- Published
- January 2026
- Page Count
- 584
- ISBN (Digital)
- 979-8-88794-389-3
Introduction to Psychology
Version 5.0
By Sue Frantz and Charles Stangor
Included Supplements
Homework
Manual
Slides
Tests
Key Features
- “What Does My Neighbor Need to Know About Psychology” organizing structure focuses learners on the most significant and memorable aspects of psychology, appealing to both majors and non-majors alike
- “Seven Integrative Themes” based on 2021’s APA Introductory Psychology Initiative are woven throughout the text to provide a strong basis for understanding and applying the science behind psychology
- Psychological science relies on empirical evidence and adapts as new data develop
- Psychology explains general principles that govern behavior while recognizing individual differences
- Psychological, biological, social, and cultural factors influence behavior and mental processes
- Psychology values diversity, promotes equity, and fosters inclusion in pursuit of a more just society
- Our perceptions and biases filter our experiences of the world through an imperfect personal lens
- Applying psychological principles can change our lives, organizations, and communities in positive ways
- Ethical principles guide psychology research and practice
- Embraces diversity such as the inclusion of often-overlooked historical figures in psychology who are people of color; consistently diverse photo selections; the experiences of people of color, people of different cultures, people who define themselves as nonbinary, and people with disabilities
- Connects the principles of psychology to everyday experiences and behavior and to the underlying body of empirical research throughout the text and in key learning features
- Over 124 hyperlinks to videos that enrich both face-to-face and online courses, engage students, and reinforce or augment many of the presented topics
- Rich learning structure
- Chapter opening stories showcase an engaging, real-world example of people who are dealing with psychological questions and use psychology to help them answer those questions
- Learning Objectives preview each main head section and help focus the reader’s attention
- Psychology in Everyday Life links psychological principles to real-world applications in business, the environment, health, law, education, and other relevant domains
- Research Focus presents close-ups on research, including a summary of the hypotheses, methods, results, interpretations, and unpredictability of results to help students understand how research really works
- Try This invites students to conduct their own, informal investigations or experiments to research key concepts or applications
- Marginal Glossary of Key Terms. Placing the key terms in the margins allows students to easily review them by skimming through the text
- Key Takeaways at the end of every main head section encourage the reader to chunk new information while it is fresh to encourage retention
- Exercises and Critical Thinking can be used to stimulate discussion and help students apply the chapter section content to real-world situations and their own lives. Answer guidelines are included in the instructor’s manual
- Chapter Summary helps students understand the “big picture” significance of the preceding chapter
- Customizable
Students
- Online Access Price
- $36.95
- Color Printed Textbook with Online Access Price
- $63.95
Introduction to Psychology is suitable for courses called Introduction to Psychology, Principles of Psychology, Survey of Psychology, Psychology, or for any basic psychology course that provides an overview of the discipline. The course is generally taught at the undergraduate level at most two- and four-year colleges and universities.
This book’s organizing theme, “What Does My Neighbor Need to Know About Psychology?” tames the vast body of knowledge that comprises the fascinating study of psychology. By leveraging this central theme, the authors carefully select which topics to cover and in what amount of detail. The result is a concise and concrete narrative that grabs students’ attention and does not let go. Seven Integrative Themes based on 2021’s APA Introductory Psychology Initiative help students appreciate the importance of psychology to our daily lives and society as a whole. Strong underlying subthemes of action—predicting our own actions and those around us—and empiricism unify the narrative under the umbrella of psychology as a science. Its standard, fourteen-chapter organization makes this textbook an ideal choice for either a typical semester- or quarter-long course.
New in This Version
Chapter 1: Welcome to Psychology
- Removed 1.4 as a separate history section
- Section 1.1
- Removed the APA divisions
- Moved the Clarks, Gilbreth, Marston from 1.4 to this section, expanded coverage of each, and included a video for each
- Moved Wundt from 1.4 to this section.
