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Theories of developmental psychology
155
Book Reviews Freeman and Co., New York, (paperback). (hardback), O-71 67-2002-7
Theories of Developmental Psychology. By P.H. Miller, W.H. 1989,
2nd Edn., 488 pp, ISBN
O-7167-2001-9
Textbooks on developmental psychology are numerous. They present, with more or less detail and more or less conceptual sophistication, the various aspects of physical, perceptual, cognitive and socio-emotional development. Miller’s textbook is of a different format. Rather than writing a fact-laden book, the author tried to give a “big picture” of psychological development, providing frameworks for understanding and perceiving the significance of the research findings in developmental psychology. The introduction presents metatheoretical considerations concerning the definition of a theory, theory construction and the nature of developmental psychology. The latter has to describe changes within one or several areas of behavior, to describe changes in the relationships among several areas of behavior and to explain the course of development which has been described. Although developmental theories differ in their content, methods of investigation, and formal nature, they are similar in that they are forced to take a position on certain core issues of development. These issues concern a more or less passive or active view of human nature, as conceptualized by mechanistic or organismic worldviews, the quantitative or qualitative nature of development, nature and nurture’s contribution to development and the essence of developmental processes. The first two chapters present respectively an overview of the grand theories of Piaget, Freud and Erikson. A third chapter considers the social learning theories. Three other chapters are devoted to information processing ethology and Gibson’s approach concerning perceptual learning and development. The approaches presented in the last three chapters are not formal theories, but function as theories by addressing the core questions of developmental psychology. The different chapters are organized in a parallel structure. Each presents a biographical sketch of the author of the theory to be considered or, if appropriate, a historical overview of the theory. The general orientation of the theory is then sketched, content areas of the theory or specific basic concepts are described, mechanisms of development are scrutinized, the positions of the theory concerning the core issues of developmental psychology are clarified, the theoretical nature of the theory is discussed and finally its strengths and weaknesses are evaluated. Each chapter concludes with a summary and suggested readings. A confrontation between the different theories is not only realized by this common structure of the chapters, but also by numerous comparisons of the different authors’ views on more specific issues as for instance: How is Piaget’s notion of reversibility related to Freud’s notion of reaction formation? What are Bandura’s and Freud’s predictions concerning the effects of watching aggression in other people? Which theoretical differences clearly separate Piagetian and social learning views of conservation? How do Piaget and information-processing psychologists analyze children’s reactions to a weight-seriation task and, more broadly speaking, what use do they make of children’s errors?
156
The first edition of Miller’s textbook was published in 1983. The second edition is thoroughly revised and updated. It contains, among others, references to Piaget’s last publications, to some neo-Piagetian approaches, a presentation of Sternberg’s theory of intelligence and a brief reference to Vigotsky’s contribution to developmental psychology. The book concludes with critical reflections. How far can these different theories focusing on diverse facets of development be combined? Which are the most promising trends for future research? With respect to Kuhn’s view of the growth of scientific knowledge, which are the continuities and discontinuities of the theories which have been presented? The author considers that in the future, there will be few large-scale grand theories of development, but a number of minitheories which should have a broad perspective, by considering the interaction of physical maturation, psychological development, the changing physical environment, and the changing social environment over the entire life span. In this regard, Miller refers to Riegel’s dialectical and to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological approaches to human development. The lack of ecological validity which characterizes most of the current theories and a clearer statement on “what develops” are, according to the author, the main challenges developmental researchers have to cope with in the future. One can be dissatisfied with the selection of theories and studies Miller
has decided to
include in her analysis. Most studies illuminating her considerations refer to child development. Students in life-span development would perhaps have appreciated references to studies concerning adolescence, adulthood or old age. Given the growing importance of Vygotsky’s work and the numerous studies which are conducted in his conceptual framework, some readers would have preferred an entire chapter devoted to this issue. Given the choices Miller has made, her text is well-balanced and thought-provoking. It should be highly recommended to all those who are preoccupied with the core questions of developmental psychology. Christiane Vandenplas-Holper, Universite de Louvain, Belgium
Advances in Psychology 68: Cognitive Biases. By J.-P. Caverni, J.-M. Gonzalez. North Holland, Amsterdam, 1990, 575 pp, ISBN 0-444-88413-O.
Fabre and M.
