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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.

    • Freud Evaluated - The Completed Arc

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 75
      • December 14, 1990
      • M. Macmillan
      • English
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 0 8 0 8 6 7 2 9 8
      This volume is an historically based critical evaluation of Freud's personality theory. In it the observations Freud made are described and the theoretical ideas he put forward for explaining them are set out. The adequacy of Freud's explanations are judged against the logical and scientific standards of Freud's own time. The historical perspective will give the reader a sound basis on which to make a judgement about psycho-analysis as a method of investigation and a theory of personality as well as a sense of what Freud was about from Freud's own standpoint.Freud's endeavour is sited in the psychological and psychiatric context of the time, a period not previously given the critical attention it warrants. All of Freud's important assumptions and characteristic modes of thought are to be found in this formative period. The placement also brings out more clearly the basis of a number of the unresolved problems of contemporary psycho-analytic theory, such as the place of affect and the instinctual drives, the role of the ego, and the basis of treatment. The core of the evaluation centres on Freud's basic method for gathering data - free association - a method which is not much written about and hardly ever criticised. What is said about it is new and more substantial than the few criticisms that have been made. Although a very critical work, there is probably no other appraisal which allows Freud and his colleagues and followers to speak so directly for themselves.
    • Aging and Cognition

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 72
      • December 11, 1990
      • E.A. Lovelace
      • English
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 0 8 0 8 6 7 2 6 7
      Presented in this volume is a discussion of current literature and theoretical issues relating to three aspects of late-life age-related cognitive change. Firstly, evidence regarding aging and the basic mental processes of attention, motor control, memory, language, problem-solving, and intelligence are presented. Secondly, the role of personal traits such as personality and self-efficacy in the aging of cognitive function are developed, along with self-awareness of cognitive processes and age changes in the monitoring of these processes. Thirdly, consideration is given to the study of interventions to delay or remediate the cognitive declines of aging.
    • Problems in Movement Control

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 74
      • December 11, 1990
      • G. Reid
      • English
      • Paperback
        9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 4 8 8 3 2
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 0 8 0 8 6 7 2 8 1
      Difficulties in motor behavior are commonly associated with a variety of disabilities. Early research efforts focused on descriptions of specific groups of people or on evaluations of intervention programs. Only recently have investigators begun to explore questions from a variety of theoretical positions in an attempt to build a more fundamental understanding of the disabled person. The present volume represents views of major methodological issues, current research fronts and selected applied concerns from the perspective of the disabled performer. Authors write from a number of theoretical viewpoints and sketch future research directions in these chapters.
    • Human Motor Control

      • 1st Edition
      • November 28, 1990
      • David A. Rosenbaum
      • English
      • Hardback
        9 7 8 0 1 2 5 9 7 3 0 0 7
      • Paperback
        9 7 8 1 4 9 3 3 0 4 3 4 9
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 7 1 0 8 9
      Human Motor Control is a elementary introduction to the field of motor control, stressing psychological, physiological, and computational approaches. Human Motor Control cuts across all disciplines which are defined with respect to movement: physical education, dance, physical therapy, robotics, and so on. The book is organized around major activity areas.
    • Aging and Cognition

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 71
      • October 9, 1990
      • T.M. Hess
      • English
      • Paperback
        9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 4 8 8 6 3
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 0 8 0 8 6 7 2 5 0
      During the past two decades, there has been a dramatic increase in interest in the study of aging-related changes in cognitive abilities. In this volume researchers from a variety of theoretical perspectives discuss adult age differences in a wide range of cognitive skills. Of special interest is the extent to which aging effects on performance are related to variations in the representation, organization, and utilization of knowledge, broadly defined. Recent research and theory in the field of aging has emphasized the need to examine such processes more closely in order to provide a more complete understanding of aging effects on cognitive behavior.
    • The Development of Attention

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 69
      • August 23, 1990
      • J.T. Enns
      • English
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 0 8 0 8 6 7 2 3 6
      This volume presents an up-to-date review of developmental aspects of human attention by leading researchers and theorists. The papers included in the first section consider the ways in which newborns are pretuned to visual, auditory, linguistic, and social features of their environment, as well as how selectivity to these features changes in the first year of life. The following section examines properties of the visual and auditory world that are attention-getting for children. Developmental increases in capacity and strategy are also examined in this section through the study of perception, memory, problem-solving and language. Section III explores several ways in which selective processing can fail in development (e.g. autism, hyperactivity, and psychopathy) while Section IV reports on those aspects of selectivity that are lost (and preserved) in the aging process.
    • Cognitive Biases

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 68
      • August 23, 1990
      • J.-P. Caverni + 2 more
      • English
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 0 8 0 8 6 7 2 2 9
      Many studies in cognitive psychology have provided evidence of systematic deviations in cognitive task performance relative to that dictated by optimality, rationality, or coherency. The texts in this volume present an account of research into the cognitive biases observed on various tasks: reasoning, categorization, evaluation, and probabilistic and confidence judgments. The authors have attempted to discern the contribution of the study of bias to our understanding of the cognitive processes involved in each case, rather than proposing an inventory of the different types of biases. A special section has been devoted to studies on the correction of biases and cognitive aids.
    • Left-Handedness: Behavioral Implications and Anomalies

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 67
      • June 26, 1990
      • S. Coren
      • English
      • Paperback
        9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 5 8 3 5 0
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 0 8 0 8 6 7 2 1 2
      Left-handedness has been shown to be a possible marker for various psychological and physical abnormalities. This book presents evidence by a number of researchers who evaluate whether there are indeed differences between left- and right-handers which extend into the broader psychological and physiological realms.Several chapters show that left-handedness is found in unexpectedly high proportions in populations that suffer from various immune deficiency diseases, in alcoholics, dyslexics, mental retardates, psychopaths and other clinical groups. The book indicates why left-handedness should be a marker for such conditions. The genetic and environmental pressures on handedness are explored. A model for pathological left-handedness is presented, along with some interesting data which suggests that left-handedness may be associated with reduced life-span. Finally, several chapters discuss the implications of handedness patterns in non-clinical populations.