In their later years, Americans of different racial and ethnic backgrounds are not in equally good-or equally poor-health. There is wide variation, but on average older Whites are healthier than older Blacks and tend to outlive them. But Whites tend to be in poorer health than Hispanics and Asian Americans. This volume documents the differentials and considers possible explanations. Selection processes play a role: selective migration, for instance, or selective survival to advanced ages. Health differentials originate early in life, possibly even before birth, and are affected by events and experiences throughout the life course. Differences in socioeconomic status, risk behavior, social relations, and health care all play a role. Separate chapters consider the contribution of such factors and the biopsychosocial mechanisms that link them to health. This volume provides the empirical evidence for the research agenda provided in the separate report of the Panel on Race, Ethnicity, and Health in Later Life.

Traditionally, impulsive and compulsive behaviors have been categorized as fundamentally distinct. However, patients often exhibit both of these behaviors. This common comorbidity has sparked renewed interest in the factors contributing to the disorders in which these behaviors are prominent. Impulsivity and Compulsivity applies a provocative spectrum model to this psychopathology. The spectrum model is consistent with a dimensional model for psychopathology and considers the dynamic interaction of biopsychosocial forces in the development of impulsive and compulsive disorders. In this important work on impulsive/compulsive psychopathology, leading researchers and clinicians share their expertise on the phenomenological, biological, psychodynamic, and treatment aspects of these disorders. Differential diagnosis, comorbidity of the impulsive-compulsive spectrum of disorders, and assessment by the seven-factor model of temperament and character are discussed. Chapters are also dedicated to the antianxiety function of impulsivity and compulsivity, defense mechanisms in impulsive disorders versus obsessive-compulsive disorders, and the unique aspects of psychotherapy with impulsive and compulsive patients. Clinical researchers and clinicians will be enlightened by this exceptional work. The information provided is supplemented with clinical vignettes, and the final chapter provides a synthetic summary that offers a unified, dynamic approach to impulsive and compulsive behavior.

This new edition brings fully up-to-date a book widely praised for its clear and objective presentation of changes in American racial attitudes during the second half of the twentieth century. The book retains the division of racial attitudes into principles of equality, government implementation of those principles, and social distance, but adds questions concerning affirmative action and beliefs about sources of inequality. A conceptual section now opens the book, evidence on social desirability has been added, and a new chapter deals with cohort effects and with the impact of income, education, and gender. In key instances, randomized experiments are introduced that test hypotheses more rigorously than is ordinarily possible with survey data. Throughout, the authors have reconsidered earlier ideas and introduced new thinking.