Mental Retardation

This volume is the first in the publisher's new "Psychology Reference" series, which will offer single-volume overviews of psychological subdisciplines. The intended audience is "anyone who wants to know more about the field of child development," but the book will appeal primarily to nonspecialists. Contributed by professors of psychology and public health, physicians, clinical psychologists, and psychiatrists, and edited by Salkind (educational psychology and research, Univ. of Kansas), the 289 entries cover most of the expected topics cognitive development, day care, delinquency, mental retardation, etc. Short biographies of important developmental psychologists are included, and the appendixes cover a number of government-generated statistical tables and a short list of relevant web sites. The index is adequate. Notably missing are data on research methodology or statistical interpretation. On the whole, because topics only receive the most cursory treatment, the text would not be of much use to patrons in real-world situations. High school and lower-level college students might find the citations featured in each article useful for term-paper writing, but they could probably find similar material in any decent course text.

The propose of the current book is to provide examples of methods of understanding the molecular mechanisms, clinical aspects, diagnosis, and management of behavioral abnormalities in people with intellectual disability.