For introductory psychology courses at two year or four year institutions. Also for specialty classes throughout the discipline that focus on critical thinking, science vs. pseudoscience, and discrimating valid research in the field. Keith Stanovich's widely used and highly acclaimed book helps students become more discriminating consumers of psychological information, helping them recognize pseudoscience and be able to distinguish it from true psychological research. Stanovich helps instructors teach critical thinking skills within the rich context of psychology. It is the leading text of its kind. How to Think Straight About Psychology says about the discipline of psychology what many instructors would like to say but haven't found a way to. That is one reason adopters have called it "an instructor's dream text" and often comment "I wish I had written it. It tells my students just what I want them to hear about psychology".
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1. Psychology Is Alive and Well (and Doing Fine Among the Sciences)   The Freud Problem The Diversity of Modern Psychology  Implications of Diversity Unity in Science What, Then, Is Science? Systematic Empiricism  Publicly Verifiable Knowledge: Replication and Peer Review  Empirically Solvable Problems: Scientists’ Search for Testable Theories Psychology and Folk Wisdom: The Problem with “Common Sense” Psychology as a Young Science Summary     2. Falsifiability: How to Foil Little Green Men in the Head   Theories and the Falsifiability Criterion  The Theory of Knocking Rhythms  Freud and Falsifiability  The Little Green Men  Not All Confirmations Are Equal  Falsifiability and Folk Wisdom  The Freedom to Admit a Mistake  Thoughts Are Cheap Errors in Science: Getting Closer to the Truth Summary    3. Operationism and Essentialism: “But, Doctor, What Does It Really Mean?”   Why Scientists Are Not Essentialists  Essentialists Like to Argue About the Meaning of Words  Operationists Link Concepts to Observable Events  Reliability and Validity  Direct and Indirect Operational Definitions  Scientific Concepts Evolve Operational Definitions in Psychology  Operationism as a Humanizing Force  Essentialist Questions and the Misunderstanding of Psychology  Operationism and the Phrasing of Psychological Questions Summary     4. Testimonials and Case Study Evidence: Placebo Effects and the Amazing Randi   The Place of the Case Study Why Testimonials Are Worthless: Placebo Effects The “Vividness” Problem  The Overwhelming Impact of the Single Case  The Amazing Randi: Fighting Fire with Fire Testimonials Open the Door to Pseudoscience Summary     5. Correlation and Causation: Birth Control by the Toaster Method   The Third-Variable Problem: Goldberger and Pellagra  Why Goldberger’s Evidence Was Better The Directionality Problem Selection Bias Summary     6. Getting Things Under Control: The Case of Clever Hans   Snow and Cholera Comparison, Control, and Manipulation  Random Assignment in Conjunction with Manipulation Defines the True Experiment  The Importance of Control Groups  The Case of Clever Hans, the Wonder Horse  Clever Hans in the 1990s  Prying Variables Apart: Special Conditions  Intuitive Physics  Intuitive Psychology Summary     7. “But It’s Not Real Life!”: The “Artificiality” Criticism and Psychology   Why Natural Isn’t Always Necessary  The “Random Sample” Confusion  The Random Assignment Versus Random Sample Distinction  Theory-Driven Research Versus Direct Applications Applications of Psychological Theory  The “College Sophomore” Problem  The Real-Life and College Sophomore Problems in Perspective Summary     8. Avoiding the Einstein Syndrome: The Importance of Converging Evidence   The Connectivity Principle  A Consumer’s Rule: Beware of Violations of Connectivity  The “Great-Leap” Model Versus the Gradual-Synthesis Model Converging Evidence: Progress Despite Flaws  Converging Evidence in Psychology Scientific Conse
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Presents psychological topics such as falsifiability, operationalism, experimental control, converging evidence, correlational vs. experimental studies, and statistics as “tools” for critical evaluation, providing students with a set of practical consumer skills to independently evaluate psychological claims. Teach students the importance understanding the origins of data. Discusses psychology in the media and gives students some “consumer rules” for dealing with it.Presents information on how to differentiate between true psychological research and pseudoscience. Teach critical thinking skills. Provides instructors with the opportunity to teach critical thinking skills within the rich context of modern psychology.
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New to the Ninth Edition The ninth edition of How to Think Straight About Psychology has no major structural revisions because a chapter reorganization occurred in a previous edition. The content and order of the chapters remain the same. At the request of reviewers and users, this edition remains at the same length as the eighth edition. Readers and users have not wanted the book to lengthen and, indeed, it has not. I have continued to update and revise the examples that are used in the book (while keeping those that are reader favorites). Some dated examples have been replaced with more contemporary studies and issues. I have made a major effort to use contemporary citations that are relevant to the various concepts and experimental effects that are mentioned. A large number of new citations appear in this edition (190 new citations, to be exact!), so that the reader continues to have up-to-date references on all of the examples and concepts The goal of the book remains what it always was–to present a short introduction to the critical thinking skills that will help the student to better understand the subject matter of psychology. During the past decade and a half there has been an increased emphasis on the teaching of critical thinking in universities (Abrami et al., 2008; Sternberg, Roediger, & Halpern, 2006). Indeed, some state university systems have instituted curricular changes mandating an emphasis on critical thinking skills. At the same time, however, other educational scholars were arguing that critical thinking skills should not be isolated from specific factual content. How to Think Straight About Psychologycombines these two trends. It is designed to provide the instructor with the opportunity to teach critical thinking within the rich content of modern psychology Readers are encouraged to send me comments by corresponding with me at the following address: Keith E. Stanovich, Department of Human Development and Applied Psychology, University of Toronto, 252 Bloor St. W., Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 1V6. Email: KStanovich@oise.utoronto.ca.
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781292023106
Publisert
2013-08-06
Utgave
9. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
Pearson Education Limited
Vekt
520 gr
Høyde
272 mm
Bredde
216 mm
Dybde
14 mm
Aldersnivå
U, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
224