Short Cuts: Psychology: Navigate Your Way Through Big Ideas

by Jennifer Wild

A LAUNCH TITLE FOR ICON BOOKS' BRAND-NEW SHORT CUTS SERIESWhat with visual illusions and misinformation, positive mindsets and negative thoughts, social anxiety and personal constructs, the modern landscape of the human mind is an intriguing place to explore. But how are you expected to navigate this hidden world?Short Psychology provides the map you need to start exploring seriously big ideas. Fifty quickfire questions lead to 'short cut' answers written by experts in their field, with each one the setting-off point for clear directions to help you plot your route through an essential concept.With one-stop graphics presenting a memorable image for each idea, and route-map glossaries explaining key words and their connections, Short Psychology will lead you through a world of intellectual wonders.

Genres: Psychology

Kindle Edition

First published February 15, 2024

Reviews

[María]

Está chuli, a ver te adentra en los descubrimientos y experimentos más conocidos y curiosos de la psicología y está muy bien explicado. La división que hace de las distintas ramas de la psicología también está genial y de verdad GRACIAS por nombrar a psicólogas e investigadoras relevantes 💜

[Book_Worm]

Helpful but only because of my Psych exam coming up. I feel like the bunch of descriptions were a little too much it made the book boring but helpful at the same time.

[Leah Castelli]

I was excited for this book because it was only the second nonfiction book I have read that wasn’t an autobiography, and I have always enjoyed psychology. For some reason however, this book was mostly boring and I struggled a lot to stay focused while reading. It was informative though

[Celine Kaye]

I found reading Short Cuts Psychology to be an interesting read about psychology. For instance, the chapter on the Milgram study revealed that although Milgram's lab coat experiment was the most famous, his experiment like many psychologists in the 50s and 60s actually came out of World War II's aftermath and that he also did 30 less famous replications of the same experiment which had different results because the location changed, another student resisted, and the experimenter did not wear a lab coat. Then, another chapter that amazed me was the Yerkes-Dodson law. I learned that this law originally came in 1909 when two psychologists experimented on rats which revealed that a moderate stress level was most optimal because too little stress led to lethargy while too much stress can lead to anxiety and disorganization. After that, the graphic of Erickson's stages depicted a theater to depict the various stages of human development. For instance, the backstage and stage embodies infancy, childhood, and adolescence while the stands and the wings embody young adulthood, middle age, and old age. On groupthink, they used historical examples like Pearl Harbor and the Cubaan Missile Crisis to highlight that costly errors occured due to a desire for harmony. Lastly, on facial recognition, the chapter on propagnosia was epic as it highlighted that with propagnosia, the face of a man made up of vegetables is just vegetables because faces including their own are not recognized.

[Emmanuel Deroeux]

Dirigé par le Dr Jennifer Wild, ce livre offre une introduction accessible et complète à la psychologie. Couvrant les théories classiques et modernes, il se distingue par sa clarté et sa structure innovante. Les résumés concis et les illustrations de Robert Brandt facilitent la compréhension. Un ouvrage agréable qui donne les clés pour approfondir le sujet.
Une excellente introduction à la psychologie, alliant accessibilité et profondeur, idéale pour les débutants comme pour ceux souhaitant actualiser leurs connaissances.

[María de los Ángeles Lima]

Para alguien que no es experto o cuya profesión es otra es una gran herramienta para adentrarte a un mundo que está en constante evolución, la mente humana.
Es increíble como factores que pueden parecer simples o obvios marcan diferencias significativa.
Útil y un abrebocas para conocer más sobre las emociones, inteligencia emocional, empatía y como podemos seguir floreciendo.

[Avery1]

Broke my brain a lil

[Denise Muñoz]

Wild distills decades of dense clinical research to lay bare the hidden heuristics and cognitive shortcuts governing human behavior. She reconstructs decision-making biases, emotional regulation strategies, and behavioral patterns, treating psychological principles not as abstract academic theory, but as an actionable operating system for the mind.

Why It Matters
It replaces confusing medical jargon with immediate, self-reflective cognitive mastery. Wild demonstrates that if you remain blind to the subconscious shortcuts your brain takes every second, you surrender control over your own choices and reactions.

So Why Read It
A sharp, accessible framework for self-awareness that trains you to audit your own mental processes in real time. Crucial reading for anyone wanting to decipher the hidden motives and biases behind human actions.

[Susie]

This was a great book; it was thought provoking and easy to read. Answered lots of questions I had.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.