Psychology: Themes and Variations

by Wayne Weiten

The Seventh Edition of Wayne Weiten's popular text, PSYCHOLOGY: THEMES AND VARIATIONS, continues to offer students a unique survey of psychology with three distinct goals: to show both the unity and diversity of psychology's subject matter; to illuminate the process of research and its intimate link to application, and to make the text challenging to think about and easy to learn from. Weiten achieves these goals through a number of distinctive features. Integrative themes-including empiricism, theoretical diversity, sociohistorical contexts, multifactorial causation, cultural heritage, heredity and environment, and subjectivity of experience-are woven throughout the text to provide connections among the different areas of research in psychology. A unique end of chapter section, "Reflecting on the Chapter's Themes," ties together the key themes most relevant to each chapter, and shows links across chapter content. The book's dynamic, teaching-oriented illustration program further enhances these themes. Featured Studies, Personal Applications, and Critical Thinking Applications provide students with unprecedented opportunities to see research methods in action, to understand the practical side of psychology, and to develop important critical thinking skills. Weiten reinforces concepts through periodic in-chapter Concept Checks and an end of chapter practice quiz in every chapter. At the same time, he presents topics in a hierarchical manner, giving students handles they can use to prioritize concepts within the chapter.

Genres: Psychology, Textbooks, Nonfiction, Reference, Science, School, Read For School

880 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1900

About the author

Wayne Weiten is a graduate of Bradley University and received his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Illinois, Chicago, in 1981. He currently teaches at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has received distinguished teaching awards from Division Two of the American Psychological Association (APA) and from the College of DuPage, where he taught until 1991. He is a Fellow of Divisions 1 and 2 of the American Psychological Association. In 1991, he helped chair the APA National Conference on Enhancing the Quality of Undergraduate Education in Psychology and in 1996-1997 he served as President of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology. Wayne Weiten has conducted research on a wide range of topics, including educational measurement, jury decision making, attribution theory, stress, and cerebral specialization. His recent interests have included pressure as a form of stress and the technology of textbooks. He is also the co-author of Psychology Applied to Modern Life (Wadsworth, 2006) and the creator of an educational CD-ROM titled PsykTrek: A Multimedia Introduction to Psychology.

Reviews

[George]

Makes me wanna cry everyday

[Billie Pritchett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wayne Weiten's psychology textbook is a wonderful book, and it is my favorite textbook this semester. Weiten explains the various psychological research in the subfields of psychology well, and he goes to great lengths to demonstrate the real world implications of the data. This text goes a long way in explaining human nature, and it does it empirically, all the while being sensitive to the different theoretical perspectives regarding the data.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extremely well-written textbook. It's filled with a plethora of highly useful material that will surely, with or without added instruction, be enough (and probably more) to fulfill the requirements of a foundational knowledge in psychology. Overall, I'd one hundred percent recommend this book to anyone interested in psychology; it is easy enough to read, enjoyable, well-illustrated, and a breeze to comprehend.

[Dustin · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you take a class that assigns this textbook, withdraw from the class and transfer to a new university

[Amber · Rating 1 out of 5]

Normally I wouldn't bother putting down a textbook as something I've read, however this particular book is terrible. Instead of using the space to teach me what I need to know, it will constantly tell me "by reading this chapter this is what you will learn"--obviously if it is in the chapter I'm going to figure it out without being told. Also the book itself switches from third person, to first person, and then into second person, before moving back into third person once again--and there is no excuse for doing something like that in any way, shape, or form. Mostly if you want to learn psychology this is the last book a person should pick up. It doesn't even deserve the one required star rating.

[Cogito_ergo_sum · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't find my edition, so I used this one instead. My edition is
Psychology: Themes and Variations; by Weiten, and McCann; Canadian 2nd ed.© 2010

I used it for my psychology classes, and I thought it was well written. The concepts were easy to understand. Overall I liked this textbook.

[Nika Zed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I studied its forth Canadian Edition for my intro to psych course. It was well written.

[Degan Walters · Rating 3 out of 5]

A broad overview for my intro course. Some of it was a bit trite but had to be included to be comprehensive. I appreciated all the Canadian examples.

[Josiah Hasbrouck · Rating 2 out of 5]

it's aight but i don't recommend reading 80% of it in less than 24 hours

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid textbook — not the kind that I've chosen to keep on my bookshelf to refer back to in future years, but it did the job.

[allison riera :)]

ha! i'm done.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

TEXTBOOK: FOR LEARNING, NOT ENTERTAINMENT.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it for school. Very intresting.

[Lesley Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great textbook. Finished my 2 courses both with healthy passing grades using it, so I consider this read a success!

[Amelia Bruns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really easy to read, insightful, and comprehensive guided reading questions!!

[Imaan Jumat (Exam Hiatus) · Rating 1 out of 5]

i was prescribed this textbook for my psychology module, and I hated every second of it, I have also minus points for the emotional and psychological trauma I've been put through during the module.

[Maya G · Rating 4 out of 5]

probably the most entertaining textbook I've had to read, but still a textbook nonetheless

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't know how to rate a textbook but I'm going to anyways. I'm rating on readability as well as the content's ability to be understood. The text was dull in some spots but overall read smoothly and had humor to it as well.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was for my psychology 101 course.

[Roxy · Rating 3 out of 5]

textbook for psych class...added it here for the hell of it...
I obvs. didn't read the whole thing front to cover, but enough I suppose...

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took this as a mandatory course, but ended up loving everything about the class. Much credit goes to the prof though.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good psychology book

[Donald Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now that I've opened this book - I will never be "done" with it. The book opened up a new doorway of thinking...

[Ania · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember this textbook had some interesting titbits of information but it never really inspired me much nor interested me. To each their own style I suppose.

[Mahrukh]

ok

[Lorena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great learning tool in to the understanding of human behavior!