A Scientific Search for Altruism Do We Only Care About Ourselves? By C. Daniel Batson Review by Harry Lewendon-Evans on Tue, Nov 26th 2019. |  | The question of whether altruism exists remains a central, if not foundational, issue for a number of disciplines, including philosophy (in particular, moral theory), psychology, biology, and economics. At stake here is the altruism versus egoism debate. In recent years, this debate has been shaped and informed by a substantial body of experimental work. This has meant that while a priori arguments for and against the existence of altruism can be and have been developed, the issue has taken on a significantly more empirical flavour.
A Scientific Search for Altruism is firmly si Click here to read the full review! |
|
Character Strengths Interventions By Matthijs Steeneveld Anouk van den Berg Review by Beth Cholette, Ph.D. on Tue, Nov 12th 2019. | This is a set of 50 character strength cards derived from the VIA Character Strengths. These character strengths were initially developed through the initiative of renowned psychologist Martin Seligman during his tenue as president of the American Psychological Association. Seligman focused on the theme of positive psychology, and his goal was to create a means to communicate about the best qualities of people. Following extensive research by Seligman and others, the VIA Institute on Character established a free online survey measuring the 24 identified character strengths.&n Click here to read the full review! |  |
|
blueprint how DNA makes us who we are By Robert Plomin Review by John Mullen on Tue, Oct 29th 2019. |  | The author of blueprint, Robert Plomin is an American psychologist, geneticist and neuroscientist and perhaps the most important voice, over many years, in the field of behavioral genetics. It is difficult today to imaging how scientifically taboo it was to study the genetics of human behavior after the racist horrors, bogus research and eugenics projects carried out by the Germans in the Nazi period. The field of behavioral genetics got off to a politically rocky beginning in the 1960s, but has gradually gained respectability, although some of its applications, particularly in the area o Click here to read the full review! |
|
Getting Started with EEG Neurofeedback Second Edition By John N. Demos Review by Roy Sugarman, PhD on Tue, Oct 1st 2019. | As I have noted before (https://metapsychology.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=book&id=4805&cn=458), neurofeedback, a form of biofeedback, has a checkered history with often a dearth of evidence leading to accusations of charlatanism if one practices it. The brain is a noisy electronic signaling hub, and so we amplify and filter the signals into bins, most commonly Alpha, Beta, Delta, Theta and Gamma, and make attributions about what this means, having to match what are called EEG or rather QEEG signatures to common symptoms and disorders. There then follows, on that basis, a series of inter Click here to read the full review! |  |
|
The Varieties of Consciousness By Uriah Kriegel Review by Robert Zaborowski on Tue, Sep 17th 2019. |  |
This book was published originally in 2015 and now it reappears as a paperback. This is a fantastic work, both for its clarity of presentation and precision of analysis. It is composed of an introduction, five chapters and conclusion, plus an appendix which ends with "concluding remarks and directions for future research" (241). Kriegel's approach is both subtle and convincing, well-argued and prudent. The methodology is transparent and the plan of the outline makes it pleasant and easy to follow.
The aim of the book is to determine the number of "sui generis, irreducible, primitive phenome Click here to read the full review! |
|
Mind Games Determination, Doubt and Lucky Socks: An Insider's Guide to the Psychology of Elite Athletes By Annie Vernon Review by Finn Janning on Tue, Jul 16th 2019. | For some, sports is a field with very little on the mind. For others, it's completely different.
Annie Vernon, a former Olympic rower and now a sports journalist, has written a book about what takes place between the ears of elite athletes. Called Mind Games, it has a clear premise: "Everyone has the physical tools—it's the mental tools that separate the good from the great."
The book is not a practical guide on how to train or toughen your mind, nor is it an academic contribution to the field of sport psychology. Instead, it is like being inside a locker room, full of anecdotes f Click here to read the full review! |  |
|
Bowen Theory's Secrets Revealing the Hidden Life of Families By Michael E. Kerr Review by Roy Sugarman, PhD on Tue, Jun 18th 2019. |  | Most of us trained in the late 70's and early 80's would have encountered General Systems Theory and the Family Therapy movement that emerged, partly as a reflex response to the individual focus on pathology begun by Freud. Some, like myself, wrote critiques in our Master's theses of the idea of Freudian biological determinism from the family therapy perspective, or even from the Feminist view in my case. Family therapy saw the patient as a presenting patient, presenting the family or systemic pathology to the public eye, as an identified patient rather than a person with purely intrapsychic i Click here to read the full review! |
|
Promoting Healthy Attachments Hands-on Techniques to Use with Your Clients By Deborah D. Gray Review by Roy Sugarman PhD on Tue, May 7th 2019. | As you will note from the title, this book is designed for psychologists and the like for use with their clients, rather than beginners who might be interested in Thomas Bowlby or babies sequestrated in hospital wards away from mum.
As the blurb in the cover mentions, there is a lot of theory around attachment, including Suomi's continuing studies on monkeys and their ability to separate comfortably from the maternal guardians of the herd. Those that cannot tend to be those whose maternal history includes anxiety on separation, and thus do not venture far from the grazing parent, until placed Click here to read the full review! |  |
|
|