Either We're Too Early and They Can't Learn It or We're Too Late and They Know It Already: The Dilemma of "Applying Piaget"

1979 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor Duckworth

This essay is a response to the history of American reactions to Piaget's work—skepticism about his findings, followed by a desire to accelerate development. Influenced by the mass of psychological research devoted to these issues, educators have adopted them as their concerns as well. Eleanor Duckworth sketches this history, reviews recent Genevan learning research, and in so doing, suggests that the dilemma is both false and beside the point. She turns to a consideration of issues of greater educational concern,bringing Piaget's work to bear on them.

Author(s):  
Leah R. Warner ◽  
Stephanie A. Shields

Intersectionality theory concerns the interdependence of systems of inequality and implications for psychological research. Social identities cannot be studied independently of one another nor separately from the societal processes that maintain inequality. In this chapter we provide a brief overview of the history of intersectionality theory and then address how intersectionality theory challenges the way psychological theories typically conceive of the person, as well as the methods of data gathering and analysis customarily used by many psychologists. We specifically address two concerns often expressed by feminist researchers. First, how to reconcile the use of an intersectionality framework with currently-valued psychological science practices. Second, how intersectionality transforms psychology’s concern with individual experience by shifting the focus to the individual’s position within sociostructural frameworks and their social and political underpinnings. In a concluding section we identify two future directions for intersectionality theory: how psychological research on intersectionality can facilitate social activism, and current developments in intersectionality theory.


Author(s):  
Kristin A. Hancock ◽  
Douglas C. Haldeman

Psychology’s understanding of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people has evolved, become more refined, and impacted the lives of LGB people in profound ways. This chapter traces the history of LGB psychology from the nineteenth century to the present and focuses on major events and the intersections of theory, psychological science, politics, and activism in the history of this field. It explores various facets of cultural and psychological history that include the pathologizing of homosexuality, the rise of psychological science and the political movements in the mid-twentieth century, and the major shifts in policy that ensued. The toll of the AIDS epidemic on the field is discussed as is the impact of psychological research on national and international policy and legislation.


2009 ◽  
Vol 217 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theo Herrmann

One cannot predict the future of the sciences or that of psychology. The question “What’s next?” gives reason to think about which principles to which psychology has developed. In analyzing the historical development of psychology, one should differentiate between basic psychological research, psychological technology, and the structure of institutions. Historical changes of psychology occur slowly and continuously. These continuous changes are obviously a foil for short-term changes that we can refer to as discontinuities. The complex pattern of continuities and discontinuities is based on very different conditions. External and internal causes of the changes in the history of psychology are discussed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J Brown

In contemporary histories of psychology, William Moulton Marston is remembered for helping develop the lie detector test. He is better remembered in the history of popular culture for creating the comic book superhero Wonder Woman. In his time, however, he contributed to psychological research in deception, basic emotions, abnormal psychology, sexuality, and consciousness. He was also a radical feminist with connections to women's rights movements. Marston's work is an instructive case for philosophers of science on the relation between science and values. Although Marston's case provides further evidence of the role that feminist values can play in scientific work, it also poses challenges to philosophical accounts of value-laden science. Marston's work exemplifies standard views about feminist value-laden research in that his feminist values help him both to criticize the research of others and create novel psychological concepts and research techniques. His scientific work includes an account of the nature of psycho-emotional health that leads to normative conclusions for individual values and conduct and for society and culture, a direction of influence that is relatively under-theorized in the literature. To understand and evaluate Marston's work requires an approach that treats science and values as mutually influencing; it also requires that we understand the relationship between science advising and political advocacy in value-laden science.


Author(s):  
William Hoppitt ◽  
Kevin N. Laland

This chapter provides a brief historical background to social learning research. The history of research into social learning and imitation dates back to Aristotle, who explicitly made the claim that animals acquire behavior through imitation and other forms of social learning. Aristotle was particularly impressed with the human imitative tendency. The three insights made in the fourth century BC—that humans are uncharacteristically reliant on imitative learning compared to other animals, that young children in particular acquire important aspects of their behavioral repertoire through copying, and that imitation appears intrinsically rewarding to children—are remarkably relevant to contemporary social learning research. The chapter examines how investigations of social learning have been central to research into the evolution of mind, the mechanisms of social learning, animal culture, the diffusion of innovations, child development, and cultural evolution.


Author(s):  
Brian H. Bornstein ◽  
Jeffrey S. Neuschatz

This chapter focuses on using suspects’ subtle emotional displays as an indication of their veracity. Münsterberg mentions several physiological indicators of an unconscious emotional reaction, such as changes in pulse, breathing, and galvanic skin response. The sorts of physiological measures described by Münsterberg foreshadow the polygraph, which relies on just such measures. The polygraph has been controversial since its inception and continues to be held in lower esteem by the scientific community than by law enforcement. The present chapter reviews psychological research on the polygraph as a lie detection tool. More specifically, it traces the history and uses of lie detectors, up to the most current methodologies. The chapter reviews the advantages and limitations of the various techniques used by polygraphers to establish the truth or deceptiveness of statements. Finally, the chapter discusses the history of the legal status of the polygraph.


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