This book focuses on the structure and development of conscience, a subject that has been dominant in developmental psychology since the 18th century. International experts in the field contribute to this broad overview of the relevant research on the development of moral emotions and on the Kohlbergian-originated cognitive aspects of moral development. The first section of the book focuses on the cultural conditions that create the context for the development of conscience, such as moral philosophy, religion, and media violence. Building on the theory and research on emotion, other chapters cover issues including the development of shame, self regulation and moral conduct, social cognition, and models of guilt. The book also covers moral reasoning, moral identity, moral atmosphere, moral behavior, and discusses subjects such as lying, how to measure moral development, the impact of parenting, the dysfunctions of conscience evident in narcissism, psychopathy, issues surrounding gender, and aggression. The Development and Structure of Conscience will be ideal reading for researchers and students of developmental and educational psychology.

This book explores and underlines the thesis that developmental psychology cannot function fruitfully without systematic historical scholarship. Scientific thinking not only depends on empirical-analytical research, but also requires self-reflection and critical thinking about the discipline's foundations and history. The relevance of history was made especially clear in the writings of William Kessen, who analyzed how both children and child development are shaped "by the larger cultural forces of political maneuverings, practical economics, and implicit ideological commitments." As a corollary, he emphasized that the science of developmental psychology itself is culturally and historically shaped in significant ways. Discussing the implications of these insights in the book's introduction, Koops and Kessel stress that we need a Historical Developmental Psychology. In the book's following chapters, historians of childhood - Mintz, Stearns, Lassonde, Sandin, and Vicedo - demonstrate how conceptions of childhood vary across historical time and sociocultural space. These foundational variations are specified by these historians and by developmental psychologists - Harris and Keller - in the research domains of emotions, attachment, and parenting. This collection demonstrates the importance of bridging, both intellectually and institutionally, the gap between the research of historians, and both current and future research of developmental psychologists. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Developmental Psychology.

From the fundamental processing of human movement, through to the ability to interpret actions, infancy research is only now taking up the challenge of social cognition over a variety of cognitive areas. This special issue covers broad areas of social-cognitive development and builds a cohesive picture of the diversity within this thriving area of developmental psychology. This issue outlines and discusses changes in early development in terms of infant behaviour that may suggest how an infant with limited experience may nonetheless identify and attribute to other humans a privileged social-cognitive status.

The special issue aims to develop a greater understanding of the relationship between social cognitive development in adolescence and social behaviour, to discuss the mediating effects of other aspects of development in adolescence such as the parallel emergence of ideas concerning personal identity, patterns of relationship development within or outside the family, and to examine new approaches to the study of social development in adolescence. Finally it considers the problems (practical, methodological and ethical) associated with intervention in adolescence and how the approach(es) which are adopted may be guided by our understanding of young people's social cognitive development.

The special issue aims to develop a greater understanding of the relationship between social cognitive development in adolescence and social behaviour, to discuss the mediating effects of other aspects of development in adolescence such as the parallel emergence of ideas concerning personal identity, patterns of relationship development within or outside the family, and to examine new approaches to the study of social development in adolescence. Finally it considers the problems (practical, methodological and ethical) associated with intervention in adolescence and how the approach(es) which are adopted may be guided by our understanding of young people's social cognitive development.

The objective of this special issue is to illustrate some of the theoretical, methodological and practical aspects involved in the evidence-based evaluation of family educational programs aimed at supporting positive parenting. The main novelty that this special issue brings is the compilation of studies involving experiences of parent education programs from several countries. The objectives of the papers are to develop theoretically based prevention programs, to evaluate their effectiveness according to standards of evidence, and to examine factors that influence implementation process. The papers also provide recommendations for researchers to establish stable cooperation with politicians, officials, service providers, and practitioners.

This book brings together world leading researchers from diverse fields to explore the potential causes of the development of behaviour problems. The book presents theories that hope to influence public health, education and social policy in the prevention of the costly social troubles that behaviour problems can cause. Featuring contributions from researchers whose backgrounds range from the social and behavioural sciences to economics, the varied chapters assesses the potential role of gene-environment interactions, biological factors and gender differences in the development of behaviour problems. The book includes a review of studies that attempt to understand why antisocial behaviour is concentrated within families, and concludes with three chapters that link developmental research directly with policy issues. It provides a framework for students, scientists, educators and care givers to understand where frontier research on behaviour problems is going and how it can be applied in the social, educational and health services. This collection will interest all students of psychology and the behavioural sciences as well as those with an interest in public policy, sociology, abnormal psychology, psychopathology and personality disorders.

The objective of this special issue is to illustrate some of the theoretical, methodological and practical aspects involved in the evidence-based evaluation of family educational programs aimed at supporting positive parenting. The main novelty that this special issue brings is the compilation of studies involving experiences of parent education programs from several countries. The objectives of the papers are to develop theoretically based prevention programs, to evaluate their effectiveness according to standards of evidence, and to examine factors that influence implementation process. The papers also provide recommendations for researchers to establish stable cooperation with politicians, officials, service providers, and practitioners.

This book brings together world leading researchers from diverse fields to explore the potential causes of the development of behaviour problems. The book presents theories that hope to influence public health, education and social policy in the prevention of the costly social troubles that behaviour problems can cause.

