Psychology, 9/E
Carole Wade
Carol Tavris

ISBN-10: 0132387387
ISBN-13: 9780132387385

Publisher: Prentice Hall
Copyright: 2008
Format: Cloth; 816 pp
Published: 03/14/2007

Suggested retail price: $132.00
Not available for purchase at this time.

 

For one-semester introductory psychology courses in both two- and four-year colleges and universities.

 

This text emphasizes the importance of critical thinking and the integration of culture and gender in the science of psychology.

 

Well-known for its pioneering focus on the development of critical thinking skills crucial to students' success in college and in later life, Psychology by Wade & Tavris is also widely regarded for the liveliness, warmth, and clarity of its writing style. Continuing its tradition of integrating gender, culture, and ethnicity throughout the text, Psychology provides a comprehensive introduction to the field.

Wade/Tavris incorporates Critical and Scientific thinking into every part of Psychology . A new feature, Close-Up on Research compliments the critical thinking emphasis while also demonstrating in detail the science of psychology.

Critical and Scientific Thinking: Eight basic guidelines to critical and scientific thinking are introduced in Chapter 1 as well as highlighted in the endpapers of the text. Critical thinking is woven throughout the text's narrative. Critical thinking icons (light bulbs) appear throughout the text to highlight topic areas that exemplify and ask students to employ critical thinking skills. These icons do not signal the only place that critical thinking is happening in the text but rather point to particularly good examples for students to participate in. Within Psychology, Wade/Tavris DEFINE what critical thinking is; MODEL how to think critically through the exploration of popular but unsupported ideas in our culture today as well as psychological issues that evoke emotional debate; and encourage students to PRACTICE critical thinking through activities and examples.

 

Close-Up on Research: This NEW feature takes a provocative research question and shows how investigators set about answering it, from start to finish. Designed to show students how the process works from the first questions a psychological scientist asks (such as: "What might be a better predictor of male violence than testosterone?" or "Why is human touch emotionally and even physically beneficial?") to defining terms to considering other explanations for the findings. Each Close-Up on Research also contains a graph or a table of the results to encourage student practice on reading these important presentations of data.

 

Mainstreaming Culture and Gender: Rather than relegating studies on gender or culture to separate chapters or boxed features, Psychology integrates the research in the areas wherever it applies. Gender differences and similarities are discussed throughout the text where appropriate. Empirical findings on culture and ethnicity are interwoven throughout topics as warranted. 

 

Active participation in both the subject matter and the science of psychology is a key element of Wade/Tavris Psychology. Through innovative features and intriguing questions and quizzes, Wade/Tavris helps students see the excitement of psychology.

Quick Quizzes: Throughout each chapter, students are encouraged to check their progress and review material, if necessary. These quizzes are designed to do more than test for memorization. Various formats and entertaining examples let students know whether they've comprehended the chapter material.

 

Get Involved: These exercises provide an entertaining approach to Active Learning. Included throughout the text, some Get Involved exercises consist of quick demonstrations, some are simple mini-studies, and some help students relate course material to their own lives.

 

Taking Psychology With You: At the end of each chapter, Taking Psychology with You draws on research related to the chapter material to help students tackle practical topics such as living with chronic pain, eliminating bad habits, getting along with people of other cultures, and evaluating self-help programs and books.

 

What's Ahead: Each chapter is introduced with a set of brief questions. They are intended to be provocative or intriguing enough to arouse students' curiosity and encourage them to read on.

Close-Up on Research: This NEW feature takes a provocative research question and shows how investigators set about answering it, from start to finish. Designed to show students how the process works from the first questions a psychological scientist asks (such as: "What might be a better predictor of male violence than testosterone?" or "Why is human touch emotionally and even physically beneficial?") to defining terms to considering other explanations for the findings. Each Close-Up on Research also contains a graph or a table of the results to encourage student practice on reading these important presentations of data.

 

NEW Chapter Openings and the latest research on cutting-edge issues and controversies: such as findings from stem-cells and neuronal growth throughout life to research on reasons for the obesity epidemic worldwide. 

 

MyPsychLab: NEW to this edition of Psychology, MyPsychLab is an easy-to-use online resource that allows instructors to assess student progress and adapt course material to meet the specific needs of the class.

MyPsychLab enables students to diagnose their progress by completing an online self-assessment pre-test. Based on the results of this test, each student is provided with a customized study plan, including a variety of tools to help them fully master the material.

MyPsychLab then reports the self-assessment results to the instructor, as individual student grades as well as an aggregate report of class progress. Based on these reports, the instructor can adapt course material to suit the needs of individual students or the class as a whole.

  • Accurate Assessment: MyPsychLab offers robust self-assessment tests to determine each student's mastery of key content areas. Organized by major section or chapter, these diagnostic tests contain a large base of questions that are different from those in the text-specific test bank and other supplements. Different kinds of questions are used for pre- and post-tests, including multiple choice, text match, ranking, fill in the blank, and drag and drop.
  • Reporting: MyPsychLab's easy-to-use reporting system delivers instant feedback to students and provides instructors with reports of class and student performance. Diagnostic test results are reported to students allowing them to recognize the areas in which they need extra practice. Instructors receive an aggregate of overall class performance and may also view test results at the individual student level. Since MyPsychLab calculates and reports test results automatically, instructors can closely monitor student progress without investing any additional time.
  • Focused Instruction: MyPsychLab enables instructors to efficiently adapt course content based on actual student and class performance. MyPsychLab analyzes each student's diagnostic test results, assigns each student specific exercises designed to help with the content they have yet to master, and reports these assignments to the instructor via a gradebook. MyPsychLab's aggregate report provides a valuable "snapshot" of class performance that allows instructors to direct their attention to the content areas in which the class as a whole is struggling. MyPsychLab provides instructors with a wealth of supplemental teaching materials specific to these content areas including additional lecture material, video clips, and classroom activities. For added flexibility, these materials may be downloaded by instructors for classroom use or made available online for student use.

  

Chapter by Chapter changes: in the authors own words...Chapter 1   What is Psychology?

