Research Catalog

Title

Agency : its role in mental development / James Russell.

Author

Russell, James, 1948-

Publication

Hove, East Sussex, UK : Erlbaum (UK) Taylor & Francis, ©1996.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

x, 326 pages : illustrations

Summary

• The idea behind this book is that developing a conception of the physical world and a conception of mind is impossible without the exercise of agency, meaning "the power to alter at will one's perceptual inputs." The thesis is derived from a philosophical account of the role of agency in knowledge - the first time this has been attempted in the context of developmental psychology.
• The book is divided into three parts. In Part One, Russell argues that purely "representational" theories of mind and of mental development have been overvalued, thereby clearing the ground for the book's central thesis. In Part Two, he proposes that, because objective experience depends upon the experience of agency, the development of the "object concept" in human infants is grounded in the development of executive-attentional capacities. In Part Three, an analysis of the links between agency and self-awareness generates an original theory of the nature of certain stage-like transitions in mental functioning and of the relationship between executive and mentalising deficits in autism. The book will be of particular interest to students and researchers in cognitive-developmental psychology, to philosophers of mind, and to anybody with an interest in cognitive science.

Subject

• Piaget, Jean, (1896-1980)
• Cognition in children
• Developmental psychology
• Agent (Philosophy)
• Cognition
• Children
• Infants
• Psychology
• Transference (Psychology)
• Child development
• Intellect
• Cognition
• Child
• Human Development
• Infant
• Psychology
• Transference, Psychology
• Child Development
• Intelligence
• cognition
• children (people by age group)
• infants
• psychology
• Intellect
• Infants
• Children
• Child development
• Cognition in children
• Developmental psychology
• Kognitive Entwicklung
• Psychologie
• Selektive Wahrnehmung
• Wahrnehmungsurteil
• Willensakt
• Handlung
• Entwicklungspsychologie
• Denken
• Handelen
• Cognitieve ontwikkeling
• Philosophie de l'esprit
• Psychologie cognitive
• Sciences cognitives
• Théorie de l'action
• Cognition > Chez l'enfant
• Psychologie du développement

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 299-315) and index.

Contents

pt. 1. Symbols, models, and connections -- pt. 2. Knowledge of objects -- pt. 3. Action and our knowledge of minds -- Coda: Looking back and going forward.

ISBN

• 9780863772283
• 0863772285

LCCN

2002483210

OCLC

• ocm34510951
• 34510951
• SCSB-2109630

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library