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Psychological Development: Child and Adolescent

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Postformal Education

Part of the book series: Critical Studies of Education ((CSOE,volume 3))

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the psychological, particularly cognitive, dimension of the evolution of consciousness. After introducing the concept of psychological development, I discuss some of the challenges in researching the evolution of consciousness from the psychological standpoint and point to the need for a transdisciplinary approach. I present an overview of child and adolescent cognitive development pointing to the limitations of Piaget’s model, and then introduce some evidence of widespread changes in thinking occurring across the knowledge sector over the last hundred years: megatrends of the mind. The purpose of the chapter is to create conceptual bridges between psychological development and the futures of education.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Epiphenomenalism. “[This] is the view that mental events are caused by physical events in the brain, but have no effects upon any physical events.” http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epiphenomenalism/

  2. 2.

    Piaget himself indicates that ages are always approximate in his theory.

  3. 3.

    http://www.news.com.au/national/thousands-cry-for-help-each-year-threatening-self-harm/story-e6frfkp9-1226196098607

  4. 4.

    http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-statistics/suicide/

  5. 5.

    http://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/projections/en/

  6. 6.

    https://www.afsp.org/understanding-suicide/facts-and-figures

  7. 7.

    This bifurcation is a rough guide and the two categories are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

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  1. Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW, Australia

    Jennifer M. Gidley PhD

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Gidley, J.M. (2016). Psychological Development: Child and Adolescent. In: Postformal Education. Critical Studies of Education, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29069-0_3

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