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Personal construct theory; Concepts and applications
BOOK J. M. TANNER: (1978). 144pp.
Education
and Physical
Growth.
REVIEWS
Second Edition. International
Universities Press, New York
This is a second edition of a book originally published in 1961, and much praised at the time. It deals essentially with individual differences in physical growth, and the implications of these for educational theory and practice. The book has been extensively revised. and is very much up-to-date; it can be very highly recommended to psychologists who are interested in the relationships between individual differences in personality and intelligence, on the one hand, and physical growth on the other. The book slays a number of erroneous ideas which have crept into the literature’ during the past half century, and this alone will repay study. The book ends with an interesting chapter on “Education Practice and Policy”, in which the author comes to some important conclusions. based on the existence of individual differences. Altogether this is a short but meaty book which tells psychologists all that they want to know about psychological implications of physical growth. H.
RAYMONDB. CATTELL: Personality and Learning ment. Springer, New York (1979). 421 pp.
Theory.
Volume 1.
The Structure
of Personality
J. EYSENCK
in irs Enuiron-
This is the first of two volumes by one of the most distinguished writers in the field of personality and individual differences; it deals with “The Structure of Personality in Its Environment”, with the forthcoming Volume 2 “building on the personality theory and structures presented in this first volume, and unravelling the learning principles by which these structures are acquired”, to quote the blurb. The volume at hand is a clear and thoughtful presentation of Cattell’s system, possibly in its final form, and as such will be of considerable use to teachers who wish to present the theory to their students, and who are looking for a,proper textbook to use. There is little in it that is very novel, but Cattell has taken great care to build up his approach from the beginnings, to explain the statistical complexities in more detail than usual, and to take issue with critics and with alternative approaches. The second volume, as he explains, “is m&e revolutionary in chaiacter than the first. It propounds structured /earning theory which is a substantial departure from learning theory in a reflexological framework as it is now commonly taught”. Being more original, the second volume will be reviewed in greater detail: this note is intended merely to draw attention to the appearance of the work. Apart from presenting his own theory, Cattell has some very hard-hitting paragraphs in wl&h he attacks much that passes for ‘personality theory’ at present. One example: “Anyone disciplined in the old sciences and with some knowledge.of the history of scientific theory cannot but deplore, with some disgust, what has long been, and still continues to. be, served up to the student as ‘personality theory’. Had Hamlet wanted a better example of ‘an unweeded garden that grows to seed’ he would have found it in the pompous, pseudo-scholarly verbiage and name-droppihg, and the untestable and dull speculation that fills symposia on this area of psychology”. If only Psychologists working in this area would heed these. strictures! Unfortunately the properly scientific, quan!itative and experimental approach to the field, exemplified by Cattell, has been shunned by most workers who prefer a literary and idiographic approach, far removed from science. Cattell’s new book is a timely reminder of what could and should be done. H. J.
J. R. ADAMSWEBER: pp. E9.75.
Personal
Construct Theory;
Concepts
and Applications.
