Cognition and the Function of Nationalism

Abstract

or formal thought structure. He learns at this point that words I7 Deutsch suggests four purposes the individual pursues through the process of reality testing here outlined: immediate satisfaction, self-preservation, preservation of the group, and preservation of process. These purposes require increasingly complex networks for solution and come within the capacities of the child only as his cognitive development proceeds to the adult level (Nerves of Government, 92-94). The question of whether it is necessary to impute purposes to understand behavior is heatedly debated among personologists. I8 The most authoritative and comprehensive summary of Piaget's work is John H. Flavell, The Developmental Psychology ofJean Piaget (Princeton, I963). The best summary of Piaget's stages is Barbel Inhelder, Some Aspects of Piaget's Genetic Approach to Cognition, in William Kessen and Clementina Kuhlman (eds.), Thought in the Young Child (New Haven, 1962), 19-28. Briefer studies include Hans Furth, Piaget and Knowledge (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1969); Herbert Ginsburg and Sylvia Opper, Piaget's Theory of Intellectual Development (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., I969); David Elkind, Children and Adolescents: Interpretive Essays on Jean Piaget (New York, I970). This content downloaded from 157.55.39.92 on Wed, 22 Jun 2016 07:07:18 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms