Psych Major

October 1, 2008 10:54 AM

What are your favorite books and sites/blogs about psychology and sociology. I have become increasingly interested in these subjects after reading Cialdini's 'Influence' and Ariely's 'Predictably Irrational'. I have read a few of Maslow's books and find them fascinating. I would be bored stiff reading the DSM or Freud. I am interested in social psychology, i/o psychology, and things like Group Think, Propinquity, and the Ben Franklin Effect.
posted by kaizen to education (18 comments total)

It's not exactly the same, but I felt it was really similar to Ariely's book. You'd probably enjoy Freakonomics.
posted by InsanePenguin at 11:05 AM on October 1

If you want to review the basics of psych research, you could check out Roger Hock's 40 Studies that Changed Psychology.

The basics and background research around Blink and The Tipping Point can be found at: http://www.gladwell.com/

For more interesting discussions of the intersection of psychology/cognitive science, I really like: http://www.edge.org/

And on edge, you can read about George Lakoff: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/lakoff.html
posted by hworth at 11:16 AM on October 1

Overcoming Bias
posted by callmejay at 11:27 AM on October 1 [1 favorite]

The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge.

How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker.

Strangers To Ourselves by Timothy Wilson

Groupthink by Irving Janis

Escaping the Self by Roy Baumeister

A User's Guide To The Brain by John Ratey

The How of Happpiness by Sonya Lyubomirsky

Mirroring People by Marco Iacoboni

The Science Of Fear by Daniel Gardner

An Anthropologist On Mars by Oliver Sacks

This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel Levitin

All of these are well written and present their topics in a fairly substantial way, while still being accessible to the educated layperson.
posted by tdismukes at 11:28 AM on October 1

I have always thought Self-Determination Theory was fascinating.
posted by Silvertree at 11:41 AM on October 1

Felix Guattari
Michel Foucault
Erving Goffman's "Stigma"
posted by rhizome at 12:01 PM on October 1

Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the 20th Century by Lauren Slater
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
Why we Buy: The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill (Amazon says a new edition is on the way)
The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki

and of course, anything by the perennially recommended Malcolm Gladwell.
posted by matildaben at 12:09 PM on October 1

If you like "Predictably Irrational," you might appreciate Daniel Gilbert's "Stumbling On Happiness," which summarizes a lot of research that suggests we're systematically wrong in our predictions of what will make us happy. I predict you will really, really like it.
posted by Beardman at 12:10 PM on October 1

Other AskMe threads that may have recommendations of interest to you:
A-new-way-to-look-at-the-world
Books-to-inspire-me
Yes-I-enjoy-predictably-irrational-long-tail-freakonomics

If you find you want to branch out into other aspects of modern creative nonfiction:
Good-examples-of-exemplary-creative-nonfiction
What-should-the-person-whos-read-everything-read
posted by matildaben at 12:15 PM on October 1

The Abilene Paradox.
posted by ostranenie at 12:20 PM on October 1

One more: I haven't read it, but a friend recommended On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not by Robert Burton.

Sorry to throw so many answers at the thread, but this really is a favorite subject of mine.
posted by matildaben at 12:21 PM on October 1

Goffman's The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life.
posted by ottereroticist at 12:30 PM on October 1 [1 favorite]

Your Money and Your Brain by Jason Zweig has a lot of the same examples of people believing they are logical, when in fact their actions aren't. It specifically revolves around money decisions, as opposed to Predictably Irrational's more general focus.
posted by clerestory at 1:42 PM on October 1

A great ScienceBlog:
Cognitive Daily

Or just keep an eye on the ScienceBlogs Brain and Behavior channel
posted by hydropsyche at 2:37 PM on October 1

Psyblog has loads of recent studies, all usually dealing with general cognitive studies.

hydropsyche has already mentioned the other good brain blog i read regularly.

In addition, occasionally there's some good perspective over at Reality Sandwich's Psyche section. May be too drugged up to be appreciated properly, written for a very specific (surrealist/arty) audience, but you may find some value in it.
posted by phylum sinter at 2:57 PM on October 1

Surprised to not see Blink answered so far, that definitely belongs on this list.
posted by milqman at 3:28 PM on October 1

If you are interested in major historical works but can't stand the idea of Freud, you might like Menninger's Man Against Himself and Vaillant's Adaptation to Life. They're both fascinating and easy to read.

Frankly, I don't know what's so awful about reading Freud. I find that most people who really detest him or his ideas haven't done that.
posted by ikkyu2 at 4:06 PM on October 1

Something that I haven't read yet (but want to) and seems like it might be up your alley is
The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Philip Zimbardo, the guy behind the famous Stanford Prison Experiment.

Also, one book that really made me think differently about language was Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. I know you asked for more social psych-y things, but I just couldn't resist.
posted by rebel_rebel at 5:27 PM on October 1