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66 Books Toward a Post-Industrial Psychology: Emerging Perspectives on Technology, Work, Education and Leisure. Don Mankin. Wiley and Sons, New York, 1978. 212 pp. Paper. Reviewed by J. Lukasiewicz' There was not much information on society and psychology that I could glean from Mankin's book, nor was there any justification I could find for his inclusion of 'post-industrial' in the title. The book is a selection of material from about 600 references. More often than not, quotations and the author's comments appear to belabour the obvious. For example, one reads in an early 'conclusion' that 'if there are more applicants than there are jobs or advancement opportunities ... some applicants will not be selected' (p. 21); that 'The interests of society, as well as of the organization, are served best when the new members are qualified for their jobs' (p. 27) (from a 1965 paper by Guion); that 'With regard to education, as well for the other important societal subsystems, the goal might be the opportunity for all individuals to find fulfillment in all aspects of their lives, as long as the pursuit of this goal is not incompatible with other societal ends' (pp.38-39). Later he states: 'We will gain little by using videotape cassettes to store educational 'modules' ... if the content of these modules has little instructional value' (p.51). (It is unfortunate it did not occur to Mankin that this 'profound' remark is equally applicable to books.) On p. 61 one finds yet another revelation when one is told that 'job satisfaction is important for organizations, for individuals, and perhaps even [sic!] for the well-being of society as a whole.' To go on listing such truisms would exceed anyone's patience . I must also note that his book is not devoid of jargon. For example, one reads that regarding classroom activities 'What is needed are reinforcements attached to the attributes of responses rather than responses themselves' (according to Ellis, quoted on p. 45)-why not rewards for good answers? Not to my surprise, the final 'summary and conclusions' are no more helpful than the rest of the text. Mankin calls for 'creation of a new public utility [?] to facilitate the most equitable and socially beneficial use of information and its associated technology' and says that 'with foresight, intelligence , and a willingness to accept the risks associated with the uncertainty of the outcome, we can help develop the sociotechnological designs needed ... ' (p. 160). It does not seem likely that this book and similar ones will facilitate the tasks of 'post-industrial psychology'. Indeed, I only wonder why books like this one are published. Every Object Is a System: A Cognitive Basis for System Description. Patrie Doyle. New Ross, Wexford, Ireland. 250 pp .. ilIus. Paper £10. Reviewed by Vladimir Bonacic** Doyle says that the objective of his book is to present the results of the exploration of the characteristics of description 'in philosophical form, as a hypothesis for the relation between cognition and reality; and pragmatically, as a linguistically -embedded procedure for making descriptions of systems which can be executed by a digital computer.' The book is based on the author's research during the period from 1952 to 1976. His aim was 'to define a general system which could be particularized to the description of a specific system.' Also, seven generations of students at University College, Dublin, helped to refine the book's content and presentation. References, dated from 1930 to 1970, are provided. Although his book can be criticized by those who deal with semantics, metalogic, topology and computer languages and, especially, by those concerned with the design of information systems, personally I like his artistic approach to 'system 'Faculty of Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa K1S 5B6, Canada. **Leonardo, Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall, Oxford OX3 OBW, England. descriptions', which I believe makes it unique. The first textbook on systems engineering I know of appeared in 1957, and now the subject has become a general point of view. Engineering systems can be very large and complex, and their component parts may interact to the extent that a change in one part will affect many others. Unless there is such interaction, there...

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