Review of Constructive evolution: Origins and development of Piaget's thought.

Reviews the book, Constructive evolution: Origins and development of Piaget's thought by Michael Chapman (see record 1988-97990-000). Canadian developmental psychologists have been among the harshest critics, most articulate supporters, and most creative extenders of Piaget's theory. Michael Chapman's book is in this reflective and interpretive tradition. Chapman's primary goal in the book is neither to criticize, support, nor extend Piaget's theory (although he does some of each), but to clarify the meaning of the theory, and to specify its domain of application. Chapman does this by tracing the growth of Piaget's thinking using Piaget's autobiographical papers as a map. The first six chapters comprise Chapman's historical analysis, which begins with Piaget's adolescence, a point in life where Piaget was later to say that cognitive development ends (although he was to retract the claim still later in his career). In the last two chapters of the book, Chapman uses his historical analysis to clarify the philosophical and psychological significance of Piaget's theory. Chapman's book is an excellent integration of Piaget's theory in that it places the theory in the context of the questions that motivated it. But for all the clarity that Chapman's historical analysis brings to Piaget's thought, the analysis opens a number of new questions. What Chapman has done successfully is to provide a view of the nature, limits, and future of Piagetian theory by examining its origins and evolution. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Cognitive aging: A primer.

Reviews the book, Cognitive aging: A primer edited by Denise C. Park and Norbert Schwarz (see record 2000-07430-000). The objective of this edited book is to present a comprehensive overview of what is known about normal cognitive functioning in older adults. The book's 14 short chapters, all written by well-known experts in cognitive aging, are divided into four sections on basic mechanisms, attention and memory, language and speech, and applications. This book was intended as a textbook for teaching advanced undergraduate and beginning undergraduate students. Overall, this objective is reached by most contributions. While creatively updating knowledge in cognitive aging, it does a great job of identifying limitations and theoretical challenges and of pinpointing many exciting research questions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Beyond the therapeutic relationship: Behavioral, biological, and cognitive foundations of psychotherapy.

Reviews the book, Beyond the therapeutic relationship: Behavioral, biological, and cognitive foundations of psychotherapy by Frederic J. Leger (see record 1997-36714-000). Leger has tackled the very large task of presenting an integrative, eclectic theory of psychotherapy which specifies the behavioural, biological, and cognitive processes that underlie psychotherapeutic change. In doing so, he follows in the tradition of other integrationists who have strived to outline frameworks that can encompass the diversity of explanatory emphases and practices in the dozens of present-day psychological therapies. In part, Leger's goal in proposing a "higher-order theory" is to lessen the "confusion which threatens to overwhelm the field" and to hasten a "convergence of scientific opinion." Leger supports his higher-order theory by drawing from a massive amount of literature in areas as seemingly diverse as nonverbal interaction, cognitive science, physiology, neurology, and discursive psychology, as well as from his own clinical experience. And it is the scope of his knowledge and his attempt to focus the reader's attention on the importance of the often ignored influence of therapists' nonverbal behaviours and the frequently taken-for-granted effects of maximal client self-disclosure that are the most impressive features of the book. However, the reviewer feels that the book may not have much impact, first because there have been several previous attempts by other writers to propose models of eclectic psychotherapy or to develop frameworks for integrating diverse forms of psychotherapy, and second because the style in which it is written quickly becomes rather tiresome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The impact of television: A natural experiment in three communities.

Reviews the book, The impact of television: A natural experiment in three communities edited by Tannis MacBeth Williams (1986). In their natural experiment, Williams and her colleagues proceeded to research several of the most important questions about the impact of television. This book presents the studies and their findings. Most of studies occurred at two points in time, approximately 6 months prior to the introduction of television in (Phase 1) and again 2 years later (Phase 2). The topics of the studies are: reading competence; children's cognitive abilities; involvement of community activities; impact of television-viewing patterns on the use of other media by both children and adults; the effect of television on children's aggressive behaviour; and television's effects on adults' divergent thinking, cognitive style, perceptions of self and community, and orientation to the environment. The book is written with two kinds of readers in mind--the intelligent general reader and the researcher--and is organized so that both may obtain the information they require efficiently. The quality of the research is excellent. The overall design and each part of the study show careful attention to issues, well-considered methodologies, and relevant data analyses. This book is certain to stand as a classic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Dialogues on difference: Studies of diversity in the therapeutic relationship.

