The science of the mind and human behaviour is known as psychology. It is interdisciplinary and overlaps with various fields such as social science, life science, and artificial intelligence. Psychology as a vocation in India has much potential.
A career in Psychology in India is gaining importance, and its demand is on the rise. Choosing a career in Psychology has become one of the most popular career options for humanities students. It offers a myriad of career opportunities ranging from the medical field to a social worker or a counsellor in the educational sector. You will get an opportunity to work in different sectors like counselling, clinical or organisational psychology, research, and education if you choose to pursue a career in psychology after graduation. You can also opt for work from option and offer career counselling online.
In India, psychology is still in its infancy, but things are evolving, and at present, the opportunities for psychology graduates appear to be infinite. The extensive scope of research, Increasing Developmental Psychology Awareness, and the growing need for Industrial Psychologists make India one of the best places to pursue psychology from. However, in order to further improve study and career prospects for students interested in psychology, it must overcome certain obstacles such as social opposition and obsolete methodologies.
If you’ve been thinking about pursuing a career in psychology after graduation and aren’t sure what books to start with: this post is just for you!
List of Books to Read for a Career in Psychology
1. The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry – Jon Ronson
‘The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry’ is a 2011 book by British journalist and novelist Jon Ronson. It explores the notion of psychopathy and investigative analysis of psychopaths and the industry of physicians, scientists, and others that study them.
With only 11 chapters, most of which are brief, this might be a quick read for a casual reader interested in learning more about this subgenre. Author Jon Ronson, who focuses on inadequacy and misdiagnosis, raises fundamental issues about whether the mental-health diagnosis is actual science or rather error-prone personal judgments. From LSD-fueled days to long nude therapy sessions in jails to attempts to comprehend serial killers, he looks into the compelling history of psychopathy diagnosis and therapies.
2. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales – Oliver Sacks
Oliver Sacks, a neurologist, wrote The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales in 1985. Dr. Oliver Sacks explores the experiences of his patients attempting to adjust to the often odd realms of neurological disorders in his book. He couldn’t understand why most doctors treated their patients in such a mechanical and impersonal manner. Thus, he began to consider novel approaches to treating patients with neurological diseases. Sacks discusses the cases and explains their pathophysiological background. He examines probable neuroscientific implications of such situations and occasionally refers to psychological ideas in addition to explaining them.
Sacks’ theories were so significant that they signaled the coming of a bigger movement — narrative medicine — that emphasized listening to and incorporating patients’ experiences and insights into their care.
3. Stumbling on Happiness – Daniel Gilbert
Harvard psychology professor Daniel Gilbert’s non-fiction book Stumbling on Happiness is a New York Times bestseller. Knopf published it in 2006 in the United States and Canada, and it has been translated into over 30 languages since. Dr. Gilbert delves into the nature of pleasure and explains the various psychological fallacies that might skew our impression of joy.
He makes the case that for several reasons-people are unable to accurately imagine their futures, specifically, what actions they can take in the present to make themselves happy in the future. He draws on several studies in social psychology and his research to argue that individuals are unable to anticipate their future, precisely what actions they may take in the present to make themselves happy in the future. He discusses how to determine if we will be happy at a given location, space, and time, we need to consider someone else’s subjective experience of the future that we seek. People have more in common than differences.
4. Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
Nobel Laureate and psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s 2011 book Thinking, Fast and Slow offers insight into behavioral psychology and decision-making. The central argument of the book is a distinction between the two modes of thought. “System 1” is quick, instinctual, and emotive, while “System 2” is slower, more deliberate, and rational. The topics in this book on how individuals make decisions are integral.
Critical thinking processes such as judgment mistakes, decision making, perception, analytical thinking, and irrationality are all explained by Daniel Kahneman. Thinking, Fast and Slow is an informative book: it’s clear, insightful, and full of intellectual surprises and self-help value. It’s always amusing and occasionally moving. Understanding fast and slow thinking may help us discover more reasonable answers to challenges we face as a society. It might also help us make better personal judgments.
5. Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts – Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson
Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson wrote the non-fiction book Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) published in 2007. It uses psychological ideas like cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, and other cognitive biases to show how perpetrators (and victims) of harmful acts explain and excuse their actions. The book explains why keeping mistakes private is always worse than confessing them—both to the public and to ourselves— using anecdotal, historical, and scientific data.
Mistakes were Made (But Not by Me) explores how refusing to accept your mistakes and inventing intricate self-justifications might be seriously harmful. Not only from a personal and professional standpoint but also for society as a whole. It emphasizes how, while these activities are not necessarily troublesome, they can exacerbate issues if left uncontrolled. It also offers helpful starting points for ultimately addressing and accepting your mistakes.
The case studies discussed in the book are both informative and entertaining. They cover real and pressing social issues like the harm that interrogation techniques cause. These are prone to eliciting false confessions, as well as ‘recovered memory therapy, in which unhappy patients are cajoled to believe horrific fantasies of abuse by friends and family.
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