Review of The clinician’s handbook.

Reviews the book, The clinician's handbook by Robert G. Meyer and Sarah E. Deitsch (see record 1996-97385-000). This book is an integration of a great deal of both diagnostic and clinical information concerning adult and adolescent psychopathology. It brings together a collective wealth of information about various psychological assessment tools. It also attempts to show the relevance of assessment data, both to case formulation and to treatment/intervention. Although, as the reviewer notes, there are a few expected flaws in the text, he believes that the authors should be congratulated for their superb effort to accomplish what they set out to do, which is to give a specific and concrete focus to psychopathology assessment. This book is recommended for psychotherapists, particularly those who are forensically oriented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The Doomsday Book.

Reviews the book, The Doomsday Book by Gordon R. Taylor (1970). The subject of the book is ecology, people pollution, oxygen depletion, melting the ice cap, metals in the human system, the dangers of asbestos, and other noisy topics. The arguments are well documented and point to his ultimate concern which is not pollution as such but the rape of the biosphere and the radical change in the conditions of man which will follow. The reviewer is not optimistic about solving the problems of human behaviour posed by Taylor or that these problems will have impact on behavioural scientists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The herring gull's world.

Reviews the book "The herring gull's world," by Niko Tinbergen (see record 1955-00376-000). This book summarizes in nontechnical language a large number of observations and experiments by the author and his students on the behavior of herring gulls. Primary emphasis is placed upon social behavior including formation of breeding pairs, establishment and maintenance of a territory, courtship and mating, and rearing of young. The book achieves several objectives very effectively. First, it presents a clearly drawn picture of the behavior of gulls in their natural environment. Second, it illustrates authoritatively a method of analyzing behavior which differs in several important ways from techniques used by American psychologists. Third, the book exemplifies an attitude or philosophy of behavior study quite unlike that of experimental psychologists. The author's enthusiasm for behavior study combines with his long-standing affection for sea gulls to produce an eminently readable, entertaining, and informative volume, the attractiveness of which is enhanced by numerous excellent photographs of gull behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The case formulation approach to cognitive-behavior therapy.

Reviews the book, The case formulation approach to cognitive-behavior therapy by Jacqueline B. Persons (see record 2008-13011-000). This book places case formulation as its core organizing principle for cognitive–behavior therapy (CBT). Explicitly framing case formulation in a hypothesis-testing context, Persons helps bridge the gap between those advocating strict adherence to manual-driven, empirically supported therapies (ESTs) and those who find such constraints impractical and less than optimal. Her guiding principle is to use ESTs to the extent that one can but to adapt them idiographically as one must to address the array of problems presented by the specific individual being treated. Persons’ case formulation model is deceptively simple. It involves four basic components: (a) symptoms, disorders, and problems; (b) mechanisms; (c) precipitants; and (d) the origins of the mechanisms. Persons provides a fresh outlook on all these familiar components. In addition to providing step-by-step instruction for developing the formulation, Persons includes discussions of goal setting, which is organized in categories focused on mechanism change or learning compensatory strategies; treatment plan development; monitoring progress; decision making in the session; and handling nonadherence and treatment failure. A major strength of the book is the focus on the patient–therapist relationship. Persons repeatedly returns to the importance of establishing a positive working alliance and also discusses the opportunities that arise in efforts to re-establish a positive alliance following a rupture. The book is well organized, clearly written, contains up-to-date research references, and is replete with clinical examples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The parent-child connection.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 31(2) of Canadian Psychology Psychologie Canadienne (see record 2007-08913-001). In the October 1989 issue (Vol. 30, No. 4, p. 697), Arnold Rincover's affiliation with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education was incorrectly given as Associate Professor. He has been an Extramural Instructor at O.I.S.E.] Reviews the book, The parent-child connection by Arnold Rincover (1988). The parent-child connection is a well written book that offers valuable advice to help parents of young children evaluate and understand their children's behaviour. It also offers useful suggestions on managing child behaviour, although these parenting tips are most likely to be useful to those parents who least need them (i.e., those with numerous personal and social resources, whose children are presenting only minor behavioural difficulties). The two general themes of the book, child behaviour as communication and developmental norms as guidelines for deciding if behaviour is problematic, are well-suited to the purposes of a parent reference book. They offer an appropriate framework for discussing specific child behaviours and helping parents to determine if these behaviours are problematic in their children. This book is a welcome addition to the list of available parenting books, and may prove particularly useful for younger parents in need of accurate and understandable information about normal child development and behaviour. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The compleat therapist.

