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Young children's close relationships—Beyond attachment
Behav. Res. Ther. Vol. 32, No. 7, pp. 193-198,
1994
Elsevier Science Ltd. Printed in Great Britain
Pergamon
BOOK REVIEWS ULRIKE SCHMIDT and JANET TREASURE: Getting Better Bit(e) by Bit(e). A Survival Kit for Sufferers of Bulimia Nervosa and Binge-eating Disorders, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hove (1993). xiv + 143 pp. f 19.95 Hardback; E9.95 Paperback. As eating disorders increase in frequency in the population, it becomes more and more difficult to provide specialist a recent British Medical Journal editorial treatment for every individual. “From specialist care to self-directed treatment”, by these authors, describes a general trend in medicine and psychiatry towards self-help, with minimal initial specialist input. This book, a self-help manual, reflects that trend. It includes a wealth of clinical examples which illustrate the spectrum of the disorders, and with which the sufferer may identify. The book has been field-tested, showing equal efficacy in symptom reduction to cognitive-behavioural treatment, after an eight-week period. It uses the analogy of a journey, reminiscent of many pitfalls and setbacks on the route to recovery. A particular “The Pilgrim’s Progress”, with the sufferer negotiating strength of the book is its imaginative and clever use of cartoons, depicting the various plights of the traveller at various stages. The sufferer is initially asked to consider if and why recovery really is an ambition. Then separate chapters describe the potential temptations and hazards along the route, with practical suggestions on how to negotiate these, e.g. “Vomiting, Laxatives and Diuretics: Have Your Cake and Eat It--Or Not?“; “Relapse: Walking In Circles-Or Not?“; and “Dieting: A Health Warning”. Several chapters include useful reading lists, should the sufferer wish to explore a particular issue further. Besides addressing actual symptomatology in a behavioural way, the book also discusses characteristic self-defeating patterns of thought and behaviour found in people with eating disorders, such as the drive for perfection, the dominance of guilt, and the “Dictatorship of Control”. “The Slippery Slope of Booze and Drugs”, and shoplifting (“Do You Like Russian Roulette?‘) are addressed. Family, friends and work, often also affected by these disorders, are discussed. For example, some people with eating disorders have workaholic tendencies “out of a sense of battling against personal failure or out of perfectionism”. Again, friends may have been gradually lost or turned away, and in particular sexual relationships may have been affected by the disorder. Ways of approaching these problems are suggested. This book does not claim to be a cure, but says it “can help you get much better, so that the eating disorder doesn’t rule your life anymore”. It is clearly and directly written, from a wealth of practical experience, and does indeed provide the sufferer with a “survival kit” on the road to recovery. It can be recommended, not only to sufferers, but to professionals dealing with these patients, and to family and friends who wish to become involved in the recovery process. ANNE WARD
JUDY DUNN: Young Children’s Close Relationship-Beyond
Attachment, Sage, London
(1993).
141 pp. f14.50.
This book presents a meticulous and perceptive account of the nature of young children’s relationships with others. It takes a broad remit, describing not only the dyadic interactions of child-parent, child-sibling, and child-friend, but also examining the connections between relationships within the family and between family relationships and friendships. Judy Dunn confronts this task in its full complexity by skilfully blending objective, systematic research findings with observational reports that are both sensitive and insightful. In so doing, she has written an immensely readable, coherent “state of the art” account of children’s relationships, simultaneously forging an argument that challenges the paradigm within which much current research takes place. The thrust of Dunn’s argument is thus: if we continue to concentrate on the key dimension of security of attachment, we shall not achieve a full understanding of children’s relationships. In her view, an adequate account must acknowledge the other ways-apart from attachment-in which the child-mother relationship differs; it needs also to take on board the multidimensional and developmental aspects of children’s relationships with both parents, with siblings and with peers. Whilst recognising that security of attachment is of major importance, Dunn asks why other factors that are known to be important in adult relationships-such as warmth, frequency of conflict, frequency of expressed affection, shared communication, shared humour, self disclosure, and connectedness-are neglected when looking at children. Furthermore, she queries the concept that children’s relationships with their mothers serve as a template for other relationships and reports studies that reveal no significant relationship between security of child-mother attachment at age one and friendship patterns at age five, suggesting that children may compensate through their friendships for emotionally unsatisfying parentxhild relationships. The case presented in this book is difficult to refute: as participants in relationships throughout life, we “know” that our relationships are complex, multi-faceted and shifting, and that there are both links and striking differences amongst our different relationships. It is perhaps this very complexity that has encouraged researchers to adopt a narrowed framework for study in order to impose some measure of control. Dunn’s argument is that we can no longer afford to constrain research in this way: in the final chapter she writes, “The attachment framework has been useful in illuminating aspects of the parent-child