Review of The social psychology of reading.

Reviews the book, The Social Psychology of Reading by John Edwards (Ed.) (1981). This volume, unlike many edited books, consists of original papers. Unlike many current volumes in reading, this one addresses broad socio- and psychological correlates of reading achievement. This book is a unique collection of data-based chapters, surveys and reviews. If the aim of the volume was to provide a perspective within which reading can be better understood, the authors have achieved success. It is an excellent reference and has good potential for senior undergraduate or early graduate required reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The Notebooks.

Reviews the books Fritz Heider: The notebooks, Vol. 1: Methods, principles and philosophy of science, Fritz Heider: The notebooks, Vol. 2: Perception, Fritz Heider: The notebooks, Vol. 3: Motivation, Fritz Heider: The notebooks, Vol. 4: Balance theory, Fritz Heider: The notebooks, Vol. 5: Attributional and interpersonal evaluation, and Fritz Heider: The notebooks, Vol. 6: Units and coinciding units by Fritz Heider and edited by Marijana Benesh-Weiner (see records 1987-98853-000, 1988-97988-000, 1988-98304-000, 1989-97096-000, 1989-97097-000, and 1990-97341-000). The Notebooks are a six-volume reproduction of Heider's working social psychology, from the early 1950s through to the early 1980s. Their publication allows us, for the first time, an intimate and complete examination of a method of social psychology that has proven so fruitful and upon which rests so much of the experimental enterprise of the past decades. Heider's method is thoughtful, rather than active. The Notebooks would probably be of greatest interest and use to practising experimental social psychologists, since many mainstream topics derive from Heider's Psychology of Interpersonal Relations, which was an earlier, more highly edited, release of his notebook research. Graduate students will find The Notebooks a treasure house of topics, ideas, and inspiration. Theoreticians will find Heider one of their own. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Situations matter: Teaching the Lewinian link between social psychology and rehabilitation psychology.

A little-recognized fact is that social psychology and rehabilitation psychology share a common theoretical ancestry in the situation perspective of Kurt Lewin. Theory and research in both fields assumes that situational influences often override the impact of personal factors, including dispositions. Situational analyses led to the development of a variety of cognitive explanations capturing people's phenomenal accounts for the causes of behavior and concomitant interpretation of social problems. Teachers can explore reasons why, despite the fields' having a shared theoretical perspective and topics of common interest (e.g., attitudes, prejudice, discrimination), little scholarly intradisciplinary contact currently occurs between them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The relational self: Theoretical convergences in psychoanalysis and social psychology.

Reviews the book, The relational self: Theoretical convergences in psychoanalysis and social psychology edited by Rebecca C. Curtis (see record 1991-97680-000). The relational self, a collection of papers from a conference held at Adelphi University in 1990, represents the latest attempt at rapprochement between psychoanalysis and social/personality psychology. The core unifying theme in this new effort at integration is the relational self. The dialectical relation between the self and environment is well illustrated by four essays devoted to current perspectives from social psychology. Several other essays provide the reader with a glimpse of the richness and vitality in current research on the self. I see no easy way of reconciling the two underlying research traditions, which differ not only in their methods and aims but also in the basic language used to describe human experiences. Perhaps in these postmodern times, there is no urgent need to stretch paradigms in the quest for unity of science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The legacy of Erich Fromm.

Reviews the book, The legacy of Erich Fromm by Daniel Burston (see record 1991-97594-000). In his effort to breathe new life into Fromm's legacy, Burston's employs a critical, developmental perspective, clearly showing both the continuities and the anomalies in Fromm's texts, research, and clinical practice. Writing in a highly readable, lucid style, accented with metaphorical expressions, Burston initially provides some biographical context, discusses Fromm's ambivalent involvement with the Freudian movement, and analyzes Fromm's many original contributions and relation to psychoanalysis, critical theory, existential and humanistic psychology, and social psychology. Throughout Burston's treatment of Fromm, he maintains a balanced yet affectionate perspective, elucidating not only Fromm's strengths but also his contradictions and weaknesses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The justice motive in social behavior.

Reviews the book, The Justice Motive in Social Behavior, edited by Melvin J. Lerner and Sally C. Lerner (1981). This edited book is the result of a conference held at the University of Waterloo. Here (September 1978) an interdisciplinary group of experts sought answers to the question, "How can the human concern with justice provide opportunities for constructive responses to future social dilemmas which may involve scarcity of resources and rapid change?" The 20 chapters are directly or indirectly related to this question, and the book is extremely timely and thought-provoking. This is an important book and should be a welcome addition to anyone interested in the implications for justice in the not-too-distant scarcity-laden future. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The shyness and social anxiety workbook.

