Search

The article presents a biography of developmental psychologist, philosopher and educator Jean Piaget. He was born on August 9, 1896 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He showed interest in biological studies at an early age and wrote his first scientific paper at ten. Piaget's life was devoted to the study of the intellectual and perceptual development of the individual from birth to maturity. He believes that external actions and thought processes are linked to a logical organization. He formulated views on totalities and structures of the whole.

As for the definition of "personal maturity," this seems naturally associated with the idea of a certain evolution of character, from birth to a stage which one can call "adult." One contrasts "maturity" to "infantilism" which characterizes certain developmental stages or phases of behavior, prior to maturity, whether these are due to some deficiency or to a developmental defect. The aspects of personal maturity are multiple. One sees combined in them biological, intellectual, and emotional factors. A sureness in one's own judgment, stability in behavior, calmness in the face of difficulties are considered as marks of maturity; these testify at the same time to a superior physical equilibrium, a depth of mind, and a certain ripening of character. Because the subject of this paper is parent education, we will consider maturity only in its emotional or "affective" aspects. Maturity is actually an evolution of the parent-child relationship in which the parent leads the child from dependency to independence.

This paper presents an account of a statistical study of the Danish intelligentsia for the four centuries from the Reformation to 1900. The term intelligentsia has been taken to mean creators of cultural values in the broadest sense, including all those who have contributed in some way to the culture of the community. In more than one respect the marked movements in the size of the intelligentsia give some indication of the structure of cultural life itself. To quote one example, the number of artists increased from 36 in the activity period 1810 onwards, to 127 in the following period, 1835 onwards. The periods after 1835 and after 1885, however, were each characterized by the existence of a second generation of newly enriched bourgeoisie. The importance of language as a means of artistic expression is very clearly shown by a further analysis of the theatre group. In this group foreigners ranged from 17 to 100 percent among singers and dancers in the eighteenth century and accounted for four to 10 percent even in the nineteenth century, whereas only five to 20 percent of the actors and producers of the eighteenth century were foreigners, and in the nineteenth century there were none at all. As may be expected, metropolitanism is very strong, and in certain achievement groups it is a predominant feature. Among the artists of the seventeenth century the metropolitan index rose to 10.2 and among the musicians of the same period it even reached 14.4. In politics especially the earlier centuries were characterized by the part played by the landed aristocracy, whilst in the nineteenth century first the farmers and later the smallholders acquired political power.

The article presents the comments and conclusions on the study of the life and works of developmental psychologist, philosopher and educator Jean Piaget. Diversity of inquiry marks Piaget's work. His work encompasses theory of the origins of intelligence, perception and thought, and child psychology. By using psychiatric examining procedures, he laid down the basis for the modern practice of clinical method of searching questions. Piaget is viewed as the cognitive psychologist who has come up with a theoretical alternative to the constraints of associationism.

The article presents information on the critical attitude and social action. He who immerses himself in his immediate responsibilities and meets them well is not an escapist, even if he does not read all the news every day. The real escapists are those who run away from their assigned tasks and rush around worrying about every trouble which they glean from their morning paper, scattering their interests, frittering away their imaginative capacity, and squandering their intellectual resources. However, concentration does not mean closing one's mind. If academic studies amount to more than professional training, they must enable one to see and weigh alternatives, to respect choices, which differ from his, and to check and re-check his premises. One cannot do so without questioning oneself as well as others, authority as well as anarchy, the claims of tradition as well as of revolution. But in doing so one has to realize that there are insoluble problems, unanswerable questions, and extra-rational forces in human affairs.

This article presents comments of the author, on an article on personal maturity, written by M. Isambert, published in the May 11, 1961 issue of the periodical "Marriage and Family Living." In his thoughtful consideration of maturity as a continuing process, a movement towards, rather than an end, M. Isambert pertinently observes that maturation is more than a function of biological development. He points to the impact of external social forces and to the effect of psychomotor development which opens up new experiences. Researchers could not agree more with his conviction that these concepts are basic. Surely belief in a continuing capacity for emotional and intellectual growth is the crucial assumption underlying adult education of all kinds, and parent education in particular. Clearly, too, there is urgent need for much greater exploration of the way such growth takes place and of the ways educators can facilitate such growth. The author hopes that Isambert's paper will stimulate new efforts in these directions.

