Search Results

Modularity and Design Reincarnatio n

H. Clark Barrett

in The Innate Mind: Volume 2: Culture and Cognition

Critics of cognitive modularity typically attack a biologically implausible concept of modules as rigidly innate, invariant from individual to individual, and immune to individual developmental ... More

Critics of cognitive modularity typically attack a biologically implausible concept of modules as rigidly innate, invariant from individual to individual, and immune to individual developmental context. Virtually all biological structures are modular at some level, and developmental variation and flexibility are common features of modular development, not at odds with it. This chapter suggests that a plausible account of cognitive modularity should view modules as phenotypic structures shaped by developmental programs that can use locally contingent information in adaptive ways in building those structures. Evolved developmental systems construct unique tokens of evolved module types anew in every individual, each generation. A framework is presented for conceptualizing the functional properties of these developmental systems.Less

Developmental Systems Theory and the Scaffolding of Language

Robert D. Rupert

in Cognitive Systems and the Extended Mind

This chapter examines two kinds of argument for the extended view: arguments from nontrivial causal spread and arguments from transformational power. The first emphasizes the causal contributions of ... More

This chapter examines two kinds of argument for the extended view: arguments from nontrivial causal spread and arguments from transformational power. The first emphasizes the causal contributions of external resources, and the second their power to transform human cognitive capacities. These general styles of argument are briefly criticized, then addressed at length in specific forms. An argument from developmental systems theory in evolutionary biology illustrates reasoning based on nontrivial causal spread. The cognition-enhancing effects of natural language ground an example of the argument from transformational power. The former style of argument is criticized for its indiscriminate appeal to causal contributors. The latter form of reasoning applies most obviously to historical influences; given that nonextended views naturally accommodate historical forces, it is argued that such observations provide little distinctive support for the extended conclusion.Less

Bringing Down the Curtain

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, Marion Kloep, Leo B. Hendry, and Jennifer L. Tanner

in Debating Emerging Adulthood: Stage or Process?

In this last chapter, all four authors independently comment on how, if at all, it might be possible to reconcile the different standpoints of stage and ecological theory. Arnett argues for “one ... More

In this last chapter, all four authors independently comment on how, if at all, it might be possible to reconcile the different standpoints of stage and ecological theory. Arnett argues for “one stage, many paths.” That is, emerging adulthood is experienced by most young people in industrialized countries, but the specific path they take varies widely by country, culture, social class, ethnicity, and gender. Kloep views Arnett’s concept of emerging adulthood not as a theory, but merely an observation that the behavior of young people under certain circumstances has changed compared to earlier generations. However, it might be an important step towards creating a more radical change; namely, abolishing stage theories altogether! Tanner emphasized the value of integrating stage and systems perspectives in understanding development, including emerging adult development. Hendry engages in a fictitious game of tennis in order to demonstrate the weaknesses (and more positive elements) in Arnett and Tanner’s arguments. The pathways to adult status, he argues, are more varied and complex than can be described by an essentially descriptive model. Only by linking with a multi-level, ecological theory could the nuances of different trajectories to adulthood be truly understood.Less

Developmental and Life-Course Models of Crime

David M. Day and Margit Wiesner

in Criminal Trajectories: A Developmental Perspective

This chapter provides an overview of theoretical process models for the explanation of crime in developmental context. It introduces key propositions from leading developmental and life-course ... More

This chapter provides an overview of theoretical process models for the explanation of crime in developmental context. It introduces key propositions from leading developmental and life-course theories of offending, including the dual taxonomy of antisocial behavior, coercion theory, interactional theory, and age-graded theory of informal social control, and stresses the need for further elaboration of the role of human agency in criminal trajectories across the life span. The chapter also describes the core tenets of the relational developmental systems framework, which serves as a major metamodel that undergirds contemporary developmental science. It is argued that developmental science theories of intentional self-regulation across the life span hold great promise to enrich criminological theorizing on human agency.Less

Integrative Approaches

Helen E. Longino

in Studying Human Behavior: How Scientists Investigate Aggression and Sexuality

This chapter discusses integrative approaches to studying human behavior, covering methods, scope, and assumptions. These approaches take understanding the multiplicity of factors and their ... More

