Metapsychology Online Reviews - Volume 16, Number 20
 
Featured Reviews
Quiet by Susan CainQuiet
by Susan Cain
Tue, Apr 17th 2012
We've Got Issues by Judith WarnerWe've Got Issues
by Judith Warner
Tue, Apr 17th 2012
Inside the Session by Paul L. WachtelInside the Session
by Paul L. Wachtel
Tue, Apr 17th 2012
 
The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Psychology
By John Symons and Paco Calvo (editors)
Review by Luc Faucher, Ph.D. on Tue, May 15th 2012.
The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Psychology by John Symons and Paco Calvo (editors)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
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How Women Got Their Curves and Other Just-So Stories
Evolutionary Enigmas
By David P. Barash and Judith Eve Lipton
Review by Hennie Weiss on Tue, May 15th 2012.
How Women Got Their Curves and Other Just-So Stories by David P. Barash and Judith Eve LiptonIn 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
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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.
The Meaning of Nice by Joan Duncan OliverAs 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
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Not by Design
Retiring Darwin's Watchmaker
By John Reiss
Review by Christina Behme, Ph.D. on Tue, May 15th 2012.
Not by Design by John ReissTo 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
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Core Fusion Power Sculpt
By Elisabeth Halfpapp and Fred DeVito
Review by Pratima Sampat-Mar on Tue, May 15th 2012.
Core Fusion Power Sculpt by Elisabeth Halfpapp and Fred DeVitoThis 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
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Faking It
By Elisa Lorello
Review by Natalie Kelley-Wilson on Tue, May 15th 2012.
Faking It by Elisa LorelloThe 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
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The Future of Us
By Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
Review by Christian Perring on Tue, May 15th 2012.
The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn MacklerFor 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.&
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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.
Attached by Amir Levine and Rachel HellerWe 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
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Evolutionary Psychology
Volume II
By Stefan Linquist and Neil Levy (Editors)
Review by Juan J. Colomina, Ph.D. on Tue, May 8th 2012.
Evolutionary Psychology by Stefan Linquist and Neil Levy (Editors)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
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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.
The Social Psychology of Morality by Mario Mikulincer and Phillip R. Shaver (Editors)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
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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.
Interdependent Minds by Sandra L. Murray and John G. HolmesThis 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
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Obesity
Cultural and Biocultural Perspectives
By Alexandra Brewis
Review by Cicely Alsbury on Tue, May 8th 2012.
Obesity by Alexandra Brewis 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
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Bethenny's Skinnygirl Workout
DVD
By Bethenny Frankel with Mike McArdle
Review by Pratima Sampat-Mar on Tue, May 8th 2012.
Bethenny's Skinnygirl Workout by Bethenny Frankel with Mike McArdleThis 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.
Taking Wittgenstein at His Word by Robert J. FogelinIn 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
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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 by Thomas Vander Ven 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
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