“If I were to use only a few words to summarize my goal for this book, as well as my teaching philosophy, that’s what I would say. I believe that an effective textbook must be oriented to students—informing them, engaging them, exciting them about the field, and expanding their intellectual capabilities.

When students are engaged and challenged, they understand psychology at a deep and meaningful level. Only then are they able to learn and retain the material.

Luckily, psychology is a science that is inherently interesting to students. It is a discipline that speaks with many voices, offering a personal message to each student. To some, psychology provides a better understanding of others’ behavior. Some view psychology as a pathway to self-understanding.

Others see the potential for a future career, and some are drawn to psychology by the opportunity for intellectual discovery that its study provides.
No matter what brings students into the introductory course and regardless of their initial motivation, Essentials of Understanding Psychology, Seventh Edition, is designed to draw students into the field and stimulate their thinking.

This revision integrates a variety of elements that foster students’ understanding of psychology and its impact on our everyday lives. It also provides instructors with a fully integrated assessment package to objectively gauge their students’ mastery of psychology’s key principles and concepts.”

CONTENTS:

I. Introduction to Psychology

•  Psychologists at Work
•  A Science Evolves: The Past, the Present, and the Future
•  Research in Psychology
•  Research Challenges: Exploring the Process

II. Neuroscience and Behavior

• Neurons: The Basic Elements of Behavior
• The Nervous System and the Endocrine System: Communicating Within the Body
• The Brain

III. Sensation and Perception

•  Sensing the World Around Us
•  Vision: Shedding Light on the Eye
•  Hearing and the Other Senses
•  Perceptual Organization: Constructing Our View of the World

IV. States of Consciousness

• Sleep and Dreams
•  Hypnosis and Meditation
•  Drug Use: The Highs and Lows of Consciousness

V. Learning

•  Classical Conditioning
• Operant Conditioning
• Cognitive Approaches to Learning

VI. Memory

•  The Foundations of Memory
•  Recalling Long-Term Memories
•  Forgetting: When Memory Fails

VII. Thinking, Language, and Intelligence

• Thinking and Reasoning
•  Language
•  Intelligence

VIII. Motivation and Emotion

•  Explaining Motivation
•  Human Needs and Motivation: Eat, Drink, and Be Daring
•  Understanding Emotional Experiences

IX. Development

•  Nature, Nurture, and Prenatal Development
•  Infancy and Childhood
•  Adolescence: Becoming an Adult
•  Adulthood

X. Personality

•  Psychodvnamic Approaches to Personality
•  Trait, Learning, Biological, Evolutionary, and Humanistic Approaches to Personality
•  Assessing Personality: Determining What Makes Us Distinctive

XI. Health Psychology: Stress, Coping, and Well-Being

•  Stress and Coping
•  Psychological Aspects of Illness and Well-Being
•  Promoting Health and Wellness

XII. Psychological Disorders 

•  Normal Versus Abnormal: Making the Distinction
•  The Major Psychological Disorders
•  Psychological Disorders in Perspective

XIII. Treatment of Psychological Disorders

•  Psychotherapy: Psychodynamic, Behavioral, and Cognitive Approaches to Treatment
•  Psychotherapy: Humanistic, Interpersonal, and Group Approaches to Treatment
•  Biomedical Therapy: Biological Approaches to Treatment

XIV. Social Psychology

•  Attitudes and Social Cognition
•  Social Influence
•  Prejudice and Discrimination
•  Positive and Negative Social Behavior

Language: English
Pages: 693