Applied Developmental Systems Science

by Skinner, Kindermann, & Roeser

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This textbook provides a toolbox, a guidebook, and an instruction manual for researchers and interventionists who want to conceptualize and study applied problems from a developmental systems perspective. It is designed to be useful to practitioners who focus on applied developmental problems, such as improving the important developmental contexts where people live, learn, and work, including the applied professions in education, social work, counseling, health care, and community development.

Description from LibreTexts.

Publisher
Portland State University
Subjects
Social Sciences, Psychology
Licence
CC BY-NC, as LibreTexts states it. Non-commercial use only.
Who can read
Teens profiles and older, judged from its title and subjects

Contents

LibreTexts writes equations in TeX, and here they show as TeX; the PDF has them typeset.

  1. Front Matter
  2. TitlePage
  3. InfoPage
  4. Table of Contents
  5. Licensing
  6. 1: Introduction
  7. 1.1: Introduction
  8. 1.2: What is the purpose of the textbook and the course?
  9. 1.3: How are the course and the guidebook organized?
  10. 1.4: How should the book be used?
  11. 1.5: What should students be getting out of the course and book?
  12. 1.6: What should instructors be getting out of the course and book?
  13. 1.7: Why are all the sections headed by questions?
  14. 1.8: References
  15. 2: Developmental Equivalence- Sampling and Selection
  16. 2.1: What is the general idea of “developmental equivalence”?
  17. 2.2: What does it mean to describe human development?
  18. 2.3: What does it mean to describe qualitative changes in development?
  19. 2.4: How can the description of stability be part of the goals of developmental science?
  20. 2.5: How is the explanation of development different from its description?
  21. 2.6: Why do developmentalists need to explain stability?
  22. 2.7: What is meant by explanations of differential patterns of stability and change?
  23. 2.8: How does optimization of human development differ from explanation?
  24. 2.9: Conclusion
  25. 3: Developmental Equivalence- Measurement and “Developmentally-friendly” Conceptualizations
  26. 3.1: What is developmental measurement equivalence?
  27. 3.2: Before we get into the details, could we think about another developmental example?
  28. 3.3: Why isn't there a bigger bruhaha about this problem in the developmental literature?
  29. 3.4: What would a relational organismic-contextualist systems-thinking type researcher do to deal with the problem of developmental measurement equivalence ?
  30. 3.5: How did attachment researchers blow up that developmental balloon so successfully?
  31. 3.6: All these strategies seem to imply that with development, some things are changing and some are staying the same. Is that right?
  32. 3.7: It doesn’t seem like you are solving the problem of developmental measurement equivalence. Are we missing something?
  33. 4: Experimental Designs- Lab and Field
  34. 4.1: Study of Development- Explanation- Experimental Designs- Lab and Field
  35. 4.2: What makes causality such a difficult issue?
  36. 4.3: Experimental Designs and Research Settings
  37. 5: Naturalistic Designs and Causal Inferences
  38. 5.1: Naturalistic Designs and Causal Inferences
  39. 5.2: Okay, can you break down the reasons that correlations do not prove causation?
  40. 5.3: What is the specific problem that researchers working within relational meta-theories have created?
  41. 5.4: Adding Time to the Design of Naturalistic Studies
  42. 5.5: Use of Time Series Designs for Casual Inference
  43. 5.6: Getting Rid of Developmental Differences and Changes
  44. 6: Proximal Processes and Sequential Observations
  45. 6.1: Proximal Processes and Sequential Observations
  46. 6.2: What are the important conceptual points about proximal processes?
  47. 6.3: How are naturalistic observations connected to our meta-theories?
  48. 6.4: What are the most common types of observational methods?
  49. 6.5: Sequential Observations
  50. 6.6: Design Decisions with Sequential Observations
  51. 7: Individual Time Series- Trajectories and Episodes
  52. 7.1: Individual Time Series- Trajectories and Episodes
  53. 7.2: What are some strategies for collecting and analyzing our bread-and-butter, that is, dense time-ordered data?
  54. 7.3: What are intra-individual time series studies?
  55. 7.4: What are “inter-individual questions"?
  56. 7.5: In what way do relational meta-theories converge on that assumption?
  57. 7.6: Do correlations also differ depending on whether they are inter-individual and intraindividual?
  58. 7.7: Strategies for Charting Individual Trajectories Over Developmental Transitions
  59. 7.8: Strategies for Charting Individual Proximal Processes
  60. 7.9: Is there a take-home message from time series designs?
