APA Dictionary of Psychology (2015, 2nd Edition)

The American Psychological Association (APA) is proud to offer the second edition of its critically acclaimed and bestselling APA Dictionary of Psychology. The first edition, copyright 2007, included some 25,000 entries. That corpus was vetted by nearly 100 experts in the field of psychology and labored over for almost a decade by APA Reference staff and associated lexicographers. The first edition reflected current dimensions of the field as a whole, with entries ranging from the fundamental mainstays to those representative of the evolving language of a diversely oriented and porous field, including numerous topical overlaps in the other social, behavioral, and health sciences.

This characterization of coverage remains true in the second edition. APA collaborated intensively on the first edition with Market House Books Ltd (MHB), a British firm with, to date, 45 years’ experience in creating reference books for

both British and American markets. Broadly, APA Reference staff managed the dictionary’s conceptual and editorial development, and MHB staff handled its administration, copyediting, and composition. (For an extensive history of the first edition process, the interested reader may consult its preface.) This professionally and personally rewarding collaboration continued with the preparation of the second edition.

As with the parent edition, the second edition is intended for psychologists, graduate and undergraduate psychology students, practitioners and researchers in allied mental health professions (e.g., psychiatrists, nurses, and social workers), and all thoughtful readers who are curious about mental health issues; psychological history and theories; and, perhaps most important, psychological assessment, diagnosis, and therapy. In order to engage such abroad audience and fulfill its varied expectations, every effort has been made to present the dictionary’s entries in a clear, jargon-free style that should enable them to be understood not only by experts but also by readers who lack specialized knowledge.