book review psychology

Join Discovery, the new community for book lovers

Trust book recommendations from real people, not robots 🤓

Blog – Posted on Friday, Jan 07

25 best psychology books to read in 2024.

Have you ever found yourself trying to work out what mental processes lead humans to do what we do? Thanks to the internet, even in isolation we have a continual stream of information about what people are doing — and with this uniquely modern view of the world around us, we have more fodder than ever to think: “Hmm, I wonder why we do this or that?”

As a human, it’s natural to want to understand these things — not only about others, but also about yourself. In this post, we’ve put together a list of the 25 best psychology books you’ll definitely want to read to pursue that understanding! Whether you’re a beginner with a newfound interest in psychology or a seasoned psychology expert looking to branch out, we’ve got you covered.

1. The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Jonathan Haidt

A professor of social psychology, Jonathan Haidt wrote The Happiness Hypothesis as an accessible vessel for his research into moral foundations theory. In this book, Haidt takes the ancient wisdom, or “Great Ideas”, of historical thinkers — like Buddha, Plato, and even Jesus — and reveals their applications in light of contemporary psychological findings.

Haidt first describes the basic meanings of ancient lessons on happiness, virtue, and personal fulfillment. This leads into what Haidt extracted from these findings to develop his own “10 Great Ideas” about happiness and connect them to modern living. After all, while ancient wisdom is tried-and-tested, it’s essential to update old methods to match modern-day life — Plato, Jesus, and Buddha never spent hours doomscrolling or procrastinating on Instagram, for example.

2. Influence : The Psychology of Persuasion (New and Expanded) by PhD Robert B. Cialdini

Influence, New and Expanded is Dr. Robert B. Cialdini’s 2021 republication of his one of his acclaimed bestselling psychology books Influence (first published in 1984) — complete with new research, examples, and insights, especially regarding the age of the internet. Backed up by his 35 years of scientific research, Cialdini describes seven practicable principles of influence you can use in your everyday life (with the newest edition being “Unity”). 

Each of the seven principles has a dedicated chapter to describe how it functions, where it’s most applicable, and — most importantly — how you apply it in your own life. If you’re looking for a book on psychology to help you learn more about the art of ethical persuasion in a modern context — and how to see through other people’s deceitful attempts — then this is the book for you.

3. Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) Third Edition: Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris

Ever been curious what causes people to deny vaccines, join cults, or engage in extremist behavior? The next entry on this list might clarify some of these seemingly illogical decisions:  in Mistakes Were Made, Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson discuss the systematic mental patterns which feed into development and radicalization of human beliefs. These include cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, and positive feedback loops, among others.

To further explain how people’s attitudes can become so polarized, Tavris and Aronson walk readers through the effects of these mental patterns on people in various real-life cases and controversies. With its many compelling links to real-life events, this book is the perfect read for psychology and politics readers alike.

Looking for something new to read?

Trust real people, not robots, to give you book recommendations.

Or sign up with an email address

4. Upstream: How to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath

Life can feel like we’re constantly sprinting to put out fires as they arise. But of course, endlessly reacting to problems without a second to breathe and prepare for the next is pretty exhausting. Dan Heath’s Upstream is his solution to breaking that cycle of reaction and starting to prevent problems before they start. 

This begins with knowing the psychological forces that cause it. For example, one force that Heath attributes as a large factor is “problem blindness” — when a problem becomes so persistent that you start to register it as “normal” and therefore stop “seeing” it (or, naturally, trying to fix it). Heath shows how to step up and bolster your defenses against such problems by using real-life cases of individual thinkers, businesses, and even whole institutions that overcame their own. Thankfully, the uniting factor among these case studies is simple: all they had to do was change their mindset.

5. The School of Life: An Emotional Education by Alain de Botton

Many of us spend over a decade in school and, regardless of academic success, emerge feeling like something is missing. Sure, you can do complex algebra or give me an in-depth analysis of the symbolism of triads in Shakespeare — but can you navigate a workplace? Can you endure failure? Do you understand yourself? Whether you’re about to graduate or have been done with high school for years, you’ve probably found yourself wondering these things. 

Aptly titled, The School of Life is Alain de Botton’s answer to questions like these — with the express aim of equipping people with the tools and self-knowledge to thrive in the modern world. From increasing your productivity at work to handling the dilemmas of interpersonal relationships, there’s a chapter for everything you need in The School of Life. This emotional education is sure to help you to develop resilience to life’s dilemmas and become a maven of emotional intelligence.

6. Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgement by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Cass R. Sunstein

You may recognize authors Daniel Kahneman and Cass R. Sunstein from their respective bestsellers, Thinking, Fast and Slow and Nudge (or from a Reedsy Discovery post !). In a similar vein, Noise tackles the topic of variability in judgements and how we’re influenced by external factors. The overarching conclusion in Noise is that the majority of our decisions are unconsciously affected by the noise at different times and places.

The authors combine their scholarly expertise with additional research to deliver this in-depth guide outlining what we already know and their new theories about noise. For those interested in why we make decisions, this is one of the best psychology books to strengthen your understanding of the extraneous factors that can shape or bias decision-making, how to minimize those factors, and improve your thinking.

7. The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Philip G. Zimbardo

The Lucifer Effect is Professor Philip Zimbardo’s first detailed account of his infamous Stanford Prison Experiment and the conclusions he took from it. The Stanford Prison Experiment was Zimbardo’s 1971 study looking into the effects of different situational factors on conformity by putting college student volunteers into a fake prison environment for -2 weeks. Without giving too much away, the experiment ran into some serious roadblocks that meant it had to be discontinued after only six days. (The controversy was such that there was even a mostly-accurate movie dramatization released in 2015!) 

Zimbardo’s thoughts on the experiment are interesting not only because he conducted it, but because he was a part of it, acting as the prison warden — which, needless to say, has serious ethical connotations. The following chapters discuss the study’s effect on the decades of subsequent research into psychological and social variables that cause “average” people to commit immoral acts — making it one of the most influential books on psychology you can pick up today. Most people with an interest in psychology might have an idea of the original experiment, but the research afterwards should definitely not be overlooked!

8. The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson

Put simply, The Psychopath Test takes us through the modern-day mental health system, asking us to think more deeply about whom it labels “psychopathic”. Jon Ronson starts with a man who faked madness to escape a prison sentence, his method being to act charming, glib, and well-presented in contrast to other patients in the psychiatric hospital. Ronson takes these alleged tell-tale signs of psychopathy and applies them to people in other walks of life, making the startling discovery that psychopaths appear everywhere. 

This is where the doors to the so-called “industry of madness” are truly flung open. How many of our most influential CEOs, researchers, and world leaders are psychopaths? Can any good come of our newfound access to the best psychology books or theories if they facilitate diagnoses of strangers based on their “maddest” parts? If these questions interest you, pick up The Psychopath Test  and see what you think.

9. Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships by Eric Berne

We’ve mostly talked about complex mental health issues so far in this post—but maybe you want to know about the psychology behind our most basic social interactions. If so, Eric Berne’s description of functional and dysfunctional social interactions in Games People Play will be right up your alley. Berne claims that we play “social games” all of the time, be that power games against authority, sexual games, marital games, or competitive games within friendships. 

Berne divulges the types of mind games that everyone can fall victim to indulging: in status contests, the game becomes a back and forth game of “I know better”, and couples are prone to playing mental games claiming each is holding the other back. Berne doesn’t just name these interactions, but he also exposes the meaning behind them as unconscious ploys and maneuvers that rule our lives. It’s these creatively poised insights that make this book on psychology an influential and striking bestseller.

10. The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk

Described as “the Bible of trauma” for struggling readers, The Body Keeps the Score is the culmination of Dr Bessel Van Der Kolk’s entire career. One of the world’s leading experts on traumatic stress, Van Der Kolk highlights the clear effects that trauma has on literally reshaping the body and brain. Drawing on his status as an active therapist, continually learning from what works for his patients best, Van Der Kolk delivers a wonderfully personal yet analytic approach to trauma recovery. Considering the frustrating physical effects of trauma related by his patients, Van Der Kolk suggests a fresh paradigm for treatment. 

The ideological heart of this method is to make it safe for trauma survivors to inhabit their own bodies by moving away from the “standard” combination of talking therapies or drug therapies and instead using a new approach that heals the mind, brain, and body. One size never fits all, but Van Der Kolk suggests that therapeutic interventions like neurofeedback, theater, meditation, play, or yoga may play a larger part than first thought in healing. The Body Keeps the Score provides a unique perspective on trauma and recovery relayed in a compassionate yet truthful voice, making it accessible to readers of all levels.

11. The Comfort Book by Matt Haig

Ever just really felt like you needed a hug? The Comfort Book answers that craving: it is a warm and personal hug in the form of a book — something even the best psychology books haven't focused on before. If you’re looking for a guide to self-love, contentment, and emotional strength, then Matt Haig’s reflections on the conflicting feelings that come with being alive are for you.

The essence of this book is that many of our best and clearest revelations are made when at our lowest — but we also shouldn’t have to figure everything out ourselves, especially when we’re suffering. Haig’s reflections are built on what he’s learned in hard times, with the hope that they can get you through similar situations. It’s a great comfort to know that you’re not the only one that’s dealt with something hard, and Haig understands that. Drawing on maxims, meditations, and inspirational lives of others, he aims to nurture your inner strength and deliver advice like a wise, commiserative old friend.

12. The Oracle of Night: The History and Science of Dreams by Sidarta Ribeiro

What really makes a dream, why do we have them, and how do they affect us? Sidarta Ribeiro takes these questions and uses them as a springboard for his completely fresh and enthralling study of dreams, tracing them all the way back to our ancient ancestors. It’s in the earliest cave paintings that Ribeiro finds the first traces of human dreams and begins unlocking revolutionary conclusions about the role of dreams in human evolution. 

Some will also know that contemporary neuroscience and psychology have uncovered many findings about dreams, such as their role in healing trauma or in consolidating what we learned in the day prior. The Oracle of Night then explains Ribeiro’s advancements on these topics: the role of dreaming in memory recall and transformation, and, startlingly, their oracular nature as confirmed by new research — making this a great book club book to ignite a conversation! Ribeiro combines his absolute authority on the topic with a clear, compelling writing style to make this book a page-turner from the first page to the last.

13. Everyday Vitality: Turning Stress into Strength by Samantha Boardman

Psychiatrist Samantha Boardman believes that an essential factor in healthy aging and overall well-being is a sense of vitality. Which is to say: knowing that you’re up to a task both physically and mentally. This belief is the jumping-off point for Everyday Vitality, a book full of strategies for cultivating vitality by focusing on improving a little every day, instead of reacting to fix what’s wrong as it arises. 

While vitality wellness is often associated with managing aging, Boardman posits that vitality can help all of us no matter our age. Whether you’re eighteen or eighty, you may recall times you’ve felt mentally exhausted from the constant barrage of media every day, or physically drained after a long day at a desk. Boardman explains three routes to better vitality for everyone: meaningfully connecting with others, taking on experiences that push your limits, and contributing to something beyond just you. If you want to cultivate your own wellness, why not pick up this book and discuss it with someone you love?

14. Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods

Humanity’s success as a species has developed in leaps and bounds during our relatively short time on Earth. Many people have hypothesized what might be the cause of these advancements: is it our strength, intellect, curiosity, or something else completely? Authors — and husband-and-wife duo — Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods believe in the latter, making the case in this book that humanity’s progression is actually because of our “friendliness”. 

Combining their respective expertise in cognitive neuroscience, research science, and journalism, Hare and Wood have come up with a theory about this evolutionary friendliness. The theory is elegantly termed “self-domestication” — a remarkable propensity to coordinate and communicate with others. Instead of coveting our individual successes, we often share them with others to help advance and protect each other. This capability, Hare and Wood argue, has allowed us to achieve the impressive cultural and technical marvels that we’ve culminated today. However, this friendliness may come at a cost: when threats to those we love become a target for our worst instincts, our evolutionary propensity for bond-making may be a double-edged sword.

15. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

In Blink, critically acclaimed author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell hopes to revolutionize your understanding of how you (and others) think. Why, for example, are some people exceptionally fast decision-makers, when others choke under pressure? Why does “following your gut” work perfectly for some, while others fall short? And do situational variables like our immediate surroundings affect our abilities to make these decisions?

Gladwell posits that a key factor towards people’s ability to make better decisions is “thin-slicing”: the unconscious ability to analyze patterns in scenarios based on brief flashes of experience, and come to a conclusion based on that knowledge. Gladwell draws on real-life examples to illustrate these ideas: from a psychologist who could predict whether a marriage would last from just a brief interaction with the couple, to antiquities experts who only need to glance at an object to tell it’s a fake. Put simply, Blink proves that the main difference between a good and a bad decision-maker is their mastery of “thin-slicing.” Can you learn to do it, too?

16. The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz

Have you ever walked into a clothing store and found yourself overwhelmed by choices among different shirts, skirts, or jeans, all of which look eerily similar? Not to mention the stress of weaving through other shoppers, worrying about prices, and working out your size. Barry Schwartz believes that this abundance of choices to make “no longer liberates, but debilitates” shoppers with consumer anxiety. The solution? Eliminating consumer choices (within reason).

Of course, Schwartz acknowledges that autonomy and freedom of choice are still critical to our well-being. It’s just that, while modern Americans may technically have more choice than ever before, they are no longer benefiting from it psychologically. The Paradox of Choice neatly establishes the psychology behind why choice overload makes us suffer — constant comparison, opportunity hunting, and buyer’s remorse, for example — and how to avoid consumer anxiety in the first place.

17. Explaining Humans: What Science Can Teach Us about Life, Love and Relationships by Camilla Pang

Explaining Humans is an intriguing in-depth exploration of the complexities of human behavior, as explained by hard science. Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) at an early age, author and scientist Dr Camilla Pang struggled to untangle the mess of the world around her — even asking her mother if she could find an instruction manual for humans. When she found that not even the best psychology books of the time provided such a manual, the only solution was to write her own. 

Backed up with copious amounts of scientific research and her own hard-won expertise, this book on psychology examines obscure social customs, what it means to be human in different cultures, and where proteins and molecular chemistry fit into all of this. What does it mean to understand someone? How do we recognize people’s motivations or expressions, and what dictates them to begin with? Whether this all feels foreign or far too familiar to you, Pang is sure to deliver some surprises.

18. Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters by Steven Pinker

The goal of Rationality is to make you more rational and help you understand why there is so much irrationality in the world. You may think that sounds pretty lofty, but try reading author and cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker’s analysis before making concrete judgements! 

Pinker rejects the cliché idea that humans are an irrational species — how could any species discover and achieve so much without being inherently rational? Despite this, we live in a dichotic age of rationality vs. intense irrationality. Pinker’s explanation is that humans tend to think within the context of the low-tech settings in which we spend the majority of our lives. As a result, we don’t take advantage of the tools that our best thinkers discovered previously: critical thinking, logic, probability, correlation vs. causation, and ways to update our beliefs individually are not a part of our education. Fortunately, you can find these tools (and analyses of the crippling effects of irrationality) presented clearly and with good humor in Rationality !

19. Rapport: The Four Ways to Read People by Emily and Laurence Alison

We’ve all had to interact with difficult people before, whether that’s an annoying customer, a high-maintenance friend, or even a demanding stranger on the train. But imagine you had to deal with some of the most difficult people possible, managing extremely high-stress interactions: criminal interrogations. These interactions are a specialty of forensic psychologists Emily and Laurence Alison: they advise and train police, security companies, and even secret services on how to maneuver interviews with dangerous suspects. 

After experiences over the past thirty years that the “average” person could only imagine, the author duo have developed a revolutionary model for interpersonal communication. According to them, every interaction follows one of four types: Control (the lion), Capitulate (the mouse), Confront (the Tyrannosaur) and Co-operate (the monkey). It might sound abstract now, but once you’ve been taken through these types in Rapport, you’ll understand why they’re so praised. Learn to understand and apply them to your own goals and you can shape any conversation at will.

20. Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realise Your Potential for Lasting Fulfilment by Martin E. P. Seligman

You may have heard of this entry after its launch in 2004 caused international debate over the nature of real happiness. Authentic Happiness was the starting point for the science of Positive Psychology and the discussion of happiness in a scientific way. 

According to Martin Seligman, happiness has less to do with factors such as genes or luck, and more to do with focusing on your internal strengths rather than weaknesses. This isn’t to say that situational factors based on your genes wouldn’t impact you, or that being lucky enough to win the lottery wouldn’t change your life. Seligman’s point is that maintaining a positive mindset and building on one’s strengths is the most dependable route to long-lived happiness. To that end, Seligman supplies exercises, brief tests, and interesting programs that will help you identify your virtues and use them most efficiently.

21. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman

It’s no secret that a high IQ doesn’t automatically make a  person smart or good (not to mention the long-standing debate over the reliability and biases of IQ tests). That said, what actually makes a person smart or good? Daniel Goleman’s innovative analyses in Emotional Intelligence certainly brings us closer to understanding. This book breaks down human processes into “two minds”, the rational and the emotional, to detail how they together shape the ways that we move through the world. 

Goleman draws on contemporary cognitive and behavioral research to show the factors that make higher IQ flounder where those with average IQ excel. The factors that go into this disparity are: self-awareness, self-discipline, and empathy, and their presence adds up to a completely different manner of intelligence. Luckily, this kind of emotional intelligence can be developed and strengthened at every age to ultimately benefit our health, work, and relationships.

22. The Psychology of Pandemics: Preparing for the Next Global Outbreak of Infectious Disease by Steven Taylor

Published in October 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, Steven Taylor’s book about the importance of psychology in curbing the spread of deadly pandemics — stating that, at the time, the next pandemic could be soon — turned out to be frighteningly prophetic. Taylor posits that, while vaccinations and behavioral methods are crucial for stemming infection rates, psychological elements are equally important.

The Psychology of Pandemics explains psychology’s role in nonadherence to vaccination and hygiene programs and in mental health as people cope with the threat and loss of life. Taylor talks through every reason why understanding psychology is essential to managing societal problems that go hand-in-hand with pandemics. You need only consult a few history books to see that the same problems recurr every time we face a pandemic. These problems range from excessive fear to maladaptive behaviours to the xenophobia that occurs when people feel threatened by infection. Sound familiar? If you want to understand why the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in the way it did, this is definitely on the list of the best psychology books to try.

23. Human Givens : A New Approach to Emotional Health and Clear Thinking by Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell

Feeling like something a little more laidback? Human Givens is a guide to emotional and physical health, as well as education, using the “human givens” approach. Authors Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell chronicle what some call the best psychological insight of this age — that we are all born with innate knowledge patterns known as “human givens”. These givens are experienced as physical and emotional needs, and only when those needs are met can one reach their full mental and physical potential. 

Griffin and Tyrrell suggest that how your innate needs connect with the world can shape not just your own health and happiness, but that of your family and friends. Human Givens takes this idea and looks at what every person needs to flourish, as well as how to actively pursue those things. Of course, this isn’t all just speculation: Griffin and Tyrell back up their approach with new scientific findings and ideas about how the mind works — as well as how to use those ideas to overcome the anxieties of the modern world.

24. Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View by Stanley Milgram

The next book on our list is what some might call a psychology classic. Psychologist Stanley Milgram performed a series of famous experiments in the 1960s with the view to better understanding obedience to authority, after numerous war criminals on trial had claimed they were “just following orders”. 