Cognitive biases are systematic deviations from some agreed upon norm that occur in the behaviour of normal subjects. By definition, cognitive biases imply counterintuitive behaviour in some respect and since counterintuitive results may be thought to be non-trivial and interesting, we should investigate the circumstances under which these biases occur; looking for biases, in a word, may be a good heuristic. True, rationality has always seemed less than perfect in human behaviour and this led H.A. Simon to introduce the concept of bounded rationality; it is not clear, though, whether all cognitive biases actually have anything in common or whether studying cognitive biases is more than a good heuristic,
Book Reviews Freeman and Co., New York, (paperback). (hardback), O-71 67-2002-7
Theories of Developmental Psychology. By P.H. Miller, W.H. 1989,
2nd Edn., 488 pp, ISBN
O-7167-2001-9
Textbooks on developmental psychology are numerous. They present, with more or less detail and more or less conceptual sophistication, the various aspects of physical, perceptual, cognitive and socio-emotional development. Miller’s textbook is of a different format. Rather than writing a fact-laden book, the author tried to give a “big picture” of psychological development, providing frameworks for understanding and perceiving the significance of the research findings in developmental psychology. The introduction presents metatheoretical considerations concerning the definition of a theory, theory construction and the nature of developmental psychology. The latter has to describe changes within one or several areas of behavior, to describe changes in the relationships among several areas of behavior and to explain the course of development which has been described. Although developmental theories differ in their content, methods of investigation, and formal nature, they are similar in that they are forced to take a position on certain core issues of development. These issues concern a more or less passive or active view of human nature, as conceptualized by mechanistic or organismic worldviews, the quantitative or qualitative nature of development, nature and nurture’s contribution to development and the essence of developmental processes. The first two chapters present respectively an overview of the grand theories of Piaget, Freud and Erikson. A third chapter considers the social learning theories. Three other chapters are devoted to information processing ethology and Gibson’s approach concerning perceptual learning and development. The approaches presented in the last three chapters are not formal theories, but function as theories by addressing the core questions of developmental psychology. The different chapters are organized in a parallel structure. Each presents a biographical sketch of the author of the theory to be considered or, if appropriate, a historical overview of the theory. The general orientation of the theory is then sketched, content areas of the theory or specific basic concepts are described, mechanisms of development are scrutinized, the positions of the theory concerning the core issues of developmental psychology are clarified, the theoretical nature of the theory is discussed and finally its strengths and weaknesses are evaluated. Each chapter concludes with a summary and suggested readings. A confrontation between the different theories is not only realized by this common structure of the chapters, but also by numerous comparisons of the different authors’ views on more specific issues as for instance: How is Piaget’s notion of reversibility related to Freud’s notion of reaction formation? What are Bandura’s and Freud’s predictions concerning the effects of watching aggression in other people? Which theoretical differences clearly separate Piagetian and social learning views of conservation? How do Piaget and information-processing psychologists analyze children’s reactions to a weight-seriation task and, more broadly speaking, what use do they make of children’s errors?
156
The first edition of Miller’s textbook was published in 1983. The second edition is thoroughly revised and updated. It contains, among others, references to Piaget’s last publications, to some neo-Piagetian approaches, a presentation of Sternberg’s theory of intelligence and a brief reference to Vigotsky’s contribution to developmental psychology. The book concludes with critical reflections. How far can these different theories focusing on diverse facets of development be combined? Which are the most promising trends for future research? With respect to Kuhn’s view of the growth of scientific knowledge, which are the continuities and discontinuities of the theories which have been presented? The author considers that in the future, there will be few large-scale grand theories of development, but a number of minitheories which should have a broad perspective, by considering the interaction of physical maturation, psychological development, the changing physical environment, and the changing social environment over the entire life span. In this regard, Miller refers to Riegel’s dialectical and to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological approaches to human development. The lack of ecological validity which characterizes most of the current theories and a clearer statement on “what develops” are, according to the author, the main challenges developmental researchers have to cope with in the future. One can be dissatisfied with the selection of theories and studies Miller
has decided to
include in her analysis. Most studies illuminating her considerations refer to child development. Students in life-span development would perhaps have appreciated references to studies concerning adolescence, adulthood or old age. Given the growing importance of Vygotsky’s work and the numerous studies which are conducted in his conceptual framework, some readers would have preferred an entire chapter devoted to this issue. Given the choices Miller has made, her text is well-balanced and thought-provoking. It should be highly recommended to all those who are preoccupied with the core questions of developmental psychology. Christiane Vandenplas-Holper, Universite de Louvain, Belgium
Advances in Psychology 68: Cognitive Biases. By J.-P. Caverni, J.-M. Gonzalez. North Holland, Amsterdam, 1990, 575 pp, ISBN 0-444-88413-O.
Fabre and M.
Cognitive biases are systematic deviations from some agreed upon norm that occur in the behaviour of normal subjects. By definition, cognitive biases imply counterintuitive behaviour in some respect and since counterintuitive results may be thought to be non-trivial and interesting, we should investigate the circumstances under which these biases occur; looking for biases, in a word, may be a good heuristic. True, rationality has always seemed less than perfect in human behaviour and this led H.A. Simon to introduce the concept of bounded rationality; it is not clear, though, whether all cognitive biases actually have anything in common or whether studying cognitive biases is more than a good heuristic,