Explaining Creativity is an accessible introduction to the latest scientific research on creativity. The book summarizes and integrates a broad range of... research in psychology and related scientific fields. In the last 40 years, psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists have devoted increased attention to creativity; we now know more about creativity than at any point in history. Explaining Creativity considers not only arts like painting and writing, but also science, stage performance, business innovation, and creativity in everyday life. Sawyer's approach is interdisciplinary. In addition to examining psychological studies on creativity, he draws on anthropologists' research on creativity in non-Western cultures, sociologists' research on the situations, contexts, and networks of creative activity, and cognitive neuroscientists' studies of the brain. He moves beyond the individual to consider the social and cultural contexts of creativity, including the role of collaboration in the creative process.

This is the first edition; the second edition was published in December, 2011 and has seven new chapters and eight new appendices. I highly recommend... you buy the second edition!Explaining Creativity is an accessible introduction to the latest scientific research on creativity. In the last 50 yearss, psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists have increasingly studied creativity, and we now know more about creativity that at any point in history. Explaining Creativity considers not only arts like painting and writing, but also science, stage performance, and business innovation. Until about a decade ago, creativity researchers tended to focus on highly valued activities like fine art painting and Nobel prize winning science. Sawyer brings this research up to date by including movies, music videos, cartoons, videogames, hypertext fiction, and computer technology. For example, this is the first book on creativity to include studies of performance and improvisation. Sawyer draws on the latest research findings to show the importance of collaboration and context in all of these creative activities.Today's science of creativity is interdisciplinary; in addition to psychological studies of creativity, Explaining Creativity includes research by anthropologists on creativity in non-Western cultures, and research by sociologists about the situations, contexts, and networks of creative activity. Explaining Creativity brings these approaches together within the sociocultural approach to creativity pioneered by Howard Becker, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Howard Gardner. The sociocultural approach moves beyond the individual to consider the social and cultural contexts of creativity, emphasizing the role of collaboration and context in the creative process.

This book provides a concise but comprehensive review of the full range of classic and contemporary theories of crime. With separate chapters on the... nature and use of criminological theory as well as theoretical application, the authors render the difficult task of explaining crime more understandable to the introductory student. All of the main theories in criminology are reviewed including classical and rational choice, biological, psychological, and evolutionary, social structural, social process, critical, general, and integrated approaches. Copious examples of the spirit of the theories are supplied, many with a popular culture (e.g., film and music) connection. The highly original final chapter, titled putting criminological theory to work, provides readers with an integrated theoretical model that students can apply to virtually any type of crime. The book is well suited for use in undergraduate and graduate courses in criminology, criminal justice, and deviance.

Written by Lab, Williams, Holcomb, King, and Buerger, Explaining Criminal Justice is the first brief survey text designed for students entering the... field of criminal justice who lack a criminal justice background.This primer's helpful shorthand presentation will be useful to students in a variety of ways:* Defines key terminology and issues in an easily understood format.* Offers a basic understanding of the component parts of the criminal justice system and how they interrelate.* Provides coverage of all major issues--plus a realistic overview of the criminal justice system.Each chapter features a list of key terms, brief discussions of the important issues under each topic, discussions of emerging issues and concerns in the field, references for all key topics, a brief bibliography, and appropriate website listings.

Explaining Criminals and Crime is the first collection of original essays addressing theories of criminal behavior that is written at a level... appropriate for undergraduate students. These clear, concise, accessible essays were written expressly for this book, either by the original author(s) of each theory or by a scholar who has written extensively about it.All major contemporary criminological theories are covered in this book, including:* Biological (Pauline Yaralian and Adrian Raine)* Strain (Robert Agnew, Steve Messner, and Richard Rosenfeld)* Social and Self Control (Travis Hirschi and Michael Gottfredson; John Laub, Robert Sampson, and Leanna Allen)* Social Reaction (Ross Matsueda and John Braithwaite)* Social Learning and Differential Association (Ronald Akers and Mark Warr)* Social Disorganization (Ralph Taylor)* Radical and Feminist (Michael Lynch and Paul Stretesky; Meda Chensey-Lind and Karlene Faith)* Rational Choice and Routine Activities (Ronald Clarke and Derek Cornish; Marcus Felson)* Integrated and Control Balance (Thomas Bernard and Charles Tittle)Explaining Criminals and Crime also offers section introductions that provide a historical background for each theory, key issues that the theory addresses, and a discussion of any controversies generated by the theory.Each theoretical essay contains:* A discussion of the key theoretical concepts.* The specific hypotheses derived from the theory.* Existing empirical research on these hypotheses.* Criticisms of the theory and efforts to deal with those criticisms.* Policy implications of the theory.Most criminological theories are published in journals or specialized texts and are written in language intended for other scholars. As a result, undergraduate and even graduate students in criminology and criminal justice find these readings quite difficult, which limits their understanding of the material. The essays and chapter introductions in Explaining Criminals and Crime are written with the undergraduate audience in mind.

The challenge of explaining the emotions has engaged the attention of the best minds in philosophy and science throughout history. Part of the... fascination has been that the emotions resist classification. As adequate account therefore requires receptivity to knowledge from a variety of sources. The philosopher must inform himself of the relevant empirical investigation to arrive at a definition, and the scientist cannot afford to be naive about the assumptions built into his conceptual apparatus.The contributors to this volume have approached the problem of characterizing and classifying emotions from the perspectives of neurophysiology, psychology, and social psychology as well as that of philosophical psychology. They discuss the difficulties that arise in classifying the emotions, assessing their appropriateness and rationality, and determining their function in motivating moral action.

