Larry Nucci, University of Illinois at Chicago
Michael J. Chandler, University of British Columbia

Dorothy Holland, University of North Carolina

Building upon the sociogenic theories of the cultural historical school of psychology, Bakhtin and Bourdieu, my talk explores a "social practice theory of self and identity" and its possibilities for understanding action. Material for this exploration comes from the research of my colleagues and myself on contemporary environmental activism in the United States.

My first task is to situate a practice theory of self among alternative anthropological approaches. Anthropology’s long encounter with culturally different constructions of self took a distinctive turn in the period I call the "critical disruption." Responding to post-structuralist and postmodernist currents, anthropology added a concern with power to its inquiries into culture and self. Monolithic conceptions of collective cultures crumbled and notions of self became at once more interesting and more suspect as potential tools of discipline. Debates over the universal versus the culturally variable characteristics of the self gave way to a justifiable rejection of essentialism with its failures to recognize the considerable weight of social forces in determining the self. The same forces saw to the over throw of the coherent, consistent, rational, originary self of the Enlightenment as the standard, the taken-for-granted or prototypic self. For some at least, the concept of self has become so devoid of content that the self of postmodernist depictions–the fleeting, fragmentary self–is quite plausible and the more appealing construct is that of the body. These developments in anthropological treatments of the self have left an opening for appreciation of sociogenic accounts of mind and self. Such accounts–mine drawing inspiration from the cultural historical school of psychology, Bakhtin and Bourdieu–hold promise for a more balanced vision of individual and society in the production of human activity.

In order to illustrate aspects of a practice theory of self and consider its potential for understanding action and activism, I take up several distinctive features of sociogenic theories in relation to dilemmas of environmentalism especially guilt. In the United States, the environmental movement has generated considerable debate about the responsibilities of environmental protection: What is the moral value of consumption? Who or what bears the responsibility for environmental degradation, its health effects and its baleful consequences for future generations? How should environmental quality be distributed? In these debates or "dialogues of blame and entitlement," the named culprits are many from specific industries, e.g., chemical and agribusiness to complicit government agencies, to capitalism as a system, and, never far from public imagination, the consumer herself. Woven through these dialogues of blame are levels of culpability distinguished according to nationality, race, class, and gender that mark and divide environmental identities. For some, issues of responsibility spur a search for and an attraction to activities and communities of practice where pro-environmental action is more feasible. For others, the dialogues of blame are taken to heart.

Our interviews show that dialogues of blame often settle into social and personal subjectivities producing a sentiment of guilt and a dialogic identification moved by inner struggle. In the paper, I describe several of these struggles, e.g., those between consumer desire and an understanding of self as someone who cares about the earth. These descriptions help to understand the engagement that self-proclaimed have with activities such as recycling and green consumerism. They also reveal that for many considerable energy for action is bound up in a dialogic identity of blame and defense.

JPS Board of Directors Meeting (Gouverneur 1)

Organizer: David Moshman, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

My self-conceptions can be construed as a theory of myself. But what does that mean? How can I be simultaneously the theorizer and what the theory is about? In theorizing about myself, am I discovering a pre-existing self or am I creating a new self? Can I have multiple theories of self? Multiple selves? What forms do theories of self take? How do they change across time? How do they vary across individuals and cultures? Are these matters of cognition? Personality? Are there better ways to think about all this? These questions are addressed from a variety of perspectives.

Christopher Lalonde, University of Victoria; Michael J. Chandler, University of British Columbia

Lora Pallotta, Michel Ferrari, University of Toronto

Michael F. Mascolo, Merrimack College

Augusto Blasi, University of Massachusetts

Discussant: David Moshman, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Organizer: Michael Lamport Commons, Harvard University

These papers use two different models of transitions between levels and stages. The first, within the dynamic skill approach, is microdevelopmental study of dynamic variations in microdevelopmental transitions: microdevelopmental range, microdevelopmental pathway, and microdevelopmental asynchrony. Second, the Model of Hierarchical Complexity, describes transition between an order of complexity and the next higher order. One study examines assertions using narratives of events and emotions surrounding losses in children (8-9 years of age) and adults (young and middle aged). Using the same model, the transition in performance to the Metasystematic Stage of participants at Harvard University were studied on issues of the good and fair.

Zheng Yan, Harvard University

Patrice Marie Miller, Salem State College; Susanne T. Lee, Harvard Medical School

Michael Lamport Commons, Harvard Medical School; Dorothy Danaher, Dare Institute; Theo Linda Dawson, University of California at Berkeley

Milton Campos, Université de Montréal

This paper shows how reasoning upon questions and hypotheses built collaboratively can lead to knowledge-building and conceptual change in hypermedia conferencing systems. We studied one sub-conference of an online biology mixed-mode undergraduate course on mammals. The professor applied Socratic maieutic by posing online questions to the students, and then reasoning upon the answers and raising new questions in face-to-face encounters. Results show the knowledge-building process that led the participating students to high order learning and conceptual change. Collaborative knowledge-building was assessed by a transcript analysis technique specifically developed to look at meaning implications in ill-defined domains.

Maria Judith Sucupira da Costa Lins, University Federal Rio de Janeiro

Problem: can social interaction foster learning process in 9-10 years old children in a public school? Method: five social categories were selected (Share, Cooperation, Participation, Mutual Respect, Social Inserction) and observed in children’s behavior. Piagetian tasks were used to show the period of the cognitive development before and after the activities. It was an action-research and during the school year we participate of the children activities. Results showed that they developed social categories and also their learning performance was improved. Implications: Social interaction and learning are related. Teachers must know about the role of social interaction on children learning.

Maria Therezinha de Lima Monteiro, Ranilce Mascarenhas Guimarães, Homero Barbosa Reis, Isaac Tavares de Souza, José Ferreira Simões, Vitor de Souza Silva, Adriana Paola Marcella Triolo Sakkis, Giselda B. Jordão de Carvalho; Universidade Católica de Brasília

A field study assessed the socio-emotional climate in the classrooms of the Public Schools System, in Brasilia DF, Brazil. The study used the Reciprocal Category System (Ober et al.), based upon Flanders’ Interaction Analysis and adapted by the author for use in the Brazilian context. The study revealed a restrictive and authoritarian teaching situation. Results indicated that the rigidity of teacher/student discourse and the poor affective and cognitive quality of teacher/student relationships are detrimental to learning, since knowledge acquisition can only take place when endogenous structuring takes place and when a balance or progressive self-regulation is achieved.

Marie-Lise Brunel, Rejean Auger, Jean-Guy Boudrault; Université de Montréal

Objectif: Evaluer la pertinence d’utiliser des epreuves piagetiennes (Noelting , 1981, 1989, 1991) en regard du cadre d’analyse dit de ´validite globaleª permettant d’apprecier l’utilisation d’epreuves operatoires dans un contexte de selection de candidats en formation professionnelle au Quebec. La validite globale prend en compte 4 aspects:1) utilite d’un test; 2) interpretation des scores ; 3) consequences des actions fondees sur les scores 4) contexte de l’utilisation de ces scores (Messick, 1988). Ainsi, chacune des etapes doit etre evaluee, selon Auger et Seguin (1997) en regard des assises, fondements theoriques (evidences empiriques et consequences des decisions) et fonctions (interpretation et utilisation du test).

Chair: Trevor G. Bond, James Cook University

Sherrie Reynolds, Texas Christian University

Piaget described the self-organizing nature of human thought as equilibration; "a process that leads from a state near equilibrium to a qualitatively different state at equilibrium by way of multiple disequilibria and reequilibrations". The kind of equilibrium Piaget is describing here is not a balance. It is a dynamic, steady state. He compares it to Waddington’s homeorhesis, which "holds constant a trajectory or time-extended course of physiological change." I argue that misunderstanding of Piaget’s concept of equilibration may occur, in part, because of attempts to understand it against the backdrop of models of causality that are inappropriate for describing complex systems.

Isabela Granic, University of Toronto

There is a disparity between developmentalists’ open systems models, which emphasize heterogeneity in developmental processes, and our mechanistic research methods, which are suited for closed, homogeneous systems. Recently, there has been a call from leading developmental theorists for new research methods that can bridge this gap. The current paper addresses this call by proposing that principles of self-organization – integral to open systems models – suggest analytic methods appropriate for the study of heterogeneous phenomena. New methodological strategies based on self-organization (or dynamic systems) principles are introduced, and their application is demonstrated in a recent study of aggressive parent-child processes.

David A. Stevens, Harvard University

An emergent vision of human development from the field of nonlinear dynamic systems has recalled Piaget’s often neglected hypothesis of the individual as a self-regulating, adaptive organism. While Piaget’s concepts of equilibration, assimilation, and accommodation may have been difficult for social scientists to assimilate – recent nonlinear modeling efforts by developmental psychologists indicate that the field might be more open to this systems view of development. This paper highlights the similarities between Piaget’s functional theory of self-regulation and the recent efforts of applying nonlinear models to human development.

