Kurt W. Fischer

How Emotions Develop and How they Organise Development

Abstract Concepts from functional theories of emotions are integrated with principles of skill development to produce a theory of emotional development. The theory provides tools for predicting both the sequences of emotional development and the ways emotions shape development. Emotions are characterised in terms of three component models: (a) the process of emotion generation from event appraisal, (b) a hierarchy of emotion categories organised around a handful of basic-emotion families, and (c) a characterisation of emotions in terms of prototypic event scripts. The basic emotions and the positive vs. negative hedonic components of emotions function as constraints or organisers that shape behaviour whenever an emotion is activated. Through these patterning effects, emotions shape both short-term behavioural organisation and long-term development. The skill-development component of the theory explains how, as children grow, they construct and control increasingly complex skills—which affect many aspects ...

A developmental sequence of agent use in late infancy.

WATSON, MALCOLM W., and FISCHER, KURT W. A Developmental Sequence of Agent Use in Late Infancy. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 828-836. A hypothesized developmental sequence of agent use in pretending was tested in 36 infants between 14 and 24 months of age and was compared with the development of object permanence. The sequence was predicted by a theory of the development of early representation, defined as the understanding that objects are independent agents of action. A simple technique was devised to elicit systematic pretending: Infants observed an adult modeling various pretend behaviors and were then videotaped in a free-play situation with a carefully chosen set of toys. As hypothesized, infants used agents in the following developmental sequence: (1) self as agent, (2) use of an object as a passive agent, (3) use of a substitute object as a passive agent, and (4) use of an object as an active agent. Infants not only acquired the types of agent use in this sequence, but they also stopped using and remembering them in the same sequence. Agent use and object permanence showed a moderate correlation, but also substantial decalage. The findings suggest that specific sequences in the development of representation can be predicted within task domains, but precise correspondences should not be expected across task domains.

Developmental Range of Reflective Judgment: The Effect of Contextual Support and Practice on Developmental Stage

In this study of K. W Fischers (1980) skill theory and the development of reflective judgment (K. S. Kitchener & P. M. King, 1981), 156 students, 14-28 years old, were tested. Two thirds responded to the Reflective Judgment Interview (RJI) and the Prototypic Reflective Judgment Interview (PRJI) twice, with the 2 administrations approximately 2 weeks apart. The remaining one third were tested at 2-week intervals only on the RJI. The PRJI was designed to provide support for optimal level reflective judgment responses, whereas the RJI measured functional level. Ss scored significantly higher on the PRJI than they did on the RJI at both testings, and there was a significant age effect on both measures. Age differences on the 2 measures could not be statistically accounted for by a measure of verbal ability. The PRJI data also provided evidence for spurts in development

The organisation of Chinese shame concepts

This study examined Chinese shame concepts. By asking native Chinese to identify terms for shame, we collected 113 shame terms. Hierarchical cluster analysis of sorted terms yielded a comprehensive map of the concept. We found, at the highest abstract level, two large distinctions of “shame state, self‐focus” and “reactions to shame, other‐focus.” While the former describes various aspects of actual shame experience that focuses on the self, the latter focuses on consequences of and reactions to shame directed at others. Shame state with self‐focus contained three further sets of meanings: (1) ones fears of losing face; (2) the feeling state after ones face has been lost; and (3) guilt. Reactions to shame with other‐focus also consisted of three further sets of subcomponents at the same level: (4) disgrace; (5) shamelessness and its condemnation; and (6) embarrassment. Except for guilt, there were several subclusters under each of these categories. We discussed both universal trends and specific constellations of shame concepts in Chinese culture.

Beyond One-Dimensional Change: Parallel, Concurrent, Socially Distributed Processes in Learning and Development

Development and learning involve similar changes in the organization of behavior, within different time frames. A potentially powerful way to relate learning and development is through the study of mi

Cognitive and emotional differences in young maltreated children: A translational application of dynamic skill theory

Through a translational approach, dynamic skill theory enhances the understanding of the variation in the behavioral and cognitive presentations of a high-risk population-maltreated children. Two studies illustrate the application of normative developmental constructs from a dynamic skills perspective to samples of young maltreated and nonmaltreated children. Each study examines the emotional and cognitive development of maltreated children with attention to their developing world view or negativity bias and cognitive skills. Across both studies, maltreated children demonstrate negativity bias when compared to their nonmaltreated counterparts. Cognitive complexity demonstrated by the maltreated children is dependent upon a positive or negative context. Positive problem solving is more difficult for maltreated children when compared to their nonmaltreated counterparts. Differences by maltreatment type, severity, timing of the abuse, and identity of the perpetrator are also delineated, and variation in the resulting developmental trajectories in each case is explored. This translation of dynamic skill theory, as applied to maltreated children, enhances our basic understanding of their functioning, clarifies the nature of their developmental differences, and underscores the need for early intervention.

Psychopathology as adaptive development along distinctive pathways.

Contrary to the standard assumption that psychopathology stems from developmental immaturity (retardation, fixation, regression), people diagnosed with psychopathology typically develop along distinctive pathways in which they build complex, advanced skills. These pathways are based on adaptation to trauma, such as maltreatment, or to problems in affective-cognitive regulation, such as those in autism. They do not fit normative developmental frameworks. Research has characterized several types of distinctive pathways, especially those arising from maltreatment; they are marked by normal developmental complexity but distinctive affective-cognitive organization. In one study sexually abused depressed adolescent girls admitted for treatment in a mental hospital described themselves-in-relationships with age-appropriate, complex developmental levels equal to those of both nonabused depressed girls and other adolescents. At the same time, they showed a powerful negativity bias contrasting with the positivity biases of other girls. Many of them produced dramatic switches in affective-cognitive organization across assessments contrasting with the similar organization showed by other girls. In another study toddlers from maltreating families showed a consistent negativity bias in play and representations of interactions. We show how to portray these distinctive developmental pathways through the example of Hidden Family Violence, in which people dissociate their private violent world from their public, good-citizen world.

Generalizations About Generalization: How a Theory of Skill Development Explains Both Generality and Specificity

Abstract Within a skill-theory framework, the traditional opposition between generalization and specificity is resolved. Neither generalization nor specificity is considered the normal state. Instead, they are both phenomena that can be predicted and explained in terms of skill structures and functional mechanisms of development or learning. A person acquires a skill in a specific context and must work to gradually extend it to other contexts. Within a task domain and across related domains, a set of structural transformations predict the order of generalization of the skill. Range of generalization of a given skill at a point in time varies widely across people and situations as a function of specified functional mechanisms. Generalization is maximized when (a) tasks are similar and familiar, (b) the environment provides opportunities for practice and support, (c) the person has had time to consolidate skills at the relevant developmental level, and (d) he or she is intelligent and in an emotional state ...

Relations between Brain and Cognitive Development.

Goldman-Rakic reports important new data on cortical development in rhesus monkeys. Some of her findings, especially concurrent cortical synaptogenesis, may be related to cognitive capacities that develop in infancy. The developmental pattern of concurrent synaptogenesis in rhesus is consistent with a straightforward model of relations between brain and cognitive development: Concurrent synaptogenesis is hypothesized to lay the primary cortical foundation for a series of developmental levels in middle infancy that have been empirically documented in both human and rhesus infants. Other general brain changes, especially in the electroencephalogram, also seem to correlate with these levels, as well as with other levels that develop at other periods. In the simplest form of the model, these several factors all show synchronous developmental discontinuities at the time of emergence of a level. Specific research methods are available for specifying when discontinuities occur in development of both brain and behavior.

The shape of development

This project examines the shape of conceptual development from early childhood through adulthood. To do so we model the attainment of developmental complexity levels in the moral reasoning of a large sample (n = 747) of 5- to 86-year-olds. Employing a novel application of the Rasch model to investigate patterns of performance in these data, we show that the acquisition of successive complexity levels proceeds in a pattern suggestive of a series of spurts and plateaus. We also show that there are six complexity levels represented in performance between the ages of 5 and 86; that patterns of performance are consistent with the specified sequence; that these findings apply to both childhood and adulthood levels; that sex is not an important predictor of complexity level once educational attainment has been taken into account; and that both age and educational attainment predict complexity level well during childhood, but educational attainment is a better predictor in late adolescence and adulthood.