Reviews the book, Studies of diversity in the therapeutic relationship by J. Christopher Muran (see record 2006-11731-000). This book has taken the opportunity to begin with dialogue among clinicians with different theoretical perspectives on issues of diversity, including psychoanalytic, cognitive– behavioral, and humanistic viewpoints. In introducing the book, Muran sets the stage for the dialogues with an open discussion of his own culturally diverse background. He also describes the diversity characterizing his professional training in cognitive– behavioral psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, which in part contributed to his recognition of a need for this dialogue across perspectives. The book is divided into eight dialogues consisting of one psychoanalytically oriented writer or set of writers, followed by comments on this essay by two theorists from different and overlapping theoretical points of view. The final component of each dialogue consists of the author’s reply to the comments. The dialogues address eight separate topics including race, social privilege and multiple identities, homosexuality, intersection of race and gender in psychotherapy with African American men, identity in psychotherapy with Latino clients, role of stereotypes in psychotherapy with Asian Americans, Middle Eastern identity and psychotherapy, and communication and metacommunication in psychotherapy. One of the intriguing features of this book is that the dialogue is in written form, giving the reader the advantage of reading it several times to better engage with each author’s point of view. Because the format resembles that of an oral presentation of a single paper followed by discussions of the paper, I found myself wanting to ask questions of each of the authors. Several of the authors appear to have been enriched through this dialogue,because the very nature of this exchange parallels the concept of mutual influence that lies at the heart of relational psychoanalysis. The quality of dialogue across the different sections of this book is rich and complex and highlights the critical need for ongoing dialogue on cultural difference and similarity in the discipline of psychology, not to mention our broader society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Cognitive development in atypical children: Progress in cognitive development research.

Reviews the book, Cognitive development in atypical children: Progress in cognitive development research edited by Linda S. Siegel and Frederick J. Morrison (1985). A great deal of psychological research in the past decade has focused on the topic of cognitive development. Accordingly, there are now whole volumes devoted to this subject, such as the Springer Series in Cognitive Development, of which this book, edited by Siegel and Morrison, is one. The term "Progress" in the titles of some of the volumes in the Springer Series denotes that these volumes are "strongly thematic, in that [they are] limited to some well-defined domain of cognitive development research." The theme for this particular book is that of atypical cognitive development, with the term encompassing disorders such as reading disability, autism, and hyperactivity. The book contains seven chapters: three on reading disability, two on autism, one on temperament and attention, and one on atypical infant development. Although the individual chapters in this book are interesting and informative, as is often the case with an edited volume, this book is less cohesive than one might hope. The book is part of a series that is intended to be "strongly thematic." In my view, it does not quite succeed in this regard. Presumably the unifying theme of this book is one of cognitive development in special populations; however, the populations chosen are quite diverse so that the reader often loses sight of the theme. Although this volume could presumably serve as a text for a course in atypical cognitive development, my general feeling is that the material presented varies awkwardly from an introductory to an advanced level, a range that makes it not quite appropriate for either an introductory or an advanced course in the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

John Bissell Carroll (1916-2003).

Memorializes John Bissell (Jack) Carroll, an early leader in the development of psycholinguistics and a dominant contributor to psychometrics and the study of individual differences in cognitive abilities. His seminal work in evaluating foreign language proficiencies across multiple cultures combined his expertise in psycholinguistics with that in psychometrics and defined fundamental issues in the study of language acquisition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Learning process in psychoanalytic supervision: Complexities and challenges.

