Summary

Featuring current research, high-quality scholarship, and an appealing design, UNDERSTANDING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR, International Edition, provides an inviting and stimulating look into abnormal psychology. The first abnormal psychology book to present a thoroughly integrated multicultural perspective�based on the authors' view that cross-cultural comparisons can greatly enhance the understanding of disorders�the text provides extensive coverage and integration of multicultural models, explanations, and concepts. To help you make sense of the many different combinations of life experiences and constitutional factors that influence behavioral disorders, the authors use an integrative model. This multipath model provides you with an organizational framework for understanding the biological, psychological, social, and sociocultural causes of mental disorders; the complexity of their interacting components; and the need to view disorders from a holistic framework. The book also helps you gain an understanding of abnormal behavior as scientific and clinical endeavors, while providing insight into the tools that mental health professionals use to study and treat disorders.