The experiments were controversial at the time, because they involved volunteer subjects being instructed to administer what they thought were progressively more painful shocks to another human being — the aim of this was to see how far people would obey orders even when they knew them to be morally gray. Though Milgram’s experiment was criticized for being immoral itself, it has since been vindicated as a breakthrough in understanding both obedience and psychology as a whole. Obedience to Authority has long been thought of as one of the best psychology books, offering Milgram’s personal insight into his groundbreaking methods, theories, and post-experiment conclusions.

25. Consciousness and the Social Brain by Michael S. A. Graziano

The final entry on our list delves into one of the great mysteries of the human race: the brain. How are we conscious, what is consciousness, and how does the brain create it? Why do some people have more of a constant running internal monologue than others? These are the big questions that Michael S. A. Graziano aims to tackle in Consciousness and the Social Brain.

The human brain has evolved a vastly complicated circuitry which allows it to be socially intelligent — one function of which is to be aware of others socially, to understand when someone other than oneself is thinking or feeling. Graziano’s theory is that the brain’s internal machinery that allows it to be aware of others also allows self awareness. The crux is that human awareness is layers upon layers of information that the brain has gathered, processed, and rendered — a wholly physical phenomena in the same way that generating heat or electricity might be. This is, of course, a hotly debated topic, with many people believing that to reduce the brain to only physicality would be reductive. Regardless of what you believe, Graziano’s scientific journey is a thrill to the last page!

Seeking more answers about human interaction? Check out our lists of the 60 Best Nonfiction Books of the 21st Century or the 40 Best Leadership Books of All Time !

Continue reading

More posts from across the blog.

The 100 Best Classic Books to Read

If you've always wanted to tackle the classics but never knew quite where to begin, we've got you covered. We've hand selected 100 classic books to read, from authors spanning continents and millennia.

50 Fantasy Subgenres and Their Must-Reads

Fantasy is one of the most popular genres in speculative fiction — so it's no surprise that its niches range far and wide. And while you may already have a sense of what kind of fantas...

The 10 Best Post-Apocalyptic Books to Read Before the World Ends

We’ve all got books on the bedside table we’ve been meaning to read for months — but what if the apocalypse were tomorrow? Luckily for those who’d need some quick survival tips, we at Reedsy have compiled a list of the...

Heard about Reedsy Discovery?

Or sign up with an

Or sign up with your social account

• Submit your book
• Reviewer directory

We made a writing app for you

Yes, you! Write. Format. Export for ebook and print. 100% free, always.

Advertisement

Supported by

Insights Into the Brain, in a Book You’ll Wish You Had in College

By Richard Wrangham

• July 6, 2017
• Share full article

• Apple Books
• Barnes and Noble
• Books-A-Million

When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.

BEHAVE The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst By Robert M. Sapolsky 790 pp. Penguin Press. $35

In 1859 Charles Darwin gave the world a theory of life. A century later, evolutionary biologists started thinking seriously about its implications for human behavior. Richard Dawkins’s “The Selfish Gene” (1976) brought the resulting insights to the general public. Souls were gone, and free will too. The master manipulators were the genes. Bodies were reduced to mere lumbering robots, and even the inner lives of our species became just one more consequence of natural selection in a materialist world.

The new view quickly came to predominate, but on its own it gave too stark an account of behavior. Melvin Konner’s “The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit” (1982, with subsequent revisions) showed how interesting the science becomes when enriched by the wet details of genes, neurons and hormones. Konner’s erstwhile student Robert M. Sapolsky has now followed the same path. Sapolsky has produced a quirky, opinionated and magisterial synthesis of psychology and neurobiology that integrates this complex subject more accessibly and completely than ever.

Much of “Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst ,” written by a man who disingenuously declares himself “eggheady, meek and amorphously pacifistic,” is the textbook you will regret never having had in college. The science comes with hipster humor. Sapolsky writes of Jane Goodall blowing off “everyone’s socks in the 1960s by reporting the now-iconic fact that chimps make tools.… Great, next the zoologists will report that Rafiki persuaded Simba to become the Lion King.” He summarizes a chapter called “Us Versus Them” with “Give the right of way to people driving cars with the ‘Mean people suck’ bumper sticker, and remind everyone that we’re all in it together against Lord Voldemort and the House Slytherin.” He berates us for choosing leaders using “implicit, automatic factors more suitable to 5-year-olds deciding who should captain their boat on a voyage with the Teletubbies to Candyland.” Explaining why someone who sees a movie containing physically disgusting images becomes morally judgmental unless she washed her hands first, he imagines evolution as tinkerer: “Hmm, extreme negative affect elicited by violations of shared behavioral norms. Let’s see.… Who has any pertinent experience? I know, the insula! It does extreme negative sensory stimuli — that’s like, all that it does — so let’s expand its portfolio to include this moral disgust business. That’ll work. Hand me a shoehorn and some duct tape.” This is not your mother’s professor.

Of course many people would have no idea what an “insula” is, but Sapolsky eases readers gently into the complexities of the brain by ceding most of “Behave” to the fundamentals of neurobiology. We begin in the first second before a behavior is produced, our guide taking us confidently into the amygdala, the dopaminergic system and the frontal cortex. We continue the tour with events that occur minutes, hours, days, months and years ago, finally stretching back thousands of generations to the level where Darwinian processes explain why the systems that produce behavior evolved in their particular, haphazard way. By the time the book returns from these expanding horizons it has given readers the opportunity to feel astonishingly comfortable with a rich slew of fascinating neurobiology basics.

Dutiful core themes permeate the learning. Sapolsky rebukes the sociobiologists of the 1970s for their excessive focus on genes. He hammers home the message that nerves, hormones, genes, developmental experiences and evolutionary pressures must necessarily all be understood, and that none of the relationships between such factors and any behavior is straightforward. He summarizes crisply why calling the low-activity variant of the MAO-A gene a “warrior gene” is nonsensical: “Yikes, this is complicated.” Behavioral biology is indeed complex, but Sapolsky simplifies the topic with a beautifully organized and well-stocked store of knowledge. He has such a light tone, so imperious a command of data and such a rich fund of anecdotes that we are swept swiftly along to the last third of the book.

At that point Sapolsky shifts gears by turning to a question that has nudged him throughout his career. What does all this knowledge tell us about the prospects for a more empathic, less violent world? Here he echoes many a behavioral biologist’s ambition. If physics can take us to the moon, genetics give us the Green Revolution and medicine conquer polio, can neurobiology help us all get along? Sapolsky sees grounds for optimism. His hopes are admirable but they flatter to deceive.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

• The 34 Best Psychology Books That Will Make You Smarter and Happier

Psychology is a broad and diverse field that concentrates on studying how people, including you, behave and think. It covers emotions, personality, and so much more.

When you understand psychology, you will understand yourself and the people around you.

You’ll also make better decisions, handle tough situations more easily, and get closer to reaching your full potential much faster than you could have ever imagined.

This fascinating science will even help you understand why you and those you’re closest to act the way you do and how you can change for the better.

Our over 1,000 summaries here at Four Minute Books include hundreds about psychology. We’ve hand-picked our top 34 favorite ones for this list so that you can learn from them and understand yourself better so you can take advantage of the power of your own mind.

If you want to discover new levels of productivity, mental toughness, happiness, and so much more, these books are just what you’ve been looking for.

Table of Contents

1. Thinking Fast And Slow by Daniel Kahneman

2. drive by daniel pink, 3. predictably irrational by dan ariely, 4. everything is f*cked by mark manson, 5. the wisdom of insecurity by alan watts, 6. do what you are by paul tieger, barbara barron, & kelly tieger, 7. the happiness hypothesis by jonathan haidt, 8. influence by robert cialdini, 9. the psychology of selling by brian tracy, 10. the tipping point by malcolm gladwell, 11. emotional intelligence by daniel goleman, 12. descartes’ error by antonio r. damasio, 13. men are from mars, women are from venus by john gray, 14. attached by dr. amir levine, 15. personality isn’t permanent by benjamin hardy, 16. the personality brokers by merve emre, 17. the road back to you by ian morgan cron, 18. my age of anxiety by scott stossel, 19. lost connections by johann hari, 20. reasons to stay alive by matt haig, 21. a first rate madness by s. nassir ghaemi, 22. social by matthew d. lieberman, 23. the social animal by david brooks, 24. words can change your brain by andrew b. newberg, 25. the secret life of pronouns by james w. pennebaker, 26. stumbling on happiness by dan gilbert, 27. flourish by martin seligman, 28. blink by malcolm gladwell, 29. the paradox of choice by barry schwartz, 30. mistakes were made, but not by me by carol tavris, 31. the honest truth about dishonesty by dan ariely, 32. switch by chip & dan heath, 33. the antidote by oliver burkeman, 34. the upside of your dark side by todd kashdan, other book lists by topic, other book lists by author, best books on psychology overall, favorite quote.

”Nothing in life is as important as you think it is, while you are thinking about it.” — Daniel Kahneman

The Book in One Sentence

Thinking Fast And Slow shows you how two systems in your brain are constantly fighting over control of your behavior and actions, and teaches you the many ways in which this leads to errors in memory, judgment and decisions, and what you can do about it.

Why should you read it?

Our minds are driven by two systems that influence the way we think. One system is fast and works on the emotional side, while the other one is a tad slower and makes more use of logic. These two systems work together to shape the way we think and to influence our decisions and Kahneman wants to reveal in this book how to cope with our brain.

Key Takeaways

• Your behavior is determined by 2 systems in your mind – one conscious and the other automatic.
• Your brain is lazy and thus keeps you from using the full power of your intelligence.
• When you’re making decisions about money, leave your emotions at home.

If you want to learn more, you can read our free four-minute summary or get a copy for yourself.

“Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement.” — Daniel Pink

Drive explores what has motivated humans throughout history and explains how we shifted from mere survival to the carrot and stick approach that’s still practiced today – and why it’s outdated.

There are many ways out there to make use of when motivating ourselves, but some of them might just be wrong. Daniel Pink has put together this persuasive book to help us figure out how to be high performers in any field of our lives, by making use of the need to direct our lives. This book will help you change your perspectives on motivation.

• The carrot and stick approach is dead.
• Extrinsic motivation destroys intrinsic motivation.
• Strive for the flow state in everything you do.

“The danger of expecting nothing is that, in the end, it might be all we’ll get.” — Dan Ariely

Predictably Irrational explains the hidden forces that really drive how we make decisions, which are far less rational than we think, but can help us stay on top of our finances, interact better with others and live happier lives, once we know about them.

We make decisions daily and sometimes, we might not even think about the mechanism behind them. Humans are considered rational beings, but certain behaviours might end up making them… irrational, but in a predictable way, according to Ariely. This book will help you better understand your patterns of thought and who knows, maybe even break them.

• We compare whatever we can, so give others easy comparisons to pick you.
• Free is really just another price, but a powerful one.
• You overvalue what you own.

“Hopelessness is the root of anxiety, mental illness and depression. It is the source of all misery and the cause of all addiction.” — Mark Manson

Everything Is F*cked explains what’s wrong with our approach towards happiness and gives philosophical suggestions that help us make our lives worth living.

Even though we seem to have everything nowadays, from freedom to amazing technological discoveries, more and more people seem to drown in a feeling of hopelessness. A book concentrating on everything that is surrounding us, by putting things into perspective in a sharp, yet humorous way, it will make you consider things that you probably never even thought about before.

• Pure logic won’t help you make the best decisions, a balanced brain will.
• Hope won’t solve your problems, it takes acceptance and principles to do that.
• The solution to mental illnesses is not chasing happiness, it is to attain true freedom from our addictions and dependencies.

“Tomorrow and plans for tomorrow can have no significance at all unless you are in full contact with the reality of the present, since it is in the present and only in the present that you live.” — Alan Watts

The Wisdom of Insecurity is a self-help classic that breaks down our psychological need for stability and explains how it’s led us right into consumerism, why that won’t solve our problem and how we can really calm our anxiety.

You would think that this age offers enough stability to human beings, but it sometimes seems to be exactly the opposite: we live in an age where things seem rather unstable and vulnerable. Alan Watts has put together this book where we put into perspective the idea that as much as we want to reach a perfect level of psychological security, many things make us go towards psychological insecurity.

• Without religion to tell us it’ll be okay, life can become very uncertain, and that’s terrifying.
• The happiness consumerism promises us is really just emptiness in a pretty wrapper.
• Pleasure and pain always come in one package, and embracing that will make you less anxious.

Best Books on Psychology For Beginners

“The right job enhances your life. It is personally fulfilling because it nourishes the most important aspects of your personality..” — Paul Tieger, Barbara Barron, & Kelly Tieger

Do What You Are will help you discover your personality type and how it can lead you to a more satisfying career that corresponds to your talents and interests..

Your perfect career is a… personality type away. This book will help you figure out what exactly it is that you are good at – by figuring out what your personality type is and which occupation is the best one for you, according to your result. By using different exercises and examples, this book will help you determine what path you need to follow to be satisfied with your life and career.

• Notice the ways you connect with the world to identify your personality type.
• Discover your optimal career path by considering your identity and what interests you.
• No matter how old you are you can always change your occupation to something more satisfying.

“Love and work are to people what water and sunshine are to plants.” — Jonathan Haidt

The Happiness Hypothesis is the most thorough analysis of how you can find happiness in our modern society, backed by plenty of scientific research, real-life examples and even a formula for happiness.

If you want to understand happiness, but you are not sure where to start, this could represent a good starting point. There are many sayings out there regarding happiness that we might have used naturally, but are they still available today? Haidt’s book is provocative and puts under analysis the way traditional wisdom interacts with the modern world.

• Surround yourself with the people you love the most and live in accordance with reciprocity.
• Do work that matters to you.
• Find a partner who will stand by your side through sunshine and rain and allow yourself to be part of something greater.

“Our best evidence of what people truly feel and believe comes less from their words than from their deeds.” — Robert Cialdini

Influence has been the go-to book for marketers since its release in 1984, which delivers six key principles behind human influence and explains them with countless practical examples.

Why do you, and other people, say ‘yes’? Is it because someone is persuading you or is there another reason? Robert Cialdini explains in this book six principles that will help us not only become better persuaders but also understand the psychology behind this act. These principles will also help you figure out what you need in order to achieve success.

• You can use the reciprocity bias to build up a massive good karma account.
• The scarcity bias works, because we hate to miss opportunities.
• Make a small commitment to trigger your consistency bias and reach your goal.

Best Psychology Books For Sales and Marketing

“Help yourself warm up and prepare mentally by repeating, ‘I feel happy! I feel healthy! I feel terrific!’ It is not possible for you to talk positively to yourself, using words like this, without immediately feeling happier and more confident.” ― Brian Tracy

The Psychology Of Selling motivates you to work on your self-image and how you relate to customers so that you can close more deals.

How do you sell more? If this is a question that you still haven’t found an answer to, this book might be of good help, as it will provide you with enough ideas, strategies, and techniques to make you sell faster and more, all in a more efficient way.

• Utilize the power of your subconscious to become more successful.
• You will get more motivation and passion if you learn from the right people.
• Questions are the holy grail of unearthing customers’ needs and they will help you make more sales.

“The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.” — Malcolm Gladwell

The Tipping Point explains how ideas spread like epidemics and which few elements need to come together to help an idea reach the point of critical mass, where its viral effect becomes unstoppable.

It takes a tipping point to start something big, something that is rapidly adopted by people. Something that is an idea or a trend that spreads to the masses. And Malcolm Gladwell explains this idea in this bestseller, by analyzing diverse ideas and trends, to figure out what makes them so interesting, that people just seem to dive into them instantly.

• Once an idea reaches the tipping point, it spreads like fire.
• Three kinds of people are responsible for getting ideas to tip.
• Without stickiness, no idea will ever tip.

Best Psychology Books About Emotions

“In a very real sense we have two minds, one that thinks and one that feels.” — Daniel Goleman

Emotional Intelligence explains the importance of emotions in your life, how they help and hurt your ability to navigate the world, followed by practical advice on how to improve your own emotional intelligence and why that is the key to leading a successful life.

Does having a high IQ give you a guarantee that you are going to be successful? According to Daniel Goleman, it takes a bit more to get to the highest point of success, by looking at how the two sides of our brain work together – the rational and the emotional. This book shows us how emotional intelligence determines various aspects of our lives and how it is also a way of being smart.

• Emotional intelligence rests on self-awareness and self-regulation.
• A high EQ makes you healthier and more successful.
• You can boost your EQ by mirroring other people’s body language and thinking optimistically.

“Willpower is just another name for the idea of choosing long-term outcomes rather than short-term ones.” — Antonio R. Damasio

Descartes’ Error will help you understand why the argument that the mind and body are disconnected is false by using neuroscience and interesting case studies to identify how the body and our emotions play a vital role in logical thinking.

“I think therefore I am” can be easily considered one of Descartes’ most famous proclamations. But since its appearance, it has made science concentrate more on the cognitive side of things, rather than the emotional one. Antonio R. Damasio has written a provocative book that makes use of case studies, to demonstrate that we need emotions not only for being rational but also for our behavior.

• Brain damage, like what Phineas Gage experienced when a rod went through his head, gives us clues about how the mind really works with the body.
• Emotions are vital to our mind’s ability to function properly and think logically.
• Your brain uses feelings from past experiences to construct somatic markers which help it make decisions faster.

Best Psychology Books About Love and Relationships

“When men and women are able to respect and accept their differences, then love has a chance to blossom.” — John Gray

Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus helps you improve your relationships by identifying the key differences between men and women.

Men and women have different ways to communicate, even though they are both human beings. This book is based on years of successful counselling and can help you figure out how to communicate with the man or woman sitting beside you, without turning everything into a conflict. Is it all just about accepting each other’s differences? Let’s find out!

• Women want men to listen to them while men desire solutions to problems.
• Men are motivated when they feel useful, women are inspired when they feel loved.
• Women and men communicate differently and assign separate meanings to the same words.

“Most people are only as needy as their unmet needs.” —Dr. Amir Levine

Attached delivers a scientific explanation why some relationships thrive and steer a clear path over a lifetime, while others crash and burn, based on the human need for attachment and the three different styles of it.

What would you say is your attachment style, based on how you feel towards your partner? This book helps us understand our attachment style, giving us a little bit of insight into the science behind love. Understanding your behavior in relation to the other will help you build a stronger and more satisfactory bond with your significant other.

• Everyone needs attachment, it’s a prerequisite for a happy and healthy life.
• There are 3 different attachment styles, which one are you?
• Effective communication is the best way to guarantee your happiness in any relationship.

Best Psychology Books About Personality

“The only thing ‘special’ about those who transform themselves and their lives is their view of their own future. The refuse to be defined by the past. They see something different and more meaningful and they never stop fueling that vision.” — Benjamin Hardy

Personality Isn’t Permanent will shatter your long-held beliefs that you’re stuck as yourself, flaws and all, by identifying why the person you are is changeable and giving you specific and actionable steps to change.

Do people change their attitudes and behaviors throughout their lives or do they constantly stay the same? According to psychologist Benjamin Hardy, the idea that people never change is rather wrong and it keeps us away from being who we need to be. Offering practical advice and basing everything on science, this book will certainly catch your attention.

