Customer Reviews

Health Psychology with PowerWeb

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I teach this course and having looked at many books I can tell you that this is the most comprehensive out there. I find the writing style just fine and has been improved much over the editions. If one is looking for the latest and most accurate information than this is the book for you. Health Psychology is a relatively recent discipline so there are not as many textbooks out there. I find this to be the best for my purposes.

Shelley Taylor may be a well-respected researcher, but her skills as a textbook writer/educator leave much to be desired. She is primarily an academic social psychologist, and it shows-- there are very few clinical applications of the theory in the text. The book is very, very dry, repetitive, and (perhaps most importantly) it occasionally gives somewhat dated information. (This despite the fact that there was a delay in receiving my text because it was brand new!). I found the text to be somewhat condescending-- it attempts to make the information relevant to college/university students by discussing issues that our age group might identify with-- but I personally felt that Dr. Taylor has underestimated what undergraduates are capable of understanding. I also know that many, many other students in my health psych course disliked this text, and our instructor was even motivated enough to change texts for her next course!

Not only are the chapters of Taylor's book of ridiculous length (ch.3 is nearly 40 pages) The information provided as "case studies" is dated and boring. My largest qualm with this book is that is extremely repetitive. It's almost like when you have a long paper to write over a topic with little previous research, and you write the same things over and over in different ways just to lengthen it. This book is a great example of that. Some of the info in it is good but there's no need for the repitition. Also, the book is expensive ($124.55 at my university) but is very bland in appearance- No Color! Not even the pictures. Don't buy this book unless you have to.

Every time I had to pick this book up for reading for my health psych class a feeling of dread would come over me. I despised reading this textbook. It is, as someone else poignantly said, like a student trying to fluff up their paper so it meets the length requirement. It is very repetitive and full of so many citations that at times this becomes distracting. I also did not like the use of so many dated citations.

So much of the writing feels like the author is trying too hard to use "smart sounding" words and language, or used the thesaurus too much to change words when sometimes it seemed inappropriate. And for some reason, her use of the word "ameliorate" in possibly every chapter in the book elicited a groan every time I came across it. Don't know why, but I just thought I'd throw that out there. The writing style of this text just rubs me the wrong way for some reason, and then it's boring and repetitive on top of that.

Overall I find psychology interesting and am particularly interested in health topics since I work in health care, but this text unfortunately just gave me a case of the blahs. I suppose I learned a few things, but certainly don't read this book for leisure.

Health Psychology was received in very good condition & in a timely manner. This book gave much material causing one to think about that fact that the mental and physical many times intertwine. Fairly easy reading.

Overall, this is a good book. The only problem I had was a slight one and particular to my own idiosyncricies, which was that I had difficulty going back to review and find particular phrases or words to help me as a reference. Other than that this book is a very good read and an important learning tool in the topic of health in Psychology. I would recommend it to Psych. students.

HELLO, I NEED TO KNOW IF I CAN BUY THE EBOOK VERSION TO USE IT IN A BLACKBERRY PLAYBOOK. THANK YOU

I purchased this book for class. The cover was nice, new, and fairly thin. However, when you open the book, it felt like I was reading column in the newspaper as there was so many words written on ONE page. It took me forever to find what I want to find in the book even after using the index. There was just so many words jammed in one page that it did not amuse me to even read it. But I guess that's why the book was not thick or heavy. I should have purchased this book as an online book instead.

Good general overview of health psychology... not much attention to SES factors and other social policy things that might enhance people's ability to improve their own psychological and physical wellbeing. Focuses more on individuals and what influences them and what they should do to be happy and healthy - less focus on how we can tackle those influences that limit or interfere with individuals' efforts. This can come across as a bias against the significance of the barriers that people of low SES and disadvantaged or otherwise prejudiced groups encounter, suggesting that individuals can overcome these obstacles without giving ample attention to what those obstacles are and why they persist. However, including all of the social policy implications may be a bigger picture than the reader is looking for. A general overview of what individuals can do to better their physical and psychological health is covered in this book with lots of research references and general frameworks for understanding connections between the mind and the body.

Book is immaculate! Not very vibrant colors inside but all the right information is there. Good price for an informative textbook.