Andreas Demetriou

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Developmental Psychology: Cognitive development · Development of the self · Emotional development · Language development · Moral development · Perceptual development · Personality development · Psychosocial development · Social development · Developmental measures

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Andreas Demetriou (born Andreas Panteli Demetriou on August 15, 1950) (Greek: Ανδρέας Δημητρίου) is a well known Greek Cypriot developmental psychologist and currently the [Minister of Education and Culture of Cyprus.

Life

He was born in Strongylo, Famagusta, Cyprus, on 15 August 1950. He is married to Julia Tsakalea and he has two sons, Pantelis and Demetris. After graduating from Pancyprium Gymnasium, the oldest secondary school in Cyprus, he went to Thessaloniki, Greece, where he studied psychology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He received a PhD in psychology in 1983. He was a professor of Developmental Psychology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki until 1996. He then moved to the University of Cyprus, where he is still a professor of psychology.

Research

His research focuses on cognitive development. From the very beginning he attempted to develop a comprehensive theory of cognitive development aiming to integrate the empirically valid aspects of Piaget´s theory with psychometric and cognitive theory. That is, the theory aimed to describe and explain intellectual development through the life span, individual differences in the rate and directions of intellectual development, and the cognitive mechanisms underlying development and individual differences. According to this theory, the human mind is organized in three functional levels.

• The first is the level of processing potentials, which involves information processing mechanisms underlying the ability to attend to, select, represent, and operate on information.The other two of levels involve knowing processes, one oriented to the environment and another oriented to the self.
• The level oriented to the environment includes thought processes and functions that specialize in the representation and processing of information coming from different domains of the environment. Six domains are specified: Categorical, quantitative, causal, spatial, propositional, and social thought.
• The self-oriented level includes functions and processes oriented to monitoring, representing, and regulating processing potentials and the environment-oriented systems. It underlies executive control and planning and it generates self-perceptions that converge on a self-image that shape how we view and avail ourselves to problem solving and social interactions.

More recently, he has studied the relations between intellectual development and personality development and also the relations between intellectual development and brain development. He is also interested in the educational applications of his theory. This theory is presented in more than 150 books and articles, such as (1) The Architecture and Dynamics of Developing Mind, , (2) The Development of Mental Processing , and (3) Unity and Modularity in the Mind and the Self. The journals New Ideas in Psychology Developmental Review, and Developmental Science devoted special issues in the discussion of aspects of his theory.

Present

At present, as a Minister of Education and Culture since March 2008, he is leading a large program of reforms in Cypriot education which includes the development of new curricula across all subjects and grades from preschool to senior high school and the expansion of the university system of the country. He is also trying to elevate Cypriot universities into regional centers of excellence and cooperation. Moreover, he is leading the reform of the system of cultural governance that aims to bring the people of culture in the decision making mechanisms of the country.

List of achievements

Appointments

• 1975-1996: He taught psychology from all ranks at the Department of Psychology and Education and then the School of Psychology, Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki.
• 1992-1994: Chairman of the School of Psychology, Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki.
• 1996-  : Professor of Psychology, University of Cyprus.
• 1996-1998: Chairman of the Department of Educational Sciences, University of Cyprus.
• 1999- 2002: Vice-Rector and Acting Rector of the University of Cyprus.
• 2003-2004: Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Cyprus.
• 2004-2006: Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Sciences of Education, University of Cyprus.
• 2004-2008: Founding President of the Interim Governing Board of the Cyprus University of Technology.
• 2006-2008: President of the Conference of Rectors of Cyprus Universities.
• 2008-  : Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus.

Honors

• 2001 Distinguished Visiting Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Fribourg, Switzerland, November.
• 2004 Fellow of the International Academy of Education.
• 2009 Honorary Visiting Professor of the Northeastern Normal University, China.

List of major works

• Adey, P., Csapo, B., Demetriou, A., Hautamaki, J., & Shayer, M. (2007). Can we be intelligent about intelligence? Why education needs the concept of plastic general ability. Educational Research Review, 2, 75-97.
• Demetriou, A. (Ed.), (1988). The neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development: Toward an integration. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
• Demetriou, A., (2000). Organization and development of self-understanding and self-regulation: Toward a general theory. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 209-251). Academic Press.
• Demetriou, A., & Bakracevic, K. (2009). Cognitive development from adolescence to middle age: From environment-oriented reasoning to social understanding and self-awareness. Learning and Individual Differences, 19, 181-194.
• Demetriou, A., Christou, C., Spanoudis, G., & Platsidou, M. (2002). The development of mental processing: Efficiency, working memory, and thinking. Monographs of the Society of Research in Child Development, 67, Serial Number 268.
• Demetriou A., & Efklides, A. (1989). The person's conception of the structures of developing intellect: Early adolescence to middle age. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 115, 371-423.
• Demetriou A., & A. Efklides (1994). (Eds.), Mind, intelligence, and reasoning: Structure and development. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
• Demetriou, A., Efklides, A., & Platsidou, M. (1993). The architecture and dynamics of developing mind: Experiential structuralism as a frame for unifying cognitive developmental theories. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 58 (5, Serial No. 234).
• Demetriou, A., Doise, W., & van Lieashout, C. F. M. (Eds.), (1998). Life-span developmental psychology. London: John Wiley.
• Demetriou, A., & Kazi, S. (2001). Unity and modularity in the mind and the self: Studies on the relationships between self-awareness, personality, and intellectual development from childhood to adolescence. London: Routledge.
• Demetriou, A., & Kazi, S. (2006). Self-awareness in g (with processing efficiency and reasoning). Intelligence, 34, 297-317.
• Demetriou, A., Kazi, S., & Georgiou, S. (1999). The emerging self: The convergence of mind, self, and thinking styles. Developmental Science, 2:4, 387-409 (With commentaries by F. Marton, R. S. Sternberg, C. F. M. van Lieshout, E. C. Hair & W. G. Graziano, and J. Asendorpf).
• Demetriou, A., Kyriakides, L., & Avraamidou, C. (2003). The Missing link in the relations between intelligence and personality. Journal of Research in Personality, 37, 547-581.
• Demetriou, A., & Kyriakides, L., (2006). The functional and developmental organization of cognitive developmental sequences. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 209-242.
• Demetriou, A., Mouyi, A., & Spanoudis, G. (2008). Modeling the structure and development of g. Intelligence, 36, 437-454.
• Demetriou, A., Mouyi, A., & Spanoudis, G. (2010). The development of mental processing. Nesselroade, J. R. (2010). Methods in the study of life-span human development: Issues and answers. In W. F. Overton (Ed.), Biology, cognition and methods across the life-span. Volume 1 of the Handbook of life-span development (pp. 36-55), Editor-in-chief: R. M. Lerner. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
• Demetriou A., & Raftopoulos, A. (1999). Modeling the developing mind: From structure to change. Developmental Review, 19, 319-368 (published with peer commentary by Mark Bickhard).
• Kargopoulos, P., & Demetriou, A. (1998). Logical and psychological partitioning of mind: Depicting the same picture? New Ideas in Psychology, 16, 61-88 (with commentaries by J. Pascual-Leone, M. Bickhard, P. Engel, and L. Smith).
• Shayer, M., Demetriou, A., & Pervez, M. (1988). The structure and scaling of concrete operational thought: Three studies in four countries. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 114, 307-376.

External links

• Ministry of education and culture of Cyprus
• Curriculum Vitae of Andreas Demetriou (Minister of Education and Culture of Cyprus)