  • At the start of this chapter, the new Close-up feature, on “Mistaken Beliefs about Human Behavior,” describes research that shows students the importance of studying psychology empirically, highlights the pitfalls of “common sense” ideas about human behavior, and sets up our later discussion of critical thinking.
  • We have updated the pop-psych books mentioned in the introduction to the chapter and also the failed predictions of psychics.
  • In our critical-thinking discussion, in the section on the “Ask Questions” guideline, we added some of the as-yet unanswered psychological questions featured by Science in its 125th anniversary issue.
  • In the section on the “Examine the Evidence” guideline, we added, as an example, research showing that evidence refutes the common assumption that American children are overburdened by homework; in reality, many students do no homework at all.
  • In the section on the “Avoid Emotional Reasoning” guideline, we added the point that people get defensive when their most cherished beliefs are challenged in part because such beliefs simplify a complicated world and offer explanations for puzzling or frightening phenomena.
  • In the section on psychological practice, we added the fact that Psy.D. programs now enroll about a fourth of all doctoral candidates in psychology.
  • In the section on training problems in professional psychology, we added the finding that although GRE scores have been falling, acceptance rates in graduate programs, especially clinical programs, have skyrocketed.
  • We updated the name of the APS, which is now the Association for Psychological Science.
  • Because “Beyond the Borders” has been replaced by “Biology and…,” near the end of this chapter the introduction to the feature has been changed accordingly.
  • For space reasons, we deleted the Get Involved exercise on commonsense sayings.

 

Chapter 2   How Psychologists Do Research

  • The Close-up in this chapter is on research on student convenience samples–which should be an interesting topic for students!
  • We updated references in our discussion of facilitated communication at the start of the chapter. The continued life of FC remains a good example of belief unsupported by evidence.
  • We added, briefly, a study in which about 5% of scientists admitted to having ignored data–but instructors may want to note that 95% said they had not done so. We do not want students to become skeptical about science, just about human fallibility.
  • We moved most of the discussion of representative samples from the section on surveys to the beginning of the section on descriptive methods, since it really applies to all research.
  • In the section on tests, we added the finding that self-evaluations are often inaccurate because both in school and on the job people are often unaware of their own shortcomings. We return to this point in Chapter 9.
  • In the section on correlations, we briefly added the finding that the longer children spend in front of the television, the less likely they are later on to get through college, even when controlling for IQ and other factors.

 

Chapter 3   Genes, Evolution, & Environment

  • In our description of genes, we mention new research showing that many genes can make more than one protein, which explains why our relatively small number of genes can produce hundreds of thousands of proteins.
  • We added a sentence on recent research identifying genes that may account for some rapid evolutionary changes among animals in the wild. Genetics and evolutionary theory are starting to come together.
  • We added (briefly) a study supporting the view that infants have a rudimentary sense of number.
  • In our discussion of evolutionary theory, we added recent criticisms of the evolutionary emphasis on the Pleistocene age. Evidence exists that humans have continued to evolve since then.
  • The research featured in this chapter’s Close-up discusses two major problems with the use of surveys by evolutionary psychologists: 1) Many of these surveys have used student convenience samples, and the results change when more representative samples are used; 2) what people say about dating and mating preferences on questionnaires does not necessarily predict their actual dating and mating choices.  This discussion asks the student to think critically about methodology.
  • In the discussion of language, we deleted a paragraph on critical periods. There is some controversy now about their existence, although we think they probably do exist.
  • In the discussion of genes and IQ, we added that adopted children typically score higher on IQ tests than birth siblings who were not adopted, probably because of environmental enrichment.
  • A new feature on Biology and Intellect highlights recent research on the genetic basis of intelligence. We included a recent finding that in children who score high on IQ tests, the cerebral cortex starts out thinner than in other kids but develops more rapidly and for a longer time. We point out, however, that this finding is correlational.
  • In the section on environmental influences associated with reduced mental ability, we added the recent finding that air pollution is a serious risk factor.
  • At the end of the chapter, we briefly note the existence of genetic “noise”–biochemical processes within cells–that can influence gene expression, which helps explain why genetically identical animals living in the same environment can differ considerably in appearance and behavior. We feel it is extremely important for students to understand that the genome is not a static blueprint for development.
  • In “Taking Psychology with You,” we mention that until the 1960s, thousands of mentally ill and developmentally delayed Americans were sterilized again their will. Few students are aware of this fact.
   

Chapter 4   The Brain: Source of Mind and Self

  • We updated our discussion of stem cells by reporting two new techniques currently being studied: removal of a single cell from an 8-cell embryo, which leaves the embryo intact and capable of normal develop in utero, and conversion of sperm-producing cells into cells with many characteristics of embryonic stem cells. We also added a study in which injection of human stem cells restored the ability to walk in mice with spinal-cord injuries.
  • The Close-up feature in this chapter focuses on two fascinating studies of brain plasticity in blind persons and in sighted persons who have been temporarily “blinded” by blindfolds. The results show that brain areas usually devoted to vision may switch gears and process auditory signals in some blind individuals.
  • In the list of hormones of interest to psychologists, we added an entry on oxytocin, which is discussed again in Chapter 12.
  • We moved all the information on H. M. to the memory chapter so it would not be in two different places.
  • In the split-brain section, for space reasons we deleted Gazzaniga’s “chicken claw and snow” study.
  • In “Where is the Self?”, we added the hypothesis that an area in the prefrontal cortex binds together perceptions and memories to produce a unified sense of self, but we also note that no current theory adequately explains the loss, retention, or change in this sense in certain brain-injury patients.
  • Over the years, researchers have documented many anatomical differences between male and female brains.  Much of this research has been done with animals, but some with human beings.  Nonetheless, in our discussion of sex differences in the brain, our main critical-thinking point remains: No one has yet established clearly the relationship between anatomical differences and behavioral ones, or the significance of such difference in real life. It has been mostly speculation.
  • In the sex differences section, we deleted Haier’s study of gray and white matter; it appears to have been published only online and the results were complicated.
  • In our discussion of neuroethics, we added that defense lawyers are already using brain scans to argue for lighter sentences for their clients and we challenge readers to think about this use critically.
  • In “Taking Psychology with You,” on diet and the brain, we added research with mice suggesting that omega-3 fish oil enhances learning whereas a high-fat high-sugar diet slows it. We also added research on niacin, folate, and the Mediterranean diet. However, we deleted a 2001 study by Chandra on the effects of vitamins and minerals on cognition in older people; the study has been discredited and was retracted by the journal that published it.

