AP PSYCHOLOGY
NON-FICTION READING ASSIGNMENT
To supplement your study of psychology, you are required to read a book selected from the list of books prepared for this
course, “Recommended Books for AP Psychology Reading Assignment.” You may choose to read any book from the list,
which includes many well-written, engaging works that have something worthwhile to say about one or another aspect of
psychology. The book cannot be a book that you have already read or are currently reading for another class!
Some are available in the DHS Library; some might be found in a public library; all can be purchased from any good
bookstore.
Non-Fiction Journal
During the next 1 to 2 weeks, you will be spending the class periods reading your non-fiction book and
composing journal entries that reflect what you have learned from the book about the psychological
issues/concepts it addresses. You will compose 6 JOURNAL ENTRIES, in which you should adhere to the following
guidelines:
Step One: Significant/Striking Passages
 As you read, you should annotate and document the passages which spark your curiosity or seem worthy of
comment: a quote, an idea, a fact, an anecdote....whatever provokes your thinking. For the project, you will
electronically document SIX of these significant or striking passages. Make sure to provide enough detail for a
reader of your journal to understand the context of the passage within the reading. Also, include the page number
in which the quote, idea, anecdote, etc. is found in the reading.
Step Two: Personal Reflections
 Once you document the SIX significant/striking passages, include a reflection for each passage in which you
explore the relevance/importance of the information to the field of psychology and to your own personal
experiences. Within each reflection, you must make specific CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE CONTENT
OF THE READING PASSAGE AND PSYCHOLOGY.

 For example, make connections between the reading and the big ideas of psychology, such as the
psychological perspectives (behaviorism, cognitive, humanistic, etc) or enduring issues (nature
vs. nurture, union of opposites, mind vs brain, etc).
 Also, make connections between the reading and the core concepts/vocabulary of the various
units we have covered this semester (social psychology, intelligence, memory, personality, etc)
 Make sure to BOLD/UNDERLINE each psychological concept within the reflection, DEFINE the
concept and clearly explain how the passage APPLIES to the concept.
 In addition to psychology connections, your responses should also include critiques, questions, and
connections to your own personal experiences, etc.
 The responses will be graded based on thoughtfulness and accuracy. You need to clearly explain the
thought processes behind your reflections! (Each reflection should be at least ¾ of page long, doublespaced).
Title of Book
1.
Quote, Anecdote, Statistic, etc
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (pg #)
Reflection
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Quote, Anecdote, Statistic, etc
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (pg #)
Reflection
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3. Quote, Anecodote, Statistic, etc
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (pg #)
*Keep on going until you document 6 passages and
compose 6 reflections!
Conclusion: Review of the Book
At the end of the 6 journal entries, write a short review of the non-fiction book that answers
the following questions: 1) What did you learn from the book? Identify and summarize three
of the most noteworthy ideas presented in the book. 2) Would you recommend the book for
future students of psychology to read? Why or why not? Provide specific sections from the
book to support your answers. (1 to 1 ½ page long)
1st and 2nd Periods
 Read 1st half of the book on the following dates:
 5/19
 5/20
 5/21
 5/24 journal entries from 1st half of the
book (3 passages/3 reflections)
 due 5/24 by midnight on
Turnitin.com
7th Period:
 Read 1st half of the book on the following dates:
 5/19
 5/21
 5/22
 5/23 3 journal entries from 1st half of
the book (3 passages/3 reflections)
 due 5/24 by midnight on
Turnitin.com
 Read 2nd half of the book on the following dates:
 5/27
 5/28
 5/29-3 journal entries from 2nd half of
the book (3 passages/3 reflections) +
Conclusion  Sat-5/31 by Midnight
on Turnitn.com
 Read 2nd half of the book on the following dates:
 5/28
 5/29
 5/30-3 journal entries from 2nd half of
the book (3 passages/3 reflections) +
Conclusion Sat 5/31 by Midnight on
Turnitn.com
Recommended Non-Fiction Books for AP Psych Reading Assignment
The following are well-written, engaging, interesting and readable books that have something
worthwhile to say about one or another aspect of psychology. Some are available in the DHS library;
some might be found in a public library; all can be purchased from any good bookstore. Most but not all
are available as paperbacks.
Intro to Psychology and Research
 Lilienfeld, S. (2009). 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about
Human Behavior.
 Schick, T. and L.Vaughn (2010). How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age.
Thinking, Language, and Intelligence
 Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow.
 Lehrer, J. (2012). Imagine: How Creativity Works.
 Gardner, H. (1993). Creating Minds.
 Gardner, H. (1995). Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership.
