Discovering Psychology

Welcome to the sixth edition of Discovering Psychology! For those of you who are using Discovering Psychology for the first time, this faculty preface will help orient you to the many features of our text, its supplements, and its media package. If you want to get the most out of our book and teaching package, reading this preface will be well worth your time. To those of you who have used a previous edition of Discovering Psychology, thank you for helping make our text a success! Rest assured that, once again, we have taken several steps to help make your transition to the new edition as smooth and easy as possible. As we’ve done previously, we have assembled a complete, detailed, and page-referenced list of changes in the new edition. You can find that list and other helpful materials in the instructor’s section of the Discovering Psychology, Sixth Edition, Web Companion. We’ve been gratified by the enthusiastic response to the five 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 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 sixth edition. It’s hard to believe, but we’ve spent the last 20 years of our lives researching and writing six editions of Discovering Psychology and its larger sibling, Psychology. Watching the evolution of new research over the past two decades has only further solidified our conviction that psychology is the most exciting of all the sciences. 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. More so than any other science, psychology speaks to students’ lives. It provides a wealth of practical insights about behavior and mental processes. Throughout the text, we strive to communicate the excitement of scientific discovery and the relevance of psychological findings to students. It is a labor of love, not only for the sake of our discipline, but also for those wonderful “aha!” moments when some everyday behavior suddenly makes sense to a student because it’s seen in a new light.
This edition of Discovering Psychology reflects 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 scientifi c rigor and personal relevance of psychology
• Clearly explain psychological concepts and the relationships among them
• Show how classic psychological studies help set the stage for today’s research
• Personalize historical fi gures in psychology with interesting biographical details
• Encourage and model critical and scientifi c thinking
• Present controversial topics in an impartial and evenhanded fashion
• Expand students’ awareness of cultural and gender infl uences
• Create a student-friendly, personal learning environment
• Actively engage diverse students, including adult learners
• Provide an effective pedagogical system that helps students develop more effective
learning strategies