Psychology [antikvár]

PREFACE Now in its fourth edition. Psychology has come to be regarded as the book with a conscience. Rather than just offering facts and theories to help students pass their exams, we've also given them tools to use in their lives—tools for helping them gain insight into their own behavior and their relationships with others. Psychology will help students understand and think critically about human behavior long after this course has ended. UNDEMANDING HUMAN BEHAVIOR_ We frequently encourage students to draw from course material to gain insight into both their own lives and the world around them. For example, a student may be surprised when he agrees to do something that he does not really want to do, or even that he believes is morally wrong. By understanding the pressures of conformity, which are described in Chapter 18, the student can gain insight into what leads to this behavior and how it can be avoided. A young woman may be terrified that her boyfriend is going to leave her, and may wonder whether her fear is realistic or groundless. By learning how her current orientation toward relationships may be influenced by events that happened earlier—parental death or divorce, for example—she can gain perspective on her current feelings. Finally, students may wonder how to make sense of things they read in the newspaper—for example, a description of a brutal incident of discrimination (such as the police beating a man in Los Angeles) or a gang rape of a woman by students at a nearby college. By learning about the complex causes of human behavior, they will gain insight into such events. FOSTERING CRITICAL THINKING Perhaps the most important part of teaching students to think critically about what they read and experience is encouraging them to ask questions about how "facts" are obtained. In this way, we hope to promote a healthy skepticism toward ideas derived from inadequate research methods. Such skepticism is invaluable in today's society, where people are exposed to a barrage of popular "psychologizing"—everything from tests in the Sunday supplement to evaluate one's marriage to the numerous "self-improvement" books that line the bookstore shelves. We have tried to provide students with the critical skills needed to question the validity of popularized psychology. Students will forget particular facts and the details of specific studies, but we hope that these critical thinking skills will remain with them. In short, we encourage students not to take their own behavior, the behavior of others, or what they read at face value. We teach them not to accept simple answers to complex questions. We teach them to weigh opposing arguments and reach their own conclusions about what they observe and read. Critical thinking skills are also fostered in several of the special features described below.