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European review of social psychology
810
Book Reviews
Wolfgang Stroebe and Miles Hewstone (Eds): European Review of Social Psychology. Vol. 6. Chichester: Wiley (1995). Hardback XV+249 pp. ISBN 0-471-95707-O. This is volume 6 of an annual series. It seems to be the European equivalent of the famous American Berkowitz series called Advances in ExperimentaI Social Psychology. It contains 7 chapters in its 243 pages, most of which are concerned with cognitive social psychology. Each chapter is a comprehensive, critical, up-to-date review of a highly specialist area. The chapter I enjoyed most was the one on social remembering, which examines group as opposed to individual memory. The accuracy and quality of recall, as well as the confidence in the output, may certainly be a function of individual versus group (and size of group) recall. The book shows the signs of good editing as the chapters are qualitatively and quantitatively similar. Further, a useful introduction is provided, along with an author and subject index. There is, however, little here for the personality researcher, and, as is usual with experimental (social) psychologists, personality differences are usually thought of as error variance. Priced at f65 (%lOO),it seems that the publisher expects nothing but library sales. Adrian Furnham
Sonia G. Austrian: Mental Disorders, Medication and Clinical Social Work. New York: Columbia University Press (1995). 305 pp. Price: $35.00 cloth. This book is intended to give an overview of mental disorders and their treatment to social workers who are likely to encounter such disturbances and who may wish to know what treatments are available for them. Austrian follows the classification of mental disorders laid out in DSM IV, considering assessment, etiology, and intervention alternatives, with particular emphasis on the client’s relationship to their family and work environment. There is a great deal of useful information in this book and social workers should find it a useful reference tool. However, the etiology sections are somewhat overinclusive, with Freudian and feminist theories being given equal weight with those that are scientifically based. For example, we are told that Freud regarded anorexia as a “failure to master sexual excitement, a refusal to grow up and overprotective mothering” (p. 149), whereas Orbach views disturbed eating as “a symptom of underlying intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts related to society’s inhibiting a woman’s recognition of her needs and desires” (p. 150). Why should the opinions of Freud or Orbach be any more valuable than those of Bill Bloggs from Bermondsey? Surely it is only the evidence that is worth knowing about. The author herself is a social worker, which gives her a perspective on what other members of her profession might want to know. However, her lack of expertise in physiology and psychology sometimes shows through. For example, Fenfluramine is a serotonin agonist, not antagonist (p. 157) and does anyone use the TAT to measure depression (p. 34)? Glenn D. Wilson
Frederick Toates: Stress: Conceptual and Biological Aspects. London: John Wiley & Sons (1995). Hardback. pp. l-332. ISBN 0 471 96021 7. “Any attempt at a synthesis of stress research could only be undertaken by a masochist”, says the author in the Preface, “and truly the field is so enormous, and so chaotic, that one must admire him for electing to be that masochist”. The book constitutes an heroic effort to bring together evidence from many different sources to present a meaningful picture of contemporary research, factual knowledge and broad-based theorizing, and one has to congratulate the author on a difficult task well done. For anyone wishing to enter this field of modern health psychology, no better introduction is available, and even the expert is likely to find new and interesting matter in its pages. Its 339 pages are crammed full of information, and this information is carefully organized and well presented. It may seem ungrateful to point to certain deficits, but I missed any account of the relationship between stress, coping behaviour, and those dreaded twin slayers of modern man-cancer and coronary heart disease. There is now a large mass of material linking both with stress, and this literature ought not to have been neglected, or the reader fobbed off with a brief mention of Type A and Type B. Nor is there any mention of autonomy training and stress management, therapeutic interventions which have been shown to effectively overcome the evil consequences of stress. However, the task of including everything relevant to stress was an impossible one, and the book is well worth buying as it stands. Particularly praiseworthy are the attempts to
Book Reviews
Wolfgang Stroebe and Miles Hewstone (Eds): European Review of Social Psychology. Vol. 6. Chichester: Wiley (1995). Hardback XV+249 pp. ISBN 0-471-95707-O. This is volume 6 of an annual series. It seems to be the European equivalent of the famous American Berkowitz series called Advances in ExperimentaI Social Psychology. It contains 7 chapters in its 243 pages, most of which are concerned with cognitive social psychology. Each chapter is a comprehensive, critical, up-to-date review of a highly specialist area. The chapter I enjoyed most was the one on social remembering, which examines group as opposed to individual memory. The accuracy and quality of recall, as well as the confidence in the output, may certainly be a function of individual versus group (and size of group) recall. The book shows the signs of good editing as the chapters are qualitatively and quantitatively similar. Further, a useful introduction is provided, along with an author and subject index. There is, however, little here for the personality researcher, and, as is usual with experimental (social) psychologists, personality differences are usually thought of as error variance. Priced at f65 (%lOO),it seems that the publisher expects nothing but library sales. Adrian Furnham
Sonia G. Austrian: Mental Disorders, Medication and Clinical Social Work. New York: Columbia University Press (1995). 305 pp. Price: $35.00 cloth. This book is intended to give an overview of mental disorders and their treatment to social workers who are likely to encounter such disturbances and who may wish to know what treatments are available for them. Austrian follows the classification of mental disorders laid out in DSM IV, considering assessment, etiology, and intervention alternatives, with particular emphasis on the client’s relationship to their family and work environment. There is a great deal of useful information in this book and social workers should find it a useful reference tool. However, the etiology sections are somewhat overinclusive, with Freudian and feminist theories being given equal weight with those that are scientifically based. For example, we are told that Freud regarded anorexia as a “failure to master sexual excitement, a refusal to grow up and overprotective mothering” (p. 149), whereas Orbach views disturbed eating as “a symptom of underlying intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts related to society’s inhibiting a woman’s recognition of her needs and desires” (p. 150). Why should the opinions of Freud or Orbach be any more valuable than those of Bill Bloggs from Bermondsey? Surely it is only the evidence that is worth knowing about. The author herself is a social worker, which gives her a perspective on what other members of her profession might want to know. However, her lack of expertise in physiology and psychology sometimes shows through. For example, Fenfluramine is a serotonin agonist, not antagonist (p. 157) and does anyone use the TAT to measure depression (p. 34)? Glenn D. Wilson
Frederick Toates: Stress: Conceptual and Biological Aspects. London: John Wiley & Sons (1995). Hardback. pp. l-332. ISBN 0 471 96021 7. “Any attempt at a synthesis of stress research could only be undertaken by a masochist”, says the author in the Preface, “and truly the field is so enormous, and so chaotic, that one must admire him for electing to be that masochist”. The book constitutes an heroic effort to bring together evidence from many different sources to present a meaningful picture of contemporary research, factual knowledge and broad-based theorizing, and one has to congratulate the author on a difficult task well done. For anyone wishing to enter this field of modern health psychology, no better introduction is available, and even the expert is likely to find new and interesting matter in its pages. Its 339 pages are crammed full of information, and this information is carefully organized and well presented. It may seem ungrateful to point to certain deficits, but I missed any account of the relationship between stress, coping behaviour, and those dreaded twin slayers of modern man-cancer and coronary heart disease. There is now a large mass of material linking both with stress, and this literature ought not to have been neglected, or the reader fobbed off with a brief mention of Type A and Type B. Nor is there any mention of autonomy training and stress management, therapeutic interventions which have been shown to effectively overcome the evil consequences of stress. However, the task of including everything relevant to stress was an impossible one, and the book is well worth buying as it stands. Particularly praiseworthy are the attempts to