The core of the research reported in this study was a survey of men and women 55 years and older sampled from a comprehensive list of residents. The authors asked questions about social networks, control over household assets, household composition, life satisfaction, and subjective health, among other things. The social network questions had been used in an earlier study done in Kentucky. Nearly everything else had been developed for the Delhi study. The findings were similar to those in the earlier study: the size of people's networks does not decline materially until they are older (80 plus). Age itself did not seem that important, but health was crucial. Persons who reported they were healthy had larger networks.

As one might expect, joint family life has great impact on the nature of social life among older people. This has to do with the big difference in the situation of men and women in India. In addition to being patrilineal kin groups, joint families are dominated by male economic interests. The males as a collective group inherit property. Women have much less control of household assets. This ethnographic fact appeared very clearly in the answers to questions about participation in household decision making. High involvement in decisions, which the authors construed as a measure of power, spilled over into other aspects of the social aging process. Persons who were powerful in their households tended to have large networks, better subjective health, and much higher life satisfaction. They also tended to be men. The women tended to have small networks, low life satisfaction, lower subjective health, and less power. These differences between men and women were all substantial and highly significant. Gender is an extraordinarily important factor in the outcomes of social aging processes in India.

For over a decade the Middle East has monopolized news headlines in the West. Journalists and commentators regularly speculate that the region's turmoil may stem from the psychological momentum of its cultural traditions or of a "tribal" or "fatalistic" mentality. Yet few studies of the region's cultural psychology have provided a critical synthesis of psychological research on Middle Eastern societies.
Drawing on autobiographies, literary works, ethnographic accounts, and life-history interviews, The Middle East: A Cultural Psychology, offers the first comprehensive summary of psychological writings on the region, reviewing works by psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists that have been written in English, Arabic, and French. Rejecting stereotypical descriptions of the "Arab mind" or "Muslim mentality, ' Gary Gregg adopts a life-span- development framework, examining influences on development in infancy, early childhood, late childhood, and adolescence as well as on identity formation in early and mature adulthood. He views patterns of development in the context of recent work in cultural psychology, and compares Middle Eastern patterns less with Western middle class norms than with those described for the region's neighbors: Hindu India, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Mediterranean shore of Europe. The research presented in this volume overwhelmingly suggests that the region's strife stems much less from a stubborn adherence to tradition and resistance to modernity than from widespread frustration with broken promises of modernization--with the slow and halting pace of economic progress and democratization.
A sophisticated account of the Middle East's cultural psychology, The Middle East provides students, researchers, policy-makers, and all those interested in the culture and psychology of the region with invaluable insight into the lives, families, and social relationships of Middle Easterners as they struggle to reconcile the lure of Westernized life-styles with traditional values.

What we say, what we don't, and why it matters. This new collection of essays from rhetoric authority and celebrated writing blogger David Murray applies his signature blend of humor and heart to a free-wheeling conversation about how we communicate in America. With essays like "We Deserve Leaders Who Act Like They Like Us," and "Speaking Truth to Power: Talking to Myself," Murray's words give readers a window into everyday American discourse-from the backroads of rural Illinois to the carpeted halls of the C-suite. Guided by an ear for the lessons of history, An Effort to Understand shows that the personal and political gulfs between us are small compared to our common desire to connect. American discord is nothing new, but we have a chance at trust, peace, and solidarity if we make an effort to speak more honestly and listen to understand.

President Obama's and President Biden's appointment as US Surgeon General 'The most important book you'll read this year' Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive 'Fascinating, moving and essential reading' - Atul Gawande 'This book is a gift for us all.' - Susan Cain, author, Quiet The world seems more connected than ever, and yet even before the world went into lockdown, loneliness was at epidemic levels. But what effect is it having on us, and how can we treat it - even at a distance? Murthy's prescient book reveals the importance of human connection, the hidden impact of loneliness on our health, and the social power of community. When Obama appointed him Surgeon General of the United States, Dr Vivek Murthy observed the growing health crisis of isolation first-hand. In this ground-breaking book, he traces the roots of the problem, and shows how loneliness lies behind some of our greatest personal and social challenges, from anxiety and depression to addiction and violence. But he also reveals the cure. His search led him to talk to doctors, scientists, parents and community members around the world. The solutions are deceptively simple and easily applicable - and the effects are transformative. And one thing is clear: real human connection is a medical necessity if we want to stay healthy, emotionally and physically. We can all create it, and benefit from it, and it is more urgent than ever that we start now.

