- Email: [email protected]
The analysis of social skill
578
BOOK REVIEWS
As required by the editors, the book ends with a brief autobiography and a comprehensive bibliography which, for this most prolific of authors, requires 31 pages. Altogether it is a book which should interest both those familiar with and those relatively new to Eysenck’s work. His is a contribution which cannot be ignored. H. GWVNNEJONEY
A. I. RABIN and B. $29.95 (hardback).
BEIT-HALLAHMI: Twenty Years Later. Kibbutz Children Grown Up.
Springer, New York. xi + 244 pp.
This book is a compendium piece to Spiro’s book Gender and Culfure, in that both are concerned with the changes that have taken place in the Kibbutz in Israel over the years, and in that both look at the fate of the children who have grown up in an environment very much dedicated to the propagation of socialist and feminist ideas. Spiro demonstrated the fierce rejection of the children against this regime, and argued for the strong biological determination of sexual and social behaviour which he had rejected prior to the experience of following up these children. The present book followed the children over a period of twenty years, and compared them with a control group, made up of individuals who had grown up in nuclear families in a Moshav, a rural non-communal community in Israel. The Moshav is believed to have served as an appropriate control group, because of its overall similarity to the Kibbutz, and simultaneously, its dissimilarity in relation to the crucial variable of child-rearing. The authors make it fairly clear that essentially the Kibbutz experiment has been a failure, and that the trend from Kibbutz child-rearing back to the traditional family will continue in the near future. This is a fascinating experiment, well-studied by the authors, and of great interest to anyone concerned with the influence of child-rearing on personality and behaviour. H. J.
W. T. SINGLETON, P. SPURGE~N and R. B. STAMMERS II. Plenum Press, New York (1980). viii + 359 pp.
(Eids):The Analysis of Social Skill,
EYSENCK
NATO Conference Series, Vol.
This book consists of the proceedings of a conference in Leuven, 1979, sponsored by NATO. Broadly speaking, it provides workman-like reviews of practical applications of the social-skill model fifteen years on, interspersed with frequent calls for more research. It’s chief message is that a variity of industrial and professional tasks involving interpersonal communication can be analysed according to their objectives and the skills required to achieve them. In general, these skills can be taught and effectiveness improved. The contributors have been well selected to cover industrial, educational and clinical applications. Apart from inconsistencies, which are to be expected in conference proceedings, the overall standard is high and occupational and clinical psychologists with a special interest in technological developments in this area should find much to interest them. R. S.
HALLAM
H. B. GIBSON.Pain and Its Conquest. Owen, London (1982). 224 pp. f10.95. Dr Gibson has turned his literary powers to the topic of pain and in the Introduction we are offered both a theoretical elucidation of pain and a practical manual for sufferers and helpers alike. The book is clearly written and contains much interesting material. Considerable emphasis is given to historical antecedents of modern techniques of anaesthesia and pain control. The first part of the book, concerning history, the nature of pain, perceptual processing, hypnosis and individual differences (coveting the first two-thirds of the book) is to be recommended. I found the subsequent chapters less thorough, and feel that as a manual for patients or physicians, the book is unlikely to provide much solace. In his discussion of chronic pain, avoidance of p.r.n. medication is discussed as if implemented only in Seattle. In the course of describing operant programs, biofeedback is dealt with in one paragraph. A discussion of cancer pain suggests people have a “totally irrational fear of the disease”, but no mention is made of Kathleen Foley’s studies on prevalence in different cancer sites. Many would take issue with his conclusion that “Cancer pain is no different from the pain of toothache, stomach ache or slipped disc” or that much of it is ‘unnecessary’, a product of the attitude of the patient. A chapter is then devoted to women’s pains. No mention here is made of chronic pelvic pain, but the focus is on dysmenorrhea and childbirth. It is curious that no mention is made of prostaglandins in dysmenorrhea or the efficacy of prostaglandin synthetase inhibitors in controlling menstmal cramps. In the course of discussing childbirth pain, Dr Gibson advocates the epicurean technique-to experience pleasure rather than pain. This theme is developed in the final chapter, although no evidence is presented and no mention made of other procedures for which data on efficacy are available. In conclusion, this book is clearly not a manual; its strength lies in Dr Gibson’s clear and stimulating exposition of history and mechanisms. The chapters on pain control will disappoint those involved in pain management and may be received with some scepticism by those with unremitting pain. A. E.
