Best psychology research books according to redditors

We found 74 Reddit comments discussing the best psychology research books. We ranked the 48 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

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Top Reddit comments about Popular Psychology Research:

u/PriorNebula · 13 pointsr/slatestarcodex

If you are specifically interested in interpreting social science studies and aren't particularly mathematically inclined I would strongly suggest picking up a statistics textbook tailored towards the social sciences. Here are two of my recommendations:

  1. Essentials of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences
  2. Statistics for the Social Sciences: A General Linear Model Approach

    It's sort of a well known problem that many social science majors would like to get through their degree with the minimum amount of math if possible. As a result these books are a lot more accessible and less theoretical than something like Casella Berger or All of Statistics.
u/Legabed · 7 pointsr/statistics

I really enjoyed reading Statistics as Principled Argument by Robert P. Abelson. He covers basic probability and statistics in the context of what he thinks makes good research. It's a great book!

Edit: Included a link.

u/KitsuneKarl · 6 pointsr/autism

This is the ABA "bible": http://www.amazon.com/Applied-Behavior-Analysis-2nd-Edition/dp/0131421131

Most people who hate on ABA can't even properly define reinforcement or provide a technically accurate definition of what behavior analysis is, so don't listen to the nay-sayers until you actually educate yourself. No one properly trained in ABA would use punishment procedures except for as a last resort, and we couldn't care less about making people normal - we want people to be able to communicate and not emit self-injury/aggression.

With that said, reading the book is NOT enough to properly implement it though it will grant you insights. It is akin to reading books on how to drive. You have to do it, and ethically you have to have someone who knows what they are doing teach how to do it rather than just hopping in a car and speeding off. So, you asked for a book and there you go, but please do NOT join the ranks of people who give ABA a horrible reputation by claiming to practice it when they aren't even remotely qualified to do so.

u/mrsamsa · 6 pointsr/psychology

>Does this mean you're not willing to provide me with some good articles to read on the subject?

I'm more pointing out that you should research a topic before jumping in to advocate child abuse. But sure.

The research is mostly on punishment as a whole as studied by behavioral scientists, but some of the best overviews of the topic would be the punishment chapter in "Applied Behavior Analysis" by Cooper, Heron and Heward, and this paper: On the status of knowledge for using punishment: Implications for treating behavior disorders.

The basics of the limitations described in that paper are summarised here but basically there are a number of conditions required for a punishment procedure to be effective that cannot be met by a normal, non-abusive parent using spanking.

For example, one of the key findings in the research is that the first use of punishment must be extreme and severe, as anything less will simply cause them to adjust to the level of punishment and make it harder to extinguish. Most spankings wouldn't meet that criteria, and so we see what Azrin and Holz observed in their early studies on punishment, which is that the behavior returns often at a higher level and more resistant to interventions.

One of the reasons we use punishment procedures sometimes in behavior analysis (in extreme cases where there is no other option) is precisely because it is such an effective tool when used correctly. It's so effective that for the average problem behaviors that children engage in, a single effective use of a punishment would immediately and permanently end that problem behavior. So a good rule of thumb to determine if your spanking is working is to ask if they ever engage in the problem behavior again after being spanked - if they do, then you've made the problem worse because the punishment has failed.

And all of this gets even crazier when we take into account another limitation of punishment: it leaves a behavioral vacuum. You eliminate one behavior but you don't replace it with something better, and so in many cases another (potentially worse) problem behavior takes its place. So for the punishment procedure to be effective, you have to use reinforcement procedures anyway and if you have to use reinforcement procedures to teach the correct behavior, why not just do that from the start and skip the spanking?

u/hubcap_annie · 5 pointsr/AcademicPsychology

The book "How to Think Straight about Psychology" would be great, although it is slightly more academic than the ones you listed. Any edition of this book is going to be pretty much the same, they update it a lot because it is sometimes used as a textbook, but the changes are minimal.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Think-Straight-About-Psychology/dp/0205685900/

u/awesome_hats · 4 pointsr/datascience

Well I'd recommend:

u/viscavis · 3 pointsr/autism

The Verbal Behavior Approach: How to Teach Children With Autism and Related Disorders
http://amzn.com/1843108526
This is a fantastic place to start. It will provide you with a new framework for understanding and addressing behavior.

If you are feeling ambitious:
Applied Behavior Analysis (2nd Edition)
http://amzn.com/0131421131

This is the "bible" for ABA. It can be a little technical, but not beyond the average adult's comprehension. At the very least it will give you a reference.

u/ken_dotcom · 3 pointsr/askpsychology

Hello. For general introduction these books (here, here) are popular picks. They are revised every few years and include new findings accordingly. (here is the link to the free e-book) You can continue reading into the disciplines you find interesting. I definitely recommend sticking to the history of psychology, how it historically developed and branched out of modern philosophy. The reason for reason for this is because you need to be able to engage psychology philosophically in order to interpret what underlies psychological findings. Also most of the early psychologists were philosophers, not scientists. (one might be interested to trace all the way back to Greek philosophers, by that I mean "Read classics!") You will learn about some of the precursors of psychology in the books I mentioned.

One can find excellent lectures on Psychology online these days for free so you might want to check them out. (Yale University has a popular course on introductory psychology)

Also what type of field in Psychology interest you? (Animal Behavior, Biology, Neuroscience, Sociology, Clinical Psychology, Developmental, Culture/Religion, Language, Psychoanalysis, Cognition)

Here are some of my personal recommendations.

  1. A History of Personality Psychology - Frank Dumont (2010)
  2. Discovery of the Unconscious - Henri Ellenberger (1994)
  3. Fifty Key Thinkers in Psychology - Noel Sheehy
  4. Statistics - David Hand
  5. Factor Analysis - Richard L. Gorsuch (if you are interested in the scientific end of psychology, especially research fields, learning statistical tools like factor analysis will help greatly)
  6. Little Science, Big Science, and Beyond - Derek Solla Price (1986)
  7. Anxiety - Daniel Freeman & Jason Freeman
  8. Perception - Brian Rogers
  9. The Emotional Brain - Joseph Ledoux (1998)
  10. Cognitive Neuroscience꞉ The Biology of the Mind (2019)
u/MortalitySalient · 3 pointsr/statistics

For research methods in behavioral and social sciences, you probably can't get better than Shadish, Cook, and Campbell's : Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Design for generalized causal inference. As far as stats go, the Andy Field books are good and he has one for R, one for SAS, and one for SPSS. I prefer the John Fox book on Applied Regression analysis and the corresponding r book. Here are some links:
http://www.amazon.com/Experimental-Quasi-Experimental-Designs-Generalized-Inference/dp/0395615569/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417220301&sr=8-1&keywords=shadish+cook+and+campbell

http://www.amazon.com/Applied-Regression-Analysis-Generalized-Linear/dp/0761930426/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1417220395&sr=8-6&keywords=John+Fox

http://www.amazon.com/An-R-Companion-Applied-Regression/dp/141297514X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y

u/hcking123 · 2 pointsr/ABA

BCBA exam will mostly cover content in this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Applied-Behavior-Analysis-John-Cooper/dp/0131421131

New addition coming soon, however.

u/IGI111 · 2 pointsr/france

J'ai pris la plus récente. J'avais lu pas mal de choses sur les liens entre le GID et les autres troubles de la personalité dans ce bouquin mais j'ai plus mon exemplaire à portée de main pour éplucher les sources.

Si t'as une source contradictoire je suis toujours preneur cela dit.

u/1point618 · 2 pointsr/SpecArt

Well, it's not my phrase. That's what the study of the origins of language is referred to as in Linguistic literature. It's actually somewhat confusing, because "the evolution of language" refers to how language originated both as a social structure and as a biological feature of humans, while "language evolution" refers to the processes by which established languages change over time (ie, Old English becoming Middle English becoming Modern English).

