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Adult Development: Cognitive Aspects of Thriving Close Relationships

Jan D. Sinnott

We currently struggle to create satisfying intimate or close relationships, something we yearn for but often fail to achieve in our evolving world culture. With our changing concepts of and demands ... More

We currently struggle to create satisfying intimate or close relationships, something we yearn for but often fail to achieve in our evolving world culture. With our changing concepts of and demands on close relationships, we need new ways to understand what facilitates satisfying close relationships. In this book, a new theory, called postformal thought, is presented, along with previously unpublished related studies and research approaches and the idea that complex cognition is useful for co-constructing satisfying intimate relationships. The personal relational aspects of relationships as well as cultural, historical, and social factors are combined to give a big-picture view of cognitive aspects of thriving close relationships. The book rests on 30 years of research in adult cognitive development and on other recent empirical research conducted by the author and others. Cases are presented to illustrate the thinking of persons in close and satisfying relationships. Future research and applications are suggested in the final section of the book.Less

Alcohol Use Disorders: A Developmental Science Approach to Etiology

Hiram E. Fitzgerald and Leon I. Puttler (eds)

Chapters in this volume reflect, to one degree or another, eight critical aspects of contemporary research attempting to understand the etiologic processes that heighten risk or resilience factors ... More

Chapters in this volume reflect, to one degree or another, eight critical aspects of contemporary research attempting to understand the etiologic processes that heighten risk or resilience factors for substance use disorders: (1) a focus on systemic frameworks for understanding developmental process, (2) the heterogeneity of developmental pathways, (3) the role of genes and epigenetic–experience transactions, (4) risk cumulative/cascade models of the effects of exposure to adverse childhood experiences, (5) negotiating developmental transitional periods, (6) neurobiological embodiment of adverse childhood experiences, (7) links between alcohol use disorder and tobacco addictive behaviors, and (8) longitudinal studies and data analysis within and between studies.Less

Anxiety, Depression, and Emotion

Richard J. Davidson (ed.)

This book focuses on the relationship between basic research in emotion and emotional dysfunction in depression and anxiety. Each chapter is authored by a scientist who looks at both psychological ... More

This book focuses on the relationship between basic research in emotion and emotional dysfunction in depression and anxiety. Each chapter is authored by a scientist who looks at both psychological and biological implications of research relevant to psychiatrists and psychologists. Following each chapter is a commentary that raises questions, illuminates connections with other bodies of work, and provides points of integration across different research traditions. Topics range from stress, cognitive functioning, and personality to affective style and behavioral inhibition, and the book as a whole has implications for understanding and treating anxiety disorders.Less

Approaches to Social Research: The Case of Deaf Studies

Alys Young and Bogusia Temple

This book explores the relationship between key methodological debates in social research and the special context of studies concerning deaf/D people(s). The book is organized around seven topics: ... More

This book explores the relationship between key methodological debates in social research and the special context of studies concerning deaf/D people(s). The book is organized around seven topics: being d/Deaf as a site of contested identity and representation; epistemology and the boundaries of claims for population specific and plural epistemologies; ethics and the implications of collective identity on standard ethical principles and practices; populations and sampling given the highly heterogeneous nature of d/Deaf people(s); narrative methodologies re-examined in light of the visual nature of sign language; interpretation, translation and transcription and the context of multiple modalities; and information and communication technologies as transformative epistemologies. Through these themes, new aspects of old debates within social research become evident, and the book challenges specialist field of studies by, with, and about d/Deaf people. Throughout, the book shows how the field provides challenges to established ways of thinking and working. This book is of interest to scholars within and outside of research concerning d/Deaf people(s), as well as practitioners in the fields of deaf education, social work and allied health professions.Less

Becoming Ecological: An Expedition Into Community Psychology

James G. Kelly (ed.)

Community psychology emphasizes an ecological approach to mental health by focusing on the individual in the environment and the influences that shape and change behavior. This book brings together ... More

Community psychology emphasizes an ecological approach to mental health by focusing on the individual in the environment and the influences that shape and change behavior. This book brings together the work of the author, one of the founders of community psychology. It unites 13 of his publications from 1968 to 2002, as well as four new essays on current issues in the field: the theory, research, practice, and education of community psychologists. The author introduces the work by offering connections between his personal experiences and the topics he chose to focus on throughout his long career. He begins each of the 13 previously published essays with commentary that sets the article in its original context so that the reader has a historical perspective on why certain ideas were salient at a particular time and how they are still timely today. The author concludes with a “summing up” section integrating the previously published articles with the four new essays. Throughout, he presents examples of how to plan and carry out research and practice in the community. The principles underlying the examples both enhance the relevance of the research and practice and increase the potential of community residents to use the findings for their own purposes.Less

