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Semantic differential technique
402
BCWK REVLEWS
The physician who is able to comprehend his patient in cultural terms as well as in physical terms may be disabused of the need to look at patients as problem cases, physical management cases, or ignorant or recalcitrant cases. Understanding the need of a patient to respond as his culture dictates for him to do should arouse considerable sympathy and understanding on the part of the physician and other health care people. The result of such cultural data in the medical area should improve health care, but I’m afraid that before such improvement develops, considerable education and discussion among health care professionals would be necessary. In general, medical education is still viewed as a productionist, organ-system centered science, and the art of the human existence still under-valued and under-taught. Major national arguments deal with financial arrangements, community locations, computerization, and expansion of medical school facilities, all necessary components of good health care, but tending to ossify medical care into a technical and societal argument, while the behavioral dimensions of the human; his family, and his society remain barely visible. MELVINJ. KRANT, M.D. Oncology Unit, Shattuck Hospital, Boston, Mass. 02130
SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL TECHNIQUE byJAMESG. SNIDERand CHARLESE. OSGOOD. Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago, 1969. xiii + 681. $12.50. JUST like the motor car; so with the Semantic Differential-it’s difficult to imagine life without it. The present volume documents the development and refinement of a technique which has proved to be ubiquitous in application because of its astonishing flexibility within a surprisingly rigid framework. Here, we feel, is the questionnaire without any response set; the open-ended stimulus with the closed product end; the experimental technique for exploring the un-experimentable; and so on. But the book we are reviewing here is no memorial to this technique-no Sir!-but a lively reminder that the first fifteen years with any method is only a beginning. The book contains 52 selected chapters to illustrate the theoretical, methodological and practical applications of the Semantic Differential idea. They are carefully selected and well-grouped so that I think that the authors’ objectives of creating a “sourcebook” have been achieved. The reader must know that for this to come from a confirmed antagonist of the “reader” idea is high praise. Of course, there are bound to be different views about what should be included, but the present volume would serve as an excellent primer for anyone wishing to use the technique for the first time in almost any setting. Having now dealt with an appraisal of the volume, we can perhaps just look at one of the most fascinating parts which is Osgood’s own introduction to the volume, in which he explains his pre-occupation with semantics and his astonishment at the success of “The Measurement of Meaning”. It is worthwhile speculating as to why exactly it was so remarkably successful because it may give us some clues about the sorts of technical development for which we should be looking continually in the social sciences.
BOOKREVIEWS
403
There are obviously several sets of reasons, which would run something like this. As a method of evaluating difficult areas of linguistic function, the Semantic Differential appeals because it has a valid and theoretically sophisticated basis. Osgood did not look for an “instrument” which would satisfy some pseudo-scientific cannon, but for a method which would mirror a complex set of ideas about the importance of meaning in language in particular, and human behaviour in general. But, as well as that, it was a model of meaning whichfelt right. The symbolic processes in general had been having a pretty rough ride by psychologists up until this time. One was asked either to understand the delicate mysticism of the psychoanalytic theory of symbolism or else to be a Behaviourist Man and deny its importance-nay even its existence. Osgood’s approach had the rigour of the latter and the complexity of the former and so was assured of a qualified welcome. If something like this account is true, the success of the Semantic Differential is not at all surprising. Taken into account with the publishing of “Plans and the Structure of Behaviorl,” and the growth of interest in human communication, the Semantic DifferentiaI has contributed in no small way to the re-emergence of the symbolic process as an area of supreme importance in understanding human behaviour. It is only sad to add after all this that one of your reviewer’s contributions to the Semantic Differential method is included in the extensive bibliography-but with his name spelt wrongly. DOUGLASHOOPER, Ph.D. University of Bristol, Bristol, England.
