Psychologia rozwoju jako nauka o genezie życia psychicznego: przełomowe dokonania i kierunki przyszłych badań

Developmental psychology as a science of psychic life genesis: crucial achievements and future research In the paper a state of art in contemporary psychology of human development is presented. Considerations are concentrated on two issues: the nature and mechanisms of developmental changes. Regarding the nature, we show a shift in research from a study on stable and universal changes to not regular and unique changes. Regarding the developmental mechanism, we try to describe a shift from research concentrated on reactivity to research on own activity of individual in relation with environments. The main thesis of the paper is statement, that psychology of development belongs to the sciences of life, and according to it, should to search for specific rules of change in human functioning and development. The holistic-interactive, functional and relative approaches are indicated as a most effective in this kind of studies

Cognitive Capacities In Early Childhood

W prezentowanym opracowaniu podejmuję problem początków życia psychicznego w rozwoju dziecka. Uwagę koncentruję na wynikach badań nad wczesnymi kompetencjami poznawczymi. Badania te dowodzą, że dziecko wie więcej i potrafi więcej, niż nam się to wydaje w codziennej obserwacji jego zachowania. Z drugiej jednak strony, stwierdzam, że jest jeszcze za wcześnie, aby w sposób odpowiedzialny podsumować dotychczasowe na ten temat badania. Wskazuję luki i niejasności w sferze teorii i metodologii badań nad wczesnym rozwojem dziecka. Proponując pewne rozwiązania, stawiam równocześnie pytania, które wymagają odpowiedzi w przyszłych na ten temat badaniach.The paper presented takes a closer look at the origins of the infant psyche. We center our attention on the investigation results of infant cognitive capacities. Experiments conducted in this field prove that infant children have at their disposal a far wider range of comprehensive knowledge and abilities than results from lay observation of their ordinary behavior. At the present stage of knowledge, however, it seems to early and downright irresponsible to sum up the results of previously conducted research conclusively. The theory on early infant development seems inchoate and ambiguous, the same may be said of the methodology of research. I am putting forward certain solutions to this issue and raise some questions to be considered in due course of future research conducted on this topic

On the subject of educational psychology research

Mimo ponad stuletniej historii badań psychologicznych nad wychowaniem nie potrafimy jednoznacznie określić przedmiotu oraz specyficznych zadań i celów psychologii wychowawczej jako odrębnej subdyscypliny psychologicznej. Odczuwamy również brak jednej, ogólnej i wyczerpującej psychologicznej teorii wychowania, opisującej i wyjaśniającej w sposób zadowalający złożoność zjawisk wychowawczych. Prezentowane w tym opracowaniu rozważania prowadzą do stwierdzenia, że psychologia wychowawcza odnosi się do obszaru zastosowania, który nie jest jednak unikalną kategorią przedmiotu badań psychologicznych. Stwierdzenie to jest traktowane jako problem, który warto podjąć na gruncie psychologii.Despite more than a century of history of psychological research on education, we are unable to clearly define the subject and specific tasks and goals of educational psychology as a separate subdiscipline. There is also the lack of one, general and comprehensive psychological theory of education, describing and explaining in a satisfactory way the complexity of educational phenomena. The presented considerations leads to the statement that educational psychology is an area of application rather than a unique category of research subject matter

O pułapkach pomiaru osiągnięć szkolnych: „przeciętny uczeń” nie istnieje

The thesis of the article is that by focusing attention on the values of the average measurement of school achievement, we ignore variability, thereby reducing significantly the understanding of dynamics in students’ behaviour, development and learning (acquisition of knowledge and skills). The article attempts to show that the approach focused on trends in average is not well fitted to the dynamic nature of phenomena diagnosed in education and can be the source of many artefacts. The pitfalls in which in this approach we most often fall include: (a) a static measurement; (b) averaging the results; (c) the treatment of standard deviation as a measurement error and noise information which is not worth dealing with

Psychologia rozwoju jako nauka o genezie życia psychicznego: przełomowe dokonania i kierunki przyszłych badań

In the paper a state of art in contemporary psychology of human development is presented. Considerations are concentrated on two issues: the nature and mechanisms of developmental changes. Regarding the nature, we show a shift in research from a study on stable and universal changes to not regular and unique changes. Regarding the developmental mechanism, we try to describe a shift from research concentrated on reactivity to research on own activity of individual in relation with environments. The main thesis of the paper is statement, that psychology of development belongs to the sciences of life, and according to it, should to search for specific rules of change in human functioning and development. The holistic-interactive, functional and relative approaches are indicated as a most effective in this kind of studies

Ageizm: On the Performance and Possibilities of Senior Citizens

W prezentowanym opracowaniu stawiam tezę, iż negatywny obraz społeczny człowieka starzejącego się utrudnia funkcjonowanie i hamuje potencjał rozwojowy, którym dysponują ludzie starsi. Myśl tę staram się uzasadnić w oparciu o wyniki badań empirycznych nad postawami społecznymi wobec osób starszych oraz nad funkcjonowaniem poznawczym ludzi w okresie późnej dorosłości, które prowadzimy w Katedrze Psychologii Rozwoju Człowieka Instytutu Psychologii UKW w Bydgoszczy. U podstaw prezentowanych rozważań leży założenie, iż postawy wobec ludzi starszych oraz obserwowane w tym okresie życia zmiany w funkcjonowaniu poznawczym są efektem nie tylko prawidłowego starzenie się człowieka, ale w dużym stopniu także funkcją kultury, w której liczy się człowiek młody, zdrowy i wydajny.In this paper I postulate the hypthesis, that the negative image our society commonly attributes to senior citizens inhibits their performance and constrains the development capaccities over which they dispose. I endeavour to underpin this thesis with the help of empirical investigations on the common attitude of our society towards senior citizens and the cognitive processes of the latter ones carried out at the Department of Social Psychology and Human Development of the UKW in Bydgość. The reflections as here presented are based on the assumption, that the attitude towards senior citizens as well as the changes of the cognitive capacities as they can be observed in this stage of life originate not exclusively from the ageing process itself but are to a certain degree induced by our culture, where only the young, healthy and productive are being fully appreciated

O pułapkach pomiaru osiągnięć szkolnych: „przeciętny uczeń” nie istnieje

The thesis of the article is that by focusing attention on the values of the average measurement of school achievement, we ignore variability, thereby reducing significantly the understanding of dynamics in students’ behaviour, development and learning (acquisition of knowledge and skills). The article attempts to show that the approach focused on trends in average is not well fitted to the dynamic nature of phenomena diagnosed in education and can be the source of many artefacts. The pitfalls in which in this approach we most often fall include: (a) a static measurement; (b) averaging the results; (c) the treatment of standard deviation as a measurement error and noise information which is not worth dealing with

The analysis of change in behavior and development: on some errors and possibilities to correct them

We aim to demonstrate that the understanding of behavior and development requires a better fit between methods to gather and analyze data and the dynamic nature of psychological phenomena. We argue that there are limits to the application of static designs of data collection in correlation design and to focusing on measures of central tendency when inferring on the complex processes of change in human behavior and development. We describe possible ways to correct the errors we make and to overcome the difficulties that we face when measuring change. We conclude that there is a need to identify a comprehensive model of gathering and analyzing data that takes into account the observation period of the phenomena (short- and long-term research), the complexity of the studied form of activity (elementary and complex) and the situation/context of the measurement (well-defined situation and situation “at large”)