"Perception is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events."

"We tend to attribute others' behavior either to their disposition or to their situation."

"The line between good and evil is permeable, and situational forces can powerfully influence behavior."

This chapter introduces psychology as the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. It explores psychology's historical roots, from early philosophical inquiries to the establishment of scientific psychology. It outlines the major perspectives in psychology (e.g., neuroscience, evolutionary, behavior genetics, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, social-cultural) and emphasizes the importance of critical thinking, the biopsychosocial approach, and psychology's diverse subfields and career paths.

What Is Psychology?

This chapter explores how we receive and interpret sensory information from our environment. It differentiates between sensation (the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies) and perception (the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events). The chapter covers the senses (vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell, and the body senses), their mechanisms, and the principles of perceptual organization.

Sensation and Perception

"What we perceive reflects not only the bottom-up sensations but also our top-down expectations and beliefs."

"Understanding the dynamics of social interaction can help us build a more just and peaceful world."

"Biomedical therapy involves prescribing medications or procedures that act directly on the person's physiology."

"Developmental psychology examines our physical, cognitive, and social development across the life span."

"Psychological science provides us with tools for critical thinking and evaluating evidence."

"Everything psychological is simultaneously biological."

"Psychotherapy involves a trained therapist using psychological techniques to assist someone seeking to overcome difficulties or to achieve personal growth."

"Stress can leave us less able to fight off disease."

"Working memory is a newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory."

"In operant conditioning, we learn to associate a response (our behavior) and its consequence."

"Intelligence is the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations."

"Consciousness is our awareness of ourselves and our environment."

"Industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology is the application of psychological concepts and methods to optimizing human behavior in workplaces."

"The brain's subsystems serve different functions, yet they interact to produce our experience and behavior."

"An effective therapist is one who establishes a strong therapeutic alliance with the clent."

"Classifying disorders aims to order and describe symptoms, to facilitate communication among professionals, to guide research, and to inform clinical decisions."

"Emotion is a response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience."

"In a post-truth world, objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief."

"Learning is the process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviors."

"Memory is the persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information."

"Cognition refers to all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating."

"Applying psychological principles can help us navigate misinformation and promote a more informed and rational understanding of the world."

"Most psychologists believe that psychological disorders arise from the interaction of nature (genetic predispositions and physiological states) and nurture (psychological dynamics and social-cultural circumstances)."

This chapter explores the various approaches to treating psychological disorders. It discusses the major types of therapy, including psychodynamic therapy, humanistic therapy, behavior therapy, cognitive therapy, and cognitive-behavioral therapy. The chapter also examines biomedical therapies, such as drug therapy, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and psychosurgery. It concludes by discussing the effectiveness of different therapies, the importance of the therapeutic relationship, and the role of culture and values in therapy.

Therapy

"Motivation is a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior."

This chapter delves into the cognitive processes of thinking, language, and intelligence. It explores how we form concepts, solve problems, make decisions, and reason. The chapter examines the structure and functions of language, including phonemes, morphemes, and grammar. It also introduces the concept of intelligence, discusses different theories of intelligence, explores the assessment of intelligence (intelligence tests), and considers the influences of heredity and environment on intelligence.

Thinking, Language, and Intelligence

This chapter examines how we think about, influence, and relate to one another. It covers topics such as social cognition (attributions, attitudes), social influence (conformity, obedience, persuasion), and social relations (prejudice, aggression, attraction, altruism, conflict, peacemaking). The chapter explores the power of the social situation to influence individual behavior and attitudes, and discusses the factors that contribute to both positive and negative social interactions.

Social Psychology

This chapter explores human development across the life span, from conception to death. It examines major developmental issues, including nature versus nurture, continuity versus stages, and stability versus change. The chapter covers prenatal development, infancy, childhood (cognitive, social, and moral development), adolescence, and adulthood (physical, cognitive, and social changes), highlighting key developmental milestones and theories.

Developing Through the Life Span

"Health psychology is psychology's contribution to behavioral medicine, a field that integrates behavioral and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease."

"Motivated and engaged employees are more productive and contribute to a more positive organizational climate."

This chapter explores how psychological, social, and behavioral factors influence health and illness. It examines the biopsychosocial model of health and illness, focusing on topics such as stress and its effects on the immune system, cardiovascular disease, and other health problems. The chapter also discusses health-related behaviors, including exercise, nutrition, and smoking, and explores ways to promote health and well-being, including stress management techniques and the role of social support.

Health Psychology

"Forgetting is not so much ‘losing’ memories as failing to retrieve them."

This chapter applies the principles of social psychology to understand and address real-world issues. It delves deeper into topics such as attitudes and actions, the power of the situation, prejudice and discrimination, aggression, attraction and intimacy, prosocial behavior, and conflict and peacemaking. It emphasizes the practical applications of social psychological research in areas like health, law, education, and environmental sustainability.

