,
Steven L. Voss,
Moberly Area Community College
John Schwoebel,
Cazenovia College
Robby Stewart,
Oakland University
Dennis Wanamaker,
Bellevue Community College
Eric Seelau,
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Christine Sutow,
Rio Hondo College
Kathryn M. Wescott,
juniata College
jane Sheldon,
University of Michigan- Dearborn
Amy Sweetman,
Los Angeles City College
Fred Whitford,
Montana State University
Mark Sibicky,
Marietta College
Patricia Toney,
Sandhi/Is Community College
Gordon Whitman,
Tidewater Community College
Cynthia Silovich,
Fargo South High School
Meral Topcu-LeCroix,
Ferris State University
Eric Wiertelak,
Maca/ester College
David Simpson,
Valparaiso University
Michael Trumbull,
Pikes Peak Community College
jacquie Witsberger,
Wheeling jesuit University
Stephanie Smith,
Indiana University Northwest
Gopakumar Venugopalan,
University of Alaska
Leland Woodson,
Kwantlen University College
Mnw~~eA~a~~nk~~~~
At Worth Publishers a host of people played key roles in creating this eighth edition.
Although the information gathering is never ending, the formal planning began
as the author-publisher team gathered for a two day retreat in October, 2004. This
happy and creative gathering included John Brink, Martin Bolt, Thomas Ludwig,
Richard Straub, and me from the author team, along with my assistant Kathryn
Brownson and manuscript developer Phyllis Vandervelde. We were joined by Worth
Publishers' publisher Catherine Woods; editors Christine Brune, Renee Altier, Nancy
Fleming, Tracey Kuehn, and Betty Probert; and sales and marketing executives Kate
Nurre, Tom Kling, Guy Geraghty, Greg David, and Chuck Linsmeier. The input and
brainstorming during this meeting of minds gave birth, among other things, to the
new pedagogy in this edition, and to the thoroughly revised Chapter 3, Nature, Nurture, and Human Diversity.
Christine Brune, chief editor for the last six editions, is a wonder worker. She
offers just the right mix of encouragement, gentle admonition, attention to detail,
and passion for excellence. An author could not ask for more.
Renee Altier, who is now the Director of Product and New Business Development for Bedford, Freeman, and Worth Publishers, helped connect me with many
colleagues throughout the revision process, and spearheaded a creative new photo
program. Renee also played an essential role in expanding and improving the impressive multimedia supplements that accompany this edition. As Renee's supportive role shifted, she passed the baton for editorial management of our teaching
package to acquisitions editor, Kevin Feyen, with whom we are pleased to now be
working.
Development editor Nancy Fleming is one of those rare editors who is gifted
both at "thinking big" about a chapter-and with a kindred spirit to my own-while
also applying her sensitive, graceful, line-by-line touches. Nancy also displayed her
gifts in leading the creation of the new Learning Objectives and Learning
Outcomes.
Publisher Catherine Woods helped construct and execute the plan for this
new edition and its supplements. Catherine was also a trusted sounding board as
we faced the myriad discrete decisions along the way. Media and Supplements Editor Andrea Musick coordinated production of the huge supplements package for
this edition. Betty Probert efficiently edited and produced the print supplements,
and, in the process, also helped fine-tune the whole book. Editorial Assistants Sarah
XXXV
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PREFACE
Berger and Matthew Driskill provided invaluable support in commissioning and organizing the multitude of reviews, mailing information to professors, and numerous other daily tasks related to the book's development and production. Lee Mahler
did a splendid job of laying out each page. Patricia Marx, Bianca Moscatelli,
Christina Micek, and Julie Tesser worked together to locate the myriad new photographic illustrations.
Associate Managing Editor Tracey Kuehn displayed tireless tenacity, commitment, and impressive organization in leading Worth's gifted artistic production team
and coordinating editorial input throughout the production process. Production
Manager Sarah Segal masterfully kept the book to its tight schedule, and Babs Reingold skillfully directed creation of the distinctive design and art program. Production
Manager Stacey Alexander, along with supplements production editor Eve Conte, did
their usual excellent work of producing the many supplements.
To achieve our goal of supporting the teaching of psychology, this teaching
package not only must be authored, reviewed, edited, and produced, but also made
available to teachers of psychology. For their exceptional success in doing that, our
author team is grateful to Worth Publishers' professional sales and marketing team.
We are especially grateful to Associate Marketing Director Carlise Stembridge and Senior Marketing Manager Kate Nurre both for their tireless efforts to inform our
teaching colleagues of our efforts to assist their teaching, and for the joy of working
with them.
At Hope College, the supporting team members for this edition included
Kathryn Brownson, who researched countless bits of information, proofed hundreds
of pages, and, with the assistance of Sara Neevel and Megan Rapelje, prepared the
bibliography and name index. Kathryn has become a knowledgeable and sensitive advisor on many matters. With diligence and delight, Travis Goldwire and Erin Darlington supported all of Kathryn's efforts by sleuthing information, photocopying, and
proofreading. Laura Luchies helped compile the cross-reference table on new coverage of gender in this edition, and Laura Meyers updated, with page citations, all the
cross-reference tables.
Manuscript developers Phyllis and Richard Vandervelde worked faithfully to
enter or revise every one of the more than 400,000 words. Over more than two
decades they have processed some 10 million words of two dozen text editions and
trade books, with timely diligence, a passion for excellence, a guiding voice, and an
infectious joy. Amid the pleasures of creating this new edition was the enormous sadness, after four decades of close family and professional friendship, of losing Phyllis
to cancer. Even its associated pain could not, however, deter her from completing her
last chapter less than two weeks before her death.
Because of this unexpected loss, we are especially grateful to Marilyn Essink and
Sara Neevel for so ably stepping in to do the meticulous completion of Psychology,
Eighth Edition.
Again, I gratefully acknowledge the influence and editing assistance of my writing coach, poet Jack Ridl, whose influence resides in the voice you will be hearing in
the pages that follow. He, more than anyone, cultivated my delight in dancing with
the language, and taught me to approach writing as a craft that shades into art.
After hearing countless dozens of people say that this book's supplements have
taken their teaching to a new level, I reflect on how fortunate I am to be a part of a
team on which everyone has produced on-time work marked by the highest professional standards. For their remarkable talents, their long-term dedication, and their
friendship, I thank Martin Bolt, John Brink, Thomas Ludwig, and Richard Straub.
Finally, my gratitude extends to the many students and instructors who have
written to offer suggestions, or just an encouraging word. It is for them, and those
about to begin their study of psychology, that I have done my best to introduce the
field I love.