 Dehaene, S. (2009). Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention. .
 Pinker, S. (1994). The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
 Pinker, S. (1997). How the Mind Works.
 Pinker, S. (2007). The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature
 Shermer, M. (2012). The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies – How we
Construct Beliefs and Reinforce them as Truths
 Palca, J. and F. Lichtman (2011). Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us
 Wertheim, L. and T. Moskowitz (2012). Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind how Sports are Played
and Games are Won
 Burton, R. (2009). On Being Certain: Believing you are Right even when you’re Not
 Herbert, W. (2010). On Second Thought: Outsmarting your Mind’s Hard-Wired Habits
 Sternberg, R. (2002). Why Smart People can be so Stupid
 Coren, S. (2005). The Intelligence of Dogs: A Guide to the Thoughts, Emotions and Inner Lives
 Coren, S. (2005). How Dogs Think: Understanding the Canine Mind
Memory
 Foer, J. (2012). Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything.
 Pendergrast, M. (1996). Victims of Memory: Sex Abuse Accusations and Shattered Lives.
 Price, J. (2010). The Woman Who Can't Forget: The Extraordinary Story of Living with the Most
Remarkable Memory Known to Science--A Memoir.
 Schacter, D. L. (2001). The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers.
 Hilts, P.J. (1995). Memory's Ghost: The Strange Tale of Mr. M. and the Nature of Memory.
 Loftus, E. and K. Ketcham. (1991). Witness for the Defense: The Accused, the Eyewitness, and the Expert
who puts Memory on Trial.
 Loftus, E. and K. Ketcham. (1994). The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of
Sexual Abuse.
 McHugh, P. (2008). Try to Remember: Psychiatry’s Clash over Meaning, Memory, and Mind
 Wearing, D. (2006). Forever Today: A True Story of Lost Memory and Never Ending Love
Personality
 Zimbardo, P. (1977). Shyness.
 Cain, S. (2012). Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking
Learning
 Skinner, B.F. (1948, 1976). Walden Two.
 Raymer, B. (2010). Lay the Favorite: A Memoir of Gambling
 Arnold, J. (2010). Through a Dog’s Eyes
Psychological Disorders and Therapy
 Dillon, B. (2010). The Hypochondriacs: Nine Tormented Lives
 Ronson, J. (2012). The Psychopath Test: A Journey through the Madness Industry.
 Bartok, M. (2011). The Memory Palace.
 Kaysen, S. (1994). Girl, Interrupted
 Hoffmeister, P. (2011). The End of Boys.
 Frost, R. and G. Steketee (2012). Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things.
 Lopez, S. (2008). The Soloist.
 Cockburn, P. (2012). Henry’s Demons: Living with Schizophrenia, a Father and Son’s Story
 Dully, H. and C. Fleming (2008). My Lobotomy: A Memoir.
 Gregory, J. (2003). Sickened: The True Story of a Lost Childhood.
 Jamison, K.R. (1995). An Unquiet Mind.
 Payne, C. (2009). Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals
 Babiak, P. and R. Hare (2006). Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths go to Work
Motivation and Emotion
 Brooks, D. (2012). The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement.
 Hornbacher, M. (1999). Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia
 Miller, A. and S. Kanazawa. (2008). Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters: From Dating, Shopping,
and Praying to Going to War and Becoming a Billionaire-- Two Evolutionary Psychologists Explain Why
We Do What We Do.
 Pink, D. (2009). Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
 Myers, D.G. (1995). The Pursuit of Happiness.
 Gilbert, D. (2007). Stumbling on Happiness.
 Gladwell, M. (2008) Outliers: the Story of Success.
 Kessler, D. (2009). The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite.
 Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2008). Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience
Neuroscience
 Lewis, M. (2011). Memoirs of an Addicted Brain: A Neuroscientist Examines his Former Life on Drugs
 Doidge, N. (2007). The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain
Science.
 Taylor, J. (2008). My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey.
 Calvin, W. and G. Ojeman (1994). Conversations With Neil's Brain : The Neural Nature of Thought and
Language.
 Jourdan, R. (1997). Music, the Brain and Ecstasy: How Music Captures our Imagination.
 Sacks, O. (1983). Awakenings.
 Sacks, O. (1985). The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and other Clinical Tales.
 Sacks, O. (2007). Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain.
 Taylor, J. (2009). My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientists Personal Journey.
 Vertosick, F. (2008). When the Air Hits your Brain: Tales from Neurosurgery.
