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This chapter offers recommendations, evidence-based when possible, on teaching abnormal psychology in an effective and engaging manner. In the first section, we address issues related to the content of an Abnormal Psychology course. We outline the traditional content areas, as well as current topics that are often underemphasized, such as controversies with diagnosis, and international and cross-cultural issues. In the second section, we provide an overview of pedagogical tools that are particularly relevant for an abnormal psychology course, including the use of case material, role-play, and simulation; we provide suggestions on how to use these tools to create a stimulating and interactive classroom. In the third section, we outline ethical issues that can emerge when teaching abnormal psychology, such as informed consent and classroom management of sensitive topics, and offer suggestions for creating an ethical classroom environment.

This chapter provides a conceptual framework for examining the delivery of bilingual healthcare for linguistic minorities in Canada’s Bilingual Belt. First, the chapter provides an overview of the ethnolinguistic vitality framework accounting for the sociostructural factors affecting the strength of minority and majority language communities within multilingual countries. Second, the interactive acculturation model (IAM) helps account for relations between high- and low-vitality group speakers whose intercultural relations may be harmonious, problematic, or conflictual. Third, the chapter provides a case study of a pluralist setting that offers three distinct bilingual healthcare systems for French and English communities in Canada’s Bilingual Belt. While the delivery of bilingual healthcare is cost neutral relative to unilingual healthcare systems, at issue is whether minority language patients achieve better health outcomes when they are cared for in their own language than in the language of the dominant majority.

This chapter provides a review of recent theoretical developments and empirical evidence regarding accuracy and biases of trait judgments in romantic relationships. Consistent with prior theorizing, personality judgments may be conceptualized to consist of accurate perceptions, systematic biases, and random errors. Two common biases in romantic relationships—positivity bias and similarity bias—are the focus of the chapter. The two major approaches to conceptualizing and assessing accuracy and biases—the variable-centered approach and the person-centered approach—are discussed. A review of the literature on partner personality judgments in both approaches suggests that individuals tend to perceive their partners with both substantial accuracy and a considerable amount of bias. Judges’ personal characteristics, trait properties, and relationship factors may moderate the extent to which the judgments are accurate and biased. Finally, accuracy, positivity bias, and similarity bias all have important positive implications for romantic relationship functioning.

How accurately can we judge the personality traits of ourselves and others? What are the factors that influence our ability to make correct judgments? How can we use this information to improve our social interactions and relationships? In this introduction to the Oxford Handbook of Accurate Personality Judgment, the reader is introduced to the study of personality trait accuracy. Foundations of this research are reviewed and an overview of the volume is provided. Chapters explore current judgment models and review empirical work on moderators of accuracy, including characteristics of judges, targets, traits, and information. They explain the challenges encountered when judging different types of targets and examine how different kinds of information contribute to the judgment process. The applications and implications of this work for relationships, workplace interactions, and evaluations of psychological health and functioning are discussed. Ways to improve accuracy and future directions for research on trait accuracy are offered.

This chapter provides an overview of the role of physical (e.g., offices, bedrooms) and virtual contexts (e.g., social media such as Facebook and Twitter profiles) on the accuracy of personality judgments. Personality, context, and accuracy are defined, and evidence from studies on trait accuracy are outlined within and across contexts. The availability of cues in online and offline contexts are discussed in terms of Funder’s realistic accuracy model (RAM) and Brunswik’s lens model. In doing so, the chapter provides some insight into the ways various aspects of a context might affect trait accuracy; specifically, it allows us to consider what aspects of a context affect the cues that are available. The literature described in this chapter sheds light on the importance of the physical and virtual contexts in personality judgments. Context has a differential effect on judgment accuracy in terms of the specific trait, or traits, being judged. The literature presented has also highlighted the need for more research on this topic.

How accurate are self-judgments of personality traits? When it comes to judging our own enduring personality characteristics, are we hopelessly blind, deluded, and biased, or are we generally accurate? In order to answer these questions, this chapter reviews the empirical evidence regarding the accuracy of trait self-judgments. Although self-judgments are not always perfectly accurate, the majority of studies suggest that self-judgments of personality have considerable validity. Self-judgments of both narrow, specific traits and the broad personality factors of the Big Five agree with judgments provided by knowledgeable others and predict personality-relevant states, experiences, behaviors, and consequential life outcomes. Suggestions for improving the accuracy of our self-judgments and directions for future research on the accuracy of trait self-judgments are discussed.

