Review of Mental disorder in Canada: An epidemiological perspective.

Reviews the book, Mental disorder in Canada: An epidemiological perspective edited by John Cairney and David L . Streiner (see record 2010-14072-000). This book includes 20 chapters organized into six sections. In short, it reviews and summarizes Canadian population level research on mental disorders. While it is obvious the topic is important, a book focused on epidemiological research seemed like it would be more of a valuable resource than a stimulating read. In their introduction, some of the editors’ comments are consistent with the reviewers initial speculation, but there is also passion in their writing and they clearly state a more ambitious goal of showcasing Canadian contributions to psychiatric epidemiology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Personnel management: Canadian second edition.

Reviews the book, Personnel management: Canadian second edition by Gary Dessler and John F. Duffy (1984). This book is directed at readers who have an interest in the practical aspects of personnel management. In the preface to the book, the authors state that the book "provides students in Human Resource Management and Personnel Management with a complete, comprehensive review of essential personnel management concepts and techniques in a highly readable and understandable form" (p. xiii). In the concluding chapter, they add that "throughout this book we have emphasised the nuts and bolts of personnel management by focusing mainly on the concepts and techniques all managers need to carry out their personnel related tasks" (p. 512). For the most part, the book appears to live up to the authors' claims. It is, in fact, very readable and is organized in such a way as to maximize learning. Each chapter begins with a list of the things students should know or be able to do after reading the chapter, as well as an overview of the material to be covered. The authors make frequent use of examples to illustrate major points, and the cases and exercises included at the end of each chapter will be helpful in allowing students to get some experience at the kind of activities involved in personnel management (e.g., constructing application forms, conducting interviews, dealing with motivation problems). Personnel Management probably comes about as close as a textbook can to providing both the background information and "hands-on experience" that are required of individuals aspiring to careers in the field of personnel management. Moreover, in this Canadian edition, Professor Duffy has revised Professor Dessler's earlier text to make it more relevant to the issues facing personnel managers in Canada. Although most of the issues dealt with in the book are relevant to personnel management in both Canada and the U.S., the reference to Canadian cases, research, and legal issues will probably be a refreshing change to many students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Readings in social psychology: Classic and Canadian contributions.

Reviews the book, Readings in social psychology: Classic and Canadian contributions edited by Brian Earn and Shelagh Towson (1986). Earn and Towson argue that students should know that social psychology is an active discipline with significant contributions from their own nation, that there are areas of research of particular relevance to the Canadian context, and that they should be able to gain from incidental learning about their own society. The format of the book is rather conventional. Readings are grouped into content areas: social motives (aggression and altruism), social influence, attitudes, social interactions (attraction and loneliness), attribution and cognition, ethnic relations, prejudice, and applications (TV influence, social support, law). It includes contributions by many of the most prominent social psychologists in Canada, and several "classic" papers by U.S. social psychologists. As one who has long regretted the fact that we are compelled to teach social psychology with only foreign materials, the reviewer welcomes the publication of this book. The reviewer hopes that in the second edition the editors take more seriously the purpose of a book of readings, and set out to communicate to undergraduate students what social psychological research is all about. The reviewer also hopes that the publisher is able to produce a volume that looks more professional and is easier to read. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Essentials of abnormal psychology, first Canadian edition.

Reviews the book, Essentials of abnormal psychology, first Canadian edition by V. Mark Durand, David H. Barlow, and Sherry H. Stewart (2007). This first edition covers the terrain one might expect of an abnormal psychology textbook. This includes chapters on historical context, approaches to psychopathology, clinical assessment, diagnosis and research methods, anxiety disorders, somatoform and dissociative disorders, mood disorders and suicide, physical disorders and health psychology, eating and sleep disorders, sexual and gender identity disorders, substance-related disorders, personality disorders, schizophrenia and other related disorders, developmental and cognitive disorders, and finally, legal and ethical issues as related to mental health. Although the book initially may look rather dense (it is not), there are numerous organisational aids to facilitate learning. The authors have more than amply succeeded in their stated intention to present a multidimensional perspective, integrating behavioural, emotional and cognitive, and social contexts to explore the essentials of abnormal psychology. Using easy to understand language appropriate for undergraduates, this book guides the reader through the fascinating field of abnormal psychology, pointing out the expected, and for an added bonus, the unexpected and often neglected. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of A World of Difference: Gender Roles in Perspective.

