Psychology can be deadly. It can be disjointed， hypertechnical， irrelevant，
and dull. At the other extreme， it can be sensational. Like a Sunday supple-
ment， it can tease us and leave us with nothing.
What psychology ought to be is something in between. First， it should be
sound pedagogy. What we ask students to learn and teachers to teach ought
to be educationally valuable and worth the time and effort to pursue it. There
is no need to sacrifice scholarship for popularity， to trade rigor for large audi-
ences. At the same time， what we learn and what we teach ought to be inter-
esting， especially in the beginning courses. There is no requirement that rigor
and scholarship be dry and dusty.
The trick is to find this middle ground where pedagogy is not dull， where
interest is not vain. One possibility might be general human psychology.
This is certainly an area of natural human interest--there is nothing more
fascinating to you and me than me and you. And even more important， gen-
eral human psychology furnishes a literature that can illustrate sound psycho-
logical principles， precise methodology， and fine exposition. We have chosen
general human psychology as the scope of this collection.
II
How can we choose articles for a collection of readings in general human
psychology? We can search the literature for those that meet selected criteria.
As we have already stressed， each selection must be substantive， competently
describing or illustrating at least one important principle， point， or concept.
Each must also be stimulating， both in the sense of general appeal and in the
sense of being just different enough， just difficult enough， to pique the read-
er s interest. At the same time， each article must be readable and intelligible
and sufficiently pertinent and current to describe psychology today and its
growing responsiveness to present-day questions. Finally， the collection as a
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