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This book is the first volume in the “unmourning” trilogy. Here, the text studies mourning and melancholia within and around psychoanalysis, analyzing the writings of such thinkers as Freud, Nietzsche, Lessing, Heinse, Artaud, Keller, Stifter, Kafka, and Kraus. The book maintains that we must shift the way we read literature, philosophy, and psychoanalysis to go beyond traditional Oedipal structures. The book argues that the idea of the crypt has had a surprisingly potent influence on psychoanalysis, and it shows how society’s disturbed relationship with death and dying, our inability to let go of loved ones, has resulted in technology to form more and more crypts for the dead by preserving them—both physically and psychologically—in new ways.

Decades of research indicate the important connections among academic motivation and achievement, social relationships, and school culture. However, much of this research has been conducted in homogenous American schools serving middle class, average achieving, Anglo-student populations. This book argues that school culture is a reflection of the society in which the school is embedded and comprises various aspects, including individualism, competition, cultural stereotypes, and extrinsically guided values and rewards. Chapters address three specific conceptual questions: How do differences in academic motivation for diverse groups of students change over time? How do students' social cognitions influence their motivational processes and outcomes in school? And what has been done to enhance academic motivation? To answer this last question, the chapters describe empirically validated intervention programs for improving academic motivation in students from elementary school through college.

One of the most important questions about children's development involves how knowledge acquisition depends on the effect of language experience. To what extent, and in what ways, is a child's cognitive development influenced by their early experience of, and access to, language? Likewise, what are the effects on development of impaired access to language? This book confronts directly the issue of how possessing an enhanced or impaired access to language influences children's development. Its focus is on learning environments, theory of mind understanding, and the process of deriving meaning from conversations. The book features chapters which are concerned with bilingualism, deafness, atypical child development, and development in cultures with limited vocabularies in areas such as number concepts. Throughout, it maps out what is known about the interface between language and cognitive development and the prospects for the future directions in research and applied settings.

Achieving College Dreams tells the story of a remarkable partnership between a public research university and charter district to create an exemplar early college high school for low-income and first-generation college youth—launched to make good on the American ideal of providing excellence with equity in secondary education. California College Preparatory Academy is the result of the more than 10-year collaboration between the University of California, Berkeley and Aspire Public Schools. Reflecting a diversity of voices from students to superintendents, this book charts the journey from the decision to open a school to the second class of high school graduates, all of whom were accepted into four-year colleges. It captures struggle, improvement, and possibility as it takes readers inside the workings of the partnership, the development of the school, and spillover of effects across district and university. Confronting the challenge of interweaving rigor and support, the authors explore such critical ingredients as teacher–student advisories; school transition; the home–school divide; a supportive college-preparatory culture; teaching with depth, relational power, and equity; forging an academic identity; and scaling up. At a time of sharply unequal schools and glaring disparities in college readiness, this book uniquely extends the knowledge base about how to better prepare underserved students for college eligibility and success. The book also serves as a clarion call for universities to step up to the plate and partner with districts in achieving transformative secondary school reform benefitting all students.

Words are the building blocks of language. An understanding of how words are learned is thus central to any theory of language acquisition. Although there has been a surge in our understanding of children's vocabulary growth, theories of word learning focus primarily on object nouns. Word learning theories must explain not only the learning of object nouns, but also the learning of other, major classes of words — verbs and adjectives. Verbs form the hub of the sentence because they determine the sentence's argument structure. Researchers throughout the world recognize how our understanding of language acquisition can be at best partial if we cannot comprehend how verbs are learned. This book enters the relatively uncharted waters of early verb learning, focusing on the universal, conceptual foundations for verb learning, and how these foundations intersect with the burgeoning language system.

The emerging field of action science is characterized by a diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches which share the basic functional belief that evolution has optimized cognitive systems to serve the demands of action. This book brings together the constitutive approaches of action science in a single source, covering the relationship of action to such cognitive functions as perception, attention, memory, and volition. Each chapter, written by a different scientist in the field, offers a tutorial-like description of a major line of inquiry. Considered as one unit, the chapters reflect a rapidly growing field, and provide a forum for comparison and possible integration of approaches. After discussing core questions about how actions are controlled and learned, the book considers ecological approaches to action science; neurocognitive approaches to action understanding and attention; developmental approaches to action science; social actions, including imitation and joint action; and the relationships between action and the conceptual system (grounded cognition) and between volition and action.

