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Psychogenetik. Humangenetik in psychologie und psychiatrie
PW.WI. indwid. Dill. Vol. 4. No. 5. pp. 575-580. 1983 Pergamon Press Ltd. Printed in Great Britain
BOOK
H. J. EYSENCKand D. K. B. NIAS: Astrology.
REVIEWS
Science or Superstition?
Temple Smith, London (1982) 244 pp.
There can be little doubt that there is a great deal of interest in astrology amongst the general public. Early in the last decade it was estimated that the national investment in astrology in the U.S.A. was between ten and twenty times that in astronomy and between 1969 and 1977 the number of paperback books on astrology which were in print increased tenfold. Furthermore, surveys have shown that in the Western world up to 60% of the population believe that there is some truth in astrology. Despite this widespread interest and belief, scientists have generally not bothered to scientifically assess the claims of astrologers. Instead they have tended either to ignore astrology or to simply condemn it as superstitious nonsense. Such prejudice has not been demonstrated by Eysenck and Nias in their book Astrology. Science or Superstition? As they point out the assertions of astrology can be, and have been, tested empirically. Thus they consider that in order to draw conclusions about the validity of astrology, it is necessary to take an unbiased, but critical, look at the evidence and this is what they attempt to do. The book is aimed essentially at the intelligent layman who does not necessarily have much background knowledge on the subject. Thus the book starts with a brief look at the origins of astrology and its principles, and a simple discussion on scientific method and statistics. The authors then go on to evaluate the evidence on traditional astrological beliefs such as sun-signs and personality and the position of the planets and personal destinies. This in turn is followed by a section on cosmobiology which the authors define as the study of “the ways in which vegetable, animal and human life is influenced by bodies in the solar system other than our own earth” (p.x). Included in this section are discussions on topics such as season of birth, circadian rhythms, sunspots and the weather, weather and behaviour, planetary forces and radio reception, moon phases and behaviour and the work of the Gauquelins. The link between many of these topics and astrology is tenuous but astrologers often cite the findings of studies in these areas as support for their general approach, even though these findings are frequently contrary to the predictions of traditional astrology. In the final chapter of the book, the authors sum up the evidence and give the verdict on whether astrology is a science or a superstition. This book is well organized and clearly written; the simple but accurate discussions of statistical considerations and methods being particularly noteworthy; another noteworthy feature of the book is the objectivity and open-mindedness with which the authors approach the topic. Such lack of bias is rare in books such as this one. The only serious criticism which can be levelled against this book is that when describing previously unpublished experiments which they have carried out, the authors do not give sufficient information to enable anyone else to assess their results. This is rather ironic as they are critical of other studies where this has been the case. Another minor criticism relates to the format of the book. The tables and figures are not labelled nor clearly offset from the text which is a little confusing and often irritating. Overall, however, this is an excellent book which can be recommended, without hesitation, not only to interested laymen but also to academics and scientists. G. A. TYSON
V. WEISS:Psychogenetik.
Humangenetik
in Psychologie
und Psychiatric.
Fischer, Jena, D.D.R. (1900) 168 pp.
