Just finished this insightful book last weekend, and I must say that it is the best book on race in America that I've read in the past several years. It reads well and is full of helpful resources. A must-read for anyone interested in finding unity in diversity in America.

Both powerful and eloquent, James Waller's compelling examination of racism in America is beyond timely-- it is crucial for our nation's evolving consciousness. Nowhere is the convergence of race and culture felt more acutely than in our public schools. Face to Face, therefore, is critical reading for anybody -- teacher, administrator, parent -- who recognizes the role, potential, and responsibility of our schools in fostering racial reconciliation. I highly recommend this book!

It is difficult to accept the truth about ourselves as human beings and Waller's book takes the daring step of doing just that. We are all guilty of racist behavior no matter how well we have been brought up to love and accept one another. Waller tells us to face the truth about ourselves and open our eyes in order to diminish the impact of racism in future generations. It took guts to write this book.

If you have loss of hearing, the prose and memoirs by Dr. Myers will be profoundly familiar. You will find yourself sitting and listening to this friend as he shares secrets you seldom discuss with anyone. The author offers rich experiences in roller coaster rides of emotion. He is insightful, humorous, sensitive, revealing, encouraging--and often painfully honest. You feel his torment and elation, and through it, not only come to know the author, but clearly more about living with hearing loss.

An excellent recommendation for those with hearing loss, and professionals who desire to learn more about the experience.

Dr. Myers leaves you anxiously waiting for his next book. . .

Richard Carmen, Au.D. Clinical Audiologist, Sedona AZ rcarmen27@yahoo.com [and Editor/Author, "The Consumer Handbook on Hearing Loss & Hearing Aids: A Bridge to Healing," Auricle Ink Publishers, 1998]

This book is wonderful and useful in a variety of ways. It deserves all of the praise it has earned. The chapter "Aids and Advice" contains a helpful subsection, "Advice for Friends and Family Members" that is invaluable. Tips such as "invite us to a quiet place," "get our attention," "face the light and face us," "rephrase," "create a context," and "speak slowly" are essential for successful communication with people with hearing loss since, for many people with hearing loss, lip-reading is necessary or at least desirable.

Wearers of hearing aids become particularly vexed by, for example, noisy restuarants. This is because most hearing aids still amplify all sounds without prejudice - the words you want to hear (the signal) along with the crash of dishes three tables away (the noise). Add curtainless windows, uncarpeted floors, background music, and ever-increasing decibel level of voices competing to be heard, and you get a very noisy place. Myers explains this in good detail. He then shares his wonderful fantasy : respite from the "noisy world" of most restaurants and coffee shops via a chain of acoustically thought-out tea rooms and coffeehouses named "A Quiet Place." He quotes various studies and surveys that have shown that a great many restaurant patrons object to excessive noise.

Myers offers some great trivia, such as the fact that umpires' hand signals were invented in 1892 by William Hoy, the major leagues' first deaf player. In addition, Myers cites the works and writings of others (whom he names) - Oliver Sacks, linguist William Stokoe, Alexander Graham Bell, for example - leading his reader further into this interesting field, should one wish to read on. He also mentions, though not in much detail, some current research and developments, using lay person's terms. There is an appendix of resources for the hard of hearing, and an index. No bibliography, unfortunately.

A great book and thoroughly worthwhile.

The vulnerability of hearing loss is being replaced with the confidence of new discoveries and the promise of exciting advances in hearing technology. David G. Myers takes us through his journey to the silent world. He has lived through the panic of searching for a replacement battery for his hearing aid and responded to words that were never spoken. Later he realized what he had misunderstood or laughed at what he thought he had heard.

Like a comedy of "ears," he recounts the humorous and sad "errors" in his life due to hearing loss and takes us through a myriad of experiences with various hearing aids. Many of these accounts are laugh out loud funny, while others tell of a world where words are garbled, sentences lack clarity, and the sound of his own voice sounded strange and hauntingly distorted.

