Psychology: A Framework for Everyday Thinking

Guiding students from understanding to application, Psychology: A Framework for Everyday Thinking provides an accessible and personalized framework upon which they can build their knowledge and use of the science of psychology.

This 14 chapter text teaches students how to critically evaluate psychological claims that they experience in everyday life through the use of the six flags of scientific thinking. Students are then given the opportunity to apply their critical thinking skills to a variety of real world situations with the “What Do YOU Think?,” “MythConceptions,” and “Factoids” and “Fictoids” features. Students have ample opportunity to assess their knowledge of the chapter content. Each major section concludes with a Quiz that includes both true/false questions and a MyPsychLab resource with accompanying question. The end-of-chapter study guide (“Your Complete Review System”) contains section summaries and comprehensive tests of the chapter content, visual program, and MyPsychLab resources, all of which is tied to the numbered learning objectives. It also contains a summary of the scientific thinking skills introduced in the chapter and offers two critical-thinking essay questions for students to answer. Numbered learning objectives, which are called out in the narrative and in the end-of-chapter review material, help highlight key concepts and topics for students.  

-0205650481: Psychology: A Framework for Everyday Thinking

-0205627358: MyPsychLab Pegasus with Pearson eText

Psychology: A Framework for Everyday Thinking provides an accessible and personalized framework that students need to go from understanding to the application of the science of Psychology.

This brief edition text (14 chapters) teaches students how to critically evaluate psychological claims that they experience in everyday life and to apply the science of psychology to the world around them.

Scott O. Lilienfeld received his B.A. in Psychology from Cornell University in 1982 and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Minnesota in 1990. He completed his clinical internship at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1986-1987. He was assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at SUNY Albany from 1990-1994, and now is Professor of Psychology at Emory University. He recently was appointed a Fellow of the Association of Psychological Science, and was the recipient of the 1998 David Shakow Award from Division 12 (Clinical Psychology) of the American Psychological Association for Early Career Contributions to Clinical Psychology. Dr. Lilienfeld is a past president of the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology within Division 12. He is the founder and editor of the Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice, Associate Editor of Applied and Preventive Psychology, and a regular columnist for Scientific American Mind magazine.  He has authored or co-authored six books and over 200 journal articles and chapters. Dr. Lilienfeld has also been a participant in Emory University's "Great Teachers" lecturer series, as well as the Distinguished Speaker for the Psi Chi Honor Society at the American Psychological Association and Midwestern Psychological Association conventions.

Steven Jay Lynn received his B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan, and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Indiana University. He completed an NIMH Postdoctoral Fellowship at Lafayette Clinic, Detroit Michigan in 1976, and is now Professor of Psychology at Binghamton University (SUNY), where he is the director of the Psychological Clinic. Dr. Lynn is a Fellow of numerous professional organizations, including the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society, and he was the recipient of the Chancellor's Award of the State University of New York for Scholarship and Creative Activities. Dr. Lynn has authored or edited 17 books, and authored more than 230 journal articles and chapters. Dr. Lynn has served as the editor of a book series for the American Psychological Association, and he has served on 11 editorial boards, including the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Dr. Lynn’s research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health and the Ohio Department of Mental Health.

Laura L. Namy received her B. A. in Philosophy and Psychology from Indiana University in 1993 and her doctorate in Cognitive Psychology at Northwestern University in 1998. She is now Associate Professor of Psychology and Core Faculty in Linguistics at Emory University. Dr. Namy is the editor of the Journal of Cognition and Development and serves as the treasurer of the Cognitive Development Society.  At Emory, she is Director of the joint major in psychology and linguistics, Director of the Emory Child Study Center, and Associate Director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture. Her research focuses on the origins and development of verbal and non-verbal symbol use in young children, sound symbolism in natural language, and the role of comparison in conceptual development.

