Describes constructivist analyses of women's accounts of transitions to lesbianism after at least 10 years prior heterosexual experience. Examines the creation of contexts in which sexual identity transitions become possible and details the development of lesbian identity posttransition. (MDM)

The appropriateness of the metaphor of the purity of data is questioned, using a perspective based on L. S. Vygotsky's idea of the zone of proximal development and its emphasis on a genetic method in which development is mediated by cultural tools and signs. (SLD)

Seeking a shared language instead of shared convictions reduces the temptation to think of professional ethics as the transmission of ethical rules instead of a shared way of thinking through ethical issues. Instruction in professional ethics can help people learn sophistication in public moral discourse. (SK)

Explains that cultural practices appeals to developmental researchers as a construct that contextualizes development and provides a way of bringing together thinking, doing, feeling, and becoming. Describes five propositions in general terms and offers an indication of how the concept of practice has been translated into research. (BAC)

Reflective journal writing helps individuals garner information about themselves and construct larger meanings. Techniques include freewriting; list making; describing one-minute in-depth, writing dialogues; and envisioning the future. (SK)

Four texts were analyzed using Burke's model for explicating dramatic experiences: Bennett's "Clayhanger," Lawrence's "The Rainbow," a biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Blythe's "Akenfield." Analysis shows how vocational exploration is a form of personal project during which individuals socially construct…

Navigation exercises in the outdoors involve interactive team skills; individual assessment of self-confidence, competence, and esteem; and leadership skills. Learning goals include planning, managing a team, handling information, allocating individual objectives, making decisions, and attending to accuracy. Provides facilitators with instructions…

Forty-four males and 40 females completed an adaptation of the Linear Arousal and Stress Scale after a 1-day rafting trip. Men showed higher base levels of anxiety than women. Anxiety and arousal increased significantly prior to the first rapid. Levels of anxiety and arousal during this adventure activity changed constantly as different situations…

Presents a theory of intellectual development in which human development depends on environment, self is autonomous and communal, diversity and dissent are anticipated, emotional intelligence is acknowledged, abstraction is reconceptualized and placed in a dialectic, learning is a reciprocal activity, and classrooms are interactions among…

Today's standard of leadership--influencing human behavior in an environment of uncertainty--is difficult to teach, but can be learned. Companies have developed leaders by enforcing accountability along with soft values and enabling people to learn from on-the-job experience. (SK)

Recounts the career of William L. Stern. Stern developed a personalistic psychology emphasizing the individual's role and the importance of context in development. Stern's contributions to developmental psychology concerned: (1) the tension between activity and reactivity in the developing individual; (2) the exchange between a person and the…

Proposes model based on developmental psychopathology for conceptualizing effects of child sexual abuse. Argues that incest has negative effects on self and social functioning, by jeopardizing self-definition and integration, self-regulatory processes, and sense of security and trust in relationships. Reviews self and social development…

Three studies investigated the degree to which young children understand that the acquisition of certain types of knowledge depends on the modality of the sensory experience involved. Results suggest that an appreciation of the different types of knowledge our senses can provide develops between the ages of three and five years. (GLR)

Used observation and interviewing techniques adapted from ethnography in lifespan human development courses. Technique assisted students in becoming aware of previously "invisible" everyday activities and in assessing their own values. Students began to develop vital observation and interviewing skills. Technique facilitated integration of…

Comments on H. Wolcott's argument for the use of the term "propriospect." Asserts that the role of language is essential to understanding the concepts of cultural acquisition and cultural transmission, which are complementary dimensions of the same process. (SLD)