Essentials of Occupational Health Psychology
本书评由作者与三名研究生共同撰写，评估了《职业健康心理学精要》作为教材的适用性，指出该书全面覆盖了职业健康心理学领域，但部分章节深度不足，且目标读者群过于宽泛。
This book review is different from many book reviews I have written in the past. I teach a course on occupational health psychology at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. I stumbled upon this book and thought to myself, “Hey this might be a good alternative to the current textbook I am using.” With that in mind, I rallied three of my graduate students to read and review this book with me. What follows below is our collective voice and review of the text. It is worth noting that I reviewed this book with the evaluative perspective of whether I could use this as an alternative to the text I currently use. The three graduate students reviewed this book with a voracity for knowledge and a deeper understanding of the field. Please keep this in mind as you consider adopting or reading this book. Essentials of Occupational Health Psychology provides an overview of many topics in the Occupational Health Psychology (OHP) field and highlights its importance and application in the global work environment. Cunningham and Black state that the purpose of this book is to “empower readers to take appropriate and reasoned action to address a wide variety of worker health, safety, and well-being challenges.” The target audience for this book is graduate students, advanced undergraduate students, and working professionals with an interest in supporting employee health, safety, and wellbeing. The book is organized into 12 chapters, each discussing a different aspect of OHP. The book begins with a general discussion of OHP as a field and important principles in designing and evaluating OHP interventions. The authors then discuss individual differences relevant to OHP before diving into workers psychological and physical health. Next is a section focused on stress, recovery, and psychological and social demands and resources. The authors then discuss interpersonal mistreatment at work, work and nonwork roles, and the physical and safety aspects of work. The concluding chapter provides insight into the myriad of ways OHP can have an impact beyond the workplace. Cunningham and Black effectively emphasize the importance of OHP and its impact in the workplace by drawing on relevant, up-to-date research and theory. Most of the sources used are current (within the past 10 years). They also discuss recent events like COVID-19, the aftermath of the pandemic, and its impact on the world of work. The breadth of discussion is also impressive, as the authors often considered not only organizational and individual outcomes but also societal and global ones. We found some chapters to be more satisfying and informative. For instance, Chapter 8, which focuses on Interpersonal Mistreatment at Work, puts mistreatment and interpersonal conflict in a broad perspective, emphasizing individual and environmental factors and the reciprocal nature of mistreatment. Additionally, Chapter 9, which discusses Work and Nonwork Role Dynamics, was quite thorough and complete in its presentation of the material. The thorough analysis of work and non-work role dynamics provided a sense of closure on the topics discussed. However, not all chapters were equally convincing and complete in their argument. Given that this book included graduate students and advanced undergraduate students as part of its intended audience, several of the chapters left us with more questions than answers. For example, Chapter 1, which discusses OHP as a field, states that OHP was formalized as a field in the 1990s but lacks a discussion of the historical events (read as disasters) and sociopolitical changes, such as the Avondale Mine Disaster and changes in mining safety, that ultimately paved the way for the formation of the OHP field. While we acknowledge that the purpose was not a full historical recounting of the field, we craved more historical context. Similarly, Chapter 2, which discusses Designing and Evaluating Occupational Health Psychology Interventions, is missing a discussion of the different types of psychological research methods. Such a discussion would certainly be relevant to collecting data on the impact of OHP interventions, especially for undergraduates or practitioners who may not have that training or background. Furthermore, Chapter 6 discusses Work-related Stress and Recovery, but is missing a comprehensive illustration of the entire recovery framework. There are also several terms related to recovery that are mentioned but not adequately defined (e.g., rumination). This may hinder readers' understanding of the concepts and their interrelationships within the recovery process. For a book about OHP, they only had a few pages about how to recover, despite recovery being a critical part of wellbeing. One of the primary positive features of the book is that the authors provide relevant examples of worker needs that can be addressed by OHP interventions. We call this a feature because other texts (e.g., Schoenfeld and Chang, 2017) will present interventions in an isolated fashion in their own intervention chapter. Cunningham and Black provide examples of interventions in each chapter and provide methodological or measurement issues in the context of each content area. For instance, Chapter 11 on safety includes specific recommendations and illustrative examples of successful interventions at the individual, management, and organizational levels. While the chapters varied on the level of detail and guidance provided in these examples, the examples did provide illustration of what an intervention could look like for each topic. Perhaps what is missing is a stronger set of recommendations or practical strategies that address common occupational health issues, especially targeted at helping working professionals (one of the book's key audiences). The overall organization of the book is effective. Each chapter is organized in the same manner; the authors begin by giving an overview of the material, then explain why the topic is important, and conclude with practical recommendations. The consistency of the chapter format serves to anchor the reader. The authors’ writing style is clear. They discuss complex concepts in layman's terms for people of all kinds of disciplines to understand, which supports the book's emphasis on collaboration across disciplines to achieve OHP goals. The one issue we had with the writing style was the use of the acronym WHSWB throughout the book, which stands for Worker Health, Safety, and Wellbeing. The acronym is very clunky, and we often felt ourselves stumbling over the acronym. Others may not find this an issue. We simply thought that using an acronym in this case did not aid in the reading of the book. While the writing style is appropriate for a broad audience, the content of the book seems miss its intended audience. As a text that includes graduate students in its targeted audience, we were often left feeling unsated. We wanted more. We wanted a deeper dive into some of the more complex topics. Additionally, while the resources provided in the text, such as the article links at the end of each chapter, may be helpful resources for instructors, we question whether students utilizing this textbook to meet class requirements would take advantage of the additional resources provided (without being required to do so). We suspect that working professionals are more likely to engage with these materials. Similarly, the discussion questions that are included in the book are excellent resources for facilitating a class discussion of the topics but may not be helpful for working professionals. The professional profiles, on the other hand, are valuable to all audiences as they provide exposure to the impact individuals can have on the field. The author's view of OHP is sophisticated and well-rounded. They address many different aspects of OHP, and each chapter includes a brief reality check that acknowledges the realities and constraints of work in OHP. This perspective is suitable for both laypersons and professionals, as it places scholarly work and theory in the context of real-world needs and limitations. The book fulfills the expectations in the preface by providing insightful and relevant content and valuable supplementary materials. However, the authors may have aimed to target too many audiences that have different needs or wants in a book on occupational health psychology. Focusing on one audience and only the most important concepts in each chapter might serve to make the foundations of OHP clearer to the reader, strengthening the overall message and impact of the book. Given this issue, the title of the book is Essentials of Occupational Health Psychology. To that end, the book does provide an excellent overview of the essentials needed to have a broad understanding of the field of occupational health psychology.