Good Popular Psychology Books

Adolescenteen

I'm always interesting in reading books about psychology so I loved to hear anything anyone can recommend. I would imagine that others would appreciate this also. I'll start off:

You are not so Smart by David MacRaney - Written by the journalist behind the blog, it's a very good book. As you would expect, it's well written, and there's plenty of sources in the bibliography for further reading. Good introduction into topics like priming, the availability heuristic, sunk-cost fallacy and many others ideas that prove that we are not as rational (or smart) as we would like to believe. Each chapter is about five pages long so it's not too technical.

Thinking, Fast and Slow - More advanced than MacRaney's book from nobel prize winning Psychologist Daniel Kahneman. Covers some of the same material as above, but also focuses on how we make irrational economically choices in every day life. I didn't enjoy all of the economical aspects, but I could see how others would. The main idea behind this book is the relationship between our unconscious mind/fast thinking part of the brain (system 1) and conscious mind/slow thinking part of the brain (system 2). An incredible amount of information coherently fitted into this book. Here's a short video that has discusses some bits of the book - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiTz2i4VHFw&list=UUC552Sd-3nyi_tk2BudLUzA Even if you're not a Psychology lover, it's well worth a buy.

Quiet by Susan Cain - As someone who grew up repeatedly hearing my parents say "Oh, he's just shy" and feeling pigeoned hole for my quietness, I adored this book. Susan discuss how we introverts are not alone and how we shouldn't be ashamed for not being more extroverted. She also discusses many cases where is of benefit to be an introvert in a very extroverted world. If you're on the quiet side, buy this book, you won't regret it.

User's Guide to the Human Mind: Why our Brain makes us Unhappy, Anxious, and Neurotic and what we can do about it by Shawn Smith - A great read that you'll fly through (if you're like me anyway). Shawn Smith is a clinical psychology and explains how it isn't our brains job to make us happy, but rather to keep us alive; how a part of the brain hasn't adjusted to the modern day world; how pessimism was a strong survival trait and how it can be still of use today and much more. Fascinating stuff.

At the moment I'm reading The Secret Life of Pronouns: What our words say about us by James W. Pennebaker. If, like myself, you share a passion for psychology and words (I'm a real hit with the ladies) than you'll really enjoy this. Otherwise, it still might be worth a read, but not a 'must-buy' in any sense.

JuliusCaesar

The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathon Haidt

Waking-Dreams

Irrationality (Stuart Sutherland); Stumbling on Happiness (Daniel Gilbert); Kluge (Gary Marcus); A Mind of its Own (Cordelia Fine).

Odysseus

Love in a Time of Loneliness Paul Verhaeghe, a very easy to read book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Time-Loneliness-ebook/dp/B005Z04A9M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361635914&sr=8-1

mastersg

All Oliver Sacks books are great pop. psych books. I'm a big fan of 'The man who mistook his wife for a Hat' and 'Musicophilia'. I hear Dan Ariely's books on Irrationality are great too.

cheesefiend

Moonwalking with Einstein - a great book about mnemonics, very easy to read and useful in everyday life.

The Brain that Changes Itself - great introduction to neuropsychology and neuroplasticity for anyone interested. Easy to read, and very interesting.

Compu Global Hyper Meganet

Possibly the least sophisticated response ever, but "Why England Lose" by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski uses economic theory and psychology to explain common footballing phenomena. I thought it was interesting, although if you have no interest in football, keep looking!

bureau2009

I recommend "The Examined Life" by Stephen Grosz.

The author is a psychoanalyst and these are stories from the therapist's couch. Gives the reader an understanding of the psychanalytical approach.

Also very much looking forward to a new book by Irvin Yalom to be published March 2015 - "Creatures of a Day".

dar100

Anything by Yalom. Especially his group psychotherapy book

Bowlby's volumes on Attachment Theory.

The Traumatic roots of Destruction, can't think of the author offhand, but takes a psycho-dynamic perspective.

William Wordens, Grief Counselling and Grief Therapy book, is interesting, with lots of practical tips

irish_goat

I enjoyed Predictably Irrational, it's an economic psychology book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Predictably-Irrational-Hidden-Forces-Decisions/dp/0007256531

Valmont

I just finished Predictably Irrational coincidentally and while it was informative I felt Dan Ariely gets a bit carried away with the implications of the research he cites. For example, one chapter is titled 'The Fallacy of Supply and Demand' but doesn't have anything to do with the actual economic laws of supply and demand. On the whole I found Ariely quite arrogant and too willing to generalise the research the book is based upon.