Andréa P.F. Pantoja, California State University-Chico; Alan Fogel, University of Utah

A case study approach was used to examine early emotional development. Narrative descriptions of the day-to-day details of the mother-infant relationship were produced. The concept of frames was the minimum unit of analysis. Frames are dynamic patterns of activity observed in the context of the mother-infant relationship. The analysis focused on two time scales: real-time and developmental-time. Within the real-time scale, two levels of change were identified — familiar variability and innovations. Familiar variability constituted of those changes that preserve existing frames; whereas innovations were those changes that begin transforming existing frames. Through reiterations of real-time innovations, developmental-time changes occurred. We discuss how emotions developed through the dynamics between these levels of change.

Discussant: Marc D. Lewis, University of Toronto

Ronaldo Souza de Castro, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

Betsey Grobecker, Western Michigan University

Jonas Cox, Katey Wildish, Emily Bladen, George Fox University

Hiroyuki Yamada, University of California, Berkeley

Gabriele Di Stefano, University of Padova; Paolo Albiero, University of Parma; Vittore Perrucci, University of Padova

Edirle Menezes Viana, Clark University

Eberhard Schroeder, University of Potsdam; Wolfgang Edelstein, Max-Planck-Institute for Human Development; Elena Filippova, Russian Academy of Education

Sandra Leanne Bosacki, Brock University

Louise Ayars Barden, Peter B. Pufall, Smith College

Catherine E. Zygmuntowicz, Jacob A. Burack, McGill University; David W. Evans, Bucknell University; Cheryl Klaiman, McGill University; Tarek Mandour, Jimmy Sandy Memorial School; Beth Randolph, Grace Iarocci, McGill University

Karl H. Hennig, University of Western Ontario; Lawrence J. Walker, University of British Columbia

Ann Henry, Southampton Institute of Higher Education

Anne-Claude Bedard, University of Toronto; Shana Nichols, Dalhousie University; Rosemary Tannock, The Hospital for Sick Children

Melinda S. Mull, Margaret Evans, University of Toledo

Frederic Potvin, Université du Québec à Montréal

Uri Shafrir, Kavita Seeratan, Rachel Shalit, Kulwant Khaira, University of Toronto

Lisa D. Bendixen, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Marie-Leda Fleury, Université du Québec à Montréal

Devereaux A. Poling, Margaret Evans, Neeraj Gonela, University of Toledo

Ana Raddi Uchôa, Walkyria Mara Volpini, Centre Integré en Diabète

Bryan W. Sokol, Tracey Burns, University of British Columbia; Anna-Lisa Cohen, University of Victoria

Karen M. L. Skene, Chris Moore, Dalhousie University

Elizabeth A. Boerger, University of Texas at Austin

Nadia Gauducheau, Université Paris X

Frédérique Cuisinier, Université Paris-X

Joane Deneault, Marcelle Ricard, Pierre L. Morin, Université de Montréal

Andrée Boisclair, Hélène Makdissi, Pauline Sirois, Université Laval

Hélène Makdissi, Université Laval

Pierre L. Morin, Serge Larivée, Joane Deneault, Université de Montréal

Tamara Leonova, Université Blaise Pascal

Selon la conception de connaissance avancée par Beauvois et Dubois (1992, 1993), il existerait la connaissance évaluative, qui s’applique au monde social, et la connaissance descriptive, qui caractérise le monde des objets physiques. Notre objectif est d’étudier l’émergence de la connaissance évaluative chez les enfants. Deux expériences explorent le développement de la perception de l’utilité sociale des personnes chez les enfants âgés de 3 à 7 ans dans le cadre du paradigme de choix stratégique de partenaires. Les résultats confirment l’hypothèse de la perception précoce d’utilité sociale chez les enfants et vont dans le sens de l’hypothèse de double connaissance.

Francisco Pons, Paul Harris, Marc de Rosnay, University of Oxford

Cette recherche a pour but d’examiner, pour la première fois, le développement et la relation des réponses de l’enfant à sept tâches classiques de compréhension des émotions. Elle devrait permettre de voir si la compréhension actuelle des émotions de l’enfant est structurée et si cette compréhension s’appuie sur des compréhensions passées et sert de base à des compréhensions futures. 160 enfants de 3 à 10 ans sont examinés individuellement au moyen de 3 x 7 tâches permettant de mesurer leur niveau général et leur niveau maximum de compréhension des émotions. Des analyses psychométriques, développementales et différentielles sont systématiquement réalisées.

Francisco Pons, University of Oxford; Pierre-André Doudin, Université de Genève

Le propos de cette présentation est de voir si les cinq "lois" de la prise de conscience définies par Piaget (contenus, causes, fonctions, mouvement de la périphérie vers le centre, réussite et compréhension) peuvent être généralisées au développement de la compréhension et du contrôle des émotions chez l’enfant. Les quatre premières lois se généralisent, par contre la dernière concernant la relation entre les savoir-faire (réussite) et les savoir-dire (compréhension) doit être modifiée pour pouvoir être généralisée au développement de la compréhension et du contrôle des émotions chez l’enfant: la relation entre réussite - compréhension est plus circulaire que linéaire.

Sophie Rene de Cotret, Real Larose, Université de Montréal

Nos domaines de recherche sont les didactiques des mathematiques et de la biologie. Nous nous interessons a mieux comprendre comment se developpent et se partagent les connaissances dans un contexte d’enseignement. La description de ces connaissances (un savoir) est le materiau essentiel de ce qui est " enseignable ". Pour ceux et celles qui s’interessent a l’enseignement le probleme revient, somme toute, a se demander : Comment le sujet agissant peut-il devenir conscient de certaines de ses connaissances (implicites) qui alors seront reconnues et pourront constituer un savoir? Dans l’expose, nous nous attarderons a l’etude de relations du systeme didactique ou la position de l’observateur joue un role primordial et souleve de nombreuses questions.

Chair: Thérèse Bouffard, Université du Québec à Montréal

Organizer: Hanns M. Trautner, University of Wuppertal

Twelve posters are presented that deal with the development of children’s theories of pictorial representation and drawing. The topics of the posters divide into three main themes: (1) Children’s developing knowledge about how to depict objects or scenes, including the understanding of the nature of graphic representation; (2) Children’s judgments about the quality of a drawing and their preferences for drawings, and the relation of these judgments and preferences to age or other attributes of artists, as well as to own performance level; (3) Children’s self-concept of drawing ability and their conceptualization of what it means to be an artist.

Discussant: Constance Milbrath, University of California, San Francisco

Esther Burkitt, Alyson Davis, Martyn Barrett, University of Surrey

Lynn S. Liben, Lisa E. Szechter, Penn State University

Constance Milbrath, University of California, San Francisco

Tara C. Callaghan, St. Francis Xavier University; Philippe Rochat, Emory University

Ann Dowker, Lincoln College, Oxford; Linda Dye, Margaret Lowe, St. Catherine´s College, Oxford

Richard P. Jolley, Emma L. Knox, Staffordshire University

Anna M Kindler, University of British Columbia

Susan M. Rostan, Hofstra University; David Pariser, Concordia University, Howard E. Gruber, Columbia University

Giuliana Pinto, University of Florence

Heiko Hungerige, Hanns M. Trautner, Anke Uredat, University of Wuppertal

Susan M. Rostan, Hofstra University

Rom Harré, Linacre College, Oxford and Georgetown University

What are the consequences for developmental psychology of the development of discursive psychology? According to that point of view psychological phenomena are properties of the flow of symbolic interaction, particularly conversational. This means that we must make use of analytical concepts like Austin’s speech-act theory, and we must think of the acquisition of linguistic and other symbolic skills in the form of language games, the potent innovation of Wittgenstein. With what developmental psychologists could we associate something of these very language games? Surely it is Vygotsky. His conception of psychological symbiosis offers us a new beginning, free of overt cultural loadings. In addition to all of this the advent of positioning theory as the basic discipline for analyzing small scale human interactions introduces a moral dimension of rights and duties as actors, which is missing from Vygotsky’s explicit work but readily finds a place in it. A whole new and exciting era is opening up in the third millennium.

Organizer: Thomas Thiel, University of Potsdam

The film presents the cognitive process of a child (4 years old at the beginning) interacting with the same task 17 times during a period of ten months. By analyzing the child’s problem solving behavior at different theoretical levels (regarding theories of reflective abstraction and equilibration) the cinematic reconstruction shows impressively what Piaget calls the double centripetal movement of the cognitive process: the more the child reflects on her own actions and conceptualizes them the more she understands the properties of the objects. During this process the child develops a concept which is a surprising example of Piaget’s term "pseudoempirical abstraction".

Thomas Thiel, University of Potsdam; Christiane Schmid-Schönbein, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Organizer: Hélène Poissant, Université du Québec à Montréal

Le présent symposium abordera certaines questions actuelles concernant quelques unes des retombées de la théorie piagetienne. Nous aborderons entre autres, la question des liens étroits entre le concept de métacognition et la distinction piagetienne entre le ´réussirª et le ´comprendreª. Nous explorerons aussi les rapports complexes entre d’une part, la métacognition, la motivation et le concept de soi et d’autre part, la performance scolaire. Enfin, nous toucherons à la question de l’attribution d’états épistémiques (semblable sous certains égards au concept piagetien de décentration) chez les enfants d’âge préscolaire.

