Synopses & Reviews
Can significant advances in development occur after adolescence? What are the highest possible states or stages of human development and how can they be realized? These and related critical issues are addressed in this volume by leading researchers and theorists in adult development. How we conceive of the endpoint, or highest state of development is crucial because it shapes our understanding of the direction, possibilities, and mechanisms of human growth. Even a decade ago, most psychologists believed that qualitative advances in development did not occur after adolescence. Based on recent research on adults, however, psychologists now question whether growth of fundamental human capacities necessarily culminates prior to adulthood. This new volume explores a variety of endpoints beyond the ordinarily proposed limits of human development. In addition to describing advanced forms of cognitive functioning , contributors also discuss other domains integral to adult growth--including affective, moral, self, and consciousness development.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Major Issues in the Exploration of Adult Growth C.N. Alexander, S.M. Druker, and E.J. Langer
PART I: Nonhierarchical Theories of Adult Growth
1. A Theory of Life Structure Development in Adulthood, D.J. Levinson
2. Toward a Neofunctionalist Conception of Adult Intellectual Development: Wisdom as a Prototypical Case of Intellectual Growth, F. Dittmann-Kohli and P.B. Baltes
3. The Roots of Adult Creativity in Children's Symbolic Products, H. Gardner, E. Phelps, and D. Wolf
4. Upstaging the Stage Model, D. McGuinness, K.H. Pribram, and M. Pirnazar
5. Nonsequential Development and Aging, E.J. Langer et al.
PART II: Hierarchical Theories of Advanced Cognitive Development
6. Postformal Cognitive-Developmental Theory and Research: Review of Its Current Status, F.A. Richards and M.L. Commons
7. How Cognitive Processes and Environmental Conditions Organize Discontinuities in the Development of Abstractions, K.W. Fischer, S.L. Kenny, and S.L. Pipp
PART III: Theories of Advanced Moral Development
8. Beyond Justice Reasoning: Moral Development and Consideration of a Seventh Stage, L. Kohlberg with R.A. Ryncarz
9. Moral Development Beyond Adolescence, C. Gilligan, J.M. Murphy, and M.B. Tappan
PART IV: Theories of Higher Stages of Consciousness and Self Development
10. Life After Formal Operations: Implications for a Psychology of the Self, E. Souvaine, L.L. Lahey, and R. Kegan
11. Reflections on Life-Span Intelligence, Consciousness and Ego Development, J. Pascual-Leone
12. Growth of Higher Stages of Consciousness: Maharishi's Vedic Psychology of Human Development, C.N. Alexander et al.