Reviews for Abnormal psychology

The average rating for Abnormal psychology based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-10-16 00:00:00 Aaron Woodward The book cautioned the WASP therapist to take culture into consideration before making a diagnosis or forming a biased opinion. For example, women of my culture are known to be dramatic and use guilt to get their children to do things ("If you don't eat this, this means you don't love me/if you do that, I'm going to die,"). Here in the US, I've actually made calls to protective services for such comments made from Anglo, non-Mediterranean parents, especially when children come to me emotionally distraught frightened. That's mental abuse. However, I'm always surprised how children in the Mediterranean area where I grew up (I had an American-born Greek mother) weren't fazed by what their mothers said. It was almost a game. I'm even more surprised that my friends use the same tactics on their own children, and their children answer back (as their parents did) in what we would think was oppositional behavior ("No, I don't love you/I don't care if you die.") Perhaps because my mother didn't play this "game," when I was 7 and stayed the night with my Greek Grandmother and I didn't want to eat eggs, when my grandmother started in with the, "Fine. That means you don't love me," I started to cry. That baffled my grandmother. I was crying because I thought she honestly thought I didn't love her. Her response, was to call me a "klapsaria" (crybaby) and laugh uncomfortably. Being called a crybaby made me cry more. I was having an American reaction to a Greek way of upbringing. Was my grandmother abusing me? That's tricky. Not intentionally--she was being culturally correct. I was the one having an ABNORMAL reaction because I was bi-cultural. So, we have to think about cultural differences before we judge. And as the world becomes more integrated, this will become more difficult. I imagine that as MH professionals we'll be doing more mediating; making bi-cultural partners, friends, and even business more aware of each other's point of view and feelings.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-12-04 00:00:00 Gary Garsha This book was horrible for one reason: the enormous bias with indirect implications against Muslims and Palestinians. There is a line in the book which says that Muslims and Buddhists cherish grief in their religions. The bias of the book was incredible allowing Israelis to appear as victims in multiple studies in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict when they have continued to oppress/kill/occupy Palestinians with the third best military in the world with US aid. These authors have written this textbook with an agenda. Anyone who has an agenda can persuade readers of intellect to believe that what they say is true. I advise everyone who reads to read it with caution. Anyone who is studying psychology should invest some time in understanding the truth about people they study in textbooks. If we want to understand human behavior and help people, we cannot stand by oppression. I agree that the book presented factual information that was helpful in understanding psychological disorders. However, I was distracted by the obvious hatred and prejudices written between the lines.