Multiculturalism is a prevalent worldwide societal phenomenon. Aspects of our modern life, such as migration, economic globalization, multicultural policies, and cross-border travel and communication have made intercultural contacts inevitable. High numbers of multicultural individuals (23-43% of the population by some estimates) can be found in many nations where migration has been strong (e.g., Australia, U.S., Western Europe, Singapore) or where there is a history of colonization (e.g., Hong Kong). Many multicultural individuals are also ethnic and cultural minorities who are descendants of immigrants, majority individuals with extensive multicultural experiences, or people with culturally mixed families; all people for whom identification and/or involvement with multiple cultures is the norm. Despite the prevalence of multicultural identity and experiences, until the publication of this volume, there has not yet been a comprehensive review of scholarly research on the psychological underpinning of multiculturalism. The Oxford Handbook of Multicultural Identity fills this void. It reviews cutting-edge empirical and theoretical work on the psychology of multicultural identities and experiences. As a whole, the volume addresses some important basic issues, such as measurement of multicultural identity, links between multilingualism and multiculturalism, the social psychology of multiculturalism and globalization, as well as applied issues such as multiculturalism in counseling, education, policy, marketing and organizational science, to mention a few. This handbook will be useful for students, researchers, and teachers in cultural, social, personality, developmental, acculturation, and ethnic psychology. It can also be used as a source book in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on identity and multiculturalism, and a reference for applied psychologists and researchers in the domains of education, management, and marketing.

The previous edition provided the first resource for examining how the Internet affects our definition of who we are and our communication and work patterns. It examined how normal behavior differs from the pathological with respect to Internet use. Coverage includes how the internet is used in our social patterns: work, dating, meeting people of similar interests, how we use it to conduct business, how the Internet is used for learning, children and the Internet, what our internet use says about ourselves, and the philosophical ramifications of internet use on our definitions of reality and consciousness. Since its publication in 1998, a slew of other books on the topic have emerged, many speaking solely to internet addiction, learning on the web, or telehealth. There are few competitors that discuss the breadth of impact the internet has had on intrpersonal, interpersonal, and transpersonal psychology.
Key Features
* Provides the first resource for looking at how the Internet affects our definition of who we are
* Examines the philosophical ramifications of Internet use and our definitions of self, reality, and work
* Explores how the Internet is used to meet new friends and love interests, as well as to conduct business
* Discusses what represents normal behavior with respect to Internet use

Along with biological and medical factors, psychological factors must also be considered in health and well being. Stress plays a major role in physical illness, and stress management is therefore critical to establishing good health and well being behavior. William Miley offers a biopsychosocial approach emphasizing the complex interactions between biologoical, psychological, social, and cultural factors. Lifestyles are a fertile ground for psychological intervention to maintain health and well being. This book focuses on contemporary lifestyle patterns offering positive behaviors to initiate and maintain healthy lifestyles and maintain well being.

Causal reasoning is one of our most central cognitive competencies, enabling us to adapt to our world. Causal knowledge allows us to predict future events, or diagnose the causes of observed facts. We plan actions and solve problems using knowledge about cause-effect relations. Although causal reasoning is a component of most of our cognitive functions, it has been neglected in cognitive psychology for many decades. The Oxford Handbook of Causal Reasoning offers a state-of-the-art review of the growing field, and its contribution to the world of cognitive science. The Handbook begins with an introduction of competing theories of causal learning and reasoning. In the next section, it presents research about basic cognitive functions involved in causal cognition, such as perception, categorization, argumentation, decision-making, and induction. The following section examines research on domains that embody causal relations, including intuitive physics, legal and moral reasoning, psychopathology, language, social cognition, and the roles of space and time. The final section presents research from neighboring fields that study developmental, phylogenetic, and cultural differences in causal cognition. The chapters, each written by renowned researchers in their field, fill in the gaps of many cognitive psychology textbooks, emphasizing the crucial role of causal structures in our everyday lives. This Handbook is an essential read for students and researchers of the cognitive sciences, including cognitive, developmental, social, comparative, and cross-cultural psychology; philosophy; methodology; statistics; artificial intelligence; and machine learning.