Before Forgiving: Cautionary Views of Forgiveness in Psychotherapy

Sharon Lamb and Jeffrie G. Murphy (eds)

This book argues that forgiveness has been accepted as a therapeutic strategy without serious, critical examination. It hopes to provide a closer, critical look at some of these questions: why is ... More

This book argues that forgiveness has been accepted as a therapeutic strategy without serious, critical examination. It hopes to provide a closer, critical look at some of these questions: why is forgiveness so popular now? What exactly does it entail? When might it be appropriate for a therapist not to advise forgiveness? When is forgiveness in fact harmful? It includes many previously unpublished chapters by both philosophers and psychologists that examine what is at stake for those who are injured, those who injure them, and society in general when such a practice becomes commonplace. These chapters offer cautionary tales about forgiveness therapy, while others paint complex portraits of the social, cultural, and philosophical factors that come into play with forgiveness. The value of this volume lies not only in its presentation of a nuanced view of this therapeutic trend, but also as a general critique of psychotherapy, and as a valuable testimony of the theoretical and practical possibilities of an interdisciplinary collaboration between philosophy and clinical psychology.Less

Brief Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy: A Clinician's Guide

Alessandra Lemma, Mary Target, and Peter Fonagy

Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT) is a brief psychodynamic psychotherapy developed for the treatment of mood disorders. It is being rolled out as part of the Improving Access to Psychological ... More

Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT) is a brief psychodynamic psychotherapy developed for the treatment of mood disorders. It is being rolled out as part of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) initiative as the psychodynamic model for the treatment of depression. This book is a practical guide for the implementation of a brief psychodynamic intervention in routine clinical practice as well as in research protocols. It sets out clearly the theoretical framework, as well as the rationale and strategies for applying DIT with patients presenting with mood disorders (depression and anxiety). Throughout, it is illustrated with examples that help with implementing the approach in practice.Less

Community Psychology and Community Mental Health: Towards Transformative Change

Geoffrey Nelson, Bret Kloos, and Jose Ornelas (eds)

This volume explores the field of community mental health from the perspective of community psychology. The focus of the book is on the transformation of the field of mental health from professional ... More

This volume explores the field of community mental health from the perspective of community psychology. The focus of the book is on the transformation of the field of mental health from professional practice rooted in a biomedical model to a new approach based on community psychology values and the principles of ecology, collaboration, empowerment, and social justice. The book is divided into several sections: theoretical perspectives, consumer participation, practice, community inclusion, social conditions, and social policy. The book outlines a conceptual and historical framework for understanding and promoting transformative change in the first two chapters, and it synthesizes the lessons learned from the chapters and indicates directions for the future of transformative change in community mental health in the final chapter.Less

Diverse Careers in Community Psychology

Judah J. Viola and Olya Glantsman (eds)

The goal of Diverse Careers in Community Psychology is to (1) highlight the diversity of career options for someone with community psychology training; (2) provide details about the different types ... More

The goal of Diverse Careers in Community Psychology is to (1) highlight the diversity of career options for someone with community psychology training; (2) provide details about the different types of careers (e.g., tasks involved, benefits and challenges, salary range, and so on); and (3) list the steps one can take to develop skills and position oneself for such a career. This text provides a better understanding of the diverse career options available for people who train in community psychology (CP), and how the CP competencies are put into practice across the full spectrum of job titles and career paths that a community psychologist might follow. The book includes 23 chapters authored by 30 different community psychologists with various backgrounds, interests, and areas of expertise, who provide examples of what it is like to work in their settings. The book also includes a summary of a first-of-its-kind career survey of over four hundred individuals in the field. It is our hope that this text will help current, prospective, and former students in community psychology and related fields, as well as professionals interested in expanding or changing their careers, to find an ideal career path.Less

Diversity in Human Interactions: The Tapestry of America

John D. Robinson and Larry C. James (eds)

This book provides a comprehensive overview of human diversity by examining how issues of race, ethnicity, disability, religion, and sexual orientation affect daily interactions. With the increased ... More

This book provides a comprehensive overview of human diversity by examining how issues of race, ethnicity, disability, religion, and sexual orientation affect daily interactions. With the increased awareness of cultural diversity, chapters focus the reader on the many factors to consider in our ever-expanding society. Rather than adopting an elaborately theoretical style to explore these issues, the chapters address the question of interaction in a clear and accessible style. Each chapter, written by a leading scholar in the field, presents a different perspective on how appreciating and understanding human variety can enhance the quality of interactions between social groups.Less

