Development of Adult Thinking is a timely synthesis and evaluation of the current knowledge and emerging issues relating to adult cognitive development and learning.

Focusing on psychological and educational cutting-edge research as well as giving an overview of the key theorists such as Piaget and Kohlberg, Kallio and the team of expert contributors offer a holistic view on the development of adult thinking, representing perspectives from developmental, moral, and social psychology, as well as education and philosophy. These topics are divided into three sections: Adult cognitive and moral development, Perspectives of adult learning, and Open questions and new approaches, offering introduction, analysis, and directions for future research.

This text is essential reading for students and researchers in developmental psychology and related courses as well as adult educators and teachers working in adult education.

About the Author

Eeva K. Kallio, PhD, is Adjunct Professor at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. She is the leader of the Wisdom and Learning research team and founding member and Honorary President of the European Society for Research in Adult Development (ESRAD).

Reviews

"Finland is a leading country in the academic fields of adult development and adult learning. This excellent volume brings together a range of Finnish contributors on cutting-edge adult cognitive development and learning topics, and I'm certain it will be of great interest to the English-speaking research community."

Oliver Robinson, University of Greenwich, London, UK, President of the European Society for Research in Adult Development

"This book remains one of the benchmark introductions to adult cognitive development and learning. Dr. Kallio has done remarkable job of editing this work, maintaining a philosophical tone throughout with connections to current wisdom research implicitly and explicitly. The authors offer fundamental information on the major theories and models, but also critical insights for pondering basic concepts further. I recommend this as an introductory book both for students and professionals. Well and fluently written and researched, it provides a multiperspective - and integrative - approach that ties together different traditions that illuminate the same phenomenon: adult change and transformation."

Judith Stevens-Long, Professor, Human Development, Fielding University, USA

"This book is a must-read for everyone working with adult development - as practitioners or as researchers! Presenting and discussing perspectives from psychology, education, and human resources, Development of Adult Thinking edited by Eeva K. Kallio, gives well worked out introductions to concepts, theories, and models of adult learning. The anthology will be pivotal not only to the field of adult psychology, but across higher education, including the vast field of teacher education."

Guro Hansen Helskog, Associate Professor, University of South-Eastern Norway

"Organisms, human and otherwise, are composed of multiple component systems. However, humans do not act as assemblies of independent parts - humans are integrated beings. Any slice of action necessarily involves some type of integration of all the psychological subsystems that make up the human organism. It is difficult, of course, to study the human action and experience as an integrated whole. The contributors to this volume show how human thinking operates as an integrated process and develops toward increasingly integrated outcomes. Over time, thinking that brings knowledge and practical problem-solving together with social and ethical understanding moves in the direction of wisdom. This book points to the types of thinking that we need to cultivate in order to address this lack."

Michael F. Mascolo, Professor, Academic Director, Merrimack College, USA

"In 1984, Beyond Formal Operations, the first book to focus on development beyond Piaget's formal operational period, was published. Since then, the field of Positive Adult Development has greatly expanded. From the original Society for Research in Adult Development (USA), there arose a European Society for Research in Adult Development. Eeva K. Kallio was one of the founders of that Society, and has been one of the most important contributors to both the ESRAD, and to research on a wide variety of aspects of Adult Development. This edited volume, whose contributions represent the work of a large number of Finnish researchers, is an example of the resulting expansion of ideas about adult development that has taken place. It shows well how many different aspects of adulthood can be studied from a developmental point of view."

Michael L. Commons, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, USA, founding member of the Society for Research in Adult Development

"The authors of the ten articles in this book plow through a range of phenomena in a deep, clear, exciting way... The book emphasises the importance of learning to examine the foundations of one's own thinking. Analyses of the ethical foundations of thought can be of enormous utility and social significance. The book helps to understand religions, ideologies, bubbles and to prevent hostility that degrades others. The consequence of advanced thinking can be a reduction in sharp confrontations and hostility. Ancient philosophers thought that the possibility of happiness was non-existent without the development of thinking! This book offers useful, enjoyable and surprising information for researchers and professionals in human resources, psychotherapy, social work and other human sciences, from media to economics and law."

Rauno Juntumaa, Psykologia-journal - scientific journal of Finnish Psychological Society

(Psychology, 2021, 3, pp. 349-351)

"Development of adult thinking is a wonderful example of integrative thinking in action. It presents different theories and viewpoints from multiple areas of research. It aims to form a synthesis where these different perspectives can fuse and integrate to create a more holistic view of development, learning and wisdom. I recommend this edition to everyone interested in development of human thinking and learning. It is an important handbook for every scholar and student studying these phenomena."

Heikki Jyvasjarvi, Integral Review (Vol. 17 No. 1 December 2021)

Book Information
ISBN 9781138733596
Author Eeva K. Kallio
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 362g