PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL STATISTICS

Abstract

Dr. Munn is a lecturer in Psychology in Tennessee. He has written a book indicating the foundations of the lectures which he gives, and a remarkably full book it is, ranging from Plato to Rorschach. It moves through the problems of feeling, emotion, cognition, and achievement to those of intelligence and personality. The emphasis is throughout upon the experimental method of the psychological laboratory, and diagrams and figures are abundant. Every chapter is followed by a bibliography. The material presented is considerable, but it is all "potted." The small reproduction of Healy's picturecompletion test in Fig. 203 seems valueless as it stands, and similar criticisms could be levelled at many other figures. Where Dr. Munn is discussing introversion and extroversion he again inserts a figure which is interesting, but he does not in the text really tackle the problems involved. This is typical of the information given: it is true up to a point, but it is doubtful if any student could rely satisfactorily upon learning any useful psychology from this volume alone. The mischief is that many students would consider that they could. We have no doubt that Dr. Munn knows these dangers better than the reviewer. This book reminds us of those medical primers " Aids to... " which are so compressed that at times they give information which could be falsely interpreted. So long as Dr. Munn's book is recognized as an attempt to abbreviate an enormous subject and to stimulate further reading, well and good. But its danger lies in its being accepted too glibly as authoritative per se, and the simplicity of some of its diagrams illustrates these dangers only too well. As a form of suggestive notes to the teacher of psychology already well versed in the subject it has something useful to offer. H.W.