Customer Reviews

Abnormal Psychology Media and Research Update with MindMap CD

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Don't spend your money on this thing. Although it's clearly written, it doesn't have the right content. Some examples.

A. The author doesn't spend time explaining the actual disorders - she just lists the symptoms, but skips the details. For example, she doesn't even try to explain the vicious cycle involved in OCD. She just lists up the symptoms, in a table (straight from DSM!), and goes on with the prevalence of OCD. That doesn't help you understand OCD, does it?

B. The author is overly focused on *statistics*. Comparing prevalence of disorders (or specific symptoms) between the sexes, europeans/americans/asian. She doesn't do it just sometimes, no, no; for every single disorder (Bipolar, mania, OCD, depression, suicide, etc), there is at least half a page spent on statistics. For example: "OCD often begins at young age... the peak age of onset for males is between 6 and 15 years and for females it is between 20 and 29 years. [..] Between 1 and 3 percent of people will develop OCD at sometime in their lives. In the United States, European Americans show a higher prevalence of OCD than do African American. The prevalence of OCD does not seem to different greatly across countries that have been studied, including [list of names skipped]. Although some studies have found slightly higher rates of OCD in women than in men, other studies have not." What exactly, is the point of this?

C. The author spends space in *each chapter* of the book on psychodynamic theories, but in the first chapter she stated that "it is difficult or impossible to scientifically test their fundamental assumptions". Why then waste space then on these theories? It does not make any sense at all.

D. The use of graphics is substandard, to say the least. A picture of a person sitting in a chair, inside, in the chapter about "agoraphobia"? This is a joke.

E. For teachers, there is a "question pack" from which they can extract questions to create exams. Now, I haven't seen this "question pack", but I know some questions which came from this pack. Let me show you one. "Of the following people, who did NOT support the idea that many people accused of being witches actually suffered from mental illness? A. Benjamin Franklin. B.Benjamin Pinel C. Benjamin Rush. D. Benjamin Pinker." No, I'm not joking. Questions of this sort are common in this "pack" - both regarding how difficult they are and how utterly besides-the-point they are. -

These are just few examples, I could go on, and on.

You deserve better education, don't use this book. Return it - or better yet, recycle it.

I was supposed to receive and updated edition and it was not, I did not have any problem with that because the content but pretty much the same, but the thing i did not like it is that i ended up paying more money for a book of less value.

The book is very interesting and I like that it is bound. I find the MindMap CD very difficult to use and the quality is poor.

Got this for a class at a much better rate than the school bookstore including shipping. It's been very useful so far and very informative. Includes real world case studies with each chapter.

This text provides a huge overview of hundreds of disorders and mental illnesses, their etiology, research, symptoms and diagnosis. I bought it for the Abnormal Psych course at Carleton University, which I found to be a bit too broad in scope, and the book somewhat reflects this. It is more of a topical overview of individual disorders, theories and treatments than it is an in depth review of the major, more prevalent forms of mental illness.

Overall the book was edifying, if a bit oversimplistic in some areas (ie. 'Children with difficult temperaments can make parenting stressful' and 'Children are often very proud of themselves when they learn to control their bowel movements'. Sadly these types of sentences are common in psych texts). It's a good start if you are thinking of becoming a clinical psychologist and wish to decide what area to specialize in.

A note for anyone at Carleton: I bought the 2006 edition even though we needed the 2008, but didn't have much of a problem and was able to get a decent grade anyway.

Everything was great with this transaction! The book was in perfect condition, and I received it very quickly. I was very happy with my purchase and would definitely do it again with this seller.

The book arrived far ahead of when I expected it and it was in excellent condition, almost brand new. The only give-away were a few high-lightings within a chapter of the book and a few scraps of paper a previous student had left behind.

The book came in great condition, CD still in the back of the book, and great condition. It came in good time too.

this book was in good condition and sent in a timely manner, I highly recommend this seller