Log in to track your reading progress.
Overview
This book is a conceptually driven and accessible introduction to behavioral neuroscience. Focused, concise and coherent, it reflects integrative trends in the field while making human neuroscience accessible to a wider student audience. Conceptually driven and concise. The field of biological psychology and behavioral neuroscience has grown exponentially in the past decade, and most textbooks have responded by becoming bloated tomes that drown students in unnecessary factoids. Beatty provides just the essentials necessary in a text that is focused, concise, and coherent. A contemporary integrative approach with an emphasis on behavior.
The book contains black-and-white illustrations.
Editorials
From The Critics
Reviewer: Nicholas Greco IV, MS, BCETS, CATSM(Abbott Laboratories)Description: This book on the human brain presents the material in an uncomplicated and highly focused manner which makes it stand out among other larger and less concise texts.
Purpose: The purpose is to provide a clear, concise, and coherent introduction to the human brain using the contemporary neuroscience perspective. The author wisely abandons the all too common method of writing a complicated and oversized textbook to present a much more streamlined and less daunting primer of the human brain. The author, without doubt, accomplishes his objectives.
Audience: Written mainly as a primary text for undergraduate students, this book could also benefit graduate level students with the addition of supplementary material. The material is quite manageable and any individual pursuing knowledge regarding the human brain will be surprised and pleased with this book. The author is a seasoned educator who is cognizant of student needs, and he presents the material in straightforward, approachable way.
Features: The book is highly focused and smaller than most texts, yet it contains a wealth of information on such basic topics as the nervous system and vision as well as the more complicated topics of movement and nervous system disorders. There are wonderfully practical illustrations that illuminate the material. The information is current and the book gives a complete overview of the human brain that students can comfortably master without difficulty.
Assessment: This is an excellent primer for psychobiology and will serve the needs of both students and educators. The book truly stands out, and I am quite pleased with the author's presentation style and the overall quality of the material. This subject matter can be difficult and discouraging for many students. We now have a book that is easy to comprehend. Clearly, this book is recommended.
Booknews
Based on teaching introductory psychobiology and his (Brown & Benchmark, 1995), Beatty (psychology and neuroscience, U. of California at Los Angeles) consciously avoids the "everything but the kitchen sink" approach to introducing this complex, rapidly evolving field. He overviews the tools and philosophical and ethical issues of studying the brain, nervous system functioning and disorders, the senses, sleeping and waking, drives, emotion and stress, language, memory, learning, and brain plasticity. Chapters include key term definitions, b&w illustrations, and suggested readings. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Laura Freberg
"The greatest strength of this book is the depth of understanding that Dr. Beatty brings to his subject. His written voice is confident and authoritative. It’s usually easy to tell where authors’ personal expertise lies by how they rush the sections they don’t know as well. Dr. Beatty’s book does not show this flaw. It is consistently clear."4 Stars! from Doody
Book Details
Published
October 24, 2000
Publisher
Thousand Oaks, Calif. ; Sage Publications, c2001.
Pages
522
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780761920618