ABSTRACT
A long-standing ambition within the cognitive-developmental approach has been to extend the theory and transform it into a general theory of psychological functioning or, at least, into a general developmental theory. Thus, the principles formulated by Baldwin, Piaget, Werner, and other pioneers about the development of logic and of symbolic conceptual competencies have been applied to social understanding, including understanding of defense mechanisms, moral reasoning, the development of self-concepts and of the self. In this attempt, a persistent and almost intractable obstacle was represented by the emotional and motivational components of human functioning. The most successful extensions always concerned understanding, concepts, and reasoning. At times, affective processes seemed to be quite close, almost within our reach, but, in the end, they regularly eluded our grasp.