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The day this book went to press was the day I started gathering information and
ideas for the ninth edition. Your input will again influence how this book continues
to evolve. So, please, do share your thoughts.
_r- -)
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Hope College
Holland, Michigan 49422-9000 USA
davidmyers. org
xxxvii
Prologue: The Story of
Psychology
• Psychology's Roots
Prescientific Psychology
Psychological Science Is Born
Psychological Science
Develops
• Contemporary Psychology
Psychology's Big Debate
Psychology's Three Main Levels
of Analysis
Psychology's Subfields
Close-Up: Your Study of
Psychology
ui have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions,
but to understand them."
Benedict Spinoza, A Political Treatise, 1677
"What's it like being married to a psychologist?" people occasionally ask my wife.
"Does he use his psychology on you?"
"So, does your Dad, like, analyze you?" my children have been asked many times
by friends.
"What do you think of me?" asked one barber, hoping for an instant personality
analysis after learning that I was a psychologist.
For these questioners, as for most people whose exposure to psychology comes
from popular books, magazines, and TV, psychologists analyze personality, offer
counseling, and dispense child-rearing advice.
Do they? Yes, and much more. Consider some of psychology's questions that from
time to time you may wonder about:
Have you ever found yourself reacting to something just as one of your
biological parents would- perhaps in a way you vowed you never would-and
then wondered how much of your personality you inherited? To what extent are
person-to-person differences in personality predisposed by one's genes? To what extent
by the home and neighborhood environments?
Have you ever played peekaboo with a 6-month-old and wondered why the
baby finds the game so delightful? The infant reacts as though, when you
momentarily move behind a door, you actually disappear-only to reappear later
out of thin air. What do babies actually perceive and think?
Have you ever awakened from a nightmare and, with a wave of relief,
wondered why you had such a crazy dream? How often, and why, do we dream?
Have you ever wondered what leads to school and work success? Are some
people just born smarter? Does sheer intelligence explain why some people get richer,
think more creatively, or relate more sensitively?
Have you ever become depressed or anxious and wondered whether you'll ever
feel "normal"? What triggers our bad moods-and our good ones?
Have you ever worried about how to act among people of a different culture,
race, or gender? In what ways are we alike as members of the human family? How do
we differ?
Such questions provide grist for psychology's mill because psychology is a science
that seeks to answer all sorts of questions about us all: how we think, feel, and act .
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A smile is a smile the world around
Throughout this book, you will see examples
not only of our cultural and gender diversity
but also of the similarities that define our
shared human nature. People in different cultures vary in when and how often they smile,
but a smile means the same thing anywhere
in the world.
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PROLOGUE: THE STORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology's Roots
Throughout the text you will find
Objectives to help focus your reading,
and at the end of each major section, the
learning Outcomes will help you review
what you've read.
Throughout the text, important concepts
are boldfaced. As you study, you can find
these terms with their definitions in a
nearby margin and in the Glossary at the
end of the book.-
OBJEC~IVE 1 1Define psychology.
Once upon a time, on a planet in your neighborhood of the universe, there came to
be people. Soon thereafter, these creatures became intensely interested in themselves
and in one another. They wondered, Who are we? From where come our thoughts? Our
11
feelings? Our actions? And how are we to understand-and to master or manage-those
around us?" Psychology's answers to these wanderings have developed from international roots in philosophy and biology into a science that aims to describe and explain how we think, feel, and act. Today we define psychology as the scientific study of
behavior and mental processes. Let's unpack this definition. Behavior is anything an organism does-any action we can observe and record. Yelling, smiling, blinking, sweating, talking, and questionnaire marking are all observable behaviors. Mental processes
are the internal, subjective experiences we infer frorp. behavior-sensations, perc~p­
tions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings.
The key word in psychology's definition is science. Psychology, as I will emphasize
in Chapter 1 and throughout this book, is less a set of findings than a way of asking
and answering questions. As a science, psychology evaluates competing ideas with
' careful observation and rigorous analysis. In its attempt to describe and explain
human nature, psychological science welcomes hunches and plausible-sounding theories. And it puts them to the test. If a theory works-if the data support its predictions-so much the better for that theory. If the predictions fail, the theory will be
revised or rejected.
My aim in this text, then, is not merely to report results but also to show you how
psychologists play their game. You will see how researchers evaluate conflicting opinions and ideas. And you will learn how all of us, whether scientists or simply curious
people, can think smarter when describing and explaining the events of our lives.
But first, let's consider the roots of today's psychology to help us appreciate psychologists' varied perspectives.
Prescientific Psychology
OBJECTIVE 2 I Trace psychology's prescientific roots, from early understandings of
mind and body to the beginnings of modern science.
psychology the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
empiricism the view that (a) knowledge
comes from experience via the senses, and
(b) science flourishes through observation
and experiment.
We can trace many of psychology's current questions back through human history.
These early thinkers wondered: How do our minds work? How do our bodies relate to
our minds? How much of what we know comes built in? How much is acquired
through experience? In India, for example, Buddha pondered how sensations and
perceptions combine to form ideas. In China, Confucius stressed the power of ideas
and of an educated mind. In ancient Israel, Hebrew scholars anticipated today's psychology by linking mind and emotion to the body; people were said-to think with
their hearts and feel with their bowels.
'
In ancient Greece, the philosopher-teacher Socrates ( 469-3 99 B.CJ 'and his student
Plato ( 428-348 B.C.) concluded tnatmind is separable from body and continues after
the body dies, and that knowledge is innate-born within us. As Socrates lay dying,
Plato's future student, a teenager named Aristotle (384-322 B,c.), was developing a
sharp mind in another part of Greece. Aristotle's love of data distinguished him from
Socrates and Plato, who derived principles by logic. An intellectual anc!estor of today' s
scientists, Aristotle derived principles from careful observations. His observations told
him that "tnesoul is not separable from the body, and the same holds good of particular parts of the soul" (De Anima). Moreover, he said knowledge·is not preexisting (sorry,
Socrates and Plato); instead, it grows from the experie~ces stored in our memories.
PROLOGUE: THE STORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
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The next 2000 years brought few enduring new insights into human nature, but
that changed in the 1600s, when modern science began to flourish. With it came
new theories of human behavior, and new versions of the ancient debates. A frail but
brilliant Frenchman named Rene Descartes (1595-1650) agreed with Socrates and
Plato about the existence of innate ideas and the mind's being ~~entirely distinct from
the body" and able to survive its death. Descartes' concept of mind forced- hfmto
conjecture, as people have ever since, how the immaterial mind and physical body
communicate. ~tist as well as a philosopher, Descartes dissected animals and
concluded that the fluid in the bfarn's CaVities-contained ~~animal spirits." These spirits, he surmised, flowed from the brain through what we call· the nerves (which he
thought were hollow) to the muscles, provoking movement. Memories formed as experiences opened pores in the brain, into which the animal spirits also flowed.
Descartes was right that nerve paths are important and that they enable reflexes.
Yet, genius though he was, and standing upon the knowledge accumulat~d from 99+
percent of our human history, he hardly had a clue of what today's average 12-year-old
knows. Indeed, most of the scientific story of our self-exploration-the story told in this
book's chapters-has been written in but the last historical eye blink of human time.
Meanwhile, across the English channel in Britain, science was taking a more downto-earth form, centered on experiment, experience, and common-sense judgment.
~ Francis Bacon (1561-1626) became one of the founders of modern science, and his
0\ influence lingers in the experiments of today's psychological science. Bacon also was
fa-scinated by the human mind and its failings. Anticipating what we have come to appreciate about our mind's hunger to perceive patterns even in random events, he
' wrote that 14 the human understanding, from its peculiar nature, easily supposes a
greater degree of order and equality in things than it really finds" (Novum Organuum).
He also foresaw research findings on our noticing and remembering events that confirm our beliefs: 14All superstition is much the same whether it be that of astrology,
dreams, omens ... in all of which the deluded believers observe events which are fulfilled, but neglect and pass over their failure, though it be much more common."
Some 50 years after Bacon's death, gohn-Locke (1632-1704), a British political
philosopher, sat down to write a one-page essay on 14 0Ur own abilities" for an upcoming discussion with friends. After 20 years and hundreds of pages, Locke had completed one of history's latest and greatest late papers (An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding), in which he famously argued that the mind at birth is a blank slatea uwhite paper" -on which experience writes. This idea, adding to Bacon's ideas,
helped form modern empiricism, the view that knowledge originates in experience
and that science should, therefore, rely on observation and experimentation .
3
A seventeenth-century view of nerves
In his Treatise of Man, Descartes proposed
the hydraulics of a simple reflex.
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Psychological Science Is Born
OBJECTIVE j I Explain how the early psychologists sought to understand the
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mind's structure and functions, and identify some of the leading psychologists
who worked in these areas.
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Philosophers' thinking about th~nking continued until the birth of psychology as we
know it, on a December day in 1879, in a small room on the third floor of a shabby
building at Germany's .University of Leipzig. There, two young men were helping an
austere, middle-~ged professor, Wilhelm Wundt, create an experimental apparatus.
Their machine measured the time lag between people's hearing a ball hit a platform
and their pressing a telegraph key (Hunt, 1993). Later, the researchers compared this
lag with the time required for slightly more complex tasks. Curiously, people responded
in about one-tenth of a second when asked to press the key as soon as the sound occurred-and in about two-tenths of a second when asked to press the key as soon as
they were consciously aware of perceiving the sound. (To be aware of one's awareness
Information sources are cited in
parentheses, with name and date, then
provided fully in the References·section at
the book's end.
4
PROLOGUE: THE STORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
Wilhelm Wundt
Wundt (far left) established the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig,
Germany.
takes a little longer.) Wundt was seeking to measure "atoms of the mind" -the fastest
and simplest mental processes. Thus began what many consider psychology's first experiment, launching the first psychological laboratory, staffed by Wundt and psychology's first graduate students.
Before long this new science of psychology became organized into different
branches, or schools of thought, each promoted by pioneering thinkers. These early
schools included structuralism and functionalism, described here, and Gestalt psychology, behaviorism, and psychoanalysis, described in later chapters.
Thinking About the Mind's Structure
structuralism an early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the
elemental structure of the human mind.
Soon after receiving his Ph.D. in 1892, Wundt's student Edward Bradford Titchener
joined the Cornell University faculty and introduced structuralism. As physicists
and chemists discerned the structure of matter, so Titchener aimed to discover the elements of mind. His method was to engage people in self-reflective introspection
(looking inward), training them to report elements of their experience as they looked
at a rose, listened to a metronome, smelled a scent, or tasted a substance. What were
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Edward Bradford Titchener
Used introspection to search for the mind's
structural elements.
1
PROLOGUE: THE STORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
their immediate sensations, their images, their feelings? And how did these relate to
one another? Titchener shared with the English essayist C. S. Lewis (1960, pp. 18-19)
the view that "there is one thing, and only one in the whole universe which we know
more about than we could learn from external observation." That one thing, Lewis
said, is ourselves. "We have, so to speak, inside information."
Alas, structuralism waned as introspection waned. Introspection required smart,
verbal people. It also proved somewhat unreliable, its results varying from person to
person and experience to experience. Moreover, recent studies indicate that people's
recollections frequently err. So do their self-reports about what, for example, has
caused them to help or hurt another (Myers, 2002). Often we just don't know why we
feel what we feel and do what we do.
functionalism a school of psychology
that focused on how mental and behavioral
processes function - how they enable the
organism to adapt. survive. and flourish.
You don't know your own mind."
Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation, 1738
Thinking About the Mind's Functions
,.
..
Unlike those hoping to assemble the structure of mind from simple elements-which
was rather like trying to understand a car by examining its disconnected partsphilosopher-psychologist William James thought it more fruitful to consider the
evolved functions of our thoughts and feelings. Smelling is what the nose does;
thinking is what the brain does. But why do the nose and brain do these things?
Under the influence of evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin, James assumed that
thinking, like smelling, developed because it was adaptive-it contributed to our ancestors' survival. Consciousness serves a function. It enables us to consider our past,
adjust to our present circumstances, and plan our future. As a functionalist, James
encouraged explorations of down-to-earth emotions, memories, will power, habits,
and moment-to-moment streams of consciousness.
James' greatest legacy, however, came less from his laboratory than from his Harvard teaching and his writing. When not plagued by ill health and depression, James
was an impish, outgoing, and joyous man, who once recalled that "the first lecture on
psychology I ever heard was the first I ever gave." During one of his wise-cracking lectures, a student interrupted and asked him to get serious (Hunt, 1993). He was reportedly one of the first Amerlcan professors to solicit end-of-course student evaluations
of his teaching. He loved his students, his family, and the world of ideas, but tired of
painstaking chores such as proofreading. "Send me no proofs!" he once told an editor.
"I will return them unopened and never speak to you again" (Hunt, 1993, p. 145).
