Review of The Human Subject in the Psychological Laboratory.

Reviews the book, The Human Subject in the Psychological Laboratory by Irwin Silverman (see record 1978-20076-000). In this book, the author presents his assessment of the laboratory experiment following years of research on the social psychology of the psychological experiment. Silverman makes his views clear from the outset: the laboratory is "an excellent place to study laboratory behavior; but by virtue of this it is suited for little else", and he relentlessly pursues this thesis throughout the book. Through the seeming enormity of evidence and Silverman's constant attention to his thesis, the reader is brought to the precipice from which the laboratory experiment must surely fall. The uncritical reader will find Silverman's arguments well-written and effectively woven together in a relatively concise, easily readable manner. Any criticisms of the book must focus on errors of omission rather than problems of style or misrepresentation of fact. The important questions seem to concern a need to better understand how an experimenter can conduct meaningful research with human subjects. This understanding will not come about from proclaiming that other methods are better or from research which has only the objective of documenting the inadequacies of current methods. More than anything else Silverman's book suggests the need for a new direction for increased research on the social psychology of the psychological experiment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The theory and practice of self psychology.

Reviews the book, The theory and practice of self psychology by M. T. White and M. B. Weiner (see record 1986-97572-000). White and Weiner provide a clear and concise overview of the central concepts of Kohut's self psychology in this clinically useful volume. Readers uninitiated in the self psychological literature are likely to gain an appreciation for the clinical utility of self psychological concepts. Readers who have previously explored Kohut's work may find (as did this reviewer) that a close reading of White and Weiner's book promotes a greater grasp of the evolution of Kohut's thought and a renewed appreciation for the profundity of his clinical observations. White and Weiner's book does have some minor shortcomings. The authors make little effort to place Kohut's self psychology within the historical context of psychoanalytic thought (keeping alive a tradition that some have said began with Kohut himself). As a result, useful and related efforts by others (e.g., Winnicott, Rogers, Binswanger, Sullivan, and others) at explicating the concept of the self go essentially ignored. Shortcomings notwithstanding, White and Weiner succeed in providing a highly accessible and lucid overview of self psychological concepts and in offering the reader a demonstration of how these concepts apply to the clinical situation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The saturated self: Dilemmas of identity in contemporary life.

Reviews the book, The saturated self: Dilemmas of identity in contemporary life by Kenneth J. Gergen (see record 1991-97621-000). There is, perhaps, no other concept as seminal for psychology as the self. For this reason alone, Kenneth Gergen's book represents an important contribution to our understanding of this influential concept. However, Gergen's vision is so broad, his arguments so compelling, and the implications so revolutionary, that the work defies confinement exclusively within the walls of academia. In essence, Gergen is articulating his vision of a postmodern world, and he lays an invitation squarely before the reader to come and partake. The conception of the self as private and autonomous is the focus of Gergen's postmodern challenge. In his chapter, "Social Saturation and the Populated Self," Gergen postulates that technological innovation in contemporary society has made possible a rapid proliferation of relationships. This he refers to as the "process of social saturation." Gergen's book constitutes a substantive contribution to psychology's on going understanding of the self. Copious examples are provided throughout, drawing on and extending scholarly debates. Also included are anecdotes and evidences from such far ranging domains as art, film, music, literature, and architecture. These not only clarify and reinforce his arguments, but also illustrate the scope and practicality of the position he espouses. Although readers may not embrace the gestalt of Gergen's vision of a postmodern culture, they are certain to find this book to be a provocative and rewarding read. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Theory and problems of adolescent development.

Reviews "Theory and problems of adolescent development," by David P. Ausubel (see record 1955-00581-000). Unlike most other books in this area, this book offers a systematic presentation of psychological knowledge woven around a dynamic point of view. It is a scholarly book written in language that makes for easy and interesting reading. The author opens his book with an organized set of arguments designed to convince his readers that there is justification for a book on the "Psychology of Adolescent Development." His major premise states that "adolescence is treated as a separate developmental period not because it covers a decade but because it spans an interval in which distinctive changes occur in a biosocial status of the human organism. The author has marshaled his psychological knowledge and psychiatric experience into a well-organized book. Dr. Ausubel quotes freely from other authors and from his own writings and research. There are extensive references contained in the bibliography at the end of each chapter. Although the author states that "this book is primarily intended as an advanced textbook in adolescent psychology for graduate students in psychology and education," it would appear that this book is written with sufficient clarity and nontechnical language to be used in any college course dealing with adolescent behavior. It would be especially desirable in clinically-oriented courses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Meeting Movies.