More than one third of the human brain is devoted to the processes of seeing — vision is after all the main way in which we gather information about the world. But human vision is a dynamic process during which the eyes continually sample the environment. Where most books on vision consider it as a passive activity, this book focuses on vision as an ‘active’ process. It goes beyond most accounts of vision where the focus is on seeing, to provide an account of seeing AND looking. The book starts by pointing out the weaknesses in our traditional approaches to vision and the reason we need this new approach. It then gives a thorough description of basic details of the visual and oculomotor systems necessary to understand active vision. The book goes on to show how this approach can give a new perspective on visual attention, and how the approach has progressed in the areas of visual orienting, reading, visual search, scene perception, and neuropsychology. Finally, the book summarizes progress by showing how this approach sheds new light on the old problem of how we maintain perception of a stable visual world.

What conception of mental architecture can survive the evidence of neuroplasticity and neural reuse in the human brain? In particular, what sorts of modules are compatible with this evidence? This book shows how developmental and adult neuroplasticity, as well as evidence of pervasive neural reuse, force a revision to the standard conceptions of modularity and spell the end of a hardwired and dedicated language module. It argues from principles of both neural reuse and neural redundancy that language is facilitated by a composite of modules (or module-like entities), few if any of which are likely to be linguistically special, and that neuroplasticity provides evidence that (in key respects and to an appreciable extent) few if any of them ought to be considered developmentally robust, though their development does seem to be constrained by features intrinsic to particular regions of cortex (manifesting as domain-specific predispositions or acquisition biases). In the course of doing so, the book articulates a schematically and neurobiologically precise framework for understanding modules and their supramodular interactions.

In everyday life, and particularly in the modern workplace, information technology and automation increasingly mediate, augment, and sometimes even interfere with how humans interact with their environment. How to understand and support cognition in human–technology interaction is both a practically and socially relevant problem. The chapters in this volume frame this problem in adaptive terms: How are behavior and cognition adapted, or perhaps ill-adapted, to the demands and opportunities of an environment where interaction is mediated by tools and technology? The text draws heavily on the work of Egon Brunswik, a pioneer in ecological and cognitive psychology, as well as on modern refinements and extensions of Brunswikian ideas, including Hammond's Social Judgment Theory, Gigerenzer's Ecological Rationality and Anderson's Rational Analysis. Inspired by Brunswik's view of cognition as “coming to terms” with the “casual texture” of the external world, the chapters here provide quantitative and computational models and measures for studying how people come to terms with an increasingly technological ecology, and provide insights for supporting cognition and performance through design, training, and other interventions.

The central problem in the study of addiction is to explain why people repeatedly behave in ways they know are bad for them. For much of the previous century and until the present day, the majority of scientific and medical attempts to solve this problem were couched in terms of involuntary behavior; if people behave in ways they do not want, then this must be because the behavior is beyond their control and outside the realm of choice. An opposing tradition, which finds current support among scientists and scholars as well as members of the general public, is that so-called addictive behavior reflects an ordinary choice just like any other and that the concept of addiction is a myth. To these polarized views of addiction, the editors and chapter authors of this volume say “a plague on both your houses.” There has been an increasing recognition in recent literature on addiction that restricting possible conceptions of it to either of these extreme positions is unhelpful and is retarding progress on understanding the nature of addiction and what could be done about it. This book contains a range of views from philosophy, neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology, and the law on what exactly this middle ground between free choice and no choice consists of and what its implications are for theory, practice, and policy on addiction. The result amounts to a profound change in our thinking on addiction and how its devastating consequences can be ameliorated.

