Preface
What is the best way to write an introduction to a psychology textbook that both engages students and provides them with an integrated introduction to the field? That key question initially gave rise to this book, and it is one we continually ask each other when we revise and aim to improve each edition. One of us is a cognitive neuroscientist and the other a clinical psychologist. Despite very different backgrounds, our individual teaching experiences support the common understanding that each area of psychology really is a facet of the same whole—and inspired us to bring this view to a larger audience.
In addition to providing an integrated view of psychology, we wanted to show students how to apply the results of psychological research to make learning and remembering easier—not just for this course but for any course, from economics to art history—and for the demands of life in general. In this edition, we continue to present psychology as a vibrant and unified discipline while making the book even more accessible for students. We want to help them better understand the material they read, identify and address gaps in their understanding, and retain what they have learned.
An Integrated Vision—Introducing Psychology: Brain, Person, Group
Our vision is to write and continuously refine a textbook that integrates the entire field of psychology as well as possible. We address this goal by exploring how psychology consists of certain psychological events that occur in the context of other sorts of psychological events. Key to this approach is the idea that psychology can best be understood in terms of events that occur at different levels of analysis, a broad concept widely used in psychology and other sciences. This approach leads us to focus on events in the brain (biological factors), the person (beliefs, desires, and feelings), and the group (social, cultural, and environmental factors). All of these events occur in the physical world, where we are bathed with specific stimuli, and—crucially—these different types of events are constantly interacting.
One central idea of this book is that events at any two of the levels of analysis serve as the context for events at the remaining level. Thus, to understand fully events in the brain, we must also consider what’s going on at the person and the group levels; by the same token, to understand events at the level of the person, we must consider the context of the brain and the group; and to understand events at the level of the group, we must consider the context of the brain and the person. No one level has a special status or is most important. Any level can be the initial focus of our interest. For example, our brains are affected by our beliefs (just think of how worrying can make our bodies become tense, which is a direct result of events in the brain), and our social interactions both shape and are affected by our beliefs. In fact, as we discuss in this book, social interactions can actually cause the genes in our brain cells to operate differently. All psychological phenomena—from group interactions to psychological disorders, memory, and creativity—can best be understood by considering events at all three levels of analysis and how they interact.
This view of psychology is exciting because it offers a way to organize a diverse range of theories and discoveries by emphasizing the interactions among the phenomena addressed in different areas of psychology. Consequently, we wrote this book because no other textbook, in our opinion, was able to succeed in connecting the diverse areas of psychology in such a meaningful and memorable way.
What's New in This Edition?
First and foremost, we are delighted to note that we have a new publisher, FlatWorld. After decades of books being printed and marketed in traditional ways and sold at sky-high prices, it is about time that a modern publisher emerged! FlatWorld uses technology to enhance the quality of its publications, offer students a variety of purchasing options, and bring textbook prices down to earth.
Turning to the particulars of this edition: We have updated and rewritten Introducing Psychology: Brain, Person, Group to help students better understand key psychological terms, findings, theories, and concepts and their implications. We have taken care to make the book easier to read, study from, and learn from. Further, we are fully cognizant of the so-called “replication crisis” in psychology (as well as in other fields, including physics). Thus, we do not include recently reported findings in this book until we judge them to be solid and worth learning.
