Understanding Human Behavior

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ISBN: 9780205332984 | 0205332986
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 8/20/2001

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This book takes a unique approach to introductory psychology with 44 short chapters that emphasize the science and evolution of human behavior in a readable, witty, and conceptual manner.Each short chapter is organized around a single idea that relates to psychology and lifelong learning skills (take a look at the Table of Contents). The book engages the readers by ideas and concepts and doesn't overwhelm with lists and terms.For anyone interested in learning the fundamentals of psychology.

Introduction

xvii

How to Study---Especially This Book

xxiii

part one Science Is a Powerful and Unique Way of Understanding Human Behavior

(34)

Basic Ideas

(4)

Science Works (Or Why People Argue about Politics but Not about Whether the Earth Revolves around the Sun)

(8)

Science Can Change Very Basic Beliefs

(1)

Science Produces Progressive Knowledge Growth

(1)

But What about Psychology?

(1)

Science Works Because It's a Highly Efficient Means for Finding and Correcting False Beliefs

(1)

Science Is Not a Set of Laboratory Procedures

(1)

Science Is a Way of Constraining Beliefs

(2)

Science Promotes Other Human Values

(2)

Going Beyond the Information Given

(1)

A Powerful Way to Investigate Human Behavior Is by Making Measurements and Looking for Correlations among Them (Or How Psychologists Investigate Relationships)

(10)

What Does It Mean to Say That Two Things Are Related?

(1)

Measuring the Behaviors of Interest

(1)

Organizing the Data

(1)

Putting the Data into a 2 x 2 Table

(2)

How Do You Quantify the Strength of a Relationship?

(1)

How Do You Quantify Intermediate Degrees of Relationship?

(2)

What Does the Term Negative Correlation Mean?

(1)

What Happens If You Don't Categorize the Original Data?

(1)

What Does a Scatterplot Tell You?

(1)

What Is the Relationship between a Scatterplot and a 2 x 2 Table?

(1)

Why Should You Care about Correlation?

(3)

Going Beyond the Information Given

(2)

A Powerful Way to Investigate Human Behavior Is by Changing the Environment and Then Obseving What Happens (Or How Psychologists Investigate Causal Relationships)

(12)

Correlational Research Does Not (Usually) Allow Causal Inferences to Be Made

(1)

Experimental Research Does (Often) Allow Causal Inferences to Be Made

(1)

One Aspect of an Experiment Is Random Assignment of Subjects to Groups

(1)

A Second Aspect of a Basic Experiment Is to Manipulate Only One Aspect of the Environment

(1)

A Third Aspect of an Experiment Is Holding Constant Other Possible Influences on the Behavior of Interest

(1)

A Fourth Aspect of an Experiment Is Measurement of the Behavior of Interest

(1)

Experiments and the 2 x 2 Table

(2)

Random Assignment and Random Sampling Are Not the Same

(1)

What Are the Limitations of Controlled Experiments?

(2)

Many Forms of Research Fall between Pure Correlational and Experimental Research

(1)

The Controlled Experiment Is a Powerful Instrument for Understanding the World

(3)

Going Beyond the Information Given

(2)

part two Our Basic Human Nature Arises from Our Evolutionary Past

(42)

Much Human Behavior Is the Result of Both Long-Term and Short-Term Adaptations (Or Why Nature and Nurture Are Inextricably Intertwined)

(10)

The Theory of Evolution

(1)

Darwin Came to Believe That Species Change and Evolve on the Basis of a Few Obvious Facts

(1)

Some Individuals Are Evolutionarily More ``Fit'' Than Others

(1)

A Great Deal of Evidence Shows That Organisms Change as a Result of Natural Selection

(1)

Short-Term Adaptations to the Immediate Environment Can Result from Long-Term Adaptations to the Evolutionary Environment

(1)

Evolution Affects Behavior

(1)

An Example of a Cultural Universal That Is Fitness Enhancing

(1)

The Expression of Long-Term Evolutionary Adaptations through Short-Term Behavioral Adaptations Is Almost Always Context Specific

(3)

Going Beyond the Information Given

(1)

Understanding the Brain Is the Foundation for Understanding the Mind (Or Why Biology and Psychology Are Inextricably Intertwined)

(10)

The Neuroscience Revolution: Classic Findings

(1)

Tools for Mapping the Brain

(1)

How Neurons ``Speak''

(1)

A Road Map of the Brain

(7)

Intrinsic Brain Programs and Learning: The Brain and the Nature---Nurture Question

(1)

A Philosophical Summation

(1)

