Review of Psychology: Pythagoras to present.

Reviews the book, Psychology: Pythagoras to present by John C. Malone (see record 2009-06783-000). This book has a very ambitious agenda, announced in its title: to trace the history of psychology from Pythagoras to the present. The book is thus a good introduction to the standard history of psychology for those new to the discipline. Overall, the book provides an interesting overview of the standard history of psychology, with many nuances not found in basic history of psychology textbooks. It must be said, however, that the specialist will find that the book lacks fine-grained detail in some chapters. Although some key debates in the history of science are discussed in the opening chapter, the author could have draw more extensively on that literature. Despite this complaint, one of the strengths of the book is that Malone makes a serious effort to dispel misconceptions about founding figures in psychology. The strength of this book is clearly as a history written for young scholars entering the discipline today. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychology and health.

Reviews the book, Psychology and health by Myles Genest and Sharon Genest (see record 1987-97178-000). Myles and Sharon Genest have ventured into the rapidly developing, but hazily delimited, area of health psychology and they have produced a brief, readable book that shows what all the excitement is about. They have selected a number of key areas for sharply focused, and sometimes penetrating, examination and the reader comes away with a fair understanding of the scope of the field. They set the broad context for health psychology by discussing the determinants of health, emphasizing the need for a multidimensional view of health; one which includes psychological, social, and environmental factors as well as the more traditional medical ones. They also introduce a preventive orientation and a public policy perspective, themes which are continued through the book. The authors are writing for a primary audience of psychologists and they write from a largely, although not exclusively, cognitive/behavioural point of view. Much of the book is a review of research in health psychology and the summaries of the research findings are outstanding in their organization and clarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychology of reading.

Reviews the book, Psychology of reading by John Downing and Che Kan Leong (1982). This book is a comprehensive survey of the wide range of topics related to reading, including the role of perceptual, cognitive, and linguistic processes in reading, environmental influences on reading, and disorders of reading. The book is well organized and the writing is clear. Many of the sections are quite informative--for example, those involving orthography, reading in different languages, and the social and cultural aspects of reading. The authors provide an up-to-date account of what is known about the neurological basis of reading but wisely caution against excessive "neurologizing" and assigning each hemisphere completely distinctive functions. This book is well organized and covers most areas in depth. It could form the basis of a graduate seminar or advanced undergraduate course. It can also provide a comprehensive view of the field for the specialist. The authors have done a fine job of integrating many different kinds of studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychology of pain.

Reviews the book, Psychology of pain edited by Richard A. Sternbach (1978). This book is a repository for scholarly accounts of each of the principal roots of progress in understanding, measuring, and managing clinical pain. This book does a clear, lucid and comprehensive job of relating neurophysiological with the critically important social/cultural factors about pain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychology of language.

Reviews the book, Psychology of Language by Allan Paivio and Ian Begg (1981). The present volume constitutes a well-organized and sometimes provocative contribution that merits careful consideration. From the start, the authors set to work toward achieving their stated goals of emphasizing "historical and interdisciplinary concerns". They present a careful analysis of the three positions which they contrast throughout the book: the linguistic, the behavioural, and the cognitive. The particular version of the cognitive view that receives the most detailed consideration is Paivio's dual-coding theory. After the basic principles of these orientations are presented, they are brought to bear upon the central problems of language, including meaning, comprehension, memory and acquisition. Who will benefit from this book? The authors state that they hope it will be useful to upper year undergraduate and graduate students. It is the reviewer's feeling that most undergraduates would find this to be a difficult text. It is the serious and even sophisticated student of language for whom it will be of greatest value. Omissions notwithstanding, Psychology of Language presents many thoughtful and scholarly ideas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychology of Parent-Child Relations.

Reviews the book, Psychology of Parent-Child Relations edited by Gene Medinnus (1967). This is a book which should prove valuable to undergraduate classes as the topic is inevitably referred to in courses dealing with child, personality, abnormal and educational psychology. The readings are divided into six sections each of which is introduced by the editor with a concise overview of the topic. The sections are: I Methodology; II Parent Attitude and Behavior Variables; III Parental Antecedants of Certain Child Behavior Dimensions; IV Children's Perception of Parents and Identification; V Social Class; VI Cultural Factors. This book is a thorough collection, with very fine editorial commentary on a highly significant topic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychology: The unity of human behavior.

Reviews the book "Psychology: The unity of human behavior," by Timothy J. Gannon (see record 1954-06735-000). This volume is an introductory textbook of psychology for college students. In addition to a somewhat different organization of the material and a different emphasis accorded to various topics Gannon's book introduces certain theoretical considerations which are not ordinarily found in most textbooks. The book is divided into four parts: The first part, the shortest, is a general introduction. The second, entitled "Reception," deals with sensation and perception. The author, in discussing perception, particularly stresses the neural correlates of perception and the localization of functions in the brain. The third, "Response," contains the discussion of reflexes, drives, and emotions. The fourth and last part, "Integration," is the longest, constituting almost half of the book. The principal concern of the author is to present all experiences, and all behavior, as integrated manifestations of a single living person. The entire book is characterized by an effort to present to the student not merely a survey of psychological problems and known facts about man but to provide him at the same time with a concept of man's nature which would serve as a key to the understanding of man as such. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychology of industrial relations.

