David G. Myers is a social psychologist and professor at (ironically!) Hope College in Michigan. Myers discusses the latest research findings on Life and Death, depression, fear, anxiety, and happiness.
The last part of How Do We Know Ourselves? focuses on cultural issues and how Change (good and bad) takes place. There’s plenty of information in these brief chapters. This is a browser’s delight: you can read many of these chapters in any order…and they’ll only take you a few minutes to finish them.
If you’re in the mood for an intelligent discussion of many of our personal and social problems–and what we might do to make them better–you might consider giving How Do We Know Ourselves? a try. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Preface xi
Part I Who Am I?
1 Implicit Egotism 3
2 The Amazing Power of Attention 8
3 There Is More to Hearing Than Meets the Ears 12
4 How Do We Know Ourselves? 17
5 Dual Processing: One Brain, Two Minds? 21
6 Making New Year’s Resolutions That Last 27
7 The Powers and Perils of Intuition 32
8 Fearing the Right Things 37
9 We Knew It All Along 42
10 Judging Others and Judging Ourselves 47
11 Behavioral Confirmation: Getting What We Expect 51
12 How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways 54
Part II Who Are We?
13 The Science of Humility 65
14 When Birth Order Matters 70
15 Cardiac Arrest and the Conscious Experience of Death 75
16 Do People Repress-or Vividly Remember-Traumatic Events? 81
17 When Fear of Losing Steals Our Chances of Winning 85
18 How We Polarize, and What We Can Do About It 90
19 Our Differences Seize Our Attention, Define Our Identity, and Sometimes Deceive Us 96
20 The Psychology of Division 102
21 The Social Psychology of Dissent 106
22 The Overconfidence Phenomenon 111
23 Why Is Everyone Else Having More Fun? 117
24 Social Facilitation: The Energizing Presence of Others 124
25 The Happy Science of Micro-friendships 129
26 How to Make and Sustain Friendships 136
27 Narcissism: The Grandiose Self 142
Part III What in the World?
28 How Nature and Nurture Form Us 149
29 The Wonder of Walking (and Singing): Synchronized Spirits 154
30 Wise Interventions Can Change Lives 158
31 Failure and Flourishing 163
32 Death Is Terrifying to Contemplate, Except for Those Who Are Dying 168
33 Do Places with More Immigrants Exhibit Greater Acceptance or Greater Fear of Immigrants? 173
34 Implicit Bias Is Real. Can Training Programs Decrease It? 178
35 How Politics Changes Politicians 183
36 The Power of Confirmation Bias and the Credibility of Belief 188
37 Friends Versus Phones 194
38 Wealth, Well-Being, and Generosity 198
39 The Mere Exposure Effect: Familiarity Breeds Content 203
40 Do Replication Failures Discredit Psychological Science? 208
Notes 213
Acknowledgments 251
Hope College is in beautiful Holland, MI and pretty much a Christian school although more moderate than many. In the Spring, they compete with their namesake in the NE and have a tulip festival. Sounds like an interesting book.
Patti,Socrates believed the first step to true wisdom is to “know thyself” because only then can one appreciate what one understands…and what remains to be learned. HOW DO WE KNOW OURSLEVES? is a thought-provoking book.
It does sound interesting/. As an oldest child, I’ve always believed birth order matters.
Jeff, I agree with you. All the research I’ve read on Birth Order points to specific tendencies: The oldest child tends to be a leader. The “middle” child tends to be “difficult.” The youngest child enjoys a lot of attention and indulgence.
THat is certainly true of Jackie and her younger sisters. Also me to some extent.
Jeff, I’m the oldest sibling and of course, got the most restrictions. My little sister–15 years my junior–got away with everything! I think my parents were just worn down by that time!
When our friends from England came here, they came to dinner at Jackie’s parents’ house. Sue immediately picked out Jackie’s sister Susie as a classic “middle child.”
Jeff, my “middle” child sister could be the poster child for the stereotype!
That brings up memories …
I may have written about part of this before:
My parents met in the late 1930s when my father was a sergeant in Hitler’s army and in 1938 he “knew” that war was coming so he proposed to his blond girlfriend aka my mother.
But because of the times they decided not to have children until 1942 when my father while serving in Russia realised that the war was lost and I was conceived to be born im early 1943 as a kind of souvenir for my mother because he was almost sure he wouldn’t return
In early 1944 he got hit by a Russian sharpshooter and had to leave the force.
When he got home they continued their relatively happy life – I remember being told that a remote American relative sent them food after WW2. ddTwo sisters were born and that was to be enough but several years later another sister was conceived and she became the family darling. Of course we had more money and more possibilities when she grew up so she was kind of a pampered darling. While the older sisters had to start work early she went to university – and killed herself …
Nobody knows the reason or at least none of her “friends” told us.
Wolf, mental health doesn’t get enough study or funding. Suicide rates in the U.S. are up. The age-adjusted suicide rate in the U.S. in 2021 was 14.04 per 100,000 individuals.
The rate of suicide is highest in middle-aged white men.
In 2021, men died by suicide 3.90x more than women.
On average, there are 132 suicides per day.
White males accounted for 69.68% of suicide deaths in 2021.
In 2021, firearms accounted for 54.64% of all suicide deaths.
Interesting…I asked Alice (as you might recall, a psychiatrist), as I sat across the living room from her, if she had a sense of how many men were committing suicide in the US of late, and why, and she suggested it was largely because they had little emotional support…and I replied, and they sure aren’t taught that they should need any or that emotions should be taken seriously…given how the stats you cite are particularly reporting middle-aged Yanks offing ourselves.
Sigh. That can also play into the cleaving to Trumpism and its similar pathologies.
Todd, you’re right about Trumpism and similar pathologies. I also point the finger at the cumulative effects of drinking alcohol and taking opioids for years. Self-destructive impulses get the upper hand…
This does sound good, Especially that you can hop around to various chapters. I usually just prefer to read straight through but I also tend to stop reading a nonfiction book partway and pick it up later, and sometimes I have lost the sense of the book by then.
Tracy, you can browse through HOW DO WE KNOW OURSELVES? with its self-contained chapters. There’s a lot to think about in this book.
Yaaawn! Sorry, not my cup of meat!
Bob, I think you know yourself pretty well by this point of your Life.