Cover: Exploring Psychology, 13th Edition by David G. Myers; C. Nathan DeWall; June Gruber

Exploring Psychology

Thirteenth Edition  ©2025 David G. Myers; C. Nathan DeWall; June Gruber Formats: Achieve, Read & Practice, E-book, Print

Authors

  • Headshot of David G. Myers

    David G. Myers

    David Myers received his B.A. in chemistry from Whitworth University, and his psychology Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. He has spent his career at Hope College, Michigan, where he has taught dozens of introductory psychology sections. Hope College students have invited him to be their commencement speaker and voted him “outstanding professor.” His research and writings have been recognized by the Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize, an Honored Scientist award from the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences, an Award for Distinguished Service on Behalf of Social-Personality Psychology, a Presidential Citation from APA Division 2, election as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, and three honorary doctorates.

    With support from National Science Foundation grants, Myers’ scientific articles have appeared in three dozen scientific periodicals, including Science, American Scientist, Psychological Science, and American Psychologist. In addition to his scholarly and textbook writing, he digests psychological science for the general public. His writings have appeared in four dozen magazines, from Today’s Education to Scientific American. He also has authored six general audience books, including, in 2022, How Do We Know Ourselves? Curiosities and Marvels of the Human Mind. And he blogs about psychology and life at TalkPsych.com.

    David Myers has chaired his city’s Human Relations Commission, helped found a thriving assistance center for low-income families, and spoken to hundreds of college, community, and professional groups worldwide. Drawing on his experience of hearing loss, which now includes a cochlear implant, he also has written articles and a book (A Quiet World) about hearing loss, and he is advocating a transformation in U.S. assistive listening technology (see HearingLoop.org). For his leadership, he has received awards from the American Academy of Audiology, the hearing industry, and the Hearing Loss Association of America.

    David and Carol Myers met and married while undergraduates, and have raised sons Peter and Andrew, and a daughter, Laura. They have one grandchild, Allie.


  • Headshot of C. Nathan DeWall

    C. Nathan DeWall

    Nathan DeWall is professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky. He received his bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College, a master’s degree in social science from the University of Chicago, and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in social psychology from Florida State University. DeWall received the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award, which recognizes excellence in undergraduate and graduate teaching. The Association for Psychological Science identified DeWall as a “Rising Star” early in his career for “making significant contributions to the field of psychological science.” He has been included in the top 1 percent of all cited scientists in psychology and psychiatry on the Institute for Scientific Information list, according to the Web of Science. He is currently serving on the National Science Foundation Social Psychology Program panel.

    DeWall conducts research on close relationships, self-control, aggression, the psychology of religion, and intellectual humility. With funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the John Templeton Foundation, he has published 225 scientific articles and chapters. DeWall’s research awards include the SAGE Young Scholars Award from the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology, the Young Investigator Award from the International Society for Research on Aggression, and the Early Career Award from the International Society for Self and Identity. His research has been covered by numerous media and entertainment outlets, including Good Morning America, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Harvard Business Review, USA Today, National Public Radio, The Guardian, the BBC, and a Netflix documentary. He has lectured nationally and internationally, including in Hong Kong, China, the Netherlands, England, Greece, Hungary, Sweden, Australia, and France.

    Nathan is happily married to Alice DeWall and is the proud father of Beverly “Bevy” and Ellis. He also enjoys taking care of the family dog, Stubbs. As an ultramarathon runner, he completed numerous races, including the Badwater 135 in 2017 (dubbed “the World’s toughest foot race”). In his spare time now, he enjoys hiking, attending live concerts, setting up and maintaining aquariums, watching sports, and playing guitar and singing.


  • Headshot of June Gruber

    June Gruber

    June Gruber is an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she directs the Positive Emotion and Psychopathology Laboratory and studies the links between positive emotions and mental health, including the “dark side” of happiness. Gruber was previously an assistant professor of psychology at Yale University. She received her B.A. in psychology and her M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. Gruber has published over 140 articles and chapters, co-authored Psychology, Fourteenth Edition (with David Myers and Nathan DeWall), and edited two psychology books — The Oxford Handbook of Positive Emotion and Psychopathology and Positive Emotion: Integrating the Light Sides and Dark Sides (with Judith Moskowitz). Her research has received several honors, including the Association for Psychological Science’s Rising Star Award, the Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions, the Society for Research in Psychopathology’s Early Career Award, the NARSAD Young Investigator Award, and Yale University’s Arthur Greer Memorial Prize for Outstanding Junior Faculty. Gruber has served as an Associate Editor and Interim Editor-in-Chief for Perspectives on Psychological Science and is currently an Associate Editor at Emotion.

