For freshman through senior-level courses in Introductory Psychology, Research Methods, Critical Thinking, Educational Research or other courses that deal with philosophical and methodological assumptions of psychology. Featuring an informal writing style throughout, this unique text uses a question-and-answer format to explore some of the most common questions students ask about psychology-which are often stumbling blocks in their introduction to the discipline. Topics are keyed to chapters of typical introductory psychology texts, focus on issues that are personally relevant to students, feature many everyday examples, and include exercises that encourage students to think critically and to relate the material to their own lives.

Table of Contents:
Preface. Introduction: What Is Critical Thinking? PSYCHOLOGY AND SCIENCE. 1. Why is This Course So Hard? - It's Only Psychology! 2. Why Do Psychologists Use So Much Jargon? 3. Why Don't You Skip the Theories and Give Us More Facts? 4. But That's Just Your Theory! 5. You're So Logical! 6. But You've Taken All the Mystery Out of It! 7. But That Contradicts Something I Believe. 8. How Can Psychology Be a Science if We Have Free Will? METHODS. 9. Have to Learn All These Methods? I Just Want to Help People! 10. Why Do I Need to Study Statistics? 11. But the Book Says ... . 12. But I Read It in a Book! 13. But It Was a Psychology Book! 14. But Everybody Knows ... . 15. I Thought Psychology Was about People, Not Numbers! BIOLOGICAL BASES. 16. Why Do We Have to Learn about the Brain? 17. But Can We Really Understand Behavior until We Know Its Biological Basis? 18. How Does the Mind Control the Body? 19. But Why Don't We Talk About What the Mind Really Is? 20. But People Aren't Machines! 21. Is It True That We Use Only 10% of Our Brains? DEVELOPMENT. 22. Why Don't Psychologists Believe in Punishment? 23. Isn't Psychology Mostly Common Sense? 24. I Knew It All Along! 25. Is Human Behavior Based on Nature or Nurture? SENSATION/PERCEPTION. 26. Can You Prove There Is No ESP? 27. What Would It Take to Make You Believe in ESP? 28. Imagine the Possibilities if ESP Were True! 29. Why Are Psychologists So Skeptical? CONSCIOUSNESS. 30. How Do You Explain Deja Vu? 31. Wasn't Hypnosis Once Considered a Pseudoscience? LEARNING AND MEMORY. 32. Why Do Psychologists Study Such Artificial Situations? 33. How Does the Rat Understand That Pressing the Bar Gets It Food? 34. How Could That Be a Coincidence? (Part 1) 35. How Could That Be a Coincidence? (Part 2) 36. How Could That Be a Coincidence? (Part 3) THINKING AND LANGUAGE. 37. Can We Hear Satanic Messages in Music That Is Played Backward? MOTIVATION AND EMOTION. 38. I Found This Great Self-Help Book! PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING AND INTELLIGENCE. 39. How Can Psychology Be a Science When Every Person Is Unique? 40. How Do Biorhythms Work? PERSONALITY AND ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY. 41. What about Astrology? 42. Why Can't Psychologists Predict Who Will Commit a Violent Act? 43. My Mother Went to a Psychologist Who Was No Help at All! 44. Why Do Psychologists Avoid the Important Questions? 45. Why Are So Many Criminals Let Off on the Basis of Insanity? SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY. 46. Why Are Psychologists So Liberal? 47. Psychological Explanations Often Contradict Common Sense! 48. I Can't Buy Evolutionary Psychology Because It Justifies Polygamy. 49. I Can't Buy Evolutionary Psychology Because Most of the Time We Aren't Trying to Pass on Our Genes. References. List of Principles by Key Words.