Intellectual and psychosocial functioning develop along complex learning pathways. Steinberg, Cauffman, Woolard, Graham, and Banich measured these two classes of abilities with narrow, biased assessments that captured only a segment of each pathway and created misleading age patterns based on ceiling and floor effects. It is a simple matter to…

The authors respond to both the general and specific concerns raised in Fischer, Stein, and Heikkinen's commentary on their article (Steinberg, Cauffman, Woolard, Graham, & Banich), in which they drew on studies of adolescent development to justify the American Psychological Association's positions in two Supreme Court cases involving the…

The American Psychological Association's (APA's) stance on the psychological maturity of adolescents has been criticized as inconsistent. In its Supreme Court amicus brief in "Roper v. Simmons" (2005), which abolished the juvenile death penalty, APA described adolescents as developmentally immature. In its amicus brief in "Hodgson v. Minnesota"…

Although lost opportunities and mistaken expectations are unpleasant to think and talk about, these experiences may have a role to play in personality development. Drawing on research using narratives of lost possible selves, the authors review the relations of regrettable experiences to 2 important and independent aspects of maturity, happiness…

The authors use a developmental perspective to examine questions about the criminal culpability of juveniles and the juvenile death penalty. Under principles of criminal law, culpability is mitigated when the actor's decision-making capacity is diminished, when the criminal act was coerced, or when the act was out of character. The authors argue…

Reviews the history of the kibbutz movement, kibbutz child-rearing practices, and the results of research in kibbutz socialization. The research indicates that the 'kibbutz personality' is essentially nonpathological and effective. Recent changes in child-rearing patterns in the kibbutz, and a return to traditional family child-rearing, are viewed…

This article examines the legal histories and social contexts of testimony and interrogation involving minors, developmental research on suggestibility and judgment, interactions between development and legal/sociological contexts, and the reasoning behind how minors are treated in different legal contexts. The authors argue (a) that young…

Examines several issues relative to the role of immaturity in the instruction of man, and how the young are inducted into the species. (DM)

Examines the adaptive nature of prolonged human cognitive immaturity through developmental research in metacognition, egocentricity, plasticity, the speed of information processing, and language acquisition. Discusses the consequences of viewing children's immature cognition as adaptive for cognitive development and education. (Author/JB)