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Elsevier

Books in Psychology

Elsevier's Psychology collection is vital for students and psychologists, providing a thorough understanding of the mind and behavior. Covering human thought, development, personality, emotion, and motivation, it offers insights into both theoretical and practical aspects. Through topics like cognitive, developmental, and clinical psychology, it equips researchers and students to address real-world challenges and advance their understanding of the field.

  • Biological Psychiatry

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 14
    • Edward Bittar
    • English
    It is now widely recognised that biological psychiatry is rapidly coming into its own. For over the last three decades dramatic advances in this young discipline have been made, all of which attest to the staying power of the experimental method. Those who made this revolution in knowledge happen are a breed of investigators availing themselves of the tools of molecular biology, pharmacology, genetics, and perhaps, above all, the technology of neuroimaging. The introduction of the interdisciplinary method of approach to the study of psychopathology had made it very clear that neuroimaging, as a set of techniques, is unique in that it is gradually providing us with evidence supporting Kraepelin's original view that mental illness is closely associated with abnormal changes in the brain.Broadly speaking, there are presently two structural techniques in neuroimaging - computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) - and three functional techniques - single photon emission tomography (SPECT), positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Through PET technology, for example, we have learned that, in early brain development, the primitive areas, mostly the brain stem and thalamus, are the first to show high activity in an infant. This is followed by the development of cortical areas by year one. Between the ages of four to 10, the cortex is almost twice as active in the child as in the adult. This information alerts us to what might happen in the way of trauma in abused children, especially those under the age of three. Child abuse increases the risk of physical changes, not only in the stress systems, but also in brain development (Glaser and Weissman). In addition to the difficult problem of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), we have to take into account the possibility of other types of mental illness as the consequences of child abuse. These include depression, eating disorders, and drug and alcohol problems.The combination of PET and fMRI represents a more remarkable example of the power of neuroimaging since the two have made it feasible to map accurately in vitro identifiable cortical fields, or networks. In a landmark NIH investigation of human cortical reorganization (plasticity), persuasive evidence was brought forward showing that the process of learning as a motor task involves a specific network of neurons. These neurons occur in the cortical field that is responsible for that particular task. Such findings are important partly because they provide evidence supporting the current notion that labor in the cortex is divided among ensembles of specialized neurons that cooperate in the performance of complex tasks. Cooperation, then, in this, sense implies crosstalk among ensembles and that signals are both processed and retransmitted to neighbouring ensembles. To understand the workings of these ensembles, much better spatial and temporal resolution in functional brain mapping is required. This can be achieved with an NMR instrument whose magnet is 4.1 Tesla or more.

  • Assessing Science Understanding

    A Human Constructivist View
    • 1st Edition
    • Joel J. Mintzes + 2 more
    • English
    Recent government publications such as Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy and Science for All Americans have given teachers a mandate for improving science education in America. What we know about how learners construct meaning--particularl... in the natural sciences--has undergone a virtual revolution in the past 25 years. Teachers, as well as researchers, are now grappling with how to better teach science, as well as how to assess whether students are learning. Assessing Science Understanding is a companion volume to Teaching Science for Understanding and explores how to assess whether learning has taken place. The book discusses a range of promising new and practical tools for assessment, including concept maps, vee diagrams, clinical interviews, problem sets, performance-based assessments, computer-based methods, visual and observational testing, portfolios, explanatory models, and national examinations.

  • Vision in Vehicles VII

    • 1st Edition
    • I.D. Brown + 2 more
    • A.G. Gale
    • English
    The Seventh International Conference series on Vision in Vehicles was held in Marseilles in September 1997. This event was run in conjunction with the Applied Vision Association, the Ergonomics Society and with the participation of INRETS (Institut National de Recherche sur les Transports et leur Sécurité).This volume presents the selected and edited proceedings. The papers at the conference were ordered into sessions, from driver-specific aspects to interfacing with the new in-vehicle systems. These sessions are mirrored in the ordering of the chapters. The conference is long established and regularly draws representatives from the key international research centres working in this popular and diverse transportation area.

  • Time in Contemporary Intellectual Thought

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 2
    • P.J.N. Baert
    • English
    In this book, fifteen authors from a wide spectrum of disciplines (ranging from the natural sciences to the arts) offer assessments of the way time enters their work, the definition and uses of time that have proved most productive or problematic, and the lessons their subjects can offer for our understanding of time beyond the classroom and laboratory walls. The authors have tried, without sacrificing analytical rigour, to make their contribution accessible to a cross-disciplinary readership.Each chapter reviews time's past and present application in its respective field, considers the practical and logical problems that remain, and assesses the methods researchers are using to escape or resolve them. Particular attention is paid to ways in which the technical treatment of time, for problem-solving and model-building around specific phenomena, call on - or clash with - our intuitive perceptions of what time is and does. The spans of time considered range from the fractions of seconds it takes unstable particles to disintegrate to the millions of years required for one species to give way to another. Like all central conceptual words, time is understood on several levels. By inviting input from a broad range of disciplines, the book aims to provide a fuller understanding of those levels, and of the common ground that lurks at their base. Much agreement emerges - not only on the nature of the problems time presents to modern intellectual thought, but also on the clues that recent discoveries may offer towards possible solutions.

