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Books in Personality social and criminal psychology

Focusing on individual differences, social influences, and criminal behavior, this collection supports researchers and practitioners. It features advances in personality assessment, social cognition, and forensic psychology, aiming to understand and address complex human behaviors within societal and legal contexts.

  • Introduction to Forensic Psychology

    Issues and Controversies in Crime and Justice
    • 2nd Edition
    • Bruce A. Arrigo + 1 more
    • English
    Introduction to Forensic Psychology, Second Edition is an original approach to understanding how psychologists impact the research, practice, and policy of crime, law, and justice. Divided into four sections on criminal forensics, civil forensics, policing and law enforcement, and corrections and prison practices, the text examines police, court, and correctional aspects of forensic psychology. Each of the twelve chapters are organized around relevant case illustrations, include comprehensive literature reviews, and discuss policy implications and avenues of future research. Each chapter additionally incorporates research on race, gender, and class, as well as including a practice update, highlighting a timely issue or controversy.The text thoughtfully explores a wide range of adult, juvenile, family, and community themes of interest to students, practitioners, and administrators. New to the Second Edition is a chapter on international criminal forensic psychology, and sections on assessing psychiatric work-related disability, termination of parental rights, counseling prison populations, malingering, crisis intervention in prisons/jails, and child custody evaluations. Suitable as a primary text for courses on psychology and criminal justice, the book may also serve as a reference tool for practicing forensic psychologists.
  • Handbook of Forensic Psychology

    Resource for Mental Health and Legal Professionals
    • 1st Edition
    • William O'Donohue + 1 more
    • English
    Forensic psychology has mushroomed into a diverse and increasingly complex field that is equal parts law and psychology. Psychologists act as expert witnesses in legal cases - sometimes without knowing much about the laws involved, and legal professionals rely on the assessment of psychologists sometimes without knowing much about how such assessments are made. The purpose of this handbook is to provide professionals with current, practical, and empirically based information to guide their work in forensic settings, or to better their understanding of the issues and debates in forensic psychology.Divided into four sections, the Handbook of Forensic Psychology covers basic issues, assessment, mental disorders and forensic psychology, and special topics. The basic issue chapters present a primer on law for the psychologist, a primer on psychology for attorneys, an overview of ethical issues relevant to forensic psychology, and a chapter on forensic report writing. The assessment section discusses factors and measures relevant for assessing a variety of behaviors, propensities, and capabilities, including dangerousness, violence, suicide, competency, substance abuse, PTSD and neuropsychological evaluations, as well as discussing interviewing children and child custody evaluations. Additional chapters discuss eyewitness testimony, recovered memory, polygraphs, sexual harassment, juror selection, and issues of ethnicity in forensic psychology.
  • The Psychology of Serial Killer Investigations

    The Grisly Business Unit
    • 1st Edition
    • Robert D. Keppel + 1 more
    • English
    Serial killers like Seattle's Ted Bundy, Maryland's Beltway Sniper, Atlanta's Wayne Williams, or England's Peter Sutcliffe usually outsmart the task forces on their trail for long periods of time. Keppel and Birnes take readers inside the operations of serial killer task forces to learn why. What is the underlying psychology of a serial killer and why this defeats task force investigations? This is the first book of its kind that combines state-of-the-art psychological assessment experience with the expertise of a homicide investigator who has tracked some of this country's most notorious serial killers. The author also brings to the book hands-on best practices gleaned from the experience of other task forces. Readers, both professionals and students, will benefit from the comprehensive and critical case reviews, the analysis of what went wrong, what went right, and the after-action recommendations of evaluators in the US, UK, and Canada. The book covers: * The nature of the psychology of a serial killer * How crime assessment profiling reveals that psychology * Why psychological profiles fail * How serial killer task forces defeat themselves * How the media can, and usually does, undermine the task force operation * The big secret of all serial killer investigations: police already have the killer's name * The best practices for catching a serial killer
  • The Scientific Study of General Intelligence

    Tribute to Arthur Jensen
    • 1st Edition
    • Helmuth Nyborg
    • English
    This book celebrates two triumphs in modern psychology: the successful development and application of a solid measure of general intelligence; and the personal courage and skills of the man who made this possible - Arthur R. Jensen from Berkeley University. The volume traces the history of intelligence from the early 19th century approaches, to the most recent analyses of the hierarchical structure of cognitive abilities, and documents the transition from a hopelessly confused concept of intelligence to the development of an objective measure of psychometric g. The contributions illustrate the impressive power g has with respect to predicting educational achievement, getting an attractive job, or social stratification. The book is divided into six parts as follows: Part I presents the most recent higher-stream analysis of cognitive abilities, Part II deals with biological aspects of g, such as research on brain imaging, glucose uptake, working memory, reaction time, inspection time, and other biological correlates, and concludes with the latest findings in g-related molecular genetics. Part III addresses demographic aspects of g, such as geographic-, race-, and sex-differences, and introduces differential psychological aspects as well. Part IV concentrates on the g nexus, and relates such highly diverse topics as sociology, genius, retardation, training, education, jobs, and crime to g. Part V contains chapters critical of research on g and its genetic relationship, and also presents a rejoinder. Part VI looks at one of the greatest contemporary psychologists, Professor Emeritus Arthur R. Jensen as teacher and mentor.
  • Juvenile Sexual Homicide