 Buonomano, D. (2011). Brain Bugs: How the Brain’s Flaws Shaper our Lives
 Ramachandran, V.S. (2011). The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Quest for What Makes Us Human
 Mason, M. (2009). Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury and its Aftermath
 Aamodt, S. and S. Wang (2008). Welcome to your Brain: Why you Lose your Car Keys but Never Forget
how to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life
 Nowinski, C. (2006). Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis from the NFL to Youth Leagues
 Sacks, O. (2004). Vintage Sacks
 Sacks, O. (1995). An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales
 MacMillan, M. (2002). An Odd Kind of Fame: Stories of Phineas Gage
Consciousness
 Christian, B. (2012). The Most Human Human: What Talking with Computers Teachers Us about what it
Means to be Alive.
 Eagleman, D. (2011). Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain.
 Gladwell, M. (2007) Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking.
 Coren, S. (1999). Sleep Thieves: An Eye-opening Exploration into the Science and Mysteries of Sleep.
 Morrisroe, P. (2010). Wide Awake: A Memoir of Insomnia
 Chabris, C. and D. Simons (2010). The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways our Intuitions Deceive Us
 Myers, D. (2004). Intuition: Its Powers and Perils
Nature-Nurture and Development
 Scholinski, D. (2003). Last Time I Work a Dress
 Pinker, S. (2002). The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature.
 Segal, N.L. (2000). Entwined Lives: Twins and What They Tell us about Human Behavior.
 Brizendine, L. (2007). The Female Brain.
 Bronson, P. and A. Merryman. (2009). NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children.
 Cohen, D.B. (1999). Stranger in the Nest.
 Colapinto, J. (2000). As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl.
 Dunn, J. and R. Plomin. (1990). Separate Lives: Why Siblings are so Different.
 Eliot, L. (2009). Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow Into Troublesome Gaps -- And
What We Can Do About It.
 Tammet, D. (2006). Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant
 Agronin, M. (2011). How we Age: A Doctor’s Journey into the Heart of Growing Old
 Francis, R. (2011). Epigenetics: The Ultimate Mystery of Inheritance
 DeBaggio, T. (2003). Losing my Mind: An Intimate Look at Life with Alzheimer’s
 LeVay, S. (2011). Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why: The Science of Sexual Orientation
 Simon, S. (2010). Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption
Social Psychology
 Cullen, D. (2009). Columbine.
 Gladwell, M. (2002). The Tipping Point: How Little Things can make a Big Difference.
 Zimbardo, P. (2008). The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil.
 Harman, O. (2010). The Price of Altruism: George Prince and the Search of the Origins of Kindness
 Zimbardo, P (2008). The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time that will Change your Life
 Levine, R. (2003). The Power of Persuasion: How We’re Bought and Sold
 Cialdini, R. (2008). Influence: Science and Practice
 Alexander, M. and J. Bruning (2008) How to Break a Terrorist: The US Interrogators who Used Brains, Not
Brutality, to take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq
 Ridley, M. (1993). The Red Queen.
Sensation and Perception
 Cytowic, R.G. (1993). The man Who Tasted Shapes.
 Livingstone, M. (2008). Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing.
 Ramachandran, V.S. and S. Blakeslee (1998). Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human
Mind.
 Sacks, O. (2010). The Mind’s Eye.
 Sellers, H (2010). You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know
 Duffy, P. (2002). Blue Cats and Charteuse Kittens: How Synesthetes Color Their Worlds
 Achatz, G. and N. Kokonas (2011). Life, on the Line: A Chef’s Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death,
and Redefining the Way we Eat
 Macknick, S., Martinez-Conde, S., and S. Blakeslee (2010). Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of
Magic Reveals about Our Everyday
Annotated Bibliography List Below:
Aronson, E. (1995). The social animal (7th ed.) NY: W.H. Freeman. Excellent introduction to social
psychology, including conformity, mass communication, propaganda, persuasion, aggression, prejudice,
attraction and loving.
Baur, S. (1991). The dinosaur man: tales of madness and enchantment from the back ward. NY:
HarperCollins. A counseling psychologist's experiences in various hospitals dealing with the chronically
mentally ill.
Berkowitz, L. (1993). Aggression: its causes, consequences, and control. NY: McGraw-Hill. Overview
of what science tells us about aggression. Includes discussion of violence-prone personalities, domestic
violence, gun control, violence in media, and control of aggression.
Brizendine, L. (2007). The Female Brain. This comprehensive new look at the hormonal roller coaster
that rules women's lives down to the cellular level, a user's guide to new research about the female brain
and the neurobehavioral systems that make us women.
