Psychology is less a set of findings than a way of asking and answering such questions. Over the years, this process of asking and answering questions about behavior and the mind has nowhere been better displayed than in the pages of Scientific American and its sister magazine, Scientific American: Mind. In this collection from their recent issues, leading scientists- "Magellans of the mind" -show us how they explore and map the mind.
In addition to hundreds of research updates, and many fun new photos and cartoons, David Myers has made the following, more significant content changes in this new Ninth Edition.
Prologue The Story of Psychology
• New introduction draws students into the field.
• “Cognitive neuroscience” and “behaviorism” are now key terms.
• New cross-cultural data updates the discussion of psychologys worldwide expansion.
• “SQ3R study method” is now a key term.
Chapter 1 Thinking Critically With Psychological Science
• New current events update the introduction.
• “Naturalistic Observation” section includes new research examples, with two new photos.
• New examples clarify the important concept of “operational definitions.”
• Now includes a clearer discussion of the limitations of naturalistic observation.
• Experimental ethics discussion expanded.
Chapter 2 The Biology of Mind
• New chapter title reflects greater emphasis on our dual processing.
• Introduction now makes clearer the key themes of this chapter: integration, localized brain functions, electrochemical communication, complexity, and adaptability.
• New research suggests the role of myelin development in the growth of personal self-control and judgment.
• “Reuptake” is now a key term.
• New research, with new figure, suggests some level of consciousness in a noncommunicative patient.
• New example helps explain neural networks more clearly.
• “Neural Prosthetics” section updated with new research example, with new photos.
• New research updates our understanding of success rates for hemispherectomies in children.
Chapter 3 Consciousness and the Two-Track Mind
• Now contains an extensive new discussion of dual processing, as reflected in the new title and new placement directly following the neuroscience chapter, supported by cognitive neuroscience and other new research, with two new figures. New key terms include cognitive neuroscience, dual processing, and change blindness.
• Includes updated discussion of suprachiasmatic nucleus with new figure.
• New cross-cultural research updates average sleep times.
• New research relates sleep deprivation to unwanted weight gain, and also provides data on high school students sleepiness.
• “Sleep Theories” section updated with new data on animal sleep, inspirational dreams, the role in memory of scent exposure during deep sleep, and the benefits of sleep in general on memory and learning.
• “What We Dream” section updated with new dream content research.
• New medical research updates discussion of hypnosis for pain relief.
• New neuroscience research supports discussion of hypnosis as divided consciousness.
• “Dependence and Addiction” section enhanced with new neuroscience research and new prevalence data.
• New research analyses explore links between drinking and risky sex, and between drinking and emotional pain.
• New neuroscience research suggests an explanation for males higher rate of amphetamine addiction.
• Expanded methamphetamine discussion now has its own subsection.
• Discussion of caffeine expanded into its own new subsection.
• New research highlights the value of cluster quitting for smokers.
• New cross-cultural table compares alcohol consumption.
Chapter 4 Nature, Nurture, and Human Diversity
• Now emphasizes the concept that genes may or may not be “expressed” (active).
• Now includes an explanation of the concept of single versus dual placentas in identical twins, along with new research revealing that identical twins do not always have the same number of copies of their identical genes, thus varying their predispositions.
• Includes new neuroscience research related to temperament.
• New research guides a revised presentation of natural selection.
• New evolutionary psychology research illuminates the discussion of mating preferences.
• New research examples and ideas enhance the discussion of “Culture and the Self.”
• Includes new gender-based research on social networking sites and work motivation.
• New research, with new figure, demonstrates gender similarities.
• New gender research sheds light on aggression and power issues.
• “Gender and Social Connectedness” section enhanced with new global research and ideas.
• New research, with new figure, illustrates increasing numbers of women earning advanced degrees.
• New cross-cultural research updates gender equity discussion.
• New research and ideas update “Reflections on Nature and Nurture” discussion.
Chapter 5 Developing Through the Life Span
• New data updates discussion of back-to-sleep program and SIDS.
• Includes new research suggesting that pregnant womens drinking primes their children for greater risk later of heavy drinking and alcohol dependence.
• New research on discriminating possible from impossible objects, with new figure, supports discussion of infants cognitive competence.
• Fun new “try-this” style activity illustrates new research linking power and sensitivity to others.
• Autism discussion recast based on new research. Includes new coverage of “transporters” experiment success in “systemizing empathy,” with new illustrations.