 

Chapter 5   Body Rhythms and Mental States

  • In the section on seasonal affective disorder, we deleted the two studies of light treatments and replaced them with a review of studies on this topic. It showed that most of the research has been flawed, but a meta-analysis of just those studies having adequate designs and controls does support the efficacy of light therapy–even with people who have mild to moderate non-seasonal depression.
  • The discussion of “PMS” has been reorganized and part of it is now in the Close-up feature, which allows us to highlight the critical-thinking aspects of that discussion. We have deleted all of the material on testosterone in men, both because of space considerations and in order to focus the discussion more clearly. (Also, the findings on testosterone are inconsistent and confusing.) And we have added, briefly, a British study that found no link between “PMS” and academic work, as well as an interesting Dutch study that found no association between crying and phase of the menstrual cycle. We didn’t see either of these studies reported in the popular press–a topic for classroom discussion, perhaps.
  • The link between dreaming and REM sleep is less straightforward than it once seemed. In our discussion, we note that brain-damaged patients who have lost the capacity to dream may nonetheless continue to experience the normal sleep stages, including REM.
  • Our description of narcolepsy remains essentially the same, but note that recent research suggests that an autoimmune malfunction may be involved.
  • In our discussion of sleep deprivation, we added a real-world experiment linking such deprivation with academic and attention problems in elementary and middle-school children.
  • In the section on dreaming, we deleted the short paragraph on sex differences, as the research on this is a little old and we suspect that some of the differences may have decreased or even disappeared.
  • The section on hypnosis now precedes the section on recreational drugs. The paragraph on the use of hypnosis to treat medical and psychological problems has been updated a bit. And a new feature on “Biology and Hypnosis” features some clever research on the resistance of hypnotized subjects to the Stroop effect. These subjects had reduced activity in a brain area that decodes written words and in another area that monitors conflicting thoughts. We also describe a study in which highly hypnotizable people were able, under hypnosis, to visually drain color from a drawing of red, green, and yellow rectangles and to see color when the same drawing was presented in gray tones. These people’s brains showed activation in areas associated with color perception when they “saw” nonexistent color and showed decreased activation when they drained colors visually from the drawings. Note, however, that we caution readers that this research does not settle debates about the nature of hypnosis.
  • In the section on drugs, we deleted anabolic steroids because the psychological consequences of their use remain unclear. However, we retained the Quick Quiz critical-thinking item on steroids.
  • In “Taking Psychology with You,” on getting a good night’s sleep, we acknowledge that sleeping pills (which keep growing in popularity) can help on a temporary basis, but we continue to caution about side effects. We added the use of relaxation techniques but deleted the point about taking care of your health, which seemed obvious.  We also added research showing that cognitive-behavioral therapy is effective in treating chronic insomnia.

 

Chapter 6   Sensation and Perception

  • In our opening discussion, we introduce the term sensory substitution and describe exciting research that may one day enable blind people to see by teaching them to interpret impulses from other senses than are then routed to the visual areas of the brain.
  • In the section on hearing, we deleted the point about hair cells in the right ear possibly responding more to rhythms of speech and those in the left to music–interesting, but not something intro students need to know, we felt.
  • In the section on olfaction, we added the recent finding that some neurons seem to respond only to particular mixtures of odors rather than to the individual odors in a mixture.
  • The Close-up feature in this chapter focuses on recent Dutch research showing that an odor can affect people’s behavior–specifically, the citrus scent of an all-purpose cleaner can activate the mental concept cleaning and can even affect people’s “cleaning behavior” although they are unaware of having smelled the scent.
  • The “Biology and” feature in this chapter concerns ways in which expectations modify the experience of pain. Brain-scan studies show that when placebos affect expectations, they also affect the brain mechanisms underlying pain and promote the production of endorphins. (Note: Critical-thinking quiz items have been added for the Close-up and the Biology features.)
  • For space reasons, in the section on innate perceptual abilities, we deleted the point about the reversibility of effects of visual deprivation in kittens (but we still make the point about reversibility in human beings). We also deleted the point about the difficulty toddlers have in integrating their actions with their perceptions, because this section seemed a little too long and complicated.
  • In the section on psychological and cultural influences on perception, we added a recent suggestion that the Japanese pay more attention to context than Americans do because specific objects really do stand out less in Japanese environments. This point is accompanied by photos of comparable American and Japanese scenes.
  • In the section on ESP, we added a recent finding that 28 percent of college students believe in it and another 39 percent are “not sure.”

 

Chapter 7   Learning and Conditioning

  • The description of the Little Albert study has been modified a bit by the addition of a little more historical information on this still-controversial study.
  • The “Biology and” feature in this chapter focuses on what happens in the brain during classical conditioning. It includes the “Pavlov and peanut butter” study that appeared in the previous edition but also some new research on the role of glutamate receptors in fear acquisition and extinction. This research has important practical implications for treating phobias and other fear disorders, because a drug that enhances these receptors can speed up extinction.
  • In the section on the pros and cons of punishment, we added that programs using “attachment therapy” often use extremely abusive punishment practices.
  • At the end of the discussion of extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation, note the new critical-thinking quiz item on giving prizes for school attendance.
  • At the start of the section on observational learning, we added a paragraph on the role of observational learning in classical conditioning, which is often overlooked.

