Review of “Psychology for Dummies,” 2nd ed., by Adam Cash, 2013, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Press. Paper, 371 pages.
I recommend this book for a wide variety of uses.
Adam Cash, Psy.D., provides here a great resource for a variety of readers – from street counselors to MSW students, and from k-12 classroom teachers to social justice advocates. Agency employees, researchers, professors, and undergrads in other fields can make good use of this book also. I think it is great!
Cash gives us here a very informative and entertaining introduction to the world of psychology, its history, its uses, and its limits. He uses a very clear writing style and in 20 chapters covers a great deal of ground indeed.
Like a book on general topics, the book is thorough and starts at the beginning. What this means is, it provides the reasons psychology started, what the original planners were thinking, and how the field has developed over time.
Unlike a textbook, this title has much clearer definitions and many more applications of the information. For example, he relates child development issues to parents and has a good time doing so. Unlike many of the “Dummies” books, this one seems to provide explanations that most people can understand without having some background in the field.
Cash provides here a wonderful book for explaining the world of psychology to persons who are NOT experts in the field of psychology.
Cash provides all sorts of definitions of the kinds of issues, illnesses, remedies and complications persons helping people in the street can make good use of.
Cash introduces the book and how it works, including the icons providing hints in each chapter, the “extras” available free of charge from the “Dummies” site, and ideas about further reading and study. Without giving away all the content of the book, here is a list of the parts:
Part I: Getting Started with Psychology
Part II: Picking Your Brain (And Body)
Part II: Thinking and Feeling and Acting
PART IV: Me, You, and Everything in Between
Part V: Building a Better You
Part VI: The Part of Tens
This last part includes a chapter housing lots of good hints for holding onto some good psychological health—including learning to “go with the flow” and enjoying life—and a chapter on ten great psychological movies, ranging from The Silence of the Lambs to Girl, Interrupted.
One thing I really like about the book—in addition to its clarity in definitions and examples—is the style used by Cash.
The author is able to laugh at himself, poke fun at psychologists, and just generally provide a pleasant reader experience.
He is able to joke. For example, he reminds the reader (p. 10) that this book does not answer the question “what is the meaning of life?” and goes on to tell us to look instead for the title Philosophy for Dummies or Religion for Dummies. He talks about a psychological experiment in the past and then ends by saying “the shocking outcome…” He adds he could not resist that one, meaning he had to make that joke (p. 202). It is that sort of levity and cleverness that makes his writing entertaining in addition to being very clear.
I recommend the book as a helpful guide to keep nearby when counseling the homeless, the people needing advocacy, and those needing a variety of help and services.
I also think the book could be interesting background reading for teachers of Social Studies because it contains a great deal of information—and some behavioral strategies—that dovetail into some of what can be taught in the classroom. In other words, it gives teachers subject matter in addition to some ways students (and teachers) can monitor and adjust their interaction.
Some high schools offer a Social Science program complete with “introduction to psychology” as a course offering. The teacher can use this and lift info from it in that case. The explanations are so clear—and in some cases so funny! In other schools, elements of psychology are included in other courses, and at lower levels.
Other schools emphasize respect for others and cooperation as main themes.
Still others talk about more spiritual development of students and educators, making connections among good interaction, religious beliefs, and a better sense of a positive community. In any sort of school, certainly in the spirit of understanding oneself, comprehending that others may have opinions different from our own, and all persons wanting to interact better, a clearly written book like this one can be of great benefit.
The book has connections to the Illinois Learning Standards, and I can humbly offer just as some possible examples the ones below. Again, these are just examples, and I would refer teachers and administrators also to the Common Core Standards for helping students understand the language and world of the Social Sciences and their related units and lessons.
It is the classroom teacher who—assuming the professional has a strong constructivist bent—will make his or her own decisions about what clearly connects with the content in the book and the targeted learning areas and accompanying assessments they are dealing with.
Having read the book closely, I think it has much to offer.
The book seems to me to have something to do with these benchmarks in the Illinois Social Science Goals, as examples:
18.B.1a Compare the roles of individuals in group situations (e.g., student, committee member, employee/employer).
18.B.3a Analyze how individuals and groups interact with and within institutions (e.g., educational, military).
18.B.5 Use methods of social science inquiry (pose questions, collect and analyze data, make and support conclusions with evidence, report findings) to study the development and functions of social systems and report conclusions to a larger audience.
18.C.5 Analyze how social scientists’ interpretations of societies, cultures and institutions change over time.
The book also provides information (I humbly suggest) directly related to these Illinois Social Emotional Learning Standards:
1A (all benchmarks)
1B (all benchmarks)
2A (all benchmarks)
Understanding elements of psychology is helpful in interaction in other languages, not just in English. The standards of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages depend on successful interaction between persons in the target language AND an understanding of other fields so that students (and adult speakers) or world languages can communicate about real-world topics.
These benchmarks of the Illinois Foreign Language Goals can also be targeted, for those districts interested in making use of these interdisciplinary and well-formed strands:
28.B.2c Comprehend gestures and body language often used in everyday interaction in the target language.
28.B.4c Recognize and use nonverbal cues in various formal and informal settings.
28.D.4b Make a persuasive presentation with documentation (e.g., visuals, interviews, quotes) from target language sources.
29.A.5 Analyze and interpret manners and customs within the social, academic and work environments of selected target language societies.
The book also dovetails into the Common Core Standards for English and Language Arts in the college and career readiness anchor standards. Specifically, strands related to positive and successful interaction among speakers, listeners, readers, and writers come into play. See, especially, page seven of this document: http://www.isbe.net/common_core/pls/level1/pdf/ela-standards.pdf
The book has a lot of application to counseling the homeless, the displaced, the recovering alcoholics, and the persons in need of advocacy and support in general. It is a good reference book and a good quick “go to” book for seeking other information and resources.
It is so clear and accessible.
It is also suitable for use in the classroom, so it is not just entertaining reading. I recommend teachers consider using it as a good review, a pleasurable but important bit of reading on their off hours, and certainly a source of clear definitions, illustrations and examples.
The book could be used as recommended reading in a variety of teacher education courses, professional development sessions, and retreat settings. I hope to use it soon with some teachers and get their impressions of it to share with others.
There is also nothing in the world stopping college and university instructors of psychology from reading this book, seeing how it can help in their courses, and recommending students buy it as further reading—or reading to help them understand more difficult college-level textbooks on the subject.
In short, I recommend the book for a wide variety of uses. Did you order one yet?