New in This Version

Overall

• The narrative now employs “we,” “us,” or “our” pronouns, which many students find more inviting and engaging
• References were scrutinized to retain the classics while ensuring all other citations are current
• Chapter titles were revised to be more descriptive
• In-text citations were removed to increase ease of reading for students with developing reading skills. Numbered footnotes are used in their place
• Practice quiz questions are now embedded in the online reader so they can be autograded

By Chapter

Chapter 1: Introduction to Psychology

• Greater emphasis on key critical thinking traits (chapter opener)
• Research Focus draws upon two archival studies of the left-digit bias (Section 1.2: Psychology as a Science )
• Overview of the history of psychology moved to a dedicated appendix for more flexible assignment (Appendix A)
• Presents seven integrating themes based on the findings of the 2021 APA Introductory Psychology Initiative (Section 1.3: Themes)
• New coverage of Wilhelm Wundt and four other psychologists emphasizing their impact on our daily lives or popular culture, psychology’s perspectives and disciplines, and evidence-based study strategies  (Section 1.4: Psychology’s History: Yesterday and Today)

Chapter 2: Research Methods: The Science of Psychology

• Try This! explains how to read a research journal article (chapter opener)
• Changes to Section 2.2: Psychologists Use Descriptive, Correlational, and Experimental Research Designs to Understand Behavior
  • Two new studies:  Transgender athlete and African-American women working in STEM fields
  • Includes APA’s 2021 Stress in America survey findings
  • Clarified discussion of random sampling using a new Pew Research Center video and revised Try This! box that describes how students can use decks of cards to see population sampling in action
  • Examples of naturalistic observation pared down and descriptive statistic discussions deleted
  • Explanation of correlations focuses on third variables and the difference between positive and negative correlations. Example introduces newer research on happiness and TV watching
  • Expanded sub-section on experiments to better explain experimental design and random assignment. New Try This! on random assignment.
  • Introduces SIFT test (stop, investigate, find, and trace) technique for critical thinking about psychological research in the news. The content on research validity was removed (Section 2.3: Critical Thinking about Psychological Research in the News)

Chapter 3: Biological Psychology: The Brain at Work

• Changes to Section 3.1: The Neuron is the Building Block of the Nervous System
  • Simplified description of neurons  
  • New BrainFacts.org video on neural communication in addition to new coverage of agonists and antagonists, reuptake inhibitors, and enzyme inhibitors.
  • New  Research Focus box on randomized controlled trials, placebo effect, experimenter bias, and double-blind studies
  • New video of conjoined twins highlights how the thalamus plays a role in sensing our surroundings (Section 3.2: Our Brains Control Our Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior)

Chapter 4: Sensation and Perception: Experiencing the World Around Us

• Better defines the difference between sensation and perception using the blue-black/gold-white dress example (chapter opener)
• New NSF video on blindsight (Section 4.1: We Experience Our World Through Sensation)
• Subliminal stimulation deleted (Section 4.1: We Experience Our World Through Sensation)
• Changes to Section 4.2: Vision
  • New feature on how to see infrared that illustrates the limits of human vision
  • Better illustrated discussion of wavelength, how the eye’s cones respond, and the color we see
  • The sub-section on perceiving motion was deleted  
• Changes to Section 4.3: Hearing
  • New image illustrating the difference between pitch and frequency
  • Updated summary table of decibel levels for common sounds  
  • New Try This! box encourages students to download a free decibel meter app to their phones and measure decibel levels around them
  • New video showing the cochlea’s cilia at work
• New coverage of supertasters, non-tasters, and COVID-19 as a potential cause of anosmia (Section 4.4: Taste, Smell, Touch, Proprioception, and Balance)
• Changes in Section 4.5: Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Perception
  • Replaced videos on the McGurk effect and selective attention  
  • Added coverage of synesthesia
  • New images illustrating shape constancy and color constancy
  • Research Focus on embodiment deleted
  • Added coverage of perceptual set, including a Try This! box using the duck/rabbit drawing 

Chapter 5: Consciousness: Sleep, Drugs, and Other Mental States

• New coverage of the importance of sleep to athletes (chapter opener)
• Changes to Section 5.1: Sleeping and Dreaming Revitalize Us for Action
  • Added discussion of chronotypes
  • New BrainFacts.org video on sleep stages
  • Updated recommended hours of sleep summary table
  • New sleep deprivation infographic from Johns Hopkins University
  • New list of tips on how to get better sleep
  • Coverage of sleep disorders now follows sleep deprivation
  • New BBC News video on narcolepsy
• Changes to Section 5.2: Altered Consciousness: Psychoactive Drugs
  • Updated psychoactive drugs summary table. Columns for psychological dependence, physical dependence, and addiction potential have been replaced with symptoms of overdose, long-term effects, and symptoms of withdrawal.
  • Updated summary of opioid use in the U.S.
• Changes to Section 5.3: Altered Consciousness: Hypnosis, Meditation, and Flow
  • Section on sensory deprivation was deleted
  • Added sub-section on flow
  • New meditation video
  • Feature on escaping everyday consciousness was deleted