This chapter first reviews general conceptual and methodological issues in the study of the (in)accuracy of stereotypes. First, the authors define stereotype accuracy. Second, different types of accuracy are discussed and standards for considering a stereotype belief accurate or inaccurate are presented. Finally, the chapter reviews the empirical evidence produced thus far that bears on the (in)accuracy of stereotypes regarding personality. The strongest evidence regarding the (in)accuracy of stereotypes regarding personality have focused on gender, age, and national character stereotypes. Weaker evidence relying primarily on self-reports of individual differences with respect to racial stereotypes and miscellaneous stereotypes (e.g., jazz vs. ballet dancers) is also reviewed. The chapter concludes by developing hypotheses that could help explain the pattern of (in)accuracy in stereotypes regarding personality.

This chapter describes the achievement goal construct’s origins and highlights noteworthy developments in the literature. Specifically it describes how the original dichotomous model of achievement goals developed into the modern trichotomous, 2 × 2, and 3 × 2 models of achievement goals. This historical overview is then used to provide the context for the key theoretical and conceptual issues surrounding the current achievement goal approach and a discussion of how these issues have an impact on empirical studies on achievement goals, especially focusing on the measurement of achievement goals. Finally, the text highlights several emerging lines of research in the literature. This includes achievement goal complexes, expansion of the competence-based model of achievement goals (e.g., potential-based achievement goals), and possible methodological improvement in assessing achievement goals.

This chapter reviews literature related to relationships between expertise and aging. It first considers how experts excel on domain-relevant tasks despite cognitive limitations and how these expertise-related advantages develop, which suggest ways in which adults can offset age-related cognitive constraints to maintain performance in later years. The chapter then reviews studies that examine two issues about how expertise influences performance as we age. First, to what extent high-level experts can retain superior levels of performance as they age, an issue often addressed in fairly narrow domains such as games, sports, and music. A second, broader issue concerns whether the benefits or costs associated with domain-general as well as domain-specific knowledge change with age. This second issue is central to lifespan theory: To what extent does knowledge and skill associated with experience offset age-related declines in abilities and function.

Research on virtual teams continues to grow as this form of teaming is increasingly adopted by organizations worldwide. To comprehensively analyze the growing literature on virtual teams, we reviewed 197 articles published between 1986 and 2008. We organize our review both by level of analysis (i.e., individual, group, and organization) and by relevance to the input-emergent state-process-output (IEPO) framework, yielding 12 theoretically meaningful categories of research. We summarize and synthesize this research over the last 22 years in each of these 12 areas, and we conclude with directions for future research related to five overarching themes: (a) the conceptualization of virtuality; (b) team development; (c) virtual team leadership; (d) levels of analysis; and (e) multidisciplinary approaches.

Exergames, or games that encourage physical activity, have several documented benefits for users, including increase of daily physical activity, and the potential for game players to reach moderate and even vigorous levels of activity. In addition to physiological impacts, exergames can affect social and psychosocial attributes, such as interest in exergaming, adherence, and motivation. Although research on this new field is in the early stages, this chapter summarizes research findings, giving particular attention to exergaming’s potential in medical, school, and community programs. Based on that research and on their own experience in working with exergames users, the authors share recommendations on best uses of exergames, design guidelines for exergame developers, and areas for future research.

Adaptive behavior consists of those skills learned throughout development and performed in response to the expectations placed on us from our community and society at large. Adaptive skills become increasingly more complex with age. Adaptive behavior is defined as the collection of conceptual, social, and practical skills learned by people to enable them to function in their everyday lives. Adaptive behavior is a required diagnostic criterion of all systems defining intellectual and developmental disabilities. Several standardized adaptive behavior scales described in the chapter can be used to assess a person’s adaptive behavior for the purpose of either making a diagnosis and/or identifying the educational or interventional goals for the purpose of teaching the person skills that will contribute to independence and improved quality of life.

Conflict, defined as a perceived divergence of interests, goals, values or needs, can be both constructive and destructive (Curle, 1971; Deutsch, 1973; Rubin, Pruitt, & Kim, 1994). However, intractable conflicts become mires of human misery that trap parties in spirals of recrimination, dehumanization, and violence. What is needed to change this dynamic is intervention into the interaction itself, such that one can reperceive the other, reassess priorities and options, and design joint solutions. This chapter discusses interactive problem-solving as one method useful for creating both new intergroup attitudes and joint solutions. This social-psychologically informed approach is uniquely positioned to engage conflicting parties in both relational change and concrete solution building, with the added potential to impact structural injustices that anchor intractable conflicts.

