Changing Conceptions Of Psychological Life

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 volume is an interdisciplinary look at personal constructions of self. This volume will be suitable for certain upper-level undergraduate, for graduate seminars dealing with clinical, cognitive, cultural, and developmental matters and would be sought out by active researchers and practitioners in the field.

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.

Choice Recommended Read This volume tackles the critical question of whether people change or whether they remain relatively constant across the lifespan. Much existing literature in psychology has largely endorsed the concept of stability. Indeed, in many people’s minds, the person is understood to be set in stone, as a function of early socialization and reaching a particular stage of development, evolutionary processes, or traits that are hard-wired from the beginning by genes and biology. However, in recent years, important scientific developments in theory and research concerning the psychology of change have emerged. In contrast to the commonly held conception of the individual as fixed, this research illustrates how malleable people are—showing much behavioral plasticity. The chapters in this volume, written by scholars at the cutting-edge of research into the psychology of change, showcase these developments with the aim of advancing knowledge of the field and encouraging further research. Topics addressed include brain function, cognitive performance, personality, psychological well-being, collective action to achieve social change, responses to life stressors, and political change. The message is clear—the culture we live in, what happens to us along the way, and who we think we are and want to be, can all change people.

At its core, psychology is about persons: their thinking, their problems, the improvement of their lives. The understanding of persons is crucial to the discipline. But according to this provocative new book, between current essentialist theories that rely on biological models, and constructionist approaches based on sociocultural experience, the concept of the person has all but vanished from psychology. Persons: Understanding Psychological Selfhood and Agency recasts theories of mind, behavior, and self, synthesizing a range of psychologists and philosophers to restore the centrality of personhood—especially the ability to make choices and decisions—to the discipline. The authors’ unique perspective de-emphasizes method and formula in favor of moral agency and life experience, reveals frequently overlooked contributions of psychology to the study of individuals and groups, and traces traditions of selfhood and personhood theory, including: The pre-psychological history of personhood, a developmental theory of situated, agentive personhood, the political disposition of self as a kind of understanding, Human agency as a condition of personhood, Emergentist theories in psychology, the development of the perspectival self. Persons represents an intriguing new path in the study of the human condition in our globalizing world. Researchers in developmental, social, and clinical psychology as well as social science philosophers will find in these pages profound implications not only for psychology but also for education, politics, and ethics.

The huge and fractured literature on adolescence challenges both students and scholars. For students there is too much to learn and too little coherence across topics to enable deeper understanding. For scholars, there are few integrative visions to connect minitheories, research programs, and practical concerns. In the first edition of this advanced text, Moshman provided a constructivist synthesis of the literatures of cognitive, moral, and identity development, from the classic universalist theories of Piaget, Kohlberg, and Erikson through the more pluralist research and theorizing of the late 20th century. Without assuming any prior knowledge of psychology, he introduced and coordinated basic concepts to enable students to wrestle with the questions of concern to experts and help experts see those concerns from a larger perspective. In this thoroughly updated second edition, Moshman develops his conceptualization of advanced psychological development in adolescence and early adulthood and proposes--in a new chapter--a conception of rational moral identity as a developmental ideal. Unlike the prototypical changes of early childhood, advanced psychological development cannot be understood as progress through universal stages to a universally achieved state of maturity. Progress is possible, however, through rational processes of reflection, coordination, and social interaction.