Bronson, P. and A. Merryman. (2009). NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children. The central
premise of this book by Bronson (What Should I Do with My Life?) and Merryman, a Washington Post
journalist, is that many of modern society's most popular strategies for raising children are in fact
backfiring because key points in the science of child development and behavior have been overlooked.
Brown, L.M. (1998). Raising their voices: the politics of girls' anger. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press. Challenge to the idea that girls go through adolescence as passive, victimized, selfeffacing people wracked by depression, low self-esteem, negative body image and eating disorders.
Budiansky, S. (1998). If a lion could talk: animal intelligence and the evolution of consciousness. NY:
Free Press. Trying to understand animal behavior and intelligence in human terms is poor science.
Anthropomorphism must be rejected if we are to understand the way animals truly think. Budiansky
proposes an alternative.
Calvin, W. and G. Ojeman (1994) Conversations With Neil's Brain : The Neural Nature of Thought
and Language. Addison-Wesley. Neil is preparing to have a brain operation, and his neurosurgeon
explains to him what will happen. In the process, Neil (and the reader) painlessly and pleasurably learn a
lot about the way the brain works.
Chesler, P. (1972, 1989). Women and madness. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. A classic in the
field. Proposes that sex-role stereotypes are at the heart of much of what is called mental illness and that
there is a double-standard of mental health.
Cialdini, R.B. (1993). Influence: the psychology of persuasion (rev. ed.). NY: William Morrow. Bestselling book on six basic principles of influence and persuasion. Readable, engaging account of what
psychology has to tell us about selling and marketing, persuasion, and influence.
Cohen, D.B. (1999). Stranger in the nest. Do parents really shape their child's personality, intelligence or
character? NY: John Wiley. Account of the extent to which biology and prenatal influences affect human
development, and a discussion of the social and moral implications of those influences.
Colapinto, J. (2000). As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl. Mesmerizing story of a
medical tragedy and its traumatic results, you absolutely won't want to put it down. Following a botched
circumcision, a family is convinced to raise their infant son, Bruce, as a girl.
Coren, S. (1999). Sleep thieves: an eye-opening exploration into the science and mysteries of sleep.
NY: Random House. The book’s main thesis is that we Americans are becoming an ever-more-exhausted
and accident-prone society due to "sleep debt," but it also is an in-depth look at this mysterious activity in
which we all must, by nature, engage.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2008). Flow: the psychology of optimal experience Csikszentmihalyi
eloquently argues that living fully in the here and now requires that one heed the lessons of the past and
acknowledge that today's most seemingly trivial acts inevitably have an impact on the future.
Cullen, D. (2009). Columbine. Cullen expertly balances the psychological analysis—enhanced by several
of the nation's leading experts on psychopathology—with an examination of the shooting's effects on
survivors, victims' families and the Columbine community. Readers will come away from Cullen's
unflinching account with a deeper understanding of what drove these boys to kill, even if the answers
aren't easy to stomach.
Cytowic, R.G. (1993). The man who tasted shapes. NY: Warner Books. Fascinating stories of synesthesia
(experiencing colors as sounds, tastes as shapes, etc.). Includes discussion of how this might arise and
draws implications for reason, emotion and perception.
Damasio, A.R. (1994). Emotion, reason, and the human brain. NY: Quill. Fascinating exploration of the
psychology of reason and its dependence on emotions.
Dawkins, R. (1998). Unweaving the rainbow: science, delusion and the appetite for wonder. NY:
Houghton-Mifflin. Does science in all its forms destroy beauty, wonder and poetry in the world around
us? The author believes that knowledge does not rob reality of its wonder. He attacks superstition, the
paranormal, astrology and other forms of pseudoscience.
Dawkins, R., (1990). The selfish gene. Instead of thinking about organisms using genes to reproduce
themselves, as we had since Mendel's work was rediscovered, we turn it around and imagine that "our"
genes build and maintain us in order to make more genes
Dehaene, S. (2009). Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention.
Drawing on scads of brain-imaging studies, case histories of stroke victims and ingenious cognitive
psychology experiments, cognitive neuroscientist Dehaene diagrams the neural machinery that translates
marks on paper into language, sound and meaning.
Doidge, N. (2007). The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of
Brain Science. For years the doctrine of neuroscientists has been that the brain is a machine: break a
part and you lose that function permanently. But more and more evidence is turning up to show that the
brain can rewire itself, even in the face of catastrophic trauma: essentially, the functions of the brain can
be strengthened just like a weak muscle. Scientists have taught a woman with damaged inner ears, who
for five years had had "a sense of perpetual falling," to regain her sense of balance with a sensor on her
tongue, and a stroke victim to recover the ability to walk although 97% of the nerves from the cerebral
cortex to the spine were destroyed.
