Originally published in 1988, in this personal review of the state of academic psychology, Paul Kline draws attention to the way in which his peers at the time studiously avoided such threatening matters as human feelings and emotions, unconscious ‘complexes’ – in short anything that could be called the human psyche. His erudite, amusing, and provocative text outlines the crucial influence of the development of scientific method before examining key experiments within cognitive psychology and cognitive science, psychometrics, social psychology, and animal behaviour. Is most of experimental psychology trivial, redundant, and irrelevant? The academic subject cannot continue to ignore its critics, he argued, and must solve its problems by means of radical solutions. Whether they support or refute Professor Kline’s arguments, students and professionals alike will still enjoy this original book.

Originally published in 1981, this title was designed to present a comprehensive review of research on, and treatment of selective mutism. It represents the only systematic overview of research and treatment procedures on this behavioral problem at the time. In many respects the literature on selective mutism clearly presents the differences in assessment and treatment between the intrapsychic (or psychodynamic) and behavioral approaches to deviant behaviour. The title presents an overview of the two major therapeutic approaches of human behaviour within the context of treating selective mutism.

Originally published in 1976 and on the basis of extended case histories, Eysenck showed how experts dealt with problems which arose in the course of behaviour therapy. It showed how they formulated hypotheses about causation and treatment, and used these to structure the methods employed; and how they changed their hypotheses when treatment showed them to have been mistaken. The prime aim was to demonstrate the complexities involved in even apparently simple cases, and the need to base treatment on a proper understanding of the dynamics of the case. All the articles were specially written for this book, the purpose being to underline the need to state the dynamics of a case in such a form that they could be used as hypotheses leading to specific treatment recommendations. The hypotheses were tested by the success or failure of the treatment, thus making the treatment of individual patients a proper experimental procedure. Behaviour therapy emphasises the fundamental importance of the outcome problem and only experience can teach the behaviour therapist just how this interplay of theory formulation and design of location, evaluation of effect and changes in theory, works in actual practice. The book will help those engaged in this type of therapy to understand the process better, and to gain a quicker mastery of the technique.

Freud once humorously remarked that "Anyone who wants to make a living from the treatment of nervous patients must clearly be able to do something to help them". It is amazing how frequently this simple precept is ignored and, when a patient does not get well, how often the failure is attributed to lack of proper motivation, diminutive ego strength, latent schizophrenia, and a multitude of assorted resistances. Difficulties that arise during therapy are not due to a deliberate conspiracy of neglect on the part of the therapist. They usually come about because of obstructive situations that develop in work with patients with which the therapist is unprepared to cope. During his psychiatric career the author, who spent time both teaching and supervising, collected and collated questions from students and graduate therapists who had raised concerns about psychotherapy that related to such obstructive situations. Originally published in 1982, this volume contains both those questions and his answers.

Social psychology has much to offer real world problems, especially in industrial and organizational settings. Originally published in 1995, in Social Psychology at Work leading researchers in their respective fields discuss recent findings and their implications for the commercial world of work. All the contributors have been greatly influenced by the late Michael Argyle, to whom this book is dedicated. They examine aspects of the workplace from the perspectives of personality and individual difference, social psychology and organizational psychology. Subjects covered include the effects of age on work, leadership, productivity, how we are socialized for work, stress and anxiety, and the effect of the physical environment on working behaviour. Social Psychology at Work is a rich source book of ideas, research findings and reviews at the interface of pure and applied psychology. It will be important and rewarding reading for all those such as students, consultants and managers and trainers who are interested in psychology at work.

Originally published in 1984, one of the few facts that emerged clearly in the beleaguered field of psychology and mental health at the time was the extent of poor social skills in psychiatric patients, the mentally handicapped and problem adolescents. As a result, during the 1970s, social skills training – espoused as a form of behaviour therapy – seemed to offer great promise, based on the notion that social skills, like any other skills, are learnt and can be taught if lacking. However, in evaluating social skills training, many investigators found that skills did not endure and generalise. This book attempts a major re-assessment of social skills training. It examines the underlying paradigms, which are shown to be fundamentally behaviourist. Such paradigms, it is argued, severely constrain the aims and method of current types of training. Thus the book develops what is termed an ‘agency’ approach, based on man as a social agent who actively constructs his own experiences and generates his own goal-directed behaviour on the basis of those constructs. This new model is developed in both theoretical and practical ways in the main body of the book and should, even today, be of great interest to all those involved with social skills training.

Donald Hebb was one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century and the first version of this textbook was written in 1958. This 4th edition, co-authored with Donderi, was originally published in 1987 and the object of the book was to introduce the student to the scientific study of the human mind and behaviour. The authors’ concern was with scientific psychology and fundamental principles. They felt this understanding was the best preparation to following future developments in psychological knowledge and to understand the changes in how that knowledge was applied. Although psychology has developed in many directions since its publication, much of the information in this book is still relevant today.

Increasingly frequent environmental exposures to hazardous substances present mental health professionals with groups and at times communities of people, faced with high levels of psychological threat. As a result of an increasingly industrial and technological society, a new type of group cohort has emerged – individuals exposed to hazardous substances that present the possibility of immediate and chronic threats to their health and their families’ health. Although the medical sequalae to such exposure had been established, little attention had been paid to the mental health issues or to possible integrated psychophysiological consequences. Originally published in 1986, this book focuses on reactions to exposure to toxic substances as well as some predictors of response in groups faced with increased medical risk subsequent to some of the most common and hazardous toxic exposures found at the time: radiation, toxic waste, asbestos, lead, contaminated water, and toxic chemical fire and leak.

Originally published in 1995, this book was the most up-to-date and comprehensive account of research on occupational stress at the time. It identifies the sources, consequences and treatments of stress in the workplace from the perspective of organizational psychology and makes clear recommendations for future work in this area. Terry Beehr discusses how role ambiguity and conflict act as stressors in the workplace, and discusses the characteristics of the job and the organization itself that can adversely affect performance. He examines the effects of stress in the workplace and describes methods that can be used to alleviate the problem, both at the individual and organizational level. In addition, the book is illustrated with many examples from field research over the author’s twenty years of experience in studying the workplace. This book will be of considerable interest to students and researchers in occupational psychology, as well as managers and trainers. Terry Beehr is still working in this field today.

Originally published in 1986, Sara Gilbert provided the first systematic and comprehensive coverage of the psychological aspects of eating disorders and their treatment. The book begins with an account of normal eating behaviour and the problems of explaining its control in the individual in the context of social and cultural influences. It describes cross-cultural differences in attitudes to being overweight or underweight, and the current western dilemma of pressures towards slimness on the one hand and the increasing demand for choice and fast food on the other. In Part II, the author describes the phenomena of overeating and undereating, both in relation to people with systemic disease and in people suffering from obesity, anorexia nervosa and bulimia. She examines the psychological causes of overeating and undereating, and the problems of drawing a line between purely medical and purely social-psychological explanations. In Part III of the book, the author provides a summary of treatments for overeating and undereating, with emphasis on the psychological approaches. She describes new developments, in particular in the use of behavioural techniques, and their significance as a means of allowing individual sufferers some choice in the course of their own treatment.