 

Chapter 8  Behavior in Social and Cultural Context

 

  • In our discussion of conversational distance, we added a story of a Lebanese student of Carol’s who told her how relieved he was to understand how cultures differ in their rules for conversational distance.  “When Anglo students moved away from me, I thought they were prejudiced,” he said.  “Now I see why I was more comfortable talking with Latino students–they like to stand close, too.”
  • We added the interesting fact, courtesy of Thomas Blass, that to date more than 3,000 people have gone through replications of the Milgram study.
  • In the definition and discussion of social cognition, we added a note that social psychologists have joined forces with neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists to develop a specialty, social-cognitive neuroscience, which draws upon technologies from neuroscience to study the emotional and social processes underlying beliefs, prejudices, and social behavior.
  • In the discussion of blaming the victim as a way of maintaining belief in a just world, we added recent research showing that another way of preserving belief in the overall justness of the world is to label perpetrators of especially heinous acts as inherently evil; that is, instead of denigrating the victim, the observer demonizes the perpetrator.
  • In this chapter, the “Biology and …” feature is about biology and beliefs, and expands the briefer discussion that was in 8E on possible genetic contributions to certain fundamental beliefs that people hold.  We report the findings from a recent study of more than 8,000 sets of twins who were surveyed about their personality traits, religious beliefs, and political attitudes.  Attitudes showing the highest heritability were those about school prayer and property taxes; attitudes showing the lowest influence of genes were about segregation, divorce, and abortion.  We caution students against oversimplifying, however, by considering which attitudes were most influenced by individual experiences in the nonshared environment.
  • Under coercive persuasion, we added some recent evidence on how suicide bombers are trained; their training uses many of the techniques that have ensnared members of suicidal cults in America.
  • In the discussion of stereotypes, we added research on how the brain automatically registers and encodes categories, including the basic human ones of gender, race, and age, suggesting that there is a neurological basis for the cognitive efficiency of stereotyping.
  • In the discussion of prejudice, we made a major change by taking a more focused, critical look at the study of unconscious prejudices.  We have made this topic the subject of the Close-up on Research feature because of the popularity of the Implicit Association Test on the Internet and in business.  However, some social psychologists now believe that whatever the IAT measures, it is not a stable prejudice.  For example, two researchers got an IAT effect by matching target faces with nonsense words and neutral words that had no evaluative connotations at all.  They concluded that the IAT does not measure emotional evaluations of the target, but the salience of the word associated with it, because negative words attract more attention in general.  When they corrected for these factors, the presumed unconscious prejudice faded away.  The IAT may also be measuring people’s unfamiliarity with a target group rather than dislike or animosity.
  • We deleted the brief paragraph on “symbolic racism” as a measure of underlying prejudice.

 

 

Chapter 9   Thinking and Intelligence

  • In “How Conscious is Thought?”, we have a little more to say about multitasking this time; the evidence is clear that it lessens efficiency and increases errors. We include a recent government study confirming the dangers of dialing a cell phone or engaging in other distracting activities while driving.
  • In that section, we also briefly mention recent research suggesting that for some kinds of complex decisions, gut feelings can lead to better choices than conscious deliberation does. We do not make too much of this point though; most people probably trust their gut feelings too much!
  • In the section on cognitive biases, we have expanded the discussion of the tendency to exaggerate the improbable and minimize genuine threats that are not immediate. We say a little more about the evolutionary roots of this tendency, and we have added the affect heuristic, the tendency to consult one’s emotions instead of judging probabilities objectively. We include a clever field study linking a decline in beef consumption to reports of Mad Cow disease in France–but no decline when the disease is called by its technical name.
  • We now explicitly name the fairness bias, and incorporate some of the material on it in the “Biology and” feature.
  • At the end of the cognitive bias section, we briefly mention the bias that only other people have biases. (This is known as naïve realism, though we don’t use that term.) This bias affects not only individuals but groups and nations.
  • In the section on intelligence tests, we deleted the long table of sample items from the Stanford-Binet, but we have incorporated some of this material more briefly into the text itself.
  • At the end of the description of stereotype threat, we added a study showing that simply informing people about stereotype threat can eliminate sex differences on a math test.
  • The section on motivation and intellectual success is now on motivation, hard work, and intellectual success. It includes a Close-up feature on the link between self-discipline and academic performance among adolescents. Recent research found that this link was stronger than the one between IQ and performance–in this age of instant gratification, this is something all students need to know. 
  • Research on animal cognition continues to intrigue. We have added findings on orangutans that have learned to use sticks as tools, bottlenose dolphins that appear to learn from their mothers how to use sea sponges to protect themselves from sharp coral and stinging stonefish, and wild African chimps that will groom a spot indicated by an itchy comrade.
  • In the description of Irene Pepperberg’s work with Alex the African gray parrot, we added that Alex shows some evidence of being able to sum two small sets of objects.
  • Note that solutions to problems in this chapter are now at the end of the book, after the Appendix.

 

Chapter 10   Memory

  • We still begin the chapter with the story of a wrongful conviction, but have updated it with a more recent case. There continue to be many cases of persons convicted on the basis of eyewitness testimony and later exonerated by DNA evidence.
  • All material on H. M. is now in this chapter, and his case is introduced early on.
  • In the section on flashbulb memories, we added a Danish study showing that some of these memories are indeed accurate after the passage of many years. But our main point–that even flashbulb memories are not always accurate–still holds.
  • The list of “conditions of confabulation” has been condensed into three conditions rather than four and a study has been added showing that merely explaining how an event could have happened can inflate a person’s confidence that it really did.
  • The description of the Bugs Bunny study has been slightly modified; in the original study, 16% of the subjects recalled having met Bugs at Disneyland, but later studies got even higher numbers.
  • The discussion of children’s eyewitness testimony has been reorganized and some of the material has been put into the Close-up feature. We also added a study of the factors that increase or decrease children’s vulnerability to influence techniques: they include language skills, degree of self-control, and having distant or supportive parents.
  • In the section on working memory, we note that it may also involve the ability to control attention and avoid distraction, and we note some real-world activities that draw on this ability.
  • In the description of the serial-position curve, we added a functional MRI study that supports the three-box explanation.
  • We deleted the study of reconsolidation during recall; this phenomenon is still not well documented, and we think intro students probably don’t need to know about it.
  • In the section on glucose and memory, we added a study showing that the “sweet memories” effect is not confined to older people, and a study with rats suggesting that challenging tasks “drain” glucose from the hippocampus. But we caution that the range of effective doses of glucose is narrow and the effect of glucose depends on your metabolism, what you have eaten that day, and the level of glucose in your brain before you ingest it.
  • In the introduction to the discussion of forgetting, we added a fascinating recent case of a woman who has an extraordinary memory for personal events in her past.
  • In the section on memory and narrative, we added that the nature of a narrative depends in part on the audience and one’s purpose in relating it. Distortions that are introduced then become part of the memory for the events being recalled.