• There are five destructive myths about personality that lead to mediocrity and support the fixed mindset that holds you back.
• Your goals determine your personality and are the tool you need to change your identity.
• No matter who you’ve been in the past or who you are now, you can upgrade how you see yourself and transform your future.

“To investigate the history of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the most popular personality inventory in the world, is to court a kind of low-level paranoia. Files disappear. Tapes are erased. People begin to watch you.” — Merve Emre

The Personality Brokers uncovers the true, yet un-scientific origins of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality test.

There is a test out there that is used almost everywhere when it comes to determining someone’s personality – and that is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. This book concentrates on figuring out how a personality indicator became such a huge success, while also trying to put into perspective all the things that could influence us to be ourselves.

• Katherine Briggs-Myers and her daughter Isabel Myers based their personality test on the questionable principles of Carl Jung.
• Briggs created her first personality test at a time when Americans were ready to receive it, thus beginning the era of self-help writing.
• Although scientifically unsound, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator does have it’s benefits and uses.

“The Enneagram doesn’t put you in a box. It shows you the box you’re already in and how to get out of it.” — Ian Morgan Cron

The Road Back To You will teach you more about what kind of person you are by identifying the pros and cons of each personality type within the Enneagram test.

Human beings are all wired differently, but at the same, they all have positive and negative traits. This book concentrates on the Enneagram, which is an ancient personality typing system and can help you learn more about yourself. Filled with stories, this book will help you figure out how to get to a deeper knowledge of who we are as people, by diving into the spiritual side of things.

• There are nine personality types in the Enneagram.
• You might feel that your personal traits fall into multiple types, and that’s why the test has what are known as wing numbers to give you additional clarity.
• Each number in the test has corresponding stress and security numbers to help you better understand how you react in different circumstances.

Best Psychology Books About Anxiety and Depression

“It is a fact – I say this from experience – that being severly anxious is depressing. Anxiety can impede your relationships, impair your performance, constrict your life, and limit your possibilities.” — Scott Stossel

My Age Of Anxiety is your guide to understanding an aspect of mental illness that most of us don’t realize is so severe, showing it’s biological and environmental origins and ways to treat it.

When would you say that you heard the term ‘anxiety’ for the first time? You might get to the conclusion that thirty-something years ago, this was not considered a diagnostic, while nowadays, it has become one of the most common mental illness diagnostics. Stossel gives us a bit of insight into how anxiety affects people and how to control it at the same time.

• This disease can make life difficult and embarrassing.
• Anxiety comes from evolution but is also a result of our experiences in childhood.
• To treat this form of mental illness, you can use drugs and therapy.

“The more you think life is about having stuff and superiority and showing it off, the more unhappy, and the more depressed and anxious, you will be.” — Johann Hari

Lost Connections explains why depression affects so many people and that improving our relationships, not taking medication, is the way to beat our mental health problems.

One of today’s most common mental illnesses is depression. Even though there are many people out there suffering from depression, it is still rather unclear what causes it: is it a chemical imbalance or is it the way we live today? Lost Connections shares different stories, from different groups to help us have a better understanding of how depression works and how we can fight against it.

• Depression is not the result of a chemical imbalance.
• There are nine main causes of depression, and they all have to do with difficult life circumstances.
• Social prescriptions help people feel valued and connected while medication does not.

“The world is increasingly designed to depress us. Happiness isn’t very good for the economy. If we were happy with what we had, why would we need more?” — Matt Haig

Reasons To Stay Alive shows you the dangers and difficulties surrounding mental illness, uncovers the stigma around it, and identifies how to recover from it by sharing the story of Matt Haig’s recovery after an awful panic attack and subsequent battle with depression and anxiety.

There is always a light at the end of the tunnel – or at least, this is one of the most important things that people have to understand. Living with depression is not an easy thing to do, whether it is you that is affected or someone close to you – and Matt Haig knows that, as he also suffers from depression. He has written this frank, yet encouraging book that reminds us that the little things do count and that life should be lived, for the better or the worse.

• If you’re depressed, reading books to get out of your own head can help.
• There are some benefits to mental illness, which even some of the world’s greatest leaders experienced.
• Recovery won’t be as straightforward as you think, but it is possible.

“In times of crisis, we are better off being led by mentally ill leaders than by mentally normal ones.” — Cal Newport

A First-Rate Madness shares the stories of many world leaders and explains how they prevailed despite their mental illnesses and struggles, showing you how to turn your psychological disadvantages into leadership strengths.

The world has had many notable leaders up to this point – but what do they all have in common when there is a critical moment unfolding? Analyzing leaders such as Gandhi, Churchill, or JFK – and not only – Ghaemi has figured out that what is seen as a mood disorder can be a very important quality for a leader. Are you curious to find out more regarding this subject?

• Depression and bipolar disorder have benefits that may be helpful in leadership positions.
• Historical leaders like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Winston Churchill, and JFK had disorders that helped them make better decisions..
• Knowing the upside of mental illness can help us remove the stigma around it.

Best Psychology Books About Society

“It’s hard to find meaning in what we do if at some level it doesn’t help someone else or make someone happier.” Matthew D. Lieberman

Social explains how our innate drive to build social connections is the primary driver behind our behavior and explores ways we can use this knowledge to our advantage.

Human beings are social creatures, and that is a well-known fact. But what is a less known fact is to what extent we can be considered “social”. According to Matthew Lieberman, the need for humans to connect seems to be even more fundamental than the need we have for shelter or food. If you want to find out more about our need to be social and connect with other people, this book could be the best for you.

• We were programmed to connect socially, which is why social pain hurts so much.
• The ability to understand the feelings and thoughts of others helps us succeed in life.
• Kindness, not money, will buy you happiness and health.

“People who succeed tend to find one goal in the distant future and then chase it through thick and thin. School asks students to be good at a range of subjects, but life asks people to find one passion that they will follow forever.” — David Brooks

The Social Animal weaves social science research into the story of a fictional couple to shed light on the decision-making power of our unconscious minds.

What would you say about a blend of fiction and non-fiction? Because that is exactly what David Brooks is doing in this book: he creates a couple that lives their lives to the fullest. By making use of diverse scientific references, Brooks analyses the traits of both characters and puts into perspective the elements that made them who they are and what drove them towards it.

• Learning is not linear, it is a process of forward, backward, and side steps.
• Changing your environment is more effective than willpower when cultivating new habits and behaviors.
• Humans follow seven unconscious structures, so-called if/then rules, when framing a decision.

Best Psychology Books About Language

“Choose your words wisely, because they will influence your happiness, your relationships, and your personal wealth.” — Andrew B. Newberg

Words Can Change Your Brain is the ultimate guide to becoming an expert communicator, teaching you how to use psychology to your advantage to express yourself better, listen more, and create an environment of trust with anyone you speak with.

People spend a lot of time with other people, daily. But that does not necessarily make them the best communicators, as there is always something more to learn about how we can get our points across. This book will help you improve your communication skills, in order to be happy and successful, no matter which environment you have to use them.

• If you want to connect with others better when talking, make sure that your mind is relaxed, present, and quiet.
• Utilize the power of happy memories to get your smile just right.
• You must listen well, speak slower, and even say less to understand others better and have them understand you.

“If you want to find your true love, compare the ways you use function words with that of your prospective partners..” — James W. Pennebaker

The Secret Life of Pronouns is a collection of research and case studies explaining what our use of pronouns, articles, and other style words can reveal about ourselves.

The way we talk gives a bit of insight into who we are and how we think. Or at least, that’s what Pennebaker has found out in his research – the words we use have a deeper meaning and can carry enough meaning to let us dive into the feelings we have and not only. If you are curious to figure out how the words we use are related to our ways of thinking, The Secret Life of Pronouns could help you out.

• The manner in which you use style words reveals a lot about your social skills.
• Your choice of pronouns reflects your upbringing and ways of thinking.
• Examining function words can tell whether people are compatible with one another.

Best Psychology Books About Happiness

“The secret of happiness is variety, but the secret of variety, like the secret of all spices, is knowing when to use it.” — Dan Gilbert

Stumbling On Happiness examines the capacity of our brains to fill in gaps and simulate experiences, shows how our lack of awareness of these powers sometimes leads us to wrong decisions, and how we can change our behavior to synthesize our own happiness.

We imagine a lot of things daily, but we mostly imagine the future – creating scenarios, mostly. Using the latest discoveries in psychology, economics, and cognitive neuroscience, Daniel Gilbert provides us not only with a brilliant but also accessible book that will put into perspective the fact that we tend to know very little about us and the people surrounding us.

• Your brain is really bad at filling in the blanks, but it keeps on trying.
• You should always compare products based on value, never on past price.
• Bad experiences are better than no experiences.

“I’m trying to broaden the scope of positive psychology well beyond the smiley face. Happiness is just one-fifth of what human beings choose to do.” — Martin Seligman

Flourish establishes a new model for well-being, rooted in positive psychology, building on five key pillars to help you create a happy life through the power of simple exercises.

How can you flourish? Well, the answers you are looking for might be right in the pages of this book, written by Martin Seligman, a founding father of what is called “the happiness research”. Concentrating on positive psychology, this book will help you realise that psychology is more than helping people with their suffering – it is a tool to help you build your life for the better.

• Seligman’s PERMA model for happiness is the key to a life of profound fulfillment.
• Simple positivity exercises can have life-changing effects, like these two.
• IQ isn’t everything – success is based on character traits, not just intelligence.

Best Psychology Books About Decision-Making

Blink explains what happens when you listen to your gut feeling, why these snap judgments are often much more efficient than conscious deliberating, and how to avoid your intuition leading you to wrong assumptions.

What is behind every decision that we make? Why do some people choose something in the blink of an eye, while others spend a lot of time figuring out what to choose? Blink helps us understand the mechanism behind decision-making and the decisions themselves. If you want to have a better understanding of your mind and mechanisms, Malcolm Gladwell’s book will help you out.

• Your unconscious is the world’s fastest filter of information.
• Stress can lead your gut astray.
• Put up screens in situations where you can’t trust your intuition.

“The secret to happiness is low expectations.” – Barry Schwartz

The Paradox Of Choice shows you how today’s vast amount of choice makes you frustrated, less likely to choose, more likely to mess up, and less happy overall, before giving you concrete strategies and tips to ease the burden of decision-making.

We live in a world where choice is no longer a problem: at least from the perspective of quantity. And that is where it gets tricky: this abundance of choice can make us feel overwhelmed and can even lead to anxiety. So, how do we end up making the right choices? Barry Schwartz offers us practical advice that not only will help us make the right choice, but also be happy about the choices we made.

• The more options you have, the harder it gets to decide, and to decide well.
• The more options you have, the less happy you will be, no matter what you decide on.
• Good enough is the best – become a satisficer.

Best Psychology Books About Human Behavior and Cognitive Biases

“History is written by the victors, but it’s victims who write the memoirs.” — Carol Tavris

Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me takes you on a journey of famous examples and areas of life where mistakes are hushed up instead of admitted, showing you along the way how this hinders progress, why we do it in the first place, and what you can do to start honestly admitting your own.

Ever since we are young, the one thing we do is hide. Of course, it’s not just about the hide and seek game, but the hiding of mistakes. Even as adults, we hate admitting that we have made a mistake. But the question is why do we act like this? This book will take you through the mechanisms in our brains that make us not admit our mistakes and provides enough advice to help you man up and admit your mistakes.

• You make up self-justifications to deal with the cognitive dissonance your mistakes create.
• Confirmation bias can lead you to change your entire morals.
• Stop thinking you’re stupid for making mistakes.

“The more cashless our society becomes, the more our moral compass slips.” — Dan Ariely

The Honest Truth About Dishonesty reveals our motivation behind cheating, why it’s not entirely rational, and, based on many experiments, what we can do to lessen the conflict between wanting to get ahead and being good people.

Are people 100% honest or do they all have at least a bit of a tendency to cheat? Dishonesty is this book’s main concern and according to bestselling author Dan Ariely, there is some motivation behind cheating and it is sometimes not rational. Fascinated by how human beings make decisions, Ariely has once again looked into how irrationality might influence what we do, even in terms of cheating.

• You don’t decide to cheat based on rational thinking.
• You’re more likely to cheat when there’s a psychological distance between you and cheating.
• Don’t wear fake designer clothes. Ever.

“Knowledge does not change behavior. We have all encountered crazy shrinks and obese doctors and divorced marriage counselors.” — Chip & Dan Heath

Switch is about how you can lead and encourage changes of human behavior, both in yourself and in your organization, by focusing on the three forces that influence it: the rider, the elephant and the path.

Change might not be the easiest thing to do. Sometimes we cannot do it, because it’s not something depending on us, while other times we refuse to do it because we are scared of the outcome. Chip and Dan Heath have written this book that addresses exactly that challenge: the one of changing, and they want to help us understand what we can do when change is hard, in an entertaining and engaging way.

• Focus on one specific, critical aspect of the change, so the rider doesn’t have to decide.
• Get the elephant moving with a powerful emotion.
• Make the path of change easy to follow, because human behavior is highly situational.

Best Psychology Books About Negative Thinking

“The effort to feel happy is often precisely the thing that makes us miserable. Constant efforts to eliminate the negative, that is what causes us to feel so insecure, anxious, uncertain or unhappy.” — Oliver Burkeman

The Antidote will explain everything that’s wrong with positivity-based self-help advice and what you should do instead to feel, live, and be happier.

How happy would you say you are right now? How happy would you be if it started raining or snowing? These two questions are just two examples from a long line of questions regarding happiness – we are all looking for it, but it seems to be quite a hard thing to achieve. And according to Oliver Burkeman, positive thinking might not always be the answer. Are you ready to try some of the unconventional methods this book proposes?

• Thinking explicitly about happiness and pursuing it directly are actually counterproductive.
• Imagining the worst-case scenario makes you resilient, not depressed.
• Setting goals is just as likely to lead us into misery as it is to bring happiness.

“When we are open to new possibilities, we find them. Be open and skeptical of everything.” — Todd Kashdan

The Upside Of Your Dark Side takes a look at our darkest emotions, like anxiety or anger, and shows you there are real benefits that follow them and their underlying character traits, such as narcissism or psychopathy.

Are the positive things happening in your life the only ones meant to take you far and help you live a better life? Or is it necessary for us to also go through negative emotions and learn how to embrace our sadness or anger? Making use of years of research, this book helps us understand that the full range of emotions can help us change our lives.

• Happiness can interfere with your performance.
• Guilt is good, shame is shit.
• Mindfulness takes a toll on you.

We love psychology because it is one of the most practical fields you can study. Human relationships live entirely in the realm of psychology. Therefore, everything you learn about it will help you deal better with other people and yourself. Our lives have changed for the better after studying these books. We know yours will too.

It’s not easy to understand your thoughts and emotions. But when you do, you unlock a new potential for better living that you never imagined possible. The more you learn about psychology, the better you’ll get at recognizing the thoughts and feelings that pull you down so you can learn how to overcome them and live happier and healthier.

What would be the first thing one should know in terms of psychology and how would it benefit themselves and others? Let us know!

Looking for more of the best books on various topics? Here are all the book lists we’ve made for you so far:

• The 60 Best Business Books of All Time (Will Forever Change How You Think About Organizations)
• The 20 Best Entrepreneurship Books to Start, Grow & Run a Successful Business
• The 14 Best Finance Books of All Time
• The 21 Best Habit Books of All Time to Change Any Behavior
• The 33 Best Happiness Books of All Time That Everyone Should Read
• The 60 Best History Books of All Time (to Read at Any Age)
• The 7 Best Inspirational Books That Will Light Your Inner Fire
• The 40 Best Leadership Books of All Time to Help You Become a Truly Inspiring Person
• The 31 Best Motivational Books Ever Written
• The 12 Best Nonfiction Books Most People Have Never Heard Of
• The 35 Best Philosophy Books to Live Better and Become a Great Thinker
• The 25 Best Sales Books of All Time to Help You Close Any Deal
• The 33 Best Self-Help Books of All Time to Read at Any Age
• The 22 Best Books About Sex & Sexuality to Improve Your Love Life & Relationships
• The 30 Most Life-Changing Books That Will Shift Your Perspective & Stay With You Forever

Looking for more books by the world’s most celebrated authors? Here are all of the book lists by the author we’ve curated for you:

• All Brené Brown Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)
• Jordan Peterson Books: All Titles in Order of Publication + The 5 Top Books He Recommends
• All Malcolm Gladwell Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)
• All Michael Pollan Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)
• Peter Thiel Books: A Comprehensive List of Books By, About & Recommended by Peter Thiel
• All Rachel Hollis Books: The Full List of Non-Fiction, Fiction & Cookbooks, Sorted by Popularity & the Best Reading Order
• All Ray Dalio Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)
• All Robert Greene Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)
• All Ryan Holiday Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)
• All Simon Sinek Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)
• All Tim Ferriss Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)
• All Walter Isaacson Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)

Last Updated on February 20, 2023

*Four Minute Books participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising commissions by linking to Amazon. We also participate in other affiliate programs, such as Blinkist, MindValley, Audible, Audiobooks, Reading.FM, and others. Our referral links allow us to earn commissions (at no extra cost to you) and keep the site running. Thank you for your support.

Need some inspiration? 👀 Here are... The 365 Most Famous Quotes of All Time »

Share on mastodon.

Taylor Pearson

Greatest Hits (Sorted by Theme)

Learn how to...

• Risk Management - Apply Antifragility to make Entrepreneurship the Safest 21st Century Career and Surround yourself with a community that will foster success
• Writing and Reading - Read 60 Books a Year and 67 Recommendations on Where to Start
• Habits and Rituals - Build Daily Habits and a Weekly Review to Enable Doing Your Best Work
• Focus - Decide What to Focus on and Why It's Essential That You Do
• Systems - Leverage Systems to Be 10x More Effective , and Discover Frameworks that Yield Disproportionately Large Results
• Marketing - Grow your business 527% in 18 Months and sell 5000 Books in Four Weeks As a First Time Author

Want more? Browse the full archives below

Best Psychology Books

October 10, 2018 By

“The gigantic catastrophes that threaten us today are not elemental happenings of a physical or biological order, but psychic events. To a quite terrifying degree we are threatened by wars and revolutions which are nothing other than psychic epidemics. At any moment several million human beings may be smitten with a new madness, and then we shall have another world war or devastating revolution. Instead of being at the mercy of wild beasts, earthquakes, landslides, and inundations, modern man is battered by the elemental forces of his own psyche.” C G Jung

Reading the best psychology books gives us an insight into the workings of our inner selves. While we can endlessly learn about the world that seems external to us, it’s only though looking inwards that we gain a self awareness of our true motivations, passions and desires that shape our everyday behaviors.

The best psychology books teach us how to use our brains and thoughts to full effectiveness. By reading through some of these titles, you’ll learn how to relate to others better, improve your mindset, and generally improve the quality of your life through self knowledge and understanding.

Below are some of the best books about psychology that I’ve come across.

The Best Psychology Books of all Time

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business – Charles Duhigg

This now classic book  that goes into great detail on the formation of habits and how we can use them to our advantage. Author Duhigg uses numerous real-world examples to show how we can achieve great things that we couldn’t have imagined through simply implementing effective habits.

