SpringerBriefs in Psychology – serie

A child’s close bond with mother, father, or guardian usually provides a foundation for trust in all future attachments. Children deprived of early and healthy dependency—who do not form normal attachment with their caregivers—may later suffer from Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD). This childhood disorder is characterized by a general failure in social relationships resulting from pathogenic care.Although first included in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-III) in 1980, RAD is one of the more uncommon and understudied forms of psychopathology. Reactive Attachment Disorder: A Case-Based Approach adds to a now growing research base, providing scholars and clinicians with a well-rounded analysis of RAD and suggested treatments. The case-based approach used in this Brief follows the representative case of “Jorge,” presented as unfolding over time and structured to illustrate challenges of diagnosis, to show examples of co-morbidity, and to provoke reflection on what questions may arise during treatment. Readers are asked to appraise the overlap with other clinical syndromes, the forms of psychotherapy which may apply, and the potential role of psychiatric medications as part of a comprehensive treatment plan.

During the past 25 years, a great deal of research and theory has addressed the development of young children’s understanding of mental states such as knowledge, beliefs, desires, intentions, and emotions.  Although developments in children’s understanding of the mind subsequent to early childhood has received less attention, in recent years a growing body of research has emerged examining understanding of psychological functioning during middle and late childhood. Combined with the literature on adolescent epistemological development, this research provides a broader picture of age-related changes in children’s understanding of the mind.Guided by the goals of describing developmental changes in children’s concepts of cognitive functioning and identifying sources of information that contribute to learning about cognition, Children’s Discovery of the Active Mind organizes empirical literature concerning the development of children’s knowledge of cognitive activities from early childhood to adolescence and presents a conceptual framework that integrates children’s introspective activities with social influences on development.  Bringing together theoretical and empirical work from developmental, cognitive, and social psychology, the author argues that rather than depending upon a single source of information, developmental progress is driven by combinations of children’s conceptual knowledge of mental functioning, children’s phenomenological awareness of their own cognitive activities, and children’s social experience.

​​At a time when rates of depression and other mental health problems are increasing significantly among high school students, measures of school attitude and well-being are of central importance to school practitioners. Students with positive attitudes about school experience more beneficial outcomes and are also less likely to engage in maladaptive, risky behaviors. Therefore, monitoring how students feel about their experiences at school is important, and a novel, fresh approach to examining school attitude is sorely needed. Past studies of school attitude have generally focused on internal, psychological correlates of school attitude, such as individual and subjective reports of students’ attitude toward school and their motivation levels. Evaluating  and Promoting Positive School Attitude in Adolescents goes beyond these traditional measurements and explores less psychologically focused indicators, including ecological factors and observable behaviors. This study provides school psychologists with a new, comprehensive, and ecologically based approach with which to evaluate the school attitude of high school students.​

​​​​ The debate between theist and atheist is an old one and has recently become a highly publicized one. There are some well known proponents of arguments on both sides. To provide a different perspective this book takes a psychoanalytically based evolutionary view, presenting an entirely original theoretical concept.  It introduces an epigenetic component to the discussion of God/no God within the context of evolutionary processes at the point where a thinking brain appears -- a cerebral cortex characteristic of homosapien. Therefore, it joins evolutionary phenomena with psychological realities for survival and safety, for empowerment and the absence of disempowerment. Research is cited to show that such instinctive survival behavior involves several prototypical behavioral categories relevant to all organisms from amoeba to man.             Freud, Darwin, Gould, and the major historical figures of the God/no God debate are included throughout, and the point is made that environmental conditions can produce biological effects and this is the essence of the proposed epigenetical context of the debate. Therefore, this volume concerns itself with exploring the question of whether there is a God-gene or whether God is discovered epigentically in a psycho/evolutionary context.  In either case, this book does not argue for the existence or non-existence of God. Rather, it introduces a new dimension to the debate − a psycho/evolutionary one.  ​​​​