relationships and their significance in later life, as well as in setting up hypotheses about what processes may be important. However, its typology is both limited and limiting.” The challenge will be to translate into testable hypotheses the issues raised in this book. To address this, Dunn reports on a model, proposed by Hinde, that appreciates connections between the quality of relationships and both the wider social context and differences in individuals. Furthermore, in order to describe the key dimensions in which relationships differ, she presents detailed accounts of three 4-year-olds’ relationships with their mothers. Other testable hypotheses are also discussed: for example, the possibility that differences in parentxhild discourse about feelings and the social world may be related to the subtlety of children’s competence in peer relationships, or that early shared humour may later be related to the ability to enjoy wit and light-heartedness in relationships. 793
794
Book Reviews
The breadth and scope of this book give it obvious appeal to all those interested in social and developmental psychology. In addition to the areas outlined, the author discusses the way in which such factors as social understanding, genetics, and marital interactions may affect children’s relationships. The style and presentation of the book will probably ensure it a readership beyond its intended audience: as usual, Judy Dunn presents complex material in a deceptively simple, uncluttered, commonsensical manner. JENNY CASTLE D. J. MILLER and M. HERSEN (Eds): Research Fraud in the BePlaaioral and Biotnedical Sciences, Wiley, New York (1992). xii + 2.51 pp. f34.50. This is an interesting but deeply flawed book. It contains several important chapters, but also a good deal of suppressio veri and suggestio J&i. Above all. it sidesteps many important and relevant questions. Among the positive aspects are well-written case histories of some of the fraud and plagiarism cases that have emerged in the past decade, chapters dealing with legal and administrative efforts to contain fraud, and above all Jensen’s chapter on the Burt case-it is well-written, open-minded, and judicious in the best sense. It is unlikely that much more can be said about this exceedingly odd affair. The verdict must be something like “not proven”-there clearly were some unacceptable goings-on, but just what they were we will probably never know. None of the participants emerge with much credit. What is certain is that many unscrupulous persons used the affair for political ends, to promote environmentalist dogmas, although Burt’s data, true or false, are not needed to prove the emptiness of that dogma. Now to some of the peculiarities of the book. There is a chapter on “Personality factors in scientific fraud and misconduct”, by D. Miller. One might have anticipated that such a chapter would be written by an authority on personality theory, and would in fact deal with personality factors, but no such luck. Miller turns out to be a program co-ordinator for automated information systems, who believes that “personality remains d controversial construct” (p. 127), and as a consequence shuns all mention of the personality traits which have been linked with criminality, confidence tricksters, anti-social behaviour, etc. He does, however, indulge in psychodynamic psychobabble of the worst kind-speculative, lacking any kind of proof or even testability, and without reference to known facts about personality. This is just an example of the poor scientific quality found in some of the chapters in this book. Now to sugge.~tio~~sj. Poling, in his chapter on the consequences of fraud. states that “Burt’s twin data had important implications for determining educational programs in England. His findings played a major role in establishing a system in which a child’s performance on a test taken at 1I years of age determined subsequent school placement: children who did well on the test received a higher-quality education than those who did poorly.” Poling goes on to say that heritability of the IQ is basic to this system, and that that combination “was supported by apparently fabricated data.” Burt, he says, “also used fabricated data to indicate that, after the system just described was replaced by a more egalitarian one, educational standards fell.” (p. 150). Poling is clearly ignorant of the English scene; his only reference for this farago of nonsense is an equally brief and erroneous note in an American book on fraud, clearly also not based on any kind of research. His short paragraph contains more errors than any paragraph I have ever read. Burt’s twin data did nothing to change scientific opinion about IQ heritability: Woodworth published a monograph, at the request of APA, summarizing all the evidence two years before Burt’s first paper on the subject, suggesting a heritability of 70%. a finding pretty universally accepted. Burt did not play a major role in the decision to introduce the II + examination, he was one of the many who testified at the meeting of the committee that framed the recommendation and he actually opposed the ll-year allocation. Children who did not perform well did not receive a w’orse education, but one better suited to their intellectual level. Whether Burt used fabricated data to show that the comprehensive sysem had failed is doubtful, with the evidence suggesting that he did not. In any case, very large-scale studies have shown that here too he was right; comprehensive education led to a serious lowering of standards, as even its one-time advocates now admit. Is it fraudulent to assert as true things which are quite untrue, as Poling does-and which should be known to the writer to be untrue? The book is silent on this important point, which goes well beyond Poling’s diatribe_Kamin’s work is another example. Another example of this malevolent tendency to present nonfactual statements as true is given by the editors