Many in the silent world compensate with sign language, learn to read lips, or use computer technology to communicate effectively. The denial of the hearing impaired also points to the fact that it can at times be embarrassing. In his journal-style writings, David draws on his own experiences and explains the dread he feels when he must ask for a sentence to be repeated. He tells of the isolation he feels when he must mimic others laughing around him even though he didn't hear the punch line, or how he is determined to see his life from different eyes than his mother saw her own silent life.

You will be amazed at the patience and love his wife shows as she finally convinces David to seek out an audiologist. Through a great love for each other, they manage to maintain an optimistic outlook, show immense patience, and stay emotionally connected. Together they offer sage advice on how friends and family can encourage hard of hearing relatives and friends to seek treatment.

In the first part of this book, I laughed. In the middle, I felt well informed. The ending left me hopeful. I was pleased to see a comprehensive resource guide for further study. David is well known for cutting the facts down to size and for explaining them in a way that makes you feel enlightened, or at least very well informed. You will learn how sound travels from the ear to the brain, see a picture of the hearing mechanism, find out what 16 thousand hair cells are doing inside the cochlea, and finally wonder where your biology teacher was and why she never taught you this! (pages 120-128)

"Why not do today's kids a huge favor and make information about hearing an essential part of their health education curriculum? Listening to loud music can have devastating repercussions." --David G. Myers

After reading "The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty," also by David Myers, I believe his writings should be in every library, home and school. He has the amazing ability to discover what America needs to hear. Through his writings, he has inspired me in my own life's journey and always leaves me with a sense of hope for the future. If you know someone who is dealing with this issue, I could not recommend this book any more highly. Not only will his words inspire empathy, you will gain a higher appreciation for your own "hearing." I loved all the Web site information and thought it would be perfect for further study.

You will be amazed at how many medical conditions cause hearing loss and realize how hard it would be if you had to choose between being deaf or blind. While my little cat was dozing off next to me and purring contentedly, I closed my eyes, so I could focus in on a sound David can't hear. I was also listening to a CD and while my eyes were closed, I still felt very connected to the world.

Then, I opened my eyes and closed my ears with my fingers. I closed out the music, I closed out the cat purring, I even closed out the sound of the TV downstairs. When I focused on how it would feel not to be able to hear I became more aware of what it would be like to live in a glass jar with the lid sealed on tight. The longer I resisted hearing, the more closed in I felt. Yet, I still could not decide which I would choose if I had to. Fortunately, with the new advances in science, many will be able to find great help in the future, and perhaps hearing loss will be a problem of the past.

"A Quiet World" is a book which will bring awareness to a growing problem in our society. It will help anyone become more sensitive to hearing loss issues.

Excelent in the away it introduces you to the world of advertising making it easy for a smart student to learn!!! Its also good for professionals as it shows new ways of "doing bissiness"! I recommend it for anyone with the least interest in marketing.

Myers does a magnificant job of depicting the human mind, and the surroundings that affect are daily lives. He brins up theories and thoughts that most would have never considered. It is a bit of a Higher Level book. Recommended to anyone who has ever had in interest in psychology, or social psychology.

Heads up all buyers! This paperback edition is not the text book that you are looking for. The description does not mention the paperback is just a study guide! If you need the text book buy the hardback!

After having this book for my Intro 1 and 2 Psych classes in college, it reaffirmed my desire to be a psychology major. Now that I'm in the counseling field and about to teach a class myself, I can't wait to use this book as the text in my class and show my students what I learned from this book - just how exciting, interesting, and fun psychology can be!

After completing a semester-long high school psych. course with this textbook, this is the first textbook ever that i am entirely determined to have for myself as pleasure reading. The book was well organised, enticing, entertaining, and astoundingly FUN TO READ. The text is interspersed with colorful illustrations, interesting photos, and comic relief including The Far Side (illustrating hemispheric differences--"Innocent and carefree, Stuart's left hand didn't know what the right was doing"), and Dennis the Menace (demonstrating child developmental stages) comics. It was, by far, the most intellible psychology text i've ever read -- written in a casual, intelligible, conversational tone. This textbook was so enthralling and entertaining that its all i'm asking from my parents for my birthday! Buy it. You'll be amazed that psychology can be so much fun!