This chapter discusses integrative approaches to studying human behavior, covering methods, scope, and assumptions. These approaches take understanding the multiplicity of factors and their interaction as the focus of their research. Among these are developmental systems theory, the GxExN integration approach, multifactorial path analysis.Less

Contexts of Development

Luis H. Zayas

in Latinas Attempting Suicide: When Cultures, Families, and Daughters Collide

Chapter Three sets the context for understanding how humans development and how families function. It is intended to provide the reader with a backdrop for understanding the discussion in subsequent ... More

Chapter Three sets the context for understanding how humans development and how families function. It is intended to provide the reader with a backdrop for understanding the discussion in subsequent chapters of the theoretical basis of the book and its analysis of suicide attempts. The core precepts of developmental systems theory, cultural psychology, and family systems and structural theory are presented. Then they are yoked in order to deepen the understanding of the adolescent Latina and her family. Chapter incorporates case studies of both suicidal and non-suicidal girls and their families to further illustrate the meanings of these theories to U.S. Latinos.Less

Genomic insights into life history evolution

Derek A. Roff

in Mechanisms of Life History Evolution: The Genetics and Physiology of Life History Traits and Trade-Offs

This chapter addresses two issues in which molecular analyses are important for our understanding of life history evolution. First, information on the genomic regulation of trade-offs – a central ... More

This chapter addresses two issues in which molecular analyses are important for our understanding of life history evolution. First, information on the genomic regulation of trade-offs – a central assumption of life history theory and evolutionary theory in general – promises to facilitate the production of mechanistic models of trade-offs, which may contribute to the development of theories that combine quantitative genetic and mechanistic approaches. Second, genomic analyses can address the question of the extent to which evolutionary trajectories are deterministic versus stochastic (the ‘skinning the cat problem’). In this regard, the chapter presents an experimental framework within which to investigate this problem.Less

William Blake and the Time of Ontogeny

Amanda Jo Goldstein

in Systems of Life: Biopolitics, Economics, and Literature on the Cusp of Modernity

Romantic biology and aesthetics are frequently said to converge in the ideal of “organic form”: the organism, or the artwork, as “organized and self-organizing” cause and effect of itself. ... More

Romantic biology and aesthetics are frequently said to converge in the ideal of “organic form”: the organism, or the artwork, as “organized and self-organizing” cause and effect of itself. Reconstructing the foundational, early modern, bio-philosophical controversy between epigenesis and preformation through the lens of William Blake’s graphic poems, however, this chapter argues that epigenesis was not synonymous with Kantian organicism or the vitalist insistence on the ontologically exceptional status of the living. Instead, Blake joins contemporary zoologists Erasmus Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in casting epigenesis as a work of acute historical and circumstantial dependency, rather than of autotelic power. Here living bodies are those that tend, for better or worse, to make an organ of experience, their morphologies presenting compound archives of interactions with their physical and social milieu. It is this sense of “epigenesis,” which eludes the stale alternative between autonomy and determination, that is making a selective return in the “epigenetic” research that has transformed evolutionary, ecological, and developmental biology since the millennium.Less

The Reproduction of the Social: A Developmental System Approach

Iddo Tavory, Simona Ginsburg, and Eva Jablonka

in Developing Scaffolds in Evolution, Culture, and Cognition

We present a developmental system theory (DST) approach to social-cultural evolution, which emphasizes how self-sustaining feedback interactions lead to the persistence of a social world over time. ... More

We present a developmental system theory (DST) approach to social-cultural evolution, which emphasizes how self-sustaining feedback interactions lead to the persistence of a social world over time. We suggest that a landscape metaphor, based on Conrad Waddington’s epigenetic landscape model, can capture some important features of such social reproduction. To flesh out the approach, we analyse an example of such a social system—the persistence of an orthodox Jewish community in a Los Angeles neighbourhood, which is thriving in the midst of a secular space in the modern city. We argue that understanding the dynamics of social reproduction provides analytic leverage for understanding how departures from a particular reproduction dynamics occur, and how cultural dynamics can be understood.Less

Development

H. Clark Barrett

in The Shape of Thought: How Mental Adaptations Evolve

This chapter lays out a framework for understanding the evolution of developmental systems. It presents the biological concept of a reaction norm, a mapping between developmental circumstances and ... More

This chapter lays out a framework for understanding the evolution of developmental systems. It presents the biological concept of a reaction norm, a mapping between developmental circumstances and phenotypic outcomes, and suggests that this concept, suitably broadened, can capture the development of all mental phenotypes, bridging the nature/nurture divide.Less

Introduction

John Dupré

in Processes of Life: Essays in the Philosophy of Biology

This introduction introduces the central themes that run through the following chapters, and provides a brief summary of the main theses defended in the chapters.

