Review of Social psychology, an interdisciplinary approach.

Reviews the book, Social psychology, an interdisciplinary approach by Hubert Bonner (1953). According to the reviewer, it has been argued that most textbooks in the social sciences are really written from other textbooks in the same area. Bonner's text seems singularly invulnerable to this complaint. The author has brought together materials from an unusually wide variety of sources and organized them into a book which shows definite signs of some original thinking about how a text in social psychology should be put together, and what should go into it. The reviewer states that in general, Bonner's theoretical position is, for today, not an especially distinctive one. The extent of his concern with the social and cultural context within which behavior occurs, however, is unusual and can be conveyed only in part by the headings of the three main divisions of his book: Social Interaction, the social matrix of behavior; Culture and Behavior, cultural values and personal-social adjustment; Group Dynamics, social change and collective behavior. The reviewer states that this book is particularly useful for students who are interested in getting an understanding of social behavior within the scope of a single course, and who do not intend to do advanced work in the social sciences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Readings in social psychology: Classic and Canadian contributions.

Reviews the book, Readings in social psychology: Classic and Canadian contributions edited by Brian Earn and Shelagh Towson (1986). Earn and Towson argue that students should know that social psychology is an active discipline with significant contributions from their own nation, that there are areas of research of particular relevance to the Canadian context, and that they should be able to gain from incidental learning about their own society. The format of the book is rather conventional. Readings are grouped into content areas: social motives (aggression and altruism), social influence, attitudes, social interactions (attraction and loneliness), attribution and cognition, ethnic relations, prejudice, and applications (TV influence, social support, law). It includes contributions by many of the most prominent social psychologists in Canada, and several "classic" papers by U.S. social psychologists. As one who has long regretted the fact that we are compelled to teach social psychology with only foreign materials, the reviewer welcomes the publication of this book. The reviewer hopes that in the second edition the editors take more seriously the purpose of a book of readings, and set out to communicate to undergraduate students what social psychological research is all about. The reviewer also hopes that the publisher is able to produce a volume that looks more professional and is easier to read. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Rochester Symposium on Developmental Psychopathology, Volume 3: Models and integrations.

Reviews the book, Rochester Symposium on Developmental Psychopathology, Volume 3: Models and integrations by Dante Cicchetti and Sheree L. Toth (1991). Cicchetti and Toth's Models and integrations is the third of five volumes issuing from the annual "Rochester Symposium on Developmental Psychopathology," a series of publications which has served to define the discipline. The current volume plays a pivotal role in the evolution of developmental psychopathology because it raises important theoretical questions about the discipline, not the least of which are what is it and what might it be? In challenging the conceptual strength and clarity of the field, the book addresses salient developmental issues that will need to be resolved if the discipline is to advance. This is a thought-provoking and intellectually challenging book. It contains 11 weighty chapters organized into three relatively distinct but overlapping sections: (1) theoretical issues, (2) models for understanding specific forms of child psychopathology, and (3) developmentally-grounded intervention strategies. Each chapter in this book demonstrates an extraordinarily high level of theoretical and methodological sophistication. Collectively, the chapters in this volume constitute one of the most informative and sophisticated discussions of theory and methodology in the field of developmental psychopathology that is currently available. This volume is an outstanding contribution to the field and is highly recommended reading for advanced students and researchers in the areas of developmental and child psychopathology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moral education and domains in the classroom: Is nothing as practical as a good theory?

Reviews the book, Education in the moral domain by L. P. Nucci (see record 2001-06857-000). In his book Education in the Moral Domain, Nucci summarizes more than two decades of developmental research indicating that it is impossible to ignore children's active understanding of sociomoral rules in search of simple "habit formation." Instead, he argues, children routinely form complex conceptions of both sociomoral events and adults' legitimate roles in those events and if adults ignore these conceptions it will only undermine their attempts at moral education. In the past, ideas like these were seen as damaging because they suggested that children should "question authority." By contrast, the recent developmental research reviewed in this book indicates that, although children and adolescents do sometimes "question authority," there is a surprising amount of consensus in children's and adults' sociomoral understanding and behavior. This book provides an intellectually compelling summary of recent developmental research on children's sociomoral development with a clear eye on the implications of that work for classroom moral education and the larger moral climate of schools. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The Cambridge companion to Piaget.

