Social Psychology: By Daniel Katz and Richard L. Schanck. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1938. 700 pp.

This book is by two psychologists. It represents not an emancipation, but at least a distinct advance over many of the psychological and sociological college text books, from academic thinking to an attempt to grasp social realities. The authors see the need for this advance, for the necessity that psychology and sociology deal with actual vital issues in the world. They see that sociology deals with human beings and must be sterile unless it takes into account human motivation.

Their plan of approach is to present the social scene from three points of view: that of the man on the street, that of the clinician, and that of the social engineer. In addition, there is a section entitled 'The Scientific Basis of Social Progress'. The book is at its best in describing the world of the man on the street and the world of the social engineer. In these sections the authors deal with social realities. Interesting illustrations are given of fads and mores, and of the J-curve hypothesis. This is to the effect that a great variety of sociological studies show a distribution in which the vast majority of cases build up the long arm of the J and there is a sudden dropping off of the minority in the form of a J-curve