3 comments about Human Biology.

1. I am a College Biology professor.
   
   Biology textbooks are far better, in general, than they were a couple of decades ago. This book is no exception. In spite of the flaws listed below, it is considerably better than anything I used as a student. For a basic introduction to the human body for a person who had never had ANY biology, it is fairly well-presented.
   
   However, this is clearly an elementary Anatomy and Physiology textbook, with a few chapters pasted on, apparently a nod towards the requirements that a GE textbook introduce an entire subject, not such a narrow focus. The few pasted-on chapters are not integrated with the rest of the material, and evolution is given especially sorry coverage, with its focus on human evolution without adequate explanation of how evolution actually works. This is a topic that should be integrated with the material in the entire book. Likewise, the chapters that formerly actually dealt with other living beings (in the form of pathogens) are now gone. The unfortunately tendency of naive students to think that all of biology deals with the human body is going to be reinforced by this textbook.
   
   I have had outrageous problems getting the multimedia to work. I finally gave up on the 9th edition and used graphics from 10 years previous. Now I can't get access to the 10th edition. Their technical staff is proving more responsive than with the previous edition's program - but no cigar as of yet.



2. This was my 1st time using Amazon Marketplace. The merchant I purchased from was great. I got what was promised, the price was fair, and it shipped within the promised time. Thank you



3. The textbook is easy to read, the chapters are laid out well and it has lots of illustrations for easy understandability.

5 comments about Contemporary Human Behavior Theory: A Critical Perspective for Social Work (2nd Edition).

1. This book is extremely challenging to get through and understand. I was lost a great deal of the time and did not learn what I had hoped. I appreciate the inclusion of the spiritual aspects of theories in the book, but the authors seemed to forget about teaching in an understandable manner.



2. This is a truly comprehensive theory textbook that covers complex theories in a manner that makes them accessible to the reader. The authors are to be applauded for making a critical analysis of theory a central component of each chapter and for including theories that most other textbooks have ignored.



3. the book has good information and is very throrough, but chapters are wordy and could probably be condensed. overall, the book is of good quality.



4. This book is an outstanding overview of a huge range of social theory/human behavior theory. It is true that some of the chapters are challenging, but I felt this was because the authors truly presented well-thought out, exhaustive synopses of each theory. This book not only was clear in presenting information about theories I was unfamiliar with in an effective way, but also presented interesting insights and great review of theories that I was already very familiar with. Considering how much is information is covered in this text density is to be expected, but it is well worth it!



5. They said it would have a few highlights but it had hardly ANY! They said it would be here within two weeks and I had it within five business days. I will CERTAINLY be buying thru them again! :)

5 comments about Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment.

1. Seligman is the father of "positive psychology," a branch of psychology that focuses on building on the positive elements of a person's life rather than spending time working through past traumas and challenges. Seligman describes a number of key principles of positive psychology in an interactive manner. For example, there are two self-assessments in the book that determine how much of an optimist you are and identify your "signature strengths". Seligman also includes exercises that can increase your happiness level and personal stories that bring the concepts to life. While this book doesn't summarize the scope of happiness research the way other books (like Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt or Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar), the reason is that this book is the foundation of the other research and, as such, is a good primer on Positive Psychology.



2. Martin Seligman's Positive Psychology is just what the doctor ordered! We've been waiting for a way to release ourselves from the hold of the painful past and to feel optimistic about the future, despite recession, wars, disappointing candidates, and all the other angst that visits the thoughtful. In refreshing, candid tones, he turns psychology on its head and points it in the right direction, one we can willingly follow. His work helps us find our own strengths, and even more significant, find meaning and purpose in our lives by applying those strengths. Happiness is the natural byproduct of this process, making the investment of time and thought necessary to read and apply the book a most rewarding investment indeed. If you're searching for satisfaction, whether in work or in love, this will be a generous, kindly, clear, and forgiving guide.



3. I had expected more scientific research supporting the book's thesis. At the beginning I thought of all the happiness surveys or quizzes about how people feel and their moods in specific situations as unscientific. However, after some reading I understood that my expectations could hardly be met, since fortunately happiness is one of the most subjective issues and although objective factors like wealth and health have an influence on it, every individual has his personal (maybe genetic or maybe learned) patterns or attitudes towards life.
   
