Hi,
Earlier this year I worked on the picture research for the title Classic Case Studies in Psychology by Geoff Rolls, published by Hodder Education.
This is one of those books that once you start reading you really can’t put down until you’ve read the final page. It is fascinating and a real eye-opener into how the world of psychology has been shaped by some incredible people and their individual stories.
The book is split into six separate psychological areas: cognitive, social, developmental, individual differences, physiological, and comparative. A few examples of the case studies are:
- Henry Gustav Molaison who suffered devastating memory loss after an experimental operation to help cure his epilepsy
- Sidney Bradford who, after regaining his eyesight after 51 years, struggled to cope and died within a couple of years
- Kim Peek, the real Rain Man
- Kitty Genovese, whose murder is now synonymous with the Bystander Effect
- the story of Genie, the girl who suffered 13 years of neglect, isolation and abuse
- Little Albert, who at the age of 9 months, underwent a number of experiments to try to induce the fear response (having a son of the same age at the time of doing this picture research, I wandered around for a couple of days shaking my head and could be heard muttering “Poor Little Albert…” and worried about showing my son anything that might invoke a fear response in case I damaged him for life!)
- Eve White, Eve Black and Jane, the three faces of one woman’s multiple-personality disorder
- Phineas Gage who after a work accident ended up with a one metre iron bar in his head
There aren’t too many images in the book, usually around two or three for each case study, but they usually show the main protagonists in the stories, or demonstrate theories and techniques.
Although published for the further education market, this is definitely a book that anyone with even the slightest interest in psychology I’m sure would be interested in reading. If you like Oliver Sachs, you’ll definitely appreciate Geoff Rolls.
You can order the book from Amazon or direct from the Hodder Education website.
Regards,
Sharon
© Sharon McTeir
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