Psychology

by David G. Myers

This breakthrough iteration of David Myers' best-selling text breaks down the introductory psychology course into 55 brief modules.

Genres: Psychology, Textbooks, Nonfiction, Science, Reference, School, College

928 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1986

About the author

David G. Myers is a professor of Psychology at Hope College in Michigan, and the author of 17 books, including popular textbooks entitled Psychology, Exploring Psychology, Social Psychology and several general-audience books dealing with issues related to Christian faith as well as scientific psychology.

Reviews

[Xeon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is it not true that to study psychology is to use the very thing to study itself? The self, the mind, the brain. For when we think about the brain, we think with our brain.

The collective effort of millions of neurons, all to examine both the results and the means of the collective efforts of those millions of neurons.

Whilst reading this, reflected light rays go through your eyes, trigger chemical changes, spark neural signals, transmit to areas of your brain, whereupon they are decoded as letters and constructed into meaning through automatic processing. Information from my mind to your mind, across space and time.

Whilst reading this, much of when you sense you do not notice. For example, you may be unaware of whatever surface you reside upon pressing against you, or how your nose is in your view. Now, your attention shifts. You forever suffer from inattentional blindness and sensory adaptation.

Whilst reading this, you embody emotion, simultaneously experiencing and expressing it.

Whilst reading this, the information is encoded into your brain and stored in sensory memory, with a finite limit of working short term memory.

After reading this, you shall suffer from storage decay following the forgetting curve, you shall suffer from retrieval problems such as interference or motivated forgetting, and you will only think of this depending on retrieval cues.

After reading this, you may suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect and the self-serving bias that you know more psychology than you actually do, so much so you are likely to believe you are above average at not believing you are above average (Pronin, 2007).

After reading this, you may in fact be participating in a form of group polarization from having engaged with this, and how you react to this will entail some form of conformity .

After reading this, the stage of your development may hinder or facilitate the degree to which you care about this. Your attitude and personality influence whether you read this, and the ways in which you are influenced by this.

And perhaps, in the end, you may have garnered some form of therapy from reading this.

So on, and so forth.

In sum:
1. “I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix.” - Sherlock Holmes [insert major Descartes vibes]
2. "The mind is what the brain does."
3. "Everything psychological is simultaneously biological."
4. "We are aware of the results of our brain’s labor ... but not of the how."

[Dylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, this is a text book. I am counting this toward my 100 books because I really have read the whole thing over the course of the past couple months! This text book and I have become best friends (with our share of fights along the way). I really enjoyed reading this text book-because it was interesting or had lots of cartoons in it, I don't know. (Probably a combination of both) I thought this was a really well written text book because it got all the information across but in understandable terms. AP Psychology test, here I come! (My family can't wait for me to be done with this class so I will stop psychoanalyzing them)

[Jurij Fedorov · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars. The version I read was called "Exploring Psychology".

It's not easy to rate. There are a lot of great things here and I can see why so many young people are rating it highly. It's very well written! It's a blast to read. This is way easier to read than the average psychology book. I really want to love it, but the science itself is way off the quality of the writing. There is just not enough hard science for my liking and one too many holistic theories. These holistic theories are hyper-popular among laymen, but I'm just a bit tired of reading about vague claims.

Besides the easily accessible writing, there are a ton of images, fun comics and some charts. Many are quite small, but you can still make them out. It's all great stuff for beginners to get into the field while not being bored with it. Unfortunately, the science itself is a bit all over the place. There are some decent but extremely short intros to evolutionary psychology and intelligence, but they are maybe 3 pages long. That's not acceptable at all for a psychology textbook. These topics would need 30 pages each, at least. A similar textbook, "Personality, Individual Differences and Intelligence", has several chapters about intelligence and still it feels like a short intro to the topic. Intelligence is just an extremely important human trait. The most important trait we know of and can measure so that's why other textbooks will have at least 1 long chapter talking about it. Another comparison to that book is that the other textbook was boring to read, but had an okay/good scientific foundation. This one is fun to read, but there is a ton of very questionable psychology in it. In the intelligence chapter we get the typically bad critique of intelligence. I was looking forward to reading it, but as I started reading it I was let down by the quality. They mostly referred to questionable studies and homecooked theories in psychology. Huge letdown as the critique feels pointless if it's not even scientifically based or well-argued. I know intelligence/g factor is not easy to criticize as a concept, but then why choose to have more pages of critique about g factor than proper science about g factor if the critique is this unconvincing? Just present the science then deliver some critical thinking. No need to backtrack into a vague and holistic point of view where anything is possible.

