8 books to read if you're a psychology student

In The Happiness Hypothesis, award-winning psychologist Jonathan Haidt takes ancient wisdom and ideals that people thought it was necessary to follow in order to live meaningful lives, and tests it under the scrutiny of modern science. He then uses the results from these tests to apply these lessons to everyday life in the 21^st century.

In his book Haidt discusses behavioral biases, beliefs, religions, morality and consciousness, using published psychological studies and science to dissect them.

If you’re someone who enjoys a mix of philosophy and psychology, then this is the perfect book for you. Praised for its originality, the book puts to the test well known ideals such as ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ and ‘do unto others as you would have others do unto you’. This is a book to help you reflect on human behavior.

This one is on the University of Oxford’s psychology course reading list, so you know it’s worth a read. The Private Life of the Brain explores “the effects of neurological disorders and injuries, the actions of drugs, the character of thought in dreams, in schizophrenia, in reverie, and in childhood”.

Although this book can, at times, be quite heavy reading, it is a good one to read if you want to gain a solid overview of neuroscience research. The book offers a fascinating glimpse into the human mind and explains how physiology and experience intertwine to define an individual.

Greenfield challenges common assumptions made about the brain while answering interesting questions such as ‘What is the relationship between pleasure and pain?’ and ‘How might an understanding of the science of emotion help us better understand schizophrenia and depression?’.

This book is a must-read for any psychology student looking to better understand the human brain.

All of the best bits about psychology with none of the fluff. This is a good book to read if you want a basic overview of psychology and to learn about the key theories.

The book gives an overview on the famous psychologists, theories, psychological studies and themes you need to know for your course.

Only 128 pages long, this book is a great place to start if you’re a psychology student about to start university.

Written by renowned social psychologist Philip Zimbardo, and the basis of the award-winning film The Stanford Prison Experiment, The Lucifer Effect explores why good people can be convinced to act evil and where the line is really drawn between good and bad.

Zimbardo gives a first-hand account of his infamous Stanford Prison Experiment, in which a group of college student volunteers were placed in a mock prison environment and randomly split into either ‘prisoners’ or ‘guards’ (with Zimbardo serving as the superintendent.

The experiment had to be stopped after a week as both groups quickly got into their roles, with the guards submitting some prisoners to psychological abuse. In this environment, the prisoners became unstable, with several leaving early due to psychological breakdowns.

Although there have been many criticisms of the experiment, this book makes for an interesting read for psychology and non-psychology students alike. It also gives an excellent insight into the power of roles and group identity, and how humans can become cruel very quickly in the right situation.

In the book, Zimbardo examines the psychological causes behind the surprising results of this experiment and confronts the terrifying reality of human nature.

Bestselling journalist Jon Ronson learns how to spot a psychopath from an influential psychologist, who is convinced that many important CEOs are psychopaths.

He is told its possible to do this by looking at a variety of verbal and nonverbal clues. He then goes to talk to several suspected psychopaths: a death squad leader, a patient in an asylum for the criminally insane who insists he isn’t a psychopath and a legendary CEO whose psychopathy has been speculated about in the press.

While this book is unlikely to help you in your course significantly, it makes for an entertaining and enjoyable read for psychology students.

If you just can’t get enough psychology, some other books that we recommend for psychology students are:

• The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat (mentioned in books for medicine students)
• Thinking, Fast and Slow (mentioned in books for economics students)

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