Preface

During my career, I have enjoyed conducting research on a wide range of topics, from learning in animals like honeybees and starlings to decision-making and psychophysiology in humans. However, my greatest joy by far is teaching and mentoring students. I take pride in creating engaging and interactive lectures and employing high-impact practices (HIPs) in my course, such as project-based learning, service-learning, and study abroad experiences. I also derive satisfaction from being on faculty committees that focus on improving teaching practices; leveraging HIPs; supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); and using technology to improve learning.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to incorporate my love for teaching into my first textbook, Biopsychology: Fundamentals and Contemporary Issues. I was delighted, and certainly grateful, for the many positive responses to the first edition of that book. In retrospect, I was also a bit surprised at how much I enjoyed taking the often-challenging topic of neuroscience and presenting it in approachable, engaging, relevant, and enjoyable ways. So, when my FlatWorld editor suggested that I write an introductory textbook in order to reach an even broader audience, I jumped at the chance.

Psychological topics have become crucially important in people’s lives, including the emotional impacts of social media; persistent bias and discrimination; a resurgence of prejudice against the LGBTQAI+ community; the rise of opioid addiction and overdose; increasingly partisan political tactics; the spread of misinformation and mistrust of traditional news sources; the early days of artificial intelligence (AI); managing stress in an increasingly stressful world; and destigmatizing mental health. I thought carefully about how I could best address the fast-evolving environment students must learn to navigate today. As a result, I arrived at three primary goals in creating this textbook. First is to provide the tools students need to readily understand and learn the fundamentals of psychology. Second, and just as important, is to capture learners’ attention by making such a broad and seemingly complex field interesting and relevant to their present and future lives and careers. Finally, I strive to help students develop the ability to think critically about psychology and the many pseudoscientific claims and misconceptions they encounter every day. Today, more than ever, students are bombarded with misinformation and even deliberate disinformation. I have discovered that the best way to help them critically evaluate content is to familiarize students with the scientific approach to thinking and reasoning.

Of course, every successful introduction to psychology textbook draws from experimentation and empirical research to support its narrative. If not, faculty would not assign these long-established and venerable books to their students year after year. However, my experience has been that even the most carefully researched psychology textbooks can skim the surface of presenting psychology as a natural science. Why? In my opinion, there is a misperception that exposing undergraduate students to the scientific method may be too challenging or tedious for them. This idea cannot be further from the truth. My experience is that students are innately curious about the world around them. They are willing to put in significant effort if an author provides compelling reasons to engage with the content. 

All of us, but perhaps younger generations in particular, are inherently skeptical. Therefore, it is our responsibility as psychology faculty to expose our students to scientific reasoning and how to engage with facts productively. Therefore, we need to provide the evidence behind the information we share with our students if we expect them to learn and apply critical thinking skills. We are not just exposing our students to the fascinating and complex science of psychology in this one course. We are also preparing them to become citizens, voters, parents, and professionals who will think critically and take reasonable actions in response to the cascades of information, and misinformation, to which they are exposed daily.

When I refer to psychology as a natural science, I mean one that focuses on the scientific method, experimental research, and evidence-based practices in mental health treatment. Taking a scientific approach also means helping students become more analytical thinkers about psychology and combatting the many myths and misunderstandings about our field. What a strong scientific approach does not mean, however, is a textbook that is overly rigorous, excessively detailed, or filled with jargon. In fact, I made a conscious effort to present material in a conversational and approachable writing style. For example, I take great care to fully explain the meanings of new terms and phrases in memorable and everyday language.

We have all discovered that it makes no difference how complete or accurate an introductory textbook is if the students do not want to engage with it. Psychology is a dynamic and visually captivating science, both what we can observe and what cannot be seen. Therefore, I have discovered one of the best ways to capture students’ attention is to curate and share media-rich examples. I use video-based examples to supplement and expand upon the assigned textbook’s written explanations. FlatWorld’s powerful digital reader offered a special opportunity to integrate streaming videos into this book’s online narrative. More than 270 embedded, short videos take unique advantage of the teachable moments they create. Some videos are instructive, such as an animated video by Two-Minute Neuroscience showing how antidepressants work at the synapse (Chapter 2 “Neuroscience”), TEDEd videos about morality and the trolley problem (Chapter 9 “Intelligence, Language, Judgment, and Decision Making”), or a NatGeo video from the series Brain Games about primacy effect (Chapter 8 “Cognitive Psychology and Memory”). Others appeal to human-interest, such as a BBC video on potato washing macaques in Japan (Chapter 6 “Learning”) or someone talking about her life with the intersex condition called complete androgen insensitivity (Chapter 11 “Sex, Gender, and Love”). There are excellent videos that help to dispel myths such as one on brain supplements (Chapter 8 “Cognitive Psychology and Memory”) or making your child smarter with Baby Einstein videos (Chapter 9 “Intelligence, Language, Judgment, and Decision Making”). Among the most popular are humorous videos such as a clip from The Big Bang Theory where the characters discuss the difference between punishment and negative reinforcement (Chapter 6 “Learning”) or a scene from the Pixar movie Inside Out demonstrating the classical theory of emotions (Chapter 7 “Motivation and Emotions”). 

