How Children Succeed
Author(s):  Paul Tough
ISBN:  978-0544104402
APA Style Citation:
Tough, P. (2013). How children succeed: Grit, curiosity, and the hidden power of character: Mariner books.

Book Description
In How Children Succeed, author Paul Tough challenges the idea that cognitive ability is the most important determinant of one’s future success.  He cites research conducted by Angela Duckworth at the University of Pennsylvania which proposes that optimism, character, and what is described in the book as “Grit” are far better predictors of success in the future than exam scores.  Tough questions the outlook for the future of many upper middle class children who have not experienced failure and cannot regroup in the face of setbacks. He suggests that experiencing failure and learning how to persevere in the face of it is one of the greatest lessons children can learn. 

Tough features Elizabeth Spiegel, a chess teacher at IS 318, a low income public middle school in Brooklyn, as an example of an individual who focuses on teaching perseverance to her students.  Ms. Spiegel has built one of the best chess teams in the nation and recently swept all middle school categories at the national competition.  These are not students who come from advantaged backgrounds, they do not have the highest of IQ scores, and often they struggle in their classes, but they love and thrive in chess.  What Spiegel does at first seems to be cruel to the preadolescents.  She forces each player to walk through each step of a chess match after a failure to determine what they have done wrong in the hopes that they will learn from their mistakes.  She prepares her chess team for failure and focuses on these experiences as a learning opportunity rather than as an end point. 

Another important factor featured by Tough is the attachment between parents and children, which is formed early on in life.  Attachment has long been studied by researchers such as John Bowlby, Harry Harlow, and Mary Ainsworth who determined that early attachment and nurturing from parents actually helps children to become more emotionally healthy later in life (see the review for Love at Goon Park for more on Harry Harlow). A secure attachment is developed when a child is confident their caregiver will be there in a time of need.  If this develops, it (a secure attachment) allows infants to safely explore the world and become more independent and curious.  This research-based evidence seems to support the importance of parenting in helping to encourage independent exploration by the child.

Tough describes a program called “One Step”, which has been implemented on the South Side of Chicago in what was formerly the area of the Robert Taylor homes. The program enrolls disadvantaged children who are shooting for the ”One Goal” of graduating from college.  The are many obstacles which may hinder the success of these children.  Students were selected for this group because of the particular challenges they faced and were tutored after school and given assistance on college applications in addition to their academic courses.  In one featured case study, Tough follows a student named Kewauna who faced tough middle school years and was often in trouble.  As she goes through the “One Step” program she is determined to gain admission to the University of Illinois.  While she is not accepted to the U of I, she is accepted to Western Illinois University and in her first year she learns to take advantage of her professor’s office hours.  Although she had a low ACT score, she was successful because she attended extra tutoring sessions and sought out additional supports and at the conclusion of her freshman year in college Kewauna earned a 3.8 GPA.  Time will tell if Kewauna reaches her goal of graduating from college, but she has already fared far better than many might have predicted, in large part due to her “Grit”. 

Tough acknowledges that much more research needs to be conducted and that there is still much to learn regarding how to teach these skills to children.  He advises parents to be conscious of how important early childhood years can be for forming a strong attachment with a child and encourages educators to examine programs such as “One Goal” or “KIPP” which emphasize character rather than being solely focused on academic success to truly help children find their own way.  This is a great read for parents and teachers and provides thought provoking material to consider not how help children be better test takers, but to help them be more successful in all of their respective pursuits.

Other Related Resources
Book website
http://www.paultough.com/the-books/how-children-succeed/
TED talk Angela Duckworth
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tedtalks/angela-lee-duckworth-tedtalk_b_4277459.html?ir=Parents
What sets High Achievers apart? (APA Monitor:  December 2013)
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/12/high-achievers.aspx
Interview with Paul Tough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRSBz69ubRY
NPR Podcast
http://www.npr.org/2012/09/04/160258240/children-succeed-with-character-not-test-scores
Does Teaching Grit Really Work?  (NPR)
http://www.npr.org/2014/03/17/290089998/does-teaching-kids-to-get-gritty-help-them-get-ahead?ft=1&f=1013

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Alfred Binet
Angela Duckworth
Carol Dweck
Charles Murray
Martin Seligman
Attachment
Character
Dopamine reward pathways
Grit
IQ scores
Mindset (growth vs. fixed)
Optimism
Social Intelligence

David and Goliath:  Underdogs. Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants
Author(s):  Malcolm Gladwell
ISBN:  978-1846145827

APA Style Citation
Gladwell, M. (2013).  David and Goliath:  underdogs, misfits, and the art of battling giants.  New York:  Little, Brown, and Company.