Over the last decade, there has been increasing debate as to whether feminism and evolutionary psychology can co-exist. Such debates often conclude with a resounding "no," often on the grounds that the former is a political movement while the latter is a field of scientific inquiry. In the midst of these debates, there has been growing dissatisfaction within the field of evolutionary psychology about the way the discipline (and others) have repeatedly shown women to be in passive roles when it comes to survival and reproduction. Evolutionary behavioral research has made significant strides in the past few decades, but continues to take for granted many theoretical assumption that are perhaps, in light of the most recent evidence, misguided. As a result, the research community has missed important areas of research, and in some cases, will likely come to inaccurate conclusions based on existing dogma, rather than rigorous, theoretically driven research. Bias in the field of evolutionary psychology echoes the complaints against the political movement attached to academic feminisms. This is an intellectual squabble where much is at stake, including a fundamental understanding of the evolutionary significance of women's roles in culture, mothering, reproductive health and physiology, mating, female alliances, female aggression, and female intrasexual competition.
Evolution's Empress identifies women as active agents within the evolutionary process. The chapters in this volume focus on topics as diverse as female social interactions, mate competition and mating strategies, motherhood, women's health, sex differences in communication and motivation, sex discrimination, and women in literature. The volume editors bring together a diverse range of perspectives to demonstrate ways in which evolutionary approaches to human behavior have thus far been too limited. By reconsidering the role of women in evolution, this volume furthers the goal of generating dialogue between the realms of women's studies and evolutionary psychology.

In Grief and Romantic Relationship Dissolution, Shawn Blue explores the grief and loss associated with divorce and romantic breakups. Using a model of love and attachment theory, Blue sets a foundation for how connection leads to loss when an attachment relationship is ended and analyzes the various consequences of grief as the result of dissolution on the individual. She devotes special attention to the role of technology on romantic relationship development and makes speculations of the grief that is experienced by relationships created online when they end. Finally, she utilizes and applies case material to illustrate the grief process and incorporates the influence of media in the understanding of loss related to the ending of attachment relationships. This book is recommended for scholars in psychology, communication studies, and media studies.

Language plays a major role in our daily lives. Humans are specialized to live in a social environment, and our brains are "designed" to manage interactions with others which are, for the most part, accomplished through words. Language allows us to function both cognitively and interpersonally, and without language there are constraints on our ability to interact with others. Language also plays a major role in that specialized form of interpersonal interaction that we call psychotherapy or psychoanalysis. In that setting we use words to express and communicate meaning clearly, and through spoken language we help our patients to organize and modify their experiences of self and of the world, fostering adaptive change. Like the air we breathe, when our language serves its function it is transparent to us. We notice it most when it fails. When it does fail its basic function, in life and in psychotherapy, it fails to reliably, effectively, and comfortably help us to connect with others, as we deal with the world around us. In Language and Connection in Psychotherapy: Words Matter, Dr. Mary Davis addresses the role of language in our lives, both internally, in creating psychic structure and regulating affect, and interpersonally, in facilitating relationships with the figures that have shaped our development and that inhabit our adult lives. Using clinical material to illustrate, Davis looks at the development of language and its role in creating our personalities, at the life events which can distort our use of language to interact with others, and the ways that language can lead to misunderstanding as well as to understanding. Throughout, Language and Connection in Psychotherapy: Words Matter explores various facets of the ways in which words matter as well as the times when words are important but not sufficient to our ability to communicate interpersonally. Davis suggests that the psychotherapist is a master in bridging the gap between being and saying: she can be conceptualized as an "interpreter," one who turns behavioral language into verbal language, action language into words, emotions into thoughts, who focuses and uses the capacity of words to help us connect both with our internal selves and with others.

