Adam Cash is a clinical psychologist who has practiced in a variety of settings including forensic institutions and outpatient clinics. He has taught Psychology at both the community college and university levels. He is currently in private practice specializing in psychological assessment, child psychology, and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 2

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 3

Part 1: Getting Started with Psychology 5

Chapter 1: The Purpose of Psychology 7

Whys, Whats, and Hows of People 9

A useful metaphor: Building a person 10

Why? 11

What? 11

How? 12

Troubleshooting 13

Putting It All Back Together Again 14

Chapter 2: Thinking and Behaving as a Psychologist 15

The Core Activities of a Psychologist 17

Experimental and research psychologists 17

Applied psychologists 17

Teachers/educators/professors 18

Theoretical and philosophical psychologists 18

How Do I Become a Psychologist? 18

Getting Started with Metatheory and Frameworks 19

Biological 20

Behaviorism 20

Cognitive 20

Sociocultural 21

Developmental 21

Evolutionary 22

Humanistic and existential 22

Psychoanalytic/psychodynamic 22

Feminism 23

Postmodernism 23

A Unifying Model? Working with the Biopsychosocial Model 24

Feeling out the role of the body 24

Thinking about the role of the mind 24

Observing the role of the outside world 25

Developing a good theory 27

Seeking Truth 27

Applying the scientific method 29

Researching Matters 30

Understanding descriptive research 30

Doing experimental research 30

Measuring one, measuring all with statistics 31

Relating variables: Correlation versus causation 33

Being "Good": Ethics in Psychology 35

Part 2: Picking Your Brain (and Body) 37

Chapter 3: Brains, Genes, and Behavior 39

Believing in Biology 40

The Biological "Control Room" 42

Cells and Chemicals 44

Networking and crossing the divide 45

Branching out 47

Activating brain change 47

The Organization of the Brain 49

Forebrain 50

Midbrain 51

Hindbrain 51

Tiptoeing back and forth from the periphery 52

Finding Destiny with DNA 52

Understanding Psychopharmacology 53

Easing depression 55

Shushing the voices 55

Relaxing 56

Chapter 4: From Sensation to Perception 59

Building Blocks: Our Senses 60

The sensing process 61

Seeing 62

Hearing 65

Touching and feeling pain 66

Smelling and tasting 67

Balancing and moving 68

Finishing the Product: Perception 68

Organizing by Principles 70

Chapter 5: Exploring Consciousness 73

Carving Awareness and Being at Its Joints 74

Consciousness as an ability, skill, or process of the mind (and the brain) 74

Consciousness as a state or type of awareness 75

Catching some zzzzs 76

Understanding tired brains, slipping minds 78

Arriving at Work Naked: Dreams 79

Altering Your Consciousness 80

Getting high on conscious life 81

Being conscious of my mind (meditative states) 82

Falling into hypnosis 84

Part 3: Thinking and Feeling and Acting 85

Chapter 6: Thinking and Speaking 87

What's on Your Mind? 88

Thinking like a PC 89

Turing's challenge 89

Computing 90

Representing 91

Processing 91

Modules, Parts, and Processes 92

The attention process 93

The memory process 94

The knowing process 97

The reasoning process 100

The decision-making/choosing process 101

The problem-solving process 104

It's All about Connections 105

Bodies and Minds 106

Thinking You're Pretty Smart 108

Considering the factors of intelligence 108

Getting a closer look 109

Adding in street smarts 110

Excelling with multiple intelligences 111

Making the grade - on a curve 112

Figuring Out Language 114

Babel-On 114

Rules, syntax, and meaning 115

Chapter 7: Needing, Wanting, Feeling 117

What's My Motivation? 118

Would you like some adrenaline with that bear? 119

Feeling needy 120

Knowing who's the boss 121

Arousing interest in prime rib 123

Getting cheaper long distance is rewarding 124

Facing your opponent-process theory 125

Believing in yourself 125

Pleasure and pain 127

Escaping psychological pain 128

Launching Countless Bad Poems: Emotions 130

Watch out for that sabertooth! 132

Your brain on emotion 133

Which comes first, the body or the mind? 135