Reviews the book, "Psychology of industrial relations," by C. H. Lawshe (see record 1954-03380-000). In the reviewer's opinion, the authors have done a creditable job in presenting a large body of facts and principles, backed up with sufficient references to research literature. However, certain areas to which psychologists have devoted considerable thinking and research are inexplicably omitted or merely mentioned in passing, viz., industrial safety, democracy in management, executive development, employee rating methods, characteristics of the learning curve, transfer of training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychology: The adaptive mind.

Reviews the book, Psychology: The adaptive mind by James S. Nairne, Martin S. Smith, and D. Stephen Lindsay (2001). This book contains references to Canadian researchers past and present and to Canadian websites, pictures of Canadian researchers, references to Canadian incidents (the Swissair flight crash off the coast of Nova Scotia opens the text), citations to the Canadian Psychological Association as well as to Canadian funding agencies (e.g., SSHRC, NSERC), and mentions of Canadian institutions. The reviewer was impressed by the fact that the authors accomplish their Canadian task without compromising any of the classic topics and studies in the field. The authors' writing style is accessible and easy to follow. The 16 chapters are well organized and thorough. The examples are relevant and of interest to undergraduate students. This text, while not addressing the issue directly, does note that women have been overlooked in historical treatments of psychology and makes a point of including the influence of women pioneers in psychology. A second concerns the overreliance on undergraduate students as research participants representing the adult population. The reviewer find this text to rank among the best when considering Introductory Psychology textbooks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychology and Law: An Empirical Perspective.

Reviews the book Psychology and Law: An Empirical Perspective by Neil Brewer and Kipling D. Williams (Eds.) (see record 2005-07316-000). This book deals with a wide array of topics selected from the fields of developmental, social, and cognitive psychology that were chosen because of their relevance and applicability to issues in the criminal justice system. As the title implies, forensic practices can be understood (and ultimately enhanced) by research that addresses the scientific foundation of those practices. The editors deliver exactly what they promise, namely, empirical analyses of the various procedures and assumptions within the legal system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychology: Theoretical-historical perspectives, second edition.

Reviews the book, Psychology: Theoretical-historical perspectives, second edition by Robert W. Rieber and Kurt D. Salzinger (see record 1998-06434-000). Like its predecessor, this second edition is a useful volume with a broad scope and any psychologist perusing even a portion of its 500 plus pages will likely come away convinced that there is more to history than a tedious collection of names and dates. As a pedagogical supplement and general introduction to the history of psychology field, this book succeeds admirably. However, in publishing a second edition, Rieber and Salzinger set themselves a more ambitious agenda. One of the goals of the book was to acknowledge the growth and vibrancy of recent scholarship in the history of psychology and to "present some synthesis within the confines of one book." Using these commendable goals as a metric, the book is somewhat disappointing. The book is too much like the first edition in both its choice of questions and authors. This sort of repetition is not a problem in and of itself; however the history of psychology has changed dramatically since the publication of the first edition 18 years ago. There is relatively little in the second edition to indicate that there have been any significant historiographic developments within the history of psychology field since the 1970s. By ignoring these changes, the book left me unable to answer a fundamental question that all second editions must face: Why is a new edition needed? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychology: A Story of a Search.

Reviews the book, Psychology: A Story of a Search by W. Lambert Gardiner (1970). The author, an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Sir George Williams, admits in his Preface that he sometimes doubts whether this is, in fact, a text in introductory psychology. He hopes that it is, and suggests that it might be used as a complement to a more conventional data-text. Certainly it has few of the characteristics by which we have come to recognize introductory texts. It might most accurately be described as basic background material for the more conventional volumes characteristically used in the first course. Its most positive attribute is its readability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychology as a profession: Foundations of practice.

Reviews the book, Psychology as a profession: Foundations of practice by W. B. Pryzwansky and R. N. Wendt (see record 1987-98014-000). Pryzwansky and Wendt provide a guidebook on professional issues addressed to both applied psychologists and those in training. The book begins with a general introduction to the topic of psychology as a profession, which is followed by a chapter on each of the following issues: credentialing in psychology, ethics and standards, legal impact in practice, professional development and accountability (including internships), and professional organizations. Many important professional issues are presented by the authors. It is clear that this book is directed to an audience of applied psychologists in general, but school psychologists will find a number of relevant areas not well covered. Psychology as a profession is a handy, small book to supplement a professional practices course. However, its size and purpose limit the depth with which specific topics can be elaborated, resulting in a number of gaps in coverage. In addition, given the vulnerability of several of the topics in this book to ongoing change, the reader needs to be reminded of the possibility that some information will become outdated. However, the book does provide a useful introduction to topics that seem to impact increasingly on the lives of professional psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychology and life (Canadian edition).

