Parts of psychology

[The Arch-Fiend]

What are the most important/useful aspects of psychology to study and why? Are there any that you find useless? What are the best psychology books? What aspects of psychology have the most practical application chances?

 

[Minuend]

Well, what do you want to learn and study? And why?

 

[Ex-User (14663)]

I would say cognitive psychology – e.g. research on cognitive biases by Tversky and Khaneman. It follows the principles of empirical science, in contrast to many other fields of psychology.

But I am mostly talking out of my ass right now, as this is third-hand information and I don't really know anything about psychology.

 

[ZenRaiden]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation
This is pretty basic and must.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_psychology
Interesting theories

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_memory
One of the most interesting aspects of our brain is our memory and how it functions and defines who we are.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Sacks
Wrote several books that are incredibely facinating.

 

[Hadoblado]

It depends what you're trying to do.

The most important things I've learned have been the core skills and knowledge, such as statistics and neurology. But those are only useful if you're going in balls deep. If you're just aiming to have the broad overview, you're probably looking to get your hands on a first year text book. In broad terms, you want to understand:
- learning
- memory (particularly its fallibility)
- bias
- observer effects (just know that they exist and how they work ~ social psychology)
- nature vs. nurture
- individual differences
- development
- have some understanding of how your body is wired up to your brain, and how the brain is structured
- sensation/perception (know the difference, play with some illusions)
- clinical probably isn't that relevant to you unless you have a particular disorder or have an interest
- know the myths so you can dismiss the most prevalent pseudopsychology quickly