Book Description
The book opens with the story or David and Goliath.  David shocked everyone by slaying the giant Goliath.  Gladwell explains that David’s skill as a slinger actually made it reasonable that he could best the giant .  If we only look at Goliath’s size assuming he will be the victor, we also miss that this can be his downfall because he is also slow and presumably nearly blind.   The story sets the premise for the book , which is based on the idea that underdogs can be victorious because they are not tied to expectations and convention.  Gladwell discusses the inverted U-curve, which stresses that the optimal level of functioning is located at the center of the curve.  These two ideas converge through the stories throughout the book.  It may be important to point out that Gladwell does not sell himself as a researcher or academic, but rather as a journalist.  This being the case, one might argue that some of Gladwell’s reasoning is anecdotal rather than supported by data.  Gladwell sees his work as storytelling and as a way to make some sense of the world through these stories.  The stories may seem unrelated but ultimately they all tie back into the inverted U-curve and optimal performance, even when it is unexpected.  Early in the book Gladwell discusses a group of 12-year-old girls from Silicon Valley who are not particularly gifted athletes.  In order to compete with and ultimately beat teams with clear athletic superiority, the team used a full court press and so disoriented the other teams that they made it to the regional championship. Gladwell states that in wars, the underdog has been victorious 1/3rd of the time. The American Revolution and the Vietnam Conflict are examples in which the fighting moved out of the expected realm causing the superior armies to be  defeated by weaker opponents who were not willing to give up.  Gladwell states, “Desperation is motivation.” 

Gladwell goes on to discuss ideal class sizes and criticizes elite prep schools that claim that their small class sizes and personal attention to students make them the best options for learning.  Gladwell cites responses from thousands of instructors and test results and claims that the ideal class size is around 21-23 students.  Furthermore, he discusses the difficulty of parenting when one has unlimited funding.  Rather than tell a child they cannot have an extravagant gift because there is not enough money, a wealthy parent must tell their child they simply will not have the gift.  He cites that after $75,000 there is no benefit or increase to how well parents can provide for their children.  Gladwell goes on to discuss the success of a number of dyslexic individuals and proposes that facing challenges and working through them made them successful.  Similarly, Prime Ministers and Presidents who have lost a parent far exceed that of the normal population in terms of successes.  Gladwell presents the idea that a difficult childhood can either make one fatalistic or highly determined.  He relates the inverted U to the rule of law in Ireland and the “three strikes and your out” law in the state of California.  Some people believed that putting more people in jail would deter crime, but as he explains in Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s 1 of every 4 adult men were in prison which decreased public trust in the law.  In California, the "three strikes and you are out" law forced some people to go to prisons for crimes such as stealing a piece of pizza while others were in prison for murder.  Under this law the state looked at them with the same severity.  In Ireland, during riots again English rule, one in four Irishmen found themselves in prison.  The police force believed that increased arrests would deter the Irish from protesting, but the opposite happened.  The Irish had no respect for the police force and dismissed their authority in all areas.  Gladwell advocates for a middle ground, the high point of the inverted u-curve to create effective policies to educate children, deter crime, raise successful children, and negotiate difficult situations. 

Other Related Resources
TED Talk: The Unheard Story of David and Goliath
http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_the_unheard_story_of_david_and_goliath.html

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Robert Rescorla and expectancies
Yerkes Dotson law and the inverted U hypothesis

Behind the Shock Machine:  The Untold Story of the Notorious Milgram Psychology Experiments
Author(s):  Gina Perry
ISBN: 978-1921844553

APA Style Citation
Perry, G. (2012). Behind the shock machine: The untold story of the notorious Milgram psychology experiments. Brunswick, Vic: Scribe Publications.

Book Description
This book will change many notions you have regarding what really happened in the now infamous Milgram shock experiment at Yale University in the 1960’s.  Australian writer Gina Perry ventures to Yale to examine the original transcripts from Milgram’s work.  Much has been written regarding the debriefing and reuniting of teacher and learner prior to the departure of the teacher from the lab.  Perry argues that perhaps as many as two-thirds of participants left the lab never knowing that they did not actually harm the learner.  Some of the nearly 3,000 participants in the study may not have learned about the results until nearly three years after their participation in the study while other participants were tested.  It seems that Milgram was worried about word of the study getting around the relatively small town of New Haven before he concluded his work.  He believed the debriefing had the potential to confound the results of the study and from his perspective was enough of a reason to deny debriefing directly after the experiment ended.  Perry interviewed a number of the former participants, many of whom still have particularly bad feelings and recollections about the study.  One past participant explains calling all of the local hospitals after participating, believing that he had harmed someone so badly that they must have checked into a nearby hospital.  Another describes sitting in his car for an hour after he left the lab pondering what he had just done and feeling terrible.  The wife of one participant describes her despondent husband who had trouble sleeping for an extended period after the study. 