Reviews the book, A World of Difference: Gender Roles in Perspective by Esther R. Greenglass (1982). In A World of Difference, Esther Greenglass has given us an excellent social-psychological perspective on sex, gender, and sex-role differences. Greenglass clearly analyses current research on these topics with the perspective of the culture in which gender-based behaviour occurs. Equally important, however, is the discussion of the social and cultural context of the research itself. Aside from this important and useful discussion of the research in its social context, there is a very thorough review of contemporary issues relating to gender roles. This is a very readable book for students. The collection of pictures and cartoons depicting contemporary male and female roles illustrates the issues while showing their humorous side. Throughout the book, there are examples of Canadian data and Canadian research which will make the book particularly appealing to those who find that U.S. texts are too chauvinistic about the American experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Aging in Canada: Social perspectives (2nd ed.).

Reviews the book, Aging in Canada: Social perspectives (2nd ed.) by Victor W. Marshall (1987). Victor Marshall's second edition of Aging in Canada: Social perspectives is a worthy successor to the first edition (1980). The new edition includes 30 chapters on topics in Canadian social gerontology. Of the 38 different authors 24 are new. All chapters were written specifically for this volume. The chapters are longer and more substantial than in the earlier volume; at 613 pages this volume is twice as long as the earlier one but has only four more chapters. Both the inclusion of an index and the placement of references at the end of each chapter are welcome improvements. The chapters are grouped under the following headings: Thinking Systematically About Aging; The Diverse Meanings of Age and Aging; Aging Workers and the Labour Force; Aging, Leisure, and Retirement; Family Structure and Social Relationships; Health and Well-Being in Relation to Age; Health Care; and Political, Economic, and Social Implications of Population Aging. The book is directed at and suitable for those interested in social science, health science, or public policy issues at a wide range of levels from second-year undergraduate to graduate to professionals working in applied or academic contexts. Despite omissions and a few weak chapters the book is informative, thoughtful, and often provocative. It affirms that there is, indeed, a Canadian social gerontology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Educational psychology: Reflection for action (Canadian edition).

Reviews the book, Educational psychology: Reflection for action (Canadian edition) (2008). Targeted toward aspiring teachers, this book provides an overview of the content knowledge germane to school-age education in Canada and attempts to foster the types of procedural skills and dispositions necessary to gather and evaluate evidence about one’s own classroom practises and about the diverse array of Canadian students in those classrooms. The book is well written, in language that is clear and accessible to preservice teachers at the undergraduate level. For a more advanced audience, the book also provides an excellent model of how to integrate goals of content, procedural, and disposition acquisition. To these ends, each chapter includes pedagogical features that help readers activate and connect their prior knowledge, skills, and attitudes with those of more expert teachers operating in real classrooms (e.g., samples of classroom life to ground understanding in experience, models of expert analyses following knowledge acquisition, well-timed invitations to engage in reflection during learning). Particular attention is paid to the ecologically valid activity of reasoning about what students know on the basis of what they say and do. In addition to lists of key concepts, end-of-chapter exercises, and a glossary, a number of supplements and additional resources for instructors and students also are mentioned. A parallel e-version of the text, complete with interactive features, is available online at no extra cost. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychological Testing (3rd ed.).

Reviews the book, Psychological Testing (3rd ed.) by Anne Anastasi (1968). The many admirers and followers Anastasi incurred through the first two editions of this book along with her other writing will not be disappointed with this third edition. All of the testing knowledge apparently adequately updated, is still there, along with the familiar clarity and authority of expression. The third edition contains more useful-to-the-testing-purpose material than did either of the earlier editions. This feat has been accomplished in spite of the fact that the book is no longer than the others, containing 665 pages as opposed to 681 and 657 for the first and second editions respectively. This content improvement seems to have been brought about through the curtailment of less valuable data on the one hand and the inclusion of more recent and better material on the other. This edition of Anastasi's text contains enough new material in measurement to recommend that it be read by both students of and experts in the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Exploring research, seventh edition.

Reviews the book, Exploring research, seventh edition by Neil J. Salkind (2009). This is the seventh edition of an introductory text on research methods. It is intended for “upper-level undergraduate students and graduate students in their first research methods course in the social, behavioural, and health sciences fields” (p. xvii). The intention of the book is to introduce the important topics in research methods in a “nonintimidating and informative way” (p. xvii). Changes in this edition include a new chapter on ethics, with more material on ethical issues when doing online research, the use of children as participants, and updated general ethical guidelines; updated and new coverage of software for dealing with both qualitative data and for bibliographies; updated information on the use of the Internet for research and for conducting research and literature reviews online; as well as changes to the questions and exercises at the end of the chapters and to the Web site that accompanies the book. The Web site also contains an appendix with an introduction to SPSS 16 (which was not available at the time of this review). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Textbook of psychology (fourth edition).