• New coverage of Vygotsky enhances discussion of cognitive development.
• Includes new research that extends long-term effects of attachment styles.
• New primate research supports the abuse-breeds-abuse phenomenon.
• New, cross-cultural research results support importance of adult monitoring of young children.
• Includes new photo example of self-aware animals research.
• New cross-cultural research on self-esteem demonstrates resiliency of adopted children.
• New research updates parenting styles discussion.
• New research suggests link between stress and early menarche.
• Teen risk assessment updated with new research.
• “Emerging adulthood” is now a key term.
• New research updates discussion of aging and sexuality.
• Now includes evolutionary psychology explanation of menopause, with new research.
• Discussion of physical changes now includes “telomeres” (protective chromosome tips that wear down with age) and the effects of smoking, obesity, and stress on aging.
• “Sensory Abilities” section now includes new research on pitches only teens can hear.
• Includes new neuroscience research on the effects of atrophying frontal lobes later in life, the benefits of exercising, and Alzheimers.
• New research suggesting lessened effects of negative emotions later in life updates discussion of “Age and Life Satisfaction.”
• Now includes discussion of the “terminal decline.”
• New research updates discussion of death and dying, including the concept of “death deferral” with a new figure.
• New figure compares the stage theories of Kohlberg, Erikson, and Piaget.
Chapter 6 Sensation and Perception
• A new story of prosopagnosia opens the chapter, and is used later in the chapter as an illustration of new neuroscience research on our face perception.
• New research discusses how absolute threshold varies with age.
• “Signal detection” section updated with new research from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
• New research updates discussion of subliminal stimulation.
• New figure demonstrates how our eyes jump around as we view an image.
• New neuroscience research updates parallel processing discussion.
• New gender research enhances discussion of noise exposure differences.
• New research enhances discussion of hearing loss challenges.
• New research supports sensory compensation.
• New research examples enhance discussion of “Touch.”
• Pain discussion now includes “nociceptors” with new figure, new genetic research results, and new research results supporting the placebo effect.
• New table outlines “Survival Functions of Basic Tastes,” and new research demonstrates importance of taste and of taste expectations.
• New research enhances discussion of emotional associations with smells.
• New research examples enhance discussion of sensory adaptation.
• “Context Effects” discussion revised with new research examples, two new figures, and a new photo example.
• New examples, with photos, of “good designs” update “Human Factors” discussion.
Chapter 7 Learning
• Includes new research suggesting that learned associations feed our habitual behaviors.
• New research updates discussion of cognitive effects on conditioning likes and dislikes.
• Includes new evolutionary psychology research, with a new figure, suggesting why men so easily learn an association between the color red and romance.
• “Primary and Conditioned Reinforcers” section updated with new research on the money-hunger link.
• Provides new coverage of “higher order conditioning,” which is a key term.
• New comparison table provides applications to help students understand the schedules of reinforcement.
• “Punishment” section updated with new research linking “sureness and swiftness” to effective criminal punishment.
• New “Close-Up” box covers “Training our Mates.”
• Discussion of role of mirror neurons and imitation in observational learning has been recast with new research and new examples.
• “Applications of Observational Learning” section includes new research related to work.
Chapter 8 Memory
• New research outlines the strength of even ordinary memory ability.
• Variability of working memory capacity is outlined with new research.
• New research applies memory principles to everyday learning, including the benefits of spacing learning time, repeated quizzing, and meaningful encoding.
• Includes new research explaining differences in short-term memory for signed words versus spoken words.
• New research examples and ideas enhance discussion of memorys synaptic changes.
• “Stress Hormones and Memory” discussion now includes evolutionary psychology explanation.
• New research explains function of a memory-blunting drug.
• New neuroscience and other research updates discussion of implicit and explicit memories.
• Discussion of retrieval cues updated with new research related to priming and déja vu.
• Includes new research examples and photo highlighting the value of not remembering everything.
• Includes new research demonstrating the value of avoiding interference in learning.
• New research story enlivens discussion of “Motivated Forgetting.”
• New research, quotes, and stories enhance discussion of “Memory Construction.”
• Sleep is now promoted as an important variable for memory improvement.
Chapter 9 Thinking and Language
• Dramatic new examples illustrate the idea that emotion-laden images can make ideas more fearfully memorable.
• Includes new research shedding light on how our brains process concrete nouns.
• Includes new research examples of impressive animal thinking, and chimpanzees ability to read intent.