in the last They discuss possible conflict of interests. and state: ‘The most flagrant examples chapter, dealing with “Future Directions” of the aforementioned are those scientists (M.D. and Ph.D.) who work for or consult with the Tobacco Institute and repeatedly argue against the established link between cigarette-smoking and lung cancer. Certainly in these instances the financial rewards offered by the Tobacco Institute color the manner in which these individuals interpret the extant data adduced in favour of the smoking-lung cancer links.” (p. 236). Here we have defamation of character without hint of proof or supportive evidence, written by two people whose names I have never encountered in the literature on the subject. Perhaps they have been unfortunate enough to take seriously the Surgeon-General’s Reports on Smoking. concerning which one may quote the old saying about lies, damned lies and the Surgeon-Generai’s Reports! There 0 a serious scientific debate going on about these matters. and attributing bad motives to those on the other side is a simple case of arguing ad ~l~~mj~en, a practice not too far removed from fraud. (I know a number of the scientists so maligned personally. and can vouch for their utter integrity.) Those are some instances of .~~~~e.s/~u,~~~sj;how about .~upp~e.~.sj~~ teri? This book concentrates on the small fry among the fraudsters, but has nothing to say about the big fish. It has been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that Freud was very economical with the truth in describing his “successes”, as well as in most other things. as I have described in my book on “Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire”; why not deal with this much more important case of fraud? The social consequences are much more far-reaching than those associated with the cases actually cited. The promise of successful treatment has been shown to be false, but claims continue to be made. From any point of view this w’ould be a far more interesting case to discuss, but alas not a word is said. Much is made of Burt’s alleged fraud, but not a word is said about the much more serious frauds committed by environmentalists who pretended to have raised the IQ of deprived children by improbable amounts. and who were later found to have fabricated their data. (Spitz has documented those cases in his book on “The Raising of Intelligence.“) The erroneous impression is thus given that hereditarians falsify their data, environmentalists do not. Nothing could be further from the truth. How about explanations of fraudulent behaviour? Much is made of modern conditions and pressures. but there is no evidence that fraud is more prevalent than before. and if these be the causes. why is the vast majority honest? Having
1994
Elsevier Science Ltd. Printed in Great Britain
Pergamon
BOOK REVIEWS ULRIKE SCHMIDT and JANET TREASURE: Getting Better Bit(e) by Bit(e). A Survival Kit for Sufferers of Bulimia Nervosa and Binge-eating Disorders, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hove (1993). xiv + 143 pp. f 19.95 Hardback; E9.95 Paperback. As eating disorders increase in frequency in the population, it becomes more and more difficult to provide specialist a recent British Medical Journal editorial treatment for every individual. “From specialist care to self-directed treatment”, by these authors, describes a general trend in medicine and psychiatry towards self-help, with minimal initial specialist input. This book, a self-help manual, reflects that trend. It includes a wealth of clinical examples which illustrate the spectrum of the disorders, and with which the sufferer may identify. The book has been field-tested, showing equal efficacy in symptom reduction to cognitive-behavioural treatment, after an eight-week period. It uses the analogy of a journey, reminiscent of many pitfalls and setbacks on the route to recovery. A particular “The Pilgrim’s Progress”, with the sufferer negotiating strength of the book is its imaginative and clever use of cartoons, depicting the various plights of the traveller at various stages. The sufferer is initially asked to consider if and why recovery really is an ambition. Then separate chapters describe the potential temptations and hazards along the route, with practical suggestions on how to negotiate these, e.g. “Vomiting, Laxatives and Diuretics: Have Your Cake and Eat It--Or Not?“; “Relapse: Walking In Circles-Or Not?“; and “Dieting: A Health Warning”. Several chapters include useful reading lists, should the sufferer wish to explore a particular issue further. Besides addressing actual symptomatology in a behavioural way, the book also discusses characteristic self-defeating patterns of thought and behaviour found in people with eating disorders, such as the drive for perfection, the dominance of guilt, and the “Dictatorship of Control”. “The Slippery Slope of Booze and Drugs”, and shoplifting (“Do You Like Russian Roulette?‘) are addressed. Family, friends and work, often also affected by these disorders, are discussed. For example, some people with eating disorders have workaholic tendencies “out of a sense of battling against personal failure or out of perfectionism”. Again, friends may have been gradually lost or turned away, and in particular sexual relationships may have been affected by the disorder. Ways of approaching these problems are suggested. This book does not claim to be a cure, but says it “can help you get much better, so that the eating disorder doesn’t rule your life anymore”. It is clearly and directly written, from a wealth of practical experience, and does indeed provide the sufferer with a “survival kit” on the road to recovery. It can be recommended, not only to sufferers, but to professionals dealing with these patients, and to family and friends who wish to become involved in the recovery process. ANNE WARD
JUDY DUNN: Young Children’s Close Relationship-Beyond
Attachment, Sage, London
(1993).
