Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Developmental Science: Integrating Knowledge About Dynamic Processes in Human Development

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Dynamic Process Methodology in the Social and Developmental Sciences

Abstract

There is an increasing need to develop an interdisciplinary model that describes the dynamic processes in human development. During the last decades several different theories depicting dynamic developmental processes have been formulated. In this chapter we briefly introduce these approaches and argue that developmental systems perspective (DSP) is one of the more promising approaches to depict how developmental patterns arise. Furthermore, we argue, that Developmental Science—an integrative, interdisciplinary framework—is a useful approach to account for the interplay of changes in individuals across the life span and thereby considering psychological, biological, social, societal, historical and cultural levels and their interdependent systems. We end by formulating strategies we foresee to be useful for all researchers who want to implement the principles of developmental science and developmental system perspective into their work.

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

Notes

  1. 1.

    Eccles Institute of Human Genetics: http://www.genetics.utah.edu/faculty/developmentalgenetics.html

  2. 2.

    For reviews of epigenetic concepts relevant to human development (see Gottesman & Gould, 2003; Nijhout, 2003; Petronis et al., 2003).

  3. 3.

    For a review of the ongoing discussion on connectionist and dynamic systems models see Cowan (2003).

References

  • Baltes, P. B., Reese, H., & Nesselroade, J. R. (1977). Life-span developmental psychology: Introduction to research methods. Monterey: Brooks/Cole.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, A. J. (2008). Gene environment interplay: Nonhuman primate models in the study of resilience and vulnerability. Developmental Psychobiology, 50, 48–59.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bergman, L. R., Cairns, R. B., Nilsson, L.-G., & Nystedt, L. (Eds.). (2000). Developmental science and the holistic approach. Mahwah: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berg-Nielsen, T. S., Vikan, A., & Dahl, A. A. (2002). Parenting related to child and parental psychopathology: A descriptive review of the literature. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 7, 529–552.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cairns, R. B. (1996). Developmental science: Three audacious implications. In R. B. Cairns, G. H. Elder, Jr., & J. Costello (Eds.), Developmental science (pp. 49–62). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Camazine, S., Deneubourg, J.-L., Franks, N. R., Sneyd, J., Theraulaz, G., & Bonabeau, E. (2001). Self-organization in biological systems. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carolina Consortium on Human Development. (1996). Developmental science: A collaborative statement. In R. B. Cairns, G. H. Elder, Jr., & J. Costello (Eds.), Developmental science (pp. 1–6). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casey, B. J., & de Haan, M. (2002). Introduction: New methods in developmental science. Developmental Science, 5, 265–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Casey, B. J., & Munakata, Y. (2002). Converging methods in developmental science: An introduction. Developmental Psychobiology, 40, 197–199.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Caspi, A., McClay, J., Moffitt, T. E., Mill, J., Martin, J., Craig, I. W. et al. (2002). Role of genotype in the cycles of violence in maltreated children. Science, 297, 851–854.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Caspi A., Sugden K., Moffitt T. E., Taylor, A., Craig, I. W., Harrington, H. L. et al. (2003). Influence of life stress on depression: Moderation by a polymorphism in the 5-HTT gene. Science, 301, 386–389.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cicchetti, D., & Blender, J. A. (2004). A multiple-levels-of-analysis approach to the study of developmental processes in maltreated children. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 101, 17325–17326.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cicchetti, D., & Tucker, D. (1994). Development and self-regulatory structures of the mind. Development and Psychopathology, 6, 533–549.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cowan, N. (2003). Comparisons of developmental modeling frameworks and levels of analysis in cognition: Connectionist and dynamic systems theories deserve attention, but don’t yet explain attention. Developmental Science, 6, 440–447.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diez Roux, A. V. (2007). Integrating social and biologic factors in health research: A systems view. Annals in Epidemiology, 17, 569–574.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrlich, P., & Feldman, M. (2003). Genes and cultures. What creates our behavioural phenome? Current Anthropology, 44, 87–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feldman, M. W., & Lewontin, R. C. (1975). The heritability hang-up. Science, 190, 1163–1168.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrer, E., Balluerka, N., & Widaman, K. F. (2008). Factorial invariance and the specification of second-order latent growth models. Methodology, 4, 22–36.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, K. W., & Rose, S. P. (1999). Rulers, models, and nonlinear dynamics: Measurement and method in developmental research. In G. Savelsbergh, H. van der Maas, & P. van Geert (Eds.), Nonlinear developmental processes (pp. 197–212). Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford, D. H., & Lerner, R. M. (1992). Developmental systems theory. An integrative approach. Newbury Park: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb, G. (1970). Conceptions of prenatal behavior. In L. R. Aronson, E. Tobach, D. S. Lehrman, & J. S. Rosenblatt (Eds.), Development and evolution of behavior (pp. 111–137). San Francisco: Freeman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb, G. (1972). Ying-Yang Kuo: Radical scientific philosopher and innovative experimentalist (1898–1970). Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 80, 1–10.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb, G. (1991). Epigenetic systems view of human development. Developmental Psychology, 27, 33–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb, G. (2002). Individual development and evolution. Mahwah: Erlbaum. (Original work published 1992, Individual development and evolution: The genesis of novel behavior. New York: Oxford University Press.)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb, G. (2003). On making behavioral genetics truly developmental. Human Development, 46, 337–355.