In their introduction to The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Psychology, editors John Symons and Paco Calvo compare the content of their book to what for some time was the official introduction to the discipline for philosophers, i.e. Ned Block's Readings in Philosophy of Psychology. Recall that Block's first volume was centered on issues of explanation in psychology, such as criticism of the various forms of behaviorism or the exposition of the central tenants of functionalism; while the second volume was devoted to issues such as mental representation, mental imagery, grammar and innate Click here to read the full review!
In How Women Got Their Curves and Other Just-So Stories: Evolutionary Enigmas, David P. Barash and Judith Eve Lipton take on five evolutionary enigmas concerning women's bodies. These enigmas include: menstruation, ovulation, breasts (and other curves), orgasm, and menopause. The authors use evolutionary biology to discuss, analyze and pick apart various theories and hypotheses concerning the female body. The authors dedicate a chapter to each enigma, starting with menstruation.
Barash and Lipton discuss several hypotheses and "just-so stories" in their quest of understanding why women menstr Click here to read the full review!
The Meaning of Nice How Compassion and Civility Can Change Your Life By Joan Duncan Oliver Review by Dan Buccino on Tue, May 15th 2012.
As befitting an author who has spent her career largely in journalism and magazine editing, Joan Duncan Oliver's slim paperback, The Meaning of Nice, reads briskly, as if it were a collection of articles from Self or O magazines. Though the premise of the book is timely in our increasingly uncivil times, and the organization of the book intelligently highlights some of the key themes that pertain to the concept of "nice," The Meaning of Nice makes liberal use of anecdote, aphorism, personal confession, newspaper clippings, and comments from respondents to the author's online Nice S Click here to read the full review!
Not by Design Retiring Darwin's Watchmaker By John Reiss Review by Christina Behme, Ph.D. on Tue, May 15th 2012.
To say that the topic of evolution has been covered extensively is an understatement. The Wikipedia entry cites 288 sources and interested readers with all levels of background knowledge can chose from a wide selection of publications. The easily accessible Zimmer (2001) and Dawkins (2006), the more demanding but rewarding Gould (2002), Maynard Smith & Szathmáry (1997) and Mayr (2001) offer introductions for general readers, Hull & Ruse (2007) and Okasha (2007) for philosophers, and recently Hurford (2011) for language evolution. Countless volumes are available for those who wan Click here to read the full review!
Core Fusion Power Sculpt By Elisabeth Halfpapp and Fred DeVito Review by Pratima Sampat-Mar on Tue, May 15th 2012.
This DVD sounded promising to me, a full-time working mother of two, because according to Bethenny, this is how she got and stayed in shape after having her baby. I have read magazine interviews with Bethenny but have never watched either of her TV shows. I find her perspective and comments down-to-earth and her perspective therefore appealing. The DVD is appealing because it contains 3 yoga workouts--two are 15 minutes each and the third is 25 minutes. There is also a bonus 12-minute stretch segment. This allows for a lot of flexibility in the length and intensity of your workout. In addition Click here to read the full review!
Faking It By Elisa Lorello Review by Natalie Kelley-Wilson on Tue, May 15th 2012.
The purpose of this book seems to be to explore human sexuality and love through fiction. As a bonus the reader is introduced to some rhetorical theory. It seems that while enjoying a fictional story one is also receiving a lesson in rhetoric and writing. The author uses her knowledge of rhetoric to emphasize her message.
This book is intended for the general fiction reader, however those with a particular interest in sexuality or rhetoric will find it particularly enjoyable. The book might provide useful discussion in a fiction writing class or even in a psychology class dealing with sexual Click here to read the full review!
The Future of Us By Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler Review by Christian Perring on Tue, May 15th 2012.
For today's teens, 1996 is the distant past, and The Future of Us provides a strong dose of nostalgia for those AOL CD-ROMS, dial-up logging in, VCRs, the first signs of cell phones in popular use, and the Macarena. The two narrators are Emma and Josh, 16-year-old high school students who live next to each other. They take alternating chapters, telling the story of what happened when Emma's new computer gave her access to her Facebook page 15 years in the future, in 2011. They get to see what will happen to them, and they soon realize that they can affect what happens.& Click here to read the full review!
Attached The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help YouFind -- and Keep -- Love By Amir Levine and Rachel Heller Review by Chris Vaughan on Tue, May 8th 2012.
We are all different but subterranean forces exist which compel us into similar patterns of attitude and behavior and allow us to be typed by psychologists into a single collective category. In intimate relationships we fall into one of three according to Levine and Heller.
The authors take their lead from Mary Ainsworth’s groundbreaking experiment which has come to be known as the strange situation test where infants had differing reactions to their mother’s short absence. In Ainsworth’s scheme the children fell into one of these same three categories -- secure, avoi Click here to read the full review!
Evolutionary Psychology Volume II By Stefan Linquist and Neil Levy (Editors) Review by Juan J. Colomina, Ph.D. on Tue, May 8th 2012.
