Review of Assessment and programming for young children with low-incidence handicaps.

Reviews the book Assessment and Programming for Young Children With Low-Incidence Handicaps (1983) by C. R. Reynolds and J. H. Clark. The enrollment of children with low incidence handicaps in the public schools is a relatively new phenomenon; many practicing school psychologists completed their training when instruction in development, assessment, and programming for this population was not available. The challenge facing the editors is to introduce this relatively experienced audience to the critical concepts, theories, and practical applications unique to education for low incidence handicaps. The book consists of 10 selections adopted from papers presented at the Nebraska National Conference on Assessment and Programming for Infants, Preschool, and School Age Children with Low incidence Handicaps. It is a multidisciplinary effort, written for all professional educators; this review only considers its usefulness for the practicing school psychologist. Although it includes valuable insights into the evaluation of hearing impaired children, it is incomplete in its view of other resources for their assessment and educational programming. Also, the book is flawed with several distracting misprints, typos, omitted sentences, and missing references. The book lacks the precision and excellence necessary to serve as a sourcebook for low incidence handicaps; it may serve as a useful reference for school psychologists with specific interests in the handicapping conditions of physical and motor deficits or visual handicaps. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 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)     

Review of The Psychological Foundations of Culture.

In this article, I review the book by Crandall and Schaller (see record 2003-88101-000), which seeks to reveal how culture is influenced by processes operating at the individual level (e.g., cognitions, goals, information processing strategies) as well as at the interpersonal level (e.g., communication, social influence). The book draws together authors from a number of cognate disciplines to address the issue of behaviour-culture relationships, with an emphasis on how the former might allow us to better understand the origin, development, and distribution of the latter. While the book does deal with the "flip side" of culture-behaviour relationships, it is not unique in doing so; in my view, the field already has a better sense of balance than this book claims. (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 Technology and handicapped people.

Reviews the book, Technology and handicapped people by the Office Of Technology Assessment, U.S. Congress (1983). The Office of Technology Assessment study, conducted from October 1980 to December 1981, was designed to address a broad and complex range of issues affecting the development, marketing, and financing of technologies related to disabled people. Beginning with a systematic review of issues related to delivery of technologies to disabled persons, Part One of Technology and handicapped people focuses on the various definitions of "disability" and examines the demographics of disabled persons in the United States. Part Two of the book emphasizes "appropriate application" of technology as it applies to disabled persons. Parts Three and Four of the book cover public policy and resource allocation as they apply to meeting the needs of disabled individuals. The appendixes of the book cover methodologies of the study and present a glossary of terms and references. This report by the OTA is an excellent first book to acquaint the reader with the field of rehabilitation engineering and assistive devices. It provides a comprehensive and nontechnical overview of current technologies that are being used to remediate the impact of disability. The writing style and the generous use of illustrations greatly enhance the readability of this book. The book does not focus on new emerging technologies in this field, and therefore is of less interest to practicing rehabilitation engineers and adaptive equipment specialists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Mental disorder in Canada: An epidemiological perspective.

Reviews the book, Mental disorder in Canada: An epidemiological perspective edited by John Cairney and David L . Streiner (see record 2010-14072-000). This book includes 20 chapters organized into six sections. In short, it reviews and summarizes Canadian population level research on mental disorders. While it is obvious the topic is important, a book focused on epidemiological research seemed like it would be more of a valuable resource than a stimulating read. In their introduction, some of the editors’ comments are consistent with the reviewers initial speculation, but there is also passion in their writing and they clearly state a more ambitious goal of showcasing Canadian contributions to psychiatric epidemiology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The history of the International Union of Psychological Science..

Reviews the book, The history of the International Union of Psychological Science by Mark R. Rosenzweig, Wayne W. Holtzman, Michel Sabourin, and David Belanger (2000). In 1997, the Executive Committee of the International Union of Psychological Science initiated a project to "trace the development of the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS), not only since its founding at the 14th International Congress of Psychology at Stockholm, 1951, but going back to 1881 when a young Polish psychologist first proposed the ideas of an international congress and of an international association of psychological societies" (p. xi). The authors have managed to include a great deal of information, and it must be said that the result occasionally resembles a book of lists (e.g., lists of who attended the various congresses, the percentage of attendees from each country, etc.). Read from cover to cover, the book provides a very useful compendium of the proceedings of IUPsyS and its predecessors. A very strong feature of this book is its many photographs. Throughout the book there are several very useful tables that provide lists of the members of the various congresses as well as the officers of the IUPsyS. While it is as much a reference book as a history, it is still a very useful and interesting reference book that should be in every university library. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Wounded by reality: Understanding and treating adult onset trauma.

