Customer Reviews

The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology: Fourth Edition (Penguin Reference)

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As an adjunct professor of psychology, there have been times when I have looked up words in a collegiate dictionary and not found the psychological term, or found a definition that was very inadequate. On the whole, this dictionary gives a good overview of psychological terms in a concise manner. It also gives them from differnt viewpoints; for example how a person from a psychodynamic perspective would define a term versus a cognitive-behavioral therapist.

The only downside to this book is that it does seem too technical at times. At least twice I have looked up terms I already knew, and found that the definition was not clear at all. Still, this is a good reference, especially for students.

As a doctoral student in clinical psychology, I have used no other single book more frequently. Despite some omissions, this is the best book of its kind.

As a psychology student, I thought this would be good investment although I was a little concerned about how such a small book could be of use on such a broad topic. I have used this dictionary a number of times to check if it had what I thought were some fairly detailed words - and I was wonderfully surprised to find them every time. I find the defintions to be sufficiently detailed every time - either giving you enough information to jolt your memory on the topic or enough information to know where to look up for detail in the large text books.

This work explains every key terms in every perspectives in Psychology. As a beginning Psychology student I found this work extremely useful to me. Not only will you find this work comprehensive and concise but also user-friendly. I think this work should be at the top of your 'book selection priority list'.

I'm a grad student in clinical psych in Los Angeles. This book wasn't required, but highly recommended by one of my professors. It has been a great tool (especially for those last minute APA style papers that require multiple sources), BUT I was really surprised by the snarky tone it takes with the definition of "parapsychology". One would think that they would at least ATTEMPT to be objective. The definition's tone is not would you expect from a reference book.

I purchased this book as a "good to have" as a psych undergrad student.

I consistently find that the term I want to check isn't there, or the definition is so vague as to be of no use. For an example of a missing term, mindfulness, a popular psychological technique related to meditation, isn't in there, yet it has been researched for decades.

It's got good stuff in it - but for me, it just never seems to have the thing I'm actually looking at it for.

I was writing a research paper for a masters in counseling and purchased this. It was very helpful but its large, I thought it would be small and more portable. But for the price, bought it used, it was worth it. Explains lots of term that acedemics use to confuse students like me.

I'm currently a Psychology degree student and there is not one item I could think of that is more helpful to my course than this dictionary is. It contains over 17,000 definitions of terms you would come across almost every day in Psychology. Put together by Psychologists Arthur S. Reber and Emily S. Reber, this is every Psychology students dream.

The definitions are effective and easy to understand and there are even some definitions that seem utterly pointless. It covers all relevant fields within Psychology and also discusses how some definitions are incorporated into every day Psychological research and treatment. It also goes into detail on other more important concepts such as addiction.

Although detailed and concise, the authors from the start make you aware that it's not a biography and does not hold definitions about important people in Psychology. It does, however, include the definitions that hold the name of the Psychologist that adds to certain important theories such as "Freudian Slip." Along with the Psychologist definition, it also directs you to the exact psychological medical definition.

Here are some examples of the definitions contained within to give you some idea of what to expect.

Insomnia

A general term for chronic inability to sleep normally, as evidenced by difficulty in falling asleep, frequent waking during the night, and/or early morning waking with attendant difficulty in falling back to sleep. In the vast majority of cases insomnia is caused by either anxiety or pain. Over the years a large number of synonyms have been used, including agrypnia, ahypnia, ahyposia, anhypnia, anhypnosis and other variations. The current view is that insomnia is not a single disorder but a complex group of related disorders, which has led to the suggestion that the term disorders of initiating and maintaining sleep be used in place of insomnia.

Agraphia

Partial or complete loss of writing ability due to cerebral pathology, an analogue of motor aphasia. Several special forms are often noted.

As you can see the definitions vary widely in size and detail, but there are also massive definitions that take up almost an entire page. As also indicated with the definition of Agraphia, there are many different variations of the same condition, but the dictionary is arranged which allows those variations of Agraphia to stay in linear fashion with the base definition so you don't have to be flicking through a number of pages to see the alternative types and what they do.

It's a highly useful tool and is something worthwhile for all those embarking on a Psychology course in the future as I promise you'll be picking it up every 5 minutes.

Of all the dictionaries of psychology on the market, this is the very best. So good you end up reading it just for fun.

good value, valable book to have for studying.
much cheaper than buying in the shops.
didnt have to pay VAT from north america!