 

 

Chapter 11   Emotion

 

  • We added evidence that pride may be a universal emotion, and added “the face of pride” in the photo spread of the other basic emotions.
  • We reorganized and expanded the information on “mood contagion,” moving it up from the section on display rules to the earlier discussion of the biology of emotion.  We added new research on mood contagion and emotional synchrony and how these processes contribute to smooth and pleasurable social exchanges.
  • We added important and exciting new research on “mirror neurons” and their role in empathy, understanding other people’s actions and emotions, mood contagion, and mimickry.
  • The former “Beyond the Borders” on lie detection is now the subject of “Biology and Deception.”  We expanded this discussion to consider other methods that are supposed to reliably determine whether someone is lying, notably various measures of “brain fingerprinting” and the Voice Stress Analyzer.  To date, the only method that has a good track record of identifying the guilty without falsely implicating the innocent is the Guilty Knowledge Test, which is difficult to use in all situations.
  • We deleted the discussion of Schachter and Singer’s “two-factor” theory of emotion.  We now simply cite their original study and their major contribution, which was generating awareness of the role of cognitions in emotional states.
  • The Close-up feature in this chapter concerns the misprediction of future feelings. New scientific findings on affective forecasting show that most people are not very good at predicting what will make them happy, how long they will suffer after an unhappy event, and so on.  People overestimate the intensity and duration of their own emotional reactions to events: The good is rarely as good as they imagine it will be, and the bad is rarely as terrible or as enduring.
  • We reorganized the section on emotion and gender.  First, we added some research on the point that stereotypes may guide people’s expectations and perceptions of women’s and men’s emotional expressions, which is why many people have trouble recognizing male sadness and female anger. (We added a study, for example, in which people rated identical drawings of gender-neutral expressions of emotion.  Each face was framed by a male or female hairstyle.  When an apparent “man” expressed anger, participants rated him as being less angry than when an apparent “woman” did exactly the same thing.)  Second, we deleted the lengthy discussion of the conditions under which people are more or less sensitive to other people’s emotions, in order to focus more clearly on the one key gender difference: in the expressivity of people’s own emotions.
  • In “Taking Psychology with You,” we added a short paragraph on road rage.

 

 

Chapter 12   Motivation

 

  • We have beefed up (so to speak) our treatment of the genetic and environmental causes of overweight and obesity; we include the latest evidence on some of the specific genes involved in certain kinds of  obesity and on situational causes of obesity, including the growing sizes of typical servings of food and drink in America.
  • We expanded our discussion of how cultural norms and expectations affect people’s notions of the ideal body and help to create eating disorders. We note how in 2006, Fashion Week organizers in Spain announced they would ban super-thin models. We cite a new meta-analysis showing that women’s levels of dissatisfaction with their bodies, once highest for Anglo women, are now just as high among Asian-American, African-American, and Hispanic women.  Unhappiness with one’s body, in turn, increases the likelihood of disordered eating. We report a recent study of women students from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan who were studying in the United States; those who had internalized Western notions of the ultra-thin ideal were more likely to develop symptoms of eating disorders.
  • We have expanded our discussion of the growing problem of eating disorders and body-image distortions among boys and men. One study of Chinese men in Taiwan and pastoral nomads of northern Kenya found that the heavily muscled male body is not regarded as attractive in these cultures, and these cultures do not promote media images of muscular males. 
  • Under “The Biology of Love,” we added recent research on the role of oxytocin, not only in the mother-infant bond but also in the bond between lovers and in affection and trust between friends.
  • In discussing the attachment theory of love, we added recent research showing that securely attached people are more compassionate and helpful than insecurely attached people, and are quicker to understand and forgive their partners if the partner does something thoughtless or annoying.
  • We added a recent study of how college women define rape: About half of all women who report a sexual assault that meets the legal definition of rape–being forced to engage in sexual acts against their will–do not label it as such.
  • In the discussion of culture, gender, and sex, we added a meta-analysis of 530 studies, showing that in America, young people’s sexual attitudes and behavior changed dramatically between 1943 and 1999, with the largest changes occurring among girls and young women.  Approval of premarital sex leapt from 12 percent to 73 percent among young women, and from 40 percent to 79 percent among young men; feelings of sexual guilt decreased sharply for both sexes; and, for women, average age at first intercourse dropped sharply. 
  • The “Biology and” feature in this chapter is on sexual orientation and expands our discussion of material in 8E.   Here we added two provocative lines of evidence for a biological component in sexual orientation.  One is the “brother effect”: the probability of a man’s becoming gay rises significantly according to the number of older brothers he has–gay or not–when these brothers are born of the same mother. This effect has nothing to do with family environment, but rather with conditions within the womb before birth.  A second line of research involves hormones and odors: the brain activity of homosexual women in response to the odors of hormones is similar to that of heterosexual men, as is the brain activity of gay men and heterosexual women.  We added a discussion of the conflict within the conservative Christian community on the nature of homosexuality and the issue of gay marriage.
  • Because we consider the subject of intrinsic motivation in learning so essential–to students in this course or any other!–we now feature the work of Carol Dweck and her associates in the Close-up feature. Although we had reported some of their findings about performance versus mastery goals in the previous edition, in this feature we go into their research in more depth, showing how they defined terms and designed their revealing experiments.
  • In the discussion of how opportunities to achieve affect actual achievement, we added some information about the rising numbers of women in engineering, math, and science.  As these percentages have increased, the view that women are not suited to engineering, math, and science is fading.  In this section, we deleted a paragraph on the glass ceiling.
  • Under “Motives, Values, and Well-being,” we added research showing that although people imagine that greater wealth will bring greater happiness, once they are at a level that provides basic comfort and security, more isn’t necessarily better. They adjust quickly to the greater wealth and then think they need more of it to be happier.
  • We deleted the large and complicated figure that had been at the very end of the chapter, illustrating the findings from the cross-cultural study of Koreans and Americans on their hierarchy of values.  We kept the study itself.