Extreme Fear, Shyness, and Social Phobia

Louis A. Schmidt and Jay Schulkin (eds)

This book assembles a group of researchers to discuss the origins, development, and outcomes of extreme fear and shyness. By selecting the foremost experts from disparate fields, the editors provide ... More

This book assembles a group of researchers to discuss the origins, development, and outcomes of extreme fear and shyness. By selecting the foremost experts from disparate fields, the editors provide a thorough and timely examination of the subject and present state-of-the-art research for psychologists, neuroscientists, and clinicians interested in the development and outcome of these emotions in mental health. The book is divided into three parts. Part I investigates the development of fear and shyness in childhood; Part II examines the endocrine and neural bases of fear; and Part III provides clinical perspectives. This is one of the only books which covers the development and outcomes of extreme fear and shyness, explains the basic neuroscience of fear, and documents the clinical outcomes of social phobia.Less

Fostering Resilience and Well-Being in Children and Families in Poverty: Why Hope Still Matters

Valerie Maholmes

The book focuses primarily on the ways in which children and families experiencing the challenges of economic disadvantage use hope as a way to manage and overcome adversity. The author asks ... More

The book focuses primarily on the ways in which children and families experiencing the challenges of economic disadvantage use hope as a way to manage and overcome adversity. The author asks important questions relevant to program development and policy. Such questions include “Are we wired to hope?” and “Can friendships ameliorate the effects of problematic parenting styles?” The centerpiece of the book is the interviews with family members who have experienced adversity but have managed to overcome these experiences through the support of targeted programs and evidence-based interventions. In addition, student leaders participating in focus group discussions provide unique perspectives on the important role parents and teachers play in motivating youth to succeed. Finally, the professionals who work with children and families experiencing adversity share their insights and observations on effective intervention approaches and provide insights regarding the roles of culture and spirituality in fostering positive outcomes. Excerpts from these interviews are used to make the research accessible and to help call attention to processes that promote hope and foster resilience.Less

From Perception to Consciousness: Searching with Anne Treisman

Jeremy Wolfe and Lynn Robertson (eds)

Anne Treisman has been one of the most influential cognitive psychologists in the last fifty years. She is best known for her work on attention, and she has been especially concerned with the ... More

Anne Treisman has been one of the most influential cognitive psychologists in the last fifty years. She is best known for her work on attention, and she has been especially concerned with the interactions among visual perception, attention, and memory as they relate to conscious and unconscious experience. Her feature integration theory has been one of the organizing ideas in the field for three decades. While still a graduate student at Oxford, she helped launch the modern study of attention. In this book, several of her most influential papers are reprinted (including some of the harder-to-find early work). To accompany these reprints, other experts comment and/or show how their own work has been shaped by Treisman's ideas and findings. The chapters include discussions of auditory and visual attention, the role of features in selection, parallel and serial processing, and automaticity. The roots and evolution of Feature Integration Theory and related models like Guided Search are described, and the chapters explore the interactions of attention and perception at the cognitive, neuropsychological, and biological levels. The chapters consider the critical role of binding in perception, the role of attention in scene perception, as well as the influence of cognitive load, memory, reflection, and perceptual learning on early and late processing. The book shows how methods to study conscious perceptual awareness have evolved over the years.Less

Gaining Control: How human behavior evolved

Robert Aunger and Valerie Curtis

This book tells the story of how human behavioral capacities evolved from those of other animal species. By sticking close to what is known about the psychological capacities of other groups of ... More

This book tells the story of how human behavioral capacities evolved from those of other animal species. By sticking close to what is known about the psychological capacities of other groups of animals, we can reconstruct a history of our own mental evolution. We suggest that mental evolution can be seen as a series of steps in which new mechanisms for controlling behavior (the primary function of the animal nervous system) arose in different species, beginning with early representatives of this kingdom, and leading to a species—us—which can engage in a large number of different types of behavioral control. We argue that each of these steps—from reflexes to instincts, drives, emotions, and cognitive planning—can also be seen as a novel type of psychological adaptation in which information is “inherited” by an animal from its own behavior through new forms of learning—a form of major evolutionary transition (to use the concept developed by Maynard Smith and Szathmáry). The mechanisms that result from these steps in increasingly complex behavioral control can also be seen as the fundamental building blocks of psychology—what philosophers call “natural kinds,” or the basic conceptual units that will increase our understanding of how psychological processes work. Seeing behavior from this perspective has a number of implications for practitioners in fields ranging from experimental psychology to public health.Less

Global Promise: Quality Assurance and Accountability in Professional Psychology

Judy Hall and Elizabeth Altmaier

Psychology has become a global profession. Professionals are now readily able to practice in geographic areas which are different far from where they were trained. In practice, psychology has a ... More

