Advances in Intrinsic Motivation and Aesthetics ed. by Hy. I. Day (review)

Leonardo. Vol. 16, No.3, pp. 249-256, 1983 Pergamon Press Ltd. Printed in Great Britain BOOKS Readers are invited to recommend books to be reviewed. In general. only books in English and in French can be reviewed at this stage. Those who would like to be added to Leonardo's panel of reviewers should write to the Editorial Board. indicating their particular interests. Advancesin Intrinsic Motivation and Aesthetics. Hy. 1. Day, ed. Plenum Press, New York, 1981. 503 pp., illus. $42.50. ISBN: 0-306-40606-3. Reviewed by Michael J. Apter* This book is a celebration of the work of psychologist Daniel Berlyne, who died in 1976 at the tragically early age of fifty-two. All twenty-five contributors-including such notables as Hans Eysenck, J. McVicker Hunt, Irvin Child, K. B. Madsen and Joachim Wohlwill-admit to having been influenced by Berlyne. Their chapters are written to pay homage to that influence, without at the same time implying subservience to it. This isas it should be: Berlyne never founded a school or established any personal orthodoxy; rather, his special contribution to psychology was to bring new topics to the forefront of attention, to ask good questions about them, and to show how they could be approached in a scientific spirit. He sought an approach to psychology which, while remaining scientifically rigorous, would take into central account man's curiosity, playfulness and aesthetic sense. Since Berlyne's influence was so multifarious, it is no surprise that these chapters, taken together, cover a wide variety of topics in psychology. These include sensory deprivation (Suedfeld), subjective uncertainty and task preference (Schneider and Heckhausen), exploratory activity (Nunnally), play (Day, and also Corinne HUll), stress and illness (Maddi and Kobasa), extraversion-introversion in relation to arousal (Eysenck), preference and choice (Auld), and cognitive complexity (E. L. Walker). There is also an essentially biographical chapter (by Furedy and Furedy) containing some delightful stories about Berlyne. However, as the title of the book suggests, one of its main themes is that of the psychology of aesthetics. Chapters concentrating on this topic include those by Moynihan and Mehrabian, Nicki, Molnar, Irvin Child, J. B. Crozier, and Cupchick and Heinrichs. Cupchick and Heinrichs give a particularly clear general account and critique of Berlyne's approach to aesthetics. In the final chapter, F. G. Hare usefully summarizes later work on experimental aesthetics by workers in Berlyne's laboratory at the University of Toronto. Clearly, these chapters on the psychology of aesthetics will be of particular interest to readers of Leonardo. They give an excellent idea of how experimental aesthetics under the influence of Berlyne has been progressing. Berlyne's paradoxical mixture of radicalism and conservativism emerges more clearly than ever from this book. On the one hand, the questions which he raised for psychology in general, and for the psychology of art in particular, pushed research in new directions. On the other hand, his own theorizing, especially in relation to motivation, was based on assumptions that have long been part of psychologyparticularly the assumption of homeostasis which underlies drivereduction theory and optimal arousal theory (both of which he himself utilized in one form or another at different times). Having posed exciting new problems, Berlyne failed to see that dealing with them could lead to new theories based on very different assumptions. Rather, his tendency was to try to assimilate his material to extant theoretical systems. One of the most fascinating features of the present book is that so many of its contributors continue to reflect this tension between new and potentially subversive questions and well-established conceptual frameworks and research methodologies. Whether the 'new experimental aesthetics' has reached an impasse or is on the threshold of new and exciting developments involving the emergence of new techniques and theories remains to be seen. Meanwhile, this book constitutes an excellent statement of the current 'state of the art'. *Department of Psychology, University College Cardiff, P.O. Box 78, Cardiff, CFl IXL, Wales, UK 249 The Experience of Motivation: The Theory of Psychological Reversals. Michael J. Apter. Academic Press, London, 1982.378 pp., illus. Cloth. ISBN: 0-12-058920-6. Reviewed by Kim James* Michael Apter is well-known as...