Reviews the book, The shyness and social anxiety workbook by Martin M. Antony and Richard P. Swinson (see record 2001-16563-000). Books that provide information and guidance for people with social anxiety are a much-needed resource. Unfortunately, relatively few self-help books completely meet the needs of these individuals--some books are overly academic, others overwhelm readers with details. Therefore, it was a pleasure to read this workbook by Drs. Antony and Swinson. Designed to address the concerns of people whose lives are impaired by social anxiety, the volume provides a clear, comprehensive, and sophisticated self-help guide. The volume is divided into two sections. Part 1 consists of three chapters that present information to increase readers' understanding of social anxiety. Part II focuses on strategies to overcome social anxiety. In general, the book is written at a level that will be readily understood by members of the general public but without the patronizing simplification that can characterize self-help volumes. The book manages to capture the complexity of social anxiety as a clinical condition without overwhelming the anxious reader with excessive detail. Although this book is directed primarily at people for whom social anxiety is a significant life concern, it will also be of interest to clinicians working with individuals with social phobia, avoidant personality disorder, and other conditions marked by interpersonal discomfort. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The social psychology of gender: How power and intimacy shape gender relations.

Reviews the book, The social psychology of gender: How power and intimacy shape gender relations by Laurie A. Rudman and Peter Glick (see record 2008-09331-000). In this volume, respected gender experts Rudman and Glick (both former recipients of the Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Award for their respective research in this area) highlight the ways in which male dominance and intimate interdependence work together to shape peoples’ attitudes toward men and women and thusly their interactions with members of both sexes. Although its publication in the Texts series suggests that it is aimed primarily at a student audience, this volume nevertheless has much to offer the interested layperson and the serious academic as well. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The Norton history of the human sciences.

Reviews the book, The Norton history of the human sciences by Roger Smith (1997). Beginning in the Renaissance, and working through developments in Enlightenment science and philosophy, Smith charts the origins, growth, and contributions of the modern social sciences, in particular psychology. The text explores in significant detail the influence of such architects of modern Western ideas about human nature as Descartes, Marx, Freud, and Darwin. Other topics covered include the effect of colonialism on Western thought, the interaction of the social sciences and jurisprudence, and the historical sources of our modern ideas about sex and gender. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Handbook of social psychology.

Reviews the book "Handbook of social psychology" (Volumes I and II), edited by G. Lindzey (see record 1955-03817-000). This book is a major attempt to present, summarized in handbook fashion, what is known theoretically, methodologically, and substantively in the area of social psychology. The various chapters include contributions by psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and statisticians. Most of the chapters are written carefully and thoughtfully. It is a good and worth-while book to have in print. Many students and research workers will have occasion to refer to it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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 Clinical Psychologist.

Reviews the book, The Clinical Psychologist edited by Bernard Lubin and Eugene E. Levitt (1967). In all, there are 51 papers and reports, many of them prepared for the American Psychological Association to present material on the deliberations of Committees, meetings, or conferences. They cover the two decades from the 1947 Shakow Report but, as one might expect, the bulk of papers (37) were written in the sixties. The papers, which deal with a broad range of problems and concerns in clinical psychology, are presented in six sections. As with all "collected" books the style and presentation is uneven from paper to paper since each was prepared for a different purpose and publication. One can also criticize because others weren't included or because there is much emphasis given to those from recent years. However, I wish to leave no doubt in the reader's mind that I think this is an excellent collection not only for students and colleagues from other disciplines who are interested in knowing more about the clinical psychologist, but also as a handy reference to our antecedents, our present concerns and, maybe where we are going. (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 Madhouse and The Lobotomist.

Reviews the books, Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine by Andrew Scull (see record 2005-06776-000); and The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness by Jack El-Hai (see record 2005-02343-000). In both books, the history of experimental clinical psychiatry is laid bare with devastating accounts of the efforts to conquer mental illness by any means necessary. Both books are fascinating reading and may illuminate our current context in which the biological avenues for treating mental disorders continue to traffic in hopes of a one-size-fits-all cure, while psychoanalysis ambivalently struggles with how to conduct rigorous research to demonstrate the efficacy of our treatment. Andrew Scull's book Madhouse offers a well-documented historical account of a bizarre episode in American psychiatric history. The centerpiece of Scull's investigative work is Henry Cotton, MD, the superintendent of the Trenton State Hospital in Trenton, New Jersey, from 1907-1930. Once Cotton arrived at Trenton, he was appalled by the conditions he found and instituted reforms such as eliminating the culture of violence by attendants, removing over 700 pieces of restraining equipment from the hospital, and introducing occupational therapy. Jack El-Hai gives us the next segment of psychiatric surgery in his book The Lobotomist, a biography of the neurologist, turned surgical outlaw, Walter Freeman, MD. Walter Freeman was a neurologist fascinated with science and experimentation. Settling into work at St. Elizabeth's hospital in Washington, DC, in 1924, Freeman eventually joined the faculty of George Washington University where he remained until 1954. At that time neurosyphilis was the scourge of mental hospitals producing thousands of victims who were totally disabled by the neurological sequellae of tertiary illness. Thus lobotomy became an efficient outpatient procedure that could be applied to a larger patient population. Both of these books are important reading. Of all the great medical advances of the last century, surely the one that stands out as perhaps the greatest is the Nuremberg Code of 1947, which requires a competent patient giving informed consent to treatment and to research efforts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The psychology of human possibility and constraint.

