Psychology 2e

Citation

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020). Psychology 2e (2nd ed.). OpenStax. Free official edition: https://openstax.org/details/books/psychology-2e

Chapter Summary

Chapter 1: Introduction to Psychology

The book opens with three striking cases (a musician unable to form new memories, a man who tastes words, and John Nash's schizophrenia) to show the range of questions psychology asks. It defines psychology as the scientific study of mind and behaviour, traces its history through Wundt's structuralism, James's functionalism, Freud, Gestalt psychology, behaviourism, humanism and the cognitive revolution, with a feature on feminist psychology, then surveys contemporary subfields from biopsychology to forensic psychology and ends with academic and non-academic careers.

Chapter 2: Psychological Research

Starting from the question of whether violent media affect behaviour, this chapter explains why research matters for policy and personal decisions, then compares case studies, naturalistic observation, surveys, archival research, and longitudinal and cross-sectional designs. It covers correlation coefficients and why correlation is not causation, illusory correlations and confirmation bias, the logic of experiments (random sampling and assignment, blinding, independent and dependent variables), peer review and replication, and research ethics, including IRBs, informed consent, debriefing and animal research. Features discuss the retracted vaccine–autism study and the Tuskegee syphilis study.

Chapter 3: Biopsychology

The biological chapter moves from genetics and evolution (genotype and phenotype, gene–environment interaction, epigenetics) to neurons and neurotransmission, the divisions of the nervous system, the structure and functions of the brain and spinal cord, brain-imaging methods (CT, PET, MRI, fMRI, EEG) and the endocrine glands and their hormones. Features include evolutionary psychology versus behavioural genetics, neuroplasticity, brain death and anabolic steroids.

Chapter 4: States of Consciousness

Consciousness is approached mainly through sleep: circadian rhythms and sleep debt, brain areas and hormones involved in sleep, theories of why we sleep and dream, the stages of non-REM and REM sleep, and sleep disorders (insomnia, parasomnias, sleep apnea, SIDS, narcolepsy). A substantial section on substance use describes DSM-5 substance use disorder and the effects of depressants, stimulants, opioids and hallucinogens, with features on the opioid crisis and medical marijuana. The chapter closes with hypnosis and meditation.

Chapter 5: Sensation and Perception

This chapter separates sensation (detection by receptors) from perception (organization and interpretation), introducing absolute and difference thresholds, sensory adaptation, attention and signal detection. After the physics of light and sound waves, it describes vision (eye anatomy, rods and cones, colour theories, depth cues), hearing (ear anatomy, pitch, sound localization, hearing loss), the chemical and body senses, and Gestalt principles of perception, with features on Deaf culture and on bias and culture in perception.

Chapter 6: Learning

Learning is distinguished from instincts and reflexes and then divided into three forms. Classical conditioning is explained through Pavlov's dogs and Watson's Little Albert, operant conditioning through Skinner's work on reinforcement, punishment, shaping and reinforcement schedules, and observational learning through Bandura's modelling studies. Everyday examples include conditioning at Stingray City, advertising, behaviour modification in children and cognitive maps in buildings.

Chapter 7: Thinking and Intelligence

The cognitive chapter covers concepts, prototypes and schemata; language (components, development, and the relationship between language and thought, with the case of Genie); problem-solving strategies, heuristics and biases; theories of intelligence (Sternberg's triarchic theory, Gardner's multiple intelligences, emotional intelligence) and creativity; the history and construction of intelligence tests; and genetic and environmental sources of intelligence, learning disabilities and intellectual disability.

Chapter 8: Memory

Memory is presented as encoding, storage and retrieval, with the Atkinson–Shiffrin model, working memory and types of long-term memory. The chapter then examines the brain regions involved (hippocampus, amygdala, cerebellum), problems with memory (amnesia, encoding failure, Schacter's seven memory errors, interference, the unreliability of eyewitness testimony and false memories) and practical strategies for improving memory and study.

