Rozprawy doktorskie na temat „Developmental psychology”

This dissertation seeks to formulate an integral psychology framework to better understand the nature and unfoldment of postformal, or postconventional, characterizations of individual consciousness evolution. To this end, an extensive critical evaluation and problematization of the disparate theoretical literatures indicated that while the egocentric and cosmocentric dimensions have been taken into account by various models, the psychocentric, or more specifically, the evolutionary soul dimension and its role in postconventional development has been largely overlooked.

With this background, there appeared to be hardly any substantial signs of agreement in the extensive and rapidly expanding literatures on human development. Such division has resulted in increasingly heated disagreements and debates concerning controversies of shape, goals, and, particularly, direction (e.g., structural-hierarchical versus spiral-dynamic models). Further, it was found that egocentric and cosmocentric biases bring to the fore a related set of problems that, in present-day formulation, can be summarized as the issue of epiphenomenalism along with the problem of identifying a facilitative agent (an ontological reference point that might help explain the how and why of stage change), which has apparently all but escaped developmental psychologists.

As a dialogue partner, the study adopts Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s rich integral acumen concerning the psychic being as an alternative assumption ground to both reveal and challenge some of the taken-for-granted assumptions found to underlie much of the ongoing theoretical debate. The guiding purpose of this dissertation, then, has been to advance the fields of both Western and integral yoga psychologies by contributing new and unique pathways to postconventional development—an integral psychology framework that places the deeper inmost source of evolution at the very center of a comprehensive whole person vision of human growth and development.

The goal of the present study was to examine the development of semantic and episodic memory in middle childhood. Specifically, we sought to understand the relation between episodic and semantic memory by examining how an aspect of semantic memory—spatial semantic knowledge—may influence children’s episodic memory for events and their spatial locations. Children ages 5, 6, and 7 participated in events in 6 exhibits representing locations in a model town in a local children’s museum. Events were manipulated by the extent to which the event and the spatial location match. Event conditions included spatially congruent, incongruent, and independent. After a short delay, children were tested for their recognition of the events and the location in which the event occurred. In addition, a novel semantic interview task directly assessed knowledge of the locations represented in the museum exhibits. Most notably, we found older children to exhibit greater semantic knowledge of locations (as measured through the semantic interview task) and, in the experimental manipulation, we found children’s semantic memory to influence their memory for the locations of events. Results implicate the nature of the relations of children’s semantic and episodic memory as well as the utility of research conducted in naturalistic settings.

This investigation addresses five constituents—calling, social consequences, imagination, story, and the experience of being gifted. It is grounded in the fundamental human inquiry of identity and purpose and contains both personal and universal answers. Primarily, the author sought to answer one question: How did imagination and story reveal and develop my personal narrative? This led her to Hillman’s (1997) contention that our true biography—the destiny written into our metaphoric acorn—has been stolen. Three questions arose from the primary question used to organize the literature review: (a) How has the use of this knowledge affected my understanding of the evolution of the human story? (b) What evidence is there to identify when our species developed imagination? and (c) Why is imagination undervalued?

There were four sub-questions answered through the personal data: (a) How is a quest or calling revealed? (b) Why is the phenomenon of Neverland essential to human well-being? (c) How did social forces impede the expression of imagination and the process of the original human story? and (d) What does it mean to be gifted?

The method chosen for this work was autoethnography, which, according to Bochner and Ellis (2016), exists in a space between many apparent polarities including facts and meanings,objectivity and subjectivity, and art and science in what Reed-Danahay (1997) explained was how we come to know, name, and interpret personal and cultural experiences. The author was the only participant in this study; however, the meaning emerging from the inquiry could be relevant for many.

The rationale and significance of this study was based on the assumption that the quality of human lives often suffers when people remain disconnected from experiencing their authentic self. The key finding was that through claiming the state of Neverland, as represented by the Peter Pan story, the author was able to connect with who she is and why she is here. This research allowed the author to reclaim her calling, imagination, and story, and acknowledge her giftedness. The ultimate call is for a new paradigm that welcomes and supports the unfolding human destiny.

The empathizing-systemizing (E-S) theory states that individuals with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) can be identified by a deficit in empathy (social skills, communication skills, and theory of mind) and a propensity for systemizing (islets of ability, obsessions with systems, and repetitive behavior). This theory has been tested in various contexts, but never with adolescents between the ages of 12 and 16. The EQ-A (Empathizing Quotient for Adolescents) and the SQ-A (Systemizing Quotient for Adolescents) were administered to 47 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 16 who had been diagnosed with ASC and 97 adolescents with no reported physical or mental disorders to discover differences in empathizing and systemizing.

