Understanding Psychology (Hardcover)

by Robert Feldman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Understanding Psychology is written around the philosophy that an effective textbook must be oriented to students�informing them, engaging them, exciting them about the field, and expanding their intellectual capabilities�because when students understand psychology, they learn psychology. No matter what brings students into the introductory course and regardless of their initial motivation, Understanding Psychology, Eighth Edition, draws students into the field and stimulate their thinking. This revision integrates a variety of elements that foster students� understanding of psychology and its impact on their everyday lives. It also provides instructors with a fully integrated supplements package to objectively gauge their students� mastery of psychology�s key principles and concepts and to create dynamic lectures.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 800 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; 8 edition (November 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0073531936
• ISBN-13: 978-0073531939
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #23,502 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great, July 3, 2009

By	R. Gray - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Although the product took a little longer than i had hoped to get to my house, it was in great condition and couldn't get much better.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Take a pill, September 5, 2008

By	krebsman (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Why don't textbook publishers understand that students have a lot of things to carry? This book weighs a ton and there is no need for it. It has extremely wide margins (on some pages, half the page is blank!) and lots of unnecessary photos. Perhaps the book's size is an attempt to justify its hefty price.

As an introductory textbook to the science of Psychology, the book has its strong points and its weak ones. It does a fairly good job of giving a general overview and the five major perspectives (neuroscientific, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and humanistic), but I think that there are two major problems with the book. The first is that it is very American-centered. The European roots of Psychology are given short shrift, and even largely pooh-poohed. Freud is regarded as just one of many pioneers and his work is extremely oversimplified and, I would say, misrepresented. The author seems obsessed with the anal stage of development, to the point of neglecting virtually everything else Freud taught. The second problem with the book for me is that the author appears to be a strong proponent of the neuroscientific approach and devotes far too much attention to it, when compared with the other approaches. A large portion of the book is devoted to extremely detailed lessons in anatomy and physiology. The other perspectives are not covered in nearly the same detail. I also felt that there should have been a discussion of the potential abuses of the behavioral approach and the downside of the chemical approach to dealing with disorders. (Do we really want our society dependent upon drugs in order to cope with daily life?)

But the book is commendable on some levels. It is far less propagandistic than most textbooks these days. However, the author appears to bend over backwards to emphasize the importance of women in the field of psychology. He would not have had to do so if he had given more space to the European pioneers. I found it odd that he seems to regard the relatively obscure Leta Stetter Hollingsworth as worthy of almost as much attention as Sigmund Freud. Those sections dealing with sleep and with scientific method were quite well done though.

On the whole, I'd rate the book as worthy of three stars. It's not really bad, but it could be a lot better. I hope that there are better introductory textbooks available. If I were an instructor I'd shop around some more before using this one.