141 pp. f14.50.
This book presents a meticulous and perceptive account of the nature of young children’s relationships with others. It takes a broad remit, describing not only the dyadic interactions of child-parent, child-sibling, and child-friend, but also examining the connections between relationships within the family and between family relationships and friendships. Judy Dunn confronts this task in its full complexity by skilfully blending objective, systematic research findings with observational reports that are both sensitive and insightful. In so doing, she has written an immensely readable, coherent “state of the art” account of children’s relationships, simultaneously forging an argument that challenges the paradigm within which much current research takes place. The thrust of Dunn’s argument is thus: if we continue to concentrate on the key dimension of security of attachment, we shall not achieve a full understanding of children’s relationships. In her view, an adequate account must acknowledge the other ways-apart from attachment-in which the child-mother relationship differs; it needs also to take on board the multidimensional and developmental aspects of children’s relationships with both parents, with siblings and with peers. Whilst recognising that security of attachment is of major importance, Dunn asks why other factors that are known to be important in adult relationships-such as warmth, frequency of conflict, frequency of expressed affection, shared communication, shared humour, self disclosure, and connectedness-are neglected when looking at children. Furthermore, she queries the concept that children’s relationships with their mothers serve as a template for other relationships and reports studies that reveal no significant relationship between security of child-mother attachment at age one and friendship patterns at age five, suggesting that children may compensate through their friendships for emotionally unsatisfying parentxhild relationships. The case presented in this book is difficult to refute: as participants in relationships throughout life, we “know” that our relationships are complex, multi-faceted and shifting, and that there are both links and striking differences amongst our different relationships. It is perhaps this very complexity that has encouraged researchers to adopt a narrowed framework for study in order to impose some measure of control. Dunn’s argument is that we can no longer afford to constrain research in this way: in the final chapter she writes, “The attachment framework has been useful in illuminating aspects of the parent-child relationships and their significance in later life, as well as in setting up hypotheses about what processes may be important. However, its typology is both limited and limiting.” The challenge will be to translate into testable hypotheses the issues raised in this book. To address this, Dunn reports on a model, proposed by Hinde, that appreciates connections between the quality of relationships and both the wider social context and differences in individuals. Furthermore, in order to describe the key dimensions in which relationships differ, she presents detailed accounts of three 4-year-olds’ relationships with their mothers. Other testable hypotheses are also discussed: for example, the possibility that differences in parentxhild discourse about feelings and the social world may be related to the subtlety of children’s competence in peer relationships, or that early shared humour may later be related to the ability to enjoy wit and light-heartedness in relationships. 793
794
Book Reviews
The breadth and scope of this book give it obvious appeal to all those interested in social and developmental psychology. In addition to the areas outlined, the author discusses the way in which such factors as social understanding, genetics, and marital interactions may affect children’s relationships. The style and presentation of the book will probably ensure it a readership beyond its intended audience: as usual, Judy Dunn presents complex material in a deceptively simple, uncluttered, commonsensical manner. JENNY CASTLE D. J. MILLER and M. HERSEN (Eds): Research Fraud in the BePlaaioral and Biotnedical Sciences, Wiley, New York (1992). xii + 2.51 pp. f34.50. This is an interesting but deeply flawed book. It contains several important chapters, but also a good deal of suppressio veri and suggestio J&i. Above all. it sidesteps many important and relevant questions. Among the positive aspects are well-written case histories of some of the fraud and plagiarism cases that have emerged in the past decade, chapters dealing with legal and administrative efforts to contain fraud, and above all Jensen’s chapter on the Burt case-it is well-written, open-minded, and judicious in the best sense. It is unlikely that much more can be said about this exceedingly odd affair. The verdict must be something like “not proven”-there clearly were some unacceptable goings-on, but just what they were we will probably never know. None of the participants emerge with much credit. What is certain is that many unscrupulous persons used the affair for political ends, to promote environmentalist dogmas, although Burt’s data, true or false, are not needed to prove the emptiness of that dogma. Now to some of the peculiarities of the book. There is a chapter on “Personality factors in scientific fraud and misconduct”, by D. Miller. One might have anticipated that such a chapter would be written by an authority on personality theory, and would in fact deal with personality factors, but no such luck. Miller turns out to be a program co-ordinator for automated information systems, who believes that “personality remains d controversial construct” (p. 127), and as a consequence shuns all mention of the personality traits which have been linked with criminality, confidence tricksters, anti-social behaviour, etc. He does, however, indulge in psychodynamic psychobabble of the worst kind-speculative, lacking any kind of proof or even testability, and without reference to known facts about personality. This is just an example of the poor scientific quality found in some of the chapters in this book. Now to sugge.