• New research examples and a new figure enhance discussion of risk assessment and emotional reasoning.
• Intuition discussion enhanced with new research and new ideas.
• New research expands and clarifies language development discussion; includes mention of a “universal moral grammar” and new neuroscience research on division of language functions in the brain.
• New cross-cultural research introduces the idea of a personality change as people shift between the different languages they speak.
• New research examples, with a new figure, enhance discussion of animal thinking and language.
Chapter 10 Intelligence
• Includes new research supporting the idea that different abilities interact and feed one another.
• New research example provides window into the world of a savant, with new photo.
• Discussion of Sternbergs theories enhanced with new research to include his new measures of creativity and practical thinking.
• Includes new research studies underscoring the need to provide the right environment for creativity to occur, and suggesting that exposure to different cultures fosters creativity.
• “Emotional Intelligence” discussion revised with new research, and new applications to work settings.
• Includes new neuroscience studies expanding our understanding of the development of cortex and other brain areas and the link to intelligence levels.
• New cross-cultural research expands discussion of the genetic basis of intelligence.
• Includes new research examples, with new illustrations, demonstrating the connection between intelligence and longevity, and between intelligence and income.
• Includes new historical coverage of Galtons studies of “natural abilities.”
• New research extends discussion of the high extreme of intelligence.
• Includes new research suggestingenduring cognitive benefits from music training.
• “Environmental Influences” section enhanced with new research supporting the importance of a “growth mindset” in intelligence development.
• New cross-cultural and gender-based research studies, with two new figures, enhance discussion of cultural, ethnic, and gender similarities and differences in intelligence; includes update on “stereotype threat.”
Chapter 11 Motivation and Work
• Now includes “self-transcendence needs” in Maslows hierarchy.
• Includes new discussion of how activated motives can hijack our consciousness, with new research.
• Discussion of “appetite hormones” expanded with new research to include ghrelin and obestatin.
• New section—“The Ecology of Eating”—discussing how the situation affects our eating, including the effects of social facilitation and portion size.
• Eating Disorders section now includes “binge eating disorders” concept, along with new research on prevalence and genetic factors.
• Includes new research analyzing successful eating disorder prevention programs.
• New global statistics update the obesity prevalence data.
• Includes new research suggesting a connection between obesity and mental health, and obesity and social perception.
• Includes new research updates discussion of genetic factors in obesity.
• Now includes discussion of key environmental factors influencing obesity rates: sleep loss, social influence, and cultural effects on the changing food consumption and activity levels.
• Now includes coverage of the new World Health Organizations anti-obesity charter to help reverse the environmental factors that have led to worldwide obesity, and other new cross-cultural obesity-reduction programs.
• New research enhances discussion of hormones, genetics, and sexual behavior.
• New research updates and enhances Adolescent Sexuality discussion.
• “Sexually Transmitted Infections” section updated with new research.
• “Sexual Orientation” section updated and enhanced with new cross-cultural and other research on acceptance, mental health and orientation, bisexual arousal response, gender differences in arousal, same-sex civil unions, and biological influences on orientation (with two new figures).
• “The Need to Belong” section now outlines three basic psychological needs: relatedness, autonomy, and competence, with new research.
• Includes new research updating ostracism discussion and includes data on social networking.
• New research supports the benefits of employee satisfaction and engagement.
• “Leadership Style” discussion enhanced with new gender-based research.
Chapter 12 Emotions, Stress, and Health
• Includes new neuroscience research supporting our sensitivity for detecting emotionally-significant information.
• “Cognition and Emotion” section now includes a new discussion, with new research, of the way our two-track mind (automatic emotion plus conscious thinking) creates our emotional experience.
• Includes new research supporting our remarkable ability to recognize distinct emotions quickly.
• Includes new research by Bond and DePaulo that suggests no one detects lies very well—not even trained detectors.
• “Cognition and Emotion” section updated with new research on the stronger effects of liking a candidate emotionally versus agreeing with his/her positions.
• “Gender and Emotion” discussion now includes new research, with a new “try this” style figure about anger and its perception as masculine.
• “Culture and Emotional Expression” section enhanced with new research on the display of personal emotions in Chinese and Japanese cultures.
• Includes new research expanding the discussion of “The Effects of Facial Expressions” into the realm of racial bias (implicit attitude test). Also now discusses our natural mimicry and emotional contagion, and how that affects our ability to recognize emotions.
• Includes new research illustrating the physiological adaptiveness of fear.