You’ll read about examples from the NFL, corporate boardrooms and even the civil rights movement, and understand how building consistent habits can produce outsized results over the long term. You’ll learn the key to regular exercise, losing weight, productivity and success, and how you can start building positive habits today to help you reach your goals and transform your life.

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones – James Clear

Also dealing with the topic of habit formation and breaking, Clear’s book provides an innovative and effective system for building habits. Packed with insight, this book will undoubtedly change the way you think about obtaining success and living well.

Influence: Science and Practice – Robert B. Cialdini

Cialdini’s Influence is a classic marketing book based on years of academic research and practical experience in business. Readers will learn about the core drivers of reciprocation, consistency, social proof, like, authority and scarcity that compel people to be more likely to comply with requests. These are techniques used on us every day by advertising companies, friends and family and many more. Not only will you learn how these techniques work and how to spot them, you’ll know how to implement them to help people make the right decisions to help themselves.

Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor Frankl

Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy is popularized through this incredible memoir, which shows a true account of the author’s time spent in Nazi death camps during World War II. Experiencing and witnessing unspeakable atrocities, Frankl went on to survive and embrace a world that was fundamentally cruel and bleak to him for so long. Speaking from his own experiences and those of the many patients helped through his therapy, Frankl reveals how meaning and purpose in life allow us to endure adversity and embrace the inevitable and often confusing suffering that life brings to all of us eventually.

Frankl’s theory, counter to his contemporaries such as Freud and Nietzsche, maintains that the ‘will to meaning’ is the core driver of the human personality, and should be the individuals’ primary pursuit in the direction of their life energy.

Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman

Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman gives us a grand overview of his lifelong research as a psychologist, and helps us better understand the mind and how it shapes our behaviors. Delineating our thought processes into a ‘system 1’ and ‘system 2’, Kahneman explains through numerous examples how our decisions are often hampered by using the wrong thought pathways, and what we can do to combat it. You’ll learn how the fast, intuitive system 1 often results in overconfidence and poor prediction, and how the slower, rational system 2 can lead to disregarding our important gut feelings and result in poor decisions based on rigid logic.

Predictably Irrational – Dr. Dan Ariely

Dr. Dan Ariely shows us how we really aren’t as rational (or even as smart) as we think. Laying bare a number of our most common irrational biases, Ariely shows us how we often self-sabotage ourselves in life areas as diverse as staying fit, choosing romantic partners, financial decisions and more. You’ll find out how much we constantly overestimate, procrastinate and generally act counter intuitively to our own interests through unconscious systems built into us through millions of years of evolution.

Want to learn about psychology?

Discover the simple habits that help me read over 60 books a year, with my  free five-part email masterclass   on  reading more books and learning .  Enter your email below to get started!

Games People Play – Eric Berne

We play games constantly. Power games, marital games, and competitive games with our friends. In this now-classic book, Eric Berne lays out the foundations for his Transactional Analysis framework, which allows us to understand the interactions we observe around us, and how we can more consciously act in those we take part in. Often quite funny, Berne has an amusing writing style where he names common ‘games’ you’ll have undoubtedly have encountered before, but never quite been able to put your finger on.  This book will help you improve your awareness of the peculiar interactions we have with each other on a daily basis.

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success – Carol Dweck

Dweck’s mindset is the book that coined the terms ‘fixed’ and ‘growth’ mindset. A pivotally important book for many individuals, the author shows how the way we think about our abilities has a profound impact over our lifelong learning, growth and success. This book shows us how to cultivate a growth mindset that precludes healthy flourishing of the individuals’ talents, pursuit of meaning, ability to foster healthy relationships, and much more.

Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being – Martin E. P. Selligman

Some say that ‘Flourish’ was the book that jump-started the now-divisive positive psychology movement.

While psychology has traditionally been concerned with relieving suffering for patients battling mental disease, Selligman’s contribution seeks to raise the bar for what is attainable for the human condition. Concentrating on cultivating purpose, positive emotion, relationships and accomplishments, Flourish shows how these can be combined to act as the pillars for a deeply fulfilling, positive life.  You’ll learn about emotional resilience, obtaining fulfillment and how to generally improve your wellbeing. This isn’t a self-help book, but it’s academic findings make this even more interesting.

The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking – Oliver Burkeman

The author of this book is deeply read and careful in his thought and writing. This is a really well accomplished examination of what really helps us be more content and satisfied in our psychological lives, and shy’s away from the positive psychology movement which can often come across as unrealistic to certain personality types.

Burkeman shows us how many of the things that promise ‘happiness’ in life – wealth, romance, work – are prone to bring just as much stress as short-lived joy. Instead, the author draws from a wide source of influences including stoic philosophy, buddhism, and more to come to an integrated understanding of what happiness is and our best way to go about living the best quality of life possible. The epilogue of the author’s conclusions is especially powerful, and shows a thoughtful and intelligent author who, while a self-proclaimed pessimist by nature, arrives at a peculiarly hopeful and uplifting outlook.  Very nice book.

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ – Daniel Goleman

While traditional IQ tests give some estimate of raw intelligence in individuals, it’s unable to act as a reliable prediction of one’s future happiness, success or integrity.

Goleman argues that while the regular IQ test can give a rough estimate of our rational capacity, it disregards it’s essential counterpart which is emotional intelligence. This is a thought provoking read that really shows how it is the emotional element of life that ultimately has the biggest impact on our success, contentedness and more.

The Undiscovered Self: The Dilemma of the Individual in Modern Society – C G Jung

Famed psychoanalyst C G Jung argues that the survival of Western culture rests on the ability of individuals to resist what he calls ‘the collective forces of society’. As the bloody history of the 20th century has shown, many are driven to join in to fanatical or ideological causes which often lead to great catastrophe. Jung reveals how understanding the ‘shadow’ of our inner selves allows us to recognize the fact that we are all individually capable of acts of atrocity. This classic psychology book shows how by developing our individual integrity and self understanding, we can enable great change in society and avoid catastrophe.

Man and His Symbols – C G Jung

A collection of four essays by Jungian analysts written before Jung’s death, Man and His Symbols is a classic study of dreams, symbols and the inner world of the psyche. A great introductory text to Jungian ideas, this book shows how the analyst can work to reveal intentions of the subconscious, and lead the patient to greater self understanding and integration of unconscious aspects of their personality. This is one of the few works by Jung addressed to a general audience, which also helps it’s accessibility as an entry point for this fascinating thinker.

The Social Animal – Elliot Aronson

This book is considered by many to be a classic in the field of social psychology. Author Elliot Aronson fills this book with examples and studies of diverse topics such as conformity, obedience, race relations, attraction and advertising. Along the way, readers gain a fascinating perspective on a slew of perennially interesting topics from a master of his field.

Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change – Timothy D Wilson

Famous author Malcolm Gladwell called this book a “masrerpiece”, and the impact it’s had on some reviewers on Amazon seems to give some credence to this claim. Redirect is author Timothy Wilson’s summation of the power of narrative over our psychological health. Pulling from dozens of examples and giving practical applications for teenagers, parents and schoolteachers, Redirect shows us how simple shifts in the stories we tell ourselves about the events that happen to us can have profound and lasting effects on our mental health and well-being.

Last Updated on August 19, 2020 by Taylor Pearson

• Terms and Conditions
• Privacy Policy
• Important Disclosure
• FTC Disclosure

Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

Book Review: Positive Psychology in Practice

As editors P. Alex Linley and Stephen Joseph note in their preface, positive psychology—the scientific study of what makes people feel happy and fulfilled—is a burgeoning discipline. At this crucial point in the field’s development, they want their book to be a definitive resource—not just for colleagues in academia, but for practitioners as well.

Over 42 chapters, Positive Psychology in Practice offers plenty of provocative research findings. Psychologist Tim Kasser , for example, makes an important contribution to economics by showing that when people pursue materialistic values—such as wanting to be wealthy and attractive— they report less happiness and lower life-satisfaction. Kennon Sheldon and Sonja Lyubomirsky report that simple practices, such as counting your blessings, may increase your happiness for a sustained time. This finding is significant because previous researchers have long believed a person’s potential for happiness is more or less determined by genetics at birth.

This book distinguishes itself by not only reporting on breakthroughs in positive psychology, but by emphasizing how these findings can be applied. A section dedicated to work includes a provocative chapter on how “transformative leadership”—characterized in part by leaders who do what is ethical, rather than what is expedient or cost-effective—may promote employees’ physical and mental health. Another essay discusses potential applications of positive psychology to youth organizations.

The book is especially relevant to psychotherapists. For example, Chiara Ruini and Giovanni Fava introduce a technique called well-being therapy, which draws on research suggesting that therapists can help patients not only by addressing psychological problems but by teaching them to develop positive characteristics as well, such as self-acceptance and a sense of purpose.

Linely and Joseph have certainly succeeded in creating a comprehensive overview of positive psychology. Though their book is more practically minded than most academic compilations, the volume’s breadth, and sometimes its prose, might put off non-academics. Even so, it is a terrific resource for anyone interested in the important science of positive psychology.

About the Author

Christine Carter

Christine Carter, Ph.D. is a Senior Fellow at the Greater Good Science Center. She is the author of The New Adolescence: Raising Happy and Successful Teens in an Age of Anxiety and Distraction (BenBella, 2020), The Sweet Spot: How to Accomplish More by Doing Less (Ballantine Books, 2015), and Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents (Random House, 2010). A former director of the GGSC, she served for many years as author of its parenting blog, Raising Happiness . Find out more about Christine here .

You May Also Enjoy

Book Review: Positive Psychology at the Movies

Book Review: The Happiness Hypothesis

Positive Psychologize Me

10 Psychology Books Everyone Should Read

07 Jan, 2024 | Blog Articles , Psychology Articles

Psychology is a wide-reaching field, covering everything from social attachments to disorders of the brain and nervous system (neurology). We’ve put together a list of ten Psychology books that we think every student should read. Whether you’re preparing to study at University, just starting to explore your interest, or looking to deepen your knowledge of Psychology before attending our Oxford Summer School , these books will provide valuable insights and enhance your learning journey.

Table of Contents

1. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales  – Oliver Sacks

In this classic book, Sacks documents a number of fascinating and strange cases that he came across in his work as a neurologist.

The book is named after one of these cases: the man who mistook his wife for a hat had visual agnosia. This is a condition where people are unable to interpret visual information so cannot recognise objects or faces. From this to a case about a patient who couldn’t recognise his own leg, Sacks deals with the most extraordinary conditions.

It is an engaging and easy to read book, which will make you appreciate that a lot can go wrong in our brains. Such explorations of the human mind are central to our Psychology programme in our Oxford Summer Courses .

2.  The Psychopath Test: A Journey through the Madness Industry  – Jon Ronson

In The Psychopath Test, Ronson describes his quest to determine whether it is true that many high up CEOs and politicians are psychopaths.

He tells the story of his visits to psychopaths, as well as to the psychologists and psychiatrists who study them. The book also looks at how psychopaths are diagnosed and explores The Psychopath Test developed by Bob Hare.

Ronson offers intriguing insights into the minds of psychopaths, as well as some very interesting stories, making this book well worth a read.

3.  Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind  – V.S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee

Phantoms in the Brain is an engaging book which explores various neurological disorders, such as phantom limbs.

A phantom limb is a condition where amputees can feel their amputated limb after it is gone (and in some cases even feel pain in it which is very difficult to treat). The book describes the cause of this phenomenon, among many other conditions. The authors explain how these can inform our understanding of the brain and also present many interesting cases of patients with these conditions.

Reading this will give you an understanding of how the brain forms our perception of both the world and ourselves.

4.  50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions About Human Behavior  – Scott O. Lilienfeld, Steven Jay Lynn, John Ruscio & Barry Beyerstein

As the title suggests, this book dispels 50 popular misconceptions in psychology. These are claims that are not scientifically true but still continue to be spread by the general public.

The authors aim to show that common sense can actually mislead people. 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology encourages us to think critically and evaluate these claims, rather than simply taking them to be true.

This is an interesting book, and definitely worth reading – most of us probably didn’t realise that many of these are misconceptions.

5.  The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language – Steven Pinker

Throughout this book, Pinker explores the idea that language is innate to humans, a phenomenon that he describes as ‘the language instinct’.

Pinker makes the case for language as an ability unique to humans: we evolved this to be able to communicate. The book explores many cases that support this idea that language and grammar are in-built (an idea that was first proposed by the linguist Noam Chomsky).

This is a perfect introduction to the psychology of language and linguistics. It is filled with intriguing cases and ideas that will give you a different perspective on how your brain works.

6. Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely

In Predictably Irrational, Ariely, who is a behavioural economist, rejects the widely held belief that humans make rational decisions. Rather, he makes the case for the idea that we behave irrationally. For example, we will eat another plate at an unlimited buffet even though we are already full.

The book examines many factors which contribute to these behaviours: expectations, emotions, social norms, among other forces. It uncovers the irrational mistakes that we consistently make – mistakes that are predictable. Ariely also offers advice on breaking these behaviours.

Reading this will challenge what you think you know about your own behaviour, and help you to stop making the same irrational mistakes.

7. Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman

Thinking, Fast and Slow is an entertaining description of the research that Kahneman has conducted over his career.

In it, Kahneman explores the relationship between two modes of thought that he proposes us to have. System 1 is impulsive, automatic and intuitive: this happens without our conscious thought. However, System 2 is thoughtful, deliberate and calculating. The book describes how the interactions between these systems determine how we think and act.

Kahneman has written an enjoyable summary of recent work in social and cognitive psychology – which will almost certainly make you think differently about how you think.

Discover More

Thanks for signing up, 8. bad science – ben goldacre.

This is not just a psychology book, but rather it is about science in general – specifically bad science, as the title suggests.

Bad Science implores readers to be aware of the poor understanding of scientific evidence and statistics in our society. For example, Goldacre explores how science reporting in the media tends to produce very untrue accounts of real research and data. He also describes how pharmaceutical companies misuse statistics for their own benefits, and how homeopathy tricks so many people into thinking it is a cure.

This book is both witty and easy to read – and will make you question everything you’ve ever been told is true.

9. The Invisible Gorilla – Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons

The Invisible Gorilla describes how, when we are focused on one thing, we tend to overlook everything else.

The title of the book refers to earlier research in this area: when participants are told to count how many times players passed the ball in a basketball game, they do not even notice someone dressed as a gorilla walking through the game!

Chabris and Simmons do a good job of demonstrating that, really, we don’t notice as much as we think we do in this entertaining book.

10. Influence: Science and Practice – Robert Cialdini

Cialdini’s eye-opening book explores the topics of influence and persuasion. It teaches us both how to be more persuasive, and how to stop ourselves being persuaded to do things we don’t actually want to.

Cialdini explains that there are six psychological principles that drive us to comply to the influence of others, which he goes through in detail.

Influence is not only interesting, but will also help you to be more aware of the power of how you talk to people – even just in your everyday life.

Rachel is an undergraduate Psychology student at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, with a particular interest in perception. She believes that Psychology is an important science, as much of the human brain remains a mystery that we have yet to solve. She is excited to keep you up to date with the latest research in this field! In her spare time, she enjoys drawing, painting, and cooking all sorts of pasta dishes.

Do you want to boost your Psychology university application?

Recommended articles

You’ve Done the Career Test and the Uni Prep Report: Now What?

The process of preparing for university can often seem never-ending, with various steps and requirements before you even submit your application. However, at the Oxford Scholastica Academy, we’re working to make this process easier and more straightforward for...

A Day in the Life of an Oxford Scholastica Student: The First Monday

Hello, I’m Abaigeal or Abby for short, and I attended Oxford Scholastica’s residential summer school as a Discover Business student.  During the Business course, I studied various topics across the large spectrum that is the world of business, including supply and...

Mastering Writing Competitions: Insider Tips from a Two-Time Winner

I’m Costas, a third-year History and Spanish student at the University of Oxford. During my time in secondary school and sixth form, I participated in various writing competitions, and I was able to win two of them (the national ISMLA Original Writing Competition and...

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts

Mechanisms linking social media use to adolescent mental health vulnerability

• Adrian Meier
• Sarah-Jayne Blakemore

Determinants of behaviour and their efficacy as targets of behavioural change interventions

Changing behaviours might be central to responding to societal issues such as climate change and pandemics. In this Review, Albarracín et al. synthesize meta-analyses of individual and social-structural determinants of behaviour and the efficacy of behavioural change interventions that target them across domains to identify general principles that can inform future intervention decisions.

• Dolores Albarracín
• Bita Fayaz-Farkhad
• Javier A. Granados Samayoa

The development of human causal learning and reasoning

Humans have a unique capacity for objective and general causal understanding. In this Review, Goddu and Gopnik describe the development of causal learning and reasoning abilities during evolution and across childhood.

• Mariel K. Goddu
• Alison Gopnik

Using large language models in psychology

Large language models (LLMs), which can generate and score text in human-like ways, have the potential to advance psychological measurement, experimentation and practice. In this Perspective, Demszky and colleagues describe how LLMs work, concerns about using them for psychological purposes, and how these concerns might be addressed.

• Dorottya Demszky
• James W. Pennebaker

The process and mechanisms of personality change

Personality is relatively stable over long timescales but remains malleable to some degree. In this Review, Jackson and Wright examine the mechanisms responsible for intentional and naturally occurring change as well as mechanisms that promote stability, thereby limiting potential change.

• Joshua J. Jackson
• Amanda J. Wright

Current issue

Social media needs science-based guidelines, safeguarding young users on social media through academic oversight.

• Christian Montag
• Peter J. Schulz
• Benjamin Becker

Scholar activism benefits science and society

• José M. Causadias
• Leoandra Onnie Rogers
• Tiffany Yip

Stability and malleability of emotional autobiographical memories

• Victoria Wardell
• Daniela J. Palombo

Announcements

Sign up for e-alerts.

Click the link above to sign up for free monthly E-Alerts

Meet the editors

Interested in meeting our editors in a virtual lab or site visit? Click the link above to find out more.

Supporting the next generation of psychologists

This collection highlights ideas, recommendations, and personal stories that aim to improve graduate education, support trainees to their fullest potential, and demystify non-academic career paths. Updated with new content regularly.

First anniversary collection

To the celebrate the first anniversary of Nature Reviews Psychology we assembled a Collection showcasing articles that inspired our first 12 covers.

Advertisement

Latest Reviews & Analysis

When and why people conceal their identities

Many people conceal some of their identities to successfully navigate intergroup contexts. In this Perspective, Le Forestier and Lewis propose a model of identity concealment that makes specific predictions about when people choose to engage in concealment that applies to a broad range of motives and identities.

• Joel M. Le Forestier
• Neil A. Lewis Jr

The unique nature and psychosocial implications of awe

Awe has considerable psychological implications, but its multifaceted nature has hindered researchers in understanding the underlying processes. In this Review, Jiang et al. discuss how awe impacts the self and provide an integrative framework of the psychological consequences of awe.

• Tonglin Jiang
• Joshua A. Hicks
• Matthew Vess

Syntactic bootstrapping as a mechanism for language learning

Young children learn the meanings of the words from limited information. In this Review, Babineau and colleagues synthesize the word-learning research landscape and detail the role of syntactic bootstrapping and related learning mechanisms.