Reviews the book, The Cambridge companion to Piaget edited by Ulrich Müller, Jeremy Carpendale, and Leslie Smith (see record 2010-05478-000). In the 30th anniversary year of Piaget’s death, Müller, Carpendale, and Smith propose a much-needed comprehensive introduction to the key aspects of this legendary psychologist’s work. While there have been several monographs available on Piaget’s theory, they tend to focus on either Piaget’s theoretical or empirical work. The current authors have solicited 18 individually solid chapters that survey both the theoretical and epistemological aspects of Piaget’s work and elaborate on the relations between empirical research and epistemological issues. The volume covers a large territory, spanning from the personal and historical contexts that shaped Piaget’s intellectual growth to brief introductions of Piaget’s empirical work on cognitive development in infancy, childhood, and adolescence. It follows up with current neo-Piagetian models of cognitive development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond social cognitions.

Reviews the book, Social motivation: Understanding children's school adjustment edited by J. Juvonen and K. R. Wentzel (see record 1997-97006-000). In general, research has paid little attention to the possibility that children's social motivation is intertwined with their academic motivation. Affiliation and achievement have been regarded as two distinct motivations. This book is an attempt to redress this imbalance and misconception. The book argues that children's social and academic development are intertwined. Contributors to the book discuss specific ways in which children are motivated to achieve socially and academically at school. The book's social motivation perspective has successfully extended the reader's attention from intrapsychological processes to interpersonal relationships and social concerns as motivators of behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Handbook of contemporary group psychotherapy: Contributions from object relations, self psychology, and social systems theories.

Reviews the book, Handbook of contemporary group psychotherapy: Contributions from object relations, self psychology, and social systems theories edited by Robert H. Klein, Harold S. Bernard, and David L. Singer (see record 1992-98341-000). Divided into three large sections, the book addresses recent theoretical developments, the clinical applications to patient care and the role of the therapist, each from the standpoint of object relations theory, self psychological theory and social systems theory. The chapters in this book are intended to clarify and integrate different theoretical perspectives with the business of daily practice and application to the group milieu. The reviewer points out several problems with the text including lack of consistency, minor inaccuracies, redundancy among chapters, occasional outdated references and, perhaps most cogent of these carps, the rather wide variation in quality among the different chapters. Nevertheless, the reviewer highly recommends this book for all practitioners and students of group therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children as common sense psychologists.

Reviews the book, Developing theories of mind edited by Janet W. Astington, Paul L. Harris, and David R. Olson (see record 1988-98675-000). This book is a collection of the 20 papers delivered at the International Conference on Developing Theories of Mind organized in the University of Toronto in 1986. The book explores the area of cognitive sciences dealing with children's awareness of themselves and other people as intentional creatures who know, believe, doubt, imagine, pretend, etc. The reviewer thinks that the work as a whole suffers from a lack of depth. The problem is that researchers have set out to explore a development without taking stock of that in which development is supposed to occur, namely intentionality and children's grasp of its nature in its diverse forms. On the other hand, if you want to know what psychologists are doing to understand the child's growing appreciation of mind and what psychologists claim they have found, this is the place to start. The contributions are attractively modest and free of bewildering jargon. The editors have worked hard and, together with the contributors, raise fundamental questions that have long been ignored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

[Review of Who shall survive? Foundations of sociometry, group psychotherapy and sociodrama and Group dynamics: Research and theory].

