The Developing Individual in a Changing World

This two-volume work levels both criticism and challenge to traditional developmental psychology. For too long, developmental psychologists have been studying individuals as if they developed in a sociocultural vacuum. As psychologists began to study the individual's development more broadly, they considered the impact of a number of other factors in the physical and social environment: early education, sociocultural differences, mass communication, alternative living arrangements, and medical care--to name but a few.Volume I, Historical and Cultural Issues, examines the problems of behavioral development from historical, political, theoretical, and cultural points of view. A number of content areas already familiar to developmental psychologists are discussed: Piaget's theory, perceptual development, socialization, and language acquisition. In addition, topics relatively unfamiliar to American psychologists are included: the contribution of early European developmentalists such as William and Clara Stern, Alfred Binet, and Eduard Spranger; and an introduction to recent Soviet developmental theory.Volume II, Social and Environmental Issues, considers the effects of changes in social and environmental conditions upon individual development. The expanding impact of technology such as the communications media, the importance of nutrition, and the design of playgrounds and other spaces for growing children are among the changes examined, as are the impact of social organizations and interactions within small groups, focusing upon preschool education, interaction within the family, and personality development throughout the individual's life.

IV: Environmental conditions and the development of the individual; 1: The responsive environment: Interdisciplinary developmental issues; A: Environmental Ontogeny: a Cognitive View; B: Environmental Reciprocity: a Socio-Emotional View; C: Histories and Futures: Aspects of a Study of The Child's Relation to the Land and the City; 2: Effects of nutrition on development; A: Role of Nutrition in Human Development; B: Malnutrition In Infancy And Intellectual Development; C: Protein Malnutrition in Monkeys; 3: Effects of communication media on child development; A: The Means of Instruction in the Attainment of Educational Goals; B: Cognitive Effects of Visual Media; C: Television and the Development of Social Behavior; V: Social organizations and the development of the individual; 1: Variations in home-based early education: Language, play, and social development; A: The Construction and Selection of Environments: Design of the Study; B: Play: The Elaboration of Possibilities; C: Language: The Formation of Discourse; D: Social Development: Enriching Connections; E: The Emperor's New Clothes; 2: Comparison of model preschool programs; A: Remarks About Curriculum Implementation; B: Short-Term Cognitive Effects of Eleven Preschool Models; C: Dimensional Analysis of Preschool Programs; D: Comparing Model Preschool Programs; VI: Interaction in social groups and the development of the individual; 1: Social interaction and personality development; A: Social Perspective-Taking Training; Empathy and Role-Taking Ability of Preschool Children; B: Levels and Patterns of Social Engagement and Disengagement from Adolescence to Middle Adulthood; A: Education as an aid to Adaptation in the Adult Years; D: Interaction of Personality, Ses, and Social Participation in Old Age; D: The Generation Gap: Imagination or Reality?; F: Affluence, Reciprocity, and Solidary Bonds; 2: Variations in infant-caretaker interactions; A: Family Interaction in The Newborn Period: Some Findings, Some Observations, and Some Unresolved Issues; B: The Relation of Infant's Temperament and Mother's Psychopathology to Interactions in Early Infancy; C: Mother-Infant Interaction, Attachment, and Mother's Psychopathology; D: Cohort Effects and Apparent Secular Trends in Infant Research; 3: Sibling influences on the development of the individual; A: Sibling Position, Sex of Child, and Maternal Involvement; B: On the Extent of Sibling Influence; C: Sibling Interaction and Cognitive Development; D: Social Class, Family Size, and Cognitive Performance; E: The Assessment Of Stability And Change In Peer Interaction Of Normal Hearing And Deaf Preschool Children