Also, there are many researchers who would argue that language is a special case of meaning—that is, without language there is no meaning, and structure preceded semantics. Particularly, Deacon, Bickerton, and Torey all express this idea in different ways. I'm partial to this point of view myself.

u/belarius · 2 pointsr/statistics

I've heard back very good things from psych/neuroscience folks to whom I have previously recommended Serious Stats. It's a very comprehensive treatment of classical methods, from elementary distributions through to multi-level models, all written with a lucid clarity that is rather uncommon in books with this kind of scope.

u/bobbyfiend · 2 pointsr/rstats

Another excellent book is CAR. I really like it. In addition to the regression content it teaches a good number of practices and tricks in working with R.

u/Prazzie · 2 pointsr/psychology

Check your library for the book How to Think Straight About Psychology by Keith Stanovich. The Amazon description might not make this clear, but the book addresses a lot of your concerns. He talks about the term "soft" science and why it's not demeaning, as well as how the field of psychology is related to biology, chemistry and more.

u/RobMagus · 2 pointsr/IWantToLearn

some good introductory science podcasts are Science Friday and RadioLab.

I can highly recommend "How To Think Straight About Psychology" by Keith Stanovich - it's not just about psychology, but careful, critical, scientific thinking in general.

A very good and readable book about where we currently are in a variety of scientific fields is "Thirteen Things That Don't Make Sense" by Michael Brooks. Don't be fooled by the sensationalist presentation, the actual content is well-researched and clear.

Should be a pretty good start.

u/ThomasEdmund84 · 1 pointr/askpsychology

My local Psyc department uses this to guide 1st year undergrad courses

u/[deleted] · 1 pointr/mathpsych

One reasonably good general introduction is Gideon Mellenbergh's A Conceptual Introduction to Psychometrics.

Most volumes are model-specific--for example, there are several good books on item response theory, quite a number of books (many not very good) on factor analysis, etc.

u/SpecialOops · 1 pointr/Scholar
u/dirtyhairytick · 1 pointr/Christianity

For starters, I'd recommend the following to get a taste of the issues we have to wrestle with when thinking about resurrection:

Liberating the Gospels: Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes - here is an author who is almost immediately dismissed by the status quo of Christianity as being a crazy man. But in this book, he has been incredibly thorough in presenting evidence for his thesis. I know he writes other books where he speaks more generally, and I think that conservatives tend to seize this as an opportunity to attack without actually addressing the things he brings up in books like this one. Also by the same author, and related to this topic, you should check out:

The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic

Resurrection: Myth or Reality?

Related to Paul, you should read:

The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon

There are three books by this duo, and they are all fantastic - very thorough, meticulous, and yet easy to read and understand. Related to this topic, you'd want to read:

The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Final Days in Jerusalem

Another great book to understand where the debates lie in Jesus scholarship would be:

The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions

These are really "get your feet wet" books. But really, one of the biggest problems with theology these days, I feel, is that it is all too often done without even an attempt to connect with science. We think we can argue "the Bible says" and stop there - as if that implies "so therefore this is what we have to believe". This is generally how scholars like N.T. Wright operate - they spend all kinds of effort laying out what the language says, but never really get into the questions of whether these things are tenable with today's knowledge of science, whether or not Paul actually might not have been the author of such things, whether there are contradictions between the gospels (or some of the writings attributed to Paul), etc. With scholars like Wright, it's just assumed that everything which was said was reliable and came from the actual people we have long said it came from - we never have to think about problems like science and historical methodology.

But if you really want to understand the problems surrounding resurrection, I think you need to study what science has to say about consciousness. A few books that come to mind off the top of my head:

The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind

Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness

And if you're really up for some fun with science and the question of eternity:

Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe

The Self-Aware Universe

Please note: I don't think any of these books close the questions. They provide possibilities, for sure, and do so in a way that thoroughly wrestles with the evidence, logical problems, etc. But no one can prove or disprove afterlife, it seems. However, there are certainly many afterlife theories which simply do not work with modern science - literal bodily resurrection being one of them (if we're all going to be resurrected into physical bodies, how is our limited earth that is already stretched to the point of breaking going to support all those resurrected beings?).

u/Marcus_Farkus · 1 pointr/slavelabour

Prices quite negotiable.

Research in Psychology: Methods and Design, 8th Edition

https://www.amazon.com/Research-Psychology-Methods-Design-8th-ebook/dp/B01MU3DYP2

u/Sarcuss · 1 pointr/AskStatistics

For what you ask, my main suggestions would be Statistics in Plain English or Statistics by Freedman, Pisani and Purves

u/Thistleknot · 1 pointr/limerence

I think it is an evolved response. According to attached, this is just an activated attachment system.