​​This book highlights a neglected area in the field of rehabilitation offemale offenders with AIDS.  It provides data to show how women, workingas HIV peer educators in prison, utilize their peer experiences as a transition point for rehabilitation both inside and outside of the penitentiary. HIV and prison are inextricably linked and education has proved to be the one constant that mitigates the spread of both HIV and crime. Research on female inmates in general is not frequent and this book presents unique qualitative data that includes rich accounts from the women themselves. It illustrates the benefits derived by female inmates who work in an HIV prison-based peer program, while adding to the criminology literature on female patterns of criminality and rehabilitation. It provides a greater understanding of how prison programs affect the processes of criminal desistance and behavioral changes for femaleinmates. Women involved in such programming are able to change the criminal trajectory of their life direction.  contributing to reduced levels of recidivism and institutional disciplinary infractions.  The implications for these programs is relevant within the broader perspective of women, HIV and incarceration.     ​

​​​​The cornerstone of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy isits ABC framework which helps therapists make sense of clients' problems. As it turns out, however, this model is often misunderstood by both clients and professionals. Research investigation on this misunderstanding forms the basis of this book. It addresses the doubts, reservations and objections clients had to the ABC framework in a research study of an REBT-based program in a psychiatric hospital. Additionally, errors and confusions on the part of those writing about the therapy is reviewed. Further, study was made on the accuracy of REBTtherapists, themselves, in teaching this therapy to students. Also included is an analysis of how Albert Ellis, himself, has explicated the ABC's. This book is the first to systematically study how different groups conceptualise the ABCs of REBT and the errors that are commonly made in interpreting and putting them into practice. It will be of value to students and practitioners of REBT, and those teaching REBT in academic settings.

​​​​​By providing empirical data and multidisciplinary considerations, the book increases awareness of child sex offender suicide among the various entities which come into contact with this population of offenders. This book attempts to bring awareness of this potentially high risk population to better inform the law enforcement, corrections, and mental health communities of the unique risk factors for suicide among CSOs and provide a more effective crisis response. The Federal Bureauof Investigation (FBI) Behavioral Analysis Unit III- Crimes Against Childrenreviewed and analyzed 106 male Child Sex Offenders (CSO) who committed suicide during the course of a child sex crime investigation.  Of the 106 CSOs, 79% were child pornography traders/collectors, 43% were child molesters, 21% were travelers, and 18% were child pornography producers.  Analyses also revealed that nearly all were Caucasian and the majority were married, employed, and died via self-inflicted gunshot wound.  Of particular interest was that in 26% of thecases, the offender killed himself within 48 hours of his awareness of theinvestigation; and in nearly half of the known cases, the offender hadpast/current military service and a criminal history.  In addition, 68% left a suicide note, which is substantially higher than the general suicide population. Analysis of the notes revealed common aspects and themes including cognitive distortions, burdensomeness, shame, and self-blame. The most frequently cited reason for the suicide in the note was the child sex crime investigation.

​This exciting publication provides the reader with a theoretical and practical approach to adaptive decision making, based on an appreciation of cognitive styles, in a cross-cultural context. The aim of  this Brief is to describe the role of thinking-through different options as part of the decision-making process. Since cognitive style influences decision behavior, the book will first examine thinking styles, which involve both cognitive and emotive elements, as habits or preferences that shape and empower one’s cognition and emotion.   The information contained in this Brief will be a useful resource to both  researchers studying decision making as well as to instructors in the higher education sector and to human resource development practitioners, especially those working in international, multi-cultural companies.

This book uses newly collected data with nearly 2000 observations across Africa and Latin America of SME owner/operators to examine if psychometric tools can distinguish the good ones from the bad ones. This book fully describes the development problem and how psychometric tools can help solve it. Moreover, it presents and develops the unique statisticalmethodologies to deploy psychometric tools for credit screening. This will be the single complete publication of the work to date by the entrepreneurial finance lab, created by Klinger & Khwaja. This work started as a research project at Harvard University’s center for international development, with funding from Google.org. This work is very high profile, winning the G-20 SME Finance Challenge in 2010 (global open competition to identify the best scalable solutions to unlocking SME finance- winners honored at the G-20 summit in Seoul Korea and receiving significant funding from G-20 countries for the implementation of their models).