These first hand descriptions are a far cry from the description Milgram provided of participants stating they were glad they participated in the study.  The experimenter (a high school science teacher) was provided with four prompts to encourage participants to continue with the shocks.  If the participants still refused to continue after all four prompts were exhausted, he was instructed to stop the study and allow the participant to leave.  As the experiments continued over multiple years, Perry cites instances in which the experimenter went through eight attempts to urge the participants to continue.  This likely had the effect of creating higher participation rates, which Milgram then published. 

Milgram described defiant participants as “bad” and complying participants as “good” in his personal notes, which according to Perry demonstrates a strong confirmation bias.  Perry argues that Milgram knew the result he wanted and expected far ahead of the “live” study. Milgram ran a number of “practice trials” before the experiment went live which produced nearly the same result.  In addition, Perry addresses Milgram’s argument that events surrounding WWII had inspired this work.  In her research she did not find any references to this until after the study’s conclusion when Milgram gained popularity for the study. 

While this is a harsh assessment of Milgram’s infamous study, it is a revealing snapshot of what occurred behind the scenes of the famous study and the personal reflections of the participants alone make this a necessary read.

Other Related Resources
Podcast with Gina Perry
http://www.wnyc.org/story/313564-untold-story-notorious-milgram-psychology-experiments/

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Solomon Asch
Diana Baumrind
Stanley Milgram 
Confederates
​Debriefing
Obedience

Gulp:  Adventures in the Alimentary Canal
Author(s):  Mary Roach
ISBN Number:  978-0393081572

APA Style Citation
Roach, M. (2013). Gulp: Adventures on the alimentary canal. New York: W.W. Norton & Company

Book Description
Mary Roach in her usual amusing style approaches the topic of digestion from beginning to end.  She starts by explaining the strong interaction between smell and taste.  She meets with Sue Langstaff, an olfactory expert who can break down the smells of anything from beer to wine to olive oil.  Roach herself however does not fare so well even after training as she attempts to rate different olive oils, but acknowledges the connection between smell and taste.  Visiting a Dutch lab, the book discusses how saliva inside of the body is viewed as normal to digestion, but outside of the body is considered vile and disgusting.  The study of saliva leads to a discussion of digestive enzymes.  In Pavlovian type studies, researchers measure the amount of saliva generated which is then caught by what is known as the “Lashley cup”.  

Roach explains that most people eat only about 30 different foods and that cultural traditions regarding what we eat are passed down from parents to children.  However, if people experienced a wider variety of foods over an extended period, they came to enjoy novel foods more and more (mere exposure effect).  Roach quotes Kurt Lewin, “People eat what they eat, rather than what they like”. She describes situations such as poverty, war, or simple scarcity that caused people to try different foods such as seafood guano (manure).  Another curious digestive, but not time saving technique is that of 'Fletcherism' in which an individual chews each bit of their food until it liquefies.  Horace Fletcher proposed that a man could get by on two-thirds of their required caloric intake by using this system.   Other researchers have found little evidence to substantiate this technique and the act of continual chewing turns out to be rather irritating to both watch and conduct.  

The story of Alexis St. Martin recounts the historic study of digestion in which after St. Martin is shot in the stomach his surgeon William Beaumont leaves a window in which to view St. Martin’s digestion.  All form of trials are described, including one in which Beaumont hangs a piece of meat from a string to determine how long the stomach would take to decompose the meat.  In another case of digestive oddity, Tom Little an Irish laborer is described.  Mr. Little as a child had eaten hot soup that fused the sides of his esophagus together.  In order to actually enjoy his meals, he placed some food into his mouth, spat it out and then placed the remainder into the opening surgeons had made in his stomach, proving that taste not just nourishment is a vital part of enjoying one’s meals.  