    Gruber’s passion for teaching psychology and training future generations of scholars 
    extends beyond the classroom. She has created freely available interview series and courses for the general public, including a Coursera #TalkMentalIllness course, an Experts in Emotion Interview Series at Yale University, and an online course in Human Emotion. Gruber has cowritten a column for young scientists in ScienceCareers.org (from the journal Science) and is currently writing for Teaching Current Directions in Psychological Science (along with Myers and DeWall). Her teaching efforts have received several awards, including the President’s Teaching Scholars Award, the Boulder Faculty Assembly Excellence in Teaching and Pedagogy Award, the UROP Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award, and the Cogswell Award for Inspirational Instruction at the University of Colorado Boulder. Gruber is deeply invested in supporting and elevating the careers of underrepresented women in the sciences, and leads workshops, publishes papers, and gives talks to raise awareness about gender disparities in the field and to chart a proactive path forward.


    Gruber enjoys spending quiet days in the Colorado mountains with her two sons, 
    Ansel and Silvan, and her husband, Raul, whom she met as an undergraduate psychology major. She also enjoys taking hikes with her dogs Buddy and Eddy, making art projects with her children, traveling, and basking in the nostalgia of 1980s music.

Table of Contents

Instructor Preface

Student Preface: Skills for Student Success—How to Apply Psychology to Live Your Best Life


Chapter 01: Thinking Critically With Psychological Science (Modules 1-2)

    Module 01: The History and Scope of Psychology

    Module 02: Research Strategies: How Psychologists Ask and Answer Questions


Chapter 02: The Biology of Behavior (Modules 3-7)

    Module 03: Neural and Hormonal Systems

    Module 04: Tools of Discovery: Having Our Head Examined

    Module 05: Brain Regions and Structures

    Module 06: Damage Response and Brain Hemispheres

    Module 07: Genetics, Evolutionary Psychology, and Behavior


Chapter 03: Consciousness and the Two-Track Mind (Modules 8-10)

    Module 08: Consciousness: Some Basic Concepts

    Module 09: Sleep and Dreams

    Module 10: Drugs and Their Effects


Chapter 04: Developing Through the Life Span (Modules 11-14)

    Module 11: Developmental Issues, Prenatal Development, and the Newborn

    Module 12: Infancy and Childhood

    Module 13: Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

    Module 14: Adulthood


Chapter 05: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality (Modules 15-16)

    Module 15: Gender Development

    Module 16: Human Sexuality


Chapter 06: Sensation and Perception (Modules 17-19)

    Module 17: Basic Concepts of Sensation and Perception

    Module 18: Vision: Sensory and Perceptual Processing

    Module 19: Hearing, Skin, Chemical, and Body Senses


Chapter 07: Learning (Modules 20-22)

    Module 20: Basic Learning Concepts and Classical Conditioning

    Module 21: Operant Conditioning

    Module 22: Biology, Cognition, and Learning


Chapter 08: Memory (Modules 23-25)

    Module 23: Studying and Encoding Memories

    Module 24: Storing and Retrieving Memories

    Module 25: Forgetting, Memory Construction, and Improving Memory


Chapter 09: Thinking, Language, and Intelligence (Modules 26-29)

    Module 26: Thinking

    Module 27: Language and Thought

    Module 28: Intelligence Assessment and Dynamics

    Module 29: Genetic and Environmental Influences on Intelligence


Chapter 10: Motivation and Emotion (Modules 30-33)

    Module 30: Basic Motivational Concepts, Affiliation, and Achievement

    Module 31: Hunger

    Module 32: Theories and Physiology of Emotion

    Module 33: Expressing and Experiencing Emotion


Chapter 11: Stress, Health, and Human Flourishing (Modules 34-35)

    Module 34: Stress and Illness [

    Module 35: Health and Happiness


Chapter 12: Social Psychology (Modules 36-38)

    Module 36: Social Thinking and Social Influence

    Module 37: Antisocial Relations

    Module 38: Prosocial Relations


Chapter 13: Personality (Modules 39-40)

    Module 39: Classic Perspectives on Personality

    Module 40: Contemporary Perspectives on Personality


Chapter 14: Psychological Disorders (Modules 41-46)

    Module 41: Basic Concepts of Psychological Disorders

    Module 42: Anxiety Disorders, Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders, and Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders

    Module 43: Depressive Disorders and Bipolar Disorders

    Module 44: Schizophrenia

    Module 45: Eating Disorders, Personality Disorders, and Dissociative Disorders

    Module 46: Neurodevelopmental Disorders


Chapter 15: Therapy (Modules 47-49)

    Module 47: Introduction to Therapy and the Psychological Therapies

    Module 48: Evaluating Psychotherapies

    Module 49: The Biomedical Therapies and Preventing Psychological Disorders

Appendix A: Statistical Reasoning in Everyday Life

Appendix B: Psychology at Work

Appendix C: The Story of Psychology: A Timeline

Appendix D: Career Fields in Psychology

Appendix E: Complete Module Reviews

Appendix F: Answers to the Retrieve It and Experience the Testing Effect Questions