Reviews the book, Meeting Movies by Norman N. Holland (see record 2006-11509-000). Meeting Movies is a very personal book in which Holland discusses eight films that have been personally meaningful to him. These films are Casablanca, Vertigo, The Seventh Seal, Freud, Persona, Children of Paradise, Shakespeare in Love, and 8 1/2. Holland describes what he was doing with his life when he saw each of these films, and he discusses how each film affected his life and his career. Some of the movies were seen relatively recently, and some were first viewed over half a century ago. In reading the book, it becomes apparent that Holland loves films. Whenever text is in Roman type, Holland is operating in his reader-response critic mode, and the discussion reads much like any other film criticism. However, the most interesting parts of the book occur when Holland is in free association mode, writing about whatever thoughts the movie being discussed brings to mind. These instances are set off from the regular text by use of italicized text. In summary, Meeting Movies is a good read. Holland is well versed in psychology and especially psychoanalytic approaches, and his criticism of these eight films is consistently interesting. His willingness to self-disclose makes this book all the more fascinating. The book will be rewarding for anyone genuinely interested in the interface of psychology and film. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction.

The three articles presented in this issue reflect different problems encountered by psychologists as each attempted to pursue a career. All three psychologists were trail blazers, developing new applications of psychological knowledge, and each faced different challenges. Stanley Moldawsky, a pioneer in the development of professional psychology, reflects on the establishment of a private practice in the 1950s. He shares how politics had to become an important concern in order to survive, gives us a glimpse of some of the hurdles that had to be crossed to establish a professional school in New Jersey, and impresses on us that professional psychology will grow only if we advocate for it. In contrast to Moldawsky, Jonathan Cummings' career was devoted to the application of clinical and counseling psychology to the medical-surgical areas of the health field. His career was focused on working in the Veterans Administration Hospital system, where he was the first psychologist who was assigned to work outside of the mental health area. Cummings' work was instrumental in the development of the field of health psychology and of the need to focus on the whole person when treating people in these settings. John Jackson, in his poignant essay, reflects on the upward climb of minorities into professional psychology. An African American, Jackson did not have the benefit of more recent civil rights legislation to assist his career. He reflects on his involvements with the American Psychological Association and how he perceives the role of minority psychologists within organized psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unifying psychology: A scientific or non-scientific theory task?

Comments on the review by Stephen Yanchar (see record 2009-04719-001) of the current author's book, "Behavior and Personality: Psychological Behaviorism." The past fifteen years has seen an accelerating growth of interest in psychology's fragmentation and the importance of unification, in a manner that did not exist before. Stephen Yanchar is one of the contemporary leaders in the unification movement, with a focus on philosophy, to which he has been contributing important works. Yanchar's philosophy (which he considers to be theory), fundamental understanding of what psychology is and should be, conception of unifying psychology and, as we will see, his agenda for the field of theoretical and philosophical psychology, are quite different from those of my philosophy of unified positivism and theory of psychological behaviorism (PB). Thus, although this has not been made clear, Yanchar's review is based on a philosophical position that really does not accept psychology as a science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of A critical psychology: Interpretation of the personal world.

Reviews the book, A critical psychology: Interpretation of the personal world by Edmund V. Sullivan (1984). In this book, the author gives an indication of what an alternative psychology might look like. In doing this he draws on the ideas of a number of European philosophers and social scientists whose work has been generally ignored by North American psychologists. What distinguishes Sullivan's critical psychology from other alternatives to the mainstream is his insistence that the conditions for human action be traced not simply to the intentional activity of individuals but to the social structures of domination in which individual intentions are embedded. These are the structures of ethnicity, gender, and class. What Sullivan criticizes is that "psychologists take structural relationships of power such as capital over labour, men over women, and change them into intrapsychic phenomena." This book is an important contribution to the growing literature on alternatives to mainstream psychology. It is distinguished by its intellectual sophistication and by its marshalling of perspectives that run counter to local cultural traditions. At the very least it is a volume that ought to provoke an expansion of all too narrow disciplinary horizons. Incidentally, the very concept of intellectual "horizon" is one that the author analyses in a particularly constructive way, showing its relevance in the context of psychological research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The psychology of eating & drinking: An introduction, Vol. 2.