This book is designed to help teachers understand English grammar and explain it to their students. Each chapter focuses on a problematic area and... offers exercises for students as well as teaching ideas.

Steve A. Yetiv has developed an interdisciplinary, integrated approach to studying foreign policy decisions, which he applies here to understand better... how and why the United States went to war in the Persian Gulf in 1991 and 2003. Yetiv’s innovative method employs the rational actor, cognitive, domestic politics, groupthink, and bureaucratic politics models to explain the foreign policy behavior of governments. Drawing on the widest set of primary sources to date—including a trove of recently declassified documents—and on interviews with key actors, he applies these models to illuminate the decision-making process in the two Gulf Wars and to develop theoretical notions about foreign policy. What Yetiv discovers, in addition to empirical evidence about the Persian Gulf and Iraq wars, is that no one approach provides the best explanation, but when all five are used, a fuller and more complete understanding emerges.Thoroughly updated with a new preface and a chapter on the 2003 Iraq War, Explaining Foreign Policy, already widely used in courses, will continue to be of interest to students and scholars of foreign policy, international relations, and related fields.

When Hitler's war ended in 1945, the war over Hitler--who he really was, what gave birth to his unique evil--had just begun. Hitler did not escape the... bunker in Berlin but, half a century later, he has managed to escape explanation in ways both frightening and profound. Explaining Hitler is an extraordinary quest, an expedition into the war zone of Hitler theories. This is a passionate, enthralling book that illuminates what Hitler explainers tell us about Hitler, about the explainers, and about ourselves.

Research into reading development and reading disabilities has been dominated by phonologically guided theories for several decades. In this volume, the... authors of 11 chapters report on a wide array of current research topics, examining the scope, limits and implications of a phonological theory. The chapters are organized in four sections. The first concerns the nature of the relations between script and speech that make reading possible, considering how different theories of phonology may illuminate the implication of these relations for reading development and skill. The second set of chapters focuses on phonological factors in reading acquisition that pertain to early language development, effects of dialect, the role of instruction, and orthographic learning. The third section identifies factors beyond the phonological that may influence success in learning to read by examining cognitive limitations that are sometimes co-morbid with reading disabilities, contrasting the profiles of specific language impairment and dyslexia, and considering the impact of particular languages and orthographies on language acquisition. Finally, in the fourth section, behavioral-genetic and neurological methods are used to further develop explanations of reading differences and early literacy development. The volume is an essential resource for researchers interested in the cognitive foundations of reading and literacy, language and communication disorders, or psycholinguistics; and those working in reading disabilities, learning disabilities, special education, and the teaching of reading.

This book contributes to emerging debates in political science and sociology on institutional change. Its introductory essay proposes a new framework... for analyzing incremental change that is grounded in a power-distributional view of institutions and that emphasizes ongoing struggles within but also over prevailing institutional arrangements. Five empirical essays then bring the general theory to life by evaluating its causal propositions in the context of sustained analyses of specific instances of incremental change. These essays range widely across substantive topics and across times and places, including cases from the United States, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The book closes with a chapter reflecting on the possibilities for productive exchange in the analysis of change among scholars associated with different theoretical approaches to institutions.

Pakistan has over the decades become a hotbed for the terrorist ideology often referred to as Jihadism. This book investigates the underlying principles... of Pakistan’s foreign policy from 1947 until the present day, and explains the rise of Jihadism as an offshoot of Pakistan’s security concerns. The book goes on to discuss that from its inception as a separate state, Pakistan’s foreign policy focused on ‘seeking parity’ with India and ‘escaping’ from an Indian South Asian identity. The desire to achieve parity with its much larger neighbour led Pakistan to seek the assistance and support of allies. The author analyses the relationship Pakistan has with Afghanistan, United States, China and the Muslim world, and looks at how these relationships are based on the desire that military, economic and diplomatic aid from these countries would bolster Pakistan’s meagre resources in countering Indian economic and military strength. The book presents an interesting contribution to South Asian Studies, as well as studies on International Relations and Foreign Policy.

This comprehensive graduate-level statistics text is aimed at students with a minimal background in the area or those who are wary of the subject... matter. The new edition of this successful text will continue to offer students a lively and engaging introduction to the field, provide comprehensive coverage of the material, and will also include examples and exercises using common statistical software packages (SPSS).

This bestselling teacher resource and widely adopted text demonstrates the "whats," "whys," and "how-tos" of explicit reading instruction for... struggling K–8 learners. The book describes 23 skills and strategies associated with vocabulary, comprehension, word recognition, and fluency. Ways to explain each skill or strategy are illustrated in real-world examples that teachers can use as starting points for their own lessons. Retaining the straight-talking style that made the prior edition so popular, the second edition has been revised and updated to reflect reader feedback and the latest research.

J. Samuel Preus traces the development and articulation of a modern "naturalistic" approach to the study of religion by examining ideas about the origin... of religion in the works of nine western thinkers: Jean Bodin, Herbert of Cherbury, Bernard Fontenelle, Giambattista Vico, David Hume, Auguste Comte, Edward Brunett Tylor, Emile Durkheim, and Sigmund Freud. He argues that beginning in the sixteenth century increasing critical detachment from theological presuppositions and commitments made it possible for the question of origins to be posed from an altogether non-religious point of view. This new modernist paradigm was characterized by the conviction that religion could be explained in scientific terms, like any other object of critical investigation.