Customer Reviews

Psychology for Dummies

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having an interest in psychology, mainly the treatment of anxiety and depression, I picked this book up. The only other book on psychology I had read was my college textbook (which was actually a pretty darn good book too). Anyways, don't let the unfortunate title 'For Dummies' mislead you. This book was a very good, very readable, and most importantly enjoyable initiation into the topic of psychology I think anyone could find. The subject is treated with respect, explored in adequate depth and when finished leaves the reader not only with a better understanding of what psychology is about, but also with a hunger to learn more. Outstanding book and highly recommended.

Psychology for Dummies provided a lot of very good information, but also was plagued with some poor editing and factual inaccuracies.

Positives:
1. Writing style: The author writes with a good 'conversational' writing style that is easy to follow and made reading the entire book very easy.
2. Use of examples: The author's use of examples were effective in helping me understand the ideas being explained.

Negatives:
1. Typos: There were quite a few typos that detract from an otherwise high quality writing
2. Factual mistakes: There were a few minor mistakes of fact which, while not material to the subject of the book, do cause further detraction from the book (for example: Sun Tzu was from what is today China, not Japan.. he was a General, not a Judo expert... and his book was "The Art of War", not "The Art of Peace"). Again, this is not material to the subject covered in the book, but is a bit of a distraction.
3. Covered some unrelated material that should have been let out of the book. As only on example, the book spends time going over the physical development of the body of a fetus during the nine months of pregnancy. Removing this part could have left more room to cover psychology (such as human development beyond adolescence).

Overall, I was highly impressed with the book. I am a slow reader, but was still able to read it cover to cover in less than two weeks. The author is clearly very knowledgeable, and does a very good job synthesizing information and explaining it in a way that us "dummies" can understand. I do recommend this book if you are interested in getting a broad overview of psychology, theories, and types of treatment. I particularly liked the discussions about personality, forensic (criminal) psychology, etc.

William

I love the dummies books. They helped me get my A+, and MCSE certificates. Now they are helping me get my Degree. This book is helping me test out of the Into to Psych class. Very easy read, informative, and won't bore you to death.

Anyone who has endured the quintessential coliseum-sized university Psych 101 class and recalls more than half of its contents does not need to read this book. But newcomers to psychology and those needing a cleansing refresh will obtain a decent high-level understanding of the basics. For those in that latter category, ignore the self-deprecating and unnecessary subtitle "for dummies" and tread onwards. This book, thicker than it appears, will guide the uninitiated (or re-initiated) through intimidating hedgerows of concepts, terminology, and history. At times it's even fun, believe it or not. Each of its eight parts deals with a particular psychological theme. These parts cover everything from the brain as the foundation of mind to personality development, abnormal psychology, Freud and Jung, engaging in therapy, types of therapy, even movie recommendations. Given the girth of material covered, each topic receives a decent skimming rather than a detailed plunge. But those wanting such an overview should start here. If nothing else, this book should help readers determine if psychology indeed rings their Pavlovian bells (see chapter eight if you don't know that reference).

A basic theme throughout involves the "biopsychosocial" model. This model states that we're all products of our biology, our psychologies, and our societies and cultures. All contribute to our sense of self and others. The sections on biology delve into that elusive skull-encased wet mass known as the brain. Cool words such as "corpus callosum" and "basal ganglia" receive adequate explanation. Another section describes how our nervous system converts light, sound, mechanical and chemical energy into electrochemical energy that our brain can process. In essence, we interact with the world via transduction of various energy forms. Things start getting emotional when the book moves into psychological aspects, the book delves into Maslow's famous hierarchy of needs, optimal level of arousal theory, and opponent process theory. There's also a very touchy-feely discussion on the different types of love. Of course Freud appears. No survey of psychology can exist without him Though he remains controversial, his ideas of the subconscious, Id, Ego, and Superego still hold influence. A scintillatingly titled section "to poop or not to poop" delineates one of Freud's more messy developmental stages. Finally, our social aspects get covered in sections on social psychology, which include discussions of conformity, persuasion, and empathy. Other sections explore: chromosomes (X or Y?), what's "normal," schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, forensic psychology, and psychological testing (MMPI, etc.). Later, the book covers the different types of therapies in some detail, such as psychotherapy, cognitive, client-centered, and existential. Ultimately, these sections seem to favor an approach that doesn't categorize people into discrete theories or approaches. The sway seems more towards client-centered and existential therapies. Two final sections contain top ten lists. The first, "Ten Tips for Maintaining Psychological Health," introduces "positive psychology," a new emphasis on what's "right" rather than what's "wrong." The final section lists "Ten Great Psychological Movies." Some great movies appear, such as "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" "A Clockwork Orange" and "Psycho." Many disturbing cinematic experiences await!

Though "Psychology for Dummies" provides a good overview of its subject matter for beginners, the book contains one very annoying feature: its lack of a bibliography. References to studies, books, and articles pepper the text, but they go no further than "Eron, 1987" or "Rushton et al, 1986." Usually a bibliography at the end of the book fills in the attribution, but readers will search in vain for such a thing here. This turns what could be a simple lookup into a research project. Hopefully a future edition will address this problem. Nonetheless, this won't keep readers from stuffing their skulls with the basics of psychology. If you haven't started yet, start here.

This is truly an excellent book. Will help People who are doing thier first course on Psychology as well as an excellent introduction to the subject.

I bought this book as a handy suplement to my introduction to psychology textbook. The book is great, though not as detailed as a textbook, it explains terms and definitions in plain english. I love this book.

My son asked me to find him an intro book to psycology. This was it. It is written in the format of all the other "For Dummies" books. It has alot of good info in it.

This book was purchased to assist my daughter as she entered college. With the desire to become a Psychologist, this book has assisted her in understanding the basics. This book has been a great investment.

when it comes to basics, it defeniately covers it.. fun to learn through this book...

This is really a great book. i learned so much from it and its very pleasant to read. you can clearly tell that adam cash the author knows what hes talking about.