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Scientific American: Presenting Psychology

Second Edition ©2019 Deborah Licht; Misty Hull; Coco Ballantyne

Scientific American: Presenting Psychology empowers instructors and students for success with unique features like 10 Challenges, the new Chapter 0: Are You Ready For This?, engaging personal stories that students really connect with, and full-page infographics. Throughout the text the author team...
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Look Inside Look Inside Scientific American: Presenting Psychology by Deborah Licht; Misty Hull; Coco Ballantyne - Second Edition, 2019 from Macmillan Student Store

Presenting Psychology Helps You Tackle Your Top Ten Challenges whether you are a student or an instructor.

Scientific American: Presenting Psychology empowers instructors and students for success with unique features like 10 Challenges, the new Chapter 0: Are You Ready For This?, engaging personal stories that students really connect with, and full-page infographics. Throughout the text the author teams focuses on the top 10 Challenges facing instructors. Do you face any of these in your classroom? •Creating relevance and student engagement •Demonstrating that psychology is a science •Helping students see the “big picture” •Teaching and student mastery of the most challenging concepts •Providing high-quality accessible visuals that make a difference! •Illustrating real-world applications •Maintaining a positive perspective of psychology •Emphasizing gender and cultural diversity •Dispelling myths •Providing quality assessments The unique “Chapter 0: Are You Ready For This?” provides students with a general sense of what the science of psychology is (and isn’t), a quick test of their current knowledge of psychology, why the discipline matters to all of us, the importance of critical thinking skills, and how to get the most out of the field of psychology. What students take from psychology will help them become a more successful student, professional, friend, partner, parent, brother, or sister—a better citizen of the world. Chapter 0 prepares them for their journey. Presenting Psychology 2e is filled with high-interest examples and features, including full-page infographics and seven distinct themes that help students understand and retain key concepts. In the second edition, tech-savvy professors, Deborah Licht and Misty Hull, combine years of research and teaching insights with the journalistic skill of science writer, Coco Ballantyne, from Scientific American. Together, they have created an introductory psychology textbook and online learning platform helps turn your 10 Challenges into student engagement and success. From preparing them for the course with Chapter 0 to breaking down difficult concepts with infographics. As well written profiles and video interviews of real people and their stories to help students better understand and relate to psychology’s foundational concepts. This innovative collaboration between Worth Publishers and Scientific American reflects a commitment to engaging and educating all students, including those who sometimes seem difficult to engage—in the contemporary style of the world’s most respected science magazine.

Also Available: Updated 2nd Edition

Features

Tackle The Top 10 Challenges Facing Instructors
Throughout the text the author teams focuses on the top 10 Challenges facing instructors. Do you face any of these in your classroom?

  • Creating relevance and student engagement
  • Demonstrating that psychology is a science
  • Helping students see the “big picture”
  • Providing high-quality accessible visuals that make a difference!
  • Illustrating real-world applications
  • Maintaining a positive perspective of psychology
  • Emphasizing gender and cultural diversity
  • Dispelling myths
  • Providing quality assessments
  • Create=ing interactive, technology-based learning that appeals to students

Highly Visual Infographics That Clarify Complex Concepts
Driven by extensive research into the concepts students and instructors consider difficult, innovative infographics helps unravel complex concepts by combining memorable images and clear, step-by-step explanations into a single, large-scale storyboard.

Unique Author Team
This mix of authors allows for a blend of authority on psychological topics and attention to the struggles of community college students all in the journalistic style of writing that students are so closely attuned to reading.

Stories and Videos of Real People, Woven Through Each Chapter
In Scientific American: Presenting Psychology, chapters don’t just feature opening stories.  They are stories—stories of real people, carefully chosen for their memorability and relevance to chapter content.  Based on interviews, the stories are woven through each chapter from beginning to end, but they don’t just exist on the page. In Their Own Words and You Asked, They Answered QR codes in the book link students to online video interviews with chapter subjects, making them, and the relevance of their stories to course content, even more memorable. An integrated case study assessment in LaunchPad further reinforces the connection between the stories and important psychological concepts.

Thematic Features Integrated Seamlessly into Each Chapter
As students progress through the book, they will come across seven recurring themes. These thematic features serve as extended examples to help students grasp important ideas. They are not “boxed” and appear in a given chapter only when they can help illustrate the content at hand, within and a part of the narrative, instead of as an aside. Themes include:

  • Social Media and Psychology highlights contemporary research on the impact of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media applications on behavior
  • Across the World highlights fascinating research on behavior variation across cultures
  • Career Connections, new to this edition, provides students with insights into the practical application and relevance of specific/key concepts in psychology to a broad variety of careers and workplace circumstances.
  • Didn’t See That Coming details unexpected, high-interest, and newsworthy developments related to the chapter’s theme
  • Believe It,,,Or Not examines debates over contemporary research and issues in the psychological community.
  • Think Critically, helps students improve their critical thinking by digging deeper into key concepts or deconstructing popular psychological myths
  • Think Positive, also new to this edition, shines the spotlight on psychology’s more uplifting findings, offering information intended to help students increase their happiness and well-being.