In addition to integrating videos and other high interest learning features, I have chosen to highlight two key subthemes and consistently weave their implications throughout the book. First of all, psychology is a field that rests upon a network of important connections among its subfields. Second, and like most other natural sciences today, there is an explosion of empirical research on core topics to the discipline such as brain structure and function, AI, and revolutionary new treatment options in mental health. New discoveries are regularly expanding the boundaries of what we know. These two subthemes, “Connections” and “Contemporary Issues,” provide additional structure to the book, help students build a useful mental scaffold about what psychology is and what it means, and encourage them to understand both the promise and pitfalls that lie ahead of us based on scientific advances in psychology.

This book’s main objective is to help learners develop a lasting understanding of psychology’s basics. Of course, such an extremely broad field includes the workings of the brain, learning, memory, perception, consciousness, decision-making, psychological development, sex and gender, personality, our interactions with others, and psychological disorders and treatment. However, as Gurung et al. (2016) pointed out, one problem with introductory courses and textbook is that they often deal with each topic in isolation instead of emphasizing how topics interconnect and interrelate. For example, to truly understand recreational drug use and addiction, students should learn the role that development, basic learning principles, social influence, and psychological disorders play in establishing and maintaining addiction. It would be unreasonable to discuss every connection for all topics, of course. Therefore, I present one specific example of the most compelling connection at the end of each of the four sections within each chapter. 

For example, in a section on emotions, the “Connections” section discusses the role emotions play in decision-making; in a section on early childhood development, the “Connections” section looks at attachment theory and romantic relationships, and in a section on sexual behavior, the “Connections” section discusses romantic attraction and our senses. These connections lend a more complete understanding of psychology's complexity without being overwhelming. They also put information into greater context and relevance, which helps students better understand and retain the information they learn from each section.

Psychology is a rapidly growing and evolving field. Therefore, at the end of each chapter, there is a section called “Contemporary Issues” where I address one modern topic in psychology. Contemporary issues include subjects such as controlling robots or computers with our brain (Chapter 2 “Neuroscience”), AI (Chapter 4 “Consciousness, Sleep, and Psychoactive Drugs”), cyberpsychology (Chapter 6 “Learning”), erasing or implanting memories (Chapter 8 “Cognitive Psychology and Memory”), romantic relationships with computers or robots (Chapter 11 “Sex, Gender, and Love”), political partisanship (Chapter 12 “Social Psychology”), destigmatizing mental health (Chapter 14 “Psychological Disorders”), and the future of psychology (Chapter 16 “Stress and Health Psychology”). These sections will help make psychology relevant to the students’ lives and interests. They can also make excellent topics for class discussions. The discussion of contemporary issues will foster curiosity, make the content more engaging, and model life-long learning practices. I was delighted that peer reviewers were especially positive in their evaluations of the “Connections” and “Contemporary Issues” sections.

While I was writing it, the manuscript for this book was thoroughly evaluated by psychology teaching faculty and scholars. It was humbling, but always exhilarating, to collaborate with so many expert colleagues as I worked to exceed faculty and students’ expectations for the published book. Among the many positive and supportive reactions the manuscript received, a few are worth noting here:

In addition to an engaging narrative and well-documented discussions of core and developing topics, it is also crucial for a textbook to provide supportive and effective learning features. Therefore, I put a good deal of thought into constructing and researching several unique study features that are reflected in this book.

Successful introduction to psychology textbooks must include helpful learning features. In fact, I think there is a reasonable expectation that a book about psychology should leverage excellent learning principles when teaching psychology. Therefore, in addition to the curated and embedded streaming links to online video and audio described above, I have incorporated several standard pedagogical devices, such as “Learning Objectives,” and interim summaries called “Key Takeaways” as well as unique study features that reflect this book’s central theme and subthemes. These features include core and high-interest topics that stimulate reader engagement, foster critical thought, extend the text discussion, and enhance information retention:

The end-of-chapter features can be used to create excellent homework assignments and facilitate class discussions. They also encourage further exploration into the fascinating field of psychology.

If you are a faculty member considering The Science of Psychology: Connections and Contemporary Issues v1.0 for adoption, I trust you will find the supplements I describe below fully support your teaching practices. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions about the book, its supplements, or how I use them with my own students. If you have adopted this book or are a student using it in class, I am always interested in feedback on how to improve it. Feel free to share comments with me at mashapiro@csufresno.edu.

A well-prepared supplements program can greatly enhance the teaching and student learning experiences. Because I wrote all of the supplements, adopting faculty can expect a high level of continuity, accuracy, and alignment between their content and The Science of Psychology: Connections and Contemporary Issues v1.0. The following supplements are available to adopters of this book.