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23 best psychological thriller books that will mess with your head.

Here’s an experiment: pick the name of a New York Times bestseller, HBO limited series, or Ben Affleck-starring blockbuster out of a hat. Chances are, it’ll be a psychological thriller book. If there’s one genre having its moment in 2018, it’s this one. And aside from capturing the attention of the cultural zeitgeist, this genre is affectionately called “horror lite” (or “grip lit,” or “horror except it’s too good for the genre”) for a reason.

Be it a backwoods murder mystery, a gothic period piece, or a prestigious drama that just happens to be about an arsonist, these are the best psychological thriller books that dive into the brain of the bad guy… and make you question your own brain along the way.

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of great psychological thrillers to read, you can also take our 30-second quiz below to narrow it down quickly and get a personalized thriller recommendation  😉

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1. I Know Where She Is by S.B. Caves

A lot of people here are probably just looking for the next Gone Girl . Well, look no further. Ten years after her daughter's disappearance, Francine receives a mysterious note bearing just five words: I know where she is. With her life once again turned upside down, she goes back on the hunt for the truth behind the abduction. Things get dark, and you might find yourself calling in sick just so you can stay home and finish this heart-stopping debut novel from British author S.B. Caves.

2. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Or, you might simply be looking for the next title from Gone Girl ’s author, Gillian Flynn. Whether that’s the case or not, Sharp Objects is a must-read for any fan of the tightly-structured thriller. It was recently adapted into an HBO Limited Series, but if you haven’t yet caught Amy Adams’ award-worthy performance as a traumatized investigative journalist hunting down a murderer in her hometown, do yourself a favor: hold off until you’ve read the book first.

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3.  Big Little Lies  by Liane Moriarty

Speaking of HBO adaptations, Liane Moriarty’s story of a group of Monterey housewives banding together made waves when Reese Witherspoon turned it into a rousing feminist miniseries. Five women in a picturesque coastal town realize that their Instagram-perfect lives are not all they appear to be as they uncover the undercurrents of domestic abuse and assault running through their community. Given Moriarty’s knack for believable characters and compelling prose, this thrill-filled take on First Wives Club is a must-read.

4. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

If Netflix is more your speed, this book has spurred a TV adaptation, too. But with an author like Margaret Atwood at the helm, refusing to read the book first is inexcusable. Alias Grace tells the true story of mild-mannered servant Grace Marks and the double murder she’s been accused of. It’s told through the eyes of a doctor struggling to understand criminal behavior — and to reconcile Grace’s nature with the nature of her crime. In other words, it's like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in a meticulous period setting that will delight fans of historical fiction.

5. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Just like Alias Grace, this is another thrilling period piece by an all-time great female author that's resurfaced thanks to Netflix. But that's where the similarities end. Aspiring ghostbuster Dr Montague rents an infamous haunted house for the summer, along with three other guests who’ve experienced the supernatural. Predictably, things get scary.

Published in 1959, Shirley Jackson’s masterpiece harks back to the gothic horror of the nineteenth century, but ultimately settles into psychological thriller territory as Jackson creates ghosts that mirror the trauma of her troubled protagonists.  

6. The Snowman by Jo Nesbø

Norway’s first serial killer has a very specific modus operandi: he only hunts married mothers, and he always leaves a snowman at the scene of the crime. Fans of Thomas Harris will be eager to join Nesbø’s Detective Harry Hole as he unravels this bizarre mystery to stop the killer in his tracks.

The Snowman was recently adapted into a critical and commercial flop starring Michael Fassbender but don’t let that put you off. There’s a good reason why Nesbø has sold over 33 million copies worldwide.

7. Misery by Stephen King

Thanks to this hit novel (and its film adaptation), “I’m your number-one fan” is now officially the creepiest thing you can say to any author. Blame Annie Wilkes, the nurse who tends her favorite author Paul Sheldon back to health after a car crash in rural Colorado. She’s obsessed with his character Misery Chastain — so how will she react when she realizes that he’s killed Chastain off in his latest novel?

Stephen King is undoubtedly best known for his horror novels, and let’s be clear — this seminal work about the dark side of fandom, is pretty darn horrifying. But at its core, Misery is a tale of obsession, madness, and isolation: the perfect mix for a good dose of thrills.

8. Into The Water by Paula Hawkins

Psych thriller buffs might already be familiar with The Girl On The Train , but Paula Hawkins’ sophomore effort (and highly anticipated follow-up to her first New York Times bestseller) weaves a mind-warping tale told by 11 (yes, 11) different characters. Jules Abbott returns to her hometown after the mysterious death of her sister to care for her newly orphaned niece.

Fans of Hawkins’ cinematic prose and Hitchcock-esque influences will find this novel just as gripping as her smash-hit debut.

9. The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

When your novel’s been out for only a year and is already being optioned for a motion picture, you know you’re doing something right.

The Woman in the Window stars Anna Fox, an agoraphobe living alone in Manhattan. She has two best friends: her wine and her window. As she gets to know (i.e. starts spying on) her neighbors, she witnesses a violent undercurrent to their happy facade… but who will believe a homebody wino? Both a riveting spin on the psych thriller craze and a meditation on mental illness and agoraphobia, there’s no question that the time is right for this contemporary take on Rear Window .

The gripping international bestseller about motherhood gone awry.

Eva never really wanted to be a mother and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin's horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklin. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.

10.  We Need to Talk About Kevin  by Lionel Shriver

A genre that deals exclusively in themes of murder and mental illness can get pretty heavy, but it doesn’t get much heavier than We Need to Talk About Kevin . When her son is arrested for killing nine classmates, Eva Khatchadourian looks back on his childhood for warning signs she might have missed. Published in 2003, this story about a fictional school shooting has taken on a new poignancy as these tragedies become increasingly commonplace. There’s nothing common, however, about this vivid portrait of the psyche of a sociopath and a shattered mother trying to come to terms with it.

11. Room by Emma Donoghue

In fact, like Lionel Shriver’s book, many great psychological thriller books find traction in pulling their plots straight from headlines. This is certainly the case with Room , a mind-blowing take on the Fritzl abduction case. Trapped for seven years in her captor's basement, life has been hell for the character we know as 'Ma'. But for her son, Jack (from whose perspective the story is told), the room is all he's ever known. This thriller doubles as a heartbreaking coming-of-age saga about learning to see the world in a different way (and is now an Academy Award-winning movie to boot).

12. The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

Amber Patterson’s plain upbringing renders her invisible in the upscale community of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut. She watches her neighbor, Daphne Parrish, with her perfect marriage and life of luxury — and decides that she wants in on it. Did you ever wish to read The Talented Mr. Ripley , only newer, timelier, and scarier? If so, this posh, feminist homage to the 1955 classic is the thriller for you.

13. Sin by Josephine Hart

Psych thrillers are certainly having a moment today, but they were inescapable in the ‘90s. While the late Josephine Hart might be best known for the 1992 film adaptation of her debut novel Damage , her Sin is the quintessential ‘90s thriller: when her family dies in a car accident, Elizabeth is adopted by her aunt and uncle — but her cousin Ruth has other plans.

Lust, envy, and just about every other sin take the forefront in this novel that’s perfect for fans of… well, any movie Sharon Stone ever starred in.

14. Sunburn by Laura Lippman

Sentenced (and then pardoned) for the murder of her husband, Polly abandons her family for a waitressing job in small-town Delaware. There, she meets the charming traveling salesman Adam, who also decides to take a job at the restaurant with her. But why did he decide to hang up his hat in the middle of nowhere?

A modern east coast spin on the private detective genre, this 2018 pageturner is one part psychological thriller, one part classic noir, and the perfect read for the flight back to your parents’ place this Thanksgiving.

15. The Elizas by Sara Shepard

This novel by Sara Shepard ( Pretty Little Liars ) doesn’t have a long-running TV show on Freeform, but maybe it should.

Eliza Fontaine nearly drowns for the fifth time. The first four were suicide attempts, so who could blame her parent for not believing her when she tells them she was pushed. Not to mention that Eliza is a novelist who's working on her debut novel, which gives this alluring tale of memory loss and attempted murder a wickedly meta layer. For any aspiring psych thriller writer, this is the place to start.

16. Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill

Jean Mason leads a pretty normal life right up to the point when she's alerted to a doppelgänger roaming about the city park. And to make things worse, the two strangers who inform her then turn up dead. This 2017 release sticks to the “grip lit” script at first before flipping the audience’s expectations upside down and turning into a beast all unto its own.

Saying any more would spoil it, but this is a must-read for fans of mistaken identity, murder writers, and (okay, fine) the supernatural.

17. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Family buys home. Home lights on fire. Family blames daughter? When the Richardson family’s house burns down, the people of Shaker Heights suspect an inside job, and all eyes are on Izzy, the black sheep of the family. But the next door neighbors are so close they might as well be family, too…

This is the aforementioned arson-mystery-meets-family-drama, and you’d be hard-pressed these days to find a library without a copy of Little Fires Everywhere on the hold shelf. But its popularity is anything but unearned, and if you’re a thriller lover who hasn’t yet plunged into Celeste Ng’s fiery novel, it’s high time you did.

18. The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison

This is not your mother’s Secret Garden . In the courtyard of a remote mansion, a man known as “The Gardener” keeps flowers, trees, and a group of kidnapped women he calls his “butterflies.” This one comes with ample social proof: at the time of writing, The Butterfly Garden is the #1 bestselling psychological thriller on Amazon. This is for a good reason: it’s simply original . In a market oversaturated with cookie cutter thrillers, there’s just nothing else out there about a man who treats his imprisoned women like specimens in a bug collection.

19. See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt

Spinning a true story into a captivating thriller is easier said than done…  especially when that story occurred in Protestant New England in the late 19th century.

Lizzie Borden’s father and stepmother were murdered in Massachusetts in 1892, in what was eventually dubbed The Fall River Axe Murders. Lizzie was the primary suspect but was eventually acquitted. Since then, the murders have been the subject of countless books but none strike quite so chilling a tone as Sarah Schmidt’s powerful work of historical fiction .

20. Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

Perhaps the most surreal (in the true sense of the word) psychological thriller on the market, Fever Dream distances itself from the pack in almost every way. It’s a slim, play-like novel with magical realist undertones, crisply translated from the Argentinian original.

Still, at its heart it is a thriller, and an excellent one: a woman wakes up in a hospital bed, and a mysterious boy (not hers) kneeling beside her unravels how she got there. This mind-bending novel is perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn and Gabriel Garcia Marquez alike.

21. The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch

Science fiction and thrillers don’t always go hand-in-hand, but when synthesized correctly, the results are stunning. Such is the case with The Gone World , in which Shannon Moss, a time travelling NCIS agent, uncovers a conspiracy across multiple decades. Think Michael Crichton meets Stieg Larsson in this fusion of classic noir, dystopian fiction, and pure psychological thrills.

22. Idaho: A Novel by Emily Ruskovich

Idaho is another decade-spanning thriller, though this one is much more grounded in reality. Because of her savior complex, Ann is drawn to a shattered and broken man named Ward, who she quickly marries. But Ward’s trauma stemming from his first marriage runs deeper than usual — his first wife Jenny murdered their 6-year-old daughter.

It’s more literary than your average thriller, but check this one out if you want an unapologetic look at a family crumbling under the weight of dementia, distance, and, of course, murder. It is a thriller, after all.

