Abstract
Spirituality is important to humans but gets little attention in experimental studies of life span cognitive development. One way to integrate such studies is to examine cognitive aspects of spiritual development using complex postformal Piagetian models. Four possible points of interface within postformal models are: developmental stages; elements of emotion and will; multiperson cognition; and forms taken by the processes used. Testable hypotheses are outlined and some possible difficulties to be expected within such research are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arlin, P. (1975). Cognitive development in adulthood: A fifth stage?Developmental Psychology, 11, 602–606.
Armstrong, J. (1991). Keeping one's balance in a moving system: The effects of the multiple personality disordered patient on the cognitive development of the therapist. In J. Sinnott & J. Cavanaugh (Eds.),Bridging paradigms: Positive development in adulthood and cognitive aging (pp. 11–18). New York: Praeger.
Bach, R. (1977).Illusions: Adventures of a reluctant messiah. New York: Dell.
Basseches, M. (1984).Dialectical thinking and adult development. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Bastick, T. (1982).Intuition: How we think and act. New York: Wiley.
Castaneda, C. (1981).A separate reality. New York: Washington Square Press.
Chinen, A. (1992).Once upon a midlife. Los Angeles, CA: Tarcer.
Churchman, C. (1971).The design of inquiring systems: Basic concepts of systems and organizations. New York: Basic Books.
Commons, M., Armon, C., Kohlberg, L., Richards, F., Grotzer, T., & Sinnott, J. D. (Eds.) (1989).Beyond formal operations III: Models and methods in the study of adult and adolescent thought. New York: Praeger.
Commons, M., & Richards F. (1984). A general model of stage theory. In M. Commons, F. Richards, & C. Armon (Eds.),Beyond formal operations: Late adolescent and adult development (pp. 120–140). New York: Praeger.
Commons, M., Sinnott, J., Richards, F., & Armon, C. (Eds.) (1989).Adult development II: Comparisons and applications of adolescent and adult developmental models. New York: Praeger.
Demick, J., & Miller, P. M. (Eds.). (1993).Development in the workplace. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Erikson, E. (1950).Childhood and society. New York: Norton.
Frankl, V. (1963).Man's search for meaning. New York: Washington Square Press.
Furth, H. (1969).Piaget and knowledge. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Gould, R. (1978).Transformation. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Gowan, J. C. (1980).Operations of increasing order. Published by the author, 1426 Southwind Circle, Westlake Village, CA.
Hugo, V. (1938).Les miserables. (Lascelles Wraxall, Trans.) New York: Heritage Press.
Inhelder, B., & Piaget, J. (1958).The growth of logical thinking from childhood to adolescence. New York: Basic Books.
Isen, A., & Shalker, T. (1982). Effects of feeling state on evaluation of positive, neutral, and negative stimuli: When you “accentuate the positive,” do you “eliminate the negative”?Social Psychology Quarterly, 45, 58–63.
Johnson, L. (1991). Postformal reasoning facilitates behavioral change: A case study of an international development project. In J. Sinnott & J. Cavanaugh (Eds.),Bridging paradigms: Positive development in adulthood and cognitive aging (pp. 59–72). New York: Praeger.
Koplowitz, H. (1984). A projection beyond Piaget's formal operational stage: A general systems stage and a unitary stage. In M. Commons, F. Richards, & C. Armon (Eds.),Beyond formal operations: Late adolescent and adult cognitive development (pp. 272–295). New York: Praeger.
Labouvie-Vief, G. (1984). Logic and self regulation from youth to maturity: A model. In M. Commons, F. Richards, & C. Armon (Eds.),Beyond formal operations: Late adolescent and adult cognitive development (pp. 158–179). New York: Praeger.
Laughlin, P. R. (1965). Selection strategies in concept attainment as a function of number of persons and stimulus display.Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70, 323–327.
Laughlin, P. R., & Bitz, D. S. (1975). Individual vs. dyadic performance on a disjunctive task as a function of initial ability level.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 487–496.
Laughlin, P. R., McGlynn, R. P., Anderson, J. A., & Jacobson, E. S. (1968). Concept attainment by individuals vs. cooperative pairs as a function of memory, sex, and concept rule.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 8, 410–417.
Lee, D. M. (1991). Relativistic operations: A framework for conceptualizing teachers' everyday problem solving. In J. Sinnott & J. Cavanaugh (Eds.),Bridging paradigms: Positive development in adulthood and cognitive aging (pp. 73–86). New York: Praeger.
Luszcz, M. A., & Orr, R. L. (1991, April).Constructed knowing and everyday problem solving in adults. Paper presented at the 12th Biennial Lifespan Conference, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV.
Meacham, J., & Emont, N. (1989). The interpersonal basis of everyday problem solving. In J. D. Sinnott (Ed.),Everyday problem solving: Theory and application (pp. 7–23). New York: Praeger.
Miller, J. (1978).Living systems. New York: Basic Books.
Ornstein, R. (1991).The evolution of consciousness. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Pearce, J. C. (1973).The crack in the cosmic egg. New York: Pocket Books.
Perry, W. B. (1975).Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years: A scheme. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Rogers, D., Sinnott, J. D., & Van Dusen, L. (1991, July).Marital adjustment and social cognitive performance in everyday logical problem solving. Paper presented at the Sixth Adult Development Symposium, Boston, MA.