Chapter 9: Lifespan Development

This chapter introduces developmental psychology's domains and debates (continuity, one course or many, nature and nurture) and the theories of Freud, Erikson, Piaget and Kohlberg. It then follows development from prenatal stages through infancy, childhood (including attachment and parenting styles), adolescence and emerging adulthood to middle and late adulthood, and ends with death and dying, hospice care and the stages of grief.

Chapter 10: Emotion and Motivation

Motivation is explained through instincts, drive reduction, arousal, self-efficacy, social motives and Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Hunger and eating (including obesity and eating disorders) and sexual behaviour (Kinsey, Masters and Johnson, sexual orientation and gender identity) serve as extended examples. The emotion section compares the James–Lange, Cannon–Bard and Schachter–Singer theories, describes the limbic system's role and discusses the universality of facial expressions and cultural display rules.

Chapter 11: Personality

Personality is examined from successive perspectives: Freud's psychodynamic theory, the neo-Freudians (Adler, Erikson, Jung, Horney), learning approaches (Skinner, Bandura, Rotter, Mischel), humanistic approaches (Maslow, Rogers), biological approaches (twin studies, temperament), trait theories (Cattell, Eysenck and the Big Five), cultural understandings of personality and personality assessment, including the MMPI and projective tests.

Chapter 12: Social Psychology

Opening with the death of Trayvon Martin to raise questions about prejudice and the power of situations, this chapter covers attribution and the fundamental attribution error, social roles, norms and scripts (with the Stanford prison experiment), attitudes, cognitive dissonance and persuasion, conformity (Asch), obedience (Milgram) and groupthink, prejudice and discrimination, aggression and bullying, and prosocial behaviour, attraction and love.

Chapter 13: Industrial-Organizational Psychology

This applied chapter traces the field's origins in personnel selection and the Hawthorne studies, then covers job analysis, selection tests and interviews, training and performance appraisal; job satisfaction, management and leadership, organizational culture, harassment and workplace violence; and human factors psychology and workplace design. Features address cutoff scores, bona fide occupational qualifications and generational differences.

Chapter 14: Stress, Lifestyle, and Health

Stress is defined as a process of appraisal and response, with Cannon's fight-or-flight response and Selye's general adaptation syndrome. The chapter examines stressors (life changes measured by the Social Readjustment Rating Scale, daily hassles, job strain and burnout), the links between stress and the immune system, cardiovascular disease, asthma and headaches, coping and perceived control, and finally happiness and positive psychology.

Chapter 15: Psychological Disorders

After discussing how to define a disorder (harmful dysfunction, the APA definition) and the DSM-5, the chapter compares supernatural, biological, psychological and diathesis–stress perspectives. It then surveys anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, PTSD, mood disorders and suicide, schizophrenia, dissociative disorders, ADHD and autism spectrum disorder, and personality disorders, describing symptoms, prevalence and contributing factors for each.

Chapter 16: Therapy and Treatment

The final chapter reviews the history of mental health treatment from asylums to deinstitutionalization and current services, then describes psychotherapies (psychoanalysis, play therapy, behaviour therapy, cognitive and cognitive-behavioural therapy, humanistic therapy) and biomedical treatments. It covers individual, group, couples and family modalities, the treatment of substance-related and addictive disorders, and the sociocultural model, including barriers to care for ethnic minorities.

Key Concepts

Chapter 1: Introduction to Psychology

• Psychology: the scientific study of mind and behaviour.
• Schools of thought: structuralism, functionalism, psychoanalysis, Gestalt, behaviourism, humanism and cognitive psychology as successive frameworks.

Chapter 2: Psychological Research

• Correlation versus causation: a correlation coefficient describes direction and strength of a relationship but cannot establish cause.
• Experiment: random assignment to experimental and control groups so that changes in the dependent variable can be attributed to the independent variable.
• Informed consent and debriefing: ethical requirements for research with human participants.

