Psychological Science, 2e : W. W. Norton College Books

Chapter 1: Introduction to Psychological Science
Chapter 1 highlights the text’s four broad themes and the Second Edition’s simplified "levels of analysis" (see page 5). This chapter also briefly traces the intellectual origins and historical background of psychological science and describes how psychological knowledge is applied to solving real-world problems.
Chapter 2: Research Methodology
Chapter 2 places a stronger emphasis on the role of critical thinking in testing theories about the mind, brain, and behavior. Coverage of animal research, including gene manipulation, has been expanded to demonstrate its importance in addressing fundamental psychological questions.
Chapter 3: Genetic and Biological Foundations
Chapter 3 offers a significantly revised treatment of the role of genes in psychological processes focusing on gene expression. The level of technical difficulty has been reduced throughout by focusing on what students really need to know in order to understand basic human physiology. The authors have enlivened the discussion of the nervous system by placing a stronger emphasis on the influence of neurotransmission on everyday mental activity and behavior.
Chapter 4: The Brain and Consciousness
Chapter 4 has dramatically expanded its coverage of brain functions to explore how brain activity gives rise to the unique human capacity of consciousness. This new chapter also discusses sleep in the context of brain activity and provides coverage of theories, put forth by social psychologists such as Dan Wegner and John Bargh, which suggest that much of human behavior occurs automatically and without intention.
Chapter 5: Sensation, Perception, and Attention
Chapter 5 has been reorganized for accessibility, emphasizing basic concepts and methodology throughout. The discussion of the five senses has been arranged to begin with taste and end with vision, demonstrating the commonalities among the different perceptual systems. This chapter also highlights the idea that we actively construct our perceptual world and discusses the significance of perception in social interaction.
Chapter 6: Learning and Reward
Chapter 6 offers expanded coverage of the ways in which economic principles can inform our understanding of reinforcement as well as how learning can be passed on through cultural transmission. Discussion of the mesolimbic dopamine pathway has been rewritten to focus more directly on the importance of dopamine to reward systems.
Chapter 7: Memory
Chapter 7 includes new findings on emotional memory and consolidation and coverage of H.M.’s recently discovered acquisition of new semantic knowledge.
Chapter 8: Thinking and Intelligence
Chapter 8 has been completely reconceptualized and expanded to incorporate a much greater emphasis on the intelligent use of information and the idea that intelligence is, in part, adaptive. Also emphasized in greater detail are knowledge structures, problem solving, and decision making. This chapter now offers a thorough discussion of what it means to be intelligent, with an increased focus on environmental factors as well as on fluid intelligence and the prominent role it plays in modern society.
Chapter 9: Motivation
Chapter 9 considers motivation in its adaptive context, focusing on the human need for belonging, on addiction, and on sexual behavior. Motivation is also considered in its psychological and social contexts. The text prompts students to consider what motivates them, how they deal with competing motives, and how setting and achieving goals might help them lead meaningful lives.
Chapter 10: Emotions and Health
Chapter 10 offers a revised consideration of behaviors that significantly influence physical health and describes methods of healthy living. A new section focuses on the relationship between daily behaviors such as diet, exercise, and smoking and the most common causes of death in our society and explores evidence that emotional states often lead people to develop bad habits.
Chapter 11: Human Development
Chapter 11 merges the First Edition’s discussions of cognitive and social factors into a single chapter in order to offer a more comprehensive treatment of development over the lifespan.
Chapter 12: Personality
Chapter 12 once again presents a fresh treatment of human personality. While continuing to cover traditional topics such as Freudian and trait theory, the authors place a stronger emphasis on contemporary research into the cognitive and biological factors involved in personality.
Chapter 13: Disorders of Mind and Body
Chapter 13 offers streamlined coverage of legal issues surrounding psychological disorders and expanded coverage of assessment techniques such as interviews and behavioral assessments. The chapter also offers a more thorough discussion of the biological, psychological, and social factors that have been implicated in the development of schizophrenia. Coverage of childhood disorders, updated and expanded for the Second Edition, goes well beyond that of any other introductory text.
Chapter 14: Treating Disorders of Mind and Body
Chapter 14 examines the theoretical basis of psychotherapy, as well as typical psychological and pharmacological treatments and outcomes that demonstrate psychological science’s progress in improving the quality of life for people with serious disorders of mind and body. Treatments that are most widely used by contemporary therapists are emphasized throughout, with special attention paid to the empirical evidence gathered from the most successful studies.
Chapter 15: Social Psychology
Chapter 15 combines the essential sections of the First Edition’s two social psychology chapters, focusing on the principles that people have evolved as social animals and that much of human behavior and experience is shaped by social context. Two additional themes highlight the power of situation and the role of unconscious processing in social cognition. This revised chapter includes coverage of research that crosses levels of analysis from the social to the biological as the authors explore recent neuroimaging studies on the self, attitudes, and stereotyping. The section on relationships now places a greater emphasis on romantic relationships.

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W. W. Norton & Company : College Books

Psychological Science

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