AHP Perspective is a magazine published bi-monthly for members of the Association for Humanistic Psychology. It includes interviews, articles, essays, updates on member activities, conference announcements, and book reviews. Members receive the complete AHP Perspective as part of their membership.

AHP PERSPECTIVE December 2000/January 2001 Table of Contents

December 2000 /January 2001 AHP PERSPECTIVE Online book reviews

DEVELOPMENTAL HEALTH AND THE WEALTH OF NATIONS: Social, Biological, and Educational Dynamics EDITED BY DANIEL P. KEATING AND CLYDE HERTZMAN New York: Guilford Press, 2000, $26.95, 406 pp. ISBN: 1572304553.
—Reviewed by David C. Lavra	— Reviewed by Royal E. Alsup

—Reviewed by David C. Lavra

Love, cooperation, and community are condi-tions often considered essential for human health and productivity. But what happens in their absence or deficiency? What are the long-term effects on sufficiency, and deficiency, of esssential evironmental supports for the individual and for society as a whole? Lower levels of developmental health suggest that a society is failing as a collective entity. Or, it may be in a disruptive social transition due to technological, economic, or political change. The question is, given what we do know, what will we do about this complex situation?

The authors stress that there is a positive correlation between general well-being of the inhabitants of countries and their relatively equal income distributions. On the other hand, they found that steep gradients in economic position provide very important clues as to whether a society is supporting or underming the development of its population. Steep gradients in health status involve large effects at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum but measurable negative effects at the high end, too. No one is unscathed in a many-leveled system. The authors and their research suggest that changes are necessary at the cultural/societal level to support and to nurture the individual and the nuclear family. It is further implied that the strength of community of society depends on the total health of an individual and the family unit. They explore the interconnections of physical, mental, and social health, and draw the logical conclusions.

The relationship between stress and critical (developmental) periods is forcefully presented. Inadequate and inappropriate social and emotional experiences in one’s early environment can result in compromised higher level neural systems, whose task it is to provide information necessary to bond, to initiate, and to respond in socially appropriate ways. Research likewise shows that chronic stress can depress one’s immune system. Furthermore, repeated, long-term stress causes neurons to die. Those parts of the brain/neurons most ready to learn, particularly during critical periods, are most vulnerable to damage. The authors show a significant association between emotional regulation and social competence in preschool children. Herein lies one of the most important and central issues of the book. However, the unfortunate results of high-stress childhood environments can be avoided, and critical periods without stress may positively modify our ability to modulate and to control our responses to stressers later in life.
The authors present a solid case for the perils within the status quo and describe the required changes in very exact language with bountiful documentation. It is increasingly true that we do not make societal decisions without an understanding of the environmental impact, either at the human level or to nature at large. As the book suggests, our entire society must pool its collective knowledge and experience, and then we will spur further leaps through cooperative interactions. What a wonderful world it would be if we shared rather than owned the planet and if we put our efforts into loving and nurturing each other. This is where the concepts in the book led me, and I believe the authors point us to this conclusion.

This book is of monumental importance. Despite its academic writing style, the fascinating descriptions of human development and research conclusions put this on the "must read" list.
DAVID LAVRA, MC, is a member of the human race and a U.S. citizen.

— Reviewed by Royal E. Alsup

This excellent, edited book, based on extensive social, biological, and educational research, repeatedly confirms that children are the most valuable resource for the wealth of nations. The pervasive hypothesis of the research projects examined is that the health of children and adults in a society has a correlation with the distribution of the nation’s wealth. This book’s provocative, well-supported statements about nations, families, and communities make it a must read for scholars and researchers interested in the influence of the social, biological, and educational dynamics on the populations of a nation.

The book offers impressive research outcomes, worth the time it takes to understand them, which suggest that the health of populations is dependent upon the developmental health of all its members, and that the neural, neuroendocrine, and neuroimmune systems are impacted by the child’s early experiences.
The editors stated the following three related goals:
1. To present a coherent, conceptual, interdisciplinary dialogue and framework for interpreting the influence of the equal distribution of developmental resources on human development.
2. To present sufficient evidence for readers to evaluate.
3. To offer a framework for a social discussion where human development is recognized and included in societal decisions that may well be essential to societal adaptability.
Socioeconomic status has a pervasive power to shape and sculpt the lives of children and adults in the areas of learning and diseases. Environmental conditions in the early childhood period—social, biological, and educational dynamics—have a pervasive influence that affects the whole lifespan of the human being. The book’s critical reading of the interaction of socioeconomic conditions with the neurological and biological structures at critical or sensitive periods, and the pathways of prevention and intervention, makes it imperative for readers interested in making a society built upon equality to examine this research.

The multi-layered approach of this book creates a challenge for scholars who are interested in children from a single disciplinary approach. Remarkably, the authors have been able to overcome disciplinary barriers by focusing on the developmental health of children. The editors’ approach reflects the overwhelming influence that socioeconomic pressure puts on the pervasive outcomes in literacy, mathematics, and delinquency. They show how the developmental health of all children in a society influences the increase of the knowledge base to help a nation to compete in a global learning society.

The three main categories of income, education, and occupation constitute the socioeconomic inquiry for these studies. The environments include the physical as well as the social. A steep slope, or gradient, on a graph demonstrating differences in socioeconomic factors indicates large gaps between the people who are well-off and those who are poor. A shallow slope indicates a closer relationship between the wealthy and the underprivileged. The authors’ researches show that the gradient can be a strong indicator of the developmental health of children and the receptivity for disease of adults. The steepness of the socioeconomic slope is correlated with the developmental health of members of a society. Surprisingly, the developmental health of people in all socioeconomic brackets is worse when the slope is steep than when it is shallow. A shallow slope would indicate that the members of a population have better physical and mental health, well-being, coping, competence, and cognitive skills than a population with a sharp slope. The editors state that "a growing understanding of developmental health and well-being is a population phenomenon rather than a purely individual affair."

Reducing the disparity in income, education, and occupational status will help us to develop the intellectual and emotional resources we need for ongoing societal transformation from an industrial to a learning society while being competent to cope with the rapid change and novelty. Rapid changes in technology cause changes in the social environment and can widen socioeconomic gaps between members of the population. Community support, such as providing affordable quality day care, needs to be strong for improved behavior and enhanced cognitive growth in the children. These will help level the socioeconomic gradient and improve overall developmental health.
The surprise of this research is that it demonstrates that a nation like Sweden, which has a relatively equal distribution of socioeconomic status, has a healthier population overall than richer countries with a larger disparity between social classes. Researchers observed, "Mortality among the lowest occupational group in Sweden was, in fact, lower than that of the highest occupational group in the United Kingdom." Shockingly, the deep poverty in which many children live negatively influences the developmental health of the rich in nations like the United Kingdom and the United States, where there is a great distance between the wealthy and the poor.

The vast differences among levels of socioeconomic status that we experience in the United States are contributing to the lack of optimal health for all our people. We cannot afford to ignore the basic needs of any member of our nation. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
ROYAL E. ALSUP, Ph.D., is an Adjunct Faculty member at Saybrook Graduate School and co-founder of the Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychotherapy Center in Arcata, California. He is co-creating a new interdisciplinary humanistic curriculum in community development.

AHP PERSPECTIVE December 2000/January 2001 Table of Contents

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