Reviews the book, The psychology of eating & drinking: An introduction, Vol. 2 by A. W. Logue (1991). The second edition of The psychology of eating and drinking expands the first by three chapters. These discuss, as the author says, the psychology of eating and drinking as it applies to everyday issues. New topics address female reproduction, cigarette smoking, and cuisine and wine tasting. Following 296 pages of text, the book lists several clinics and self-help agencies dealing with disorders of taste and smell, eating, and alcohol (only one resource offered for alcohol abuse). Also, the book provides chapter-by chapter references as well as name and subject indexes. Furthermore, as the author says, the second edition updates the research-base of the original edition. Logue organizes her book into five parts, each preceded by a précis. The first three parts, which follow an introductory chapter that maps what is to come and that justifies the large number of animal (rat) studies to be presented, describe the basics of eating and drinking. Part One comprises two chapters on starting and stopping eating and drinking. Here, as elsewhere, Logue informs the reader well; by this time, one wants to work through the book. Equally as interesting, Part Two (four chapters) looks at what we select to drink and cat, and why we make such choices. Part Three (one chapter) talks about nutritive and nonnutritive substances. It concerns the interplay of what we eat and what we subsequently do. Part Four (three chapters) gets directly at the clinical issues. It explains and discusses eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia), obesity, and alcoholism. Lastly, Part Five (three chapters) addresses everyday concerns. Logue intends that the book be read by lay persons and psychologists, but I doubt that those devoid of psychology background will fully appreciate all she has to say. She also intends that the reader will come away from the book appreciating the value of the scientific method in phrasing and answering questions about why we do what we do. Here Logue clearly achieves her goal, for the reader cannot help but see what scientific thinking can bring to the understanding of the psychology of eating and drinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Donald E. Broadbent (1926–1993).

Memorializes D. E. Broadbent, whose book Perception and Communication (1958) was the first systematic treatment of the human organism as an information-processing system. In it he proposed a structure of cognition that was specific enough to inspire a program of experimental research the influence of which may still be felt. In 1958, Broadbent began a 16-year tenure as director of the Applied Psychology Unit in Cambridge, England. In addition to his scientific impact, Broadbent has been a major influence on psychology in two other ways. First, throughout his career he gave his time and energy both to the theoretical development of psychology as a science and to its application to important practical problems. Secondly, by personal example he also stressed the humane, personal aspects of the human condition. Among his many honors, he received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association in 1975. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A meaningful but modest positive psychology.

Comments on B. Schwartz's (see record 2000-13324-008) discussion of excessive personal freedom, autonomy, self-determination, and life satisfaction and meaning. Schwartz argued that positive psychology must be informed by a normative vision of the components of a good human life, with psychologists taking on the role of society's tutors in achieving that vision. D. Resnick states that Schwartz has overstepped his bounds, appropriating determination of the good life from the fields of philosophy and religion, thereby falling prey to the naturalistic fallacy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Internships in psychology: The APAGS workbook for writing successful applications and finding the right match.

Reviews the book, Internships in psychology: The APAGS workbook for writing successful applications and finding the right match edited by Carol Williams-Nickelson and Mitchell J. Prinstein (see record 2003-06355-000). The purpose of this book is to provide up-and-coming psychology interns with the resources needed to help guide them through the internship application process. Given the daunting and meticulous nature of the application process, this is by no means an easy task. As such, a navigation tool, such as this book, could be very useful for graduate students applying for internship. The book is well written and is presented in an encouraging manner to help ease the stressful nature of the application process. The book is well laid out and should prove useful for burgeoning psychologists applying for internship. Though primarily intended for senior graduate students, the book's contents are relevant to all graduate students who will be applying for internship. As a result, this book would be a valuable addition to the library of any such graduate student in clinical psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Art and Visual Perception.

Reviews the book "Art and visual perception," by Rudolph Arnheim (see record 1955-03680-000). In reading this book, one realizes why more psychologists have not been concerned with art. Art is a technical specialty in its own right and one must be expert both in psychology and in either creative art or the history of art to write on art. Arnheim's book brings the scientific knowledge of a trained psychologist to bear on the fundamental problems of visual art as it has developed through the ages. The discussion is always with reference to concrete works of art. Many original drawings, diagrams, and figures illustrate basic principles and important points. The writing is superb. The book is full of penetrating insights into questions of art and also into many problems of concern to the psychologist. Fundamentally this book is an argument against the usual art historian's approach, so well described by Arnheim as the purely subjective point of view, that what a person sees in a work of art "depends entirely on who he is, what he is interested in, what he has experienced in the past, and how he chooses to direct his attention". A book which reflects so well the author's urbanity, catholicity, and keenness of mind, as well as his technical grasp of the scientific and the artistic, is no small achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Lewis M. Terman: Pioneer in psychological testing.