Roach cites instances of individual’s eating ridiculous amounts of food such as Ben Monson who ate sixty-five Mexican tortillas in one sitting.  Competitive eaters it turns out practice ignoring their gag reflex to eat more food that thought possible and stretch their stomachs during their “training” binges.  Most commonly these eating binges involve drinking copious amounts of water.  
As Roach nears the end of the digestive process, she addresses the question of the capacity of one’s rectum.  She interviews doctors who have studied the capacity of what the typical individual can hold based on work with inflated balloons.  In a chapter entitled “Up Theirs:  The Alimentary Canal as a Criminal Accomplice," Roach visits a prison to find that the doctor’s ideas regarding this capacity have been far exceeded by prisoners who have smuggled goods into prison.  While these “goods” are usually drugs and cigarettes,  she features one individual known as “Office Max” who in a single attempt to smuggle goods into the prison brought in two boxes of staples, a pencil sharpener, sharpener blades and three jumbo binder rings before being caught.  Like the competitive eaters, these individuals train to be able to hold as much as possible in one trip, resisting the urge to release the goods.  The journey from start to finish is a strange one, but Roach keeps it entertaining throughout. If you have not read anything by Mary Roach be sure to also check out her classic books including Bonk (a scientific study of sex research) and Stiff (a summary of cadaver’s contributions to science).  

Other Related Resources
Website for the book Gulp
http://www.maryroach.net/gulp.html
Quiz on Gulp
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/gulp-the-quiz/?_r=0
Interview with the author of Gulp
http://www.npr.org/2013/04/01/175381702/in-digestion-mary-roach-explains-what-happens-to-the-food-we-eat

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Kurt Lewin
Tom Little
Alexis St. Martin
Digestion
Hunger motivation
Mere exposure effect
Olfaction
Sensory interaction

Top Dog:  The Science of Winning and Losing
Author(s):  Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
ISBN:  978-1-4555-1515-8

APA Style Citation
Bronson, P., & Merryman, A. (2013). Top Dog the Science of Winning and Losing. New York, NY: Twelve.

Book Description
The quote from President Dwight Eisenhower, “What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it's the size of the fight in the dog” sets the stage for the book Top Dog.  This exciting new book was written by the same authors as Nurture Shock: new thinking about children (2009).  The book provides insight into a wide range of research regarding the psychological and physiological factors involved in the differences between winning and losing.  The book focuses on the importance of competition as the most significant motivating force in building excellence and the difference between adaptive and maladaptive competitiveness.  Specific research regarding factors involving competition and success are provided from a wide range of fields including economics, politics, sports, ballroom dancing, business, and engineering.  For example, the common sports analogy of the difference between playing to win and playing not to lose is explained in a case study showing how Swiss watchmakers committed themselves to risk tasking in the face of a huge loss of market share.  Prior to the 1970’s almost all of the worlds watches were mechanical in nature, and manufactured in Switzerland.  As a result of new technology however Swiss watchmakers were left with only 15% of the watch market when companies like Timex and Citizen began producing quartz based watches.  The Swiss fought back by undercutting their competition and creating what would become a prime example of a fighter brand – Swatch watches.  This is just one of many examples of how competition fueled achievement and success discussed in the book. 

In Top Dog a variety of influences on success including expertise, the personality trait of competitiveness, social facilitation, rivalries, awards, prize structures, odds of success, gender, and biological and genetic differences are evaluated.  The book discusses how teams and collaborative work situations often reduce productivity and creativity.  Counterintuitively, Bronson and Merryman show how teams whose members are engaged in intense personal rivalries and persistent arguing are often more productive than harmonious ones.  A variety of interesting research results related to competitive fire are discussed including:
- Why positive self-talk can backfire and how negative self-talk can actually inspire higher levels of achievement in athletes.
-  The N-effect which states that when the number of participants taking part in a competitive task in the same location is higher, individual performance decreases.  This can be seen in terms of SAT performance.  Even after controlling for academic ability, Alabama, Arkansas, and Montana which have the fewest number of individual test takers present at each testing site also have the highest average SAT scores in the nation.
-  How rivalry and physical proximity increases competition and spurs innovation and excellence in college football rivalries, Silicon Valley, and the dominance of the packaging industry by Bologna, Italy.
-  The phenomenon of the near-miss bias or how risk taking increases following an event in which good luck impacted the outcome is explored in the near-disaster story about the founding of FedEx - How One Night of Blackjack Sped up the World Economy. 


