The Rough Guide to Psychology (Rough Guide Reference Series)

378 Pages·2011·7.02 MB·English

by  Christian Jarrett

T h e R o u g h G u i d e t o
PSYCHOLOGY
an introduction to human behaviour and the mind
Dr Christian Jarrett
ROUGHGUIDES
THE ROUGH GUIDE TO
Psychology
Dr Christian Jarrett
www.roughguides.com
Credits
The Rough Guide to Psychology Rough Guides Reference
Editing & picture research: Joe Staines Editors: Kate Berens, Tom Cabot,
Typesetting: Pradeep Thapliyal Tracy Hopkins, Matthew Milton,
Diagrams: Katie Lloyd-Jones Joe Staines, Ruth Tidball
Proofreading: Neil Foxlee Director: Andrew Lockett
Production: Rebecca Short
Publishing Information
Published April 2011 by
Rough Guides Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
345 Hudson St, 4th Floor, New York 10014, USA
Email:
Contents
Preface v
Acknowledgements vi
Introduction: What is psychology? 3
Part I: Welcome to you
1 How you see yourself 23
2 Your brain 34
3 Your sense of the world and movement within it 55
4 Your memories 74
5 Decisions and emotions 89
6 Your development 105
Part II: You and me
7 Personal relationships 133
8 Romantic interest 147
9 Talking to each other 156
Part III: Same difference
10 Nature–Nurture 171
11 Personality 176
12 Intelligence 186
13 Gender and species differences 202
Part IV: All of us
14 Prejudice and racism 215
15 Beliefs and morals 223
16 Dangerous mobs vs. wise crowds 240
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THE ROUGH GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGY
Part V: Psychology at large
17 The psychology of crime 253
18 Business psychology 263
19 Money and shopping 274
20 Politics and persuasion 282
21 Psychology at school 290
22 Sport 299
23 Bodily health 306
Part VI: Psychological problems
24 Developmental conditions 317
25 Depression and anxiety 323
26 Schizophrenia 334
27 Therapy and positive psychology 341
Part VII: Resources
28 Books, magazines and multimedia 357
Index 363
Picture credits 370
iv
Preface
As this book goes to print, the UK government has just announced plans
to start measuring the happiness of the country’s citizens. Together
with frequent brain-based science breakthroughs and endless media
comment on mental health, work stress and celebrity breakdowns, it’s
yet another sign of how psychological issues are higher up the public
agenda than ever before.
Psychology is about turning the objective scientific approach inwards
to study ourselves and why we behave the way we do. Conjecture and
intuition are put to one side and potential explanations are tested with
experiments, just as they are in more traditional sciences.
Psychology isn’t perfect. Most of its experiments are conducted with
participants from the industrialized West, often with small sample sizes
and findings too rarely followed up over time. That doesn’t mean we
should reject it as a pseudoscience. On the contrary, by recognizing the
value of quality psychological research and providing the discipline with
adequate funding and resources, we all gain – whether through reducing
prejudice or improving treatments for mental health, or by finding more
effective ways to combat global problems such as climate change.
How this book works
The Rough Guide to Psychology brings you up to speed with the very latest
findings from hundreds of psychology experiments. It tells you about the
discipline’s history as well as the latest interpretations of classic experi-
ments, such as Stanley Milgram’s controversial research into obedience,
and famous case studies, like that of Phineas Gage, the nineteenth-century
railway worker who survived an iron rod passing through his brain.
This is not a textbook and the material isn’t always arranged by
sub-discipline, the way psychology tends to be studied in schools and
universities. Instead, it starts with you, the reader, working outwards
to your personal relationships and then on to society at large. Later
sections deal with the way psychology is applied to the real world,
for example in politics, business and education. Finally, the focus
shifts to psychological problems, including depression, anxiety and
schizophrenia, and to therapeutic approaches, from psychoanalysis to
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
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THE ROUGH GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGY
The book contains frequent references to experiments and case
studies, and, wherever possible, names and dates are provided to help
you track down the original research online. By the end, you’ll have
discovered that many psychological findings are humbling – we’re far
more flawed and error-prone than we like to think. You’ll also have
discovered how psychology can be used to navigate these weaknesses,
exploit our strengths and improve people’s lives, not just through
therapy but in every sphere of contemporary life – in industry, in
schools and in hospitals. There is so much more to learn, and the book
ends with a list of useful resources – from websites and blogs to books
and organizations.
Acknowledegments
Many thanks to Ruth Tidball and Joe Staines at Rough Guides: Ruth for
proposing the book and her warm encouragement in the early months;
Joe for his diligent editing and many constructive suggestions.
I’d like to thank the British Psychological Society and in particular my
editor there, Jon Sutton, for the opportunities given to me. Much of my
knowledge of psychology research and trends is derived from the work
that I’m lucky enough to do for them.
I’m grateful to Klaus Scherer at the Centre for Affective Sciences for
permission to adapt some text on emotion that I wrote previously for the
Centre’s website. Thanks also to Tom Stafford whose conference presen-
tation provided the inspiration for the box on page 59, and to Vaughan
Bell whose writing and links on the Mind Hacks blog are an endlessly
valuable resource.
I read many books in preparation for writing this guide and I’d like to
acknowledge several of the authors whose writing I found particularly
informative and inspiring. These include: Steven Pinker, Dan Ariely,
Matt Ridley, James Surowiecki and Alison Gopnik.
I’m grateful too to the authors of countless articles published in The
Psychologist, New Scientist, The APS Observer and Scientific American Mind,
from which I learned so much. I’d also like to recognize the hard work
and ingenuity of the many psychologists whose research and ideas are
discussed in these pages.
Thanks to my mother, Linda, for encouraging me on the path to
writing many years ago. And most of all, thank you to my beloved wife
Jude: I couldn’t have done it without you!
Christian Jarrett, 2010
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The Rough Guide to
Psychology
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