Abnormal Psychology and Life: A Dimensional Approach

Chris Kearney and Tim Trull's ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY AND LIFE: A DIMENSIONAL APPROACH provides students with a concise, contemporary, science-based view of psychopathology that emphasizes the individual first and the disorder second. Through consistent pedagogy featuring clinical cases and real first-person narratives, the text illuminates our understanding that abnormal behavior--rather than being either present or absent--exists in everyone to some degree on a continuum from normal to pathological. By highlighting this widely accepted dimensional view--which places the behavior of an individual at the forefront of clinical assessment, prevention, definition, and treatment--the text's goal is to encourage students to become intelligent consumers of mental health information. With its emphasis on assessment and treatment as well as prevention, the book gives students the tools necessary to understand the precursors of abnormal behavior, overcome the stigma associated with it, and identify the real people classified as exhibiting it.

Christopher A. Kearney is the Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Director of Clinical Training at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is also Director of the UNLV Child School Refusal and Anxiety Disorders Clinic. Dr. Kearney's research interests include school refusal behavior, selective mutism, post-traumatic stress disorder in maltreated youth, perfectionism, and other anxiety-related conditions in children and adolescents as well as issues of quality of life in persons with severe handicaps. The author of several books and numerous book chapters and journal articles on these topics, Dr. Kearney also conducts workshops for school districts and mental health and other agencies regarding school refusal behavior and selective mutism. A Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 12; Clinical Psychology), he is a recipient of the William Morris Award for Scholarship, the Barrick Scholar Award, the Barrick Distinguished Scholar Award, the Harry Reid Silver State Research Award, the Distinguished Teaching Award, the Outstanding Graduate Faculty Award, and the Academic Advisor Award-Graduate from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Dr. Kearney received his B.A. in psychology and sociology from the State University of New York at Binghamton and his M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology from the State University of New York at Albany. He completed his internship at the University of Mississippi Medical Center before moving to Las Vegas.

Timothy J. Trull, Ph.D., is professor of psychological sciences at the University of Missouri. Dr. Trull received his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky and completed his internship at New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center. His research interests are in the areas of diagnosis and classification of mental disorders; borderline personality disorder; substance use disorders; clinical assessment; professional issues in clinical psychology; and ambulatory assessment methods. Dr. Trull has received several awards and honors for his teaching and mentoring, including Psi Chi Professor of the Year, the Robert S. Daniels Junior Faculty Teaching Award, and most recently the MU Graduate Faculty Mentor Award. He enjoys teaching Abnormal Psychology and Introduction to Clinical Psychology; his textbook, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY (Wadsworth) is used in classes across the U.S. and internationally. A licensed psychologist, Dr. Trull continues to train future clinical psychologists in the assessment, prevention, and treatment of psychological disorders.