This new edition provided an exciting opportunity to introduce new research, refresh previous discussions, and polish descriptions of key psychology principles. Examples of the key changes in the fifth edition are:
Chapter 1. Introduction to the Science of Psychology: History and Research Methods
This chapter features:
a revised chapter story, reflecting on the reasons for Tiger Woods’s dramatic downfall
an expanded explanation of what is gained by using levels of analysis to understand psychology
an updated discussion of how cognitive psychology, behaviorism, and cognitive neuroscience are being used to encourage healthier behaviors
introduction of MFCC and MFT as psychology-related occupations
new coverage of the APA Ethics Code related to torture
an updated section on neuroethics
Chapter 2. The Biology of Mind and Behavior: The Brain in Action
We now include material on:
serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)
how patients with hippocampus damage retain their ability to play musical instruments
the “battered brain” and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)
ways that animal models are used to study human genetics
Chapter 3. Sensation and Perception: How the World Enters the Mind
This chapter now has a new or expanded discussion of:
odor molecules
how TSA agents have heightened bias during periods of increased threat
why dark adaptation happens slowly
wavelengths associated with particular colors
the Gestalt laws of organization
color constancy and how the brain tries to remove color from a lighting source
the mondegreen phenomenon
how blows to the head can lead to loss of sense of smell
a sixth taste, called oleogustus
Chapter 4. Learning: How Experience Changes Us
In this chapter, we now have new or expanded material on:
trace conditioning
how conditioned stimuli can be associated or not associated with different kinds of unconditioned stimuli, depending on biological relatedness
why extinction learning is often difficult and slow
ways that classically conditioned fear reduces all behavior
Chapter 5. Memory: Living with Yesterday
In this chapter, we incorporate new research or an updated discussion of:
the use of neurostimulation to enhance memory encoding and retrieval
the role reactivation plays during sleep and other activities to strengthen memories or change maladaptive behaviors
smaller hippocampi may predispose someone for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
autobiographical memories are more vividly recalled than non-autobiographical memories
re-creating one’s physical or mental state at the time of encoding can facilitate remembering
Chapter 6. Language, Thinking, and Intelligence: What Humans Do Best
In this chapter, we now include:
new coverage of syntactic structure and pragmatics
an expanded discussion of how people correct noisy messages
expanded discussion of how language shapes our distinctions and thoughts, including the colors we perceive
a revised section on intellectual disability
Chapter 7. Emotion and Motivation: Feeling and Striving
This chapter now includes:
a new chapter story about Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of the Broadway hit Hamilton
EEG asymmetry and mental illness
brain circuits and the amygdala’s role not just in fear but in other emotions
how appealing activities make people happy, along with a discussion of how these activities can alter brain indicators of health and well-being
new material on body language and how certain cross-cultural gestures may be genetic
a streamlined section on lie detection and how analyzing brain activity may potentially reveal lies
how research on animal instincts has enriched the field ethology and influenced psychology
expanded coverage of drives
how “liking” something is a third major part of motivation
a new section on choosing among rewards
Chapter 8. Personality: Vive La Difference!
We revised this chapter to include:
new research that opposites may not, in fact, attract and that similar partners are more likely to remain together for a long time
a revised section on Freud’s followers and whether his theories constitute “good science” or mesh with what we know today about neuroscience and events at different levels of analysis
an expanded discussion of whether we can predict people’s behaviors based on their personalities
a new section on personality as average tendencies
expanded coverage of the five personality traits framework and its use across cultures and for business, research, and industry applications
an updated discussion on the validity of the Rorschach test
an updated discussion of sensation seeking
new research on the genetic contribution to personality
information about whether younger people today are more narcissistic than in the past
attachment styles and the brain’s state when people feel rejected or excluded
Chapter 9. Psychology Over the LifeSpan: Growing Up, Growing Older, Growing Wiser
The revised version of this chapter includes:
new research on how fetuses respond to face-like pattern of lights while in the womb
findings on the effect of prenatal exposure to opioids
new material on how 3-month-old babies understand object permanence
new research on how older children describe themselves more abstractly and how such concepts can shape the thoughts of younger children
a revised discussion of gender roles
new material on transgender children
recent research that challenges Kohlberg’s theory that children go through distinct stages of moral reasoning and shows that infants and toddlers have some awareness of moral concepts
a brief discussion of how adolescents use social media and believe they are being constantly evaluated by peers
updated information about teen pregnancy
Chapter 10. Stress, Health, and Coping: Dealing with Life
This chapter now includes discussions of new research on:
how people can experience some positive consequences of having cancer
microaggressions
sleep deprivation
disclosing emotions
social support and how posting status updates on Facebook can increase feelings of connection to others
explicit versus implicit self-esteem
