Review of Existing: An introduction to existential thought.

Reviews the book, Existing: An introduction to existential thought by Steven Luper (2000). This book is an anthology of existentialism. It presents work from Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Sartre, as well as generous selections many other important 19th and 20th century existentialist authors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Exploring the psychology of interest.

Reviews the book, Exploring the psychology of interest by Paul J. Silvia (see record 2006-03939-000). As Silvia observes, the study of interest has been extensive. However, it has been scattered across many subfields including the specialized and somewhat isolated areas of aesthetics, educational psychology, and vocational psychology. There exists a further divide between models of interest as an emotional experience and the personality-based study of interests and their idiographic development over time. Thankfully, Silvia's book brings a sense of order and coherence to this otherwise fractured body of work. The book's unifying theme is that cognition plays a singular role in generating, as well as interpreting, the experience of any emotion, including interest. Silvia wields his cognitivism skillfully, using it to advance a compelling case that interest is a function of cognitive appraisal. He then presents a related attributional analysis of how individuals develop particular interests and avocations over time. These two theoretical models organize the first two sections of the book, and they nicely integrate the existing literatures concerning interest and the development of interests, respectively. A final section of the book concludes with a comparison of models of interest followed by Silvia's suggested directions for future research. This is a great example of what the psychology of emotion needs. It is a successful "second-generation" effort to organize the proliferation of emotion research and theorizing that has occurred over the past few decades (Detweiler-Bedell & Salovey, 2002). Emotion researchers who read the book will benefit as much from Silvia's method as from the richness of his subject. In particular, this would be an ideal book for graduate students and faculty to hash over as part of a weekly reading group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Normality and the life cycle: A critical integration.

Reviews the book, Normality and the life cycle: A critical integration by Daniel Offer and Melvin Sabshin (1984). In 1966 and 1974, Basic Books published the first and second editions of Offer and Sabshin's Normality: Theoretical and Clinical Concepts of Mental Health. These volumes generated the proposal that a new field, called normatology, be established. It would focus on normality, normal behavior, and normal development. This still more recent volume develops the proposal and is an attempt to fill the need to "examine concepts of normality and definitions of normal behavior through time and across cultures". Both of the editors (and most of the contributors) are medically trained, and their professional orientation is apparent throughout the book. Although claims are made that the approach to normatology should be interdisciplinary, and four different concepts of normality are offered, the main concern of most of the chapters seem to be that of differentiating the healthy from the unhealthy. The editors even note that the terms "normality" and "mental health" are used interchangeably. Several chapters have a developmental orientation, but these too are typically concerned with distinguishing normal from abnormal developmental processes. Individual papers are scholarly, but in some cases seem directionless. The most seminal ideas in the book are presented by Mandell and Salk, whose chapter proposes a theory of emergent patterns that could have implications in the future both for general developmental theory and for specific theories of learning that might influence rehabilitation psychology. A previous reviewer has judged that this chapter alone is worth the price of the book, and this judgment may well be correct. Those who purchase this book should do so primarily for its reviews of the literature, which are generally complete and competent. Purchasers will probably be disappointed if they expect to find much that is of direct value to rehabilitation or that contributes in a substantive to the founding of a new science of normality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Women’s sexuality across the life span: Challenging myths, creating meanings.

Reviews the book, Women’s sexuality across the life span: Challenging myths, creating meanings by Judith C. Daniluk (see record 1998-06080-000). This book about women's sexualities thoroughly integrates biological, psychological, and social perspectives at each point of the life span. The book includes major sections on childhood and adolescence, young adulthood, and the middle and later years. In each section the author explains in clear and accessible language what we know about the biological changes occurring in women's bodies, media portrayals of women's bodies and women's sexualities, research concerning the psychological consequences (mostly negative) of these messages, and an exploration of the ways in which therapists and counselors can help women clients create more positive and varied visions of their sexualities. The reviewer points out several flaws in the text and makes suggestions for improvement, but in the end agrees with the author's thesis that we have not yet even begun to imagine the range of women's sexual experiences as they currently exist, much less as they might exist in a society that valued a diversity of women and their sexualities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The past makes the present meaningful: Nostalgia as an existential resource.

