Psychology: Why It Matters

by Richard Wiseman

You are You experience a vast range of thoughts and feelings, including falling in love, remembering last Tuesday, and contemplating the meaning of life. And you can carry all sorts of astonishing behaviours, such as sauntering down the street, singing in falsetto and riding a unicycle. Psychologists study every aspect of how you think, feel, and behave.

Richard Wiseman takes you on a personal journey into this fascinating world, focusing on what makes for meaningful research. He explores how psychology reveals the hidden workings of the mind, boosts critical thinking, debunks myths, improves lives, and informs debates in politics, philosophy, and education. This insider’s guide lifts the lid on how psychologists go about their work, examines contemporary challenges associated with studying the mind, and encourages students and researchers to reflect on why they do what they do.

If you’ve ever wanted to think like a psychologist, spot a liar, uncover the truth about happiness, or discover how to create a more altruistic society, then this book is for you.

Genres: Psychology

176 pages, Paperback

Published November 7, 2022

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Professor Richard Wiseman started his working life as a professional magician, and was one of the youngest members of The Magic Circle. He then obtained a degree in psychology from University College London and a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh.

Richard currently holds Britain’s only Professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, where he has gained an international reputation for research into psychology of luck, self-help, persuasion, and illusion. He has published over 50 papers in leading peer reviewed academic journals (including Nature and Psychological Bulletin), and his work has been cited in over 20 introductory textbooks.

A passionate advocate for science, his best-selling books have been translated into over 30 languages and he has presented keynote addresses at several organisations, including Microsoft, The Royal Society, Caltech, and Google.

Richard is the most followed British psychologist on Twitter, and has created viral videos that have received over 40 million views. Over 2 million people have taken part in his mass participation experiments and he has acted as a creative consultant to Derren Brown, The MythBusters, CBS’s The Mentalist, and Heston Blumenthal, Nick Cave, and the West End play ‘Ghost Stories’.

Richard is a Member of the Inner Magic Circle, an Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association, and a Fellow of the Rationalist Association. He is one of the most frequently quoted psychologists in the British media and was recently listed in the Independent On Sunday’s top 100 people who make Britain a better place to live.

He likes sushi, is fond of dogs, and finds Arrested Development very funny.

Reviews

[Ramón Nogueras Pérez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wiseman plantea un texto breve, introductorio y general a la ciencia de la psicología, abordando diferentes usos y campos de aplicación. Es lo más básico posible, por lo que a poco que hayas estudiado o leído algo sobre el tema, todo te sonará muchísimo. Pero es un bonito canto de amor a esta ciencia, y una buena primera aproximación.

[Ritu Borah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting read and has been divided into small chapters, so easy to grasp.