Showing results for "Society" in Developmental Psychology

The great Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky has long been recognized as a pioneer in developmental psychology. But his theory of development has never been well understood in the West. Mind in Society corrects much of this misunderstanding. Carefully edited by a group of outstanding Vygotsky scholars, the book presents a unique selection of Vygotsky’s important essays, most of which have previously been unavailable in English.

Society is making great strides in increasing awareness of oppression and injustice, but one group remain mistreated, with unequal human rights, and remains under-discussed: children. We are a society who are afraid of treating children kindly, as evidenced by the almost constant uproar and ridicule of the 'gentle parenting' movement by the media today. Because each of us have been raised to believe that the rights of children matter less than those of adults, we subconsciously continue the cycle of childism from one generation to the next.

During the civil war that ravaged Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2002, an estimated 20,000 children were forced to join the fighting. As villages were raided and youths rounded up, it was not uncommon for a child to be ordered to kill a friend, relative, or neighbor. The goal was to make it impossible for the captives to return home and be accepted back into their communities. Betancourt's study provides insight into the long-term psychological and developmental effects of family separation, war, and exposure to violence.

No one has failed to notice that the current generation of youth is deeply - some would say totally - involved with digital media. Professors Howard Gardner and Katie Davis name today’s young people The App Generation, and in this spellbinding book they explore what it means to be “app-dependent” versus “app-enabled” and how life for this generation differs from life before the digital era.