ABSTRACT
A fruitful way to build upon French-language research on development of analogical and propositional processes in logical reasoning tasks is to use dynamic systems tools to describe and analyze relevant developmental pathways. Issues to address include (1) the characteristics of developmental transitions, such as hysteresis; (2) the nature of growth processes, such as hierarchical development or predator-prey interactions; and (3) the construction of effective scales for measuring change in logical reasoning.
Subject(s)
Child Development , Cognition , Individuality , Logic , Psychology, Child/trends , Child , Humans , Models, Psychological , Problem Solving , Systems AnalysisSubject(s)
Child Development , Cross-Cultural Comparison , Emotions , Social Behavior , Social Environment , Child , Child, Preschool , Humans , Infant , Models, PsychologicalSubject(s)
Culture , Emotions , Human Development , Adolescent , Adult , Asia , Child , Cross-Cultural Comparison , Emotions/physiology , Humans , Self Concept , Shame , United StatesABSTRACT
Contrary to the standard assumption that psychopathology stems from developmental immaturity (retardation, fixation, regression), people diagnosed with psychopathology typically develop along distinctive pathways in which they build complex, advanced skills. These pathways are based on adaptation to trauma, such as maltreatment, or to problems in affective-cognitive regulation, such as those in autism. They do not fit normative developmental frameworks. Research has characterized several types of distinctive pathways, especially those arising from maltreatment; they are marked by normal developmental complexity but distinctive affective-cognitive organization. In one study sexually abused depressed adolescent girls admitted for treatment in a mental hospital described themselves-in-relationships with age-appropriate, complex developmental levels equal to those of both nonabused depressed girls and other adolescents. At the same time, they showed a powerful negativity bias contrasting with the positivity biases of other girls. Many of them produced dramatic switches in affective-cognitive organization across assessments contrasting with the similar organization showed by other girls. In another study toddlers from maltreating families showed a consistent negativity bias in play and representations of interactions. We show how to portray these distinctive developmental pathways through the example of Hidden Family Violence, in which people dissociate their private violent world from their public, good-citizen world.
Subject(s)
Adaptation, Psychological , Child Development , Interpersonal Relations , Mental Disorders/psychology , Models, Psychological , Psychotic Disorders/psychology , Self Concept , Adolescent , Autistic Disorder/psychology , Child , Child Abuse, Sexual , Cognition Disorders/psychology , Domestic Violence , Female , Humans , Male , Mood Disorders/psychologyABSTRACT
Goldman-Rakic reports important new data on cortical development in rhesus monkeys. Some of her findings, especially concurrent cortical synaptogenesis, may be related to cognitive capacities that develop in infancy. The developmental pattern of concurrent synaptogenesis in rhesus is consistent with a straightforward model of relations between brain and cognitive development: Concurrent synaptogenesis is hypothesized to lay the primary cortical foundation for a series of developmental levels in middle infancy that have been empirically documented in both human and rhesus infants. Other general brain changes, especially in the electroencephalogram, also seem to correlate with these levels, as well as with other levels that develop at other periods. In the simplest form of the model, these several factors all show synchronous developmental discontinuities at the time of emergence of a level. Specific research methods are available for specifying when discontinuities occur in development of both brain and behavior.
Subject(s)
Brain/growth & development , Cognition/physiology , Child , Child Development , Child, Preschool , Concept Formation/physiology , Frontal Lobe/growth & development , Humans , Infant , Mental Recall/physiology , Neural Pathways/growth & development , Psychomotor Performance/physiology , Synapses/physiologyABSTRACT
Using a retrospective method, we assessed late adolescents' developmental theories about their affective relationships with their parents. Subjects used drawings and questionnaire ratings to portray their relationships with parents at five points between infancy and the present. From infancy to their current age, adolescents portrayed their relationships in two major ways. They perceived themselves as gaining in responsibility, dominance, independence, and similarity from infancy to the present, whereas they portrayed their parents as experiencing a decline on these dimensions. For variables indicating closeness and love, however, there was a striking discontinuity in these linear trends: Although adolescents perceived linear trends from infancy to adolescence, they depicted their current relationships as involving a great deal more love and closeness. They also portrayed their relationships with mothers and fathers somewhat differently. More responsibility was felt towards the mothers and they were portrayed as especially friendly, but subjects felt more similar to their fathers, whom they perceived as dominant. We interpreted the results as indicating that late adolescents constructed theories of the affective components of their relationships with their parents to serve the needs of separation while maintaining a close affective tie to the parents.
