book review # 28 The Psychology Book

Book review # 28 The Psychology Book

If you recently walked into AsisBooks or Kinokuniya lately you probably will see a display of three large hardcover bright-colored books that are quite eye-catching. It’s the summary of concepts, thoughts, experiment and opinion concerning Phycology, Economy  and Philosophy. 

Three of them combine with Statistics will make up pretty much all the subject I hate during my educational years. Something I always try to avoid. 

However, as I grow up, I realize that general knowledge of these issues is very useful because the people I meet are from a diverse background and the knowledge about these subjects can become handy. When I study these subjects, without the pressure of having to be graded like in school, some of them are quite fascinating. 

Just like the sciences of Phycology which I have lately found to be very interesting. Because of its adaptivity to real-life situation. Diving into the world of psychology will not only help me understand why people did what they did but also reminds me of how my own mind reacts to various stimuli. 

This book is essentially a reference book for those who are not specialized in this field.The content boiled down each concept and experiments into couple pages. There are 7 main topics which are philosophical roots, behaviorism, psychotherapy, cognitive psychology, social psychology, development philosophy and psychology of difference. 

Some of the highlights I like, just to name a few , are : 

• The unconscious is the true psychical reality : Sigmund Freud 
• Anyone regardless of their nature, can be trained to be anything : John B. Watson
• 24 hours after learning something, we forget two-third of it: Hermann Ebbinghaus
• A peculiar destruction of the internal connections of the phyche : Emil Kraepelin
• The magical number 7 plus or minus 2 George Armitage Miller
• People do what they are told to do: Stanley Milgram
• What happens when you put good people in an evil place? : Philip Zimbardo

The book will bring me to the world I didn’t pay much attention to before i.e. how the minds work. For example, I always wonder what really happened during the famous “Stanford Experiment” (which also inspires a film called “The Experiment”), this book gives me the insights on how it was done and the professional opinion on why people acted what the way they did. 

Normally, when I read a book, I normally finish it before I start another one but since the topics in “Psychology Book” are quite unconventional to me, I use the “bed-time story reading method” i.e. read only couple of topics a day. Personally I think I comprehend more by using this routine. 

It’s a good reference book to have it in your library because I believe it’s important to learn something new everyday. 

8.5/10

Cheers