Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology

J. Community Appl. Soc. Psychol., 16: 331–336 (2006)

Book Reviews

Developmental Psychology and Social Change: Research, History, and Policy

PILLEMER, D. B. andWHITE, S. H. (Eds). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 412ISBN:0-521-53360-0, £17.99 (paperback).

This book begins by asking a fundamentally important question: What is the mission of develop-mental psychology? It is my guess that the editors begin this way not simply because they believeit is a key question, but because they consider it to be one that some psychologists perhaps ought tobe reminded of. To that end, the various chapters provide timely and interesting contributions to ourknowledge of where the discipline originated, how it came to be a crucial factor in our understandingof how children develop, and why it remains a vital force in the evolution of policy making in theareas of childcare, education and health. Far from being a simple, historical narrative, the bookreveals just how close the relationship between developmental psychology and the societies in whichit operates has been. The claim is made early on that the applications of developmental findings arenot in any way secondary, or subservient to ‘pure’ or ‘basic’ research, but rather that the two havebeen twinned from the start.Charles Super opens the first section on global and historical perspectives on the developing child

with an account of how developmental psychology has ‘gone global’, using the discovery and sub-sequent growth in the popularity of coffee by way of analogy. However, Super highlights an impor-tant difference between the two; whereas coffee has the same flavour regardless of where it is drunk,human behaviour (and the study of it) is more precisely culturally and socially located (a theme thatrecurs in later chapters). The notion that human development is not universal, and therefore standsdistinct from some other natural sciences, appears to be the dominant theme (or perhaps message)that emerges from the various chapters that follow; the boundaries that exist between ‘pure’ andapplied psychology, however blurred, should be eliminated if psychology is to truly reflect the worldin which it seeks to operate.Recognizing that psychology sits in an ever-shifting social milieu was a concern of Sheldon

(‘Shep’) White, and many of the authors here acknowledge their debt to his work. William Runyonoffers a personal overview of White’s contribution to the way in which developmental psychologyhas come to reflect—at least in part—this realization. White called for a ‘second psychology’, onethat is both basic and applied. Sadly, Shep White passed away in March 2004, but this book servesas much a celebration of the impact of his views. For example, Michael Cole and Jaan Valsineragree with White that experimental psychology has done much to ‘suffocate’ any view of childrenas learners in a cultural medium, and provide examples of how the application of a ‘secondpsychology’ to teaching and learning environments can extend our understanding of classroomdynamics. Their conclusions are not simply a rallying call for education to take further noticeof psychology, but an implicit recommendation that psychologists interested in educationshould acknowledge the practical constraints that the modern classroom environment place onpractitioners.Social policy is instrumental in ‘setting’ the context for theworld we live in, and Barbara Rogoff et al.

look at the emergence of school as a societal norm, Tracing the development of schooling—to the pointwhere it has become a taken-for-granted route to adulthood—highlights the sometimes overlooked factthat, in the West at least, school age and chronological age are confounded, and reminds us that matura-tional experience and cultural experience are difficult to separate. Rogoff argues that appreciating theimpact of institutional education is essential if we are to understand the nature and course of ‘natural’development. To highlight her argument, they assess the ongoing impact of Western-style education on

Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

three generations of Mayan families in Guatemala. Early 19th Century effects of schooling inAmerica—the move to a more technologically oriented society that results in the earlier separationof children from adults, smaller family sizes, and a reduction in the role that children have in caringfor other family members—are mirrored in present-day Guatemala. The underlying message—that bylooking back, it becomes possible to observe the present in sharper focus, and anticipate the future—isone that is echoed by other contributors.Appropriately, the papers contained in this book also look to the importance of developmental

psychology in the future. Stephen Buka charts the role that developmental psychology has playedin shaping public health in the 21st Century. The frequency of people suffering from infectious dis-eases has gone down in the last 100 years but has been matched by an increase in the instances ofpeople diagnosed with mental ill health. Buka’s claim is that developmental epidemiology holds animportant place at the centre of human development, general epidemiology, and various domainssuch as psychiatric and educational well being, and he provides a persuasive rationale for why itsimportance will inevitably increase in the future. Tracing adult problems like depression, drug abuseand poor academic skills back to early life events, he argues that traditional methods of public healthinquiry are inadequate and can learn from developmental psychology. As in Cole’s chapter on edu-cation, the call is made for changes in current practice to be made to fit with cultural (i.e. social)reality, and it is therefore incumbent upon psychologists and practitioners working in the field tofind common ground.Lewis Lipsitt adds his voice to Buka’s argument. Technological advances, as welcome as many of

them are in alleviating many of the physical and cognitive burdens of humankind, nonetheless placea rapidly increasing burden on our capacity to cope, to keep pace with such change. If technologyactually increases everyday stress, and makes it even easier to destroy ourselves and others (witness9/11), the need for an instrumental developmental psychology is all the more pressing. Drawing onthe history of the Manhattan project in the 1940s (to design a weapon based on nuclear fission),Lipsitt argues that challenges to modern society, such as terrorism and suicide, are best addressedby behavioural scientists who must come together sooner rather than later if crises that mightotherwise be avoided are not to materialise.This book will be of great interest to those who study and care for children. That said, the wealth

of social history might not appeal to everyone. Occasionally, it is hard to find the developmentalpsychology that the reader is likely to expect given the book’s title. Furthermore, the majority ofexamples are drawn from the USA, and thus the book does not have the international flavour somereaders might prefer. Notwithstanding these (slight) reservations, the editors and authors alikeshould be applauded for producing such a potentially important volume as this.

KEVIN MULDOON

Lecturer in Applied PsychologySchool of Life Sciences

Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, UK

Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/casp.860

The Organisation of Attachment Relationships. Maturation, Culture andContext

CRITTENDEN, P. M. and CLAUSSEN, A. H. (Eds). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,2000, pp. 432 ISBN 0-521-58002-1, £60.00 (hardback), ISBN 0-521-53346-5, £22.99 (paperback).

The editors of this book recognise that there is worldwide acceptance of Attachment Theory and theAinsworth/Main methods of assessing attachment relationships. However much of the research inthis area has been carried out using middle-class white populations. The authors wish to look at thebroader context in three areas of research; (1) extending beyond infancy, (2) research on children

332 Book reviews

Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Community Appl. Soc. Psychol., 16: 331–336 (2006)