Reviews the book, The psychology of human possibility and constraint by J. Martin and J. Sugarman (see record 1999-02336-000). This wide-ranging, compact, dense, yet very readable little book presents many of the key elements of a badly needed, more credible philosophy of social science for academic and professional psychologists. The book gives no specific examples of theories or research findings that might illustrate what is meant by a better kind of knowledge or theory in psychology, so the reader is left somewhat high and dry concerning this question. Perhaps it is simply the case that these questions about what might be the best kind of social and psychological inquiry and what sense to make of the plethora of theories and findings to date, are difficult, murky, and on the frontier of a hermeneutic reenvisioning of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The Development of Modern Behavioural Psychology.

Reviews the book, The Development of Modern Behavioural Psychology by John McLeish (1981). The title of McLeish's book contains two terms that may be somewhat misleading. Describing his efforts as encompassing the "Development" of ideas suggests that the approach is historical, while the term "Modern Behavioural Psychology" might be taken to mean almost anything depending upon one's restrictive use of the term. McLeish, as it turns out, attaches a very restrictive meaning to "Behavioural Psychology". There will probably always be argument about what constitutes a proper historical approach but the reviewer doubts that the tact McLeish takes will ever satisfy. In his review of the history of radical behaviourism, McLeish highlights the work of some writers who have not been given a prominent place by other historians, and discusses, or notes only in passing, authors who have ordinarily been considered prominent. As a history, then, McLeish's book is a disappointment and often annoying. Perhaps the best that can be said about this book is that McLeish hints at a form of behavioural theory which would expand the present boundaries of our thinking. In his enthusiastic advocacy of an account that would recognize the historical, social and cultural origins of human behaviour as well as its complexity (including language, thinking and consciousness), McLeish points to the biological rather than the physical (or mathematical) sciences as the source of appropriate models to develop a science of behaviour. In this he is to be congratulated. It is too bad he did not devote the book to a full development of these notions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond Aristotle and Galileo: Toward a contextualized psychology of persons.

Psychologists of my generation will recognize the implicit reference in my title immediately: to Kurt Lewin's (1931) classic paper that introduced most of us to the excitement of his ideas when we read it as the initial chapter of A Dynamic Theory of Personality (Lewin, 1935). When Lewin wrote about "The Conflict Between Aristotelian and Galilean Modes of Thought in Contemporary Psychology" over a half a century ago, it was indeed a breath of fresh air. Along with a very few other books and papers, it stands out saliently in my memory as having had a large part in forming my enduring perspective in psychology. It surely played a similar role for many others, by no means just Lewinians. We cannot readily recall its content since we've absorbed it, and built it into the fabric of our thought. I turn back to Lewin's essay because it represents the psysicalist tradition in psychological theory at its best, free of many faults that tainted the behavioristic expressions of positivism. All the same, the hermeneutic and contextualist critique of positivism should leave us dissatisfied with Lewin's version of a Galilean strategy for psychology. In one respect, thus, I am using this occasion for my own "me-too" endorsement of post-positivist theorizing. My second concern here is to focus attention on the need for a culturally and historically contextualized approach in personality theory. Finally, this occasion lets me talk some sense about post-positivist perspectives in psychology. As usual, the conceptual innovators have not been very reasonable. If a contextualized psychology of persons is to be advanced, we need a more plausible version of contextualism than is being argued by the leading polemicists. This is also an effort, therefore, to domesticate a contextualized approach, to accommodate it to its prospective role of defining a new mainstream of theorizing at the softer, more human end of the psychological spectrum. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Directions in Soviet social psychology.

Reviews the book, Directions in Soviet social psychology, edited by Lloyd H. Strickland (1984). This book is about collectives: not just any organized group that might be so called in the Soviet Union, but groups that have attained (or are in the process of attaining) a genuine collectivity, internal cohesiveness, or solidarity. The editor has put together ten chapters, each by one or more of the Soviet Union's most prominent social psychologists. The contributions were written with a view to giving Western psychologists--in as nonpolemic a manner as possible--an understanding of the various problem areas in Soviet social psychology, of where they have come from historically, of what Soviet psychologists see as the major issues, of how they do research, and of some of their findings and conclusions. The contributions appear diverse. They deal with subjects as varied as the self-concept, communication, cognitive processes, person perception, self-discipline, management, and industrial psychology. Beneath the diversity, however, emerges a common preoccupation with the collective, its development and dynamics. This unity of underlying concern, in turn, lends the book a remarkable coherence. The book is, however, not without its difficulties. The main one is a certain opacity characteristic of English translations of Russian scientific works. The editor acknowledges and discusses this problem in an afterword. He has also provided the reader with an informative preface that explains how the book came about, and each chapter is headed by a brief but helpful introduction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)