Reviews the books, Who shall survive? Foundations of sociometry, group psychotherapy and sociodrama (Rev. Ed.) by J. L. Moreno (1953); and Group dynamics: Research and theory Edited by Dorwin Cartwright and Alvin Zander (1953). In the Foreword to his book, Personality: a Biosocial Approach to Origins and Structure, Gardner Murphy described the volume as somewhat like "an explorer's kit, containing, to be sure, some standard tools, and also some maps. Some of the maps are sober, some eccentric, no doubt; but all are drawn in the belief that any map of a far country encourages more travel than an architect's finished representation of the doorway as it is here and now" (p. x). Imbued with this philosophy, the present reviewer welcomes the appearance of the revised edition of Who Shall Survive? and of Group Dynamics. Each is an important volume which has much to contribute to improving our understanding of the social nature of man and the nature of man's social behavior. To those of us searching for a "world" view in the field of social psychology, the special projections of the cartography of these volumes must be properly identified before the maps can be redrawn and integrated. Moreno offers us a complete theoretical globe. "Sociometry cuts through all social sciences as it deals with social phenomena at a deep level where they merge or more precisely before they 'e'merge into 'psychological', 'sociological', 'anthropological', or 'economic' phenomena" (p. 54). Cartwright and Zander, on the other hand, offer us half a dozen illustrations of the cartographer's art without too clear an indication of how they are interrelated, what the contiguous areas may be like, on what basis they were chosen--but each does depict a large and rich terrain, and the maps are beautiful. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The times, they are a changing: A review of Raising children in a socially toxic environment.

Reviews the book, Raising children in a socially toxic environment by J. Gabarino (1995). In this book, Garbarino sets out to offer his views on what childhood ought to be, how children map their own worlds (thus define, themselves), what their basic needs are, the levels in which those needs are being met, as well as offer suggestions for ways in which readers can change the "toxic environment" to aid in the healthy development of children and youth. The book is challenging to read because it is true. Although the pages are not replete with "hard data," they are filled with factual accounts that paint a discouraging, in fact depressing picture of the life of children in our communities. The book is powerful because, if successful, we are forced to accept the fact that this is American society today. There is no question that the issues articulated by Garbarino in this book, such as teenage homicide, gang warfare, domestic violence, and child abuse, are real. The influences of Urie Bronfenbrenner (1977) and ecological systems theory provide the conceptual framework for this book. Accordingly, development is the result of complex interactions among child and family systems and the social environment in which they function. Related to the ecological orientation is the notion that "it takes a village" to effect change. In other words, there is an implicit message that successful, healthy childrearing is the shared responsibility of individuals, groups, communities, external forces, and broad-based sanctions and regulations. As such, readers who take this book seriously will be forced to look at it not only as a professional resource with "good information," but as a call to accept a role for working within their individual and community contexts to influence change. Although the book falls short in providing concrete directives for change, it sends a strong message that we are all responsible, and a more subtle message that change is possible. If each and every reader could make one or two changes in their own behaviors and priorities as an outcome of reading this book, it will have served an invaluable service. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sometimes, two swallows do make a summer.

Reviews the book, The social world of children learning to talk by B. Hart and T. Risley (1999). Betty Hart and Todd Risley's second book reporting the results of a longitudinal study of language development among children, ranging in age from 9 to 36 months, and their families. Rather than providing too little information from which to draw accurate conclusions, this second volume is a forceful and important follow-up to their earlier work, Meaningful differences in the everyday lives of young American children (Hart & Risley, 1996). This second volume focuses on the children themselves and the changes they make in social interactions and language production across the span of infancy, toddlerhood, and early preschool years. Learning to talk is an important volume in its own right, offering a detailed and rich picture of the relation between social and language development in young children. Serious students of language development, psychologists interested in early development, and practitioners or researchers interested in early development and intervention will all profit from this important contribution to our understanding of young children and their families. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A conceptual framework for examining adolescent identity, media influence, and social development.