   You can find all the quizzes in the book and answer them yourself to rate your levels of optimism, happiness, etc., which is interesting per se. The author also presents the results of the surveys performed with many people from different countries. This also gives interesting data about which factors have a greater influence on happiness, always showing that specific circumstances alter the results. For example, persons that have had a successful surgery in their recent past (which is a sign of illness) are happier than healthy ones (One might wonder!)
   
   I had first skipped the section on kids, because I had no interest in the topic but returned to it after reading the rest of the book. I found it extremely interesting, indeed one of the best parts of the book and I would recommend its reading to parents, although I have no kids myself and I have not read other literature on the topic. You can disregard my comment as lacking first-hand experience as well as any kind of authority (maybe more experienced persons can refute the author's propositions, as apparently is the case), still I find it worth reading and worth judging by yourself.
   
   For people interested in flow I will not recommend Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi's book on the topic, because I cannot properly spell his name and because I have not yet read it (although I will, since his book is one of the most quoted by authors of totally different fields). Instead I will recommend "First Break all the Rules" and its sequel "Now discover your strengths" by Marcus Buckingham. These books tell you why sticking to your strengths makes you happier than insisting on doing things in which you are not good at. Do not expect a scientific demonstration of this, just the results from a series of Gallup surveys that show that most of the times this is what people feel, packed in a management book format.
   
   You can skip the last chapter of finding a meaning in your life. It is tortuous philosophical arguments for a kind of religion without God. I do not believe it will help anybody to find a meaning in life and on top, the arguments are extremely difficult to follow. Better look for meaning somewhere else.



4. Gives you insights into personality traits and how to authentically be happy. Interesting approach however, my favorite book, Living The Secret Everyday: My Secret Workbook with its wonderful info on the Law of Attraction otherwise known as The mSecret shows you how to be happy through their use of many exercises and a journal.



5. Dr. Seligman's book should be the first read on any list of books to help in finding happiness. Dr.Seligman is one of the recognized world experts on what contributes to happiness. He provides tests in the book and also on the authentichappiness.com website to help the reader identify her/his "signature strengths". They are those characteristics that are our truest strongpoints. He suggests trying to incorporate as many of them as possible into our daily lives and paying less attention to other characteristics that aren't our strong suit.
   
   Naturally, the book is very helpful not only in finding happiness in everyday life, but also as an important tool to guide in career selection. I review the basics concepts of this book with my college management students each semester. Other reviews I've done provide a fuller listing of many excellent happiness and kindness self-help books, but it seems sensible to me to start with this book. It's only logical to identify what our strongest traits are upfront so we can bring them into play in relationship to the wise advice contained in his book and in others I've listed.

5 comments about The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome.

1. Tony Atwood has again managed to provide us with keen insight as to the individuality of the individuals with AS. He has wonderful vignettes and on children and adults with AS as they struggle with language, emotions, social interactions, and day to day functioning. He has quotes from individuals with AS as they describe both adult issues and memories from their childhoods. This gives unique insights into why we see certain behaviors and what causes the need for the behaviors.
   
   He doesn't stop there, however. He provides many good ideas for interventions and strategies to help children become more aware of and in control of their environment and their emotions. I particularly liked the scales of justice activity to help children learn the differences in levels of guilt or culpability in an adverse situation.
   
   I feel that any professional who works with children and adults with AS should read this book and keep it available for referral whenever one of their students/patients/clients are struggling.



2. This is full of helpful information about AS, compassionate and wise interpretation of their a-typical-ness and good training ideas for their teachers and parents. Reading it will answer many questions for family members who may have long pondered why their loved one acts the way s/he does and bring new understanding, compassion -- and a large measure of relief due to mysteries solved.



3. I read this book by pure chance (first I read Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with Autism) because I know a child who has difficulties to learn at school. And I buy this book to have a good scientific reference on AS and high functioning autism. And I was satisfied beyond the limits but for someone else so much closer to me. Believe me this book will make you understand a lot of people around you. Even you are not in relation with autism, you will learn a lot. But if you are in touch with a person with the asperger syndrom, believe me too, you will learn more and, above all, feel better in your life. Unfortunately I am very close to an adult with high functioning autism (or AS). Sometime you could think this adult is a total idiot in social relationships. This book bring complete informations about the subject. And the life is much easier when you understand you are not a kind of social monster.