Going Beyond the Information Given

(2)

The Properties of the Mind Arise from Specific Circuits in the Brain (Or Why the Brain Is Not a Tabula Rasa)

(11)

The Issue of Localization of Brain Function Has Important Social and Philosophical Implications

(1)

Some Aspects of ``Personality'' Arise from Specific Circuits in the Brain

(1)

Some Memory Functions Arise from Specific Circuits in the Brain

(2)

Many Language Functions Arise from Specific Circuits in the Brain

(1)

The Two Sides of the Brain Have Different Skills

(2)

The Propensity to Investigate the Environment Arises from Specific Circuits in the Brain

(2)

Summartion on Brain Localization of Behavior

(2)

Going Beyond the Information Given

(2)

Some Male-Female Differences Are the Result of Long-Term Adaptations (Or Why Nearly All the Clients of Prostitutes Are Male)

(7)

A Fish Story

(1)

Much Human Sexual Behavior Reflects Different Male-Female Mating Strategies

(2)

Some Final Thoughts on Evolution and Human Behavior

(3)

Going Beyond the Information Given

(1)

part three Our Minds Form Highly Adaptive (but Imperfect) Representations of the World

(42)

We Respond to Change, but We Adapt to Lack of Change (Or Why You Notice Your Refrigerator Only When It Starts or Stops Running)

(12)

The Senses Respond Primarily to Change

(7)

Our Vision Receptors Respond to Chemical Changes Caused by Changes in Electromagnetic Radiation

(2)

Our Auditory Receptors Respond to Changes in Mechanical Pressure Caused by Changes in Air Pressure

(3)

Our Touch Receptors Respond to Changes in Mechanical Stimulation Caused by Pressure on the Skin

(1)

The Senses Adapt to Lack of Change

(3)

Other Examples of Adaptation

(1)

Even Pleasure Shows Adaptation

(1)

Adaptation Has Both Costs and Benefits

(1)

Three General Points

(2)

We Have Discussed the Senses in Isolation but People Get Along in the World by Using Them Together

(1)

The Digital Computer May Turn Out to Be a Particularly Good Analogy for the Nervous System

(1)

Complex Systems Can Arise from Patterns of Simple Elements

(1)

Going Beyond the Information Given

(1)

How We See the World Is Determined Both by What's Outside in the Environment and by What's Inside Us (Or Why Reality, Like Beauty, Is Partly in the Eye of the Beholder)

(10)

Spatial Context Influences What We See

(3)

Two Objections

(1)

A Brief Digression

(1)

Another Objection

(1)

Still Another Objection

(1)

Temporal Context Influences What We See

(2)

Pathologic Conditions Provide Further Evidence of Top-Down Perception

(1)

Can We Trust Our Senses If Perception Is Partly Top-Down?

(1)

The Gestalt Principles of Object Perception

(3)

Going Beyond the Information Given

100

(1)

We Learn to Perceive the World (Or Why a New Style of Music Sounds Strange---at First)

101

(9)

You Can Experience Perceptual Learning Directly on These Pages

102

(1)

Some People Are Unable to See Color the Way Other People Do

102

(1)

There Are Several Types of Color Blindness

102

(1)

A Visit to the Island of the Colorblind

103

(2)

Sacks Puts Together a Small Expedition to Pingelap

103

(1)

They Arrive in Pingelap and Are Greeted by Children---Some Squinting and Hiding Their Eyes from the Sun

104

(1)

Knut Nordby Shows That He Has Learned to See a Different World

104

(1)

The Case of the Color-Blind Artist

105

(1)

A Visit in the Past to the Island of the Deaf

105

(1)

Up Can Become Down and Left Can Become Right

106

(4)

Going Beyond the Information Given

108

(2)

There Is No Credible Evidence for Extrasensory Perception (Or Why Nobody Has Collected the Amazing Randi's Million Dollars)

110

(9)

Systematic Reviews of Research Find No Support for Parapsychological Claims

112

(2)

Why Is Belief in the Paranormal So Widespread?