- Changed perspectives to coredomains and moved them from 1.4 to this section
- New examples of researchers whose work crosses domains
- Expanded coverage of what psychologists do by including discussion of sports psychology, industrial organizational psychology, conservation psychology, and forensic psychology
- Section 1.2
- “Seven Integrative Themes” moved to earlier in the chapter
- Expanded discussion of each Theme introduces the theme images and themes are more deeply woven throughout the book
- Theme One now includes the “Marshmallow Test” as an example
- The United Nations example moved from Theme Six to Theme Four
- Theme Five now includes anchoring bias and aviation psychology
- “Using Psychology to Help Us Learn” moved from Section 1.4 to Theme Six
- Section 1.3
- This is the former Section 1.2
- Added a video on the hindsight bias
Chapter 2: Research Methods: The Science of Psychology
- New chapter opener: “The story behind a research study”
- New video based on the chapter opener
- Section 2.1
- New video on “The Genius of Dogs” as an example of ethical research with nonhuman animals
- New subsection on peer review
- “Read a Research Article” box moved to this subsection
- Section 2.2
- New key terms: Quantitative research, qualitative research, and Hawthorne effect
- Updated survey data on stress
- In naturalistic observation section, replaced the e-cig example with two new examples
- Section 2.3
- Moved experimental research methods into its own section
Chapter 3: Biological Psychology: The Brain at Work
- New chapter opener on brain computer interface with two new videos
- Section 3.1
- Moved the information on the nervous system from the chapter opener here
- Section 3.2
- New limbic system visual
- Discussion of motor cortex and new graphic reflecting new research
- New key term: Somatosensory cortex and visual
- New video on phantom limbs
- Section 3.3
- Using functional MRI in pain research with video
- Section 3.4
- New divisions of the nervous system visual
- New sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems visual
- Expanded discussion of the sympathetic nervous system
- New discussion of the pancreas’ role in diabetes
- More information on intersex, including a video
Chapter 4: Sensation and Perception: Experiencing the World Around Us
- Section 4.1
- New Try This tests hearing limits
- Section 4.2
- New coverage of macular degeneration
- New Psychology in Everyday Life on why driving at night gets more difficult with age
- New key term: retinal disparity
- New Try This illustrates how our two eyes perceive different images
- Section 4.3
- New sound wave visual
- Updated the decibel chart
- New videos on inner ear hair cells and the science of hearing
- New box on earwax
- New coverage of tinnitus
- Section 4.4
- Updated research on taste receptors
- Expanded coverage of the vestibular system
- New video on spinning ice skater and on the brain and balance
- New Research Focus on pain reprocessing therapy
Chapter 5: Consciousness: Sleep, Drugs, and Other Mental States
- New video on why Roger Federer sleeps 12 hours a day
- Section 5.1
- New sleep stages visual
- Updated recommended hours of sleep per day table
- New video and expanded coverage of person who went 11 days without sleeping
- New coverage of fatal familial insomnia
- Renamed the subsection sleep disorders to be sleep disorders and disruptions
- New video on naps
- Expanded coverage of sleep terrors
- Added new research on the connection between REM behavior disorder and certain neurological diseases
- Section 5.2
- New key terms: psychopharmacology and cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome
- Revised table on psychoactive drugs
- New videos on: caffeine, cocaine, marijuana, ketamine and depression, MDMA as treatment for trauma, the neuroscience of methamphetamine
- Revised video on psychedelics
- New or expanded coverage of vaping and kava
- New fentanyl visual
- New opioid overdose and naloxone infographic
- New box and video on xylazine
- New discussion of the role of social pressure in using psychoactive drugs
- Section 5.3
- New file download from the Society of Psychological Hypnosis
Chapter 6: Development: Changes Across Our Lifetimes
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- New coverage of the PPCT model
- Section 6.1
- New videos on pregnancy, sex determination, epigenetics, and what we learn before we’re born
- Section 6.2
- New videos on the stages of labor, how every child can thrive by 5, the logical minds of babies, theory of mind and autism, conservation
- New coverage of cross-cultural research on differences in conservation
- Section 6.3
- New videos on adolescence, why women have periods, and the adolescent brain
- Section 6.4
- New description of National Parent and Youth Helpline
- New video on menopause
- Section 6.5
- New key term: Socio-emotional selectivity theory
- Added videos on ageism, Dick Van Dyke, Alzheimer’s Disease, and “Map of Life”
- Expanded coverage of neurocognitive disorder including a table of lifetime risk
- New subsection called “Social and Emotional Changes in Older Adulthood”
- Retirement discussion is now a full subsection
Chapter 7: Learning: Changing Behavior
- Expanded hero rat coverage including three new videos: Clearing land mines in Cambodia, detecting tuberculosis, and training rats for search and rescue
- Section 7.2
- Revised video of a puppy learning how to ring a bell
- Section 7.3
- New classical conditioning in advertising visual