Psychology has become a global profession. Professionals are now readily able to practice in geographic areas which are different far from where they were trained. In practice, psychology has a social contract with the public to promote human and societal welfare, all the while responsible for the constant upkeep of systems that promote, maintain, and demand quality from health care professionals. This book examines the tools needed for evaluating the crucial components of quality assurance—education, training, accreditation and designation, licensing and credentialing, ethics, mobility, and continuing professional development—from an international perspective, with a specific focus on practices in the United States, Canada, the European Union, Latin America, Australia, and The Netherlands and vignettes on the United Kingdom, China and South Africa. Chapters take an international perspective and they synthesize the progress made in implementing quality assurance mechanisms across the globe and offers diverse perspectives as to how the wider international community can promote quality and mobility.Less

Guidelines for the Systematic Treatment of the Depressed Patient

Larry E. Beutler, John Clarkin, and Bruce Bongar

From initial consultation to termination of treatment, psychologists and other mental health practitioners make a series of crucial decisions to determine the progress ... More

From initial consultation to termination of treatment, psychologists and other mental health practitioners make a series of crucial decisions to determine the progress and therapy of the patient. These decisions have varied implications such as the clinical course of the patient, the efficacy and efficiency of the treatment, and the cost of the sessions. Thus, the decisions made by mental health professionals need to be accurate and consistent, respecting a series of guidelines that will ultimately benefit the patient. This is the first in a series of guidebooks that is designed to do just that by providing practitioners with some structure in the development of treatment programs. Previous guidelines have been based on consensus panels of experts or on the opinions of membership groups, causing guidelines to be very far off from the findings of empirical research. Here, guidelines are presented in terms of treatment principles rather than in terms of specific treatment models or theories, and they do not favour one theory of psychotherapy over another. Instead, they define strategies and considerations that can be woven into comprehensive treatment programmes.Less

The Handbook of Clinical Neuropsychology

John Marshall

Jennifer Gurd and Udo Kischka (eds)

The past thirty years have seen the field of clinical neuropsychology grow to become an influential discipline within mainstream clinical psychology and an established component of most professional ... More

The past thirty years have seen the field of clinical neuropsychology grow to become an influential discipline within mainstream clinical psychology and an established component of most professional courses. It remains one of the fastest growing specialities within mainstream clinical psychology, neurology, and the psychiatric disciplines. Updated to take account of these rapid developments, this book contains chapters that demonstrate the contribution that neuropsychological approaches can make to the assessment, diagnosis, and range of treatments for cognitive disorders following brain damage, as well as addressing the special considerations when treating the elderly. The book is divided into ten sections, covering everything from methodological and conceptual issues, functional neuroanatomy, and the historical context. Throughout, the content draws on contemporary neuroscientific techniques, focusing on the methods of functional imaging, cognitive psychology, cognitive neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry, and cognitive rehabilitation. It also provides background information on laboratory and research techniques, as well as covering relevant neurology and psychiatry.Less

Housing, Citizenship, and Communities for People with Serious Mental Illness: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy Perspectives

John Sylvestre, Geoffrey Nelson, and Tim Aubry (eds)

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the field of housing for people with serious mental illness, with a special focus on citizenship and community life as key outcomes for people living ... More

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the field of housing for people with serious mental illness, with a special focus on citizenship and community life as key outcomes for people living with serious mental illness in community housing. It examines the history of this field while also pointing to the future to strengthen our theories, research, practice, and policy. The field of housing and mental health has been rapidly evolving over the past decade. This is the first comprehensive overview of this field. Despite impressive progress, the field is somewhat fractured and suffers from conceptual and definitional confusion. This book draws not only on the work of the editors, but also on the perspectives, experience, and expertise of a diverse set of international authors who are researchers, providers, and advocates of this housing. Thus, the book provides a summary of these critical developments, serves as a resource for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers looking for up-to-date reviews and perspectives on this field, as well as a sourcebook for current and future research and practice trends.Less

How We Grieve: Relearning the World

Thomas Attig

This book promotes an understanding of grieving persons, emphasizes respect for their individuality, encourages active coping, and guides those who help bereaved persons. The author argues that ... More

This book promotes an understanding of grieving persons, emphasizes respect for their individuality, encourages active coping, and guides those who help bereaved persons. The author argues that grieving is not a clinical problem to be solved or managed by others; rather, grieving is a normal process of relearning the world (physical surroundings, relationships with others (including the deceased and God), and oneself) in the aftermath of loss. The author utilizes real life stories to illustrate the power of the idea of relearning the world.Less