Dolnick, E. (1998). Madness on the couch: blaming the victim in the heyday of psychoanalysis. NY:
Simon & Schuster. An attack on psychoanalysis and the consequences of its overreaching in the 20th
century, which the author argues led it to blame organic disorders such as schizophrenia and autism on
bad parenting.
Dunn, J. and R. Plomin. (1990). Separate lives: why siblings are so different. NY: BasicBooks. Authors
explore the concept of "nonshared environments" -- environmental events that affect only certain
individuals in a family and cause them to differ, often to a surprising degree. Includes a discussion of the
practical implications of all this as well as lots of examples from real-life biographies.
Eliot, L. (2009). Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow Into Troublesome Gaps -- And
What We Can Do About It. In taking the challenge of addressing the difference between little boys and
little girls, Eliot explains how modest differences at birth between the brains of boys and girls are
amplified by social factors that in turn produce anatomical changes in the brain to give rise to the greater
differences evident in the actions of brains of mature men and women. Eliot explains, in language that is
clear to all of us, that these sex differences are plastic and can be modified by experience.
Elkind, D. (1984). All grown up & no place to go: teenagers in crisis. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Elkind discusses the nature of adolescence and then focuses especially on the pressure to grow up
quickly that has characterized adolescence in the late 20th century.
Feynman, R. (1985). Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! W. W. Norton & Co. Here’s a collection of
adventures from the life of—possibly—the world’s smartest person. Nobel laureate physicist Feynman
was a notorious prankster, who liked to play practical jokes on his buddies, while they were at Los
Alamos inventing the atomic bomb. Not merely immensely entertaining, this book gives a rare glimpse
into the mind of a genius at work . . . and at play.
Fredrickson, B. (2009). Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace the Hidden
Strength of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, and Thrive. Positive psychology pioneer
Fredrickson introduces readers to the power of harnessing happiness to transform their lives, backed up
by impressive lab research.
Gardner, H. (1993). Creating minds. NY: Basic Books. Applies the theory of multiple intelligences to
understanding creativity in such people as Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, T.S. Eliot, Martha Graham,
and Mahatma Gandhi.
Gardner, H. (1995). Leading minds: an anatomy of leadership. NY: BasicBooks. Applies cognitive
psychology to understanding the minds of selected leaders and followers, including Margaret Thatcher,
Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, and Margaret Mead, among others.
Gilbert, D. (2007). Stumbling on Happiness. Not offering a self-help book, but instead mounting a
scientific explanation of the limitations of the human imagination and how it steers us wrong in our
search for happiness, Gilbert, a professor of psychology at Harvard, draws on psychology, cognitive
neuroscience, philosophy and behavioral economics to argue that, just as we err in remembering the past,
so we err in imagining the future.
Gilovich, T. (1991). How we know what isn't so: the fallibility of human reason in everyday life. NY:
Free Press. An excellent and readable summary of the major difficulties people have in reasoning well,
with a wealth of everyday examples.
Gladwell, M. (2008) Outliers: the story of success. Can be enjoyed for its bits of trivia, like why most
pro hockey players were born in January, how many hours of practice it takes to master a skill, why the
descendents of Jewish immigrant garment workers became the most powerful lawyers in New York, how
a pilots' culture impacts their crash record, how a centuries-old culture of rice farming helps Asian kids
master math. But there's more to it than that. Throughout all of these examples--and in more that delve
into the social benefits of lighter skin color, and the reasons for school achievement gaps
Gladwell, M. (2007) Blink: the power of thinking without thinking. After studying how people make
instant decisions in a wide range of fields from psychology to police work, is that we can make better
instant judgments by training our mind and senses to focus on the most relevant facts—and that less
input (as long as it's the right input) is better than more.
Gladwell, M. (2002). The tipping point: how little things can make a big difference. The best way to
understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage
smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark
everyday life is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread
just like viruses do.
Gopnik, A. (2009). The Philosophical Baby: What Children's Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and
the Meaning of Life. As she tackles philosophical questions regarding love, truth and the meaning of life,
Gopnik reveals that babies and children are keys not only to how the mind works but also to our
understanding of the human condition and the nature of love.
Gould, J. (1981) The mismeasure of man. NY: W.W. Norton. Commentary on the nature-nurture debate
as applied to intelligence testing by a renowned evolutionary scientist.
Gregory, R.L. (1990). Eye and brain: The psychology of seeing (4th ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press. Readable account of how we see including lots of visual illusions.
Hacking, I. (1995). Rewriting the soul. Multiple personality and the science of memory. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press. Challenging assessment of what science reveals about this disorder.