Reviews the book, The compleat therapist by Jeffrey A. Kottler (see record 1990-98953-000) . The Compleat Therapist begins with an assessment of the state of the art of psychotherapy, concluding with the observation first articulated by Goldfried in his landmark 1982 book, Converging Themes in Psychotherapy: The number of therapies has expanded exponentially over recent years, and paradigm strain mandates attempt to find commonalities and integrations. The book then proceeds to summarize research findings and the writer's personal observations regarding variables common to most therapies and to most effective therapists. The Compleat Therapist homogonizes therapy, and in so-doing points out the risks of the integrative psychotherapy movement. By putting all therapies into one blender and whirling them into one concoction, the unique techniques and insights of each tend to get lost. The result can be, and in this case is, a loss of data. The significant contributions of each type of therapy are submerged in the hunt for common elements. This book's conclusion seems to be that anything works, and why is a mystery. As a professional discipline we need to set our sights higher than that. An approach to integration that looks only at common factors is like looking at antibiotics, aspirin, and cortisone, all of which make people feel better, to find their commonality. Yes, they are all medicines, but that data does not facilitate treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The achievement motive.

Reviews the book, The achievement motive by David C. McClelland, John W. Atkinson, Russell A. Clark, & Edgar L. Lowell (1953). This book reports a swarm of little experiments, no one of which is more than a pilot study, but all of which are focused on one human need. The host of miniature demonstrations creates a fascinating pattern, from which the reader, like the authors, may learn "not only a lot about the achievement motive but other areas of personality as well". At the same time, the reader keeps glimpsing idea after idea for use in his own future research. He finds provocative inductive treatment of the nature of the achievement motive, its effects on behavior, especially school performance, and its origins in infancy and culture. All this "builds up the total picture out of many small experiments by a slow process of going from fact to hypothesis and back to fact again". It makes a methodologically fascinating illustration of what can be done inductively to explore a new field when the explorers possess the proper wit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The structure of English.

Reviews the book, The structure of English by C. C. Fries (1952). A grammar based on a consistent and meaningful analysis of language into significant component parts has long been a felt need both for linguists as well as for psychologists. The present work attempts to provide an empirical grammatical system free of the logical flaws that permeate contemporary grammar. The use of this book for a psychologist lies in investigations concerned with predicting the verbal behavior of the same people in different situations and of different people in the same situations. In this work lies at least the beginning of a solution to the problem of defining a unit in content analysis; it, furthermore, provides psychologists with a better means of comparing the functional relationships between different parts of speech in mental patients, since the parts of speech are more soundly defined than they have been in previous studies. Finally, in studies of learning, the knowledge of functional units of speech as defined by Fries can be used to study the laws of acquisition and extinction of verbal behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The voice of neurosis.

In this volume, the author focuses on attributes of voice, not on verbal communication or speech in the usual sense. Resonance, melody, register illustrate the elements emphasized. Not sharply organized or sufficiently substantiated to serve as a firm introduction to the method or as a convincing summary of research, the book nevertheless opens up intriguing potentialities. The major thesis presents voice as an expressive technique. Just as a graphologist uses handwriting, so Moses uses voice in all its varied aspects to understand personality. He compares a blind analysis with a Rorschach, and integrates other analyses with case material. His ideas about sound approaches to interpretation hold interest for those who use projective or expressive methods. The aspects of voice he emphasizes and his guidelines in analysis suggest that he may have hit on one of the potentially most fruitful areas of expressive behavior-with elements subtly modified throughout important stages of life history and remaining identiiably fixed in adult vocal behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The playground of psychoanalytic therapy.

Reviews the book, The playground of psychoanalytic therapy by Jean Sanville (see record 1991-98946-000). Sanville studies psychoanalytic therapy and uses play and playing as the focal point, the pivotal organizing concept. She reviews the theory of psychoanalytic development and the dynamics of clinical intervention, and she attempts to integrate the contribution of her favorite authors, such as Winnicott, Stern, Kohut, and as always, Freud. Thus, the book is a textbook of Sanville's vast theoretical clinical experiences with the motive to document that play is the essential organizing and integrating mental activity. A book rich in considering the fabric of psychoanalytic psychotherapy with its broad frame of reference must greatly limit the ideas of the author, and I wish that there could be a more complete integration of her propositions. It is a pleasure to follow Sanville's case vignettes and to observe her gift and sensitivity with which she tunes into the inner life of her patients. Sanville's book explores a new metapsychological dimension embedded in object relation propositions. The reader will find unexpected rewards. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The integration of behavior.

