Changing Conceptions of Psychological Life is an interdisciplinary look at personal constructions of self. This book is a product of the 30th Annual Meeting of the Jean Piaget Society. The contributing authors constitute the original cast invited to speak on the theme of how individuals come to construe psychological lives--their own and others. Their concerns are how our sense of ourselves emerges developmentally, culturally, and historically, and the implications such constructions have for personal, social, and political change. Together, the authors compose an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars well regarded for their work on topics as diverse as adolescence, language, aging, romance, and morality. Creating a level of discourse about selves and mind--and how they have been and should be studied--the volume is broken down into four parts; Part I includes work that is principally concerned with elevating the position of our experience of ourselves in constructing who we are. The next section focuses on the corrections presumed to exist between the conceptions of self and the conceptions of mental life. Each chapter offers additional information on the dynamics of temperament, attachment, personality, and regulation. Part III is concerned with cultural contexts that frame developing conceptions of self and mental life. Finally, the last section situates conceptions of mental life directly and dramatically in the social contexts of their making. Readers will find in these pages a programmatic effort variously attuned to selves and minds as dynamic and structured, present and represented, felt and known, non-languaged and storied, and embodied and theorized. The volume is suitable for certain upper-level undergraduate and graduate seminars dealing with clinical, cognitive, cultural, and developmental matters and sought out by active researchers and practitioners in the field.

This interdisciplinary volume explores art, its development, and its role in the construction of knowledge. Presenting theory and research on artistic development as a cultural and creative endeavor, contributors examine the origins of human art during the Paleolithic cultural revolution, as part of a modern cultural transformation, in the growth of a creative artist, and in developing children. Target chapters expressing the disciplinary perspectives of psychology, archaeology, communications, education, and the performing arts are followed by commentaries from internationally acclaimed scholars of human development. Part 1 explores how cultures harness and exploit the arts to give expression to values, social practices, and traditions. This section traces the emergence of new art forms that arose during social unrest, including the symbolization of spiritual beliefs expressed on the walls of Paleolithic caves, and the racial identity and cultural values expressed in the media of the hip-hop generation. Part 2 examines the journeys of a composer and a group of students to highlight the process of becoming an artist and the role education plays in its development. The book concludes with a focus on the development of aesthetic appreciation and artistic activity in childhood and adolescence, including, for example, how a child's developing theory of mind affects appreciation for the arts, and how developing empathy and emotional regulation contribute to the cognitive and affective underpinnings of acting in adolescence. As a whole contributors explore the developmental, sociocultural, and evolutionary processes that make the creation and experience of art possible. Intended for researchers and advanced students in both human development and the arts, this book will also serve as a textbook for advanced courses on psychology and the arts and/or special topics courses in cognitive and/or human development.

This interdisciplinary volume explores art, its development, and its role in the construction of knowledge. Presenting theory and research on artistic development as a cultural and creative endeavor, contributors examine the origins of human art during the Paleolithic cultural revolution, as part of a modern cultural transformation, in the growth of a creative artist, and in developing children.

Target chapters expressing the disciplinary perspectives of psychology, archaeology, communications, education, and the performing arts are followed by commentaries from internationally acclaimed scholars of human development. Part 1 explores how cultures harness and exploit the arts to give expression to values, social practices, and traditions. This section traces the emergence of new art forms that arose during social unrest, including the symbolization of spiritual beliefs expressed on the walls of Paleolithic caves, and the racial identity and cultural values expressed in the media of the hip-hop generation. Part 2 examines the journeys of a composer and a group of students to highlight the process of becoming an artist and the role education plays in its development. The book concludes with a focus on the development of aesthetic appreciation and artistic activity in childhood and adolescence, including, for example, how a child's developing theory of mind affects appreciation for the arts, and how developing empathy and emotional regulation contribute to the cognitive and affective underpinnings of acting in adolescence. As a whole contributors explore the developmental, sociocultural, and evolutionary processes that make the creation and experience of art possible.

Intended for researchers and advanced students in both human development and the arts, this book will also serve as a textbook for advanced courses on psychology and the arts and/or special topics courses in cognitive and/or human development.

This popular textbook is an authoritative chronological exploration of how the lives of children are shaped by biological and cultural factors. The book offers a lively, engaging, and always accessible examination of child development as a process involving the whole child within multiple, mutually influencing contexts. Throughout, the emphasis is on how the interaction of biology and culture contributes both to the universal pathways of development shared by all children and to the diverse developmental patterns that unfold in the lives of individual children. This is an accessible introduction to Developmental Psychology for students taking courses that focus on child and adolescent development. This book can also be purchased with the breakthrough online resource, LaunchPad, which offers innovative media content, curated and organised for easy assignability. LaunchPad's intuitive interface presents quizzing, flashcards, animations and much more to make learning actively engaging.