Therese Bouffard, Carole Vezeau, Lucille Boileau, Genevieve Goulet, Université du Québec à Montréal

Marc Romainville, Facultes Universitaires de Namur

Anne Mességué, Université Lyon 2

Anne-Marie Melot, Université Paris V

Organizer: Herbert D. Saltzstein, City University of New York

Four sets of research findings are presented based on data from Northeast Brazil, India, and urban and rural areas of Taiwan and the U.S. The findings concern cultural variations in the way in which social events are explained, motivation is internalized, human rights are organized, and children are morally suggestible. Results are discussed in terms of whetehr cultural variations are best understood as involving fundamentally different values or different construals of particular social situations, whether cultures may be treated as integrated or differentiated, and how social psychological, developmental and social constructivist frameworks may be integrated.

Angeline Lillard, University of Virginia

Herbert D. Saltzstein, City University of New York; Maria daG. Dias, Antonio Roazzi, Federal University of Pernambuco

Cleonice Pereira dos Santos Camino, Cícero Roberto Pereira, Universidade Federal da Paraíba; Márcia Magalhães, Universidade Estadual da Paraíba: Raquel Moraes, Universidade Federal da Paraíba

Joan Miller, University of Michigan

Discussant: Claudia Strauss, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Organizer: Monika Keller, Max Planck Institute of Human Development and Orlando Lourenço, University of Lisbon

The symposium discusses the concept of necessity in the moral and cognitive domain. In two theoretical papers, necessity is analyzed in the context of deontic reasoning theory (e.g.,"pragmatic reasoning schemas" (PRS), Cheng and Holyoak, 1985) and in the context of Piaget’s earlier and later work. Two empirical studies explore the concept of necessity in children’s understanding of moral and contractual violations. They evidence that the development of inferences about cheating is interconnected with inferences about the feelings of victim and violator. Furthermore, in the attribution of feelings to a violator, young children can differentiate a factual (descriptive) and a deontic (prescriptive) perspective.

Leslie Smith, Lancaster University

Monika Keller, Max Planck Insitute for Human Development; Samuel Lindzey, University of Virginia; Xiao Tien Wang, University of South Dakota

Robert L. Campbell, Clemson University

Orlando Lourenço, University of Lisbon

Discussant: Henry Markovits, Université du Québec à Montréal

Twila Tardif, Ernest P.K. Au, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Henry M. Wellman, University of Michigan; Keiko Nakamura, Keio University

The beliefs that parents hold about children’s mental states may affect the ways they organize their child’s experiences. In this study, 126 urban middle-class mothers in the U.S., China, and Japan were interviewed about when they thought their children were capable of thinking, feeling, and remembering. In general, U.S. mothers believed their children to be capable of thinking and feeling in their first year, whereas Chinese and Japanese mothers believed thinking to occur much later (about 2 years for Chinese and not until 3 or 4 years for Japanese children). Interestingly, the types of "thinking" ascribed to young children also differed such that U.S. mothers tended to focus on more logical connections between ideas, whereas Chinese and Japanese mothers tended to focus more on their children’s desires.

William Turnbull, Jeremy Carpendale, Simon Fraser University

Forty Mother-Child (M-C) dyads (Cs from 2;9 to 5;9) constructed a story from a picture book containing a false belief. Story transcripts were scored for the presence/absence of 17 elements critical for understanding false belief; and if present, whom of M or C elicited and produced it. More elements and a higher proportion of M-elicited/M-produced elements were predicted for C’s with a low level of false belief understanding; and a higher proportion of C-elicited/C-produced elements for Cs with a high level of false belief understanding. Results generally confirmed predictions.

Penelope G. Vinden, Clark University

Interactions in which the parent makes a request of the child are focused on as providing a locus for learning about intentional agents. Through an examination of videotaped mealtime interactions in which a false belief task was embedded, nine types of requests are identified, which either de-emphasize agency, or focus on adult, child or joint agency. Four contrasting family mealtimes are studied in detail, and evidence given for delayed development of an understanding of mind in families where requests are primarily of a kind that de-emphasize agency. Different ways of requesting may highlight different viewpoints for the child, thus encouraging the development of an understanding of minds.

Eric Amsel, Helen Volpe, Gabriel Trionfi, Weber State University

In two studies, 3- and 4- year-olds imagined (Study 1) or pretended (Study 2) that one object in a container was another. Then, children were asked whether the true and the fictional (imagined or pretend) object was really and truly in the container. Compared to control conditions, children erred more often when the fictional object was made salient by having been described in detail (Study 1) or labeled as magical (Study 2). The data reflect limits in children’s ability to control representations of the true and pretend worlds rather than a conceptual misunderstanding of the representational nature of pretense.

Edy Veneziano, Université Nancy 2 & Université Paris V-CNRS

This paper examines the emergence and early development of displaced, informative uses of language in the longitudinal studies of five French-speaking mother-child dyads recorded in their homes (age range: 1;3 -1;8 at the beginning of the study; 1;7-2,7 years at the end). Results show synchronicities among the emergence of reference to past events, the understanding and production of explanations/justifications, and talk about the symbolic meaning transformations of actions and objects in the children’s pretend play. These developmental changes in pragmatic competence are considered to reflect children’s ‘know-how’ of the mind, that is, their incipient grasp of the intentional and mental world of others.

Chair: Cynthia Lightfoot, Penn State University Delaware County

Organizer: Diane Poulin-Dubois, Concordia University

The nature of infants’ object concept has been a topic of debate over the last two decades. The purpose of this symposium is to present the most recent research in this area from four laboratories. Evidence will be presented which suggests that: a) 4-month-olds may not have enduring representations of occluded objects, b) 7-month-olds are able to learn mappings between categories of objects and motion properties, c) labeling facilitates 9-month-olds’ representation of kind concepts, and d) by the age of 20 months, infants have developed expectations of the motion of animate and inanimate objects (e.g., avoidance of collision). Together the four papers present a comprehensive picture of the developmental path of infants" understanding of the spatiotemporal and featural properties of objects.

Scott P. Johnson, Cornell University

Fei Xu, Northeastern University

Lori Markson, Elizabeth S. Spelke, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Rachel K. Baker, Diane Poulin-Dubois, David H. Rakison, Concordia University

Discussant: Thomas R. Shultz, McGill University

Organizer: Nadia Ann Sangster, Wheelock College

The goals of this symposium are to identify different aspects of identity and self, and to analyze and integrate the development of self and identity in different contexts and for different populations. Specific emphasis is placed on the development of self and identity in social relationships and vis-a-vis social and cultural expectations. However, the authors do not adhere to an enculturation model that postulates that self and identity are simply the product of their social relationships, contexts, and cultures. Rather, each contribution shows how the person actively and creatively constructs him- and herself in reflecting on and negotiating social relationships and cultural expectations.

Augusto Blasi, University of Massachusetts Boston

Werner Deutsch, TU Braunschweig

Nadia Ann Sangster, Wheelock College

Karen March, Carleton University

Discussant: Ulrich Mueller, University of Toronto

Michel Ferrari, Kevin C. Runions, University of Toronto

Piaget’s conception of the physical-mental relationship within the knowing subject presages important contemporary debates on consciousness. Piaget advocates an isomorphism between the implicative connections proper to consciousness and the causal connections proper to physiology. However, his explanation still wrestles with the problem of how to provide a scientific account of the qualitative aspects of conscious experience. But for Piaget, qualia makes sense only in reference to the internal context of individual experiences. This solution elegantly ties Piaget’s views on the relations between consciousness and neurophysiology to his views on the interaction between subject and object in all acts of knowing.

Horst Pfeiffle, Vienna University

Piaget’s concept of epistemic subject has not been favorably received by psychologists. The concept has been criticized for lack of clarity and in a particular its function within Piaget’s theory is considered unclear. First, I will deal with Kant’s thesis that the "I" is the original synthetic unity of apperception. I will argue that the application of Kant’s categories of understanding to the "I" as the "I think" is not a viable solution. The "I" cannot be viewed as either passive or receptive but must be viewed as pure spontaneity, or, as Kant also says, as function, doing, action. Next, I will present Heidegger’s criticism of transcendental personality, the psychological personality, and the moral personality, and I will show that Heidegger’s concept of the self represents an attempt to transcend the "I" of apperception and its limitations. Finally, I address the question as to whether and how Kant’s and Heidegger’s concepts of "I" and self open up possibilities of thinking about and elucidating the meaning of Piaget’s concept of epistemic subject.

Thomas Teo, York University

At the end of the 19th century most psychologists conceptualized psychology as a natural science. However, a few exceptions, including Wilhelm Dilthey, envisioned psychology as a Geisteswissenschaft (mental science), with understanding as its core method. It is less known that Dilthey also promoted ideas for developmental psychology. This paper addresses the views of Dilthey and his student Spranger on the human mind and developmental psychology. While Dilthey provided general guidelines for studying mental life, Spranger promoted a holistic characterization of adolescence gained through the method of understanding. It is suggested that a geisteswissenschaftliche psychology may offer relevant yet neglected insights to contemporary developmental psychology.

