Introducing Psychology: Brain, Person, Group (4e)

For introductory psychology courses at two-year and four-year institutions.

This innovative, 13-chapter text examines psychological issues from the levels of the brain, person, and group (social world) to help students actively apply psychology to their lives. Offered in digital format or on-demand custom format.

Through their own research, clinical work, and experiences as teachers, Stephen Kosslyn and Robin Rosenberg have found that exploring psychology from multiple perspectives further enhances learning. Examining psychological concepts from the levels of the brain (biological factors), the person (beliefs, desires, and feelings), and the group (social, cultural, and environmental factors) -- and by considering how events at these levels interact -- helps students organize and integrate topics within and across chapters and actively apply psychology to their lives.

General changes in this edition:

· Each chapter has been extensively rewritten to help students better understand the psychological terms and concepts, and their implications.

· Increased use of numbered and bulleted lists to help students identify the key points of discussion.

Chapter 1:

·   Addition of positive psychology coverage.

·   Additional examples in the discussion of:

        o  confounds

        o  quasi-experimental design

Chapter 2:

·   Expanded discussion of mental processes.

·   Expanded analogy regarding neurons and their role in brain functioning.

·   Many additional examples of and analogies related to neurons, neurotransmitters, brain functioning and genetics throughout the chapter (e.g., the fight-or-flight response; the effects of stress, MEG; “tuning genetic program” and the relationship between genes and environment)

·   Looking at Levels: The Musical Brain revised to include a discussion of musical preferences and stereotypes

·   New table summarizes various techniques used to study brain function

Chapter 3

·   Added general discussion of sensation and perception at the beginning of chapter (before discussing vision)

·   Additional examples of and analogies throughout (e.g., thresholds and absolute thresholds; bias; bias versus sensitivity trade-off; color mixing, and opponent process theory of color vision; perceptual organization, perceptual constancy; static cues; top-down processing; cerebral lateralization; more direct comparisons between vision and hearing; categorical perception)

·   Additional research about telepathy.

 Chapter 4:

·   More extended discussion of associative versus nonassociative learning.

·   More extended discussion of forward conditioning.

·   More discussion of the role of mental processes in classical conditioning.

·   Additional examples of and analogies throughout (e.g., mental imagery and classical conditioning; placebo and classical conditioning; latent learning versus cognitive learning; learning from models)

·   Reworked sections on:

        o  the brain’s role in classical conditioning;

        o  the brain’s role in operant conditioning;

        o  comparing classical and operant conditioning

·   New brief discussion of the dopamine reward system.

·   Extended discussion on exposure treatment.

·   New Looking at Levels on Chemotherapy

·   New paragraph on stimulus-response psychology.

 Chapter 5:

·   Reworked or extended sections on Short Term Memory; implicit versus explicit memory; Priming of Perception or Behavior (intentional forgetting)

·   Added section on Short term memory and Consciousness, prospection.

·   Additional examples of and analogies throughout (e.g., moving information between LTM and STM; dinstinguishing between LTM and STM; depth of processing; breadth of processing;  elaborative encoding; semantic memories; nonassociative learning; knockout mice; recognition; state dependent retrieval, chunking, hierarchical organization )

Chapter 6:

·   Reworked or extended sections on Interlocking Mechanisms (of Language); bilingualism; putting words into thoughts; visual mental imagery and other types of imagery; overview of Concepts; Prototypes; heuristics; IQ sections revised to include WAIS-IV and WISC-IV; Microenvironment;  Selecting the Environment.

·   Additional examples of and analogies throughout (e.g., grammar; syntax; overcoming functional fixedness; inductive reasoning; norming; emotional intelligence.

 Chapter 7:

·   Reworked or extended sections on: empirical support for, problems with, and summaries about the James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, and cognitive theories of emotion; factors associated with happiness; Consequences of Emotional Regulation; drives; needs; Why Does it Taste Good?; Sexual Motivation.

·   Added coverage of updates to Maslow’s theory (in copyediting); the proposed sexual response cycle for women (in contrast to the typical Masters and Johnson sexual response cycle).

·   Additional examples of and analogies throughout (e.g., classical conditioning of fear; mental processes involved in fear; Maslow’s needs.

Chapter 8:

·   Reworked or extended sections on: Freud’s theory of personality, The Power of the Situation; Interactionism; Temperament overview; Genes and Personality.

·   Additional examples of and analogies throughout (e.g., personality traits being on a continuum; interactionism; expectancies; locus of control; social role theory.

Chapter 9:

·   Reworked or extended sections on: stress on the fetus; Concrete Operations Period; Kohlberg’s theory; personality during adulthood.

·   Added coverage of: theories about milestones of language acquisition;  in section on Peer Relationships, information about gad adolescents.

·   Additional examples of and analogies throughout (e.g., teratogens/stress and decreased maternal blood flow; temperament; language development; cultural differences in language learning; infant implicit memory; evaluating Piaget’s theory; quantitative change leading to qualitative change; emotions affect reasoning.

 Chapter 10:

·   Reworked or extended sections on: Overview of stress; Alarm phase; Resistance Phase; Perceived Control; How Stress Affects the Heart; Hostility and Heart Disease; Sleep Deprivation; Insomnia; Sleep Apnea; Mind-Body Interventions.

·   Added coverage of: Table summarizing the Stages of Sleep, Features, and Key Aspects; extended table explaining common mind-body interventions.