A series of related experiments investigated the relationship between naturally established teacher expectation and IQ change. Subjects were 109 grade 1 and 2 pupils from an average socioeconomic area of Montreal. Results show no linear relationship between teacher expectation and IQ gain scores either with or without the partialing out of initial IQ scores. A significant relationship was found between negative discrepant teacher expectation and IQ change in children with superior intellectual potential. The use of IQ testing in the primary grades is discussed, and suggestions are made concerning both teacher training and in-service training programs in the light of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An apparent inverse relationship between intellectualism and attendance at religious services is examined in a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data collected in 1963-1964 in a sample of New York City residents. There is no relationship between intellectualism and attendance when religious group is controlled. Jewish respondents, in particular, displayed decreasing rates of religious attendance and increasing rates of intellectualism when analyzed by generation. A decreasing rate of attendance by generation was more characteristic of Jews low on intellectualism than those high on intellectualism. Among white Protestants, attendance diminished across generation for those low on intellectualism, while it increased for those high on intellectualism. Data are also reported for white Catholics and for blacks of all faith. The differences are among generational categories at a single point in time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of public administration in the U.S. was the extent to which sociological factors apparently affected the prescriptions and principles of which its literature was composed. Through the early teachings, the successes of the reform movement and the widespread adoption of the city-manager form of government, has been widely distributed both through academia and the general public. Political scientists and sociologists have begun to raise questions about the operation of administrative structures in and on government and society. It seems odd that the field of public administration itself has not evidenced a general awareness of the rumblings of change that are being heard in the public and from some intellectuals. The traditional bureaucratic administrative structure possesses two central characteristics. The more basic of those is the principle of hierarchy, which entails strictly defined roles articulated in terms of layers of authority. Policy is set at the top of the hierarchy and transmitted down through rules and close authoritative supervision, which insures that the rules are followed.

This article focuses on John Shakespeare, father of William Shakespeare. Shakespeare's father was born at Snitterfield, and moved early in life to Stratford, four miles away. There are records of his breaking certain ordinances, and of his being fined for making a "muckhill at chamber's door." But it is not necessary here to go over the ground examined so carefully by recent scholars concerning the business and municipal troubles of John Shakespeare. A place even so remote as Snitterfield, lying at the heart of England, was not proof against rumors of the wicked events taking place in London, England nor could it be left in ignorance of the risings of discontented people in many of the other shires. It is not likely that Warwickshire was exempt from the exactions of arbitrary rule, arbitrary taxation, and other impositions which not only violated the conscience of the folk, but laid upon their backs burdens hard to be borne. However, there is something of importance to be considered, which has only been touched upon lightly by the recorders. It has to do with the grave economic and political happenings that were taking place in England for many years before Shakespeare was born.

The article informs that during the last quarter of the nineteenth century when the British and the American rationalists were expounding their doctrines in political and philosophical arenas, there arose many questions as to what they meant when they used the term "humanism" as it applied to everyday affairs, and what significance it had when the same people linked it up with their notions of the Italian Renaissance. There has recently been so much debate as to what these terms stand for that the young student is somewhat confused when he finds that the humanism, that is, the craze for classical books, which arose at the beginning of the fourteenth century, had a totally different meaning from that which is given to it today. There is an interesting essay awaiting an author who will pursue the study of "human aims and aspirations as a guide to human endeavour," as this seems to have been the principal intellectual object of the humanists of the Italian Renaissance.

The article focuses on Lord Acton, an English historian, and his works. According to the author, scholars of twenty years ago frequently pointed out examples of literary criticism from his pen that were of exceptional value. His essay on the "Introduction to L. A. Burd's Edition of Il Principe by Machiavelli" has been selected several times as a unique specimen of critical achievement. As a critic, Acton has been accused of severity and ruthlessness, and there may be some truth in this. But when it is realized how high the standard was that he set for himself, no one should take exception to it. The intellectual caliber of Acton appears in many of his reviews, but there is none that shows it so brilliantly as the one on "George Eliot's Life." She is now forgotten, but she had a great influence on the English people while Acton was at work. Her atheism did not preclude her from his consideration. According to the author, it is impossible to read many pages of Acton's essays and miss the flashes of enlightenment, which reveal a well-stored mind.

Observations of group life in America have led students of assimilation to argue that large numbers of people continue to interact mainly along religious lines even though their cultural differences are minor. Gordon has hypothesized that many intellectuals, among whom academics are numerically the most important group, are not oriented toward the religious group in interaction or identification, but instead live in a milieu largely free of such structural cleavages. This hypothesis was put to test on samples of Protestant and Mormon academics and non-academics. Results were in support of the hypothesis. Academics with Protestant backgrounds in the humanities and social sciences were in particular weak in religious communality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social thinker, Saint Augustine's intellectual development was in a context rich with choice. The Mediterranean world of the fourth century must have provided as many open options to the inquiring mind as any era and arena ever. Moving freely about this world, the young Augustine exposed himself to many influences and actually sampled several positions before he finally, in his mid-thirties, settled on the particular Christian position to which he was thereafter committed. The career of Augustine precisely because the role of environmental influences seems indeterminate leaves an especially large amount of room for entertaining psychological considerations as a factor in his intellectual development. It is not perfectly clear that he was ever outside the pale of what one would call today nominal Christianity. It is even less clear that he was ever tree especially in view of the insistent influence of his mother to achieve a final resolution except within the limits of a Christian commitment.

An attack upon religious language has come from contemporary philosophers. A leading proposal has been that a criterion of meaning is a feasible project for philosophical disquisition and delineation. The thought has been that most language has "meaning" but that very few users of language are clear about the nature of meaning. Intellectual change is certainly not altogether a matter of progress. A major enthusiasm for the scientific study of religion, its ideas, literature, genesis, context and forms, certainly has been the promise that progress here might mean progress in the religious life too. Scientific learning, in contrast to common sense learning or what goes by learning from experience, has meant not only an increase in the bulk of information, incredible as the sheer mass now is, but also an increase in the extent of dissemination and use of knowledge on the part of others than the scholars, scientists and researchers. Theology, expresses an enthusiasm in virtue of which judgments and beliefs are articulated.

The article presents information on the relationship between the family breakdown and social networks in the United States. Scholar C. J. Bott terms the relationship between community and family as complex and indirect. Internal structure of conjugal families is different in rural and urban settings. Families with loose-knit social networks lead to instability and ultimate breakdown within urban communities in the United States. Middle-class families have more close-knit social networks. In rural communities the family breakdown factor is limited.

The article presents information on the origins of sociology with reference to a movement called the Scottish Enlightenment, the period of intellectual ferment in Scotland from 1740 to 1800. Historians of sociology believe that sociology emerged as an autonomous and disciplined science. The movement classifies societies as savage, barbaric and polished in terms of their prevailing mode of production. The Scots analyzed the nature and the growth of social institutions. Scholar Adam Ferguson was the first writer who understood the economic consequences of the division of labor.

This article discusses social stratification and intellectual roles in the African American community in the U.S. The author notes the social role of African American intellectuals as symbols of racial worth and as instruments for racial protest and betterment. However, it is noted that part of the symbolic and instrumental function of the African American intellectual is the associated high socio-economic status. African Americans often self-identify with a socio-economic class well above that of the average of the African American community as a whole.

The article comments on culture and synthesis in the social sciences. The author does not know of a single important work that has been published that does not include culture in the broad sense of the term as part of the socio-economic system. If the evolution of culture is not a sociological subject, then surely the time has come when scholars should shut up shop and leave the publication of magazines to the dyed-in-the-wool specialist who would departmentalize every flimsy notion that attracts the intellect of modern man. Surely the title of the essay, "The Spirit of Medieval Culture," is sociological. As for the article itself, there is implied in it grandness of achievement under an economic system wherein a serf, having the benefit of about twelve acres of land, could, by a few weeks work, produce sufficient to provide for himself and his family for the entire year. What was possible under that system is impossible under this and, as contrast is of assistance in helping to determine the worth of subjects discussed, the author thought it would be of interest to men of this day to spare an hour to study some aspects of a culture which produced many of the greatest monuments man has raised in literature, philosophy and architecture.

The article focuses on a new journal for the sociology of religion. It is "Sociologia Religiosa," edited by the distinguished Italian scholar, S.S. Acquaviva. Its appearance marks a time in Italy of considerable advance in this field, for it includes news of the formation of a new professional scientific society set up to cultivate research in this area. That significant work is being done already is indicated by the valuable studies reported in the new quarterly.