Reviews the book, The integration of behavior by Thomas M. French (1952). In this fundamental contribution to Ego psychology French undertakes to elucidate the workings of integrative mechanisms, using as illustrative material the record of the analysis of an asthmatic patient. The first volume--Basic Postulates (see record 1952-05902-000) presnts, in a first approximation, the conceptual framework evolved by French, exemplifying the "basic postulates" by instances taken from everyday normal behavior and from some of the patient's dreams. In the second volume--The Integrative Process in Dreams (see record 1954-05671-000) the author brings detailed analyses of several sequences of the patient's dreams, elaborating the integrative processes and the system of personal patterns reflected in these dreams. French's undertaking can be considered as one of the most valuable among the current attempts to evolve a systematic "ego psychology," centering it on the successfully integrated behavior, on constructive, rather than defensive, functions of the psychic organization. Through a judicious selection of concepts and theories that have both a high explanatory power and a close fit to facts, he tries to "bring into resonance" not only the rational and irrational behavior, but also many other dichotomous areas and approaches of the personality study. Personality psychologists will certainly welcome this attempt at overcoming the segregation of various approaches to the study of human behavior, even if one may disagree with the specific selections French makes, and regret the fact that the inclusion of so many theories and speculations tends to obliterate the main outlines of the work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Family mediation handbook.

Reviews the book, Family Mediation Handbook by Barbara Landau, Lorne Wolfson, Niki Landau, Mario Bartoletti, and Ruth Mesbur (2000). Family mediation has become increasingly important in recent years as the court system has hied to move away from a litigation-based system of resolving disputes arising from divorce and separation. This volume represents a very important advance in the process of setting standards for this relatively new and complex area of endeavour. This book tries to address the needs of a diverse group of practitioners, ranging from professional who have their roots mainly in legal practice to those whose experience stems mainly from practice with families and family therapy. This book does a good job of attending to an audience made up of professionals from disparate backgrounds. It is a very comprehensive attempt to provide "one-stop shopping" for those interested in or practicing in this area, and does this job well. The price of $85 is probably a bit high for some practitioners, but the book is a good value nonetheless. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The foundations of statistics.

Reviews the book, The foundations of statistics by Leonard J. Savage (see record 1955-00117-000). After a brief introductory chapter which notes three major points of view about the interpretation of probability (objectivistic, personalistic, and necessary), a personalistic or subjectivistic theory of decision in the face of uncertainty is developed in formal manner involving an assortment of definitions, postulates, theorems, lemmas, and corollaries. The theory is shown to imply the construct of utility in economic behavior. The second half of the book is devoted to the impact of personalistic probability on minimax theory, the theory of games, point estimation, interval estimation, and the testing of statistical hypotheses. (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 Experimental Psychology of Sensory Behaviour.

Reviews the book, The Experimental Psychology of Sensory Behaviour by John F. Corso. The evaluation of John Corso's book depends to a great extent upon the use for which it is intended. As a text for an experimental psychology course, this book unfortunately has some serious limitations. This is of considerable value for some types of courses; however, for a course in experimental psychology it would seem desirable to give students a broader range of methodologies than those used in sensory psychology. This is a good, but somewhat limited, experimental psychology text that would need considerable supplementation from other sources in order to be adequate for general experimental courses in psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The psychotherapy of the elderly self.

Reviews the book, The psychotherapy of the elderly self by Hyman L. Muslin (see record 1992-98107-000). The purpose of this book is to describe the extension of psychoanalytic therapy in the Kohut mode to the elderly. Specifically the author describes the changes the elderly must cope with, the impact these changes have on the elderly self, and the kind of psychotherapy that will best help them cope with these changes. This book has a rather narrow focus, and is likely to be of interest mostly to those engaged in the Kohutian version of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. It does not present much material that is likely to be of help to those engaged in the more general practice of psychology with aged individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of meprobamate and prochlorperasine on positive and negative conditioning.

The comparative effect of 2 tranquilizing drugs (miltown and thorazine) upon conditioning in normal adults was investigated. Conditioning involved GSR to a noxious (shock) and positive (sexually stimulating picture) stimulus. Both tranquilizers were observed to be ineffective in affecting classical conditioning procedures when the noxious UCS was used. Only miltown effected conditioning in the predicted direction when the positive UCS was used. The results are related to the differential effect of each tranquilizer upon the nervous system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Learning and behavior: A contemporary synthesis.

Reviews the book, Learning and behavior: A contemporary synthesis by Mark E. Bouton (see record 2006-21409-000). The reviewer praises the author for creating a student-friendly textbook for an undergraduate course in animal learning that is both comprehensive and current. Bouton presents the major theoretical issues and findings in their historical context. Chapter topics include: (1) adaptation; (2) Pavlovian conditioning; (3) operant conditioning; (4) choice behavior; (5) theories of reinforcement; (6) motivation; (7) cognition; (8) spatial learning; (9) learned helplessness; and (10) superstitious behavior. Bouton comes full circle in the final section, "A cognitive analysis of instrumental action," by describing experimental evidence for the existence of various types of associations (i.e., S-S*, R-S*) that were introduced in the first chapter. The reviewer believes students and instructors alike will enjoy this very readable book. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)