·   Additional examples of and analogies throughout (e.g., cognitive appraisal; internal conflict; Daily Hassles; depression and heart disease; anxiety, fear, and heart disease; psychological effects of alcohol.

 Chapter 11:

·   Reworked or extended sections on: Economic and personal costs of mental illness; Overview of biopsychosocial model; Diathesis-stress mode; beginning of section on Anxiety Disorders; discussion of anxiety sensitivity; Level of the Group in Panic Disorde; Level of the Person in OCD; Level of the Brain in PTSD; cognitive deficits in schizophrenia; Level of the Brain in Eating Disorders; Interacting Levels in Antisocial Personality Disorder.

·   Additional examples of and analogies throughout (e.g., cognitive distortions in depression; cultural factors related to depression; operant conditioning of phobias.

 Chapter 12:

·   Reworked or extended sections on: Psychoanalytically Inspired Therapies; Evaluting Insight Oriented Therapies; Behavior Therapy and Its Techniques; Techhniques Based on Operant Conditioning; cognitive restructuring; ECT; Innovations in Psychotherapy; Issues in Psychotherapy Research.

·  Additional examples of and analogies throughout (e.g., Dysfunctional beliefs; ataque de nervios; Treating OCD).

Chapter 13:

·   Reworked or extended sections on: mere exposure effect; Stereotypes As Cognitive Shortcuts; Social Categorization, Re-categorization; Fundamental Attribution Bias; Physical Attraction;  Evolutionary Reasons for Mate Selection; Conformity and Independence; Groupthink; Looking at Levels: Cults.

·   Added coverage of: Table on Immoral Actions and Cognitive Dissonance; New table on Self-Serving Bias and Attributions.

·   Additional examples of and analogies throughout (e.g., affective, behavioral, and cognitive components of attitudes; cognitive dissonance).

·  Includes the new “Think Like a Psychologist” feature. These are marginal notes with critical thinking questions that lead students to apply related content to their lives. Some of these notes include "Do It!" activities, which invite the student either to collect data about a phenomenon or to try a specific psychological activity; some of these notes invite the student to go to MyPsychLab to download a document for use with the activity (such as relaxation induction). The "Think Like a Psychologist" feature is placed in the margin adjacent to related content.

·  Integrates the field and brings psychology into focus for students by examining concepts through the lenses of the brain, the person, and the group. The popular “Looking at Levels” feature engages students by exploring an aspect of psychology through these three lenses.

·  Features student-friendly learning tools, including built-in study aids such as “Looking Ahead: Learning Objectives” section preview questions, “Looking Back” sections that provide brief answers to the “Looking Ahead” questions.  “Let's Review” chapter summaries, key terms lists, and end-of-chapter Practice Tests, all help students focus on the core concepts.

·  Includes a high-interest chapter story that begins each chapter and is revisited throughout, providing a framework for the chapter's discussion of relevant psychological theories and research. These stories allow students to see how the psychological material covered in the chapter might apply to people outside of a psychological laboratory and they also make the material more interesting and applicable to their lives, thereby facilitating learning and remembering.

·  Includes instructive art, thoughtfully placed throughout the text, making the text particularly helpful for visual learners. For example, classic experiments are described and visually displayed as multi-panel illustrations, helping students better understand and remember these studies through showing and telling.

·  Features well-known and highly regarded authors: Stephen Kosslyn, formerly professor of psychology, "head tutor," and Dean of Social Science at Harvard University, and now professor of psychology at Stanford University, where he is director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Kosslyn's research has focused on the nature of visual mental imagery and visual communication. Robin Rosenberg is a clinical psychologist, board certified in clinical psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology and a fellow of the American Academy of Clinical Psychology. She has a private practice and has taught introductory psychology at Lesley College. She also uses superhero stories to explain psychological phenomena.

Stephen M. Kosslyn is formerly Chair of the Department of Psychology, Dean of Social Science, and John Lindsley Professor of Psychology in Memory of William James at Harvard University, as well as Associate Psychologist in the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is now professor of psychology and Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He received his B.A. from UCLA and his Ph.D. from Stanford University, both in psychology. His research has focused primarily on the nature of visual mental imagery and visual communication, and he has published 9 books and over 300 papers on these topics. For ten years he was “head tutor” at Harvard, supervising graduate students who were teaching year-long introductory psychology courses using the levels-of-analysis approach. While actively engaged with writing and academic pursuits, Dr. Kosslyn is currently on the editorial boards of many professional journals. In his ample spare time, he takes French lessons and plays bass guitar.

Robin S. Rosenberg is a clinical psychologist in private practice and has taught psychology courses at Lesley University and Harvard University. She is board certified in clinical psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology and has been certified in hypnosis. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Clinical Psychology and is a member of the Academy for Eating Disorders. She received her B.A. in psychology from New York University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Rosenberg did her clinical internship at Massachusetts Mental Health Center, had a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Community Health Plan, and was on the staff at Newton-Wellesley Hospital’s Outpatient Services. Dr. Rosenberg specializes in treating people with eating disorders, anxiety, and depression. Dr. Rosenberg also writes and speaks about how superhero stories reveal psychological phenomena (she is series editor of the Oxford Superhero Series) and she can sometimes be found at comic book conventions. And when the opportunity arises, she also sings and plays guitar.