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 < back to authors list David Myers:
Worth published both of Myers' successful introductory texts: Psychology, now in its fourth edition, and Exploring Psychology, now in its third edition. All royalties from the texts go into the David and Carol Myers Foundation, a charitable trust that doles out money to various charitable organizations designated by the Myers. Said Worth: "He's an extraordinary person. If you're looking for a great person and author, you have found the best example in David. It's hard to find an author who can satisfy experts, give a true picture, or have his or her curiosity peaked. David is the rare person who can do this. He's the best I know." Myers' most popular tradebook is The Pursuit of Happiness: Who Is Happy and Why, which he decided to write after reading about other studies while working on research for his introductory psychology books. "This new research struck me as so interesting I thought people should know about it," he said. His study on the pursuit of happiness was included in an ABC special, The Mystery of Happiness, which aired April 15, 1996. Five of his books, The Human Puzzle: Psychological Research and Christian Belief; The Inflated Self: Human Illusions and the Biblical Call to Hope; Inflation, Poortalk and the Gospel; Psychology Through the Eyes of Faith; and The Human Connection, focus on "big ideas" from human nature and how they correlate with biblical and theological ideas. "I do this by asking what are some big ideas we can distill from psychological research and from religion and how do these two sets of ideas correspond?" Myers said. He has come up with seven ways to relate psychology and religion. One way, he said, is being true to one's deepest convictions and values. "Like everyone, we infuse certain assumptions and vlaues into our teaching, writing, research, and practice," he said. Another way, he said, is by studying religion's effects as a predictor of people's attitudes, emotions or behavior. Teaching Human Values Although he admits he's had many offers to go elsewhere, David G. Myers decided long ago to stay at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, for his entire career. Now a John Dirk Werkman Professor of Psychology, he says he has everything he needs and wants right at Hope. "Hope College has been very supportive, and I've enjoyed being part of its community of scholars," Myers said. "I feel a kindred spirit with the institution and the friendships I've formed over the years." One friend at Hope College, Myers said, was instrumental in his career. When he first began to write, Myers sought the help of Jack Ridl, a poet in the English department who now has his credit in all of Myers' texts. "He was my first-line editor, coach and mentor," Myers said. "It was with his help, and a lot of time and effort, that I developed my writing ability." He puts as much work in what he writes as in how he writes, seeing writing as a way to give psychology away to other audiences and scholars. "My aim, whether teaching or writing, is to present a psychology that is at once solidly scientific and warmly human, factually rigorous and intellectually provocative," Myers said. "Because I teach to liberal arts students whose majors will usually not be psychology, I aim to represent psychology's breadth with a special focus on humanly significant issues." He believes that teaching psychology goes beyond teaching its principles to teaching human values. "Whether hidden or explicit, our values leak through our choice of teaching topics, our examples and emphases, and our labelling of phenomena," he said. Myers writes from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in his office, and says he loves to write and enjoys seeing a book develop before his eyes. "The celebratory aspects of finishing a book are parceled out," Myers said. "The first part of the celebration is finishing the revision of the manuscript. "The book feels really done, Myers said, when he's done checking the pages and sees the printed galleys. "The thrill level has subsided after ten books and nine new editions," he said. "The highs are a little less high." He said he sees his accomplishment as a way to bring his love of psychology to others. "What has driven me to keep teaching and writing is a passion for communicating things more important than the correct definition of negative enforcement. What greater life mission could one hope for than to do one's part to restrain intuition with critical thinking, judgementalism with compassion, and illusion with understanding?" — reported by Kim Pawlak, 1997 |
