Unifying Causality and Psychology

This magistral treatise approaches the integration of psychology through the study of the multiple causes of normal and dysfunctional behavior. Causality is the focal point reviewed across disciplines. Using diverse models, the book approaches unifying psychology as an ongoing project that integrates genetics, experience, evolution, brain, development, change mechanisms, and so on. The book includes in its integration free will, epitomized as freedom in being. It pinpoints the role of the self in causality and the freedom we have in determining our own behavior. The book deals with disturbed behavior, as well, and tackles the DSM-5 approach to mental disorder and the etiology of psychopathology. Young examines all these topics with a critical eye, and gives many innovative ideas and models that will stimulate thinking on the topic of psychology and causality for decades to come. It is truly integrative and original.

Among the topics covered:

Models and systems of causality of behavior.

Nature and nurture: evolution and complexities.

Early adversity, fetal programming, and getting under the skin.

Free will in psychotherapy: helping people believe.

Causality in psychological injury and law: basics and critics.

A Neo-Piagetian/Neo-Eriksonian 25-step (sub)stage model.

Unifying Causality and Psychology appeals to the disciplines of psychology, psychiatry, epidemiology, philosophy, neuroscience, genetics, law, the social sciences and humanistic fields, in general, and other mental health fields. Its level of writing makes it appropriate for graduate courses, as well as researchers and practitioners.

Gerald Young, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at Glendon College, York University. Dr. Young founded and is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal of Psychological Injury and Law. Dr. Young also founded and is President of the Association for Scientific Advancement in Psychological Injury and Law. Dr. Young recently published a book that covers all areas of psychological injury and law, focusing on malingering, see Malingering, Feigning, and Response Bias in Psychiatric/ Psychological Injury: Implications for Practice and Court (2014). Dr. Young has published other works in the area, see Causality of Psychological Injury: Presenting Evidence in Court (2007). For Dr. Young's research in child development, see Development and Causality: Neo-Piagetian Perspectives (2011); see also Dr. Young's most recent trade book You Can Rejoin Joy: Blogging for Today's Psychology (2012).  Dr. Young  has published multiple journal articles, specifically on psychological injury, law, causality, PTSD, and pain. Dr.Young may be reached at gyoung@glendon.yorku.ca.