• Mireille Babineau
• Monica Barbir
• Anne Christophe

Theoretical and empirical advances in understanding musical rhythm, beat and metre

Rhythmic elements including beat and metre are integral to human experiences of music. In this Review, Snyder and colleagues discuss leading theories of rhythm perception and synthesize relevant behavioural, neural and genetic findings.

• Joel S. Snyder
• Reyna L. Gordon
• Erin E. Hannon

Declines in adolescent mental health over the past decade have been attributed to social media, but the empirical evidence is mixed. In this Review, Orben et al. describe the mechanisms by which social media could amplify the developmental changes that increase adolescents’ mental health vulnerability.

Understanding the development of reward learning through the lens of meta-learning

• Kate Nussenbaum
• Catherine A. Hartley

News & Comment

The debate about the negative impact of social media use is heated. Psychology research must avoid the noise and remain focused on improving adolescent mental health.

From the lab to a career in publishing

Nature Reviews Psychology is interviewing individuals with doctoral degrees in psychology who pursued non-academic careers. We spoke with Xiao Wang about her journey from PhD student to professional editor.

• Teresa Schubert

Why clinical research fails to improve population mental health

Research into clinical interventions rarely translates to improved mental health at the population level. Adequately powered studies leveraging advances in statistical methods to assess and translate multicomponent interventions will be better positioned to yield improvements in population mental health.

• Ellicott C. Matthay

Systems thinking approach to mental health services

• Jolene A. Cox

The continued hype and hope of digital phenotyping

• Taylor A. Braund

Salient distractors facilitate visual search

• Liangyou Zhang

Trending - Altmetric

This journal is a member of and subscribes to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

9 Best Psychology Books to Understand Human Behavior

Are you curious about what makes humans behave in certain ways? Do you want to better understand the nuances of human behavior and improve your interactions with others? Psychology books are a great way to delve into these topics and gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and those around us. In this article, we’ll explore some of the best psychology books on human behavior , covering a range of topics from personal growth to social psychology and happiness.

Understanding Human Behavior Through Psychology Books

Human behavior is a complex and multi-faceted topic, encompassing everything from our thoughts and emotions to our actions and interactions with others. Through the lens of psychology, we can gain insights into the underlying reasons for our behavior and begin to understand how we can change and grow as individuals. Psychology books offer a wealth of information and ideas about human behavior, drawing on research, case studies, and personal experiences to shed light on our complex inner workings.

The Importance of Studying Human Behavior

Studying human behavior is an essential aspect of understanding ourselves and others. By learning about the factors that influence our thoughts, feelings, and actions, we can begin to make positive changes in our lives and build stronger relationships with those around us. Additionally, studying human behavior can help us develop key skills such as problem-solving, decision-making, and critical thinking , which can benefit us in all areas of life.

One of the most significant benefits of studying human behavior is the ability to recognize and overcome our own biases and limitations. By understanding the ways in which our past experiences, beliefs, and cultural backgrounds shape our perceptions of the world, we can begin to challenge our assumptions and broaden our perspectives. This, in turn, can lead to personal growth and development as we become more open-minded and empathetic towards others.

How Psychology Books Can Improve Your Life

Psychology books can be a valuable resource for anyone looking to improve their lives and gain a deeper understanding of themselves and others. By reading about the latest research in psychology and applying these findings to our own lives, we can gain practical insights and advice that can help us navigate the challenges of daily life.

For example, psychology books can help us develop our emotional intelligence , which is the ability to understand and manage our own emotions and those of others. By learning about the different types of emotions and how they impact our thoughts and behaviors, we can become more self-aware and better equipped to handle difficult situations.

Psychology books can also offer guidance on how to improve our communication skills, which are essential for building strong relationships with others. By learning about effective communication techniques and practicing them in our daily interactions, we can improve our ability to express ourselves clearly and understand others’ perspectives.

Finally, psychology books can help us develop a growth mindset, which is the belief that we can learn and grow throughout our lives. By reading about the latest research on motivation, learning, and personal development , we can begin to see challenges as opportunities for growth and embrace a more positive and proactive approach to life.

Top Psychology Books for Personal Growth

Reading is an excellent way to gain knowledge and insights that can help us grow as individuals. If you’re interested in personal growth, psychology books can be an excellent resource. Here are some of the top psychology books for personal growth:

Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

Emotional intelligence is a key aspect of successful relationships, both personal and professional. In this groundbreaking book, Daniel Goleman explores the role of emotional intelligence in our lives, drawing on cutting-edge research to offer practical advice for improving our emotional intelligence skills. Through case studies, Goleman shows how emotional intelligence can help us navigate the complexities of life, improving our relationships with others and enhancing our own personal growth.

For example, Goleman discusses how emotional intelligence can help us communicate more effectively with others. By understanding our own emotions and the emotions of those around us, we can better express ourselves and connect with others on a deeper level. Goleman also explores how emotional intelligence can help us manage stress and overcome challenges, both in our personal and professional lives.

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

Carol Dweck’s book Mindset offers an innovative approach to personal growth and development. Drawing on her research on the power of mindset, Dweck shows how our beliefs about ourselves and our abilities can impact our success in life. By adopting a growth mindset, we can overcome obstacles and reach our full potential.

Dweck’s book is full of practical advice for cultivating a growth mindset. For example, she suggests focusing on the process of learning, rather than just the outcome. By embracing challenges and seeing them as opportunities for growth, we can develop a more resilient and adaptable mindset. Dweck also discusses the importance of self-reflection and self-awareness in personal growth , encouraging readers to examine their own beliefs and attitudes towards success and failure.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Our habits shape our lives in countless ways, from our health and well-being to our productivity and success. In this insightful book, Charles Duhigg explores the science of habit formation, offering practical advice for how we can change our habits and improve our lives.

Duhigg’s book is full of fascinating examples of how habits can be transformed. For example, he discusses how the habit of exercise can be formed by linking it to a specific cue, such as putting on your workout clothes. He also explores how habits can be changed by identifying the underlying reward that drives them and finding healthier ways to satisfy that reward.

Overall, The Power of Habit is an excellent resource for anyone looking to break bad habits and develop healthier ones. By understanding the science of habit formation, we can take control of our lives and create positive change.

Exploring Social Psychology and Group Dynamics

Social psychology is a fascinating field that explores the ways in which our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the people around us. From the power of persuasion to the impact of social norms, social psychology offers valuable insights into the complex dynamics of human interaction.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion , is a classic in the field of social psychology. In this book, Cialdini explores the underlying reasons why people say “yes” to certain requests, even when they may not fully understand why they are doing so. Drawing on research from a variety of fields, including psychology, sociology, and marketing, Cialdini identifies six key principles of persuasion: reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity.

One of the most interesting principles that Cialdini explores is the power of social proof. This principle suggests that people are more likely to conform to the behavior of others when they are uncertain about how to act. For example, if a restaurant is busy, people are more likely to assume that the food is good and that they should eat there too. By understanding the power of social proof, communicators can become more effective at persuading others.

The Social Animal by Elliot Aronson

Elliot Aronson’s book, The Social Animal , takes a broader view of social psychology, exploring the ways in which our social connections and relationships shape our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Drawing on real-life examples and research, Aronson demonstrates how our social interactions can have a profound impact on our lives.

One of the key themes that Aronson explores is the importance of empathy in social interactions. Empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, is a crucial component of successful relationships and effective communication. Aronson shows how empathy can be developed and cultivated, and how it can be used to build stronger, more meaningful connections with others.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Susan Cain’s book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking , is a fascinating exploration of the ways in which introverts can succeed in a world that often values extroverted behavior. Drawing on research, personal experiences, and interviews with successful introverts, Cain offers practical advice for navigating social situations and leveraging the strengths of introversion to achieve success.

One of the key insights that Cain offers is that introverts have unique strengths that can be leveraged in a variety of settings. For example, introverts are often excellent listeners and are able to process information deeply and thoughtfully. By understanding and embracing these strengths, introverts can become more effective communicators and leaders, even in settings that may traditionally favor extroverted behavior.

Overall, these three books offer valuable insights into the complex dynamics of social psychology and group dynamics. By understanding the power of persuasion, the importance of empathy, and the unique strengths of introversion, we can become more effective communicators, leaders, and members of society.

Delving into the Science of Happiness and Well-being

Authentic happiness by martin seligman.

What does it mean to be truly happy? And how can we attain a lasting sense of well-being in our lives? Martin Seligman’s book Authentic Happiness offers a powerful approach to happiness, drawing on the science of positive psychology to offer practical advice for cultivating happiness and well-being. With a focus on gratitude, meaning, and relationships, Seligman’s book offers a roadmap for creating a fulfilling and meaningful life.

The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky

Sonja Lyubomirsky’s book The How of Happiness offers a research-backed approach to cultivating happiness in our lives. Drawing on her extensive research on happiness, Lyubomirsky offers practical advice and activities aimed at promoting happiness and well-being. From practicing gratitude and forgiveness to finding a sense of purpose, this book offers a comprehensive guide to living a happier, more fulfilling life.

The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt

What are the underlying psychological factors that contribute to our sense of happiness and well-being? In this fascinating book, Jonathan Haidt draws on ancient wisdom and modern research to explore the nature of happiness and well-being. Through a series of engaging anecdotes and thought-provoking insights, Haidt shows how we can cultivate happiness and meaning in our lives, drawing on the power of gratitude, empathy, and connection with others.

You can find this book here .

In conclusion, psychology books offer a wealth of insights and ideas that can help us better understand ourselves and those around us. From personal growth to social psychology and happiness, these books explore a wide range of topics that are relevant to our daily lives. By reading and applying the knowledge contained in these books, we can enhance our emotional intelligence, improve our relationships, and cultivate a greater sense of happiness and well-being.

What are the best books on human psychology?

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt, and Influence by Robert Cialdini are all good options.

What are the best books to learn about children’s psychology?

The Whole-Brain Child by Daniel J. Siegel, No Bad Kids by Janet Lansbury, and How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen by Joanna Faber are all brilliant.

What are the best books to help with controlling teenagers’ behavior?

Parenting Teens With Love and Logic by Foster Cline and The Teenage Brain by Frances R. Jensen are both great to help parent teenagers gently and effectively. 

• Recent Posts
• The 11 Best Books About Cats You Should Read - January 16, 2024
• The 9 Best Books on Building Confidence - January 16, 2024
• Discover the 10 Best Books on the Brain - January 16, 2024

Related Posts:

Book Review: ‘The Psychology of Money,’ by Morgan Housel

Advertiser disclosure.

We are an independent, advertising-supported comparison service. Our goal is to help you make smarter financial decisions by providing you with interactive tools and financial calculators, publishing original and objective content, by enabling you to conduct research and compare information for free - so that you can make financial decisions with confidence.

Bankrate has partnerships with issuers including, but not limited to, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi and Discover.

How We Make Money

The offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site, including, for example, the order in which they may appear within the listing categories, except where prohibited by law for our mortgage, home equity and other home lending products. But this compensation does not influence the information we publish, or the reviews that you see on this site. We do not include the universe of companies or financial offers that may be available to you.

• Share this article on Facebook Facebook
• Share this article on Twitter Twitter
• Share this article on LinkedIn Linkedin
• Share this article via email Email

• • Personal finance
• Connect with Karen Bennett on Twitter Twitter
• Connect with Karen Bennett on LinkedIn Linkedin

• Connect with Nell McPherson on LinkedIn Linkedin

The Bankrate promise

At Bankrate we strive to help you make smarter financial decisions. While we adhere to strict editorial integrity , this post may contain references to products from our partners. Here's an explanation for how we make money .

Founded in 1976, Bankrate has a long track record of helping people make smart financial choices. We’ve maintained this reputation for over four decades by demystifying the financial decision-making process and giving people confidence in which actions to take next.

Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy , so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. All of our content is authored by highly qualified professionals and edited by subject matter experts , who ensure everything we publish is objective, accurate and trustworthy.

Our banking reporters and editors focus on the points consumers care about most — the best banks, latest rates, different types of accounts, money-saving tips and more — so you can feel confident as you’re managing your money.

Editorial integrity

Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy , so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. Here is a list of our banking partners .

Key Principles

We value your trust. Our mission is to provide readers with accurate and unbiased information, and we have editorial standards in place to ensure that happens. Our editors and reporters thoroughly fact-check editorial content to ensure the information you’re reading is accurate. We maintain a firewall between our advertisers and our editorial team. Our editorial team does not receive direct compensation from our advertisers.

Editorial Independence

Bankrate’s editorial team writes on behalf of YOU – the reader. Our goal is to give you the best advice to help you make smart personal finance decisions. We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. Our editorial team receives no direct compensation from advertisers, and our content is thoroughly fact-checked to ensure accuracy. So, whether you’re reading an article or a review, you can trust that you’re getting credible and dependable information.

How we make money

You have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for over four decades. We continually strive to provide consumers with the expert advice and tools needed to succeed throughout life’s financial journey.

Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy , so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers.

We’re transparent about how we are able to bring quality content, competitive rates, and useful tools to you by explaining how we make money.

Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories, except where prohibited by law for our mortgage, home equity and other home lending products. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range, can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range of offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service.

“The Psychology of Money” is a compelling, quick read that shows how the ability to achieve wealth often depends more on healthy behavioral skills than on intelligence — and that behavior is often hard to teach. Author Morgan Housel illustrates his points through a series of short stories about people’s money-making decisions.

Housel says the book is a deeper dive into the topics he covered in his widely read 2018 report that bears the same name. Formerly a writer for The Wall Street Journal and The Motley Fool, Housel is currently a partner at venture capital firm Collaborative Fund.

Through the book’s 20 easily digestible chapters, Housel gives examples of people who succeeded — and those who failed — at accumulating wealth , holding onto that wealth, and making long-term, lucrative investments. He shows how financial decisions are made based on factors like personal history, worldview, fear and pride.

Keys to a money-saving mindset

In a chapter devoted to saving money, Housel delves into the benefits of frugality, the importance of building up a nest egg, and the notion that you don’t need to earn a lot of money to accumulate significant savings over time.

It’s all about frugality and humility

The ability to save a large chunk of one’s income is related to having a frugal lifestyle , Housel writes — which takes some humility. Case in point: The less you care about keeping up with your friends and neighbors, the less you’ll feel compelled to spend your money on things.

When it comes to increasing your savings, raising your humility is often a more powerful driver than raising your income, Housel writes.

Cash in the bank has unseen returns

While saving for a big purchase is important, Housel stresses that it’s also vital to set aside money just for saving’s sake — since money in the bank gives you options and flexibility. For instance, a sudden job loss will feel much less traumatic if you have savings to carry you through it.

The combination of flexibility and control over your time that you’ll gain by having a significant nest egg are an “unseen return on wealth,” Housel writes.

Low-earners can save money, too

Housel makes the point that building wealth often has little to do with your income and lots to do with your personal savings rate.

In the book’s introduction, Housel tells the story of Ronald Read, a gas station attendant and janitor who eventually went on to become an investor and philanthropist. Throughout his life, Read gradually accumulated a fortune by saving what he could and investing in blue chip stocks. When he died at 92, he made headlines for being worth more than $8 million dollars — much of which was accumulated through the power of compound interest.

Housel contrasts Read’s story with that of a highly educated, well-paid Merrill Lynch executive who retired in his 40s to become a philanthropist. Heavy spending on a lavish lifestyle that included two luxury homes eventually led him to file for bankruptcy.

Through the two men’s stories, Housel makes the point that financial success is often more a matter of how you behave than what you know.

Behaviors and beliefs for successful investing

Your success at investing, as Housel sees it, is affected by how well you hold onto the wealth you’ve earned. It also hinges on your ability to earn pretty good returns over time rather than aiming for one-off big hits.

Success comes from survival mode

Housel gives examples of investors who were good at getting wealthy but not as good at staying wealthy. Building wealth can involve optimism and risk taking, Housel writes, whereas retaining wealth requires humility and a fear of losing it all.

He goes on to explain that the survival mindset necessary to hold onto wealth comes down to a desire to be financially unbreakable, planning for the unexpected and maintaining sensible optimism.

The power of compound interest

Essentially, compound interest is the interest you earn on interest over time. In the book, Housel gives the example of renowned investor Warren Buffett — whose net worth is around $110 billion —  as someone whose investments have benefited enormously from the effects of compound interest. He attributes much of the 92-year-old Buffett’s success to the fact that he’s been investing since the young age of 10.

While high investment returns often result from one-time hits that can’t be repeated, earning more realistic, pretty good returns consistently over a long period of time is when you benefit from compound interest, Housel writes.

No one’s crazy when it comes to money

In the book’s first chapter, titled “No One’s Crazy,” Housel states that while people may do crazy things with their money, no one’s actually crazy. Rather, everyone’s unique money habits and beliefs come from their own personal experiences — including when and where they were born as well as what their parents were like. For instance, a person who grew up during high inflation or a bad recession may handle money differently from someone who grew up during healthy financial times.

As such, personal background affects how one goes about saving, investing and spending, Housel writes, which can help explain why one person’s choices may seem wrong — or even crazy — to another.

True wealth is often hidden

Housel stresses throughout the book the importance of frugality and humility when it comes to saving money, and he points out that wealth is something you don’t see: Someone with plenty of money in the bank may choose not to drive a luxury car, live in a mansion or wear expensive clothes. Conversely, a person paying for a lavish lifestyle may not have much, if anything, in savings.

While nice cars and big houses are things people notice and admire, Housel points out, someone’s savings, retirement accounts and investment portfolios aren’t things we see.

Bottom line

“The Psychology of Money” is a worthwhile read that may open your eyes to beliefs about saving money and investing that could be holding you back from having healthier money habits . It makes its points through bite-sized chapters, charts and personal stories, and it would be a strong addition to any shelf of personal finance books.

To explore more personal finance books, check out Bankrate’s 12 best investing books for beginners .

Related Articles

Money dysmorphia: What to know and who it’s impacting

How does a money market account work?

Book review: Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties by Beth Kobliner

Book review: The Dumb Things Smart People Do with Their Money by Jill Schlesinger

BOOK REVIEW article

Book review: psychology and the conduct of everyday life.

• 1 School of Marxism, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an, China
• 2 School of Marxism, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China

A Book Review on Psychology and the Conduct of Everyday Life

Ernst Schraube and Charlotte Højholt (New York, NY: Routledge), 2016, 272 pages, ISBN: 978-1138815124

From the earliest days of its formation as an independent discipline, psychology has been concerned with human experience, activity and self-reflection, but the question of how to conduct one's life has not received much attention ( Carolyn, 2014 ). This book is about the psychological research and the conduct of everyday life in contemporary society. It brings psychological research from the laboratory to the real world. With its focus on the question of how people beings as active sensuous subjects live their everyday lives, it explores the conduct of life as a basis for comprehending the dilemmas and contradictions we face in daily lives.

