Discusses creativity, play, and nonconformity in children, including the illusion of thought disorder or abnormality, and aspects of everyday creativity, health, and survival. Describes creative divergence, chaotic amplification, the evolution of information, and primitive cognitive processes. Concludes with a discussion of cognitive styles,…

Discusses whether the cognitive development of developmentally delayed autistic children is the same as that of younger, normal children or whether it differs in significant ways that have implications for clinical assessment and treatment. (PCB)

Examined reasoning in normal, autistic, and deaf individuals. Found that deaf individuals who grow up in hearing homes without fluent signers show selective impairments in theory of mind similar to those of autistic individuals. Results suggest that conversational differences in the language children hear accounts for distinctive patterns of…

Two approaches that apply Piaget's theory of cognitive development to the study of child psychopathology are presented. (PCB)

Focuses on three main issues emerging from studies of conceptual development: (1) young children's naive theories of the world; (2) how innate constraints in conceptual development work; and (3) how innate and sociocultural constraints are integrated. Maintains that early development of core domains of thought (naive psychology, physics, and…

Uses clinical case studies showing autistic children's fascination with and understanding of machines, family studies focusing on occupations of fathers and grandfathers of children with autism or Asperger Syndrome, and experimental evidence using picture-sequencing methods to identify physical or intentional causality to show that children with…

Reviews the major literature on creative processes in children that should be predictive of adult creativity, focusing on affective processes and children's play. Describes Russ's (1993) model of affect and creativity, and cognitive processes, personality processes, and affective processes important in creativity. Discusses theories of play,…

Examines six sets of data on giftedness and creativity, finding little evidence for the belief that creativity in adults is mirrored in children. Questions whether children are creative, and whether creativity can be taught. Discusses creation of transitional objects; gaps, novelty, curiosity, and exploration; puberty as a developmental marker;…

Examines research which suggests that children's developing knowledge about traditional gender roles has a substantial influence on how children process information pertaining to gender. Evidence also shows that as children attain gender constancy, their behaviors become especially responsive to gender-related information. (Author/RWB)

Supports the position that although individual differences have often been ignored, children do differ in the stereotyping of their gender identities and attitudes (gender schemata). Stresses that children with traditionally stereotyped gender schemata process information about gender differently from children who have less stereotyped schemata.…

Takes the position that despite changes in society and in the ways that researchers conceptualize gender schemata, stereotypes about occupations persist. Questions to what extent experimental interventions have been successful, and considers how intervention and intervention goals should be reformulated for the future. (Author/RWB)

Presents a model for understanding children's formation of schemas of self, other, and how self and other do and should communicate emotion. Attributes important roles to families' tendencies to display or not display emotion and to their rules regarding desirability and importance of communicating emotion. Notes that child characteristics and…

Presents results of an analysis of a collection of statements about God written by German students between 16 and 22 years of age. Examines results from a psychoanalytic and cognitive-developmental perspective. Also considers the ways in which adolescents talk about the relationship between God and the church. (BB)

Discusses the possible relationships between family socialization agents and gender schemata. Focuses on the interplay of the two types of family variables--distal and proximal--and gender schemata. Distal variables discussed are: (1) socioeconomic level; (2) ethnicity; (3) intact versus one-parent families; (4) maternal employment and sibling…

Claims that despite recent efforts to eliminate sex inequities in education, schools continue to provide numerous inputs into the child's gender stereotyping system. Reviews research on sex differences in teacher attitudes, classroom and peer interactions, instructional practices, and other school experiences central to gender schemata…