As an iconic psychology professional work, "Zimbardo General Psychology" can be said to be a very "weighty" heavyweight book.
Firstly, it is indeed very thick, with a total of 14 chapters and 800,000 words; secondly, it has been revised and published to the 8th edition. It has always been a professional textbook used by many colleges and universities for psychology, and has become a must-read for introductory psychology.
The author Dr. Philip Zimbardo is a psychology professor at Stanford University in the United States. He has been engaged in psychological research and education for nearly 50 years and is a god-level presence in the international psychology community. He has presided over famous psychological experiments such as the Stanford Prison Experiment, and has written a number of professional psychology books and textbooks, which are popular and widely read.
So, when I saw this new edition of "Zimbardo's General Psychology" coming out, I knew I couldn't miss it.
01
When communicating with some book friends, everyone will ask: Will this book be too profound to understand?
I also had some doubts about this. Is it suitable for public reading?
This is, after all, a professional textbook on psychology, and some similar books I have read before, especially psychology textbooks from domestic universities, are somewhat difficult and profound because of the large number of professional terms and theoretical concepts. Boring and boring.
Even the classic popular-oriented "Psychology and Life" co-edited by Zimbardo contains a lot of professional knowledge, and there is a certain threshold for reading.
However, with the popularity of psychology and the increase in demand, people increasingly need to understand some professional psychology knowledge, which can not only avoid being fooled by some "poisonous chicken soup", but also effectively help us solve the problems we encounter in life. Many psychological problems.
Therefore, I still recommend that everyone try to read this book and understand and learn some professional and practical psychological knowledge through formal professional channels.
This book can be said to be an introduction to the psychology subject system, that is, it plays the role of a guide - through the form of pictures and texts, it systematically introduces the situation, composition, research directions, and different research fields of the psychology discipline as a whole. and perspectives, etc., so that people can have an overall understanding of this subject and find a place to get started.
Then, you can continue to study in depth according to your own interests, such as cognitive psychology, developmental psychology , personality psychology , social psychology, etc.
02
When I opened this thick book and read the content setting and layout structure, I could answer the previous question without hesitation: This psychology textbook is actually very suitable for public reading.
The book has a total of 14 chapters. The content of the psychology subject has been revised, and new developments and new research in the field of psychology have been added. The cases have also kept pace with the times and added issues that people are concerned about in the current society, such as video games, Bullying, happiness research, etc.
adopts a series of memory-friendly methods in content arrangement. It can be said that it uses psychological knowledge to arrange and help learning.
For example, each chapter sets a core concept as the central theme, discusses the core concept, and uses key issues to attract readers' attention and thinking, leading us to deeply understand the important issues and concepts in this part of the content, and strengthen memory.
There is also a "Psychology is very useful" section at the end of each chapter, which relates, analyzes and applies transformation of psychology to daily life. It suddenly brings the profound psychology closer to our real life and makes psychology more accessible. Learning becomes a good helper in our lives and helps us develop a way of thinking like a psychologist.
03
So, for ordinary people like us who are not psychology students or practitioners, why should we read such a thick psychological book?
In fact, the essence of this question is: Why do we need to understand a little bit of psychology? What practical use does psychology have for us? The content of the first chapter of
answers this question very well. Psychology is a discipline that studies human behavior and psychological processes. It is closely related to human mental behavior and has in-depth research and insights.
Psychology has existed in human history for a very long time. The word "psychology" comes from the ancient Greek word , which means "the study of the mind."
Socrates proposed "know yourself" more than two thousand years ago. This is an individual's psychological need for self-knowledge and is also one of the important topics in psychology. It can be said that psychology originated from philosophy to a certain extent.
It was not until 1879, when German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt created the world's first psychology laboratory, that it marked the birth of modern scientific psychology. Therefore, the German psychologist Ebbinghaus once said: "Psychology has a long past, but only a short history."
For people who do not understand psychology, they may mistakenly think that psychology is all about doing Psychological counseling, or hypnotizing people, or treating mental illness, and so on.
In fact, psychology covers a very wide range of fields. It can be said that it penetrates into every aspect of our lives and work and is closely connected with us.
Although knowing a little bit about psychology cannot help us easily guess what others are thinking, nor can it help us control people's hearts, it can actually help us achieve personal growth, cultivate emotional abilities, optimize interpersonal relationships, gain in-depth insight into human nature, and avoid avoiding Cognitive bias, strengthening parent-child education...
04
For example, in the chapter "Learning and Human Development", we can understand how the environment stimulates people's reactions in behaviorist psychology , and how people's psychology How does mechanism affect behavior?
is like the famous Pavlov's dog, which is a kind of classical conditioned reflex. Through the application of this experiment, we can establish a kind of connection learning, which can arouse or extinguish certain emotions or behaviors of individuals by setting external stimulus conditions.
Another kind of operant conditioning can use rewards or punishments to strengthen individual behavior or negative reinforcement , so that individuals can establish certain conceptual cognitions and form certain behavioral habits. For example, in parent-child education, if a child does his homework seriously and the parents actively praise and encourage him, this will strengthen his behavior and encourage him to persist.
In the chapter "Lifelong Development", it explains the development and growth process of a person's life and the characteristics and needs of each stage, including infancy, adolescence, and adulthood.
Psychologist Erikson proposed a theory of "social psychological development stages", which is the "eight stages of life-long development", which divides a person's life into eight stages, each stage has its own challenges to face. and development tasks, shape individual character and quality, and affect life-long development.
Infancy and early childhood is an important period of formation that affects people's attachment relationships. Parents need to give unconditional positive attention to help children form a secure attachment relationship model. Adolescence and early adulthood are faced with the challenge of self-identity. Individuals will explore and experiment with self-development and social role positioning to find their own life direction. These have strong practical guiding significance for the majority of parents.
In the chapter "Memory", we can learn from brain science , physiological characteristics, etc., how memory is generated, what are its classifications and characteristics, and what methods can help us improve our memory and learn more effectively and work.
also has chapters such as "Motivation and Emotion", "Social Psychology", "Psychological Disorders" and "From Stress to Health and Happiness", which provide detailed professional theoretical discussions around the psychology and behavior of individuals or groups, and also provide useful information. With practical application methods based on science, psychology can effectively help us change and grow, and have a better life.
This book also comes with two lightweight "application manuals" and "study manuals", which simplify and organize the core knowledge points to facilitate our memory and understanding.
Why should we read this professional psychology book? Why do you need to know a little bit about psychology? When you open this book, I think you will find your own answer.
