Review by Choice Review
A collection of essays by researchers of aversive behavior, this is not a book for lay people or beginners. All contributors support their discussion with extensive data, some of it the result of original work. Several authors call attention to the lack of research on aversive behavior. The chapter introductions and summaries are good, as are introductory and closing chapters by the editor (Western Carolina Univ.). The section titles are not helpful: for example, a section headed "Hurting Others" includes only scant discussion of the hurtful person and focuses on the victim's feelings and how to categorize them. Developmental data is presented accurately, but data concerning aversive behaviors are so sparse that some links the authors attempted were quite loose (ref., Katz and Joiner's general discussion of depression and aversive behavior is strong, but their discussion of the relationship between attachment and aversive behavior is tenuous at best). Several authors emphasize t he functional nature of aversive behavior; this possibility of both positive and negative valence is very interesting and deserves future research. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, and clinicians. S. K. Hall University of Houston--Clear Lake
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