On Human Nature

[Pair-Bonding, Romantic Love, and Evolution](http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1745691614561683
Attached

Handbook to Attachment Theory

The Fantasy Bond

u/ankyle · 1 pointr/books

Not so much a general psychology book, but I enjoyed this one from one of my forensic psychology courses.
Measure of Madness
http://www.amazon.com/The-Measure-Madness-Disturbed-Disturbing/dp/0806531053

BTW, it you are going to be a psych major understand that you are going to graduate school if you want to make any money in the field.


edit: here is another one that I was supposed to read but never got around to. I hear it is good

On Human Nature
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674016386/ref=oh_details_o08_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

edit edit: another one that came to mind, good short read

Letters to a Young Therapist
http://www.amazon.com/Letters-Young-Therapist-Art-Mentoring/dp/0465057675/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374088838&sr=1-1&keywords=letters+to+a+young+therapist

u/emimily · 1 pointr/AcademicPsychology

I'm in my second year of undergraduate right now and we're using this for Research Methods and this for SPSS.

Don't know if you're looking for something a little more in depth.

u/IHateCircusMidgets · 1 pointr/psychology

Try Goodwin. Good content, and the writing is accessible and a little cheeky.

u/980730 · 1 pointr/slavelabour

Looking for https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393640345/

Paypal $20, has to be 16e, i found 15e already but unfortunately doesn't work for my class. Thanks!

u/whalingstation123 · 1 pointr/TheRedPill

>Freud was a strict adherent to the scientific method

No therapist nor therapy is completely successful, that would be a miracle. I don't know Freud's complete bibliography of published cases, but from what I read even Freud himself considered the case of Dora a failure. But when Freudian psychoanalysis is measured with the empirical tools we have today the success rate is not that high compared to other therapies (and none of them is 100% successful).

Anyway, I was not arguing if Freud was a good therapist or not, I was criticizing his theoretical framework. If you think he was "a strict adherent to the scientific method", you don't really know what scientific method is in the Karl Popper sense of the word.

The standard intro textbook on scientific method in psychology, How to Think Straight About Psychology by Keith E. Stanovich, have just called it's first chapter "The Freud Problem". You should find a pdf or torrent of that book online easy, check out that chapter. Or just read this or this summary.

As for Freuds view of religion being emotional immature, I find it ironic that the movement he started himself was more dogmatic than most Christian denominations alive today. Freud managed to come in conflict with almost all the intellectual capacities that he managed to lure to the cult of psychoanalysis, basically because he disagreed when people tried to evolve his ideas. Eugene Bleuer, the man who defined schizophrenia put it best: this 'all or nothing' is in my opinion necessary for religious communities and useful for political parties...but for science I consider it harmful. There is a reason that Freud is being taught in the humanites department but not in the psychology department.

u/pinkerton_jones · 1 pointr/AcademicPsychology

I would buy an old edition, but the best introduction to psychology is How to Think Straight About Psychology. Doesn't just give an overview of the field, but explains the difference between what is and is not psychology.

http://www.amazon.com/Think-Straight-About-Psychology-Edition/dp/0205914128

From the description:


Keith Stanovich's widely used and highly acclaimed book presents a short introduction to the critical thinking skills that will help students to better understand the subject matter of psychology. How to Think Straight about Psychology, 10e helps students recognize pseudoscience and be able to distinguish it from true psychological research, aiding students to become more discriminating consumers of psychological information.

Learning Goals
Upon completing this book, readers should be able to:
Evaluate psychological claims they encounter in the general media.
Distinguish between pseudoscience and true psychological research.
Apply psychological knowledge to better understand events in the world around them.

u/percipientbias · 1 pointr/college

I’m a psychology major. I highly recommend the book “how to think straight about psychology” as it goes into detail regarding why psychology is a real science. I honestly loved my major and I think it truly does apply to more than people think.

Here’s that link to the book.

I plan to do a masters in Biomedical Informatics soon. I currently work at a health insurance company for Medicare Part D being a business analyst/admin for our technology.

u/jammerzee · 1 pointr/dogs

Read about behavioural science. / applied behaviour analysis and ‘discriminatory stimulus’.

This is a good text book

https://www.amazon.com/Applied-Behavior-Analysis-John-Cooper/dp/0131421131