Understanding human behavior

Understanding human behavior

596 BOOK REVIEWS is becoming increasingly difficult for organizations to remain viable and constructive in our complex, turbulent and depersonalized...

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596

BOOK REVIEWS

is becoming increasingly difficult for organizations to remain viable and constructive in our complex, turbulent and depersonalized society without facing the sort of issues that are presented here. The articles and the discussions which precede them deal with problems of rapid social change in a technological society, with the environmental forces interacting with human service organizations, with role problems, tactics of management and planning, with the outcome of administrative decisions, and with the future of hmnan service organizations. Automated data systems, simulation, information systems, systems analysis, operational research, budgeting systems, personnel practices, demonstrations, boards and committees are among the many available management tools which are reviewed in this comprehensive collection. The readings in this volume should be of interest to administrators, students of management and all whose eoncern is with inter- and intra-organizational relationships in the many fields of human service.

CANCI/O, ROBERT (Ed.). Annual Review of the Schizophrenic Syndrome, Volume 3. New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1973, x + 576 Pp. $17.50. This volume covers the 18-month period from July 1971 to December, 1972. The grouping are the same as in previous years and virtually every significant facet of theory and practice pertinent to schizophrenia is represented. Unlike the earlier volumes, two original articles are included: one summarizes in English the work of Tsuneo Imura and his group in Tokyo on the families of schizophrenic patients, the other is the 1973 Stanley Dean Award lecture to the American College of Psychiatrists by Theodore Lidz on his family theory of schizophrenia. The first paper, by Gordon Claridge, deals with "The Schizophrenias as Nervous Types" and is likely to be of particular interest to readers of this Journal. It originally appeared in the British Journal of Psychiatry, 1972, 121, 1-17.

KEAT, DONALD B. Fundamentals of Child Counseling. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1974, xi + 355 Pp. $10.95. This is primarily a beginning text for elementary school counselors-in-training but practitioners will also find selected portions of value. It is eclectic in orientation and tries to acquaint the readers with the essentials of diverse approaches, including behavior modification. The latter half of the book focuses upon administration, coordination of counseling programs, organization of services and so forth. Teachers will find the supplementary material on classroom group meetings, classroom management, and general strategies for home and school intervention particularly helpful. The final chapter, dealing with research on elementary guidance, has a classified list of key tests and their publishers. Eight appendixes offer a variety o~ techniques for practitioners, such as A Reinforcement Survey Schedule for Children, The Guidance Learning Rating Scale, and The Parent Questionnaire.

McCONNELL, JAMES V. Understanding Human Behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1974, xl + 851 Pp. $10.95. This book, characteristic of the author's well-known writing style, is lucid, direct, engaging, accurate and informative. Comprehensive in its coverage, it is an intro-

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duction to psychology with which few readers of this Journal could take substantive issue. Human behavior is presented from three broad viewpoints: intrapsychic, biological, and social/behavioral. The fictionalized case histories ring true, the illustrative anecdotes that precede each chapter are intriguing and the reader is suitably enticed to read on. Research is presented from the point of view of experimenter and subject independently, and there is a running glossary for all chapters. Unlike many such light content but heavy weight introductory texts, the production is adequately elegant but by no means Madison Avenue. Also available at nominal cost are student's and teacher's manuals and a set of 900 true/false and multiple choice questions ready for assembly as a card file. The book's only deficits as far as I can tell--it is by far the best of its kind that has come across my desk for a long while--are its length and an occasional tongue-in-cheek style whose intent the less sophisticated student may misconstrue.

NOBLE, JOHN H., JR., WECHSLER, HENRY, LAMONTAGNE, MARGARET E., & NOBLE, MARY ANNE (Eds.). Emergency Medical Services: Behavioral and Planning Perspectives. New York: Behavioral Publications, 1973, x + 595 Pp. $24.95 (Student Edition, 5 or more, $18.95). The USA still lacks a "health service" which offers coverage for all, nation wide quality control and the necessary integration and coordination of facilities. And this is probably the first policy-oriented book whose concern is exclusively with the emergency care crisis that is one outcome of this state of affairs. The 48 papers presented herein probe into virtually every facet of emergency medical services in this country, ranging from historical overviews to new techniques and the use of paraprofessionals. While hospital administrators and medical care staff will be the ones who will be prfinarily interested in these matters, they are truly the concern of us all and we disregard them at our own peril. In the words of the President of the American College of Emergency Physicians, "though not a polemic . . . . there is much to be viewed with alarm and little in which to take pride."

COOPER, JACK R., BLOOM, FLOYD E., & ROTH, ROBERT H. The Biochemical Basis o/ Neuropharmacology, 2nd Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974, x + 272 Pp. $7.95 ($4.90 paper). As in the first edition, the focus is upon neurotransnfitters. Apart from a general updating of information in each chapter, more attention is given to drugs and nem'ological diseases. The listing of recent review articles at the end of each chapter is particularly helpful. Based on a course originally given to undergraduates and medical students, the contents may well be useful to practicing neurologists and psychiatrists, on the one hand, and students of psychology and neuropharmacology, on the other.

TOBACH, ETHEL, GIANUTSOS, JOHN, TOPOFF, HOWARD, R., & GROSS, CHARLES, G. The Four Horsemen: Racism, Sexism, Militarism and Social Darwinism. New York: Behavioral Publications, 1974, 19,3 Pp. $8.95. Psychologists for Social Action organized a panel discussion at the 197"2 American Orthopsychiatric Association national convention and this book is one outcome of