The World's Bestselling Mystery \'Ten . . .\' Ten strangers are lured to an isolated island mansion off the Devon coast by a mysterious \'U.N. Owen.\' \'Nine . . .\' At dinner a recorded message accuses each of them in turn of having a guilty secret, and by the end of the night one of the guests is dead. \'Eight . . .\' Stranded by a violent storm, and haunted by a nursery rhyme counting down one by one . . . one by one they begin to die. \'Seven . . .\' Who among them is the killer and will any of them survive?

23. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is known for popularizing the murder mystery, but there’s an argument to be made that she invented the psychological thriller, too — and with her best selling novel, no less.

Ten people, all guilty of crimes they were never punished for, find themselves on an island under mysterious circumstances… and then start to die one by one. Though its structure resembles a classic whodunnit, the meat of And Then There Were None is pure psychology: a collection of criminals grappling with the guilt of their crimes, the motivations behind them, and the knowledge that their pasts are about to catch up to them.

24. In the Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

In a dark, dark wood

There was a dark, dark house

And in the dark, dark house there was a dark, dark room

And in the dark, dark room....

Well, you'll have to keep reading to find out the rest.

25. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

From the outside, Alicia Berenson's life looks perfect. She lives in a big house in London with her famous painter-husband. But when Alicia murders her husband late on evening when he comes home from work, all illusions of perfection are gruesomely shattered.

Years after the crime, Alicia hasn't spoken a single word. She now lives in a secure forensic unit in North London, hidden away from the world that's hungry to know the truth behind this domestic tragedy. Especially eager is criminal psychotherapist Theo Faber, who is finally getting his chance to talk to Alicia after years of trying to unravel her mysterious case. Why did she do it? Why won't she talk? As Theo delves deeper and deeper into the Berenson file, his own motivations begin to warp, and his search for the truth threatens to consume him.

26. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

The morning of Nick and Amy Dunne's fifth wedding anniversary, Amy goes missing, and Nick becomes the prime suspect in her disappearance. The ensuing investigation reveals cracks in the seemingly gleaming foundation of the Dunne's marriage: Nick seems to be obsessed with the shape of Amy's head, and Amy's journals reveal a level of perfectionism that could drive any partner to the edge.

Gillian Flynn's bestselling novel is about all the lies beneath the underbelly of a marriage, asking the question: how well do we really know the ones we love?

27. My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing

As with most domestic thrillers, My Lovely Wife features what appears to be a normal couple who've gone down the path of convention: they got married and moved to the suburbs, where they raised their children. All was well. Until they got bored.

After fifteen years of marriage, the nameless narrator and his titular wife are looking for ways to inject some excitement into their relationship. While some couples might go on a trip or decide to learn a new skill together, Downing's protagonists have opted for something decidedly more sinister . As they embark on a murderous new hobby, one question begins to loom: can they get away with it?

28. Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

Everyone deals with grief differently. After Julia goes missing her mother goes on to create a new life for herself. The father becomes obsessed with looking for clues about Julia's disappearance, only to turn up perennially empty-handed. Her two sisters, Claire and Lydia also become estranged from their family.

Now, twenty years later, another young girl has gone missing, and her case contains haunting echoes of Julia's. The connections between this new disappearance and their sisters' causes Claire and Lydia to reunite, and they soon embark down a chilling path as they discover secrets that change everything they thought they knew about their sister, and the past.

29. Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

When Maggie Holt was a child, her parents packed her up and fled from their home, Baneberry Hall, in the dead of night. Their reason for fleeing was eventually document in a book by Maggie's father, called House of Horrors — a recount of the ghostly encounters with malevolent spirits at Baneberry Hall.

While the book is nonfiction, Maggie doesn't believe a word of it, and, frankly, she's tired of being asked about it. She's also not phased in the slightest when, 25 years after their escape, Maggie returns to Baneberry Hall to restore it. Of course, the secrets of Baneberry Hall don't wait too long before beginning to reveal themselves to Maggie, and she starts to realize that maybe House of Horrors really was more fact than fiction.

30. Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes

If you were morbidly captivated by the Netflix series You , you'll likely enjoy Hidden Bodies : it's the sequel to Kepnes' debut book that the TV show was adapted from.

Joe Goldberg is now thirty-something and has been hiding his murdered victims in New York City for the past ten years. But he's determined to put his sinister past behind him and get a new fresh start in Los Angeles. And things seem to be off to a good start in the city of angels: Joe gets a job in a bookstore and spends his spare time eating guacamole and flirting with his journalist neighbor.

Finally, it seems like Joe might get was he's always wanted: to be in love, and be loved in return. The thing about love, Joe learns, is that it has a way of shining a light onto the parts of yourself you'd rather keep hidden — in Joe's case, hidden at all costs .

Hungry for more? Check out the 43 best true crime books of all time to discover how truth really can be stranger than fiction.

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The 30 Best Psychology Books to Explore Your Brain and Mind

The best psychology books explore your mind and your brain, how they behave, operate, and interact with others. Without a doubt, the best books about psychology enlighten and entertain, pulling back the mysteries of our minds and the way they operate. This article consists of an epic list of the best books about human psychology. If you’re looking for the best psychology books of all time, you’ll surely find them here… from the classic best books to read about psychology like Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams to modern essentials like Quiet , this roundup covers the breadth and diversity of the field of psychology. Which one appeals to you the most?

By the way, you might want to check out other psychology book lists here on the blog if you’re interested in mental health…

• The 20 Best Books about Bipolar Disorder
• The 20 Best Books about Schizophrenia
• 10 Great Graphic Novel about Mental Illness

And now for an epic list of the 30 best psychology books of all time…

Atomic habits: an easy & proven way to build good habits & break bad ones by james clear.

Ever wonder how you can convert an irregular, desired activity into a lasting habit? In Atomic Habits , our first entry on this list of the best psychology books, James Clear demystifies the behavior that will turn an action into a permanent habit. Clear helps you acclimate to making a positive habit and ridding yourself of negative ones. The result is a more healthful mental outlook, increased productivity, and maximum effectiveness.

How to read it: Purchase Atomic Habits on Amazon

Authentic happiness: using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfillment by martin e. p. seligman.

This groundbreaking book by Martin E.P. Seligman, a visionary psychologist who transformed the field, introduces Seligman’s foundational principles of Positive Psychology. You’ll learn all the necessary mental tweaks and mindset shifts needed to break through negativity, stop dwelling on the bad, and achieve, well, as the title suggests, a more authentic happiness. Authentic Happiness is definitely up there with the other best books about psychology.

How to read it: Purchase Authentic Happiness on Amazon

Behave: the biology of humans at our best and worst by robert m. sapolsky.

Ever wonder why we do the things we do? It might seem like a big mystery, but in Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst , behavioral psychologist Robert M. Sapolsky reveals the foundations of our human behavior, both the good and negative alike. As much a seminar in psychology, Behave is accessible and engaging and ranks up there among the best psychology books about human behavior.

How to read it: Purchase Behave on Amazon

The body keeps the score: mind, brain and body in the transformation of trauma by bessel van der kolk.

Any list of the best psychology books of all time surely has to include Bessel Van der kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score . This revelatory book has done more to bring trauma to the forefront of the psychological discussion than any other. In The Body Keeps the Score , van der Kolk unmasks the condition of trauma and offers healing hopes for people suffering from trauma, PTSD, and C-PTSD. This new understanding of trauma has big implications for the field of psychiatry and the practice of therapy.

How to read it: Purchase The Body Keeps the Score on Amazon

Consciousness explained by daniel c. dennett.

If you’re looking for the best psychology books, you’ll want to check out Daniel C. Dennett’s Consciousness Explained . This compelling book explores the intersection of neurology and psychology, seeking to illuminate the wonders of the human brain and the unanswerable questions we still have about it. Far from a textbook, Consciousness Explained is a seminar in how the brain dances with the mind and one of the best books on brain psychology.

How to read it: Purchase Consciousness Explained on Amazon

Daring greatly: how the courage to be vulnerable transforms the way we live, love, parent, and lead by brené brown.

Certainly among the most influential psychologists, Brené Brown is known for writing highly readable books that distill psychological research into actionable takeaways. Nowhere is this more apparent than in her widely popular book, Daring Greatly , definitely among the best books about psychology. In this fascinating read, Brown sings the virtues of vulnerability as a hidden strength. You’ll read all about how to best approach finding the courage to be vulnerable and the benefits of taking a chance on being honest and candid in hopes of being seen.

How to read it: Purchase Daring Greatly on Amazon

Darkness visible: a memoir of madness by william styron.

Today, mental health memoirs are no new thing, but in 1990 when novelist William Styron published Darkness Visible , it ushered in a new era with less stigma. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sophie’s Choice , one of my all-time favorite novels, Styron here details a depressive episode he had that almost consumed his life. A quick read at roughly 85 pages, Darkness Visible is a short book that’s made a major contribution to psychology and helped paved the way for other mental health memoirs. It’s for sure one of the best books to read about psychology.

How to read it: Purchase Darkness Visible on Amazon

Emotional intelligence: why it can matter more than iq by daniel goleman.

You’ve heard of an Intelligence Quotient (IQ), but have you heard of Emotional Intelligence or EQ? While society prizes IQs, what we really need more on a daily level is Emotional Intelligence. And that’s exactly the concept Daniel Goleman features in Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ , a foundational book and one of the best psychology books of all time. This book highlights the benefits of tuning up your EQ skills for better interactions with other people, at home, at work, and in love.

How to read it: Purchase Emotional Intelligence on Amazon

Flow: the psychology of optimal experience by mihaly csikszentmihalyi .

You know when you’re just totally in the groove, firing on all cylinders like you’re plugged into a higher, more creative, more aware, and more productive state? That’s what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s called “flow.” In this book, Csikszentmihalyi teaches readers how to harness this mode and make it work for you. Csikszentmihalyi’s book helps you achieve flow and turn it on, making for a more sustainable state of mind. Flow for sure deserves to be considered one of best books about human psychology.

How to read it: Purchase Flow on Amazon

Games people play: the psychology of human relationships by eric berne.

Looking for the best psychology books about human behavior? Pick up Games People Play . Five million copies sold later, Eric Berne’s classic Games People Play is just as insightful and relevant as the day it was published in 1964. In Games People Play , Berne helps take the mystery out of interpersonal behavior and social psychology with a focus the “games” people will try to pull on one another. Reading Games People Play will bring you closer to a better grasp on how to interact with other humans.

How to read it: Purchase Games People Play on Amazon

Girl, interrupted by susanna kaysen.

First published in 1993, Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted was just as influential as William Styron’s Darkness Visible we highlighted earlier. In this mental. health memoirs, Kaysen details the nearly two years she spent on the unit for teenage girls at McLean, the famous psychiatric hospital where Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, and other notable people sought treatment. Girl, Interrupted is a powerful and eye-opening look at the inpatient psychiatry experience and deserved of being on this list of the best psychology books of all time.

How to read it: Purchase Girl, Interrupted on Amazon

Grit: the power of passion and perseverance by angela duckworth.

Puzzled about why some people have more resilience than others? That’s the quality of “Grit” that. psychologist Angela Duckworth features in this essential psychology book. Duckworth has done extensive research on the “power of passion and perseverance” that allows some people to bounce back and work through setbacks. In Grit , you’ll discover how to adapt some of Duckworth’s findings to bring more grit into your daily life. Grit has become a contemporary classic and one of the best books on psychology for beginners.