Other Related Resources
The video provided below is a 3-minute interview with one of the authors of Top Dog, Po Bronson who discuss how their research poses a challenge to the 10,000 hour theory presented by Malcom Gladwell in Outliers as well as other highlights from the book. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcNB5qwoKt0

This article from the New York Times written by Top Dog authors Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman explains how genetic tendencies influence differences in responses to high stakes testing among teens.  Specifically, research in this article refers to differences in outcomes related to the COMT gene which explains the degree to which an individual is more likely to be a worrier or a warrior with regards to competition and performance. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/magazine/why-can-some-kids-handle-pressure-while-others-fall-apart.html?_r=0

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Muzafer Sherif
Norman Triplett
Robert Zajonc
Arousal theory – zone of optimal arousal
Birth order and risk taking 
Creativity and competition
Cognitive biases, overconfidence, and framing effect
Contact theory and superordinate goals
Effects of rewards and motivation on competition
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and competition
Mirror neurons/mirror processing
Personality traits and competitiveness
Social facilitation
Social loafing
Stress (fight-or-flight and tend-and-befriend)
Influence of brain regions (anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, and hypothalamus), neurotransmitters (serotonin and         dopamine), and hormones (cortisol, testosterone and oxytocin) on competition and performance.
Positive effects of adrenaline, testosterone, cortisol, and oxytocin on performance. 

The As If Principle:  The Radically New Approach to Changing Your Life
Author(s):  Richard Weisman 
ISBN:  978-1469270142

APA Style Citation
Wiseman, R. (2013). The as if principle: the radically new approach to changing your life. New York: Free Press.

Book Description
Almost a 125 years after the first publication of The Principles of Psychology, modern research is providing evidence to validate the emotion theories of William James presented in psychology’s first textbook.  Richard Wiseman’s book, The As If Principle provides an engaging examination of how the theories of William James are relevant today. James’ theory of emotion states, contrary to common sense, that emotions are the result of actions (laughing results in the emotion of joy vs. the emotion of joy causing individuals to laugh). Therefore, James concluded that if you wanted a have a particular trait, or to experience a given emotional state that one should behave “As If” you already possess it. The As If Principle highlights the decades of research, which support the practical implications of this theory such reducing pain levels in patients post surgery, treating phobias or other anxiety disorders, or reducing hostility. Embedded throughout the book are a variety of short exercises and activities, which can easily be translated into effective classroom demonstrations that provide empirically based method individuals can use to improve their lives and institute positive change.  For example, the short two part activity titled Twenty Pieces offers insight into overcoming procrastination. The activity titled Change4Life, which was used by the author and the British government to encourage healthier behaviors by British citizens using the foot-in-the-door technique can be something students use in their own lives.  The activity titled Thinking Outside the Box provides several simple and engaging activities to boost creativity.  Additionally, the book helps to clarify psychological concepts from a variety of units including social psychology, history, research, motivation and emotion, cognition, learning, sensation and perception, and personality.  The As If Principle provides a large variety of activities related specifically to the topics of motivation, willpower, persistence, procrastination, creativity, and negotiation.

Other Related Resources
A short one minute video describing the basics of the As If Principle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBRUBrWR2ZE

Author Richard Wiseman’s webpage
This extensive website provides information about other books by Wiseman as well as a link to his fascinating blog which is full of amazing short videos that can be used in a variety of psychology units including biopsychology, sensation and perception, cognition, motivation, and emotion.
http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Gordon Allport
Raymond Cattell
Kenneth and Mamie Clark
Charles Darwin
Paul Ekman
Jane Elliot’s brown eyes blue eyes experiment
Hans Eysenck
Sigmund Freud
Sir Francis Galton
William James
George Kelly
Roger Sperry
John Watson
Wilhelm Wundt
Philip Zimbardo
Big Five personality traits
Catharsis hypothesis
Happiness research 
Jigsaw method and learning
Mere exposure effect 
Overjustification effect
Prefrontal lobotomies
Persuasion: foot-in-the-door and low ball technique
Robber’s Cave experiment
Systematic desensitization
Two-factor theory of emotion




 

Mean Genes:  From Sex to Money to Food Taming our Primal Instincts
Author(s):  Terry Burnham and Jay Phelan
ISBN:  978-0142000076

APA Style Citation
Brunham, T., & Phelan, J. (2001).  Mean genes:  from sex to money to food, taming our primal instincts.  New York:  Penguin Books. 

Book Description
Burnham and Phelan have written another book examining the cross over between economics and psychology.  The book describes how our genes that may have helped us in in past may actual inhibit our natural behaviors in modern society in order to be more healthy and productive.  Rather than use genes to excuse and limit our behavior, the book attempts to move us towards understanding how our genes impact behavior and then moving beyond our genes to lead a more effective life.  Burnham describes the book as “The Nurture of Nature”.  The recommendations in the book attempt to help readers lead a more active and healthy life.