114

(5)

People See What They Want and Expect to See

114

(1)

Odd Coincidences Happen Much More Frequently Than Most People Think

115

(1)

People Are Far Too Impressed by Single Events

115

(2)

The James Randi Challenge

117

(1)

Going Beyond the Information Given

117

(2)

part four Our Present Behavior Is Influenced by Our Past Experience

119

(42)

The Brain Is Programmed to Form Associations (Or Why People Salivate at the Smell of Burning Charcoal)

121

(7)

Learning Involves the Formation of Associations

121

(1)

Classical Conditioning

122

(3)

Many Fear and Anxiety Responses Are Classically Conditioned

125

(3)

Going Beyond the Information Given

127

(1)

Reward Has Powerful, Predictable Effects on Behavior (Or How Obnoxious Children Get That Way)

128

(9)

Operant Conditioning

128

(3)

Operant Conditioning Involves Different Kinds of Reinforcers

131

(1)

Operant Behavior Is under the Control of Discriminative Stimuli, as well as Reinforcement

132

(1)

Operant Behavior Ceases (Eventually) When the Controlling Reinforcers Are Removed

133

(1)

Operant Conditioning and Extinction Are Strongly Affected by the Pattern of Reinforcement

133

(2)

Partial Reinforcement Can Produce Great Resistance to Extinction

135

(1)

Little Rosie Redux

135

(2)

Going Beyond the Information Given

136

(1)

Punishment Has Powerful, Often Unpredictable Effects on Behavior (Or Why People Who Are Punished for Doing Bad Things Don't Always Stop Doing Them)

137

(9)

Punishment Can Have the Obvious ``Intended'' Effect of Quickly Suppressing Responses

138

(1)

For Punishment to Work It Usually Must Be Delivered Quickly

138

(1)

For Punishment to Work It Must Be Delivered Reliably

138

(1)

An Example of the Effective Use of Punishment

139

(1)

Punishment Has Many Nonobvious and Usually ``Unintended'' Effects

139

(3)

Punishment May Only Suppress, Not Eliminate, Punished Responses

139

(1)

Punishment May Not Even Suppress Responses Unless It Is Delivered All the Time

140

(1)

The Punished Learns to Fear the Punisher

141

(1)

Punishment, Like Conditioning, May Generalize to Other Situations or Other Behaviors

141

(1)

The One Who Gets Hurt Tends to Want to Hurt Others

141

(1)

People Imitate, or ``Model,'' the Behavior of Others

142

(1)

The Person Doing the Punishing Experiences Negative Effects

142

(1)

As a Means of Controlling Behavior, Punishment Leaves Much to Be Desired

142

(1)

If Punishment Has So Many Problems, Why Do People Use It?

143

(1)

Some Rules of Thumb for Using Punishment

144

(2)

Going Beyond the Information Given

145

(1)

Behavior Is Flexible, but It Isn't Infinitely Flexible (Or Why It's Hard to Teach a Pig to Use a Piggy Bank)

146

(6)

Why Did Psychologists Spend So Much Time Studying Rats?

146

(1)

How General Is Operant Conditioning?

146

(1)

Operant Conditioning Is Limited by ``Instinctive'' Predispositions

147

(1)

Some Operant Responses Are Easier to Condition Than Others

148

(1)

Some Associations Are Extremely Easy to Condition

148

(2)

The Limits of Conditioning Are Wide, but Not Infinitely So

150

(2)

Going Beyond the Information Given

151

(1)

Television Has Substantial Negative Effects on Beliefs and Behavior (Or Why It's Better for Kids to Watch PBS Than Network TV)

152

(9)

People, Especially Children, Watch a Lot of Television

152

(1)

People, Especially Children, Watch a Lot of Violence on Television

153

(1)

Observational Learning Can Strongly Affect Behavior

154

(1)

Correlational Research on the Effects of Exposure to Violent Television

155

(1)

Experimental Research on the Effects of Exposure to Violent Television

156

(1)

Conclusions

157

(1)

Television Is Not, of Course, the Only Cause of Violence

158

(3)

Going Beyond the Information Given

158

(3)

part five Our Minds Form Highly Adaptive (but Imperfect) Representations of the Past

161

(28)

Working Memory Is Involved in Many Cognitive Activities, but Has a Very Limited Capacity (Or Why Telephone Numbers That Include the Area Code Are Hard to Remember)

163

(10)

How Limited Is the Capacity of Working Memory?

163

(1)

How Does Information Get into Working Memory?

164

(1)

How Long Does Information Last in Working Memory?

164

(1)

What Kind of Information Is Stored in Working Memory?

164

(1)

How Is Information Stored in Working Memory?

165

(1)

How Is Information Lost from Working Memory?

166

(1)

How Can We Increase the Size of Working Memory?

167

(1)

How Is Information Retrieved from Working Memory?

