The purpose of this research paper is to find a correlation between peer, genetic, and environmental influences and the behavior and personality development during childhood. This study focuses on the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre to try to explain certain kinds of behavior. The study made on 275 freshmen at Cornell University showed that…

Explores the relationships between nutrition, stimulation, brain development, and learning. Consequences of malnutrition on learning include loss of learning time, interference with learning during critical periods of development, and motivation and personality changes. (Author/DB)

This article examines the descriptive influences of reading and learning disorders on personality development. It discusses the effects of biologic vulnerabilities and environmental interaction, the variant patterns of defense and symptom development at various life stages, and evidence that early development failures are key elements in later…

Intended to help instructors of introductory psychology courses, this publication contains lectures given at the 1980 meeting of the American Psychological Association in Montreal, Canada. There are five papers. The first paper examines the literature on learning and memory in terms of a model focusing on biological and cognitive constraints on…

The effects of a family's socioeconomic status on psychological differentiation were tested separately, using the Hidden Figures Test, the Hidden Pattern Test, and the Modified This I Believe Test performance of 53 male and 87 female white undergraduates who were widely distributed on socioeconomic status and background demographic…

Discusses semantic issues in defining emotions. Describes important constructs derived from major theories of emotionality. Examines social-psychological and biological changes associated with aging in the context of these theories. Reviews available data on emotionality and aging, describing experimental attempts at manipulating the emotional…

This comprehensive paper proposing the use of evolutionary theory as a basis for studies in developmental psychology includes these specific sections: (1) Developmental Theories--a brief overview, (2) Individual Differences, (3) Culture and Inbreeding, (4) Sexual Dimorphism, (5) Critical Periods in the Development of Attachments, (6) Continuity…

Specifies some problems in the Piagetian characterizations of assimilation and accommodation and offers an alternative formulation intended to resolve some conceptual anomalies. On the basis of the revision, the orthogenetic law of developmental progression is explicitly derived. Further, Piaget's notion of "equilibrium" is extended into…

The concept of autonomous identity, derived from Piaget's theory of personality, is distinguished from other applications of the term "autonomy" in psychological theory. Introductory comments suggest that both biological and mental development express autonomy in the same two senses: as self-regulating and progressively self-liberating.…

This article deals with the author's interpretation of the Freudian concept of penis envy. Penis envy is viewed as a psychological phenomenon rather than a biological phenomenon characterized as the "bedrock of feminity." Based on his experiences as a psychoanalyst, the author states that penis envy involves the child's early…

Recent data suggest that genes influence three domains of great importance to family researchers: (1) developmental outcomes; (2) family variables that are thought to influence those outcomes; and (3) covariance between measures of family process and developmental outcomes. Influence of genes on variances and covariances challenges current…

Comments on Belsky, Steinberg, and Draper's article in this issue. Offers three likely reasons for adaptation of human behavior. Argues that Belsky, et al. use only two of these reasons in their proposed evolutionary theory of socialization. Suggests that an evolutionary approach is useful if it integrates diverse facts, aids clinical practice,…

In a discussion of psychological development separate sections are devoted to (1) biological and cultural influences on development, (2) development in infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence, (3) physiological foundations of behavior, (4) motivation and cognitive development, (5) intellectual development, (6) imagination and…

Investigated long-term effects of infant temperament on problem behavior and cognitive abilities at age 5 years, taking into account interactions between infant temperament and biological and social risk. Found that when high scores on temperamental factors are combined with social or biological risk, the level of later behavioral problems is…