This is Volume 12 of a series dealing with genetics, and its topic is what usually in Germany is called “Humangenetik”, but which Weiss prefers to call “Psychogenetik”. The interest of the book derives in part from the fact that it was published in the D.D.R., i.e. the Communist, Eastern part of Germany; anyone who believes the rantings of Professor Kamin would imagine that here we would find a completely environmentalistic denial of any genetic effects on intelligence. Readers w.ill find nothing of the kind, but rather a careful, academic and experimental-oriented discussion of theories and facts which lead to conclusions very similar to those psychologists in non-Communist countries have come to. This should not really be surprising, as Marx and Lenin explicitly separated out social equality, which they aimed at, from biological equality, which they did not believe existed. On this point, then, Marxist and non-Marxist psychologists and geneticists can agree. Indeed, some of Weiss”s evidence comes from recent Russian work, where for instance a study of MZ and DZ twins in Moscow led to the postulation of a heritability for intelligence of 78x! Content-wise the book is slanted in the biological direction, emphasizing the biochemical bases of psychic processes. The genetic formulae are developed in a reasonable fashion, but there are notable omissions, particularly there is no mention of path analysis, which in recent years has become widely adopted in the U.S.A., for instance. Similarly, there is no mention of the work of Jinks and Fulker, and altogether the novel approaches of the biometrical genetical school are not given the emphasis they may deserve. Substantively, readers will note the absence of any mention of the genetics of personality development, on which there is now a great deal of evidence; this surely must be a vital part of “psychogenetik”! Most of the substantive discussion is devoted to intelligence, where admittedly we have more evidence than perhaps on any other aspect of psychology; nevertheless, this should not lead to the omission of important areas where evidence is now pretty conclusive. On occasion one may take issue with Weiss. Thus in dealing with the fact that there is a decline in the intelligence of later-born children, as compared with the first-born etc., he fails to mention Zajonc’s theory, which has received substantial support. In dealing with regression to the mean, he makes the relevant point that one must distinguish statistical regression from genetic regression, but he makes epistasis responsible for the latter, rather than the particular allele combinations which 575
BOOK REVIEWS
576
probably account for the genetic effect. Thus if the parents are both Aa, they will phenotypicalty show high intelligence (A), but one quarter of their children will show the combination aa, i.e. phenotypically low intelligence. Conversely, if the parents are AA and aa, respectively, their mean will be relatively low, but all the offspring will have Aa alleles, i.e. high phenotypic intelligence. This is an important point not mentioned by Weiss. Among the important contributions of Weiss’s book are first of all a lengthy discussion of the theoretically very important fact that many recent tests of intelligence are of extreme simplicity, such as simple reaction times, and various new German tests mostly unknown in English-speaking countries; the fact that these show high g saturations disproves theories such as those advocated by Binet, which suggest that intelligence is only the average of a number of separate faculties, or that these faculties are largely based on educational and high-level cognitive performance. Also of importance is Weiss’s own work, and that of other German investigators, regarding the genetics of intelligence, based as it is on very large samples. Again most of this work is quite unknown in the West, and this book is an ideal way of getting to know about it, and discovering all the necessary references. Some of this work deals, not so much with intelligence, as with special abilities, like musical ability, ability to draw or mathematical ability, and all the studies are of profound interest and importance. However, the most important contribution Weiss has to make is along theoretical lines. He rejects the polygenetic interpretation of the data on the genetics of intelligence commonly adopted by Western geneticists and psychologists, and adopts a single-gene or main-gene hypothesis, according to which one allele (M,) makes for high intellig&e, another. makes for low intelligence, giving rise to three major groups, M,M,, M,M, and M,M,. He cites much evidence for this hypothesis, including multimodal distributions of scores etc., but the.point is rather weakened by the fact that he also has to postulate the (possible) existence of smaller genes which would serve to make his model more similar to the polygenic model traditionally adopted. Nevertheless, his data and theories must be taken seriously, and should be familiar to anyone working in this field. Altogether this is a challenging and important new book which goes well beyond the limitations of a textbook, and advocates novel and if true very important theories which will deserve careful testing. H. J.
M. W.
EYSENCK:
Atfention
and Arousal.
EYSENCK
Springer, New York (1982). 209 pp. $34.70.