I don't want to get overly into detail, but all I can say is that I have never, in my years of school work, ever encountered a text book like this. A text book that once I began to read, I couldn't stop.

The brilliance of the insight, and all backed up with actual proof. Objective understanding has never been presented in such a wonderful way. In fact the only people who didn't like this book were my friends and family. As I touted its impressive gate around reading to myself and aloud I learned that most people really do not like to view themselves and humans from an objective perspective, some even find the idea unnatural.

But all I can tell you is that this book changed my life, especially the last half of it, once it got out of the mapping of the physical and got into our social behaviors and mental misunderstandings I really got into it.

I only wish I could convey its power, truly the first enlightened textbook that makes it's reads not only tolerable, but highly entertaining. I emplore you, pick it up!

My AP Psychology class uses Exploring Psychology 4th edition. This book is what the College Board recommends for their AP test. I also took Intro to Psych last year and found the book to be decent, but this one is undoubtedly so much better. Firstly, it's informative. The author doesn't waste a lot of words - every sentence means something (which also means the text can flood you with so much information). Secondly, Exploring Psychology is articulate and coherent; many concepts in psych can be befuddling but Myers does a great job of helping the reader understand. Thirdly, it's interesting. I had senioritis all this year but Psych was the only class that I actually stuck with and it was partly due to this book. Myers includes numerous tidbits and facts that held my attention...As of right now, I honestly cannot think of a significant downfall of this text. My teacher loves it (and she jealously guards the 6th edition with her life), and so does my class...

When I took General Psychology in college last semester, this is the book that I had to use. Let me start by saying that I usually dread having to read an assigned chapter or to review out of a textbook, but Exploring Psychology (Fourth Edition) was an exception.

I'm interested in psychology to begin with, but I thought the book's chapters were well written, interesting, and very easy to understand. There are 14 chapters, and all the chapters have a few main headings, or sections, that relate to what the whole chapter is about, and a bunch of sub-sections. From time to time in each chapter, there is a set of review questions in a box called "Rehearse It!." At the end of every chapter, there is a great summary from each of the chapter's different sections, a few critical thinking exercises, and an answer key to the Rehearse It! questions.

As for what psychological topics are included, this book has a lot to offer. There are chapters devoted to everything that deals with psychology from learning, memory, therapy, how people develop, biology, behavior, and much more. Throughout the text, it mentions and goes into detail about the works of many famous psychologists such as Sigmund Freud, B.F. Skinner, John B. Watson, and many others.

Also included in Exploring Psychology are the other things you'd expect to see such as a glossary, two Appendixes, and more. I can't say anything from a teacher's point of view, but for me as a student, this book was fun to read and very easy to understand.

David Meyeres does an excellent job of highlighting a subject in which everyone should be more knowledgeable. A great range of information is conveyed in a very organized, clear style. The book is clearly meant for a reader interested in learning more about happiness in detailed depth, without assuming the reader is a Ph.D. psychologist. The points within this book are significant, but Meyers has written the book in such a manner that it is still comprehensive to those beginning their study.

With unhappiness on the upward trend, this book could benefit most anyone. It provides worthwhile facts in a clear, fascinating way. This book is one step closer to achieving a healthier, happier society.

After reading this book for a school assingment, I was very pleased to find I could also take a great deal away and relate it to my own life. Meyers points out several factors interfereing with achieving happiness. This book has helped me identify the sources of my unhappiness, and given me the ability to better enjoy life. My previous perspectives have been improved. I am sure The Pursuit of Happiness could be an aid for anyone feeling mildly unhappy, or those who are merely curious in understanding the fundamentals behind human happiness. This book discusses everything from age, gender, race, social status, marriage, friends, and religion and their impacts on happiness. There are some bits of information which seem to be common sense. However, it is better to know the truth, then assume something incorrectly.

Myers asks the question: "Who is happy and why?" And attempts to answer the question by asking another: "What does the evidence support?" So doing, he replaces prejudice and presupposition with a solid foundation.