168

(1)

Working Memory Is Involved in Sequenced Actions

168

(1)

Working Memory Is Involved in Problem Solving

169

(1)

Working Memory Is Involved in Planning and Decision Making

169

(1)

Working Memory Is Involved in Language Comprehension

169

(1)

How Is Information Operated on in Working Memory? A Model of Memory

170

(1)

A Final Comment on Working Memory: The Upside

170

(3)

Going Beyond the Information Given

171

(2)

Long-Term Memory Is Vast, Powerful, and Fallible (Or How You Know Who You Are, Where You Are, and Where You're Going---Most of the Time)

173

(8)

Long-Term Memory: What Does It Do?

173

(1)

Remembering Our Own Lives

173

(1)

Remembering Other People

174

(1)

Free Recall

174

(1)

Picture Matching

174

(1)

Remembering Places

175

(1)

Remembering Language

175

(1)

Remembering Mathematics

176

(1)

Remembering Events

176

(1)

Remembering How Things Work

176

(1)

Remembering How to Do Things

177

(1)

Remembering Plans

177

(1)

Remembering All Sorts of Other Things

177

(1)

What Is the Capacity of Long-Term Memory?

177

(1)

Representation and Simplification Are Two Fundamental Characteristics of Long-Term Memory

178

(1)

Three Memory Processes: Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval

179

(2)

Going Beyond the Information Given

180

(1)

The More You Know the Easier It Is to Learn New Things (Or How to Master the Material in This, and Most Other, Books)

181

(8)

The Effects of Prior Learning on Later Learning

181

(2)

Implications for Mastering New Material

183

(3)

What Are Schemas?

186

(1)

Some Rules of Thumb for Effective Learning

187

(2)

Going Beyond the Information Given

188

(1)

part six We Think and Reason in Highly Adaptive (but Imperfect) Ways

189

(36)

Intuitive Judgments about Things Having to Do with Numbers Are Often Wrong (Or Why Millions of People Play the Lottery Every Week)

191

(8)

An Algorithm Is a Procedure for Getting the Exact Answer

192

(1)

A Heuristic Is a ``Rule of Thumb'' for Getting an Approximate Answer

192

(1)

Heuristics Often Work Well, but They Fail When Applied to the Wrong Situation

193

(1)

The Availablity Heuristic: People Judge How Likely Things Are by How Easily They Can Bring Them to Mind

193

(1)

The Representativeness Heuristic: People Judge How Likely Things Are by How Similar They Are to Things They Know About

194

(1)

Heuristics Sometimes Operate to Make Us Ignore Other, Important Evidence

195

(1)

Important Problems Should Be Approached with Both Algorithms and Heuristics

195

(4)

Going Beyond the Information Given

198

(1)

Beliefs Are Supported by Powerful Biases (Or Why We're Often Wrong Even When We're Sure We're Right)

199

(9)

Hot and Cold Streaks Exist in the Head, Not on the Basketball Court

200

(1)

Erroneous Beliefs Are Often Maintained by a Strong Confirmation Bias

201

(7)

People Tend to Fcus on Positive Information

201

(1)

People Don't Readily Consider Alternatives

202

(1)

People Tend Not to Look for Contrary Facts

203

(2)

People Tend to Explain Away Contrary Facts When They Happen

205

(1)

Going Beyond the Information Given

206

(2)

Behavior Affects Beliefs (Or Why the Marines Send Their Recruits to Boot Camp)

208

(7)

People Often Use Their Beliefs to Justify Their Behavior

208

(1)

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

209

(1)

Paying People Less for Doing Something May Make Them Like It More

209

(2)

The More People Have Invested in Something, the More They Like It

211

(2)

Some Necessary Conditions for the Occurrence of the ``Behavior Affects Beliefs'' Phenomenon

213

(2)

Going Beyond the Information Given

214

(1)

People Are Not Always Consciously Aware of the Causes of Their Behavior (Or Why Freud Was Right---about Some Things)

215

(10)

The Unconscious Plays a Central Role in Freudian Theories

215

(4)

The Right Hemisphere of the Cerebral Cortex Can Affect Behavior without the Left Hemisphere Being Aware of It

219

(1)

People Are Affected by Stimuli They Cannot Consciously Perceive

220

(2)

People Sometimes Behave in ``Mindless'' Ways

222

(1)

People Are Sometimes Unaware of the Situational Causes of Their Behavior

222

(3)

Going Beyond the Information Given

223

(2)

part seven We Change over Time

225

(30)

Early Experience Has a Major Impact on Later Behavior (Or Why Brothers and Sisters Rarely Marry Each Other)

227

(9)

Animal Research on the Effects of Early Experience

228

(2)

Early Experience Affects the Quality of Rats' Brains

228

(1)

Early Experience Affects the Perceptual Development of Kittens

229

(1)

