The Place of Development in the History of Psychology and Cognitive Science

Abstract

In this article, I analyze how the relationship of developmental psychology with general psychology and cognitive science has unfolded. This historical analysis will provide a background for a critical examination of the present state of the art. I shall argue that the study of human mind is inherently connected with the study of its development. From the beginning of psychology as a discipline, general psychology and developmental psychology have followed parallel and relatively separated paths. This separation between adult and child studies has also persisted with the emergence of cognitive science. The reason is due essentially to methodological problems that have involved not only research methods but also the very object of inquiry. At present, things have evolved in many ways. Psychology and cognitive science have enlarged their scope to include change process and the interaction between mind and environment. On the other hand, the possibility of using experimental methods to study infancy has allowed us to realize the complexity of young humans. These facts have paved the way for new possibilities of convergence, which are eliciting interesting results, despite a number of ongoing problems related to methods.

Big Five and Dark Triad personality traits as predictors of multicultural attitude and efficacy

“…The reason for this might be that the attitudes of the individuals are not based solely on the results or consequences of their personality traits. As revealed by cognitive scientists, the human mind is a complex phenomenon ( Airenti, 2019 ; Nunez, 2012 ) and at times social environment factors such as norms, culture, and past experiences can be more predictive of attitudes than personality.…”

Effect of personality on compound reasoning

“…This study works with the notion proposed by the MMT which states that thought is a semantically driven process based on the elaboration of mental models (Johnson-Laird, 1983;Johnson-Laird & Byrne, 1991;Johnson-Laird et al, 2015, 2019. Since the creation of these representations is strongly influenced by the knowledge of the world people have, and by the significance that they attribute to their interpretations (Johnson-Laird et al, 2015, 2019Khemlaniet al, 2012), it states that personality plays a significant role in the appearance of individual differences in compound reasoning processes. These differences would not only affect the capacity to imagine and represent mental models; they would also be partially explained by personality traits.…”

“…Although this quality was recognized by prominent philosophers (Aristotle, 1984), there are intense debates when it comes to explaining how it works. When people start to analyze this field, they have to deal with a reality both ubiquitous and controversial: an overwhelming amount of empirical evidence questions the very rationality of human thought, which would no longer seem to be the product of a logical and organized process but the result of a varying number of interacting elements (Airenti, 2019).…”

Meta-brain Models: biologically-inspired cognitive agents

“…Meta-brains can also take inspiration from developmental (or ontogenetic) processes to provide an alternative to the so-called static adult mind [51,52]. This provides a means to understand learning as both a compositional and morphogenetic process.…”