  61. 8: Person-centered Analysis- Configurations, Lifespaces, and Life-paths
  62. 8.1: Person-centered Analysis- Configurations, Lifespaces, and Life-paths
  63. 8.2: Okay—so what are “variable-centered” analyses?
  64. 8.3: Can you give an example of a variable-centered approach?
  65. 8.4: Are person-centered methodologists operating from a set of larger principles?
  66. 8.5: Person- and Pattern-Centered Methods- Cluster Analyses
  67. 8.6: Pattern- and Person-Centered Approaches To Development
  68. 8.7: Lifeplace Analysis
  69. 8.8: Lifespan Analysis
  70. 9: Development of Contexts
  71. 9.1: Optimization of Development
  72. 9.2: Don't we already have the idea of “changing contexts” incorporated into our meta-models?
  73. 9.3: Models of Contexts That Are Indifferent to Change
  74. 9.4: Models of Context Development
  75. 10: Developing Brains - Experience and Neuroplasticity
  76. 10.1: Introduction
  77. 10.2: Okay, but haven’t we already incorporated the brain as the “bio” in our “bio-psycho-sociocultural” people?
  78. 10.3: What does “plasticity” mean when applied to the brain?
  79. 10.4: Neural Architecture
  80. 10.5: Experience Expectant Development
  81. 10.6: Experience Dependent Development
  82. 10.7: Development, Neuroplasticity, and Interventions
  83. 11: Developing Individuals- Transformation and Branching Cascades
  84. 11.1: Introduction
  85. 11.2: Agency and Individual Transformation
  86. 11.3: Developmental Cascades
  87. 12: Goals of Developmental Science
  88. 12.1: What are the goals of developmental science?
  89. 12.2: Description of Human Development- What does it mean to describe human development?
  90. 12.3: What does it mean to describe qualitative changes in development?
  91. 12.4: How can the description of stability be part of the goals of developmental science?
  92. 12.5: Explanation of Human Development- How is the explanation of development different from its description?
  93. 12.6: Why do developmentalists need to explain stability?
  94. 12.7: What is meant by explanations of differential patterns of stability and change?
  95. 12.8: Optimization of Human Development- How does optimization of human development differ from explanation?
  96. 12.9: Conclusion- How do these three goals of developmental science fit together?
  97. 12.10: References
  98. 13: Converging Operations and Multiple Lines of Sight
  99. 13.1: Converging Operations
  100. 14: Understanding a Theory
  101. 14.1: What are the steps to “understanding a theory”?
  102. 14.2: Why does understanding start with articulating the “theoretical question”?
  103. 14.3: What is meant by “theoretical context”?
  104. 14.4: What are the key constructs of the theory and their definitions?
  105. 14.5: What is the target phenomenon and what is its developmental trajectory?
  106. 14.6: What are the parts of “explanation”?
  107. 14.7: What are the parts of a theory that focus on optimization?
  108. 14.8: What happens next-- “beyond understanding”?
  109. 14.9: Is it really necessary to draw theories?
  110. 15: Contrasting Theories- Attachment
  111. 15.1: What is Ainsworth’s conceptual question and theoretical context?
  112. 15.2: What are Ainsworth’s key constructs and target phenomenon?
  113. 15.3: What are the antecedents, consequences, and mechanisms in Ainsworth’s theory?
  114. 15.4: What are the optimization implications of Ainsworth’s theory of attachment?
  115. 15.5: What are the meta-theoretical assumptions of Ainsworth’s theory of attachment?
  116. 15.6: Why do we need to learn about Gerwitz’s theory of attachment?
  117. 15.7: How do we draw Gewirtz’s theory of attachment?
  118. 15.8: Why are the theories of Bowlby, Gewirtz, and Ainsworth so very different?
  119. 16: Contrasting Theories- Motivation and Learning
  120. 16.1: Motivation
  121. 16.2: Learning
  122. 16.3: Section 3-
  123. 16.4: Section 4-
  124. 16.5: Section 5-
  125. 16.6: Section 6-
  126. 17: Assumptions About Humans and their Development
  127. 17.1: Metaphors and Meta-theories in Human Development
  128. 17.2: What did Reese and Overton think was going on?
  129. 17.3: What is a meta-theory?
  130. 17.4: What kinds of assumptions guide the study of human development?
  131. 17.5: Assumptions About Description
  132. 17.6: Assumptions About Explanation
  133. 18: Meta-theories of Human Development
  134. 18.1: Metaphors and Meta-theories in Human Development
  135. 18.2: What are Mechanistic meta-theories of human development?
  136. 18.3: What are Organismic meta-theories?
  137. 18.4: What are Contextual meta-theories?
  138. 18.5: What are Maturational meta-theories of human development?
  139. 18.6: Which researchers have meta-theories?
  140. 18.7: Does the field of psychology have meta-theories?
  141. 18.8: What is the dominant meta-theory in the field today?
  142. 18.9: Who else has meta-theories?