Eating
The book describes Chantek an orangutan who has access to as much food as he wants and as a result, he grows to over 500 pounds.  When placed on a diet, Chantek eats his crayons and will do nearly anything to find food.  Because humans long lived as hunters and gatherers obtaining food took up a great deal of their time.  Now we live in  society in which high fat food is readily available but our sedentary genes still create a desire to limit activity in order to save our energy.  The authors suggest that in order to eat better, one must create a plan.  They recommend getting a bag of chips and splitting in in half upon opening the bag and immediately disposing of the second half so that you are not tempted to eat the second pile once you have finished the first.  They describe having a brownie snack on an airplane in which there is no distraction and one might be tempted to eat an entire brownie.  In order to not eat at least part of the brownie, they recommend spreading the mayonnaise provided in the lunch on half of the brownie so that they will not be tempted to eat it later.  Although many diets deprive people of desirable foods, the most successful ones involve having individuals be vigilant about what they eat by focusing on portion control rather than complete deprivation.  In this way it is easier for people to maintain good eating habits and continue to keep weight off for a longer period of time. 

Money
Because humans have a desire for immediate reward and often want to spend our money as soon as we have it to spend, the authors recommend creating a savings plan with one’s employer to have money removed from a paycheck before ever seeing it.  In this way the temptation to spend he money is removed and the savings account will continue to grow. 

Drugs
Caffeine as well as illicit drugs activate dopamine pathways in the brain and become nearly instantly addictive.  The “Just say no” campaign” has generally been unsuccessful because the desire to feel the “high” out weighs the desire to quit the drug.  Using drugs such as Antabuse can act as counterconditioning and diminish the desire for alcohol and cause nausea when alcohol is ingested.  Similarly nicotine patches have found that nearly 40% of individuals are successful in quitting smoking when using a patch versus 5% when trying to quit on their own.  Methadone has been used in a similar way to help heroin addicts to stop using the drug.

Beauty
Cross cultural studies of attractiveness have found that generally, people agree on what is beautiful.  Clear-skin, symmetrical faces and a .7 hip to waist ratio which seems to suggest the likelihood for reproduction are preferred by men.  Women seem to place more emphasis on status, which from an evolutionary perspective can help with the rearing on children .  The authors suggest that by remaining physically fit we can be more attractive to potential or current mates in which case one might want to re-read their section on food.

The benefit of this book is helping to better understand our behaviors and try to modify those behaviors that are prohibiting us from reaching our goals.  The book is full of recommendations for living a healthier and more productive life.  For the high school instructor, much information can be used in the social unit regarding attractiveness, Consciousness for drug use and abuse and cognition for risk taking behaviors.  Motivation is covered in the chapters on food and the theme of evolutionary psychology run throughout the book.

Other Related Resources
Mean Genes book website
http://www.meangenes.org

Video interview with the authors of Mean Genes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgxYtOv8_pk

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Charles Darwin
Altruism
Competition vs. cooperation
Counterconditioning
Dopamine reward pathways
Endorphins
Evolutionary psychology
Facial symmetry and attraction
Gender differences
Happiness
Hip to waist ratio and attraction
Human genome project
Hunger motivation
Learned phobias
Metabolic rate
Risk-taking
Sexual motivation
Sexual preferences

That’s Disgusting:  Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion
Author(s):  Rachel Herz
ISBN: 978-0393344165

APA Style Citation
Herz, R. (2013). That's disgusting: unraveling the mysteries of repulsion. New York: W.W. Norton & Co..

 

