Early Human Development. 30 (1992) 179 Elsexier Scientific Publishers Ireland Ltd.

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Book Reviews

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Development According to Parents. The Nature, Sources and Consequence of Parents’ Ideas J.J. Goodnow and W.A. Collins Lawrence Erlbaum, Hove, 1990

The Development of Young Children’s Social-Cognitive Skills M.A. Forrester Lawrence Erlbaum, Hove, 1992

Two years ago Lawrence Erlbaum launched a new monograph series under the general editorship of four leading developmental psychologists, Peter Bryant, George Butterworth, Harry McGurk and David Wood. The aim was that each brief volume should address a circumscribed topic and contribute either new theory or a critical evaluation of existing research. As might be expected in any series, the volumes are of variable quality and some are nearer the model of the traditional research monograph than the review volume the series aims at.

Both the volumes under review here are potentially of interest to clinicians. The Goodnow and Collins volume deals with parents’ beliefs about development and how these may colour attitudes and behaviour toward their children. Sources of knowledge are looked at, including advice from professionals. The book by For- rester is a critical account of the field that has become known as social cognition - an approach to the problem of how infants and young children begin to participate in and understand the social world. Both are important areas and both books con- tain much of interest. However, they are both written with little concern for those outside developmental psychology. The language is relatively inaccessible and, at worst, one has a feeling of intruding into a private world where outsiders are not made welcome. And the problem is not simply the way the books are written, the research discussed in each adopts a rather narrow perspective which largely avoids what other disciplines might have to offer.

Recent years have not been vintage ones for developmental psychology. Many of the promises of the 1960s and 1970s have not been fulfilled and interest has tended to shift to other areas of psychology. Some of those who remain have become rather inward looking. That is not to say that books like this have nothing to offer, but they do succeed in making inherently interesting topics pretty dull and you have to work hard at the text to get much out of it. But given the inherent interest of the topics it might be worth the effort.

Martin Richards Cambridge, UK.