Nancy J. Woolf received her B.S. in Psychobiology at UCLA in 1978 and her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at UCLA School of Medicine in 1983. She is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at UCLA. Her specialization is behavioral neuroscience and her research spans the organization of acetylcholine systems, neural plasticity, memory, neural degeneration, Alzheimer’s disease, and consciousness. In 1990 she won the Colby Prize from the Sigma Kappa Foundation, awarded for her achievements in scientific research in Alzheimer’s disease. In 2002 she received the Academic Advancement Program Faculty Recognition Award. She also received a Distinguished Teaching Award from the Psychology Department at UCLA in 2008. Dr. Woolf is currently on the editorial boards of Science and Consciousness Review and Nanoneuroscience.

 Brief Table of Contents:

Full Table of Contents:

Ch. 1:  Psychology and Scientific Thinking

What is Psychology? Common versus Uncommon Sense

            Psychology and Levels of Explanation

            Psychology: A Nasty Little Subject

            Naïve Realism: Seeing is Believing, Or Is It?

            When Our Common Sense is Right

            The Amazing Growth of Popular Psychology

            Psychology as a Science

Critical Thinking: Sorting the Wheat from the Chaff

            Scientific Skepticism

            Basic Principles of Critical Thinking

Psychological Pseudoscience: Imposters of Science

            What is Pseudoscience?

            Metaphysical Claims: The Boundaries of Science

            Warning Signs of Pseudoscience

            Why Are We Drawn to Pseudoscience?

            The Dangers of Pseudoscience: Why Should We Care?

Psychology’s Past and Present: What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been

            The Great Theoretical   Frameworks of Psychology

            The Multifaceted World of Modern Psychology

            The Great Debates of Psychology

             What Makes Psychology Challenging—and Fascinating

Ch. 2: Research Methods

The Beauty and Necessity of Good Research Design

Why We Need Research Designs

Heuristics and Biases: How We Can Be Fooled

The Scientific Method: Toolbox of Skills

Naturalistic Observation: Studying Humans “In the Wild”

Case Study Designs: Getting to Know You

Correlational Designs

Experimental Designs

Asking People about Themselves and Others

Ethical Issues in Research Design

Ethical Guidelines for Human Research

Ethical Issues in Animal Research

Statistics: The Currency of Psychological Research

Descriptive Statistics: What’s What?

Dispersion: How the Data Scatter

Inferential Statistics: Testing Hypotheses

How People Lie with Statistics

Becoming a Peer Reviewer of Psychological Research

Trying Your Hand at Peer Review

Most Reporters Aren’t Scientists: Evaluating Psychology in the Media

Ch. 3: Biological Psychology

Nerve Cells: Communication Portals

Neurons: The Brain’s Communicators

Glial Cells: Supporting Roles

Chemical Communication: Neurotransmission

Electrifying Thought

Neural Plasticity: How and When the Brain Changes

Neural Plasticity Following Injury and Degeneration

The Brain–Behavior Network

CNS: The Command Center

The Limbic System

The Brain Stem

The Cerebral Ventricles

The Somatic Nervous System

The Autonomic Nervous System

The Endocrine System

Mapping the Mind: The Brain in Action

A Tour of Brain-Mapping Methods

How Much of Our Brain Do We Use?

Which Parts of Our Brain Do We Use for What?

Which Side of Our Brain Do We Use for What?

Nature and Nurture: Did Your Genes—Or Parents—Make You Do It?

How We Came to Be Who We Are

Behavioral Genetics: How We Study Heritability

Ch. 4: Sensation and Perception

Two Sides of the Coin: Sensation and Perception

Sensation: Our Senses as Detectives

Perception: When Our Senses Meet Our Minds

Subliminal Information Processing

Extrasensory Perception (ESP): Fact or Fiction?

Seeing: The Visual System

Light: The Energy of Life

The Eye: How We Represent the Visual Realm

Visual Perception

Hearing: The Auditory System

Sound: Mechanical Vibration

How the Ear Works

Auditory Perception

Smell, Taste, and Touch: The Sensual Senses

Taste and Smell Go Hand-in-Hand

Olfactory and Gustatory Perception

The Somatosensory System: Touch and Pain

Proprioception and Vestibular Sense: Body Position and Balance

Alterations in Sensation and Perception

Hallucinations: Experiencing What Isn’t There

Out-of-Body Experiences

Near-Death Experiences

Déjà Vu Experiences

Hypnosis

Ch. 5: Learning

Classical Conditioning

Pavlov’s Discoveries

The Classical Conditioning Phenomenon

Aversive Conditioning

Adaptive Value of Classical Conditioning

Acquisition, Extinction, and Spontaneous Recovery

Stimulus Generalization and Discrimination

Higher-Order Conditioning

Applications of Classical Conditioning to Daily Life

Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning: What It Is and How It Differs from Classical Conditioning

