Note on References xii
List of Exercises xiii
List of Figures xiv
List of Tables xvi
Preface and Acknowledgements to the Third Edition xvii
1: Introduction: Beginning to Understand You 1
What is psychology? 2
Psychology and common sense 4
The psychologists approach 7
Are psychologists devious experimenters? 8
The psychological experiment 8
What we expect affects what we see 10
Experiments are not enough 10
2: Body Language 13
Does body language come naturally? 14
Facial expressions 14
Gestures and postures 21
Odours as body language 24
Touching 25
Lies and deceit 26
Improving body language 27
3: Your Personality 29
Everyone has personality 30
It depends on your point of view 30
The trait approach 31
Eysencks theory: three critical dimensions 32
From description to explanation 33
Am I me or am I the situation? The problem of consistency 36
Cognitive perspectives: it depends on how you look at it 38
Personal construct theory 38
Attribution: answering the question why? 43
Attributions and psychological distress 44
Methods for assessing personality 46
4: Your Sex: on Being Male Or Female 48
Sex or gender? 49
Biological influences 49
Hormones and behaviour 49
Sex and gender identity 51
From birth to maturity 55
Are gender differences changing? 56
Gender differences in school and afterwards 59
5: You and Others 62
Social roles 63
What we do and what we think 64
Stereotypes and prejudice 65
How do others influence us? 69
Conformity 70
Obedience and authority 73
Violence and the mass media 74
The power of social influence 77
6: Your Emotions 79
Love and attachment 81
The nature of infant love 82
Adult attachment and love 83
The nature of adult love 84
Types and styles of love 87
Anger and aggression 88
Aggression hot and cold 89
The nature of anger 90
What is a provocation? 91
Features of anger 92
Can we treat anger? 95
7: Your Brain 97
Whats in your head? 98
How do we know which bits of brain do what? 102
Cells in the central nervous system 104
Two hemispheres, one brain 108
Feeling emotional 109
Consciousness 110
Repairing damage 112
8: Your Health 113
Psychology, health and illness 114
Being healthy 115
Preventing illness 116
Becoming ill 119
Being treated 123
9: Your Development Across the Lifespan 126
Studying development 127
Development in infancy 128
Theory of mind: perceiving emotions in others 132
Language development 133
Social cognition in schoolchildren 137
Adolescence and adulthood 140
10: Psychological Problems 144
Anxiety and related problems 145
The complex nature of fear and anxiety 147
Sources of phobias and anxiety 147
The treatment of fear and anxiety 149
Social anxiety 150
Schizophrenia 151
Personality disorders 152
Keeping critical about methods of classification: some limitations of diagnostic systems for personality disorder 155
11: Your View of the World: Perception and Thinking 159
Perception is more than sensation 160
Attention affects perception 164
Memory mechanisms 166
Thinking and the nature of thoughts 169
Differences in thinking and creativity 172
12: Learning About Your World 174
Learning by linking 175
Learning by consequences 178
Learning what to expect 180
Learning from others 182
Consciousness, intelligence and learning 183
13: You and other Animals 189
Can other animals think? 190
Intelligence, tool-use and culture 192
Is language unique to humans? 194
Sensory sensitivity in other animals 195
Awareness and consciousness 196
Human uses of other animals 198
People with other animals 199
14: What Psychologists Can Do for You? 202
Becoming a psychologist 203
Teachers and researchers 203
Clinical and counselling psychologists 204
Health psychologists 206
Educational psychologists 207
Forensic psychologists 209
Occupational psychologists 211
Sport and exercise psychologists 211
Psychologists in other areas 212
Glossary 214
References 224
Index 237