Alexander Panchenko, Institute of Scientific Information in Social Sciences; Vladimir lakovlev, Moscow State University

In paper is considered the idea of global creativity. This idea consists in the admission of the ontological status of creative processes, of their quality of being primary as some maximum totality. J.Piaget was the first among the psychologists who has used the principle of creativity as the methodological tool for investigation of human thinking. His essential idea - epistemic construction - expresses the deep philosophical thought about the priority of creative cognitive function above stable mental structure. This function has always its direction (telos) towards dynamic balance of more and more perfect systems of intellectual operations.

Discussant: Gustavo Faigenbaum, University of Buenos Aires

Marc de Rosnay, Oxford University

There is accumulating evidence of a relationship between secure attachment and children’s emotional understanding (see Fonagy & Target, 1997; Harris, 1999). Whereas cognitive accounts of emotional understanding emphasize children’s conceptual insights, the attachment perspective explains how emotional experience may translate to understanding. The current experiment asked if the effects of attachment security on emotional understanding were particular to the emotional intensity and content of a task or if secure attachment provided a non-specific facilitation of emotional understanding. The results of a novel test of emotional understanding (which incorporates provocative attachment themes) and a standard cognitive-emotion task indicated that attachment security contributes to both understanding of emotion and belief. These effects were global rather than specific (even to emotion) and remained when other individual differences were controlled for (age, verbal mental age and sex).

Elizabeth S. Richner, Ageliki Nicolopoulou, Lehigh University

This paper examines young children’s construction and elaboration of two gender-related models of personhood in their spontaneous narratives. Girls constructed socially-responsible self, who is embedded, defined, constrained and extended in group life. Boys constructed an individual and autonomous self, who is fundamentally isolated and independent, and who interacts with others only in terms of maintaining autonomy through power and dominance relations. This analysis shows that young children’s conceptions of personhood are much more complex, differentiated, and socially-situated than the simple intentional conception offered by social understanding or theory of mind research.

Kristin D. Neff, University of Texas at Austin; Susan Harter, University of Denver

This study examines how individuals balance concerns with autonomy and connectedness within different relationships: with mother, father, best friend, and romantic partner. Participants included 150 college students of different ages. Three distinct relationship styles were examined: self-focused autonomy, other-focused connectedness, and mutuality (in which concerns with autonomy and connectedness are integrated). Relationship styles were not consistent across relationship contexts - instead, styles appear to be linked to the position of power individuals hold in relation to others (superiority, equality, or subordinance). In all relationship contexts, mutuality led to better psychological health. Gender and age-related differences in responses were also examined.

Melissa Smith, Nancy Budwig, Luke Moissinac, Martha Pinet, Clark University

Desire and belief terms were studied in three American English-speaking and three German-speaking caregiver-child dyads. Frequency as well as experiencer (self vs. other) of utterances containing mental state talk were examined. Regardless of age or community, speakers talked more about desire than belief. All speakers primarily made use of the desire verb [want]. In contrast, there were age and community differences in the selection of belief terms. The selection of experiencer varied by type of mental state verb (desire vs. belief), age, and community. Discussion examines the role of conceptual universals and cultural variations in constructing self-other relations.

Discussant: David Kritt, College of Staten Island

Amelie O. Rorty, Brandeis University

We’ve recently explored the limitations and the hidden political agenda of the heuristic metaphors of socio-economic development. The sources of those metaphors–and the programs they engender–lie in biological theories of organic growth, in the logic of cognitive presupposition and in (implicitly teleological) conceptions of political progress. Do the limitations of socio-economic developmental theories indicate similar drawbacks, shortcomings in the use of that metaphor in psychology? What insights does the developmental model block?

Many of our basic intellectual and character traits, many of our basic aims and values are improvisatory: they are formed by the vicissitudes of social role casting, by the accidents and momentum of dialectically reactive dramas. When and where does "development" stop? How–and by whom–is the implicit maturational ideal type defined? What are the roles of chance and accident, of drama and counter-drama in the fortuitous improvisatory formation of some of our intellectual and character traits?

Organizer: Eric Amsel, Weber State University

The goal of the symposium is to examine the nature of the relation between epistemological reasoning and identity development. The invited talks will present a number of different proposals about the relationship between identity and epistemology. In these talks, epistemological reasoning will be presented as a general stage, individual difference, or a domain-specific constraint on reasoning about identity, which will be considered from Eriksonian and narrative psychology perspectives. The roundtable discussion which follows the talks will focus on how the present results may energize new research issues and directions for this field of inquiry.

Eric Amsel, Weber State University

James Marcia, Simon Fraser University

Paul Klaczynski, Western Carolina University

Theodore Sarbin, University of California, Santa Cruz

Discussants: Augusto Blasi, University of Massachusetts, Boston; Kurt Fischer, Harvard University; David Moshman, University of Nebraska

Organizer: Gérald Noelting, Laval University

New research is opening up novel avenues in operatory theory. In a first study, Piaget’s own intellectual development is examined in the framework of the intra-, inter-, trans- paradigm. Then Piaget’s genetic epistemology is scrutinized, and empirical psychological research derived from probabilistic conjoint measurement models are presented. Finally, reanalysis is made of levels from second-generation Piagetian instruments. A dialectical process emerges, acting upon phenomenological primitives, "coupled" in periods and "composed" in phases. Each new period is characterized by a new dichotomy between components. The hierarchy of levels in Hegelian dialectics, operatory theory and measurement are compared. Semic analyses are undertaken.

Jacques Vonèche, University of Geneva

Trevor Bond, James Cook University

Gérald Noelting, Jean-Pierre Rousseau, Laval University

Discussant: Leslie Smith, Lancaster University

Anne-Marie Melot, Cyril Courtin, Université Paris V

Plusieurs tâches de coordination des perspectives visuelles, de distinction apparence/réalité et de fausse croyance ont été proposées à des enfants de 3 à 6 ans dans une recherche transversale, une recherche longitudinale, et à des enfants sourds signeurs natifs. L’antériorité systématique de la réussite aux tâches de coordination des perspectives d’une part, l’existence de plusieurs chemins de développement quant à la généralisation de l’accès à la métareprésentation d’autre part, conduisent à privilégier l’hypothèse d’un changement graduel plutôt que celle d’une rupture qualitative radicale pour rendre compte de l’accès au traitement métareprésentationnel.

Isabelle Montesinos Gelet, Université de Montréal

La recherche que nous allons présenter est inspirée des travaux de Ferreiro (1988). Cependant nous nous sommes centré sur un aspect peu étudié par cette auteure, les variations procédurales chez de jeunes enfants de 5 ans mis en situation d’écriture inventée. Tous les sujets ne présentent pas les mêmes procédures lors de la production écrite, et cela ne tient pas simplement au fait qu’ils se développent à des rythmes différents. Nous avons observé des cheminements particuliers que nous avons pu définir en types distincts. Ces différentes préférences cognitives feront l’objet de notre présentation.

Darek Dawda, Simon Fraser University

The term "language" typically involves the conflation of two distinct symbolic media, speaking and writing. I will argue that speaking and writing give the child two different modes and conceptions of self. Structurally, writing is the first symbolic medium capable of representing speech, an achievement that has profound effects on many aspects of the self. The transition from speaking to writing is a result of condensation and externalization of information. I will demonstrate how deconflating speaking and writing can contribute to the explanation of such developmental achievements as the Oedipus complex, moral realism, and interpretation.

Betsey Grobecker, Western Michigan University; Jeanette M. Gallagher, Lehigh University

The information-processing perspective of what constitutes the nature and "acquisition" of literacy skills has dominated the study of reading and writing difficulties. Specifically, phonological coding deficits are believed to prevent the acquisition of the alphabet code, although instruction that consists of a controlled presentation of frequently drilled sound- symbol relationships facilitates the internalization of this code. Constructivists would argue that the construction of grapheme-phoneme relationships has its source in emerging cognitive structures that guide and constrain the process of emergent literacy. Because children’s organizing activity is primary to the evolution of literacy abilities, we believe the source of literacy problems is in children’s structures of organizing activity (i.e., equilibration cycle) and related emotional forces such as motivation and confidence.

Deepthi Kamawar, University of Toronto & Smith College

A study examining the relation among 5- to 7-year-olds' metarepresentational ability, metalinguistic knowledge, and their ability to deal with referential opacity will be presented. Metarepresentational ability was measured using false belief tasks and metalinguistic knowledge was measured using tasks requiring children to compare/evaluate statements containing referring expressions. Hierarchical regressions indicated that even after variability from age, vocabulary and digit span performance are taken into account, metarepresentational ability and metalinguistic knowledge significantly, and independently, account for some variability in referential opacity performance. These results support the view that both metarepresentational ability and metalinguistic knowledge are critical to dealing with referential opacity.