The adolescent identity, media, and sociocognitive schema (AIMSS) framework offers a theoretical understanding of adolescent consumption and cognitive processing of media entertainment. Review and integration of mass communication theory, developmental theory, and ecological theory serves as the conceptual foundation. The framework outlines linkages between media exposure and adolescent development, in particular adolescent identity formation and social competence. A key contribution of the model is consideration of the positive and negative aspects of adolescent cognition and behavioral functioning. The present article offers several recommendations for testing the utility of the AIMSS framework. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Social learning and clinical psychology.

Reviews the book, Social learning and clinical psychology by Julian B. Rotter (1954). Social Learning and Clinical Psychology is in effect two books in one, a trenchant and forceful evaluation of just what clinicians are doing, and a formulation of a behavior theory which strives to provide a more secure groundwork upon which meaningful clinical practice may be based. The theory, admittedly tentative and incomplete, represents a genuine contribution to the clarification of thinking about clinical problems. The book falls rather naturally into three distinct sections. Chapters I through IV present a detailed survey of the current functions and problems faced by the working clinical psychologist from a theoretical and technical point of view. The middle section of the book comprises the author's unique contribution, a "social learning theory of personality." The third section of this book, while broadest in scope, is somewhat disappointing. Here Rotter attempts to relate his four classes of variables, the subject's behavior, expectation of reinforcement, the value of external reinforcements, and the psychological situation, to the vast panoply of theoretical approaches, clinical instruments, and psychotherapeutic techniques which are involved in the clinician's functioning. On the whole, then, this book is an impressive achievement. Despite a few shortcomings, there is much to be learned from this book by those who are willing to read it carefully and reflectively. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Où en est la cognition sociale? Sociogenèse et sélection ontogénétique des pensées sociales.

Maintains that sociogenetic models of human development invoke processes such as intersubjectivity, experiential canalizaion and ontogenetic selection to explain both interindividual differences and personal changes in children's representations of social reality. Studies stressing information processing focus upon procedural aspects of social thought, whereas constructivists emphasize age graded shifts in conceptual abilities. In contrast, socioconstructivists analyze the bi-directional influence between specific interpersonal relations and the evolution of children's cognitive skills. The authors argue that a major theoretical challenge for this field of study involves linking children's sociocognitive capacities to social adaptation in everyday settings. Theoretical and methodological implications of the sociogenetic model for understanding inter-personal and intra-personal diversity in social thought are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Interviewing in social research.

Reviews the book "Interviewing in social research" by H. H. Hyman, with W. J. Cobb, J. J. Feldman, C. W. Hard and C. H. Stember (1954). The book reports a series of studies by the National Opinion Research Center. The book is not, as the name implies, a treatise on interviewing methods, but is a series of investigations into the the nature and sources of bias in the interview. The focus of the research is the interviewing survey research, although it is obvious that many of the findings can be generalized to other types of interviews, not only in social science research but wherever the interview is used as a means of collecting information. It is by far the most comprehensive and best documented book in the field. In addition to the original research contributions, the authors have done an exhaustive job in reviewing previous research in the area. This reviewer considers the book a major contribution to social science measurement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of A new psychology of men.

Reviews the book, A new psychology of men edited by Ronald F. Levant and William S. Pollack (see record 1995-97524-000). The intent of this book is to "'describe how men's prescribed roles are neither biological nor social givens but rather psychological and social constructions.'" The Theory section includes four chapters primarily focused on social constructivism and psychoanalytic (or perhaps more accurately object-relations theory) views on masculinity. The second section, Research, provides three chapters by researchers of what seem to be disparate orientations. The third section, Applications, is appropriately more practical and speaks to clinicians. The fourth and final section, The Varieties of Masculinity, samples in three chapters issues of ethnic minority males, homosexual and bisexual males, and a final chapter (by the editors) looking to the future and summarizing conclusions from the preceding chapters. The reviewer finds several flaws in this book including interventions that are not applicable and an imbalance in the authors' orientations. However, the reviewer believes that researchers may find the volume helpful in generating hypotheses and new research directions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Handbook of social psychology.