The Law of Effect

B.F. Skinner and Reinforcement

Terminology of Operant Conditioning

Principles of Reinforcement

Applications of Operant Conditioning

Two-Process Theory: Putting Classical and Operant Conditioning Together

Cognitive Models of Learning

Watson, Skinner, and Thinking

S-O-R Psychology: Throwing Thinking Back into the Mix

Latent Learning

Observational Learning

Biological Influences on Learning

Conditioned Taste Aversions

Preparedness and Phobias

Instinctive Drift

Learning Fads: Do They Work?

Sleep-Assisted Learning

Discovery Learning

Learning Styles

Ch. 6: Memory

How Memory Operates: The Memory Assembly Line

The Paradox of Memory

The Fallibility of Memory

The Reconstructive Nature of Memory

The Three Systems of Memory

Differences Between Long-Term and Short-Term Memory

Primacy and Recency Effects: Forgetting Isn’t Random

Types of Long-Term Memory: Different Flavors or Different Meals?

The Three Stages of Remembering

Encoding: The “Call Numbers” of the Mind

Storage: Filing our Memories Away

Retrieval: Heading for the “Stacks”

The Biology of Memory

The Neural Basis of Memory Storage

Where Is Memory Stored?

The Biology of Memory Deterioration

The Development of Memory: Acquiring a Personal History

Memory over Time

Infants’ Implicit Memory: Talking with Their Feet

Infantile Amnesia

Suggestibility and Child Testimony

When Good Memory Goes Bad: False Memories

False Memories

The Seven Sins of Memory

Ch. 7: Language, Thinking, and Intelligence

How Does Language Work?

The Features of Language

How Do Children Learn Language?

Special Cases of Language Learning

Nonhuman Animal Communication

Do We Think in Words? The Relation between Language and Thought

Thinking and Reasoning

Cognitive Economy—Imposing Order on Our World

The Risks of Economizing: You Get What You Pay For

Problem Solving: More Thinking Hurdles

The Scientific Method Doesn’t Come Naturally

What Is Intelligence? Definitional Confusion

Definitions of Intelligence 

The Rest of the Story: Other Dimensions of Intellect

Biological Bases of Intelligence

Intelligence Testing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Two More Controversial Letters: IQ

The Eugenics Movement: Misuses and Abuses of IQ Testing

IQ Testing Today

Reliability of IQ Scores: Is IQ Forever?

Validity of IQ Scores: Predicting Life Outcomes

A Tale of Two Tails: From Mental Retardation to Genius

Genius and Exceptional Intelligence

Individual and Group Differences in IQ

Exploring Genetic and Environmental Influences on IQ

Poverty and IQ: Socioeconomic and Nutritional Deprivation

Getting Smarter All the Time: The Mysterious Flynn Effect

Group Differences in IQ: The Science and the Politics

Ch. 8: Human Development

Special Considerations in Human Development

Bidirectional Influences

Keeping an Eye on Cohort Effects

The Influence of Early Experience

Distinguishing Nature from Nurture

The Developing Body before and after Birth: Physical and Motor Development

Conception and Prenatal Development: From Zygote to Baby  

Infant Motor Development: How Babies Get Going

Cognitive Development: Children’s Learning about the World

Piaget: How Children Construct Their Worlds

Vygotsky: Social and Cultural Influences on Learning

Contemporary Theories of Cognitive Development

Social and Moral Development: Children’s Relations with Others

Stranger Anxiety: The Sudden Change at 8 Months

Attachment: Establishing Bonds

Temperament and Social Development: Our Emotional Endowment

Gender Identity

Development Doesn’t Stop: Changes in Adolescence and Adulthood

Adolescence: A Time of Dramatic Change

The Ups and Downs of Adulthood

Who Is Old? Differing Concepts of Old Age

Ch. 9: Emotion and Motivation

Theories of Emotion: What Causes Our Feelings?

