Toc: Cover ......Page 1Title Page ......Page 2Copyright Page ......Page 3Brief Contents ......Page 6Contents ......Page 8From the Authors ......Page 14From the Publisher ......Page 18About the Authors ......Page 20Authors' Acknowledgements......Page 211 What Is Psychology?......Page 22Psychology, Pseudoscience, and Popular Opinion......Page 23What Psychology Is......Page 24What Psychology Is Not......Page 25What Is Critical Thinking?......Page 27Guidelines for Critical Thinking......Page 28Thinking Critically and Creatively About Psychological Issues......Page 32The Forerunners of Modern Psychology......Page 35The Birth of Modern Psychology......Page 36Three Early Psychologies......Page 37The Major Perspectives in Psychology......Page 39Feminist Psychology......Page 41Psychological Research......Page 43Psychological Practice......Page 44Psychology in the Community......Page 46BIOLOGY, CULTURE, and Psychology......Page 47Taking Psychology with You: The Nine Secrets of Learning......Page 48Shared Writing Prompt......Page 502 How Psychologists Do Research......Page 55Precision and Reliance on Empirical Evidence......Page 57Skepticism......Page 58Openness......Page 59Research Participants......Page 61Case Studies......Page 63Observational Studies......Page 64Tests......Page 65Surveys......Page 67Measuring Correlations......Page 69Cautions about Correlations......Page 70Experimental Variables......Page 72Experimental and Control Conditions......Page 74Experimenter Effects......Page 75CULTURE and Research......Page 76Descriptive Statistics: Finding Out What’s So......Page 77Inferential Statistics: Asking “So What?”......Page 78Interpreting the Findings......Page 79The Ethics of Studying Human Beings......Page 83The Ethics of Studying Animals......Page 84Taking Psychology with You: Lying with Statistics......Page 86Shared Writing Prompt......Page 873 Genes, Evolution, and Environment......Page 92The Human Genome......Page 94Epigenetics......Page 96Evolution and Natural Selection......Page 98Innate Human Characteristics......Page 101Evolution and Sexual Strategies......Page 103The “Genetic Leash”......Page 104The Meaning of Heritability......Page 107Computing Heritability......Page 109Genes and Individual Differences......Page 111The Question of Group Differences......Page 112The Environment and Intelligence......Page 114Beyond Nature versus Nurture......Page 115Taking Psychology with You: Should You Have Genetic Testing?......Page 117Shared Writing Prompt......Page 1184 The Brain and Nervous System......Page 122The Nervous System: A Basic Blueprint......Page 124The Peripheral Nervous System......Page 125The Structure of the Neuron......Page 128Neurogenesis: The Birth of Neurons......Page 129How Neurons Communicate......Page 131Chemical Messengers in the Nervous System......Page 132Mapping the Bra