- Email: [email protected]
Social referencing and the social construction of reality in infancy
BOOK REVIEWS
483
low, and validities dismal; you may get from 1 to 4 per cent of the phenotypic variance accounted for by graphological judgment, but this is hardly worth having. It may justify further research, and attempts to improve the reliability and validity of graphology, but I am not hopeful. Why is any great improvement unlikely? The answer may lie in the work on twins, which has shown no genetic determination of graphological indices; this is one topic that might have been included in the book, but which is missing. Otherwise, top marks! H.J. EYSENCK
SUZEL FUZEAU-BRAESCH: Aslrologie: (1992). Pb. Pps. 242.
La Preuve Par Deux. In Les Dossiers Science-Frontieres
Series. Paris: Robert
Laffon
This book attempts to assess astrology by the usual scientific criteria (Fuzeau-Braesch is a D.Sc., at Paris University, and directs a biological laboratory; she has published some 150 scientific articles in her chosen field). She examines what evidence there is, but concentrates on her own work with twins, an account of which has been published in 1992 in Personality and Zndividual Differences, 13, 1135-I 144; the book gives a much extended description of this important contribution. Her method, briefly, was to compare twins on a number of traits, asking parents which twin was higher/lower on that trait. These ratings were compared with astrological predictions based on the respective moments of birth of the twins. The outcome showed a highly significant accuracy of prediction, well beyond the chance level. This would appear to be the first test giving strongly positive results for ordinary people; the Gauquelin studies were successful only with outstanding members of professions. The study was read by several highly critical referees who made useful suggestions but could not fault it in design or analysis. Does it prove that some astrological predictions are veridical? Of course not. Replications are urgently required, and only if these are equally successful could one come to any really positive opinion. Certain aspects of the study might need modification, but in essence it is a proper scientific study when evaluated by the usual criteria. The book is well worth reading because the discussion is sensible and informed by a no-nonsense factual approach, very unlike the usual uncritical rejection or acceptance wholesale of astrological ideas. H.J. EYSENCK
G. VAN DER VEER: Counselling and Therapy wirh Refugees: Psychological Problems of Victims of War, Torture and Repression. Chichester: John Wiley & Son (1992). pp. xii + 275. The end of the cold war between the major world powers and the strategic arms reduction treaties have greatly reduced the risk of global annihilation by nuclear war, but this has been accompanied by a noticeable increase in local wars, inter-ethnic guerrilla wars and, as a result, a dramatic increase in refugees. This text is, sadly, timely in documenting the experiences of workers in the Social Psychiatric Service for Refugees in Amsterdam. The author, a psychologist, uses many vignettes from his own experience of treating refugees to illustrate the text appositely. Until recently, the Netherlands was a country that had a very liberal policy towards admitting refugees, but even so, many failed to gain residence permits. Thus, therapists have the complex task of understanding the abuses of power that led their clients to flee; trying to understand the experiences in an alien culture; gaining confidence so that a figure in authority can be trusted with details of the traumas suffered; but being unable to reassure the anxious victim that the new state would not turn them out. Little wonder that it is estimated that 30% of refugees experience severe psychological problems. Five approaches to understanding and treating the problems of refugees are discussed. These are: psychiatric, psychodynamic, family therapy, learning theory and cognitive. Clearly the needs are great and no one paradigm provides all answers. Seligman’s model of learned helplessness helps understand some of the initial problems, but these have to be seen in the context of family and societal factors. Behaviour therapy techniques have an important role, particularly allied to their cognitive-behavioural variants. The author is very sensitive to cultural factors throughout the text. He differentiates limited goals such as dealing with nightmares from less limited goals involving a rebuilding of adjustment. He recommends the telling of the story in detail, but does not link the Chilean variant of testimony gathering with the parallel methods of exposure developed in America and Britain. There are two brief contributions by other authors on psychotropic medication and treatment of raped females. The final section of the text deals with suicide risk, work with children and adolescents, and victims of sexual violence, ending with a consideration of the impact of the work on therapists. It is clear that helping refugees overcome multiple trauma and readjust to a new culture presents major challenges and can result in great emotional investment. Readers can be grateful that the author managed to maintain sufficient objectivity to be able to put his experiences in a psychological framework and write this very readable and valuable book. WILLIAMYULE SAUL FEINMAN (Ed.): Social Referencing and rhe Social Conslrucrion of Reality in fnfancy. New York: Plenum $65.00.