Chapter 8: Memory and Cognition: Remembering and Thinking
- Section 8.1
- New videos on iconic memory and working memory
- New box on how maintenance rehearsal gave us the song “Jolene,” including a music video of Dolly Parton
- Section 8.2
- New examples using Starbucks and Apple logos
- Updated research on tip of the tongue
- Section 8.3
- New video on the reliability of memory
Chapter 9: Intelligence and Language: Processing Information and Communication
- Section 9.1
- New key terms: Fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence, mutualism of cognitive abilities
- Expanded discussion of general intelligence
- Section 9.2
- New subsection on the CHC theory of intelligence
- Section 9.3
- New key term: Dyslexia
- New subsection ondyslexia
Chapter 10: Emotions and Motivation: What Drives Us
- Section 10.1
- New subsection on the theory of constructed emotion
- New videos on how our brain constructs emotions and grief
- New research example illustrating how cognitive change can positively affect course grades
- New subsection on grief
- Section 10.2
- New examples of acute and chronic stress
- Updated the social readjustment rating scale
- New Research Focus on non-deceptive placebos
- Section 10.3
- New video on happiness research
- New subsection on essentialist beliefs about happiness
- Section 10.4
- New key term: Muscle dysmorphia
- New videos on Type 2 Diabetes and muscle dysmorphia
- New subsection on eating profiles
- New discussion of muscle dysmorphia
Chapter 11: Social Psychology: Interacting With Those Around Us
- Section 11.1
- New video on stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination
- Section 11.2
- New video on how to respond to racist jokes and remarks and cultural norms
- Replaced line study video with a more recent example
- Section 11.4
- New section on intimate partner violence
Chapter 12: Personality: Development and Measurement
- Moved section 12.3 on the history of personality theory to the appendix
- Section 12.2
- New section on the dark triad: Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy
- Section 12.3
- New video on the Minnesota Twin study
Chapter 13: Psychological Perspectives on Mental Health
- Renamed this chapter from Psychological Disorders: Defining Mental Illness to Psychological Perspectives on Mental Health
- Section 13.1
- Added videos on unusual behavior and ADHD
- New video of Little Caesars Pizza commercial
- Re-sequenced discussions of autism spectrum disorder and ADHD
- New subsection on the medical model and the social model
- Section 13.2
- New key terms: Period prevalence rate and lifetime prevalence rate
- New video on OCD
- Expanded coverage of PTS
- Section 13.3
- Renamed section from “Mood Disorders” to “Depressive and Bipolar Disorders”
- New 988 suicide and crisis lifeline visual
- Expanded mood disorders subsection
- Section 13.4
- Added video on psychosis
Chapter 14: Therapy: Coping With Life’s Changes
- New map showing U.S. states with prescribing psychologists
- Section 14.1
- New videos on the power of vulnerability and a typical therapy session
- New discussion of motivational interviewing
- Revised coverage of aversion therapy
- Section 14.2
- Updated figure on type of mental health treatment by gender
- New coverage of and figure on type of mental health treatment in children by age
- New coverage of antidepressant discontinuation syndrome
- New coverage of the third generation of antipsychotics
- Section 14.4
- Added information on the Confess Project of America
- About the Authors
- Acknowledgments
- Dedication
- Preface
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Chapter 1: Welcome to Psychology
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Chapter 2: Research Methods: The Science of Psychology
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Chapter 3: Biological Psychology: The Brain at Work
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Chapter 4: Sensation and Perception: Experiencing the World Around Us
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Chapter 5: Consciousness: Sleep, Drugs, and Other Mental States
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Chapter 6: Development: Changes Across Our Lifetime
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Chapter 7: Learning: Changing Behavior
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Chapter 8: Memory and Cognition: Remembering and Thinking
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Chapter 9: Intelligence and Language: Processing Information and Communication
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Chapter 10: Emotions and Motivation: What Drives Us
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Chapter 11: Social Psychology: Interacting with Those Around Us
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Chapter 12: Personality: Development and Measurement
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Chapter 13: Psychological Perspectives on Mental Health
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Chapter 14: Therapy: Coping with Life’s Changes
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Appendix A: An Introduction to the History of Psychology
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Instructor’s Manual
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PowerPoint Lecture Notes
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Test Item File
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