Reviews the book, Wounded by reality: Understanding and treating adult onset trauma by Ghislaine Boulanger (see record 2007-04674-000). In this book, Boulanger closes the circle on psychoanalytic speculation about the significance of trauma to personality, and goes beyond this to add significantly to both theory and clinical practice. Rado's 1925 paper on dismissing abreaction for understanding and treating the effects of adult onset trauma, with Freud's agreement, pushed the psychoanalytic gaze inward to memories of past trauma (Etchegoyen, 1991, p. 446). It was assumed that childhood trauma determined the reactions to later ones in adulthood. The very concept of trauma was diluted to include sudden hardship or confusion, leaving adult onset horror in an undifferentiated place on the continuum of human misfortune. In this book, there is no doubt. Adults are traumatized when they face imminent and seemingly inescapable death. This book is the sixth in a series of books called "Psychoanalysis in a New Key" that Donnel Stern is editing for The Analytic Press. That new key is relational thinking. Boulanger uses it along with the latest information from neuroscience to forge a special new key for unlocking the frozen affect of adults who have survived only physically from the most extreme of trauma. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Divorce shock: Perspectives on counselling and therapy.

Reviews the book, Divorce shock: Perspectives on counselling and therapy by Adrian R. Tiemann, Bruce L. Danto, and Steve Vinton Gullo. While Divorce shock is subtitled Perspectives on counselling and therapy and thus might lead readers to believe that they would find within it a major source of "how to do it" clinical information--they would be largely disappointed. The book is in fact what it purports to be; a collection of perspectives on divorce, the divorce process, and interventions aimed at recovery from divorce. This is not to say that there is not reference in some instances to very specific clinical information, but its scope and goal is clearly broader than that. It is in this broader arena of identifying, exploring, and in some cases expanding many of the issues related to divorce, both in the individual and societal context, that this volume offers a great deal. The book itself is a collection of fifteen papers, really sixteen counting the very extensive introduction, and I believe it has been well organized in terms of the content of the individual papers and their order of presentation. I believe this book's greatest value to most psychologists may well be perceived by many as its greatest weakness. It provides a variety of perspectives in a manner and from a point of view that is not the everyday fare of most psychologists. It leans heavily on psychoanalytic foundations and lacks specificity that many psychological practitioners might generally desire. As a stimulus to widen our perspectives beyond what becomes in practice often a very narrow focus, I believe the book Divorce shock overall to be a valuable addition to the literature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of For a science of social man.

Reviews the book "For a science of social man," edited by John Gillin (see record 1955-00669-000). This book is unique. Each of three disciplines--psychology, sociology, and anthropology--is represented by two prominent theoreticians. Thus psychology and sociology are discussed by Newcomb and Parsons, anthropology and psychology by Brewster Smith and Hallowell, and sociology and anthropology by Murdock and Becker. While each chapter is said to be the product of joint authorship, there is relatively little integration, and the authors vary considerably in the manner in which they undertake to fulfill their tasks. As Gillin points out, "No one can say with certainty when or if we shall have a comprehensive and integrated science of social man." While this volume does not answer the "when," it enables the viewer to regard the "if" with considerable optimism. While the book does not bring to light a large number of bridge concepts such as those discussed by Newcomb, it does indicate a number of important areas of mutual concern which can be approached in a noncompetitive fashion. This makes for stimulating reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of APA dictionary of psychology.

Reviews the book, APA dictionary of psychology by Gary R. VandenBos (see record 2006-11044-000). This book is an impressive comprehensive reference book that includes germane entries of overlapping and interrelated disciplines. This dictionary is a useful resource not only for professionals who work in the field of psychology, but also for the professionals who work in related and/or overlapping disciplines (e.g., social workers, psychiatrists, practitioners, lawyers). The long list of editors and contributors shows that the making of this book was a major joint effort. The hard-covered book has 1,023 pages and more than 25,000 entries that are accompanied by thousands of cross-references. The dictionary provides a brief history of the book's development and a brief guide to its layout and format. The book has high-quality paper, a double-column layout, large boldface headwords, and small boldface subentries, all of which make it easy to read. In addition, each entry is generously indented under the headword making the pages appear less crowded when compared to other dictionaries. The size of the book is very reasonable, which will be appealing to the reader. Overall, this high-quality dictionary is a very useful resource for professionals and students in the field of psychology, as well as for professionals in related disciplines. Regardless of whether the reader is a professional or novice, he or she will no doubt appreciate this comprehensive "user friendly" dictionary. The wait for a psychology reference book was worth it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The logic of knowledge bases.

Reviews the book, The logic of knowledge bases by Hector J. Levesque and Gerhard Lakemayer (2000). Levesque and Lakemeyer begin with a brief overview of the central place that knowledge and knowledge representation hold in artificial intelligence research. The authors use their book to show how logic can be used to study different aspects of such a system: the way in which information might be stored in it, the language that can be used to interact with it, and the abstract characterization of the relationship between the symbols in a knowledge base and the knowledge of the world for which these symbols stand. The book describes research that is located exclusively at the computational level of analysis, in that it explores knowledge base regularities that do not depend on any specific commitments about what particular information is stored, or about particular algorithms or programming languages used to manage the knowledge base. The book is divided into two main parts. The first eight chapters detail the logical basics of the approach taken by Levesque and Lakemeyer. The remaining six chapters cover advanced topics that can be explored with this logical machinery. This book is not intended primarily for a psychological audience. It is a very technical book that requires the reader has a fair degree of familiarity with first-order predicate logic in order to fully appreciate the logical analyses that are presented within it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of From denial to recovery: Counseling problem drinkers, alcoholics, and their families.

Reviews the book, From denial to recovery: Counseling problem drinkers, alcoholics, and their families by Lawrence Metzger (see record 1987-98723-000). This book admirably complies with the author's stated reason for writing it: "A compelling reason for writing this book is to aid care givers who may have avoided or been baffled by alcoholic clients in the past. Their lack of training and expertise in dealing with this problem has meant that alcoholics and their family members...have been neglected to the point where the problem simply becomes self-perpetuating and expands generationally." To this end, this book can serve as an excellent introduction to the field of alcoholism treatment for practitioners trained in the behavioral sciences. Unlike many works in the alcoholism literature, this book is properly annotated and, to a large degree, research based. As such, it will appeal to practitioners with a scientific background. The author proceeds to give an excellent overview of the current state of the art in alcoholism treatment. None of the particular criticisms noted should detract from these general observations. Overall, the major strength of this work is its explication of the details of alcoholism treatment in a format which will be palatable to students of the behavioral sciences. It would be an excellent addition to courses on addictions treatment. The most specific strengths of this work are in the diagnostic formulation for differentiating levels of alcohol abuse and the explication of a very thorough alcoholism diagnostic interview. In my view, if the reader can remember that (a) alcoholism is not caused by bad genes, (b) patients who have blackouts must abstain from alcohol, and (c) the self-help movements are the primary treatment modalities for addictions, then this work will be an excellent addition to any library on alcoholism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Critical interventions in psychotherapy, from impasse to turning point.

Reviews the book, Critical interventions in psychotherapy, from impasse to turning point by Haim Omer (see record 1994-98362-000). In his opening sentence the author postulates that, "Prolonged impasse is probably the toughest and most ubiquitous ordeal of psychotherapy." This relatively short volume is directed at the development of a technique, which the author calls "Critical Intervention(s)" for the resolution of such impasses. It also, very directly, makes a case for the psychotheapeutic pluralism rampant on the contemporary psychotherapeutic scene. The first seven of the eight chapters are devoted to the philosophy and then the actual technique of the critical intervention. There are case histories to make each point, and the histories consist of dialogues between patient(s) and therapist as well as dialogue between therapist, the consultant, and a group of colleagues who are part of the consultation statement developed out of this consultation. The therapist, then, is to present this statement to the patient(s). While the apparent focus of this book is the critical intervention, it is also clearly a platform for the author's views and feelings about both the pluralistic approach to psychotherapy and the "older" single frame of reference psychotherapies. While this book will have some interest for the solo practicing clinician, the utilization of the technique would be, at best, quite difficult given the necessity of calling together a consultant and group. For those with a single theory orientation to treatment the book will be of no value (other than as an interesting idea) since the technique depends upon pluralism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)