Chair: Colette Daiute, The Graduate Center, CUNY

Haci-Halil Uslucan, Otto-von-Guericke-University

There is a close link between the philosophical framework of the classic American pragmatism, especially in the work of John Dewey and George Herbert Mead and the developmental theory of Piaget. Although he understands his system as "dynamic kantianism", I will show that Piagets theory has more common aspects with the tradition of pragmatism. Some of his central ideas, like refusing the empiristic view on learning and explaining the development of epistemological categories in the childhood through active interaction with the object-world, or the process of self-decentration through internalizing the perspectives of the other, will be better understand and get enriched in the light of pragmatist perspective on self development.

Sylvain Sirois, Thomas R. Shultz, McGill University

One important criticism of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development pertains to its lack of mechanistic specification (Klahr, 1982). This paper focuses on a neural network algorithm, Cascade-correlation, which provides a computational account of core developmental processes in Piaget’s theory. The learning rule in this model implements the companion notions of assimilation and accommodation with an implicit goal of equilibration. The architecture-modifying portion of the algorithm, on the other hand, models the notion of reflective abstraction: higher order representations are constructed (reflecting); these are then incorporated in the network’s topology (reflexion). A general computational framework for cognitive development is discussed.

Abel R. Hernández, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey

The main objective of this paper is to examine the interrelation between Piaget’s equilibration theory and some non-monotonic logics as a basis for developing a theoretical model that will subsume the core of Genetic Epistemology and improve several logical instruments that characterize Piaget’s analysis of human intelligence. With this model, I will propose a new perspective on the analysis of how some epistemic strategies used by an agent can be formalized.

Mário Sérgio Vasconcelos, Universidade Estadual Paulista

The objective of this study was to reveal the sources which contributed to the dissemination of Jean Piaget’s ideas in Brazil and to indicate the principal conditions of assimilation of this theory. The data were collected in archives, annals, books, periodicals, curriculums, memorials and, mainly, semi-directed interviews with forty-two distinguished professionals who worked and/or are working in Brazil with Piaget’s ideas. The study took the form of a descriptive history with a survey of the propagation of Piaget’s ideas around the country, showing the political, social, scientific and educational tendencies affecting the dissemination.

Discussant: Jeanette M. Gallagher, Temple University

Ana Lúcia Petty, Lino de Macedo, Universidade de São Paulo

Anne-Catherine Roch-Levecq, University of California, San Diego; Lisa Capps, University of California, Berkeley; Michael Cole, University of California, San Diego

Diana Wais, Lisa M. Rodrigues, Sarit Guttmann-Steinmetz, Ana Zevallos, Harriet S. Waters, SUNY at Stony Brook; German Posada, Denver University; Olga A. Carbonell, Gloria Alzate, Maria R. Bustamante, Javeriana University

Elaine Reese, Amy Cockroft, University of Otago

Peter H. Kahn, Jr., University of Washington; Carol D. Saunders, Brookfield Zoo; Gene Myers, Western Washington University

Vilette Bruno, Université de Lille 3

Seonju Ko, Terezinha Nunes, University of London

Richard De Lisi, Anne Childers Lackland, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Henri Lehalle, Isabelle Sanyas, Université Paul Valéry

Maria Lidia Szymanski, Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná; Rosa Maria Machado, Universidade Estadual de Campinas

Sandra Leanne Bosacki, Brock University

Theo L. Dawson, University of California - Berkeley

Michele Venet, Marc Bigras, Université de Sherbrooke

Stephane Quinn, Université du Québec à Montréal

Katherine E. Corbett, Southern Connecticut State University; Steven M. Pulos, University of Northern Colorado

James A. Russell, Sherri C. Widen, University of British Columbia

Eva Dolenszky, McGill University; Henry Markovits, Université du Québec à Montréal; Joyce Benenson, McGill University

Gowri Parameswaran, Southwest Missouri State University

Clement Celine, Jean-Claude Darcheville, Vinca Riviere, Université de Lille 3

Diane St-Laurent, Ellen Moss, Université du Québec à Montréal

Marta Gimenez Dasi, Autonoma University of Madrid; Paul Harris, University of Oxford; Silvia Guerrero, University of Madrid

Fernanda Dias, Lutheran University of Brazil; Pedro Aldo Kochenborger, Lutheran University of Brazil

Ann V. McGillicuddy-De Lisi, Megan Blackburn, Jennifer Basilo, Lafayette College; Richard De Lisi, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Maria Dias, Federal University of Pernambuco; Arne Vikan, NTNU, Regional Center of Child and Youth Psychiatry; Sissel Gravas, Institute of Psychology-Troudheim

Tania Mara Sperb, Fabio Sager, Beatriz Fedrizzi, Fernanda Martins Marques, Suzana Feldens Schwertner, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande Dos Sul

Márcia Magalhães, Leonardo Sampaio, Alcedir Silva, University of Paraiba

Cleonice Pereira dos Santos Camino, Raquel Moraes, Cícero Roberto Pereira, LÌlian Cruz, Federal University of Paraiba

Paul Denko, McGill University; Rosanne Roy, California State University; Joyce Benenson, Mcgill University

Frank B. Murray, Yanwei Zhang, University of Delaware

Tamer G. Amin, Clark University

The construct of mental models has figured prominently in the literature addressing conceptual change in science learning. Following Johnson-Laird (1983) mental models are understood as cognitive structures grounding the interpretation of language. The science learning literature has generally ignored the relation between mental models and language, however. Cognitive linguists (e.g., Lakoff, 1987; Langacker, 1987) have drawn a distinction between cognitive models and conceptual construals imposed by linguistic (both lexical and grammatical) choices. In this paper I develop an argument suggesting that this distinction is relevant to understanding the process of conceptual change in science learning. I base the suggestion on semantic and syntactic analyses of the common use of the noun ‘heat’, the verb ‘heat and the noun ‘temperature’ and on a cognitive interpretation of the phenomenon of "grammatical metaphor", where temporal processes are encoded using nouns - a phenomenon identified to be common in the language of science and alienating to students (Halliday & Martin, 1993).

Egon Mermelstein, Kiang-Chuen Young, College of Aeronautics

A psychology of learning is proposed as a part of the process of science. The scientist’s exploration of mistakes is essential for his psychology of learning. Exploration of mistakes is viewed as the juxtaposition of unlike things. This juxtaposition defines the metaphorical mode of inquiry which describes the context of discovery in science. Implications for the role of mistakes in the teaching of mathematics and science are discussed.

Marimon M. Moreno, Genoveva Sastre, Susana Cubino, Universitat de Barcelona; Aurora Leal, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona

Our main concern is to find the role of non-operatory aspects —like representational and semantic ones- in the generalization of mathematical knowledge. In order to find answers we designed three problems with the same formal structure but with different contents. The problems were solved by a sample of university students. The same three problems were presented in two different orders: First, second, third (I-II-III) and Third, second, first (III-II-I). Results show that the percentage of success is significantly different according to contents of the problems (liquids, discrete elements and people). The order in which problems were presented has also a very clear and important influence on the subject’s performance and, indeed, on the results. The recognition of structural similarities between the three problems does not lead to a generalization of the operatory treatment of data. Isolating pertinent data poses different difficulty levels depending on the context. The assumptions, hypothesis and results of our research allow a theoretical discussion which involves the Organizing Models constructed by the subjects.

Discussant: David Uttal, Northwestern University

Andreas Demetriou, University of Cyprus

A theory is presented which aims to integrate research on cognitive, personality, and self development. The theory assumes that mind and personality are organized in three main levels. The first includes environment-oriented systems and dispositions. The second includes self-oriented processes mapping the environment-oriented systems. Self-identity originates from the interaction of the two levels. This occurs under the current operating constraints of the system. Efficiency in overcoming these constraints is itself recorded by the self-oriented processes thereby generating feelings of general self-worth. These have person-specific values and operate as a personal constant applied on all self-representations. This constant is systematically rescaled with development thereby saving intra- and inter-individual differences. Several studies are presented in support of the theory.

Organizer: Constance Milbrath, University of California, San Francisco

During adolescence, young people experience a shift in dominant self models from a preadolescent parental self to an adolescent peer self in which self representations are formed in a social context that largely consists of peers. At the same time, this experience is tendered through a rapidly changing culture that reinterprets and borrows from a larger cultural milieu in which developmentally appropriate cultural expressions are often loosely prescribed. In this symposium we will explore some of the ways adolescents negotiate this difficult terrain of constructing the self amidst an evolving peer culture. Presenters will consider how adolescent attitudes, beliefs and behavior influence and are influenced by their ethnic identity, friends, peer groups, and their emerging sexuality.