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb, G., & Halpern, C. T. (2002). A relational view of causality in normal and abnormal development. Development and Psychopathology, 14, 421–435.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb, G., Wahlsten, D., & Lickliter, R. (1998). The significance of biology for human development: A developmental psychobiological systems view. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & D. Kuhn & R. S. Siegler (Vol. Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1.Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 233–273). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb, M. S. (2007). The developmental point of view: Anything can change everything; permission to doubt dogma, the Gilbert Gottlieb legacy. European Journal of Developmental Science, 1, 200–207.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottesman, I., & Gould, T. (2003). The endophenotype concept in psychiatry: Etymology and strategic intentions. American Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gottesman, I. I., & Hanson, D. R. (2005). Human development: Biological and genetic processes. Annual Review in Psychology, 56, 263–286.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gottman, J., Swanson, C., & Swanson, K. (2002). A general systems theory of marriage: Nonlinear difference equation modeling of marital interaction. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 6, 326–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Granic, I. (2005). Timing is everything: Developmental psychopathology from a dynamic systems perspective. Developmental Review, 25, 386–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Granic, I., & Hollenstein, T. (2003). Dynamic systems methods for models of developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 15, 641–669.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg, G. (2007). Why psychology is not a biological science: Gilbert Gottlieb and probabilistic epigenesis. European Journal of Developmental Science, 1, 111–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halpern, C. T., Hood, K. E., & Lerner, R. M. (Eds.). (2007). Integration nature and nurture through developmental science: The contributions of Gilbert Gottlieb. European Journal of Developmental Science, 1(2, Special Issue).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jelic, H., Theokas, C., Phelps, E., & Lerner, R. M. (2007). Conceptualizing and measuring the context within person ¬® context models of human development: Implications for theory, research and application. In T. D. Little, J. A. Bovaird, & N. A. Card (Eds.), Modeling contextual effects in longitudinal studies (pp. 437–456). Mahwah: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, T. D., & Edwards, L. (2002). Genes, interactions, and the development of behavior. Psychological Review, 109, 26–34.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Josephs, I. E., & Valsiner, J. (2007). Developmental science meets culture: Cultural developmental psychology in the making. European Journal of Developmental Science, 1, 47–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1997). Beyond modularity. Massachusetts: MIT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaufman, J., Yang, B.-Z., Douglas-Palumberi, H., Houshyar, S., Lipschitz, D., Krystal, J. H. et al. (2004). Social supports and serotonin transporter gene moderate depression in maltreated children. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 101, 17316–17321.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Krist, H., Natour, N., Jäger, S., & Knopf, M. (1998). Kognitive Entwicklung im Säuglingsalter: Vom Neo-Nativismus zu einer entwicklungsorientierten Konzeption. Zeitschrift für Entwicklungspsychologie und Pädagogische Psychologie, 30, 153–173.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuo, Z.-Y. (1967). The dynamics of behavior development: An epigenetic view. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lavalli, M., Pantoja, A. P. F., Hsu, H.-C., Messinger, D., & Fogel, A. (2005). Using microgenetic designs to study change process. In D. M. Teti (Ed.), Handbook of research methods in developmental science (pp. 41–65). Malden: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lerner, R. M., Dowling, E., & Chaudhuri, J. (2005). Methods of contextual assessment and assessing contextual methods: A developmental systems perspective. In D. M. Teti (Ed.), Handbook of research methods in developmental science (pp. 183–209). Malden: Blackwell.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lerner, R. M., Lerner, J. V., DeStefanis, I., & Apfel, A. (2001). Understanding developmental systems in adolescence: Implications for methodological strategies, data analytic approaches, and training. Journal of Adolescent Research, 16, 9–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, M. D., Lamey, A. V., & Douglas, L. (1999). A new dynamic systems method for the analysis of early socioemotional development. Developmental Science, 2, 457–475.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lickliter, R. (2007). Kuo’s epigenetic vision for psychological sciences: Dynamic developmental systems theory. In J. Valsiner (Ed.), Thinking in psychological science. Ideas and their makers (pp. 315–329). New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Little, T. D., Bovaird, J. A., & Card, N. A. (Eds.). (2007). Modeling contextual effects in longitudinal studies. Mahwah: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorenz, K. Z. (1981). The foundations of ethology. New York: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Magnusson, D., & Cairns, R. B. (1996). Developmental science: Principles and illustrations. In R. B. Cairns, G. H. Elder, Jr., & J. Costello (Eds.), Developmental science (pp. 7–32). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mareschal, D., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2001). Self-organisation in normal and abnormal cognitive development. In A. F. Kalverboer & A. Gramsbergen (Eds.), Brain and behavior in human development. A source book (pp. 743–766). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martins, C., & Gaffan, E. A. (2000). Effects of early maternal depression on patterns of infant-mother attachment: A meta-analytic investigation. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 41, 737–746.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McArdle, J. J. (2001). A latent difference score approach to longitudinal dynamic structural analysis. In R. Cudeck, S. du Toit, & D. Sörbom (Eds.), Structural equation modeling: Present and future. A Festschrift in honor of Karl Jöreskog (pp. 341–380). Lincolnwood, IL: Scientific Software International.