EYSENCK
John Wiley, Chichester (1979). 239
This book provides a comprehensive review of research inspired by Kelly’s personal construct theory and the repertory grid technique associated with it. To the author’s credit it lacks the evangelical ferver which makes much writing in this area so off-putting. There are chapters on personal construct theory, repertory grid technique, development of concept structures. thought disorder. personal relationships and therapy. The main feature of Kelly’s system that has made it so attractive to psychologists concerned with individual differences is that it actually attempts to study individuals rather than large groups of people with supposedly similar personalities. Likewise the repertory grid technique provides a framework for studying individual cognitions in some detail. For me Chapter 7 (Assimilation and Contrast) was the most interesting largely because it was the only chapter in which personal construct theory was related to other.areas such as linguistics and information theory. The rest of the book made very apparent the major weakness of personal construct theory; the determined isolation of its adherents from other approaches and techniques in psychology. I93
194
BOOK REVIEWS
Kelly’s approach IO human behaviour is essentially part of the structuralist movement. Adams-Weber rightly notes his affinity with Piaget. However Kelly also follows Levi-Strauss with the fundamental thought that people structure their world in terms of bipolar opposites (e.g. cooked-raw; like self-not like self). The results of this isolation are most noticeable when we consider attempts to derive measures from repertory grids. As Slater has shown the fact that these grids were derived from individuals does not mean that all the sophisticated procedures worked out from similar data derived from groups cannot be applied. Nevertheless most workers with grids find it necessary to derive their own measures (e.g. of cognitive complexity). The result as AdamsWeber points out is a plethora of measures with dubious validity and reliability. An extreme example of this damaging isolation is provided by an experiment on preferences for golden section rectangles discussed in Chapter 8. In this experiment subjects had to sort rectangles into groups on the basis of preference. Why this is considered an example of repertory grid technique is hard to understand, since no individual constructs are elicited. The use of individual sortings or rankings in this way has been widely used in studies of this sort and sophisticated techniques for analysing such data (multidimensional scaling. unfolding analysis) are widely available. The emphasis that personal construct theory places on individual behaviour is crucial to the development of a genuine theory of individual differences. However the development of this approach will be greatly retarded if its protagonists continue to work in such isolation. CHRIS FRITH
DESMOND
S. CARTWRIGHT:
Theories and Models of Personality. Wm. C. Brown,
Iowa (1979). 586 pp.
Many people would allow that the ideal book on personality theory should not only set out who said what among both the greater and the lesser theorists, but should also build up the readers’ skills in evaluating theories so that they may be profitably compared and contrasted with one another. Such a task is by no means easy, for even with clarity of exposition there is much to say. And, as any educational writer knows, length can predispose the reader towards sleep. With Desmond Cartwright’s book, however, no such danger exists, for the writer clearly enjoys his subject and communicates it to his readers for 540&d pages without trouble. The work is designed for the student, is designed to be read rather than merely referred to, and possesses the priceless virtue of presentation as well as instruction. Whether or not such an intent was present or not, the construction of the book resembles that of a well-made play: after an instantly understandable and appealing curtain-raiser (Maslow) and a simple follow-up presentation of Murray, contrasting leads (Rogers, Skinner) are almost brought into contact via Miller and Dollard. In the intervals, the general nature of scientific theories and types of theories are discussed before the Grand Old Men (Freud. Jung, Erickson) are made to expand their views and squabble among themselves. More contemporary superstars (Cattell, Eysenck) are given full rein and the resulting conflicts examined. Almost mischeviously. Cartwright sets a comparison between Freud and Eysenck as the homework for that chapter. After the trauma, the relaxation of Rotter, Lewin, and Bandura and Walters ensues. followed by the author’s twist in the tail raising (amongst other matters) the question of whether conditioning only takes place in humans when they are aware of the contingencies and are willing (for whatever reasons) to simulate the expected outcome. The reader will gather from the above that this reviewer has few real criticisms of this work, except perhaps to regret the unexpected omission of any mention of Adler amongst its pages except as a reference. and to sound a warning that sometimes the pages cited in the index may not be quite correct (though the reference is always very nearby; perhaps the printer had layout problems). There is also the implied assumption that all personality theories are of virtually equal worth; maybe, however, this is a welcome change from the often murderous disdain accorded to the more psychodynamic theorists in some educational establishments. Only one cueeut should be given: the student doing last-minute pre-exam study should avoid getting involved in this book, or he might suddenly find that it’s three in the morning and he hasn’t even begun revising Craik and
Baddeley CHRIS GOssELlN
D. P. CROWNE:
The Experimental Study of Personality. Lawrence
Erlbaum,
New Jersey (1979). XI + 254 pp.
This book deals with a number of important topics in personality, inevitably, scientific methods of personality study, conflict, coping with stress. repression and approval. infer alia, rather than with theories or great figures of the past. As the title suggests, great emphasis is laid on the experimental method. in the somewhat old-fashioned senSe of performing laboratory experiments. The large contribution to the study of personality from multivariate analysis, the work of Eysenck and Cattell, is largely, but not entirely, ignored because presumably it is not experimental as thus defined. This, of course. is not necessarily bad since there are many good books now fully describing the multivariate approach to personality, and far less concerned with the experimental. However, some of the experimental
Education
and Physical
Growth.
