Boundary Areas in Social and Developmental Psychology is based largely on the proceedings of a conference at Vanderbilt University in June 1981. One of the goals is to highlight some examples of research that illustrate facets of the important boundary area between social and developmental psychology. The book opens with a chapter that deals with the broad issues of boundary areas in psychology, ending with specific consideration of the boundary between social and developmental psychology. This is followed by separate chapters that consider general propositions regarding the importance of integrating concepts and methods from social and developmental psychology in the study of social relationships; show how integrating social and developmental considerations can assist in the understanding of relationships between parents and children; and apply developmental and social concepts to identify and study some of the aspects of the marital relationship that may lead to its dissolution. Subsequent chapters deal with boundary area issues focusing primarily on children's social behavior. These include the complexity of social processes inherent in children's peer relationships and the role of social exchange processes in social relationships from infancy to adulthood.

This book provides insight into the complex nature of socialization and development by exploring the interrelations among such topics as play, diet, social cognition, self-concept, friendship, family, and school. This book also examines the contributions and impact of intrapersonal and interpersonal integration on a child's psychological development from early to middle childhood levels.

Published in cooperation with the Society for Personality and Social Psychology To some degree, the issues raised by social psychologists and developmentalists overlap, each of them offering unique possibilities by which to explore questions of interest. Social Development addresses this issue and attempts to foster an awareness of the interesting research on the interface of social and developmental psychology. Written by a cast of leading researchers, this volume provides a multi-level perspective on the common boundaries between social and developmental psychology with an eye toward synthesizing research from many fields including personality, education, social work, and family studies. The contributors raise questions that are often not recognized by investigators due to their lack of knowledge of work and ideas outside their own discipline. Some of the specific subjects covered are individual differences in predicting others' thoughts and feelings, naturally occurring interpersonal expectancies, self-conceptions and their development, and social development and self-monitoring. Researchers and students involved in social psychology, developmental psychology, personality, social work, family studies, sociology, and adolescence will find Social Development to be a lucid, insightful, and interesting volume.

Shari Seidman Diamond Scholars interested in psychology and law are fond of c1aiming origins for psycholegal research that date back four score and three years ago to Hugo von Munsterberg's On the Witness Stand, published in 1908. These early roots can mislead the casual observer about the history of psychology and law. Vigorous and sustained research in the field is a recent phenomenon. It is only 15 years since the first review of psy chology and law appeared in the Annual Review of Psychology (Tapp, 1976). The following year saw the first issue of Law and Human Behavior, the official publication of the American Psychology-Law Society and now the journal of the American Psychological Associ ation's Division of Psychology and Law. Few psychology departments offered even a single course in psychology and law before 1973, while by 1982 1/4 of psychology graduate programs had at least one course, and a number had begun to offer forensic minors and/or joint J. D. / Ph. D. programs (Freeman & Roesch, see Chapter 28). Yet this short period of less than 20 years has seen a dramatic level of activity. Its strengths and weaknesses, excitements and disappointments, are aII captured in the collection of chapters published in this first Handbook of Psychology and Law. In describing what we have learned ab out psychology and law, the works included here also reveal the questions we have yet to answer and thus offer a blueprint for activities in the next 20 years.

Gain a better understanding of parent-child boundaries and the mechanisms for their dissolution The breakdown of appropriate generational boundaries between parent and child can threaten the child’s psychological development. Implications of Parent-Child Boundary Dissolution for Developmental Psychopathology: Who Is the Parent and Who Is the Child? explores this covert and oftentimes ignored form of emotional abuse, discussing in detail the various ways it can manifest. This revealing text comprehensively examines how the burden of meeting the emotional needs of the parent interferes with the child’s healthy development. The boundary dissolution patterns of role reversal, enmeshment, psychological control, and triangulation are closely examined with an eye toward providing appropriate strategies for dealing with the problem. Implications of Parent-Child Boundary Dissolution for Developmental Psychopathology is separated into four sections to focus extensively on every aspect of the problem. The first section discusses definitions, concepts, and methodological concerns of the phenomena, including a consideration of the child’s developmental responses to boundary dissolution. The second section explores the empirical research concerning boundary dissolution within the family system, and includes intriguing information on the actual mechanism that passes the pattern of role reversal on to the following generation. The next section closely examines boundary violations within high-risk families, with a focus on those undergoing divorce. The final section concentrates on cultural contexts of boundary dissolution and includes a look at the perception of familial responsibility and its effects on Bosnian youths. This one-of-a-kind resource is extensively referenced, and provides a solid foundation to inspire a new generation of theory, research, and clinical work. Implications of Parent-Child Boundary Dissolution for Developmental Psychopathology examines: a multidimensional model of boundary dissolution—with supporting research a comprehensive review of published literature in the areas of attachment theory, developmental capacities of the infant, child-rearing practices, and parental beliefs the theoretical background supporting the construct of boundary dissolution the boundary disturbance patterns of enmeshment and control the relationships between interparental conflict, parental responses to children’s emotions, and representations of role reversal and vulnerability in children’s family drawings the ’spill over’ effect of marital conflict role reversal in high-risk families children’s rejection of one parent over another in custody disputes post-war adjustment of Bosnian adolescents psychological control in individualist and collectivist groups representations of parents and children in twentieth century American novels Implications of Parent-Child Boundary Dissolution for Developmental Psychopathology is crucial reading for researchers and clinicians who deal with families and psychopathology and is of particular interest to graduate students in clinical child psychology, child and family studies, social work, and developmental psychology.

This book focuses on the role of conflict in psychological and social development.

For many years students who took courses in social development had no text available for their use. Those of us who instructed them had to rely on assigning journal articles to be read and providing an overview and syn thesis of the area in our lectures. In the last few years, the situation has changed markedly. There are now several very good textbooks that fill the void, reflecting an increasing interest in this area of research and theory. Here is one more. There are many ways to tell a story. Our book, we think, tells it dif ferently enough to have made it worth the writing. As we began to talk, some time ago, about undertaking this project, we found we had a mutual interest in trying to present the study of social development from a histori cal point of view. The field has changed dramatically from its inception, and we have both been in it long enough to have witnessed first-hand a number of these changes. Modifications of theoretical orientations and the de velopment of increasingly sophisticated and rigorous methodology have brought with them the stimulation of controversy and growth, as social developmental psychologists argued about the best ways of going about their business. Certainly the same things have happened in other areas of psychology, but the arguments seem to have been particularly vigorous in our own domain.