iRWesilience in Cognitive Development

Each scientific discipline, during successive eras in its growth, is loyal to one member of a set of opposed assumptions that typically form the axioms of the discipline. Holton (1973) has called these polarized premises themata. Debate over whether matter is particulate or wavelike, whether the universe is steady-state or expanding, or whether growth is continuous or discontinuous are among the themes that scientists have debated in the past and will continue to discuss in the, future because, as Bohr wisely noted, the propositions are likely to be complementary rather than incompatible. This paper considers the evidence bearing on a pair of opposed themata that have given direction to the empirical study of human psychological development. One proposition holds that the experiences of infancy produce a set of dispositions that have a continuous influence throughout life, implying that some of the effects of early experience are not malleable to change. The opposed position is