how reducing background noise can reduce violence and aggression
DSM-5 information on substance use disorder
drug and alcohol use
Chapter 11. Psychological Disorders: More than Everyday Problems
We include in this chapter new or expanded material on:
the prevalence of psychological disorders
DSM-5 definitions of 20 major disorder categories
the distinction between depressive disorders and bipolar disorders
cultural differences in how depression is expressed
research showing that people with panic disorder are unusually sensitive to changes in carbon dioxide in their bodies
criteria for a diagnosis of schizophrenia
the effects of families’ high expressed emotion
hoarding disorder
the effects of disrupted brain circuits with OCD
PTSD and the criteria for diagnosis
acute stress disorder
criteria for anorexia nervosa
binge eating disorder versus bulimia nervosa
Chapter 12. Treatment: Healing Actions, Healing Words
This chapter now includes:
a note to the effect that mindfulness has become an increasingly important construct
new research on PTSD treatments and “rewiring”
a discussion of biofeedback
new material on dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
a new discussion of client characteristics in the section on outcomes of therapy
Chapter 13. Social Psychology: Meeting of the Minds
This chapter has been significantly revised, and now includes:
a new chapter story on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
a section on implicit prejudice
a section on stereotype threat
a section on snap judgments
a section on digital matchmaking
Commitment to Supporting Accessibility
FlatWorld is committed to publishing books and supplements that support differently abled students who need additional assistance to access information. For example, we now include alt-text captions that are detectable by machine readers with each photo and figure and embed only captioned videos into the digital version of the book. We are working to meet governmental accessibility recommendations and standards, and we welcome your input on how to improve future updates and editions based on your experiences with this text.
Pedagogical Features
This new edition is replete with learning features that help students better understand and recall what they have read. Each chapter of the online version of this book features interactive quizzes, flash cards based on key terms, and highlighting and note-taking tools. Chapters in all formats are also structured according to the following pedagogical framework.
Chapter Story
We begin each chapter with a story about a person or group. We then elaborate on the story throughout, thereby providing an applied framework for the chapter’s discussion of relevant psychological theories and research. These stories serve several purposes.
They allow students to see how the psychological material covered in the chapter might apply to people outside of a psychological laboratory.
They make the material more interesting and applicable to students’ lives, thus facilitating learning and remembering.
Each story integrates the various topics addressed within a chapter, creating a coherent thematic whole to further enhance students’ understanding.
The story itself provides retrieval cues to help students remember the material.
For example, the new story in Chapter 7 (Emotion and Motivation) explores the role of emotion and motivation in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s creation of and success with the Broadway musical Hamilton. The new story in Chapter 13 (Social Psychology) explores the role of social cognition and social behavior for England’s royal couple Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. As students learn more about Miranda or Harry and Meghan (or any of the other people featured over the course of a chapter), they also learn more about psychological findings and principles and their applications. Because students are likely to remember the biographical information about these interesting individuals, they will also remember a lot about the content of the chapter. The chapter story is referred to or continued at the beginning of each section. This fosters integration with the rest of the chapter and introduces each section’s topic in an applied context.
Looking at Levels
Within each chapter, we take one aspect of the content—a theory or a psychological phenomenon—and consider it in detail from all three levels of analysis: the brain, the person, and the group, as well as the interactions among events at each level. We show that no one level of analysis alone is sufficient to understand psychological phenomena. For instance, in Chapter 8 (Personality), we examine the concept of attachment from the level of the brain (what happens biologically and how attachment might be linked to temperament), the person (how feelings of attachment affect a person’s sense of security and self-worth), and the group (how attachment style, which begins as a social event between infant and primary caretaker, in turn, influences an individual’s interactions with other people throughout life). We integrate these diverse types of knowledge within each chapter. The Looking at Levels features also forge bridges that reach across chapters, leading to more effective learning and remembering.
Looking Ahead: Learning Objectives
The Looking Ahead: Learning Objectives feature specifies learning objectives, in the form of questions, which appear at the beginning of each main section of each chapter. Each question focuses the student on the section’s key points.
Think Like a Psychologist
Critical thinking questions and activities—called Think Like a Psychologist—are provided in the margins throughout each chapter. These brief exercises (1) provide students with another way to learn about a psychological phenomenon discussed in the text—to experience it, not merely read about it; (2) make the material more vivid, thereby enhancing students’ attention and memory; and (3) apply psychological principles to a concrete context, showing students that the principles really can affect how we think, feel, and behave.