Reviews the book, Textbook of psychology (fourth edition) by Donald O. Hebb and Don Donderi (see record 1987-97530-000). Before his death in August 1985, Hebb presided over a new revision of his classic introductory psychology text. The third edition of Hebb's book was published by W. B. Saunders in 1972, and more than one attempt had since been made to get a fourth edition published. With the help of D. C. Donderi, this new edition is now in print. This edition is largely an expansion and updating of the 1972 edition. The same topics are treated in the same order as before, but with frequent editing and with more recent material now included. For readers unfamiliar with Hebb's textbooks, they define psychology as the study of behaviour, and behaviour is seen as the product of brain activity. Brain activity in turn is understood by reference to Hebb's concept of the cell assembly. This Hebb and Donderi text is one of the few introductory psychology textbooks that employs a personal perspective on Psychology, and unifies the teaching of that topic by continued reference to one major theoretical concept. There is nowhere in their text any discussion of existing data or theory which might be thought to be incompatible with cell assembly theory. Nor is there any discussion of possible limits to the generalization or the operationalization of the cell assembly idea. Their text does tell students that theories do not last, and that enduring truths are not to be expected in science. Yet students are left with the strong impression that it is very unlikely the basic premises of cell assembly thinking will ever in the future be changed more than slightly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The assessment of aphasia and related disorders (2nd ed).

Reviews the book, The assessment of aphasia and related disorders (2nd ed.) by Harold Goodglass and Edith Kaplan (1983). The authors state in the preface that much has been learned about aphasia since the first edition of this book was published, through both formal research and clinical experience. Unfortunately, there is little to reflect this in the revised text: The most striking feature of this second edition is the similarity to the original publication. There are a few instances where the text has been rewritten to provide better clarification and to include more recent information. For example, the section in Chapter 2 on "loss of grammar and syntax" has been extended and includes recent references. However, the major portion of each chapter (with the exception of Chapter 3 on the statistical background) is essentially a reproduction of the 1972 text. The extent of this word-for-word reproduction includes the phrase "recent historical papers" to refer to papers published in the 1960s. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The science game: An introduction to research in the behavioral and social sciences, seventh edition.

Reviews the book, The science game: An introduction to research in the behavioral and social sciences, seventh edition by Neil McKinnon Agnew and Sandra W. Pyke (2007). In 1969, Neil Agnew and Sandra Pyke published the first edition of The Science Game, a 182-page survey of the major components of what they call the game of "sciencing," a game, they claim, that "like all other games of consequence, is a mixture of art, enterprise, and invention held loosely together by man-made rules." Using the same quirky but engaging style as in the original, in the seventh and latest edition, Agnew and Pyke dedicate a full 471 pages to the task, tackling a host of topics bearing on the activities of science, ranging from the strengths and weaknesses of humans' cognitive capacity for problem solving to debates in the philosophy of science regarding the nature of knowledge. Although this most recent edition elaborates on many of the same themes presented in earlier versions, it is much grander in scope and includes a number of new features, including the introduction of a central theme and memory aid throughout the book (i.e., a puzzle-solving theme), the inclusion of statements of chapter goals, and chapter-end summaries and self-test quizzes. The Science Game provides a fairly comprehensive set of "sound bites" pertaining to the techniques, procedures, and conventions adopted by social science researchers and is accessible to either students encountering these topics for the first time or more advanced students in need of a refresher. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Aging and cognition: Research methodologies and empirical advances.

Reviews the book, Aging and cognition: Research methodologies and empirical advances edited by Hayden B. Bosworth and Christopher Hertzog (see record 2009-08050-000). This book selectively summarises the latest methodological developments, broadly reviews recent empirical findings, and briefly describes the implications and challenges in the application of research findings in the area of adult development and aging. The first part of the book covers some methodological issues in research of human development and aging. The second part of the book reviews the empirical advances in cognitive, social, and psychological development across adulthood. The third part discusses the possible application of research findings to everyday cognition in an applied setting, taking medication use as an example. Although the book tries to present an integrated view, the breadth and diversity of the coverage make it a difficult and almost impossible task. As a result, the chapters are organised in such a framework that they look more like presentations in a conference proceeding. The positive side of this approach is that each chapter could stand alone as a complete review or research article; therefore, each specifically benefits those with the same research interests. Readers could easily get a quick update on the findings and developments in a specific area by selectively focusing on relevant chapters. However, this approach also has limitations. The coherence and integrity of the whole book are certainly compromised. The chapters may look disconnected from each other. Nevertheless, despite the limitations noted above, the book reports some cutting-edge methodological and empirical issues in the research of aging and cognition. The new and inspiring perspectives provided make it an informative guide for well-trained graduate students and established researchers in related research areas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Family Therapy: An Introduction to Theory and Technique (2nd ed).

