Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Ecologically Strong: Toward a Strengths-Based and Ecologically Valid Developmental Science

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Diversity and Developmental Science

Abstract

This chapter examines long-standing recommendations of and emerging opportunities in ecologically valid and strengths-based developmental science. This chapter discusses issues of both contextualization and politicization, which are argued to be key features of developmental research that advances strengths-based findings and ultimately equitable policy and intervention in educational and developmental practice. This chapter discusses several cases of developmental research with varying degrees of success in contextualization to illustrate how strengths-based commitments for conducting research with nondominant communities can be integrated into the designs, methods, and analytical approaches of empirical studies in developmental psychology. Several practical recommendations for conceptualizing, designing, conducting, and analyzing strengths-based developmental research conclude the chapter.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adair, J. K., Colegrove, K. S.-S., & McManus, M. E. (2017). How the word gap argument negatively impacts young children of Latinx immigrants’ conceptualizations of learning. Harvard Educational Review, 87(3), 309–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alcalá, L., Rogoff, B., Mejía-Arauz, R., Coppens, A. D., & Dexter, A. L. (2014). Children’s initiative in contributions to family work in Indigenous-heritage and cosmopolitan communities in Mexico. Human Development, 57(2–3), 96–115. https://doi.org/10.1159/000356763

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnett, J. J. (2008). The neglected 95%: Why American psychology needs to become less American. American Psychologist, 63, 602–614. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.63.7.602

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Avineri, N., et al. (2015). Invited forum: Bridging the “language gap”. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 25(1), 66–86. https://doi.org/10.1111/jola.12071

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bang, M., & Vossoughi, S. (2016). Participatory design research and educational justice: Studying learning and relations within social change making. Cognition and Instruction, 34(3), 173–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2016.1181879

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Briggs, C. L. (1986). Learning how to ask: A sociolinguistic appraisal of the role of the interview in social science research. Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Broesch, T., Lew-Levy, S., Kärtner, J., Kanngiesser, P., & Kline, M. (2021). A roadmap to doing culturally grounded developmental science. Review of Philosophy and Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-022-00636-y

  • Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist, 32(7), 513–531.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burman, E. (2008). Deconstructing developmental psychology (2nd ed.). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole, M. (1996). Cultural psychology: A once and future discipline. Belknap Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole, M. (2013). Differences and deficits in psychological research in historical perspective. Developmental Psychology, 49(1), 84–91. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029623

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cole, M., & Bruner, J. S. (1971). Cultural differences and inferences about psychological processes. American Psychologist, 26, 867–876. https://doi.org/d5m6f7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cole, M., Hood, L., & Holzman, L. (1978). Ecological niche-picking: Ecological invalidity as an axiom of experimental cognitive psychology. Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole, M., Hood, L., & McDermott, R. P. (1997). Concepts of ecological validity. In M. Cole, Y. Engeström, & O. Vasquez (Eds.), Mind, culture, and activity: Seminal papers from the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coppens, A. D., & Rogoff, B. (2021). Cultural variation in the early development of initiative in children’s prosocial helping. Social Development, 31, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12566

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coppens, A. D., Alcalá, L., Rogoff, B., & Mejía-Arauz, R. (2016). Children’s contributions in family work: Two cultural paradigms. In S. Punch & R. M. Vanderbeck (Eds.), Families, intergenerationality, and peer group relations (pp. 1–27). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-92-7_11-2

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Coppens, A. D., Corwin, A. I., & Alcalá, L. (2020). Beyond behavior: Linguistic evidence of cultural variation in parental ethnotheories of children’s prosocial helping. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 307. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00307

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Correa-Chávez, M., Mejía-Arauz, R., & Rogoff, B. (Eds.). (2015). Children learn by observing and contributing to family and community endeavors (Vol. 49). Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahl, A. (2017). Ecological commitments: Why developmental science needs naturalistic methods. Child Development, 11(2), 79–84. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12217

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Danziger, K. (1997). Naming the mind: How psychology found its language. Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • de Haan, M. (1999). Learning as cultural practice: How children learn in a Mexican Mazahua community. Thela Thelis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dinishak, J. (2016). The deficit view and its critics. Disability Studies Quarterly, 36(4). https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v36i4.5236

  • Dixon-Román, E. J., Jackson, J. L., & de Royston, M. M. (2020). Reconceptualizing the quantitative-qualitative divide. In N. S. Nasir, C. D. Lee, R. D. Pea, & M. M. de Royston (Eds.), Handbook of the cultural foundations of learning (pp. 314–329). Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Du Bois, W. E. B., Battle-Baptiste, W., & Rusert, B. (2018). W.E.B Du Bois’s data portraits: Visualizing Black America. Princeton Architectural Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. L., & Knafo-Noam, A. (2015). Prosocial development. In R. M. Lerner (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology and developmental science (Vol. 3, pp. 610–656). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118963418.childpsy315