Hilts, P.J. (1995). Memory's ghost: The strange tale of Mr. M. And the nature of memory. NY: Simon &
Schuster. Case of Henry M. who underwent experimental brain surgery in 1953 and has since lived only
in the present. He can talk and read and write, but has no memory for what has just happened -- every
minute is a new experience for him.
Hobson, J.A. (1994). The chemistry of conscious states: How the brain changes its mind. Boston:
Little, Brown & Co. Highly readable account of the author's thesis that consciousness is nothing more or
less than electrochemical events. Discusses sleep and dreaming as well as memory, mental illness and
identity.
Jamison, K.R. (1995). An unquiet mind. NY: Knopf. A beautifully written account of manic depression
written by a professor of psychiatry who is a victim of the disorder. A central theme is her reluctance to
take the drug lithium even though it will be beneficial to her because she is afraid to lose the creative
energy that comes with the manic phase of the disorder.
Jourdan, R. (1997). Music, the brain and ecstasy: how music captures our imagination. NY: William
Morrow. What is music, how does it affect us, and what accounts for musical genius? A discussion of the
psychology of music.
Kagan, J. (1994). Galen's prophecy: Temperament in human nature. NY: BasicBooks. Evidence for
inborn personality temperaments, specifically the evidence that some children are born inhibited and
others are born uninhibited and the implications of this for understanding shyness and other personality
traits.
Kagan, J. (1997). Three seductive ideas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Highly readable
critique of three common assumptions made in popular press, and also by psychologists themselves,
about the field of psychology.
Kessler, D. (2009). The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite .
Conditioned hypereating is a biological challenge, not a character flaw, says Kessler, former FDA
commissioner under presidents Bush and Clinton). Here Kessler describes how, since the 1980s, the food
industry, in collusion with the advertising industry, and lifestyle changes have short-circuited the body's
self-regulating mechanisms, leaving many at the mercy of reward-driven eating.
Lehrer, J. (2009). How We Decide. Lehrer [...] illuminates the many processes involved in even the
simplest decisions. By letting the experts do much of the talking and by drawing conclusions from his
voluminous research and knowledge of the field, Lehrer presents a readable account of what we know
about how we decide -- and acknowledges the vast universe of what we don't.
LeVay, S. (1996). Queer science: the use and abuse of research into homosexuality. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press. Critical review of various efforts over the past century to explain the causes of sexual
orientation by a leader in recent biologically-based research.
Levenkron, S. (2001). Anatomy of anorexia. NY: W.W. Norton & Co. Balanced . up-to-date and readable
survey of what is known about the causes and treatment of this disorder.
Lifton, B. J. (1994). Journey of the adopted self: a quest for wholeness. NY: BasicBooks. The inner
world of those adopted who struggle with their status and who attempt to cope effectively by searching
for their biological roots. Written by a strong advocate for open adoptions.
Lilienfeld, S. (2009). 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions
about Human Behavior. Because I only use 10% of my brain, I had to play Mozart music while reading
this book, and then be hypnotized to recover the memory of it because of early childhood traumas that
were repressed but occasionally leaked through out-of-body experiences and ESP. And if you believe any
of the above you need to read this book...twice if its mythbusting revelations cause you to repress the
memory of it.
Livingstone, M. (2008). Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing. What is it that makes the work of
Monet, van Gogh, da Vinci, and Warhol so visually arresting? How do our eyes and brains coordinate to
perceive line and color? Neurobiologist Margaret Livingstone addresses these and many other questions
in Vision and Art, a lively look at the science underlying art. She writes accessibly, but with plenty of
technical depth, on such matters as the nature of light and the visible spectrum, the organization of
visual-image processing, the structure of the vertebrate eye and brain, and individual and culturally
conditioned perceptions of color.
Loftus, E. and K. Ketcham. (1991). Witness for the defense: the accused, the eyewitness, and the
expert who puts memory on trial. NY: St. Martin's Press. Lively, personal, and informative examination
of eight court cases that centered on disputed eyewitness identifications in the light of what psychology
has to tell us about human memory.
Loftus, E. and K. Ketcham. (1994). The myth of repressed memory: false memories and allegations of
sexual abuse. NY: St. Martin's Press. Renowned expert on memory attacks the belief in "recovered
memories" (particularly repressed memories of alleged sexual abuse). Argues that there is no scientific
evidence in support of such memories and that they are in most cases confabulations.
