Our Community

Welcome to “Our Community” psychology department webpage! The last couple of years have proven to be a challenging time for the world, as we both cope with a global pandemic and grapple with the stark reality of on-going systemic racism. At times like these, interpersonal connections help to nurture us to meet these challenges. In an effort to stay connected with our students, we have created this webpage as a platform to keep you up to date with what is happening in the Psychology Department as well as provide resources on important issues that affect our world. 

Psychology on Instagram (@stlawu_psych):

See what the members of the Psychology Department are up to on our Instagram page

Resources Related to Systemic Racism:

Psychology in the Media 

Books On a Variety of Psychology Topics:

  • Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking, by Susan Cain 
  • The scent of desire: Discovering our enigmatic sense of smell, by Rachel Herz
  • Welcome to your world: How the built environment shapes our lives, by Sarah Williams Goldhagen
  • How to change your mind: What the new science of psychedelics teaches us about consciousness, dying, addiction, depression, and transcendence, by Michael Pollan
  • The man who mistook his wife for a hat: And other clinical tales, by Oliver Sacks
  • Glass cage: How our computers are changing us, by Nicholas Carr
  • Supernavigators: Exploring the wonders of how animals find their way, by David Ogilvy Barrie
  • An unquiet mind: A memoir of moods and madness, by Kay Redfield Jamison
  • Maybe you should talk to someone: A therapist, her therapist, and our lives revealed, by Lori Gottlieb
  • Thinking, fast and slow, by Daniel Kahneman
  • Choke: What the secrets of the brain reveal about getting it right when you have to, by Sian Beilock
  • Predictably Irrational: The hidden forces that shape our decisions, by Dan Ariely
  • Addiction by design: Machine gambling in Las Vegas, by Natasha Dow Schȕll
  • Deep work: Rules for focused success in a distracted world, by Cal Newport
  • A Natural History of the Senses, by Diane Ackerman
  • Hope Human and Wild, by Bill McKibben
  • Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, by Terry Tempest Williams
  • Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, by Edward Abbey
  • A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold
  • House, by Tracy Kidder
  • Image of the City, by Kevin Lynch
  • Inquiry, by Design John Zeisel
  • Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, by Michael Pollan
  • Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard
  • Building for Life:  Designing and understanding the Human-Nature Connection, by Stephen Kellert
  • Place: A short Introduction, by Tim Cresswell
  • Design with Nature, by Ian McHarg

Books Related to Racism Recommended by the National Alliance on Mental Illness: 

Psychology-Related Movies and TV:

  • Babies (Netflix) “From nature to nurture, this docuseries explores the groundbreaking science that reveals how infants discover life during their very first year.”
  • The Mind, Explained (Netflix) “Ever wonder what's happening inside your head? From dreaming to anxiety disorders, discover how your brain works with this illuminating series.”
  • Memento - a movie about memory loss, amnesia
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - A movie about the consequences of memory-erasing technology
  • A Beautiful Mind - A movie about an individual with schizophrenia
  • Silver Lining’s Playbook - A movie about bipolar disorder
  • Inside Out - A movie that considers the variety of emotions

Psychology-Related Podcasts:

Psychology-Related Music:

  • The Ultimate Behavioral Science Playlist, created by the Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke “Behavioral scientists have joined together to compile a playlist of over 5 hours of songs from a diverse range of genres that each, in some way or another, exemplify the principles of behavioral science. These songs are organized by the categories of the BEHAVIOR Framework (a mnemonic for remembering different behavior change strategies: Bias, Ego, Habits, Appeal, Visceral, Incentives, Others, Reminders)”