​This monograph owes its  origins to the decades-old proposal by David Bakan (1968) about the duality of human experience. He proposed that community and agency  would be two necessary and  sufficient constructs  to classify and to encompass most human relationships. This dichotomy  has been found to be valid by a variety of contributions over the last half a century (L’Abate, 2009; L’Abate, Cusinato, Maino,Colesso, & Scilletta, 2010).Additionally, the purpose of this book is to argue and assert  that two important fields of psychology,  family and personality  psychologies, if not already dead are conceptually, empirically, and practically moribund. They are  being superseded respectively by perhaps more appropriate, perhaps more specific,  and more likely verifiable concepts and constructs, such as intimacy and identity. The traditional family stillconceived as composed by two parents and two children of different gender is esponsible for only one fourth of all domiciles in USA. Singles, same-sex couples, and completely different family organization complete the remaining 100%. Difficulties in defining what is personality require a  change in perspective and advance toward a comprehensive theory of human relationships that can and should fulfill requirements necessary to achieve an undoubtedly  grandiose and ambitious universal status.​

How are abstract concepts and words represented in the brain? That is the central question addressed by the authors of “Words as Social Tools: An Embodied View on Abstract Concepts”. First, they focus on the difficulties in defining what abstract concepts and words are, and what they mean in psycholinguistic research. Then the authors go on to describe and critically discuss the main theories on this topic with a special emphasis on the different embodied and grounded theories proposed in cognitive psychology within the last ten years, highlighting the advantages and limitations of each of these theories. The core of this Brief consists of the presentation of a new theory developed by the authors, the WAT (Words As social Tools) view, according to which both sensorimotor (such as perception, action, emotional experiences) and linguistic experiences are at the basis of abstract concepts and of abstract word representation, processing and use. This theory assigns a major role to acquisition: one of the assumptions the authors make is that the different ways in which concrete and abstract words are acquired constrain their brain representation and their use. This view will be compared with the main existing theories on abstractness, from the theory of conceptual metaphors to the theories on multiple representation. Finally, the volume illustrates recent evidence from different areas (developmental, behavioral, cross-cultural, neuropsychological and neural) which converge with and support the authors' theory, leading to the conclusion that in order to account for representation and processing of abstract concepts and words, an extension of embodied and grounded theories is necessary.

Globally there is growing concern over charities abilities to raise funds. This is of concern to both charity organizations and policy makers. One of the key factors that determine the public’s willingness to provide funds (to donate) is trust in both specific charity organizations and the sector in general. A significant amount of research from a number of disciplines has pointed to ways in which the public’s trust can be generated and maintained. Bring this research into a single source will provide a valuable guide for both individual charity organizations and policy makers.

This book provides an overview and discussion of Cultural Psychology of Semiotic Dynamics (CPSD) as a general developmental science. It discusses the challenging interplay between the sophisticated abstract concept of a holistic-dynamic understanding of the psyche and the concrete human experience.  Chapters begin by framing the specific topics discussed in the book and elaborating on the border “zone” in between individual and collective-societal meanings. Subsequent chapters and a final conclusion discuss CPSC as an abstractive conceptual enterprise.   The book is divided into sections, each beginning with a chapter written by Jaan Valsiner. The individual sections focus on (I) the nature of psyche as a semiotic constructive process; (II) the primacy of affect as semiotic constructive processes, highlighting the role of the sublime as a border between mundane and aesthetic experience; and (III) the ambivalent core of the human mind, marked by the constructive and destructive semiosis for encountering the sublime as locus of novelty emergence.Cultural Psychology as Basic Science will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers and professors in the fields of psychology, anthropology, history, philosophy, and research branches of the social sciences.

The clinical protocols included in this book are focused both on clinical and subclinical depression and are targeted for both adults and youth. After providing a concise overview on depression and the empirical data supporting the clinical protocols, the book illustrates REBT/CBT protocols that provide essential guidance on how to address depression by practitioners at all levels of expertise (e.g. therapists in training and/or more experienced therapists). ​​ ​​ The field of psychotherapy research is now at a stage where the efficacy (i.e., how treatments work in controlled studies) and effectiveness (i.e., how treatments work in real life) of psychological treatments have been demonstrated for a large spectrum of disorders (Barlow, 2001). Cognitive – behavior therapies (CBT) are considered the gold standard for empirically validated forms of psychotherapy in the treatment of clinical and subclinical depression, showing short- and long-term effects (see Barlow,2001; Chambless & Hollon, 1998) that are at least as strong as those of pharmacotherapy (medication) or other therapies (i.e., interpersonal therapy; DeRubeis et al., 200 5; Hollon et al., 2005; Shea et al., 1992) and it is hoped that these treatments will help not only treat but also prevent the onset of major depression (Cuijpers, Smit, & Straten, 2007). Cognitive –behavior therapies are based on the premise that psychological problems stem from dysfunctional cognitions (Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979; Ellis, 1962). In CBT, the therapist works with the client to identify and focus upon dysfunctional cognitions to modify them and remedy associated emotional and/or behavior al consequences. Two of the most influential and widespread forms of CBT are cognitive therapy (CT) and rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) (Elis, 1987; David, 2007; David & Szentagotai, 2006).

