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Annual research reviews, biofeedback
BOOK REVIEWS
522
field dependence, introversion/extraversion, locus of control, Machiavellianism, the need for approval, the power motive, repression-sensitization, sensation seeking, and trust. One might question the inclusion of some of these topics, like ‘trust’, but on the whole the choice has been well-made, and the book could be extremely useful for students for personality and abnormal psychology. The authors have been well-chosen too, and their summaries make a genuine contribution to the literature. My only criticism would be that some are too closely identified with their topics to give a proper critical summary; the chapter by Geis on Machiavellianism is an example. Still, considering the poor quality of recent textbooks on personality, this must be regarded as a very successful and useful book. H. J. EYSENCK
DOROTHY ROWE: The Experience
of Depression. John
Wiley & Sons, Chichester
(1978). xvi + 275 pp. f3.95.
This book takes its point of departure in people’s reports of how they feel when they are depressed. Operating within a personal construct framework, the author suggests we should take seriously what people tell us about their experience, rather than dismissing their subjective reports simply as epiphenomena of their ‘illness’. She proposes a cognitive-linguistic formulation of depression which should be of particular interest to cognitive therapists: her hypothesis is that the person who experiences depression has in his language structure a group of propositions-of the order of ‘I don’t trust other people’-each concerning a way he separates himself from others both in his external and internal world. Each proposition has an opposite. In conducting his affairs, the person may operate on one or other group of propositions and his interactions with others are determined by whichever propositions he is operating with. When working from the negative group, he effectively builds a wall around himself, or talks himself into a hole. The second part of the book illustrates the hypothesis in action,,giving lengthy transcripts of exploratory and therapeutic conversations with 9 depressed people, who include an epileptic, a young man bereaved of a friend, a middle aged woman whose children have left home, and a young boy obsessed with killing a girl. Rowe records the history of her encounters with these people, together with enough of their actual conversation to support her hypothesis in a convincing way. At the end of the section she sets out the propositions by which these people talked themselves into solitary confinement in their misery. The third part contains general considerations, including the remarkable assertion that “perhaps those people who earn the diagnosis of endogenous depression are those people who find it impossible to discuss with another person or even with themselves the matters which cause them the greatest pain” (p. 261). Whether or not one finds this compelling, there is plenty in the book to make one think about what is going on in one’s conversations with depressed folk. Those with an existential bent will find the discussion of the option of remaining depressed especially provocative. In short, the book presents an unusual way of thinking about the thinking of those who are depressed, and one which, it may be hoped, will get as much circulation as some of the more cut and dried, and less well illustrated, cognitive formulations of depression that are currently available. VICKY RIPPERE
W. L. MIKULAS: Behavior Modification. Harper
and Row, New York (1978). xiii + 194~~.
This book aims to cover the whole field of behaviour modification in one brief survey, a purpose well-suited to the needs of undergraduate students, and perhaps some professions who wish to be directed to new reference sources. The author has conscientiously gathered together contemporary techniques and theoretical notions, and organized them into chapters with titles such as desensitization and cognitions. Written in a chatty style it should successfully wean students onto the subject but on a broader view, the analysis of this material may lack the necessary depth and rigor to appeal more widely. R. S. HALLAM
WILFRED 1. HUME: Annual Research Reoiews, Biofeedback Vol. 2, 1977. Churchill
Livingston,
Edinburgh
(1977).
74 pp. f6.50. This is apparently the second in a series called Annual Research Reviews aimed at providing research workers with the latest information on a topic. The present monograph certainly provides a widespread review and commentary on the biofeedback literature of 1976. However, whether research workers in biofeedback would need such a review is questionable. I would have thought that it might have been more appropriate for
523
BOOK REVIEWS
non-specialists. In addition to this one must seriously question the marketing policy of the publishers. To charge f6.50 (approx. $12.00) for a mere 74 pages of print, including references and index, is nothing short of iniquitous. This type of review would be better published in a psychological journal which would probably produce a wider readership. In summary; the idea is a good one, this particular issue is good but the cost and market is totally wrong. S. MORLEY
T. THOMPSON and J. GRABOWSKI (Eds): Behauiour Modification Oxford University Press, New York (1977). xvi + 570 pp. f12.25.
of the
Menrully
Rerurded.
Second
Edition.
