"On Getting Better is a thoughtful and compact book about self-improvement from Britain's leading psychoanalyst, author of Missing Out and On Kindness"--

Dr. Julia Shaw, a criminal psychologist, uses the latest scientific research to offer a more enlightened and nuanced explanation for why people behave so badly and how we can prevent evil acts by understanding more profoundly how such acts come about - and what truly makes us evil.

Executive coach and psychologist Marshall Goldsmith discusses the emotional triggers that set off a reaction or a behavior in us that often works to our detriment. Do you find that at times you suddenly become defensive or enraged by an idle comment from a colleague? Or that your temper rises when another car cuts you off in traffic? Your reactions don't occur in a vacuum. They are the result of emotional and psychological triggers that often happen...

Revised for the twenty-fifth anniversary of its publication, Alfie Kohn's landmark challenge to carrot-and-stick psychology features updated reflections and research in a major new afterword by the author. Our basic strategy for raising children, teaching students, and managing workers can be summed up in six words: Do this and you'll get that. We dangle goodies (from candy bars to sales commissions) in front of people in the same way that we train...

"We've reached a tipping point. Today's ecologically and socially precarious world is calling for new solutions to old problems. But at this time of urgency the Millennial Generation, the largest generation in the United States, is faltering. Strapped with unprecedented student debt and suffering from the double-punch of recent financial crises, the Millennial cohort of 72.1 million Americans is called a new "Lost Generation." And these economic struggles...

Whether we're buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions—both big and small—have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented.

As Americans, we assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice

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"Habits are the invisible architecture of our lives. Rubin provides an analytical and scientific framework from which to understand these habits--as well as change them for good. Infused with her compelling voice and funny stories, she illustrates the core principles of habit formation with dozens of strategies that she uses herself and tests out on others. Rubin provides tools to help readers better understand themselves, and presents a clear, practical...

Weaving decades of field observations with exciting new discoveries about the brain, Carl Safina's landmark book offers an intimate view of animal behavior, to challenge the fixed boundary between humans and nonhuman animals. In Beyond Words, readers travel to Amboseli National Park in the threatened landscape of Kenya and witness struggling elephant families work out how to survive poaching and the pervasive drought, then to Yellowstone National...

Caryl Rivers and Rosalind Barnett are widely praised for their analysis of women, men, and society. Their "uncommon storytelling grace" led the Boston Globe to name their book, Same Difference: How Gender Myths Harm Our Relationships, Our Children, and Our Jobs, one of the best of 2004. The New York Times has called Barnett "one of the researchers who is re-drawing the map of women's psychology," and the New York Review of Books has commended their...

"Why would people in different places and times formulate myths and stories with similar symbols and meanings? Are groups of people with different religious or ideological beliefs doomed to eternal conflict? Are the claims of science and religion truly irreconcilable? What might be done to decrease the individual propensity for group-fostered cruelty? Maps of Meaning addresses these questions with a provocative new hypothesis that explores the connection...