Measuring Health


Book Description

Worldwide economic constraints on health care systems have highlighted the importance of evidence-based medicine and evidence-based health policy. The resulting clinical trials and health services research studies require instruments to monitor the outcomes of care and the output of the health system. However, the over-abundance of competing measurement scales can make choosing a measure difficult at best. Measuring Health provides in-depth reviews of over 100 of the leading health measurement tools and serves as a guide for choosing among them.LNow in its third edition, this book provides a critical overview of the field of health measurement, with a technical introduction and discussion of the history and future directions for the field. This latest edition updates the information on each of the measures previously reviewed, and includes a complete new chapter on anxiety measurement to accompany the one on depression. It has also added new instruments to those previously reviewed in each of the chapters in the book.LChapters cover measurements of physical disability, social health, psychological well-being, anxiety, depression, mental status testing, pain, general health status and quality of life. Each chapter presents a tabular comparison of the quality of the instruments reviewed, followed by a detailed description of each method, covering its purpose and conceptual basis, its reliability and validity and, where possible, shows a copy of the actual scale. To ensure accuracy of the information, each review has been approved by the original author of each instrument or by an acknowledged expert.




The Sadness of Christ


Book Description

This book was the last that St. Thomas More wrote in the Tower of London before he was executed for standing firm in his Catholic faith. In it, he explores the Gospel passages that depict the agony of Our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane. He depicts Christ as a model of virtue in the face of suffering and persecution. And along the way, he includes valuable and eternally relevant reflections on prayer, courage, friendship, statesmanship, and more. Here is an excellent resource for Lent or anytime!




Conducting Psychological Assessment


Book Description

Beginning-to-end, step-by-step guidance on how to conduct multi-method psychological assessments from a leader in the field The Second Edition of Conducting Psychological Assessment: A Guide for Practitioners delivers an insightful overview of the overall integrative psychological assessment process. Rather than focus on individual tests, accomplished assessment psychologist, professor, and author A. Jordan Wright offers readers a comprehensive roadmap of how to navigate the multi-method psychological assessment process. This newest edition maintains the indispensable foundational models from the first edition and adds nuance and details from the author’s last ten years of clinical and academic experience. New ways of integrating and reconciling conflicting data are discussed, as are new models of personality functioning. All readers of this book will benefit from: A primer on the overall process of psychological assessment An explanation of how to integrate the data from the administration, scoring, and interpretation phases into a fully conceptualized report Actual case examples and sample assessment cases that span the entire process Perfect for people in training programs in health service psychology, including clinical, counseling, school, and forensic programs, Conducting Psychological Assessment also belongs on the bookshelves of anyone conducting assessments of human functioning.




Introduction to Triangle of Sadness


Book Description

Introduction to Triangle of Sadness is a novel by Austrian author Christoph Ransmayr. The story takes place on a luxurious cruise ship called the World Adventurer, where we follow the lives of three main characters: Romana, a wealthy businesswoman; Ingrid, a famous actress; and Kamal, a doctor who is also a terrorist. Despite their differing backgrounds, the three characters are united by a sense of disillusionment and existential despair. As they navigate the opulent and decadent world of the ship, they are forced to confront their own mortality and the emptiness of their lives. The novel is a poignant commentary on the contemporary human condition, exploring themes of beauty, aging, death, and the search for meaning in life. Ransmayr's writing is highly descriptive, emphasizing the sensory and sensory detail of the luxurious surroundings of the ship, while also weaving in philosophical reflections and critiques of modern society. The characters in Introduction to Triangle of Sadness are complex and flawed, and their interactions with one another are often fraught with tension and misunderstandings. Ultimately, the novel offers a compelling and thought-provoking reflection on the human experience in the 21st century. Overall, Introduction to Triangle of Sadness is a haunting and powerful novel that offers a glimpse into the complexities and anxieties of modern life. Through its vivid imagery, introspective characters, and philosophical reflections, the book challenges readers to reflect on their own mortality and the meaning of life. Ransmayr's writing is both poetic and provocative, drawing the reader into a world that is at once beautiful and oppressive. Whether one is drawn to the novel for its rich descriptions of luxury and excess or its existential musings on the human condition, Introduction to Triangle of Sadness is a book that is sure to leave a lasting impression.