The present research tested the proposition that nostalgia serves an existential function by bolstering a sense of meaning in life. Study 1 found that nostalgia was positively associated with a sense of meaning in life. Study 2 experimentally demonstrated that nostalgia increases a sense of meaning in life. In both studies, the link between nostalgia and increased meaning in life was mediated by feelings of social connectedness. Study 3 evidenced that threatened meaning increases nostalgia. Study 4 illustrated that nostalgia, in turn, reduces defensiveness following a meaning threat. Finally, Studies 5 and 6 showed that nostalgia disrupts the link between meaning deficits and compromised psychological well-being. Collectively, these findings indicate that the provision of existential meaning is a pivotal function of nostalgia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The psychology of human possibility and constraint.

Reviews the book, The psychology of human possibility and constraint by Jack Martin and Jeff Sugarman (see record 1999-02336-000). The way to read this little book is to share in the authors' concern for understanding individuals and for vindicating psychology as a discipline concerned with the psychological development of individuals. Apart from its unsettling philosophical overexcitability, there is a notable distortion in the authors' efforts to understand individual transcendence, namely, a near total failure to deal with values, moral growth, and individual freedom. Human development is understood procedurally, in historical context of course, but as culminating in a "theory" of self and others. This lingering rationalist bias is in part due to their philosophical borrowings, but it also betrays the functionalist stance so characteristic of our contemporary focus on usefulness. For all that, this is an engaging book, one I recommend for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of A Dialectical Psychology.

Reviews the book, A Dialectical Psychology by Allan R. Buss (1979). This collection of papers, most of them previously published, covers topics as diverse as attribution theory, life-span development, humanistic psychology, history of differential psychology, interactionism, the relations of fact and theory and of individual and society, and the future of psychology in general. Those who seek in this book a dialectical psychology will find it neither explained nor exemplified. While interesting connections are drawn from time to time between psychological theory and the social-historical context, it is not clear what is so "critical" about the way in which they are drawn, nor does one ever attain the feeling of having been led very far beyond "mere surface appearance." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal study of social support and meaning in life.

The purpose of this study was to see whether 3 types of social support (enacted support, negative interaction, and anticipated support) are associated with change in meaning in life. Data from a nationwide longitudinal survey of older people suggested that greater anticipated support (i.e., the belief that others will provide assistance in the future if needed) is associated with a deeper sense of meaning over time. The same was true with respect to emotional support received from family members and close friends. In contrast, the findings revealed that, at least initially, negative interaction lowers an older person's sense of meaning in life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Identity's architect: A biography of Erik H. Erikson.

Reviews the book, Identity's architect: A biography of Erik H. Erikson by Lawrence J. Friedman (see record 1999-02567-000). The historian Lawrence Friedman's biography of Erik Erikson is useful in understanding some puzzling aspects of Eriksonian psychology. To begin, let us note an important biographical detail revealed by Friedman. As Coles' biography of Erikson had noted, and as many of us had known, Erik and Joan Erikson had three children: Kai, a sociologist; Jon, an artist; and Sue, a psychologist (Coles, 1970, p. 404). Friedman reveals that they also had a fourth child named Neil, who suffered from Down's syndrome, and was given away to institutional care right from his birth. This son, who died at the age of 21, was effectively abandoned by the Eriksons. That a great psychoanalyst who had become famous for effectively treating problem children had failed to give even the minimum parental care to his own mentally challenged son comes as a shock. For boldly revealing even the most negative aspects of his hero, Friedman may be recognized as an honest biographer and careful historian. But he deserves even more credit than that, for, in addition to providing factual details, he provides interpretive analysis showing how these facts helped shape some critical aspects of Erikson's theory of human development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Management of work and personal life: Problems & opportunities.

