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Reddit mentions of Introduction to Psychology

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Reddit mentions: 2

We found 2 Reddit mentions of Introduction to Psychology. Here are the top ones.

Introduction to Psychology
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Found 2 comments on Introduction to Psychology:

u/mavnorman · 6 pointsr/AskSocialScience

Yes, a lot, for various definitions of "easily accessible".

Let's first assume, you have some kind of academic education or background. In this case, you're like most psych students who would usually start with a text book. I'm not an English speaker, so my experience is limited (and outdated). However, a quick search leads me to suggest:

  • Introduction to Psychology (11th Ed.) by James W. Kalat (because of its emphasis on "how do we know")
  • Psychology: A Concise Introduction by Richard Griggs due to its price.

    Of course, textbooks are not what a friend of mine would call "bathtub books". They need to be read with attention and dedication. The advantage is that you get a comprehensive overview. Which might be what you want if you're considering to study psychology.

    If you're looking for books that are closer to bookstore bestsellers, the problem is that there's too much one could recommend. Psychology is such a vast field, and most books only pick a few sections (often to sell the author's personal ideas).

    Rather than trying to make specific recommendation for every possible topic, here's a very short introduction.

    Basically, you can think about psychology as an apartment building with four main stories or floors.

  • The ground floor might be called "methodological". This is where people discuss what methods to use to reach their goals. To some degree people here also discuss what goals to pursue in the first place. Many people who live here may not call themselves psychologists, but statisticians, or philosophers (of science).
  • The first floor might be called "biological" (in a wider sense). People here discuss two sorts of questions: (a) How does the brain work on a physical and chemical basis? And (b) why is it the way it is, and not some other way? This is the evolutionary (or biological in the more narrow sense) approach. Again, not everybody working here is a psychologist. Some are physicians, others are biologists, still others are anthropologists.
  • The second floor might be called "personal". Here, people wonder about observations you can make about yourself when you watch yourself thinking. For instance, you know you remember things, so you have a memory. You make decisions, so you need to make judgments. This is the floor where you'll probably find the most people who called themselves psychologists.
  • The third floor might be called "social". This is where people wonder about the interaction of people, their relationships, and possibly the things that arise because of it, such as friendships, institutions, norms, etc. Generally speaking, you probably find the most diversity here, because this is the floor also inhabited by economists, sociologists, etc.

    Now, questions asked on one floor are obviously related to questions on other (lower) floors. People who work in the second floor may emphasize other approaches in the ground floor than people working in the first or third floor.

    It's therefore helpful to also imagine that these floors are inhabited by different teams or coalitions of psychologists. Some teams are mostly situated in one or at most two floors. Others have apartments in all floors.

    And, of course, the constellation keeps on changing. Some teams who once dominated one or more floors now find themselves with only a couple of apartments, and maybe the closet.

    This is what happened to the team called "psychoanalysis" which was founded by people like Freud and Jung. It's probably fair to say that most psychologists today think that their work in the ground floor (the methodological floor) was not quite persuasive. Therefore I would advise against reading books by Freud or Jung, unless you're specifically interested in psychoanalysis, or the history of psychology.

    Another team which once dominated the second floor, but mostly lost it again, is called behaviourism. Although their insights and methods are still in use, they stumbled due to a decision made in the ground floor (namely to reduce the second floor to a single apartment called 'behavior'). This turned out to be too cramped for most psychologists, so this aspect is nowadays mostly ignored.

    Today, the second floor is mostly dominated and inhabited by cognitive psychology, I'd say. Unless, you have other interests, I recommend this one as a good place to start.

    From there, it's easier to explore other floors. Going up to the third floor, for instance, you'll find it mostly dominated by social psychology (as least as far as the building called 'psychology' is concerned). Going down into the first floor, you'll find neuropsychology and evolutionary psychology; the latter still quite young and in some quarters still quite controversial.

    That said, my standard recommendation for getting started in cognitive psychology is:

  • The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us by Chabris and Simons.

    It's a fast tour through the basic sections of the (cognitive) mind – attention, perception, memory, judgment – and, more importantly, the many ways it goes wrong. Although it probably wasn't written to be a readable and short introduction to cognitive psychology, I think it works quite well as such.

    After reading it, you should be able to ask a central and important question: If humans make so many mistakes, how can psychologists (in particular, but also scientists, in general) prevent making these themselves? This basic question brings you straight to the ground floor from which most of psychology's history can be understood.

    Hope this helps.