This paper summarizes the Thomas and Cross models on psychological nigrescence and reviews the empirical studies which have been conducted to validate these models. "Nigrescence" means the "process of becoming black", and as these models attempt to depict the various stages black Americans traveled in seeking a new identity…

James Britton's model of the uses of language is discussed as a way to focus and organize studies of response to literature. After the model has been explicated, specific studies are discussed in relation to a number of research areas: early forms of literary experience, the child's developing "sense of story," the child's awareness that…

This study was concerned with distinguishing between two kinds of immature reasoning, both of which lead children to draw the same conclusions from arguments and which, therefore, cannot be distinguished by the usual tests. A total of 20 second-graders and 16 sixth-graders were tested on a logic game in which winning depended on drawing correct…

The purposes of this study were twofold: (1) to investigate the effect of movement for several inanimate objects on children's judgments of "aliveness;" and (2) to examine the nature of explanations given by three age groups of children in support of their judgments as to whether animate and inanimate objects were "alive" or…

Moral education in boarding schools is the topic of this publication which includes summaries of the proceedings of the Bicentennial Summer Institute sponsored by Phillips Exeter Academy in June 1978. Interspersed throughout are passages from a journal kept by a participant in the Institute. The contextual and didactic approaches to moral…

Reading teachers of the 1980s need to be confident not only about the key issues but also about their own knowledge of the issues when making decisions. Two issues from the seventies (reading as a developmental process and reading as a psycholinguistic process) combine with the broad notion of textlinguistics as important areas of knowledge for…

The impact of adult models on the moralities of seventy-two 5- to 7-year-old boys was assessed in this study. Each subject was exposed to a televised adult model and was then administered tests of moral behavior (resistance to deviation in a laboratory situation), moral choice (in a hypothetical situation) and moral judgment level (on an…

Piaget's research on the processes and products of cognitive and representational development in early childhood is employed to outline the bases of early language development. The processes of assimilation and accommodation, leading to horizontal decalage; empirical and reflective abstraction, resulting in schemas and schemes; as well as…

This paper discusses developmental theories of morality exemplified by the writings of Piaget and Kohlberg which emphasize cognitive processes in moral judgment. Aspects of Piaget's and Kohlberg's theories are summarized, with particular attention to the stage concept and the role of intention in moral judgment. Relevant criticisms of the…

This paper presents a neo-Piagetian model for examining the development of early communication and language skills; discusses its origins in the current developmental literature, and provides a brief overview of a preliminary version of 12 scales developed for assessing communicative development based on the model. The model attempts to provide a…

Despite external changes such as those of magnitudes, the functional properties of the visual system also improve with increased age. According to Jean Piaget's centration/decentration theory, the process of perceptual development might continue until adulthood and even after. However, perceptual development should not be understood in all of its…

The concept of family life cycle has become increasingly prominent in the study of family development--the formation, maintenance, change, and dissolution of marriage and family relations. An evaluation of this concept is accomplished by examining the relationships between three possible stratification schemes: stage of the family life cycle,…

Two studies (1) investigated memory strategies in subjects with different levels of classification skills, and (2) examined the role of early classification skills in memory. Subjects in Study 1 were 60 (kindergarten and first-grade) children. Classification skills were assessed by a pretest. Subjects were assigned to one of two conditions, free…

Limitations of the traditional epistemological orientation toward an "objective paradigm" are discussed, and an alternative "subjective paradigm" is proposed which holds that knowledge is synthesized by the knower, pursuant to his or her own motives. Implications of this view are drawn for the study of language, including…

The article defines and elaborates on eight transitions in male sexuality, the first being the gender identity transition, and the last being the male climacteric. It discusses society's lack of support. Originally presented at the American Sociological Association Session on the Male Role in Society, New York City, 1976. (LPG)