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The analysis of social skill
Books Safe enough to sell? Design and product liability Ho ward Abbott The Design Council, London, £7.95
Covers aspect of design and product liability, including the present UK law, likely implications of the European legislation, and the US law. Insurance and its shortcomings are examined. The important aspects of data collection, standards, codes of practice, product recall and technical auditing are also treated in detail. A number of examples from the UK and USA are given, as well as case histories that provide lessons for business. Relevant proposals, including the Strasbourg Convention, the EEC Draft Directive and the amended Draft Directive are quoted in full, and further source material is referred to at the end of each chapter.
The analysis of social skill w. T. Singleton, P. Spurgeon, and R.B. Stammers (Eds) Plenum Press, New York and London, pp 359, $35.
This book is a collection of conference papers concerned with the application of social skills analysis to a variety of problems ranging across a spectrum which includes marriage, management, decision making, and psychopathology. Although the field appears to be dominated by social psychology there are attempts to bring the experimental and social psychologist face to face. Both theory and method are covered. The introduction by Singleton provides a good outline definition of the contexts to which the term 'skill' is applied, followed by Welford showing how social skills concepts could be linked to the study of human performance by considering the use of efficient social strategies to relate task demands to performance capacity. Although ergonomics is mentioned by the latter it is not an obvious feature of the book although one might have hoped to find something of value to the ergonomist in terms of selection and training - for example, in Morgan's behaviour analysis approach used to train salesmen at Rank Xerox, Winfield's discussion of social skills teaching to managers, or Randell's paper on the skills of staff development. Whilst the latter paper emphasises the importance of clarifying objectives in the development of social skills, the overall impression given by the book is that, considering their application, the goals of social skills training are poorly defined. Also, the ffmal summary chapter by Stammers and Spurgeon, for example, underemphasises the important ethical issues underlying the determination of social goals as well as the ethical issues involved in the training of individuals to achieve those goals. Looking at the collection more closely one finds an extremely instrumental approach to human relationships combined with one that is severely critical of this undertaking. An example of the former is expressed ~n a paper by Joanning et al where the advice of skills training in a marital context extends to treating one's spouse as a recalcitrant rat. Pendleton and Furnham, on the other hand, are more concerned with omissions in Argyle's
236
AppliedErgonomics
December 1980
skills model which underlies many of the attem~.~ to initiate effective social training - these inc!,-de lack of a cognitive component and the neglect of effect. Many of the authors are aware that simplistic concepts of behaviour have, in previous work, had a detrimental effect on results and perhaps the aura of machiavellianism which surrounds the concepts of social skills training would decline if more authors believed in what Phillips describes as "the value of open and forthright interpersonal relations in all human transactions." Linda Bellamy, Fran Marquis
How designers think Bryan Lawson The Architectural Press I_td, 216 pages, £9.75
Mr Lawson's book sets out to explain the thought processes involved in the activity of design. It is apparent from the outset that the author is concerned with architectural design and therefore the book's relevance to other design fields is somewhat limited. It is written in a style which presents brief examples extracted from published research work from many sources; there is, however, little comment or conclusion reached to the value of the chosen example. The author is aiming to introduce to the reader a range of situations he considers necessary in order for one to become a designer, but having been introduced to the situation the designer then must be left alone to develop his own personal combination of design techniques and strategies. This is the major weakness with the author's reasoning; the mere presentation of every facet of design methodology and of psychologists' views cannot reveal to a young designer the skills he must master as he progresses in his chosen field. The diversity of opinion and example used also tends to confuse and mislead. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 is concerned with the 'concept of design' and studies are made of the changing role of the designer in society. Published works of attempted definition and description of the design process are reviewed briefly. Part 2 relates to design problems and solutions, first by introducing the components of design problems. In this chapter the blossoming designer meets two fatal diseases, regression and escalation of the design problem, which once contracted place the designer in a limboland where he designs nothing but questions everything. Unfortunately the author offers no prevention or cure. The following chapters in this section give the reader more and better guidance and at times present relevant information and comment. In Part 3 attention is turned away from the study of the design problem to those who solve them designers. Consideration is given to what kinds of people make a good designer, to the attitudes, skills and abilities they bring to bear on design problems and to the author the most interesting question of all, the matter of what goes on inside the designer's head. It is in this section that the book fails in its objectives; the reader is presented with chapters such as types and styles of thinking, design strategies and tactics. Each chapter has little to offer designers in real world conditions. The final chapter, Designing with Computers, is interesting but out of place within such a book.
