Review of Handbook of Multicultural Perspectives on Stress and Coping

• Published in: Canadian Psychology / Psychologie canadienne 2007-02, Vol.48 (1), p.53-55
• Main Authors: Ryder, Andrew G., Watanabe, Donald H., Ring, Angela J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Coping Behavior; Cross Cultural Differences; Culture (Anthropological); Human; Multiculturalism; Racial and Ethnic Differences; Racial and Ethnic Groups; Sociocultural Factors; Stress
• ISSN: 0708-5591; 1878-7304
• DOI: 10.1037/cp2007_1_53

Reviews the book, Handbook of Multicultural Perspectives on Stress and Coping edited by Philip T. P. Wong and Lillian C. J. Wong (see record 2006-01105-000). Paul and Lilian Wong's edited Handbook of Multicultural Perspectives on Stress and Coping does not shy away from the challenges inherent in cross-cultural work. In their opening chapter, they establish quickly that they are setting out to do more than simply compare cultures on established markers of stress and coping. In addition, perhaps primarily, they wish to broaden our very ideas of what stress and coping actually are by taking seriously the ways in which these concepts are understood in different cultures. Particularly welcome in this regard is the full consideration of religious, spiritual, and existential modes of coping, modes that are extremely common throughout the world--and probably more common in "the West" than is commonly acknowledged by largely secular psychologists. In his concluding review, Paul Pedersen provides a sobering inventory of the knowledge gaps in the culture, stress, and coping literature. The current volume is a welcome addition to this growing field, providing researchers with useful tools and intriguing hypotheses for use in future studies. Unfortunately, the book's coherence also suffers as a consequence of the uneven literature. That said, the difficulties in putting together a book such as this one should not be underestimated. The editors did an outstanding job of involving a number of cultural perspectives, both in terms of the writers themselves and also the topics they have chosen to study. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)