Myers examines data from a wide variety of human happiness studies, which is exactly what one ought to do for clarity on the issue. The philosophers have expressed their intuitions about the good life (Plato, Seneca, Aristotle), and Myers has reported empirical support for some of their intuitions.

Another reviewer called attention to Myers' bias toward faith in the role of happiness. Though Myers qualifies his analysis by: 1) claiming knowledge only of the Mosaic tradition (religions that derive from the teachings of Moses - Judaism, Christianity, Islam); 2) by playing the game of large numbers (that the vast majority of Americans and Europeans practice Mosaic religions); and 3) by encouraging cross-cultural research rather than examining or pioneering cross-cultural research, in the end it just doesn't ring true.

If Psychology can be conceived of as a science of human behavior - rather than a "je ne sais quois" employing quantitative methods - then universality of experience should be considered. The book isn't titled "The Pursuit of Happiness In America and Europe." Perhaps it ought to be.

If a God belief rather than some other commonality of social interaction in religion -- fellowship and intimate communication about life's deepest issues -- is the central factor in faith-based happiness, then some atheistic forms of Buddhism may refute his claim.

As Myers says, emotions are biological events which may lead to good or ill in the body; but a belief in the Void, and engaging one's fellows in talk about the Void, participating in related rituals and so on, may be just as salubrious and/or felicity-inducing as belief in a personal God. Deep faith may contribute to happiness, but it doesn't necessarily include a faith in God.

Aside from questions of faith, Myers is to be commended for viewing happiness and the various means to its attainment with a critical eye.

An engaging read, though not without its flaws.

This book changed my perception of life. It clearly defines what is truly important. I realized how happy I am. Easy read.

In Intuition: Its Powers and Perils, author David Myers provides an overview of the unconscious operations of the human mind.

He begins by arguing that we have two parallel systems operating in our day to day lives, the conscious/rational system and the unconscious/intuitive system. The former is slow and deliberate, the latter is fast and sometimes inaccurate. He then details may of the ways in which our intuition proves incorrect in areas like geography, personal memories, individual competence, and foly physics. Myers ends the book with a long chapter about our intuition in medicine, job interviews, risk, and gambling.

Throughout the book, Myers repeats a theme popular since Tversky and Khanneman's papers in the 1970s: the human mind has predictable biases and innaccuracies on a host of logical puzzles and laboratory tests. As such, the book is basically a 249 page review article of the evidence against human rationality. While many of his examples are fascinating, there is no overall theory or mechanism given to account for this irrationality.

To take one example he uses, imagine a ball dropped from a plane. Most people intuitively feel that the ball should fall straight down, rather than along the correct parabolic path to the earth. Myers takes this as evidence of a faulted folk-physics. Unfortunately, despite this fault, people have no problem catching balls falling from great heights. Is it possible that our intuition is in fact robust and accurate within the domains where it is used, and only incorrect in the unusual situations of the laboratory? Myers only casually addresses this, but his evidence on competence developing at certain tasks and jobs indicates that this might be the case.

I would recommend this book to anyone trying to access the primary literature on human rationality and its shortcomings. It is a nice overview. Those attempting to understand how intuition is used by humans in everyday situations, that is, a theory of intuition, will have to keep looking. I recommend Gerd Gigerenzer's book, Adaptive Thinking, as an excellent starting point.

Myers brings together a lot of research into a very readable book about "knowing."

Myers explains to some degree how we know...and why we are likely to be correct. This is well documented although perhaps not as thorough as Sources of Power or Strangers Unto Ourselves by Wilson. Nevertheless there is plenty of meat here.

Then he talks in much greater detail about how and when our intuition is likely to fail us. This is much more enjoyable reading and thorough in scope.

Myers gives a significant amount of attention to ESP, psychic intuition and gambling, all of which are evenly presented and well thought out.

If you have an interest in decision making, intuition, risk, and how we "think" this is a brilliant introduction.

Intuition is a hot topic. Today there are lots of trainers, coaches, consultants, and authors advocating the powers of intuition. 'Don't be too rational, trust you intuition!', they say. But how well-informed are these people about what intuition really is? To what extent can you rely on your intuition and to what extent should you be skeptical? In this book, David Myers, a well-known writer on psychology, explains what is known about intuition.