READING
BOOK REVIEWS
As required by the editors, the book ends with a brief autobiography and a comprehensive bibliography which, for this most prolific of authors, requires 31 pages. Altogether it is a book which should interest both those familiar with and those relatively new to Eysenck’s work. His is a contribution which cannot be ignored. H. GWVNNEJONEY
A. I. RABIN and B. $29.95 (hardback).
BEIT-HALLAHMI: Twenty Years Later. Kibbutz Children Grown Up.
Springer, New York. xi + 244 pp.
This book is a compendium piece to Spiro’s book Gender and Culfure, in that both are concerned with the changes that have taken place in the Kibbutz in Israel over the years, and in that both look at the fate of the children who have grown up in an environment very much dedicated to the propagation of socialist and feminist ideas. Spiro demonstrated the fierce rejection of the children against this regime, and argued for the strong biological determination of sexual and social behaviour which he had rejected prior to the experience of following up these children. The present book followed the children over a period of twenty years, and compared them with a control group, made up of individuals who had grown up in nuclear families in a Moshav, a rural non-communal community in Israel. The Moshav is believed to have served as an appropriate control group, because of its overall similarity to the Kibbutz, and simultaneously, its dissimilarity in relation to the crucial variable of child-rearing. The authors make it fairly clear that essentially the Kibbutz experiment has been a failure, and that the trend from Kibbutz child-rearing back to the traditional family will continue in the near future. This is a fascinating experiment, well-studied by the authors, and of great interest to anyone concerned with the influence of child-rearing on personality and behaviour. H. J.
W. T. SINGLETON, P. SPURGE~N and R. B. STAMMERS II. Plenum Press, New York (1980). viii + 359 pp.
(Eids):The Analysis of Social Skill,
EYSENCK
NATO Conference Series, Vol.
This book consists of the proceedings of a conference in Leuven, 1979, sponsored by NATO. Broadly speaking, it provides workman-like reviews of practical applications of the social-skill model fifteen years on, interspersed with frequent calls for more research. It’s chief message is that a variity of industrial and professional tasks involving interpersonal communication can be analysed according to their objectives and the skills required to achieve them. In general, these skills can be taught and effectiveness improved. The contributors have been well selected to cover industrial, educational and clinical applications. Apart from inconsistencies, which are to be expected in conference proceedings, the overall standard is high and occupational and clinical psychologists with a special interest in technological developments in this area should find much to interest them. R. S.
HALLAM
H. B. GIBSON.Pain and Its Conquest. Owen, London (1982). 224 pp. f10.95. Dr Gibson has turned his literary powers to the topic of pain and in the Introduction we are offered both a theoretical elucidation of pain and a practical manual for sufferers and helpers alike. The book is clearly written and contains much interesting material. Considerable emphasis is given to historical antecedents of modern techniques of anaesthesia and pain control. The first part of the book, concerning history, the nature of pain, perceptual processing, hypnosis and individual differences (coveting the first two-thirds of the book) is to be recommended. I found the subsequent chapters less thorough, and feel that as a manual for patients or physicians, the book is unlikely to provide much solace. In his discussion of chronic pain, avoidance of p.r.n. medication is discussed as if implemented only in Seattle. In the course of describing operant programs, biofeedback is dealt with in one paragraph. A discussion of cancer pain suggests people have a “totally irrational fear of the disease”, but no mention is made of Kathleen Foley’s studies on prevalence in different cancer sites. Many would take issue with his conclusion that “Cancer pain is no different from the pain of toothache, stomach ache or slipped disc” or that much of it is ‘unnecessary’, a product of the attitude of the patient. A chapter is then devoted to women’s pains. No mention here is made of chronic pelvic pain, but the focus is on dysmenorrhea and childbirth. It is curious that no mention is made of prostaglandins in dysmenorrhea or the efficacy of prostaglandin synthetase inhibitors in controlling menstmal cramps. In the course of discussing childbirth pain, Dr Gibson advocates the epicurean technique-to experience pleasure rather than pain. This theme is developed in the final chapter, although no evidence is presented and no mention made of other procedures for which data on efficacy are available. In conclusion, this book is clearly not a manual; its strength lies in Dr Gibson’s clear and stimulating exposition of history and mechanisms. The chapters on pain control will disappoint those involved in pain management and may be received with some scepticism by those with unremitting pain. A. E.
READING