Early Experience Affects the Emotional and Sexual Development of Monkeys

230

(1)

Human Research on the Effects of Early Experience

230

(6)

Early Deprivation Has Devastating Effects on Infants

231

(1)

Early Experience Has a Substantial Effect on Adult Sexual Behavior

232

(3)

Going Beyond the Information Given

235

(1)

A Child Is Not a Miniature Adult (Or Why You Should Expect Your Child to Act Like a Child)

236

(9)

Physical Differences between Children and Adults Are Obvious

236

(1)

Psychological Differences between Children and Adults Are Not Obvious

236

(1)

Piaget Opens a Window into the Mind of the Child

237

(2)

Some Elements of Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

237

(1)

Piaget Theorized That Children's Cognitive Development Progresses in Stages

238

(1)

The Mind of the Child

239

(6)

Very Young Children Are in Their Own Worlds---or Rather They Are Their Own Worlds

239

(1)

Children Do Not Understand Physical Causality the Way Adults Do

240

(1)

Children Do Not Understand Social Causality the Way Adults Do

241

(1)

Children Do Not Understand Classification the Way Adults Do

242

(1)

Children Do Not Understand ``at the Same Time'' the Way Adults Do

242

(1)

Children Do Not Understand Age the Way Adults Do

243

(1)

Isn't All This Obvious---After All, Who Believes That a Child Thinks Like an Adult?

243

(1)

Going Beyond the Information Given

244

(1)

Humans Have a Biologically Programmed Capacity for Language (Or Why Children, but Not Chimpanzees, Easily Master English)

245

(10)

Language Uses a Small Set of Arbitrary Symbols

246

(1)

The Arbitrary Symbols Are Combined into Words Using a Set of Rules

246

(2)

Words Are Combined into Sentences Using a Set of Rules

248

(1)

All Human Languages Appear to Share a Universal Grammar

249

(1)

The Way Children Learn Language Strongly Suggests That We Have a Biological Predisposition for Language Acquisition

249

(2)

Nonhuman Animals Communicate, but They Don't Use Language. No, Not Even Washoe

251

(4)

Going Beyond the Information Given

253

(2)

part eight We Are Powerfully Affected by Other People

255

(28)

Social Influence Is One of the Most Powerful Determinants of Human Behavior (Or Why Someone Who Grows Up in Iraq Is More Likely to Be a Muslim Than a Christian)

257

(10)

Social Influence Can Influence What We See

258

(1)

Social Influence Can Influence What We Say We See

258

(2)

Social Influence Can Influence How We Behave

260

(3)

The Milgram Study Is an Example of the Fundamental Attribution Error

263

(1)

Social Influence Is Often Stronger in the Real World Than It Is in Psychology Experiments

264

(3)

Going Beyond the Information Given

265

(2)

The Mere Presence of Other People Has a Substantial Effect on Behavior (Or Why Most Six-Year-Old Violinists Play More Poorly at a Recital Than at a Rehearsal)

267

(7)

A Digression into the History and Philosophy of Science

267

(2)

Social Facilitation

269

(5)

The Presence of Others Sometimes Facilitates Behavior

269

(1)

The Presence of Others Sometimes Hinders Behavior

269

(1)

A Theoretical Resolution to the Inconsistency

270

(3)

Going Beyond the Information Given

273

(1)

Cooperation Can Happen Even When Everyone Is Looking Out for Themselves (Or Why Some Soldiers in the Trenches in WWI Stopped Shooting at Each Other)

274

(9)

A Fable

274

(1)

A Nonfable

274

(2)

Game Theory Is a Formal Means for Analyzing Many Kinds of Interactions

276

(1)

The Prisoner's Dilemma: A Two-Person ``Game'' with a Paradoxical Property

277

(1)

There Are Many Real-World Examples of Prisoners' Dilemmas

278

(1)

Competitive Behavior Is Very Common

279

(1)

Cooperation Can Sometimes Lead to Superior Outcomes

279

(3)

Going Beyond the Information Given

282

(1)

part nine We Are All Different

283

(38)

It Is Difficult, but Not Impossible, to Develop Meaningful Psychological Tests (Or Why You Can't Say You're Twice as Smart as Somebody Else)

287

(1)

Psychological Test Scores Are Relative to How Other People Perform, Not to Some External Standard

288

(1)

Psychological Measurement Is a Complicated and Difficult Process

289

(1)

Decide What to Measure

289

(1)

Develop a Set of Items or Questions

289

(1)

Get a Sample of People to Answer the Items

290

(1)

Start Evaluating Each Item

290

(2)

Select a Set of Items for Further Testing

292

(1)

Assessing the Objectivity of the Entire Test

292

(1)

Assessing the Reliability of the Entire Test

293

(1)

Assessing the Validity of the Entire Test

293

(2)

Of What Use Is This in the Real World?