Social Psychology in Action

This concluding chapter addresses the challenges of navigating information in a "post-truth" world, where objective facts are often less influential than appeals to emotion and personal belief. It emphasizes the importance of psychological science and critical thinking in evaluating information, identifying misinformation, and promoting evidence-based decision-making. The chapter encourages the application of psychological principles to foster a more informed and rational society.

Psychological Science in a Post-Truth World

"Effective hiring practices aim to identify and select individuals whose knowledge, skills, and abilities match the job requirements."

This chapter introduces the concept of psychological disorders, patterns of thoughts, feelings, or actions that are deviant, distressful, and dysfunctional. It discusses the classification of psychological disorders (DSM-5),  different theoretical perspectives on their causes (biopsychosocial approach), and examines various categories of disorders, including anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, depressive disorders, bipolar and related disorders, schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders, dissociative disorders, personality disorders, and eating disorders.

Psychological Disorders

"Our attitudes and actions feed on each other."

"Critical thinking examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions."

This chapter explores the fascinating process of memory, the persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information. It examines the three-stage model of memory (sensory, short-term/working, long-term) and contemporary views of memory processing. The chapter discusses different types of memory (explicit/declarative and implicit/nondeclarative), encoding strategies, storage mechanisms, retrieval cues, and the reasons for forgetting, including encoding failure, storage decay, and retrieval failure.

Memory

"In classical conditioning, we learn to associate two stimuli and thus to anticipate events."

"Maturation—biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience."

"Stress is the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging."

"Social psychology is the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another."

"The power of the situation can be enormous, leading ordinary people to do shocking things."

"By adopting healthy behaviors and managing stress effectively, we can enhance our well-being and longevity."

This chapter introduces the field of industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology, which applies psychological principles to the workplace. It explores how I-O psychologists help organizations with employee recruitment and selection, training and development, performance appraisal, job satisfaction, motivation, leadership, and organizational culture. The chapter highlights the importance of creating productive, engaging, and healthy work environments.

Industrial-Organizational Psychology

"Adolescence is the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence."

"Sensation is the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment."

This chapter examines the psychological forces that drive our behavior (motivation) and our feelings (emotion), as well as our responses to challenging events (stress). It explores different motivational theories, including instinct theory, drive-reduction theory, arousal theory, and Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The chapter also delves into the nature of emotions, their physiological, expressive, and cognitive components, discusses different theories of emotion, and examines the causes and consequences of stress, as well as coping strategies.

Motivation, Emotion, and Stress

"Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes."

"Our behavior and mental processes are shaped by interacting biological, psychological, and social-cultural influences."

This chapter delves into the biological foundations of behavior and mental processes, as well as the fascinating realm of consciousness. It covers the structure and function of neurons, how they communicate, and the organization of the nervous system (central and peripheral). It explores the brain's regions and their functions, including the cerebral cortex and its lobes, as well as the endocrine system. The chapter also examines consciousness, the dual-processing mind, sleep stages, sleep disorders, and the effects of drugs on consciousness.

The Biology of Behavior and Consciousness

"Language is our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning."

"Psychological disorders are marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior."

This chapter examines the process of learning, the relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience. It covers different types of learning, including classical conditioning (Pavlov), operant conditioning (Skinner), and observational learning (Bandura). The chapter explores the principles and applications of these learning processes, such as reinforcement, punishment, shaping, and modeling, and discusses the cognitive influences on learning.

Learning

The 13th edition of Exploring Psychology by David Myers, Nathan DeWall, and June Gruber continues to provide an engaging and accessible introduction to psychology. This edition incorporates the latest research and insights, emphasizing the scientific perspective while addressing the diverse backgrounds of its audience. It covers key topics such as cognition, emotion, social behavior, and mental health, with a focus on applying psychological principles to everyday life... with the aim to help readers become better students, friends, partners, co-workers, and parents,

The new edition of Exploring Psychology offers outstanding currency on the research, practice, and teaching of psychology. Myers and DeWall inspire students with fascinating findings and applications, effective new study tools and technologies, and a compassionate and compelling storytelling voice. Their presentation is based on the same guiding principles behind the entire family of textbooks that have made David Myers the world’s bestselling introductory psychology author:<ul><li>Facilitate learning by teaching critical thinking and helping students at every step.</li><li>Present psychology as a science, emphasizing the process of inquiry and putting facts in the service of concepts.</li><li>Make sure students come away with an appreciation of psychology’s big ideas, and with a deeper respect for humanity—what drives us, distinguishes us, unifies us.</li></ul>This Exploring Psychology is the first to include Myers’ handpicked co-author. Nathan DeWall shares Myers’ belief that instilling a sense of curiosity and inquiry about psychological science is an effective way to help students navigate the content, think critically, and prepare for a lifetime of learning and living. The extraordinary, longtime Myers ancillary author team is also here—a group whose teamwork, consistency, and commitment again sets the industry-standard for instructor and student supplements. The high quality that consistently sets Myers’ ancillaries apart sees a new incarnation in LaunchPad. This course space organizes all the book’s digital resources in an online format that makes it easier for instructors to teach, track, and assess their students

DAVID G. MYERS, NATHAN DEWALL, JUNE GRUBER

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