Psychology book recommendation please

I’m reading “Behave” by Robert Sapolski. He is a neuroscientist so he is looking at human behaviour from that particular standpoint.

It is very readable though, and I am thoroughly enjoying it.

Sounds good. I will take a look. Thanks.

How Psychology Works
Hardback by Jo Hemmings
We sell this in The Works for £7.
I’d a university lecturer come in for it because one of her students had it and it was better than her recommended text.
It’s a good overview and will help to understand the different terms and conditions.

I recommend Phillipa Perry (psychotherapist) as a writer.. Easy to read and very compassionate and insightful

It's a massive subject. Very hard to completely cover every aspect of human psychology in one book. Apart from anything else it can be highly contentious with different psychologists disagreeing with each other.

I think the first psychology book I got into some years ago was 'Games People Play' by Eric Berne. Its very readable and you can recognise people you come across quite readily from this.

Most of the ones I read were management and HR related e.g. '7 Habits of Successful People'.

You could look at the free short courses run by the Open University to help you find the answers you seek.

Hi there I read What Women want by Maxine Mei-Fung Chung
Follows 7 people in therapy journeys. Wonderful book

Aveline

It's a massive subject. Very hard to completely cover every aspect of human psychology in one book. Apart from anything else it can be highly contentious with different psychologists disagreeing with each other.

This is what I am coming to realise. All 3 of your points.

Be very wary of psychology books it’s far too easy to look up a trait and label a person and get preconceived ideas about someone.

The Body Keeps The Score has been recommended to me.

You need an objective overview of the subject that goes into proper research. So many psychology books are authored by someone with a particular angle to peddle and a particular view that might not e research based.
It is not like reading a book.on chemistry where there is always experimental evidence presented. Psychology books can easily spill over into pseudo science and plugging a particular therapy ... which of course is not at all what psychology is about. It is simply the study of human behaviour.
I would look at the book.lists of proper psychology courses.
There is always Psychology for Dummies ... I've not read it but the series is in general a good overview.

Two year old thread, I imagine the OP has found one or some now.

It depends whether you want to study psychology as an academic discipline or just to skim the surface. Academic psychology( I used to teach it) doesn't really explain “ what makes people tick”, rather gives a variety of competing explanations with various research evidence to back up the hypotheses. Its a fascinating subject with many different branches of thought. If you are interested in developmental psychology the OU has some excellent material.

Jaxjacky

Two year old thread, I imagine the OP has found one or some now.

Yes. Thanks.

Thought I recognised it as one of my threads.

Did you find a good book?

I found two or three.

I tend to dip into them.
I dont use them for study.

I was amazed quite how many there are.

I bore in mind the helpful posts on this thread.

There is a very useful field of psychology and accompanying book called Human Givens (Joe Griffin and Mark Tyrrell) that I have enjoyed. It's quite long but the writing is very clear, you can definitely pick it up and dip in when you have time. It's in my local library so probably in yours.
The approach is about considering physical and emotional needs as essential to mental health and how not getting our needs met leads to depression, anger etc. It is very up to date on research and new thinking.
One of the co-authors, Mark Tyrrell, has a lot of videos on YouTube which are short but comprehensible and are aimed at both mental health sufferers and counsellors and receive many appreciative comments (he's English thank goodness!).

Sounds interesting.
Will take a look in our library when I am next in.