Christopher Lalonde, University of Victoria; Michael J. Chandler, University of British Columbia

Constance Milbrath, University of California, San Francisco

Steve L. Eyre, University of California, San Francisco

Penelope Eckert, Stanford University; Christi Cervantes, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Organizer: Chris Westbury, University of Alberta

Since Piaget’s final writings on the topic of knowledge genesis appeared, our notions of representations and their transformations under computation have undergone a radical shift. Computational transformations once assumed to be centralized, serial, top-down, and encapsulated are increasingly being cast as decentralized, parallel, multiple, embodied, bottom-up, and interrupt-drive. This seminar discusses the role of the Piagetian concept of genetic epistemology in the light of this modern ‘post-Cartesian’ view of cognitive computation. Emphasis is placed on negotiating the difficult path that Piaget himself was trying to tread, between the Scylla of formalist realism and the Charybis of underspecified constructivism.

Chris Westbury, University of Alberta

Elena Nicoladis, University of Alberta

Richard Griffin, University of Cambridge; Ori Friedman, Ellen Winner, Hiram Brownell, Boston College

Organizers: Jin Li, Brown University; Michael F. Mascolo, Merrimack College

Recently, the individualism-collectivism (I/C) distinction has been used to explain cultural variation of self. Despite its utility, the I/C dichotomy runs the risk of characterizing different cultures and selves as unidimensional entities, resulting often in extreme claims. This symposium explores the idea that more nuanced notions of self and culture are needed to capture the richness and multiplicity of self-experience. All cultures must deal simultaneously with individuality and social relatedness; however, they construct these themes differently. The participants will present empirical research from the U.S., Brazil, China, and India on different ways selves are constructed and discuss implications for future research.

Michael F. Mascolo, Merrimack College; Deepa John, University of Delhi; Sonia Machado, Merrimack College; Girishwar Misra, University of Delhi; Nicole Ledbetter, Merrimack College

Dais Akiba, Brown University

Jin Li, Brown University

Maria C. D. P. Lyra, Federal University of Pernambuco; Micheline Souza, Clark University

Discussant: Joan Miller, University of Michigan

Roger Bergman, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

This paper is concerned with the relationships among moral reasoning, moral motivation, moral action, and moral identity. It explores how major figures in developmental psychology have understood these relationships, with attention to schematic models or conceptual maps. After treating Piaget, Kohlberg, Rest, Colby and Damon, and Blasi, I argue that Blasi provides the crucial elements of a critical synthesis, a conceptual model of how developmental psychology might best answer the question, Why be moral? I conclude by suggesting that this psychological model of moral functioning challenges conventional notions of what constitutes our "greatest moral challenge."

Tobias Krettenauer, Humboldt University Berlin

The study explores relations between adolescents’ certainty in judging moral issues, an indicator of moral commitment, and socio-cognitive development in terms of (a) stages of moral reasoning and (b) levels of epistemic development. Results demonstrate that, although certainty in judging moral issues varies considerably accross situations, it is related to epistemic development in a systematic way: skeptical relativists express less certainty and are less committed to their moral judgments. This effect was unrelated to the development of moral stages. Overall, the findings suggest that adolescents’ general understanding of belief entitlement transforms their moral commitment significantly.

Alvaro Q. Barriga, Elizabeth M. Morrison, Seton Hill College; Albert K. Liau, Kent State University; John C. Gibbs, Ohio State University

The gender difference in externalizing (i.e., immoral) behavior is not accounted for by moral judgment maturity. We investigated this difference by considering moral self-relevance and self-serving cognitive distortion. The sample included 88 male and 105 female college students aged 16 — 19 years. In analyses of covariance, males demonstrated elevated levels of externalizing behavior. Although the genders did not differ in moral judgment maturity, females exhibited greater moral self-relevance and less self-serving cognitive distortion. These results suggest that the gender difference in moral behavior is better explained by moral self-relevance and self-serving cognitive distortion than moral judgment maturity.

Jodie A. Baird, University of Toronto

Four studies investigated preschoolers’ understanding that one action may be motivated by different intentions. Children heard stories in which two characters performed the same action (e.g., running) yet had different intentions (e.g., to get somewhere fast vs. to get exercise). In contrast to 5-year-olds, 4-year-olds tended to attribute the same intention to both characters, even when their desires differed. Four-year-olds’ failure to differentiate two intentions for a given action persisted despite several reductions in the processing demands of the task, suggesting that young children may assume that intentions are isomorphic with actions.

Discussant: Peter H. Kahn Jr., University of Washington

Organizer: Jonas Cox, George Fox University

This symposium reflects the efforts of a self-sustaining small group of educators who remain dedicated to implementing educational practices which can be supported by research as being developmentally appropriate. Presenters include classroom teachers, educational administrators, teacher education students, and educational researchers all committed to the importance of developmental issues in educational settings. They attend firstly to the identification and assessment of the developmental acquistion of cognitive abilities underlying school learning, and then show how school learning can capitalize on those assessments. The presentations interrelate to argue how educators at all levels need to hold developmental issues in focus, if teacher-centered teaching is to be replaced by children’s learning based on the construction of their own knowledge. The presenters challenge educational researchers to focus on the issues that influence development: not only the development of individual children and teachers, but the development of schools and educational systems which enhance that development.

Michelle Watts, Fir Wood Elementary School; Rita Deetz, Bull Run Elementary School

Jonas Cox, Emily Bladen, Katey Wildish, George Fox University

Sandra Pellens, Molalla River School District

Discussant: Trevor Bond, James Cook University

Organizers: Vera Maria Ramos de Vasconcellos; Helena Amaral da Fontoura, Universidade Federal Fluminense

Autonomy is a theme we must develop, as early as infant education and this symposium aims to present some of the discussions in Brasil. The papers weave some issues around the theme, but are quite diverse in their approaches. The first paper works with video analysis, presents part of the results of a large research project envolving infant education and discusses the spatial arrangement in the classrooms. The second paper, based on content analysis approach, articulates the perspective of teaching values within infant education settings under teachers’ perceptions about autonomy and how it influences their practice. The third paper deals with the process of constructing autonomy by preschoolers, utilizing etnographic micro analysis. Proposing this discussion, we can be of help in developing other paths to pave advancements in the area of child development related to educational processes, using autonomy as a conducting thread.

Vera Maria Ramos de Vasconcellos, Helena Amaral da Fontoura, Claudia da Costa Guimarães Santana, Minna Gondim Marques Rodrigues, Universidade Federal Fluminense

Adelaide Alves Dias, Universidade Federal da Paraíba; Vera Maria Ramos de Vasconcellos, Universidade Federal Fluminense

Tania Mara Sperb, Patrícia Ligocki, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

Marsha D. Walton, Lisa Schum, Rhodes College

Inner-city 4th-6th graders wrote narratives about an experience with interpersonal conflict. All mental state verbs and epistemological expressions were identified and classified. There were significant grade-related increases in the tendency to report about own and others’ mental states. The two most common uses of epistemological talk were (1) to explain or resolve conflicts that turned on who knew what when or on what different actors understood and (2) to describe conflicts about deception and to determine what "really happened." The role of narrative in shaping the development of both a sense of self and a naïve epistemology is discussed.

Bonnie G. Kanner, Worcester State College; Nancy Budwig, Clark University

This study involved a developmental analysis of age-related changes in preschoolers’ conflicts and conflict resolutions. Twelve three-and-a-half and twelve five-year-olds participated in same-sex or mixed-sex dyadic play. Conflicts were coded as disputes about possession, unwanted actions, or roles and procedures in pretend play. Conflict Resolutions were coded as containing self, other, or joint goals. As predicted, five-year-olds engaged in significantly more conflicts about roles and procedures in pretend play than did three-year-olds, and used significantly more joint resolutions. Results are discussed by relating changes in preschoolers’ conflicts and conflict resolutions to their developing understanding of goals and motives of self and other.

Michael J. Nakkula, Sandra L. Fraley, Christina Nikitopolous, Harvard Graduate School of Education

How does life experience and participation in a youth negotiation program influence the construction of interpersonal skills over time? The Boston Longitudinal Study of Urban Adolescent Development examines the dynamic construction of interpersonal skills in a sample of 52 minority students beginning at ages 12 and 13. Results from the first year of the experimental study show distinct developmental profiles for participants in a violence prevention program relative to students in a matched control group. The analytical approach focuses closely on the nature of variation in this data from urban adolescents during a period of intense social growth. We interpret the findings from Robert Selman’s model of interpersonal perspective taking and Kurt Fischer’s model of dynamic skills theory.

Jennifer Saltzman, University of Victoria

Social cognition is a broad term used to refer to thinking processes that are relevant to social interaction, including thinking about thoughts and thinking about emotions. This paper will aim to provide a theoretical discussion of the development of social cognition skills in middle childhood and the importance of expanding current and future empirical knowledge of this development into clinical realms. The relationship of social cognition and developmental psychopathology will also be discussed in this light. Preliminary results of research into the development of clinically useful measures of social cognition may also be discussed.

Discussant: Carolyn Hildebrandt, University of Northern Iowa

Jens Brockmeier, Maria Medved, University of Toronto

In this paper we argue that the interpretive-hermeneutic study of narrative discourse and, particularly, of narrative constructions of time and space adds important insights to traditional cognitive concepts of the mind. The investigation of individuals’ self-narratives can offer a more appropriate alternative to causal-explanatory approaches in cases of neuropsychological phenomena involving complex psychopathologies related to the experience and interpretation of time and space. While these phenomena evade traditional cognitive explanations, they can be more closely examined, as we shall demonstrate in the discussion of two clinical case histories, when subjected to the study of the narrative fabric of the mind.

Luke Moissinac, Clark University

Humans start off with a primal affective base that antecedes language and semiosis. In development, language and semiosis gradually enter, allowing representations to be "carved out" from this affective base and made meaning of. Thus, this affective base is transformed and also enabled to further mold itself to the culture of the environment and to adapt to it. This involves the privileging of particular types of representations that the culture foregrounds. Such a formulation is consonant with recent theories of consciousness derived from neuroscience, historical ideas of the interplay between affect and cognition and contemporary anthropological ideas about personality.

Jay A. Seitz, City University of New York

Traditional cognitive theories of selfhood (e.g., schema theory, trait theory, self-attribution theory) assume that self and personal identity are wholly mind-based. The body, however, plays a significant role in the construction of this sense of self. Indeed, there is a evidence for a distributed neural network, including the somatosensory cortex, limbic system, and cortical regions central to object- and self-recognition, that forms the neural basis for corporeal awareness, that is, one’s representation of one’s body or "body schema". We suggest that this body schema changes over time and, as a result, one’s personal identity is modulated by body-centered representations.

Darek Dawda, Simon Fraser University

I argue that touching, contrary to common conceptions, is the first medium that symbolically mediates between the inner and outer world of the child. I situate this first achievement of self-awareness in the broader framework of the emergent symbolic self. I argue that the gradual emergence of the symbolic modes of touching, gesturing, speaking, and writing results in the creation of the self as a multimodal nested interpretive structure. While structurally the same, different representational modes give the child a radically different spacio-temporal self-awareness. I argue that touching introduces the child into a two-dimensional world of surface. My reinterpretation of Piaget’s 3rd stage of sensorimotor development provides support for this claim.

Discussant: Yasuji Kojima, Hokkai-gakuen University

Donald E. Polkinghorne, University of Southern California

When a person is understood as activity rather than that which acts, personal identity requires the type of linguistic discourse that displays the history of a person’s activity. Narrative discourse, through emplotment, allows the organization of a person’s life activities and events into a storied meaningful whole. Who I am is the configuration of the what I have done and the what I expect to do. Theorists of personal identity as narrative are divided on whether or not life as lived has narrative form. Ricoeur provides an approach to narrative identity that overcomes this division.

Organizer: Louis J. Moses, University of Oregon

This symposium illustrates some of the myriad ways in which the self system interacts with developing theories of mind. The presentations include discussions of how (a) developing self regulation may enable both the emergence and expression of theory of mind, (b) conceptions of self may have initially incorporated only representations of kinesthetic states but later evolved to include representations of mental states, (c) the development of a temporally extended self may be linked to both theory of mind and future-oriented social behavior, and (d) the notion of self-as-mental-experiencer may bridge the topics of theory of mind and self-concept development.

Louis J. Moses, University of Oregon

Daniel J. Povinelli , University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Chris Moore, Dalhousie University

John H. Flavell, Stanford University

Discussant: Alison Gopnik, University of California - Berkeley

Organizer: Marc D. Lewis, University of Toronto

Dynamic systems approaches emphasize that emergent forms in real time contribute to the accrual of organization in development. Thelen and others have shown that emergent cognitive forms are highly sensitive to external contextual factors. We explore their sensitivity to what might be called an internal contextual factor – emotion. We examine the contribution of emotion to cognitive/attentional forms that emerge in real time, recur across occasions, and consequently guide social, conceptual, and personality development. These forms include modes of attention regulation in infancy, internal working models of attachment, and levels of interpersonal competency in adolescence. Psychological and neurobiological modeling of cognition-emotion relations helps explain the convergence of cognitive organization in real time and development.

Kevin C. Runions, University of Toronto

E-Man Leung, University of Toronto

Stephanie Roberts, University of Toronto

Marc D. Lewis, University of Toronto

Discussant: Michel Ferrari, University of Toronto

Organizers: Bruce Homer, City University of New York and Jens Brockmeier, University of
Toronto

In this symposium, an international group of researchers will present research that examines the role of social-discursive factors - in particular, literacy - on children’s metalinguistic awareness of words. The theoretical perspective taken is that knowledge about the nature of words is a result of children’s discursive experiences. Such experiences, are based on a variety of linguistic practices. The first paper in the symposium will present research that investigates the role of early literacy development on Mexican children’s phonological awareness. In the second paper, the effects of discursive factors such as literacy, contexts, and pragmatics on Canadian children’s conception of words and names will be discussed. The next paper will present a related study from Italy that examines children’s conception of names and words from a cross-cultural perspective. In the final paper, research on Canadian high-school students’ pragmatic understanding of text will be presented, and the role of context and content in the acquisition and construction of knowledge about words will be discussed. Finally, the discussant for the symposium will examine the underlying theoretical perspective of the papers and the implications of this research for understanding the role of social and discursive context in children’s construction of metalinguistic knowledge.

Sofia Vernon, Gabriela Calderon, Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro

Bruce D. Homer, City University of New York; Jens Brockmeier, University of Toronto

Ilaria Grazzani Gavazzi, Veronica Ornaghi, Catholic University, Milan

Linda M. Phillips, University of Alberta

Discussant: Jens Brockmeier, University of Toronto

Gustavo Faigenbaum, University of Buenos Aires

4 to 12 year-old children have been observed in a school courtyard, while engaging in barter of material (mainly trading cards) and immaterial (e.g., turns in a game) goods, arguing about the values at stake. 120 episodes have been recorded. Peer interaction episodes provide evidence about how children master symbolic and ritual aspects of exchange. They show children’s progressive grasp of the abstract power of money, and of a rhetoric of reciprocity. The centrality of the study of children’s economic experience for understanding their socialization and cognitive development will be defended.

Marti Kennedy, Montclair State University

This study identified the culture of middle childhood to be the school peer group, with classmates as the salient dynamic interactors in the construction of the 9- and 10-year-old self. Dependent on the meaning-making that emerges from the way in which children perceive they are viewed by their classmates, a social self is constructed via an interaction style of a self-in-relation or a self-in-autonomy. Specifically, it was found that boys’ views–rather than girls’ or adults’ views–influence both girl’s and boys’ internal construction of self and external interaction style as each sex serves to collude in the co-construction of gender.

David Kritt, College of Staten Island/CUNY

This conceptual analysis of play with high-tech toys examines implications for changes in socializatioin in the context of technological change. Specific attention focuses on concepts of animacy and personhood, the intteractive capacity of toys, and the quality of "relationships" individuals can form with them. It is concluded that amplification of the minimal functional components of relationships minimizes affect, so that children acquire vastly different understandings of themselves, and expectations aboout the physical and social worlds, than did children in the past.

David Kritt, College of Staten Island/CUNY; Nicole DuBow, Carol Jackson, University of Houston

This paper presents an observational study of toddler play and an integrated constructivist and sociocultural consideration of its significance. Qualitative analysis of videotapes focuses on social contacts in the context of the child’s stream of activity. Incidents of special interest are toys used as mediators of social interaction.

Claudia Broetto Rossetti, Maria Thereza Costa Coelho de Souza, University of São Paulo

The purpose of this study is investigate the playing preference of a sample of Brazilian children and adolescents, according to the classification of games proposed by Piaget (1946). The subjects are 25 girls and 25 boys, aging between six and 14 years, students of a private school, in the southeast of Brazil. It was used an interview scheme, comprising 10 questions. The data analysis shows that the games of rules are preferred for 90% of the subjects. The outdoors games are preferred for 60% of the subjects, while the indoor games of rules are preferred for 30% of the subjects.

