Books about psychology?

[ramuman]

What are some good books on the topic for someone to read who has a scientific background (bio, etc.), but little in the way of psychology? Basically what causes certain behavioral traits etc.? It doesn't have to business oriented as I'm just curious about the topic. I don't want a self-help book or something on influencing people.

 

[HgaleK]

A used psych textbook will probably provide what you're looking for, but you may want to check this and this as well. Otherwise, there are some pretty good resources on the internet. I realize that you're looking for a book, but these may be of interest. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/perscontents.html http://personality-project.org/ http://www.socialpsychology.org/ http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/ http://www.all-about-psychology.com/...sychology.html http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/topic.htm http://www.psychologytoday.com/

 

[Matt]

I stumbled across Psychology for Dummies in a discount bin in a Hong Kong bookstore and read it recently. It's not bad as a super-intro-level text.

 

[Annadale]

Passer & Smith- Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour (2007) McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; 4 edition (October 25, 2007)

This is a basic primer, undergrad level, with hundreds if not thousands of references to published papers etc. If you have access to j-stor,( i'm assuming you have with your scientific background), prepare to get swamped with material. They bring out a new edition each year, supposedly to keep the info up to date, but i think it is more to do with swelling the coffers of the publishing house, rather than adding ground-breaking new work. It is expensive, around 80 euros new if I remember correctly,so a second -hand one from Amazon will do you fine. Should come with a CD that will get you onto some of the secondary material, with quirky links to famous past experiments (Stanford Prison Experiment for one). It's good stuff, if a little dry at times. Hope this is helpful.
Don't bother with the **** and Mitterer one mentioned in the list that HgaleK gave the web link for. It is basically the same price as Passer and Smith with half the content. A load of shite.

 

[Piato]

Alternatively, you could search the Yale courses on iTunes U for an Intro Psych seminar by Paul Bloom. He's a top Developmental psychologist, and the course is quite thorough and witty.

 

[Master Milano]

best way is to get a textbook

 

[somatoform]

'Psychology' by Peter Gray; 'Abnormal Psychology' by Holmes; 'Intro to Clinical Psych' by Nietzel are all ok.

Obviously you want the most general text since your request is so general: what causes certain traits? Depends on what kind of clinical psychologist you ask.

That said, a general intro textbook will offer a very lopsided view since in every text it's always the medical/neural-hormonal/hereditary variation of psychology which gets super-emphasized with Existential psych and Psychoanalysis at the very bottom of being paid attention to, and the manner in which the latter two are written on is pretty appaling at times. That's been my experience.

Hence, no general text can do what general texts on each of the major sub-disciplines can do (humanistic, existential, cognitive-behavioral, and medical model).

 

[StephenHero]

I had this textbook and thoroughly enjoyed it.