Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I approached the book with scepticism but to my surprise and to the credit of the author and the profession of psychology, they don't proclaim to know it all. The limits of science and psychology are acknowledged and talked about which I think was well needed, like the rest of us they are only human too. You can see that a lot of time and energy has gone in to making this book what it is. Psychology and all the terminology that goes with it make it appear to the laymen as being quite arcane and only for academics and those interested in university courses. This book brings it all out and explains it in a way that not only makes the subject matter interesting but easier to grasp than if presented in a book of lesser quality. The content matter helps you to see the human condition from a logical and thoroughly researched angle and is certainly of college quality as that is what the book was originally intended for.
If you are considering studying psychology or would just like to know what it is all about then certainly buy this book the content is comprehensive with information and chapters to do with learning, sensation, the developing person, states of consciousness, emotion, memory, personality, psychological disorders and many more with too much to detail here.
The sections of the text that explain the scientific method are interesting and could be applied to most areas of life. As I learnt we tend to make errors of judgments all of the time in relation to other countries, cultures, people, and just about everything else. That is one of this books best points and also one of it's main themes and that is that it's all about thinking smarter, thinking outside the box, avoiding assumptions and the overuse of heuristics, examining matters in a more methodical and careful way and developing the ability to see events and issues from another perspective and more objectively. In short and as is stated in the book "Don't believe everything you think".
To gain a good understanding of the concepts presented in the book requires concentration and quite a lot of time spent reading because the text is so comprehensive.
Just a few snippets of the information that I found interesting were;
1. Psychology had its roots in philosophy
2. Everything psychological is biological, we are a mind embodied.
3. Sleep deprivation and how our sleep debt can accumulate for up to two weeks.
4. The differences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
5. Theory X vs. Theory Y workplace managers.
6. Howard Gardner's theory that intelligence is divided into 8 categories words, music, numbers, space, self, people, body/movement, nature.
7. Self reliant individualism vs. socially connected collectivism with the pros and cons of both.
8. Operant conditioning and classical conditioning and how cognition plays it's part.
9. The different parenting styles such as Authoritative, Authoritarian, and just plain old destructive indifference.
10. The fundamental attribution error (This is one that everyone should know)
Because this book is 700+ pages, interesting illustrations and photographs add to the overall quality of the book and assist the reader to understand the text, though the web site that accompanies the book helps you to reinforce what you have already read and learnt. The Psychsim 5 online tutorials were I thought very good with animations, flash cards, and various other online activities that all combine to make for some very interesting, interactive learning.
The bottom line: The book presents you with a foison of facts and an extraordinary amount of knowledge that you can use in your every day life as-well to understand yourself and others better or prepare and use for a university course, it also goes a long way to blowing popular and often wrong and ill informed bubble gum psychology out of the water. Psychology with this book is fun and you will get a lot out of it, well worth the money even with the US dollar converted to Australian.
Here's a thought, it wouldn't hurt to see some of this material about psychology taught in schools and the workplace to up people's emotional intelligence, and more to the point why is it not common practice already?
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This new edition continues the story of psychology with added research and enhanced content from the most dynamic areas of the field—cognition, gender and diversity studies, neuroscience and more, while at the same time using the most effective teaching approaches and learning tools.
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