Dr Michael Eysenck presents here a critical review of the present state of knowledge and theory on attention and arousal. The primary orientation towards these phonomena is from an information-processing and cognitive position and the author’s approach may be said to represent a continuation and development of the theoretical framework advanced some 20 years ago by D. E. Broadbent. One of the key elements in this viewpoint is that motivation and arousal are important determinants of attentional processes. Thus the problem of attention leads to the problem of arousal. In the 1950s and 60s many psychologists were using the construct of a single arousal system. A wide variety of stimuli and conditions were conceptualized as acting on this arousal system, and the level of arousal was in turn an important determinant of performance, whose significant features were captured by the Yerkes-Dodson law or the inverted-U relationship of arousal to optimum performance. This theoretical paradigm is broadly retained by Dr Eysenck, but several important modifications have become necessary. Perhaps the most significant of these is a closer analysis of the construct of arousal and the evident necessity of reconceptualizing it into at least two subsystems. These are termed the passive system, reactive to external stimulation, and the active system, reactive to the internal evaluation of the demands for efficient effort. Within this framework the main body of the book consists of critical reviews of three important issues. first, the author considers theories of attention and information processing, starting with their initial formulation by Broadbent, Treisman and Deutsch and taking the reader up to recent developments and modifications. Secondly, he discussses recent developments in arousal theory. Thirdly, the author considers the problem of the relation of arousal to Anxiety and Introversion-Extraversion considered both as stable personality dimensions and (in the case of anxiety) as reactive states. The book concludes with a useful theoretical overview of the field. The author deserves congratulations on this thorough and informed critical monograph which makes an important contribution to this area of psychology. RICHARD
W. ICKE~ and E. S. $30.20.
KNOWLES
(Eds): Personality,
LYNN
Roles, and Social Behavior. Springer, New York (1982). xviii + 362 pp.
In the preface the editors state that “the present volume is intended to focus explicitly on conceptual issues and research at the interface of a sociological and a psychological understanding of social behavior” They argue that historically there have been two main approaches in the study of social behaviour; one favoured by psychologically-oriented social psychologists and based on the construct of personality; the other favoured by sociologicallyoriented social psychologists and based on the construct of role. This book is an attempt to integrate these two approaches, or rather it is a collection of different attempts to integrate them. Although many of the contributions, of which there are eleven in all, report empirical data of one kind or another, the emphasis is on ideas and theory. I will mention three of the more interesting contributions. The chapter by Knowles is useful for its delineation of the temporal trends in the study of personality, role and group theory. Secord’s contribution includes a fascinating analysis of sex roles in which he argues
BOOK
H. J. EYSENCKand D. K. B. NIAS: Astrology.
REVIEWS
Science or Superstition?
Temple Smith, London (1982) 244 pp.
There can be little doubt that there is a great deal of interest in astrology amongst the general public. Early in the last decade it was estimated that the national investment in astrology in the U.S.A. was between ten and twenty times that in astronomy and between 1969 and 1977 the number of paperback books on astrology which were in print increased tenfold. Furthermore, surveys have shown that in the Western world up to 60% of the population believe that there is some truth in astrology. Despite this widespread interest and belief, scientists have generally not bothered to scientifically assess the claims of astrologers. Instead they have tended either to ignore astrology or to simply condemn it as superstitious nonsense. Such prejudice has not been demonstrated by Eysenck and Nias in their book Astrology. Science or Superstition? As they point out the assertions of astrology can be, and have been, tested empirically. Thus they consider that in order to draw conclusions about the validity of astrology, it is necessary to take an unbiased, but critical, look at the evidence and this is what they attempt to do. The book is aimed essentially at the intelligent layman who does not necessarily have much background knowledge on the subject. Thus the book starts with a brief look at the origins of astrology and its principles, and a simple discussion on scientific method and statistics. The authors then go on to evaluate the evidence on traditional astrological beliefs such as sun-signs and personality and the position of the planets and personal destinies. This in turn is followed by a section on cosmobiology which the authors define as the study of “the ways in which vegetable, animal and human life is influenced by bodies in the solar system other than our own earth” (p.x). Included in this section are discussions on topics such as season of birth, circadian rhythms, sunspots and the weather, weather and behaviour, planetary forces and radio reception, moon phases and behaviour and the work of the Gauquelins. The link between many of these topics and astrology is tenuous but astrologers often cite the findings of studies in these areas as support for their general approach, even though these findings are frequently contrary to the predictions of traditional astrology. In the final chapter of the book, the authors sum up the evidence and give the verdict on whether astrology is a science or a superstition. This book is well organized and clearly written; the simple but accurate discussions of statistical considerations and methods being particularly noteworthy; another noteworthy feature of the book is the objectivity and open-mindedness with which the authors approach the topic. Such lack of bias is rare in books such as this one. The only serious criticism which can be levelled against this book is that when describing previously unpublished experiments which they have carried out, the authors do not give sufficient information to enable anyone else to assess their results. This is rather ironic as they are critical of other studies where this has been the case. Another minor criticism relates to the format of the book. The tables and figures are not labelled nor clearly offset from the text which is a little confusing and often irritating. Overall, however, this is an excellent book which can be recommended, without hesitation, not only to interested laymen but also to academics and scientists. G. A. TYSON