 

 

Chapter 13   Theories of Personality

 

  • Because Madonna has reinvented herself once again since the last edition, we included her latest personality incarnation on her “Confessions” tour, which superseded her “Re-inventions” tour of so long ago (that is, 2004).
  • We added some of the recent applications of object-relations theory, for example, in predicting whether a client will benefit from psychotherapy, in helping people deal with disabilities and losses, and even in trying to explain why some distrustful, cynical people harass others on the Internet.
  • We kept our discussion of Cattell and his use of factor analysis in identifying core traits, but deleted mention of the 16 Personality Factors Questionnaire on the grounds that it is not in widespread use today. We also cut the point that Cattell himself in his later years had noted that only six of the factors on his questionnaire had been confirmed.
  • We deleted some of the regional variations in studies of the Big Five personality dimensions, such as an older study suggesting that seven factors were needed to capture personality dimensions in Spanish and that only three of the Big Five were replicated in Italy; both have been superseded by new evidence.  We now describe that evidence, including one research project that gathered data from thousands of people across 50 cultures and found that the Big Five do appear nearly everywhere.
  • We deleted mention of a study in which people kept records of their feelings and behavior for two weeks, and everyone revealed each of the Big Five traits to some degree, depending on the situation.
  • In “Biology and Animal Traits,” we expanded our previous discussion of personalities in nonhuman animals.  To date, most of the Big Five traits have been identified in 64 species–including octupuses, dogs, bears, hyenas, and goats.
  • We shortened the discussion of temperaments by deleting many of Jerome Kagan’s personal comments on his longitudinal research, along with some of the details of that research, and by deleting mention of Suomi’s work with rhesus monkeys, which was never published in a peer-reviewed journal. 
  • In our discussion of temperament, we added an important longitudinal study that demonstrates the interaction of genetic predisposition and parental treatment; it found that among children born with a genetic predisposition to extreme shyness and fearfulness, only those who had a certain gene and whose mothers had little social support (which increases stress) were still very shy at age 7. 
  • The Close-up feature examines, in greater depth and with more detail about research procedures than we had in the eighth edition, Richard Nisbett’s and his colleagues’ work on testosterone, male aggression, and cultures of honor.
  • Under “The Inner Experience,” we added a new section on narrative approaches to personality.  This section reflects a growing emphasis, in research and psychotherapy, on how the stories we tell about our lives create a guiding identity and core sense of who we are.  In the section “Evaluating Humanist and Narrative Approaches,” we describe research that confirms the unifying role of these stories in shaping our distinctive personalities.

 

 

Chapter 14   Development over the Life Span

 

  • We deleted a long historical paragraph from the former introduction about how, during the first half of the twentieth century, most people shared a common life trajectory that seemed to divide up into distinct stages.
  • We made a correction to be technically accurate: the germinal stage begins at fertilization, not at “conception” as we had said.  We also corrected a statement about neural development: Although it used to be thought that the last trimester was the most important time for growth of the nervous system, we now know that important events in neural development occur throughout gestation.
  • In the discussion of prenatal influences on fetal development, we added several other negative consequences of maternal cigarette smoking for the child’s later development: hyperactivity, learning difficulties, and even antisocial behavior. Because this section is on prenatal influences, we deleted mention of how fathers’ drug use can affect sperm, also causing fetal defects. 
  • In the section on developmental milestones, we deleted the extended example of how cultural changes in baby-care practices–e.g., putting babies on their backs to sleep–can delay the “milestone” for crawling.
  • Under contributions to insecure attachment, we added a South African longitudinal study of the consequences of maternal postpartum depression, including an increased risk of the child’s becoming insecurely attached at 18 months.    
  • In the discussion of Piaget, we revised and clarified the stage of concrete operations.  We discuss what children can do at this stage as well as what they cannot. We define the meaning of “concrete” more clearly: Children’s emerging abilities remain tied to actual experiences they have had or concepts that have a tangible meaning to them. So children at this stage still make errors of reasoning when they are asked to think about abstract ideas (“patriotism” or “future education”) or things that are not physically at hand.  We deleted the sentence that children at this stage do not yet understand the nature of identity (that a girl does not turn into a boy by wearing a boy’s hat); this point is discussed later.
  • Under modifications and corrections of Piaget’s theory, we added a major one: that cognitive development is spurred by the growing speed and efficiency of information processing.  Children reason just as Piaget said they do, with the tasks he gave them, but subsequent cognitive research has discovered why their thinking changes.  As children mature, their working memory expands, they become better able to inhibit irrelevant and distracting thoughts and focus on a problem, and their general speed of processing increases–all of which helps them reason more logically and efficiently.
  • We made major deletions and revisions in the section on moral development. Moral reasoning used to be the main topic in development chapters because there was not much to say about moral development otherwise.  But in recent years, there has been much research in developmental psychology on how children learn to resist temptation, regulate their own impulses and wishes, “be good,” treat others well, and so on, and we wanted to include material from these new lines of research.   Moreover, over the years, we had been reducing coverage of Kohlberg’s theory and Gilligan’s rebuttal to it because these theories have simply not held up. Gilligan’s notion of gender differences in moral reasoning was not supported by many subsequent studies, so in this edition we decided there was no reason for students to have to learn it–only to learn that it was later discredited.  Likewise, we were devoting less and less space to what was right about Kohlberg’s stages of moral reasoning than to what was wrong with them: e.g., that moral reasoning is often an artifact of education and culture, that the way people reason is specific to the moral dilemma and the social situation, and, most of all, that the ability to reason morally is not related to moral behavior. 
  •  Although we still mention Kohlberg and the importance of his work to this general area, we replaced most of the discussion of moral reasoning with research more directly related to moral behavior and conscience: the development of self-regulation.  The Close-up feature examines the relationships between maternal use of induction as a discipline technique, the child’s ability to exert “effortful control” over his or her impulses, and the emergence of conscience.
  • Under “Gender and the Life Span,” we deleted a short paragraph about the “gender crossover”–that gender differences in interests and motivations are greatest in childhood and adolescence and then decline significantly in adulthood. But we added the point that in today’s fast-moving world, gender norms keep shifting.  Gender development has become a lifelong process, in which people’s gender schemas, attitudes, and behavior evolve as people have new experiences and as society itself changes.
  • We cut some of the physical details of boys’ and girls’ growth spurts in puberty.
  • We deleted the now-dated finding that in 1998—1999, when the shooting spree at Columbine High School occurred, the total number of violent deaths in all American schools was 30, out of 52 million students.
  • We deleted mention of popular books, such as Reviving Ophelia, which have claimed that in early adolescence, girls undergo a huge plummet in self-esteem from which many never fully recover. However, we kept the meta-analysis showing that the sexes do not appreciably differ in self-esteem, including during adolescence.
  • The “Biology and” feature is on biology and the teen brain, and expands material from the eighth edition.  We invite students to consider the evidence when thinking about whether adolescence should be considered a condition of diminished responsibility.
  • In the section “Stages and Ages,” following Erik Erikson, we deleted a long paragraph on a study that had followed the life paths of three groups: people who were traditional and conservative, those who pursued recognition and achievement, and those who were nontraditional “seekers” of wisdom and knowledge.  We now simply make the point that there are many life paths that people follow in their adult years.
  • We added yet another recent study discrediting the myth that menopause is devastating, physically and emotionally, to most women.  Fewer than half the women in the study reported physical symptoms and only five percent of those complained of mood symptoms.
  • We added the point that although men do not lose their fertility in their middle and late years, their sperm become more susceptible to genetic mutations that can increase the risk of disorders in children they conceive, including schizophrenia and autism.
  • We changed the last section from “Are Adults Prisoners of Childhood?” to “The Wellsprings of Resilience” to reflect the growing literature on resilience–recovery from disaster, deprivation, and early trauma.  For example, we added mention of a study comparing thousands of Holocaust survivors with a similar cohort of Jews born in America; it found that the survivors showed resiliency and successful integration into their new lives rather than persisting traumatic distress. We expanded discussion of the factors that are related to resilience, including having healthy and secure attachments.