THE UTILIZATION OF THE MEDICAL SERVICES AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO MORBIDITY, HEALTH RESOURCES AND SOCIAL FACTORS by TAPANI PUROLA, KAI SIEVERS,ESKO KALIMO and KAUKO NYMAN. Research Institute for Social Security, Helsinki, 1968. PERSONSinterested in international health will find this English translation of a report first published in Finnish in 1967, a useful addition to the literature. Along with making information available on a nation not widely reported in English-speaking countries, it provides data for scholars interested in comparative study and research. The study was designed to obtain baseline data for a program of continuous research for health policy and planning in Finland following the implementation in 1964 of a sickness insurance scheme which broadened the previous program of national insurance for,hospital care to include physicians’ services, and general health care. It reports on health status and utilization patterns prevailing prior to the implementation of the sickness insurance plan. Subsequent studies are planned’ to gauge progress and problems in closing gaps and fulfilling national goals of equality of access to comprehensive high-quality health care. The report is organized into five parts. Part one deals with the objectives of the study. Part two provides an overview of the organization of the Finnish health system, along with supply and demand issues. Parts three and four report the results of a nationwide household
BCWK REVLEWS
The physician who is able to comprehend his patient in cultural terms as well as in physical terms may be disabused of the need to look at patients as problem cases, physical management cases, or ignorant or recalcitrant cases. Understanding the need of a patient to respond as his culture dictates for him to do should arouse considerable sympathy and understanding on the part of the physician and other health care people. The result of such cultural data in the medical area should improve health care, but I’m afraid that before such improvement develops, considerable education and discussion among health care professionals would be necessary. In general, medical education is still viewed as a productionist, organ-system centered science, and the art of the human existence still under-valued and under-taught. Major national arguments deal with financial arrangements, community locations, computerization, and expansion of medical school facilities, all necessary components of good health care, but tending to ossify medical care into a technical and societal argument, while the behavioral dimensions of the human; his family, and his society remain barely visible. MELVINJ. KRANT, M.D. Oncology Unit, Shattuck Hospital, Boston, Mass. 02130
SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL TECHNIQUE byJAMESG. SNIDERand CHARLESE. OSGOOD. Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago, 1969. xiii + 681. $12.50. JUST like the motor car; so with the Semantic Differential-it’s difficult to imagine life without it. The present volume documents the development and refinement of a technique which has proved to be ubiquitous in application because of its astonishing flexibility within a surprisingly rigid framework. Here, we feel, is the questionnaire without any response set; the open-ended stimulus with the closed product end; the experimental technique for exploring the un-experimentable; and so on. But the book we are reviewing here is no memorial to this technique-no Sir!-but a lively reminder that the first fifteen years with any method is only a beginning. The book contains 52 selected chapters to illustrate the theoretical, methodological and practical applications of the Semantic Differential idea. They are carefully selected and well-grouped so that I think that the authors’ objectives of creating a “sourcebook” have been achieved. The reader must know that for this to come from a confirmed antagonist of the “reader” idea is high praise. Of course, there are bound to be different views about what should be included, but the present volume would serve as an excellent primer for anyone wishing to use the technique for the first time in almost any setting. Having now dealt with an appraisal of the volume, we can perhaps just look at one of the most fascinating parts which is Osgood’s own introduction to the volume, in which he explains his pre-occupation with semantics and his astonishment at the success of “The Measurement of Meaning”. It is worthwhile speculating as to why exactly it was so remarkably successful because it may give us some clues about the sorts of technical development for which we should be looking continually in the social sciences.
BOOKREVIEWS
403
There are obviously several sets of reasons, which would run something like this. As a method of evaluating difficult areas of linguistic function, the Semantic Differential appeals because it has a valid and theoretically sophisticated basis. Osgood did not look for an “instrument” which would satisfy some pseudo-scientific cannon, but for a method which would mirror a complex set of ideas about the importance of meaning in language in particular, and human behaviour in general. But, as well as that, it was a model of meaning whichfelt right. The symbolic processes in general had been having a pretty rough ride by psychologists up until this time. One was asked either to understand the delicate mysticism of the psychoanalytic theory of symbolism or else to be a Behaviourist Man and deny its importance-nay even its existence. Osgood’s approach had the rigour of the latter and the complexity of the former and so was assured of a qualified welcome. If something like this account is true, the success of the Semantic Differential is not at all surprising. Taken into account with the publishing of “Plans and the Structure of Behaviorl,” and the growth of interest in human communication, the Semantic DifferentiaI has contributed in no small way to the re-emergence of the symbolic process as an area of supreme importance in understanding human behaviour. It is only sad to add after all this that one of your reviewer’s contributions to the Semantic Differential method is included in the extensive bibliography-but with his name spelt wrongly. DOUGLASHOOPER, Ph.D. University of Bristol, Bristol, England.
THE UTILIZATION OF THE MEDICAL SERVICES AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO MORBIDITY, HEALTH RESOURCES AND SOCIAL FACTORS by TAPANI PUROLA, KAI SIEVERS,ESKO KALIMO and KAUKO NYMAN. Research Institute for Social Security, Helsinki, 1968. PERSONSinterested in international health will find this English translation of a report first published in Finnish in 1967, a useful addition to the literature. Along with making information available on a nation not widely reported in English-speaking countries, it provides data for scholars interested in comparative study and research. The study was designed to obtain baseline data for a program of continuous research for health policy and planning in Finland following the implementation in 1964 of a sickness insurance scheme which broadened the previous program of national insurance for,hospital care to include physicians’ services, and general health care. It reports on health status and utilization patterns prevailing prior to the implementation of the sickness insurance plan. Subsequent studies are planned’ to gauge progress and problems in closing gaps and fulfilling national goals of equality of access to comprehensive high-quality health care. The report is organized into five parts. Part one deals with the objectives of the study. Part two provides an overview of the organization of the Finnish health system, along with supply and demand issues. Parts three and four report the results of a nationwide household