Decision Neuroscience


Book Description

Decision Neuroscience addresses fundamental questions about how the brain makes perceptual, value-based, and more complex decisions in non-social and social contexts. This book presents compelling neuroimaging, electrophysiological, lesional, and neurocomputational models in combination with hormonal and genetic approaches, which have led to a clearer understanding of the neural mechanisms behind how the brain makes decisions. The five parts of the book address distinct but inter-related topics and are designed to serve both as classroom introductions to major subareas in decision neuroscience and as advanced syntheses of all that has been accomplished in the last decade. Part I is devoted to anatomical, neurophysiological, pharmacological, and optogenetics animal studies on reinforcement-guided decision making, such as the representation of instructions, expectations, and outcomes; the updating of action values; and the evaluation process guiding choices between prospective rewards. Part II covers the topic of the neural representations of motivation, perceptual decision making, and value-based decision making in humans, combining neurcomputational models and brain imaging studies. Part III focuses on the rapidly developing field of social decision neuroscience, integrating recent mechanistic understanding of social decisions in both non-human primates and humans. Part IV covers clinical aspects involving disorders of decision making that link together basic research areas including systems, cognitive, and clinical neuroscience; this part examines dysfunctions of decision making in neurological and psychiatric disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, behavioral addictions, and focal brain lesions. Part V focuses on the roles of various hormones (cortisol, oxytocin, ghrelin/leptine) and genes that underlie inter-individual differences observed with stress, food choices, and social decision-making processes. The volume is essential reading for anyone interested in decision making neuroscience. With contributions that are forward-looking assessments of the current and future issues faced by researchers, Decision Neuroscience is essential reading for anyone interested in decision-making neuroscience. - Provides comprehensive coverage of approaches to studying individual and social decision neuroscience, including primate neurophysiology, brain imaging in healthy humans and in various disorders, and genetic and hormonal influences on decision making - Covers multiple levels of analysis, from molecular mechanisms to neural-systems dynamics and computational models of how we make choices - Discusses clinical implications of process dysfunctions, including schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, eating disorders, drug addiction, and pathological gambling - Features chapters from top international researchers in the field and full-color presentation throughout with numerous illustrations to highlight key concepts







POLICE TRAUMA


Book Description

The police fight a different kind of war, and the enemy is the police officer's own civilian population: those who engage in crime, social indignity, and inhumane treatment of others. The result for the police officer is both physical and psychological battering, occasionally culminating in the officer sacrificing his or her life to protect others. This book focuses on the psychological impact of police civilian combat. During a police career, the men and women of police agencies are exposed to distressing events that go far beyond the experience of the ordinary citizen, and there is an increased need today to help police officers deal with these traumatic experiences. As police work becomes increasingly complex, this need will grow. Mental health and other professionals need to be made aware of the conditions and precipitants of trauma stress among the police. The goal of this book is to provide that important information. The book's perspective is based on the idea that trauma stress is a product of complex interaction of person, place, situation, support mechanisms, and interventions. To effectively communicate this to the reader, new conceptual and methodological considerations, essays on special groups in policing, and innovative ideas on recovery and treatment of trauma are presented. This information can be used to prevent or minimize trauma stress and to help in establishing improved support and therapeutic measures for police officers. Contributions in the book are from professionals who work with police officers, and in some cases those who are or have been police officers, to provide the reader with different perspectives. Chapters are grouped into three sections: conceptual and methodological issues, special police groups, and recovery and treatment. The book concludes with a discussion of issues and identifies future directions for conceptualization, assessment, intervention, and effective treatment of psychological trauma in policing.
















Slum Health


Book Description

Urban slum dwellers—especially in emerging-economy countries—are often poor, live in squalor, and suffer unnecessarily from disease, disability, premature death, and reduced life expectancy. Yet living in a city can and should be healthy. Slum Health exposes how and why slums can be unhealthy; reveals that not all slums are equal in terms of the hazards and health issues faced by residents; and suggests how slum dwellers, scientists, and social movements can come together to make slum life safer, more just, and healthier. Editors Jason Corburn and Lee Riley argue that valuing both new biologic and “street” science—professional and lay knowledge—is crucial for improving the well-being of the millions of urban poor living in slums.




Environmental Psychology


Book Description

The updated edition of the essential guide to environmental psychology Thoroughly revised and updated, the second edition, Environmental Psychology: An Introduction offers an overview of the interplay between humans and their environments. The text examines the influence of the environment on human experiences, behaviour and well-being and explores the factors influencing environmental behaviour, and ways to encourage pro-environmental behaviour. The revised edition is a state-of-the art review of relevant theories and research on each of these topics. With contributions from an international panel of noted experts, the text addresses a wealth of topics including the main research methods in environmental psychology; effects of environmental stress; emotional impacts and meanings of natural environment experience; aesthetic appraisals of architecture; how to measure environmental behaviour; cognitive, emotional and social factors explaining environmental behaviour; effects and acceptability of strategies to promote pro-environmental factors; and much more. This important book: Discusses the environmental factors that threaten and promote human wellbeing Explores a wide range of factors influencing actions that affect environmental conditions Discusses the effects and acceptability of approaches that aim to encourage pro-environmental behavior Presents research results conducted in different regions in the world Contains contributions from noted experts Written for scholars and practitioners in the field, the revised edition of Environmental Psychology offers a comprehensive review of the most recent research available in environmental psychology.