With the evolutionary psychology intros some of the same mistakes appeared. The book had extremely short intros to the field. Kinda felt like a joke. Then the critique took up more space than the field itself. Again critique that wasn't quite good enough, but this time at least better. You'd learn much more about evolution in this book than evolutionary psychology. And only one of these fields is actual psychology.

There are also thousands of small experiments and passages added just to support a progressive point of view. For me it was way overkill. You can be progressive while not being on the nose and most readers will accept it. Here it's impossible to overlook this biased point of view. Every single page has some progressive theory on it and some study that is not at the forefront of psychology but was just picked because it supports that point of view. That's not really what I personally would want to see in a textbook. You shouldn't pick experiments just because they are critical. Pick them because they are at the forefront of the science.

It's a bit like comparing the movie Avatar to the TV show, "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert". One is progressive, but it doesn't feel preachy or too over the top. We know what Avatar is and while it's silly and on the nose it still holds a bit back. People can enjoy it and learn something from it. Colbert, on the other hand, is so preachy that it feels fake and silly. It feels like he is beating you over the head with his assumptions about the world and it becomes too much. This book is Colbert. So progressive that it feels way too strong. So strong that I stop just being critical and start to cringe.

Conclusion:

It's readable, it's fun. But is it the best way to learn about the science? Nope, in my opinion, it's better if you read a a bit more boring textbook, but with a greater scientific understanding than a fun textbook, but with a lacking scientific understanding. But I know there is no way I can convince most people to agree with me on this. Having fun is crucial to life.

The extremely short intros also bothered me. Why do they keep spending several pages on critique if the theories being criticized are not well introduced? Also, in reality, theories like evolutionary psychology are huge. It's maybe the biggest field in psychology today and the only foundation for understanding sex differences. And it got about 3 pages in the book. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. No way is this okay for a psychology textbook in any way.

At the end of the day these type of books will get high ratings for being fun. Newcomers to the field won't see what is true or what is pure guesswork. Unfortunately, I spot this stuff and I feel like the writers should have done a much better job at selecting sources and spending the pages they have on proper science. They are great at explaining things, but they are mediocre to bad at picking what to add to the book. I won't tell people to not read this book. Just know that it can get a bit overly progressive at times and you may groan a time or two on every second page. I wouldn't ever recommend this as the only source for psychology. That would be a big mistake and leave you with a misguided view of the science overall.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't typically review textbooks because... well, they're textbooks; school books; informational books; not terribly interesting books. But this one gets to be the exception. Especially in contrast with the actual Psychology course I took, this book was fantastic. The words flow, difficult concepts are made easy, and amusing, relatable, real-life examples are present in every page—Myers even describes some personal anecdotes of his from time to time. And I loved the cartoons (most are from The New Yorker) that illustrate each topic. On point. I recommend this to anyone who wants to get to know the basics of psychology while still enjoying quality reading.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is something incredible called the economy of language that the authors of this textbook did not use to their fullest capacities. I did actually read the whole thing (and took notes!!!!) and learned a lot from it, but some of the information was redundant. Some of the information was also incredibly theoretical, and I feel like topics that are too theoretical shouldn't really be written about since it's more important to know about facts rather than potential misinformation. Anyway, I've complained to my friends a lot about how dense this textbook was, but I guess I don't really hate it as much as I said I did, and it did have a couple of redeeming features, such as featuring a picture of my idol Kerry Washington.

[Annie Ren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Myers is not only a renowned scientist but a phenomenal writer. His style is catchy, witty, and interesting. Even on specific topics a reader may find less personally interesting, most readers will find some fascinating factoid or two where the research intersects with daily life. I enjoyed Myers' focused on showing how each area of psychology directly affects everyday lives and society. The format of modules instead of chapters makes the reading go faster. This was assigned for my introduction to psychology course and I read it again as a senior to prepare for the advanced psychology subject GRE. It made studying more enjoyable than I imagined it would be.

[Stella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Confession time: I never read the readings my prof/teacher assign. I just can't sit there for 2-hours reading a textbook when I can be reading much more fascinating stories. This is, however, not the case with this special purple-with-lime-green-spine textbook. (Carrying it was like having an accessory with you).

It was humorous, had excellent examples and read like a story. While I was reading a chapter on human emotions, I saw on the margins, where the definitions should have been, a side note that was along the lines of "The author of this book hopes you smile often while reading this book.

As a major in science, I wish our textbooks can be this good.

[Christopher Luna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found many statements and claims - or at least the wording of them - to be biased to a degree that made me uncomfortable reading and trusting information or trends presented in a number of chapters of this textbook. The neuroscience and biology aspects were presented excellently in the scope of psychology, but I wish there were more evidence or studies cited for other portions.