    • 1st Edition
    • Wade C. Myers
    • English
    Sexual homicide is murder committed in tandem with either an overt sexual assault or sexually symbolic behavior. This type of murder carried out by youths is one of the rarest and most poorly understood crimes. How can young people carry out such horrific crimes? Do the offenders have anything in common? Do they show any warning signs? This book highlights groundbreaking research that begins to find the answers to these questions.Juvenile Sexual Homicide is the first book to take a comprehensive look at this specific type of crime and attempt to understand the young criminals involved. It is based on a 10-year study that evaluates a sample of juvenile sexual murderers and provides a revealing look at the psychopathology, personality, criminal, and behavioral characteristics of their offenses. Roger Blashfield, Mark Safarik, and Linda Monaco are contributing authors.Part I reviews the origins and framework of the research sample and provides a comprehensive overview of sexual homicide. Part II delves deeply into the criminal aspects of the sample study in relation to various mental disorders. Personal findings and psychopathy of the offenders are revealed in addition to the investigation into the role of anger in the crimes. Part III presents a more in-depth look at special issues and circumstances surrounding the juveniles and their crimes.
  • The Psychology of Stalking

    Clinical and Forensic Perspectives
    • 1st Edition
    • J. Reid Meloy
    • English
    The Psychology of Stalking is the first scholarly book on stalking ever published. Virtually every serious writer and researcher in this area of criminal psychopathology has contributed a chapter. These chapters explore stalking from social, psychiatric, psychological and behavioral perspectives. New thinking and data are presented on threats, pursuit characteristics, psychiatric diagnoses, offender-victim typologies, cyberstalking, false victimization syndrome, erotomania, stalking and domestic violence, the stalking of public figures, and many other aspects of stalking, as well as legal issues. This landmark text is of interest to both professionals and other thoughtful individuals who recognize the serious nature of this ominous social behavior.
  • Encyclopedia of Nationalism, Two-Volume Set

    • 1st Edition
    • Alexander J. Motyl
    • English
    Nationalism has unexpectedly become a leading local and international force since the end of the Cold War. Long predicted to give way to pan-national or economic organizations, nationalism exerts its tremendous force on all continents and in a wide variety of ways. The Encyclopedia of Nationalism captures the aims and scope of this force through a wide-ranging examination of concepts, figures, movements, and events. It is the only encyclopedic study of nationalism available today.
  • Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

    The Search for Optimal Motivation and Performance
    • 1st Edition
    • Carol Sansone + 1 more
    • English
    In understanding human behavior, psychologists have long been interested in what motivates specific actions. Debates have pitted extrinsic motivators (e.g. rewards/punishment) against intrinsic motivation in attempting to determine what best motivates individuals. This book provides a summary view of what research has determined about both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, and clarifies what questions remain unanswered. Divided into three sections, section I revisits the debate about the effects of extrinsic incentives or constraints on intrinsic motivation and creativity, and identifies theoretical advances in motivational research. Section II focuses on the hidden costs and benefits of different types of achievement goals on motivation and performance. Section III discusses theory and research findings on how extrinsic and intrinsic motivators may work in everyday life and over time. This book is of interest to researchers in psychology, education, and business, as well as to a wider audience interested in promoting optimal motivation and performance.Coverage in this book includes:@bul:* Debates and controversies in motivational research* Developmental nature of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation over time* Influences of parents, educators, and employers in facilitating motivation* Effect of achievement goals on learning and performance* The role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in self-regulation
  • Sex Differences

    Developmental and Evolutionary Strategies
    • 1st Edition
    • Linda Mealey
    • English
    Sex Differences serves as an advanced text for courses in evolutionary and human biology, psychology, and sexuality and gender studies. It also serves as a reference source for academic professionals in these disciplines. The book covers the evolution of sex and sex differences, and sex differences and sexual strategies in non-human and human animals. The final chapter addresses issues of sex and gender in interpersonal relationships, organizations and politics. Diagrams, graphs, charts, and tables illustrate key concepts; cartoons and photos provide visual breaks and an element of humor.
  • The Self in Anxiety, Stress and Depression

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 21
    • R. Schwarzer
    • English
    The focus of this book is on stressful experiences and emotional reactions. The common perspective is that self-related cognitions play an important role in describing and explaining the subjective experience of stress, anxiety and depression and the impact on academic performance and social interactions. The assumption of self-related cognitions as mediators in the regulation of one's behavior has a variety of consequences for different fields of applications in psychology.