Discovering Psychology Seventh Edition

Book Preface

TO THE INSTRUCTOR
Welcome to the seventh edition of Discovering Psychology!
We’ve been gratified by the enthusiastic response to the six previous editions of Discovering Psychology. We’ve especially enjoyed the e-mails and letters we’ve received from students who felt that our book was speaking directly to them. Students and faculty alike have told us how much they appreciated Discovering Psychology’s distinctive voice, its inviting learning environment, the engaging writing style, and the clarity of its explanations—qualities we’ve maintained in the seventh edition.
But as you’ll quickly see, this new edition is marked by exciting new changes: a fresh new look, a stronger and more explicit emphasis on scientific literacy, a digital experience that is more tightly integrated for both students and instructors, and most important—a new co-author! More about these features later.

Before we wrote the first word of the first edition, we had a clear vision for this book: Combine the scientific authority of psychology with a narrative that engages students and relates to their lives. Drawing from decades (yes, it really has been decades) of teaching experience, we’ve written a book that weaves cutting-edge psychological science with real-life stories that draw students of all kinds into the narrative.

While there is much that is new, this edition of Discovering Psychology ref lects our continued commitment to the goals that have guided us as teachers and authors.
Once again, we invite you to explore every page of the new edition of Discovering Psychology, so you can see firsthand how we:
• Communicate both the scientific rigor and the personal relevance of psychology
• Encourage and model critical and scientific thinking
• Show how classic psychological studies help set the stage for today’s research
• Clearly explain psychological concepts and the relationships among them
• Present controversial topics in an impartial and evenhanded fashion
• Expand students’ awareness of cultural and gender influences
• Create a student-friendly, personal learning environment
• Provide an effective pedagogical system that helps students develop more effective learning strategies

What’s New in the Seventh Edition:
Big Changes!
We began the revision process with the thoughtful recommendations and feedback we received from hundreds of faculty using the text, from reviewers, from colleagues, and from students. We also had face-to-face dialogues with our own students as well as groups of students across the country. As you’ll quickly see, the seventh edition marks a major step in the evolution of Discovering Psychology. We’ll begin by summarizing the biggest changes to this edition—starting with the most important: a new co-author!

Introducing . . . Susan Nolan

We are very excited and pleased to introduce Susan A. Nolan as our new co-author.
When the time came to search for a new collaborator, we looked for someone who was an accomplished researcher, a dedicated teacher, and an engaging writer with a passion for communicating psychological science to a broad audience. A commitment to gender equality and cultural sensitivity, and, of course, a good sense of humor were also requirements, as were energy and enthusiasm. We found that rare individual in Susan A. Nolan, Professor of Psychology at Seton Hall University Susan made several valuable contributions to the sixth edition of Discovering Psychology, and the success of that collaboration prompted our decision to make her a full co- author with this new edition. Ref lecting her expertise in clinical, personality, and social psychology, and her background in gender, culture, and diversity studies, Susan revised Chapter 7, Thinking, Language, and Intelligence; Chapter 9, Lifespan Development; Chapter 10, Personality; Chapter 11, Social Psychology; Chapter 12, Stress, Health, and Coping; Chapter 13, Psychological Disorders; and Chapter 14, Therapies. And, she participated fully in our text-wide decisions about design, photographs, art, and content. Beyond the text, she’s been fully involved in the development of some exciting new digital resources for the new edition. But more on that below.

New Emphasis on Scientific Literacy

As psychology instructors well know, students come to psychology with many pre- conceived ideas, some absorbed from popular culture, about the human mind and behavior. These notions are often inaccurate. Complicating matters is the fact that for many students, introductory psychology may be their first college-level science course—meaning that students sometimes have only the vaguest notion of the nature of scientific methodology and evidence. Thus, one important goal for introductory psychology is to teach students how to distinguish fact from opinion, and research-based, empirical findings from something heard from friends or encountered on the Internet.

The importance of this objective is reinforced by the 2013 revision of the APA Guide- lines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major. Scientific Literacy and Critical Thinking is identified as one of its five key goals. Psychology educators agree that the skills students learn in psychology can be as important as the content. Scientific literacy and critical thinking skills can help students in a variety of careers, variety of majors, and can help ensure that students become critical consumers of scientific information in the world around them.
Since the first edition, a hallmark of Discovering Psychology and its sister publication, Psychology, has always been their emphasis on critical and scientific thinking. Psychology was the first introductory psychology textbook to formally discuss and define pseu- dosciences and to distinguish pseudoscience from science. Our trademark Science Versus Pseudoscience boxes, which take a critical look at the evidence for and against phenomena as diverse as graphology, educational videos for infants, and ESP research
have proved very popular among instructors and students alike.

In this new edition, we decided to make the scientific literacy theme even more explicit. These new features are described below.