James displayed the same spunk in 1890, when-over the objections of Harvard's
president-he admitted Mary Calkins into his graduate seminar (Scarborough &
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William James and
Mary Whiton Calkins
james. legendary teacher-writer. mentored
Calkins. who became a pioneering memory
researcher and American Psychological
Association president.
6
PROLOGUE: THE STORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
Margaret Floy Washburn
The first woman to receive a psychology
Ph.D.; synthesized animal behavior research
in The Animal Mind.
humanistic psychology historically significant perspective that emphasized the
growth potential of healthy people; used
personalized methods to study personality
in hopes of fostering personal growth.
Sigmund Freud
Famed personality theorist and therapist,
whose controversial ideas influenced
humanity's self-understanding.
Furumoto, 1987). When Calkins joined, all the other students
dropped. (In those years women lacked even the right to vote.) So
James tutored her alone. Later she finished all the requirements for a
Harvard Ph.D., outscoring all the male students on the qualifying
exams. Alas, Harvard denied her the degree she had earned, offering
her instead a degree from Radcliffe College, its undergraduate sister
school for women. Calkins resisted the unequal treatment and refused
the degree. More than a century later, psychologists and psychology
students were lobbying Harvard to posthumously award the Ph.D. she
earned (Feminist Psychologist, 2002).
Calkins nevertheless became a distinguished memory researcher and
the American Psychological Association's (APA's) first female president
in 1905. What a different world from the recent past-1996 to 2005when women claimed two-thirds or more of new psychology Ph.D.s and
were 5 of the 10 elected presidents of the science-oriented American
Psychological Society. In Canada and Europe, too, most recent psychology doctorates have been earned by women.
When Harvard denied Calkins the claim to being psychology's first
female psychology Ph.D., that honor fell to Margaret Floy Washburn,
who later wrote an influential book, The Animal Mind, and became the second female
APA president in 1921. Although Washburn's thesis was the first foreign study
Wundt published in his journal, her gender meant she was barred from joining the
organization of experimental psychologists founded by Titchener, her own graduate
adviser (Johnson, 1997).
James' influence reached even further through his dozens of well-received articles, which moved the publisher Henry Holt to offer a contract for a textbook of
the new science of psychology. James agreed and began work in 1878, with an
apology for requesting two years to finish his writing. The work proved an unexpected chore and actually took him 12 years. (Why am I not surprised?) More
than a century later, people still read the resulting Principles of Psychology and
marvel at the brilliance and elegance with which James introduced psychology to
the educated public.
Psychological Science Develops
OBJECTIVE
I Describe the evolution of psychology as defined·
from the 1920s through today.
This young science of psychology developed from the more established
fields of philosophy and biology. Wundt was both a philosopher and a
physiologist. James was an American philosopher. Ivan Pavlov, who pioneered the study of learning, was a Russian physiologist. Sigmund Freud,
who developed an influential th.eory of personality, was an Austrian
physician. Jean Piaget, the last century's most influential observer of
children, was a Swiss biologist. This list of pioneering psychologists"Magellans of the mind," as Morton Hunt (1993) has called themillustrates psychology's origins in many disciplines and countries.
The rest of the story of psychology-the subject of this book-develops at many levels. With activities ranging from psychotherapy to the
study of nerve cell activity, psychology is not easily de~ Wundt
and Titchener focused on inner sensations, images, and feelings.
James, too, engaged in introspective examination of the stream of
consciousness and of emotion. Freud emphasized the ways emotional
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PROLOGUE: THE STORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner
B. F. Skinner
Working with Rayner, Watson championed psychology as
the science of behavior and demonstrated conditioned
responses on a baby who became famous as "Little Albert."
A leading behaviorist, who rejected introspection and
studied how consequences shape behavior.
responses to childhood experiences and our unconscious thought processes affect
our behavior. Thus, until the 1920s, psychology was defined as "the science of mentallife."
From the 19 20s into the 1960s, American psychologists, initially led by flamboyant and provocative John B. Watson and later by the equally provocative B. F. Skinner, dismissed introspection and redefined psychology as "the scientific study of
observable behavior." After all, said these behaviorists, science is rooted in
observation. You cannot observe a sensation, a feeling, or a thought, but
you can observe and record people's behavior as they respond to different
situations.
Humanistic psychology was a softer, 1960s response to Freudian
psychology and to behaviorism, which pioneers Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow found too mechanistic. Rather than calling up childhood
memories or focusing on learned behaviors, Rogers and Maslow both
emphasized the importance of current environmental influences on our
growth potential, and the importance of meeting our needs for love and
acceptance.
In the 1960s, psychology began to recapture its initial interest in mental processes through studies of how our mind processes and retains information. This cognitive revolution supported ideas developed by earlier
psychologists, such as the importance of considering internal thought
processes, but it expanded upon those ideas to explore scientifically the
ways we perceive, process, and remember information. Cognitive psychology and more recently cognitive neuroscience (the study of the interaction
of thought processes and brain function) has been especially beneficial in
helping to develop new ways to understand and treat disorders such as depression, as we shall see in Chapter 16.
To encompass psychology's concern with observable behavior and with
inner thoughts and feelings, we define psychology today as the scientific
study of behavior and mental processes.
7
Psychology's scope and history
In her quilt, "Crazy About Psychology,"
Nancy S. Breland, a psychology professor at
the College of New jersey, captures images
and people from psychology's first century.
8
PROLOGUE: THE STORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
) ) LEARNING OUTCOMES
Psychology's Roots
OBJECTIVE
1 1Define psychology.
Psychology is the scientific study of behavior (anything an organism does) and mental processes (subjective experiences inferred from behavior). The key word in this definition is science.
2 I Trace psychology's prescientific roots, from early
understandings of mind and body to the beginnings of modern
science.
OBJECTIVE
Psychology traces its roots back through recorded history to
India, China, the Middle East, and Europe, where many
scholars spent their lives wondering about people. In their attempt to understand human nature, they looked carefully at
how our minds work and how our bodies relate to our minds.
More than 2000 years ago, Buddha and Confucius focused
on the powers and origin of ideas. In other parts of the world,
the ancient Hebrews, Socrates, his student Plato, and Plato's
student Aristotle pondered whether mind and body are connected or distinct, and whether human ideas are innate or result from experience. In the 1600s, Rene Descartes and John
Locke reengaged aspects of those ancient debates, and Locke
coined his famous description of the mind as a "white paper."
The ideas of Francis Bacon and John Locke were important ingredients in the development of modern empiricism, the view
that knowledge comes from experience through the senses and
that science should rely on observation and experimentation.