Chapter 6: Development: Changes Across Our Lifetime

• New chapter opening story focuses on two sets of identical twins from Colombia who were switched at birth (Chapter Six opener)
• The table of Erikson’s stages was deleted (chapter opener)  
• New National Geographic video on pregnancy (Section 6.1: Conception and Prenatal Development)
• Epigenetics feature was moved into its own chapter sub-section and expanded (Section 6.1: Conception and Prenatal Development)
• Changes to Section 6.2: Infancy and Childhood: Exploring and Learning
  • New stages of labor and theory of mind videos
  • Replaced conservation video with a more updated selection
  • Expanded coverage of attachment and temperament
• New feature on gender identity (Section 6.3: Adolescence: Developing Independence and Identity)
• Moral reasoning section was deleted (Section 6.3: Adolescence: Developing Independence and Identity)
• Expanded feature on parenting styles to reflect cross-cultural research (Section 6.4: Early and Middle Adulthood: Building Effective Lives)
• New graphs summarize changes in age for first marriage and divorce rates (Section 6.4: Early and Middle Adulthood: Building Effective Lives)
• Coverage of death, dying, and bereavement was deleted (Section 6.5 Late Adulthood: Aging and Retiring)

Chapter 7: Learning

• New chapter opening story on “Hero Rats” that are trained to sniff out landmines and tuberculosis, including a link to a TED Talk video of the project’s founder (chapter opener)
• New feature explains how Pavlov’s bell was actually a buzzer and how a mistranslation of the words “conditional” and “unconditional” became “conditioned” and “unconditioned” (Section 7.1: Classical Conditioning: Learning by Associating Stimuli)
• New sub-section presents examples of classical conditioning: phobias, drug use, and food aversion (Section 7.1: Classical Conditioning: Learning by Associating Stimuli)
• Three new Try This! features encourage students to identify the types of reinforcement and punishment, schedules of reinforcement, and use reinforcement in their own lives (Section 7.2: Operant Conditioning: Learning by Associating a Behavior with Consequences)
• Several new examples, including classical conditioning in advertising, operant conditioning to change our own behavior, and operant conditioning in social dilemmas (Section 7.3: Using Principles of Learning to Understand Everyday Behavior)

Chapter 8: Memory and Cognition: Remembering and Thinking

• New chapter opening story features face blindness and facial super recognition (chapter opener).
• Operant conditioning is used in a cognitive map that illustrates elaborative encoding
• Changes to Section 8.2: How We Remember: Cues to Improving Memory
  • Added discussion of self-reference effect in Research Focus
  • Additional Research Focus on the testing effect
  • New TED Talk video on the hippocampus’s role in memory
• Changes to Section 8.3: Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Memory and Cognition
  • Source monitoring is renamed as source confusion
  • Salience and cognitive accessibility have been removed
  • Sub-section on the availability heuristic includes two new examples: firearms deaths and physician decision-making regarding vaginal or abdominal births
  • Cognitive Biases in the Real World feature was deleted

Chapter 9: Intelligence and Language: Processing Information and Communication

• New chapter opening story features a TED Talk on how language influences how we think (chapter opener).
• Significant revision to the chapter’s overall intelligence coverage
• Section 9.1: Defining and Measuring Cognitive Intelligence now focuses specifically on cognitive intelligence
• New Section 9.2: Theories of Specific Intelligences discusses the theory of multiple intelligences, the augmented theory of successful intelligence, emotional intelligence, and cultural intelligence

Chapter 10: Emotions and Motivation: What Drives Us

• New chapter opening story features research on stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic and a file download for both U.S. and international. crisis helplines (chapter opener)
• This chapter is significantly revised and features several new sub-sections: behavioral aspects of emotion, physiological aspects of emotion, functions of emotions, and controlling emotions. Discussion of basic emotions was deleted
• New focus on subjective well-being and the PERMA model (Section 10.3: The Power of Happiness)
• Changes to Section 10.4: Motivation: Eating, Sexual Behavior, and Achievement
  • Added coverage of binge eating disorder and a new video from the National Eating Disorders Association that provides eating disorder warning signs
  • New video from ASAP Science covers the science of orgasms
  • New Research Focus box describes a study that found a relationship between ovulation and tips received by lap dancers
  • New section on achievement was added, including a TED Talk video on growth mindset

