Recommend some good sociology and/or psychology books

L31mr0d

Recently finished reading Manwatching: A field guide to human behaviour and loved it.

Can anyone recommend some more books that would be in the same vein. Really interested in body language, facial expressions and social groups. Would also be interested in reading about various different psychological studies and their results.

Any recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Valmont

L31mr0d wrote: »

R
Can anyone recommend some more books that would be in the same vein. Really interested in body language, facial expressions and social groups. Would also be interested in reading about various different psychological studies and their results.

Any recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Robert Cialdini's "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" is a great read if you're interested in social groups although it covers a lot of other areas too.

Lauren Slater's "Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological experiments of the twentieth century" covers some of the most important and infamous psychological studies and it is a great read.

There are a lot of pop-pseudo-psychology books out there that are based on unreliable or bad science so beware!

L31mr0d

Valmont wrote: »

There are a lot of pop-pseudo-psychology books out there that are based on unreliable or bad science so beware!

This is what I'm worried about, which is why I'm looking for advice from here to avoid the landmines.

The books you've recommended are perfect. Is there any resources that tell me which authors and books to avoid?

JuliusCaesar

As a rule of thumb, I'd avoid anything that doesn't give a list of references. An index is handy too.

Torakx

im reading right now "the essential Jung"
selected writings introduced by anthony storr.

very good book. some complicated theories in here by jung and a real eye opening when compared to the last book i read which was a general book on freud and his theories.

so far i would have to say i much prefer jung to freud and cant wait to see what else is out there

hotspur

Why not give The Psychopathology of Everyday Life by Freud a try, it's a book for the layman which is full of interesting stuff. Freud was an excellent writer.

Jeege

Human Instinct by Robert Winston. Very good, went to see him talk about it at a lecture in 2003, lots of eye openers and discussions about our behaviour being conditioned by our environment v being pre-conditioned by our genes etc.
Am not a student nor am I the boring philosophical type but I really enjoyed this book.
He has also done tv programmes like "child of our time" and "the life of twins". All very interesting!

I would highly reccomend it, if you do read it I would be interested to hear what you thought, 'tis a while since I've read it!!!:o

Zion21

hotspur wrote: »

Why not give The Psychopathology of Everyday Life by Freud a try, it's a book for the layman which is full of interesting stuff. Freud was an excellent writer.

I would highly recommend that book. Im about to finish it today and must say it was a great read.