V. WEISS:Psychogenetik.
Humangenetik
in Psychologie
und Psychiatric.
Fischer, Jena, D.D.R. (1900) 168 pp.
This is Volume 12 of a series dealing with genetics, and its topic is what usually in Germany is called “Humangenetik”, but which Weiss prefers to call “Psychogenetik”. The interest of the book derives in part from the fact that it was published in the D.D.R., i.e. the Communist, Eastern part of Germany; anyone who believes the rantings of Professor Kamin would imagine that here we would find a completely environmentalistic denial of any genetic effects on intelligence. Readers w.ill find nothing of the kind, but rather a careful, academic and experimental-oriented discussion of theories and facts which lead to conclusions very similar to those psychologists in non-Communist countries have come to. This should not really be surprising, as Marx and Lenin explicitly separated out social equality, which they aimed at, from biological equality, which they did not believe existed. On this point, then, Marxist and non-Marxist psychologists and geneticists can agree. Indeed, some of Weiss”s evidence comes from recent Russian work, where for instance a study of MZ and DZ twins in Moscow led to the postulation of a heritability for intelligence of 78x! Content-wise the book is slanted in the biological direction, emphasizing the biochemical bases of psychic processes. The genetic formulae are developed in a reasonable fashion, but there are notable omissions, particularly there is no mention of path analysis, which in recent years has become widely adopted in the U.S.A., for instance. Similarly, there is no mention of the work of Jinks and Fulker, and altogether the novel approaches of the biometrical genetical school are not given the emphasis they may deserve. Substantively, readers will note the absence of any mention of the genetics of personality development, on which there is now a great deal of evidence; this surely must be a vital part of “psychogenetik”! Most of the substantive discussion is devoted to intelligence, where admittedly we have more evidence than perhaps on any other aspect of psychology; nevertheless, this should not lead to the omission of important areas where evidence is now pretty conclusive. On occasion one may take issue with Weiss. Thus in dealing with the fact that there is a decline in the intelligence of later-born children, as compared with the first-born etc., he fails to mention Zajonc’s theory, which has received substantial support. In dealing with regression to the mean, he makes the relevant point that one must distinguish statistical regression from genetic regression, but he makes epistasis responsible for the latter, rather than the particular allele combinations which 575
BOOK REVIEWS
576
probably account for the genetic effect. Thus if the parents are both Aa, they will phenotypicalty show high intelligence (A), but one quarter of their children will show the combination aa, i.e. phenotypically low intelligence. Conversely, if the parents are AA and aa, respectively, their mean will be relatively low, but all the offspring will have Aa alleles, i.e. high phenotypic intelligence. This is an important point not mentioned by Weiss. Among the important contributions of Weiss’s book are first of all a lengthy discussion of the theoretically very important fact that many recent tests of intelligence are of extreme simplicity, such as simple reaction times, and various new German tests mostly unknown in English-speaking countries; the fact that these show high g saturations disproves theories such as those advocated by Binet, which suggest that intelligence is only the average of a number of separate faculties, or that these faculties are largely based on educational and high-level cognitive performance. Also of importance is Weiss’s own work, and that of other German investigators, regarding the genetics of intelligence, based as it is on very large samples. Again most of this work is quite unknown in the West, and this book is an ideal way of getting to know about it, and discovering all the necessary references. Some of this work deals, not so much with intelligence, as with special abilities, like musical ability, ability to draw or mathematical ability, and all the studies are of profound interest and importance. However, the most important contribution Weiss has to make is along theoretical lines. He rejects the polygenetic interpretation of the data