A psychologist puts humanity on the client’s couch, but a cure seems unlikely.
Thoughts on the human condition from a cognitive psychologist–turned–armchair philosopher.
The thesis of Deary’s (Health Psychology/Northumbria Univ.) debut, the first book in the How to Live trilogy, is simple: As creatures of habit, we have arranged our physical, emotional and interpersonal environments to support these habits, a mindset that makes change especially difficult. The author takes this basic idea and runs with it in so many directions that the main message is intermittently lost amid the tangential evidence. Deary’s early examples of mankind’s penchant for treading the beaten path, even if a better route is clearly available, are clear: He writes about landscape designers whose artfully arranged pathways are ignored by the masses marching to and from the market in a straight line. There’s little chance that anyone will take Robert Frost’s celebrated road “less traveled.” The irony is that Deary himself asks us to walk on the waysides rather than stride efficiently from one point to another. Much of the text is given over to movie references of uncertain merit—Adam Sandler features largely here—and interesting, if strained, literary comparisons. Putting aside the question of whether Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and Stephen King’s The Shining have much in common, one leaves these discussions wondering what impact Deary’s observations actually have on his central question. Readers looking for an organized presentation of ideas and supporting studies will be disappointed in the relative lack of scientific support here, and the author footnotes some ideas but not others. How We Break and How We Mend are the next two books in the trilogy, for those who want to see where Deary’s stream-of-consciousness musings will lead.
A psychologist puts humanity on the client’s couch, but a cure seems unlikely.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0374172107
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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