Discrete Emotions Theory: Emotions as Evolved Expressions

Cognitive Theories of Emotion: Think First, Feel Later

Unconscious Influences on Emotion

Emotional Expression through Body Language

Happiness and Self-Esteem: Science Confronts Pop Psychology

Positive Psychology: Psychology’s Future or Psychology’s Fad?

What Happiness Is Good For

 What Makes Us Happy: The Myths

What Makes Us Happy: The Realities

Forecasting Happiness

Self-Esteem: Important or Overhyped?

Motivation: Our Wants and Needs

Motivation: A Beginner’s Guide

Positive Motivation

Our Needs: Physical and Psychological Urges

Hunger, Eating, and Eating Disorders

Sexual Motivation

Attraction, Love, and Hate: The Greatest Mysteries of Them All

Social Influences on Interpersonal Attraction

Love: Science Confronts the Mysterious

Hate: A Neglected Topic

Ch. 10: Stress, Health, and Bodily Rhythms

What Is Stress?

Stress in the Eye of the Beholder: Three Approaches

No Two Stresses Are Created Equal: Measuring Stress

How We Adapt to Stress: Change and Challenge

The Diversity of Stress Responses

The Brain–Body Reaction to Stress

The Immune System

Stress-Related Illnesses: A Biopsychosocial View

Coping with Stress

Social Support

Gaining Control

Individual Differences in Coping: Attitudes, Beliefs, and Personality

Promoting Good Health—and Less Stress!

Drug Use and Abuse

Substance Abuse and Dependence

Types of Drugs

Changing Lifestyles Is Easier Said than Done

Strategies for Positive Change

Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine

Alternative and Complementary Medicine

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

The Circadian Rhythm: The Cycle of Everyday Life

Stages of Sleep and Dreaming

Theories and Psychology of Dreams

Neurocognitive Perspectives on Dreaming: Information Processing and Development

What’s the Function of Dreams?

Disorders of Sleep

Ch. 11: Social Psychology

What Is Social Psychology?

Humans as a Social Species

 The Great Lesson of Social Psychology

Social Comparison: Person See, Person Do

Social Influence: Conformity and Obedience

Conformity: The Asch Paradigm

Deindividuation: Losing Our Typical Identities

Groupthink

Groupthink in the Real World

Treatments for Groupthink

Group Polarization: Going to Extremes

Cults and Brainwashing

Cults: Common Misconceptions

Obedience: The Psychology of Following Orders

Helping and Harming Others: Prosocial Behavior and Aggression

Safety in Numbers or Danger in Numbers? Bystander Nonintervention

 Social Loafing: With a Little Too Much Help from My Friends

Prosocial Behavior and Altruism

Aggression: Why We Hurt Others

Attitudes and Persuasion: Changing Minds

Attitudes and Behavior

Origins of Attitudes

Cognitive Dissonance and Attitude Change

Persuasion: Humans as Salespeople

Prejudice and Discrimination

The Nature of Prejudice

Discrimination

Stereotypes

Stereotypes Behind the Scenes

Ultimate Attribution Error

Roots of Prejudice: A Tangled Web

Combating Prejudice: Some Remedies

Ch. 12: Personality

Personality: What Is It and How Can We Study It?

Researching the Causes of Personality: Overview of Twin and Adoption Studies

Reared-Together Twins: Genes or Environment?