Structurally, the book encompasses three parts, organized thematically into 13 chapters. The first chapters collect the latest interdisciplinary empirical research on the importance of environment. In the first chapter, it highlights the power of the concept of the conduct of everyday life to reform the perspective of psychology. In Chapter 2, a sociological approach to the research of the conduct of everyday life is introduced. Society can therefore be understood through the everyday lives of the individuals performing these actions. Chapter 3 presents the importance of everyday living for psychology, including a discussion of the sociological approach, an analysis of why the concept has not so far been investigated within psychology, as well as reflections on how to study the conduct of life from the standpoint of the subjects. In Chapter 4, it focuses on the importance of a specific practice of everyday living: walking and the practice of exposure as an alternative model of education. In Chapter 5, it reports the approach to the conduct of everyday life in the context of critical psychology. The study of the conduct of life needs to include concepts such as habitus, performativity, and privilege that are grounded in critical theories of embodiment and not in a philosophy of consciousness. Chapter 6 illustrates and reflects on how to carry out empirical research on everyday living. Everyday living is often conceptualized in terms of the mundane or ordinary. Yet, for increasing numbers of people disruption and the extra-ordinary have become normative ( Highmore, 2002 ). In Chapter 7, based on empirical research on children's conduct of life, it focuses on conflicts in everyday life and their relatedness to social, political, and structural conflicts. This chapter discusses challenges of how to conceptualize meanings of the children's social backgrounds as well as how to conceptualize their personal agency. The starting point of everyday living in Chapter 8 is Adorno's famous dictum “there is no right life in the wrong one ( Adorno, 2005 ).” Recognizing this dilemma is the first step out of it (p. 164). However, to overcome such a restricted concept of human agency and subjectivity, it is necessary to become aware of the varied forms and ways in which we unwittingly support in our own thoughts and actions conditions that we want to overcome. This includes the need to recognize and resist the many pressures that lead us to ignore all contradictory information so as to keep up the semblance of being able to live our lives in the right way, in contrast to others ( Holzkamp, 2013 ).

The middle part examines the interaction between daily life throughout the world and contemporary global phenomena such as the rise of the debt economy, the hegemony of the labor market, and the increased reliance on digital technology in educational settings. Chapter 9 examines everyday life in the shadow of the rise of the debt economy in the United States. The chapter concludes with a historical sketch of the anti-debt movement in the United States that developed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and that potentially can challenge contemporary conduct of everyday life in the debt economy. Chapter 10 discusses these issues through exploration how the restructuring of the world economy has affected reproductive work and gender relations, the role of technology in this process, and the initiatives taken by women in the world to construct more cooperative and equitable forms of reproduction. Chapter 11 investigates the contradictory significance of digital technology in students' learning. The digitization of higher education is radically transforming learning and teaching relations, including the content of learning and the students' conduct of life. Based on a refined concept of learning it shows how the digitalization of students' learning environment reconfigures the structures of participation and how it can catalyze but also freeze the fluidity of learning and teaching.

Finally, the last part of the book is focused on how social psychology can enhance our understanding of our lives, and provide the possibilities for collective work to solve social conflict. The penultimate chapter explores the relationship between theory and everyday understanding as a basic challenge in the study of the conduct of life (p. 226). The chapter introduces memory-work as a possible approach to deal with this challenge and presents its individual steps, theoretical foundations, and possibilities for an empirical inquiry into everyday living. In the closing chapter, the authors expand the methodological discussion of how to empirically explore everyday living by focusing on the interconnections of subjective and structural aspects of persons conducting their everyday life in and across social practices (p. 241). This chapter elucidates the possibilities for arranging participatory research collaboration that enables the development of knowledge about common problems and contradictory life conditions in their meanings to different persons.

This book provides a basic introduction to the psychological research of the conduct of everyday life in contemporary society. Throughout the book, working with the “conduct of everyday life” and refining this concept can support an understanding of psychological phenomena as they unfold in the reality of everyday living, and promote a fundamental renewal of psychological theory, methodology, and practice. The importance of the conduct of everyday life for psychology lies in its conceptual relevance in exploring and understanding the everyday activities of individual subjects to organize, integrate, and make sense of the multiplicity of social relations and contradictory demands in and across the different contexts in which they are engaged in their daily life (p. 1). In a sense, the above content of this book is so extensive that some fascinating details, such as reflecting on the new methodologies and research practices facilitating the empirical investigations of the everyday realities and problems in people's lives, cannot be specifically presented. In this context, there is a growing need for psychology to investigate and understand how people confront and experience local changes in relation to social systems, institutions, technologies, and daily life practices in the course of their everyday life. Psychological theory and research, in turn, thus have to relate their understanding of human sensuous activities and experiences to the social practices and structures in which people live and experience their problems.

Author Contributions

BL and KL wrote the manuscript, with larger contributions by BL. KL then provided edits and suggestions for revision. Both authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Adorno, T.W. (2005). Minima Moralia: Reflection on a Damaged Life. London: Verso.

Google Scholar

Carolyn, H. (2014). “Cissexism,” in Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology , ed T. Teo (New York, NY: Springer). p. 235–237.

Highmore, B. (2002). The Everday Life Reader. London: Routledge.

Holzkamp, K. (2013). “Psychology: social self-understanding on the reasons for action in the conduct of everyday life,” in Psychology from the Standpoint of the Subject: Selected Writings of Klaus Holzkamp , eds E. Schraube and U. Osterkamp (London: Palgrave Macmillan). p 233–234.

Keywords: conduct of everyday life, critical psychology, human behavior, social psychology, methodology

Citation: Liu B and Li K (2021) Book Review: Psychology and the Conduct of Everyday Life. Front. Psychol. 12:720997. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.720997

Received: 05 June 2021; Accepted: 16 July 2021; Published: 06 August 2021.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2021 Liu and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Bailong Liu, liubailong@xauat.edu.cn

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

• Latest Posts
• LSE Authors
• Choose a Book for Review
• Submit a Book for Review
• Bookshop Guides

Job Allan Wefwafwa

June 7th, 2024, pragmatism and methodology: doing research that matters with mixed methods – review.

0 comments | 7 shares

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

In  Pragmatism and Methodology ,  Alex Gillespie, Vlad Glăveanu and Constance de Saint Laurent advocate for pragmatism as a flexible framework for impactful social science research. Balancing philosophical and psychological depth with accessibility, t he book effectively shows how a blend of methodologies grounded in real life can enable researchers to navigate contemporary challenges, writes Job Allan Wefwafwa in his review .

Pragmatism and Methodology: Doing Research That Matters with Mixed Methods.   Alex Gillespie, Vlad Glăveanu and Constance de Saint Laurent. Cambridge University Press. 2024.

The nine-chapter book convincingly proposes pragmatism as a, “coherent, flexible, and robust framework” for creating useful knowledge that can enhance society (xii).It traces the origin of pragmatism to US scholars such as Charles Peirce, John Dewey, Jane Addams, William James and George Mead, whose  heterogenous belief  held that “science within the context of democracy” could improve society (1). The book then conceptualises pragmatism as a methodological approach based on human activity (142), arguing that people directly affect research processes and findings, making objectivity unattainable. It uses the philosophical premise that “every philosophy has to start with something”; to illustrate that pragmatism begins with people’s “everyday actions and experiences that comprise the world as we know it” (6).

The book [ … ] conceptualises pragmatism as a methodological approach based on human activity, arguing that people directly affect research processes and findings, making objectivity unattainable.

The first chapter engages the reader in situating pragmatism within a process paradigm that emphasises temporality and change and prioritises timeless things. Here, the authors contrast the pragmatic approaches that emphasise temporality with the ones that centre timelessness, to allow for multimethod research. They use figurative language such as “is the oak superior to the acorn?”, to argue about which of the two came first in terms of reproduction, thereby illuminating the importance of processes in research. This enables the reader to relate to the methodological arguments at the human experience level, effectively simplifying some philosophically opaque concepts such as “paradigms” and “epistemology” discussed in Chapter Two.

The authors’ ability to delicately balance between articulating complex philosophical concepts and writing accessibly is perhaps best demonstrated through the discussion of res extensa and res cogitans (3), things with three dimensions and things that appear in mind, respectively. The authors highlight the increasing citation of the phrase “there is nothing as practical as good theory” (ix) in the academic realm. They use the phrase to refer to the misconceptions researchers hold about theory, but it also arouses the reader’s interest in the unlikely pairing of these contrasting concepts – practice and theory. They analyse this paradox in the subsequent chapters, demonstrating that theory is not just about how knowledge is made, but also a guide on methodological decisions. The analysis anchors contemporary arguments on traditional philosophical conceptions in an accessible way.

Theory is not just about how knowledge is made, but also a guide on methodological decisions.

Although the authors rightfully acknowledge that their social and cultural psychology background influenced their writing, this gives the reader two contrasting experiences. First, the infusion of a psychology perspective into the book simplifies complex philosophical concepts using general human-life experiences, for the reader to easily understand. However, it also makes the reader from a non-psychology background wonder if the book is appropriate for them. As a reader from the media background, I easily understood the philosophical concepts such as paradigms, as explained from the psychological point of view (1, 2 and 4). However, they seemed too removed from media research to be able to apply them there. I I had to read the discussions on disinformation, conspiracy theories (Chapter Two), the emergence of “big data” (109), including “Social media data, video footage, live data, and digital archives” (110-11 1 ) , to learn how the concepts might apply.

The book’s most outstanding aspect is that the reader can easily draw from lived experiences such as US electoral politics in 2016, to relate to the arguments therein.

Arguably, the book’s most outstanding aspect is that the reader can easily draw from lived experiences such as US electoral politics in 2016, to relate to the arguments therein. This is especially visible in Chapter Two which explores what it means to live in a “post-truth” society where factual basis of truth can be undetermined (26-27). Although the book’s pragmatic approach may be criticised for portraying ethics as a “box-ticking” exercise (162), it creates a basis for common ground around effective knowledge, while also avoiding presenting science as something beyond critical questioning.

The book effectively shows how practical methodologies can enable researchers to navigate contemporary challenges amid increasing relativist and realist contentions. It persuasively navigates the division between qualitative and quantitative extremists; and adds to the justification for mixed methods research (19). Chapter Three describes the division as “bypassing the subjective-objective dualism” to focus on human activity (49). For instance, the book’s allegorical discussions in Chapter Four, enables the reader to see beyond the traditional quantitative (realism) and qualitative (relativism) divide, which simplifies the concept of theory (74). It argues that research should be about “creating questions as answering them” (75). The argument enables the book’s conceptualisation of theory as a “tool in the world that dis/empowers human activity” rather than a mirror of the world (50) . In this way, the book figures theory in terms of what it enables them to do, rather than whether it belongs to the real or relative duality.

The book [conceptualises] theory as a ‘tool in the world that dis/empowers human activity’ rather than a mirror of the world.

This view enables researchers to rise above paradigmatic wars between quantitative and qualitative methods. For instance, Chapter Seven advocates for multi-resolution research that uses “qualitative analysis to zoom in, revealing contextualised particulars, and quantitative analysis to zoom out, revealing statistical patterns” (135). The book successfully argues that our lived experiences can be combined with qualitative and quantitative approaches to provide “breadth and depth”, that bring rigor, robustness and insight in research (117).

Although the book attempts to simplify its philosophically anchored arguments for the reader, some arguments remain shrouded in philosophical jargon, especially in Chapter One. This may discourage unseasoned researchers who may not yet be grounded in the philosophical foundations of research methodology. That notwithstanding, the book remains a must-read for students and researchers interested in a contextual understanding of pragmatic methodology.

Note: This review gives the views of the author, and not the position of the LSE Review of Books blog, nor of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Image credit:  UX Indonesia on Unsplash .

About the author

Job Allan Wefwafwa is a post-doctoral Researcher at University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; and Lecturer at Technical University of Kenya, Nairobi. His Doctorate is in Media Studies, focusing on social media and African electoral politics. Wefwafwa is a UXR enthusiast. @alfwafwa, Facebook.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Related posts.

The Evolution of Pragmatism in India: Ambedkar, Dewey, and the Rhetoric of Reconstruction – review

November 9th, 2023.

Book Review: A Tale of Two Cultures: Qualitative and Quantitative Research in the Social Sciences by Gary Goertz and James Mahoney

May 22nd, 2013.

Book Review: Creative Research Communication: Theory and Practice by Clare Wilkinson and Emma Weitkamp

September 8th, 2016, book review: doing research in the real world by david e. gray, february 10th, 2014, subscribe via email.

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Chapter 1. Introducing Social Psychology

1.1 Defining Social Psychology: History and Principles

Learning Objectives

• Define  social psychology .
• Review the history of the field of social psychology and the topics that social psychologists study.
• Summarize the principles of evolutionary psychology.
• Describe and provide examples of the person-situation interaction.
• Review the concepts of (a) social norms and (b) cultures.

The field of social psychology is growing rapidly and is having an increasingly important influence on how we think about human behavior. Newspapers, magazines, websites, and other media frequently report the findings of social psychologists, and the results of social psychological research are influencing decisions in a wide variety of areas. Let’s begin with a short history of the field of social psychology and then turn to a review of the basic principles of the science of social psychology.

The History of Social Psychology

The science of social psychology began when scientists first started to systematically and formally measure the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of human beings (Kruglanski & Stroebe, 2011). The earliest social psychology experiments on group behavior were conducted before 1900 (Triplett, 1898), and the first social psychology textbooks were published in 1908 (McDougall, 1908/2003; Ross, 1908/1974). During the 1940s and 1950s, the social psychologists Kurt Lewin and Leon Festinger refined the experimental approach to studying behavior, creating social psychology as a rigorous scientific discipline. Lewin is sometimes known as “the father of social psychology” because he initially developed many of the important ideas of the discipline, including a focus on the dynamic interactions among people. In 1954, Festinger edited an influential book called Research Methods in the Behavioral Sciences , in which he and other social psychologists stressed the need to measure variables and to use laboratory experiments to systematically test research hypotheses about social behavior. He also noted that it might be necessary in these experiments to deceive the participants about the true nature of the research.

Social psychology was energized by researchers who attempted to understand how the German dictator Adolf Hitler could have produced such extreme obedience and horrendous behaviors in his followers during the World War II. The studies on conformity conducted by Muzafir Sherif (1936) and Solomon Asch (1952), as well as those on obedience by Stanley Milgram (1974), showed the importance of conformity pressures in social groups and how people in authority could create obedience, even to the extent of leading people to cause severe harm to others. Philip Zimbardo, in his well-known “prison study” (Haney, Banks, & Zimbardo, 1973), found that the interactions of male college students who were recruited to play the roles of guards and prisoners in a simulated prison became so violent that the study had to be terminated early.

Social psychology quickly expanded to study other topics. John Darley and Bibb Latané (1968) developed a model that helped explain when people do and do not help others in need, and Leonard Berkowitz (1974) pioneered the study of human aggression. Meanwhile, other social psychologists, including Irving Janis (1972), focused on group behavior, studying why intelligent people sometimes made decisions that led to disastrous results when they worked together. Still other social psychologists, including Gordon Allport and Muzafir Sherif, focused on intergroup relations, with the goal of understanding and potentially reducing the occurrence of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Social psychologists gave their opinions in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court case that helped end racial segregation in American public schools, and social psychologists still frequently serve as expert witnesses on these and other topics (Fiske, Bersoff, Borgida, Deaux, & Heilman, 1991). In recent years insights from social psychology have even been used to design anti-violence programs in societies that have experienced genocide (Staub, Pearlman, & Bilali, 2010).

The latter part of the 20th century saw an expansion of social psychology into the field of attitudes, with a particular emphasis on cognitive processes. During this time, social psychologists developed the first formal models of persuasion, with the goal of understanding how advertisers and other people could present their messages to make them most effective (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1963). These approaches to attitudes focused on the cognitive processes that people use when evaluating messages and on the relationship between attitudes and behavior. Leon Festinger’s important cognitive dissonance theory was developed during this time and became a model for later research (Festinger, 1957).

In the 1970s and 1980s, social psychology became even more cognitive in orientation as social psychologists used advances in cognitive psychology, which were themselves based largely on advances in computer technology, to inform the field (Fiske & Taylor, 2008). The focus of these researchers, including Alice Eagly, Susan Fiske, E. Tory Higgins, Richard Nisbett, Lee Ross, Shelley Taylor, and many others, was on social cognition — an understanding of how our knowledge about our social worlds develops through experience and the influence of these knowledge structures on memory, information processing, attitudes, and judgment. Furthermore, the extent to which humans’ decision making could be flawed due to both cognitive and motivational processes was documented (Kahneman, Slovic, & Tversky, 1982).

In the 21st century, the field of social psychology has been expanding into still other areas. Examples that we consider in this book include an interest in how social situations influence our health and happiness, the important roles of evolutionary experiences and cultures on our behavior, and the field of social neuroscience — the study of how our social behavior both influences and is influenced by the activities of our brain (Lieberman, 2010). Social psychologists continue to seek new ways to measure and understand social behavior, and the field continues to evolve. We cannot predict where social psychology will be directed in the future, but we have no doubt that it will still be alive and vibrant.

The Person and the Social Situation

Social psychology is the study of the dynamic relationship between individuals and the people around them. Each of us is different, and our individual characteristics, including our personality traits, desires, motivations, and emotions, have an important impact on our social behavior. But our behavior is also profoundly influenced by the social situation — the people with whom we interact every day . These people include our friends and family, our classmates, our religious groups, the people we see on TV or read about or interact with online, as well as people we think about, remember, or even imagine.

Social psychologists believe that human behavior is determined by both a person’s characteristics and the social situation. They also believe that the social situation is frequently a stronger influence on behavior than are a person’s characteristics.

Social psychology is largely the study of the social situation. Our social situations create social influence — the process through which other people change our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and through which we change theirs . Maybe you can already see how social influence affected Raoul Wallenberg’s choices and how he in turn influenced others around him.

Kurt Lewin formalized the joint influence of person variables and situational variables, which is known as the person-situation interaction , in an important equation:

Behavior = f (person, social situation).

Lewin’s equation indicates that the behavior of a given person at any given time is a function of (depends on) both the characteristics of the person and the influence of the social situation.

Evolutionary Adaptation and Human Characteristics

In Lewin’s equation, person refers to the characteristics of the individual human being. People are born with skills that allow them to successfully interact with others in their social world. Newborns are able to recognize faces and to respond to human voices, young children learn language and develop friendships with other children, adolescents become interested in sex and are destined to fall in love, most adults marry and have children, and most people usually get along with others.

People have these particular characteristics because we have all been similarly shaped through human evolution. The genetic code that defines human beings has provided us with specialized social skills that are important to survival. Just as keen eyesight, physical strength, and resistance to disease helped our ancestors survive, so too did the tendency to engage in social behaviors. We quickly make judgments about other people, help other people who are in need, and enjoy working together in social groups because these behaviors helped our ancestors to adapt and were passed along on their genes to the next generation (Ackerman & Kenrick, 2008; Barrett & Kurzban, 2006; Pinker, 2002). Our extraordinary social skills are primarily due to our large brains and the social intelligence that they provide us with (Herrmann, Call, Hernández-Lloreda, Hare, & Tomasello, 2007).

The assumption that human nature, including much of our social behavior, is determined largely by our evolutionary past is known as evolutionary adaptation (Buss & Kenrick, 1998; Workman & Reader, 2008). In evolutionary theory, fitness  refers to the extent to which having a given characteristic helps the individual organism to survive and to reproduce at a higher rate than do other members of the species who do not have the characteristic . Fitter organisms pass on their genes more successfully to later generations, making the characteristics that produce fitness more likely to become part of the organisms’ nature than are characteristics that do not produce fitness. For example, it has been argued that the emotion of jealousy has survived over time in men because men who experience jealousy are more fit than men who do not. According to this idea, the experience of jealousy leads men to protect their mates and guard against rivals, which increases their reproductive success (Buss, 2000).

Although our biological makeup prepares us to be human beings, it is important to remember that our genes do not really determine who we are. Rather, genes provide us with our human characteristics, and these characteristics give us the tendency to behave in a “human” way. And yet each human being is different from every other human being.

Evolutionary adaption has provided us with two fundamental motivations that guide us and help us lead productive and effective lives. One of these motivations relates to the self— the motivation to protect and enhance the self and the people who are psychologically close to us ; the other relates to the social situation— the motivation to affiliate with, accept, and be accepted by others . We will refer to these two motivations as self-concern and other-concern , respectively.

Self-Concern

The most basic tendency of all living organisms, and the focus of the first human motivation, is the desire to protect and enhance our own life and the lives of the people who are close to us. Humans are motivated to find food and water, to obtain adequate shelter, and to protect themselves from danger. Doing so is necessary because we can survive only if we are able to meet these fundamental goals.

The desire to maintain and enhance the self also leads us to do the same for our relatives—those people who are genetically related to us. Human beings, like other animals, exhibit kin selection — strategies that favor the reproductive success of one’s relatives, sometimes even at a cost to the individual’s own survival . According to evolutionary principles, kin selection occurs because behaviors that enhance the fitness of relatives, even if they lower the fitness of the individual himself or herself, may nevertheless increase the survival of the group as a whole.

In addition to our kin, we desire to protect, improve, and enhance the well-being of our ingroup — those we view as being similar and important to us and with whom we share close social connections , even if those people do not actually share our genes. Perhaps you remember a time when you helped friends move all their furniture into a new home, even though you would have preferred to be doing something more beneficial for yourself, such as studying or relaxing. You wouldn’t have helped strangers in this way, but you did it for your friends because you felt close to and cared about them. The tendency to help the people we feel close to, even if they are not related to us, is probably due in part to our evolutionary past: the people we were closest to were usually those we were related to.

Other-Concern

Although we are primarily concerned with the survival of ourselves, our kin, and those who we feel are similar and important to us, we also desire to connect with and be accepted by other people more generally—the goal of other-concern . We live together in communities, we work together in work groups, we may worship together in religious groups, and we may play together on sports teams and through clubs. Affiliating with other people—even strangers—helps us meet a fundamental goal: that of finding a romantic partner with whom we can have children. Our connections with others also provide us with opportunities that we would not have on our own. We can go to the grocery store to buy milk or eggs, and we can hire a carpenter to build a house for us. And we ourselves do work that provides goods and services for others. This mutual cooperation is beneficial both for us and for the people around us. We also affiliate because we enjoy being with others, being part of social groups, and contributing to social discourse (Leary & Cox, 2008).

What the other-concern motive means is that we do not always put ourselves first. Being human also involves caring about, helping, and cooperating with other people. Although our genes are themselves “selfish” (Dawkins, 2006), this does not mean that individuals always are. The survival of our own genes may be improved by helping others, even those who are not related to us (Krebs, 2008; Park, Schaller, & Van Vugt, 2008). Just as birds and other animals may give out alarm calls to other animals to indicate that a predator is nearby, humans engage in altruistic behaviors in which they help others, sometimes at a potential cost to themselves.

In short, human beings behave morally toward others—they understand that it is wrong to harm other people without a strong reason for doing so, and they display compassion and even altruism toward others (Goetz, Keltner, & Simon-Thomas, 2010; Turiel, 1983). As a result, negative behaviors toward others, such as bullying, cheating, stealing, and aggression, are unusual, unexpected, and socially disapproved. Of course this does not mean that people are always friendly, helpful, and nice to each other—powerful social situations can and do create negative behaviors. But the fundamental human motivation of other-concern does mean that hostility and violence are the exception rather than the rule of human behavior.

Sometimes the goals of self-concern and other-concern go hand in hand. When we fall in love with another person, it is in part about a concern for connecting with someone else but is also about self-concern—falling in love makes us feel good about ourselves. And when we volunteer to help others who are in need, it is in part for their benefit but also for us. We feel good when we help others. At other times, however, the goals of self-concern and other-concern conflict. Imagine that you are walking across campus and you see a man with a knife threatening another person. Do you intervene, or do you turn away? In this case, your desire to help the other person (other-concern) is in direct conflict with your desire to protect yourself from the danger posed by the situation (self-concern), and you must decide which goal to put first. We will see many more examples of the motives of self-concern and other-concern, both working together and working against each other, throughout this book.

The Social Situation Creates Powerful Social Influence

When people are asked to indicate the things they value the most, they usually mention their social situation—that is, their relationships with other people (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Fiske & Haslam, 1996). When we work together on a class project, volunteer at a homeless shelter, or serve on a jury in a courtroom trial, we count on others to work with us to get the job done. We develop social bonds with those people, and we expect that they will come through to help us meet our goals. The importance of others shows up in every aspect of our lives—other people teach us what we should and shouldn’t do, what we should and shouldn’t think, and even what we should and shouldn’t like and dislike.

In addition to the people with whom we are currently interacting, we are influenced by people who are not physically present but who are nevertheless part of our thoughts and feelings. Imagine that you are driving home on a deserted country road late at night. No cars are visible in any direction, and you can see for miles. You come to a stop sign. What do you do? Most likely, you stop at the sign, or at least slow down. You do so because the behavior has been internalized: even though no one is there to watch you, others are still influencing you—you’ve learned about the rules and laws of society, what’s right and what’s wrong, and you tend to obey them. We carry our own personal social situations—our experiences with our parents, teachers, leaders, authorities, and friends—around with us every day.

An important principle of social psychology, one that will be with us throughout this book, is that although individuals’ characteristics do matter, the social situation is often a stronger determinant of behavior than is personality. When social psychologists analyze an event such as the Holocaust, they are likely to focus more on the characteristics of the situation (e.g., the strong leader and the group pressure provided by the other group members) than on the characteristics of the perpetrators themselves. As an example, we will see that even ordinary people who are neither bad nor evil in any way can nevertheless be placed in situations in which an authority figure is able to lead them to engage in evil behaviors, such as applying potentially lethal levels of electrical shock (Milgram, 1974).

In addition to discovering the remarkable extent to which our behavior is influenced by our social situation, social psychologists have discovered that we often do not recognize how important the social situation is in determining behavior. We often wrongly think that we and others act entirely on our own accord, without any external influences. It is tempting to assume that the people who commit extreme acts, such as terrorists or members of suicide cults, are unusual or extreme people. And yet much research suggests that these behaviors are caused more by the social situation than they are by the characteristics of the individuals and that it is wrong to focus so strongly on explanations of individuals’ characteristics (Gilbert & Malone, 1995).

There is perhaps no clearer example of the powerful influence of the social situation than that found in research showing the enormous role that others play in our physical and mental health. ƒC (Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999; Diener, Tamir, & Scollon, 2006).

Social Psychology in the Public Interest

How the Social Situation Influences Our Mental and Physical Health

In comparison with those who do not feel that they have a network of others they can rely on, people who feel that they have adequate social support report being happier and have also been found to have fewer psychological problems, including eating disorders and mental illness (Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999; Diener, Tamir, & Scollon, 2006).

People with social support are less depressed overall, recover faster from negative events, and are less likely to commit suicide (Au, Lau, & Lee, 2009; Bertera, 2007; Compton, Thompson, & Kaslow, 2005; Skärsäter, Langius, Ågren, Häagström, & Dencker, 2005). Married people report being happier than unmarried people (Pew, 2006), and overall, a happy marriage is an excellent form of social support. One of the goals of effective psychotherapy is to help people generate better social support networks because such relationships have such a positive effect on mental health.

In addition to having better mental health, people who have adequate social support are more physically healthy. They have fewer diseases (such as tuberculosis, heart attacks, and cancer), live longer, have lower blood pressure, and have fewer deaths at all ages (Cohen & Wills, 1985; Stroebe & Stroebe, 1996). Sports psychologists have even found that individuals with higher levels of social support are less likely to be injured playing sports and recover more quickly from injuries they do receive (Hardy, Richman, & Rosenfeld, 1991). These differences appear to be due to the positive effects of social support on physiological functioning, including the immune system.

The opposite of social support is the feeling of being excluded or ostracized. Feeling that others are excluding us is painful, and the pain of rejection may linger even longer than physical pain. People who were asked to recall an event that caused them social pain (e.g., betrayal by a person very close to them) rated the pain as more intense than they rated their memories of intense physical pain (Chen, Williams, Fitness, & Newton, 2008). When people are threatened with social exclusion, they subsequently express greater interest in making new friends, increase their desire to work cooperatively with others, form more positive first impressions of new potential interaction partners, and even become more able to discriminate between real smiles and fake smiles (Bernstein, Young, Brown, Sacco, & Claypool, 2008; Maner, DeWall, Baumeister, & Schaller, 2007).

Because connecting with others is such an important part of human experience, we may sometimes withhold affiliation from or ostracize other people in order to attempt to force them to conform to our wishes. When individuals of the Amish religion violate the rulings of an elder, they are placed under a Meidung . During this time, and until they make amends, they are not spoken to by community members. And people frequently use the “silent treatment” to express their disapproval of a friend’s or partner’s behavior. The pain of ostracism is particularly strong in adolescents (Sebastian, Viding, Williams, & Blakemore, 2010).

The use of ostracism has also been observed in parents and children, and even in Internet games and chat rooms (Williams, Cheung, & Choi, 2000).The silent treatment and other forms of ostracism are popular because they work. Withholding social communication and interaction is a powerful weapon for punishing individuals and forcing them to change their behaviors. Individuals who are ostracized report feeling alone, frustrated, sad, and unworthy and having lower self-esteem (Bastian & Haslam, 2010).

Taken together, then, social psychological research results suggest that one of the most important things you can do for yourself is to develop a stable support network. Reaching out to other people benefits those who become your friends (because you are in their support network) and has substantial benefits for you.

Social Influence Creates Social Norms

In some cases, social influence occurs rather passively, without any obvious intent of one person to influence another, such as when we learn about and adopt the beliefs and behaviors of the people around us, often without really being aware that we are doing so. Social influence occurs when a young child adopts the beliefs and values of his or her parents, or when someone starts to like jazz music, without really being aware of it, because a roommate plays a lot of it. In other cases, social influence is anything but subtle; it involves one or more individuals actively attempting to change the beliefs or behaviors of others, as is evident in the attempts of the members of a jury to get a dissenting member to change his or her opinion, the use of a popular sports figure to encourage children to buy certain products, or the messages that cult leaders give to their followers to encourage them to engage in the behaviors required of the group.

One outcome of social influence is the development of social norms — the ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving that are shared by group members and perceived by them as appropriate (Asch, 1955; Cialdini, 1993). Norms include customs, traditions, standards, and rules, as well as the general values of the group. Through norms, we learn what people actually do (“people in the United States are more likely to eat scrambled eggs in the morning and spaghetti in the evening, rather than vice versa”) and also what we should do (“do unto others as you would have them do unto you”) and shouldn’t do (“do not make racist jokes”). There are norms about almost every possible social behavior, and these norms have a big influence on our actions.

Different Cultures Have Different Norms

The social norms that guide our everyday behaviors and that create social influence derive in large part from our culture. A culture represents a group of people, normally living within a given geographical region, who share a common set of social norms, including religious and family values and moral beliefs (Fiske, Kitayama, Markus, & Nisbett, 1998; Matsumoto, 2001).  The culture in which we live affects our thoughts, feelings, and behavior through teaching, imitation, and other forms of social transmission (Mesoudi, 2009). It is not inappropriate to say that our culture defines our lives just as much as our evolutionary experience does.

Cultures differ in terms of the particular norms that they find important and that guide the behavior of the group members. Social psychologists have found that there is a fundamental difference in social norms between Western cultures (including the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand) and East Asian cultures (including China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, India, and Southeast Asia). Norms in Western cultures are primarily oriented toward individualism — cultural norms, common in Western societies, that focus primarily on self-enhancement and independence . Children in Western cultures are taught to develop and value a sense of their personal self and to see themselves as largely separate from the people around them. Children in Western cultures feel special about themselves—they enjoy getting gold stars on their projects and the best grade in the class (Markus, Mullally, & Kitayama, 1997). Adults in Western cultures are oriented toward promoting their own individual success, frequently in comparison with (or even at the expense of) others. When asked to describe themselves, individuals in Western cultures generally tend to indicate that they like to “do their own thing,” prefer to live their lives independently, and base their happiness and self-worth on their own personal achievements. In short, in Western cultures the emphasis is on self-concern.

Norms in the East Asian cultures, on the other hand, are more focused on other-concern. These norms indicate that people should be more fundamentally connected with others and thus are more oriented toward interdependence , or collectivism . In East Asian cultures, children are taught to focus on developing harmonious social relationships with others, and the predominant norms relate to group togetherness, connectedness, and duty and responsibility to their family. The members of East Asian cultures, when asked to describe themselves, indicate that they are particularly concerned about the interests of others, including their close friends and their colleagues. As one example of these cultural differences, research conducted by Shinobu Kitayama and his colleagues (Uchida, Norasakkunkit, & Kitayama, 2004) found that East Asians were more likely than Westerners to experience happiness as a result of their connections with other people, whereas Westerners were more likely to experience happiness as a result of their own personal accomplishments.

Other researchers have studied other cultural differences, such as variations in orientations toward time. Some cultures are more concerned with arriving and departing according to a fixed schedule, whereas others consider time in a more flexible manner (Levine & Norenzayan, 1999). Levine and colleagues (1999) found that “the pace of life,” as assessed by average walking speed in downtown locations and the speed with which postal clerks completed a simple request, was fastest in Western countries (but also in Japan) and slowest in economically undeveloped countries. It has also been argued that there are differences in the extent to which people in different cultures are bound by social norms and customs, rather than being free to express their own individuality without regard to considering social norms (Gelfand et al., 1996). And there are also cultural differences regarding personal space, such as how close individuals stand to each other when talking, as well as differences in the communication styles individuals employ.

It is important to be aware of cultures and cultural differences, at least in part because people with different cultural backgrounds are increasingly coming into contact with each other as a result of increased travel and immigration, and the development of the Internet and other forms of communication. In Canada, for instance, there are many different ethnic groups, and the proportion of the population that comes from minority (non-White) groups is increasing from year to year. Minorities will account for a much larger proportion of the total new entries into the Canadian workforce over the next decades. Roughly 21% of the Canadian population is foreign-born, which is easily the highest among G8 countries. By 2031, visible minorities are projected to make up 63% of the population of Toronto and 59% of Vancouver (Statistics Canada, 2011). Although these changes create the potential for greater cultural understanding and productive interaction, they may also produce unwanted social conflict. Being aware of cultural differences and considering their influence on how we behave toward others is an important part of a basic understanding of social psychology and a topic that we will return to frequently in this book.

Key Takeaways

• The history of social psychology includes the study of attitudes, group behavior, altruism and aggression, culture, prejudice, and many other topics.
• Social psychologists study real-world problems using a scientific approach.
• Thinking about your own interpersonal interactions from the point of view of social psychology can help you better understand and respond to them.
• Social psychologists study the person-situation interaction: how characteristics of the person and characteristics of the social situation interact to determine behavior.
• Many human social behaviors have been selected by evolutionary adaptation.
• The social situation creates social norms—shared ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.
• Cultural differences—for instance, in individualistic versus collectivistic orientations—guide our everyday behavior.

Exercises and Critical Thinking

• Go to the website Social Psychology Network and click on two of the “psychology headlines from around the world” presented on the right-hand side of the page. Read through the two articles and write a short (120 words) summary of each.
• Consider a recent situation from your personal experience in which you focused on an individual and a cause of his or her behaviour. Could you reinterpret their behavior using a situational explanation?
• Go to the website Historic Figures in Social Psychology and choose one of the important figures in social psychology listed there. Prepare a brief (250 word) report about how this person contributed to the field of social psychology.

Ackerman, J. M., & Kenrick, D. T. (2008). The costs of benefits: Help-refusals highlight key trade-offs of social life.  Personality and Social Psychology Review, 12 (2), 118–140.

Asch, S. (1955). Opinions and social pressure.  Scientific American, 11 , 32.

Asch, S. E. (1952).  Social psychology . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Au, A., Lau, S., & Lee, M. (2009). Suicide ideation and depression: The moderation effects of family cohesion and social self-concept.  Adolescence ,  44 (176), 851–868. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier Database.

Barrett, H. C., & Kurzban, R. (2006). Modularity in cognition: Framing the debate.  Psychological Review, 113 (3), 628–647.

Bastian, B., & Haslam, N. (2010). Excluded from humanity: The dehumanizing effects of social ostracism.  Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46 (1), 107–113.

Baumeister, R., & Leary, M. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation.  Psychological Bulletin, 117 , 497–529.

Berkowitz, L. (1974).  Aggression: A social psychological analysis . New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Bernstein, M. J., Young, S. G., Brown, C. M., Sacco, D. F., & Claypool, H. M. (2008). Adaptive responses to social exclusion: Social rejection improves detection of real and fake smiles.  Psychological Science, 19 (10), 981–983.

Bertera, E. (2007). The role of positive and negative social exchanges between adolescents, their peers and family as predictors of suicide ideation.  Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal ,  24 (6), 523–538. doi:10.1007/s10560-007-0104-y.

Buss, D. M. (2000).  The dangerous passion: Why jealousy is as necessary as love and sex . New York, NY: Free Press.

Buss, D., & Kenrick, D. (1998). Evolutionary social psychology. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.),  Handbook of social psychology  (4th ed., Vol. 2, pp. 982–1026). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

Chen, Z., Williams, K. D., Fitness, J., & Newton, N. C. (2008). When hurt will not heal: Exploring the capacity to relive social and physical pain.  Psychological Science, 19 (8), 789–795.

Cialdini, R. B. (1993).  Influence: Science and practice  (3rd ed.). New York, NY: HarperCollins College Publishers.

Cohen, S., & Wills, T. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis.  Psychological Bulletin, 98 , 310–357.

Compton, M., Thompson, N., & Kaslow, N. (2005). Social environment factors associated with suicide attempt among low-income African Americans: The protective role of family relationships and social support.  Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology ,  40 (3), 175–185. doi:10.1007/s00127-005-0865-6.

Darley, J. M., & Latané, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 8 (4, Pt. 1), 377–383.

Dawkins, R. (2006).  The selfish gene.  Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress.  Psychological Bulletin, 125 (2), 276–302.

Diener, E., Tamir, M., & Scollon, C. N. (2006). Happiness, life satisfaction, and fulfillment: The social psychology of subjective well-being. In P. A. M. Van Lange (Ed.),  Bridging social psychology: Benefits of transdisciplinary approaches . Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (1993).  The psychology of attitudes . Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Festinger, L. (1957).  A theory of cognitive dissonance . Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson.

Fiske, A. P., & Haslam, N. (1996). Social cognition is thinking about relationships.  Current Directions in Psychological Science, 5 (5), 137–142.

Fiske, A., Kitayama, S., Markus, H., & Nisbett, R. (1998). The cultural matrix of social psychology. In D. Gilbert, S. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.),  The handbook of social psychology  (4th ed., pp. 915–981). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Fiske, S. T., & Taylor, S. E. (2008).  Social cognition: From brains to culture . Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

Fiske, S. T., Bersoff, D. N., Borgida, E., Deaux, K., & Heilman, M. E. (1991). Social science research on trial: The use of sex stereotyping research in  Price Waterhouse vs. Hopkins .  American Psychologist, 46 , 1049–1060.