Book Description
For instructors of Psychology, this is a great addition to  the Sensation/Perception unit as well as a wonderful example of cross-cultural research regarding differences in disgust based on culturally learned experiences (Canada is considering placing a $850 fine on nose-pickers).  This book is also quite applicable for the Motivation/Emotion unit as it relates to hunger motivation and of course the emotion of disgust.  The book opens with a discussion about different food preferences in different cultures.  Herz cites cookbooks, which many Americans might find too vile too eat such as A Bug Cookbook, Creepy Crawly Cuisine and the Gourmet to Edible Insects to name a few.  This chapter also addresses competitive eating and how those participating keep from getting ill (by training and gradually increasing the amount their stomachs can hold).  Herz describes an American exchange student in South America who is invited to participate in the honor of drinking ‘chicha’ in which her hosts chew corn flour and spit it into a milk jug that is buried until fermented and then passed around for each person to ‘enjoy’.  Herz discusses the vast cultural variations related to taste preferences and those food items that we may deem “disgusting”. Herz describes how supertasters might be more inclined to disgust than non-tasters because they are more sensitive to the ingredients they taste.  Herz addresses the unexpectedly clean things that most people find disgusting (toilet seats and public restrooms) and those that are the dirtiest (cell phones and computers).  She recommends considering eating lunch in the public restroom rather than at your desk near all of the bacteria laden electronic devices we touch each day.  Herz addresses how those with Huntington’s disease may not be able to detect disgust in others.  In addition, those with OCD are not very good at detecting disgust in others because their experiences of what they find disgusting are often quite different from what others find disgusting therefore others are not a good reference point for what THEY will find disgusting.  Psychopaths score low on the ability to empathize with others but may be able to sense people’s disgust because they have seen this emotion extended towards them more often than others.  She goes on to discuss diseases we find disgusting and why disgust might provide an evolutionary advantage in these circumstances (keeping us disease free).  This book might not be to best recommendation for high school students as she spends some time discussing disgust in sexual behavior.  She also describes crimes that we find disgusting such as cannibalism and how the disgust factor may impact the severity of sentencing of criminals.

Other Related Resources
Disgust test
BBC Science:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/disgust/
Psychology Today article:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dont-look-dont-touch/201401/disgust-has-us-in-its-grip

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Charles Darwin:  The Expression of the Emotions in Man and AnimalsPaul Ekman
Wallace Friesen
Paul Rozin
Anterior insula 
Empathy
Perceptual sets
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Supertasters/non-tasters
Systematic desensitization

The Reason I Jump
Author(s):  Naoki Higashida with Introduction by David Mitchell
ISBN:  978-0812994865

APA Style Citation
Higashida, N., & Yoshida, K. A. (2013).  The reason I jump the inner voice of a thirteen-year-old boy with autism.  New York:  Random House.

Book Description 
The Reason I Jump is written by Naoki Higashida a thirteen- year-old boy living with autism.  The book is a series of questions to which Naoki responds with the intent of helping people better understand what happens in the mind of an autistic child.  While some of the information may be particular to Naoki (given that Autism is a spectrum disorder, the recommendations may not apply to all Autistic individuals),  many of his comments can help readers’ better understand all people with autism.  Naoki describes his daily struggles and coping mechanisms for living with autism.  Naoki explains that he often does not have control over his voluntary movements or what comes out of his mouth.  He knows what he wants to do or what he wants to say but very often something different happens over which he has no control.  He is extremely disappointed when others are upset with him because he does not want to let anyone down but often cannot help the way he acts.  Naoki says he does not make eye contact when others are talking not because he is not listening, rather because he is trying to listen to what the person is saying and focusing all of his concentration on their words.  If Naoki looks at people’s faces, he will get distracted but many people think this is impolite.  He does not like holding hands because he often sees something that interests him and wants “to dash off”.  Naoki describes his experiences and memories as primarily visual and not occurring in a sequential order like most others.  It may take him longer to retrieve certain memories or they may be related to seemingly unrelated memories because of how they are stored.  Often those with Autism respond aggressively when a memory triggers another memory of a time they had a bad experience.  Naoki takes longer than most to respond to a request because he must think about what he is going to do, visualize how he is going to do it and encourage himself to get going.  He states that he does not want to live without Autism because this is the world he knows and how he has learned to live.  To address the title of the book, Naoki describes that he jumps when he is very excited and he jumps to try to touch the sky, he says he loves this feeling and wants it to continue but that others often are “put off” by this behavior.  Naoki describes that his sense of balance and where his body is in space is sometimes disorienting, as a result, he often needs others to help him move his body. He explains that it is difficult to dress because some clothing is uncomfortable and he hates to be too hot or too cold so he often dresses in layers but then forgets that he can take something off when he gets too hot.  Naoki describes that time often seems to go very fast or very slow, and that he does not have any sense of time.  He explains that he flaps his fingers in front of his face because he wants to distort the light coming in and too much light makes him uncomfortable ‘like needles”, he can do this for hours but finds it enjoyable because it is like making art with the light.  Even though Naoki is thirteen, he still prefers children’s shows because he enjoys repetition and familiar faces.  If your are interested in learning more about Autism and would like to hear directly from one who can describe their on experiences you are sure to find Naoki enchanting.