    Google Scholar 

  • McArdle, J. J., & Hamagami, F. (2001). Linear dynamic analyses of incomplete longitudinal data. In L. Collins & A. Sayer (Eds.), New methods for the analysis of change (pp. 139–175). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Metzger, M. A. (1997). Applications of nonlinear dynamical systems theory in developmental psychology: Motor and cognitive development. Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, 1, 55–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Molenaar, P. C. M. (1985). A dynamic factor model for the analysis of multivariate time series. Psychometrika, 50, 181–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Molenaar, P. C. M. (2007). Developmental systems theory contra developmental behavior genetics. Gilbert Gottlieb, in memoriam. European Journal of Developmental Science, 1, 138–144.

    Google Scholar 

  • Molenaar, P. C. M. (2008). On the implications of the classical ergodic theorems: Analysis of developmental processes has to focus on intra-individual variation. Developmental Psychobiology, 50, 60–69.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Munakata, Y., & McClelland, J. L. (2003). Connectionist models of development. Developmental Science, 6, 413–429.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murray, L., & Cooper, P. J. (1997). Effects of depression on infant development. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 77, 99–101.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nesselroade, J. R., & Schmidt McCollam, K. M. (2000). Putting the process in developmental processes. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 24, 295–300.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nijhout, H. (2003). The importance of context in genetics. American Scientist, 91, 416–423.

