"The Rough Guide to Psychology" looks at the question psychologists have been asking for over a hundred years - why are we the way we are? It starts with you, your mind and brain, broadening out to look at your friends and other relationships, then finally on to crowds, mobs and religion. It explores the latest research relevant to crime, schooling, sport, politics, shopping and health, and what happens when the mind goes wrong, including depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and more unusual conditions. "The Rough Guide to Psychology" includes fascinating information on real-life psychology, testing your memory, intelligence, personality and much more, with advice on everything from chat-up lines to developing your creativity. "The Rough Guide to Psychology" is your ultimate guide to this fascinating subject.
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About the Author
Christian Jarrett is an award-winning journalist for The Psychologist journal, the flagship publication of the British Psychological Society. He has also written for New Scientist magazine and is currently a finalist in the inaugural Research Blogging Awards for Best Psychology Blog and Best Research Twitterer.
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More About the Author
Dr Christian Jarrett is a psychologist turned writer, specialising in all things mind, brain and behaviour. He's founding editor of the British Psychological Society's award-winning Research Digest blog; staff writer on their house magazine The Psychologist; he writes a monthly blog for Psychology Today; and a monthly column for 99U, the New York-based creativity think tank. He's author of The Rough Guide To Psychology and currently writing Great Myths of the Brain, to be published by Wiley-Blackwell. He was editor and lead author of 30-Second Psychology; co-author of This Book Has Issues, Adventures in Popular Psychology; and he contributed to 30-Second Theories and Mind Hacks. Christian's writing has also appeared in The Times, The Guardian, New Scientist, BBC Focus, Psychologies, Wired UK, Outdoor Fitness, and many other outlets.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By Buddha Baby
Format:Paperback
It's always been funny to me how defensive people get when they hear psychological explanations for behavior. Guess we all crave being unique, and don't want our behavior to be so easily explained or worse yet, predicted, by anyone. However what is funny about our cultural skepticism of psychology is that in reality, we would have a hard time finding a bigger skeptic than a research psychologist! They never want to hear your instinctual explanations for behavior - they always want to know EXACTLY how you know something about behavior is true. This book will tell you exactly that - how psychologist know something about behavior is true and/or predictable. Dr. Jarrett presents the research behind the main body of work of psychology. He tells you HOW we know. He begins by describing and defining what a scientific experiment is - really just an expansion on what you learned in preparing your grade school science fair experiment, this time applied to behavior. Are you interested in how psychologists define and measure different types of intelligence? The answer is here. Do you want to know how to "boost your happiness"? The fact and experimentally proven answer is here. Are you interested in what it means to "fall in love" and specifically what happens? Here's the research. Want to know about sexual responses? Yep, it's here too. Some other interesting topics covered are crime, religion, politics (why do you vote the way you do?), shopping (why do you cave in and buy that unneeded item?).
As a retired psychology professor I highly recommend this book. It is not "pop psych" as you find in some popular books and magazines, but research based, evidence based psychology. This is solid information presented in an easily understood and interesting format.
As a retired psychology professor I highly recommend this book. It is not "pop psych" as you find in some popular books and magazines, but research based, evidence based psychology. This is solid information presented in an easily understood and interesting format.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By A customer
Format:Paperback
I never write reviews unless I feel compelled to based off how much I truly love the book. This is one of those books. To be honest, I think the author should have titled this book something different. The title gives off the impression of an "introduction" book, although I find it to be much more than that. I would not have read this unless I personally scanned the pages at the library. While the book does cover many "introductory" subjects, it goes into such deeper meaning with them. Additionally, many fascinating topics are covered, such as why we cry, the meaning of dreams, how deja-vu happens, etc. All of these subjects are backed up with research and discussed with insight by the author.
