Psychology: Adventures In The Human Mind

by Christian Jarrett, Joanna Ginsburg

Psychology: Adventures in the Human Mind delves deep into the human consciousness and casts light onto the hidden reasons why we feel, think and behave the way we do. Packed with illuminating real-life examples, introductions to groundbreaking psychologists, and plenty of experiments and tests to unveil the way your own mind works.

Divided into eight fascinating chapters, it covers everything from the real reasons we fall in love to the science behind a good night’s sleep. From extreme disorders to the truth behind the ways we live our everyday lives, Psychology: Adventures in the Human Mind takes you on a journey through the amazing landscape of the mind

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Education

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

A cognitive neuroscientist by training, Christian Jarrett has been popularizing psychology and neuroscience for over two decades. His award-winning writing on the mind, brain, and behavior has appeared in publications across the world, including the BBC, New York magazine, VICE, Aeon, The Guardian, GQ, WIRED, and many more. Today he is Editor of Psyche, a digital magazine that illuminates the human condition. Dr. Jarrett has written several critically acclaimed books including The Rough Guide to Psychology and Great Myths of the Brain. He was also a consultant editor and lead author for the best-selling 30-Second Psychology. He lives in the countryside near Brighton, England with his wife and twins (a boy and a girl) and their miniature schnauzer.

Reviews

[Tobias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erg interessant boek dat goed ingaat op de verschillende disciplines van de psychologie. Elk hoofdstuk is duidelijk ingedeeld met elk onderwerp in behapbare blokken. Er wordt veel uitgelegd met goede en duidelijke voorbeelden om een goed beeld te scheppen. Hierdoor is het boek erg educatief voor een vrij dun boek.

Elk hoofdstuk heeft uitlegkaders in zijn eigen kleur. En voor sommige hoofdstukken zijn deze met combinatie op zwarte tekst wel lastiger te lezen.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very informative and easy to read and understand book about basic psychology.

[Ash · Rating 1 out of 5]

I should start off by saying I got this at a discount from B&N. But I can’t find this online. It isn’t on Amazon; I found one copy on a popular auction site, one random book center site, and a UK store. Now, as far as I can tell, Psychology: adventures in Perception and Personality, which is the book that comes up on Amazon when searching, is not the same book. So, with all that being said, I find it suspicious that I can’t find this book. Maybe I’m just not looking hard enough, but either way, it’s weird.

Aside from the sketchy aspect of not being able to find this book, the book itself is…fine. If a person is interested in psychology, this could be a fun jumping-off point, but it really is a condensed version of psych 101 with aspects that sound identical from the Crash Course in psychology videos, which is generally fine, I don’t expect to have an in-depth psychology textbook in 167 pages but I would hope instead of adding exercises (that no one will do) they add more information with citations to help people learn more.

The biggest issue I have with this book is the bias. The authors have put too much of their own thoughts into this book rather than making it free of bias and clearly neutral, as scientific information should be. Additionally, while I may just be reading this wrong, it appears that on page 98, “Issues with Brainstorming,” tries to explain why working alone is better compared to group brainstorming but proceeds to explain that group brainstorming is found to be helpful, which completely contradicts the main intention of this page. It’s wild that this was approved to be placed in this book.

Another problem I found, which is a bit concerning given the book's content and the above error I already noted, is the grammatical errors. Clearly, it needed another round or two of editing, and that really puts me off a book that’s supposed to be scientific and informative.

I didn’t enjoy this book and wouldn’t really recommend it, even if you could find it. There are better psychology books that go into the information here but with more detail, less bias, and fewer content errors.

[Hannah W · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I do not doubt the information that is presented in this book, it is presented from a very biased viewpoint. The books rhetoric is presented in a way that entices the reader to keep reading, which is not in itself problematic, however there are several points where the rhetoric implies a negative bias onto their audience who, at the time of reading, likely do not know much about the disorders being presented. This unintentional bias from reading is where the book becomes problematic.

[Rafe French · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative book. Read like a textbook but covered a wide variety of different topics ranging from Sleep, emotions, and memory. I appreciated learning about a variety of different psychologists and how their studies advanced the field of psychology. Will definitely be one that I refer back to from time to time.

[avani ✿ · Rating 5 out of 5]

fun little book i found at barnes & nobles

[Jesse Lyons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Felt like I was just reading a textbook, but learned a lot of interesting facts about human psychology that I find helpful!

[Mckynzie King · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the format and the content but unfortunately had alot of misinformation

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good and insightful, but the typos were distracting.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5