BSc Psychology Text Books

Hi, I'm going into my 2nd year of a psychology degree - can anyone recommend a developmental psychology book that would offer a good overview?

Thanks!

what year?

so far i've used (for both years):

- Physiology of Behaviour, by N.R. Carlson
- Biological Psychology by J.W Kalat
- Michael Eysenck’s Principles of Cognitive Psychology
- Eysenck and Keane’s Cognitive Psychology: A Student’s Handbook
- Mitchell, P. and Ziegler, F. (2007) Fundamentals of Development: The Psychology of Childhood
- Hogg, M.A. and Vaughan, G.M. (2005) Social Psychology, 4 th edition
- Discovering Statistics Using SPSS by Andy Field
- SPSS Without Maths

Those are the books I've used in the last 2 years, will probably use some of them for 3rd year as well.
You don't need to buy these books, I'm sure your uni libraries will have them all, but obviously if everyone on your course wants them, there'll be high demand. But then, most 2nd years and 3rd years will be selling their books cheaper so that's also helpful. One other thing you can do is try blackwells, they sell used books at a discounted price, the used books will obviously state their used, but normally they'll have a green sticker/band on them (used to work there).

what year?

so far i've used (for both years):

- Physiology of Behaviour, by N.R. Carlson
- Biological Psychology by J.W Kalat
- Michael Eysenck’s Principles of Cognitive Psychology
- Eysenck and Keane’s Cognitive Psychology: A Student’s Handbook
- Mitchell, P. and Ziegler, F. (2007) Fundamentals of Development: The Psychology of Childhood
- Hogg, M.A. and Vaughan, G.M. (2005) Social Psychology, 4 th edition
- Discovering Statistics Using SPSS by Andy Field
- SPSS Without Maths

Hey La Trampa. I'm going to be studying Psychology at Nottingham in a few weeks They gave me a reading list with a fair few books on it, a few of which I recognise from the list you compiled. Do you get a feel for what books you will definitely need once you're there or do you recommend I buy as many books from that list as my wallet can cope with? Or is there some sort of middle ground like there are a few books you would definitely recommend for the first year but then I might need to figure what other additional books I'll need?
Thanks for any help you can give!

All the books I mentioned are all the core textbooks I've been using primarily since first year (i.e at any point in time if you were to search my shelf, you'd find a copy of all those books), none of which I bought. I got them all from the library. Obviously there'll be other books that you'll need or were mentioned on your list but these tend to be books you'll either use for one term or for one topic, which to buy would be a waste of money. Again these are available in the library.

I do have to say though if you're getting them from the library, you have to get in there quickly and borrow them on ordinary loans (8 week loans) which you'll obviously need to keep renewing. I also have to mention that as these are the core textbooks (these are more or less the books you'll use and keep going back to so they are highly recommended) and are in high demand,there will be times when you'll only be allowed to have them for a week to allow for others, that includes exam time. So you need to plan when you'll borrow them etc.

It's up to you whether you buy them or not, personally I didn't think there was any reason to because a) they're expensive.you're looking at about £30 per book b) they're available in the library. c) I wasn't reading them every waking hour so they weren't worth the money. The one book I did buy - the stats one, is still in near perfect order. If you do buy them you can always sell them back to blackwells or to other students, but obviously as they're used,you won't get loads back from that.

Basically, it's up to you whether you buy them or not. I know a couple of people who did and felt it was money well spent, I know others who thought it was money wasted as they could easily get them from the library.So really it's up to you.

what year?

so far i've used (for both years):

- Physiology of Behaviour, by N.R. Carlson
- Biological Psychology by J.W Kalat
- Michael Eysenck’s Principles of Cognitive Psychology
- Eysenck and Keane’s Cognitive Psychology: A Student’s Handbook
- Mitchell, P. and Ziegler, F. (2007) Fundamentals of Development: The Psychology of Childhood
- Hogg, M.A. and Vaughan, G.M. (2005) Social Psychology, 4 th edition
- Discovering Statistics Using SPSS by Andy Field
- SPSS Without Maths

Those are the books I've used in the last 2 years, will probably use some of them for 3rd year as well.
You don't need to buy these books, I'm sure your uni libraries will have them all, but obviously if everyone on your course wants them, there'll be high demand. But then, most 2nd years and 3rd years will be selling their books cheaper so that's also helpful. One other thing you can do is try blackwells, they sell used books at a discounted price, the used books will obviously state their used, but normally they'll have a green sticker/band on them (used to work there).