    Google Scholar 

  • Overton, W. F. (2007). A coherent metatheory for dynamic systems: Relational organicism-contextualism. Human Development, 50, 154–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oyama, S. (1989). Ontogeny and the central dogma: Do we need the concept of genetic programming in order to have an evolutionary perspective? In M. R. Gunnar & E. Thelen (Eds.), The Minnesota symposia on child psychology, Vol. 22. Systems and development (pp. 211–218). Hillsdale: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petermann, F., Niebank, K., & Scheithauer, H. (2004). Entwicklungswissenschaft. Entwicklungspsychologie—Genetik—Neuropsychologie [Developmental Science. Developmental Psychology—Genetics—Neuropsychology.]. Heidelberg: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petronis, A., Gottesman, I., Peixiang, K., Kennedy, J., Basile, V., Paterson, A. et al. (2003). Monozygotic twins exhibit numerous epigenetic differences: Clues to twin discordance. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 29, 169–178.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Plomin, R. (2004). Genetics and developmental psychology. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 50, 341–352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Posner, M. I. (2002). Convergence of psychological and biological development. Developmental Psychobiology, 40, 339–343.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Psychosocial Paediatrics Committee, Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) (2004). Maternal depression and child development. Paediatrics and Child Health, 9, 575–583.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richters, J. E. (1997). The Hubble hypothesis and the developmentalist’s dilemma. Development and Psychopathology, 9, 193–229.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rosel, J., & Plewis, I. (2008). Longitudinal data analysis with structural equations. Methodology, 4, 37–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sameroff, A. J., & Chandler, M. J. (1975). Reproductive risk and the continuum of caretaker casualty. In F. D. Horowitz, M. Hetherington, S. Scarr-Salapatek, & G. Siegal (Eds.), Review of child development research (Vol. 4, pp. 187–244). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sameroff, A. J., & MacKenzie, M. J. (2003a). A quarter-century of the transactional model: How have things changed? ZERO TO THREE, September 2003, 14–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sameroff, A. J., & MacKenzie, M. J. (2003b). Research strategies for capturing transactional models of development: The limits of the possible. Development and Psychopathology, 15, 613–640.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sander, F. (1927). Über Gestaltqualitäten [On Qualities of Gestalt]. Proceedings of the 8th International Congress of Psychology, 1926 (pp. 183–189). Groningen: Noordhoff.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sander, F. (1932). Funktionale Struktur, Erlebnisganzheit und Gestalt [Functional Structure, Erlebnisganzheit and Gestalt]. Archiv für die gesamte Psychologie, 85, 237–260.

    Google Scholar 

  • Savelsbergh, G., van der Maas, H., & van Geert, P. (Eds.). (1999). Nonlinear developmental processes. Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheithauer, H., Niebank, K., & Gottlieb, G. (2007). To see an elephant: Developmental science. European Journal of Developmental Science, 1, 6–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmitz, B. (1990). Univariate and multivariate time-series models: The analysis of intraindividual variability and intraindividual relationships. In A. von Eye (Ed.), Statistical methods in longitudinal reasearch. Vol. II: Time series and categorical longitudinal data (pp. 351–386). San Diego: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shanahan, M. J., Sulloway, F. J., & Hofer, S. M. (2000). Change and constancy in developmental contexts. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 24, 421–427.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thelen, E., & Smith, L. (1994). A dynamic systems approach to the development of cognition and action. Cambridge: MIT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valsiner, J., & Van der Veer, R. (2000). The social mind. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • van der Maas, H. L. J., & Hopkins, B. (1998). Developmental transitions: So what’s new? British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 16, 1–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Geert, P., & Steenbeek, H. (2005). Explaining after by before: Basic aspects of a dynamic systems approach to the study of development. Developmental Review, 25, 408–442.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Geert, P., & van Dijk, M. (2002). Focus on variability: New tools to study intra-individual variability in developmental data. Infant Behavior and Development, 25, 340–374.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • von Bertalanffy, L. (1968). General systems theory. New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagman, J. B., & Miller, D. B. (2003). Nested reciprocities: The organism–environment system in perception–action and development. Developmental Psychobiology, 42, 317–334.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, P. (1959). Cellular dynamics. Reviews of Modern Physics, 31, 11–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Werner, H. (1926). Über Mikromelodik und Mikroharmonik. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 98, 74–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Werner, H. (1937). Process and achivement. A basic problem of education and developmental psychology. The Harvard Educational Review, 7, 353–368.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wimmers, R. H., Beek, P. J., Savelsbergh, G. J. P., & Hopkins, B. (1998). Developmental changes in action: Theoretical and methodological issues. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 16, 45–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Witherington, D. C. (2007). The dynamic systems approach as metatheory for developmental psychology. Human Development, 50, 127–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wright, S. (1968). Evolution and the genetics of populations, Vol. 1: Genetic and biometric foundations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Developmental Science and Applied Developmental Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195, Berlin, Germany

    Herbert Scheithauer

Authors
  1. Herbert Scheithauer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kay Niebank
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Angela Ittel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Herbert Scheithauer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

    Rights and permissions

    Reprints and permissions

    Copyright information

    © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

    About this chapter

    Cite this chapter

    Scheithauer, H., Niebank, K., Ittel, A. (2009). Developmental Science: Integrating Knowledge About Dynamic Processes in Human Development. In: Valsiner, J., Molenaar, P., Lyra, M., Chaudhary, N. (eds) Dynamic Process Methodology in the Social and Developmental Sciences. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-95922-1_26

    Download citation

    Publish with us

    Policies and ethics

    Search

    Navigation