Applying Psychological Findings To Students’ Lives

  • “Try This” offers students a quick applications exercise relevant to their understanding of experimentation in psychology.
  • “Apply This” features in each chapter call students attention to ways in which the science of psychology comes to life in the real world.  Designed to show students how psychological science is applicable to everyone, sometimes in surprising ways.

Digital Authorship Beyond the Book
Licht, Hull, and Ballantyne’s belief in aligning text, video, and assessment with learning objectives, in both the print and digital environments, makes this project a trustworthy teaching and assessment resource for instructors and administrators in the digital age. The authors’ work goes beyond the printed page: they are also the curators of the scaffolded online assignments in LaunchPad, authors of thousands of questions for the book in Worth’s acclaimed online adaptive quizzing system, LearningCurve, and the new Achieve: Read & Practice student resource

New to This Edition

Right from the Start!
The unique “Chapter 0: Are You ready for This?” provides students with a general sense of what the science of psychology is (and isn’t), a quick test of their current knowledge of psychology,the importance of critical thinking skills,why the discipline matters to all of us, and how to get the most out of the field of psychology. What students take from psychology will help them become a more successful student, professional, friend, partner, parent, brother, or sister—a better citizen of the world.

A completely new visual design enhances the reading experience and provides a consistent learning system that helps students master the foundational concepts of psychology.

New Put Your Heads Together features are active learning activities which prompt students to apply material and generate ideas in small groups.

A new Career Connections thematic feature that helps students to see occupations and career situations where and how psychology can be applied and/or play a role.

Think Positive is another new thematic feature that highlights the findings of psychological research focused on helping individuals improve their well-being and happiness.

New Infographics including one on critical thinking using global warming as the example (Ch 1), perceptual illusions (Ch 3), the effects of psychoactive drugs (Ch 4), the four partial reinforcement schedules (Ch 5), the causes and symptoms of CTE (Ch 6), and pathways to happiness (Ch 9), among several more.

New integrated stories (and accompanying Online Video Profiles) about Anais Bordier and Samantha Futerman, identical twins separated at birth and reunited 25 years later with the help of social media (Ch 1), Mandy Harvey, a singer/musician who is completely deaf (Ch 3), Dr. Divya Chander, a neuroscientist and anesthesiologist who studied consciousness using technologies such as optogenetics (Ch 4), the “dog whisperer” Cesar Millan, examining how learning processes have played a role in his life and work (Ch.5) , former NFL linebacker Harry Carson, who suffers from language difficulties that appear to be linked to football and CTE, the multigenerational family of Ericka Harley, who work with teen parents striving to attain college degrees, and about the personality development of intersex activist Sean Saifa, and four more.

A number of new tables including an outline of the characteristics of critical thinkers (Ch 0), how to cultivate 21st century skills (Ch 0), the functions of various regions in the brain’s cortex (Ch 2), mnemonic devices to remember the characteristics of light and sound waves (Ch 3), terms to describe the stimulus and response in classical conditioning (Ch 5), illustrating newborn reflexes with photos (Ch 8), comparing classical and operant conditioning (Ch 5), new treatments for eating disorders (Ch 13), among others.

New From the Pages of Scientific American articles (one in each chapter) featuring current research on how parents often fail to set a good example for their children when it comes to limiting screen time (Ch 1), on the potential drawbacks of high emotional intelligence (Ch 7), role of memory in exposure therapy (Ch 14), about how financial stress influences pain perception (Ch 12), and personality changes over the life span (Ch 10), and many more.

A completely revised and revamped Test Bank and instructor supplements package as well as new author created content in LaunchPad, LearningCurve, and Achieve: Read & Practice.

“This book is in a league of its own. I am not aware of anything that compares with it. It is unique and visionary; every ‘I’ is dotted and every ‘t’ crossed as far as I am concerned in terms of what an ideal textbook would be.”
Jan Mendoza, Golden West College

“I feel like my mind has been read with this text. All of my top complaints have been heard and addressed. I know I am not unique, but it feels like this text was written for me….Thank you!!”
Christine Greco-Covington, Brookdale Community College

“A must have for teaching psychology because there is not another textbook like it.”
 JoAnne Shayne, Southern New Hampshire University

“If students take advantage and read all that is offered, this is a fantastic textbook. The authors have done everything to encourage active reading.”
Lynn Garrioch, Colby-Sawyer College

“This is the best introductory text I’ve come across.”
Rachel Laimon, Mott Community College

“Presenting Psychology is a text that engages readers like no other with its use of real life stories that relate to the material. It’s the only book that does it.”
Sheryl Attig, Tri-County Technical College

“This is jam-packed with pedagogically sound techniques to engage readers of all abilities.”
Cari Stevenson, Kankakee Community College

Digital Options

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Launchpad

Get the e-book, do assignments, take quizzes, prepare for exams and more, to help you achieve success in class.

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Read & Practice

Achieve Read & Practice is the marriage of our LearningCurve adaptive quizzing and our mobile, accessible e-book, in one easy-to-use and affordable product.