WE KNOW MORE THAN WE KNOW WE KNOW
What is it anyway? David Myers explains that intuition is our capacity for direct knowledge, for immediate insight without observation or reason. In contrast, deliberte thinking is reasoning-like, critical, and anlytic. So there are two levels of thinking:
1. DELIBERATE THINKING: this level of thinking is conscious and analytical. It is very valuable because it helps us to focus on what is really important and protects us from having to think about everything at once. It is as it where the mind's executive desk.
2. INTUITION: this unconscious level is automatic. It seems, inside our minds there are processing systems that work without us knowing it. To use a metafor by David Myers: we effortlessly delegate most of our thinking and decisions making to the masses of cognitive workers busily at work in our minds's basement. These processes enables us, for instance, to recognize instantly, among thousands of humans, someone we have not seen in five years. We do know, but we don't know how we know.

WHAT WE KNOW, BUT DON'T KNOW WE KNOW, AFFECTS MORE THAN WE KNOW
Both ways of knowing are present within each person. Often they support eachother, sometimes they lead to conflicting conclusions. One thing is important: we tend to underrate how much of our actions are guided by unconsicous thinking. A vast proportion of our behavior is under control of unconscious perception and information processing. This 'automaticity of being' helps us through most of the situations we encounter (you type without consciously knowing where exactly the letters on your keyboard are; you'd have to 'ask your fingers` to know where they are). What's more, it is even so that we can process and be influenced by unattended information (for instance you had not noticed someone talking at a party until s/he mentioned your name, then you suddenly noticed this). Furthermore, we sometimes unconsciously continue processing information regarding problems (after having stopped trying to remember a name, we sometimes 'suddenly` remember it).

WE DON'T SEE THINGS AS THEY ARE, WE SEE THINGS AS WE ARE
Intuition is powerful and important and often it will pay to 'listen to your heart`. But intuition also often errs. An important example is that our theories and assumptions distort our perceptions and interpretations. For instance if we hold a stereotype about a certain category of people, we unknowingly tend to selectively perceive what they do. We tend to notice information that confirms the stereotype more readily than other information. This way, we tend to see our beliefs confirmed. Other examples of unrealistic intuition are: 1) hindsight bias ('I knew it all along'), 2) self-serving bias (accepting more responsibility for succeses that for failures), 3) overconfidence bias (we tend to intuitively assume that the way we perceive the world, so it is).

CONCLUSION
This is a great book for anyone interested in psychology and intuition. The material is presented very pleasantly and clearly. David Myers describes many interesting experiments that certainly will challenge your intuition (for instance some eye-opening experiments by the recent Nobel price winner psychologist Daniel Kahneman). Often these experiments will surprise you. Special attention is payed to the role of intuition in specific contexts like sports, investment, therapy, interviewing and risk taking. Psychology is still an interesting subject. This book is a clear reminder of that. ...

This book just made me mad. Myers rounds up all of the usual suspects: divorce, pornography, the media, out of wedlock children, and tells us that our permissive, rights-oriented society is to blame. He hops on the Communitarian bandwagon without critical analysis of how one compels community and whether it would be worth the price.

For example, he suggests, without a hint of analysis, that the 14th Amendment, rights of due process and equal protection, should trump First Amendment free speech. He hasn't a clue about how complex this argument is or where it would lead. Professor Myers claims impartiality as a "social scientist" when, in fact, the book skews the research to prove his point. Unfortunately, his "point" (our society is in the toilet - big surprise) doesn't lead anywhere.

I have been reading a book titled The American Paradox-Spiritual Hunger In An Age Of Plenty by David G Myers from Yale University Press which is a superb book. The author makes an excellent argument for how materialism as well as a selfish individualism is costing this country dearly.

