1st Edition
Introductory Psychology and the Human Condition Cultural Adaptation in Pursuit of Self-Actualization
Introductory Psychology and the Human Condition provides an engaging, cohesive, and practical treatment of traditional psychological principles and theories.
The book uses Maslow’s human needs hierarchy and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory of development as organizational schemas for considering how cultures have evolved to address human needs. It relates major psychological processes including biology, perception, motivation, learning, and cognition to lifespan and personality development in nomadic hunter-gatherer and technologically enhanced cultures. Human history is described as a feedback loop in which inventions and technologies result in the need for individuals and cultures to adapt to changing environmental and social conditions. By applying interdisciplinary perspectives of the humanities, social and natural sciences, and helping professions to the human condition, it offers a meaningful lens through which to study and interpret core psychological concepts. Chapters are supported by self-understanding and self-control exercises that help students place their lives within a cultural and historical context and apply the principles of psychology to themselves.
Offering an engaging overview of the essential elements of an introductory psychology course in an accessible and approachable style, Introductory Psychology and the Human Condition is core reading for introductory students and will appeal also to a general audience interested in psychology.
Part 1: Introduction. Chapter 1. The Human Condition. Chapter 2. The Science of Psychology. Part 2: Mostly Nature. Chapter 3. Biology and the Human Condition. Chapter 4. Sensation, Perception, and the Human Condition. Chapter 5. Motivation, Emotion, and the Human Condition. Part 3: Mostly Nurture. Chapter 6. Direct Learning and the Human Condition. Chapter 7. Indirect Social Learning, Memory, and the Human Condition. Chapter 8. Cognition, Problem-Solving, Technology, and the Human Condition. Part 4 Nature/Nurture. Chapter 9. Lifespan Development and the Human Condition. Chapter 10. Personality and the Human Condition. Part 5: Cultural Adaptation. Chapter 11. Social Influence and the Human Condition. Chapter 12. Maladaptive Behavior and the Human Condition. Chapter 13. Psychology and Maladaptive Behavior. Chapter 14. Cultural Adaptation in Pursuit of Self-Actualization
Biography
Jeffrey C. Levy received the Deans Advisory Council’s Outstanding Teacher Award, the Sears-Roebuck Award for College Teaching and Campus Leadership and was twice nominated by Seton Hall University, USA for National CASE Professor of the Year. Trained as an experimental psychologist with interests in the psychology of learning and behavior modification, Levy is the author of Adaptive Learning and the Human Condition (2013) and Adaptive Learning and the Human Condition: Behavior Modification and the Helping Professions, 2nd edition (2022).
