
Disciplines wax and wane often for incidental reasons. Three examples: statistics, human vision research, adult developmental psychology… 
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Theory and evidence suggested that some adults have qualitatively different, and superior, cognitive capacities to others. Tremendous potential if these could be trained (as I think they can, and hope to help show how).Show this thread -

Evidence was that these capacities are unevenly distributed demographically. This could be taken as reason to find ways to enhance cognitive development in disadvantaged groups. Instead, I suspect it was too politically hot, and everyone exited the field. 3︎⃣Show this thread
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Who besides Kegan are the key names in this literature?
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He and his several doctoral students were almost the last in the field. Kohlberg (on moral cognition) was huge; he committed suicide in 1987. Major figures in adult emotional development included Erikson and Loevinger e.g. Cognitivists include Basseches and Michael Commons e.g.
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Which were the late 80s studies that were never published? What were the key questions never answered? Demetriou just had a major book out - decades of developmental research. The Baxter Magolda + Mentkowski + King/Kitchener longitudinal studies all have bks/articles. Dawson...
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Thanks for the pointers! I will follow up on this when I get a chance. My literature review may have missed important stuff!
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By adult developmental psychology, do you mean work in the tradition of Kegan? As otherwise I wouldn't say the characterisation fits. Lots of growth in this area - for example, work on adolescence and aging (very fundable these days).
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An alternative take: lack of growth in the Keganian tradition because some interesting questions, but weak and difficult/expensive methods, weak theories, and weak results. Fashions occur but in the long run good theories live on and bad ones die out.
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Human vision research appears to have ended around 1990 (based on a recent two-day-long literature search). That’s when I finished my PhD and stopped following the field.
What happened? There were exciting open questions, and good methods for addressing them.