mi BOOK REVIEWS

The core of the book consists of five sections: the use of reward. modeliing and observational learning. extinc- tion procedures, punishment and desensitization. The last mentioned chapter is a particulariy uelcomc roprc. realistically discussed. Each chapter includes a number of examples illustrating the practical application of the principles and most examples are directly relevant to the teacher’s everyday experience.

The only major limitation is the inadequate coverage of the use of direct observation by outside observers charting and other measurement aspects. One of the main problems teacher’s have IS how to find out if a tactic is working. Measurement, presented as a means of getting feedback needs to be more generally emphasized. A chapter on its principles and applications would have complemented this otherwise excellent gutdc.

M. BI:KC~EK

R. L. SCHWITZGEBEL and R. K. SCHWITZGEBEL (Ed%): Ps?r/toruchr~oloy~: EI~crrorrr~~ Cor~trol o/ .\fr~rrl trrr~l &,/UP ciour. Holt, Rinehart & Winston. 1973. x + 341 pp. Softback. no price cued.

This book consists of a number of reviews and brief experimental reports (most of them already puhlishcd e&c- where) w?hich have little in common other than the use of electronic or mechanical devices to control or mcasurc behaviour. The result is an extremely uneven collection.

Some important technical reports are reprinted. but the material specially written for the volume is oftcn of indifferent quality. Articles such as that by Lang on DAD (device for automated desensitization) will probably already be familiar to readers of thisjournal. and other topics of interest include EEG feedback (Brown). intracer- ebral stimulation in free patients (Delgado) and ‘seeing’ via tactile prosthetics (White cr al.). Others should never have seen the light of day; for example Timothy Leary on the ‘experiential typewriter’-a device for recording ‘psychedelic experiences’. The editors’ own observation on the placebo effect of machinery might have warned them against reprinting uncontrolled reports on the therapeutic effects of small d.c. potentials through the brain. self-locking cigarette cases, electric potty-chairs etc. etc.. many of which have already been consigned to the tech- nological rubbish dump.

There is little doubt that the behaviour modifier of the future will have to be well versed in electronic as well as behavioural technology, and the editors both appreciate and do their best to illustrate this fact. UnfortunateI! the lack of critical selection sometimes shown in the material chosen for this book is unlikely to advance their atm.

KURT SALZINGER: S&i,-ophrr~ria: B~huuiora/ Aspecrs. John Wiley & Sons. New York. 1973. v + 181 pp

This is an excellent brief introduction to the expertmental psychological literature on schizophrenia. together with a consideration of the kind of theoreticat model which can be harmonized with the established facts. The book is good in systematising and recounting the experimental facts: it rather falls down when its Skinnerian bias becomes too apparent. When all is said and done. the successes of operant conditioning in this field are few and far between; to say that “behavior theorv offers a prescrrption for a method of therapy for schizophrenia as it does for other types of abnormal behavior” is distinctly optrmistic. There are many methods of behavior therapy which have proved their worth in connection with rreurotic disorders. where these methods have become very widely used: nothing of the kind is true in connection with psdtotic dtsorders, particularly schizophrenia. There are isolated. usually single-case studies. in which a particular aspect of the patient’s functionmg (e.g.. mutism) is being ‘shaped’. but there is an absolute dearth of comparative clinical studies demonstrating greater over-all effectiveness in curbrq the disorders when compared with other types of therapy (particulari~ chemicat). In line with this overemphasis on operant procedures is an undervaluation of genetic causes: unlike some other recent authors from the same stable Salzinger does not omrt this important causal factor altogether. but he makes it appear as if’the controversy rages on’. There is no real controversy. Salzinger mentions that “figures of concor- dance with respect to schizophrenia in identical twins vary widely”: this is true. but Salzinger might have taken a leaf from his own discussion of the great lack of reliability of diagnosis. which may explain these ‘discrepancies’. The standard of severity of illness required by the investigator before he comes to a diagnosis of ‘schizophrenia’ must determine to some extent the amount of concordance found. This is particularly important when comparing American and European researches: the probability of a particular patient (or his twin!) being diagnosed under this iabel is five times as great in the lJ.S.A. as tt ts in England. for instance! But with these two exceptions this is a fine book which can be recommended to young students, for whom it is unended.

H. J. EYSFNCK