SOCIETY AND SELF.

Edited by BartlettH. Stoodley '29. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press.713 pp. $7.50.

Professor Stoodley has attempted to assemble in one volume important theoretical and empirical articles whose focus is upon the human personality in its relation to the social structure which shapes it. He has presented a set of studies, for the most part, of recent vintage, which should be of value to any professional or pre-professional person who concerns himself with society and its effects upon the individual. The articles have been distributed throughout eight more general topic areas.

The editor has begun with the heading, "The Concept of Social Structure," under which he includes such articles as the G. N. Levine and Leila A. Sussman study, "Social Class and Sociability in Fraternity Pledging." In considering next some "Aspects of Psychosocial Process," the editor used, among other contributions, the fascinating article by Melvin Seeman, "The Intellectual and the Language of Minorities." And included within the third topic area, "The Uses of Social Structure," is an article by H. S. Becker and Blanche Geer, "The Fare of Idealism in Medical School."

The fourth section of the book addresses itself to Problems of Social Nondefinition (Anomie)," wherein is reprinted, to mention but one, an article by N. Z. Medalia and O. N. Larsen on the 1954 "Windshield Pitting Epidemic' in Seattle, Washington. Section 5, "Self-Responses to Social Structure," may be exemplified by a report by Howard Becker on the steps involved in becoming a marijuana user. While under the rubric, "Social Aspects of Social Structure" are' considered such subject matters as adjustment, attitudes, aspirations, and authoritarianism with excellent examples of sociological research reported for each of these subtopics.

Stoodley concludes the empirical aspects of the volume with sections specifically directed at the manner in which the individual, the product of the social structure, may act to change it. And finally, in his last section the editor has assembled several important theoretical statements by people concerned with the relations between society and the individual.

The social psychological biases of this reviewer would have led, in a number of instances, to the inclusion of certain other publications and the exclusion of several which here are reprinted, but it is possible that, were the option available (or additions possible), Professor Stoodley himself would have done the same. Also, the contents of the volume are not actually representative of most of what is currently termed "social psychology" (by psychologists, at any rate), to the extent that not one experimental study is reported. However, Professor Stoodley has anticipated this criticism when he states that, although others have submitted that the term "psychosociology" might have been more appropriate as a heading for such a series of studies, "There is room for more than one room in the house of social psychology."