Press (1992).
The emergence of what Feinman calls the “social world” zeitgeist has, over the past 15 years, transformed developmental research with infants. Previously research in infant perception and cognition focused primarily on how infants responded to stimuli, either when alone or when their caregivers were allowed to be present but had &n asked not to initiate interaction or provide any definitional input to the child. Social referencing is the process by which one person (the infant) utilizes another person’s (the caregiver’s) interpretation of a situation to formulate their own interpretation of it. The caregiver acts as a base of information for the infant and, in doing so, facilitates the infant’s efforts to construct reality. With an emphasis on the social context and meaning of behaviour, the field has become increasingly interdisciplinary and lies at the intersection of developmental psychology, social
BOOKREVIEWS
484
psychology and sociology. Scholars interested in infant development have been challenged to draw upon “old” theories such as those of Mead and Vygotsky, and invent new methodologies to measure referencing behaviour and its correlates. The present volume records and reviews the progress made to date. The volume collects together summaries of work and critiques from many of the established researchers in the field; including Mary Ainsworth, Inge Bretherton, Robert Emde, Michael Lewis and Ina Uzgiris. The chapters are collected under the three headings: Meaning and Understanding, Cognition and Information Processing, and Relationships and Interaction. Whilst many of the chapters stand alone as major summaries of the work in the area, there is considerable overlap in the reporting of the relatively small literature in the social referencing field, and as a result the book is repetitive in parts. The book’s strength lies in the interfacing of ideas and research from the social referencing field with that from other fields, notably chapters by Bandura on a “Social Cognitive Theory of Social Referencing”, Ainsworth on the “Relationship Between Social Referencing and Attachment” and Bretherton on “Intentional Communication and Social Referencing”. Apart from researchers interested in the development of social cognition and communicative abilities, for whom the book acts as both a timely summary and a pointer to future areas for theoretical and experimental development, individual chapters will have value for interested outsiders as a summary of the progress made in the field to date. Most of the work reported is empirically based, the writing of a consistently high standard and for developmentalists the volume should prove a valuable reference source. What of the status of research into social referencing itself? Whilst major progress has been made, many of the contributors highlight the limitations which result from the bulk of the work to date being conducted in the laboratory and not in ecologically pure natural environments. In developmental terms, notwithstanding the importance of the change, a zeitgeist in infancy itself. TONY CHARMAN
PETER L~RKENAU: Aniage
und Vmwelt: Eine Einfuehrung in die Verhaltensgenetik. Gottingen: Psychologie (1993). Price: DM 36,00. Pb. Pps. 180. ISBN 3-8017-0662-I.
Hogrefe
Verlag
fuer
There have been books on the genetics of intelligence and personality in German, e.g. Weiss (1982); Merz and Stelzl(1977), but much has happened since these were written, and quite generally the study of Verhaltensgenetik (behaviour genetics) has been very much neglected in Germany, no doubt as a consequence of the absurdities preached by Hitler and his consorts. This is an excellent, up-to-date and accurate account of both the methods and the results of work along these lines, and it must be regarded as an outstanding contribution to the teaching of the topic. In many ways it is rather similar to Loehlin’s (1992) book which has done for the English-speaking countries what Borkenau has now done for German-speaking audiences. Borkenau gives a brief introduction of the development of modern methods of analysing genetic contributions, from Mendel on to polygenic methods, including recent model fitting formulations. The statistical methods are not easy to understand, or teach, because they assume familiarity with complex forms of analysis of variance, but the general approach should be clear from reading the book. So should be the more recent findings, which include the importance of epistasis, and the relative lack of importance of shared environments. All this is brought out very clearly, and the book can be recommended whole-heartedly as an outstanding introduction to a complex but very important field. REFERENCES Loehlin, J. C. (1992). Genes and environment in personality development (Vol. 2). Individual Series. London: Sage. Merz, F. & Stelzl, I. (1977). Einfurung in die Erbpsychologie. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. Weiss, V. (1982). Psychogenetik. Jena: G. Fischer.
Differences
and Development
H. J. EYSENCK
483
low, and validities dismal; you may get from 1 to 4 per cent of the phenotypic variance accounted for by graphological judgment, but this is hardly worth having. It may justify further research, and attempts to improve the reliability and validity of graphology, but I am not hopeful. Why is any great improvement unlikely? The answer may lie in the work on twins, which has shown no genetic determination of graphological indices; this is one topic that might have been included in the book, but which is missing. Otherwise, top marks! H.J. EYSENCK
SUZEL FUZEAU-BRAESCH: Aslrologie: (1992). Pb. Pps. 242.
La Preuve Par Deux. In Les Dossiers Science-Frontieres
Series. Paris: Robert
Laffon
This book attempts to assess astrology by the usual scientific criteria (Fuzeau-Braesch is a D.Sc., at Paris University, and directs a biological laboratory; she has published some 150 scientific articles in her chosen field). She examines what evidence there is, but concentrates on her own work with twins, an account of which has been published in 1992 in Personality and Zndividual Differences, 13, 1135-I 144; the book gives a much extended description of this important contribution. Her method, briefly, was to compare twins on a number of traits, asking parents which twin was higher/lower on that trait. These ratings were compared with astrological predictions based on the respective moments of birth of the twins. The outcome showed a highly significant accuracy of prediction, well beyond the chance level. This would appear to be the first test giving strongly positive results for ordinary people; the Gauquelin studies were successful only with outstanding members of professions. The study was read by several highly critical referees who made useful suggestions but could not fault it in design or analysis. Does it prove that some astrological predictions are veridical? Of course not. Replications are urgently required, and only if these are equally successful could one come to any really positive opinion. Certain aspects of the study might need modification, but in essence it is a proper scientific study when evaluated by the usual criteria. The book is well worth reading because the discussion is sensible and informed by a no-nonsense factual approach, very unlike the usual uncritical rejection or acceptance wholesale of astrological ideas. H.J. EYSENCK
G. VAN DER VEER: Counselling and Therapy wirh Refugees: Psychological Problems of Victims of War, Torture and Repression. Chichester: John Wiley & Son (1992). pp. xii + 275. The end of the cold war between the major world powers and the strategic arms reduction treaties have greatly reduced the risk of global annihilation by nuclear war, but this has been accompanied by a noticeable increase in local wars, inter-ethnic guerrilla wars and, as a result, a dramatic increase in refugees. This text is, sadly, timely in documenting the experiences of workers in the Social Psychiatric Service for Refugees in Amsterdam. The author, a psychologist, uses many vignettes from his own experience of treating refugees to illustrate the text appositely. Until recently, the Netherlands was a country that had a very liberal policy towards admitting refugees, but even so, many failed to gain residence permits. Thus, therapists have the complex task of understanding the abuses of power that led their clients to flee; trying to understand the experiences in an alien culture; gaining confidence so that a figure in authority can be trusted with details of the traumas suffered; but being unable to reassure the anxious victim that the new state would not turn them out. Little wonder that it is estimated that 30% of refugees experience severe psychological problems. Five approaches to understanding and treating the problems of refugees are discussed. These are: psychiatric, psychodynamic, family therapy, learning theory and cognitive. Clearly the needs are great and no one paradigm provides all answers. Seligman’s model of learned helplessness helps understand some of the initial problems, but these have to be seen in the context of family and societal factors. Behaviour therapy techniques have an important role, particularly allied to their cognitive-behavioural variants. The author is very sensitive to cultural factors throughout the text. He differentiates limited goals such as dealing with nightmares from less limited goals involving a rebuilding of adjustment. He recommends the telling of the story in detail, but does not link the Chilean variant of testimony gathering with the parallel methods of exposure developed in America and Britain. There are two brief contributions by other authors on psychotropic medication and treatment of raped females. The final section of the text deals with suicide risk, work with children and adolescents, and victims of sexual violence, ending with a consideration of the impact of the work on therapists. It is clear that helping refugees overcome multiple trauma and readjust to a new culture presents major challenges and can result in great emotional investment. Readers can be grateful that the author managed to maintain sufficient objectivity to be able to put his experiences in a psychological framework and write this very readable and valuable book. WILLIAMYULE SAUL FEINMAN (Ed.): Social Referencing and rhe Social Conslrucrion of Reality in fnfancy. New York: Plenum $65.00.
Press (1992).
The emergence of what Feinman calls the “social world” zeitgeist has, over the past 15 years, transformed developmental research with infants. Previously research in infant perception and cognition focused primarily on how infants responded to stimuli, either when alone or when their caregivers were allowed to be present but had &n asked not to initiate interaction or provide any definitional input to the child. Social referencing is the process by which one person (the infant) utilizes another person’s (the caregiver’s) interpretation of a situation to formulate their own interpretation of it. The caregiver acts as a base of information for the infant and, in doing so, facilitates the infant’s efforts to construct reality. With an emphasis on the social context and meaning of behaviour, the field has become increasingly interdisciplinary and lies at the intersection of developmental psychology, social
BOOKREVIEWS
484
psychology and sociology. Scholars interested in infant development have been challenged to draw upon “old” theories such as those of Mead and Vygotsky, and invent new methodologies to measure referencing behaviour and its correlates. The present volume records and reviews the progress made to date. The volume collects together summaries of work and critiques from many of the established researchers in the field; including Mary Ainsworth, Inge Bretherton, Robert Emde, Michael Lewis and Ina Uzgiris. The chapters are collected under the three headings: Meaning and Understanding, Cognition and Information Processing, and Relationships and Interaction. Whilst many of the chapters stand alone as major summaries of the work in the area, there is considerable overlap in the reporting of the relatively small literature in the social referencing field, and as a result the book is repetitive in parts. The book’s strength lies in the interfacing of ideas and research from the social referencing field with that from other fields, notably chapters by Bandura on a “Social Cognitive Theory of Social Referencing”, Ainsworth on the “Relationship Between Social Referencing and Attachment” and Bretherton on “Intentional Communication and Social Referencing”. Apart from researchers interested in the development of social cognition and communicative abilities, for whom the book acts as both a timely summary and a pointer to future areas for theoretical and experimental development, individual chapters will have value for interested outsiders as a summary of the progress made in the field to date. Most of the work reported is empirically based, the writing of a consistently high standard and for developmentalists the volume should prove a valuable reference source. What of the status of research into social referencing itself? Whilst major progress has been made, many of the contributors highlight the limitations which result from the bulk of the work to date being conducted in the laboratory and not in ecologically pure natural environments. In developmental terms, notwithstanding the importance of the change, a zeitgeist in infancy itself. TONY CHARMAN
PETER L~RKENAU: Aniage
und Vmwelt: Eine Einfuehrung in die Verhaltensgenetik. Gottingen: Psychologie (1993). Price: DM 36,00. Pb. Pps. 180. ISBN 3-8017-0662-I.
Hogrefe
Verlag
fuer
There have been books on the genetics of intelligence and personality in German, e.g. Weiss (1982); Merz and Stelzl(1977), but much has happened since these were written, and quite generally the study of Verhaltensgenetik (behaviour genetics) has been very much neglected in Germany, no doubt as a consequence of the absurdities preached by Hitler and his consorts. This is an excellent, up-to-date and accurate account of both the methods and the results of work along these lines, and it must be regarded as an outstanding contribution to the teaching of the topic. In many ways it is rather similar to Loehlin’s (1992) book which has done for the English-speaking countries what Borkenau has now done for German-speaking audiences. Borkenau gives a brief introduction of the development of modern methods of analysing genetic contributions, from Mendel on to polygenic methods, including recent model fitting formulations. The statistical methods are not easy to understand, or teach, because they assume familiarity with complex forms of analysis of variance, but the general approach should be clear from reading the book. So should be the more recent findings, which include the importance of epistasis, and the relative lack of importance of shared environments. All this is brought out very clearly, and the book can be recommended whole-heartedly as an outstanding introduction to a complex but very important field. REFERENCES Loehlin, J. C. (1992). Genes and environment in personality development (Vol. 2). Individual Series. London: Sage. Merz, F. & Stelzl, I. (1977). Einfurung in die Erbpsychologie. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. Weiss, V. (1982). Psychogenetik. Jena: G. Fischer.
Differences
and Development
H. J. EYSENCK