Gelfand, M. J., Raver, J. L., Nishii, L., Leslie, L. M., Lun, J., Lim, B. C.,…Yamagushi, S. (2011). Differences between tight and loose cultures: A 33-nation study.  Science, 332 (6033), 1100–1104.

Gilbert, D., & Malone, P. (1995). The correspondence bias.  Psychological Review, 117 , 21–38.

Goetz, J. L., Keltner, D., & Simon-Thomas, E. (2010). Compassion: An evolutionary analysis and empirical review.  Psychological Bulletin, 136 (3), 351–374.

Haney, C., Banks, C., & Zimbardo, P. (1973). Interpersonal dynamics in a simulated prison.  International Journal of Criminology and Penology, 1 , 69–87.

Hardy, C. J., Richman, J. M., & Rosenfeld, L. B. (1991). The role of social support in the life stress/injury relationship.  The Sports Psychologist, 5 , 128–139.

Herrmann, E., Call, J., Hernández-Lloreda, M. V., Hare, B., & Tomasello, M. (2007). Humans have evolved specialized skills of social cognition: The cultural intelligence hypothesis.  Science, 317 (5843), 1360–1366.

Hovland, C. I., Janis, I. L., & Kelley, H. H. (1963).  Communication and persuasion . Oxford, England: Yale University Press.

Janis, I. L. (1972).  Victims of groupthink: A psychological study of foreign policy decisions and fiascos . Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin.

Kahneman, D., Slovic, P., & Tversky, A. (1982).  Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases . Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Krebs, D. L. (2008). Morality: An evolutionary account.  Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3 (3), 149–172.

Kruglanski, A., & Stroebe, W. (2011).  Handbook of the history of social psychology.  Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.

Leary, M. R., & Cox, C. B. (Eds.). (2008).  Belongingness motivation: A mainspring of social action . New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Levine, R. V., & Norenzayan, A. (1999). The pace of life in 31 countries.  Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 30 (2), 178–205.

Lieberman, M. D. (2010). Social cognitive neuroscience. In S. T. Fiske, D. T. Gilbert, & G. Lindzey (Eds.),  Handbook of social psychology  (5th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 143–193). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Maner, J. K., DeWall, C. N., Baumeister, R. F., & Schaller, M. (2007). Does social exclusion motivate interpersonal reconnection? Resolving the “porcupine problem.”  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92 (1), 42–55.

Markus, H. R., Mullally, P., & Kitayama, S. (1997). Selfways: Diversity in modes of cultural participation. In U. Neisser & D. A. Jopling (Eds.),  The conceptual self in context: Culture, experience, self-understanding  (pp. 13–61). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Matsumoto, D. (Ed.). (2001).  The handbook of culture and psychology . New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

McDougall, W. (2003. original published 1908).  An introduction to social psychology.  Mineola, NY: Dover.

Mesoudi, A. (2009) How cultural evolutionary theory can inform social psychology, and vice versa.  Psychological Review, 116,  929–952.

Milgram, S. (1974).  Obedience to authority: An experimental view . New York, NY: Harper & Row.

Park, J. H., Schaller, M., & Van Vugt, M. (2008). Psychology of human kin recognition: Heuristic cues, erroneous inferences, and their implications.  Review of General Psychology, 12 (3), 215–235.

Pew Research Center. (2006, February 13). Are we happy yet? Retrieved from http://pewresearch.org/pubs/301/are-we-happy-yet

Pinker, S. (2002).  The blank slate: The modern denial of human nature . New York, NY: Penguin Putnam.

Ross, E. A. (1974; original published 1908).  Social psychology . New York, NY: Arno Press.

Sebastian, C., Viding, E., Williams, K. D., & Blakemore, S.-J. (2010). Social brain development and the affective consequences of ostracism in adolescence.  Brain and Cognition, 72 (1), 134–145.

Sherif, M. (1936).  The psychology of social norms . New York, NY: Harper & Row.

Skärsäter, I., Langius, A., Ågren, H., Häggström, L., & Dencker, K. (2005). Sense of coherence and social support in relation to recovery in first-episode patients with major depression: A one-year prospective study.  International Journal of Mental Health Nursing ,  14 (4), 258–264. doi:10.1111/j.1440-0979.2005.00390

Statistics Canada. (2011). Ethnic diversity and immigration. Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-402-x/2011000/chap/imm/imm-eng.htm

Staub, E., Pearlman, L. A., & Bilali, R. (2010). Understanding the roots and impact of violence and psychological recovery as avenues to reconciliation after mass violence and intractable conflict: Applications to national leaders, journalists, community groups, public education through radio, and children. In G. Salomon & E. Cairns (Eds.), Handbook of Peace Education . New York: Psychology Press.

Stroebe, W., & Stroebe, M. (1996). The social psychology of social support. In E. T. Higgins & A. W. Kruglanski (Eds.),  Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles  (pp. 597–621). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Triplett, N. (1898). The dynamogenic factors in pacemaking and competition.  American Journal of Psychology, 9 (4), 507–533.

Turiel, E. (1983).  The development of social knowledge: Morality and convention . Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Uchida, Y., Norasakkunkit, V., & Kitayama, S. (2004). Cultural constructions of happiness: Theory and empirical evidence.  Journal of Happiness Studies, 5 (3), 223–239.

Williams, K. D., Cheung, C. K. T., & Choi, W. (2000). Cyberostracism: Effects of being ignored over the Internet.  Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 79 (5), 748–762. Workman, L., & Reader, W. (2008).  Evolutionary psychology: An introduction (2nd ed.). . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Media Attributions

• “ Happy family (1) ” by cscott2006 is licensed under a CC BY-SA 2.0 licence.
• “ Formosan macaque ” by KaurJmeb is licensed under a CC BY-SA 2.0 licence.
• “ Old couple in a busy street ” by Geir Halvorsen is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 licence.
• “ Piggy Back ” by Tricia J is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 licence.
• “ Elderly Care 2 ” by Mark-Adkins is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 licence.
• “ Family playing a board game (3) ” by Bill Branson is licensed under a CC0 1.0 licence.
• “ West Wittering Wonderful As Always ” by Gareth Williams is licensed under a CC BY 2.0 licence.

An understanding of how our knowledge about our social worlds develops through experience and the influence of these knowledge structures on memory, information processing, attitudes, and judgment.

The study of how our social behavior both influences and is influenced by the activities of our brain.

The people with whom we interact every day.

The process through which other people change our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and through which we change theirs.

The assumption that human nature, including much of our social behavior, is determined largely by our evolutionary past.

The extent to which having a given characteristic helps the individual organism to survive and to reproduce at a higher rate than do other members of the species who do not have the characteristic.

The motivation to protect and enhance the self and the people who are psychologically close to us.

The motivation to affiliate with, accept, and be accepted by others.

Strategies that favor the reproductive success of one’s relatives, sometimes even at a cost to the individual’s own survival.

Those we view as being similar and important to us and with whom we share close social connections.

The ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving that are shared by group members and perceived by them as appropriate.

A group of people, normally living within a given geographical region, who share a common set of social norms, including religious and family values and moral beliefs.

Cultural norms, common in Western societies, that focus primarily on self-enhancement and independence.

Cultural norms that indicate that people should be more fundamentally connected with others and thus are more oriented toward interdependence.

Principles of Social Psychology - 1st International H5P Edition Copyright © 2022 by Dr. Rajiv Jhangiani and Dr. Hammond Tarry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

How to Review a Book

Reading is fine, reviewing is better..

Posted February 18, 2016

The only thing worse than a bad review from the Ayatollah Khomeini would be a good review from the Ayatollah Khomeini. ~ Salman Rushdie

(Much as I admire Mr. Rushdie, I was hoping to find an apter quote, but all the other entries on brainyquote.com were from Jenna Fischer, Val Kilmer, or other people I should have never heard of.)

How to review a book? Perhaps we should first ask why to review a book? Book reviews are derivative, parasitic even, and few people read them. Yet, in theory, book reviews provide an important feedback mechanism that helps determine the impact a book has had. Sales are an interesting, though flawed index, mainly of interest to the authors and their agents. Reviews, not sales, tell us something about the work’s ‘critical reception.’ Reviewers get few rewards. They are the derivators and parasites. A critic, at worst, is someone incapable of original work. He (she) has to make a living feeding on the corpses of great (or not so great) writing.

I have written and published about 30 book reviews and a few film reviews as well. I rationalize my existence as a derivator and parasite with the thought that I have also published some original work, some of which has been reviewed by others, and the thought that I don’t care how many people read my reviews (which is a lie I tell myself). Preparing a review is my way of forcing myself to read a book thoughtfully. Knowing that I will articulate my summary, criticism, and response in writing gets me to reflect on the work and to find my reaction to it. It does not allow me to sit and consume. I therefore review only books that I care about and whose message I want to remember, as well as what I wrote about it. The reviews are a personal archive that I can consult when trying to reconstruct my own thinking.

My strategy is simple. I read the book (I stick to old-fashioned paper copies), underline what I consider important and write notes in the margins. On the second round, I focus on the underlined parts and the margin notes and transcribe them into a text file. As I do this, additional thoughts, comments, and reflections tend to well up, which I also jot down. During this second round, I ask for each chapter what the author wants to accomplish and whether the goal was reached. On the third round, I ask if the book, across chapters, follows an overall arc. If I can discern one, I try to capture it in my own words; if I can’t, I tend to make a critical note of that. I think the decisive element of a good book review is that it manages to bring out a comparison between the book as it is and the ideal that it could be. Making this comparison need not be a negativistic enterprise, but it puts the book as it is into perspective. I do not wish to create the impression that I, as the critic, know so much better than the author what the book should be. Instead, as the critic I am a dwarf standing on the shoulders of the author, the giant. Only through reading and thinking about the book am I able to imagine possibilities beyond the text at hand. If I consider a book complete garbage, I will not review it. Truth be told, though, there are a couple of book reviews that I wrote from a perspective of hostility. I questioned the authors’ motives and felt an obligation to make my reaction known.

The hardest part of writing a book review is to give it its own flavor and coherence. A good review is never a mere list of summary statements and critical points. The review must have its own Gestalt . How does one make that happen? As noted above, being able to articulate the ideal version to the real book is one step in that direction, but it is still derivative. It is not original. So what then? There is no single recipe, but there are a few heuristics that I have found useful. [1] Try to tell a story. Find a plot around which the elements of review and criticism can be woven. [2] Import a format one would think is alien to book reviews and adapt it. For example, I wrote one review as a dialogue constructed from quotes from the text and questions I inserted (all this with full disclosure about how it was done). [3] Cast the review of the book within a context of other books. Tell the reader what is distinctive about this piece. [4] Pick a particular - and unusual - lens for the review and stick with it (e.g., review a technical book from a poet’s point of view or vice versa ). [5] Don't shy away from expressing your feelings. If you tried to create the impression that you are reviewing a book on behalf of an entire scholarly community, well, who are you kidding? [6] Write two reviews: one positive and one negative. This works well if you can also provide a story that justifies why you had to do this. [7] (I haven’t tried this yet, but I am looking forward to doing it) Write a negative (in the photographic sense) Review by discussing everything the book could have said but did not. The reader (if you have any) will catch on and infer what you are thinking about the contents of the book from what you are saying about the omitted/absent material. [8] Remember that book reviewing is an opportunity to engage in creative writing. Stay away from lifeless phrases (“This book is a welcome addition to blahblahblah”).

To teach his own

Having reflected on the psychology and the craft of writing a book review, the obvious question (to me) is whether and how the review approach to reading and learning can be leveraged (not a fan of this word) for teaching. Nothing teaches as well as an experiment. So I will try. In a blocked seminar, which I will teach in a remote corner of a certain Alpine republic, students will meet for 4 full days. Fired by mélange and an irrepressible urge to know, they will read Gerg Gigerenzer's (2008) Rationality for mortals , a collection of publications that introduces us mortals to the approach Gerd has taken to the study of judgment and decision-making . I will ask the students to read and work through the chapters in small groups, take individual and group notes, present the group's view (including minority reports) to the plenum and then prepare a collectively authored review. My job will not be to lecture, but to facilitate, which sounds easier, but is in fact more nerve-wracking because of the need to accept uncertainty and tolerate ambiguity. But then again, this is what Gerd's work is about. I will sit down and pack up a toolbox of heuristics that will get me through the day(s). A steady supply of mélange is sure going to be among them.

Gigerenzer, G. (2008). Rationality for mortals: How people cope with uncertainty . New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

PS: Jewish humor

Long ago, Israeli satirist Ephraim Kishon wrote an essay on how he reviewed a book (perhaps it was a movie) without having read (seen) it. The outcome was hilarious. On a more serious note, it strikes me that writing a review out of nothing ought to be attempted from time to time to give us (the reviewer) a baseline from zero-acquaintance as it were. Is this madness? Not really. Suppose, for the sake of argument, I am quite familiar with Gerd's work and so I might be able to fool the novice reader (again, only for the sake of argument). More recently (post Kishon), Jerry Seinfeld in his eponymous show had his sidekick George (the shlemiehl and shlimazal) attempt to produce a book review out of nothing for a book club discussion. Predictably, it did not go well, but it was hilarious.

A provost of our university once urged faculty to become more entrepreneurial . The man was trained at the University of Chicago after all. My reaction was: if I wanted to be an entrepreneur, I would not have gone into academia. Now, hardened by age, I am ready to comply. I will sell groupons for participation in the course. Buy one, get another one half off.

Joachim I. Krueger, Ph.D. , is a social psychologist at Brown University who believes that rational thinking and socially responsible behavior are attainable goals.

• Find a Therapist
• Find a Treatment Center
• Find a Psychiatrist
• Find a Support Group
• Find Online Therapy
• United States
• Brooklyn, NY
• Chicago, IL
• Houston, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• New York, NY
• Portland, OR
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Washington, DC
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Relationships
• Child Development
• Self Tests NEW
• Therapy Center
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

At any moment, someone’s aggravating behavior or our own bad luck can set us off on an emotional spiral that threatens to derail our entire day. Here’s how we can face our triggers with less reactivity so that we can get on with our lives.

• Emotional Intelligence
• Gaslighting
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

American Psychological Association

The impact of transgender legislation

Psychological science points to an increased risk of suicide and poor mental health amid a record number of bills aimed at restricting the rights of the LGBTQ+ population

APA policy supporting transgender, gender diverse, nonbinary individuals

Membership in APA

APA Community

A new exclusive destination tailored for APA members

Membership benefits

Unlock the tools, discounts, and services included with your membership

Renew your membership

Keep your benefits and access to leading psychological information

Psychology topics spotlight

Misinformation and disinformation

Resources to navigate trauma

Tips to foster a healthy workplace

Science and practice of psychology

Ethics Code

Continuing Education

Grants, Awards, and Funding

Standards and Guidelines

Networks and communities

Network with peers, enhance your professional development, expand your personal growth, and more

APA Divisions

High school teachers

Undergraduate educators

Graduate students

Early career psychologists

Managing your career

Resources to help you throughout your career in psychology, including finding a job, salary data, finances and money management, mentoring and supervision, and training and professional development

Explore career paths

Psychologist profiles

How did you get that job?

Events and training

Featured jobs

Apa publications and products.

Write with clarity, precision, and inclusion

Children’s books

Monitor on Psychology

Newsletters

Reports and surveys

Continuing education

Merchandise

Real Siblings

Jacob's Missing Book

Harper Becomes a Big Sister

Attachment-Based Family Therapy for Sexual and Gender Minority Young Adults and Their Non-Accepting Parents

Dismantling Everyday Discrimination

APA Services

Learn how you can help APA advocate for psychology-informed federal policy and legislation, and support psychological research

APA Services, Inc.

A companion professional organization to APA, serving all members and advocating for psychology

Reference Examples

More than 100 reference examples and their corresponding in-text citations are presented in the seventh edition Publication Manual . Examples of the most common works that writers cite are provided on this page; additional examples are available in the Publication Manual .

To find the reference example you need, first select a category (e.g., periodicals) and then choose the appropriate type of work (e.g., journal article ) and follow the relevant example.

When selecting a category, use the webpages and websites category only when a work does not fit better within another category. For example, a report from a government website would use the reports category, whereas a page on a government website that is not a report or other work would use the webpages and websites category.

Also note that print and electronic references are largely the same. For example, to cite both print books and ebooks, use the books and reference works category and then choose the appropriate type of work (i.e., book ) and follow the relevant example (e.g., whole authored book ).

Examples on these pages illustrate the details of reference formats. We make every attempt to show examples that are in keeping with APA Style’s guiding principles of inclusivity and bias-free language. These examples are presented out of context only to demonstrate formatting issues (e.g., which elements to italicize, where punctuation is needed, placement of parentheses). References, including these examples, are not inherently endorsements for the ideas or content of the works themselves. An author may cite a work to support a statement or an idea, to critique that work, or for many other reasons. For more examples, see our sample papers .

Reference examples are covered in the seventh edition APA Style manuals in the Publication Manual Chapter 10 and the Concise Guide Chapter 10

Related handouts

• Common Reference Examples Guide (PDF, 147KB)
• Reference Quick Guide (PDF, 225KB)

Textual Works

Textual works are covered in Sections 10.1–10.8 of the Publication Manual . The most common categories and examples are presented here. For the reviews of other works category, see Section 10.7.

• Journal Article References
• Magazine Article References
• Newspaper Article References
• Blog Post and Blog Comment References
• UpToDate Article References
• Book/Ebook References
• Diagnostic Manual References
• Children’s Book or Other Illustrated Book References
• Classroom Course Pack Material References
• Religious Work References
• Chapter in an Edited Book/Ebook References
• Dictionary Entry References
• Wikipedia Entry References
• Report by a Government Agency References
• Report with Individual Authors References
• Brochure References
• Ethics Code References
• Fact Sheet References
• ISO Standard References
• Press Release References
• White Paper References
• Conference Presentation References
• Conference Proceeding References
• Published Dissertation or Thesis References
• Unpublished Dissertation or Thesis References
• ERIC Database References
• Preprint Article References

Data and Assessments

Data sets are covered in Section 10.9 of the Publication Manual . For the software and tests categories, see Sections 10.10 and 10.11.

• Data Set References
• Toolbox References

Audiovisual Media

Audiovisual media are covered in Sections 10.12–10.14 of the Publication Manual . The most common examples are presented together here. In the manual, these examples and more are separated into categories for audiovisual, audio, and visual media.

• Artwork References
• Clip Art or Stock Image References
• Film and Television References
• Musical Score References
• Online Course or MOOC References
• Podcast References
• PowerPoint Slide or Lecture Note References
• Radio Broadcast References
• TED Talk References
• Transcript of an Audiovisual Work References
• YouTube Video References

Online Media

Online media are covered in Sections 10.15 and 10.16 of the Publication Manual . Please note that blog posts are part of the periodicals category.

• Facebook References
• Instagram References
• LinkedIn References
• Online Forum (e.g., Reddit) References
• TikTok References
• X References
• Webpage on a Website References
• Clinical Practice References
• Open Educational Resource References
• Whole Website References