Sinetar, M. (1986).Ordinary people as monks and mystics: Life-styles for self discovery. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.
Sinnott, J. D. (1981). The theory of relativity: A metatheory for development?Human Development, 24, 293–311.
Sinnott, J. D. (1984). Postformal reasoning: The relativistic stage. In M. Commons, F. Richards, & C. Armon (Eds.),Beyond formal operations: Late adolescent and adult cognitive development (pp. 288–315). New York: Praeger.
Sinnott, J. D. (1987). Sex roles in adulthood and old age. In D. Bruce Carter (Ed.).Current conceptions of sex roles and sex typing, (pp. 155–180). New York: Praeger.
Sinnott, J. D. (1988, May).“Noncognitive” processes in problem solving: Are there age differences in use of emotion, personal history, self evaluation and social factors during combinatorial problem solving? Paper presented at the Second Cognitive Aging Conference, Atlanta, GA.
Sinnott, J. D. (Ed.). (1989a). A model for the solution of ill-structured problems: Implication for everyday and abstract problem solving. In J. D. Sinnott (Ed.),Everyday problem solving: Theory and applications (pp. 72–999). New York: Praeger.
Sinnott, J. D. (1989b). Adult differences in use of postformal operations. In M. Commons, J. D. Sinnott, F. Richards, & C. Armon (Eds.),Beyond formal operations II (pp. 239–278). New York: Praeger.
Sinnott, J. D. (Ed.) (1989c).Everyday problem solving: Theory and application. New York: Praeger.
Sinnott, J. D. (1989d). Lifespan relativistic postformal thought: Methods and data from everyday problem solving studies. In M. Commons, J. Sinnott, F. Richards, & C. Armon (Eds.),Adult development: Comparisons and applications of developmental models (pp. 239–278). New York: Praeger.
Sinnott, J. D. (1991a). “Noncognitive” processes in problem solving: Are there age differences in use of emotion, personal history, self evaluation or social factors? In J. D. Sinnott & J. Cavanaugh (Eds.),Bridging paradigms: Positive development in adulthood and cognitive aging (pp. 169–202). New York: Praeger.
Sinnott, J. D. (1991b, July).Scoring protocols for self-referential postformal thought. Workshop presented at the Sixth Adult Development Symposium, Suffolk University, Boston.
Sinnott, J. D. (1991c). What do we do to help John? A case study of postformal problem solving in a family making decisions about an acutely psychotic member. In J. Sinnott & J. Cavanaugh (Eds.),Bridging paradigms: Positive development in adulthood and cognitive aging (pp. 203–220). New York: Praeger.
Sinnott, J. D. (1992). The use of complex thought and solving intragroup conflicts: Means to conscious adult development in the workplace. In J. Demick & P. M. Miller (Eds.),Development in the workplace (pp. 155–175). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Sinnott, J. D. (1993a). Teaching in a chaotic new physics world: Teaching as a dialogue with reality. In P. Kahaney, J. Jananglo, & L. A. M. Perry (Eds.),Teachers and change: Theoretical and practical perspectives (pp. 91–108). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Sinnott, J. D. (1993b).Test of Postformal Thought: Computer version. Available from author, Psychology Department, Towson State University, Baltimore, MD, 21204.
Sinnott, J. D. (1993c). Yes, it's worth the trouble! Unique contributions from everyday cognition studies. In H. Reese & J. Puckett (Eds.),Lifespan developmental psychology: Mechanisms of everyday cognition (pp. 73–94). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Sinnott, J. D. (1994a). The future of adult lifespan learning: Learning institutions face change. In J. Sinnott (Ed.),Interdisciplinary handbook of adult lifespan learning (pp. 449–465). Greenwich, CT: Greenwood.
Sinnott, J. D. (Ed.). (1994b).Interdisciplinary handbook of adult lifespan learning. Greenwich, CT: Greenwood Press.
Sinnott, J. D. (1994c). New science models for teaching adults: Teaching as a dialogue with reality. In J. Sinnott (Ed.),Interdisciplinary handbook of adult lifespan learning (pp. 90–94). Greenwich, CT: Greenwood.
Sinnott, J. D. (1994d). The relationship of postformal thought, adult learning, and lifespan development. In J. Sinnott (Ed.),Interdisciplinary handbook of adult lifespan learning (pp. 105–119). Greenwich, CT: Greenwood.
Sinnott, J. D. (in press). Creativity and postformal thought: Why the last stage is the creative stage. In C. Adams-Price (Ed.),Creativity and aging: Theoretical and empirical approaches. New York: Springer.
Sinnott, J. D., & Cavanaugh, J. (1991). (Eds.),Bridging paradigms: Positive development in adulthood and cognitive aging. New York: Praeger.
Tanon, F. (1991). The influence of formal vs. informal education on planning skills: A cultural perspective. In J. Sinnott & J. Cavanaugh (Eds.),Bridging paradigms: Positive development in adulthood and cognitive aging (pp. 221–236). New York: Praeger.
Tart, C. (1983).State of consciousness. San Rafael, CA: Psychological Processes, Inc.
Underhill, E. (1961).Mysticism. New York: Dutton.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sinnott, J.D. Development and yearning: Cognitive aspects of spiritual development. J Adult Dev 1, 91–99 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02259675
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02259675