S. Linquist and Neil Levy’s volume collects several classical works in evolutionary psychology from 1989 to 2004. The main idea of this controversial field is that human beings are evolved organisms. The motivation of this spirit came from the success of the evolutionary theory in explaining the psychological content and behavior of other animals. If it can explain their traits and skills, evolutionary psychologists advocate, then we can apply this framework with some profit to humans because presumably human cognition, emotions and behavior are no different after all.
Unlike some criti Click here to read the full review!
The Social Psychology of Morality Exploring the Causes of Good and Evil By Mario Mikulincer and Phillip R. Shaver (Editors) Review by Lisa Bellantoni, Ph.D. on Tue, May 8th 2012.
How do practices like genocide arise, and why do some people resist them, while others stand by and do nothing? Do we have an innate moral grammar, or even an in born set of intuitions, and if so, why do we have so many moral disagreements? How do we become moral agents in the first place? These queries animate this wide ranging volume, which introduces readers to the burgeoning field of moral psychology. Presented in five sections, these brief, well-researched essays examine, respectively: the potential psychological and social origins of our moral principles; the motives and cognitive proces Click here to read the full review!
Interdependent Minds The Dynamics of Close Relationships By Sandra L. Murray and John G. Holmes Review by Elizabeth Drummond Young on Tue, May 8th 2012.
This book is the result of the authors' numerous psychological studies into the nature of long term relationships. Personal relationships are hard work, the authors suggest, but they are certainly worth working at. It is widely accepted that mutual responsiveness is at the heart of a successful relationship, but the authors take this further by proposing a cognitive model called 'the interdependent mind', which embodies the know-how or sets or rules which we use when engaging in relationships. The rules take the form 'if….then', which guide us on when and how to proceed in the relations Click here to read the full review!
Obesity Cultural and Biocultural Perspectives By Alexandra Brewis Review by Cicely Alsbury on Tue, May 8th 2012.
Obesity Cultural and Biocultural Perspectives provides an easy to read overview o f the contemporary phenomenon of obesity by introducing the complexities which intertwine to provide reason why the population is becoming increasingly overweight, as some might say, at an alarming rate. Brewis provides an analysis of each of the different factors which can influence the populous both in the conceptuality of obese persons and the self-conception of body image. This analysis is completed by providing an expansive literature review across a multitude of academic disciplines, referencing the Click here to read the full review!
Bethenny's Skinnygirl Workout DVD By Bethenny Frankel with Mike McArdle Review by Pratima Sampat-Mar on Tue, May 8th 2012.
This DVD sounded promising to me, a full-time working mother of two, because according to Bethenny, this is how she got and stayed in shape after having her baby. I have read magazine interviews with Bethenny but have never watched either of her TV shows. I find her perspective and comments down-to-earth and her perspective therefore appealing. The DVD is appealing because it contains 3 yoga workouts--two are 15 minutes each and the third is 25 minutes. There is also a bonus 12-minute stretch segment. This allows for a lot of flexibility in the length and intensity of your workout. In addition Click here to read the full review!
Taking Wittgenstein at His Word A Textual Study By Robert J. Fogelin Review by Kenny Siu Sing Huen, Ph.D. on Tue, May 8th 2012.
In an attempt to fully respect Wittgenstein's texts and his notion of philosophizing ('Philosophy simply puts everything before us, and neither explains nor deduces anything' [Philosophical Investigations (PI), §126]), Fogelin selects several central themes of the later Wittgenstein for a renewed treatment, namely, rule-following, private language and topics in philosophy of mathematics.
A new term 'defactoism' is used in this work to refer to Wittgenstein's overall position (see pp. 28-29). Declining to give this position a definition, Fogelin traces out a line of thinking from Wittgens Click here to read the full review!
Getting Wasted Why College Students Drink Too Much and Party So Hard By Thomas Vander Ven Review by Hennie Weiss on Tue, May 1st 2012.
Getting Wasted: why college students drink too much and party so hard by Thomas Vander Ven is a multimethodological and sociological examination of college drinking culture. The book is filled with observations, drinking stories and interviews with undergraduate students.
Vander Ven briefly discusses the history of college drinking starting with the "big three" (Harvard, Yale and Princeton), and then moves through the prohibition era, Greek life, and the more recent decades. Throughout the book, symbolic interactionism is used to study and analyze college drinking culture.
Vander Ven then Click here to read the full review!
Welcome to MHN's unique book review site Metapsychology.
We feature over 6400 in-depth reviews of a wide range of books and DVDs written by our reviewers from many backgrounds and perspectives.
We update our front page weekly and add more than thirty new reviews each month. Our editor is Christian Perring, PhD. To contact him, use the form available here.
Can't remember our URL? Access our reviews directly via 'metapsychology.net'
Metapsychology Online reviewers normally receive gratis review copies of the items they review. Metapsychology Online receives a commission from Amazon.com for purchases through this site, which helps fund our continuing growth. We thank you for your support!
Join our e-mail list!:Metapsychology New Review Announcements: Sent out monthly, these announcements list our recent reviews. To subscribe, click here.
Interested in becoming a book reviewer for Metapsychology? Currently, we especially need thoughtful reviewers for books in fiction, self-help and popular psychology. To apply, write to our editor.