Chapter 11: Social Psychology: Interacting with Those Around Us

• New chapter opening story features three examples of people putting their own lives at risk to save the lives of strangers (chapter opener).
• New video from TV 2 Denmark illustrates ingroups and outgroups
• Relationships are put in the context of zones: intimate, personal, social, and public (Section 11.1: Social Cognition: Making Sense of Ourselves and Others)
• Added discussion of the sunk cost fallacy as an example of cognitive dissonance (Section 11.1: Social Cognition: Making Sense of Ourselves and Others)
• Changes to Section 11.2: Interacting with Others: Helping, Hurting, and Conforming
  • Prosocial behavior was added to introduce altruism
  • Quotes from the five major world religions are used to help illustrate the social responsibility norm
  • Kitty Genovese’s murder was deleted, and new examples illustrate the bystander effect and overcoming the bystander effect
  • New excerpt from a TED Talk illustrates how unfair treatment can lead to aggression even in monkeys
  • New video of a music festival dance party illustrates minority influence
• The table of techniques for improving group performance was condensed (Section 11.3: Working with Others: The Costs and Benefits of Social Groups)
• Do Juries Make Good Decisions feature was deleted (Section 11.3: Working with Others: The Costs and Benefits of Social Groups)

Chapter 12: Personality: Development and Measurement 

• New chapter opening story features a TED Talk on introversion (chapter opener)  
• Changes to Section 12.1: Personality and Behavior: Approaches and Measurement
  • Added discussion of the HEXACO model following the Big Five
  • New feature on why the MBTI is not a good measure of personality
  • New section on personality and work, including a new feature on leadership
  • Coverage of the Barnum effect was moved to its own sub-section
  • The sub-section on personality genetics was moved to Section 12.2
  • The concluding section is now titled “History: Personality Theory’s Early Years”
  • Discussions of Phrenology and body types, projective tests, and the Research Focus feature on preferred motivations were deleted

Chapter 13: Psychological Disorders: Defining Mental Illness

• New chapter opening story features a TED Talk on the value and harm a mental illness diagnosis can bring (chapter opener)
• Changes to Section 13.1: Mental Illness: What Makes a Behavior “Abnormal?”
  • Discussion of prevalence was deleted
  • Psychopathology and mental illness added as new key terms
  • Expanded discussion of the biopsychosocial model to embrace culture (now the biopsychosociocultural model)
  • Replaced the DSM disorders summary table with a file download of the DSM-V’s table of contents
• Changes to Section 13.2: Anxiety and Trauma-Related Disorders
  • The table of most common phobias was deleted
  • A table of common symptoms was added to the sub-section on obsessive compulsive disorder  (OCD)
  • Acute stress disorder was added to the section on PTSD
  • The sub-section on dissociative disorders was removed
  • The Research Focus on molecular genetics was removed
• A new personal narrative on the experience of schizophrenia replaces the previous video (Section 13.4: Schizophrenia)
• A feature explaining the differences between antisocial personality disorder, psychopathy, and sociopathy was added (Section 13.5: Personality Disorders)
• The Research Focus on deficits in BPD was deleted (Section 13.5: Personality Disorders)
• Coverage of physical, sexual, eating, and sleeping disorders was deleted (previous Section 13.6). Eating disorders are covered in 10.4. Sleeping disorders are covered in 5.1.

Chapter 14: Therapy: Coping with Life’s Changes

• New chapter opening story features a TED Talk on the stigma of seeking help to improve mental health and includes a new box describing the different types of mental health practitioners (chapter opener)
• Changes to Section 14.1: Psychotherapy
  • Now opens with three new sections: Finding a Psychotherapist, The First Psychotherapy Session, and The Psychotherapist’s Code of Ethics.
  • The types of psychotherapy have been re-ordered into three main categories. The first category is comprised of psychoanalysis, psychodynamic therapy, and interpersonal therapy. The second is humanistic approaches. The third category includes behavior, cognitive, and cognitive-behavior therapies.
• New coverage and a graph on gender differences in type of mental health treatment (Section 14.2: Biomedical Therapies)
• Discussion of propranolol was added to the section on antianxiety medications (Section 14.2: Biomedical Therapies)
• Research Focus box on the IAT and suicide was removed (Section 14.3: Environmentally Based Treatment)
• The effectiveness of biomedical therapies has been broken into two new sections: effectiveness of drug therapy and effectiveness of combined psychotherapy and drug therapy (Section 14.4: Evaluating Treatment and Prevention: What Works?)
• The effectiveness of social-community approaches has been rewritten to discuss some different approaches used to improve community mental health (Section 14.4: Evaluating Treatment and Prevention: What Works?) 

Appendix A: The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions now covers the traditional history of psychology in a flexible and easily assigned module