Reviews the book, Management of work and personal life: Problems & opportunities edited by Mary Dean Lee and Rabindra N. Kanungo (1984). Management of work and personal life is a timely book that breaks new ground in a much neglected but increasingly important area for research and problem solving. This book represents a distillation of selected symposium contributions from several participants from various disciplines. The purpose of this symposium, held at McGill University in April 1983, was "to stimulate, develop, and diffuse new ideas that might help individuals and organizations adapt to a changing society in which the traditional idealized models for coordinating work and personal life are passé." This book will also be of considerable interest to professionals involved in such activities as life-style counselling and career planning. In general, the editors have selected symposium contributions that attempt to summarize what is known in six different areas related to management of work and personal life, and then suggest directions for future research. The six areas are work and family roles, work and leisure, quality of life, occupational stress, career and adult development, and behavioural patterns of structuring daily life. Overall, the reviewer feels that this book is important reading for scholars who wish to study or do research in the general area of improving quality of life through integrated management of different life facets. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extending the study of autobiographical memory: Thinking back about life across the life span.

By combining a life perspective with a life span perspective, the authors present a basic framework for extending the study of autobiographical memory. The life perspective suggests not only the consideration of individual episodes of memory but how they are strung together into a life. The life span perspective takes into account the chronological age and life context of individuals and how these factors might affect abilities and motivations related to the use of autobiographical memory. The authors discuss how these 2 perspectives are combined to yield a useful framework for studying autobiographical memory and present 2 examples of work done using this framework. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development.

Reviews the book, A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development by John Bowlby (see record 1988-98501-000). This volume consists of nine lectures given over the last decade by the author, an eminent child researcher and psychoanalyst. Seven of the lectures have been published elsewhere. Each lecture, slightly rewritten in chapter form, further illuminates specific aspects and implications of Bowlby's theory of attachment. These include: the relationship between family violence and early attachment experiences; the central features of sensitive, caring parenting and the unique roles of fathers; the origins of depression in childhood experience; and the relationship between attachment theory and the therapeutic process. The reviewer believes that the book should serve as "a secure base" for those eclectic therapists seeking to integrate and extend Bowlby's ideas in their clinical work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Infancy: Its place in human development.

Reviews the book, Infancy: Its Place in Human Development by J. Kagan, R. B. Kearsley, and P. R. Zelazo (1978). This book represents a major new work on infancy written by a leading developmental psychologist and two colleagues on fundamental questions related to the consequences of early experience. Its basic aim is to present the results of a recent, six-year study on the effects of group day care. Although the authors may not wish this to be the case, it could have a significant impact on political decisions of whether or not to expand day care facilities in various Western countries. Throughout the book the authors' critical commentaries and their evidence persuasively demonstrate that behaviours that could have been significantly affected by day care (e.g. attachment) were not; however, they do seem to get a little too carried away by their enthusiasm and forgetful of their study's limitations. These data and studies cited in the book also provide counterevidence to traditional assumptions regarding the stability of variation in early behaviour and the influence of moderate variations in early environments as well as yield some intriguing data of potential ethnic differences in temperament. One could have wished for a longer term assessment of the effect of form of early care and perhaps greater differences in social class in the sample. Nevertheless, while this is not a blueprint for quality day care, it is one of the best assessments made of group care and represents an important and insightful book which deserves to be read carefully by all who are interested in the theoretical and practical problems of doing infancy research and by knowledgeable individuals concerned with policies relevant to child development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychotherapeutic change: An alternative approach to meaning and measurement.

