THEMES AND VARIATIONS, BRIEFER EDITION, 8TH EDITION helps you experience the excitement of this fascinating field, while helping you study and retain what you learn! Filled with practical ways that you can apply psychology to your everyday life, this best-selling psychology textbook is an experience in learning that you'll remember long after you complete your introductory psychology course. Critical Thinking Applications in every chapter give you specific critical thinking strategies you can apply to what you read. Every chapter of this book offers tools to help you focus on what's important - showing you how to study in ways that help you retain information and do your very best on exams.

Table of Contents

1. The Evolution of Psychology. PERSONAL APPLICATION: Improving Academic Performance. CRITICAL THINKING APPLICATION: Developing Critical Thinking Skills: An Introduction. 2. The Research Enterprise in Psychology. PERSONAL APPLICATION: Finding and Reading Journal Articles. CRITICAL THINKING APPLICATION: The Perils of Anecdotal Evidence: "I Have a Friend Who ..." 3. The Biological Bases of Behavior. PERSONAL APPLICATION: Evaluating The Concept of "Two Minds in One" CRITICAL THINKING APPLICATION: Building Better Brains: The Perils of Extrapolation. 4. Sensation and Perception. PERSONAL APPLICATION: Appreciating Art and Illusion. CRITICAL THINKING APPLICATION: Recognizing Contrast Effects: It's All Relative. 5. Variations in Consciousness. PERSONAL APPLICATION: Addressing Practical Questions About Sleep and Dreams. CRITICAL THINKING APPLICATION: Is Alcoholism a Disease? The Power of Definitions. 6. Learning. PERSONAL APPLICATION: Achieving Self-Control Through Behavior Modification. CRITICAL THINKING APPLICATION: Manipulating Emotions: Pavlov and Persuasion. 7. Human Memory. PERSONAL APPLICATION: Improving Everyday Memory. CRITICAL THINKING APPLICATION: Understanding the Fallibility of Eyewitness Accounts. 8. Cognition and Intelligence. PERSONAL APPLICATION: Measuring and Understanding Creativity. CRITICAL THINKING APPLICATION: The Intelligence Debate, Appeals to Ignorance, and Reification. 9. Motivation and Emotion. PERSONAL APPLICATION: Exploring the Ingredients of Happiness. CRITICAL THINKING APPLICATION: Analyzing Arguments: Making Sense Out of Controversy. 10. Human Development Across the Life Span. PERSONAL APPLICATION: Understanding Gender Differences. CRITICAL THINKING APPLICATION: Are Fathers Essential to Children's Well-Being? 11. Personality: Theory, Research, and Assessment. PERSONAL APPLICATION: Understanding Personality Assessment. CRITICAL THINKING APPLICATION: Hindsight in Everyday Analyses of Personality. 12. Stress, Coping, and Health. PERSONAL APPLICATION: Improving Coping and Stress Management. CRITICAL THINKING APPLICATION: Thinking Rationally About Health Statistics and Decisions. 13. Psychological Disorders. PERSONAL APPLICATION: Understanding Eating Disorders. CRITICAL THINKING APPLICATION: Working with Probabilities in Thinking About Mental Illness. 14. Treatment of Psychological Disorders. PERSONAL APPLICATION: Looking for a Therapist. CRITICAL THINKING APPLICATION: From Crisis to Wellness-But Was It the Therapy? 15. Social Behavior. PERSONAL APPLICATION: Understanding Prejudice. CRITICAL THINKING APPLICATION: Who Can You Trust? Analyzing Credibility and Social Influence Tactics. Appendix A. Answers to Concept Checks. Appendix B. Statistical Methods. Appendix C. Careers in Psychology. Appendix D. Behavior and Sustainability.