Books about Psychology

The author explains the power of first impressions and also their negative aspect. The examples and research cited are very powerful in illustrating his points.

Tags: marketing psychology

I cannot think of a book more relevant to managers in particular and all people in general. We all have had to deal with difficult people and somehow we get sucked into the impossible situations that they create. The author does a great job of identifying the various types of difficult behavior and provide advice on how to cope with them. He righly does not attempt to correct the people who display those behaviors and instead provides very practical ways to manage them.

Tags: business management psychology

It is easy to talk and behave appropriately when things are going fine. But how does one talk under pressure and when things are under stake? How does one have productive conversations with people who are antagonistic? This book does an excellent job of exploring such issues and gives great advice to cope with difficult circumstances.

Tags: negotiation psychology

The classic book on Transactional Analysis, it covers the concepts of Parent, Adult and Child. It is a very helpful book in helping people deal with one another. I feel that the emphasis on the actual transaction instead of the individual helps tremendously in making this strategy effective.

Tags: psychology

Caldini takes an incredibly insightful look at the emotions that influence people to behave the way they do, even though sometimes they are putting themselves at a disadvantage. The author uses examples from car salesmen to cult leaders to show how they are able to achieve their objectives by using some basic tenets of human psychology.

Parts of the book can make you queasy, showing how normal people can be manipulated by simple devices such as artificial deadlines or use of authority (or pseudo-authority) figures. At the same time, the author explains how we can learn to say "no" by recognizing these maneuvers and keeping an eye for our benefit. Many of these devices are useful in normal human interactions and social situations, so we have to be especially careful of them in the few circumstances when they can be abused.

Tags: psychology marketing

The author provides practical advice on how to de-prioritize unnecessary things in life that leads to conflicts, busy schedules and unhappy lives. The explanations make great logical sense. The author also takes pains to mention that his recommended tactics need not be handled all at once and there can be frequent setbacks and relapses. It is all in a very encouraging tone with good examples from real life.

Tags: psychology

Very quick and easy to read, this book has a lot of useful advice that can help a person identify the right priorities in life. The author provides simple methods to put things in the right perspective. It is about the one person and the one thing we can change - ourselves and our attitude towards what is happening. There are many self-help books like this on the market, nevertheless this book reads differently and is very refreshing.

Tags: productivity psychology

This is a well-written book showing how to deal with people with different frames of mind, such as prejudice, sloth, etc. It can be used as a reference.

Tags: psychology

Hallinan has written a smart book on how human beings keep making mistakes in our day-to-day lives even though we should know better. Many of these mistakes are because of deeply embedded behaviors in human beings.

For example, we are more likely to think we are above average and over-estimate our capabilities, thus taking on something that we cannot handle. We are not very capable of multi-tasking, but we don't realize it, as evidenced by the many cell phone car accidents. There are differences between the way men and women approach a particular problem. Understanding these shortcomings can help us avoid problems and also understand why people behave the way they do.

Tags: psychology sociology

"Blunder" is a book about "cognition traps", which are mental conditions that prevent us from understanding a situation clearly and lead us into making wrong decisions. In contrast to most books of this type, the author has taken many examples from geopolitics instead of relying only on business stories.

But I am not really sure that even if we know about cognition traps, we can prevent ourselves from being trapped by them. There will always be blind spots caused by our belief systems and the people in our circle of trust. The best way perhaps is to broaden our circle of information and trust and ensure that we are exposed to people and information sources that have different viewpoints. The greatest danger is certainty and the solution is doubt.

Tags: psychology politics