Reviews the book, Learning process in psychoanalytic supervision: Complexities and challenges by Paul A. DeWald (see record 1987-97784-000). This book is a wonderful contribution to the field of supervision. It is the only book available that presents the actual supervision sessions of one ongoing supervisee with one long-term psychoanalytic patient as they were transcribed. DeWald also offers a review of the supervisory literature, his view of the supervisory process, his supervisory reports, and a chapter from the supervisee discussing her experience. The book is refreshing in that the supervisor does not present himself as perfect, and he does acknowledge mistakes he made in the comments after each set of process notes. There are some criticisms of the book to be made. First, the reviewer was not able to determine the frequency of the patient's sessions or the supervisory sessions. Second, the author's framework is classically Freudian. While this is not a problem, it is important that the reader be aware of the point of view. Third, the author seems ambivalent about the role of the patient's ethnicity and culture in her neurotic stance. These comments aside, Learning process in psychoanalytic supervision is an excellent book, and certainly one any supervisor would want to read. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Cognitive psychodynamics: From conflict to character.

Reviews the book, Cognitive psychodynamics: From conflict to character by Mardi J. Horowitz (see record 1998-07469-000). It has been said that in forging a common ground between psychoanalysis and cognitive science, Mardi Horowitz has gone where others fear to tread. A masterful integration of all of his previous theoretical work, Cognitive psychodynamics represents his most ambitious attempt to map this prohibited terrain in which these two often-opposing domains of inquiry are joined. His goal is to build an integrated, cognitive-dynamic model of personal identity, interpersonal relationships, and individual character. His means of accomplishing this integration is to interweave three basic theoretical concepts: (a) states of mind that mark the experience of heightened emotional conflict; (b) unconscious defensive control processes that mediate shifts between states of mind; and, most important, (c) person schemas, which for Horowitz are his role relationship models (RRMs), which organize the states of mind as interactive, self-other configurations. The strength of this book is its clear and coherent presentation of each of these three theoretical concepts. These concepts are brought to life by brief, illustrative clinical examples, and the chapters move back and forth between conceptual exposition and clinical illustration in a manner that is mutually informing. The major criticism to be made of the book is that it fails to consider and speak to matters of fundamental theoretical contention between the psychodynamic and cognitive models of the mind at the moments they arise in the construction of this integrated model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Book Review: g, Jensen, and the Science of Mental Ability.

Reviews the book "The scientific study of general intelligence: Tribute to Arthur R. Jensen" edited by H. Nyborg (2003). The book's first section is comprised of only one chapter, authored by the late John B. Carroll. In it, he re-analyzes Woodcock-Johnson-R Cognitive and Achievement data sets, and defends the psychometric argument for g--namely that it pervades almost all tests that measure cognitive ability and is the main cause for these tests' positive correlations with each other. The next section, entitled the "Biology of g," concentrates on the neurological and genetic correlates of g, but also houses two chapters on mental chronometry. Two chapters deal with the once controversial topic of brain size and g, a topic Jensen has meticulously researched and authored. The third section of this book deals with the most controversial aspect of Jensen's work, that of group differences. The book's next section concentrates on how g is a part of everyday life. The penultimate section deals with various reservations about g. The last two chapters on g are thoughts on why people ignore the concept of g. The reviewer notes that most of the chapters are well-written, supported with data, easy to follow, and make significant contributions to the literature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Come here: A man overcomes the tragic aftermath of childhood sexual abuse.

