Forty Studies that Changed Psychology

Hi there everyone! So today I am reviewing a book that I had to read for my AP Psychology class called "Forty Studies that Changed Psychology: Explorations into the History of Psychological Research", written by Robert Hock. Well without further ado, away we go!

Characters: "Forty Studies" isn't a novel so to speak - it is actually a collection of short case studies about some of the most influential and controversial psychological studies. So I guess you could say that the main "characters" are in fact the psychologists and their teams that conduct these experiments.

The Plot: Again, this doesn't really apply. So instead of doing "the plot" I will give you a sort of breakdown on the types of studies that are covered in the book. Forty Studies is advertised as a sort of beginners guide to psychology. However, the only thing "beginner" about it is that they cover most of the studies beginners learn about. As a reader, you are thrown right into the middle of the studies and Hock certainly didn't hold back. I read the sixth edition of this highly popular book, which has stayed so popular because it has pulled the best studies out of the psychology field. These studies all fall into ten subcategories, which make up ten chapters: biology and human behavior; perception and consciousness; learning and conditioning; intelligence, cognition, and memory; human development; emotion and motivation; personality; psychopathology; psychotherapy; and social psychology. Each chapter has four cases which gives the reader an idea of the distinctive "flavors" of these chapters and of psychology overall.

What I liked and what I didn't like: (I am going to combine these two categories because I am having a hard time breaking it apart) I am going to be totally honest, I didn't agree with all of the studies that were in this book. Some of them, I thought were total codswallop. For example, the study by Bouchard and Lykken which "proved" that people are the way they are because of their genes. That makes it seem to me that we are predetermined to be a certain way, and I don't know if that's true. While I think it is completely possible, and realistic, that genes account for some of our behavior, I believe I am in charge of who I am, not my genes. I didn't like that these studies weren't all completely proven; for some there was more than a little bit of reasonable doubt: there was outright disbelief by some psychologists. Those questions that I had in my mind made it difficult at times to truly appreciate and enjoy the book. However, these issues that I had with the book had more to do with the field of psychology, rather than any particular issue with Hock's writing. I can say this though: while I was reading I was never bored. Each study was totally unique, and even if I didn't really enjoy reading all of them, I was honestly interested in reading all of them. What I particularly enjoyed about Hock's book was the same thing that totally drove me crazy; he included studies that many psychologists disagree with. Hock gave me- a soon to be psychology student -an accurate look at the studies which have shaped the face of psychology, for better or for worse. Hock's book itself was an unbiased look at each study, which was necessary particularly because of the shaky nature of some psychological research. Hock's perspective allowed me as a reader to form my own opinion, because each study had a section where other psychologists expressed their criticisms with the study. Very few studies had no criticisms. I hadn't really thought of psychology as a real "science" until reading this book, but it showed me how even psychologists, whose experiments are very different from that of the "hard scientists" have their own challenges which any scientist must face. I am very happy to have read this book because it gave anyone who is being introduced to psychology a great overview of the subject. Also, Hock had a sort of dry humor that occasionally came out when reading, but it was infrequent and often short. This is not a book for light reading! If I had to make a suggestion to a reader, I would say that you should just page through the book and read the cases that interest you: I had to read them all because of my class, but there definitely were ones that I would have skipped.

Overall: 7 out of 10. Very good psychology introductory book. I won't give it a higher rating because this isn't a book that is going to teach you a lesson, or captivate you with it's characters: it is just an easy to read, introductory, psychology textbook (so to speak).