To test the specific elements and predictions of the E-S theory, the EQ-A was divided into a set of three subscales derived by conceptually mapping items to factors corresponding to the concepts theoretically underlying the scale. The SQ-A was divided into subscales using factor analysis.

It was found that all four subscales resulting from the factor analysis on the SQ-A were associated with obsessions with systems. A weak positive correlation was found between the SQ-A and the EQ-A. Although the EQ-A was able to differentiate significantly between individuals with an ASC and those without, the SQ-A was not. In addition, although the EQ-A and EQ-A subscales scores correlated with similar subscales scores of the GARS-2 (a well-validated existing autism screening test), the SQ-A and its subscales did not. Implications for the E-S Theory are discussed.

The development of episodic autobiographical memory (EAM) has been well documented in those with typical development (TD), yet many questions remain about the development of EAM and its operations in those with high functioning autism (HFA). In this study, youths (9 to 18 years old) with and without HFA (N = 48) participated in a semi-distressing event and then 3 weeks later were interviewed using one of two forensic interview protocols (10 Step or Cognitive Interview [CI]). Accuracy was assessed via cued recall narratives and responses to direct questions. Individual differences in working memory, cognitive flexibility, and pragmatic language were assessed. Results indicated that, although HFA youths’ cued recall memory for event details was diminished, memory accuracy for people, actions, and objects depended upon interview protocol and youth age. Younger HFA youths performed comparably to younger TD youths when receiving the 10 Step protocol. Yet, older HFA benefitted more from the Cognitive Interview’s methods. Deficits in working memory, cognitive flexibility, and pragmatic language were more readily associated with performance in the CI condition and for youths with HFA. Indirect effects of age on memory performance via individual differences were observed mainly for the HFA group; maturational changes in these abilities may be occurring during adolescence, a period when youths with HFA begin to use compensatory mechanisms to perform EAM tasks. Direct question performance did not vary diagnostically, expanding the application of the task support hypothesis to a younger age. Implications for existing theories and forensic interview methods are discussed.

Child maltreatment models view risk as a complex constellation of factors that emphasize parents’ trauma experiences and regulation processes. Attachment research has shown that mothers’ representations of childhood attachment and caregiving places their children at developmental risk. Studies to date have evaluated contributing factors separately, but little research considers mothers’ past and current experiences combined with relational trauma and familial regulation patterns. The current research adopted an integrated perspective using known maternal risk factors, and extended existing research in several unique ways by examining association with both adult trauma and childhood trauma; caregiving representations; pathological mourning; and capacity for emotion regulation. Seventy-five mothers with children between 19-74 months (40% boys) from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds completed assessments of maltreatment risk, adult attachment, caregiving, relational trauma, parenting stress, and emotion regulation. Maternal representations of attachment were significantly related to risk, with unresolved mothers demonstrating the highest risk. There were significant positive associations between risk and relational trauma – both frequency and subjective distress with parents and partners. Helpless and heightened caregiving representations, parenting stress, and emotion regulation were also all significantly related to risk. This is the first study to consider maltreatment in the context of relational trauma as defined by Bowlby’s (1980) model of pathological mourning. Risk scores were significantly greater for mothers classified in pathological mourning groups than other mothers. These findings punctuate the effects of problems associated with mourning attachment trauma on maternal regulatory capacities and parenting risk. Implications for infant mental health research and intervention are discussed.

Therapeutic treatment facilities that support adolescents in the criminal justice system in reforming delinquent behaviors are being used across the country as an intervention alternative to more punitive correctional facilities. Cognitive behavioral therapeutic techniques are the current primary treatment method used in such facilities, which has left them void of any depth psychological or psychodynamic modalities. Although cognitive behavioral therapy provides useful tools in supporting a patient’s emotional awareness and affect regulation, it falls short in tending to the whole of an individual’s psychic needs and drives. Using hermeneutic and heuristic methodologies, this thesis focuses on how a combination of depth psychological tools and psychodynamic conceptualizations of the adolescent psyche could increase treatment efficacy and client engagement. Using depth psychological and psychodynamic literature as well as this author’s own professional experience in the field, this thesis examines the benefits of depth psychological methods in adolescent court-mandated treatment facilities.