Acknowledgments

Psychology is an extremely broad field that ranges from the action of a single brain cell to the complexity of perception, child development, and psychological disorders. I worked on this textbook just about every day for three years, reading, learning, organizing ideas, writing, rewriting, and rewriting. I could not have completed this textbook without the tremendous support and guidance from friends, family, colleagues, reviewers, editors, and the wonderful staff at FlatWorld.

I want to start by expressing my deep appreciation to former mentors, friends, colleagues, and family. First, I want to express my gratitude for the many mentors I have had in my academic career, including Dr. John Morgan (Cal Poly, Humboldt), Dr. M. E. Bitterman and Dr. Patricia Couvillon (University of Hawaii, Manoa), and Dr. Alex Kacelnik (Oxford University). Second, I want to thank my good friend, Simon Cacy, who is a pilot for Hawaiian Airlines. He was kind enough to read the first drafts of chapters during his layovers and send me specific and insightful suggestions and edits. Third, I received a great deal of help from colleagues within my college. Dr. Paul Price was beneficial in the beginning when designing the table of contents for this textbook. It’s often more difficult to decide what not to include, and Paul gave me some great advice. Dr. Farin Bakhtiari read and edited the first draft of Chapter 11 on sex and gender, and her insights greatly improved the final draft. Dr. Lauren Dial helped with guidance on the rapidly evolving language when discussing sex, gender, and sexual orientation. Dr. Jason Bush from the Biology Department gave me some good advice about discussing genetics and heritability in Chapter 3. My colleagues, Dr. Ed Mitchell, Dr. Lorin Lachs, Dr. Rosa Toro, Dr. Jessica McKenzie, Dr. Mike Botwin, Dr. Jean Millar, Dr. Karl Oswald, Dr. Constance Jones, Dr. Spee Kosloff, Dr. Ellen Woo, Dr. Patrick Durkee, and Sheri Osborn were also extremely helpful in giving me advice, lending me books, giving me feedback on the cover, and suggesting online resources. I’d also like to thank Dr. Mary Ann Valentino and her colleagues at Fresno City College for providing me with feedback. Dr. Valentino provided many excellent suggestions for this book and my biopsychology textbook. I would also like to thank Erica Torres and Mona Sandoval, who agreed to be photographed for images in this textbook.

My family has also been extremely helpful. My son, Isaac, is an excellent photographer and wizard with Photoshop and took several photos used in this textbook, and he also helped create the cover image. I sent my son, Max, several chapters, and he checked references and made suggestions about clarity. My sister, Idee, and her wife, Theresa, are both licensed therapists, and they gave me wonderful advice about Chapter 15 on therapy and Chapter 16 on stress and health psychology. I had a long discussion with my uncle Dan Fidler before writing my section on meditation. My father, Mel Shapiro was always there  with an encouraging word. Finally, I want to thank my wife, Lisa, for whom I dedicated this textbook. I could not have written this book or done much else in my life without her love, support, and patience.

I also wanted to express my appreciation to the people at FlatWorld, especially Sean Wakely (Vice President, Product and Editorial), Lindsey Kaetzel (Digital Project Manager), and Marita Sermolins Bley (Development Editor). Sean was extremely encouraging and always open for a quick meeting to discuss ideas for the textbook, discuss reviews, or provide a positive word. Lindsey was invaluable and made the final textbook look great, helping me locate just the right image or video. Finally, I would like to thank Marita Sermolins Bley, who worked with me for over a year as the development editor of this textbook. Her experience and knowledge about writing for textbooks are extraordinary and extremely appreciated. More than anyone else, Marita had the most influence on helping me with the final drafts of this textbook. 

I would also like to thank the many reviewers who took on the Herculean task of carefully reading the first-draft and revised manuscript chapters of this textbook. They were all incredibly helpful in expressing what they liked as well as what needed improvement. Many of the reviewers made excellent suggestions for including additional, relevant content to enhance students’ learning of psychology. This textbook is considerably improved because of their detailed and constructive input.