psy 03_09 p220_221 book rev:Layout 1
16/2/09
15:24
Page 221
book reviews
Science of parenting
Full of juicy issues
Introducing the debate
Raising Kids in the 21st Century Sharon Hall
This Book Has Issues: Adventures in Popular Psychology Christian Jarrett & Joannah Ginsburg
What Is Special about the Human Brain? Richard Passingham
I Wiley-Blackwell; 2008; Pb £14.99 Reviewed by Jasmin AquanAssee who is with St Mary’s Hospital/Imperial College NHS Trust
This book walks a line between the ‘pop’ psychology of newsstands and the published work of professional psychologists, and with Christian Jarrett as co-author, there was a guarantee it would be a good read. His fingerprints (so to speak) are all over the new-style Psychologist, and this book is full of the juicy research items he is adept at finding. The other author, Joannah Ginsburg, is likewise both psychologist (psychotherapist) and journalist, contributing three of the eight chapters including the ones on stress (how did the god Pan first sow panic?) and sleep (a way to better remember your dreams?). Jarrett contributes the other five chapters, such as memory and personality – you may have missed the sea slug’s critical contribution to memory research, or an answer to the important question of what makes an effective leader. Each chapter contains a handful of two-page articles, making a total of 61 short pieces, all based on valid research and attractively laid out; there is a compact reference section at the end (index of psychologists, subject index, background research references). I Continuum; 2008; Hb £12.99 Reviewed by Michael Reddy who is Director of MavEdu, a multilingual social and career network for psychologists
read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk
This title attempts to tackle the current debate about the similarities between humans and primates. However, it does so by focusing instead on differences and by emphasising what makes humans unique. The first chapter makes a good job of expressing the intricacies of the debate. What follows is a series of chapters dedicated to a different skill or behaviour. Chapters include among other things language skills and decision-making activity. Each chapter focuses largely on experimental evidence to demonstrate such differences. The discussion concerning the actual level of language understanding possessed by primates when compared with humans was engaging. Although chimpanzees have been shown to hold a rudimentary understanding of language, it is not a patch on our abilities as
just in
The author’s aim is to ‘paint an overall picture of the skills children need to become functioning adults through translating the latest scientific research into workable guidelines’. In short, follow the guidelines dictated by research and a psychologically healthy adult is seemingly guaranteed. However, this book tries too hard to provide a synthesis of current child development literature and fails in its ambition to provide a straightforward guide for raising psychologically healthy children. It is also pitched at a US audience, which can be distracting. Despite these criticisms, it is worth picking up as long as you are not seeking a step-bystep guide to psychological/ social health. The author presents a cogent discussion on her specific concept of ‘psychological health’ and how early cognitive and social development is linked to issues such as resilience and to wider social issues like tolerance and racism. Parents and teachers interested in exploring children’s social development/ behaviour should find this easyto-read book interesting and informative and perhaps even a spur to delving further into the complex area of psychological health.
humans. Indeed, the hemispheric specialisation in humans is a great example of just how much we differ. Passingham ends by reflecting that neuroscience is a relatively new science. The majority of such studies use macaques as a comparison. This has major implications as it is possible that ‘the chimpanzee brain differs from the macaque brain in the same way as does the human brain’. This means that a full understanding of just how humans differ from chimpanzees in particular will not be possible until similar methodologies can be utilised in the study of both. Until then examination of differences can be, to a large extent, conjecture. As an introduction to this debate I would definitely recommend this title. I Oxford University Press; 2008; Hb £29.95 Reviewed by Gary Christopher who is a lecturer in cognitive psychology at the University of the West of England
Sample titles just in: Remembering Our Childhood Karl Sabbagh Women and Depression Michelle N. Lafrance Fundamentals of Psychology Michael W. Eysenck Bodies Susie Orbach Vygotsky at Work and Play Lois Holzman Ten Zen Questions Susan Blackmore The Child’s Voice in Family therapy Carole Gammer Political Psychology David Patrick Houghton The Nature of Sexual Desire James Giles For a full list of books available for review and information on reviewing for The Psychologist, see www.bps.org.uk/books Send books for potential review to The Psychologist, 48 Princess Road East, Leicester LE1 7DR
221