Schedule Read & Practice Demo

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E-book

Read online (or offline) with all the highlighting and notetaking tools you need to be successful in this course.

Table of Contents

Chapter 0: Are You Ready for This? provides students with a general sense of what psychology is (and isn’t), why the discipline matters to all of us, and how to get the most out of the field of psychology.
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Science of Psychology demonstrates psychology's roots and introduces the reader to the scientific method and research basics.
Chapter 2: Biology and Behavior interweaves psychological concepts with the story of Iraq War veteran Brandon Burns, who experienced a miraculous recovery from a brain injury, and Christina Santhouse, a young woman who has thrived in school, work, and life in general—after having an operation to remove nearly half her brain.
Chapter 3: Sensation and Perception tells the story of Elizabeth Hooker, a mother raising deaf and blind triplets.
Chapter 4: Consciousness offers a peek into the life of anesthesiologist Dr. Robert Julien, and explores the experiences of Matt Utesch, a young man with narcolepsy.
Chapter 5: Learning illustrates learning principles using basketball pro Jeremy Lin and blind marathon runner/triathlete Ivonne Mosquera.
Chapter 6: Memory tells the poignant tale of the amnesiac Clive Wearing and follows Dorothea Seitz, a memory expert, to the World Memory Championships.
Chapter 7: Cognition, Language, and Intelligence explores the cognitive breakdown of stroke survivor Jill Bolte Taylor and the reading difficulties of actor Orlando Bloom, who has dyslexia.
Chapter 8: Human Development details the lives of two community college students—Jasmine Mitchell, a single mother juggling education and career responsibilities with childrearing, and Chloe Ojeah, a young woman who cares for her aging grandparents in between classes and homework.
Chapter 9: Motivation and Emotion relates the life experiences of Mohamed Dirie, a young man who immigrated to the United States from Somalia, and Lucy Magnum, a child who survived a shark attack.
Chapter 10: Personality introduces the digital personality Tank, a robot receptionist at Carnegie-Mellon University.
Chapter 11: Social Psychology explores the life of Olympic runner Julius Achon, who adopted 11 orphans from his homeland of Uganda, and relates the story of Joe and Susanne Maggio, a married couple who found each other via the Internet.
Chapter 12: Stress and Health details the experiences of a Eric Flansburg, a police officer, and Kehlen Kirby, an emergency medical services (EMS) provider.
Chapter 13: Psychological Disorders tells the story of Ross Szabo, a young man with bipolar disorder, and a Melissa Hopely, young woman with obsessive compulsive disorder.
Chapter 14: Psychological Therapies focuses on Dr. Daniel Foster, a therapist working on an Indian Reservation and Laura Lichti, a licensed therapist just beginning her career.

Deborah Licht

Deborah Licht is a professor of psychology at Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She has over two decades of teaching and research experience in a variety of settings, ranging from a small private university in the midwest to a large public university in Copenhagen, Denmark. She has taught introductory psychology, psychology of the workplace, abnormal psychology, the history of psychology, child development, and elementary statistics. She has experience in traditional, online, and hybrid courses, and is particularly inspired by first-generation college students who turn to community colleges to pursue their education. She received a BS in psychology from Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio; an MA in clinical psychology from the University of Dayton; and a PhD in psychology (experimental psychopathology) from Harvard University. She continues to be interested in research on causal beliefs and their influence on behavior, particularly in relation to how college students think about their successes and failures as they pursue their degrees.

Misty Hull

Misty Hull is a professor of psychology at Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She has taught a range of psychology courses at Pikes Peak Community College, including introductory psychology, human sexuality, and social psychology in a variety of delivery formats (traditional, online, and hybrid). Her love of teaching comes through in her dedication to mentoring new and part-time faculty in the teaching of psychology. She received her BS in human development and family studies from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, and an MA in professional counseling at Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, Colorado. She has served in a variety of administrative roles at Pikes Peak Community College, including interim associate dean, and coordinator of the Student Crisis Counseling Office. In addition, she has helped to facilitate the state system’s approach to teaching psychology, as the state psychology discipline chair of the Colorado Community College System from 2002 to 2010. One of her many professional interests is research on the impact of student persistence in higher education.

Coco Ballantyne

Coco Ballantyne is a New York–based journalist and science writer with a special interest in psychology. Before collaborating with Misty Hull and Deborah Licht on Scientific American: Psychology and Scientific American: Presenting Psychology, Coco worked as a reporter for Scientific American online, covering the health, medicine, and neuroscience beats. She has also written for Discover magazine and Nature Medicine. Coco earned an MS from the Columbia University School of Journalism, where she received a Horgan Prize for Excellence in Critical Science Writing. Prior to her journalistic career, Coco worked as a teacher and tutor, helping high school and college students prepare for standardized tests such as the SAT, GRE, and MCAT. She also worked as a physics and math teacher at Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto, California, and as a Human Biology course associate at Stanford University, where she earned a BA in human biology.

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Test Bank for Scientific American: Presenting Psychology (Online Only)

Deborah Licht; Misty Hull; Coco Ballantyne | Second Edition | ©2019 | ISBN:9781319171063

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In The Authors’ Own Words

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