4. When our 9-year-old son was referred to a specialist to assess for Asperger's Syndrome, I wanted to get my hands on as much information as possible! The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome is just that: complete! It has been an amazing resource to open our understanding of this neurological disorder. I went to our son's assessment feeling confident and able to communicate with the specialist. The book helped me understand my son in many areas that I had no idea would fall under Asperger's Syndrome. When the initial referral was made, I felt like my feet had been knocked out from under me. When the diagnosis was made, however, I felt much more sure footed because of the knowlege and tools I learned in Tony Attwood's book.



5. I have suspected that my older sister (50's) has Aspergers for the past couple of years. After reading The Complete Guide to Aspergers I feel confirmed in that thought. Attwood outlines all the symptoms and I see my sister in so many of them. He explains everything from childhood to adulthood. I plan to send this book to my sister with a note and I just hope she reads it and can, for once, understand that there is a name to what she feels. It is a fantastic book.

2 comments about Annual Editions: Anthropology 08/09 (Annual Editions : Anthropology).

1. Really, there is nothing to this book that could be considered bad. The articles are varied, not only in subject, but in style, timespan, and reach. They are very informative and interesting, and connect the world around us to the study of Anthropology in terms of sense and understanding. An outstanding introduction to the world of Anthropology!



2. the book came in perfect condition. the shipping took a little longer than expected but it was still on time. i got it right before my first assignment was due

No comments about Biological Psychology: An Introduction to Behavioral, Cognitive, and Clinical Neuroscience, Fifth Edition.

4 comments about The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life.

1. This is the best book I've read this year. Here's why . . .
   
   This book opened my eyes to a new way of understanding people. The content has made me smarter in my profession. And on a personal level, the book has motivated me to re-evaluate how I live my life day to day.
   
   I've already recommended this book to friends and colleagues. So I might as well post my thoughts here on Amazon as well.
   
   I'll keep the rest of my view short and simply end with this: If you like understanding what makes people tick, this is a great book for you.
   
   



2. The Time Paradox opened my eyes to the different ways that we perceive time both culturally and personally. The book takes you through history and how humans' perception have time has changed throughout the ages. The book then goes into the different orientations we often have with respect to time, from the past to the present and the future. Through in depth studies with many subjects, these time orientations have been found to have profound effects on our lives and how we deal with life.
   
   The authors then present a way to evaluate our own time perceptions and teach us how we can potentially change it. We can thus use our time perception to our advantage and create better lives for ourselves and the people around us.
   
   Interesting and thought provoking - I highly recommend it!



3. Boyd and Zimbardo have set the new gold standard for books about time. The Time Paradox is a provocative, informative treatise that combines cutting edge research with practical, hands-on guidance for self-change. In the hands of these two experienced scholars, time becomes a tool for helping us understand and better control nothing less than the way we live our lives.
   --Robert V. Levine, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, California State University, Fresno and author of "A Geography of Time: The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist, or How Every Culture Keeps Time Just a Little Bit Differently"



4. I doubt this book will change your life, but it is an interesting read all the same.
   
   The authors discuss the way in which we find ourselves obsessed with time. Interestingly, they point out that 3 of the most common nouns in the English language involve time (namely time, year, and day.....among the other common nouns are person, way, thing, man, world, life, and hand).
   
   Zimbardo and Boyd also discuss the way in which our time orientation guides our choices and overall orientation. He divides people into 7 time-related categories that basically boil down to those who are (1) past oriented (2) present oriented or (3) future oriented. Zimbardo offers up an anecdote involving pre-school aged children, and demonstrates how, even at a young age, our time orientation can guide our behavior. Basically the children are offered either (1) one treat now or (2) two treats later if they practice delayed gratification. When they were interviewed years later, the psychologists discovered that "the third of children who were able to control their impulses at age four scored 210 points higher on verbal and math SAT scores than the impulse-driven four year olds....The ability to delay gratification at age four is twice as good a predictor of later SAT score as IQ. Poor impulse control is also a better predictor of juvenile delinquency than IQ" (p. 216).
   