Other Related Resources
5 Questions with David Mitchell the translator for The Reason I Jump
http://www.autismspeaks.org/news/news-item/the-reason-i-jump-5-questions-david-mitchell

Autism Society
http://www.autism-society.org/living-with-autism/how-we-can-help/resources.html

Autism Now
http://autismnow.org

Autism Speaks
http://www.autismspeaks.org

Ten things that every child with Autism wish you knew
http://www.ellennotbohm.com/article-archive/ten-things-every-child-with-autism-wishes-you-knew/

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Autism
Emotional intelligence

Spook:  Science Tackles the Afterlife
Author(s):  Mary Roach
ISBN:  978-0393329124

APA Style Citation:
Roach, M. (2005). Spook: science tackles the afterlife.  New York:  W.W. Norton Company

Book Description
Mary Roach tackles to subject of the afterlife with her usual humor and bluntness.  Her investigation takes her to India to learn more about potential reincarnation and to England for a class on becoming a psychic.  Roach remains skeptical, finding many interesting anecdotes, but little scientific proof of an afterlife.  After reading the work of University of Virginia’s Ian Stevenson on reincarnation, Roach heads to India to visit with Dr. Rawat a colleague of Dr. Stevenson’s in Bangalore.  Rawat is investigating a case of  a boy named Aishwary who claims to be reincarnated from a man in a neighboring village.  While there are some unusual circumstances in the case, Roach ultimately decides that these are merely coincidences as all of the stories regarding the reincarnation do not coincide.  She also indicates that reincarnation in India is part of the religious beliefs of Hindus, which might explain the numerous cases Dr. Rawat investigates.  Roach spends some time discussing how early researchers went about identifying where the soul resided and what happened to the soul when the body passes on.  She discusses Phrenology and Galls’ collection of skulls to demonstrate different talents.  Roach describes Duncan MacDougall who attempted to weigh the souls of the human soul of people dying of consumption.  Others have attempted to weigh animal’s souls upon their death but none to Roach’s satisfaction have succeeded at proving that it is the soul, which is being measured.  Next, Roach investigates séances to determine if the souls of lost loved ones can return to send messages to family members.  She wryly points out that it is unlikely that those who have passed on to the other side would communicate by moving tables and producing ectoplasm that upon further investigation often is astoundingly similar to the innards of animals hidden somewhere on or in the body of the supposed “psychic”.  Roach visits the University of Arizona to speak with Gary Schwartz and the University’s Human Energy’s Systems Laboratory, which deals with mediums who claim to be able to communicate with the dead.  Roach acknowledges that some of the claims made by medium Allison Dubois are uncannily specific, she points to others that are quite general, because of these generalities, Roach remains unconvinced of the medium’s ability.  Roach’s next stop if Arthur Findlay’s College in England to take a three day course on the “Fundamental’s of Mediumship”, she attempts to visualize and “read” her classmates and has some degree of success but attributes it to reading the person rather than to psychic powers.  Some ghost hunters attempt to make recordings of spiritual encounters but these often prove to be only interference from nearby radio stations or accidental recordings from the ghost hunters themselves or random sounds which the ghost hunters give meaning to.  Roach is off to Iowa to find out more about the case of a changed will.  A man in Iowa claimed that his dead father appeared to him as he slept to tell him that he had changed his will from leaving everything to the eldest son’s widow to splitting everything evenly between his children.  The ghost indicated that the new will was hidden in his old overcoat lining, and in fact it was found in that location.  The case was brought to court but before a judge could make a decision, the widow agreed to abide by the new will.  Roach visits with the decedents of the family who stand by the ghost story, when Roach brings the new will to a handwriting expert, he determines that the new will is a forgery and although the family continues to believe, Roach is unmoved.  Finally, she visits a hospital at the University of Virginia hospital, which is attempting to find out more about people’s out of body and near death experiences.  In patients having heart surgery, they are effectively dead for a few moments while a procedure is completed to embed a defibrillators in their body.  Professor Bruce Greyson wants to discover if those who claim to have out of body experiences can see a screen mounted far above the surgical table to determine if these individuals can describe what is on the screen.  He has not yet had any luck but holds out that through continued experimentation he may discover more about these out of body experiences that some people report.  For now, Mary Roach remains unconvinced, but holds out for the possibility in the afterlife but wants scientific proof first.

Other Related Resources
Website for the book Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
http://www.maryroach.net/spook.html

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Aristotle
Descartes
Leonardo DaVinci
Franz Joseph Gall
Franz Anton MesmerHallucinations
Melatonin production
Perceptual sets
Phrenology
Pineal gland
Temporal lobes