REVIEWS
Second Edition. International
Universities Press, New York
This is a second edition of a book originally published in 1961, and much praised at the time. It deals essentially with individual differences in physical growth, and the implications of these for educational theory and practice. The book has been extensively revised. and is very much up-to-date; it can be very highly recommended to psychologists who are interested in the relationships between individual differences in personality and intelligence, on the one hand, and physical growth on the other. The book slays a number of erroneous ideas which have crept into the literature’ during the past half century, and this alone will repay study. The book ends with an interesting chapter on “Education Practice and Policy”, in which the author comes to some important conclusions. based on the existence of individual differences. Altogether this is a short but meaty book which tells psychologists all that they want to know about psychological implications of physical growth. H.
RAYMONDB. CATTELL: Personality and Learning ment. Springer, New York (1979). 421 pp.
Theory.
Volume 1.
The Structure
of Personality
J. EYSENCK
in irs Enuiron-
This is the first of two volumes by one of the most distinguished writers in the field of personality and individual differences; it deals with “The Structure of Personality in Its Environment”, with the forthcoming Volume 2 “building on the personality theory and structures presented in this first volume, and unravelling the learning principles by which these structures are acquired”, to quote the blurb. The volume at hand is a clear and thoughtful presentation of Cattell’s system, possibly in its final form, and as such will be of considerable use to teachers who wish to present the theory to their students, and who are looking for a,proper textbook to use. There is little in it that is very novel, but Cattell has taken great care to build up his approach from the beginnings, to explain the statistical complexities in more detail than usual, and to take issue with critics and with alternative approaches. The second volume, as he explains, “is m&e revolutionary in chaiacter than the first. It propounds structured /earning theory which is a substantial departure from learning theory in a reflexological framework as it is now commonly taught”. Being more original, the second volume will be reviewed in greater detail: this note is intended merely to draw attention to the appearance of the work. Apart from presenting his own theory, Cattell has some very hard-hitting paragraphs in wl&h he attacks much that passes for ‘personality theory’ at present. One example: “Anyone disciplined in the old sciences and with some knowledge.of the history of scientific theory cannot but deplore, with some disgust, what has long been, and still continues to. be, served up to the student as ‘personality theory’. Had Hamlet wanted a better example of ‘an unweeded garden that grows to seed’ he would have found it in the pompous, pseudo-scholarly verbiage and name-droppihg, and the untestable and dull speculation that fills symposia on this area of psychology”. If only Psychologists working in this area would heed these. strictures! Unfortunately the properly scientific, quan!itative and experimental approach to the field, exemplified by Cattell, has been shunned by most workers who prefer a literary and idiographic approach, far removed from science. Cattell’s new book is a timely reminder of what could and should be done. H. J.
J. R. ADAMSWEBER: pp. E9.75.
Personal
Construct Theory;
Concepts
and Applications.
