Search Results

Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks and Past Research

Peter J. Pecora, Ronald C. Kessler, Jason Williams, A. Chris Downs, Diana J. English, James White, and Kirk O'Brien

in What Works in Foster Care?: Key Components of Success From the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study

To understand the context and environment of the alumni while in foster care and their influence on adult outcomes, this chapter is divided into four sections. The first section deals with foster ... More

To understand the context and environment of the alumni while in foster care and their influence on adult outcomes, this chapter is divided into four sections. The first section deals with foster care research. Prior research informing this study's research questions and hypotheses is discussed. This section begins by presenting findings on the impact of child maltreatment on later development. The next section looks at Landsverk's conceptual framework. This model describing critical factors impacting youth development in foster care is presented. The third section examines developmental theories and conceptual models. Theories and conceptual models explaining child growth and development and informing the Northwest Alumni Study are discussed. The last section looks at esearch questions and hypotheses. This chapter concludes by presenting the primary and secondary research questions and hypotheses.Less

Moving toward a Unified Theory While Valuing the Importance of the Initial Conditions

John P. Spencer, Evelina Dineva, and Gregor Schöner

in Toward a Unified Theory of Development Connectionism and Dynamic System Theory Re-Consider

This chapter seeks to articulate and clarify cases of perceived differences between dynamical systems theory (DST) and the connectionist (CN) approaches that are not real, as well as cases of ... More

This chapter seeks to articulate and clarify cases of perceived differences between dynamical systems theory (DST) and the connectionist (CN) approaches that are not real, as well as cases of perceived differences that are real. It discusses the implications of efforts to integrate the two approaches for developmental science more generally. Clarifying similarities/differences between approaches offers far more that just technical clarity for co-called modeler types; it offers a vision of a new, integrative, developmental theory.Less

Early Childhood: Child Development and Maltreatment

Maria Scannapieco and Kelli Connell-Carrick

in Understanding Child Maltreatment: An Ecological and Developmental Perspective

This chapter discusses healthy child development according to major developmental theories. This is presented across psychosocial, social, cognitive, and physical domains, with an emphasis on brain ... More

This chapter discusses healthy child development according to major developmental theories. This is presented across psychosocial, social, cognitive, and physical domains, with an emphasis on brain development. Developmental manifestations and consequences of child maltreatment for children 3 to 6 years of age are presented.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

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

Rejoinder to Chapters 2 and 3: Critical Comments on Arnett’s and Tanner’s Approach

Marion Kloep and Leo B. Hendry

in Debating Emerging Adulthood: Stage or Process?

This chapter critically examines elements of Arnett’s “theory”. As has been demonstrated the concept of emerging adulthood is not relevant for many young people globally. Even in Western societies, ... More

This chapter critically examines elements of Arnett’s “theory”. As has been demonstrated the concept of emerging adulthood is not relevant for many young people globally. Even in Western societies, simply presenting a concept, which selectively focuses on young people who have a lengthy early adulthood without having to assume adult roles and responsibilities, reduces the numbers for whom this new framework is valid. Many of those with a prolonged moratorium are forced to remain within their parents’ household, having neither access to university education nor to well-paid jobs. They are neither happy nor optimistic of their future and are not archetypes of Arnett’s “emerging adults”. This is equally true for those who have married young and have their own families or for young professionals. The aim of a good theory should be to explain developmental variability instead of trying to explain it away!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

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

Criminological Theory: Past Achievements and Future Challenges

Terence P. Thornberry

in The Future of Criminology

This chapter reviews the state of past monothematic, and current multithematic and multidisciplinary, integrated theories of crime, particularly developmental and life course theories explaining why ... More

This chapter reviews the state of past monothematic, and current multithematic and multidisciplinary, integrated theories of crime, particularly developmental and life course theories explaining why some individuals and not others become serious offenders. It argues that major advances have been made by the measurement of official and self-reported delinquency, and the understanding of the heterogeneity of criminal careers. It recognizes the role of individuals’ decision-making and human agency in offending, and desistance from offending and nonoffending. Future theories will become more encompassing, incorporating biological and economic factors. At the same time, it is desirable to counteract the proliferation of different theories by the creation of a unified theory, which should link the development and explanation of offending with interventions.Less

What Happens during Development?

