Social disorganization in the secondary school. Gordon, Sol (Ed.) Pressures That Disorganize the Secondary Schools. Thirty first Yearbook of the New Jersey Secondary School Teachers Association. Plainfield, New Jersey: Press of Interstate, 1966, 157 p., $2.00 (paper). Available from Lester D. Beers, Treasurer, NJSSTA, 1035 Kenyon Avenue, Plainfield, New Jersey 07060
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1966
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 161 KB
- Volume
- 3
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0033-3085
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✦ Synopsis
These three books, dissimilar in content, treatment, and approach, but focused on the same topic, meet a need for systematic studies of the important developmental period of adolescence. Blos, a well-known psychoanalytic writer on adolescence, has produced a well-organized, scholarly, and extensively documented original psychoanalytic interpretation of normal adolescent development. His discussions of the five phases of the adolescent process, ego functioning in adolescence, and of environmental determinants of ego development, are highly enlightening and stimulating and the entire book is a pleasure to read.
I n contrast to this clinical, psychoanalytically derived study, the Douvan and Adelson book is largely an interpretive report of two national interview surveys by the University of Michigan's Survey Research Center. The surveys, which included 3,000 boys and girls in the age range of 14 to 16, in all areas of the country, raise serious questions concerning popular conceptions of the teenager. The authors concluded that they are neither as rebellious nor so disturbed as frequently alleged, that sex differences in adolescent development are more crucial than is generally recognized, and that the adolescent's conception of his own future is an important determiner of adolescent adjustment. The book is a deliberate blend of research monograph and discursive essay and may be read profitably without constant reference to the more than one hundred pages of notes, tables, forms, and technical appendices which follow the text. The format may obstruct the minority of researchers who wish to analyze the text and tables together, but will assure the authors of this important book of a deservedly wider audience.
Grinder's reader represents still another valuable approach. He has selected broadly from the literature of psychology, sociology, and anthropology and produced a well-organized and carefully edited analysis of theory and research that focuses on the specific developmental, sociocultural, familial, peer, and school issues affecting the socialization process. Although this approach lacks the original flavor of the other two contributions, it gains by the range of material included, the more comprehensive coverage, and the encyclopedic skills of the editor.