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RR 2015/162 APA Handbook of Personality and Social Psychology Editors in chief Mario Mikulincer and Phillip R. Shaver American Psychological Association Washington, DC 2015 4 vols. ISBN 978 1 4388 1699 4 £675 $895 APA Handbooks in Psychology Available in the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East and Africa from Eurospan Also available electronically for institutions
Keywords Guides and handbooks, Personality, Social psychology
Review DOI 10.1108/RR-03-2015-0054
About five years ago the American Psychological Association (APA) started publishing a series of multi-volume handbooks, kicking off with three massive volumes on industrial and organizational psychology. This set forms the 12th handbook in the series, bringing the total up to 30 volumes so far. Massive is certainly the word for them - the first of this four-volume set weighs in at 5 lb 12 oz on my kitchen scales. New born children are considered viable when weighing less than this monster.
We have considered some of the others in the series before. Amanda Izenstark recommended the two volumes of the APA Handbook of Psychology, Religion & Spirituality (Pergament, 2013), saying "this would be an excellent addition to academic and research libraries supporting mental health programmes, researchers and mental health practitioners, and would also be helpful for those enrolled in divinity programmes" (RR 2014/003). I do not personally have many dealings with people enrolled in divinity courses, but I was slightly dubious about the latter claim - $495 is quite a lot to take out of a divinity library's budget for a marginal text. I felt rather the same about the two-volume APA Handbook of Behavior Analysis which I recommended, saying that "I do not know of a better introductory text on what is an important strand in psychological thinking" and that "(A)cademic libraries catering for courses in psychology or psychiatry should seriously consider this for acquisition" but contented myself with saying that "libraries catering for subjects as diverse as economics or environmental science should be aware that behavioural analysis can be used as a tool to explain much of what happens in their fields" (RR 2013/248) without going so far as to recommend that such libraries should actually buy that particular book. The series seems to me to be aimed fairly and squarely at the academic psychology market....