This Open Access Brief analyzes the dynamics in which children’s selves emerge through their everyday activities of meaning construction, both in their relationships with family and within school education. It begins with a discussion of new psychological inquiries into children's selves and builds upon the innovative theoretical notion of the Presentational Self, developed by the author over the last decade.The book illustrates how the observation of children’s meaning construction in their everyday lives becomes a starting point for theoretical and empirical inquiries into child development and gives a framework that promotes new inquiries in this area. The book describes the Presentational Self Theory as a sense of how the notion of the Self is being worked upon in everyday life encounters. Chapters feature in-depth analyses of exchanges between adults and children in the Japanese cultural context. Meaning-Making for Living will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in the fields of cognitive, social, developmental, educational, and cultural psychology.

This brief offers understanding and insight into how to define, establish, and maintain personal safety to minimize risks of negative encounters with psychopaths. The author, through a behavioral science research lens sprinkled with autobiographical anecdotes, details causes of psychopathy, links between crime and psychopathy, and focuses particular attention on strategies and preventative measures that individuals who encounter psychopathic others can employ to assert their own personal mental and physical well-being.

The term chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has recently gained a significant amount of media coverage. However, a large proportion of the information disseminated through the media pertaining to the etiology, neuropathology, and clinical manifestations of CTE are not corroborated by empirical research, and are disputed by prominent researchers who study sports related head injury. This book reviews the existing literature pertaining to these components of CTE and includes unique case studies of several retired NFL players that received a comprehensive neuropsychological battery from a board certified neuropsychologist, among other populations. It investigates the claim that CTE causes depression, violent behavior, and an increased risk for suicide by providing an in depth discussion using empirical data.  Highlighting the importance of adhering to post concussion protocol and appreciating the long-term consequences of repeated head trauma, this unique review of the current research on CTE will be useful to students and professionals in psychology and neurology.

Mental illness occurs in all communities, regardless of social status, gender, race, or culture. Despite this, research in mental health historically has been biased towards Western-centric heterosexual male models of disease. Many models of service have excluded sexual and ethnic minorities and may not have been inclusive of different cultures or spiritual approaches. All of these factors may in turn isolate these communities and thus lead to an increased vulnerability to disease. This brief explores the diversity of cultural, ethnic, social, and gender perspectives on how to achieve better mental health care for societies across the globe. The authors emphasize diversity focusing on lifespan aspects, while weaving in social, racial, ethnic, cultural, and gender perspectives. They further expand their analysis by zeroing in on prominent determinants in global mental health care, including globalization, international migration, specific population idiosyncrasies, climate change, and political context. Finally, it includes novel neurobiological and biomedical approaches to treatment, and a suggestions of how those can be implemented from the perspective of diversity and gender inclusiveness. Diversity in Global Mental Health will be of great interest to experts and researchers in behavioral medicine, as well as practitioners and educators working in global mental health promotion and prevention of mental illness and related fields such as psychology, social policy, and public health.

This brief sets out on a course to distinguish three main kinds of thought that underlie scientific thinking.Current science has not agreed on an understanding of what exactly the aim of science actually is, how to understand scientific knowledge, and how such knowledge can be achieved. Furthermore, no science today also explicitly admits the fact that knowledge can be constructed in different ways and therefore every scientist should be able to recognize the form of thought that under-girds their understanding of scientific theory. In response to this, this texts seeks to answer the questions: What is science? What is (scientific) explanation? What is causality and why it matters? Science is a way to find new knowledge. The way we think about the world constrains the aspects of it we can understand. Scientists, the author suggests, should engage in a metacognitive perspective on scientific theory that reflects not only what exists in the world, but also the way the scientist thinks about the world.