Of the 33 million adolescents in the United States, almost 10 million are at risk of failing to become responsible adults. They attend schools that do not serve their needs, lack the support of caring adults, and, as a result, are alienated from mainstream society. African-American and Hispanic children, increasingly segregated in disadvantaged neighborhoods, are particularly vulnerable. This book takes a close look at the lives of young people, identifies some of their problems, and presents solutions based on state-of-the-art prevention and treatment strategies. The chapters examine important issues in adolescents' lives—sex, violence, drugs, health, mental health, and education. Reviewing successful prevention programs and policy studies, they demonstrate that we know what to do to prevent high-risk behaviors: young people need to establish relationships with adults; parents need to be involved in their children's lives; and programs need to be comprehensive, sensitive to cultural differences, and staffed by highly trained personnel. The chapters argue that turning our backs on adolescents will lead to disturbing consequences: the achievement gap will grow, outcomes will worsen, school systems will struggle with the growing disparities, and we as a nation will fall behind the rest of the world in our capacity to educate our youth. If, however, we decide that we want a better quality of life for our children, we will ensure that every young person has access to an excellent education. Schools, youth workers, and parents cannot alone provide a better quality of life for our adolescents, but each must play a major role, and all must work together.

While the period of transition from adolescence to adulthood has become a recent focus for developmental psychologists and child mental health practitioners, the full role of the family during this period is only beginning to be explored. Many compelling questions, of interest to anyone involved in adolescence research, remain unanswered. To what extent do family experiences influence the way one navigates through emerging adulthood? How do we begin to understand the interplay between adolescents' contexts and their development and well-being? This book offers an accessible synthesis of research, theories, and perspectives on the family processes that contribute to development. Chapters cover a wide variety of topics surrounding the link between family processes and individual development, including adolescent romantic relationships, emotion regulation, resilience in contexts of risk, and socio-cultural and ethnic influences on development. Drawing on diverse research and methodological approaches that include direct family observations, interviews, and narrative analyses, this volume presents cutting-edge conceptual and empirical work on the key developmental tasks and challenges in the transition between adolescence and adulthood.

In the wake of the civil rights movement, the legal system dramatically changed its response to discrimination based on race, gender, and other characteristics. It is now showing signs of yet another dramatic shift, as it moves from considering difference to focusing on neutrality. Rather than seeking to counter subjugation through special protections for groups that have been historically (and currently) disadvantaged, the Court now adopts a “colorblind” approach. Equality now means treating everyone the same way. This book explores these shifts and the research used to support civil rights claims, particularly relating to minority youths' rights to equal treatment. It integrates developmental theory with work on legal equality and discrimination, showing both how the legal system can benefit from new research on development and how the legal system itself can work to address invidious discrimination given its significant influence on adolescents—especially those who are racial minorities—at a key stage in their developmental life. The book articulates the need to address discrimination by recognizing and enlisting the law's inculcative powers in multiple sites subject to legal regulation, ranging from families, schools, health and justice systems to religious and community groups. The legal system may champion ideals of neutrality in the goals it sets itself for treating individuals, but it cannot remain neutral in the values it supports and imparts. The book shows that despite the shift to a focus on neutrality, the Court can and should effectively foster values supporting equality, especially among youth.

The right to privacy figures prominently in popular discourse and law. Its popularity, however, is not matched by the respect it receives. A close look at empirical understandings of privacy, how it shapes development, and how privacy itself can be shaped, provides important lessons for addressing the critical juncture facing privacy rights and privacy itself. To increase respect for privacy and foster privacy’s effective outcomes, society must capitalize on opportunities to shape adolescents’ use of privacy. Yet, as currently developed, the legal system has difficulty recognizing adolescents’ privacy rights and supporting systems that would shape adolescents’ skills and abilities in ways that would foster respect for privacy. As a result, the system fails to address the needs of adolescents and society. The upshot is that a developmental understanding of privacy essentially asks that the legal system take an entirely different approach to adolescents’ privacy. This book provides the foundation for understanding privacy rights and how they relate to adolescents. It then explores the place of privacy in adolescent development and builds on that understanding to chart ways to better address adolescents’ privacy needs and rights as well as society’s broader privacy interests. It argues that privacy actually is an inherently social phenomenon, one that can and must be shaped more effectively.

Hundreds of thousands of children are forced or legally recruited combatants in no fewer than 70 warring parties across the world. In addition to these child soldiers, thousands of youth voluntarily participate in politically related conflict. Why, how, and in what capacities are such large numbers of teenagers involved in war, and how are they affected? This book brings together world experts in an evidence-based volume to thoroughly understand and document the intricacies of youth who have had substantial involvement in political violence. Contributors argue that the assumption that youth are automatically debilitated by the violence they experience is much too simplistic: effective care for youth must include an awareness of their motives and beliefs, the roles they played in the conflict, their relationships with others, and the opportunities available to them after their experiences with war. The book suggests that the meaning youth make of a conflict may protect them from mental harm.

There is much controversy about the dangers of a free media when it comes to children and adolescents. Many believe that this constitutional right should be amended, altered, or revoked entirely in order to prevent the young from being negatively influenced. Graphic violence, sexual content, and the depiction of cigarette smoking have all come under fire as being unacceptable in media that is geared toward adolescents, from television and movies to magazines and advertising. Yet not much has been written about the developmental science behind these ideas, and what effects a free media really has on adolescents. This book presents a synthesis of all current knowledge about the developmental effects of a free media on adolescents. The author first presents a full analysis of research studies into the media's effects on adolescents in four key areas: sexuality, violence, smoking, and body image. All findings are assessed within the context of normal adolescent development. The author then discusses how this knowledge can be used to inform current standards for the regulation of free speech with regard to adolescents. Both legal restrictions and less formal regulatory bodies (schools, parent groups, etc.) are reviewed in order to present a full picture of the ways in which a free media is constrained to protect adolescents' development.

We currently struggle to create satisfying intimate or close relationships, something we yearn for but often fail to achieve in our evolving world culture. With our changing concepts of and demands on close relationships, we need new ways to understand what facilitates satisfying close relationships. In this book, a new theory, called postformal thought, is presented, along with previously unpublished related studies and research approaches and the idea that complex cognition is useful for co-constructing satisfying intimate relationships. The personal relational aspects of relationships as well as cultural, historical, and social factors are combined to give a big-picture view of cognitive aspects of thriving close relationships. The book rests on 30 years of research in adult cognitive development and on other recent empirical research conducted by the author and others. Cases are presented to illustrate the thinking of persons in close and satisfying relationships. Future research and applications are suggested in the final section of the book.

Volume I of the Advances in Culture and Psychology series showcases a number of cutting edge research programs in culture and psychology. The volume includes chapters on human culture in evolutionary perspective (Michael Tomasello), culture, emotion, and expression (David Matsumoto and Hyi-Sung Hwang), infectious disease and the creation of culture (Mark Schaller and Damian Murray), culture and attachment, learning and coping (Fred Rothbaum, Gilda Morelli, and Natalie Rusk), culturally situated linguistic ecologies and language use (Gün Semin), micro-macro dynamics of the cultural construction of reality (Toshio Yamagishi), and implications of horizontal and vertical individualism and collectivism for psychological processes (Sharon Shavitt, Carlos Torelli, and Hila Riemer).

Volume II of the Advances in Culture and Psychology showcases contributions from internationally renowned culture scholars who span the discipline of culture and psychology and represent diversity in the theory and study of culture within psychology. The volume includes cutting edge contributions on culture and neuroscience, culture and intelligence, culture and human development, culture and personality, culture and language, and culture change.

Volume III of the Advances in Culture and Psychology series showcases a number of cutting edge research programs in culture and psychology. The volume includes chapters on The Role of Language and Culture in Universality and Diversity of Human Concepts (Mutsumi Imai and Takahiko Masuda); Development—The Cultural Solution to Universal Developmental Tasks (Heidi Keller and Joscha Kärtner); From Chinese to Cross-cultural Personality Inventory: A Combined Emic-Etic Approach to the Study of Personality in Culture (Fanny Cheung, Shu Fai Cheung and Weiqiao Fan); Cultural Unity and Diversity in Compensatory Control Processes (Aaron Kay and Daniel Sullivan); Creating Cultures between Arctics and Deserts (Evert Van de Vliert); and Macro Cultural Psychology: Its Development, Concerns, Politics, and Future Direction (Carl Ratner).