Chair: Brian D. Cox, Hofstra University

Elsa K. Weber, Purdue University Calumet

Rosanne Roy, California State University, Stanilsaus

Vaneesa Wiebe, Marlene Moretti, Simon Fraser University

Jody Eberly, Susan L. Golbeck, Rutgers University

Jennifer L. Belter, Anne K. Hickling, University of North Carolina-Greensboro

Shana Nichols, Dalhousie University

Hye-Sook Park, Karen W. Bauer, University of Delaware

Gisele Escorel de Carvalho, Ana Lúcia Petty, Lino de Macedo, Universidade de São Paulo

Julie Mélançon, Hélène Ziarko, Université Laval

Marie-France Morin, Hélène Ziarko, Université Laval

Pauline Sirois, Andrée Boisclair, Université Laval

Gwen Bredendieck Fischer, Hiram College

Charles C. Helwig, Brenda Miles, Angela Prencipe, University of Toronto

Cécile Ladouceur, Luc Reid, Université du Québec à Montréal

Lia Beatriz de Lucca Freitas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

Gail Arena Flanigan, Georgia State University

Melanie Killen, Kerry Pisacane, Jennie Kim, Alicia Ardila-Rey, University of Maryland

Thérèse Bouffard, Geneviève Simard, Carole Vezeau, Université du Québec à Montréal

Maria Cordero, Columbia University

Sophie Parent, Catherine Gosselin, Sophie Pascal, Université de Montréal

Rémi Coderre, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières

Vilette Bruno, Merlier Danielle, Université de Lille 3

Sara J. Brose, University of California, Berkeley

Deborah Ferrara, Ageliki Nicolopoulou, Lehigh University

Nadia Sorkhabi, University of California, Berkeley

Cheryl Van Hook, Ohio University; Connie Steele, University of Tennessee

Emma Goulden, Julie L. Desroches, Simon Fraser University

Christel Robert, Frederique Brenet, Christian Marendaz, Université Pierre Mendes France

Carole Ferrel, Chantal Bard, Michelle Fleury, Université Laval

Pierre Zurcher, Atelier Musical

Simone de Lima, Clark University

In Gottlieb’s Probabilistic Epigenesis, development is a coactional, emergent, and hierarchical process. This framework has important implications for human developmental psychology which are discussed here via a dialogue between developmental theory and four fundamental tenets of the probabilistic framework: norm of reaction, interactional causality, experience, and equifinality. The limits of the framework are also scrutinized. It is argued that collapsing the physical, social and cultural hierarchical levels denies the differences between direct and mediated experience and the conceptualization of mind as emergent. In the complementary scheme proposed, the developmental framework is diachronically modified to encompass such emergence.

Tillmann Vierkant, Sabine Maasen, Wolfgang Prinz, Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research

The paper is trying to show that contrary to popular belief cartesianism is a very far reaching problem. Even the empiricist philosophical doctrines which are explicitly antcartesian are not free of the cartesian conception. Arguments supporting that claim are taken from the contextualist tradition. The paper does not want to show however, that this tradition escaped the cartesian problems. It only claims that both sides rightly criticise a problem in the other tradition, but turn a blind eye on their own problems. This mutual blindness leads to the surprising result that most philosophical doctrines and the scientific discourses that are informed by it do still have quite strong cartesian features.

Enrique Perez - Castillo, Universidad Autonoma de Puebla

History, including (or mostly) the national history of a country, is a textual, diegetic (narrative) and rethorical construct (construction) at the level of intersubjective, social, filogenic and collective consciousness, very much in the same manner as the self is also a construct at the individual, personal and ontogenenical level. In this paper, a perspective will be presented as to distinguish between history as a constructed narrative and historicity as an existential and experiential belonging. A parallel will be made between the construction of the collective consciousness of a (human) group and two levels of individual consciousness in the personal self -system: experiential selfhood as an aspect of "erleben", and the extension of this in the belonging to different human, social, cultural and "historical" groups. The theoretical basis for this presentation come from several sources: The constructivist approach of cognitive biology and philosophy; The phenomenological and hermeneutic tradition of philosophy , including the aesthetics of reception and reader’s reception theory; The rethorical analysis of "tropic" treatment of fictional and historical texts (in the line of Hayden White).

Sabine Maasen, Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research

The term ‘self-technology’ introduced by Michel Foucault is a metaphor which directs our analysis to systematic ways of finding our "true self." From this angle, practices such as modern sexual therapies or their predecessors, the ancient monks’ spiritual exercises and the medieval practice of confession, present themselves as techniques which provoke a careful and never-ending concern for the true self: All techniques offer help, yet, the more sophisticated they are, the more likely it is for imperfections to be detected (yet another sinful desire, yet another sexual imperfection). The term self-technology thus makes us see intricate and circularly operating forms of self-care as constitutive for the emergence of (historically specific notions of sexual) "selves."

Chair: Maria Lyra, Federal University of Pernambuco

Organizer: Kurt Fischer, Harvard University

Children (and adults) develop along many distinct pathways based on their close relationships in family and community. By participating from birth in the socioemotional relationships of their families and communities, they construct a developmental sequence of working models of themselves in key roles, defined by levels for participating, understanding, and reacting emotionally in specific relationships. For each kind of pathway, people develop not only skills but also confusions and conflicts engendered by the combination of development with specific relationship patterns. Important domains in which we are analyzing these pathways include racial identity, attachment relationships, Oedipal conflicts, emotional splitting, and abusive relationships.

Kurt Fischer, Harvard University

Catherine Ayoub, Harvard University

Allyson Pimentel, Harvard University; Gil Noam, Harvard University

Organizer: Ulrich Mueller, University of Toronto

The papers in this symposium address different aspects of the development of consciousness and intentionality in the course of the first years of life. The presenters in this symposium share the view that consciousness and intentionality as well as the understanding of others as conscious and intentional agents are sequentially transformed over the course of development. Accordingly, the papers set out to distinguish between different levels in the development of consciousness and intentionality, and to identify the developmental processes that are responsible for the developmental progression from a lower level of intentionality and consciousness to a higher one.

Ulrich Mueller, University of Toronto

Philip David Zelazo, University of Toronto

Jeremy Carpendale, Simon Fraser University

Bryan W. Sokol, University of British Columbia; Christopher P. Jones, Simon Fraser University, David Paul, University of British Columbia

Discussant: Lou Moses, University of Oregon

Organizer: Yeh Hsueh & Emily D. Cahan, Harvard University

The purpose of this symposium is to explore the discovery and rediscovery of Piaget from the perspectives of several audiences. The several audiences discussed in this symposium received and responded to Piaget’s theory and research in different ways. For example, early childhood educators in the 1920s were interested in the practical application of Piaget’s theory to their child-centered teaching. In contrast, the Committee on Child Development from which emerged SRCD critiqued that which they knew of Piaget’s research from their own methodological commitment to the formation of the science of child development in the US. Together, these four papers will explore several of Piaget’s audiences in their contrasting understandings, applications and critiques of Piaget’s theory and research.

Emily D. Cahan, Wheelock College

Yeh Hsueh, Harvard University

Jody Hall, University of Massachusetts at Boston

D. Kim Reid, Columbia University; Jeanette M. Gallagher, Temple University

Discussant: Sheldon H. White, Harvard University

Urs Fuhrer, Otto-von-Guericke-University

Over a century ago, James clarified the phenomena involved in "I" and "Me", and Mead went on to help us understand the rootedness of our individuality in the participation in a shared symbol system. Giving that the self is so immersed in culture, it must be organized around those meaning-making processes that connect the individual to culture. But how can we deal with meaning, culture, and self under developmental issues? The answer is given by the Cultivating Minds paradigm where the meanings constructed out of I-world relationships are experienced in terms of mediating action possibilities they involve for the growth of the self.

Nadia Sorkhabi, University of California at Berkeley

A contemporary group of culturists maintain that culture is an authoritative entity with recursive functioning that provides solutions for order, harmony, reciprocity, and effective social functioning. On the individual level culture is deemed to direct the representation, construction, and individual apprehension of objects ranging form social objects as the self and the other to physical objects. Individualistic and collectivistic cultures each yeild respectively cognitive processes that are abstract and concrete and self-conception that is bounded and unbounded. It will be argued that dichotomous categorization and antithetical definition of human self-conception and reasoning as either bounded and abstract or unbounded and concrete would preempt the individual form coordinating self and other and hence apprehending social notions of reciprocity and harmony. The universal nature of the human condition requjres social interactions which in turn require that the individual simultaneously assimilate and accommodate and employ the concrete data of experience toward attaining abstract forms and in turn employ the abstract toward understanding the particular within a defined parameter.

Jrene Rahm, University of Northern Colorado

In this paper, I provide a case study of a participant in an inner-city youth gardening program to illustrate the link between learning or forms of participation and constructions of self or identity. I show how changing perceptions of self influenced how learning opportunities were sought out, transformed, or simply ignored. Informed by practice theory and sociocultural theory, identity is perceived as socially and culturally constituted, rather than simply as a product of introjections or internal constructions. A case study of one participant’s five year trajectory in the program will exemplify what such an approach to identity and learning entails.

Hisako Inaba, Kyoto University

This study tries to discover experiences that Japanese women employed in learning to live in the United States and applying in Japan. As a recognized outcome, a concept of self in their own terms (emic view) is looked into. The personal in-depth interviews with six women in Tokyo, Japan, in 1998, showed how each woman’s experiences in the United States aided that she became assertive, learned to manage heavy amae (dependency or indulgence) relationships, learned to manage her "ki" in an environment that did not offer strong sekentei (critical eyes of others), and found alternative life options. They are considered as a cultural change process at a personal level.

Discussant: Artin Göncü, University of Illinois at Chicago

Larry Nucci, University of Illinois at Chicago

Understanding the bases for moral action necessarily implicates the moral agent. How moral agency functions, however, is open to debate. This presentation exams the construct of the moral self as an element of moral psychology. A presumed promise of the moral self construct is that it bridges the gap between moral reason and action, and allows for an account of moral self reprobation in cases where one's actions betray one's judgment of what is moral and right. On the other hand, one's construction of a moral self may result in harmony and comfort with conventional value orientations that are "objectively" immoral. Finally, it may be argued from a structuralist viewpoint that the entire notion of a moral self is redundant and mechanistic.