This special edition of the “What’s New in Books” column was coordinated by guest columnist Jeanne Marecek and presents recent publications by Section 3 (SQIP) members.
Living on the Spectrum: Autism and Youth in Community
By Elizabeth Fein
(New York University Press, 2020. ISBN: 9781479889068/9781479864355)
Autism is a deeply contested condition. To some, it is a devastating disease; to others, it is a fundamental and valued aspect of the self. How do young people growing up with an autism spectrum diagnosis reconcile this conflict, in the context of their own developing identities?
Ethnographic fieldwork, consisting of participant observation and in-depth interviews taking place in the context of participants' everyday lives, can provide insights into such key contemporary questions in clinical psychology. Living on the Spectrum is a clinical ethnography: an ethnography informed by clinical modes of engagement, interpretation and inference, working at the intersection of personhood and social world. While most of the research on Asperger’s syndrome and related autism spectrum conditions has been conducted with individuals in laboratory settings, this book draws on two years of meaning-centered fieldwork, conducted by a trained clinical psychologist situated deeply within communities that bring people affected by these conditions together. The book illuminates the potentiality of autistic culture, by looking at how those on the spectrum make sense of their condition through shared social practices in the places where they live, learn, work, play, and love. In moving and persuasive prose, Fein shows how youth on the autism spectrum reach beyond medicine for their stories of difference and disorder, drawing on shared mythologies from popular culture and speculative fiction to conceptualize their experience of shifting and permeable personhood. In doing so, these young people are pioneering new and more inclusive understandings of what makes us who we are.
The Strange Case of Donald J. Trump: A Psychological Reckoning
By Dan P. McAdams
(Oxford University Press, 2020)
The Strange Case of Donald J. Trump is a psychological study of the life and personality of the 45th president of the United States. The book employs qualitative methods used in psychobiography and in the narrative study of lives to shed light on the life and personality of Donald Trump. Drawing on the theory and method the author has pioneered in the thematic assessment of life stories, McAdams argues that Donald Trump is the episodic man, living outside of time and narrative. Moving through life one discrete moment at a time, Trump is remarkably bereft of a narrative identity. He has no integrative story in his mind about how he came to be and where his life is going. The lack of a narrative identity sets into bold relief other extraordinary features of his personality, from his authoritarian sentiments to his overmastering narcissism. Trump’s episodic approach to life also helps to explain his remarkable charisma in the eyes of millions of Americans, who see him as an authentic primal force rather than a fully formed, morally accountable person. Eschewing clinical diagnosis, the book explores the utter psychological strangeness of Trump, to explain why he is so appealing to so many and so repellent to so many more.
Reporting Qualitative Research in Psychology: How to Understand and Meet APA Journal Article Reporting Standards (Revised Edition)
By Heidi M. Levitt
(American Psychological Association, 2020. doi: 10.1037/0000121-000 ISBN: 9781433830037)
Heidi M. Levitt shows researchers how to use APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards for Qualitative Research (JARS-Qual), Mixed Methods Article Reporting Standards (MMARS), and Qualitative Meta-Analysis Reporting Standards (QMARS). These standards provide much-needed criteria to guide researchers as well as journal editors, reviewers, and students. They also describe the critical elements of a qualitative study, including design choices, participant recruitment strategies, data analysis procedures, and the significance of the results. Levitt explains the purpose and function of the reporting standards, helping researchers strengthens the impact of their work. The book is relevant to varied qualitative methods and includes examples from APA journal articles to illustrate how writers can tailor their reporting style to their methodologies and goals. Levitt also details other key aspects of reporting qualitative research, such as how to establish a study's methodological integrity. This revision has been updated so that it corresponds to the seventh edition of the APA Publication Manual and can better model current citation and referencing practices.
Guidelines for the “What’s New?” Column
Have you published a new psychological test or testing product; a book on advanced statistics, measurement, or evaluation; an interesting website or other internet group related to measurement, statistics, or evaluation; or a computer program useful to Div. 5 membership? If so, we would like to include an announcement of about 100 words in the What’s New column. We would also appreciate any suggestions, or feedback, on how this section of the newsletter can better serve the Div. 5 membership. Please take the opportunity to share information with colleagues through your contributions to this column. Please send announcements and/or product literature to The Score Associate Editor Joanna Solomon.