Featured works

Books suitable for academics and lay audiences alike.

It is important to me to communicate to all audiences on psychology topics. Therefore my writing style take into account the academics as well as those not familiar with the science of psychology but with an interested in understanding why things happen and how to address them. I must say that I am most pleased with reviews I've received from the public. The reaction to my book demonstrates to me that I've been able to communicate the most important audience - people in everyday life who are challenged by issues such as depression:

Dealing with Anxiety and Related Disorders: Understanding, Coping, and Prevention

Anxiety disorders are the most common and frequently misdiagnosed and under-treated of all mental health conditions. Dealing with Anxiety and Related Disorders: Understanding, Coping, and Prevention explains in accessible language the myths, misunderstandings, and realities of anxiety disorders. I approach anxiety and related disorders—including panic disorder, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and PTSD—with the most up-to-date and professionally sound information available. Readers are provided with comprehensive information on each disorder—its description, clinical symptoms, dynamics, and available treatments, including alternative and experimental approaches. Ways in which patients can get help and help themselves are discussed, as are steps family members and friends can take when they know a loved one is struggling with an anxiety disorder. Detailed case studies illustrate both the disorders and the options for treatment.

Understanding and Treating Depression : Ways to Find Hope and Help

This book explains the history, incidence, diagnosis, costs, treatments, and many faces of depression. In any given year, a significant number of people suffer from a depressive disorder. Most do not seek professional help although the great majority could find relief with treatment. And that not only causes hundreds of thousands of dollars in economic costs annually from work slowdown and accidents to illnesses and suicides, the wider picture is that depression hurts not only the person at issue, but millions more who are family members or other loved ones. This book offers a one-stop source that explains the history, increasing incidence, diagnosis, costs, treatment, and many faces of depression across ages, gender, culture, ethnicity, socioeconomic group, and sexual identity. Every chapter includes vignettes and interviews to illustrate the topic and main points. Treatment approaches and success rates are discussed, as are the meanings and myths applied to this common disorder. Current and emerging research, and treatments on the horizon, are also spotlighted.

Understanding Workplace Violence: a guide for managers and employees, by Michele A. Paludi, Rudy V. Nydegger, Carmen A. Paludi (2006) - nominated for the C. Wright Miles Award.

The statistics are alarming. Experts agree that risk factors for workplace violence include psychological, behavioral, and situational stressors--and today's volatile business environment increases their intensity. This timely book integrates insights from the fields of management and social psychology to identify the sources of workplace violence and offer readers practical strategies for preventing it, protecting themselves and their employees from it, and reacting swiftly and effectively when it happens. Featuring case examples, interviews, practical recommendations, and resources for additional information, the authors debunk common myths and misconceptions about workplace violence, its perpetrators, and its victims, and consider the link between domestic and workplace violence--in particular, its implications for women and minorities. The result is an essential guide for anyone, including managers and employees, human resource professionals and counselors, psychologists and other advocates, who is affected by the impact of workplace violence and is seeking solutions.

Disorders of the New Millennium (three volume set), by Thomas G. Plante (editor)

Chapter by Rudy Nydegger: Post Partum Depression: "More than the Baby Blues?" and chapter co-written with Michele Paludi, "Diagnostic, Treatment, Gender and Cultural Issues"

Tragically, the daily news is filled with stories about hurtful and seemingly mystifying problems in human behavior. Each morning we face news stories about murder, suicide, drunken driving accidents, child molestation, drug abuse, gambling, criminal behavior and so forth. The cover stories of news magazines from TIME and Newsweek to U.S. News and World Report often focus on abnormal psychology and behavior connected to these particular topics, as well as to autism, child hyperactivity, depression, eating disorders and more. In these volumes, experts in their respective fields draw together compelling chapters on the abnormal psychology and resulting behaviors that are today most often and most dramatically at issue in our world, including such topics as "workaholism." Written with accessibility in mind, the set is intended to bridge the gap between research monographs and self-help books, to give layreaders and students solid and up to date information without having to translate jargon-heavy text. Most people today are impacted by abnormal behavior or mental illness in some way. Some suffer from their own mental disorders or live with someone who does. Others have been victimized by people experiencing abnormal psychology, including the 20% of American women and 15% of American men reporting they were sexually abused as children. Mental illness and abnormal behavior touches all of us. This set can help us cope.

Leadership in Small Groups: A Rewards-Cost Analysis