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Psychology: Themes and Variations

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THEMES AND VARIATIONS, 10th Edition, helps you experience the excitement of this fascinating field, while helping you study and retain what you learn. Filled with practical ways that you can apply psychology to your everyday life, this best-selling textbook is an experience in learning that you'll remember long after you complete your introductory psychology course. Critical Thinking Applications in every chapter give you specific critical thinking strategies you can apply in all of your courses and in your personal life. Reality Checks, many of which may surprise you, address common misconceptions about psychology. Every chapter of this book offers tools -- such as Concept Charts that provide colorful visual snapshots of key points -- to help you focus on what's important, showing you how to study in ways that help you retain information and do your best on exams.

567 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1900

47 people are currently reading
629 people want to read

About the author

Wayne Weiten

213 books5 followers
Wayne Weiten is a graduate of Bradley University and received his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Illinois, Chicago, in 1981. He currently teaches at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has received distinguished teaching awards from Division Two of the American Psychological Association (APA) and from the College of DuPage, where he taught until 1991. He is a Fellow of Divisions 1 and 2 of the American Psychological Association. In 1991, he helped chair the APA National Conference on Enhancing the Quality of Undergraduate Education in Psychology and in 1996-1997 he served as President of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology. Wayne Weiten has conducted research on a wide range of topics, including educational measurement, jury decision making, attribution theory, stress, and cerebral specialization. His recent interests have included pressure as a form of stress and the technology of textbooks. He is also the co-author of Psychology Applied to Modern Life (Wadsworth, 2006) and the creator of an educational CD-ROM titled PsykTrek: A Multimedia Introduction to Psychology.

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5 stars
82 (26%)
4 stars
108 (35%)
3 stars
83 (26%)
2 stars
21 (6%)
1 star
14 (4%)
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
135 reviews6 followers
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October 2, 2016
Makes me wanna cry everyday
Profile Image for Billie Pritchett.
1,214 reviews121 followers
October 23, 2015
Wayne Weiten's psychology textbook is a wonderful book, and it is my favorite textbook this semester. Weiten explains the various psychological research in the subfields of psychology well, and he goes to great lengths to demonstrate the real world implications of the data. This text goes a long way in explaining human nature, and it does it empirically, all the while being sensitive to the different theoretical perspectives regarding the data.
11 reviews
August 11, 2015
This is an extremely well-written textbook. It's filled with a plethora of highly useful material that will surely, with or without added instruction, be enough (and probably more) to fulfill the requirements of a foundational knowledge in psychology. Overall, I'd one hundred percent recommend this book to anyone interested in psychology; it is easy enough to read, enjoyable, well-illustrated, and a breeze to comprehend.
Profile Image for Dustin.
101 reviews2 followers
July 5, 2024
If you take a class that assigns this textbook, withdraw from the class and transfer to a new university
Profile Image for Amber.
678 reviews4 followers
July 23, 2015
Normally I wouldn't bother putting down a textbook as something I've read, however this particular book is terrible. Instead of using the space to teach me what I need to know, it will constantly tell me "by reading this chapter this is what you will learn"--obviously if it is in the chapter I'm going to figure it out without being told. Also the book itself switches from third person, to first person, and then into second person, before moving back into third person once again--and there is no excuse for doing something like that in any way, shape, or form. Mostly if you want to learn psychology this is the last book a person should pick up. It doesn't even deserve the one required star rating.
Profile Image for Cogito_ergo_sum.
628 reviews17 followers
May 31, 2013
I couldn't find my edition, so I used this one instead. My edition is
Psychology: Themes and Variations; by Weiten, and McCann; Canadian 2nd ed.© 2010

I used it for my psychology classes, and I thought it was well written. The concepts were easy to understand. Overall I liked this textbook.
Profile Image for Nika Zed.
26 reviews23 followers
April 21, 2016
I studied its forth Canadian Edition for my intro to psych course. It was well written.
Profile Image for Degan Walters.
750 reviews23 followers
August 19, 2019
A broad overview for my intro course. Some of it was a bit trite but had to be included to be comprehensive. I appreciated all the Canadian examples.
Profile Image for Josiah Hasbrouck.
61 reviews
May 5, 2022
it's aight but i don't recommend reading 80% of it in less than 24 hours
Profile Image for Joshua.
14 reviews1 follower
August 2, 2019
A solid textbook — not the kind that I've chosen to keep on my bookshelf to refer back to in future years, but it did the job.
Profile Image for Lesley Anne.
126 reviews3 followers
June 14, 2024
Great textbook. Finished my 2 courses both with healthy passing grades using it, so I consider this read a success!
Profile Image for Imaan Jumat.
198 reviews
June 16, 2025
i was prescribed this textbook for my psychology module, and I hated every second of it, I have also minus points for the emotional and psychological trauma I've been put through during the module.
Profile Image for Justin.
29 reviews
December 19, 2015
Don't know how to rate a textbook but I'm going to anyways. I'm rating on readability as well as the content's ability to be understood. The text was dull in some spots but overall read smoothly and had humor to it as well.
Profile Image for Wendy.
621 reviews144 followers
June 9, 2011
Took this as a mandatory course, but ended up loving everything about the class. Much credit goes to the prof though.
Profile Image for Donald Allen.
6 reviews3 followers
July 22, 2012
Now that I've opened this book - I will never be "done" with it. The book opened up a new doorway of thinking...
Profile Image for Ania.
252 reviews37 followers
November 24, 2012
I remember this textbook had some interesting titbits of information but it never really inspired me much nor interested me. To each their own style I suppose.
Profile Image for Lorena.
8 reviews
March 21, 2009
Great learning tool in to the understanding of human behavior!
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews

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