   Overall, it was a good read. Somewhat pedantic at times but generally engaging.
   
   Zimbardo's other book, The Lucifer Effect, is outstanding. Skip the first few chapters and go straight to his account of the Stanford Prison Experiment. It's the type of book that grabs your attention and really leaves you thinking.

5 comments about How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition.

1. My academic advisor at the University of Washington's iSchool suggested I read this along with "Team-Based Learning". I never thought I could get so excited about a book on learning from the National Research Council! Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in research regarding neural processes, teaching /learning, psychology, and the natural desire to learn.
   
   Thank you to the authors and contributors for this book! I can hardly wait to see what they find out next!



2. If you are going to be a teacher, this is a great book to read. Detailed and easy to read, it helps prepare you for what to expect and what will be expected of you as a teacher. It makes it easy to understand how children learn and what are the best teaching strategies to use to teach them as individuals.



3. The beauty of this volume is that it takes a vast quantity of research on how people learn and organizes it in a way which is readable, practical and accessible for educators. The authors distill the findings of numerous studies into three key principles of learning: (1) Teachers must work with student preconceptions and prior knowledge, (2) Teachers must teach in depth, providing multiple examples of the same concept and (3) Teachers must help students develop metacognitive skills so that they can take control of their own learning. These principles are developed and expanded with numerous references to research and practical illustrations. It should be noted that the book is predominantly about conceptual understanding and does not spend a lot of time on how we learn skills such as playing a musical instrument or learning a language. That said, it is an extremely important contribution to discussions of pedagogy and if the advice contained in the book is heeded by teachers, curriculum writers and policy makers, it has the potential to transform many shallow classroom practices into powerful tools that will enable students to develop deep understanding. The accelerating pace of change in the 21st century means that the ability to transfer skills to unfamiliar situations as well as the skills of lifelong learning have become more important than ever. The principles contained in this book will help us prepare students for a changing world.



4. The tome "How Learners Learn" is what your worthless education courses SHOULD have been teaching you, but didn't because the politicians and the professors would rather push their agendas. If the teacher is to actually teach--convey information from one human to another--then the teacher must know how humans acquire information. That's what this book goes into. Oddly, that is also what outfits such as the federal department of education never go into.
   
   Read this book; buy it if you must, borrow it if you can, but read it.



5. This is a nice book on the important topics related to how people learn. It serves as an introductory text from which you can gather relevant references on the issues that are of the most interest to you.
   
   The copy I bought at Amazon was defective, though. It was missing more than 20 pages!! But after I contacted the publisher, they quickly sent me a replacement book with no charge at all. (I did not try to contact Amazon for fear that the whole Amazon stock is defective in the same way.)

5 comments about Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology (12th Edition) (MyAnthroKit Series).

1. This text was used in my introductory anthropolgy class, and I thoroughly enjoyed the readings. The text includes many case studies of differing cultures without being overly technical. I found this text easy to read, but very thought provoking. Highly recommended!



2. The book came fast and it was brand new. The book was crisp. It's a soft covered book but it still made that new hard-textbook sound. :0)



3. I've used this collection off and on for years in teaching Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. It's a great book, a real standard in anthropology. Honestly, I think the relevance and quality of the essays varies from edition to edition. I liked the 11th more than the 12th. Sometimes a 'favorite' essay gets replaced; and then in the next edition it is returned. Go figure.
   
   I note that sellers of used copies are claiming that the 11th edition is virtually the same as the 12th, that nearly every article is the same. THIS IS NOT TRUE!!!!!!!! I can't tell you how often I have students believe this and buy the 11th edition, then struggle all semester because they don't have the chapters I've assigned. Only someone who has never used the book in class, either as a student or a teacher, would make such an egregiously wrong claim. So, if you're looking for a nice, cheap, used version, make sure that you buy the edition being used in your class. Most teachers will not assign every single chapter in the book; most select 8-12 chapters, and they can well be the chapters that are not in the older edition.
   