[Renée]

well this book was almost the death of me because i had the bright idea of signing up for BOTH first year psychology classes at the same time, but at the end of this semester i will be able to say that i have honestly read EVERY single page of this book. this being said, i found this book to be extremely informative and nicely put together. the format is user friendly.

[Star Jennings · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I am a psych nerd and some chapters I have read and reread just for fun.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've had a lot of psych textbooks. So far this one presents the material quite well.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This textbook is really well written, it is not a boring read full of facts and definitions, but a book with loads of interesting research and curious insights on all topics related to psychology. Of course, it's huge for a person to just read it for fun, but if you are looking for a textbook to get you started in the science of psychology, I would really recommend this (just make sure you read the latest edition).

[Mason]

No, I am not above logging my school textbooks on goodreads. I did willingly read through the entirety of this despite it not being a requirement so take that as you will.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually read most of this book although we only studied a little over half the chapters in class. A very easy to read textbook, and the subject is very interesting (which is good considering that this will be my major! :) ).

[Jacque Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

counting this because I read every word of this textbook

[Jerica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, by far, the best textbook I have ever read. Everything about it is fantastic, from the content, to the pictures and graphs, to paragraphs ending perfectly at the bottom of the page. Everything is visually pleasing, and the information is presented in a valuable, easy-to-learn way. I am endlessly impressed!

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first it was quite hard for me to get into, but the read got more and more interesting as the chapters went on. The textbook humor was a bit silly but a good change of pace from typically dry information. Overall, for a textbook, it could have been much worse.

[Jyotika Varmani · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that makes me want to learn psychology. This book and the one by Atkinson and Hilgard are the gold standards for the Introductory Psychology course. I loved the illustrations and examples throughout the book. I forgot this is a textbook as I studied it. Absolutely brilliant!

[Rabeea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly recommended for people who want a thorough, well rounded introduction to psychology and its branches.

[ehedekin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for my AP Psychology class. At the start of the year, I remember my teacher saying we would all love this book and the author. Sixteen-year-old me thought that was a very weird thing to say about a textbook, but he was totally right. This is such a great textbook that I continue to think about now as an adult 7 years later (I'm writing this in 2025 as a I retroactively add in all my old readings...). Such a great textbook author who, looking back, really ignited the spark of social-science in me! He also included such fun, silly, whimsical little doodles in the margins that I took pictures of and STILL laugh at when I see them in my camera roll. So yes I am nerding out over this TEXTBOOK seven years later.... Next question please.

[?0?0?0 · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is what it is.
It's frightening to read reviews of people on here saying "this is the best text book I have ever read".
Anyway, it served its purpose fifteen years ago, and upon re-reading it I wasn't overly impressed. The number of things that are lacking are too numerous to list here.
Myers inserts quotes by Woody Allen, which seems to be a thing - or was a thing - in psychology textbooks, and spends little time on undeserving subjects such as Freud, so it's a psychology textbook, nothing more, really.
Is this still the go-to in 2021? It can't be, can it?

[Moneeza Rafiq · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book to acquaint yourself with the basics of the subject. There are tons of books out there about psychology, and I've gone through a few, but this one was written in an informal sort of style, with simple to read language, and covered all the information that one needs, the definitions, statistics, diagrams, case studies, trends, examples and more. It was just easier to read and made concepts clearer than most books.

[Autumn Lytle · Rating 3 out of 5]

For all intents and purposes, I have finished this book!

I read this textbook for my Psych Foundations class and it’s pretty good. A lot of it has interesting comparisons and examples. I really only read it cause I had to, but I found some things interesting. We used the online version of the textbook, but I printed pages I needed to read since I couldn’t find a physical copy (don’t worry, I recycled the paper!)

[Qué tal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know this is a text book but I really did read the whole thing for my Introduction to Psychology class. All of the quizzes and discussion boards were based off the reading and I wanted this to count towards my Good Reads goal. I did enjoy this book as well as the class and I learned quite a bit from it.

[Audioreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic textbook to start with if you have no background in psychology. It is readable by anyone, whether or not you are a university student, and it is comprehensive. Myers is able to pack so much information into a small space: Single chapters in this book are expanded into entire mid or upper year psych courses, but I still found that much of the key of material in that subsequent course was already captured in the original chapter in this book. I also found the questions and definitions reviewed at the end of the chapters (together with answers at the end of the book) to be very helpful.

[Eurus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to do some research for a kind of thesis in high-school, and if it hasn't been for this book, I'm sure I wouldn't have passed. I'm not an expert on the psychology ground at all, but this book is pretty good and my professor got impressed I've read it

[Julianne Huynh · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this century, I think everybody is mentally screwed up.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best textbook ever!

[Emily M · Rating 3 out of 5]

This should count as three books in my reading challenge.

[Mike Clemenhagen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great textbook.