~tio~~sj. Poling, in his chapter on the consequences of fraud. states that “Burt’s twin data had important implications for determining educational programs in England. His findings played a major role in establishing a system in which a child’s performance on a test taken at 1I years of age determined subsequent school placement: children who did well on the test received a higher-quality education than those who did poorly.” Poling goes on to say that heritability of the IQ is basic to this system, and that that combination “was supported by apparently fabricated data.” Burt, he says, “also used fabricated data to indicate that, after the system just described was replaced by a more egalitarian one, educational standards fell.” (p. 150). Poling is clearly ignorant of the English scene; his only reference for this farago of nonsense is an equally brief and erroneous note in an American book on fraud, clearly also not based on any kind of research. His short paragraph contains more errors than any paragraph I have ever read. Burt’s twin data did nothing to change scientific opinion about IQ heritability: Woodworth published a monograph, at the request of APA, summarizing all the evidence two years before Burt’s first paper on the subject, suggesting a heritability of 70%. a finding pretty universally accepted. Burt did not play a major role in the decision to introduce the II + examination, he was one of the many who testified at the meeting of the committee that framed the recommendation and he actually opposed the ll-year allocation. Children who did not perform well did not receive a w’orse education, but one better suited to their intellectual level. Whether Burt used fabricated data to show that the comprehensive sysem had failed is doubtful, with the evidence suggesting that he did not. In any case, very large-scale studies have shown that here too he was right; comprehensive education led to a serious lowering of standards, as even its one-time advocates now admit. Is it fraudulent to assert as true things which are quite untrue, as Poling does-and which should be known to the writer to be untrue? The book is silent on this important point, which goes well beyond Poling’s diatribe_Kamin’s work is another example. Another example of this malevolent tendency to present nonfactual statements as true is given by the editors in the last They discuss possible conflict of interests. and state: ‘The most flagrant examples chapter, dealing with “Future Directions” of the aforementioned are those scientists (M.D. and Ph.D.) who work for or consult with the Tobacco Institute and repeatedly argue against the established link between cigarette-smoking and lung cancer. Certainly in these instances the financial rewards offered by the Tobacco Institute color the manner in which these individuals interpret the extant data adduced in favour of the smoking-lung cancer links.” (p. 236). Here we have defamation of character without hint of proof or supportive evidence, written by two people whose names I have never encountered in the literature on the subject. Perhaps they have been unfortunate enough to take seriously the Surgeon-General’s Reports on Smoking. concerning which one may quote the old saying about lies, damned lies and the Surgeon-Generai’s Reports! There 0 a serious scientific debate going on about these matters. and attributing bad motives to those on the other side is a simple case of arguing ad ~l~~mj~en, a practice not too far removed from fraud. (I know a number of the scientists so maligned personally. and can vouch for their utter integrity.) Those are some instances of .~~~~e.s/~u,~~~sj;how about .~upp~e.~.sj~~ teri? This book concentrates on the small fry among the fraudsters, but has nothing to say about the big fish. It has been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that Freud was very economical with the truth in describing his “successes”, as well as in most other things. as I have described in my book on “Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire”; why not deal with this much more important case of fraud? The social consequences are much more far-reaching than those associated with the cases actually cited. The promise of successful treatment has been shown to be false, but claims continue to be made. From any point of view this w’ould be a far more interesting case to discuss, but alas not a word is said. Much is made of Burt’s alleged fraud, but not a word is said about the much more serious frauds committed by environmentalists who pretended to have raised the IQ of deprived children by improbable amounts. and who were later found to have fabricated their data. (Spitz has documented those cases in his book on “The Raising of Intelligence.“) The erroneous impression is thus given that hereditarians falsify their data, environmentalists do not. Nothing could be further from the truth. How about explanations of fraudulent behaviour? Much is made of modern conditions and pressures. but there is no evidence that fraud is more prevalent than before. and if these be the causes. why is the vast majority honest? Having