Reviews the book, Come here: A man overcomes the tragic aftermath of childhood sexual abuse by Richard Berendzen, with Laura Palmer. Berendzen, former president of American University in Washington, D.C. was both the perpetrator and the victim of a psychosexual tragedy. This autobiography, however, focuses only on his own tragedy: his mother's sexual abuse of him. It completely ignores the tragic consequences of his own frightening, obscene phone calls which he admits making to 10-15 women who had placed ads in newspapers to provide child care. Although Berendzen states in his book that the fact that he was a victim of childhood sexual abuse does not excuse his crimes, he nonetheless repeatedly describes the terroristic phone calls as the result of a "compulsion" and "impulse." One of the women to whom Berendzen made repeated calls cooperated with the police to catch him, and his world fell apart. The rest of the book describes his resultant trials, humiliation, and grief as he faced his family, members of the American University community, the press and, briefly noted, the criminal justice system. Berendzen agonizes throughout much of this book with self-pitying, but moving, pathos over the consequences of his detection to his own life and career, as well as his family's and university's well-being. But nowhere does he agonize about the effect that terrorizing phone calls detailing child sexual abuse could have on women charged with watching children, women who may have vulnerable children themselves. This book may have been therapeutic for Berendzen, but it has left one of his victims, who says she "was doing pretty well until this came up," shaken again. Still, the book is significant and valuable, for therapists and the general public, for the lessons learned between the lines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The psychology of humor: An integrative approach.

Reviews the book, The psychology of humor: An integrative approach by Rod A. Martin (see record 2006-21361-000). This book is not a particularly funny read--though it has its moments--but it is a very well-written, well-organized, comprehensive reference guide to the psychology of humor. The Introductory chapter provides a nice overview of the rest of the book. Here Martin defines what is meant by the broad term humor, discusses the many forms and functions of humor, and provides a concise, informative history of thinking about humor. Martin then includes two chapters that address five theoretical approaches: psychoanalytic, superiority/disparagement, arousal, incongruity, and reversal theory. The second part of the book is organized into different psychological subtopics, which makes it very easy to navigate. This part includes sections on the cognitive, social, psychobiological, personality, and developmental approaches to the study of humor. The book concludes with chapters on the link between humor and both mental and physical health, and presents research on the application of humor in psychotherapy, education, and the workplace. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Neuroscience of cognitive development: The role of experience and the developing brain.

Reviews the book, Neuroscience of cognitive development: The role of experience and the developing brain by Charles A. Nelson, Michelle de Haan, and Kathleen M. Thomas (see record 2006-09288-000). The goal of this book is to provide a state-of-the-art introduction to the neural bases of cognitive development. The first chapter reviews different aspects of brain development. Chapter two illustrates how experience induces changes in the developing brain as well as in the adult brain, and addresses the question of similarities and differences between neural plasticity in children and adults. The next chapter introduces different methods to study the brain and discusses advantages and disadvantages of each method. In Chapters four through eleven, the authors review the current knowledge about the neurological bases in a number of key areas of cognitive development. The book should be of interest to psychologists who seek a thorough review of the neurological bases associated with various cognitive abilities in infants and children. It might also usefully accompany a graduate course on developmental neuroscience, keeping in mind that the book presupposes a good grasp of neuroanatomy, and of the methods used in the study of the brain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Encounters with great psychologists: Twelve dramatic portraits.

Reviews the book, Encounters with great psychologists: Twelve dramatic portraits by John H. Kunkel (see record 1989-97254-000). John Kunkel has given us a new form of fiction, one which is also intended to lure the lay reader toward an appreciation of that scientific enterprise which is Psychology, and, toward an appreciation of the men who have made it what it is today. The book recounts twelve separate fictional discussions, each of which is between an historical figure in Psychology and some largely imaginary others. These others feed each protagonist not only considerable quantities of good food and drink, but they feed convenient questions as well, questions which allow each great man to show us his wisdom, his gentleness, and his love of humanity. Kunkel's book is not all fiction. It is in part a history of psychology in biography. Each narration is preceded by an abbreviated history of the man and his ideas, setting the scene. Each narration is followed by a debriefing, in which some of the fiction is separated from fact and the references that Kunkel used to spawn his romance are shared with the reader in the form of recommended further reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Damasio's proposition: A review of Damasio, A. (1994).