Reviews the book, Psychology and life (Canadian edition) (2009), by Richard J. Gerrig, Philip Zimbardo, Serge Desmarais, and Tammy Ivanco. As part of an effective strategy to deal with the many emerging challenges of teaching large introductory psychology classes, a modern textbook geared toward introductory psychology must keep up with these changes and offer useful features that address the needs of the student. To this end, Psychology and Life (Canadian Edition) presents an impressive update of the classic textbook by Gerrig and Zimbardo. The text continues to hit on the key principle of psychology as a science with a thorough and updated research-based presentation. The textbook is well organised into 17 chapters covering the range of typical introductory psychology topics. The chapters are written in a midlevel text that will be accessible to the broad range of students enrolled in most introductory psychology courses. While maintaining a high level of readability and interest, the work is solidly grounded in research as it highlights psychology as a science. As the title of the textbook suggests, the authors make a conscious effort to demonstrate that the research and curriculum presented in each chapter have an immediate impact on daily life. This is a well-written, organised, and appealing text that students will find engaging and instructors will find suitable for providing a solid grounding in the science of contemporary psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychology in Relation to Medicine (Second edition).

Reviews the book, Psychology in Relation to Medicine (Second edition) by R. M. Mowbray and T. Ferguson Rodger. Until the relationships between psychology and medicine become less ambiguous than they are at present, books such as this are both difficult to write and difficult to review. The relationships between these two professions may be viewed in many ways, but there are two broad views prevalent. The first view sees psychology as one of the basic sciences of medicine--a basic science that is particularly relevant in the training of psychiatrists. The other view sees psychology as a discipline that runs parallel to medicine. If one were to accept the first of these views, then presumably the medical student would be required to obtain a thorough grounding in psychology. If one takes the second view of the relationship between psychology and medicine, then the medical student requires probably only one course which will give him some familiarity with the work one of his close professional colleagues will be doing. The reviewer suggests that satisfactory books for medical students will only be written and can only be written when the relationships between psychology and medicine are more precisely delineated. Whatever these relationships may be, it is likely that the books written for medicine and accepted by the medical profession for their students will be more meaty than this one. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychology and the Internet (Second edition).

Reviews the book, Psychology and the Internet (second edition) by Jayne Gackenbach (see record 2006-13395-000). This book provides the reader with 13 informationladen chapters dealing with topics ranging from Evelyn Ellerman's first chapter, which places the Internet in the context of its development in the 1960s in response to the strategic problem of how the United States government could maintain communications if conventional means were destroyed in a nuclear war, to Jayne Gackenbach's and Jim Karpen's final chapter concerned with the Internet and higher states of consciousness and lucid dreaming. The authors have taken readers on a real journey down an information-laden highway that leads to a fascinating, limitless world of virtual reality. Especially appreciated throughout the book is the attempt by the authors to support their viewpoints by making reference to empirical findings. Lastly, in keeping with this evidence-based approach, all chapters are referenced very adequately. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychology and Medicine: Psychobiological Dimensions of Health and Illness.

Reviews the book, Psychology and Medicine: Psychobiological Dimensions by Donald Bakal (1979). Bakal believes that psychology "is rapidly becoming an integral part of modern health care delivery systems" and directs his book toward developing this interest by showing the theoretical and practical relevance of psychological concepts to major health problems. In the first section, which has the inclusive title "Medicine: Mind and Body", he describes a "paradigm shift" in medicine, away from an emphasis on the physiological and biochemical systems as basic to understanding disease toward a "psychobiological" approach to illness which focuses on the inter-relationships between the social, psychological, and physiological determinants of health and disease. He amplifies this point by discussing such matters as personality-disease relationships, psychomatic medicine, a cross-cultural variation in models of health and illness and the implications of the split brain research for states of consciousness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychology and Consumer Culture: The Struggle for a Good Life in a Materialistic World.

This article provides a review of "Psychology and Consumer Culture: The Struggle for a Good Life in a Materialistic World" (see record 2003-88094-000). This edited volume is an excellent handbook about a topic that deserves more attention among psychologists: the addiction to consumption that is the hallmark of the American economy. The editors explain, "The purpose of this book is to encourage psychologists to consider and investigate the manifold ways in which consumer culture influences our lives" (p. 5). They gather together a range of chapters that collectively describe the vast social-environmental problem of overconsumption, the psychological costs of commercialization, underlying mechanisms by which consumerism operates, and a few gleams of hope on what can be done about it all. Readers of this journal will probably find most useful the chapters that analyze compulsive buying as a full-blown psychological disorder and acquisitive desire as the underlying defense mechanism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)