Customer Reviews

Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology

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To preface: at the time of this writing I am finishing my Master's degree in psychology, and currently enrolled in an Advanced Developmental Psychopathology course using this text.

I have more than five years experience working with the chronically and acutely mentally ill, both as a social worker as well as in a direct care capacity.

I have taken several developmental courses, psychopathology courses, and developmental psychopathology courses.

It should be noted that the text in question presents no factual inaccuracies that I know of. The book is not flawed in any sense beyond how it is written. But the writing is a tremendous problem.

The book appears to be written in a pattern aimed at people who think in a pattern radically different than counselors. The opening chapter attempts to use equations to describe behavior, when a simple descriptive paragraph would have been much easier. The entire book progresses in this fashion, seeing people as a series of variables coming together, rather than as dynamic individuals.

As an example, in explaining an interactional or transformational model of development, I might say "the child and the environment dynamically interact. The environment can change or modify the child's behaviors, but as the child changes, his new interactions with his parents and school changes the environment, which then in turn acts on the child, and so on, and so on."

The text favors presenting this information as (E) + (c) --> (EC) -->(e2) + (EC) --> e3

I don't know about you, but that doesn't make much sense to me.

The text is also incredibly dry, and often relatively simple concepts that could be explained in one to two paragraphs are stretched over one to two pages. Generally, reading for most classes can be considered a chore. It is a student's job. But with this text, the writing is extraordinarily cumbersome, and reading it unnecessarily unpleasant.

The dry writing aside, it is important to emphasize that the rating given is my own personal opinion. The text conflicts with my learning style. It is written in a manner completely unlike any other psychology textbook I have ever read and I find it to be extremely irritating. But if you are the sort of person for whom math was always your best subject, and English literature your worst, you may find this text a refreshingly clear and straightforward presentation of concepts that may otherwise be unclear to you.