Reviews the book, Family Therapy: An Introduction to Theory and Technique (2nd ed.) edited by Gerald D. Erickson and Terrence P. Hogan ( 1981). The second edition of Family Therapy is a significant and worthwhile improvement on the 1972 edition and it adequately reflects the rate of growth in the field of family therapy over the past decade. Erickson and Hogan have included articles which are classics in the field as well as papers critical to an appreciation of the rapid growth of techniques and research in family therapy. Almost 75% of the articles are new to this 1981 edition of Family Therapy. While almost all of the book is comprised of well selected articles which have previously been published, many are recent publications which retain their timeliness, and one is an original paper by Diane Pancoast on therapeutic interventions with community helping networks. The stated goal of the book is the selection of those major papers which represent several broad areas in family therapy. The book is successful in that regard. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Social Psychology: An Applied Approach.

Reviews the book, Social Psychology: An Applied Approach by Ronald J. Fisher (1982). In what is probably the first of a new generation of social psychology textbooks, Ronald Fisher has attempted a very ambitious intergration of basic, theoretical and applied social psychology. My overall feeling about the book is very positive, since there is much to recommend in it. Some of the chapters, such as those dealing with social issues and social change, program development and evaluation, and organizational development, are outstanding. They are scholarly, well written and contain information that traditional social psychologists should be aware of but rarely teach. Indeed, these chapters are so comprehensive, that they could serve as good introductions to these topics for graduate students. In addition, while not being a truly "Canadian" textbook, there are considerably more Canadian examples and anecdotes contained in this book than can be found in any of the other current textbooks. My hope as an instructor of an advanced undergraduate course in applied social psychology is that if there is a second edition of this text that the author might amend it by broadening the coverage of current topics in applied social psychology while retaining those chapters that are unique to the book. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The psychology of health and health care: A Canadian perspective.

Reviews the book, The psychology of health and health care: A Canadian perspective by Gary Poole, Deborah Hunt Matheson, and David N. Cox (2001). This book is a timely introductory text that aims to situate the rapidly expanding field of health psychology within the geographic, socio-demographic, and empirical landscape of Canada. This textbook would be appropriate for beginning and intermediate undergraduate students across a range of disciplines, including psychology, public health, and nursing. As such, it has a number of features to commend it. It is written in a clear and concise style, with explanatory tracks guiding the reader step by step through each new concept. In keeping with health psychology's applied focus, web sites for important resources are provided and sample case studies are integrated with key concepts throughout each chapter. Finally, the up-to-date coverage of Canadian health statistics and research publications is a delight for those of us who have been struggling to find texts that reflect the unique ways in which we view, structure, fund, administer, and research health psychology and health care in this country. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Abnormal psychology.

Reviews the book, Abnormal psychology by Thomas F. Oltmanns, Robert E. Emery, and Steven Taylor (2001). Oltmanns, Emery, and Taylor have kept their current text within the mainstream. In the first edition of the text (Oltmanns & Emery, 1995), they followed an integrative systems approach, similar to that adopted by Sarason and Sarason in 1989, in which evidence on biological, psychological, and social influences was combined in the discussion of the aetiology of the different disorders. Their major claims to uniqueness in the Canadian edition reside in the retention of their integrative systems approach; the integration of scientific methodology into every chapter; and an emphasis on multicultural issues in which, as the name of the text indicates, Canadian research and issues predominate. With this text, Oltmanns, Emery, and Taylor have answered the plea for Canadian content and, within the contemporary style of text, have done it well. Personally, however, I continue to lament the passing of the era of the psychopathology text, when abnormal psychology actually referred to an aspect of psychology, rather than psychiatry, and the presentation of material lacked the hegemony of a particular--that is, North American--cultural perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Social Psychology (2nd Edition).

Reviews the book, Social Psychology (2nd edition) by William W. Lambert and Wallace E. Lambert, edited by Richard Lazarus (1973). This second edition is a major updating and enlargement of the original (1964) edition, containing about 50% more pages and a good deal of new material. In essence, then, it is a new book and it deserves to be read as such. As with all volumes in this Foundations of Modern Psychology Series, the Lambert & Lambert text is intended for the introductory student. In six short chapters, the authors cover the major basic areas of enquiry--socialisation, social perception, attitudes, interaction, the individual in the group, and socio-cultural perspectives. At the risk of appearing unduly concerned with a Canadian point of view, it is of interest to note that this text is the first to pay attention to ideas and findings about social behaviour in this country. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)