[dooby]

Hey all,

Don't want to sound too geeky, but I was wondering if any current Psychology students had any suggestions for some 'light reading' over summer (for a prospective fresher)?! I'm (hopefully) starting at Birmingham in September.

That said, I doubt I will get round to it anyway, but would be interested to hear your thoughts.
Thanks

[p.pete]

(Original post by dooby)
Hey all,

Don't want to sound too geeky, but I was wondering if any current Psychology students had any suggestions for some 'light reading' over summer (for a prospective fresher)?! I'm (hopefully) starting at Birmingham in September.

That said, I doubt I will get round to it anyway, but would be interested to hear your thoughts.
Thanks

There's some ideas on this link: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showt...p?t=2054856399

Also I've seen some psychology departments suggesting some reading from when I researching different departments - Sheffield was one of them as far as I remember.

<edit>

Here's the Sheffield link: http://www.shef.ac.uk/psychology/pro...g/prepare.html not too many listed...

[Kate85]

Really most Psych degrees assume no prior knowledge so you will be ok not doing any reading but if I were you I would just read things that interest you, have a quick look for general psych books and see what sections you like

You might not know which units you will be doing in the first year so it's hard to have an idea of what to read but in my first year we did bio, stats, abnormal, social and cognitive I think so it might be better for you to just read around topics you like

If it will make you feel better knowing 'something' then it might be better looking at the main theories/theorists just so that you don't feel too lost if a lecturer starts name-dropping

If you want any more help just PM me

[dooby]

Thanks guys - I won't worry too much - I've done it at A Level anyways so will probably be fine! Thanks for your help.

[LatinMachine]

I've had two reading lists from my Firm and Insurance places.
The Oxford Reading List says:

Most Important Reading:

(1) Any up-to-date beginning undergraduate textbook in psychology. e.g.
Psychology; BPS Textbooks in Psychology; Blackwell Publishing (2005); Hewstone, Fincham, Foster.

(2) Susan Greenfield: The Human Brain. Phoenix, 1998.

Here are a few of the other ones they suggest:

Alan Baddeley: Your Memory: A User's Guide (2004)
Oliver Sacks: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and An Anthropologist on Mars.
Robert Winston: The Human Mind and How to Make the Most of It.

And for RHUL

ROYAL HOLLOWAY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
Department of Psychology
PRELIMINARY BOOK LIST 2006
Books that you will use in your first year courses at Royal Holloway

The books listed below are course textbooks for our year 1 B.Sc. Psychology course units, so you will use them extensively during your first year. Please note that the list below does not contain the core textbooks for all year 1 courses, as some of these are available at a discounted price at the campus bookstore and should therefore be purchased when you arrive at Royal Holloway.

Eysenck, M.W. (2001). Principles of Cognitive Psychology (2nd. Ed.). Hove: Psychology. ISBN 1841692603.
Goldstein, E.B. (2001). Sensation and Perception (6th ed.) Wadsworth-Thompson. ISBN 0534539645.
Gravetter, F.J., & Wallnau, L.B. (2003). Statistics for the behavioral sciences. West: St Paul, MN. ISBN 0534622046.
Harris, M. & Butterworth, G. (2002). Developmental psychology: A student’s handbook. Hove: Psychology Press. ISBN 1841691925.
Kendall, P. C., & Hammen, C. (2000). Abnormal Psychology, 2nd edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Stangor, C. (2003). Research methods for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Houghton-Mifflin: Boston, MA.

General introductory books
The books listed below are not core reading for any of our B.Sc. courses, but you may find them interesting to look at prior to arriving, especially if you have not studied Psychology before. Instead of purchasing them, you may wish to try to find or request them at your local library.

Aronson, E. (2003). The Social Animal, ninth edition. Freeman. ISBN 071675715X.
Atkinson, R.L., Atkinson, R.C., Smith, E.E., Bem, D.J. & Hilgard, E.R. (1999). Introduction to Psychology. Wadsworth. ISBN: 015508044X.
Eysenck, M.W. (2002). Simply Psychology. Psychology Press. ISBN 184169309X
Greenfield, S. (2004). The Human Brain: A guided tour. Phoenix. ISBN 0753801558.
Gregory, R.L. (Ed). (2004). The Oxford Companion to the Mind. OUP. ISBN 0198662246.
Sacks, O. (1986). The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. Picador. ISBN 0330294911.

[fairygirl21]

eugh. that reading list looks scary.

[LatinMachine]

Well I don't think you have to read all of them, but I guess they'll be like the things that we'll have to read when we're there.

If you want something more fun, try the Oliver Sacks ones or books called "I'm Okay, You're Okay," and "Games People Play." The first one is by Thomas A. Harris, the second by Dr Eric Berne, his mentor. The Eric Berne one is shorter. They're about a method called Transactional Analysis, which sounds scary, but it's actually about the kind of ways that people interact, and, as the book says, the games people play with each other. I liked it

[p.pete]

I disagree with

Gregory, R.L. (Ed). (2004). The Oxford Companion to the Mind. OUP. ISBN 0198662246.

being included as a general introduction book. By all means get a copy, it's an excellent reference book - but you won't sit down and read it from start to finish, that would be scary.

I endorse the Oliver Sacks books as being nice reads (I've just read The Man Who Mistook His Wife For His Hat mind you). He writes on the area of Abnormal Psychology, basicly when things go wrong with the mind, very interesting.

[Maye]

I am starting at RHUL in September and have just started reading The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, it's really intersting as people have said before in this thread.
In addition to that, I got "Simply Psychology" by Michael W. Eysenck. Haven't started on that one yet, but it seems to be a good introduction to Psychology.

[8owman]

"A Student's Guide to Studying Psychology" by T.M. Heffernan (who is a psychology lecturer at Northumbria Uni) is really useful and has lots of information that would give you a head start in October.

[Samothy]

Just the name ('The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat') makes me want to read it.

[.:fluff:.]

I have bought Richard Gross : The Science of mind and Behaviour for next year, I don't think I'm going to read it from cover to cover but has had some extremely good things said about it

[Nikinilo]

how do i get the reading list for Broookes(architecture)

[Simone.xox]

Browse around Amazon

Oliver Sack's "The Man who mistook his wife for a hat" is a really brilliant book though