Lorenz, K. (2002). King Solomon's Ring: New light on animal ways. A delightful treasury of
observations and insights into the lives of all sorts of creatures -- from jackdaws and water-shrews to
dogs, cats and even wolves
Mallinger, A.E. and J. DeWyze. (1993). Too perfect: when being in control gets out of control. NY:
Random House. The downside of perfectionism: the negative effects of behavior patterns that
characterize obsessive perfectionists. Compulsive worriers, neat freaks and workaholics among others.
Miller, A. and S. Kanazawa. (2008). Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters: From Dating,
Shopping, and Praying to Going to War and Becoming a Billionaire-- Two Evolutionary
Psychologists Explain Why We Do What We Do. According to Kanazawa, a media-savvy researcher
whose studies of beautiful people.
Myers, D.G. (1995). The pursuit of happiness. NY: Avon Books. The author of a prominent textbook
addresses the titled subject.
Norman, D. (1988). The design of everyday things. NY: Basic Books. Introduction to the relationship
between psychology and product design, one of the many professions you might not have realized were
open to graduates in psychology.
North, C.S. (1987). Welcome silence: my triumph over schizophrenia. NY: Simon and Schuster. Very
interesting account of the disorder.
Payne, C. (2009). Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals. Architect and
photographer Christopher Payne spent six years documenting the decay of state mental hospitals like
these, visiting seventy institutions in thirty states ... Accompanying Payne's striking and powerful
photographs is an essay by Oliver Sacks (who described his own experience working at a state mental
hospital in his book Awakenings)."
Pendergrast, M. (1996). Victims of memory: sex abuse accusations and shattered lives. Hinesburg,
VT: Upper Access Press. Readable account of some of the problems which have arisen in dealing with this
issue.
Pink, D. (2009). Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us According to Pink , everything
we think we know about what motivates us is wrong.
Pinker, S. (1997). How the mind works. Wide ranging discussion of how we process information.
Fascinating stuff!
Pinker, S. (2002). The blank slate: the modern denial of human nature. NY: Viking. Brilliant analysis
and critique of how human nature has been viewed throughout history, with defense of modern
biological construct of what it is to be human.
Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct: how the mind creates language If you’re interested in the
ancient origins of language and thought—and what they can tell you about your own brain—this one’s
for you.
Price, J. (2010). The Woman Who Can't Forget: The Extraordinary Story of Living with the Most
Remarkable Memory Known to Science--A Memoir. Price has been known to scientists only as AJ, a
woman with a memory so unprecedented they had to coin a term for it: hyperthymestic syndrome.With
this book, she is coming out publicly for the first time to discuss her condition.
Raine, N.V. (1998). After silence: rape and my journey back. NY: Crown Publishing. Author, poet and
essayist responds to her rapist with this account of her own recovery and post-traumatic stress.
Addresses the way rape is construed in our culture, the terrible effects of silence and shame, and the lack
of understanding of others.
Ramachandran, V.S. and S. Blakeslee (1998). Phantoms in the brain: probing the mysteries of the
human mind. NY: William Morrow. What can neurological disorders teach us about who we are, how we
construct our body image, why we laugh or become depressed, how we make decisions, deceive
ourselves or dream? Enlightening!
Ridley, M. (1993). The red queen. NY: Perennial. Introduction to biological evolution and its relation
to psychology. It is an explanation of the psychological nature of human culture derived from biological
evolution within a species. Answers dozens of riddles of human nature and culture – including why men
propose marriage, the method behind our maddening notions of beauty, and the disquieting fact that a
woman is more likely to conceive a child by an adulterous lover than by her husband.
Restak, R.M. (1993). Receptors. NY: Bantam Books. Thorough and readable exploration of synapses and
neurotransmitters and their links to drugs, moods, behavior, personality and mental illness.
Rothenberg, A. (1990). Creativity and madness: new findings and old stereotypes. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press. Interesting, thorough and up-to-date examination of the relationship between
creativity and mental illness including consideration of Sylvia Plath, August Strindberg, Emily Dickinson,
Robert Penn Warren, John Cheever, Eugene O'Neill and William Faulkner among others.
Sacks, O. (1989). Seeing voices: a journey into the world of the deaf. NY: HarperCollins. Moving
account of the world of the deaf.
Sacks, O. (1985). The man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales. NY: Simon &
Schuster. Stories in which author explores a great variety of neurological disorders and their no less
extraordinary effects upon minds and lives of those affected.
Sacks, O. (1983). Awakenings. NY: E.P. Dutton. Vivid story of author’s work with catatonic patients,
using experimental drugs to "reawaken" them to the world.
Sagan, C. (1996). The demon-haunted world: Science as a candle in the dark. NY: Ballantine Books.
