I am an avid reader and researcher so it is not uncommon for my students to ask me to recommend books, readings, or subjects that they can explore to go deeper into a subject. I was recently asked what program or course of study I would recommend for someone who wanted to go into Psychology. Even though I have a Ph.D. in Psychology or Educational Psychology to be more specific I often find it difficult to recommend traditional Psychological books or texts because I have found that they often provide too narrow of a focus or explanation.
Most people are drawn to the study of psychology because they want to better understand human behavior or find an explanation for why or how people tend to feel, act and do the things that they do. I have found that human behavior is much more complex and requires a much broader exploration. My main Recommended Reading List points to this broader perspective and points to my top 200+ reads.
I realize that most people do not have the time nor the desire to engage in the more classical study of philosophy, theology, and history to help them understand why we do the things we do so I will attempt to consolidate and offer my top 15 list of Psychology reads which are also listed on my Recommended Reading List page:
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by K. Anders Ericsson, Robert Pool
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
The Psychology of Intelligence by Jean Piaget
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by Jim Loehr, Tony Schwartz
A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas by Warren Berger
Influencer: The Power to Change Anything by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
The following two books aren’t typically referred to as psychological texts but they do offer a perspective of why people tend to do the things that they do. Both of these books point to a time in history when humanity was not at its finest so we tend to get a perspective of why we do the things we do when then things are really bad. Some would argue that the best of times and the worst of times are when our true humanity is revealed.
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Finally, you may want to download a copy of my COVA eBook which explains how to create a significant learning environment in which you give your learner choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities and also incorporates many of the ideas that you will find in the books listed above.