And the author notes Lee Atwater's final words as he was in the last year of his life (Atwater was Bush Sr campaign manager) "The 80's (I would add the 90's as well) were about acquiring-acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn't I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with the truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitious and moral decay, can learn on my dime. "

To hold David G. Myers book "The American Paradox" in your hands, is truly to be holding the solution to America's problems. This is perhaps the most enlightening book you will ever read in this decade. The sheer fortitude that it took to sort through the facts and figures between the 1960's and 1990's and come to these brilliant conclusions is nothing short of extraordinary.

Never has there been a more appropriate time to analyze our culture. This is a time of true spiritual hunger. If you want the reality of the situation you will find it here. Both self-described liberals and self-described conservatives will agree: There is no avoiding this deluge of facts. Perhaps now we can all have a common goal.

"The American Paradox" offers a sober appraisal of this present predicament and (finally!) gives a vision of hope for the future. We soon learn that the problems are many:

1. The divorce rate has doubled and women and children are impacted the most. 2. The teen suicide rate has tripled. 3. Marriages may start with euphoria, but many end in separation, anguish and divorce. 4. Most cohabitations break up before marriage. 5. Material wealth is at record levels, yet happiness has diminished. 6. We have replaced communal activities with TV and Web surfing. 7. We have placed a lower value on self-sacrifice, sexual restraint and moral obligation. 8. We have educated our children, while overlooking the need to teach them character. 9. The media gives false images of reality, which in turn have affected our children's thoughts and actions. 10. The pursuit of pleasure may in fact be amplifying misery.

We are also reminded that Gandhi once said that seven social sins could destroy a nation. I have the feeling we have committed far more. It seems we need to embrace principles which will enable us to realize "The New American Dream." This is a dream in which we encourage marriage, initiative, basic liberties, close relationships, empathy, self-discipline, character development, civility, fidelity, spiritual awareness, love for our fellow man, and a shared commitment to moral truth.

David Myers has set out the intellectual facts and figures with insight and fairness. There are no sides to take, but rather you will experience a feeling of enlightenment, hope and a new sense of determination. To me it is clear that we need to reexamine our social policies, make the media more responsible, and decide to change ourselves. Above all, we should protect our freedom by becoming personally responsible and making our marriages and families the top priorities in our lives. It is really up to us to decide our future. Often prevention is easier than the cure. Building character takes time and effort, but the rewards are immense.

Finally, I found a book my husband and I could read and discuss at length. What he said to me made perfect sense. When he plays softball everyone on the team has individual responsibilities yet they work as a collective whole to win the game. To me collectivism to its extreme is the political principle of centralized social and economic control, especially of all means of production. Individualism to its extreme is the belief that all actions are determined by, or at least take place for, the benefit of the individual, not of society as a whole. Individualism to its extreme could be said to be anarchy (a theory that regards the absence of all direct or coercive government as a political ideal and that proposes the cooperative and voluntary association of individuals and groups as the principal mode of organized society).

In my opinion, we need a basic set of rules to follow so we can respect one another. If we do not strike out as individuals we would simply be robots waiting for instructions. Clearly, there has to be a balance between personal responsibility and the responsibility we have to others. If we were all doing the job we were sent here to earth to do would not this world be a beautiful peaceful place? It is a delicate balance and somehow we have tipped the scale in the wrong direction. David's book tells us what has tipped this scale and takes us through a brilliant thought process to offer the solutions.

Pope John Paul III said it with wisdom: "To educate without a value system based on truth is to abandon young people to moral confusion, personal insecurity, and easy manipulation. No country, not even the most powerful, can endure if it deprives its own children of this essential good."

We must teach our children to read, to comprehend truth and to analyze what they are being told. Teach your children to think about issues which surround them now and in the future when they grow up they will thank you for it. I cannot thank my own parents enough for giving me security in my own beliefs and for giving me a head start in reading at a very young age. It is abundantly clear to me that America's parents will determine the future of our country. David G. Myers has built upon this thought, which I know many have wanted to voice but did not have a platform. I quote from his book:

"We cannot expect our schools alone to restore the moral infrastructure. Character is nurtured by families and supportive neighbors, churches, kin, and child-friendly media."

This vital guide will illuminate the dark path we are on. Hopefully, we will see the fork in the road and take the path to "The New American Dream."