A major new GCSE textbook, providing a series of "lessons" in psychology. Each lesson is a self-contained, "bite-sized" explanation of a topic with frequent opportunities for readers to test their understanding by filling in short questionnaires at the end of each section. This also encourages them to asses how the topic may have relevance to their own lives and personal relationships, whilst helping them to apply their knowledge and reinforce the lesson. This causes them to interact with the text and so reach better understanding and retain the information. The book can be read from beginning to end like any other text or can be used in a structured way to simulate the experience of studying at college. Who is it for: adults returning to study and aiming to obtain further qualifications; 16-19 year olds re-taking GCSEs at an FE college or taking it as an addition to A levels in the sixth form; adults studying GCSE psychology at an evening class in an FE college; and anyone with an interest in psychology and who wants to know more about it. Readers can study as individuals or in a group from home, school, college or work. If they aim to take the GCSE qualification they may already have a tutor in a class or they may obtain tuition from an organisation to which the book directs them. Class tutors could be expected to recommend the book as a course text and work through it with their students or use it in a self-study workshop.

Table of Contents:
How to use this book; Introduction for the General Reader; Introduction for Home - Based Students. Introduction for College Students; Introduction for Teachers; How to Use the Lessons; Planning your programme of Study - The AQA course; Planning your programme of Study - The OCR course; Lessons: A. Social Psychology; How Others Affect Use; Why Bystanders Don't Help; Conformity; Obedience; What Influences Us?; Losing Our Sense of Self: Deindividuation; Environment and Behaviour; Forming Impressions of Other People; You People Are All the Same! - Stereotypes. B. Learning; Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks - Classical Conditioning; Training Rats and Children - Operant Conditioning; Similarities and Differences between Classical & Operant Conditioning; Phobias; Applying Conditioning to Human Behaviour; The Principles of Social Learning Theory. C. Anti-Social Behaviour and Its Opposite; Explanations of Aggression (1); Explanations of Aggression (2); Born to be Wild - or Trained That Way? - Aggression in Child-Rearing Styles; Ways of Reducing Aggression; What is Pro-Social Behaviour?; Pro-Social Behaviour and Bystander Intervention. D. Child Development - Attachment and Separation; Is Your Mother Really Necessary? - The Development of Attachment; Bowlby's Work On Attachment; An Evaluation of Bowby's Evidence and Theory; Breaking Attachment Bonds - The Effects of Deprivation and Privation; Cultural Variation in Childcare Practices. E. Child Development - Thinking; Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development; The Processes of Cognitive Development. F. Child Development - Ideas About Right and Wrong; Behaviourist and Social Learning Approaches to Moral Behaviour; The Cognitive Approach to Moral Behaviour; The Psychoanalytic Approach to Moral Behaviour; Evaluation of Studies of Moral Behaviour. G. Prejudice; Prejudice Definitions; The Causes of Prejudice; Reducing Prejudice. H. Memory; What is Memory?; The Multistore or Two-Process Theory of Memory; Other Models of Memory; Eyewitness Testimony; Explanations of Forgetting; Practical Applications - Improving Your Memory. I. How We Know The World; The Structures and Functioning of the Eye; Perception as and Active process; Perception as a Modelling Process; Visual Constancies; Distance Perception and Depth Cues; The Factors Affecting Perception; The Development of Perception. J. Biology and You - Stress; Stress; Causes of Stress. K. Biology and You - Sex and Gender; Sex and Gender - Definitions; Becoming Male or Female: The Influence of Biology; The Social Learning Theory Approach to Gender; The Psychoanalytic Approach to Gender; The Cognitive Approach to Gender; Cultural Differences in Gender Role Development; Sex and Gender: Putting Theory into Practice. L. The Methods Used by Psychologists; What is an Experiment?; Carrying Out Experiments; The Correlation; The Observation; Other Research Methods; The Hypothesis; Ethics; Handling Data; Presenting Data in Tables; Charts, Graphs, Histograms and Scattergrams; Introduction to Coursework; Coursework Assignments; Example Answers to AQA Questions; Example Answers to OCR Questions; Example Answers to Methods of Investigation.