Emerging policy changes are encouraging adoption of a team-based approach to healthcare, yet most healthcare professionals receive little training in how to practice integrated care. Basics of Behavioral Health in Primary Care is a playbook for mental health and medical professionals to share in addressing behavioral health concerns in primary care. Concise and practical, this clinically-focused book addresses the needs of a diverse group of healthcare providers, as well as students preparing for careers in the rapidly changing landscape of healthcare.

This brief charts out principles for a cultural psychology of remembering. The idea at its core is a conceptualization of remembering as a constructive process--something that occurs at the intersection of a person and their social-cultural world. To do this, it moves away from the traditional metaphor of memory as storage and develops the alternative metaphor of construction as part of wider social and cultural developments in society. This new approach is developed from key ideas of Lev Vygotsky and Frederic Bartlett, in particular their concepts of mediation and reconstructive remembering. From this foundation, the authors demonstrate how remembering is conflictual, evolving, and transformative at both the individual and collective level. This approach is illustrated with concrete case studies, which highlight key theoretical concepts moving from micro-level processes to macro-level social phenomena. Among the topics covered are:The microgenesisof memories in conversationThe role of narrative mediation in the recall of historyRemembering through social positions in conflictsUrban memory during revolutionsHow memorials are used to channel grief and collective memoryRemembering as a Cultural Process traces our ongoing journey to answer the question of the different ways in which culture participates in and is constitutive of what it means for humans to remember. It will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers in the fields of memory studies or cultural psychology.

This brief presents the case study of a hill in Czech Republic (Říp) and its region, and contributes to theorization in sociocultural psychology on three points, along three current debates. First, it contributes to the exploration of the mutual constitution of the lifecourse and of history, uses a distinction between socio-, micro- and ontogenesis, and argues that a focus on a delimited geographical space enables to better observe the processes by which history, daily situated interactions and courses of life shape each other. Second, in doing so, it sketches an understanding of the role of the material, spatial and semiotic specificities of landscapes in human development. Especially, it identifies some of the processes by which redundant dynamic patterns present in the environment may participate to the guidance of human experience. Third, it expands the reflection on case study construction and generalization. On the one side, it participates to a current debate in cultural psychology on the dynamics of generalization from single cases; on the other, it also dialogues with a more general reflection in the social sciences on social dynamics at the scale of small regions. Altogether, this brief is a first attempt to examine jointly these questions at the scale of a small region, a unique natural laboratory of social and psychological change. It will be of interest to researchers as well as graduate students in the fields of cultural and sociocultural psychology, cognitive psychology, and the social sciences.

This is a book about imaginative work and its relationship with the construction of knowledge. It is fully acknowledged by epistemologists that imagination is not something opposed to rationality; it is not mere fantasy opposed to intellect. In philosophy and cognitive sciences, imagination is generally “delimiting not much more than the mental ability to interact cognitively with things that are not now present via the senses.” (Stuart, 2017, p. 11) For centuries, scholars and poets have wondered where this capability could come from, whether it is inspired by divinity or it is a peculiar feature of human mind (Tateo, 2017b).The omnipresence of imaginative work in both every day and highly specialized human activities requires a profoundly radical understanding of this phenomenon. We need to work imaginatively in order to achieve knowledge, thus imagination must be something more than a mere flight of fantasy. Considering different stories in the field of scientific endeavor, I will try to propose the idea that the imaginative process is fundamental higher mental function that concurs in our experiencing, knowing and understanding the world we are part of. This book is thus about a theoretical idea of imagining as constant part of the complex whole we call the human psyche. It is a story of human beings striving not only for knowledge and exploration but also striving for imagining possibilities.​

This book focuses on the small but disturbing percentage of homicides by children that occur each year, providing a brief overview of the legal, individual, and social aspects of this phenomenon.  Since the 1980s, these crimes have been on the rise and the resulting legal response has been harsher punishments as well as treatment of children like adults.  This has led to a host of failures in the juvenile justice system wherein recidivism is high and general outcome is low. The book reviews the literature on youth homicide, including gender, age, and race factors, as well as individual, familial, and environmental risks. The authors seek to aid in the identification and understanding of juvenile homicide to raise awareness of both a population that receives little formal psychological intervention and of the systemic deficiencies that affect these individuals as well as society itself. Exploring current theories, trends, and common factors in juvenile homicide, this brief aims to improve prevention, intervention, and reintegration of young offenders into the community.