   Caveat Emptor ...



4. got this book for an anthro class at my University. its basically just a compilation of short stories (3 pages - 10 pages) about case studies in anthro. its an easy read and actually was pretty interesting.



5. Definately, this is one of the best Anthropology-oriented books I've read, academically or for pleasure. The fact that it is mostly exerpts from actual ethnographies helps to get points across while still more than keeping my attention.
   
   Well Done

5 comments about Civilization and Its Discontents.

1. Freud continued writing into his old age. The three books* of this period are highly suitable for the general reader, that is, every seeker of knowledge.In 1930 when he was 74, He wrote "Civilization and Its Discontents" which, in its first words, scolds us gently. Our judgments are faulty. We fail to recognize and respect greatness; we allow ourselves to be misled--our oceanic, sensation of eternity to be misdirected. The subject matter in this book touches such diversities as the world's problems, religion, happiness and guilt with the deft hand.
   Louis Menand's introduction contains valuable information on Freud's work, and Peter Gay's "Brief Life" tells of the author's origins and life. This book may be called "popular" in the best sense of that word.
   *The Future of an Illusion, Civilization and Its Discontents & Thomas Woodrow Wilson a Psychological Study



2. Freud has some interesting and possibly somewhat valid ideas but behind it all I fear that it is more one man's opinion of how the world works than what things are really like in actuality. The perennial problem with Freud is that a lot of what he says cannot be proved scientifically. The most important things in life like love and God aren't scientific but they (usually) never claimed to be, unlike Freudian theory. As someone who knows a bit of history and politics, I find Freud's analysis of civilization to be more about what his own inner urges projected upon the world than what is actually out there. His treatment of the sexual instinct as being something tamed and frustrated by civilization may be true for him and others but is probably not true generally. There are males who really don't want unlimited sex with everything. The problem is that Freud over-generalizes his own experience and ancedotal evidence into a universally applicable theory.
   
   His treatment of religion is particularly superficial and reductionistic. In essence, he elavates the irrationality of the id in man to the point where if one took him seriously, one would doubt both Freud's supposed rationality and his or her own. The great error is modern psychology is that people can be known fully the same way chemicals or animals could be known. The truth is that people cannot be known this way. One has to geto to know them. They are not generalized objects but unique subjects.