OBJECTIVE
3 I Explain how the early psychologists sought to
understand the mind's structure and functions, and identify some of
the leading psychologists who worked in these areas.
Psychology as we know it today was born in a laboratory in
Germany in the late 1800s, when Wilhelm Wundt ran the
first true experiments in psychology's first lab. Soon, the new
discipline formed branches. Edward Bradford Titchener and
other structuralists searched for the basic elements of the
mind by training people to look inward and describe the
smallest units of their experiences. In an attempt to understand how mental and behavioral processes help us to adapt,
survive, and flourish, William James and other functionalists
tried to explain why we do what we do. James also wrote a
popular text for the new discipline.
Lf. l
OBJECTIVE
Describe the evolution of psychology as defined from
the 1920s through today.
Until the 1920s, psychology was a "science of mental life"
studied through introspection. Then American behaviorists,
led by John B. Watson and later by B. F. Skinner, changed
psychology's focus to the study of observable behavior. In
the 1960s, humanistic psychologists drew attention to the
importance of environmental influences, personal growth,
and the needs for love and acceptance. Also in the 1960s,
the cognitive revolution began to refocus psychology's interest in mental processes, with special attention to perception, information processing, and memory. Cognitive
neuroscientists are broadening our understanding of these
and other processes in today' s psychology, which views itself as a "science of behavior and mental processes."
ASK YOURSELF: How do you think psychology might change as
more people from non-Western countries contribute their ideas to
the field?*
*The Ask Yourself questions will help you reflect on the key issues and connect
them to your own life. Making these issues personally meaningful will make
them memorable.
Contemporary Psychology
• nature-nurture issue the longstanding
controversy over the relative contributions
that genes and experience make to the
development of psychological traits and
behaviors.
natural selection the principle that,
among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributing to reproduction
and survival will most likely be passed on to
succeeding generations.
Like its pioneers, today' s psychologists are citizens of many lands. The International
Union of Psychological Science has 69 member nations, from Albania to Zimbabwe.
Nearly everywhere, membership in psychological societies is mushrooming-from
4183 American Psychological Association members and affiliates in 1945 to more
than 160,000 today, with similarly rapid growth in Britain (from 1100 to 34,000). In
China, five universities had psychology departments in 1985; by the century's end,
there were 50 (Jing, 1999). Worldwide, some 500,000 people have been trained as
psychologists, and 130,000 of them belong to European psychological organizations
(Tikkanen, 2001). Moreover, thanks to international publications, joint meetings,
and the Internet, collaboration and communication cross borders more now than
ever: "We are moving rapidly towards a single world of psychological science," reports
Robert Bjork (2000). Psychology is growing and it is globalizing.
Today's psychologists debate some enduring issues and view behavior from differing perspectives. They also teach, work, and do research in many different subfields.
"'
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, PROLOGUE: THE STORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
9
.Psychology's Big Debate
OBJECTIVE 5 I Summarize the nature-nurture debate in psychology, and describe
the principle of natural selection.
During its short history, psychology has wrestled with some issues that
will reappear throughout this book. The biggest and most persistent issue
(and the focus of Chapter 3) concerns the relative contributions of biology
and experience. As we have seen, the origins of this nature-nurture debate are ancient. Do our human traits develop through experience, or do
we come equipped with them? The ancient Greeks debated this, with
Plato assuming that character and intelligence are largely inherited and
that certain ideas are also inborn, and Aristotle countering that there is
nothing in the mind that does not first come in from the external world
through the senses. In the 1600s, philosophers rekindled the debate.
Locke rejected the notion of inborn ideas, offering his notion that the
mind is a blank sheet on which experience writes. Descartes disagreed,
believing that some ideas are innate.
Two centuries later, Descartes' views gained support from a curious
naturalist. In 1831, an indifferent student but ardent collector of beetles, mollusks,
and shells set sail on what was to prove a historic round-the-world journey. The 22year-old voyager was Charles Darwin, and for some time afterward, he pondered the
incredible species variation he had encountered, including tortoises on one island that
differed from those on other islands of the region. Darwin's 1859 Origin of Species explained this diversity of life by proposing an evolutionary process. From among chance
variations in organisms, he believed, nature selects those that best enable an organism
to survive and reproduce in a particular environment. Darwin's principle of natural
selection- "the single best idea anyone has ever had," says philosopher Daniel Dennett (1996)-is still with us nearly 150 years later as an organizing principle of biology.
Evolution also has become an important principle for twenty-first century psychology.
This would surely have pleased Darwin, for he believed his theory explained not only
animal structures (such as why polar bear coats are white) but also animal behaviors
(such as the emotional expressions associated with lust and rage).
The nature-nurture debate weaves a thread from the distant past to our time .
Today's psychologists have continued the debate by asking:
Charles Darwin
Argued that natural selection shapes behaviors as well as bodies.
·
• How are differences in intelligence, personality, and psychological disorders influenced by heredity and by environment?
• Is children's grammar mostly innate or formed by experience?
A nature-made nature-nurture
experiment
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Because identical twins have the same
genes, they are ideal participants in studies
designed to shed light on hereditary and
environmental influences on temperament,
intelligence, and other traits. Studies of
identical and fraternal twins provide a rich
array of findings-described in later chapters-that underscore the importance of
both nature and nurture.
10
PROLOGUE: THE STORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
levels of analysis the differing complementary views, from biological to psychological to social-cultural, for analyzing any
given phenomenon.
biopsychosocial approach an integrated
perspective that incorporates biological,
psychological, and social-culturallevels of
analysis.
• Are sexual behaviors more "pushed" by inner biology or "pulled" by external
incentives?
• Should we treat depression as a disorder of the brain or a disorder of thoughtor both?
• How are we humans alike (because of our common biology and evolutionary
history) and different (because of our differing environments)?
• Are gender differences biologically predisposed or socially constructed?
The debate continues. Yet over and over again we will see that in contemporary
science the nature-nurture tension dissolves: Nurture works on what nature endows. Our species is biologically endowed with an enormous capacity to learn and
adapt. Moreover, every psychological event (every thought, every emotion) is simultaneously a biological event. Thus depression can be both a thought disorder
and a brain disorder.
Psychology's Three Main levels of Analysis
6
OBJECTIVE
!Identify the three main levels of analysis in the biopsychosocial
approach, and explain why psychology's varied perspectives are complementary.
Each of us is a complex system that is part of a larger social system, but each of us is
also composed of smaller systems, such as our nervous system and body organs,
which are composed of still smaller systems-cells, molecules, and atoms.
