Psychology: The Comic Book Introduction

by Danny Oppenheimer PhD, Grady Klein (Illustrator)

Overview

An award-winning cartoonist teams up with an award-winning psychologist to introduce readers to the complex—and often comedic—world of psychology.

Psychology is the study of human behavior. It is a serious and worthy endeavor that has given us scientific knowledge of the ways our minds make sense of the world. Yet, as cartoonist Grady Klein and psychologist Danny Oppenheimer point out, the study of human experience can also be often really funny. This is the field, after all, that brought us drooling dogs, snacking rats, and “Freudian slips.” With detailed observations on perception, stress, emotions, cognition, and more, Psychology: The Comic Book Introduction offers students and curious readers an entertaining guide to the ways our brains help us navigate incredibly complicated environments, yet often fool us in fascinating ways.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393351958
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	12/05/2017
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	224,093
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Danny Oppenheimer, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology and social and decision sciences at Carnegie Mellon and the recipient of the 2006 Ig Nobel Prize in Literature. He lives in Pittsburgh.

Grady Klein is a cartoonist, animator, and author of several successful cartoon introductions to otherwise dry subjects.

Editorial Reviews

11/27/2017
This peppy overview of psychological science follows the now-familiar educational comics format of snappy explanatory text interspersed with cartoon commentary. A colorful cast of unnamed characters—two lab-coated scientists, a bickering couple, some cavepeople, a gorilla—acts out the concepts in the text, adding gags, observations, and explanations. Sometimes the visuals clarify the material: linked memories, for example, are easy to understand as a chain of beads hooked together by busy cartoon workers. Other times, the illustrations simply provide humorous commentary. Oppenheimer, a Carnegie Mellon professor, wisely sticks to examples from contemporary research rather than getting too mired in history or minutiae, though his material sometimes tends a little too much toward pop-psych fluff. Still, he and artist Klein, a veteran of cartoon science guides as well as the creator of the beautiful Lost Colony graphic novels, cover an impressive swath of territory, including the mechanics of thought, the development of language, and the way society forces all our uniquely complicated minds to work together. The book confidently fulfills the purpose stated in its title. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"This little book makes learning psychology irresistible, engaging, and fun, linking together concepts that are all-too-often treated one by one and then abandoned. I can’t wait to use this in our introductory psychology course this fall!"

James Gross

"Beginning students of psychology and nonstudents looking for a painless refresher probably won’t find a better book for their purposes."

Booklist

"A charming, informative, and funny invitation to the wonders of scientific psychology. Anyone who reads this book will want to know more about what psychology has to teach us about ourselves. "

Barry Schwartz

"By far the most enjoyable psychology primer I’ve read in years—comprehensive, accessible, funny, and rigorous at the same time. It’s a book for everyone from experts and psychology students to humans who just happen to be interested in who we are and what makes us tick. "

Adam Alter

2017-09-12
A lighthearted survey of how modern science researches and resolves some of the complexities of human psychology.Psychology is fun! Or so Klein (The Cartoon Introduction to Statistics, 2013, etc.) and Oppenheimer (Marketing and Psychology/UCLA; co-author: Democracy Despite Itself: Why a System that Shouldn't Work at All Works So Well, 2012) do their best to make it, providing a breezy overview of how we know what we know and what we still need to learn about the intricacies of the human mind. This isn't psychiatry; there is no mention of Freud or Jung or talk therapy and the individual. There isn't even any mention of pharmaceuticals—antidepressants and the like—that have revolutionized the field. Instead, the authors examine the reasons why we (as a group who can be tested and measured) behave and believe the way we do. It's a line that leads from Pavlov to B.F. Skinner through cognitive behavioral therapy, with a nod toward mindfulness to alleviate stress. Both the text and the illustrations turn topics that are potentially complicated and boring into humanized, humorous lessons. "Our minds are constantly working to create order from chaos," write the authors. They show how we choose from among the overload of available data, how we process information (often incorrectly, according to bias), how we remember and forget, how our emotions affect our reason, and how we balance it all to maintain relatively well-adjusted lives—or not. Very little of the text concerns those who are suffering from psychological disturbance, the ones most likely to seek treatment from a psychologist. As the authors write, "the difference between abnormal psychology and standard psychology is mostly a matter of degree." Intro to psych students will find this a helpful primer, but it is also written to engage and entertain general readers.A quick illumination of a complex field.

Kirkus Reviews