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Esteban-Guitart, M., & Moll, L. C. (2014). Funds of identity: A new concept based on the funds of knowledge approach. Culture & Psychology, 20(1), 31–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X13515934

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gaskins, S. (1999). Children’s daily lives in a Mayan village. In A. Göncü (Ed.), Children’s engagement in the world (pp. 25–61). Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gharabaghi, K., & Anderson-Nathe, B. (2017). Strength-based research in a deficits-oriented context. Child & Youth Services, 38(3), 177–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/0145935X.2017.1361661

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • González, N., Moll, L. C., & Amanti, C. (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practice in households, communities, and classrooms. L. Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graham, S. (1992). Most of the subjects were white and middle class: Trends in published research on African Americans in selected APA journals. American Psychologist, 47(5), 629–639.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gutiérrez, K. D., & Jurow, A. S. (2016). Social design experiments: Toward equity by design. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 25, 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2016.1204548

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gutierrez, K., & Larson, J. (2007). Discussing expanded spaces for learning. Language Arts, 85(1), 69–77. https://library.ncte.org/journals/la/issues/v85-1

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutiérrez, K. D., & Rogoff, B. (2003). Cultural ways of learning: Individual traits or repertoires of practice. Educational Researcher, 32(5), 19–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hammersley, M. (1992). Deconstructing the qualitative-quantitative divide. In M. Hammersley (Ed.), What’s wrong with ethnography: Methodological explorations (pp. 159–173). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harding, S. (1992). The afterlife of stories. In G. Rosenwald & R. Ochberg (Eds.), Storied lives (pp. 60–75). Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. P.H. Brookes.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(2–3), 61–135. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X0999152X

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jahoda, G. (1986). A cross-cultural perspective on developmental psychology. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 9, 417–437.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, E. J., & Zentella, A. C. (2017). Introducing the language gap. International Multilingual Research Journal, 11(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1080/19313152.2016.1258184

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keller, H., & Bard, K. A. (Eds.). (2017). The cultural nature of attachment: Contextualizing relationships and development. The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kessen, W. (1979). The American child and other cultural inventions. American Psychologist, 34(7), 815–820.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kominsky, J. F., Lucca, K., Thomas, A. J., Frank, M. C., & Hamlin, K. (2020). Simplicity and validity in infant research [Preprint]. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/6j9p3

  • Koops, W., & Kessel, F. (2015). Common historical roots. Introduction to the special section on recapitulation theory and developmental psychology. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 12(6), 627–629. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2015.1094876

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lancy, D. F. (2020). Child helpers: A multidisciplinary perspective. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108769204

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lave, J. (1997). What’s special about experiments as contexts for thinking? In M. Cole, Y. Engeström, & O. Vasquez (Eds.), Mind, culture, and activity: Seminal papers from the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition (pp. 57–69). Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Legare, C. H., & Souza, A. L. (2012). Evaluating ritual efficacy: Evidence from the supernatural. Cognition, 124(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2012.03.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • López, A., Rogoff, B., Najafi, B., & Mejía-Arauz, R. (2012). Collaboration and helping as cultural practices. In J. Valsiner (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of culture and psychology (Vol. 1–41, pp. 869–884). Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcus, G. E. (1995). Ethnography in/of the world system: The emergence of multi-sited ethnography. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24, 95–117. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.24.100195.000523

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, P. J., & Sperry, D. E. (2012). Déjà Vu: The continuing misrecognition of low-income children’s verbal abilities. In S. T. Fiske & H. R. Markus (Eds.), Facing social class: How societal rank influences interaction (Vol. 1–6, pp. 109–130). Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, A. L., Stern, C., & Neville, H. (2019). Forging diversity-science-informed guidelines for research on race and racism in psychological science. Journal of Social Issues, 75(4), 1240–1261. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12356

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Modiano, N. (1973). Indian education in the Chiapas highlands. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morelli, G., Bard, K., Chaudhary, N., Gottlieb, A., Keller, H., Murray, M., Quinn, N., Rosabal-Coto, M., Scheidecker, G., Takada, A., & Vicedo, M. (2018a). Bringing the real world into developmental science: A commentary on Weber, Fernald, and Diop (2017). Child Development, 89(6), e594–e603. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morelli, G., Quinn, N., Chaudhary, N., Vicedo, M., Rosabal-Coto, M., Keller, H., Murray, M., Gottlieb, A., Scheidecker, G., & Takada, A. (2018b). Ethical challenges of parenting interventions in low- to middle-income countries. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 49(1), 5–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022117746241

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nasir, N. S., Lee, C. D., Pea, R. D., & McKinney de Royston, M. (Eds.). (2020). Handbook of the cultural foundations of learning. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nielsen, M., Haun, D., Kärtner, J., & Legare, C. H. (2017). The persistent sampling bias in developmental psychology: A call to action. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 162, 31–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.04.017

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Otto, H., & Keller, H. (Eds.). (2014). Different faces of attachment. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Packer, M. J. (2018). The science of qualitative research (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Packer, M. J., & Moreno-Dulcey, F. A. (2022). Theory of puppets?: A critique of the use of puppets as stimulus materials in psychological research with young children. Cognitive Development, 61, 101146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2021.101146

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Packer, M., & Moreno-Dulcey, F. A. (2020). “This puppet will play a game with you”: Is it time to take child psychology out of the laboratory? (Unpublished manuscript).