Expressing yourself 137

Acknowledging anger 138

Being happy 140

Discovering your smart heart: Emotional intelligence and styles 142

Being in Control 143

Chapter 8: Barking up the Learning Tree: Dogs, Cats, and Rats 147

Learning to Behave 149

Drooling like Pavlov's Dogs 149

Conditioning responses and stimuli 150

Becoming extinct 152

Classic generalizing and discriminating 153

Conditioning rules! 154

Battling theories: Why does conditioning work? 156

Studying Thorndike's Cats 157

Reinforcing the Rat Case 159

Finding the right reinforcer 159

Using punishment 161

Scheduling and timing reinforcement 163

Stimulus Control and Operant Generalization 165

Operant Discrimination 166

Part 4: Me, You, and Everything in Between 167

Chapter 9: Myself and I 169

Getting to the Magic Number 5 171

They Made Me This Way 173

Representing Ourselves 174

Schemas 174

Scripts 175

It Depends on the Situation 176

Feeling Self-Conscious 179

Becoming aware of your body 180

Keeping it private 180

Showing it off 181

Identifying Yourself 181

Forging a personal identity 182

Carving out a social identity 184

Mustering up some self-esteem 185

Chapter 10: Connecting 187

Getting Attached 188

Realizing even monkeys get the blues 188

Attaching with style 189

Cavorting with Family and Friends 191

Parenting with panache 192

Embracing your rival: Siblings 193

Getting chummy: Bridge building 194

Attraction, Romance, and Love 195

How we choose the ones we love 195

Love's expanse 196

Connecting to Thoughts and Action 198

Explaining others with person perception 198

Minding "you" with theory of mind 201

Dancing with others: Embodied social cognition theories 202

Communication Skills 202

Asking questions 203

Explaining 204

Listening 204

Asserting yourself 205

Chapter 11: Getting Along or Not 207

Playing Your Part 208

Ganging Up in a Group 209

Conforming 210

Doing better with help 212

Kicking back 213

Remaining anonymous 213

Thinking as one 214

Persuading 215

Credibility of communicator 216

Delivery approach 216

Audience engagement 217

Age of audience 217

Being Mean 218

Acting naturally 218

Being frustrated 219

Doing what's learned 219

Lending a Helping Hand 221

Why help? 221

When to help? 224

Who gives and receives help? 225

Birds of a Feather or Not 226

Examining isms 226

Understanding discrimination 227

Making contact 228

Chapter 12: Growing Up with Psychology 229

Beginning with Conception and Birth 230

Xs and Ys get together 230

Uniting and dividing all in one night 231

Going from Diapers to Drool 233

Survival instincts 233

Motoring about 234

Flexing their muscles 235

Scheduling time for schemata 235

Getting your sensorimotor running 237

Learning within the lines 238

Saying what you think 239

Blooming social butterflies 240

Getting on the Big Yellow Bus 241

Mastering the crayon 241

Being preoperational doesn't mean you're having surgery 242

In the zone 243

Becoming even more social 243

Agonizing over Adolescence 244

Pining over puberty 244

Moving away from parents 245

Existing as a Grown-Up 246

Looking at you 246

Connecting and working 246

Aging and Geropsychology 247

Chapter 13: Psychology in the Digital Age 249

Love and Robots 250

Talk to the box 251

Me and my friends 252

That perfect someone 253

Digitized (d)evolution 254

The Dark Side of the Digital World 256

Say that to my face 256

Hooked on the Internet 257

Bullying moves from the schoolyard to the desktop 258

Can Technology Make Us Better at Being Human? 260

Part 5: Adapting and Struggling 261

Chapter 14: Coping When Life Gets Rough 263

Stressing Out 264

Ways to think about stress 264

The causes of stress 268

The impact of stress 269

Crisis: Accumulated or overwhelming stress 271

Posttraumatic stress disorder 273

The stress of loss 274

Coping is No Gamble 275

Learning how to cope 276

Finding resources 276

Chapter 15: Modern Abnormal Psychology 279

What Is" Abnormal" Anyway? 280

Who decides what's normal? 281

Ryff's Psychological Well-Being Model 282

Defining Mental Disorders 283

Psychotic Disorders: Grasping for Reality 286

Schizophrenia 286

Other types of psychoses 290

Feeling Funky: Depression 292

Staying...