Abnormal Psychology

Rating:
Summary: Nolen-Hoeksema's text: Is this the text to use?
Review: The book has some stregnths. It includes a large number of clinical vignettes, which may help students better understand psychopathology (although this may be overdone). The text also encourages compassion for those with mental disorders--a plus.

However, the text appears to written for a younger, less educated audience than most university students. And, on some specific topics, the text does not provide adequate coverage of the literature. Consider just one example. In the chapter that covers obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the author suggests that biological treatments "dominate research on OCD." The author mentions that exposure and response prevention has been shown to lead to significant symptom improvement, but fails to mention trials in which exposure and response prevention have been compared to medications in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial. This is a major omission. There are also a number of typographical errors, which give the reader the sense that the book is unpolished--rushed off to the publisher before it was ready.

One other departure from the typical abnormal text that is worth knowing about: there is a separate chapter on suicide. This is a bit unusual. More typically suicide is covered along with the mood disorders.