- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Pearson; 7 edition (18 July 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0205360939
- ISBN-13: 978-0205360932
- Product Dimensions: 22.8 x 15.4 x 1.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 709,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
|
There is a newer edition of this item:
|
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
This widely used supplement focuses on applying critical thinking techniques to standard concepts in psychology and helps readers to recognize and critically appraise pseudoscience.
In particular, this text provides tips on evaluating claims that arise in discussions of psychology in the media and self-help literature. By boldly examining common misconceptions in psychology, this text helps the reader to become more critical and discriminating consumers of psychological information.
From the Back Cover
This widely used supplement focuses on applying critical thinking techniques to standard concepts in psychology and teaches students to recognize and critically appraise pseudoscience. In particular, this text provides tips on evaluating claims that arise in discussions of psychology in the media and self-help literature. By boldly examining common misconceptions in psychology, the text helps students become more critical and discriminating consumers of psychological information.
Highlights of the Seventh Edition:
- Presents psychological topics such as falsifiability, operationalism, experimental control, converging evidence, correlational vs. experimental studies, and statistics as “tools” for critical evaluation, providing students with a set of practical consumer skills to independently evaluate psychological claims.
- Discusses psychology in the media and gives students some “consumer rules”for dealing with it.
- Presents information on how to tell true psychological research from pseudoscience.
- Provides instructors with the opportunity to teach critical thinking skills within the rich context of modern psychology.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the book for you. If you've had enough of trying to justify the fact that psychology is a science or maybe you're fed up with questions about Freud, then this is the book for you. It will help you evaluate psychological research and spot dubious pseudo-science while dispelling popular myths. (such as we only use 10% of our brains... this claim has NO neuropsychological evidence to back it up).
If you are thinking of doing a psychology degree because you don't like 'real' science or you believe in ESP, then you really need to read this, so that you're thinking straight about psychology before its too late.
Its written in an engaging style with entertaining examples and anecdotes and suggests some of the right reasons for studying psychology while providing critical insights that'll help maximise your chances of success on a psychology course.
If you are thinking of doing a psychology degree because you don't like 'real' science or you believe in ESP, then you really need to read this, so that you're thinking straight about psychology before its too late.
Its written in an engaging style with entertaining examples and anecdotes and suggests some of the right reasons for studying psychology while providing critical insights that'll help maximise your chances of success on a psychology course.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was forced to read this book upon taking up my role as Lecturer In Neuroscience in Sheffield Uni Dept of Psychology. I run the course that uses this text as its examinable material.
Like many practioners of 'hard science' I'd always view psychology as a bit of a light-weight subject with its over-reliance on statistical methods, questionaires, touchy-feely-types etc and the many TV psychologists one can see almost daily, further dragging down their subject into the depths of pseudoscience. However, on reading this book I realised that there IS some merit in psychology. This text explains many concepts that turn observation into SCIENCE. It explains why science is so powerful in getting at the truth of the matter by constantly trying to refute itself! Which other disipline would have the courage to try and disprove itself and, if successful, rethink its hypotheses in light of the new findings to forge a new and more robust hypothesis? Stanovich explains how the scientific process does just this and he does it in an entertaining and light way without dumbing down in any way. Stanovich could make this text more appealing to a wider audience by expanding its scope and perhaps not concentrating quite so much on psychology, but on science in general. He'd have to change the title then, of course!
I wish I'd read this book when I was an under-/post-graduate studying Physiology/Neurophysiology-it would have given me a greater understanding of what I was trying to do. Its other great gift to me is when I'm confronted with a New Ager expounding the virtues of crystals,chakaras,angels,faith healing etc and trying to bring modern science into disrepute. The information in this book helps me to show them why they're barking up the wrong tree and I'm not! I often end such a conversation with, "...science isn't all bad, but there's nothing you can show me that I can say is at all good"
Buy this book! My students, buy this book, read it and learn from it! I'm setting the exam questions right now!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I found this book to be informative and interesting at the same time which is something that a psychology text book generally seems to be quite far off the mark from achieving. Stanovich uses a wit and writing style that makes the text a joy to read. He simplifies some very abstract concepts by drawing on concrete examples from the real world. This in turn helps to keep the book current and relevant to modern psychology. Whilst at the same time achieving an easy to understand approach to scientific methodology he makes sure that he is not perceived as patronising or condescending.
This book is not just a text book for academics who feel the need to exclude the vast majority of the population with the use of hyponyms phraseology; its easy going approach makes it suitable for anyone with a passing interest in psychology.
This book is not just a text book for academics who feel the need to exclude the vast majority of the population with the use of hyponyms phraseology; its easy going approach makes it suitable for anyone with a passing interest in psychology.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Psychology & Psychiatry > History & Philosophy
- Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Psychology & Psychiatry > Methodology > Research
- Books > Reference > Research Methods
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Academic Sociology
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Sociology
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
