American Psychological Assn.

Bereavement in late life; coping, adaptation, and developmental influences.

Hansson (psychology, University of Tulsa) and Stroebe (psychology, Utrecht University) describe the dual process model of coping with bereavement, and review research on the nature of bereavement among adults over 60 years of age, patterns of outcome, and age-related variables and processes that appear to make a difference. The final chapter considers the implications of infusing an aging perspective into the integrative framework for predicting bereavement outcome, and proposes directions for future research. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Child development and social policy; knowledge for action.

Psychologists discuss the influence of social policy on children's development, and the insights and skills that developmental psychologists bring to policy and its process. Among their topics are the role of strategic communications in policy advocacy, from visions to systems of universal pre-kindergarten, new directions in prevention and intervention for teen pregnancy and parenthood, and using the Web to disseminate research and affect public policy. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

A history of psychology in autobiography; v.9.

Lindzey (Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences) and Runyan (social welfare and a research psychologist at U. of California, Berkeley) bring together essays by nine individuals whose research has been fundamental in different areas of psychology in the twentieth century. The psychologists — Elliot Aronson, Albert Bandura, Gordon H. Bower, Jerome Kagan, Daniel Kahneman, Elizabeth F. Loftus, Walter Mischel, Ulric Neisser, and Richard F. Thompson — provide autobiographies that describe professional aspects and career paths, relationships with other psychologists and scientists, the social and cultural context of their work, and their personal values and motivations. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The meaning of others; narrative studies of relationships.

Seventeen academics from the U.S., Israel, and Japan contribute 12 chapters demonstrating the potential for narrative analysis to present new insights on human relationships. The authors use a range of narrative modes of inquiry to describe and then conceptualize significant aspects of interpersonal experience, including inductive interpretation of novels and biographies, coding of structured interviews, discourse analysis of an Internet forum, and thematic readings of interview-derived texts to arrive at some higher level of abstraction or understanding within a theoretical framework. They show how relationships with others affect human processes such as acculturation, racial identity development, secure attachment, career choice, caregiving, and grief. For therapists, researchers, and students of developmental, personality, and clinical psychology. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The muscular ideal; psychological, social, and medical perspectives.

Twenty academics and researchers from the U.S., Canada, and Australia contribute 12 chapters offering a variety of viewpoints and analytical strategies examining the concept of the muscular ideal. Coverage includes the complexity of appearance ideals, in general, and the muscular ideal, in particular; the role of history and social influences; the need to rethink conventional measures of body image; the importance of understanding biological and side effects of current and potential appearance- and performance-enhancing drugs; the critical need for prevention and treatment methods for clinical disturbance, such as body dysmorphia and steroid abuse; and the social, biological, and psychological influences that drive the pursuit of the muscular ideal. For sport and health psychologists, clinical and counseling psychologists, and graduate students in psychology, sociology, gender roles, and health and sport science courses. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Psychology's interpretive turn; the search for truth and agency in theoretical and philosophical psychology.

According to Held (psychology and social studies, Bowdoin College), recent years have witnessed the emergence of a group of philosophically-minded psychological theorists who are attempting to locate a middle ground between anti-objectivist radical postmodernism and positivist modernism in pursuit of answers to the epistemological question of whether objective psychological knowledge is possible and the ontological question of how such a possibility pertains to human agency. Believing the emergence of this school of thought to be a promising and even revolutionary development, she provides a critical summary of this middle ground theory and assesses its successes and failures. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Rumor psychology; social and organizational approaches.

This is not a new therapeutic technique. Di Fonzo (psychology, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York) and Bordia (management, U. of South Australia) synthesize the old and new research findings in psychology about how rumors work. Among their topics are categories of rumors, their effects, why people spread them, how rumors help people make sense of uncertainty, how harmful rumors can be managed, and the future of rumor research. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Toward a science of distributed learning.

Although distance learning and training (DLT) — defined broadly by the editors (professors of psychology and cognitive sciences at the U. of Central Florida) so as to include any type of organizational learning using network or digital tools, distance learning in academia, and distributed training in the military — has been widely adopted in many organizational contexts, there has to date been little work investigating fundamental scientific issues of learning within the context of DLT. The editors present 11 papers as a step towards charting the outlines of a science of distributed learning. The papers address current theoretical models of distributed learning, examine the growing field of team cognition and associated training concepts, and describe experimental and theoretical work on cognitive processes and products within DLT. A final chapter address federal science funding issues of DLT and future directions. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The wisdom of coaching; essential papers in consulting psychology for a world of change.

This resource for students and practitioners explores key topics and issues in the field of executive coaching. The 39 articles were originally published in Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research. Included are discussions of business-linked executive development; coaching through deep interpersonal communication; and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. The editors (both experienced executive coaches) also supply an overview of the history and development of the discipline and briefly introduce each article. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)