How to read it: Purchase Grit on Amazon

Group: how one therapist and a circle of strangers saved my life by christie tate.

I have done group therapy two times, and I can attest to how powerful the benefits can be. Somehow you find yourself opening up to strangers about your deepest, darkest fears, passions, and feelings. It’s exactly that dynamic that Christie Tate introduces in Group , one of the best new books about psychology. Tate recounts the several years she spent in group working through her mental and relationship obstacles under the guidance of an expert therapist. I hope more people find the same strength I did from group therapy, and Tate’s book will surely help that to happen.

How to read it: Purchase Group on Amazon

The happiness hypothesis: finding modern truth in ancient wisdom by jonathan haidt.

Looking for tips on being happier? Seeking the best books to read about psychology? Try Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis . This book is divided into 10 chapters of “Great Ideas” like “The Pursuit of Happiness,” “The Uses of Adversity,” and “The Felicity of Virtue” that turn into familiar maxims like “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Haidt then incorporates timeless wisdom from classic philosophy into contemporary psychological approaches. The result is a refreshing take on modern psychology through connections with ancient ideas. Read this book, and you’ll be on the path to happiness.

How to read it: Purchase The Happiness Hypothesis on Amazon

How to change your mind: what the new science of psychedelics teaches us about consciousness, dying, addiction, depression, and transcendence by michael pollan.

In How to Change Your Mind , acclaimed science reporter Michael Pollan turns his attention to psychedelic psychiatry, focusing on highlighting the surprising benefits of LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in “magic” mushrooms). Pollan reports on how these substances can form the basis of a new-old psychiatric therapy, effecting a more balanced, less stressed, and more clear-thinking mind. Pollan’s persuasive argument shows how these taking these substances in a controlled way under expert care can help overcome conditions like depression and anxiety. Pollan’s book is also a look at how the brain works by responding to these antidotes and, as a newer title, on any list of the best new books about psychology.

How to read it: Purchase How to Change Your Mind on Amazon

The interpretation of dreams by sigmund freud.

This list of the best psychology books of all time surely includes Sigmund Freud’s classic text, The Interpretation of Dreams . Though it was published in 1899, this enormously impactful book is also relevant for our modern era. Freud is a patient teacher who instructs on how to tap into our subconscious and understand how our minds work with sleep to create meaningful dreams that reveal hidden truths, feelings, and urges. It is the quintessential psychology book and one of the best books on psychology for beginners.

How to read it: Purchase The Interpretation of Dreams on Amazon

The language instinct: how the mind creates language by steven pinker.

When you think about, languages are as amazing as it gets. Using a small number of letters, each language builds into a robust vocabulary for communication. And in The Language Instinct , Steven Pinker gives us a deep dive into the psychology of language: what it is, how we are evolutionary disposed to think and express ourselves with language, and how our minds process and communicate by using languages. The result is a book that will change the way you think about our common tongue. Don’t take it from me alone: this book won a prize from the American Psychological Association. It’s no surprise, then, that The Language Instinct has earned a spot on this selective list of the best psychology books.

How to read it: Purchase The Language Instinct on Amazon

The lucifer effect: understanding how good people turn evil by philip g. zimbardo.

It’s no secret I’m fascinated by forensic psychology—check out my list of “The 30 Best Criminology Books” here on the blog—so of course I’m going to include The Lucifer Effect in this roundup of the best psychology books of all time. If you’ve ever been intrigued by how humans “break bad” and turn from a “good” person into an “evil” one, Philip G. Zimbardo’s The Lucifer Effect is a book you’ll want to add to your To-Be-Read (TBR) list. This book was authored by the leader of the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment , one of the most consequential psychology studies of all time, and in The Lucifer Effect Zimbardo extracts the key takeaways from that research and formulates his own findings to address why and how morally “good” ordinary humans turn “evil.” It’s a chilling book that’s as influential as it was when it was first published 25 years ago.

How to read it: Purchase The Lucifer Effect on Amazon

The man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales by oliver sacks.

If you’re not already familiar with him, Oliver Sacks was a famous neurologist who helped make his field more accessible by publishing popular books about the mysteries and complications of what can happen to our minds and brains. Start with The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales , which details case studies from people Sacks encountered and treated. It’s amazing to read some of these stories and travel to the far frontier of where abnormal psychology and neurology intersect in new horizons. Immensely readable, always fascinating, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat forms the core of any list of the best psychology books of all time.

How to read it: Purchase The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales on Amazon

Maybe you should talk to someone by lori gottlieb.

In Maybe You Should Talk to Someone , psychologist and writer Lori Gottlieb celebrates the practice of therapy, both as a patient and a practitioner. When Gottlieb found herself in the midsts of a personal and professional crisis, she turned to another therapist for extra help. Gottlieb’s book is funny and tender-hearted at the same time, a gritty yet passionate look at the healing power of the therapeutic process. A more recent title, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone qualifies as among the best new books about psychology.

How to read it: Purchase Maybe You Should Talk to Someone on Amazon

Mistakes were made (but not by me): why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts by carol tavris and elliot aronson.

Let’s be honest… everyone does something wrong sometimes. Maybe you’re thinking something you know is foolish, but you can’t let go. Or perhaps you’re trying to weasel your way out of the consequences that come from bad decisions and harmful actions. The bottom line is: not everyone has a guilty conscious, and at times we double down even when we know we’re wrong. It’s exactly that kind of mildly deviant behavior—and our resistance to holding ourselves responsible for our mistakes—that Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson explore in Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) . Among the best books about psychology, this study of “self-deception” brings a crucial perspective to mind science, helping to explain why people do bad things and don’t own up to them. Nobody’s perfect, and everyone can see a part of themselves in this engrossing book, which will help you become a better person and citizen of this world.

How to read it: Purchase Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) on Amazon

The paradox of choice: why more is less by barry schwartz.

I bet it’s happened to you sometime lately: you become overwhelmed by making a simple and straightforward decision and feel stressed with anxiety. If this sounds like you—and probably most of us—you need to pick up psychologist Barry Schwartz’s The Paradox of Choice . Definitely one of the best psychology books, The Paradox of Choice describes the way more options make it harder to make basic choices. Schwartz illuminates how we can fight back against endless options and think with purity, singularity, and objectivity. This book helps liberate people from cloudy and panicked judgments and helps them be more self-assure of their decision-making abilities.

How to read it: Purchase The Paradox of Choice on Amazon

Predictably irrational: the hidden forces that shape our decisions by dan ariely.

It happens often: you make an irrational decision even though you know it’s irrational. Why is it so hard to pull back from making bad choices when we know they’re bad? In Predictably Irrational , one of the best psychology books of all time, Dan Airely explores this conundrum, revealing the ways that irrational urges can overpower our judgments. The good news is Airely offers a way out of this trap, imparting actional advice that everyone can benefit from learning.

How to read it: Purchase Predictably Irrational on Amazon

The psychopath test: a journey through the madness industry by jon ronson.

Jon Ronson’s The Psychopath Test is one of my all-time favorite books and the book that single-handedly converted me to reading nonfiction. Why is it so good? Because Ronson is an expert storyteller. In this captivating book, Ronson dives into the world of psychopaths: not just psychopaths themselves but also the people who treat and profit off them. What I love about this book is how Ronson introduces himself as part of the story. Along the way, his opinions and beliefs change the more he researches psychopathology, and you might find yours change, too. It’s also so true that psychology is an industry with lobbyists, million-dollar paychecks, and expensive medications and treatment many cannot afford. Ronson pulls back the curtain on this hidden business side of psychology in this must-read.

How to read it: Purchase The Psychopath Test on Amazon

Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking by susan cain.

I’m really fond of books about personality (see my list of the 30 best personality books on this blog). And Susan Cain’s Quiet is a crucial book in the study of personality and one of the best books about human psychology. What Cain does for introverts in Quiet is sing the song of the power of the “I” types, broadcasting their positive qualities and making the case that introverts are just as capable, strong, and consequential as our extrovert counterparts. An introvert myself, I find Quiet to be just what the world needs to appreciate those whose psychology tends towards introversion.

How to read it: Purchase Quiet on Amazon

Strangers to ourselves: unsettled minds and the stories that make us by rachel aviv.

Although Rachel Aviv’s Strangers to Ourselves is the newest book in this list of the best psychology books, it’s no less a masterpiece than some of the classics featured here. In Strangers to Ourselves , Aviv concerns herself with “insight,” the term used to describe how self-aware people with mental illnesses about their condition. For far too many people, doctors, psychologists, and the psychiatric industry tell the stories of mental health patients. Aviv highlights how each unique person has a unique story to tell, often ones whose cultural, gender, and age factors are misunderstood. Once you get the power of creating your own personal narrative, you can take action towards rescuing yourself. It’s a bold idea that Aviv champions brilliantly in Strangers to Ourselves , deserving of its status as among the best new books about psychology.

How to read it: Purchase Strangers to Ourselves on Amazon

Switch: how to change things when change is hard by chip heath & dan heath.

I’ll be the first to admit it: I don’t like change. Like most of us, I’m often resistant to change even when it might benefit me. In Switch , brother-authors Chip and Dan Heath argue that the conflict between our emotional mind and our rational mind keeps us from making essential changes in our personal and professional lives. By mastering the dynamic between these two minds, we can allow change into our lives. Switch , which definitely earning its spot on this list of the best psychology books, will help you find the balance you need to make life-altering changes—and the little ones, too.

How to read it: Purchase Switch on Amazon

Talking to strangers: what we should know about the people we don’t know by malcolm gladwell.

Malcolm Gladwell is one of the most famous pop psychology writers, and I believe his best work is Talking to Strangers . In this instructive, if not a little dark, book, Gladwell goes over the social psychology that governs our interactions with strangers. I myself felt like there were so many takeaways from this book, and I genuinely think I became a better person after reading it. Plus it’s downright fascinating, with an eclectic mix of case studies from across culture and history.

How to read it: Purchase Talking to Strangers on Amazon

Think again: the power of knowing what you don’t know by adam grant.

Our society values intelligence, but intelligence can backfire, causing us to calcify our thoughts, opinions, and emotions rather than test them. In Think Again , Wharton business professor and organizational psychologist Adam Grant shares the power of unlearning and rethinking. By unlearning and rethinking, we open ourselves up to personal emotional and intellectual growth through engaging with others who have different beliefs. Grant profiles people who have successfully changed others’ minds by unlearning and rethinking, not least including Grant, who convinced Yankees fans to root for the Red Socks (if he can accomplish that, he can change anyone’s mind). This hopeful read, one of the best psychology books, is what we need for the divided time we’re in right now.

How to read it: Purchase Think Again on Amazon

Thinking, fast and slow by daniel kahneman.

We close this list of the 30 best psychology books of all time with one of the greatest: Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow . This important book details Kahneman’s model where there are two modes of thinking that our brains engage with at any time: there’s System 1, which is fast, emotional, and intuitive, and System 2, which is slower, more logical, and more deliberative. Both of these systems are used in our daily judgments and decisions. In Thinking, Fast and Slow , Kahneman shows how best to harness each system for maximum psychological benefit. Easy to grasp yet profound, Kahenman’s theory explains the way we think in meaningful, impactful terms.

How to read it: Purchase Thinking, Fast and Slow on Amazon

And there you have it our list of the 30 best psychology books of all time. which one will you read first, share this:.

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Sarah S. Davis is the founder of Broke by Books, a blog about her journey as a schizoaffective disorder bipolar type writer and reader. Sarah's writing about books has appeared on Book Riot, Electric Literature, Kirkus Reviews, BookRags, PsychCentral, and more. She has a BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Library and Information Science from Clarion University, and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

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• The 34 Best Psychology Books That Will Make You Smarter and Happier

Psychology is a broad and diverse field that concentrates on studying how people, including you, behave and think. It covers emotions, personality, and so much more.

When you understand psychology, you will understand yourself and the people around you.

You’ll also make better decisions, handle tough situations more easily, and get closer to reaching your full potential much faster than you could have ever imagined.

This fascinating science will even help you understand why you and those you’re closest to act the way you do and how you can change for the better.

Our over 1,000 summaries here at Four Minute Books include hundreds about psychology. We’ve hand-picked our top 34 favorite ones for this list so that you can learn from them and understand yourself better so you can take advantage of the power of your own mind.

If you want to discover new levels of productivity, mental toughness, happiness, and so much more, these books are just what you’ve been looking for.

Table of Contents

1. Thinking Fast And Slow by Daniel Kahneman

2. drive by daniel pink, 3. predictably irrational by dan ariely, 4. everything is f*cked by mark manson, 5. the wisdom of insecurity by alan watts, 6. do what you are by paul tieger, barbara barron, & kelly tieger, 7. the happiness hypothesis by jonathan haidt, 8. influence by robert cialdini, 9. the psychology of selling by brian tracy, 10. the tipping point by malcolm gladwell, 11. emotional intelligence by daniel goleman, 12. descartes’ error by antonio r. damasio, 13. men are from mars, women are from venus by john gray, 14. attached by dr. amir levine, 15. personality isn’t permanent by benjamin hardy, 16. the personality brokers by merve emre, 17. the road back to you by ian morgan cron, 18. my age of anxiety by scott stossel, 19. lost connections by johann hari, 20. reasons to stay alive by matt haig, 21. a first rate madness by s. nassir ghaemi, 22. social by matthew d. lieberman, 23. the social animal by david brooks, 24. words can change your brain by andrew b. newberg, 25. the secret life of pronouns by james w. pennebaker, 26. stumbling on happiness by dan gilbert, 27. flourish by martin seligman, 28. blink by malcolm gladwell, 29. the paradox of choice by barry schwartz, 30. mistakes were made, but not by me by carol tavris, 31. the honest truth about dishonesty by dan ariely, 32. switch by chip & dan heath, 33. the antidote by oliver burkeman, 34. the upside of your dark side by todd kashdan, other book lists by topic, other book lists by author, best books on psychology overall, favorite quote.

”Nothing in life is as important as you think it is, while you are thinking about it.” — Daniel Kahneman

The Book in One Sentence

Thinking Fast And Slow shows you how two systems in your brain are constantly fighting over control of your behavior and actions, and teaches you the many ways in which this leads to errors in memory, judgment and decisions, and what you can do about it.

Why should you read it?

Our minds are driven by two systems that influence the way we think. One system is fast and works on the emotional side, while the other one is a tad slower and makes more use of logic. These two systems work together to shape the way we think and to influence our decisions and Kahneman wants to reveal in this book how to cope with our brain.

Key Takeaways

• Your behavior is determined by 2 systems in your mind – one conscious and the other automatic.
• Your brain is lazy and thus keeps you from using the full power of your intelligence.
• When you’re making decisions about money, leave your emotions at home.

If you want to learn more, you can read our free four-minute summary or get a copy for yourself.

“Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement.” — Daniel Pink

Drive explores what has motivated humans throughout history and explains how we shifted from mere survival to the carrot and stick approach that’s still practiced today – and why it’s outdated.

There are many ways out there to make use of when motivating ourselves, but some of them might just be wrong. Daniel Pink has put together this persuasive book to help us figure out how to be high performers in any field of our lives, by making use of the need to direct our lives. This book will help you change your perspectives on motivation.

• The carrot and stick approach is dead.
• Extrinsic motivation destroys intrinsic motivation.
• Strive for the flow state in everything you do.

“The danger of expecting nothing is that, in the end, it might be all we’ll get.” — Dan Ariely

Predictably Irrational explains the hidden forces that really drive how we make decisions, which are far less rational than we think, but can help us stay on top of our finances, interact better with others and live happier lives, once we know about them.

We make decisions daily and sometimes, we might not even think about the mechanism behind them. Humans are considered rational beings, but certain behaviours might end up making them… irrational, but in a predictable way, according to Ariely. This book will help you better understand your patterns of thought and who knows, maybe even break them.

• We compare whatever we can, so give others easy comparisons to pick you.
• Free is really just another price, but a powerful one.
• You overvalue what you own.

“Hopelessness is the root of anxiety, mental illness and depression. It is the source of all misery and the cause of all addiction.” — Mark Manson

Everything Is F*cked explains what’s wrong with our approach towards happiness and gives philosophical suggestions that help us make our lives worth living.

Even though we seem to have everything nowadays, from freedom to amazing technological discoveries, more and more people seem to drown in a feeling of hopelessness. A book concentrating on everything that is surrounding us, by putting things into perspective in a sharp, yet humorous way, it will make you consider things that you probably never even thought about before.

• Pure logic won’t help you make the best decisions, a balanced brain will.
• Hope won’t solve your problems, it takes acceptance and principles to do that.
• The solution to mental illnesses is not chasing happiness, it is to attain true freedom from our addictions and dependencies.

“Tomorrow and plans for tomorrow can have no significance at all unless you are in full contact with the reality of the present, since it is in the present and only in the present that you live.” — Alan Watts

The Wisdom of Insecurity is a self-help classic that breaks down our psychological need for stability and explains how it’s led us right into consumerism, why that won’t solve our problem and how we can really calm our anxiety.

You would think that this age offers enough stability to human beings, but it sometimes seems to be exactly the opposite: we live in an age where things seem rather unstable and vulnerable. Alan Watts has put together this book where we put into perspective the idea that as much as we want to reach a perfect level of psychological security, many things make us go towards psychological insecurity.

• Without religion to tell us it’ll be okay, life can become very uncertain, and that’s terrifying.
• The happiness consumerism promises us is really just emptiness in a pretty wrapper.
• Pleasure and pain always come in one package, and embracing that will make you less anxious.

Best Books on Psychology For Beginners

“The right job enhances your life. It is personally fulfilling because it nourishes the most important aspects of your personality..” — Paul Tieger, Barbara Barron, & Kelly Tieger

Do What You Are will help you discover your personality type and how it can lead you to a more satisfying career that corresponds to your talents and interests..

Your perfect career is a… personality type away. This book will help you figure out what exactly it is that you are good at – by figuring out what your personality type is and which occupation is the best one for you, according to your result. By using different exercises and examples, this book will help you determine what path you need to follow to be satisfied with your life and career.

• Notice the ways you connect with the world to identify your personality type.
• Discover your optimal career path by considering your identity and what interests you.
• No matter how old you are you can always change your occupation to something more satisfying.

“Love and work are to people what water and sunshine are to plants.” — Jonathan Haidt

The Happiness Hypothesis is the most thorough analysis of how you can find happiness in our modern society, backed by plenty of scientific research, real-life examples and even a formula for happiness.

If you want to understand happiness, but you are not sure where to start, this could represent a good starting point. There are many sayings out there regarding happiness that we might have used naturally, but are they still available today? Haidt’s book is provocative and puts under analysis the way traditional wisdom interacts with the modern world.

• Surround yourself with the people you love the most and live in accordance with reciprocity.
• Do work that matters to you.
• Find a partner who will stand by your side through sunshine and rain and allow yourself to be part of something greater.

“Our best evidence of what people truly feel and believe comes less from their words than from their deeds.” — Robert Cialdini

Influence has been the go-to book for marketers since its release in 1984, which delivers six key principles behind human influence and explains them with countless practical examples.

Why do you, and other people, say ‘yes’? Is it because someone is persuading you or is there another reason? Robert Cialdini explains in this book six principles that will help us not only become better persuaders but also understand the psychology behind this act. These principles will also help you figure out what you need in order to achieve success.

• You can use the reciprocity bias to build up a massive good karma account.
• The scarcity bias works, because we hate to miss opportunities.
• Make a small commitment to trigger your consistency bias and reach your goal.

Best Psychology Books For Sales and Marketing

“Help yourself warm up and prepare mentally by repeating, ‘I feel happy! I feel healthy! I feel terrific!’ It is not possible for you to talk positively to yourself, using words like this, without immediately feeling happier and more confident.” ― Brian Tracy

The Psychology Of Selling motivates you to work on your self-image and how you relate to customers so that you can close more deals.

How do you sell more? If this is a question that you still haven’t found an answer to, this book might be of good help, as it will provide you with enough ideas, strategies, and techniques to make you sell faster and more, all in a more efficient way.

• Utilize the power of your subconscious to become more successful.
• You will get more motivation and passion if you learn from the right people.
• Questions are the holy grail of unearthing customers’ needs and they will help you make more sales.

“The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.” — Malcolm Gladwell

The Tipping Point explains how ideas spread like epidemics and which few elements need to come together to help an idea reach the point of critical mass, where its viral effect becomes unstoppable.

It takes a tipping point to start something big, something that is rapidly adopted by people. Something that is an idea or a trend that spreads to the masses. And Malcolm Gladwell explains this idea in this bestseller, by analyzing diverse ideas and trends, to figure out what makes them so interesting, that people just seem to dive into them instantly.

• Once an idea reaches the tipping point, it spreads like fire.
• Three kinds of people are responsible for getting ideas to tip.
• Without stickiness, no idea will ever tip.

Best Psychology Books About Emotions

“In a very real sense we have two minds, one that thinks and one that feels.” — Daniel Goleman

Emotional Intelligence explains the importance of emotions in your life, how they help and hurt your ability to navigate the world, followed by practical advice on how to improve your own emotional intelligence and why that is the key to leading a successful life.

Does having a high IQ give you a guarantee that you are going to be successful? According to Daniel Goleman, it takes a bit more to get to the highest point of success, by looking at how the two sides of our brain work together – the rational and the emotional. This book shows us how emotional intelligence determines various aspects of our lives and how it is also a way of being smart.

• Emotional intelligence rests on self-awareness and self-regulation.
• A high EQ makes you healthier and more successful.
• You can boost your EQ by mirroring other people’s body language and thinking optimistically.

“Willpower is just another name for the idea of choosing long-term outcomes rather than short-term ones.” — Antonio R. Damasio

Descartes’ Error will help you understand why the argument that the mind and body are disconnected is false by using neuroscience and interesting case studies to identify how the body and our emotions play a vital role in logical thinking.

“I think therefore I am” can be easily considered one of Descartes’ most famous proclamations. But since its appearance, it has made science concentrate more on the cognitive side of things, rather than the emotional one. Antonio R. Damasio has written a provocative book that makes use of case studies, to demonstrate that we need emotions not only for being rational but also for our behavior.

• Brain damage, like what Phineas Gage experienced when a rod went through his head, gives us clues about how the mind really works with the body.
• Emotions are vital to our mind’s ability to function properly and think logically.
• Your brain uses feelings from past experiences to construct somatic markers which help it make decisions faster.

Best Psychology Books About Love and Relationships

“When men and women are able to respect and accept their differences, then love has a chance to blossom.” — John Gray

Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus helps you improve your relationships by identifying the key differences between men and women.

Men and women have different ways to communicate, even though they are both human beings. This book is based on years of successful counselling and can help you figure out how to communicate with the man or woman sitting beside you, without turning everything into a conflict. Is it all just about accepting each other’s differences? Let’s find out!

• Women want men to listen to them while men desire solutions to problems.
• Men are motivated when they feel useful, women are inspired when they feel loved.
• Women and men communicate differently and assign separate meanings to the same words.

“Most people are only as needy as their unmet needs.” —Dr. Amir Levine

Attached delivers a scientific explanation why some relationships thrive and steer a clear path over a lifetime, while others crash and burn, based on the human need for attachment and the three different styles of it.

What would you say is your attachment style, based on how you feel towards your partner? This book helps us understand our attachment style, giving us a little bit of insight into the science behind love. Understanding your behavior in relation to the other will help you build a stronger and more satisfactory bond with your significant other.

• Everyone needs attachment, it’s a prerequisite for a happy and healthy life.
• There are 3 different attachment styles, which one are you?
• Effective communication is the best way to guarantee your happiness in any relationship.

Best Psychology Books About Personality

“The only thing ‘special’ about those who transform themselves and their lives is their view of their own future. The refuse to be defined by the past. They see something different and more meaningful and they never stop fueling that vision.” — Benjamin Hardy

Personality Isn’t Permanent will shatter your long-held beliefs that you’re stuck as yourself, flaws and all, by identifying why the person you are is changeable and giving you specific and actionable steps to change.

Do people change their attitudes and behaviors throughout their lives or do they constantly stay the same? According to psychologist Benjamin Hardy, the idea that people never change is rather wrong and it keeps us away from being who we need to be. Offering practical advice and basing everything on science, this book will certainly catch your attention.

• There are five destructive myths about personality that lead to mediocrity and support the fixed mindset that holds you back.
• Your goals determine your personality and are the tool you need to change your identity.
• No matter who you’ve been in the past or who you are now, you can upgrade how you see yourself and transform your future.

“To investigate the history of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the most popular personality inventory in the world, is to court a kind of low-level paranoia. Files disappear. Tapes are erased. People begin to watch you.” — Merve Emre

The Personality Brokers uncovers the true, yet un-scientific origins of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality test.

There is a test out there that is used almost everywhere when it comes to determining someone’s personality – and that is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. This book concentrates on figuring out how a personality indicator became such a huge success, while also trying to put into perspective all the things that could influence us to be ourselves.

• Katherine Briggs-Myers and her daughter Isabel Myers based their personality test on the questionable principles of Carl Jung.
• Briggs created her first personality test at a time when Americans were ready to receive it, thus beginning the era of self-help writing.
• Although scientifically unsound, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator does have it’s benefits and uses.

“The Enneagram doesn’t put you in a box. It shows you the box you’re already in and how to get out of it.” — Ian Morgan Cron

The Road Back To You will teach you more about what kind of person you are by identifying the pros and cons of each personality type within the Enneagram test.

Human beings are all wired differently, but at the same, they all have positive and negative traits. This book concentrates on the Enneagram, which is an ancient personality typing system and can help you learn more about yourself. Filled with stories, this book will help you figure out how to get to a deeper knowledge of who we are as people, by diving into the spiritual side of things.

• There are nine personality types in the Enneagram.
• You might feel that your personal traits fall into multiple types, and that’s why the test has what are known as wing numbers to give you additional clarity.
• Each number in the test has corresponding stress and security numbers to help you better understand how you react in different circumstances.

Best Psychology Books About Anxiety and Depression

“It is a fact – I say this from experience – that being severly anxious is depressing. Anxiety can impede your relationships, impair your performance, constrict your life, and limit your possibilities.” — Scott Stossel

My Age Of Anxiety is your guide to understanding an aspect of mental illness that most of us don’t realize is so severe, showing it’s biological and environmental origins and ways to treat it.

When would you say that you heard the term ‘anxiety’ for the first time? You might get to the conclusion that thirty-something years ago, this was not considered a diagnostic, while nowadays, it has become one of the most common mental illness diagnostics. Stossel gives us a bit of insight into how anxiety affects people and how to control it at the same time.

• This disease can make life difficult and embarrassing.
• Anxiety comes from evolution but is also a result of our experiences in childhood.
• To treat this form of mental illness, you can use drugs and therapy.

“The more you think life is about having stuff and superiority and showing it off, the more unhappy, and the more depressed and anxious, you will be.” — Johann Hari

Lost Connections explains why depression affects so many people and that improving our relationships, not taking medication, is the way to beat our mental health problems.

One of today’s most common mental illnesses is depression. Even though there are many people out there suffering from depression, it is still rather unclear what causes it: is it a chemical imbalance or is it the way we live today? Lost Connections shares different stories, from different groups to help us have a better understanding of how depression works and how we can fight against it.

• Depression is not the result of a chemical imbalance.
• There are nine main causes of depression, and they all have to do with difficult life circumstances.
• Social prescriptions help people feel valued and connected while medication does not.

“The world is increasingly designed to depress us. Happiness isn’t very good for the economy. If we were happy with what we had, why would we need more?” — Matt Haig

Reasons To Stay Alive shows you the dangers and difficulties surrounding mental illness, uncovers the stigma around it, and identifies how to recover from it by sharing the story of Matt Haig’s recovery after an awful panic attack and subsequent battle with depression and anxiety.

There is always a light at the end of the tunnel – or at least, this is one of the most important things that people have to understand. Living with depression is not an easy thing to do, whether it is you that is affected or someone close to you – and Matt Haig knows that, as he also suffers from depression. He has written this frank, yet encouraging book that reminds us that the little things do count and that life should be lived, for the better or the worse.

• If you’re depressed, reading books to get out of your own head can help.
• There are some benefits to mental illness, which even some of the world’s greatest leaders experienced.
• Recovery won’t be as straightforward as you think, but it is possible.

“In times of crisis, we are better off being led by mentally ill leaders than by mentally normal ones.” — Cal Newport

A First-Rate Madness shares the stories of many world leaders and explains how they prevailed despite their mental illnesses and struggles, showing you how to turn your psychological disadvantages into leadership strengths.

The world has had many notable leaders up to this point – but what do they all have in common when there is a critical moment unfolding? Analyzing leaders such as Gandhi, Churchill, or JFK – and not only – Ghaemi has figured out that what is seen as a mood disorder can be a very important quality for a leader. Are you curious to find out more regarding this subject?

• Depression and bipolar disorder have benefits that may be helpful in leadership positions.
• Historical leaders like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Winston Churchill, and JFK had disorders that helped them make better decisions..
• Knowing the upside of mental illness can help us remove the stigma around it.

Best Psychology Books About Society

“It’s hard to find meaning in what we do if at some level it doesn’t help someone else or make someone happier.” Matthew D. Lieberman

Social explains how our innate drive to build social connections is the primary driver behind our behavior and explores ways we can use this knowledge to our advantage.

Human beings are social creatures, and that is a well-known fact. But what is a less known fact is to what extent we can be considered “social”. According to Matthew Lieberman, the need for humans to connect seems to be even more fundamental than the need we have for shelter or food. If you want to find out more about our need to be social and connect with other people, this book could be the best for you.

• We were programmed to connect socially, which is why social pain hurts so much.
• The ability to understand the feelings and thoughts of others helps us succeed in life.
• Kindness, not money, will buy you happiness and health.

“People who succeed tend to find one goal in the distant future and then chase it through thick and thin. School asks students to be good at a range of subjects, but life asks people to find one passion that they will follow forever.” — David Brooks

The Social Animal weaves social science research into the story of a fictional couple to shed light on the decision-making power of our unconscious minds.

What would you say about a blend of fiction and non-fiction? Because that is exactly what David Brooks is doing in this book: he creates a couple that lives their lives to the fullest. By making use of diverse scientific references, Brooks analyses the traits of both characters and puts into perspective the elements that made them who they are and what drove them towards it.

• Learning is not linear, it is a process of forward, backward, and side steps.
• Changing your environment is more effective than willpower when cultivating new habits and behaviors.
• Humans follow seven unconscious structures, so-called if/then rules, when framing a decision.

Best Psychology Books About Language

“Choose your words wisely, because they will influence your happiness, your relationships, and your personal wealth.” — Andrew B. Newberg

Words Can Change Your Brain is the ultimate guide to becoming an expert communicator, teaching you how to use psychology to your advantage to express yourself better, listen more, and create an environment of trust with anyone you speak with.

People spend a lot of time with other people, daily. But that does not necessarily make them the best communicators, as there is always something more to learn about how we can get our points across. This book will help you improve your communication skills, in order to be happy and successful, no matter which environment you have to use them.

• If you want to connect with others better when talking, make sure that your mind is relaxed, present, and quiet.
• Utilize the power of happy memories to get your smile just right.
• You must listen well, speak slower, and even say less to understand others better and have them understand you.

“If you want to find your true love, compare the ways you use function words with that of your prospective partners..” — James W. Pennebaker

The Secret Life of Pronouns is a collection of research and case studies explaining what our use of pronouns, articles, and other style words can reveal about ourselves.

The way we talk gives a bit of insight into who we are and how we think. Or at least, that’s what Pennebaker has found out in his research – the words we use have a deeper meaning and can carry enough meaning to let us dive into the feelings we have and not only. If you are curious to figure out how the words we use are related to our ways of thinking, The Secret Life of Pronouns could help you out.

• The manner in which you use style words reveals a lot about your social skills.
• Your choice of pronouns reflects your upbringing and ways of thinking.
• Examining function words can tell whether people are compatible with one another.

Best Psychology Books About Happiness

“The secret of happiness is variety, but the secret of variety, like the secret of all spices, is knowing when to use it.” — Dan Gilbert

Stumbling On Happiness examines the capacity of our brains to fill in gaps and simulate experiences, shows how our lack of awareness of these powers sometimes leads us to wrong decisions, and how we can change our behavior to synthesize our own happiness.

We imagine a lot of things daily, but we mostly imagine the future – creating scenarios, mostly. Using the latest discoveries in psychology, economics, and cognitive neuroscience, Daniel Gilbert provides us not only with a brilliant but also accessible book that will put into perspective the fact that we tend to know very little about us and the people surrounding us.

• Your brain is really bad at filling in the blanks, but it keeps on trying.
• You should always compare products based on value, never on past price.
• Bad experiences are better than no experiences.

“I’m trying to broaden the scope of positive psychology well beyond the smiley face. Happiness is just one-fifth of what human beings choose to do.” — Martin Seligman

Flourish establishes a new model for well-being, rooted in positive psychology, building on five key pillars to help you create a happy life through the power of simple exercises.

How can you flourish? Well, the answers you are looking for might be right in the pages of this book, written by Martin Seligman, a founding father of what is called “the happiness research”. Concentrating on positive psychology, this book will help you realise that psychology is more than helping people with their suffering – it is a tool to help you build your life for the better.

• Seligman’s PERMA model for happiness is the key to a life of profound fulfillment.
• Simple positivity exercises can have life-changing effects, like these two.
• IQ isn’t everything – success is based on character traits, not just intelligence.

Best Psychology Books About Decision-Making

Blink explains what happens when you listen to your gut feeling, why these snap judgments are often much more efficient than conscious deliberating, and how to avoid your intuition leading you to wrong assumptions.

What is behind every decision that we make? Why do some people choose something in the blink of an eye, while others spend a lot of time figuring out what to choose? Blink helps us understand the mechanism behind decision-making and the decisions themselves. If you want to have a better understanding of your mind and mechanisms, Malcolm Gladwell’s book will help you out.

• Your unconscious is the world’s fastest filter of information.
• Stress can lead your gut astray.
• Put up screens in situations where you can’t trust your intuition.

“The secret to happiness is low expectations.” – Barry Schwartz

The Paradox Of Choice shows you how today’s vast amount of choice makes you frustrated, less likely to choose, more likely to mess up, and less happy overall, before giving you concrete strategies and tips to ease the burden of decision-making.

We live in a world where choice is no longer a problem: at least from the perspective of quantity. And that is where it gets tricky: this abundance of choice can make us feel overwhelmed and can even lead to anxiety. So, how do we end up making the right choices? Barry Schwartz offers us practical advice that not only will help us make the right choice, but also be happy about the choices we made.

• The more options you have, the harder it gets to decide, and to decide well.
• The more options you have, the less happy you will be, no matter what you decide on.
• Good enough is the best – become a satisficer.

Best Psychology Books About Human Behavior and Cognitive Biases

“History is written by the victors, but it’s victims who write the memoirs.” — Carol Tavris

Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me takes you on a journey of famous examples and areas of life where mistakes are hushed up instead of admitted, showing you along the way how this hinders progress, why we do it in the first place, and what you can do to start honestly admitting your own.

Ever since we are young, the one thing we do is hide. Of course, it’s not just about the hide and seek game, but the hiding of mistakes. Even as adults, we hate admitting that we have made a mistake. But the question is why do we act like this? This book will take you through the mechanisms in our brains that make us not admit our mistakes and provides enough advice to help you man up and admit your mistakes.

• You make up self-justifications to deal with the cognitive dissonance your mistakes create.
• Confirmation bias can lead you to change your entire morals.
• Stop thinking you’re stupid for making mistakes.

“The more cashless our society becomes, the more our moral compass slips.” — Dan Ariely

The Honest Truth About Dishonesty reveals our motivation behind cheating, why it’s not entirely rational, and, based on many experiments, what we can do to lessen the conflict between wanting to get ahead and being good people.

Are people 100% honest or do they all have at least a bit of a tendency to cheat? Dishonesty is this book’s main concern and according to bestselling author Dan Ariely, there is some motivation behind cheating and it is sometimes not rational. Fascinated by how human beings make decisions, Ariely has once again looked into how irrationality might influence what we do, even in terms of cheating.

• You don’t decide to cheat based on rational thinking.
• You’re more likely to cheat when there’s a psychological distance between you and cheating.
• Don’t wear fake designer clothes. Ever.

“Knowledge does not change behavior. We have all encountered crazy shrinks and obese doctors and divorced marriage counselors.” — Chip & Dan Heath

Switch is about how you can lead and encourage changes of human behavior, both in yourself and in your organization, by focusing on the three forces that influence it: the rider, the elephant and the path.

Change might not be the easiest thing to do. Sometimes we cannot do it, because it’s not something depending on us, while other times we refuse to do it because we are scared of the outcome. Chip and Dan Heath have written this book that addresses exactly that challenge: the one of changing, and they want to help us understand what we can do when change is hard, in an entertaining and engaging way.

• Focus on one specific, critical aspect of the change, so the rider doesn’t have to decide.
• Get the elephant moving with a powerful emotion.
• Make the path of change easy to follow, because human behavior is highly situational.

Best Psychology Books About Negative Thinking

“The effort to feel happy is often precisely the thing that makes us miserable. Constant efforts to eliminate the negative, that is what causes us to feel so insecure, anxious, uncertain or unhappy.” — Oliver Burkeman

The Antidote will explain everything that’s wrong with positivity-based self-help advice and what you should do instead to feel, live, and be happier.

How happy would you say you are right now? How happy would you be if it started raining or snowing? These two questions are just two examples from a long line of questions regarding happiness – we are all looking for it, but it seems to be quite a hard thing to achieve. And according to Oliver Burkeman, positive thinking might not always be the answer. Are you ready to try some of the unconventional methods this book proposes?

• Thinking explicitly about happiness and pursuing it directly are actually counterproductive.
• Imagining the worst-case scenario makes you resilient, not depressed.
• Setting goals is just as likely to lead us into misery as it is to bring happiness.

“When we are open to new possibilities, we find them. Be open and skeptical of everything.” — Todd Kashdan

The Upside Of Your Dark Side takes a look at our darkest emotions, like anxiety or anger, and shows you there are real benefits that follow them and their underlying character traits, such as narcissism or psychopathy.

Are the positive things happening in your life the only ones meant to take you far and help you live a better life? Or is it necessary for us to also go through negative emotions and learn how to embrace our sadness or anger? Making use of years of research, this book helps us understand that the full range of emotions can help us change our lives.

• Happiness can interfere with your performance.
• Guilt is good, shame is shit.
• Mindfulness takes a toll on you.

We love psychology because it is one of the most practical fields you can study. Human relationships live entirely in the realm of psychology. Therefore, everything you learn about it will help you deal better with other people and yourself. Our lives have changed for the better after studying these books. We know yours will too.

It’s not easy to understand your thoughts and emotions. But when you do, you unlock a new potential for better living that you never imagined possible. The more you learn about psychology, the better you’ll get at recognizing the thoughts and feelings that pull you down so you can learn how to overcome them and live happier and healthier.

What would be the first thing one should know in terms of psychology and how would it benefit themselves and others? Let us know!

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How We Break by Vincent Deary review – look after yourself

A psychologist offers practical advice for dealing with life’s ups and downs

I t is refreshing to read a psychology book intended for mainstream audiences that isn’t trying to push you towards a particular goal; to achieve more, to work harder. Thanks to the rapid societal and technological changes of the past century, self-actualisation is now possible for more of us than ever before. As welcome as this might seem, self-actualising is hard work, and possibilities can quickly become standards that we fail to live up to. Consciously or unconsciously, our unlived potential can haunt us and provoke us to strive until we burn out.

In this book, the second in a planned trilogy, and a follow-up to 2015’s How We Are , health psychologist Deary delivers a much-needed message: we have a finite capacity to meet the unpredictable challenges life throws at us. The concept of allostatic load (the wear and tear of chronic stress) crops up repeatedly. In chapter four we are introduced to Anne, a single mother struggling to look after her son and father while working as a probation officer (Deary’s case studies are composites of patients he has treated in a fatigue clinic). Anne looks after everyone except herself. As her life becomes more difficult and complex, her ability to function is gradually eroded until she collapses into a state of chronic fatigue. During a course of psychotherapy she comes to understand the vulnerability that results from doing too much for too long, to the point that a few ordinary difficulties can tip you over the edge.

A particular strength of the book is the way Deary weaves between different schools of thought within psychology, philosophy and religion. The result is not merely a discussion of abstract ideas, but a collection of valuable observations about what it means to be human in the modern world, taking in biological, societal and economic realities. In chapter eight we meet Fred, a freelance editor in his early 30s who is chronically exhausted because of anxiety and panic attacks. We are shown how his anxiety (exacerbated by the Covid-19 lockdown) shrank his world to the size of his house, leaving him effectively a prisoner of his own state of mind. The process of reclaiming his life then proceeds gradually, one small step at a time.

The various chapters work as stand-alone essays and discuss very different questions. How do stories and narratives shape us? What is the difference between useful and destructive thinking? How do dysfunctional psychological processes like anxiety or anorexia come to possess us? What does it mean to have a healthy relationship with yourself? The resulting insights apply whether we have a diagnosable mental health condition or not.

How We Break might not be quite as resonant for people who have yet to meet some of the more punishing aspects of life, or tend to dwell too much in their comfort zones. This kind of existence can be accompanied by its own collection of psychological problems, of course. Human beings are essentially anti-fragile, meaning we do in fact become stronger when exposed to stress and difficulty. Many aspects of modern life have made it easier for us to insulate ourselves from difficulty, and we are only just beginning to see what this could mean for the mental health of younger people. Rather, this book is for those who have experienced too much, too early or for too long, whose reach has exceeded their grasp, who may be hypercompetent and yet have little to no self-esteem.

The third instalment of the trilogy will be called How We Mend. In the meantime, this book offers a cathartic meditation on just how difficult life can be. Although the concept of self-care has become an overused and sometimes unhelpful trope on social media, Deary makes a compelling argument as to the necessity of self-compassion. He leads us to a more humane understanding of our suffering and offers practical advice for navigating life’s ups and downs with greater grace and equanimity.

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Book review: positive psychology in practice, edited by p. alex linley and stephen joseph wiley, 2004, 770 pages.

As editors P. Alex Linley and Stephen Joseph note in their preface, positive psychology—the scientific study of what makes people feel happy and fulfilled—is a burgeoning discipline. At this crucial point in the field’s development, they want their book to be a definitive resource—not just for colleagues in academia, but for practitioners as well.

Over 42 chapters, Positive Psychology in Practice offers plenty of provocative research findings. Psychologist Tim Kasser , for example, makes an important contribution to economics by showing that when people pursue materialistic values—such as wanting to be wealthy and attractive— they report less happiness and lower life-satisfaction. Kennon Sheldon and Sonja Lyubomirsky report that simple practices, such as counting your blessings, may increase your happiness for a sustained time. This finding is significant because previous researchers have long believed a person’s potential for happiness is more or less determined by genetics at birth.

This book distinguishes itself by not only reporting on breakthroughs in positive psychology, but by emphasizing how these findings can be applied. A section dedicated to work includes a provocative chapter on how “transformative leadership”—characterized in part by leaders who do what is ethical, rather than what is expedient or cost-effective—may promote employees’ physical and mental health. Another essay discusses potential applications of positive psychology to youth organizations.

The book is especially relevant to psychotherapists. For example, Chiara Ruini and Giovanni Fava introduce a technique called well-being therapy, which draws on research suggesting that therapists can help patients not only by addressing psychological problems but by teaching them to develop positive characteristics as well, such as self-acceptance and a sense of purpose.

Linely and Joseph have certainly succeeded in creating a comprehensive overview of positive psychology. Though their book is more practically minded than most academic compilations, the volume’s breadth, and sometimes its prose, might put off non-academics. Even so, it is a terrific resource for anyone interested in the important science of positive psychology.

About the Author

Christine Carter

Christine Carter, Ph.D. is a Senior Fellow at the Greater Good Science Center. She is the author of The New Adolescence: Raising Happy and Successful Teens in an Age of Anxiety and Distraction (BenBella, 2020), The Sweet Spot: How to Accomplish More by Doing Less (Ballantine Books, 2015), and Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents (Random House, 2010). A former director of the GGSC, she served for many years as author of its parenting blog, Raising Happiness . Find out more about Christine here .

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BOOK REVIEW article

Book review: the psychologist's companion (6th edition).

