BOOK REVIEWS 425

different kinds of responses from persons in the environment than an infant who is placid and much easier to take care of during the first few weeks of life. The behaviors of the caretaking persons may, in turn, influence the behavior of the infant, and this reciprocal interaction could eventually modify or further reinforce a particular habit pattern.

The topic of constitution, like that of cognitive processes and self-control, was virtually neglected in the early behavioral research and theoretical writings. The Gelfand book puts these issues in proper perspective, without overlooking or relegating to a secondary position other papers more clearly related to environmental determinants of behavior change, particu- larly with problem children. The papers on the modification of problem behaviors in the home and school environments are well chosen and provide information that the reader can apply to his or her own interactions with children (a stated goal of this book).

The commentaries by the author are helpful, and one gets the feeling that the author is not merely presenting a book of readings, but is actively involved in the process of helping the reader to understand the information in the text. In addition to a commentary before each section of the book, Gelfand provides a list of terms following each reading indicating that these terms are defined in a glossary at the end of the book. The editor also presents postscript commentaries after several of the papers, in order to update the reader on current issues or further developments germane to that paper.

The book contains three general discussion papers: "Social Learning Theory and Guidance in Early Childhood" by Barbara J. Vance; "The Role of Modeling Processes in Personality Development" by Albert Bandura; and "Some Effects of Punishment on Children's Be- havior" by Ross D. Parke. The paper by Parke is new to this edition. These papers provide additional theoretical discussions of social learning theory as well as a summary of ' the research relevant to the topic of that paper. These articles are interesting to read and highlight several problems inherent in a book of readings based primarily on specific studies published in scientific journals: The style of journal articles often makes for very dry reading and the juxtaposition of one article next to another is often discontinuous in terms of synthesizing research developments in a particular area, despite the section commentary by the editor. The book might have been more comprehensive and interesting if each chapter were a review of a particular topic with a discussion of the author's own research as well as other relevant research, as was done in the three discussion articles referred to above. Nonetheless, the Gelfand book is an important contribution to the dissemination of knowledge about the issues and topics of social learning in childhood, and this text should prove instructive for both undergraduate and graduate courses in general child psychology as well as courses in child clinical psychology.

GLORIA R. LEON Department of Psychology

University of Minnesota Minneapolis, Mn 55455

FELDMAN, RONALD A., • WODARSKI, JOHN S. Contemporao, Approaches to Group Treatment. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1975. xiii + 248 Pp. $12.95.

This is an interesting, timely, frustrating, and, finally, a basically unsuccessful book. Written primarily for social group workers, the volume purports to present an overview of "the theoretical bases for three currently used group treatment methods: the traditional social group work, group level behavior modification, and group-centered ('no-treatment') methods" (p. ix). The authors, both associated with a research-demonstration project at the Jewish Community Center of St. Louis, also state that these methods were used and revised

426 BOOK REVIEWS

during a 3-yr project with over 400 antisocial boys at that center. The impression is given that the overviews are based upon research, but this is difficult to evaluate, for the data are being analyzed and prepared for publication in another volume.

So we do not have a research report or a data-based report, but we have an overview of the three orientations. The question immediately arises, "Who is the audience for this book?" for the authors, despite the best of intentions, have produced a volume that is too advanced and condensed for the beginner and lacking in depth and breadth for the advanced practitioner. It adds nothing special to theory and, since it is not data-based, does not contribute, as stated in the last chapter, to an empirically oriented social group work.

Yet the book may have a place in the literature, as may be inferred from a description of the contents. The first orientation discussed is the traditional group work approach. Despite the fact that there are numerous philosophical and methodological cleavages in social group work, the authors present too neatly the work of Vinter and his associates as the"tradit ional" model, in comparison with behavior modification, without giving sufficient attention to other models, such as the reciprocal or mediating model of William Schwartz and the Social Goals Model of Winer. There are references made to these, however, and adequate documentation in the really excellent annotated 40-page bibliography. Within this limitation, however, the in-depth presentation of the remedial model of Vinter (based on Redl and Wineman's work, but vastly expanded to include social role theory and other theories) is complete and highly informative. This presentation is followed by a discussion of "group level behavior modifica- tion." Here the authors are faced with a problem that has faced anyone writing a behavioral book for a social work audience. While authors with a psychodynamic or other model can assume that their readers are familiar with ego psychology, role theory, and so on, the writer of a behavioral text for nonbehaviorists must write a summary of"behavior ism" (respondent, as well as operant and modeling procedures), generally in such a condensed form that it serves not to enlighten the uninitiated and only to bore the behaviorally sophisticated. Feldman and Wodorski are no exceptions. Of the 50 pages devoted to "group level behavior modification," the first 16 are devoted to basic principles and much of the remainder to discussion of such related topics as "communicat ion." Here the authors, in fairness, admit that the operant group approaches are not nearly so well developed but, in all candor, they are much more developed than may be inferred from this presentation.