Sleep Environments of  Young Children in Post-Industrial Societies

Melissa M. Burnham and Erika and E. Gaylor

in Sleep and Development: Familial and Socio-Cultural Considerations

This chapter delineates the sleep environments found in industrialized nations using the Developmental Systems Theory (DST) as a framework for understanding their variability. It discusses the ... More

This chapter delineates the sleep environments found in industrialized nations using the Developmental Systems Theory (DST) as a framework for understanding their variability. It discusses the environments of both nighttime and daytime sleep, focusing on infants and young children. It argues that sleep environments cannot be understood as unitary constructs, but rather only by examining the characteristics of individuals who choose them and the society, community, and culture within which those individuals are embedded.Less

What is the Theory of Evolution?

John Dupré

in Darwin’s Legacy: What Evolution Means Today

This chapter examines evolution theory as a general proposition but not so much as a scientific theory. How the evolutionary thought started can be explained by the simple fact that life on Earth ... More

This chapter examines evolution theory as a general proposition but not so much as a scientific theory. How the evolutionary thought started can be explained by the simple fact that life on Earth evolved and there are scientific explanations that fit with the core claims of evolutionary theory. This chapter distinguishes elements and parts of the theory and poses the more serious problem of defining the evolution theory. The core to the theory of evolution is a simple fact but evolutionary biology is another field of study with many theories. There are central ideas to the controversy of the pace of evolution and natural selection, which is the subject of a continuing debate on evolution.Less

Heredity and Evolutionary Theory

Tobias Uller and Heikki Helanterä

in Challenging the Modern Synthesis: Adaptation, Development, and Inheritance

Heredity is a central concept in biology and one of the core principles needed for adaptive evolution. For most of the past 100 years, heredity has been defined and conceptualized in terms of ... More

Heredity is a central concept in biology and one of the core principles needed for adaptive evolution. For most of the past 100 years, heredity has been defined and conceptualized in terms of transmission of genes. This is heuristically useful but imposes a certain structure on evolutionary theory and leaves out aspects of heredity that may be important to understand evolution. Emerging developmental perspectives on evolution suggests that alternative ways to represent heredity may prove useful. To this end, this chapter explains how evolutionary biologists treat heredity, conceptually and mathematically. It argues that treating heredity as an outcome of developmental processes not only makes it clearer how different mechanisms of inheritance contribute to evolution but also shows that inheritance cannot be treated as a static channel of transmission of information because it evolves as part of the process of adaptation.Less

A Postgenomic View

Peter Harries-Jones

in Upside-Down Gods

The embodiment of difference in patterns of relationship between the organism and its environment is the means through which living forms create their own organization. Morphogenesis, like other ... More

The embodiment of difference in patterns of relationship between the organism and its environment is the means through which living forms create their own organization. Morphogenesis, like other developmental processes, is self-organizing and its study demonstrates how the whole enters into the parts of the whole and why its own general rules and properties bump against molecular biology’s genetic determinism. Bateson follows Developmental Systems Theory, supporting its view that genes do not control that and neither DNA, nor the cell are sole contributors to complex differentiation, for both develop within a higher context. Recursions are probably the only way a truly complex (organic system) can be created—through an exponential geometry of information (K. S. Thompson)—while timing is of particular interest as it links developmental processes to evolution and also to ecosystem development. In the recycling process, biota respond not only to the immediate presence of mineral nutrients, but also to the context of their timing and frequency of particular entries into the recycling process and by developing sensitivity to frequency of return time ‘stacks’ the order of events in an ecological system (Allen and Hoekstra). The heterarchical stacking is best depicted in bagel-like toruses (D. H. McNeil).Less