• “Happiness” discussion now includes a balance of the benefits of happiness (including greater career and marriage success) as well as the contributions from those not extremely happy with how things are (social reforms, great literature), with new research.
• “Wealth and Well-Being” section now includes new research into the “diminishing returns” phenomenon (more income does not produce greater happiness) and the idea that more happiness may produce greater incomes/success (rather than the other way around).
• “The Short Life of Strong Emotions” section is now highlighted with a new research story and figure.
• Includes new research suggesting that relationship quality may be as important to happiness levels as heredity.
• Includes new research demonstrating the value of stable marriages in stress-reduction while facing threats.
• “Stress,” “stressor,” and “stress reaction” are now distinguished with a memorable new story of Bens wild wheelchair ride (stuck to the grill of a truck for miles after crossing the road).
• “The Stress Response System” section now includes a discussion of Taylors work on mens and womens differing responses to stress, and the effects of oxytocin.
• “Stressful Life Events” section now includes Hurricane Katrinas effect on suicide rates and more research on daily hassles and frustrations.
• Now includes new cross-cultural research on the effects of life satisfaction on hypertension, with illustrative figure.
• Includes a new discussion of how stress, inflammation, depression, and heart disease all interact dangerously; with new figure.
• Includes new research suggesting that marital conflict negatively affects immune system functioning.
• Includes additional new research supporting the consistency and magnitude of the optimism and positive emotions factors in health, and the reality that poverty and diminished control cause increased stress among adults and children.
• Includes new research on the effects of regular exercise to reduce risk of dementia and Alzheimers disease, and to treat mild depression.
• Includes new research suggesting that increased depression rates may be linked to todays more sedentary lifestyles.
Chapter 13 Personality
• Now includes discussion of the defense mechanism “denial,” which is a key term.
• New research results enhance the Rorschach inkblot discussion.
• Includes additional new research, with global data, that questions the validity of the concept of “repression.”
• Maslow discussion now includes “self-transcendence” as well as “self-actualization.”
• New research story highlights Rogers “unconditional positive regard.”
• New research in the Myers-Briggs discussion now clarifies that this is mostly a counseling and coaching tool, not a research instrument.
• Includes new research highlighting personality-related brain differences.
• Includes new, global research supporting the strength of the “big five” personality factors.
• Includes new research highlighting the predictive nature of personality traits for mortality, divorce, and work success.
• Includes new research that supports the predictive value of rating personality based on emails and conversational word choice.
• New research expands discussion of what depletes and what strengthens personal control, and why it matters.
• Includes new research explaining the value of optimism in successful relationships.
• Includes new discussion of “Blindness to Ones Own Incompetence.”
• Added emphasis on the self in the field is reflected by increased emphasis here, with “the self” as a key term.
• “Self-Esteem” discussion enhanced with new research related to benefits as well as concerns, including increased narcissism.
Chapter 14 Psychological Disorders
• ADHD discussion updated with brain imaging research suggesting delayed brain maturation.
• Classifying Psychological Disorders section now includes data on increased diagnoses in children.
• Includes new research suggesting that mental disorders seldom lead to violence.
• Includes new research linking anxiety to poorer quality of life and less happiness.
• Includes new research on age-related development and anxiety disorders.
• Includes new evolutionary psychology research on phobias.
• New opening example, new research data, and new photo from the Iraq War structure the revised Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) section, which also includes a new key term—“post-traumatic growth”—and a discussion of Staubs “altruism born of suffering.”
• New research enhances discussion of genetic factors in PTSD and other anxiety disorders.
• Now includes a page-long discussion of the somatoform disorders, including conversion disorder and hypochondriasis.
• Includes new research suggesting that brain area changes occur with different identities for those with dissociative identity disorder.
• Discussion of personality disorders now includes the histrionic and narcissistic disorders, and the expressed need for the next DSM to define the categories more sharply.
• Includes ew research explaining link between genes for antisocial disorder risk and drug and alcohol dependence risk.
• New research enhances discussion of prevalence rates of depression among college students and among those suffering a significant loss as well as many stressors.
• New research expands the discussion of bipolar disorder to include diagnoses among adolescents experiencing prolonged mood swings, and simulated mania in the lab.
• Includes additional new research that supports genetic factors in major depression, and the gene variations that may predict effective drug therapy.
• New research expands the discussion of depression to include simulated depression in the lab, updated statistics on suicide, the correlation between body type and suicide rate, new data on social suggestions and barriers effects on suicide, the effects of close relationships and mental health, and gender-depression links.
