Tolstoy's Family Prototypes in War and Peace (Evolution, Cognition, and the Arts)
by Brett Cooke
What were the consequences of Tolstoy's unusual reliance on members of his family as source material for War and Peace? Did affection for close relatives influence depictions of these real prototypes in his fictional characters? Tolstoy used these models to consider his origins, to ponder alternative family histories, and to critique himself. Comparison of the novel and its fascinating drafts with the writer's family history reveals increasing preferential treatment of those with greater related...
Introduction to Biopsychology, OLP without eText, Global Edition
by John Pinel
Humans are storytelling animals. Stories are what make our societies possible. Countless books celebrate their virtues. But Jonathan Gottschall, an expert on the science of stories, argues that there is a dark side to storytelling we can no longer ignore. Storytelling, the very tradition that built human civilization, may be the thing that destroys it.In The Story Paradox, Gottschall explores how a broad consortium of psychologists, communications specialists, neuroscientists, and literary quant...
When did humans develop spiritual thought? What is religion's evolutionary purpose? And in our increasingly secular world, why has it endured?Every society in the history of humanity has lived with religion. In How Religion Evolved, evolutionary psychologist Professor Robin Dunbar tracks its origins back to what he terms the 'mystical stance' - the aspect of human psychology that predisposes us to believe in a transcendent world, and which makes an encounter with the spiritual possible. As he ex...
Psychoanalytic Reflections on The Freudian Death Drive is a highly accessible book that investigates the relevance, complexity and originality of a hugely controversial Freudian concept which, the author argues, continues to exert enormous influence on modernity and plays an often-imperceptible role in the violence and so-called "sad passions" of contemporary society. With examples from cinema, literature and the consulting room, the book's four chapters - theory, the clinic, art and contempor...
This eBook+ version includes the following enhancements: Popup definitions of key terms throughout the book to help readers understand a wide variety of specialist terms used within cognitive neuroscience Interactive flashcards for each chapter Multiple choice questions to help test knowledge This comprehensive, cutting-edge textbook offers a layered approach to the study of cognitive neuroscience and psychology. It embraces exciting alternative and influential theoretical approaches such...
An “endlessly fascinating” (Michael Ruse) work of scientific thought and synthesis, Genesis is Edward O. Wilson’s twenty-first-century statement on Darwinian evolution. Asserting that religious creeds and philosophical questions can be reduced to purely genetic and evolutionary components, and that the human body and mind have a physical base obedient to the laws of physics and chemistry, Wilson demonstrates that the only way for us to fully understand human behavior is to study the evolutionary...
" It's undeniable-technology is changing the way we think. But is it for the better? Amid a chorus of doomsayers, Clive Thompson delivers a resounding "yes." The Internet age has produced a radical new style of human intelligence, worthy of both celebration and analysis. We learn more and retain it longer, write and think with global audiences, and even gain an ESP-like awareness of the world around us. Modern technology is making us smarter, better connected, and often deeper-both as individual...
Evolutionary Psychology Powerpoint slides on the web
by Hans Van De Braak
In "No Two Alike", Judith Rich Harris presents a fascinating exploration of human nature that looks within the mind to discover why people differ in personality. The detective work Harris began in her controversial book "The Nurture Assumption" has its triumphant conclusion in "No Two Alike". Harris tackles a question that has long been a mystery: why do identical twins who grow up together - with the same genes, reared by the same parents - differ in personality? Her ground-breaking answer - th...
Sperm Wars turns the conventional thinking about the biology of sex on its head. Evolutionary biologist Robin Baker argues that human sexuality follows certain laws, and all of those laws are governed by one thing: sperm warfare. In the interest of promoting competition between sperm to fertilize the same egg, evolution has built men to conquer and monopolize women while women, without ever knowing they are doing it, seek the best genetic input on offer from potential sexual partners. In this bo...
Darwin and Facial Expression
Emotion in the Human Face
by Professor of Psychology Paul Ekman, Joseph C Hager, and Harriet Oster
Es gibt verschiedene Zugänge zur Erforschung des Gehirns. Hier wird in einem ersten Schritt die evolutive Perspektive gewählt. In gewisser Hinsicht ‚erzählt‘ die Gehirnanatomie die evolutive Entwicklung, weil bekannt ist, welche Regionen sich sehr früh und welche sich später entwickelt haben. So nennt man z.B. eine im menschlichen Gehirn sehr alte Region, den Hirnstamm auch ‚Reptiliengehirn‘, weil sie in ihrer Struktur große Ähnlichkeiten mit den Gehirnen von Reptilien hat. Die erste Hälfte des...
Every decision, from buying a home to grabbing a daily latte, has costs and benefits-personal as well as financial. The Real Cost of Living helps you make better decisions, both big and small- decisions that involve money, but aren't all about money. Well-known personal finance expert Carmen Wong Ulrich makes personal finance personal and takes into account that we all have motivations that go way beyond number crunching. From marriage and family to career, investing, and more, Carmen examines t...