These different systems suggest different levels of analysis, which offer complementary outlooks. It's like explaining why grizzly bears hibernate. Is it because hibernation enhanced their ancestors' survival and reproduction? Because their inner
physiology drives them to do so? Because cold environments hinder food gathering
during winter? Such perspectives are complementary, because "everything is related
to everything else" (Brewer, 1996). Together, different levels of analysis form an integrated biopsychosocial approach, which considers the influences of biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors (FIGURE 1). Each level provides a valuable
vantage point for looking at behavior, yet each by itself is incomplete.
Biological influences:
• genetic predispositions
• genetic mutations
• natural selection of adaptive
physiology and behaviors
• genes responding to the environment
L.....
Psychological influences:
• learned fears and other learned
expectations
• emotional responses
• cognitive processing and
perceptual interpretations
Behavior or mental process
FIGURE 1
Blopsychosocial approach
This integrated viewpoint incorporates
various levels of analysis and offers a more
complete picture of any given behavior or
mental process.
Social-cultural influences:
• presence of others
• cultural, societal, and family expectations
• peer and other group influences
• compelling models (such as the media)
PROLOGUE : THE STORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
TABLE
11
1
PSYCHOLOGY'S CURRENT PERSPECTIVES
Perspective
Focus
Sample Questions
Neuroscience
How the body and brain enable emotions,
memories, and sensory experiences
How are messages transmitted within the body? How is blood chemistry
linked with moods and motives?
Evolutionary
How the natural selection of traits promotes
the perpetuation of one's genes
How does evolution influence behavior tendencies?
Behavior genetics
How much our genes and our environment
influence our individual differences
To what extent are psychological traits such as intelligence, personality, sexual orientation, and vulnerability to depression attributable to our genes? To
our environment?
Psychodynamic
How behavior springs from unconscious
drives and conflicts
How can someone's personality traits and disorders be explained in terms of
sexual and aggressive drives or as the disguised effects of unfulfilled wishes
and childhood traumas?
Behavioral
How we learn observable responses
How do we learn to fear particular objects or situations? What is the most
effective way to alter our behavior, say, to lose weight or stop smoking?
Cognitive
How we encode, process, store, and retrieve
information
How do we use information in remembering? Reasoning? Solving problems?
Social-cultural
How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures
How are we-as Africans, Asians, Australians, or North Americans-alike as
members of one human family? As products of different environmental contexts, how do we differ?
Consider, for example, how psychology's varied perspectives described in
can supplement one another and shed light on anger.
•
~
•
TABLE
1,
• Someone working from the evolutionary perspective might analyze how anger facilitated the survival of our ancestors' genes.
• Someone working from the behavior genetics perspective might study how heredity
and experience influence our individual differences in temperament .
• Someone working from the neuroscience perspective might study the brain circuits
that produce the physical state of being "red in the face" and "hot under the
collar."
• Someone working from the psychodynamic perspective might view an outburst as
an outlet for unconscious hostility.
• Someone working from the behavioral perspective might study the facial expressions and body gestures that accompany anger, or might attempt to determine
which external stimuli result in angry responses or aggressive acts.
Views of anger
....
...
....
How would each of psychology's levels of
analysis explain what's going on here?
12
PROLOGUE : THE STORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
Want to learn more? See Appendix A,
Careers in Psychology, at the end of this
book for more information about
psychology's subfields and to learn about
the many interesting options available to
those with bachelor's, master's, and
doctoral degrees In psychology.
• Someone working on the cognitive perspective might study how our interpretation
of a situation affects our anger and how our anger affects our thinking.
• Someone working on the social-cultural perspective might explore which situations
produce the most anger, and how expressions of anger vary across cultural
contexts.
This important point-that different perspectives can complement one another-is
also true of the different academic disciplines. Each academic perspective has its
questions and its limits. A perfume manufacturer needs chemistry to create its products, psychology to know what will sell, and marketing and business to turn a profit.
Differing academic perspectives are like different two-dimensional views of a threedimensional object. Each two-dimensional perspective is helpful, but by itself fails to
reveal the whole picture.
So bear in mind psychology's limits. Don't expect it to answer the ultimate questions, such as those posed by Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy ( 1904): "Why should I
live? Why should I do anything? Is there in life any purpose which the inevitable
death that awaits me does not undo and destroy?" Instead, expect that psychology
will help you understand why people think, feel, and act as they do. Then you should
find the study of psychology fascinating and useful.
Psychology's Subfields
OBJECTIVE 7 11dentify some of psychology's subfields, and explain the difference
between clinical psychology and psychiatry.
Psychology is a collection of diverse subfields. Some psychologists do basic research,
some do applied research, and some provide professional services. Picturing a chemist
at work, you probably envision a white-coated scientist surrounded by glassware and
high-tech equipment. Picture a psychologist at work and you would be right to envision
-i
.
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~~
~~
~~
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~~
~~
~~
"I'm a social scientist, Michael. That means I
can't explain electricity or anything like that,
but if you ever want to know about people I'm
your man."
• a white-coated scientist probing a rat's brain.
• an intelligence researcher measuring how quickly an infant becomes bored with
(looks away from) a familiar picture.
• an executive evaluating a new "healthy life-styles" training program for employees.
• someone at a computer keyboard analyzing data on whether adopted teens' temperaments more closely resemble those of their adoptive parents or those of their
biological parents.
• a therapist listening carefully to a client's depressed thoughts.
• a traveler en route to another culture to collect data on variations in human values and behaviors.
• a teacher or writer sharing the joy of psychology with others.
The cluster of subfields we call psychology has less unity than most other sciences.
But there is a payoff: Psychology is a meeting ground for different disciplines and is
thus a perfect home for those with wide-ranging interests. In their diverse activities,
from biological experimentation to cultural comparisons, a common quest unites the
tribe of psychology: to describe and explain behavior and the mind underlying it.
Some psychologists conduct basic research that builds psychology's knowledge
base. In the pages that follow we will meet a wide variety of such researchers:
• Biological psychologists exploring the links between brain and mind
• Developmental psychologists studying our changing abilities from womb to tomb
• Cognitive psychologists experimenting with how we perceive, think, and solve
problems
• Personality psychologists investigating our persistent traits
• Social psychologists exploring how we view and affect one another
~
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r
PROLOGUE: THE STORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
These psychologists also may conduct applied research that tackles practical problems. So do other
psychologists, such as industrial!organizational psychologists as they study and advise on behavior in the workplace. They use psychology's concepts and methods to
help organizations and companies select and train employees more effectively, to boost morale and productivity, to design products, and to implement systems.
