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Starting to learn about such a broad ranged subject like psychology, you need a book which can convey the basics of an idea as well as going into a little detail at times when it is required. A book which takes some of the basics and explains them enough for you to understand them and then move into the area and conduct further research yourself. A book which I have been reading recently which has managed to convey a great deal of information to me in an interesting way is Teach Yourself Psychology by Dr Nicky Hayes.
“Teach Yourself Psycology” is a part of the “Teach Yourself” book range, and this book precedes the “Teach Yourself Applied Psycology” which covers how psychological research can be applied to everyday life. Teach Yourself Psychology’s primary focus is teaching you the basics in a broad range of psychological subjects and is a wise choice for any beginner.
Dr Nicky Hayes guides you through much of the basics of Psychology, and there is a good flowing element to this book. Starting with the simple things, ‘what is psychology?’ and moving onto yourself, other people, emotions, cognition, genetics, learning and intelligence, stages of life, work, leisure, education, health and living in the real world. The book ends with a chapter on developing a psychological understanding. The book contains a vast array of information and the text is written very well. It’s pretty easy to pick this book up intermittently or sit down for a while and get into some hardcore reading.
Much of the information in the book has a relevance to Industrial Design. When designing for people it helps a little if you understand some of the motivation behind the creatures to whom you intend to sell your products to. There is also a lot of content which comes from observation of people and an explination of a number of these situations. The Gestalt rules of perception is just one example of how psychology affects design, giving a breakdown and enough information for a core understanding of the rules. Of course psychology is all based on theories which have been proven or disproved in a number of ways throughout the years. The book also gives examples of theories which contradict each other.
One of the great things about the book is that it is filled with examples and references to past research, and then the author explains how the research is relevant and how it fails to grasp the situation. Research might not have been consucted under the correct circumstances, the date the research was conducted might be irrelevant, but the main thing is that the author explains much of the content with a kind of simplicity yet with relative detail.
The penultimate chapter is one of the best. The title “Living in the world” is a great round-up to the book, putting much of the knowledge into context and also recalling back to parts of the book which are of some interest.
On the whole this book is easy to read, contains a great broad range of subjects and explains psychology very well. A great preparation for a further reading, or a wonderful exploration of a very intriguing subject matter.