Covers aspect of design and product liability, including the present UK law, likely implications of the European legislation, and the US law. Insurance and its shortcomings are examined. The important aspects of data collection, standards, codes of practice, product recall and technical auditing are also treated in detail. A number of examples from the UK and USA are given, as well as case histories that provide lessons for business. Relevant proposals, including the Strasbourg Convention, the EEC Draft Directive and the amended Draft Directive are quoted in full, and further source material is referred to at the end of each chapter.
The analysis of social skill w. T. Singleton, P. Spurgeon, and R.B. Stammers (Eds) Plenum Press, New York and London, pp 359, $35.
This book is a collection of conference papers concerned with the application of social skills analysis to a variety of problems ranging across a spectrum which includes marriage, management, decision making, and psychopathology. Although the field appears to be dominated by social psychology there are attempts to bring the experimental and social psychologist face to face. Both theory and method are covered. The introduction by Singleton provides a good outline definition of the contexts to which the term 'skill' is applied, followed by Welford showing how social skills concepts could be linked to the study of human performance by considering the use of efficient social strategies to relate task demands to performance capacity. Although ergonomics is mentioned by the latter it is not an obvious feature of the book although one might have hoped to find something of value to the ergonomist in terms of selection and training - for example, in Morgan's behaviour analysis approach used to train salesmen at Rank Xerox, Winfield's discussion of social skills teaching to managers, or Randell's paper on the skills of staff development. Whilst the latter paper emphasises the importance of clarifying objectives in the development of social skills, the overall impression given by the book is that, considering their application, the goals of social skills training are poorly defined. Also, the ffmal summary chapter by Stammers and Spurgeon, for example, underemphasises the important ethical issues underlying the determination of social goals as well as the ethical issues involved in the training of individuals to achieve those goals. Looking at the collection more closely one finds an extremely instrumental approach to human relationships combined with one that is severely critical of this undertaking. An example of the former is expressed ~n a paper by Joanning et al where the advice of skills training in a marital context extends to treating one's spouse as a recalcitrant rat. Pendleton and Furnham, on the other hand, are more concerned with omissions in Argyle's
236
AppliedErgonomics
December 1980
skills model which underlies many of the attem~.~ to initiate effective social training - these inc!,-de lack of a cognitive component and the neglect of effect. Many of the authors are aware that simplistic concepts of behaviour have, in previous work, had a detrimental effect on results and perhaps the aura of machiavellianism which surrounds the concepts of social skills training would decline if more authors believed in what Phillips describes as "the value of open and forthright interpersonal relations in all human transactions." Linda Bellamy, Fran Marquis
How designers think Bryan Lawson The Architectural Press I_td, 216 pages, £9.75
Mr Lawson's book sets out to explain the thought processes involved in the activity of design. It is apparent from the outset that the author is concerned with architectural design and therefore the book's relevance to other design fields is somewhat limited. It is written in a style which presents brief examples extracted from published research work from many sources; there is, however, little comment or conclusion reached to the value of the chosen example. The author is aiming to introduce to the reader a range of situations he considers necessary in order for one to become a designer, but having been introduced to the situation the designer then must be left alone to develop his own personal combination of design techniques and strategies. This is the major weakness with the author's reasoning; the mere presentation of every facet of design methodology and of psychologists' views cannot reveal to a young designer the skills he must master as he progresses in his chosen field. The diversity of opinion and example used also tends to confuse and mislead. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 is concerned with the 'concept of design' and studies are made of the changing role of the designer in society. Published works of attempted definition and description of the design process are reviewed briefly. Part 2 relates to design problems and solutions, first by introducing the components of design problems. In this chapter the blossoming designer meets two fatal diseases, regression and escalation of the design problem, which once contracted place the designer in a limboland where he designs nothing but questions everything. Unfortunately the author offers no prevention or cure. The following chapters in this section give the reader more and better guidance and at times present relevant information and comment. In Part 3 attention is turned away from the study of the design problem to those who solve them designers. Consideration is given to what kinds of people make a good designer, to the attitudes, skills and abilities they bring to bear on design problems and to the author the most interesting question of all, the matter of what goes on inside the designer's head. It is in this section that the book fails in its objectives; the reader is presented with chapters such as types and styles of thinking, design strategies and tactics. Each chapter has little to offer designers in real world conditions. The final chapter, Designing with Computers, is interesting but out of place within such a book.