295

(1)

Going Beyond the Information Given

295

Behavior Can Be Predicted from Personality Measures---but Imperfectly (Or Why Personality Is Best Thought of as Interaction between Traits and Situations)

217

(87)

Looking for Internal Causes of Behavior Is Important Because:

296

(1)

Personality Traits Are an Important Class of Internal Causes of Behavior

297

(1)

A Five-Factor Model of Personality Has Gradually Evolved and Become Widely Accepted in the Past Twenty Years

298

(3)

The Five-Factor Model of Personality Evolved from Years of Attempting to Identify both Global Factors and Specific Traits

298

(1)

Two Goals of Personality Assessment Are Understanding and Prediction

299

(1)

Using Personality Tests for Understanding the Nature of Personality Has Met with Limited Success

299

(1)

Using Personality Tests for Prediction Has Met with More Success

299

(1)

Personality Assessments Are Used in Organizations in Various Ways

300

(1)

Test Scores Are Sometimes Used Inappropriately

300

(1)

Personality Is Best Conceived in Terms of the Interaction between Traits and Situations

301

(3)

Going Beyond the Information Given

303

(1)

Intellectual Ability Has a Substantial Impact on Many Aspects of People's Lives (Or Why Not Everybody Can Be a Rocket Scientist)

304

(8)

How Intelligence Is Measured

304

(8)

Adult IQ Scores Are Not Intelligence Quotients

306

(1)

The Shape of the Distribution of IQ Scores Is Normal

306

(2)

Intelligence Tests Have High Reliability

308

(1)

Intelligence Tests Have Validity

308

(1)

IQ Scores Are Related to Many Other Aspects of Behavior

309

(1)

IQ Is Important, but It Isn't All-Important

310

(1)

Going Beyond the Information Given

311

(1)

Many Individual Differences Have a Strong Genetic Component (Or Why Identical Twins Behave More Similarly Than Do Fraternal Twins)

312

(9)

It Is Possible to Estimate the Relative Contributions of Heredity and Environment to Individual Differences

313

(1)

Intelligence Has a Substantial Genetic Component

314

(1)

Some Personality Traits Have a Modest Genetic Component

314

(1)

Schizophrenia Has a Substantial Genetic Component

315

(1)

Sexual Orientation May Have a Substantial Genetic Component

316

(1)

The Fact That a Particular Individual Difference Has a Genetic Component Tells Us Nothing about the Causes of Group Differences

317

(2)

All Psychological Individual Differences Are Influenced by Both Heredity and the Environment

319

(2)

Going Beyond the Information Given

319

(2)

part ten We Are Strongly Affected by Our Feelings

321

(28)

Emotions, Like Thoughts, Arise in the Brain (Or Why You Get Goose Bumps)

323

(8)

What Causes an Emotional Response? Early Theories

323

(2)

Emotions Are Evolutionary Adaptations

325

(1)

There Are Only a Few Basic Emotional States

326

(1)

Cross-Species Similarities Exist in Emotional Displays

326

(1)

There Are Cross-Cultural Similarities in Emotional Displays

327

(1)

Specific brain Circuits Have Been Identified for Some Emotions

327

(1)

Do Nonhumans Have Emotions?

327

(1)

Where in the Brain Does Fear Arise?

328

(3)

Going Beyond the Information Given

330

(1)

Stress Can Seriously Affect Your Health (Or Why Driving to Work Every Day Can Kill You, Even If You Never Have an Accident)

331

(9)

Our Bodies Are Extremely Well Adapted for Dealing with Occasional Stress

332

(1)

Our Bodies Are Poorly Adapted for Dealing with Constant Stress

332

(1)

Stress Has Negative Effects on the Heart

333

(1)

Stress Has Negative Effects on the Immune System

334

(1)

Some People Respond More Negatively to Stress Than Do Others

334

(3)

Social Support Can Reduce Some of the Consequences of Stress

337

(1)

Social Support May Work by Providing a ``Buffer'' to Protect People from the Adverse Effects of Stress

338

(2)

Going Beyond the Information Given

339

(1)

Happiness Is More Strongly Related to How People Live Their Lives Than to Their Material Circumstances (Or Why Money Doesn't Buy Happiness)

340

(9)

Most People Report Being Reasonably Happy, Most of the Time

341

(1)

More Money Doesn't Seem to Buy More Happiness, at Least beyond a Certain Point

341

(1)

Older People Are Almost as Happy as Younger People

342

(1)

Men and Women Have Almost the Same Level of Happiness

343

(1)

What Variables Are Related to Happiness?