Reared- Apart Twins: Shining a Spotlight on Genes

Adoption Studies: Further Separating Genes and Environment

Behavior-Genetic Studies: A Note of Caution

Psychoanalytic Theory: The Controversial Legacy of Sigmund Freud and His Followers

Core Assumptions of Psychoanalytic Theory

The Three Agencies of the Human Psyche

Anxiety and the Defense Mechanisms

Freud’s Theory of Personality Development

Psychoanalytic Theory Evaluated Critically

1)      Unfalsifiability

2)      Failed Predictions

3)      Questionable Conception of the Unconscious

4)      Reliance on Unrepresentative Samples

Summary

Freud’s Followers: The Neo-Freudians

Behavioral, Social Learning, and Humanistic Theories of Personality

Behavioral Views of the Causes of Personality

Social Learning Theories of Personality: The Causal Role of Thinking Resurrected

Humanistic Models of Personality: The Third Force

Rogers and Maslow: Self-Actualization Realized and Unrealized

Humanistic Models Evaluated Critically

Trait Models of Personality: Consistencies in Our Behavior

Trait Models: Key Challenges

Personality Traits Under Siege: Walter Mischel’s Critique

Models of Personality Structure: The Big Five

Cultural Influences on Personality

Trait Models Evaluated Critically

Personality Assessment: Measuring and Mismeasuring the Psyche

Famous—and Infamous—Errors in Personality Assessment

Structured Personality Tests

Projective Tests

Common Pitfalls in Personality Assessment

Ch. 13: Psychological Disorders

Conceptions of Mental Illness: Yesterday and Today

What Is Mental Illness? A Deceptively Complex Question

Historical Conceptions of Mental Illness: From Demons to Asylums

Psychiatric Diagnosis Across Cultures: Culture-Bound Syndromes

Special Considerations in Psychiatric Classification and Diagnosis

Psychiatric Diagnosis Today: The DSM-IV

Anxiety Disorders: The Many Faces of Worry and Fear

Panic Disorder: Terror That Comes out of the Blue

Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Perpetual Worry

Phobias: Irrational Fears

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: The Enduring Effects of Experiencing Horror

Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder: Trapped in One’s Thoughts

Explanations for Anxiety Disorders: The Roots of Pathological Worry and Fear

Mood Disorders and Suicide

Major Depressive Disorder: Common, But Not the Common Cold

Explanations for Major Depressive Disorder: A Tangled Web

 Bipolar Disorder:When Mood Goes to Extremes

Suicide: Facts and Fictions

Personality and Dissociative Disorders: The Disrupted and Divided Self

Personality Disorders

Dissociative Disordres

Depersonalization Disorder

Dissociative Amnesia

Dissociative Fugue

Dissociative Identity Disorder: Multiple Personalities, Multiple Controversies

The Enigma of Schizophrenia

Symptoms of Schizophrenia: The Shattered Mind

Explanations for Schizophrenia: The Roots of a Shattered Mind

Ch. 14: Psychological and Biological Treatments

Psychotherapy: Patients and Practitioners

Who Seeks and Benefits from Treatment?

Who Practices Psychotherapy?

What Does It Take to Be an Effective Psychotherapist?

Different “Flavors” of Therapy: A Review of Therapeutic Approaches

Insight Therapies: Acquiring Understanding

Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Therapies: Freud’s Legacy

Humanistic-Existential Psychotherapy: Achieving Our Potential

Behavioral Approaches: Changing Maladaptive Actions

The Phases of Behavior Therapy

Systematic Desensitization and Exposure Therapies: Learning Principles in Action

How Desensitization Works: One Step at a Time

Flooding and Virtual Reality Exposure

Exposure: Fringe and Fad Techniques

Modeling in Therapy: Learning by Watching

Operant Procedures: Consequences Count

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies: Learning to Think Differently

The ABCs of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

Other Cognitive-Behavioral Approaches

The Effectiveness of CBT

The Trend toward Eclecticism and Integration

Group and Family Systems Therapies: The More, the Merrier

Group Therapies

Alcoholics Anonymous

Controlled Drinking and Relapse Prevention

Family Therapies: Treating the Dysfunctional Family System

Is Psychotherapy Effective?

The Dodo Bird Verdict: Alive or Extinct?

How Different Groups of People Respond to Psychotherapy

Empirically Supported Treatments

Why Do Ineffective Therapies Appear to Be Helpful? How We Can Be Fooled

Biological Treatments: Drugs, Physical Stimulation, and Surgery

Pharmacotherapy: Targeting Brain Chemistry

Electrical Stimulation: Conceptions and Misconceptions

Psychosurgery: An Absolute Last Resort