Although most psychology textbooks focus on psychological science, psychology is also a helping profession devoted to such practical issues as how to have a
happy marriage, how to overcome anxiety or depression, and how to raise thriving children. Counseling
psychologists help people cope with challenges (including academic, vocational, and marital issues) by
recognizing their strengths and resources. Clinical
psychologists assess and treat mental, emotional, and
behavior disorders (APA, 2003). Both counseling and
clinical psychologists administer and interpret tests,
provide counseling and therapy, and sometimes conduct basic and applied research. By contrast, psychiatrists, who also often provide psychotherapy, are medical doctors licensed to prescribe drugs and otherwise treat physical
causes of psychological disorders. (Some clinical psychologists are lobbying for a similar
right to prescribe mental health-related drugs, and in 2002 the state of New Mexico
granted that right to specially trained and licensed psychologists.)
With perspectives ranging from the biological to the social, and with settings from
the laboratory to the clinic, psychology relates to many disciplines. More and more,
psychology connects with fields ranging from mathematics to biology to sociology to
philosophy. And more and more, psychology's methods and findings aid other disciplines. Psychologists teach in medical schools, law schools, and theological seminaries,
and they work in hospitals, factories, and corporate offices. They engage in interdisciplinary studies, such as psychohistory (the psychological analysis of historical characters), psycholinguistics (the study of language and thinking), and psychoceramics (the
study of crackpots) .1
~
~
1
Confession time: I wrote the last part of this sentence on April Fools' Day.
13
Psychology:
A science and a profession
Psychologists experiment with,
observe, test, and treat behavior. Here we see psychologists
testing a child, recording children's behavior, and doing faceto-face therapy.
• basic research pure science that aims to
increase the scientific knowledge base.
• applied research scientific study that
aims to solve practical problems.
• counseling psychology a branch of psychology that assists people with problems
in living (often related to school, work, or
marriage) and in achieving greater wellbeing.
• clinical psychology a branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders.
• psychiatry a branch of medicine dealing
with psychological disorders; practiced by
physicians who sometimes provide medical
(for example, drug) treatments as well as
psychological therapy.
14
PROLOGUE: THE STORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
I see you!
A biological psychologist might view this
child's delighted response as evidence for
brain maturation. A cognitive psychologist
might see it as a demonstration of the baby's
growing knowledge of his surroundings. For
a cross-cultural psychologist, the role of
grandparents in different societies might be
the issue of interest. As you will see throughout this book, these and other perspectives
offer complementary views of behavior.
Once expanded to the dimensions of a
larger idea, [the mind] never returns to its
original size."
Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1809-1894
Psychology also influences modern culture. Knowledge transforms us. Learning
about the solar system and the germ theory of disease alters the way people think
and act. Learning psychology's findings also changes people: They less often judge
psychological disorders as a moral failing, treatable by punishment and ostracism.
They less often regard and treat women as men's mental inferiors. They less often
view and rear children as ignorant, willful beasts in need of taming. "In each case,"
notes Morton Hunt (1990, p. 206), "knowledge has modified attitudes, and,
through them, behavior." Once aware of psychology's well-researched ideas-about
how body and mind connect, how a child's mind grows, how we construct our perceptions, how we remember (and misremember) our experiences, how people across
the world differ (and are alike)-your mind may never again be quite the same.
) ) LEAR.N~NG OUTCOMES
Contemporary Psychology
Psychology is growing and globalizing, as psychologists in 69
countries around the world work, teach, and do research in
many subfields.
51
OBJECTIVE
Summarize the nature-nurture debate in psychology,
and describe the principle of natural selection.
Psychology's biggest and most enduring issue concerns the
balance between the influences of nature (genes) and nurture (all other influences, from conception to death).
Philosophers had long debated whether nature (the view of
Plato and Descartes) or nurture (the view of Aristotle and
Locke) was more important. Charles Darwin proposed a
mechanism-the principle of natural selection-by which nature selects chance variations that enable organisms to survive and reproduce in particular environments. Psychologists
now believe that in most cases, every psychological event is simultaneously a biological event. A great deal of research, including studies of identical and fraternal twins, sheds light on
the relative importance of these two sets of influences on
such traits as personality and intelligence.
6
OBJECTIVE
!Identify the three main levels of analysis in the
biopsychosocial approach, and explain why psychology's varied
perspectives are complementary.
The biopsychosocial approach integrates information from
the biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of
analysis. Psychologists study human behaviors and mental
processes from many different perspectives (including the
neuroscientific, evolutionary, behavior genetics, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and social-cultural perspectives). Melding the information gathered from these many
lines of research creates a more complete understanding of
behaviors and mental processes than would be available from
any one viewpoint alone.
J
J
OBJECTIVE / !Identify some of psychology's subfields, and explain
the difference between clinical psychology and psychiatry.
Psychology's subfields encompass basic research (often done
by biological, developmental, cognitive, personality, and social psychologists), applied research (sometimes conducted
by industrial/organizational psychologists), and clinical applications (the work of counseling and clinical psychologists). Clinical psychologists study, assess, and treat (with
psychotherapy) people with psychological disorders; psychiatrists also study, assess, and treat people with disorders, but
they are medical doctors who can prescribe medication as
well as offer psychotherapy.
ASK YOURSELF: When you signed up for this course, what did you
think psychology would be all about?
1
~
PROLOGUE: THE STORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
••
YOUR STUDY OF PSYCHOLOGY
= I State five
effective study techniques.
OBJECTIVE
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...
The investment you are
making in studying psychology should enrich
your life and enlarge your
vision. Although many of
life's significant questions
are beyond psychology, g:,
some very important ones ~
are illuminated by even a ~~
first psychology course. ~
~
Through painstaking re- .~
0
search, psychologists have
gained insights into brain
and mind, depression and joy,
dreams and memories. Even the
unanswered questions can enrich us,
by renewing our sense of mystery
about "things too wonderful" for us
yet to understand. What is more,
your study of psychology can help
teach you how to ask and answer important questions-how to think critically as you evaluate competing ideas
and claims.
Having your life enriched and
your vision enlarged (and getting a
decent grade) requires effective study.
As you will see in Chapter 9, to master information you must actively
process it. Your mind is not like your
stomach, something to be filled passively; it is more like a muscle that
grows stronger with exercise. Countless experiments reveal that people
learn and remember material best
when they put it in their own words,
rehearse it, and then review and rehearse it again.
A simple study method incorporates these principles. You can remember it as SQ3R: Survey, Question,
Read, Review, and Reflect.