  143. 18.10: Where can meta-theories be seen most clearly?
  144. 18.11: What is the meta-theory that guides our class and our book?
  145. 18.12: Do I have a meta-theory about development?
  146. 18.13: How do I get rid of my meta-theory?
  147. 18.14: What is the correct meta-theory?
  148. 19: Contrasting Meta-theories
  149. 19.1: Comparing and Contrasting Meta-theories
  150. 19.2: What are some key issues upon which these meta-theories differ?
  151. 19.3: How do the two meta-theories that focus on the organism differ from each other?
  152. 19.4: Are there other ways to compare and contrast the four meta-theories?
  153. 19.5: What do Maturational and Mechanistic meta-theories have in common?
  154. 19.6: What do Organismic and Contextualist meta-theories have in common?
  155. 19.7: What is the point of these two “meta-models”?
  156. 19.8: Where do developmental systems meta-theories fit on this meta-map?
  157. 19.9: Developmentally Systematizing a Phenomenon
  158. 20: Lifespan Perspectives
  159. 20.1: Lifespan Developmental Perspectives
  160. 20.2: What was the “traditional” view of development?
  161. 20.3: Why was the traditional view so appealing?
  162. 20.4: What did the lifespan perspective offer as an alternative view of development?
  163. 20.5: What are the key features of the proposition that “development is a life-long process”?
  164. 20.6: What is the point of “multi-directionality”?
  165. 20.7: What are the implications of the proposition that development includes both “gains and losses”?
  166. 20.8: What is meant by the notion of “plasticity”?
  167. 20.9: What are the implications of the proposition of “historical embeddedness”?
  168. 20.10: What are the implications of “Contextualism as paradigm”?
  169. 20.11: Why is the study of development a “multidisciplinary” affair?
  170. 20.12: Did the lifespan perspective demonstrate that old age is a period of plasticity filled with gains?
  171. 20.13: What are the most important take-home messages of lifespan developmental perspectives?
  172. 20.14: What are the most important critiques of lifespan developmental perspectives?
  173. 21: Ecological Model
  174. 21.1: Ecological Model- Nested Contexts
  175. 21.2: What is an ecological perspective?
  176. 21.3: What is a “microsystem”?
  177. 21.4: What is a “mesosystem”?
  178. 21.5: What is an “exosystem”?
  179. 21.6: What is a “macrosystem”?
  180. 21.7: Did the ecological perspective reject experimental designs and lab-based studies?
  181. 21.8: So what? Did an ecological perspective change anything for developmentalists?
  182. 21.9: What use were these environmental maps?
  183. 21.10: What are the most important take-home messages of the ecological perspective?
  184. 21.11: What are the most important critiques of the ecological perspective?
  185. 22: Bioecological Models
  186. 22.1: Bioecological Model- Proximal Processes
  187. 22.2: What is the reformulated ecological model?
  188. 22.3: How can some clarity be brought to this complexity?
  189. 22.4: What are “proximal processes”?
  190. 22.5: What are some examples of proximal processes?
  191. 22.6: Is everything we do a “proximal process”?
  192. 22.7: Are all proximal processes good news for development?
  193. 22.8: Why are proximal processes so central to this reformulation?
  194. 22.9: How do proximal processes fit in with the other components of the model?
  195. 22.10: What are the person characteristics that shape proximal processes and their effects on development?
  196. 22.11: What are the characteristics of the context that shape proximal processes and their effects on development?
  197. 22.12: How do I select the PPCTs that are important to study?
  198. 22.13: Where is the target developing person located in this map?
  199. 22.14: What use are PPCT maps?
  200. 22.15: What are the most important take-home messages of the bioecological model?
  201. 22.16: What are the most important critiques of the bioecological model?
  202. 23: Dialectical and Transactional Perspectives
  203. 23.1: Dialectic and Transactional Perspectives
  204. 23.2: What are we talking about now? Have we left the realm of psychology and landed in philosophy?
  205. 23.3: What is a “transaction”?
  206. 23.4: What are the components of the transactional perspective?
  207. 23.5: What is the Contextual model?
  208. 23.6: What is the Regulation model?
  209. 23.7: What is the Representational model?
  210. 23.8: How do these four components fit together into a unified theory of development?
  211. 23.9: What is the process formulation of the unified theory?
  212. 23.10: Where is the representational model in the unified theory?
  213. 23.11: Any clues about what prompts development in the unified theory?
  214. 23.12: What are the important take-home messages from dialectical-transactional meta-theories?
  215. 24: Relational Systems Meta-theories
  216. 24.1: Relational-Developmental Systems Meta-theories