  • Cognitive Contributions to the Perception of Spatial and Temporal Events

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 129
    • G. Aschersleben + 2 more
    • English
    The book is concerned with the cognitive contributions to perception, that is, with the influence of attention, intention, or motor processes on performances in spatial and temporal tasks. The chapters deal with fundamental perceptual processes resulting from the simple localization of an object in space or from the temporal determination of an event within a series of events.Chapters are based on presentations given at the Symposium on the Cognitive Contributions to the Perception of Spatial and Temporal Events (September 7–9, 1998, Ohlstadt, Germany). Following each chapter are commentary pieces from other researchers in the field. At the meeting, contributors were encouraged to discuss their theoretical positions along with presenting empirical results and the book's commentary sections help to preserve the spirit and controversies of the symposium.The general topic of the book is split into three parts. Two sections are devoted to the perception of unimodal spatial and temporal events; and are accompanied by a third part on spatio-temporal processes in the domain of intermodal integration.The themes of the book are highly topical. There is a growing interest in studies both with healthy persons and with patients that focus on localization errors and dissociations in localizations resulting from different tasks. These errors lead to new concepts of how visual space is represented. Such deviations are not only observed in the spatial domain but in the temporal domain as well. Typical examples are errors in duration judgments or synchronization errors in tapping tasks. In addition, several studies indicate the influence of attention on both the timing and on the localization of dynamic events. Another intriguing question originates from well-known interactions between intermodal events, namely, whether these events are based on a single representation or whether different representations interact.

  • Handbook of Self-Regulation

    • 1st Edition
    • Monique Boekaerts + 2 more
    • English
    The Handbook of Self-Regulation represents state-of-the-art coverage of the latest theory, research, and developments in applications of self-regulation research. Chapters are of interest to psychologists interested in the development and operation of self-regulation as well as applications to health, organizational, clinical, and educational psychology. This book pulls together theory, research, and applications in the self-regulation domain and provides broad coverage of conceptual, methodological, and treatment issues. In view of the burgeoning interest and massive research on various aspects of self-regulation, the time seems ripe for this Handbook, aimed at reflecting the current state of the field. The goal is to provide researchers, students, and clinicians in the field with substantial state-of-the-art overviews, reviews, and reflections on the conceptual and methodological issues and complexities particular to self-regulation research.

  • Men and Depression

    Clinical and Empirical Perspectives
    • 1st Edition
    • Sam V. Cochran + 1 more
    • English
    Men and Depression: Clinical and Empirical Perspectives is the only book currently available that integrates psychological theories and the latest research findings with clinical recommendations for working with men who are suffering from depression. This volume covers a wide range of topics and issues that relate to men and depression, including: assessment of male depression; statistics on depression in men; theories to explain depression in men; treating depression in men with both pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy; the interrelation of grief, loss, trauma, and depression in men; the problem of suicide and how to assess and treat suicide risk in men; and prospects for future work in this important area.This is a unique reference and practical guide that integrates and evaluates research and clinical practice relating to the diagnosis and treatment of men with depression. The volume explores why men are underdiagnosed and undertreated for mood disorders and provides the clinician with practical guidelines for conceptualizing a treatment plan for men with depression.

  • Handbook of Attachment Interventions

    • 1st Edition
    • Terry M. Levy
    • English
    The emotional attachment of a child to caregivers, and the attachment of the caregivers to the child, is of vital importance to the child's socioemotional development. Proper attachment can affect one's ability to feel and express love, moral development, motivation to achieve, and sense of identity. Modern industrial societies have seen a recent surge in attachment problems, yet there has been little information on clinical interventions for attachment disorders. The Handbook of Attachment Interventions meets this need by providing information on diverse patient populations across different therapeutic philosophies, while providing specific techniques for treating attachment disordered children and their families. The book begins with a discussion of how attachment disorders relate to subsequent antisocial behavior patterns and other disorders, as well as general issues parents may encounter with an attachment disordered child. Subsequent chapters discuss special patient populations (the adopted child, military families, etc.) and techniques for intervention.Practit... in clinical, private practice, managed care, and hospital settings, social workers, developmental psychologists, and interested parents find the Handbook of Attachment Interventions a valuable reference.

  • Mental Models in Discourse Processing and Reasoning

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 128
    • G. Rickheit + 1 more
    • English
    In this interdisciplinary discussion on mental models, researchers from various areas in cognitive science tackle the following questions: What is a mental model? What are the prospects and limitations in applying the mental model notion in cognitive science? How can the ideas on the nature of mental models and their mode of operation be empirically substantiated? The primary goal of the research group was to work out a definition of mental models that embraces the overall use of this construct in cognitive science as well as the more specific conceptions used in particular research domains such as cognitive linguistics. Theoretical claims about the properties of mental models were discussed and their tenability evaluated against the empirical evidence.The volume is divided into three parts. Fundamental aspects of mental models are presented in the first section, the following part contains contributions to the function of mental models in discourse processing, and finally problems of mental models in reasoning and problem solving are outlined.

  • Handbook on Animal-Assisted Therapy

    Theoretical Foundations and Guidelines for Practice
    • 1st Edition
    • Aubrey H Fine + 4 more
    • English
    Handbook on Animal-Assisted Therapy provides a comprehensive overview of the many ways in which animals can be used to assist therapists. Coverage includes how animals can assist specific patient populations (children, the disabled, AIDS patients, etc.), how animals can aid in specific settings (hospitals, prisons, independent practice, etc.), and how professionals can best select appropriate animals (species, breed, and individual temperament) and design an AAT program.Humans have long had a special bond with animals, initially as work animals, then as pets, and now more frequently as therapeutic companions. Animals help the sick recover more quickly and help the aged live longer and more satisfying lives. Specially trained animals are now helping stroke victims, the handicapped, and others to regain or build lost faculties. Increasingly, animals assist in nonphysical/medical therapies, helping the stressed and angry relax and the shy be more forthcoming.Contribu... represent the top people in the field from hospital settings, vet hospitals, animal training centers, and therapists in practice.

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