The study of animal behavior throws light on everything said to be ?natural?: social and family relations, mating, communication, and learning. Comparative Perspectives in Modern Psychology illustrates that human behavior is best understood through a method of comparative psychology, based on evolutionary theory that views behavior as the result of the complex interplay of genetics and environment. Contents include: ?The Comparative Psychology of Monogamy? by Donald A. Dewsbury; ?Coming to Terms with the Everyday Language of Comparative Psychology? by Meredith J. West and Andrew P. King; ?The Darwinian Psychology of Discriminative Parental Solicitude? by Martin Daly and Margo Wilson; ?A Comparative Approach to Vocal Communication? by Charles T. Snowdon; ?A New Look at Ape Language: Comprehension of Vocal Speech and Syntax? by Sue Savage-Rumbaugh; ?A Synthetic Approach to the Study of Animal Intelligence? by Alan C. Kamil.

The new edition of Gray's acclaimed text, featuring dramatic new coverage of sensation and perception and new media tools that actively involve students in psychological research.

This text, first published in 2006, presents the most important and influential social psychological theories and research programs in contemporary sociology. Original chapters by the scholars who initiated and developed these theoretical perspectives provide full descriptions of each theory and its background, development, and future. This second edition has been revised and updated to reflect developments within each theory, and in the field of social psychology more broadly. The opening chapters of Contemporary Social Psychological Theories cover general approaches, organized around fundamental principles and issues: symbolic interaction, social exchange, and distributive justice. Following chapters focus on specific research programs and theories, examining identity, affect, comparison processes, power and dependence, status construction, and legitimacy. A new, original piece examines the state and trajectory of social network theory. A mainstay in teaching social psychology, this revised and updated edition offers a valuable survey of the field.

An introductory text that explores Psychology's major theories, and the evidence that supports and refutes them. This title incorporates research, helping students to probe for the purposes and biological origins of behavior - the 'whys' and 'hows' of Human Psychology.

After Piaget proves that Jean Piaget's work is critical for understanding some of the most current proposals in the study of psychological development. It analyzes Piaget's legacy, moving beyond the harsh critiques that have circulated since he lost prominence. It also brings together new developments and research practices that have grown out of Jean Piaget's tradition, while providing a retrospective glance into the intellectual atmospheres of different periods at which the contributors encountered Piaget.This book reveals the richness and coherence of the School of Geneva's research during the last decades before Piaget's death. Contributions from scholars who formed part of the School of Geneva during the 1970s and '80s demonstrate Piaget's influence on such diverse fields as infant development, ethnology, neuropsychology, semiotic development, and epistemology. After Piaget is part of Transaction's History and Theory of Psychology series.

In Animal Minds, Donald R. Griffin takes us on a guided tour of the recent explosion of scientific research on animal mentality. Are animals consciously aware of anything, or are they merely living machines, incapable of conscious thoughts or emotional feelings? How can we tell? Such questions have long fascinated Griffin, who has been a pioneer at the forefront of research in animal cognition for decades, and is recognized as one of the leading behavioral ecologists of the twentieth century. With this new edition of his classic book, which he has completely revised and updated, Griffin moves beyond considerations of animal cognition to argue that scientists can and should investigate questions of animal consciousness. Using examples from studies of species ranging from chimpanzees and dolphins to birds and honeybees, he demonstrates how communication among animals can serve as a "window" into what animals think and feel, just as human speech and nonverbal communication tell us most of what we know about the thoughts and feelings of other people. Even when they don't communicate about it, animals respond with sometimes surprising versatility to new situations for which neither their genes nor their previous experiences have prepared them, and Griffin discusses what these behaviors can tell us about animal minds. He also reviews the latest research in cognitive neuroscience, which has revealed startling similarities in the neural mechanisms underlying brain functioning in both humans and other animals. Finally, in four chapters greatly expanded for this edition, Griffin considers the latest scientific research on animal consciousness, pro and con, and explores its profound philosophical and ethical implications.

This volume compares and contrasts contemporary theories of cognition, modes of perception, and learning from cross-cultural perspectives. The participants were asked to consider and assess the question of whether people from different cultures think differently. Moreover, they were asked to consider whether the same approaches to teaching and development of thinking will work in all cultures as well as they do in Western, literate societies.