DOMINIC W. MASSARO, editor
University of California, Santa Cruz

Variation in How We Cope With Uncertainty

The Uncertain Mind: Individual Differences in Facing the Unknown
By Richard M. Sorrentino and Christopher J. R. Roney. Philadelphia: Psychology Press, 2000. 194 pp. Cloth, $39.99.

In this volume Sorrentino and Roney report the results of a program of research on the orientation toward uncertainty. Nearly two decades of research is summarized, and the research program is set in the context of related concepts and theories in the literatures of primarily social and personality psychology. The analyses in the book focus on two extreme groups: the uncertainty-oriented (UO) person and the certainty-oriented (CO) person. Sorrentino and Roney define UOs as having a positive orientation toward novel or uncertain situations. UOs view these situations as opportunities for learning. In contrast, COs are posited to avoid uncertainty or ambiguity.