  217. 24.2: What are the key differences between “split” and “relational” worldviews?
  218. 24.3: Why is the difference between Split and Relational metatheories important?
  219. 24.4: How can everything be 100% biological, 100% psychological, 100% social, and 100% cultural?
  220. 24.5: Does this mean we are always studying “biopsychosociocultural” globs?
  221. 24.6: Where does Relationism fit on our meta-theory map?
  222. 24.7: What are the principles that allow organism and contextualism to be unified?
  223. 24.8: What does the relational meta-theory offer in terms of causal explanation?
  224. 24.9: Where do all these new terms come from?
  225. 24.10: Where did the relational meta-theory come from?
  226. 24.11: What are the take-home messages from relational meta-theories?
  227. 25: Nonlinear Dynamic Systems Meta-theories
  228. 25.1: Nonlinear Dynamic Systems Meta-theories
  229. 25.2: Okay, if there is no design, then what is there?
  230. 25.3: How does this happen?
  231. 25.4: What are some examples of “emergence” in psychology?
  232. 25.5: And do all NLDS approaches agree on how self-organization happens?
  233. 25.6: Why is “circular causality” so important?
  234. 25.7: If downward causality doesn't push or pull anything, how does it influence development?
  235. 25.8: Okay, then how do these four kinds of causes work together?
  236. 25.9: Why do books and papers on NLDS seem like they are written in an alien language?
  237. 25.10: What are our “take-home” messages about nonlinear dynamic systems perspectives?
  238. 26: Three Big Ideas of Developmental Systems- The Big Ideas of Levels and Proximal Processes
  239. 26.1: The Big Ideas of Levels and Proximal Processes
  240. 26.2: What is holding up the revolution?
  241. 26.3: What are the essential elements of “systems” approaches?
  242. 26.4: What are the key tools for keeping our balance?
  243. 26.5: Big Idea #1- Levels- What is the “big idea” of levels?
  244. 26.6: Big Idea # 2- Proximal Processes- What is the “big idea” of proximal processes?
  245. 27: Three Big Ideas of Developmental Systems- The Big Idea of Dynamics
  246. 27.1: Big Idea # 3- Dynamics- What is the “big idea” of developmental dynamics?
  247. 27.2: Speaking of “circular causality” -- I can see the bottom-up effects of proximal processes and the “pop” of new actions, but where is the top-down stuff?
  248. 27.3: Is there such of a thing as higher-order organization of the context as well?
  249. 27.4: Okay, so formal cause is a property of individuals and environments-- but what about “final cause”-- “teleology”?
  250. 27.5: What is the difference between locally and developmentally adaptive?
  251. 27.6: Is there any developmental directionality implied by the idea of culture?
  252. 27.7: These final causes or teleological forces—How do they work? Didn't we decided that they do not actually pull the organism down a predetermined path?
  253. 27.8: Is that dialectical interaction what is causing the movement?
  254. 27.9: Are we close to understanding the “big enchilada” or qualitative shifts?
  255. 27.10: Activity 3. The Observation Project
  256. 28: From Meta-Theories to Methods
  257. 28.1: From Meta-Theories to Methods
  258. 28.2: What are the meta-theoretical and theoretical issues that now seem clear to students?
  259. 28.3: I thought that meta-theories shape theories and methods. Now you are saying that methods shape theories and meta-theories?
  260. 28.4: So is this part of the book full of new tools and (gulp) equations?
  261. 28.5: How does time enter into our methodological decisions and strategies?
  262. 28.6: Activity 4- Study Sketches for a Program of Research- Makin’ a List, Checkin’ it Twice
  263. 29: Developmental Designs- Cross-section, Longitudinal, and Cross-sequential
  264. 29.1: What are developmental designs?
  265. 29.2: Why is it challenging to figure how people change with age?
  266. 29.3: What is the cross-sectional design?
  267. 29.4: What is a longitudinal design?
  268. 29.5: Okay, I’m starting to warm up more and more to cross-sectional designs. What are their advantages?
  269. 29.6: What is a cross-sequential design?
  270. 29.7: What can we do about the big problem in longitudinal and cross-sequential designs-- that people drop out and that we are changing people by testing them repeatedly?
  271. 29.8: Which are the best study designs?
  272. 30: More Developmental Designs- Time-lag and Time- and Cohort-Sequential Studies
  273. 30.1: What is the time-lag design?
  274. 30.2: What is a time-sequential design?
  275. 30.3: What do you get when you put the time-lag and longitudinal design together?
  276. 30.4: Which of the designs described in this chapter are most useful for developmentalists?
  277. 30.5: Section 5-
  278. 30.6: Section 6-
  279. Back Matter
  280. Index
  281. Glossary
  282. Glossary
  283. Detailed Licensing