Showing titles in Social Psychology & Interactions

"Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy" by Eric Berne is a seminal text that delves into the intricacies of human interaction and communication through the lens of transactional analysis (TA). Published in 1961, this book presents TA not just as a theory but as a practical method of therapy, offering insights into the dynamics of human behavior. Berne introduces concepts such as ego states, which categorize communication and behavior into parent-like, child-like, or adult-like forms, and "strokes," which are units of interpersonal recognition.

A new field of collective intelligence has emerged in the last few years, prompted by a wave of digital technologies that make it possible for organizations and societies to think at large scale. This "bigger mind" - human and machine capabilities working together - has the potential to solve the great challenges of our time. So why do smart technologies not automatically lead to smart results?

Imagine how much better your life is going to be when you have unshakable belief in yourself, pure self-confidence! Confidence is not something you are born with; it is a mind-set you are supposed to learn during your formative years. Sadly most of us are not taught to be confident--we are told to conform and follow the rules of others. We are shown how to be passive sheep and not the masters of our destinies.

Drawing on fascinating examples from diverse social contexts, Don't Take It Personally introduces a general framework to better understand the deeper connection between seemingly disparate phenomena, from racial profiling and hate crimes to "secret Santa" gifting.

Weaving together scientific studies from clinical psychologists, longitudinal studies of health and happiness, historical accounts and literary depictions, child-rearing manuals, and the language of online dating sites, Jonah Lehrer's A Book About Love plumbs the most mysterious, most formative, most important impulse governing our lives.

Why is mystery so compelling? What draws us to the unknown? Jonah Lehrer sets out to answer these questions in a vividly entertaining and surprisingly profound journey through the science of suspense. He finds that nothing can capture a person’s attention as strongly as mystery, and that mystery is the key principle in how humans view and understand the world. Whenever patterns are broken, we are hard-wired to find out why.

Why did Paul Gauguin abandon middle-class life to follow the path of a starving artist? What inspired Bill Gates to give away so much of his hard-won fortune? How has Donald Trump succeeded so excessively, when his winning style could easily be his greatest liability? As the renowned emotion researcher Jessica Tracy reveals in Take Pride, each of these superachievers has been motivated by an often maligned emotion: pride.

The different ways that social change happens, from unleashing to nudging to social cascades. How does social change happen? When do social movements take off? Sexual harassment was once something that women had to endure; now a movement has risen up against it. White nationalist sentiments, on the other hand, were largely kept out of mainstream discourse; now there is no shortage of media outlets for them. In this book, with the help of behavioral economics, psychology and other fields, Cass Sunstein casts a bright new light on how change happens.

You're being influenced—on social media, in relationships, through marketing, even in conversations with people you trust. This microlearning audiobook unpacks the five most common psychological manipulation techniques used against you daily, from artificial scarcity and emotional contagion to social proof and false choices.

In Hidden Battleground: The Silent Wars That Undermine Love, Juve Lima offers a deeply honest and emotionally intelligent look at how unspoken rivalries, ego wounds, and role confusion silently sabotage even the most committed relationships. Through narrative reflection, psychological insight, and culturally grounded truth, this book uncovers the subtle dynamics that cause couples to keep emotional score, resist vulnerability, and misinterpret each other’s strength or silence as threat.

Have you trusted the wrong person, only to realize later you were being deceived? Do you worry about being gaslighted, emotionally manipulated, or subtly controlled in relationships or at work? Tired of second-guessing yourself and ready to reclaim your power? We live in a world where influence is weaponized. From smooth-talking manipulators to toxic partners and even cunning leaders, people use dark psychology tactics to control your choices without you noticing.

"As a sex writer, Jesse Bering is fearless—and peerless." —Dan Savage "You are a sexual deviant. A pervert, through and through." We may not want to admit it, but as the award-winning columnist and psychologist Jesse Bering reveals in Perv, there is a spectrum of perversion along which we...

Are you struggling by being trapped in toxic connections? Do you often feel drained, belittled, and torn between love and manipulation? I've walked a mile in your shoes, feeling ensnared by those who take advantage of my empathy, especially narcissists. That profound sensitivity that defines us can sometimes become our Achilles' heel, chaining us to energy vampires. But what if there's a way out, a path to reclaim our power and finally breathe free?

In a world where there is so much conflicting information about how we are supposed to live, what can we really know? Knowing the truth, what’s real from what’s fake, should be easy. In today’s world, that’s far from the case. In The Certainty Illusion, Timothy Caulfield lifts the curtain on the forces contributing to our information chaos and unpacks why it’s so difficult—sometimes even for experts—to escape the fake.

At the turn of the millennium, digital technologies seemed to have immense promise for transforming our society. With these powerful new tools, the thinking went, we would be free to live our best lives, connected to our communities in ways full of infinite potential. A quarter of a century on, this form of utopianism seems like a cruel mirage. So what happened? In Against Platforms, technologist and creator Mike Pepi lays out an explanation of what went wrong—and a manifesto for putting it right.

En la jungla social, ¿eres cazador o eres presa? Cada día, en cada interacción, se libra una batalla silenciosa. Es una lucha por la influencia, el control y el respeto. Mientras algunos parecen navegar este terreno con una facilidad innata, anticipando cada movimiento y guiando las conversaciones hacia sus propios fines, otros se sienten constantemente un paso por detrás, reaccionando en lugar de actuar, siendo la presa en un juego que no comprenden del todo. Este libro es un manual de transformación.

Esqueça tudo o que lhe ensinaram sobre como conquistar mulheres! Durante décadas, a comunidade mundial de sedução foi dominada por promessas de métodos infalíveis, frases prontas e "pílulas mágicas" para atrair mulheres. Desde os primórdios desse movimento, o chamado PUA (Pickup Artist) foi apresentado como um “manual da atração” voltado para homens tímidos, inexperientes e inseguros — especialmente por meio de Best Sellers como The Game, de Neil Strauss, e The Mystery Method, de Erik Von Markovik.

What do you need besides motivation and willpower? In Commit to Win, Heidi Reeder, PhD, unpacks over forty years of research by psychologists and economists to show that the key to reaching any goal, whether it’s to hit the gym more often or to finally quit that dead-end job, isn’t motivation, willpower, or determination. It’s commitment. Busting the myths most of us believe about commitment, Reeder shows that it all comes down to four variables.

Why do three out of four professional football players go bankrupt? How can illiterate jungle dwellers pass a test that tricks Harvard philosophers? And why do billionaires work so hard - only to give their hard-earned money away? When it comes to making decisions, the classic view is that humans are eminently rational. But growing evidence suggests instead that our choices are often irrational, biased, and occasionally even moronic. Which view is right - or is there another possibility?

Psychopaths seem to be everywhere. They are on the news and at the movies. People who lack empathy, be they ruthless entrepreneurs or crazed spree killers, are frequently labelled psychopathic; the charming socialiser is just as suspect as the awkward antisocial loner. The conception of what defines a psychopath seems to be a morass of contradictions, the only consistency being the supposition of a lack of empathy.