Since the First Edition of this book appeared, professors have praised its visual presentation of concepts, accessible writing style, and solid research-based scholarship. PSYCHOLOGY: THEMES AND VARIATIONS is about the ideas and concepts behind the research studies. His straightforward style gets students to contemplate open-ended questions, examine their assumptions, and apply psychological concepts to their own lives.

Wayne Weiten surveys psychology's broad range of content with three aims: to illuminate the process of research and its intrinsic relationship to application; to show both the unity and diversity of the subject, and to invite students to the study of psychology by respecting their ability to master its fundamental concepts. Integrative themes--including empiricism, theoretical diversity, sociohistorical contexts, multifactorial causation, cultural heritage, heredity and environment, and subjectivity of experience--are woven throughout the text to provide connections among the different areas of research in psychology. The book's dynamic, teaching-oriented illustration program further enhances these themes. Weiten reinforces concepts through exercises that appear at the end of every chapter. At the same time, the author presents topics in a hierarchical manner, giving students handles they can use to prioritize concepts within the chapter.

主要章节

1. The Evolution of Psychology.

2. The Research Enterprise in Psychology.

3. The Biological bases of Behavior.

4. Sensation and Perception.

5. Variations in Consciousness.

6. Learning.

7. Human Memory.

8. Language and Thought.

9. Intelligence and Psychological Testing.

10. Motivation and Emotion.

11. Human Development Across the Life Span.

12. Personality: Theory, Research, and Assessment.

13. Stress, Coping, and Health.

14. Psychological Disorders.

15. Treatment of Psychological Disorders.

16. Social Behavior.

Appendix A: Answers to Concept Checks.

Appendix B: Statistical Methods.

Appendix C: Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

Appendix D: Evaluating the Quality of Web-Based Resources.

Appendix E: URLs for Recommended Web Links.

Glossary.

References.

Name Index.

Wayne Weiten teaches psychology and mentors teaching assistants at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has received distinguished teaching awards from Division 2 of the American Psychological Association(APA) and from the College of DuPage, where he taught until 1991. He is a Fellow of Divisions 1 and 2 of the APA. In 1996–1997, Weiten served as president of the Society for Teaching Psychology. A trained social psychologist with a very strong quantitative background, his primary area of research is stress and health psychology. Weiten has also conducted research on a wide range of topics, including educational measurement, jury decision-making, attribution theory, stress, and cerebral specialization. He is the co-author of PSYCHOLOGY APPLIED TO MODERN LIFE (Thomson Wadsworth, 2006) and the creator of PSYKTREK: A MULTIMEDIA INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY