Not all of the chapters are concerned with the presentation of experimen- tal data. Given the controversial subject matter of cognitive ethology, some of the chapters are concerned with more theoretical and philosophical issues. Chapters by Beer, Bennett, and Michel all argue in favour of studying the minds of animals and suggest way in which this might be possible. The chapter by Yoerg and Kamil adopts a more critical stance. They are unhappy about studying the mental experience of animals, not only because of the impossibility of acquiring indicative evidence of such experience, but also because it is unduly restrictive. Much of human thought they argue is unconscious, and can influence conscious thought. Therefore, even if it were possible to identify the mental states of animals, the exclusive study of them would be likely to ignore many aspects of animal cognition that are essential to the survival of the animal. They propose, therefore, that cognitive ethology should be abandoned for a more eclectic approach that integrates knowledge from psychology, ethology, behavioural ecology, computer science, anthropol- ogy and so on. I suspect that many readers will share these views, but this does not mean the present volume should be ignored. It contains many fascinating examples of the complexity of animal behaviour. To ignore these phenomena would be an error, and one that is much more serious than to ignore the study of the mental states that some believe are responsible for them.

John M. Pearce School of Psychology,

Uniuersity of Wales College of Cardiff

F.C. Bakker, H.T.A. Whiting and H. van der Brug, Sport Psychology: Con- cepts and Applications (Wiley, Chichester, 1990) pp. ix + 225, f29.95. J.G. Jones and L. Hardy, Stress and Performance in Sport (Wiley, Chichester, 1990) pp. x + 301, E39.00.

To so many professional psychologists, sport has remained something of a no-go area. The historical reasons why this has been the case are manifold but, whatever the reasons, sport psychology’s separate development is beyond dispute. For psychologists who have delved into the world of sport, the rift between their parent discipline and sport psychology can be painfully obvi- ous. Fortunately, there is growing evidence that the rift is showing some belated signs of healing, and at the same time, amongst psychologists in general there does appear to be more genuine interest in applying psycholog- ical knowledge to sport.

However, those psychologists that tread this sporting path should know that this is far from uncharted territory. As both these volumes amply testify,

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sport psychologists have not been idle in either conducting field research, or extrapolating from experimental work in related areas. The extent of avail- able literature is likely to come as something of a surprise to those not well acquainted with sport psychology, and on some occasions at least, the depth of discussion is commendable.

Each of the volumes, in its own way, demonstrates what is good and what is not so good about contemporary sport psychology. On the positive side, they provide evidence that theory and practice can co-exist relatively harmo- niously in applied psychology. On the downside, the chronological gap between understanding in sport psychology and psychology as a whole can sometimes be very disturbing. Anyone with a first degree in psychology reading either book from cover to cover would almost certainly be struck by the marked variability in terms of breadth of knowledge and level of debate across different areas. There can be quite dramatic shifts from very basic introductory material to intricate theoretical discussion in the space of only a few pages. This inconsistency does not necessarily reflect on the authors or editors, although their own specialisms must play a part, but perhaps more on the uneven development of sport psychology over the years.

The title of Jones and Hardy’s book bears stark testimony to this. Re- search on stress/ arousal/ anxiety and performance has dominated sport psychology over the years, often in the context of mental preparation for competition. In their Preface, the authors acknowledge the wealth of litera- ture which exists and certainly have no difficulty in locating considerable empirical material on which to base their work. Incidentally, the task of looking at this literature is not made easier by the absence of both a cumulative reference list and an author index. The book is divided into three sections: conceptual considerations; stress management and self-regulation; and future research directions. In essence the first section endeavours to provide a theoretical base or bases for looking at stress within sport. The practice of sport psychology is then dealt with in Section 2, where five contributors deal with topics including goal setting, stress management, intervention strategies, performance routines and case studies of stress man- agement amongst elite athletes. Finally, Section 3 is a tight, illuminating and highly structured conclusion, summarising the current state of play and possibilities for future work.

It is significant that the editors are cited as co-authors for six of the eleven chapters, including four of the five more theoretical chapters in Section 1. Given their preeminence in this particular field, one is left wondering whether they would not have been better to bite the bullet and write the whole book themselves. Certainly the gap between Sections 1 and 2 is large. In the Preface, the editors maintain that contributors were asked to relate their material to other topics and approaches, but in all honesty there is not a great deal of evidence of this. It has really been left to Hardy and Jones

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themselves in the first and last chapters (together with Graham Jones’s interesting and well informed discussion of the relationship between stress and performance in sport in Chapter 2) to pull together the disparate threads. Their conclusion is that to date models and theories have not developed the sophistication to be able to cope with all the personal, social and situational variables which interact to produce stress, nor have distinc- tions between stress, arousal and anxiety been clearly made.

