An interesting but flawed account of some of the most important studies of the twentieth century (Opening Skinner's Box - Lauren Slater)

Member Name: adamp123

Product:	Opening Skinner's Box - Lauren Slater
Date:	30/05/09 (6 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good insight into human behaviour, nice introduction to psychology

Disadvantages: innacurate at times, convoluted writiing style

Having studied psychology for a degree before I went on to have an interest in the more medical side I was intrigued by this book as it claims to document the key psychological experiments of the twentieth century. For those who have not heard of these experiments before this book will surely offer some very interesting and indeed very shocking findings. Most notably in this regard is the study Of Stanley Milgram and his studies of obedience in which a large percentage of "normal" people agree to administering enormous electric shocks to others simply by being coerced by a doctor.

At times however the author Lauren Slater dwells far too much on the horrific, and possibly does not consider the implications of the studies very well. There are also a fair few factual errors in the book that only those who have studied psychology could know about. Furthermore there have also been criticisms from psychologists that some of the conclusions that she draws are incorrect.

The book is at times well written and does lay out some of the most significant psychological studies ever conducted for those who may never of heard of them, and it is for the most part well written. This is turn leads to some interesting insights into human behaviour, although this quite often does not make for pleasant reading. The recounting of her studies however has a problem however with her inclusion of random and irrelevant details. For example at one point she describes going to meet Jerome Kagan (a modern psychologist) and spends over a page describing the office and the building in which he is situated.

I would say that this book is worth reading, it offers a reasonable (although sometimes inaccurate account) of some very important studies and certainly makes you think. However one should not take everything that you read as being a fact, and must put up with her ramblings. As someone who has a read of lot of dry textbooks however this offers some refreshing reading, even if in a limited fashion.

Summary: Worth readin over all -