One of the best things about this book to me is how diverse it is, in that I mean how many ways it can be put to use. For one, it is a great intro text to those thinking about going into psychology, or those who are just interested in the subject. Two, this is the first book that truly explains "why people think and behave the way they do". This is such an enormous question, but the author answers it by covering every topic imaginable to take it on. Lastly, in an odd sort of way, in my opinion this book can be a "self-help" book, but not in the traditional sense that comes to mind. I mean in the sense of enhancing one's meta-cognition. Meta-cognition is "cognition about cognition" or "knowing about knowing". Essentially, it refers to a level of thinking that involves active control over the process of thinking that is used in learning situations. Once you are aware of the vast inner workings of your mind, you become better equipped and prepared to self-regulate when there is a need to. It is said to play an important role in many issues. For example, learning about ADHD is said to be an important component of treatment for ADHD. This is because the individual learns about the many factors that contribute to ADHD (short term memory deficits, attention span, impulsivity, etc.) Once the individual has an in-depth understanding of these factors, they are better prepared to learn cognitive strategies to regulate them and lessen the symptoms. The author covers each topic with so much breadth and meaning that he gives you the meta-cognition tools to better understand and regulate anything should you need to. A simple example in the book is when he discusses how people often lose sleep in a self-perpetuating way as sufferers grow increasingly anxious about their lack of sleep. The author mentions how some research supports worrying about not having enough sleep can be more debilitating than the lack of sleep itself. A study was cited in which researchers tricked insomniac students into thinking they'd had less sleep than they really had. This caused the students to have more negative thoughts, feel more sleepy, and perform more sleep-related monitoring (e.g. sore eyes) even though the actual quality of their sleep was the same on days they were given positive feedback. With this information, you become more aware of those anxious thoughts once you enter the bedroom, and thus in a better position to suppress them. I could go on and on about this book...it's underrated in my opinion.
One of the best things about this book to me is how diverse it is, in that I mean how many ways it can be put to use. For one, it is a great intro text to those thinking about going into psychology, or those who are just interested in the subject. Two, this is the first book that truly explains "why people think and behave the way they do". This is such an enormous question, but the author answers it by covering every topic imaginable to take it on. Lastly, in an odd sort of way, in my opinion this book can be a "self-help" book, but not in the traditional sense that comes to mind. I mean in the sense of enhancing one's meta-cognition. Meta-cognition is "cognition about cognition" or "knowing about knowing". Essentially, it refers to a level of thinking that involves active control over the process of thinking that is used in learning situations. Once you are aware of the vast inner workings of your mind, you become better equipped and prepared to self-regulate when there is a need to. It is said to play an important role in many issues. For example, learning about ADHD is said to be an important component of treatment for ADHD. This is because the individual learns about the many factors that contribute to ADHD (short term memory deficits, attention span, impulsivity, etc.) Once the individual has an in-depth understanding of these factors, they are better prepared to learn cognitive strategies to regulate them and lessen the symptoms. The author covers each topic with so much breadth and meaning that he gives you the meta-cognition tools to better understand and regulate anything should you need to. A simple example in the book is when he discusses how people often lose sleep in a self-perpetuating way as sufferers grow increasingly anxious about their lack of sleep. The author mentions how some research supports worrying about not having enough sleep can be more debilitating than the lack of sleep itself. A study was cited in which researchers tricked insomniac students into thinking they'd had less sleep than they really had. This caused the students to have more negative thoughts, feel more sleepy, and perform more sleep-related monitoring (e.g. sore eyes) even though the actual quality of their sleep was the same on days they were given positive feedback. With this information, you become more aware of those anxious thoughts once you enter the bedroom, and thus in a better position to suppress them. I could go on and on about this book...it's underrated in my opinion.
By mrdlc
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Very nice tour of the psychology landscape with a nice emphasis on pointing out what's evidenced based without necessarily putting down those that are less tested. I like that it contains the latest and most current thinking. Because of the broadness of the scope, it is indeed a rough guide,...but nonetheless a smooth read. Well done.
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