NATO Science Series B
3 total works
Introduction to Scientific Psychology
by Henry D. Jr. Schlinger and Alan Poling
Published 31 May 1998
We humans are faced with an interesting problem: That which we think we un derstand the most-our own behavior-we probably understand the least. On the eve of a new millennium. the planet is beset by a host of problems that are. for the most part. caused by human behavior. Ironically. although it seems that the greatest impact of our behavior is on the planet and its other inhabitants. we may actually be threatening our own future the most. For example. we have caused untold harm to the air we breathe. to the water we drink. and. by exten sion. to much of the food we eat. More important perhaps. we have created a so ciety in which. among other things. many people are anxious and depressed. young women starve themselves. and alcohol and cigarette use are responsible for hundreds of thousands of cases of illness and death every year. And humans still murder one another at an astounding rate. while at the same time continu ing to affirm the value of human life. At a time when it is critical that our chil dren become educated. more and more children are not learning the basic skills they will need to think logically so that they can begin to solve the world's problems. The question may be not "Can the planet survive?" but. rather. "Can we humans survive and change our own destructive actions?" Although many scholars. philosophers.
Psychology
by Alan Poling, Henry D. Schlinger, Stephen Starin, and Elbert Blakely
Published August 1990
Psychology: A Behavioral Overview is an introductory text with an orienting per- spective that is frankly behavioral rather than eclectic. This focus is made quite clear in the first chapter of the book, but in the remainder it also becomes clear that such a focus permits coverage of most of the topics found in the more common introductory text. Actually, the next five chapters (dealing with psy- chology as a scienc~, methodology, evolution, physiology, and learning) are in many ways comparable to the treatments provided in more eclectic introductory texts. The behavioral focus and the departure from traditional approaches be- come most significant in the last six chapters which deal with traditional psycho- logical topics (e. g. , language, child development, and personality)-but deal with them systematically in terms of the concepts and principles introduced in the chapters on evolution and physiology, and especially in the chapter on learning. Using the concepts provided early in the text to interpret complex aspects of human behavior provides valuable justification for those concepts, as well as an opportunity for improved understanding of them.
Although students will not make extensive contact with the variety of the- oretical approaches found in the typical text, they will become especially compe- tent in the use of behavioral concepts and principles to interpret and understand many of the topics of traditional importance in psychology.
Although students will not make extensive contact with the variety of the- oretical approaches found in the typical text, they will become especially compe- tent in the use of behavioral concepts and principles to interpret and understand many of the topics of traditional importance in psychology.
vii Drugs and sex are two topics about which most people have strong opinions and weak understanding. Knowledge of each can be gained in many ways, all with associated rewards and risks. Like all textbooks, this one was written in the belief that reading can foster learning. The book is intended to introduce principles of behavioral pharmacology to readers with little or no knowledge of the discipline but with an interest in how drugs affect human behavior. Gleaning anything of value from the text requires two things from the reader. The first is a willingness to accept an analysis of drug effects that shares little with folklore or common sense no- tions of drug action. The second is a willingness to accept the fact that the behavioral effects of drugs are complex and depend upon a sizable number of pharmacological and behavioral variables. Unless one is aware of these factors and how they determine a drug's actions, the behavioral effects of drugs can be neither pre- dicted nor meaningfully explained.
If it does nothing else, this volume will make it obvious that the behavioral effects of drugs are lawful and can be predicted and understood on the basis of well-established relations between empirical phenomena. De- scribing these relations and exploring how they allow behavioral ix x PREFACE pharmacologists to make sense of drug effects that are otherwise incomprehensible was a major goal in preparing the text.
If it does nothing else, this volume will make it obvious that the behavioral effects of drugs are lawful and can be predicted and understood on the basis of well-established relations between empirical phenomena. De- scribing these relations and exploring how they allow behavioral ix x PREFACE pharmacologists to make sense of drug effects that are otherwise incomprehensible was a major goal in preparing the text.