Key Ideas in Psychology

This introductory text introduces the reader to major areas of psychology, covering such topics as: individual differences (personality and intelligence testing, studies of racial and gender differences and the nature/nurture debate); cognition (models of thinking, problem-solving and computer simulations of intelligence); social psychology (friendship formation, finding a partner, body language and social conformity); developmental psychology; evolution and the selfish gene; and mental illness (classification and treatment). The book also provides an introduction to the history of psychology and the areas of research.