LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY thornewilder)

First. A multitutde of thanks, to everyone here. Thanks to the thoughtful dialog, thanks to the research, thanks to the links and thanks for the caring.

This one is for dogemperor.
I bugged my husband all weekend to discuss the types of developmental anomolies he sees exhibited in "suspected dominionist" families. (ie the mom who comes into the exam room with her dogeared bible along with 15,000 red bookmarks....)His standard caveats - as any scientist would have - regarding legitimate research controls apply here. We are talking observations only.

In the Cognitive Development Sequence
0-18 months: sensorineural (making sense of the universe purely through sensation)
rather interesting this is the time chosen to start caning, ie "let's teach our children the universe is inately hostile..."

18 months to 5/6 yrs: preoperational thinking (this includes precausal and magical) as the beginning of cause & effect however the percieved cause & effect are frequently inaccurate)Example:Rain is when angels cry.

7+ : Concrete Operational; definite beginning of cause & effect that includes the beginning of recognizing and organizing facts. (memorizing lists, tables, collecting items, sorting...)

13/14 and up: Formal Operational (developing the ability to compare and contrast, project into the future with relative degrees of accuracy)

In the families he suspects of strong dominionist associations he sees a potentially significant penchant for children to stay in the realm of preoperational thinking long beyond the developmental milestones would have suggested they ought to move on. Many times if they are pressed or presented with a challenge to thier thinking ("This idea can't be because Jesus wouldn't want it to be so"), they then revert to sensorineural behavior...ie rocking, staring into space or such.

This suggests a potential effect of dominionist households may be the arrested development of cognitive skills, or inordinate dwelling at a developmental level you ought to have graduated from. Formal operational thought is discouraged.

Does this result in adults without the sustainded ability for consistent mature formal operational thought? (highly manipulatable)