• Human Motivation and Affective Neuroscience Lab, Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany

A Book Review on The Psychologist's Companion (6th Edition)

Robert J. Sternberg and Karin Sternberg, (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press), 2016, 386 pages, ISBN: 978-1-107-13961-9 (hardback), 978-1-316-50518-2 (paperback)

The sixth edition of The Psychologist's Companion ( Sternberg and Sternberg, 2016 ) is a guide to successful work in psychology, be it as a student, teacher, or researcher. It intends to accompany you all the way throughout developing, conducting, and reporting a psychological experiment. The book focuses on tips about the writing process, with a pronounced focus on papers in scientific psychology. The coverage ranges from basics like idea generation or literature research, to formal and data presentation guidelines, up to preparations for journal submissions. A separate section is concerned with successfully presenting oneself in academia, including (grant/book) proposals and lectures, or, in advanced career stages, applications for a professorship and communicating with the press. Looking at the overall selection of content, The Psychologist's Companion , like in its earlier editions, remains a valuable reference for students and scientists, now expressly also addressing teachers in its title.

Since the book addresses mainly psychology students and researchers, most parts are written as a step-by-step manual to guide the reader through different tasks that occur during an experiment. Due to the mostly chronological structure of topics that occur in the process of a study (designing informed consent forms and debriefing sheets, obtaining institutional review board approval, or the like), it can easily be used as additional reading material for practical experimental psychology courses. Correspondingly, we have employed it successfully as accompanying literature in our undergraduate experimental psychology and field research practica. Newly added to this edition are three categories of boxes to further the learning process and encourage readers to look deeper into some points the authors make, including stories from the authors' personal experience or questions requiring the reader to apply the just learned facts. With several easy-to-use and helpful checklists one can make sure not to have overlooked anything important. Because of this structure, The Psychologist's Companion not only offers the theoretical input but also the practical applications needed to keep students interested.

However, there are some limitations. Open Science (e.g., Yamada, 2018 )—not even listed in the subject index—is not substantially featured as a coherent part of the book's content. In fact, aside from open access publishing, after careful reading we could find only a brief reference without explanation to core topics like preregistration and open materials/data on p. 259 as a possibility when submitting to Psychological Science . Considering the outcomes of the Replication Crisis (overview in Schultheiss and Mehta, 2018 ) and the resulting movement in psychological research, this is no longer appropriate for a guide addressing the needs of students and researchers. Even more, some passages, if taken literally by students during their first experiences with running experiments, may mistakenly be interpreted as encouraging Questionable Research Practices (QRPs, explained e.g., in Bakker et al., 2012 ). This is exemplified in statements like calling it a myth that researchers have their to-be-tested ideas ready before data collection and stating that “One's ideas [about the outcome] develop along with the experiment” (p. 23), despite the fact that preregistration has become a widespread practice in our discipline. In addition, it is not helpful to instruct students on the same page that data sets can be analyzed in an infinite number of ways and that the method that “yield[s the] maximum payoff” should be selected, when nowadays analyses are registered prior to conducting the study and p -hacking ( Wicherts et al., 2016 ) is an acknowledged problem. This is not beneficial to the authors' actual intentions, as for example the book clearly recommends the planning of major data analyses in advance and repeatedly mentions the need to label post-hoc hypotheses as post-hoc . Thus, the authors should consider clarification and incorporating the practices detailed for example in Yamada (2018) in future editions. Especially the chapter on Planning and Writing the Experimental Research Paper should include at least an overview of the subject and the associated procedures. Also, some recurring tips like proofreading one's work before submitting it should be common sense and therefore don't need to be mentioned repeatedly. While, altogether, this is a useful and important book, it should be handled with care when used as in-class material. It is essential to give additional instructions to students regarding current research practices to avoid misunderstandings.

In comparison to other books on similar topics, this one has several advantages. While Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks ( Belcher, 2009 ) offers a detailed chronological to-do-list and even prepared sheets to fill in your progress, it is not specially written for psychologists. Furthermore, it expects the user to already have a general idea of the topic or even a prewritten script to work on, so it doesn't really apply to first-year university students. The Psychologist's Companion therefore is most helpful for beginners, especially for students writing their first paper or conducting their first experimental study. It also focuses on thematic steps whereas Belcher's book provides exact time templates.

In summary, the book can still be recommended especially to early-career researchers starting their PhD studies and to undergraduate students. The latter group may consider The Psychologist's Companion for Undergraduates: A Guide to Success for College Students ( Sternberg and Sternberg, 2017 ), which however bears a striking resemblance to the present book in topics covered and is almost identical over the course of large passages. As a final note, in the light of the present book's missing coherent incorporation of modern research transparency, some limitations and potentially misleading passages need to be made explicit to the students and to be supplemented by additional instruction on current research practices.

Author Contributions

HS and MK wrote the manuscript, with larger contributions by HS. MK then provided edits and suggestions for revision.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Bakker, M., van Dijk, A., and Wicherts, J. M. (2012). The rules of the game called psychological science. Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 7, 543–554. doi: 10.1177/1745691612459060

PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar

Belcher, W. L. (2009). Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success . Los Angeles, CA.: Sage Publ.

Google Scholar

Schultheiss, O. C., and Mehta, P. H. (2018). “Reproducibility in social neuroendocrinology: past, present, and future,” in Routledge International Handbook of Social Neuroendocrinology , eds O. C. Schultheiss and P. H. Mehta (Abingdon: Routledge), 41–63.

Sternberg, R. J., and Sternberg, K. (2016). The Psychologist's Companion: A Guide to Professional Success for Students, Teachers, and Researchers . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Sternberg, R. J., and Sternberg, K. (2017). The Psychologist's Companion for Undergraduates: A Guide to Success for College Students. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Wicherts, J. M., Veldkamp, C. L., Augusteijn, H. E., Bakker, M., van Aert, R. C., and van Assen, M. A. (2016). Degrees of freedom in planning, running, analyzing, and reporting psychological studies: a checklist to avoid p -hacking. Front. Psychol. 7:1832. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01832

Yamada, Y. (2018). How to crack pre-registration: toward transparent and open science. Front. Psychol. 9:1831. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01831

Keywords: academic psychology, academic success, research practices, PhD students, undergraduates, writing skills

Citation: Schmiedl H and Köllner MG (2019) Book Review: The Psychologist's Companion (6th Edition). Front. Psychol. 10:556. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00556

Received: 16 January 2019; Accepted: 27 February 2019; Published: 21 March 2019.

Edited and reviewed by: Sergio Machado , Salgado de Oliveira University, Brazil

Copyright © 2019 Schmiedl and Köllner. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Helena Schmiedl, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Big Ideas Simply Explained

The psychology book: big ideas simply explained, nigel c. benson , catherine collin , joanna ginsburg ...more.

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

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Nigel C. Benson

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"People and things do not upset us. Rather, we upset ourselves by believing that they can upset us" - Albert Ellis

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9 Best Psychology Books to Understand Human Behavior

Are you curious about what makes humans behave in certain ways? Do you want to better understand the nuances of human behavior and improve your interactions with others? Psychology books are a great way to delve into these topics and gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and those around us. In this article, we’ll explore some of the best psychology books on human behavior , covering a range of topics from personal growth to social psychology and happiness.

Understanding Human Behavior Through Psychology Books

Human behavior is a complex and multi-faceted topic, encompassing everything from our thoughts and emotions to our actions and interactions with others. Through the lens of psychology, we can gain insights into the underlying reasons for our behavior and begin to understand how we can change and grow as individuals. Psychology books offer a wealth of information and ideas about human behavior, drawing on research, case studies, and personal experiences to shed light on our complex inner workings.

The Importance of Studying Human Behavior

Studying human behavior is an essential aspect of understanding ourselves and others. By learning about the factors that influence our thoughts, feelings, and actions, we can begin to make positive changes in our lives and build stronger relationships with those around us. Additionally, studying human behavior can help us develop key skills such as problem-solving, decision-making, and critical thinking , which can benefit us in all areas of life.

One of the most significant benefits of studying human behavior is the ability to recognize and overcome our own biases and limitations. By understanding the ways in which our past experiences, beliefs, and cultural backgrounds shape our perceptions of the world, we can begin to challenge our assumptions and broaden our perspectives. This, in turn, can lead to personal growth and development as we become more open-minded and empathetic towards others.

How Psychology Books Can Improve Your Life

Psychology books can be a valuable resource for anyone looking to improve their lives and gain a deeper understanding of themselves and others. By reading about the latest research in psychology and applying these findings to our own lives, we can gain practical insights and advice that can help us navigate the challenges of daily life.

For example, psychology books can help us develop our emotional intelligence , which is the ability to understand and manage our own emotions and those of others. By learning about the different types of emotions and how they impact our thoughts and behaviors, we can become more self-aware and better equipped to handle difficult situations.

Psychology books can also offer guidance on how to improve our communication skills, which are essential for building strong relationships with others. By learning about effective communication techniques and practicing them in our daily interactions, we can improve our ability to express ourselves clearly and understand others’ perspectives.

Finally, psychology books can help us develop a growth mindset, which is the belief that we can learn and grow throughout our lives. By reading about the latest research on motivation, learning, and personal development , we can begin to see challenges as opportunities for growth and embrace a more positive and proactive approach to life.

Top Psychology Books for Personal Growth

Reading is an excellent way to gain knowledge and insights that can help us grow as individuals. If you’re interested in personal growth, psychology books can be an excellent resource. Here are some of the top psychology books for personal growth:

Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

Emotional intelligence is a key aspect of successful relationships, both personal and professional. In this groundbreaking book, Daniel Goleman explores the role of emotional intelligence in our lives, drawing on cutting-edge research to offer practical advice for improving our emotional intelligence skills. Through case studies, Goleman shows how emotional intelligence can help us navigate the complexities of life, improving our relationships with others and enhancing our own personal growth.

For example, Goleman discusses how emotional intelligence can help us communicate more effectively with others. By understanding our own emotions and the emotions of those around us, we can better express ourselves and connect with others on a deeper level. Goleman also explores how emotional intelligence can help us manage stress and overcome challenges, both in our personal and professional lives.

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

Carol Dweck’s book Mindset offers an innovative approach to personal growth and development. Drawing on her research on the power of mindset, Dweck shows how our beliefs about ourselves and our abilities can impact our success in life. By adopting a growth mindset, we can overcome obstacles and reach our full potential.

Dweck’s book is full of practical advice for cultivating a growth mindset. For example, she suggests focusing on the process of learning, rather than just the outcome. By embracing challenges and seeing them as opportunities for growth, we can develop a more resilient and adaptable mindset. Dweck also discusses the importance of self-reflection and self-awareness in personal growth , encouraging readers to examine their own beliefs and attitudes towards success and failure.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Our habits shape our lives in countless ways, from our health and well-being to our productivity and success. In this insightful book, Charles Duhigg explores the science of habit formation, offering practical advice for how we can change our habits and improve our lives.

Duhigg’s book is full of fascinating examples of how habits can be transformed. For example, he discusses how the habit of exercise can be formed by linking it to a specific cue, such as putting on your workout clothes. He also explores how habits can be changed by identifying the underlying reward that drives them and finding healthier ways to satisfy that reward.

Overall, The Power of Habit is an excellent resource for anyone looking to break bad habits and develop healthier ones. By understanding the science of habit formation, we can take control of our lives and create positive change.