Featuring contributions from researchers whose backgrounds range from the social and behavioural sciences to economics, the varied chapters assesses the potential role of gene environment interactions, biological factors and gender differences in the development of behaviour problems. The book includes a review of studies that attempt to understand why antisocial behaviour is concentrated within families, and concludes with three chapters that link developmental research directly with policy issues. It provides a framework for students, scientists, educators and care givers to understand where frontier research on behaviour problems is going and how it can be applied in the social, educational and health services.

This collection will interest all students of psychology and the behavioural sciences as well as those with an interest in public policy, sociology, abnormal psychology, psychopathology and personality disorders.

This book explores and underlines the thesis that developmental psychology cannot function fruitfully without systematic historical scholarship. Scientific thinking not only depends on empirical-analytical research, but also requires self-reflection and critical thinking about the discipline's foundations and history. The relevance of history was made especially clear in the writings of William Kessen, who analyzed how both children and child development are shaped "by the larger cultural forces of political maneuverings, practical economics, and implicit ideological commitments." As a corollary, he emphasized that the science of developmental psychology itself is culturally and historically shaped in significant ways. Discussing the implications of these insights in the book's introduction, Koops and Kessel stress that we need a Historical Developmental Psychology. In the book's following chapters, historians of childhood - Mintz, Stearns, Lassonde, Sandin, and Vicedo - demonstrate how conceptions of childhood vary across historical time and sociocultural space. These foundational variations are specified by these historians and by developmental psychologists - Harris and Keller - in the research domains of emotions, attachment, and parenting. This collection demonstrates the importance of bridging, both intellectually and institutionally, the gap between the research of historians, and both current and future research of developmental psychologists. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Developmental Psychology.

Beyond the Century of the Child Cultural History and Developmental Psychology Edited by Willem Koops and Michael Zuckerman "This volume offers readers a brilliant and thought-provoking symposium on historical aspects of childhood, of conceptions and arrangements of childhood, and of the study of child development itself."--"American Journal of Psychology" In 1900, Ellen Key wrote the international bestseller "The Century of the Child." In this enormously influential book, she proposed that the world's children should be the central work of society during the twentieth century. Although she never thought that her "century of the child" would become a reality, in fact it had much more resonance than she could have imagined. The idea of the child as a product of a protective and coddling society has given rise to major theories and arguments since Key's time. For the past half century, the study of the child has been dominated by two towering figures, the psychologist Jean Piaget and the historian Philippe Aries. Interest in the subject has been driven in large measure by Aries's argument that adults failed even to have a concept of childhood before the thirteenth century, and that from the thirteenth century to the seventeenth there was an increasing "childishness" in the representations of children and an increasing separation between the adult world and that of the child. Piaget proposed that children's logic and modes of thinking are entirely different from those of adults. In the twentieth century this distance between the spheres of children and adults made possible the distinctive study of child development and also specific legislation to protect children from exploitation, abuse, and neglect. Recent students of childhood have challenged the ideas those titans promoted; they ask whether the distancing process has gone too far and has begun to reverse itself. In a series of essays, "Beyond the Century of the Child" considers the history of childhood from the Middle Ages to modern times, from America and Europe to China and Japan, bringing together leading psychologists and historians to question whether we unnecessarily infantilized children and unwittingly created a detrimental wall between the worlds of children and adults. Together these scholars address the question whether, a hundred years after Ellen Key wrote her international sensation, the century of the child has in fact come to an end. Willem Koops is Professor of Developmental Psychology and Dean of the Department of Social Sciences at Utrecht University. Michael Zuckerman is Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania and author of "Almost Chosen People: Oblique Biographies in the American Grain." 2003 304 pages 6 x 9 ISBN 978-0-8122-3704-7 Cloth $59.95s 39.00 World Rights History, Psychology Short copy: "This volume offers readers a brilliant and thought-provoking symposium on historical aspects of childhood, of conceptions and arrangements of childhood, and of the study of child development itself."--"American Journal of Psychology"

This book focuses on the structure and development of conscience, a subject that has been dominant in developmental psychology since the 18th century. International experts in the field contribute to this broad overview of the relevant research on the development of moral emotions and on the Kohlbergian-originated cognitive aspects of moral development.

The first section of the book focuses on the cultural conditions that create the context for the development of conscience, such as moral philosophy, religion, and media violence. Building on the theory and research on emotion, other chapters cover issues including the development of shame, self regulation and moral conduct, social cognition, and models of guilt. The book also covers moral reasoning, moral identity, moral atmosphere, moral behavior, and discusses subjects such as lying, how to measure moral development, the impact of parenting, the dysfunctions of conscience evident in narcissism, psychopathy, issues surrounding gender, and aggression.

The Development and Structure of Conscience will be ideal reading for researchers and students of developmental and educational psychology.

From the fundamental processing of human movement, through to the ability to interpret actions, infancy research is only now taking up the challenge of social cognition over a variety of cognitive areas. This special issue covers broad areas of social-cognitive development and builds a cohesive picture of the diversity within this thriving area of developmental psychology. This issue outlines and discusses changes in early development in terms of infant behaviour that may suggest how an infant with limited experience may nonetheless identify and attribute to other humans a privileged social-cognitive status.