EYSENCK
John Wiley, Chichester (1979). 239
This book provides a comprehensive review of research inspired by Kelly’s personal construct theory and the repertory grid technique associated with it. To the author’s credit it lacks the evangelical ferver which makes much writing in this area so off-putting. There are chapters on personal construct theory, repertory grid technique, development of concept structures. thought disorder. personal relationships and therapy. The main feature of Kelly’s system that has made it so attractive to psychologists concerned with individual differences is that it actually attempts to study individuals rather than large groups of people with supposedly similar personalities. Likewise the repertory grid technique provides a framework for studying individual cognitions in some detail. For me Chapter 7 (Assimilation and Contrast) was the most interesting largely because it was the only chapter in which personal construct theory was related to other.areas such as linguistics and information theory. The rest of the book made very apparent the major weakness of personal construct theory; the determined isolation of its adherents from other approaches and techniques in psychology. I93
194
BOOK REVIEWS
Kelly’s approach IO human behaviour is essentially part of the structuralist movement. Adams-Weber rightly notes his affinity with Piaget. However Kelly also follows Levi-Strauss with the fundamental thought that people structure their world in terms of bipolar opposites (e.g. cooked-raw; like self-not like self). The results of this isolation are most noticeable when we consider attempts to derive measures from repertory grids. As Slater has shown the fact that these grids were derived from individuals does not mean that all the sophisticated procedures worked out from similar data derived from groups cannot be applied. Nevertheless most workers with grids find it necessary to derive their own measures (e.g. of cognitive complexity). The result as AdamsWeber points out is a plethora of measures with dubious validity and reliability. An extreme example of this damaging isolation is provided by an experiment on preferences for golden section rectangles discussed in Chapter 8. In this experiment subjects had to sort rectangles into groups on the basis of preference. Why this is considered an example of repertory grid technique is hard to understand, since no individual constructs are elicited. The use of individual sortings or rankings in this way has been widely used in studies of this sort and sophisticated techniques for analysing such data (multidimensional scaling. unfolding analysis) are widely available. The emphasis that personal construct theory places on individual behaviour is crucial to the development of a genuine theory of individual differences. However the development of this approach will be greatly retarded if its protagonists continue to work in such isolation. CHRIS FRITH
DESMOND
S. CARTWRIGHT:
Theories and Models of Personality. Wm. C. Brown,
Iowa (1979). 586 pp.
Many people would allow that the ideal book on personality theory should not only set out who said what among both the greater and the lesser theorists, but should also build up the readers’ skills in evaluating theories so that they may be profitably compared and contrasted with one another. Such a task is by no means easy, for even with clarity of exposition there is much to say. And, as any educational writer knows, length can predispose the reader towards sleep. With Desmond Cartwright’s book, however, no such danger exists, for the writer clearly enjoys his subject and communicates it to his readers for 540&d pages without trouble. The work is designed for the student, is designed to be read rather than merely referred to, and possesses the priceless virtue of presentation as well as instruction. Whether or not such an intent was present or not, the construction of the book resembles that of a well-made play: after an instantly understandable and appealing curtain-raiser (Maslow) and a simple follow-up presentation of Murray, contrasting leads (Rogers, Skinner) are almost brought into contact via Miller and Dollard. In the intervals, the general nature of scientific theories and types of theories are discussed before the Grand Old Men (Freud. Jung, Erickson) are made to expand their views and squabble among themselves. More contemporary superstars (Cattell, Eysenck) are given full rein and the resulting conflicts examined. Almost mischeviously. Cartwright sets a comparison between Freud and Eysenck as the homework for that chapter. After the trauma, the relaxation of Rotter, Lewin, and Bandura and Walters ensues. followed by the author’s twist in the tail raising (amongst other matters) the question of whether conditioning only takes place in humans when they are aware of the contingencies and are willing (for whatever reasons) to simulate the expected outcome. The reader will gather from the above that this reviewer has few real criticisms of this work, except perhaps to regret the unexpected omission of any mention of Adler amongst its pages except as a reference. and to sound a warning that sometimes the pages cited in the index may not be quite correct (though the reference is always very nearby; perhaps the printer had layout problems). There is also the implied assumption that all personality theories are of virtually equal worth; maybe, however, this is a welcome change from the often murderous disdain accorded to the more psychodynamic theorists in some educational establishments. Only one cueeut should be given: the student doing last-minute pre-exam study should avoid getting involved in this book, or he might suddenly find that it’s three in the morning and he hasn’t even begun revising Craik and
Baddeley CHRIS GOssELlN
D. P. CROWNE:
The Experimental Study of Personality. Lawrence
Erlbaum,
New Jersey (1979). XI + 254 pp.
This book deals with a number of important topics in personality, inevitably, scientific methods of personality study, conflict, coping with stress. repression and approval. infer alia, rather than with theories or great figures of the past. As the title suggests, great emphasis is laid on the experimental method. in the somewhat old-fashioned senSe of performing laboratory experiments. The large contribution to the study of personality from multivariate analysis, the work of Eysenck and Cattell, is largely, but not entirely, ignored because presumably it is not experimental as thus defined. This, of course. is not necessarily bad since there are many good books now fully describing the multivariate approach to personality, and far less concerned with the experimental. However, some of the experimental