Chapter 3: Biopsychology

• Gene–environment interaction: expression of traits depends on both genes and environment.
• Action potential and neurotransmitters: the all-or-none signal along the axon and the chemicals that carry it across synapses; drugs act as agonists or antagonists.
• Endocrine system: glands that secrete hormones, with the hypothalamus and pituitary linking it to the nervous system.

Chapter 4: States of Consciousness

• Circadian rhythm: the roughly 24-hour biological cycle governed by the suprachiasmatic nucleus.
• REM and non-REM sleep: sleep stages distinguished by brain-wave patterns, with roles in learning and memory.
• Substance use disorder: a compulsive pattern of drug use despite negative consequences, as defined in DSM-5.

Chapter 5: Sensation and Perception

• Absolute and difference thresholds: the minimum stimulus, or minimum change in stimulus, detected about half the time.
• Trichromatic and opponent-process theories: complementary accounts of colour vision.
• Gestalt principles: rules such as figure–ground, proximity and similarity by which we group sensory information.

Chapter 6: Learning

• Classical conditioning: learning to associate a neutral stimulus with one that already elicits a response.
• Operant conditioning: learning from consequences, where reinforcement increases and punishment decreases a behaviour.
• Observational learning: learning by watching models, through attention, retention, reproduction and motivation.

Chapter 7: Thinking and Intelligence

• Schema: an organized cluster of related concepts that guides thinking and behaviour.
• Heuristic: a mental shortcut for problem solving that can introduce bias.
• Theories of intelligence: competing views of intelligence as general, triarchic, multiple or emotional.

Chapter 8: Memory

• Atkinson–Shiffrin model: sensory, short-term and long-term memory stores linked by attention and rehearsal.
• Interference: proactive and retroactive interference as causes of forgetting.
• Reconstructive memory: memories can be altered after the event, making eyewitness testimony fallible.

Chapter 9: Lifespan Development

• Domains of development: physical, cognitive and psychosocial change across the lifespan.
• Stage theories: Piaget's cognitive, Erikson's psychosocial and Kohlberg's moral stages.
• Attachment: the early bond with caregivers that shapes later development.

Chapter 10: Emotion and Motivation

• Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: behaviour driven by internal satisfaction or by external rewards.
• Hierarchy of needs: Maslow's ordering of motives from physiological needs to self-actualization.
• Theories of emotion: James–Lange, Cannon–Bard and two-factor accounts of how arousal and appraisal produce emotion.

Chapter 11: Personality

• Id, ego and superego: Freud's three components of personality.
• Reciprocal determinism: Bandura's idea that person, behaviour and environment influence one another.
• Big Five: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

Chapter 12: Social Psychology

• Fundamental attribution error: overestimating dispositional and underestimating situational causes of others' behaviour.
• Cognitive dissonance: tension from inconsistent thoughts and actions that motivates attitude change.
• Conformity and obedience: yielding to group pressure or authority, shown in Asch's and Milgram's studies.

Chapter 13: Industrial-Organizational Psychology

• Job analysis: identifying the tasks and abilities a job requires as a basis for selection and training.
• Job satisfaction: workers' attitudes to their jobs, studied with its causes and consequences.
• Human factors psychology: designing tools and environments around human capabilities.

Chapter 14: Stress, Lifestyle, and Health

• General adaptation syndrome: Selye's stages of alarm, resistance and exhaustion.
• Psychophysiological disorders: physical diseases caused or worsened by stress and emotion.
• Problem-focused and emotion-focused coping: dealing with the stressor itself versus managing one's emotional reaction.

Chapter 15: Psychological Disorders

• Harmful dysfunction: the view that disorders involve failure of an internal mechanism that causes harm.
• DSM-5: the classification system used to diagnose psychological disorders.
• Diathesis–stress model: disorders arise when underlying vulnerability meets stressful events.