• Includes new research on schizophrenia risk factors related to body type and infant nutrition.
• New research updates discussion of prevalence of disorders in various countries.
Chapter 15 Therapy
• “Psychodynamic therapy” receives additional emphasis as a new key term.
• “Unconditional positive regard” is now a key term.
• Includes new emphasis on the concept of “insight therapies,” which is now a key term.
• Virtual reality therapy discussion extended with new research on creating avatars.
• Includes more new research supporting the efficacy of cognitive-behavior therapy.
• New research updates the coverage of group and family therapies.
• New table compares the major psychotherapies based on assumed problem, therapy aims, and methods.
• “The Relative Effectiveness of Different Therapies” section now warns of therapies with little or no research support (energy therapies, recovered memory therapies, rebirthing therapies, social facilitation, and crisis debriefing).
• Includes new discussion of “evidence-based practice,” which is a key term, with a new figure demonstrating “evidence-based clinical decision making.”
• Discussion of light therapy for seasonal affective disorder (SAD) now suggests an evolutionary psychology explanation of SAD, and includes new research support.
• “Antipsychotic Drugs” section includes two new key terms—“antipsychotic” and “tardive dyskinesia”—and new research support for a new drug that stimulates receptors for glutamate.
• “Antianxiety Drugs” section now covers D-cycloserine, with new research support.
• Many research updates enhance the discussion of antidepressants, including more support for the power of placebos; the hopes for genetic screening that may help therapists prescribe the most effective, individualized treatments; and support for the idea that fewer patients (including adolescents) attempt suicides if treated with antidepressants.
• Kay Redfield-Jamison and her own treatment for bipolar disorder provides a powerful new example for the mood-stabilizing medication discussion.
• New neuroscience and other research expands discussion of brain stimulation to provide additional research support for ECT as well as coverage of “deep brain stimulation.”
• New section on “Therapeutic Lifestyle Change” provides research support for the mental health benefits of engaging in a healthier life style (more sleep, exercise, socializing, and light; better nutrition; less rumination).
Chapter 16 Social Psychology
• New chapter introduction highlights current events.
• Includes new research examples and a new current events photo highlighting actor and observer perspectives in attribution.
• Includes a new discussion of “central route” and “peripheral route” persuasion, with current event examples and new research.
• New research enhances the discussion of role-playing to emphasize the power of the individual in each situation.
• Includes new research examples enhancing the discussion of automatic mimicry and empathy in social relations.
• “Reasons for Conforming” section now offers new research related to college student populations and cultural backgrounds.
• Additional new research updates the Milgram discussion.
• Group Polarization section updated with new research related to current world issues, including global climate change and terrorism.
• Increased acceptance for interracial contact supported with new research and accompanying figure, yet balanced by new research examples of overt prejudice.
• New research examples, with a new figure, enhance discussion of automatic (implicit) prejudice.
• Discussion of ingroup/outgroup enhanced with new research and an emphasis on the weird way our animosities form around smaller rather than larger differences.
• “Other-race effect” is now a key term and a new, cross-cultural discussion within the “Categorization” section.
• New research enhances the discussion of biochemical influences on aggression.
• Frustration-aggression principle discussion is enhanced with new research examples (baseball and suicide bombers).
• New research updates the discussion of media models (internet, TV, music, video games) of sexual aggression, and their detrimental effects.
• “Mirror-image perceptions” is now a key term within the “Enemy Perceptions” section, with new research highlighting the way this phenomenon can lead to greater conflict.
• “Mere Exposure Effect” section now includes a figure representing new research on voter tendencies.
• Includes new Close-Up box— “Online Matchmaking and Speed Dating.”
• New research examples support the strength of similarity in attraction.
• “Companionate Love” discussion enhanced with new research on the importance of equity, and the value of writing our feelings.
• Includes new photo and research examples highlighting the problems that result from imbalanced population sex ratios, such as more males in China as a result of the one-child policy.
• Neuroscience research updates the discussion of altruism, with new current events example.
• Global research updates discussion of the importance of contact in resolving conflicts.
Appendix A Careers in Psychology, by Jennifer Zwolinski
• Includes expanded discussion of what graduates with a B.A. in Psychology may do, and the general benefits of a psychology degree.
• Includes expanded discussion of tips for getting a job after graduation.
Appendix B Answers to Test Yourself Questions