The Little Book of Thunks: 260 questions to make your brain go ouch!: 260 Questions to Make Your Brain Go Ouch! 

The first question I had to ask myself when I found out about this book, and I’m sure you’re doing the same thing now, was: what is a thunk? After a bit of trawling I found the website the compliments this quirky little book and found that:

A Thunk is a beguilingly simple-looking question about everyday things that stops you in your tracks and helps you start to look at the world in a whole new light.

The book contains 260 ‘thunks’ that really do get you thinking and can create some provocative discussions. At the beginning of the book is a great chapter on thinking (or should we call it ‘thunking’) and some ideas about how to use the book.

Here’s a few to get your brain in ticking over: 

• If I borrow a million pounds am I a millionaire?
• Could a fly cause an aeroplane to crash?
• Are you man-made or natural?
• Do dogs believe in God?
• When you comb your hair is it art?

All-in-all this is a great little book to get students and teachers alike thinking ‘outside of the box’.  There’s no real relevance to psychology teaching but I can see how it could be used to teach critical thinking, argument structure, and analysis of arguments.  Also, it could make an excellent addition to a tutorial program (or just something to get the students to have a debate over).  

For less than £7 The Little Book of Thunks is one of those books that everyone could have on their desk to pass those odd 5 minutes when there’s nothing else to do. 

From the back of the book:

Another gem from Ian Gilbert. Stimulating and enthralling. Without realising it I have been doing Thunks for years, as a parent, rugby coach and Open University tutor, helping my children and students to develop their own thinking. These statements will form the basis of my brain gyms, to stimulate mental skills and personal confidence. This is not a book to be left on the shelf, these THUNKS can be great for -thought for the Day in schools, colleges, the office, factory and … the kitchen at home. Enjoy the discussion. John Morris, JTM Educational Consultants –John Morris, JTM Educational Consultants.

You can get The Little Book of Thunks from Amazon for £6.99 or direct from Crown House publishing. 

Crown Publishing provided a review copy of this book for my reading pleasure.

Paul Britton: The Jigsaw Man

This is the first of two books that Britton has written giving an autobiographical view on his journery through his career as a Clinical Psychologist and how he got involved with offender profiling.

This book gives a fantastic incite into Offender Profiling and some of the things that are taken into consideration when creating a profile of an offender. Also Paul Britton allows us to glimpse at some of the cases that he’s had in his consultation room over the years.

A fantastic book for anyone interesting in Offender Profiling.  It’s not required reading for any of the course, and in some places can give quite graphic details about murders and rapes so reader-beware!

From the back of the book:

The autobiography of Paul Britton, one of the foremost offender profilers in the world. What he searches for at the scene of a crime are not fingerprints, fibres or blood stains, he looks for the “mind trace” left behind by those responsible, the psychological characteristics that can help the police to identify and understand the nature of the perpetrator. Over the past dozen years, Britton has assisted the police in over 100 cases involving murder, rape, arson, extortion and kidnapping. Among them were the murder of Jamie Bulger on a lonely railway line in Liverpool, the abduction of baby Abbie Humphries, the brutal slaying of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common and the notorious “House of Horror” in Gloucester. He has helped to solve some of Britain’s most baffling cases, and has also advised the FBI and the Russian Ministry of the Interior.

All-in-all a great read and a bit of a page turner, but nothing here that really relates too much to the profiling of today… more in brief history of Profiling in the UK from Paul Brittons own perspective.  A superb book to stretch the more able students or for those who want to know a little more about clinical / forensic psychology and the origiains of offender profiling.  Available from Amazon for £5.99.

Introducing Psychological Research 3rd Edition

It’s been 7 years since the last revision of Introducing Psychological Research (Banyard & Grayson) but what has this recent 3rd Edition brought us? They say: “This edition provides full summaries of the most important psychological research studies and includes an expanded section on methodology. The studies have been selected to highlight the major areas of psychology and studies are grouped under headings of social, developmental, cognitive and biological psychology.”

Let’s get inside.

For students studying OCR AS Psychology this is a gem of a book. This book summarises most of the core studies (both current and new specification) concisely - although Savage-Rumbaugh (1986) is surprisingly absent. From start to finish you have psychology in a readable and witty style; talking of highly controlled social psychological studies Phil says:

“[The studies] are often brilliantly controlled and scientifically rigorous but bear as much resemblance to social interaction as an Oxo cube does to a cow. Such studies can be described as impeccable trivia.”

As well as the core studies, there are also other ‘classic’ (and not-so-classic) studies in psychology which could come in use for coursework, second-year modules, or just general interest to stretch and challenge the more able student. The book covers a good foundation of psychological perspectives from cognitive to comparative, and if that isn’t enough, the chapter on methodology is probably one of the best I have ever read.

The studies in the book are well summarised, although some may be summarised a little too much for an instructor or those students that enjoyed to be stretched (what terminology!), it is well aimed at A Level students. The writing is excellent and keeps the reader well engaged - something many authors can’t do - this book seems to encourage - beckon if you will - the reader to continue to see what’s at the other side. Students (and teachers) will find this a refreshing change from some texts.

Overall a great text that covers all the core studies and highlights the core themes that are all-so-important in OCR Psychology. With the specification change and the new requirements maybe you will need a little more as far as the background and context of the studies go - but now I’m nit picking.

For those of you with little upper body strength this isn’t really a book you would want to carry around all day: it’s a bit of a doorstop coming in at a colossal 592 pages; but really this is the core text for OCR AS Psychology. A superb book. But, what else would you expect from Banyard?

If you’re still not convinced, ask yourself why, and then read a sample chapter of the book here.

The book is available now from Amazon or direct from Palgrave Publishers at £22.99.

This was an unsponsored article (although I did get a review copy of the book - thanks Phil). If you would like me to review something of yours (website, book, DVD, holiday home in Spain) then do get in touch.