Chapter 16: Therapy and Treatment

• Deinstitutionalization: the closure of asylums and move to community-based care.
• Cognitive-behavioural therapy: treatment aimed at changing distorted thoughts and self-defeating behaviour.
• Sociocultural model: considering culture, ethnicity and access when providing therapy.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Broad, conventional coverage. The sixteen chapters follow the standard sequence of an introductory course, from history and methods through biology, cognition and development to social, applied and clinical psychology, so the book can replace a commercial introductory text without reorganizing a syllabus. Chapter 13 on industrial-organizational psychology is an addition many introductory texts treat only briefly.
• Attention to replication and diversity. The preface describes added coverage of research replication and validity, with the theme introduced in Chapter 2, and a formal diversity review of terminology, citations and examples. Features on feminist psychology, Deaf culture, discrimination and stress, and barriers to mental health care reflect this.
• Engaging features. Each chapter mixes Everyday Connection, What Do You Think?, Dig Deeper and Connect the Concepts boxes with frequent Link to Learning videos and interactives; case openings (Clive Wearing, Trayvon Martin, the Washington Navy Yard shooting) anchor abstract material.
• Consistent study apparatus. Learning objectives open each section, and each chapter ends with key terms, a section-by-section summary, review questions, critical thinking questions and personal application questions; the DSM-5 is used throughout the clinical chapters.

Limitations

• Survey depth. Many topics, such as neural transmission, the theories of intelligence and the major disorders, are covered in a few paragraphs; students wanting mechanisms or competing evidence will need a fuller text.
• US-centred examples and institutions. Legal cases, statistics, health care and education examples are mostly drawn from the United States.
• Uneven treatment of theory. Psychoanalytic and neo-Freudian theories receive extended space in both the personality and therapy chapters, while topics such as cognitive neuroscience and cross-cultural research appear more briefly.
• Answers are limited for self-learners. The preface states that full answers to review and critical thinking questions are in the instructor solution guide, with only selected answers in the student guide.

Where It Fits in the Course

Psychology 2e is a free core textbook for a one-semester introduction to psychology. Butler and McManus's Psychology: A Very Short Introduction is a much shorter overview that can be read beforehand for orientation. The textbooks by Gleitman, Fridlund and Reisberg and by Myers, DeWall and Gruber are comprehensive commercial introductions that generally go into more depth; students can use them alongside or after this book for fuller treatments of particular chapters.

Two other listed books, Weiskopf and Adams's An Introduction to the Philosophy of Psychology and Brysbaert and Rastle's Historical and Conceptual Issues in Psychology, address conceptual foundations and history. Psychology 2e's Chapters 1 and 2 (the history of schools of thought, the logic of research and replication) provide the factual background those books assume, so they are best read after completing an introductory course.

How to Use This Book

The book is designed for the single-semester introductory psychology course and assumes no prior psychology; secondary-school reading and basic numeracy are enough, and Chapter 2 introduces the few statistical ideas used later.

Read Chapters 1 and 2 first, since research methods and the history of the discipline frame everything else. Chapters 3–8 (biological and cognitive foundations) are best read in order; Chapters 9–16 can be taken in any order to suit a course, and the preface encourages instructors to select and reorder chapters. In each section, check the learning objectives first, and at the end of each chapter use the summary for revision, answer the review questions, and attempt the critical thinking and personal application questions as written practice. Follow the Link to Learning items for demonstrations such as inattentional blindness, conditioning videos and online scales. The book is available free in web view and PDF, with a low-cost print option.

Edition and Sources

This guide is based on Psychology 2e (OpenStax, original publication 2020), read in the official free PDF downloaded from the OpenStax book page, https://openstax.org/details/books/psychology-2e (current PDF printing, ISBN 978-1-975076-45-0 for the colour paperback). It draws on the preface (scope, second-edition changes, features, answer policy, authors), the full table of contents, and for all 16 chapters the chapter introductions, every section heading and its learning objectives, the titles of all feature boxes, the end-of-chapter summaries for every section and the key-terms lists.