Doomsday Cult

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Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi and Michael Argyle

"The Psychology of Religious Behaviour, Belief and Experience is the most comprehensive survey available of theories and research on religion from the perspective of psychology. Religious belief is never evenly distributed, and is correlated with such variables as social background, gender and personality characteristics. Beit-Hallahmi and Argyle use findings in these areas to test numerous explanations of the origins and functions of religion in human culture. They also consider social consequences of religiosity, religious experience, religious attitudes, the effect of religion on health, the acquisition of beliefs, conversion, and the benefits or otherwise of religion. Their main conclusion is that religiosity is first and foremost social, and is learned like other kinds of social acts." "Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi and Michael Argyle are renowned for their clear, analytical approach, and this new state-of-the-art study of psychology and religion is no exception. It will be welcomed as an update to their previous work in the area by social psychologists, sociologists and theologians worldwide."--BOOK JACKET.

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Elaine Fox

Elaine Fox has been a leader of research on cognitive psychology for more than 20 years. In this book she draws on her own work and that of many other scientists from around the world and with a compelling mix of science and anecdotes explains why optimism is more difficult than pessimism; how innocent stimuli can become triggers for terror; how our ancient neural circuits take over our thoughts and memories and why some people are driven to dangerous risks. A book about brain science and happiness and how to understand one to promote the other.

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Patricia Noller & Judith A. Feeney

"This volume provides an overview of current theory and research in the area of close relationships, written by internationally renowned scholars whose work is at the cutting edge of research in the field. This book is designed to be an essential resource for senior undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and practitioners, and will be suitable as a resource in advanced courses dealing with the social psychology of close relationships."--Jacket.

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Jerome S. Bruner

The left hand has traditionally represented the powers of intuition, feeling, and spontaneity. In this classic book, Jerome Bruner inquires into the part these qualities play in determining how we know what we do know; how we can help others to know-that is, to teach; and how our conception of reality affects our actions and is modified by them. The striking and subtle discussions contained in On Knowing take on the core issues concerning man's sense of self: creativity, the search for identity, the nature of aesthetic knowledge, myth, the learning process, and modem-day attitudes toward social controls, Freud, and fate. In this revised, expanded edition, Bruner comments on his personal efforts to maintain an intuitively and rationally balanced understanding of human nature, taking into account the odd historical circumstances which have hindered academic psychology's attempts in the past to know man. - Publisher.