Catherine Raeff

in Exploring the Dynamics of Human Development: An Integrative Approach

This chapter addresses the issue of what happens during development by defining development from the perspective of organismic-developmental theory. The chapter begins by summarizing the common ... More

This chapter addresses the issue of what happens during development by defining development from the perspective of organismic-developmental theory. The chapter begins by summarizing the common practice of defining development in terms of age-based change and change over time. It is argued that not all changes over time are necessarily developmental changes and that analyzing development in terms of age-based milestones obfuscates cultural variability as well as ongoing developmental processes. Therefore, more specific criteria for developmental change and for analyzing dynamic developmental processes are required. The organismic-developmental conceptualization of development in terms of increasing differentiation and integration in relation to cultural goals of development is explained. This conceptualization permits analysis of ongoing developmental processes and of interindividual and intraindividual variability in development. To illustrate the processes of differentiation and integration, the development of object permanence and life span self/identity development are analyzed from an organismic-developmental perspective.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

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

Histories Natural and Unnatural: The Documentary Hypothesis and Other Developmental Theories

Steven Weitzman

in The Origin of the Jews: The Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age

This chapter examines nineteenth-century developmental theories that explain the origin of the Jews, including the Documentary Hypothesis formulated by biblical scholar Julius Wellhausen (1844–1918). ... More

This chapter examines nineteenth-century developmental theories that explain the origin of the Jews, including the Documentary Hypothesis formulated by biblical scholar Julius Wellhausen (1844–1918). It considers Wellhausen's use of source criticism to demonstrate the developmental process that transformed the Israelites into the Jews, resulting in a kind of evolutionary account of Jewish origins that spanned several hundred years. It also situates Wellhausen's theory within later developmental theories, such as Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, to better understand what exactly he was arguing about the origin of the Jews. Finally, it discusses Wellhausen's claim that Judaism began in the postexilic/Persian period.Less

Developmental Processes

Catherine Raeff

in Exploring the Complexities of Human Action

Based on the conceptual claim that action develops and that the psychological processes that comprise action develop, the goal of this chapter is to conceptualize what happens during the development ... More

Based on the conceptual claim that action develops and that the psychological processes that comprise action develop, the goal of this chapter is to conceptualize what happens during the development of action and how action develops. Organismic-developmental theory is used to explain what happens during action development in terms of differentiation and integration, and in terms of progress toward cultural goals of development. Sociocultural theory is used to explain how action develops as individuals participate with others in cultural practices. The chapter further considers how action develops through individual, social, cultural, bodily, and environmental processes. The chapter ends with a discussion of how development is relevant to all of psychology and need not be treated as a fragmented subfield or area of specialization.Less

Morality, Development, and Culture

Melanie Killen, Aline Hitti, Shelby Cooley, and Laura Elenbaas

in Handbook of Advances in Culture and Psychology, Volume 5

Morality and cultural identity emerge during human development in complex ways. We describe the theories and findings that focus on social exclusion and inclusion, social inequalities such as ... More

Morality and cultural identity emerge during human development in complex ways. We describe the theories and findings that focus on social exclusion and inclusion, social inequalities such as resource allocation inequalities, and intercultural contexts that both bear on and contribute to morality and moral development. This research reveals that individuals view morality as pertaining to fair, just, and equitable interindividual treatment, while cultural identities- reflected in the messages and ideologies conveyed by larger groups to their members -are shared norms constructed by individuals to organize social groups. Findings also show that applying morality to intergroup contexts involves unique challenges not always present in intragroup situations. Biases and stereotypical expectations emerging during early development often pose obstacles to children negotiating complex moral contexts. These challenges have been investigated from a social cognitive developmental perspective, charting the contexts in which children confront such situations. The application of morality to everyday social encounters is also considered.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.