Psychology: Themes and Variations

A highly praised didactic illustration program features figures, diagrams, photos, tables and graphs that work hand in hand with the narrative to clarify main points. For example, six Illustrated overviews provide well-organized reviews of key ideas in the areas of research, sensation and perception, learning, personality theory, psychopathology and psychotherapy. Numerous versions of diagrams of major concepts such as conditioning are often included throughout chapters to highlight connections among research areas.

Seven unifying themes provide threads of continuity across chapters and a forum for a relatively sophisticated discussion of enduring issues in psychology. Focusing a spotlight on a number of basic insights about psychology, the themes emphasize that psychology is an empirical science, its theoretical diversity is a strength, the field evolves in a sociohistorical context, behavior is determined by multiple causes and is shaped by one's culture, heredity and environment interactively influence behavior and our experience of the world is highly subjective.

A two- to three-page Personal Application near the end of every chapter offers insight into the practical side of psychology by focusing on a single issue, such as improving stress management, enhancing self-control and bolstering everyday memory. Although most of the Personal Application sections have a "how-to" approach, they also review studies and summarize data in much the same way as the main body of each chapter. Thus, they portray research and application as two sides of the same coin.

Going beyond simply reviewing controversial research, Critical Thinking Applications actually teach students critical thinking skills that they can use in their academic and personal lives. Topics include looking for contradictory evidence; recognizing anecdotal evidence, circular reasoning, hindsight bias, reification, weak analogies and false dichotomies; and evaluating arguments systematically.