Reviews the book, Psychotherapeutic change: An alternative approach to meaning and measurement by Alvin R. Mahrer (1985). This small and unpretentious volume is a welcome addition to the growing number of recent publications in the field of psychotherapy research that emphasize the need for innovative and more dynamic and functional conceptualizations of the meaning and measurement of psychotherapeutic change. Despite (or perhaps because of) its provocative content, Psychotherapeutic Change is an enjoyable book to read. Mahrer's style of writing is engaging, clear, and free of the customary clinical jargon. Also refreshing is the fact that the material throughout the book comes straight from the concerns of a practitioner. Although the reader may not always agree with the author and may be annoyed by the occasional repetitiveness of some ideas, this book will prove to be a source of stimulating ideas for students, clinicians, and researchers of psychotherapy alike. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Global self-esteem across the life span.

This study provides a comprehensive picture of age differences in self-esteem from age 9 to 90 years using cross-sectional data collected from 326,641 individuals over the Internet. Self-esteem levels were high in childhood, dropped during adolescence, rose gradually throughout adulthood, and declined sharply in old age. This trajectory generally held across gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and nationality (U.S. citizens vs. non-U.S. citizens). Overall, these findings support previous research, help clarify inconsistencies in the literature, and document new trends that require further investigation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age, suicide, science, and clinical psychology: A review of A. Leenaars (Ed.), Life span perspectives of suicide.

Reviews the book, Life span perspectives of suicide edited by A. Leenaars (see record 1991-97542-000). There is an ever-growing literature on suicide, much of which seems redundant. Accordingly, I look for novel data and true theoretical progress in the context of modern science. This volume promises a unique focus on developmental variations in suicidal behaviour, which should be quite timely. The editor and author of several chapters, Antoon Leenaars, is a highly respected activist in suicide prevention. Among the 20 chapters with 21 authors, the quality varies from enlightening to very disappointing. While this volume has some very strong chapters that meet scientific criteria while providing fresh insights and stimulus for research, some of the chapters unfortunately leave me with serious scientific concerns. I would like to see integration of new data with modern science, rather than conjecture through outdated hypothetical constructs. In particular, much of the chapter on suicide in middle adulthood by Balance and Leenaars reads like a list of Freud's concepts, as if there had been no progress in the psychology of middle adulthood during the last half century. Another concern is that clinical and scientific judgements sometimes become confused in this volume, as is often true of suicide research. Leenaars approaches suicide evaluatively, repeatedly stating that it is tragic and to be eradicated. However noble, when matters of fact are under discussion, this violates the longstanding scientific tradition of objectivity. Finally, none of the authors has made any reference whatsoever to biological theories of aging and senescence, when so much insight could be gained. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stability of self-esteem across the life span.

Two studies examined the rank-order stability of self-esteem from age 6 to 83: Study 1 was a meta-analysis of 50 published articles (N = 29,839) and Study 2 analyzed data from 4 large national studies (N = 74,381). Self-esteem showed substantial continuity over time (disattenuated correlations ranged from the .50s to .70s), comparable to the stability found for personality traits. Both studies provided evidence for a robust developmental trend: Self-esteem stability was low during childhood, increased throughout adolescence and young adulthood, and declined during midlife and old age. This trend could not be explained by age differences in the reliability of self-esteem measures, and generally replicated across gender, ethnicity, self-esteem scale, nationality (U.S. vs. non-U.S.), and year of publication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive affect and the experience of meaning in life.

Six studies examined the role of positive affect (PA) in the experience of meaning in life (MIL). Study 1 showed strong relations between measures of mood, goal appraisals, and MIL. In multivariate analyses, PA was a stronger predictor of MIL than goal appraisals. In Study 2, the most consistent predictor of the experience of meaning in a day was the PA experienced that day. Later, global MIL was predicted by average daily PA, rather than average daily MIL. Study 3 demonstrated no prospective relations between measures of MIL and PA over 2 years. In Study 4, priming positive mood concepts enhanced MIL. In Study 5, manipulated positive mood enhanced ratings of MIL for those who were not given an attributional cue for their moods. In Study 6, PA was associated with a high level of distinction between meaningful and meaningless activities. Results indicate that positive moods may predispose individuals to feel that life is meaningful. In addition, positive moods may increase sensitivity to the meaning-relevance of a situation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)