343

(1)

People Who Have Strong Social Relationships Are Happier Than People Who Do Not

344

(1)

People Who Are Interested in and Challenged by Their Work Are Happier Than People Who Are Not

344

(2)

Happiness Is Relative

346

(3)

Going Beyond the Information Given

346

(3)

part eleven Most of Us Function Pretty Well; Some of Us Do Not

349

(38)

Psychological Health Means Behaving Appropriately to the Situation (Or Why Most People Function Pretty Well---Most of the Time)

351

(9)

No Completely Acceptable Term Exists for Someone Who Is Living a Full and Happy Life

352

(1)

Is Psychological Health Merely Relative? Are the Standards of Appropriateness All Relative?

352

(1)

Psychologically Healthy People Act Appropriately to the Situation---Most of the Time

352

(2)

Some Specific Characteristics Relevant to the Appropriateness of Behavior

354

(6)

Psychologically Healthy People Are Generally Productive

354

(1)

Psychologically Healthy People Get Along Well with Most Other People

354

(1)

Psychologically Healthy People Have a Generally Good Understanding of Themselves and of How Others View Them

355

(1)

Psychologically Healthy People Have a Generally Good Understanding of the Physical World

355

(1)

Psychologically Healthy People Can Think Clearly and Solve Problems

356

(1)

Psychologically Healthy People Can Focus Their Attention

356

(1)

Psychologically Healthy People Have Generally Good Judgment

356

(1)

Psychologically Healthy People Can Experience Plesure

357

(1)

Psychologically Healthy People Can Feel Strongly about Things

357

(1)

Psychologically Healthy People Can Give and Receive Love and Affection

357

(1)

Psychologically Healthy People Are Unique Individuals

358

(1)

Psychologically Healthy Has Other Characteristics

358

(1)

There Are Many Things We Don't Know about Psychological Health

358

(1)

Going Beyond the Information Given

359

(1)

Psychotherapy Can Help Many People Who Behave Inappropriately to the Situation (Or What Classical Conditioning Has to Do with Phobias)

360

(10)

We All Experience Anxiety, but Some People Are So Overwhelmed by It That Their Behavior Is Inappropriate to the Situation

361

(1)

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

361

(1)

Panic Disorder

362

(1)

Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia

362

(1)

Agoraphobia without Panic Disorder

362

(1)

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

362

(1)

Posttraumatic Distress Disorder

362

(1)

Phobias: One Way in Which Behavior Is Inappropriate to the Situation

362

(2)

Some Concrete Examples of Specific Phobias

363

(1)

The Treatment of Psychological Disorders

364

(1)

Different Types of Mental Health Professionals

364

(1)

There Are Two Broad Categories of Treatment for Psychological Disorders: Drug Therapy and ``Talk'' Therapy

365

(2)

Talk Therapy Involves Many Different Approaches

365

(1)

Does Psychotherapy Work?

365

(2)

Treatment of Specific Phobias

367

(3)

Phobias Can Be Successfully Treated by Applying the Principles of Learning

367

(1)

History Taking

368

(1)

Relaxation Training

368

(1)

An Anxiety Hierarchy

368

(1)

Imagining the Steps in the Anxiety Hierarchy While Deeply Relaxed

368

(1)

Going Beyond the Information Given

369

(1)

Schizophrenia, the Most Serious Form of Mental Illness, Is a Brain Disease (Or Why There Are Many Fewer Patients in Mental Hospitals Today Than There Were in 1960)

370

(7)

Schizophrenia Involves Extremely Abnormal Cognitive and Emotional Responses

371

(1)

There Is No Definitive Medical Test for Schizophrenia

372

(1)

Schizophrenia Results from a Combination of a Genetic Predisposition and Environmental Stress

372

(1)

The Symptoms of Schizophrenia Often Respond to Drug Treatment

373

(1)

How Antipsychotic Drugs Work: A Clue to Understanding the Biological Basis of Schizophrenia

374

(3)

Going Beyond the Information Given

375

(2)

Mood Disorders, the Most Common Form of Severe Mental Illness, Are Highly Treatable (Or What Abraham Lincoln and Georgia O'Keeffe Had in Common)

377

(10)

Major Depression

378

(1)

Manic Depression

379

(1)