When the first edition of this book appeared in 1972 it was quickly recognised as a major demonstration of what can be done to change from custodial care in a hospital for the mentally handicapped to active intervention. Innovation on a large scale in such closed communities is never easy and hero innovators need successful models to emulate. This second edition has been extensively revised with new chapters on language training, classrooms, parent counselling. ethical and legal guidelines, punishment. sheltered workshops, and difficulties in piloting proposals through government machinery. It deserves to be widely read. It is sad to read that despite the demonstrated improvements in resident functioning and staff effectiveness of Faribault State Hospital, staffing levels were reduced to the point where training programmes could no longer be maintained and in 1975 nearly all programming was terminated. The chapter on ‘Implementing behavior modification programs’ by Grabowski and Thompson ranks with that by Georgiades and Phillimore (1975) as required reading for anyone attempting to introduce behaviour modification into the often unreceptive culture of hospitals. Eighteen rules of thumb are given based on the author’s experience of Faribault. The new chapters cover applications beyond the confines of hospitals and will certainly interest all concerned with the welfare of mentally handicapped people whatever their setting. The new chapters on ethics and punishment are welcome as behaviour modification innovators in hospitals are always under pressure to advise on how to reduce the frequency of undesirable behaviour. Faribault State Hospital is situated in Minnesota where the Department of Public Welfare developed a set of ‘Guidelines Regulating Behavior Modification’ in 1967 which severely restricted applications. Subsequently these guidelines were revised and the latest version ‘Use of Aversive and Deprivation Procedures’ is incorporated as an appendix to the chapter on ‘Ethical and Legal Guidelines’. Readers in Britain who have been waiting for the joint report of the British Psychological Society, the Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Psychiatrists will find these guidelines helpful. ‘Behavioural counselling of the parents of retarded children’ is a new chapter. providing a useful summary. It includes counselling during the initial period of shock after discovering the child is retarded. It also covers the common questions which parents ask at later stages in the child’s development. Guidance is given on helping parents as teachers, largely based on the work of Watson (1973). This chapter would be useful reading for community nurses and others involved in parent guidance. The chapter on language training is a most welcome addition, bringing together teaching methods deriving from the remarkable advances in this field made by applied behaviour analysis research in the past I5 yr. Teachers will find new material on classroom settings helpful. The book gives not only practical guidance on a wide variety of effective training procedures. it gives useful literature summaries up to 1975 and many examples of successful implementation. In the examples, major emphasis is placed on data presentation. For those workers in mental handicap with advanced knowledge of behaviour modification there is little new here. But as a summary of practical advice covering most aspects of work with the mentally handicapped this book is excellent. It would be an invaluable test for basic professional training in mental handicap of nurses, psychologists, teachers, social workers, social services residential care and adult training ccntrc staff, and occupational therapists. It would also be useful in post qualification training. Indeed if every nursing officer in our mental handicap hospitals mastered its contents and applied them, the beneticial elfcct would be hard to beat in any other way. G.
E.
GATHI
K(.OI:I
REFERENCE GEORGIADES N. J. and PHILLIMOKE L. (1975) The Myth of the hero-innovator and alternative strategies for organizational change In Behaoiour Modifcuriort With rhc Swrrrly Rururded (Edited by C. C. KII KUAN and F. P. WOODFORD).
522
field dependence, introversion/extraversion, locus of control, Machiavellianism, the need for approval, the power motive, repression-sensitization, sensation seeking, and trust. One might question the inclusion of some of these topics, like ‘trust’, but on the whole the choice has been well-made, and the book could be extremely useful for students for personality and abnormal psychology. The authors have been well-chosen too, and their summaries make a genuine contribution to the literature. My only criticism would be that some are too closely identified with their topics to give a proper critical summary; the chapter by Geis on Machiavellianism is an example. Still, considering the poor quality of recent textbooks on personality, this must be regarded as a very successful and useful book. H. J. EYSENCK
DOROTHY ROWE: The Experience
of Depression. John
Wiley & Sons, Chichester
(1978). xvi + 275 pp. f3.95.
This book takes its point of departure in people’s reports of how they feel when they are depressed. Operating within a personal construct framework, the author suggests we should take seriously what people tell us about their experience, rather than dismissing their subjective reports simply as epiphenomena of their ‘illness’. She proposes a cognitive-linguistic formulation of depression which should be of particular interest to cognitive therapists: her hypothesis is that the person who experiences depression has in his language structure a group of propositions-of the order of ‘I don’t trust other people’-each concerning a way he separates himself from others both in his external and internal world. Each proposition has an opposite. In conducting his affairs, the person may operate on one or other group of propositions and his interactions with others are determined by whichever propositions he is operating with. When working from the negative group, he effectively builds a wall around himself, or talks himself into a hole. The second part of the book illustrates the hypothesis in action,,giving lengthy transcripts of exploratory and therapeutic conversations with 9 depressed people, who include an epileptic, a young man bereaved of a friend, a middle aged woman whose children have left home, and a young boy obsessed with killing a girl. Rowe records the history of her encounters with these people, together with enough of their actual conversation to support her hypothesis in a convincing way. At the end of the section she sets out the propositions by which these people talked themselves into solitary confinement in their misery. The third part contains general considerations, including the remarkable assertion that “perhaps those people who earn the diagnosis of endogenous depression are those people who find it impossible to discuss with another person or even with themselves the matters which cause them the greatest pain” (p. 261). Whether or not one finds this compelling, there is plenty in the book to make one think about what is going on in one’s conversations with depressed folk. Those with an existential bent will find the discussion of the option of remaining depressed especially provocative. In short, the book presents an unusual way of thinking about the thinking of those who are depressed, and one which, it may be hoped, will get as much circulation as some of the more cut and dried, and less well illustrated, cognitive formulations of depression that are currently available. VICKY RIPPERE
W. L. MIKULAS: Behavior Modification. Harper
and Row, New York (1978). xiii + 194~~.
This book aims to cover the whole field of behaviour modification in one brief survey, a purpose well-suited to the needs of undergraduate students, and perhaps some professions who wish to be directed to new reference sources. The author has conscientiously gathered together contemporary techniques and theoretical notions, and organized them into chapters with titles such as desensitization and cognitions. Written in a chatty style it should successfully wean students onto the subject but on a broader view, the analysis of this material may lack the necessary depth and rigor to appeal more widely. R. S. HALLAM
WILFRED 1. HUME: Annual Research Reoiews, Biofeedback Vol. 2, 1977. Churchill
Livingston,
Edinburgh
(1977).
74 pp. f6.50. This is apparently the second in a series called Annual Research Reviews aimed at providing research workers with the latest information on a topic. The present monograph certainly provides a widespread review and commentary on the biofeedback literature of 1976. However, whether research workers in biofeedback would need such a review is questionable. I would have thought that it might have been more appropriate for
523
BOOK REVIEWS
non-specialists. In addition to this one must seriously question the marketing policy of the publishers. To charge f6.50 (approx. $12.00) for a mere 74 pages of print, including references and index, is nothing short of iniquitous. This type of review would be better published in a psychological journal which would probably produce a wider readership. In summary; the idea is a good one, this particular issue is good but the cost and market is totally wrong. S. MORLEY
T. THOMPSON and J. GRABOWSKI (Eds): Behauiour Modification Oxford University Press, New York (1977). xvi + 570 pp. f12.25.
of the
Menrully
Rerurded.
Second
Edition.
When the first edition of this book appeared in 1972 it was quickly recognised as a major demonstration of what can be done to change from custodial care in a hospital for the mentally handicapped to active intervention. Innovation on a large scale in such closed communities is never easy and hero innovators need successful models to emulate. This second edition has been extensively revised with new chapters on language training, classrooms, parent counselling. ethical and legal guidelines, punishment. sheltered workshops, and difficulties in piloting proposals through government machinery. It deserves to be widely read. It is sad to read that despite the demonstrated improvements in resident functioning and staff effectiveness of Faribault State Hospital, staffing levels were reduced to the point where training programmes could no longer be maintained and in 1975 nearly all programming was terminated. The chapter on ‘Implementing behavior modification programs’ by Grabowski and Thompson ranks with that by Georgiades and Phillimore (1975) as required reading for anyone attempting to introduce behaviour modification into the often unreceptive culture of hospitals. Eighteen rules of thumb are given based on the author’s experience of Faribault. The new chapters cover applications beyond the confines of hospitals and will certainly interest all concerned with the welfare of mentally handicapped people whatever their setting. The new chapters on ethics and punishment are welcome as behaviour modification innovators in hospitals are always under pressure to advise on how to reduce the frequency of undesirable behaviour. Faribault State Hospital is situated in Minnesota where the Department of Public Welfare developed a set of ‘Guidelines Regulating Behavior Modification’ in 1967 which severely restricted applications. Subsequently these guidelines were revised and the latest version ‘Use of Aversive and Deprivation Procedures’ is incorporated as an appendix to the chapter on ‘Ethical and Legal Guidelines’. Readers in Britain who have been waiting for the joint report of the British Psychological Society, the Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Psychiatrists will find these guidelines helpful. ‘Behavioural counselling of the parents of retarded children’ is a new chapter. providing a useful summary. It includes counselling during the initial period of shock after discovering the child is retarded. It also covers the common questions which parents ask at later stages in the child’s development. Guidance is given on helping parents as teachers, largely based on the work of Watson (1973). This chapter would be useful reading for community nurses and others involved in parent guidance. The chapter on language training is a most welcome addition, bringing together teaching methods deriving from the remarkable advances in this field made by applied behaviour analysis research in the past I5 yr. Teachers will find new material on classroom settings helpful. The book gives not only practical guidance on a wide variety of effective training procedures. it gives useful literature summaries up to 1975 and many examples of successful implementation. In the examples, major emphasis is placed on data presentation. For those workers in mental handicap with advanced knowledge of behaviour modification there is little new here. But as a summary of practical advice covering most aspects of work with the mentally handicapped this book is excellent. It would be an invaluable test for basic professional training in mental handicap of nurses, psychologists, teachers, social workers, social services residential care and adult training ccntrc staff, and occupational therapists. It would also be useful in post qualification training. Indeed if every nursing officer in our mental handicap hospitals mastered its contents and applied them, the beneticial elfcct would be hard to beat in any other way. G.
E.
GATHI
K(.OI:I
REFERENCE GEORGIADES N. J. and PHILLIMOKE L. (1975) The Myth of the hero-innovator and alternative strategies for organizational change In Behaoiour Modifcuriort With rhc Swrrrly Rururded (Edited by C. C. KII KUAN and F. P. WOODFORD).