Customer Reviews

An Introduction to Behavioral Endocrinology

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is one of the most informative books about the basic mechanisms underlying sex behavior and sex differences. Forget about Venus and Mars. This book really gets to the basics in a readible and enjoyable fashion. You don't need much biological training to learn a lot from this book (in fact, I skipped Chapter 2 which was a rather dense treatment of hormones, but is a good resource to consult) and didn't have any trouble in later chapters. Learn about how sex differences in behavior arise, and learn about the many ways that hormones have subtle effects on our behavior...

Quite simply, this is the best textbook on hormones and behavior available today. The text is clearly written and enjoyable as well, a rarity in academic textbooks. A must-buy for anyone interested in the the interaction of hormones and behavior.

This is a true text book. It takes a very diffuicult subject matter and tries to help the reader learn about a topic that can be overwhelming. The book is well written, with good, real-world examples, but it still has very detailed information. Read it if you want to learn more about the endocrine system, and its hormones.

Quite simply, this is the best textbook on hormones and behavior available today. The text is clearly written and enjoyable as well, a rarity in academic textbooks. A must-buy for anyone interested in the the interaction of hormones and behavior.

This textbook is a delight. Well written, accessible, wonderfully wideranging and thoughtful. It's even funny.

I have been using this book for interest purposes. As an advanced undergraduate interested in behavioral neuroscience, I find this to be an excellent survey of this developing field.

The book is very readable with concise chapters. Its very broad in scope and includes many recent, key experiments which are fundamental to the field. It is interdisciplinary in approach with references to fields such as: social, evolutionary and physiological psychology.

It appears as though the author(s) have done well to bring this excellent text up to date with each edition. There are many fine, recent references. I am currently reviewing the third edition and have had an opportunity to glance at the previous editions in the library.

Overall, I recommend it highly to those interested in social, development and physiological psychology. If you are interested in neuroscience and biochemistry/endocrinology this is a very interesting approach to a fascinating discipline!

This book does a good job as an introductory text that gives the student enough information and context to begin to explore the research literature. The author makes extensive use of in text citations, as is common in social science texts, and does not assume an extensive biology background, so the book is useful to students approaching animal behavior from either a social science or biological science perspective. In selected examples the author explains the details of the research that led to the conclusions presented in the book. An especially nice feature is the end of chapter 'Questions for Discussion' which encourage critical thought about the material rather than rote memorization.

My cheif complaint about the book is the poor editing. As an example, in chapter 2, the reader is referred to a table in appendix II - which does not exist. There are also several in text citations which do not have corresponding references in the back of the book and several duplicate references (which probably displaced the missing references). I think only a textbook geek like myself would even notice these oversights, much less mind them, but they keep me from giving five stars.

I would not recomend this book. It was a required text for one of my classes, and it was terrible. I ended up reading only the first six chapters (instead of all 13) due to the way it was written. It is very easy to get confused due to the fact that the author continue to ramble on using complicated terminology. For readers with a lot of backround in endocrinology, biology and the structures of the brain, the book may be of some use - even though I have all of those backgrounds, I still found the book a terrible read due to all the rambling and repetition - very confusing book - you have to reread many of the paragraphs to figure out what he's talking about. For anyone just looking into the subject, don't bother with this book (try Life - The Science of Biology by Purves, Sadava, etc. for general biology or Animal Physiology by Randall, Burggren and French for a more advanced physiology text - both great books).