3. For all the celebrated shortcomings of his theories, Sigmund Freud remains, even in retrospect, the most influential thinker of the 20th century, a giant among the giants of that now by-gone era of late modernity. He still must be regarded as the most perspicuous among positivistic and systematic students of human nature and the most devoted, at least in the consistency of his ideas. His rubric for the self-referential category, "ego", is used almost universally, regardless of culture, language, or learning. Who among us hasn't used the term? Very few thinkers in any age can claim such rapid and profound widespread assimilation of their ideas as Freud. He was also first among the moderns, really the first since Montaigne, to formally prioritize self-knowledge among all types of knowledge, and, reverting to a very ancient idea, perceive the telos or fruit of the attainment of knowledge as therapeutic. While James and other contemporaries focused on elaborating the principles of the new science of human nature, founded on behavioral rather than traditionally metaphysical grounds, Freud undertook the project of their application, in a simple and accessible manner on as broad a scale as possible. Nowhere in his oeuvre is this delineation of the explanatory power of the application of psychological theory to central social problems or queries more transparent than in Civilization and Its Discontents.
   Surprising to many coming to Freud for the first time, is that his writing, for the most part, exhibits such clarity that it can be read and understood, within the limits of their comprehension, by children. I remember reading a bit of The Interpretation of Dreams at age fourteen and getting something out of it. But more than accessibility accounts for the impact of Freud's ideas. If a science of human nature is in its infancy, in his nascent structuralist model, Freud gave it a language if not a new paradigm that could be universally acquired. But personally, exclusive of Totem and Taboo, I find his later works, The Future of An Illusion, Civilization and Its Discontents, and the vastly underrated, Moses and Monotheism, to be far more interesting and relevant than the better known early works where he develops his psychological theories.
   The quintessential late modern (an era that begins philosophically with publication of Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion and the incendiary works of Tom Paine), Freud appears to write The Future of An Illusion as a defense, an apologia, if you will, of his atheism. He begins by designating Civilization and Its Discontents an extension of this argument. He cannot be merely, tritely arguing didactically for atheism. What he is saying in the preliminary stage of the argument amounts to this: Up to now, traditional religion has been our primary lense for viewing human, thus social, action. But what if, and one must grant at least the possibility, God, Christ, et al, is a mass delusion or rationalization? Could not a science of human nature, a systematic inward scrutiny, provide a more productive perspective on our problems? Is not the human project something other than, even more than, a divinely ordained, fatalistically fulfilled apocalyptic end? And, looking at the human condition (he writes in 1930), there is no denying a new way looking is desperately needed, for perhaps our very survival.
   The next claim in the argument is that all societies promise justice. Yet, as individuals, we inevitably protest the "civilizing" process a society takes to deliver some degree of justice to its members. Freud claims that this process necessarily does violence to the individual. The individual is bound by civilization to his/her fellows and, in this process, the natural desires are limited, restricted, and bent by the whim of an external, collective will, " . . . which aims at binding the members of a community together in a libidinal way as well and employs every means to that end." We are naturally resentful. We want it all. Especially sex, with whomever we deign to mount or be mounted by. But Freud buys further into psychological egoism: " . . . men are not gentle creatures who want to be loved, and who at the most can defend themselves if they are attacked; they are, on the contrary, creatures among whose instinctual endowments is to be reckoned a powerful share of aggressiveness." "Man's natural aggressive instinct, the hostility of each against all and of all against each, opposes this programme of civilization . . . whose purpose is to combine single human individuals, and after that families, then races, peoples and nations, into one great unity, the unity of mankind."
   Hobbesian as a social theorist, he's absolutely Nietzschean when he debunks the Socratic "Archimedian Point of Good" and Agape or Christian Altruism as ideals of civilization which can never be happily achieved, sources of frustration, guilt, despair, and worse yet. "We may reject the existence of an original, as it were natural, capacity to distinguish good from bad. What is bad is often not at all what is injurious or dangerous to the ego; on the contrary, it may be something desirable and enjoyable to the ego. Here, therefore, is an extraneous influence at work, and it is this that decides what is to be called good or bad." The "civilizing programme" thus sets itself up as a sentinel within the individual psyche, in opposition to the natural tendencies to self-gratification. [Then] " . . . the sense of guilt is clearly only a fear of loss of love, `social' anxiety." "Civilization has to use its utmost efforts in order to set limits to man's aggressive instincts and to hold the manifestations of them in check by psychical reaction-formations. Hence, therefore, the use of methods intended to incite people into identifications and aim-inhibited relationships of love, hence the restriction upon sexual life, and hence too the ideal's commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself - a commandment which is really justified by the fact that nothing else runs so strongly counter to the original nature of man."
   Abiding by the Amazon rules, I won't be a spoiler. What I wish to point to is how Freud acted as a conduit for some of the most influential and disturbing modes of thought, general acceptance of which the popularity of the `psychological' approach he spearheaded encouraged. A few of his conclusions thus call for review. " . . . may we not be justified in reaching the diagnosis that, under the influence of cultural urges, some civilizations, or some epochs of civilization - possibly the whole of mankind - have become `neurotic'." "The fateful question for the human species seems to me to be whether and to what extent their extent their cultural development will succeed is mastering the disturbance of their communal life by the human instinct of aggression and self-destruction." The continuing influence of these pioneering insights renders Civilization and It's Discontents a must read for any who wish to come to grips with structures of thought which have crucially contributed to current malestorm.



4. i got this book 2nd i ordered 3 at the same time. i was so happy to get it. the book arrived promptly and in good condition.



5. Freud gives his pessimistic take on human nature and expands this formula to society as a whole. I am not sure if his argument is sound based on the fact that he went from the micro-individual to a macro view of society, but his argument was quite convincing based upon the amounts of aggression seen throughout world history, such as constant war, greed, slavery, genocide, the inquisition, scape goats, etc. etc. If anything this book made me rethink and revise my views on society and politics as a whole. It is a short read so I strongly recommend it.