Excellent discussion of the scientific approach to knowledge, this work ranges beyond the subject of
psychology alone.
Schick, T. and L. Vaughn. (2010). How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age.
This brief, affordable text helps students to think critically, using examples from the weird claims and
beliefs that abound in our culture to demonstrate the sound evaluation of any claim. It explains step-bystep how to sort through reasons, evaluate evidence, and tell when a claim (no matter how strange) is
likely to be true.
Schacter, D.L. (1996). Searching for memory: the brain, the mind and the past. NY: Basic Books. Upto-date assessment of what psychologists have learned about memory, how it works and why it
sometimes fails.
Schacter, D. L. (2001). The seven sins of memory: how the mind forgets and remembers. Illustrating
decades of research with compelling and often bizarre examples of glitches and miscues
Segal, N.L. Entwined lives: twins and what they tell us about human behavior. Thorough
presentation of what is known about twins and how they have contributed to our knowledge of
psychology.
Seligman, M. (2004) Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your
Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. The time has finally arrived for a science that seeks to understand
positive emotion, build strength and virtue, and provide guideposts for finding what Aristotle called the
`good life.'
Shepard, R, (1990). Mind Sights: Original Visual Illusions, Ambiguities, and Other Anomalies, With
a Commentary on the Play of Mind in Perception and Art. A well-known cognitive psychologist,
Shepard has come out of the artist’s closet to show us some striking and playful examples of visual
illusions—some familiar, some brand new. Both his sense of humor and his deep understanding of
perception come bounding out of this volume.
Skinner, B.F. (1971). Beyond freedom and dignity. NY: Alfred A. Knopf. Discussion of an ideal society
run on behavioral principles by a founder of behaviorism.
Skinner, B.F. (1948, 1976). Walden two. NY: Macmillan. (F Skinner) Classic novel of a society run on
behavioral principles by a founder of behaviorism. The 1976 edition includes a retrospective
commentary by Skinner almost three decades after the book first appeared.
Spanos, N.P. (1996). Multiple identities and false memories: a socio-cognitive perspective.
Washington, D.C.: APA Books. Not only about the titled topics, the book covers hypnosis and addresses
several key ideas from socio-cognitive research.
Springer, S.P. and G. Deutsch. (1998). Left brain, right brain (5th ed.) NY: W. H. Freeman. Outstanding,
authoritative account of what we know about brain asymmetry -- both fact and fiction.
Sternberg, E.M. (2001). The balance within: the science connecting health and emotions. NY: W.H.
Freeman. Recent review of what is known about the "mind-body connection" and its implications for
mainstream and alternative medicine.
Szasz, T.S. (1974). The myth of mental illness: foundations of a theory of personal conduct (2nd ed.).
NY: Harper & Row. Classic challenge to the very concept of "mental illness" as well as to who determines
who is sick and who makes the diagnoses.
Tavris, C. (1993). The Mismeasure of Woman. New York: Touchstone (1992). Men are normal, women
are deficient" is the tacit message our culture instills, asserts California social psychologist Taviris. In a
valuable, enlightening roadmap to sanity for women and men, she argues that there is far more
substantial evidence for similarity between the sexes than for differences.
Taylor, J. (2009). My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientists Personal Journey. About the brain, strokes,
plasticity...yet also motivation and not giving up.
Wade, C. and C. Tavris. (1993). Critical & creative thinking: the case of love and war. NY:
HarperCollins. Authors describe 8 principles of critical thinking and provide practice in applying them to
understanding research on love (attraction, intimacy, conflict) and war (prejudice, aggression).
Wright, R. (1994). The moral animal: why we are the way we are. The new science of evolutionary
psychology. (NY: Vintage Books. Excellent, highly readable account of the main tenets of evolutionary
psychology.
Vertosick, F. (2008). When the air hits your brain: tales from neurosurgery. Chronicles one man’s
evolution from naïve and ambitious young intern to world-class neurosurgeon. In electrifying detail,
Frank Vertosick Jr. describes some of the greatest challenges of his career, including a six-week-old infant
with a tumor in her brain, a young man struck down in his prime by paraplegia, and a minister with a .22caliber bullet lodged in his skull.
Zimbardo, P. (1977). Shyness. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. The author explores shyness, drawing
material from well-known people as well as other sources. Includes a self-test of shyness and lots of
specific advice about ways to set about reducing shyness.
Zimbardo, P. (2008). The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. With this book,
Zimbardo couples a thorough narrative of the Stanford Prison Experiment with an analysis of the social
dynamics of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, arguing that the "experimental dehumanization" of the former
is instructive in understanding the abusive conduct of guards at the latter.