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Published:
September 23, 2020

Psychology For Dummies

Overview

Find out what makes you—and everyone else—tick

Psychology For Dummies takes you on the challenging and thrilling adventure into the astonishing science of why we do the things we do. Along the way you’ll find out how psychology helps us improve our relationships, make better decisions, be more effective in our careers, and avoid stress and mental illness in difficult times.

In a friendly, jargon-free style, clinical psychologist and teacher Adam Cash uses practical examples to delve deep into the maze of the human mind: from the basic hardware, software, and "wetware" of our brains to the mysteries of consciousness and

the murkier reaches of abnormal behavior. He also provides profound insights into our wants and needs, the differences between psychological approaches, and how positive psychology can help you lead the “good life” that fulfills you most.

  • Gain insights into identity and the self
  • Cope with stress and illness
  • Maintain psychological health
  • Make informed choices when seeking counseling

Whether you’re new to the unconscious or an established devotee of Freud and pharmacology, Psychology For Dummies is your essential guide to the examined life—and what can make it even more worth living!

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About The Author

Adam Cash is a clinical psychologist who has practiced in a variety of settings including forensic institutions and outpatient clinics. He has taught Psychology at both the community college and university levels. He is currently in private practice specializing in psychological assessment, child psychology, and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Sample Chapters

psychology for dummies

CHEAT SHEET

The main question that fuels psychology is “Why do people do what they do?” Psychology basically aims to uncover what people do along with why and how they do it. Studying everyday behavior and mental processes is the focus of psychology much of the time. But sometimes the stresses of life can seem overwhelming, and in those cases people need help right away.

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Articles from
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What makes a good psychological movie or show? A good psychological film or show makes the viewer feel, act, and think like a psychologist. It’s a lens (literally and figuratively) that affords you the gaze of the psychologist. Could good psychological films and shows really just be another form of data collection and analysis, even research, or even therapy?
All behavior is learned, whether it’s healthy or abnormal. Behavior therapy is based on one of three learning theories: Ivan Pavlov’s classical conditioning B. F. Skinner’s operant conditioning Albert Bandura’s social learning theory Here’s how these theories understand learning: In the classical-conditioning sense, learning refers to associations formed between events or actions.
Besides the brain itself, cells and chemicals are some of the major components of biological psychology. At the cellular level of brain anatomy is what many brain scientists consider to be the fundamental unit of the brain and the nervous system: the neuron, a specialized cell that provides the foundation for brain functioning, which is communication among nerve cells.
Psychologist Sigmund Freud proposed several important defense mechanisms. Keep in mind however that defense mechanisms are not used consciously. A person does not decide to engage in one; rather these happen on an unconscious level: Repression: Keeping a thought, feeling, or memory of an experience out of consciousness.
Psychologists don’t stop at the intersection of stress, disease, and coping. They’re also attempting to apply what they know about human behavior and mental processes to the problems of health in general. They’re looking for ways to keep people physically well and trying to find out how people’s behavior contributes to illness.
"Everybody is unique!" is the mantra of the modern era. Many people pride themselves on being different and one of a kind — particularly in Western popular culture and media — and anybody spending any time studying and working with people will tell you there is a great deal of truth to this.Three of the most prominent, salient, and obvious variations among people are differences in culture, gender, and sexuality/sexual orientation.
Psychologist Sigmund Freud’s model of sexual development proposes a series of stages in which people grow and mature. The pleasure sought by your inborn instincts is focused on sexual desire and gratification, through proper stimulation of each erogenous zone. If properly stimulated, you progress to the top of Freud’s psychosexual peak: sexual and psychological maturity.
The main question that fuels psychology is “Why do people do what they do?” Psychology basically aims to uncover what people do along with why and how they do it. Studying everyday behavior and mental processes is the focus of psychology much of the time. But sometimes the stresses of life can seem overwhelming, and in those cases people need help right away.
Psychologists have been trying to pin down the concept of intelligence for a long time. People differ in their abilities to solve problems, learn, think logically, use language well, understand and acquire concepts, deal with abstractions, integrate ideas, attain goals, and so on.This list of human abilities represents some of the ideas of what intelligence actually is; these abilities are the stuff of intelligence.
People have been deliberately trying to alter their consciousness since the beginning of human history. Human beings have used meditation, medication, religious rituals, sleep deprivation, and numerous other means to alter their levels of everyday awareness.Psychologist and author Stanley Krippner identified more than 20 states of altered consciousness.
Personal identity consists of the things that make you stand out in a crowd — for example, your megawatt smile or sparkling wit. According to David Buss, a psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin, the personal identity is comprised of a public self and a private self, each with its own components.Three important aspects make up the public self: Appearance: Being aware of your appearance is very much a part of your identity.
Psychology recognizes the power of love, and how good it feels to be loved and to love someone else. There's even a psychological analysis of it. Elaine Hatfield and Richard Rapson, psychologists at the University of Hawaii, identify two specific types of love: Passionate love: Intense love with a sexual or romantic quality.
Any number of different disciplines are involved in mental illness treatment and working with people with mental disorders. Psychological testing, however, is considered the sole domain of psychologists.Although some professionals, including school counselors and learning disability specialists, conduct psychological testing, their testing is limited in scope and to a specific problem.
If you open up the skull and look at the brain, one of the first things you’ll like notice is that anatomically, the “one” brain is really two halves called hemispheres. These two halves are connected by a large bundle of nerve fibers called the corpus collosum. Structurally, there are three main divisions of the brain: forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain.
Psychological tests are part of the entire psychological assessment process. Assessment is a set of scientific procedures used to measure and evaluate an individual’s behavior and mental processes. Psychologist Anne Anastasi (1908–2001), a past president of the American Psychological Association, defines a psychological test as an objective, standardized sample of behavior or mental processes.
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