Psychology

Some of my best friends are psychologists. They all have different backgrounds and interests; some teach at colleges and universities, others work for government or private organizations; some do laboratory research, others write books, and still others help people with personal problems. Yet despite the differences, these friends are, to a person, excited about their work, the field, and the contributions being made by this intelligent and useful discipline. I had three goals in writing this textbook.First and foremost, I want to get students thinking like psychologists.No author can invoke critical thinking in students the way a parent spoon feeds a baby. Critical thinking is a frame of mind, an attitude that forms naturally in response to information that is engaging and personally relevant--which leads me to the special features of this book. Determined to get the student reader to think like a psychologist, and to do so without gimmicks, I have created a number of innovative features for this textbook that are described below. My second goal is to teach students that psychology is not a mere laundry list of names, dates, and terms, but is a dynamic and evolving process of discovery.Every psychology textbook presents the discipline as a science. Indeed, many authors devote a whole second chapter to research methods. I have taken a more integrated approach. Because research methods are central to psychology's identity and development, this topic is introduced fully and comprehensively in Chapter 1, along with the field itself. In learning about research methods, from the use of case studies to experiments and meta-analysis, students are shown that science is a process that is slow, cumulative, and dynamic. My third goal is to spark in students the hunger, passion, and excitement that psychologists have for their work.Toward this end, I have tried to write a book that is not only readable, but also warm, personal, interactive, contemporary, relevant, and newsy. I have not ducked the hot and sticky issues. The ethics of animal research, the nature and nurture of homosexuality, and the recovery of repressed childhood memories are just a few of the current controversies that I have confronted head-on by reviewing available research. I have also made it a point to illustrate the principles of psychology with vivid events from the worlds of sports, entertainment, literature, politics, law, and world events. I never, ever, resort to "John and Mary in the dorm" hypotheticals to illustrate a point. The examples I use thus reflect my conviction that students, like the rest of us, have a deep and vested interest in a world that extends past the borders of the college campus. ORGANIZATION OF THIS BOOK Take a peek at the Table of Contents, and you'll see that this textbook contains eighteen independent chapters, from the introduction to psychology and its methods through the various areas of neuroscience, cognitive, developmental, social, and clinical psychology to an integrative capstone chapter on health and well-being. Like its predecessors, this edition offers a broad, balanced, and mainstream look at psychology today. Thus, I have filled the pages with detailed descriptions of classic studies from psychology's historical warehouse and with new research findings, some hot off the presses, that address current issues. There are four aspects of this book's organizational structure that I want to spotlight for instructors. COVERAGE OF RESEARCH METHODS Many introductory textbooks separate the introduction of psychology from its methods of inquiry, often presented in a parenthetical second chapter. I have taken a more integrated approach that presents psychology's research methods as part and parcel of its history, development, and current identity as a science. All the material you'd expect to find in a chapter on research methods aKassin, Saul M. is the author of 'Psychology', published 2003 under ISBN 9780130496416 and ISBN 0130496413.