Values and Knowledge

It is widely recognized that a person’s values will profoundly affect what that person attends to, thinks about, and remembers. Yet, despite this, psychologists have only begun to study and think about the deep connections between values and knowledge.

This volume explores this important area in psychology by offering an overview of what is known about the developmental role of valuation in the acquisition of knowledge, and also by examining a range of new ideas for understanding the intricate connection between evaluation and thinking. More specifically, the text:

• provides a historical overview of philosophical and psychological theories relating the values and knowledge;
• reviews the importance of values for infants and their caretakers in the origins of both cognition and social relations;
• offers a provocative view of how the differences among families in their values may have profound affects on psychological development;
• explicates the development of a personal sphere within which one strives to shape one’s own values;
• emphasizes the heterogeneity of valuation inherent in every culture and how conflicts of values are likely to be common and important to human development;
• presents eye-opening research on social-cognitive limitations of average people in respecting the points of view of others; and
• summarizes and critiques Piaget’s theory of the role of values in development.

For practitioners in the fields of developmental and social psychology, and education, this volume will introduce a number of important and current issues, from multiculturality and gender to the differential roles of temperament and upbringing in development. The emphasis is placed squarely on developing individuals and how they shape themselves in a world that is structured by values as well as by facts.