Product Updates

Summer 2026

New in Achieve

  • Foundational Skills Modules (AI ethics, AI basics, note-taking, time management, using APA style and reading research). Assignable modules to help remediate core skills that you may not be able to fit into class time.
  • Data Literacy Activities (visual data, ethics, methods, statistics). Five new modules paired with the five existing modules allow these important skills to be assigned and assessed inside Achieve.
  • AI-Enabled Guided Reading - Transforms textbook reading into an assignable interactive learning experience where students explain concepts in their own words and receive personalized, real-time feedback. By turning reading into a guided conversation, it builds deeper understanding and engagement without adding instructor workload.
  • AI-Enabled Guided Quiz Review - Helps students focus on mastering concepts rather than guessing, delivering personalized formative feedback between quiz attempts. By guiding students through their learning journey, it strengthens understanding and improves performance—without adding extra work for instructors.
  • Short-Form Writing Tool Turn virtually any content—a video, webpage, PDF, policy document, article, or other source—into a short, meaningful writing assignment in minutes. Built-in AI helps instructors create or refine the prompt, instantly generate a clear rubric, and evaluate student submissions against that rubric.
  • Late Night Lectures with Professor Steve Ross—short, humorous, and engaging concept videos. Five NEW videos added in Summer of 2026 covering: History of Psychology, Experiments, Neurotransmitters, Attribution, and Study Tips.

Spring 2025 Update

New AI skills modules! Achieve features two new interactive activities geared toward giving students a hands-on understanding of artificial intelligence, including responsible usage and ways to ethically incorporate AI into their course work. An instructor guide (in PDF) is also available.


Thirteenth Edition Update (2025)


Over 1,000 new research citations from 2019–2023. This is the most up-to-date set of introductory psychology resources available with numerous exciting discoveries, innovative examples, and relevant  insights. This update underscores the significance and utility of psychological research, illustrating how psychology can enlighten students' understanding of the world surrounding them.

New co-author, June Gruber (University of Colorado, Boulder). With her career-long commitment to thorough research, as evidenced by her studies on positive emotion and psychopathology, June Gruber is the ideal addition to this author team. Her wide-ranging collaborations with other scholars include issues such as  women in psychology and the impact of COVID-19 on student mental health. Additionally, her enthusiasm for disseminating psychological science to students and a broader audience, along with her dedication to mentoring emerging scholars, underscores her passion and adds immense value to the author team.

Modular format within chapters. This edition strikes a balance between chapter-based and modular formats, with numbered chapters organized into distinct, numbered modules. This approach has proven to be exceptionally effective for the increasing number of students studying online. Each module can be without reliance on other modules, letting instructors assign just the content they find most relevant in the sequence they prefer.

New in Macmillan Learning’s Achieve for Exploring Psychology:
  • Over 50 additions to the Video Collection for Introductory Psychology bringing the total number of classic, contemporary, and original selections to over 200.
  • June Gruber’s student mental health resources for the course, including slides, class resources,  and videos for instructors and students.  
  • New Lecture Slides, created for the first time by the Exploring Psychology authors.
  • New “Skills for Student Success” activities. In response to instructor feedback, these  activities focus on essential skills for the introductory course, including time management, reading a syllabus, reading a research paper, APA style, and note-taking.

Where psychological research meets student learning

Exploring Psychology brings psychology’s big ideas to life through an extraordinary commitment to current research, clear storytelling, and scientific thinking. Myers, DeWall, and new coauthor June Gruber present concepts with a sharp eye for evidence and an inclusive understanding of today’s students. The result is a text that helps students apply psychology in meaningful ways—as learners, friends, partners, co-workers, and parents. 

The 13th edition also offers a fully updated Achieve course.

Achieve – Learn Psychology. Build Skills for Life.
We’re reimagining how psychology is taught and learned—focusing on the skills students need to succeed. Achieve combines engaging content with AI-powered tools to help students apply psychological concepts, and build habits that last beyond the course.

New in Achieve - For more information See Content Material:

  • Foundational Skills Modules (AI ethics, AI basics, note-taking, time management, using APA style and reading research)
  • Data Literacy Activities (visual data, ethics, methods, statistics)
  • AI-Enabled Guided Reading - makes reading truly assignable 
  • AI-Enabled Guided Quiz Review - builds in practice between attempts
  • Short-Form Writing Tool with rubric-aligned prompts and auto-scoring feedback - turn any video or internet content into a short writing prompt. 
  • Late Night Lectures with Professor Steve Ross—short, humorous, and engaging concept videos

Each activity is designed to build skills, increase engagement, and support student success.

Success Stories

Here are a few examples of how Achieve has helped instructors like you improve student preparedness, enhance their sense of belonging, and achieve course goals they set for themselves.

Prof. Kiandra Johnson, Spelman College

See how the resources in Achieve help you engage students before, during, and after class.

Prof. Jennifer Duncan

Use diagnostics in Achieve for a snapshot into cognitive and non-cognitive factors that may impact your students’ preparedness.

Prof. Ryan Elsenpeter

Here’s why educators who use Achieve would recommend it to their peers.

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David G. Myers; C. Nathan DeWall; June Gruber | Thirteenth Edition | ©2025 | ISBN:9781319561215

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