Measuring Stress


Book Description

Measuring Stress is the definitive resource for health and social scientists interested in assessing stress in humans. With contributions from leading experts, this work provides for the first time a unified conceptual overview of the intricate relationship between stress and a variety of disorders. Its interdisciplinary approach to the selection of appropriate environmental, psychological, and biological measures includes comprehensive evaluations and practical advice regarding a wide range of measurement approaches. For environmental stress, techniques such as checklists and interviews that measure life event, daily event, and chronic stress are discussed. An analysis of psychological measurements includes methods for assessing stress appraisal and affective response. Neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, and immune measures are examined as important biological stress assessments. Contributors also uncover the conceptual underpinnings of each approach as well as the various costs and benefits of available assessment techniques. Reflecting the diversity of theoretical conceptions of stress, Measuring Stress masterfully provides integrative, incisive guidelines that will prove invaluable to students, clinicians, and researchers in health and social psychology, medicine, nursing, epidemiology, sociology, and psychiatry.




Mad, Bad, and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors


Book Description

“[A work of] wit, wisdom and richness. . . . A grand tour of derangement, from matricide to anorexia.” —John Leonard, Harper’s This fascinating history of mind doctors and their patients probes the ways in which madness, badness, and sadness have been understood over the last two centuries. Lisa Appignanesi charts a story from the days when the mad were considered possessed to our own century when the official psychiatric manual lists some 350 mental disorders. Women play a key role here, both as patients—among them Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, and Marilyn Monroe—and as therapists. Controversially, Appignanesi argues that women have significantly changed the nature of mind-doctoring, but in the process they have also inadvertently highlighted new patterns of illness.




Why Are We Attracted to Sad Music?


Book Description

In this book, perspectives in psychology, aesthetics, history and philosophy are drawn upon to survey the value given to sad music by human societies throughout history and today. Why do we love listening to music that makes us cry? This mystery has puzzled philosophers for centuries and tends to defy traditional models of emotions. Sandra Garrido presents empirical research that illuminates the psychological and contextual variables that influence our experience of sad music, its impact on our mood and mental health, and its usefulness in coping with heartbreak and grief. By means of real-life examples, this book uses applied music psychology to demonstrate the implications of recent research for the use of music in health-care and for wellbeing in everyday life.




Sadness or Depression?


Book Description

The World Health Organization states that depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, and predicts that by 2030 the epidemic of depression raging across the world will be the single biggest contributor to the overall burden of disease of all health conditions. Yet this gloomy picture masks a number of paradoxes concerning the diagnosis and cultural interpretation of depression that appear to challenge the claimed prevalence rates on which it is based. This book’s essays by some of the world’s leading researchers and scholars on depression explores these anomalies in detail from multidisciplinary and multicultural perspectives, and in doing so reshapes the debate on the nature of depression that is currently under way in the US and abroad. At the book’s core is the exploration from the multiple perspectives of a key dilemma: is the epidemic of depression real or is it just apparent? In particular, could it be the result of criteria laid down in the official American classification system of mental disorders, the DSM, interacting with cultural changes to reshape our view of melancholy, pathologizing what were formerly normal symptoms of grief or intense sadness? The debate over the DSM's conception of depression has an international relevance, with the WHO’s upcoming revisions to its International Classification of Diseases requiring coordination with the DSM. This collection of perspectives has an unprecedented international dimension, as scholars from Europe and around the world join US academics to explore a central and controversial element of contemporary psychiatric diagnosis - and one that has enormous practical implications for the future of mental health care and how we view our emotions. The book’s accessible essays will make it useful to scholars, practitioners, and students across a wide range of disciplines.




Speaking of Sadness


Book Description

"Speaking of Sadness, based on fifty in-depth interviews, provides first-hand accounts of the depression experience while discovering clear regularities in the ways that personal identities are shaped over the course of an "illness career." The new edition of the book is highlighted by a thoroughly new and extensive introduction"--




Situating Sadness


Book Description

'Situating Sadness' sheds light on the influence of sociocultural factors, such as economic distress, child-bearing or child-care difficulties, or feelings of powerlessness which may play a significant role, and points to the importance of centext for understanding women's depression.