First, survey what you're about to
read, including chapter outlines and
section heads. Note a section's main
topic, as indicated by the learning
objective at the beginning. This will
focus your reading and study.
Learning how to ask and answer
important questions
The basic study tips in this box are beneficial to students at all levels and in all
places, including these children at a village
school in Niger.
Keep the learning objective in
mind as a question you will attempt
to answer as you read the section.
Usually a single main chapter section
will be as much as you can absorb
without tiring. Treat each main chapter section as if it were a whole chapter. Read actively and critically. Ask
questions. Make notes. Consider implications: How does what you've
read support or challenge your assumptions? How convincing is the
evidence? How does it relate to your
own life?
Finally, review and reflect. To root
a section's organization more deeply
in your memory, rescan the section
and the marginal definitions of key
terms. Study the Learning Outcomes at the end of each section.
Quiz yourself with t he Test Yourself
questions at the end of each chapter
and, perhaps, by taking quizzes in
the book's accompanying study
guide and online learning resources
(see page 17). Glance over your
notes or highlighting. Then stop
and let it all sink in. Better yet,
summarize the material
for a friend or lecture
about it to an imaginary
audience.
Survey, question, read,
review, reflect. I have organized the chapters to facilitate your using the
SQ 3 R study method. Each
chapter begins with an
outline that helps you
survey what is upcoming,
and each main section begins with a learning objective. I have divided
chapters into three to five main sections of readable length. To assist
your reviewing, each main section
ends with a Learning Outcomes
narrative summary. End-of-section
Ask Yourself questions are designed
to help you reflect-applying what
you've learned to your own life to
make the material more meaningful
and memorable. The chapter ends
with big-picture Test Yourself review
questions and an organized reminder of key terms. Survey, question, read, review, reflect .
Five additional study hints may
further boost your learning:
Distribute your study time.
One of psychology's oldest findings is
that spaced practice promotes better
retention than massed practice.
You'll remember material better if
you space your time over several
study periods-perhaps one hour a
day, six days a week-rather than
cram it into one long study blitz.
Spacing your study sessions requires
a disciplined approach to managing
your time. (Richard 0. Straub explains time management in the helpful Study Guide that accompanies this
text.) For example, rather than trying
to read a whole chapter in a single
sitting, read just one of the chapter's
main sections and then turn to
something else.
15
J
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16
PROLOGUE: THE STORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
In class, listen actively. As psychologist William James urged some
100 years ago, NO reception without
11
reaction, no impression without ... expression." Listen for the main idea
and subideas in lectures. Write them
down. Ask questions during and after
class. In class, as in your private
study, process the information actively and you will understand and
retain it better.
Overlearn. Psychology tells us
that "overlearning improves retention." The more often students read
a chapter and the fewer classes they
miss, the better their exam scores
are (Woehr & Cavell, 1993). Students frequently stop short of overlearning and overestimate how
much they know. Really learning
something requires more than momentarily understanding it. You
may understand a chapter as you
read it, but if you devote extra study
time to rereading, to testing yourself, and to reviewing what you
think you know, you will actually
learn the material and retain your
new knowledge longer.
Focus on the big ideas. It helps
to step back periodically and see the
big picture so that you know how all
the facts and research fit together.
To understand and appreciate psychology's lessons, for example, it's
important to read about the research that informs them, but it is
also important to watch for the bigger concepts and themes that psychologists construct from these
smaller findings. Among this book's
big ideas are these:
• Critical thinking and scientific
scrutiny help us think smarter
about many things.
• We gain understanding by viewing a phenomenon from the biological, psychological, and
social-cultural levels. Everything
psychological is simultaneously
biological. Yet our behavior is
often influenced by our environment and our culture.
• Nature (our genes and our biological makeup) and nurture
(our environment, our culture,
and the world around us) work
together in forming our traits
and behaviors.
• We are creatures of our culture
and gender, yet we are far more
alike than different.
• Much of our human information processing is unconscious,
below the radar screen of our
awareness.
Be a smart test-taker. If a test
contains both multiple-choice questions and an essay question, turn
first to the essay. Read the question
carefully, noting exactly what the instructor is asking. On the back of a
page, pencil in a list of points you'd
like to make, and then organize
them. Before writing, put the essay
aside and work through the
multiple-choice questions. (As you
do so, you may continue to mull
over the essay question. Sometimes
the objective questions will bring
pertinent thoughts to mind.) Then
reread the essay question, rethink
your answer, and start writing.
When you finish, proofread your
work to eliminate spelling and
grammatical errors that make you
look less competent than you are.
When reading multiple-choice
questions, don't confuse yourself by
trying to imagine how each choice
might be the right one. Try instead to
answer the question as if it were a
fill-in-the-blank. First, cover the answers, recall what you know, and
complete the sentence in your mind.
Then read the answers on the test
and find the alternative that best
matches your own answer.
As you read psychology, you will
learn much more than effective study
techniques. Psychology teaches us
how to ask important questionshow to think critically as we evaluate
competing ideas and popular claims.
It deepens our appreciation for how
we humans perceive, think, feel, and
act. By so doing, it informs our living
and enlarges our compassion.
Through this book I hope to help
guide you toward that end. As educator Charles Eliot said a century ago,
"Books are the quietest and most
constant of friends, and the most patient of teachers."
)) LEARNING
OUTCOMES
J
•
I State five effective study
~
(1) Distribute study time. (2) Listen
actively in class. ( 3) Overlearn.
( 4) Focus on big ideas. ( 5) Be a
smart test-taker.
~
OBJECTIVE
techniques.
1
1
,
1
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PROLOGUE: THE STORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
REVIEW: The Story of Psychology
Test Yourself
1. What events defined the founding of scientific psychology?
2. What are psychology's major levels of analysis?
The Test Yourself questions offer you a handy self-test on the
material you have just read. Answers to these questions can be
found in Appendix B at the back of the book.
Terms and Concepts to Remember
psychology, p. 2
empiricism, p. 3
structuralism, p. 4
functionalism, p. 5
humanistic psychology, p. 7
WEB
)
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t
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I
To continue your study and review of The
Story of Psychology, visit this book's Web
site at www.worthpublishers.com/myers.
You will find practice tests, review activi ties, and many interesting articles and
Web links for more information on topics
related to The Story of Psychology.
nature-nurture issue, p. 9
natural selection, p. 9
levels of analysis, p. 10
biopsychosocial approach, p. 10
basic research, p. 12
applied research, p. 13
counseling psychology, p. 13
clinical psychology, p. 13
psychiatry, p. 13
17