634 BOOK REVIEWS

Socialization and Personality Development. By E. F.Zigler, M. E. Lamb, and I. L. Child. New York:Oxford University Press, 1982,347 pp:, $17.50.

Reviewed by Carolyn Zahn- Waxler, Ph.D.*This volume is the second edition of a book publishedin 1973 by Zigler and Child. It is intended as a supple­mentary text in undergraduate courses in child devel­opment or personality. Persons in clinical child psy­chology, psychiatry, and related mental health disci­plines also may find this book useful for the particularperspective it provides on etiology of some childhoodproblems. The focus is on social, cultural, ideological,and political factors that create and maintain prob­lems in children. Topics such as child abuse, childneglect, education of children with special needs (e.g.,retarded and physically handicapped children), tele ­vision as a socialization influence, divorce, and inter­vention strategies for economically disadvantagedchildren are emphasized.

In the first part of the book the authors raise severalbasic questions about socialization and personality.Why are people the way they are? Are they born thatway or do they become that way because of theirexperiences? What kinds of experiences are particu­larly influential? What accounts for continuities aswell as changes in individuals as they develop? Themajor theories and perspectives that have guided so­cialization research are discussed. These include psy­choanalysis, social learning theory, anthropology, cog­nitive developmental theory, behavior genetics, eth­ology ~nd behavioral biology. Mechanisms hypothe­sized to influence personality development are iden­tified as are the basic research methods. Problems ofinterpretation of scientific data are conveyed in a waythat a newcomer to the field can readily grasp. Theseinclude 1) difficulties in making causal, inferenceswhen naturalistic, correlational studies are used, and2) the related problems in interpreting direction ofinfluence (e.g., does poor parenting affect the child'semotional functioning or does an inherently difficult­t~-control child cause the parent to rely on Iese thanoptimal communication and discipline strategies?).Also important, but not emphasized here, are theproblems of constructing experimental research envi­ronments that adequately portray social reality.

Several subsequent chapters provide nutshell ac­counts of research findings in such areas as genderidentity, moral development, achievement motivation,aggression, social cognition, divorce, cross-culturalcomparisons and atypical development. These areoften informative "bottom-line" accounts that sum-

* Dr. Zahn-Waxler is a research psychologist in the Laboratoryof Developmental Psychology at the National Institute of MentalHealth, Bethesda, Maryland.

marize current knowledge. Brevity of presentations(these chapters often average no more than 3-4 pages)sometimes results in unwarrented generalizations.The chapter on moral development is dated, focusingnarrowly on prohibition learning and conscience de­velopment, with little consideration of the positiveside of morality (e.g., :empathy and altruism). A sim­plistic account of discipline techniques that influencemoral development is given (i.e., punishment is badand induction is good). In fact, some forms of powerassertion or punishment coupled with some forms ofinduction (reasoning),have been found to be particu­larly effective in dealing with , certain problems ofchildren. Similarly, parts of the chapter on socialcognition are misleading. Children are described asable to "not only infer another's emotions but actuallyfeel the same emotion" only well after the preschoolyears. Recent research evidence (see review by Radke­Yarrow et a1. (1983)) indicates the opposite; that chil­dren in the first years of life are capable of emotionalarousal and concern over another's distress, but onlylater can they make appropriate inferences aboutthese events. Again, in the chapter on atypical devel­opment, the authors conclude that "unlike psychoses,of which some trace is likely to remain permanently,neurotic behavior disorders often disappear sponta­neously ... i.e., without attempted intervention."Many would disagree with this conclusion.

The chapter on atypical development is interesting.It approaches the topic within a framework that d~­fines deviation from the norm principally in terms ofmental retardation, giftedness and creativity. There isa discussion of child abuse as well. Clinical syndromes(e.g., hyperactivity, conduct disorders, depression, au­tism, biobehavioral effects of brain damage in 'child­hood, and so on) are not considered.

Part II of the 'book consists of edited versions ofseveral high quality, previously published papers, in­tended to expand upon issues discussed earlier. Thechapter on early childhood autism by Caparulo aridCohen provides ari excellentdiscussion of the naturalhistory, etiology and treatment of the disorder thatshould be useful both to parents and professionals inthis ' field: 'Hetherington's chapter on the effects ofdivorce describes well the implications for children ofthe sequelae of experiences that occur in this transi­tion period (namely disequilibrium, disorganization,experimentation with ' coping mechanisms. ' reorgani­zation, and equilibrium). Zigler's cbapteronchildabuse ,provides a provocative, compelling analysis ofcauses of abuse, the human ecology that creates it andthe conditions of social change that would be requiredto bring about changes in child abuse. However, hisargument that the single most important determinantof child abuse is the willingness of adults to inflict

