Social Life and Social Knowledge : Toward a Process Account of Development

In this new volume, leading researchers provide state-of-the-art perspectives on how social interaction influences the development of knowledge. The book integrates approaches from a variety of disciplines including developmental psychology, psychopathology, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, evolutionary biology, and primatology. It reviews the nature and type of interactions that promote development as well as the conceptual frameworks used to explain the relation between individuals and groups.

Social Life and Social Knowledge comprehensively addresses conceptual questions central to understanding human life and development:

• Is the human form of social life reducible to biological processes?
• What psychological abilities constitute the specifically human form of social life?
• What are the processes and contexts within which these abilities develop?
• How should we conceptualize the links between social life and the development of thought, and how do individuals and society contribute to these processes?

The book is intended for philosophers, primatologists, anthropologists, biologists, sociologists, and developmental and educational psychologists interested in social development, social cognition, and developmental psychopathology. It also serves as a resource for courses in social development and those that focus on the intersection between cognition, development, and culture.

Ulrich Muller is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Victoria. His research focuses on the development of problem-solving and social understanding in infants and preschoolers. A member of the Board of Directors of the Jean Piaget Society, Dr. Müller received the Early Scientific Achievement Award from the Society for Research in Child Development in 2005. Jeremy I. M. Carpendale is a Professor of Developmental Psychology at Simon Fraser University. His work focuses on social and moral development. He is an Associate Editor of New Ideas in Psychology, editor, with Ulrich Müller, of Social Interaction and the Development of Knowledge (2004), and author with Charlie Lewis of How Children Develop Social Understanding (2006). Nancy Budwig is Associate Provost, Dean of Graduate Studies and Research, and Professor of Psychology at Clark University. Her research focuses on the relationship between language and thought in the early years of life. The current President of the Jean Piaget Society, Dr. Budwig serves on the editorial board of Human Development and Cognitive Development. Bryan Sokol is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at St. Louis University. His research interests include the development of children's social understanding and socio-emotional competence, moral agency, and conceptions of selfhood. He is on the board of directors of the Jean Piaget Society.