Reviews for Psyk.Trek : A Multimedia Introduction to Psychology

The average rating for Psyk.Trek : A Multimedia Introduction to Psychology based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-02-28 00:00:00 Michael Sarosiak At the time this book was written, Psychology was very heavily dependent on questionnaires as a research method. This book is mostly the results of such tests (Some 10% of the book is handed over to a reproduction of one such test to fill yourself) and the results have little persuasive power today. One highlight is the passionate critique of psychoanalysis. The rest of the book covers areas such as personality types, worker efficiency, academic performance, anti-antisemitism and sexuality. ALL of them owe their insight to various questionnaires. When not, the anecdotal quality of the evidence can be equally unconvincing (check out the scientifically-correct terminology reported from this working-class lothario): A. C. Kinsey points out that similar differences exist between different classes in the same society. Thus, nudity is considered almost an essential concomitant of intercourse among practically all college-trained males , who find it difficult to comprehend that anyone should regularly and as a matter of preference have intercourse while clothed. On the other hand, among those with the least amount of education, those who favour nudity in intercourse constitute an actual minority. Nudity by them is regarded as far more indecent than intercourse. Kinsey mentions the case of one highly promiscuous male who had had intercourse with several hundred girls and who emphasized the fact that he had never turned down an opportunity to have intercourse except "on one occasion when the girl started to remove her clothing before coitus. She was too indecent to have intercourse with!" pg 189 In the chapter on politics, Eysenck is refreshingly frank about his own stance on political culture and his liberal views. This is interesting in retrospect, since many of his views, shockingly liberal at the time (such as his relativistic views of cultural norms on sexuality), are today quite the orthodoxy (and so now the pendulum swings back to the right with today's Eysenck, Steven Pinker). That said, an old-fashioned high standard of public discourse such as Eysenck's is more antique than prescient, today: Few who read faithfully the speeches of British Members of Parliament or of American Senators will deny the lack of elementary factual knowledge, the absence of logical consistency and the barrenness of intellectual understanding so often betrayed there. For the achievement of high office is probably as much of a handicap as it is in dictatorships; the qualities demanded for success are more of an emotional, "crowd-appeal" kind than of an intellectual nature. Even so however, the interplay of democratic processes and the rivalry of party machines do give intelligence a better chance to make it self heard in the long run than does the rigidity of a dictatorship. Probably the ancient Greek system of choosing public officials by lot would give the highly intelligent person a better chance still, because lots are not intrinsically biassed against intelligence. pg 310 The future that Eysenck looked forward to was one in which grand intellectual systems, nationalistic or racial stereotypes and "gut feelings" of all sorts would be calmly and civilly explained to be illusions by the loving grace of the questionnaire. With the above quote in mind, I am curious to know what he made of the rise of objective testing measures such as the proliferation of multiple choice exams, and the eventual effect this has made on the quality of logical rhetorical and factual knowledge shown by even the most highly educated members of society. For a more colorful and enduring work by Eysenck, also in a pelican, read his sequel, "Sense and Nonsense in Psychology."

Review # 2 was written on 2012-05-18 00:00:00 John Brooks This book has helped me understand and appreciate psychology as a scientific field. I got to discern its applications, misuses, limitations, and more important, how it differs from psychiatry and psychoanalysis. The author provided ample examples of all cases and theories presented and argued while adhering to the universal scientific principles throughout the text.