 

 

Chapter 15   Health, Stress, and Coping

 

  • In the discussion of psychoneuroimmunology, we deleted the point that the bacterium that causes peptic ulcers (H. pylori) is necessary but not always sufficient; psychological factors also play a role.  But we added recent research conducted at the very level of cell damage to see how stress can lead to illness, aging, and even premature death.  At the end of every chromosome is a protein complex that tells the cell how long it has to live.  Every time a cell divides, enzymes whittle away a tiny piece of this protein; when it is reduced to almost nothing, the cell stops dividing and dies. One team of researchers compared two groups of healthy women between the ages of 20 and 50: some who had healthy children and some who were primary caregivers of a child chronically ill with a serious disease. The mothers of the sick children had significantly greater cell damage than did the mothers of healthy children.
  • In this section, we added evidence that feeling poor in relation to your surroundings is actually more detrimental to health than literally being poor, even controlling for all the health disadvantages of poor diet and poor medical care. In the United States, low socioeconomic status predicts poor health most strongly in communities with the greatest inequality between rich and poor.
  • In the section on emotions and illness, we clarified the relationship between depression and heart disease (significant) and between depression and cancer (not demonstrated), based on recent research.
  • In the section on positive emotions, we added a daily-diary study showing that students who have the highest emotional well-being have a ratio of positive to negative emotions of at least 3 to 1.  
  • We deleted the brief mention of the team of psychologists who successfully inoculated elementary-school children against becoming pessimistic and depressed in adolescence by teaching them optimistic attitudes; this study is cited in Chapter 17, in the section on cognitive-behavioral approaches to treating depression. 
  • In discussing primary and secondary control, we mention a study of college students for whom academic success depended on combining both: maintaining enough primary control to keep working hard and learning to study better, and coming to terms with the fact that success was not going to drop into their laps without effort.
  • The Close-up feature is on “Hugs and Health.” It focuses on a study showing that women undergoing the stressful procedure of an MRI had higher levels of oxytocin, and lower blood pressure and heart rate, when their husbands simply touched their ankle during the procedure. The touch of a stranger was more helpful than no touch at all, but not as helpful as a loving husband’s. 
  • Sadly, we decided to delete our favorite paragraph, on how cultivating a sense of humor is important for health. In the eighth edition, we reported Rod Martin’s meta-analysis finding that having a good sense of humor or watching funny movies won’t help anyone live longer, avoid the flu, or recover from injury faster. So this time around, we just make the point that a sense of humor is a wonderful thing to have and a terrific way to cope with stress, but you’ll probably still get the flu anyway.

 

 

Chapter 16   Psychological Disorders

 

  • In the introduction, we added an example of a controversial “disorder” that students might relate to–so-called Internet addiction–and revisit this problem at the end of the chapter.
  • Also at the beginning, we caution against pathologizing the normal problems of life.  We cite a recent national sample survey finding that only about seven percent of people suffer from mental illnesses that are seriously debilitating, but that nearly half, at some time in their lives, temporarily fall prey to severe anxiety, depression, drug abuse, and other problems that can make their lives miserable.
  • In considering the dangers of overdiagnosis, we added a longitudinal study of 4- to 6-year-olds, which found that the number of children who met the criteria for ADHD declined over time.  Some remained highly impulsive and unable to concentrate, but others simply matured.
  • In discussing problems with projective tests, we report a major review of the misuse of projective tests in child-custody assessments.  A panel of psychological scientists concluded that “these measures assess ill-defined constructs, and they do so poorly, leaving no scientific justification for their use in child custody evaluations.”
  • In the expanded discussion of the lack of empirical support for the Rorschach, we dropped mention of Exner’s comprehensive system. 
  • We revised the discussion of the factors that predict which survivors of traumatic experiences will recover and which ones are likely to continue having PTSD symptoms.  One factor is having a catastrophizing cognitive style; another has to do with having a genetically determined smaller hippocampus, which is involved in autobiographical memory.
  • We added new research suggesting that OCD is not a single, unified disorder: One subtype afflicts pathological hoarders, who have less activity in parts of the brain involved in decision making, problem solving, spatial orientation, and memory.
  • We reorganized and clarified the factors contributing to major depression.  We divided the former second entry, “Life experiences and circumstances,” into two factors: life experiences and losses of important relationships.  The “experiences” category includes a new study of how domestic abuse contributes to depression in women.  However, under cognitive factors, we finally deleted mention of Seligman’s 1975 theory of learned helplessness, given that not all depressed people have actually failed in their lives, and even living in painful or “helpless” situations does not make everyone depressed.
  • The Close-up on Research examines the difference between rumination (brooding about and rehearsing one’s negative and hurt feelings) and reflection (thinking about negative emotions in a way that leads to reducing them).
  • In considering genetic factors involved in psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder, we note that more than 100 studies have investigated the role of genetic influences, and meta-analyses find that genes account for 40 to 50 percent of the variation in antisocial behavior.
  • In discussing how addiction depends not only on the properties of a drug but on people’s motives for taking it, we note that this is why people who are searching for escape and euphoria will find a way to abuse any mood-altering drug, including painkillers and even the stimulants in flu medication.   
  • Instructors who are interested in the fascinating story of the rise and fall of multiple personality disorder may want to delve further into the famous case of Sybil, a huge hit as a book, film, and television special. As we note, Sybil never had a traumatic childhood of sexual abuse, she did not have multiple personality disorder, and her “symptoms” were largely generated by her psychiatrist.
  • In the section on schizophrenia, we dropped the confusing (and arbitrary) distinction between positive and negative symptoms.  But we added a fifth, crucial category of symptoms of this disorder–impaired cognitive abilities, which include deficiencies in verbal learning and recall of words and stories, language, perception, working memory, selective attention, and problem solving.
  • In our discussion of genetic predispositions involved in schizophrenia, we note that researchers have recently identified a gene, called DISC1 or “disrupted-in-schizophrenia.”  It appears to be involved in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, which share severe disturbances of emotion and cognition.  
  • In the final section, “Mental Disorder and Personal Responsibility,” we reconsider the issue of whether Internet addiction is a true addiction or simply a problem in life. And we update the story of Andrea Yates, whose conviction for murdering her children was overturned on appeal; she was then found not guilty by reason of insanity and sentenced to a mental institution. 