    Google Scholar 

  • Packer, M. J., & Tappan, M. B. (2001). Cultural and critical perspectives on human development. SUNY Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paradise, R., & Rogoff, B. (2009). Side by side: Learning by observing and pitching in. Ethos, 37(1), 102–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paris, D., & Alim, H. S. (Eds.). (2017). Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world. Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plaut, V. C. (2010). Diversity science: Why and how difference makes a difference. Psychological Inquiry, 21(2), 77–99. https://doi.org/10.1080/10478401003676501

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quinn, N., & Mageo, J. M. (Eds.). (2013). Attachment reconsidered: Cultural perspectives on a Western theory. Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Revencu, B., & Csibra, G. (2020, December 11). Opening the black box of early depiction interpretation: From whether to how in the Theory-of-Puppets debate (submitted). https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/u3em8

  • Rheingold, H. L. (1982). Little children’s participation in the work of adults, a nascent prosocial behavior. Child Development, 53(1), 114–125. https://doi.org/10.2307/1129643

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogoff, B. (1995). Observing sociocultural activity on three planes: Participatory appropriation, guided participation, and apprenticeship. In J. V. Wertsch, P. Del Rio, & A. Alvarez (Eds.), Sociocultural studies of mind (Vol. 1–6, pp. 139–164). Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogoff, B., & Coppens, A. D. (in press). The cultural nature of helping without being asked, from the toddler years into middle childhood. In M. Gelfand, C. Chiu, & Y. Hong (Eds.), Advances in culture and psychology (Vol. 10). Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogoff, B., Coppens, A. D., Alcalá, L., Aceves-Azuara, I., Ruvalcaba, O., López, A., & Dayton, A. (2017). Noticing learners’ strengths through cultural research. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(5), 876–888. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617718355

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogoff, B., Dahl, A., & Callanan, M. (2018). The importance of understanding children’s lived experience. Developmental Review, 50, 5–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2018.05.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roth, W.-M. (2011). Object/motives and emotion: A cultural-historical activity theoretic approach to motivation in learning and work. In D. M. McInerney, R. A. Walker, & G. A. D. Liem (Eds.), Sociocultural theories of learning and motivation (Vol. 1–3, pp. 43–64). Information Age Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sannino, A., Engeström, Y., & Lemos, M. (2016). Formative interventions for expansive learning and transformative agency. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 25(4), 599–633. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2016.1204547

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmuckler, M. A. (2001). What is ecological validity? Infancy, 2(4), 419–436.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sperry, D. E., Sperry, L. L., & Miller, P. J. (2019). Reexamining the verbal environments of children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Child Development, 90(4), 1303–1318. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13072

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steele, C. M. (2010). Whistling Vivaldi. W.W. Norton & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valencia, R. R. (2010). Dismantling contemporary deficit thinking. Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Valencia, R. R., & Solórzano, D. G. (1997). Contemporary deficit thinking. In R. R. Valencia (Ed.), The evolution of deficit model thinking (Vol. 1–6, pp. 160–210). The Falmer Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valsiner, J., & Benigni, L. (1986). Naturalistic research and ecological thinking in the study of child development. Developmental Review, 6(3), 203–223. https://doi.org/10.1016/0273-2297(86)90012-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vicedo, M. (2014). The nature and nurture of love. The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vossoughi, S., & Gutiérrez, K. D. (2014). Studying movement, hybridity, and change: Toward a multi-sited sensibility for research on learning across contexts and borders. Teachers College Record, 116(14), 603–632. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811411601413

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vossoughi, S., & Zavala, M. (2020). The interview as pedagogical encounter: Nurturing knowledge and relationships with youth. In A. I. Ali & T. L. McCarty (Eds.), Critical youth research in education (pp. 136–154). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429277863-11

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Whiting, B. B., & Whiting, J. W. M. (1975). Children of six cultures. Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wortham, S., Mortimer, K., Lee, K., Allard, E., & White, K. D. (2011). Interviews as interactional data. Language in Society, 40(1), 39–50. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404510000874

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA

    Andrew D. Coppens & Emilie Coppinger

Authors
  1. Andrew D. Coppens
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Emilie Coppinger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrew D. Coppens .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Dawn P. Witherspoon

  2. University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA

    Gabriela Livas Stein

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Coppens, A.D., Coppinger, E. (2023). Ecologically Strong: Toward a Strengths-Based and Ecologically Valid Developmental Science. In: Witherspoon, D.P., Stein, G.L. (eds) Diversity and Developmental Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23163-6_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation