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SAGE Journal User Guide

Article 1:

Muthivhi, A.E. (2010). Piaget, Vygotsky, and the cultural development of the notions of possibility and necessity: An experimental study among rural South African learners. South African Journal of Psychology, 40(2), 139-148.

Abstract:

I employ the theories of Vygotsky and Piaget in analysing the modes of experimental task performance in order to elaborate on the role that cultural content plays in the development and functioning of the notions of possibility and necessity. I challenge the notion of cognitive lag that has hitherto pervaded explanations of the development of subjects from non-industrialised, diverse socio-cultural settings. A Piagetian experimental task, comprising half circles of contrasting colours, is used in the investigation. One of these half circles, covered with tinfoil, is assumed to be either red or green in colour but not knowable in advance, and it is used as a basis for hypothesising about the possible colour values of circles that could be made from combining this half with the uncovered one. Eighty Venda-speaking learners, 20 learners from each of four grades (Grades 1, 3, 5, and 7), with ages ranging from an average 6.5 years in Grade 1 to 12.5 years in Grade 7, participated in the study. The results reveal that learners, although functioning at the operational level of thinking, employ both concrete-functional and formal-abstract and conceptual modes of thinking at the same time. Thus the concept of possibility is conceptualised as constituting both its concrete, functional form (involving a conception of the possible as the possible-real) and its formal, conceptual form (involving the conception of the possible as a hypothetical state of affairs, disembedded from its concrete context of problem manifestation and involving holding two or more cognitive categories constant during problem solving).

Questions to Consider:

1. Describe the purpose of this study and the relevance of Piagetian theory in the methodology.
2. Discuss the study results and the implications regarding Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.
3. Explain the Piagetian experimental task used in the study. Which concepts of cognitive development are implicit in this exercise?

Article 2:

Cross, T.L. (2001). Social/emotional needs: Gifted children and Erikson's theory of psychosocial. Gifted Child Today, 24 (1), 54-55.

Abstract:

In this column, I will provide an introduction to one of the most influential thinkers in the field of psychology, Erik Erikson. After I overview his theory of psychosocial development, I will tie it to the development of gifted children. Erikson was a young contemporary of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. Erikson discussed growing up in Europe with one biological parent being Jewish and the other Gentile.

Questions to Consider:

1. What are the implications of Erikson’s theory for gifted children?
2. What are the implications of Erikson’s theory for gifted adolescents?
3. Discuss the virtues that emerge across psychosocial development.