Abnormal Psychology

Abnormal psychology is not about "them." Abnormal psychology is about all of us. Emotional suffering touches all of our lives at some point in time. Psychological problems are prevalent and affect many of us directly and all of us indirectly--through our loved ones, friends, and the strangers whose troubled behavior we cannot ignore. Integrated and Consistent Coverage and DSM-IV-TR Integration always has been the overriding theme of our textbook. Rather than see abnormal psychology as fractured by competition among paradigms, split between psychology and psychiatry, or divided between scientists and practitioners, we see the most exciting and promising future for abnormal psychology in the integration of theoretical approaches, professional specialties, and science and practice. We present abnormal psychology as a cohesive field, even with all its variations. Each disorder chapter unfolds in the same way, providing a coherent framework and consistent outline. We open with an Overview followed by one or two extended Case Studies. We then discuss Typical Symptoms and Associated Features, Classification, Epidemiology, Etiological Considerations and Research, and finally, Treatment. Each chapter reflects DSM-IV TR throughout. Embedded in this consistent structure are several features designed to help make the human aspects of mental disorders clearer to readers: Our cases and first person accounts, and a new feature, Getting Help. New Feature: Getting Help In the newGetting Helpsections included in every chapter of this edition, we address students' personal concerns most directly. We added this feature to begin to answer the sorts of questions that students have asked us privately after lecture or later in our offices. These sections also encourage students to think critically about the psychological information they may encounter on the Web and in self-help section of their bookstore. TheGetting Helpsections give responsible, empirically sound, and concrete guidance on such personal topics as: What treatments are likely to be most effective for particular disorders? (See Chapters 2, 6, 10, and 12) What can I do to help someone else? (See Chapters 5, 9, 10, and 16) How can I find the right therapist? (See Chapters 3, 5, and 12) Where can I get more reliable information from books, the Internet, or professionals in my community? (See Chapters 1, 5, 7, and 11) What self-help strategies can I try? (See Chapters 6, 11, and 12) Students can also find research-based information on the effectiveness and efficacy of various treatments in Chapter 3, Treatment of Psychological Disorders, and in the Treatment headings near the end of every disorder chapter. The Latest Science We do not have simple answers to many pressing personal and intellectual questions. Many of our answers are complicated and equivocal. Others are simply incomplete. Such is the state of abnormal psychology at the beginning of the twenty-first century. But far worse than offering incomplete answers would be to take the route of those well-intentioned experts, and some unscrupulous ones, who are ready to give "definitive" answers to questions that, in reality, cannot be answered definitively. Sometimes these "experts"' answers are wrong or clearly selfservihg. We are candid when the truthful answer is, "Honestly, we do not yet know." The unanswered questions of abnormal psychologyOltmanns, Thomas F. is the author of 'Abnormal Psychology', published 0007 under ISBN 9780130488909 and ISBN 0130488909.