Product Description

Biopsychologyclearly presents the fundamentals of the study of the biology of behavior and makes the topics personally and socially relevant to the student.

The defining feature of Biopsychology is its unique combination of biopsychological science and personal, reader-oriented discourse. It is a textbook that is “untextbooklike.” Rather than introducing biopsychology in the usual textbook fashion, it interweaves the fundamentals of the field with clinical case studies, social issues, personal implications, and humorous anecdotes. It tries to be a friendly mentor that speaks directly to the reader, enthusiastically relating recent advances in biopsychological science.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45214 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 578 pages

From the Back Cover
Biopsychology is a clear, engaging introduction to current biopsychological theory and research that makes the topics personally and socially relevant to students.

Written in a friendly, engaging tone, the sixth edition continues to emphasize four interwoven themes: “Thinking about Biopsychology,” “Clinical Implications,” “The Evolutionary Perspective,” and “Cognitive Neuroscience.” These themes are integral to each chapter and are highlighted throughout by marginal icons, then summarized at the end of each chapter in a “Themes Revisited” section that provides context for the topics discussed.

What makes this book so popular with instructors and students alike is its unique combination of biopsychological science and a personal, reader-oriented style. Pinel interweaves the fundamentals of the field with clinical case studies, social issues, personal implications, and humorous anecdotes.

An updated and stunning art program illustrates difficult concepts with simple visuals and fresh photos.

Beyond the Brain and Behavior, a CD that accompanies each new textbook, now contains even more animations and demonstrations, video clips, practice tests, electronic flashcards, and annotated readings.

“I can honestly say that the Pinel text is consistently rated the ‘best text’ out of all those used in courses throughout our department. Students often say it is the ‘best text they have ever had in any college course’ as well. I agree.”
Michelle Pilati, Rio Hondo College

About the Author

John Pinel, the author of Biopsychology, obtained his PhD from McGill University in Montreal. He worked briefly at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before taking up his current position at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Professor Pinel is an award-winning teacher and the author of over 200 scientific papers; however, he feels that Biopsychology is his major career-related accomplishment. “It ties together everything that I love about my job: students, teaching, writing, and research.”

When asked about his personal interests, Professor Pinel speaks glowingly of his partner, Maggie, and son, Greg. The high quality of the illustrations in Biopsychology is largely attributable to the effort and talents of Maggie, who is an artist and technical writer. Greg is currently completing his PhD at the London School of Economics, specializing in social and educational programs for indigenous peoples.

“I get most of my exercise by rehearsing and performing West African drum rhythms,” Professor Pinel says. “For a peak mental and physical experience, a bit of Kpanlogo with my friend, Nigerian drum master Kwasi Iruoje is hard to beat.” Most of Professor Pinel’s relaxation comes from cuddling his cats, Sambala, Rastaman, and Squeak.

Customer Reviews

Biopsychology
This text presents one of the more user-friendly entries into the topic of biopsychology. Rather than assume that readers already have a detailed understanding of biology, the more complex ideas are presented in simpler steps. This text attempts to be as accessible as possible to a variety of ability levels. An excellent choice for first-time biopsych students not too certain which text to choose.

essential reading if interested in biopsychology.
The subject of this book may be off putting to many casual readers. It is however essential reading if you are interested in the relationship between biology and psychology. Infact it makes psychology entirely more understandable when the biological reasons for behaviour are considered.

Fairly easy to understand, but has lots of problems
As a key text for my neuroscience psychology course for the past few years, I thought this book would be up to scratch.

However, whilst the book provides a fairly comprehensive and easy to understand review of biopsychology, the accompanying CD's Macromedia Flash interface didn't work correctly; information wasn't accessed correctly from the CD, quizzes didn't score properly, and when I managed to dig around in the file structure and open the graphical examples manually, buttons didn't work, entire animations were missing, all in all, it appeared almost half finished.

Tech support were also woefully inadequate, and seemed to consistently grasp the wrong end of the stick. After finally spelling my problems out to them, they seem to have lost the ability to respond to me, it has now been many, many months without a reply, despite me sending reminders that I still hadn't been delt with. Tech support did send me a check up email asking me if my problem had been delt with. In spite of my negative response, they still haven't got round to dealing with me and I have since given up on them.

Back to the review of the product, answers to the quizzes were actually WRONG in places, contradicting what was in the textbook. When prompted about this, the publishers told me to talk to my professor, and get him to confirm it was wrong (come on! Either the book or the CD-ROM was wrong, they can't both be right). When I talked to him about it, the text is apparently has quite a few mistakes, and our course has changed key text as of this year.

In short, it's probably best to avoid this product until they get the kinks sorted out, although at the 6th edition, I would have hoped they would have already managed it.