Reviews the book, Descartes' error: Emotion, reason and the human brain by A. Damasio (1994). This book proposes that emotion and reason are inextricably linked, an idea that runs counter to common folk wisdom but with potentially profound implications for neuroscience, cognitive science, and philosophy. In the first section, the author tells the tale of Phineas Gage, the colorful character who sustained both brain damage and severe personality change following an explosion that blew a 3-foot tamping iron through his skull. In the second section, Damasio starts to assemble an explanation to account for the phenomena presented in the first section, that is, the "mysterious alliance" of emotion and reason. In the third section of the book, Damasio presents some of the initial attempts to test experimentally the somatic-marker hypothesis. Descartes' error is an entertaining, educational and thought-provoking journey. Damasio does a remarkable job of bringing together a diversity of topics that are often studied and discussed separately--cognition, emotion, learning, neuroanatomy, personality, evolution, and philosophy of mind. The author's presentation of the somatic-marker hypothesis will pique interest and may serve to guide new research to test the tenability of this theory. He has highlighted the importance of that ill-defined aspect of human existence known as "emotion," and brought it to the forefront, a step that may make it not only respectable to consider in future research, but necessary. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A memorial essay on Merton Max Gill (1914-1994).

Reviews the book, Psychoanalysis in transition: A personal view by Merton M. Gill (see record 1994-98473-000). Merton Gill's final book, subtitled A personal view, may aptly be understood from a retrospective perspective as a fitting presentation of his intellectual memoirs. From that vantage point, Gill's final book conveys a wish that his personal legacy be understood by the public in terms of his evolving contributions to change and new perspectives in the history of psychoanalytic theory and technique, rather than through other details of his personal life. First, in terms of Gill's intended audience, it is clear that he succeeded in his intention to create a work that would be enlightening to both students and beginning clinicians, as well as to the more experienced practitioner. It is also plausible that Gill was writing this book for a third audience, not made explicit, but of great importance to him. This third audience could be understood to be comprised mostly of those who have known him personally, those who have collaborated with him, and the many others who are already familiar with his work and its course of evolution. Psychoanalysis in transition (1994) can be understood as a further examination of Gill's stated basic aim of his earlier monographs on transference in at least two ways: (a) It continues his dialectical effort to examine and synthesize dichotomies in psychoanalytic theory and practice and (b) it extends his views about the need to be alert to here-and-now interactions in the analytic situation and presents an elaboration of Gill's subsequent new metatheory and metapsychology, which he sees as supplanting Freud's "natural science physicoenergic framework." In conclusion, Transitions in psychoanalysis stands as an evocative and insightful final statement of Merton Gill's perceptions of the broad landscape of ongoing, major psychoanalytic controversies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aspects of cognitive process: A review of Imagery and verbal processes by Allan Paivio.

Reviews the book, Imagery and Verbal Processes by Allan Paivio (see record 1973-00230-000). The general revival of interest in cognitive processes in recent years has led to the energetic investigation of the role of imagery in various psychological functions. Heretofore, this research and the hypotheses and conclusions that it has generated has largely appeared piecemeal in the technical journals. Now, Allan Paivio, who has been among the leaders in research on imagery for ten years, has collated and integrated the research on imagery available to date and clearly outlined a number of unsolved theoretical and empirical problems. While Paivio has been a strong contributor to theory in the past, there is very little in the way of new theory. The book does not attempt to make a definitive statement on the nature of imagery but, for the most part, juxtaposes and integrates diffuse ideas in such a way as to make their broader significance more apparent. While as a textbook, the scope within the areas of perception, memory, cognition, or psycholinguistics is somewhat narrow, Paivio has accomplished something that more textbook writers might emulate by examining the functioning of a common process across various research areas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond symbolizing: A response to Bornstein’s review.

Responds to the review by R. F. Bornstein (see record 2010-02522-001) on the current author's book, "Psychoanalysis and cognitive science: A multiple code theory" (see record 1997-08863-000). Although there is not much that Bornstein says with which Bucci can disagree, she responds specifically to a few of Bornstein's points and adds a few that he does not include. (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)