This cutting-edge, applied book highlights the relevance of sociology by including a diverse collection of theories, research, and "lived experiences" that accurately mirror the diversity in society itself. The author's vivid, applied, personal writing style engages students, and activates compelling everyday examples that make sociology particularly relevant to diverse students. A social issue or application opens each chapter and provides various topics for boxes, features, and examples that are carried throughout the entire chapter. Kendall's text is acclaimed in the field for being the first textbook to integrate race, class, and gender issues; as well as for its thorough presentation of sociological theory, which includes diverse theoretical viewpoints such as feminist and postmodernist theory. Kendall shows students that sociology involves important questions and issues that they confront both personally and vicariously.

This best-selling comprehensive book conveys the relevance of sociology by including a timely collection of theories, research, and examples, including its signature first-person accounts that open chapters. Experiences represented in the chapter openers accurately mirror the richness and complexity of society itself while also establishing the themes that are carried throughout the chapters. The author's vivid, inviting writing style, emphasis on applications, eye for the most compelling current examples, and use of assignable photo-essays and companion video engages readers and further highlights sociology relevance to all students. Kendall's text is acclaimed in the field for being the first textbook to integrate race, class, and gender issues, and for its thorough presentation of sociological theory, including contemporary perspectives such as feminism and postmodernism.

Diana Kendall's successful brief text is known for the effective way it guides students into the study of sociology in a way that touches their lives. It is especially noted for its coverage of race, class, and gender filtered through an applied orientation. The text takes an inclusive approach to diverse theoretical viewpoints. Each chapter incorporates recent research (especially by women and people of color) as well as classic studies. The author has a vivid writing style and uses compelling everyday life examples which make sociology come alive for students.

With a combination of up-to-the minute examples, cutting-edge research, and the latest available data, Essentials of Sociology gets students thinking sociologically about what they're seeing in the news and on their screens. Highlighting the macro social forces at work in our everyday lives, the authors move students beyond their individual experiences and cultivate their sociological imaginations. Innovative pedagogy promotes active reading and helps students master core sociological concepts. This strong in-text pedagogical program is now supported by InQuizitive, Norton's new formative, adaptive learning tool.

foreword by Hermann Haken For the past twenty years Scott Kelso's research has focused on extending the physical concepts of self- organization and the mathematical tools of nonlinear dynamics to understand how human beings (and human brains) perceive, intend, learn, control, and coordinate complex behaviors. In this book Kelso proposes a new, general framework within which to connect brain, mind, and behavior.Kelso's prescription for mental life breaks dramatically with the classical computational approach that is still the operative framework for many newer psychological and neurophysiological studies. His core thesis is that the creation and evolution of patterned behavior at all levels--from neurons to mind--is governed by the generic processes of self-organization. Both human brain and behavior are shown to exhibit features of pattern-forming dynamical systems, including multistability, abrupt phase transitions, crises, and intermittency. Dynamic Patterns brings together different aspects of this approach to the study of human behavior, using simple experimental examples and illustrations to convey essential concepts, strategies, and methods, with a minimum of mathematics. Kelso begins with a general account of dynamic pattern formation. He then takes up behavior, focusing initially on identifying pattern-forming instabilities in human sensorimotor coordination. Moving back and forth between theory and experiment, he establishes the notion that the same pattern-forming mechanisms apply regardless of the component parts involved (parts of the body, parts of the nervous system, parts of society) and the medium through which the parts are coupled. Finally, employing the latest techniques to observe spatiotemporal patterns of brain activity, Kelso shows that the human brain is fundamentally a pattern forming dynamical system, poised on the brink of instability. Self-organization thus underlies the cooperative action of neurons that produces human behavior in all its forms.

This mainstream, best-selling text is noted for its especially strong coverage of current social issues, along with its integration of race, class, gender, and age perspectives. The author includes diverse theoretical viewpoints, including feminist theory. A social issue or application opens each chapter and provides various topics for boxes, features, and examples that are carried throughout the entire chapter. The author, who has the most vivid, personal writing style in the market, uses compelling everyday examples that make sociology particularly relevant to diverse students. This cutting-edge book highlights the relevance of sociology by including a diverse collection of classical and contemporary theories, interesting and relevant research, and lived experiences that accurately mirror the diversity in society itself. Kendall shows students that sociology involves important questions and issues that they confront both personally and vicariously.