 

 

Chapter 17   Approaches to Treatment and Therapy

 

  • In our description of antipsychotic medications, we report a new federally funded study showing that although newer (and more expensive) drugs have been promoted as being safer and more effective than older medications, the older ones are often just as effective in alleviating symptoms.
  • In our discussion of the unknown risks of medication, we note that many psychiatrists are increasingly prescribing cocktails of medications–such as one for anxiety, one for depression, plus another to manage the side effects.  They report anecdotal success in some cases, but as yet there has been no research on the benefits and risks of these combination approaches.
  • In the section on couples therapy, we have added a discussion of the growing numbers of couples therapists who are moving away from the “fix all the differences” approach and are instead helping couples learn to accept and live with qualities in both partners that aren’t going to change much.
  • We have reorganized the section called “Evaluating Psychotherapy.”  We now begin with “The Therapeutic Alliance” and the qualities of both parties that contribute to successful therapy.  Under “Culture and the Therapeutic Alliance,” we discuss why misunderstandings and prejudice may be one reason that Asian-American, Latino, and African-American clients are more likely to stay in therapy when their therapists’ ethnicity matches their own.  A cultural match can be important because it often makes it more likely that clients and therapists share perceptions of what the client’s problem is, agree on the best way of coping, and have the same expectations about what therapy can accomplish.  We have added work by Latino psychotherapists, who have observed that Latino clients are also more likely than Anglos to value harmony in their relationships, which often translates into an unwillingness to express negative emotions or confront family members or friends directly.  Therapists therefore need to help such clients find ways to communicate better within that context.
  • Following discussion of the therapeutic alliance, we raise the issue of the “scientist-practitioner gap” and the problem of whether and how various therapeutic methods can be assessed.  We have revised the opening discussion to clarify the issues on each side: Why some practitioners think that therapy cannot be evaluated the way, say, medication can; and why others think that evaluation, through the use of randomized trials with control groups, is essential to good clinical practice.
  • The Close-up feature examines such evaluations of Critical Incident Stress Debriefing, a widely used intervention in the aftermath of trauma and natural disasters. The surprising results show that most people recover within a few months of a traumatic event; even those who were most greatly traumatized at the time of the event are fine in a few months–as long as they do not get CISD, which actually blocks improvement in many sufferers and perpetuates their stress symptoms. This discussion illustrates the importance of research for clinical practice.
  • We have included two effective problem-focused kinds of therapy: motivational interviewing, used particularly for problem drinking, and multisystemic therapy, which combines methods in an effort to reduce teenage violence, criminal activity, drug abuse, and school problems in troubled inner-city communities.  
  • In the section “When Therapy Harms,” we explain the assumptions that underlie “rebirthing” and “attachment therapies,” and the unvalidated, indeed dangerous, methods their practitioners use when supposedly helping children bond with their parents. These techniques include withholding food, isolating the children for extended periods, humiliating them, wrapping them in sheets or blankets, pressing great weights upon them, requiring them to exercise to exhaustion or, conversely, to spend hours sitting motionless.  These punishments are ineffective in treating behavior problems and often backfire, making the child angry, resentful, and withdrawn.

 

AN INVITATION TO PSYCHOLOGY.

1. The Science of Psychology.

2. How Psychologists Do Research.

BIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR.

3. Evolution, Genes, and Behavior.

4. Neurons, Hormones, and the Brain.

5. Body Rhythms and Mental States.

6. Sensation and Perception.

THE ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR.

7. Learning and Conditioning.

8. Behavior in Social and Cultural Context.

THINKING AND FEELING.

9. Thinking and Intelligence.

10. Memory.

11. Emotion.

12. Motivation.

THE DEVELOPING PERSON.

13. Theories of Personality.

14. Development Over the Lifespan.

HEALTH AND DISORDER.

15. Health, Stress and Coping.

16. Psychological Disorders.

17. Approaches to Treatment and Therapy.

EPILOGUE: TAKING PSYCHOLOGY WITH YOU.

Appendix: Statistical Methods.

Carole Wade is affiliated with the Dominican University in California. Her Ph.D. is in cognitive psychology and her areas of interest include gender, ethnicity and a focus on the teaching and development of critical thinking skills.

Carol Tavris earned her Ph.D. in social psychology and as a writer and lecturer focuses on educating the public about the importance of critical and scientific thinking in psychology.

Dr. Wade and Dr. Tavris are Fellows of the American Psychological Association and charter members of the American Psychological Society.

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