This brief explores the current theories, trends, risk factors, and intervention efforts related to juvenile crime. Although arrest rates for juveniles in the US have declined over the last two decades, the amount of severe crimes warrants increased examination as the US reports higher rates than most other developed countries. The authors examine individual, family, and environmental risk and protective factors for juvenile crime, while considering the need for better integration of treatment into critically at-risk areas of the community. Covering notable topics of interest for researchers and public policy makers alike, this brief provides an overview of factors and trends related to juvenile crime, aiming to support more effective, evidence-based treatment and prevention.

Evolutionary psychology has recently made inroads in clinical psychology, bringing the understanding that, in some cases, mental symptoms are not manifestations of brain disorders, but rather evolved mechanisms that might function in overdrive or signal fitness problems. Thus, improvements in fitness may lead to improvements in those symptoms. Armed with such insights, this brief describes a comprehensive therapy protocol for depression – Cognitive Evolutionary Therapy (CET) –, which incorporates evolutionary understandings of this condition into well-validated cognitive techniques. CET starts with an evaluation of the evolutionary fitness of an individual, which represents the springboard for specific, evolutionary-driven behavioral and cognitive interventions. Based on the fitness evaluation, which takes place at intake, the CET therapist comes pre-equipped with a list of the patient’s fitness problems and can start working on them very early on in therapy, potentially leading toshorter interventions and cost savings. This brief will appeal to clinical psychologists and therapists who frequently employ CBT principles in therapy, as well as to clinicians who want to incorporate insights from evolutionary disciplines into their approaches.

This book is a theoretical account for general psychology of how human beings meaningfully relate with their bodies-- from the basic physiological processes upwards to the highest psychological functions of religiosity, ethical reasoning, and devotional practices.  It unites art and science into a new theory of affective synthesis that human minds are constantly involved in their everyday life worlds. Provides a new theory of aesthetic synthesis;Demonstrates the links between art and science;Provides a new understanding of the role of affect in human cognition.

This brief presents an overview of Gregory Bateson’s Constructivist method of Cognition. Bateson proposes a theory of cognition that is based on the abstract notion of difference that the mind distinguishes and perceives and represents information that constitutes and separates how different states are ordered, grouped, and classified. Bateson, however, does not clearly indicate how a cognitive system can develop a knowledge of reality from the perception of these differences. This book seeks to offer a scientific approach to Constructivism. Using Bateson’s hypothesis, chapters discuss how our mind distinguishes and elaborates differences, allowing us to form perceptions of objects, and how these objects can be described and compared. Chapters also discuss how from differences, it is possible to construct concepts or ideas of how these can be defined and how to derive from these differences the meanings of the signs used for the structuring of languages.  The brief offers a coherent structure of propositions that form an interpretative theory of the modus operandi of the human mind, which will be useful not only in shedding light on our cognitive processes, but also in laying the formal groundwork for artificial intelligence.Constructing Reality is a must-have resource for researchers and students of the cognitive sciences, as well as education sciences, and researchers and scholars of artificial intelligence, learning theory, and intelligent automata programming.

This Brief presents a social psychological approach to understanding the reaction of communities to organized crime and illegal groups.  Based on a new theoretical framework and the latest empirical evidence, this book explores questions of how criminal organizations are able to gain power and exert governance over entire territories. This book draws on the prototypical example of Italian organized crime and analyzes the thesis that the power of criminal groups is grounded in dynamics of legitimization rather than fear or coercion. The compliance of a community is seen here as stemming from the endorsement of specific cultural values and norms. These cultural values are actively appropriated, mobilized and transmitted by criminal groups, a dynamic the authors have labeled Intracultural Appropriation Theory. The book emphasizes what can be learned from using this emerging theory in similar settings such as those of terrorist groups and violent gangs, and points the way to solutionsfor this social problem.