BOOK REVIEWS 635

physical punishment may be questioned. Surveys typ­ically indicate that 90-95% of adults occasionallyspank or otherwise physically punish their children.Only a small percentage of these children are physi­cally abused. Research is needed to learn why themajority of persons who sometimes spank do notabuse, and why a smaller number of parents losephysical control.. Several chapters focus on ·the demonstrated effec­

tiveness for social-emotional and cognitive develop­ment of early childhood intervention and enrichmentprograms, noting that early negative conclusionsabout these programs were based on inadequate eval­uations. The book culminates in a chapter by Zeigleron a vision of child care in the 1980s in which heprovides imaginative proposals and delineates sensiblesolutions to practical problems in the area of childcare. These include the development of family supportsystems , the establishment of referral centers, theinstitution of home visitor programs , and the subsi­dization of adoption of difficult-to-place children(rather than institutionalization).

While there is sometimes too much duplication ofmaterials across chapters arid some of the referencesare dated (a few of the chapters seemed quite irrele­vant), the reader will find most of the book 'well­written, engaging, and informative.

ReferenceRADKE-YARROW, M., ZAHN-WAXLER, C. & CHAPMAN, M. (1983),

Children's prosocial dispositions and behavior. In: Handbook ofChild Psychology; Vol. IV. Socialization, Personality and SocialDevelopment, ed. E. M. Hetherington. New York: John Wiley &Sons, pp. 469-546.

To Find A Way: The Outcome of Hospital Treatmentof Disturbed Adolescents. By John T. Gossett, Ph.D.,Jerry M. Lewis, M.D., and F. David Barnhart, M.A.New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1983,229 pp., $25.00.

Reviewed by Wells Goodrich, M.D.*

Psychiatrists interested in the long-term hospitaltreatment of chronically disturbed adolescents willfind this concise, well-written volume to be a resourceon twocounts. It provides the best review of publishedresearch on such treatment. It also provides a researchand clinical report on the work at Timberlawn: thebest study to date of its kind. Just as Smith and Glass'review of the results of research on brief outpatientpsychotherapy of adults is a classic, so this book issure to become a model for the field of research on thehospital treatment of those adolescents who are the

*Dr. Goodrich is the Director of Research of the Adolescent andChild Division of Chestnut Lodge, Rockville, Maryland; and ClinicalProfessor of Psychiatry, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.

most difficult to treat. The references to the severalchapters also provide an excellent bibliography.

Thereader would do well to start with Chapter 2,the comprehensive literature review. Major findingsfrom 22 follow-up studies published between 1958 and1980 are synthesized. Fifteen of these studies reportthat severity of pathology on admission is the mostpredictive of the patient's level of functioning at fol­low-up. Most studies distinguish severity of pathologyby dividing patients into three groups: neurosis, per­sonality disorders and psychosis. Eighty to ninetypercent of neurotics are functioning reasonably wellat follow-up, 50-60% of the personality disorders and25-30% of the psychotics. Commonest measures ofimprovement at the time of follow-up are either theabsolute level of adaptive functioning at the time offollow-up or the amount of change in the patient'sfunctioning since admission.

Just as interesting, paradoxically, are those clinicalindicators which often are believed to be useful butwhich in these 22 studies do not correlate with out­come. These include the subtype of diagnosis, the ageat admission, the electroencephalogram, whether ornot there were other members of the patient's familywith a diagnosis of psychosis, previous hospitaliza­tions of the patient, previous therapies of varioustypes, the total duration of therapy, the number ofhours per week of individual therapy and-e-perhapsmost noteworthy-the level of the patient's function­ing at the time of discharge from the hospital. Noneof these has been shown by the literature or by thisstudy at Timberlawn Hospital in Dallas to predictoutcome for severely disturbed adolescent patients.

This hospital provides a medium- and long-termpsychoanalytically oriented, eclectic program for maleand female adolescents. The program includes a spe­cial school, family therapy, variable amounts of indi­vidual therapy (usually two or more times per week') ,and a full range of milieu and psychiatric services.Following the authors' report on the literature, theremainder of To Find a Way is devoted to two studies,a pilot sample of 56 adolescents studied between 1970and 1972 and a second study of 120 subjects carriedout between 1968 and 1972. Even though they consti­tuted the most-difficult-to-treat adolescent patients,in two-thirds of these 176 patients the treatmentturned out to be successful. In order to demonstratethis success, Gossett is particularly to be commendedfor his persistence in reaching 85% of the final sample5 years after hospital discharge.

I will mention selected research results as well assome clinical implications which the authors drawfrom their expriences in carrying out the study. Themost powerful prognostic sign was the severity andchronicity of the patient's symptomatology. Whether