Abnormal Psychology: A Discovery Approach

Rating:
Summary: An excellent introductory text for psychology students.
Review: Abnormal Psychology: A Discovery Approach is a complete, comprehensive, integrated introduction that includes case studies and primary documents illustrating suicidal ideation, anxiety disorder, anorexia/eating disorders, stress, violence, substance abuse, dissociative disorders, mood disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, intellectual and cognitive disorders, childhood and adolescent disorders, and sexual disorders. Abnormal Psychology covers the history of this aspect medical history, ethics, and legal issues, the integration of gender, culture and ethnicity, the DSM-IV, research methods, treatments, and more. Abnormal Psychology is a highly recommended introductory text for students of psychology.

Rating:
Summary: Undergraduate Abnormal Psychology
Review: This was my textbook for an upper level undergraduate psychology class. It is intended for use in a survey course in abnormal psychology. It begins with a case history which is referred to as the book progresses. An overview of the four main psychological paradigms comes next. The subsequent chapters examine topics in abnormal psychology under these paradigms. There is also a chapter on psychological assessment, testing, and classification. The subjects that the book covers range across anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, personality disorders, dissociative disorders, sexual dysfunctions, etc. The DSM-IV classification criteria are given for the discussed disorders. For the most part, each chapter uses case studies to exemplify its points. I found this to help ground what I was reading in real life scenarios. Aside from this, there are several side notes and highlights in the text which round out the picture. It is not difficult to read through, and I did not feel that anything was left out. An undergraduate introductory psychology class is a help and should be a prerequisite for reading the book, but one can manage without it. There are also several color photos and charts interspersed throughout the book. This keeps the reader from becoming too bogged down in black and white text. Also, each chapter is divided and subdivided neatly into headings which make for an easier read if one must take a break and provide for easier reference. While the book will not allow the reader the ability to immediately practice psychology, I found it to serve quite well as an undergraduate textbook.