Reviews the book, Lewis M. Terman: Pioneer in psychological testing by Henry L. Minton (see record 1988-98726-000). Lewis Terman was one of the leading pioneers in the development of clinical tools and studies of individual differences. In the Preface to his book, Minton acknowledges that Terman was as controversial as he was influential and states that his biography seeks to provide a balanced view of Terman's life and works. As readers of this comprehensive volume will quickly find, Minton has been eminently successful in achieving this goal: His book not only highlights Terman's accomplishments, which were many, but also describes his shortcomings which, though fewer, were not nonexistent. Overall, Minton provides an extremely interesting, well-written, and probing account of the positive and the less-positive facets of his subject, both as a scientist and as a man. The book contains 11 chapters, describing Terman's life from his early years through his illustrious career at Stanford, up to his death in 1956, a month short of his 80th birthday. Throughout, Minton shows how Terman's upbringing, education, and the times and society in which he was raised contributed to shaping the person he was to become. Minton's biography of Terman, based primarily on an exhaustive reading of Terman's professional and personal papers and supplemented with interviews with former students and colleagues such as Nancy Bayley, Lee Cronback, Ernest Hilgard, and Robert Sears, and with members of Terman's family, provides a detailed and fascinating portrait of one of the major figures in psychology. The book's strengths are its consistently objective appraisal of its sometimes controversial subject, the scope of its coverage, the extensive documentation of its sources, and Minton's ability to set or to describe each of Terman's activities and the events in his life in their appropriate professional or social context. Readers from many walks will find this book interesting, informative, and well worth reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Realms of value.

Reviews "Realms of value," by R. B. Perry (see record 1954-05170-000). Professor Perry offers an extension of his earlier "General Theory of Value" (1926), which has remained the standard work in its field. The scope of the present work is suggested by the subtitle, "A critique of human civilization." Its significance, from the psychologist's point of view, lies more in the pointing up of a number of critical problems that need to be met, ultimately, than in any specific contributions to content or method. The importance of psychology in Perry's thinking is attested by the prominence of recourse to psychological principles and problems in the first few chapters. In these he endeavors to develop a fundamental definition of "value" for exposition in a-wide variety of fields of knowledge throughout the remainder of the book. His main theme is that value is based upon interest, which in turn is based upon expectations of the outcomes of actions. Perry's failure to come up with any satisfactory answers to the problems of motivation, with which he is squarely faced at this point, is hardly an occasion for surprise; he is to be credited with at least having begun to ask some of the important questions, rather than to have sidestepped them, as has been customary in similar philosophical treatises. A major failing in Perry's treatment of motives, as I see it, concerns his emphasis (or perhaps overemphasis) upon the role of cognition as a determiner of interest. Although he does upon occasion mention the role of habitual and unconscious factors, these are not elaborated, and they are considered to operate in an entirely subsidiary manner. This is a reflection of his general bias. Although I do not see how this book can have any very direct effect upon the development of psychological science, it is nonetheless an important one for contemporary psychologists to consider. It presents a great many problems which are at once disturbing and challenging, and which are today of particular concern to the scientist-citizen. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Animal models of human psychology: Critique of science, ethics, and policy.

Reviews the book, Animal models of human psychology: Critique of science, ethics, and policy by Kenneth J. Shapiro (see record 1998-06437-000). The principle focus of most of this text is on the present-day use of animals in psychological research. In particular, Shapiro examines contemporary animal models of eating disorders, showing how psychology came to rely so heavily on animal models in the first place and how prevalent scientific attitudes about the use of animals in the laboratory have taken shape over the past several decades. In addition, he traces the recent rise of the animal rights movement and highlights the several philosophies upon which it is based. Drawing upon certain historical and empirical analyses, as well as certain themes in contemporary sociology of knowledge, Shapiro attempts to navigate his reader through the twin minefields of impassioned rhetoric and insufficiently examined conceptual commitment to a better understanding of the core issues surrounding the role of animals in scientific psychological investigation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Hebbian perspective on mind-brain relations.

Reviews the book, Essay on Mind by D.O. Hebb (1980). This is the third book by Canada's most distinguished and influential psychologist, Donald Olding Hebb. Essay on Mind presents readers with an opportunity to see why Hebb and his writings have had such an impact: In this book, Hebb presents a succinct account of the development of cell-assembly theory and its applications, as well as views on important philosophical and scientific issues. Hebb argues that his type of theory is not "mere translation" because the physiological theory and data impose constraints on psychological concepts. Moreover, such theorizing can be useful in that it leads to new evidence or tells a theorist how to look at available evidence from different aspects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of What emotions really are: The problem of psychological categories.

Reviews the book, What emotions really are: The problem of psychological categories by Paul E. Griffiths (see record 1997-30238-000). The author has made an important contribution toward integrating theory and research on emotions from fields as diverse as sociobiology, philosophy of language, evolutionary psychology, and neuroscience. Griffiths's provocative review of the major theoretical paradigms is disciplined in its attention to the historical contexts of the theories he considers. He demonstrates how those contexts shape the questions that particular theoretical models attempt to answer, and why models fail in their ambitions when they do fail. By laying out the competing paradigms and organizing them according to their basic assumptions, he creates a useful map of the issues confronting a general theory of emotion and argues convincingly for the revision of some basic psychological categories. He concludes that emotion as a general concept has no scientific utility and should be eliminated from psychological language because there is no single kind of process that underlies the behavior identified with emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)