The first conclusion is not in dispute. In many ways the early chapters imply that innovative multidimensional models are the order of the day (Chapter 3) but beyond this, the actual process of integration is not pursued. A long hard look is required to see how to synthesise competing approaches, ranging from the traditional and now largely discredited inverted-U hypothe- sis to more recent catastrophe models (Chapter 4), and reversal theory (Chapter 5). It is not clear whether the authors have fully come to terms with how to marry these approaches together as complementary, multiple perspec- tives. For example, on the one hand, Parfitt, Jones and Hardy in Chapter 3 espouse the virtues of multidimensional approaches, but then Hardy himself in Chapter 4 offers considerable criticism of multidimensional anxiety theory. Clearly theoretical research in this area does not enjoy a long history and it may well be that these dialogues and debates will be more eclectic in the future. This book may represent an early stage in this process.

The second major issue which is embedded in the book is how difficult it is conceptually to disentangle such terms as stress, anxiety and arousal in applied settings, and how the situation is unlikely to change dramatically unless research moves beyond tried and trusted but entrenched psychometric tests and measures. With this in mind, I am sure that psychologists with a general interest in stress and coping would read this book with considerable interest. Speaking personally, I am also left wondering what damage has been caused in the long run by describing stress, anxiety and arousal as separate entities in the first place?

The depth of argument found in Stress and Performance in Sport could not hope to be matched by a more general introductory text such as Sport Psychology: Concepts and Applications, and indeed this is not the case. What is encouraging about the latter text is that many of the topics which are dealt with are immediately recognisable within psychology as a whole, even if some of the research itself is not always so familiar. For example, chapters are offered on motivation (Chapter 21, personality (Chapter 31, aggression (Chapter 4), motor learning (Chapter 5), and decision-making (Chapter 6). Without doubt, the contents as a whole would be a departure from most sport psychology books. By way of a typical example, Richard Cox’s well-re- searched introductory text (Sport Psychology: Concepts and Applications. WCB Pubs, Dubuque, IA, 1990) offers very little on motor learning or decision making, yet these are central concerns of the present text.

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In terms of the chapters themselves, these are best described as variable. Some spend considerable time taking the reader through very elementary psychology before focusing on sport (e.g. Chapters 4 and 5); others move quickly from overviews to comprehensive and up-to-date presentations of the sport psychology literature (e.g. Chapter 2 and 6). For psychologists working in each of these areas, this material may be interesting but the theoretical frameworks are not likely to provide inspiration.

The introductory chapter dwells largely on the place occupied by the sport psychologists within sport, but spends less time dealing with the nature of sport psychology as a discipline. The actual practice of sport psychology is left for Chapter 7, which is perhaps unfortunate as this material would have usefully placed much of the cited research in context for those without a background in sport psychology.

Few of the chapters hold genuine surprises, although each can be used to overview current trends, issues and priorities in that particular area, warts and all. Whether the book succeeds in accurately representing the current state of sport psychology is debatable. Certainly, there are large areas within the discipline (e.g. gender, group processes) which are either completely ignored or only mentioned in passing.

The different emphases of both books make direct comparison difficult. As a stark example, stress only warrants a handful of mentions in Sport Psychology: Concepts and Applications. What is encouraging in both books is that in some (but certainly not all) instances, the theories which are being introduced and discussed are those which also inform contemporary debate within psychology as a whole. These signs of a closer interaction between sport psychology and psychology have been a long time coming, and are surely to be welcomed by us all, and these books certainly represent part of this continuing process of integration.

John Kremer School of Psychology,

The Queen’s University of Belfast

R.P. Kesner and D.S. Olton (Eds.) Neurobiology of Comparative Cognition (Hillsdale, NJ and London, 1990) pp. xii + 476, X19.96 (paper) f25.00 (hard- back).

The introductory chapter here is a re-statement, with responses to subse- quent critics, of the arguments put forward by Hodos and Campbell (H&C) in 1969 in an article subtitled “Why there is no theory in comparative psychology”. The editors suggest, with good reason, that a book with this title is a logical and necessary step to take in the search for relations between