Suicide Is the Most Serious ``Complication'' of Mood Disorders

380

(1)

There Is an Inherited Tendency to Develop Mood Disorders

380

(1)

Mood Disorders, Like Schizophrenia, Result from a Combination of Genetic Predispositions and Environmental Factors

380

(1)

Many People Who Become Depressed Have a Particular ``Attributional Style''

381

(2)

Effective Treatment of Mood Disorders Involves Both Drugs and Psychotherapy

383

(4)

Going Beyond the Information Given

384

(3)

part twelve Psychological Research Can Illuminate Many Aspects of Everyday Life

387

(36)

People's Beliefs about Why Things Have Happened to Them Can Have a Big Impact on Their Lives (Or Why a Little Optimism Is a Good Thing)

389

(7)

People Tend to Attribute Good Outcomes to Themselves and Bad Outcomes to Something Else

390

(1)

People Think They Have More Causal Control Than They Probably Do

391

(1)

People Who Have Positive Illusions Are Often More Successful Than People Who Don't

392

(4)

Going Beyond the Information Given

394

(2)

Expectations Have a Substantial Effect on Behavior (Or Why It's Important to Do Well on the First Quiz)

396

(9)

Expectancy Effects in Medicine

397

(1)

Expectancy Effects in Interpersonal Relations

398

(1)

Expectancy Effects in the Classroom

399

(2)

Expectancy Effects in Psychotherapy

401

(4)

Going Beyond the Information Given

403

(2)

Good Decision Making Requires Knowing the World and Knowing Yourself (Or How to Look before Your Leap)

405

(10)

We Often Solve Problems by Breaking Them Down and Externalizing Them

406

(1)

There Are Three Major Approaches to the Study of Decision Making

406

(1)

Normative Accounts of Decision Making

406

(1)

Descriptive Accounts of Decision Making

407

(1)

People Often Produce Relatively Few Options for a Decision, Even in Situations in Which Many Options Could Be Produced

407

(1)

People Often Consider Fewer Possible States of the World Than They Should

408

(1)

People's Assessments of Probabilities Are Often Wrong

408

(1)

Other Deviations from Optimal Decision Behavior

408

(1)

Sometimes People ``Throw Good Money after Bad''

408

(1)

People Do Not Have a Great Deal of Understanding Or Insight into Why They Make the Decisions They Do

409

(1)

People Use Less Information Than They Think They Do

409

(1)

So What?

409

(2)

Facts and Values Must Be Kept Independent for Optimal Decision Making

410

(1)

For a Real Decision, You Cannot Know from the Outcome Whether You Made the Right Decision

411

(1)

Prescriptive Accounts of Decision Making

411

(1)

A Simple Procedure to Help Make Better Decisions

411

(4)

Going Beyond the Information Given

413

(2)

Many Machines Are Harder to Use Than They Ought to Be (Or Who to Blame If You Can't Program Your VCR)

415

(8)

People Can Use Machines More Easily When Designers Use the Same Conceptual Models as Do Users

416

(2)

People Can Use Machines More Easily When Control Information Is in the Environment, Not in the Head

418

(1)

People Can Use Machines More Easily When Control Information Is Meaningful, Not Arbitrary

419

(1)

People Can Use Machines More Easily When Designers Use ``Natural'' Rather Than Arbitrary Mappings

420

(1)

Who to Blame If You're Having Problems with a Machine

420

(3)

Going Beyond the Information Given

421

(2)

epilogue Psychology and Human Values

423

(8)

There Is a Real World Out There and It Can Be Understood, Albeit Imperfectly

423

(1)

The Terms Fact and Value Refer to Different, But Nevertheless Related, Things

424

(1)

Knowing How to Use Cognitive Aids Can Help You Better Understand the World

425

(3)

What We Know about Reward and Punishment Should Influence the Way We Treat Children

428

(1)

What We Know about Memory Should Influence the Way We Think about Education

428

(1)

What We Know about Mental Illness Should Influence the Way We Treat the Mentally Ill

428

(1)

What We Know about Social Influence Should Help Us Resist Pressures to Violate Our Own Values

429

(1)

Knowing Some Simple Techniques Can Help Us Make Better Life Decisions

429

(1)

Appreciate Diversity: It Will Always be with Us

430

(1)

Appreciate Our Common Humanity: It Will Always Be with Us

430

(1)

The Idea That Some Forms of Knowledge Can Be Tested Against Observation Ought to Influence How You Approach the World

430

(1)

Glossary

431

(14)

References

445

(8)

Index

453

(14)

Credits

467

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Understanding Human Behavior

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials