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MPPI-2: Assessing personality and psychopathology
BOOK REVIEWS
768
Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is the third part, dealing with personality, psychophysiology and homeostasis; these are technically the most accomplished and interesting. However, the whole book well deserves perusal by anyone interested in personality, because this is a field where few psychologists have dared to tread. Textbooks usually avoid any mention of it, and hence few psychologists are aware of developments in recent years. H. J. EYSENCK
SEYMOUR W. ITZKOFF: The Making of the Civilized Mind. Vol. 4 in Series: The Evolution of Human Intelligence: A Theory
in Four Parts. Peter Lang
AG,
Bern (1989). 309 pp. Hardbound.
536.00.
ISBN 0-8204-l
154-X.
This book is the fourth and final part of Itzkoffs “Theory of the Evolution of Human Intelligence”. He addresses the issue of how variable intelligence between individuals and between various ethnic and national groups results in differing types of cultures and thus different intellectual levels of symbolic communication. He writes in the tradition of Baker’s book on “Race”, and Darlington’s “The Evolution of Man and Society”; he agrees with them in stating that the result of such variations in biocultural intelligence is seen in the difference that anthropologists and historians have discovered between primitive and advanced cultures. The book is elegantly written, and covers a very broad canvas; occasionally the elegance of the writing interferes with the comprehension of the content. The stress on biological factors in evolution and in ethnic differences will encounter a good deal of criticism, but it is difficult to fault in the light of the evidence now available. The narrative is supported by relevant references, but is not built as a textbook. It is sometimes difficult to envisage the readership for which it is intended. Graduates other than psychologists would I think have some difficulties with it, and even psychologists might not find the going too easy. Itzkoff writes in what is still a fairly hostile climate to far-reaching claims for biological determination, but what he says makes good sense, and the argument should certainly appeal to anyone interested in how we got to be where we are, and where we are likely to go in the future. He deals with too many topics to even attempt to summarize the arguments; to anyone reading who advances broad understanding the book can certainly be recommended. H. J. EYSESCK
J. R. GRAHAM: MMPI-2: Assessing Personality and Psychopatho1og.v. Oxford Hardbound. $32.50. ISBN O-19-506068-7.
University
Press, New York (1990). 329 pp.
This book tells you all you would ever want to know about the revision of the MMPI, and probably a good deal more. The book is well-written, exhaustive and consitutes an admirable introduction to the MMPI for clinicians, research workers and anyone who wants to use the scale. It would be difficult to find fault with the book, and Graham is to be congratulated on a truly excellent job. For anyone wishing to use the MMPI-2, this is certainly a must. As the author says, the original version is the most widely used personality test in existence, and it has given rise to something like 10,000 papers. So much for the good news. On the other side. it needs to be said that for those working in the field of personality assessment the MMPI has always been the best example of all the things that should not be done. There is no correlational analysis, no factor analysis, no proper psychometric evaluation. The scale is based on psychiatric criteria of known unreliability and extremely doubtful validity. It uses identical scales for clinical diagnosis and for the measurement of normal personality, falling solidly between two chairs in the process. Graham does his best to argue his way out of these problems. claiming that the scale is being used in different ways now as compared with its use 40 or 50 years ago. But such an argument will hardly wash; if the scale was appropriate to its original purposes, it will hardly be appropriate to the changed purposes Graham envisaged. To think of the monetary cost and labour that went into the 10,000 studies of the original MMPI makes me weep; to think that another 10.000 studies may be done with the MMPI-2 can on’ly produce feelings of rage and disappointment. Did psychology pay no attention to the many encouraging and valuable developments in psychometric techniques and personality theory that have been taking place over the years? Must we remain shackled to a test that encapsulated all the wrong approaches to personality measurement 50 years ago? William James said that psychology was not a science, but the hope of a science; if you go on using the MMPI. that hope is unlikely to be fulfilled. H. J. EYSESCK
ROGER N. SHEPAKU: Mind Sights. Freeman,
Oxford
(1990). 228 pp. 514.95.
Every so often. a distinguished scientist/intellectual will take leave from his laboratory to write a book on his collective wisdom *just for the fun of it’. Such a book is Mind Sights by Roger Shepard. The subtitle of the book is “Original visual illusions. ambiguities, and other anomalies, with a commentary on the play of mind in perception and art” which gives the reader a hint as to the contents of this engaging little book by one of America’s most distinguished cognitive psychologists. The book is divided into three parts: Foreword. The Drawings, and Afterword, each of which shows a side of mental tricks (mostly visual. but occasionally verbal) the individual mind plays on itself when processing incoming stimuli. The contents arc made lively by the largely autobiographical nature of the first section in which Shepard tells of his youthful
768
Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is the third part, dealing with personality, psychophysiology and homeostasis; these are technically the most accomplished and interesting. However, the whole book well deserves perusal by anyone interested in personality, because this is a field where few psychologists have dared to tread. Textbooks usually avoid any mention of it, and hence few psychologists are aware of developments in recent years. H. J. EYSENCK
SEYMOUR W. ITZKOFF: The Making of the Civilized Mind. Vol. 4 in Series: The Evolution of Human Intelligence: A Theory
in Four Parts. Peter Lang
AG,
Bern (1989). 309 pp. Hardbound.
536.00.
ISBN 0-8204-l
154-X.
This book is the fourth and final part of Itzkoffs “Theory of the Evolution of Human Intelligence”. He addresses the issue of how variable intelligence between individuals and between various ethnic and national groups results in differing types of cultures and thus different intellectual levels of symbolic communication. He writes in the tradition of Baker’s book on “Race”, and Darlington’s “The Evolution of Man and Society”; he agrees with them in stating that the result of such variations in biocultural intelligence is seen in the difference that anthropologists and historians have discovered between primitive and advanced cultures. The book is elegantly written, and covers a very broad canvas; occasionally the elegance of the writing interferes with the comprehension of the content. The stress on biological factors in evolution and in ethnic differences will encounter a good deal of criticism, but it is difficult to fault in the light of the evidence now available. The narrative is supported by relevant references, but is not built as a textbook. It is sometimes difficult to envisage the readership for which it is intended. Graduates other than psychologists would I think have some difficulties with it, and even psychologists might not find the going too easy. Itzkoff writes in what is still a fairly hostile climate to far-reaching claims for biological determination, but what he says makes good sense, and the argument should certainly appeal to anyone interested in how we got to be where we are, and where we are likely to go in the future. He deals with too many topics to even attempt to summarize the arguments; to anyone reading who advances broad understanding the book can certainly be recommended. H. J. EYSESCK
J. R. GRAHAM: MMPI-2: Assessing Personality and Psychopatho1og.v. Oxford Hardbound. $32.50. ISBN O-19-506068-7.
University
Press, New York (1990). 329 pp.
This book tells you all you would ever want to know about the revision of the MMPI, and probably a good deal more. The book is well-written, exhaustive and consitutes an admirable introduction to the MMPI for clinicians, research workers and anyone who wants to use the scale. It would be difficult to find fault with the book, and Graham is to be congratulated on a truly excellent job. For anyone wishing to use the MMPI-2, this is certainly a must. As the author says, the original version is the most widely used personality test in existence, and it has given rise to something like 10,000 papers. So much for the good news. On the other side. it needs to be said that for those working in the field of personality assessment the MMPI has always been the best example of all the things that should not be done. There is no correlational analysis, no factor analysis, no proper psychometric evaluation. The scale is based on psychiatric criteria of known unreliability and extremely doubtful validity. It uses identical scales for clinical diagnosis and for the measurement of normal personality, falling solidly between two chairs in the process. Graham does his best to argue his way out of these problems. claiming that the scale is being used in different ways now as compared with its use 40 or 50 years ago. But such an argument will hardly wash; if the scale was appropriate to its original purposes, it will hardly be appropriate to the changed purposes Graham envisaged. To think of the monetary cost and labour that went into the 10,000 studies of the original MMPI makes me weep; to think that another 10.000 studies may be done with the MMPI-2 can on’ly produce feelings of rage and disappointment. Did psychology pay no attention to the many encouraging and valuable developments in psychometric techniques and personality theory that have been taking place over the years? Must we remain shackled to a test that encapsulated all the wrong approaches to personality measurement 50 years ago? William James said that psychology was not a science, but the hope of a science; if you go on using the MMPI. that hope is unlikely to be fulfilled. H. J. EYSESCK
ROGER N. SHEPAKU: Mind Sights. Freeman,
Oxford
(1990). 228 pp. 514.95.
Every so often. a distinguished scientist/intellectual will take leave from his laboratory to write a book on his collective wisdom *just for the fun of it’. Such a book is Mind Sights by Roger Shepard. The subtitle of the book is “Original visual illusions. ambiguities, and other anomalies, with a commentary on the play of mind in perception and art” which gives the reader a hint as to the contents of this engaging little book by one of America’s most distinguished cognitive psychologists. The book is divided into three parts: Foreword. The Drawings, and Afterword, each of which shows a side of mental tricks (mostly visual. but occasionally verbal) the individual mind plays on itself when processing incoming stimuli. The contents arc made lively by the largely autobiographical nature of the first section in which Shepard tells of his youthful