Exploring Social Psychology and Group Dynamics

Social psychology is a fascinating field that explores the ways in which our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the people around us. From the power of persuasion to the impact of social norms, social psychology offers valuable insights into the complex dynamics of human interaction.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion , is a classic in the field of social psychology. In this book, Cialdini explores the underlying reasons why people say “yes” to certain requests, even when they may not fully understand why they are doing so. Drawing on research from a variety of fields, including psychology, sociology, and marketing, Cialdini identifies six key principles of persuasion: reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity.

One of the most interesting principles that Cialdini explores is the power of social proof. This principle suggests that people are more likely to conform to the behavior of others when they are uncertain about how to act. For example, if a restaurant is busy, people are more likely to assume that the food is good and that they should eat there too. By understanding the power of social proof, communicators can become more effective at persuading others.

The Social Animal by Elliot Aronson

Elliot Aronson’s book, The Social Animal , takes a broader view of social psychology, exploring the ways in which our social connections and relationships shape our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Drawing on real-life examples and research, Aronson demonstrates how our social interactions can have a profound impact on our lives.

One of the key themes that Aronson explores is the importance of empathy in social interactions. Empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, is a crucial component of successful relationships and effective communication. Aronson shows how empathy can be developed and cultivated, and how it can be used to build stronger, more meaningful connections with others.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Susan Cain’s book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking , is a fascinating exploration of the ways in which introverts can succeed in a world that often values extroverted behavior. Drawing on research, personal experiences, and interviews with successful introverts, Cain offers practical advice for navigating social situations and leveraging the strengths of introversion to achieve success.

One of the key insights that Cain offers is that introverts have unique strengths that can be leveraged in a variety of settings. For example, introverts are often excellent listeners and are able to process information deeply and thoughtfully. By understanding and embracing these strengths, introverts can become more effective communicators and leaders, even in settings that may traditionally favor extroverted behavior.

Overall, these three books offer valuable insights into the complex dynamics of social psychology and group dynamics. By understanding the power of persuasion, the importance of empathy, and the unique strengths of introversion, we can become more effective communicators, leaders, and members of society.

Delving into the Science of Happiness and Well-being

Authentic happiness by martin seligman.

What does it mean to be truly happy? And how can we attain a lasting sense of well-being in our lives? Martin Seligman’s book Authentic Happiness offers a powerful approach to happiness, drawing on the science of positive psychology to offer practical advice for cultivating happiness and well-being. With a focus on gratitude, meaning, and relationships, Seligman’s book offers a roadmap for creating a fulfilling and meaningful life.

The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky

Sonja Lyubomirsky’s book The How of Happiness offers a research-backed approach to cultivating happiness in our lives. Drawing on her extensive research on happiness, Lyubomirsky offers practical advice and activities aimed at promoting happiness and well-being. From practicing gratitude and forgiveness to finding a sense of purpose, this book offers a comprehensive guide to living a happier, more fulfilling life.

The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt

What are the underlying psychological factors that contribute to our sense of happiness and well-being? In this fascinating book, Jonathan Haidt draws on ancient wisdom and modern research to explore the nature of happiness and well-being. Through a series of engaging anecdotes and thought-provoking insights, Haidt shows how we can cultivate happiness and meaning in our lives, drawing on the power of gratitude, empathy, and connection with others.

You can find this book here .

In conclusion, psychology books offer a wealth of insights and ideas that can help us better understand ourselves and those around us. From personal growth to social psychology and happiness, these books explore a wide range of topics that are relevant to our daily lives. By reading and applying the knowledge contained in these books, we can enhance our emotional intelligence, improve our relationships, and cultivate a greater sense of happiness and well-being.

What are the best books on human psychology?

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt, and Influence by Robert Cialdini are all good options.

What are the best books to learn about children’s psychology?

The Whole-Brain Child by Daniel J. Siegel, No Bad Kids by Janet Lansbury, and How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen by Joanna Faber are all brilliant.

What are the best books to help with controlling teenagers’ behavior?

Parenting Teens With Love and Logic by Foster Cline and The Teenage Brain by Frances R. Jensen are both great to help parent teenagers gently and effectively. 

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Psychology (Book Review)

Reviews the book 'psychology: a very short introduction.'.

By Paul Chance published November 1, 2000 - last reviewed on June 9, 2016

Gifts for The Bookish A Very ShortIntroduction (Oxford, 2000; $8.95)

If the price of the Encyclopedia is beyond your reach, or if you're thinking of a person whose interest in psychology does not quite merit eight volumes, this smaller work (159 pages, including glossary and index), provides a quick and easy overview. Although the table of contents looks like the syllabus for "Psych 101," this is decidedly not a text. As a gift, it won't cause as big a splash as the Encyclopedia, but how much of a splash can you expect for less than $9?

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Insights Into the Brain, in a Book You’ll Wish You Had in College

By Richard Wrangham

• July 6, 2017
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BEHAVE The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst By Robert M. Sapolsky 790 pp. Penguin Press. $35

In 1859 Charles Darwin gave the world a theory of life. A century later, evolutionary biologists started thinking seriously about its implications for human behavior. Richard Dawkins’s “The Selfish Gene” (1976) brought the resulting insights to the general public. Souls were gone, and free will too. The master manipulators were the genes. Bodies were reduced to mere lumbering robots, and even the inner lives of our species became just one more consequence of natural selection in a materialist world.

The new view quickly came to predominate, but on its own it gave too stark an account of behavior. Melvin Konner’s “The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit” (1982, with subsequent revisions) showed how interesting the science becomes when enriched by the wet details of genes, neurons and hormones. Konner’s erstwhile student Robert M. Sapolsky has now followed the same path. Sapolsky has produced a quirky, opinionated and magisterial synthesis of psychology and neurobiology that integrates this complex subject more accessibly and completely than ever.

Much of “Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst ,” written by a man who disingenuously declares himself “eggheady, meek and amorphously pacifistic,” is the textbook you will regret never having had in college. The science comes with hipster humor. Sapolsky writes of Jane Goodall blowing off “everyone’s socks in the 1960s by reporting the now-iconic fact that chimps make tools.… Great, next the zoologists will report that Rafiki persuaded Simba to become the Lion King.” He summarizes a chapter called “Us Versus Them” with “Give the right of way to people driving cars with the ‘Mean people suck’ bumper sticker, and remind everyone that we’re all in it together against Lord Voldemort and the House Slytherin.” He berates us for choosing leaders using “implicit, automatic factors more suitable to 5-year-olds deciding who should captain their boat on a voyage with the Teletubbies to Candyland.” Explaining why someone who sees a movie containing physically disgusting images becomes morally judgmental unless she washed her hands first, he imagines evolution as tinkerer: “Hmm, extreme negative affect elicited by violations of shared behavioral norms. Let’s see.… Who has any pertinent experience? I know, the insula! It does extreme negative sensory stimuli — that’s like, all that it does — so let’s expand its portfolio to include this moral disgust business. That’ll work. Hand me a shoehorn and some duct tape.” This is not your mother’s professor.

Of course many people would have no idea what an “insula” is, but Sapolsky eases readers gently into the complexities of the brain by ceding most of “Behave” to the fundamentals of neurobiology. We begin in the first second before a behavior is produced, our guide taking us confidently into the amygdala, the dopaminergic system and the frontal cortex. We continue the tour with events that occur minutes, hours, days, months and years ago, finally stretching back thousands of generations to the level where Darwinian processes explain why the systems that produce behavior evolved in their particular, haphazard way. By the time the book returns from these expanding horizons it has given readers the opportunity to feel astonishingly comfortable with a rich slew of fascinating neurobiology basics.

Dutiful core themes permeate the learning. Sapolsky rebukes the sociobiologists of the 1970s for their excessive focus on genes. He hammers home the message that nerves, hormones, genes, developmental experiences and evolutionary pressures must necessarily all be understood, and that none of the relationships between such factors and any behavior is straightforward. He summarizes crisply why calling the low-activity variant of the MAO-A gene a “warrior gene” is nonsensical: “Yikes, this is complicated.” Behavioral biology is indeed complex, but Sapolsky simplifies the topic with a beautifully organized and well-stocked store of knowledge. He has such a light tone, so imperious a command of data and such a rich fund of anecdotes that we are swept swiftly along to the last third of the book.

At that point Sapolsky shifts gears by turning to a question that has nudged him throughout his career. What does all this knowledge tell us about the prospects for a more empathic, less violent world? Here he echoes many a behavioral biologist’s ambition. If physics can take us to the moon, genetics give us the Green Revolution and medicine conquer polio, can neurobiology help us all get along? Sapolsky sees grounds for optimism. His hopes are admirable but they flatter to deceive.

He starts safely enough. He warns against misleading metaphors: Selfish genes do not mean selfish individuals. He exposes determinist ideas as false: Behavioral tendencies are strongly shaped by experience. He reviews evidence that societies vary in their nature and frequency of violence. He explains a series of mechanisms for the evolution of cooperation and morality. He tells how the First World War included a Christmas truce. This is worthy, reassuring stuff maintained in fine professorial style and serving to remind us that darkness is not inevitable.

But his positive thinking is not derived from brain research, nor are his prescriptions. Sapolsky proposes 10 strategies for reducing violence, all reasonable but none that justify the notion that science is the basis for societal advances toward less violence and higher morality. Promote trade and cultural diffusion. Use religion wisely. Note that punishment can sustain cooperation. Remember that humans can reconcile, just as animals can. Take advantage of the fact that it is hard to kill people you can see.

Sapolsky’s list offers no practical recipes beyond implying that once we understand that we are all creatures of flesh and blood we should all be more forgiving of each other. His omission is understandable. We are far from solving the problem.

In this section Sapolsky becomes a partisan critic, including presenting a skeptical view about the supposed long-term decline of human violence claimed by Steven Pinker in “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.” Sapolsky asserts that Pinker’s calculations include elementary errors, and that low rates of violence among contemporary hunter-gatherers mean that warfare did not predate agriculture. His arguments here are unbalanced. He fails to note that data on hunter-gatherer violence is relevant only where they are neighbored by other hunter-gatherers, rather than by militarily superior farmers.

But he seems to feel that if he is to maintain his positive stance he must credit the human species with an evolutionary legacy of nonviolence. So violence has to come mainly from influences that are too recent to have had major evolutionary impacts, such as agriculture (which began some 10,000 years ago), the root of a whole lot of bad things including the dogs of war: “One of the all-time human blunders, up there with, say, the New Coke debacle and the Edsel.”

The irony is that such concerns are unnecessary. A peace-loving researcher does not have to believe that ancient humans were less violent than we are, or that a better society depends on the lessons of brain science. History leaves no doubt about the cultural capacity for improvement, regardless of neurobiological insights.

When Sapolsky discusses the impact of brain science on our attitude to parenting, he gets the relationship exactly right. “It shouldn’t require molecular genetics or neuroendocrinology factoids,” he writes, “to prove that…it profoundly matters to provide childhoods filled with good health and safety, love and nurturance and opportunity.” Nor should it require neurobiology factoids to prove that we can make society increasingly moral. Still, if people find inspiration from them, as Sapolsky writes, “more power to these factoids.”

If it took an unrealistic connection between science and society to motivate Sapolsky to write “ Behave,” that is a small price. His book offers a wild and mind-opening ride into a better understanding of just where our behavior comes from. Darwin would have been thrilled.

Richard Wrangham is a professor of biological anthropology at Harvard.

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