This chapter inevitably invites comparison with the work of Sheldon Rose, whose contribu- tions are minimized (or, perhaps, not sufficiently developed) by these authors. Rose 's name appears briefly six times: once as a citation for the use of groups in treatment, once in a reference to the use of" reward structure as a strong bridge between traditional group work theory a n d . . , developments in social learning and behavior modification," and twice as "one of Vinter's colleagues" although both Vinter and Rose would, I am sure, be the first to admit that Rose has developed and strayed far from the remedial model of Vinter. On page 100 there is a brief reference to Rose, among others, as applying behavior modification to groups, but at the individual levels rather than within the substantive element of the group itself. Finally, on page 192, there is a reference to the work o f"Rose and certain of his colleagues" as drawing heavily from social learning theory for use in diagnosis and treatment of children in groups. But Rose has drawn from more than social learning theory (/a la Bandura). Rose also uses operant, respondent, and a number of social science concepts, learned from E. J. Thomas, at Michigan, as well as from Vinter, and enriched by Rose's own recent creative work. This chapter comes offbadly. I spent much time on it, for it could have been the chapter that would most have interested readers of this Journal.

In the next brief chapter, 30 pages, is a discussion of the use of "leader-led" but "no treatment" groups. Here the writing and the conceptualization is really confused, with quotations from such literature as the Hawthorne studies (ignoring the recent reanalyses of the phenomenon) and the work of Rosenthal. The chief theorist quoted in this chapter, which

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proposes to use "leader-led" but "no treatment" groups (a neat trick, which the authors do not satisfactorily explain) is, of all people, Carl Rogers?

The last chapter, "Emerging Trends," is generally disappointing, with a historical over- view that might have been more appropriately placed in Chapter 1, and citing such traditional group work "practice foci" as "socialization of newcomers to American society" (p. 183).

Finally, on page 185, there is a paragraph on the approach of William Schwartz (no relation), but the citation to Schwartz is dated 1971, while the citation to his student and disciple Shulman is dated 1968. One gets the impression that Shulman originated the approach, an impression that I am sure would distress both Shulman and Schwartz.

In short, the book, paradoxically, presents a really good overview of one "traditional" approach, that of Vinter and the Michigan school, called the "remedial" model. The behavior modification chapter is inadequate, and the "no treatment" approach, as currently concep- tualized, is of little value. I cannot help but believe that the authors' purposes might have been better served if they had not written this theoretical volume but had waited for the data, and had used the data not only to compare the outcomes of the three approaches, but also as a vehicle for the spelling out of differences in process, all of which would have been enormously useful for the elucidation of practice and a practice theory. There is still time to do this. In the Preface the authors state that the book is presented "solely as a benchmark in knowledge development--one that endeavors to collate, synthesize, occasionally prescribe, and point to future directions." The authors have not been successful, and I respectfully urge that they use this book as the basis for a data-based benchmark book on "Comparative Approaches to Social Group Work."

ARTHUR SCHWARTZ

Sc'hool t f So~ial Service Administration and Department of Psychiatry

University of Chicago 969 East 60th Street Chicago. IL 60637.

KATZ, ROGER C., ~¢ ZLUTNICK, STEVEN (Eds.). Behavior Therapy and Health Care. New York: Pergamon, 1975, xvii + 624 Pp. $14.50 ($7.00 paper).

When I was quite a bit younger, I harbored the fantasy that someday I might write the great American novel. To date, I have not even begun the undertaking and probably never shall. It has come to my attention of late that there is a shortcut for those of us who yearn for the lofty domain of authorship; namely, the domain of editorship.

It used to be in science and medicine that some noted authority in a given field would author solely a recognized textbook in the field, no doubt most often with the necessary aid of unnamed subordinates. As even the most specific fields become increasingly complex, of necessity, various topics came to be subcontracted to other notable subspecialists with the author thus becoming both author and editor. We now are witnessing a veritable explosion of "books," which, in fact, are nothing more than compilations of papers previously published in various journals. Such is the case with the Katz and Zlutnick effort.

Katz and Zlutnick have compiled a rather impressive array of behavioral articles relating to clinical problems generally considered medical with articles ranging from Mowrer and Mowrer's classic paper on enuresis to Mann's paper on contingency contracting for obesity. The only original contribution is a reasonably well presented, but brief and somewhat