Reviews the book, Handbook of social psychology edited by Gardner Lindzey (1954). The reviewer notes that the publication of this two-volume Handbook is a truly signal event in social psychology. The text is comprehensive, up to date, balanced. It gives extensive treatment to theory, to methodology, and to research findings and applications. It is sophisticated in its approach and makes no concession to oversimplified presentation, either in content or in style. The reviewer also reports that the editor has demonstrated a high order of intelligence and judgment in the selection and organization of the various chapters. No main area of social psychology is neglected. As contrasted with the more typical compendiums of material in a large field, this book succeeds remarkably in avoiding unnecessary redundancy. The choice of authors in this text is also excellent. Some of the authors have taken this as an occasion for creating something beyond simply a critical review of an area of social psychology; parts of some of the chapters are original contributions to the theory and method of social psychology. Overall, this Handbook offers convincing evidence that social psychology is indeed a field in its own right, continually growing in the extent to which its methods and findings bear intimate relationship with other areas of psychology, and at the same time contributing a steady stream of methods and data which are uniquely to be found in connection with social behavior of individuals and groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Relative deprivation and social comparison: The Ontario Symposium, Volume 4.

Reviews the book, Relative deprivation and social comparison: The Ontario Symposium, Volume 4 edited by James M. Olson, C. Peter Herman, and Mark P. Zanna (1986). This volume addresses two very important and interrelated topics in social psychology through a collection of relatively independent papers. Following an introductory chapter, the authors of chapters 2 through 5 discuss various theoretical approaches to the determinants of resentment engendered by relative deprivation and recent research designed to address this theorizing. Then, chapters 6 through 8 discuss recent work on social comparison processes. Finally, chapters 9 through 12 use the concepts of relative deprivation and social comparison to suggest ways to understand four important social issues: minority-majority relations, dissatisfaction in organizational settings, social protest, and tolerance of injustice. All in all, the reviewer highly recommends this book to anyone wishing to update themselves on current research trends in this area. Two of the three sections are excellent and third is of uneven rather than poor quality. Further, the regrettable focus on egotistical rather than fraternal relative deprivation in the social psychology literature is not as prevalent in this book as the reviewer feared it might be. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Rationality and Relativism.

Reviews the book, Rationality and Relativism edited by Martin Hollis and Steven Lukes (1982). The reviewer asserts that the rationality with which relativism is contrasted in the title is that of the Enlightenment, "with its belief in universal laws of human nature and in an all-embracing scientific method for accumulating truths, its distrust of subjectivity and arbitrariness and its serene belief in intellectual and moral progress and in the link between them." The book is clearly slanted to the concerns of social anthropology proves, however, to be advantageous for the psychologist who is likely to be bothered more by theoretical than by cultural relativism. This book is a very important, timely, and eminently readable collection of articles by some of the most esteemed scholars currently working in the philosophy of the social sciences. The book should, for obvious reasons, be required reading for psychologists engaged in theoretical practice. As well, it provides valuable interdisciplinary perspectives on many problems of special interest to cognitive and social psychologists. But, above all, it gives a wealth of effective ammunition to all psychologists who are determined actively to resist the dry-rot of relativism and to restore a more promising foundation to their science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Handbook of implicit social cognition: Measurement, theory, and applications.

Reviews the book, Handbook of implicit social cognition: Measurement, theory, and applications edited by Bertram Gawronski and Keith B. Payne (see record 2010-13147-000). The comprehensive overview of theoretical models, empirical findings, and practical applications of research in implicit social cognition provided within this book is timely and warranted. The editors were successful in clearly outlining that implicit social cognition theory and measurement. A primary strength of this volume is the way in which seemingly divergent areas of research have been organized into five distinct sections, each of which builds upon the previous sections to provide a comprehensive understanding of implicit social cognition. Even the novice researcher may benefit from the practical guides to implicit theory and measurement. This book would be especially interesting and useful for active researchers across a variety of domains who are interested in understanding how implicit processes can influence human behaviour. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)