| Description |
xiv, 507 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
1. Introduction -- What is a theory? -- What is a developmental theory? -- Of what value is a developmental theory? -- Main issues: What is the basic nature of humans? -- Is developmental qualitative or quantitative? -- How do nature and nurture contribute to development? -- What is it that develops? -- |
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10. Reflections -- Developmental issues revisited: Human nature -- Qualitative versus quantitative development -- Nature versus nurture -- What develops A need for better theoretical accounts of mechanisms of development -- Historical progress of developmental theories |
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2. Piaget's cognitive-state theory and the neo-Piagetians -- General orientation to the theory: Genetic epistemology -- Biological approach -- Structuralism -- Stage approach -- Methodology -- Description of the stages: Sensorimotor period (roughly birth to 2 years) -- Preoperational period (roughly 2 to 7 years) -- Concrete operational period (roughly 7 to 11 years) -- Formal operational period (roughly 11 to 15 years) -- Memory -- Mechanisms of development -- Cognitive organization -- Cognitive adaptation -- Cognitive equilibration -- Position on developmental issues -- Human nature -- Qualitative versus quantitative development -- Nature versus nurture -- What develops -- Applications -- Evaluation of the theory: Strengths -- Weaknesses -- Piaget's own modifications of his theory -- The Neo-Piagetians -- Robbie Case -- Kurt Fischer -- Neo-Piagetian themes -- Contemporary research -- Infants' advanced competencies -- Domain-specific concepts -- Mechanism of development -- Developmental cognitive neuroscience -- |
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3. Freud's and Erikson's psychoanalytic theories -- Freud: biographical sketch -- General orientation to the theory: Dynamic approach -- Structural approach -- Topographic approach -- Normal-abnormal continuum -- Methodology -- Description of stages: Oral stage (roughly birth to 1 year) -- Anal stage (roughly 1 to 3 years) -- Phallic stage (roughly 3 to 5 years) -- Period latency (roughly 5 years to the beginning of puberty) -- Genital stage (adolescence) -- Case study of "Little Hans" -- Mechanisms of development -- Position on developmental issues: Human nature -- Qualitative versus quantitative development -- Nature versus nurture -- What develops -- Applications -- Evaluation of the theory: Strengths -- Weaknesses -- Contemporary research -- |
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4. Vygotsky and the sociocultural approach: biographical sketch -- General orientation to the theory: Child-in-activity-in-cultural-context as the unit of study -- Zone of proximal development -- The sociocultural origins of individual mental functioning: the intermental constructs the intramental -- Tools provided by a culture mediate intellectual functioning -- Methodology -- Examples of Vygotskian-sociocultural research -- Private speech and inner speech -- Development of concepts -- Mechanisms of development -- Position on developmental issues: Human nature -- Qualitative versus quantitative development -- Nature versus nurture -- What develops -- Applications -- Evaluation of the theory: Strengths -- Weaknesses -- A related approach: developing-person-in-context -- Contemporary research: Collaborative problem solving -- Research across cultures -- Development through narratives and conversations -- Concluding comments about contemporary Vygotskian-sociocultural research -- |
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5. Social learning theory -- History of the theory -- Learning theory -- Social learning theory -- General orientation to the theory: Observational learning -- Causal model includes environment-person-behavior system -- Cognitive contributions to learning -- Self-efficacy and agency -- Examples of developmental research: moral judgments and gender roles -- Moral judgments and behavior -- Gender-role development -- Mechanism of development -- Position on developmental issues: Human nature -- Qualitative versus quantitative development -- Nature versus nurture -- What develops -- Applications -- Evaluation of the theory: Strengths -- Weaknesses -- Contemporary research -- |
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6. Information-processing theory -- History of the theory -- General orientation to the theory: Humans as information-processing systems -- Development as self-modification -- Task analysis -- Methodology -- Major developmental approaches -- Memory -- Metamemory -- Strategies: acquisition, variability, and choice -- Rules for problem solving -- Production and connectionist simulations of problem solving and learning -- Intelligence -- Mechanisms of development -- Position on developmental issues: Human nature -- Qualitative versus quantitative development -- Nature versus nurture -- What develops -- Applications -- Evaluation of the theory: Strengths -- Weaknesses -- Contemporary research -- |
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7. Ethology and other evolutionary theories -- History of the theory -- General orientation to the theory: Species-specific innate behavior -- Evolutionary perspective -- Learning predispositions -- Methodology -- Contributions to human developmental psychology -- Infant-caretaker attachment -- Peer interaction -- Problem solving -- Mechanisms of development -- Position on developmental issues: Human nature -- Qualitative versus quantitative development -- Nature versus nurture -- What develops -- Applications -- Evaluation of the theory: Strengths -- Weaknesses -- Contemporary research -- |
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8. Gibson's ecological theory of perceptual development -- Biographical sketch -- General orientation to the theory: Ecological approach: affordances -- Information is specified in stimulation -- Humans as active perceivers -- Methodology -- Developmental trends: Increasing specificity and economy in the perception of affordances -- Optimization of attention -- What infants learn about: Communication -- Interaction with objects -- Locomotion in the spatial layout -- Mechanisms of development -- Position on developmental issues: Human nature -- Qualitative versus quantitative development -- Nature versus nurture -- What develops -- Applications -- Evaluation of the theory: Strengths -- Weaknesses -- Contemporary research -- |
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9. Contemporary minitheories and emerging approaches -- The Theory theory -- Modularity nativism -- Dynamic-systems theory -- Critical psychology: are theories of development gendered? -- Position on developmental issues -- |
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Erikson: biographical sketch -- General orientation to the theory: Psychosocial stages -- Emphasis on identity -- Expansion of psychoanalytic methodology -- Description of the stages: Stage I: Basic trust versus basic mistrust (roughly birth to 1 year) -- Stage 2: Autonomy versus shame and doubt (roughly 2 to 3 years) -- Stage 3: Initiative versus guilt (roughly 4 to 5 years) -- Stage 4: Industry versus inferiority (roughly 6 years to puberty) -- Stage 5: Identity and repudiation versus identity diffusion (adolescence) -- Stage 6: Intimacy and solidarity versus isolation (young adulthood) -- Stage 7: Generativity versus stagnation and self-absorption (middle adulthood) -- Stage 8: Integrity versus despair (late adulthood) -- Mechanisms of development -- Position on developmental issues -- Applications -- Evaluation of the theory: Strengths -- Weaknesses -- Contemporary research -- |
| Notes |
Previous ed.: 2002 |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [439]-480) and indexes |
| Subject |
Child psychology -- Philosophy.
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Developmental psychology -- Philosophy.
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Developmental psychology.
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Human development
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Psychological theory
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Human Development.
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Psychological Theory.
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| LC no. |
2009940609 |
| ISBN |
1429216344 (paperback) |
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9781429216340 (paperback) |