Originally published in 1972, this title provides an analysis of social interactions in educational contexts and opens up the field of the social psychology of education as an area in its own right at the very heart of the process of education. From a 'symbolic interactionist' perspective, the author develops a framework for the study of relations between teachers and pupils, discussing the basic ways of analysing social interaction, including the concepts of perception and role. He examines the distinctive perspectives of teachers and pupils on their relationships, bringing together into a coherent framework the insights of such writers as John Holt and Carl Rogers, and within this context he explores the notion of 'voluntary schooling'. The book also deals with other important aspects of education such as discipline, classroom group dynamics and the relations between headteachers and their staff. The theories put forward by the author are firmly grounded in the daily experience of teachers and pupils in the classroom at the time. The book was expected to be of value to experienced teachers and student teachers alike, as well as to teachers of the social sciences in general.

The four authors of this book recognize that no one on the common human journey to the 21st century can pick the best route without consulting a map--that is to say, an interconnected set of understandings about what in a given situation is important, what demands action and attention, and what does not. The problem, they contend, is that the picture of the world we each carry in our mind may not be a true mapping of the reality that surrounds us. This picture, the cognitive map, could always be sharper. The authors prompt us to become more conscious of our own cognitive map, and explain how it can be adapted to the exigencies of our changing world so that it can be better-used to guide our steps toward the 21st century.

We all carry a picture of the world in our mind, but is that map an assuredly true layout of the reality that surrounds us? If not, how can we use it to guide our steps toward the 21st century and beyond without creating shocks and surprises that impair our well-being and threaten our survival?

We shall not survive, either as individuals or as a species, if our maps fail to reflect accurately the nature of the world that surrounds us. The authors attempt, through reviewing the origins, development, and current changes in individual and social cognitive maps, to prompt readers to become more conscious of their own map, and hence be better able to adapt it to the exigencies of our changing world. The book ends with a vision of the global bio- and socio-sphere: the unified cognitive map which is emerging in laboratories and workshops of the new physics, the new biology, the new ecology, and the avant-garde branches of the social and historical sciences. But "Changing Visions" recognizes that these sciences alone cannot promote the formation of faithful maps of lived reality, and that religion, common sense, and even art can fill in and sharpen one's world-picture.

Female offenders are often perceived as victims who commit crimes as a self-defense mechanism or as criminal deviants whose actions strayed from typical 'womanly' behavior. Such cultural norms for violence exist in our gendered society and there has been scholarly debate about how male and female offenders are perceived and how this perception leads to differential treatment in the criminal justice system. This debate is primarily based upon theories associated with stereotypes and social norms and how these prescriptive norms can influence both public and criminal justice response. Scholars in psychology, sociology, and criminology have found that female offenders are perceived differently than male offenders and this ultimately leads to differential treatment in the criminal justice system. This interdisciplinary book provides an evidence based approach of how female offenders are perceived in society and how this translates to differential treatment within the criminal justice system and explores the ramifications of such differences. Quite often perceptions of female offenders are at odds with research findings. This book will provide a comprehensive evidence-based review of the research that is valuable to laypersons, researchers, practitioners, advocates, treatment providers, lawyers, judges, and anyone interested in equality in the criminal justice system.

This volume includes essays by prominent economists and psychologists working at the frontiers of economic psychology. A number of essays probe beliefs and expectations about rationality, consumer behaviour and expectations, and others assess psychological explanations of economic behaviour and the contribution of experimental economics. The book should be essential reading for both psychologists and economists with an interest in the most recent research in economic psychology.

We are running out of ideas in Western society. Faced with global warming, Third World devastation, nuclear proliferation and the threat posed by religious conflict, we need new ways of thinking. After the loss and carnage of the Twentieth Century there is prevailing mood of uncertainty and paranoia, yet at the same time a denial of tragedy, a salv

This is Sigmund Freud s seminal text where he explores what he sees as the fundamental tensions between civilization and the individual. He contends that the greatest friction is between the individual's quest for freedom and civilization's contrary demand for conformity. Thus humankind's primitive instincts to kill and sexual gratification are harmful to human society, so we create laws and severe punishments to prevent murder, rape, and adultery. Freud argues that this results in perpetual feelings of discontent in its citizens.