Essentials of Psychology

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What’s Your Prediction? activities prompt students to critically consider research methods and their own assumptions about human behavior. Students take on the role of subject, experimenter, or observer, placing themselves into the details of each study and predicting results. 

Psychology Applied spotlights some of the most exciting work being done in areas of health, education, law, sports, and current events, enabling students to see the relevance of psychology as an active participant.

Bite-sized videos support understanding and the applications of foundational studies and concepts.

Psychology Experiment Exercises allows students to learn about experiments such as Gibson’s Visual Cliff and Bandura’s social learning theory, helping them understand the real-world significance and application of these well-known experiments.

Concepts in Action dig deeper into tough concepts, such as differentiating between classical and operant conditioning, difficult biological functions, and types of stress.

Try This! activities guide students through mini-experiments so that they can test intriguing psychological phenomena for themselves. For instance, the “Primacy Effect” activity provides materials to test how something as simple as the order of words can impact our attitudes toward a stranger. 

Periodic Learning Checks in each chapter enable students to review their knowledge by quizzing themselves on the material in a variety of formats, such as matching, sorting, recall, ordering, multiple-choice, and true-or-false.

Thinking Like a Psychologist sections at the end of each chapter prompt students to assume the role of psychologist, considering scientific questions, a summary of related findings, challenging readers to critically consider key theories, studies, and pertinent contextual factors.