The Use of Personal Documents in Psychological Science. by Gordon W. AllportReview by: Ernest R. GrovesSocial Forces, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Oct., 1942 - May, 1943), p. 120Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2570452 .

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120 SOCIAL FORCES

material for discussion where doubt still exists over the possibilities of a scientific sociology.

SEVERN PROVUS Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census

THE USE OF PERSONAL DOCUMENTS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL

SCIENCE. By Gordon W. Allport. New York: Social Science Research Council, 1942. 210 pp. $2.10.

The Use of Personal Documents in Psychological Science is certain to prove an important contribu- tion to the furthering of the progress of research in the social sciences. The book wrestles with two of the most difficult problems encountered by the psychologist and the sociologist: the gathering of trustworthy reports of the subjective experiences of men and women and the interpreting of such material accurately and adequately. It is obvious that a thoroughgoing study of human behavior demands this tapping of the minds of people and then raises the question how to value these glean- ings from individuals. The book seeks to improve the appraisal of the self-revealing records of per- sonal experience through an analysis of the form and content-value of examples illustrating the various types of personal documents. The Polisht Peasant in Europe and America is regarded as repre- senting a turning point in the development of social science methodology in the handling of life records.

The significance of the book appears in a sum- mary of its content. Part I takes up the use of personal documents, their critical and uncritical use, their purposes, and their nomothetic and ideo- graphic uses. Part II discusses the forms of per- sonal documents and why they are written, and considers autobiographies, questionnaires, ver- batim records, diaries, letters, artistic and pro- jective documents. Part III brings out the limitations and hazards of this sort of material as well as its usefulness to the social scientist. In Chapter XII, "The Problem of Conceptualiza- tion," the greatest difficulty that the social scientist finds in his handling of subjective material is considered.

The author has given his fellow workers a timely and significant discussion of one of the most puzzling and important of methodological ques- tions. The volume has a sizeable and discriminat- ing bibliography.

ERNEST R. GROVES

The University of North Carolina

THE FiEnD OF SOCIAL WORK. By Arthur E. Fink. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1942. 518 pp. $3.00.

This book might be more interesting and fairly reviewed by a lay person, since Dr. Fink has written it for the nonprofessional field. He has intended to set forth "the substance of social work philosophy and practice in understandable, non- technical language" and has largely accomplished his intention. His purpose in describing his sub- ject in clear and simple language has enabled him also to organize the chief trends in the development of social work with a remarkable sense of the unity of the whole. In a field in which it is still possible for many practitioners to become confused in philosophy it is encouraging to find this lucid, able exposition.

It is also a significant book in its recognition of the profession's need to become more responsible to the community it serves and interpret its de- velopment to that community to which it must remain on understanding terma if social service continues.

The overall picture of the history of social work is very brief but adequate. This is supplemented by a partially historical approach in each chapter division and the total picture holds together well.

Dr. Fink first presents a brief history of social work, and follows this by nine chapters dealing with the working divisions of the field. Seven of these deal with the case work services, one with social group work and one with community or- ganization.

Perhaps a fuller treatment of the contribution of recent understanding of human behavior would have been important. The author traces the position of the client in relation to society from being an object of suppression and punishment- an outcast in every sense-to an unfortunate whose fate may be helped or even prevented. Our un- derstanding of human behavior has taught us that we are fundamentally alike, that even the shiftless or criminal person responds basically to the same human needs as those of us who are successful. This concept has tended to reinstate the client group within the body of society, and has rein- forced the recent economic changes which have told us the same thing in other terms, namely that unmet need no longer ostracizes a person from his community. Our wide experience of the 1930's in seeing whole factories close and thousands of willing workers become destitute has made us

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