This chapter discusses whether institutions of higher education in general and departments of psychology in particular are meeting the needs of nontraditional students, who do not follow the traditional path to postsecondary education due to variables such as age, socioeconomic status, work, and family responsibilities. We discuss three categories of nontraditional student characteristics (Cross, 1981): dispositional (e.g., learning styles), situational (e.g., time constraints), and institutional (campus climate). We also suggest strategies for pedagogical and institutional practices (based on classic and current research), such as emphasis on experiential learning, online delivery of courses and services, flexibility in providing mentoring and advising services, inclusion of prior learning credits that can help increase persistence and graduation rates for adult students and other nontraditional learners while also enhancing the learning environment and opportunities for all students.

This chapter outlines the ways in which depression and other mental health issues influence adherence and health-behavior change. Patient adherence and health-behavior change are defined and described. Common mental health issues including depression and anxiety are described as well as the prevalence of nonadherence to treatment for these conditions. Next, comorbidity of physical and mental health issues are discussed, such as depression co-occurring with various chronic diseases, providing evidence of the effects of mental health on adherence and health-behavior change. The mechanisms for the relationship of mental health to adherence and health-behavior change are discussed through the framework of the information-motivation-strategy model, with adherence being affected due to cognitive factors, motivational factors, and resource-related factors. The chapter concludes with a discussion of what health-care professionals can do to address and reduce this barrier to adherence and health-behavior change.

This chapter provides a summary of developments in retirement adjustment research. The chapter starts with a review of the major theoretical approaches to adjustment to life events in general, and retirement in particular. The second part provides a summary of empirical findings. To organize these findings, a distinction is made between research focusing on the descriptive question regarding the general impact of retirement on the individual, and research posing the explanatory question of why adjustment is more difficult in some cases than in others. The last part highlights future directions that may be fruitful for researchers in this area. Both methodological issues and empirical gaps in the literature are adressed. This chapter seeks to contribute to the understanding of how the loss of work affects successful aging and hopes to offer more insight into the circumstances under which retirement jeopardizes the well-being of older adults.

Research suggests that intrasexual aggression during adolescence functions in competition over dating and reproductive opportunities and that aggressive strategies are more adaptive for females at this developmental stage. This sex difference appears to be related to the differential use of aggressive behavior and slightly uneven developmental trajectory between adolescent males and females. Competition over males is a common motive for female aggression during middle and high school, and, similar to adults, adolescent aggressors often use tactics of competitor derogation to lower the mate value of rivals. Taking an evolutionary perspective, findings demonstrate that adolescent females who engage in intrasexual peer aggression tend to have adaptive dating and sexual patterns, whereas those who are frequently victimized suffer maladaptive fitness outcomes. Recent research also shows that directed female intrasexual aggression during early stages of adolescence can be effective in both disrupting dating relationships of rivals and gaining access to desired dating partners.

Adolescents with substance use disorders (SUDs) have the highest proportion of co-occurring psychiatric disorders (CODs) compared to other age cohorts. Externalizing psychiatric disorders, such as conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and attention-deficit disorders, are most commonly associated with adolescent SUDs compared to older adults with SUD. The developmental psychopathology of SUD is reviewed. Categories of COD are reviewed, in turn, beginning with externalizing or disruptive behavior disorders. Disruptive behavior disorders are critical to the developmental psychopathology of adolescent SUD. Studies of co-occurring depressive and bipolar disorders are then considered in detail, examining the relationship between SUD and these particular CODs. Finally, the relationships between anxiety, thought, eating and personality disorders, and adolescent SUD are examined.

A significant body of literature has examined human families from an evolutionary perspective. Another significant body of literature has examined adoptive families. Unfortunately, these two bodies of literature have generally been kept separate from each other. To address this gap, I examine adoption from an evolutionary perspective. My goal is to both better understand adoption via evolutionary theory, as well as to better understand the evolution of families via adoption. I examine several forms and functions of adoption, including adoption as a substitute for biological children, adoption as a means of kin support, and adoption as a means of social exchange and manipulation. From an evolutionary perspective, what stands out about adoption is its ubiquity and its diversity, its emphasis on biological kinship, and its potential utility as a social tool. I recommend further studies on the ecology of adoption, as well as unifying adoption with other modern approaches to families, including cognitive psychology and neuroscience.