Looking Back: Key Takeaways
At the end of each main section of each chapter are Looking Back: Key Takeaways summaries that answer the learning objective questions posed at the section’s beginning. These interim summaries recap the most important aspects of the material and help students “chunk” discrete amounts of information to enhance learning and recall.
Review and Test Yourself
The end-of-chapter section called Review and Test Yourself includes summaries of key points from the chapter, lists of key terms, practice test questions, and an application activity:
Chapter Review. Each Chapter Review provides a section-by-section outline of the chapter’s material. These outlines highlight key points that students should know after a thorough reading of the material. They help consolidate into memory the core material even further.
Key Terms. Each end-of-chapter review also contains a Key Terms list to aid students in mastering key psychological vocabulary. Key terms are highlighted in context within the text, and their definitions are provided in a marginal glossary that runs throughout each chapter, while the terms are also listed in an alphabetized end-of-book index.
Practice Test. A practice test consisting of 15 multiple-choice questions appears at the end of each chapter, with answers provided in Appendix B. We ask both factual and conceptual questions to help students assess their knowledge of each chapter’s material, identify topics that may need additional study, and further consolidate their memory of the material.
Try It! Detailed instruction for each chapter’s application activity are provided so students can experience the activity on their own. Try It! activities are formulated to help learners see how psychology affects them personally.
Supplements
Jason S. Spiegelman, Associate Professor of Psychology, The Community College of Baltimore County, prepared the entire supplements program and online quizzes to accompany this new edition. We know from experience that the highest-quality supplements result from the continuity afforded by a single author, and this edition’s new teaching package represents many months of detail-oriented work on Jason’s part. We warmly thank Jason for the creativity and teaching expertise he lavished upon the new edition’s supplements and for making them the very best they could be.
FlatWorld Homework is provided in an easy-to-use, mobile-friendly interface. We ensure FlatWorld Homework system’s items specifically match the textbook’s narrative and accurately reflect the test item file (TIF) and other assessments. Homework items are all auto-gradable and presented in the form of graphs, choice matrices, fill-in-the-blank, image and graph labeling, and more. These questions are written in the same voice as the TIF, so that students who complete these questions with success should see that performance transfer to examinations that are written using the TIF. One frustration instructors frequently express is a disconnect between the pedagogical assets that accompany a text (quizzes, in particular) and the TIF. For this reason we are pleased to have a single author preparing all supplements to ensure continuity, accuracy, and alignment between all assessment items.
The Instructor’s Manual (IM) is designed to assist both the new instructor as well as the seasoned professor. Each chapter of the IM begins with a chapter outline that reviews the major points of the chapter. Thus, it can serve as a loose guide from which to present material to students. These chapter outlines are particularly helpful to instructors who are assigned a course last-minute and have little time in which to prepare. For each chapter, the IM also includes a list of recommended videos, all of which can be found on YouTube and are available for use in classes with few restrictions. Finally, the IM includes a list of all Key Terms that are used in the chapter, along with their definitions. These are presented in the order in which they appear, which allows the instructor to gain a sense of the topical sequence as they are experienced by the student. The IM was designed to provide helpful information without becoming burdensome or unwieldy.
The comprehensive test item file (TIF) to accompany Introducing Psychology: Brain, Person, Group, Version 5.0 consists of 1,500 items: multiple-choice, true/false, short answer or fill-in-the-blank, and essay questions. The items have been rewritten from scratch for this new edition, and are meant to reinforce thoroughly the major topics of the chapter without redundancy. The TIF employs questions from different levels of Bloom’s taxonomy and each item is classified according to its planned level of difficulty (easy, medium, or hard).
FlatWorld is pleased to provide a computer-generated test program to assist instructors with selecting, randomizing, formatting, loading online, or printing exams. Please contact your local FlatWorld representative or FlatWorld support (support@fwk.com) for more information or to request the program.
A set of PowerPoint™ presentations that highlight key learning objectives and the main concepts for each chapter is available to adopters. Each chapter’s PowerPoint slides provide a concise guide for the instructor and student that summarize key elements in support of comprehensive lectures. You can cut and paste sections, revise and customize, or use the entire presentation as composed with your classes.