on the genetics of intelligence commonly adopted by Western geneticists and psychologists, and adopts a single-gene or main-gene hypothesis, according to which one allele (M,) makes for high intellig&e, another. makes for low intelligence, giving rise to three major groups, M,M,, M,M, and M,M,. He cites much evidence for this hypothesis, including multimodal distributions of scores etc., but the.point is rather weakened by the fact that he also has to postulate the (possible) existence of smaller genes which would serve to make his model more similar to the polygenic model traditionally adopted. Nevertheless, his data and theories must be taken seriously, and should be familiar to anyone working in this field. Altogether this is a challenging and important new book which goes well beyond the limitations of a textbook, and advocates novel and if true very important theories which will deserve careful testing. H. J.
M. W.
EYSENCK:
Atfention
and Arousal.
EYSENCK
Springer, New York (1982). 209 pp. $34.70.
Dr Michael Eysenck presents here a critical review of the present state of knowledge and theory on attention and arousal. The primary orientation towards these phonomena is from an information-processing and cognitive position and the author’s approach may be said to represent a continuation and development of the theoretical framework advanced some 20 years ago by D. E. Broadbent. One of the key elements in this viewpoint is that motivation and arousal are important determinants of attentional processes. Thus the problem of attention leads to the problem of arousal. In the 1950s and 60s many psychologists were using the construct of a single arousal system. A wide variety of stimuli and conditions were conceptualized as acting on this arousal system, and the level of arousal was in turn an important determinant of performance, whose significant features were captured by the Yerkes-Dodson law or the inverted-U relationship of arousal to optimum performance. This theoretical paradigm is broadly retained by Dr Eysenck, but several important modifications have become necessary. Perhaps the most significant of these is a closer analysis of the construct of arousal and the evident necessity of reconceptualizing it into at least two subsystems. These are termed the passive system, reactive to external stimulation, and the active system, reactive to the internal evaluation of the demands for efficient effort. Within this framework the main body of the book consists of critical reviews of three important issues. first, the author considers theories of attention and information processing, starting with their initial formulation by Broadbent, Treisman and Deutsch and taking the reader up to recent developments and modifications. Secondly, he discussses recent developments in arousal theory. Thirdly, the author considers the problem of the relation of arousal to Anxiety and Introversion-Extraversion considered both as stable personality dimensions and (in the case of anxiety) as reactive states. The book concludes with a useful theoretical overview of the field. The author deserves congratulations on this thorough and informed critical monograph which makes an important contribution to this area of psychology. RICHARD
W. ICKE~ and E. S. $30.20.
KNOWLES
(Eds): Personality,
LYNN
Roles, and Social Behavior. Springer, New York (1982). xviii + 362 pp.
In the preface the editors state that “the present volume is intended to focus explicitly on conceptual issues and research at the interface of a sociological and a psychological understanding of social behavior” They argue that historically there have been two main approaches in the study of social behaviour; one favoured by psychologically-oriented social psychologists and based on the construct of personality; the other favoured by sociologicallyoriented social psychologists and based on the construct of role. This book is an attempt to integrate these two approaches, or rather it is a collection of different attempts to integrate them. Although many of the contributions, of which there are eleven in all, report empirical data of one kind or another, the emphasis is on ideas and theory. I will mention three of the more interesting contributions. The chapter by Knowles is useful for its delineation of the temporal trends in the study of personality, role and group theory. Secord’s contribution includes a fascinating analysis of sex roles in which he argues