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provaprova's review against another edition
3.0
Highly technical and definitely not for anyone who has not read on the topic before or read a great deal of psychology research. Some papers are a waste, but some other papers are really good: I admired Harris & Rice 2006, and especially their careful analysis/takedown of the Salekin meta-analysis.
alexauthorshay's review
4.0
READ FOR PSYC 437 (Psychopathy)
I wanted to read this book anyways as part of my own research, so I was really excited this was the textbook we used for class. Even better, it's a new edition, with more up to date research from up to 2017/2018 instead of 2006.
But for all that... there are still more questions than answers. Every topic covered in the book basically needs more research. Either because no one has looked at it, or the studies that have have been conflicting or there is something not done right in the study that means results need to be interpreted with caution. I guess I thought we would have come farther than we have in the last 12 years since the last book came out.
It is still a very good resource for people trying to figure out what psychopathy is and isn't. There is a chapter on the PCL-R, and there is a good explanation of psychopathy vs antisocial personality disorder/sociopathy, which are often conflated with each other (incorrectly). I wouldn't say I personally learned too much new material, but I've been researching psychopathy for 8 years before this, and I wrote a 20 page essay last year about the different theories of etiologies of psychopathy, so I'm more well-versed going into the class than many students would be, I imagine.
This is the first textbook in five years of university that I'm keeping. The research is new, makes it easier to find than hunting it down on the internet myself, and summarizes concepts neatly within chapters. It's a huge book, but the diversity of psychopathy research demands such a size. My teacher said she's actually disappointed with this edition compared to the last one, though, so I am tempted to grab the first edition and compare the two to see how different they are.
I wanted to read this book anyways as part of my own research, so I was really excited this was the textbook we used for class. Even better, it's a new edition, with more up to date research from up to 2017/2018 instead of 2006.
But for all that... there are still more questions than answers. Every topic covered in the book basically needs more research. Either because no one has looked at it, or the studies that have have been conflicting or there is something not done right in the study that means results need to be interpreted with caution. I guess I thought we would have come farther than we have in the last 12 years since the last book came out.
It is still a very good resource for people trying to figure out what psychopathy is and isn't. There is a chapter on the PCL-R, and there is a good explanation of psychopathy vs antisocial personality disorder/sociopathy, which are often conflated with each other (incorrectly). I wouldn't say I personally learned too much new material, but I've been researching psychopathy for 8 years before this, and I wrote a 20 page essay last year about the different theories of etiologies of psychopathy, so I'm more well-versed going into the class than many students would be, I imagine.
This is the first textbook in five years of university that I'm keeping. The research is new, makes it easier to find than hunting it down on the internet myself, and summarizes concepts neatly within chapters. It's a huge book, but the diversity of psychopathy research demands such a size. My teacher said she's actually disappointed with this edition compared to the last one, though, so I am tempted to grab the first edition and compare the two to see how different they are.
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