This handbook offers comprehensive coverage of the topics that are relevant to the field of adolescent and young adult development. The "APA Handbook of Adolescent and Young Adult Development" reviews the many factors that impact youth development across varying themes including biological underpinnings, cognitive and emotive processes,…

The notion of researcher as craftsman is not new. This article takes the analogy further, exploring the similarities between the research student's journey and the artisan's transition from apprentice to journeyman to member of the guild, in the light of the author's own PhD experience. Having completed her apprenticeship with the MSc, she…

Focuses on systems theory as the paradigm underlying family therapy and considers the implications of this framework for conceptions of the individual, the study of parent-child interaction, and new research formulations and areas of study. Considers trends in the developmental field that move toward such formulations. (RH)

A social development theory of self is introduced as a framework for developmental psychopathology. Built on some of Piaget's principles, the theory is taken into the social domain and used to define the movements of self and important others throughout life. (PCB)

Inherent limitations on the feasibility of experimentation have made it difficult for investigators to formulate an adequate understanding of individuality as a psychological phenomenon. Recently, Fiske (1979) and Sontag (1971) have suggested that application of a longitudinal or developmental strategy might be of some use in remedying this…

This chapter discusses the "person approach" to studying developmental processes by focusing on the distinction and complementarity between this holistic-interactionistic framework and what has become designated as the variable approach. Particular attention is given to measurement models for use in the person approach. The discussion on the…

This paper presents the individual's life span trajectory as a unique construction within a unique context for that individual's interactional and adaptive self-regulatory strategies. Issues of adaptive coordination between caregiver and infant are discussed, and five propositions concerning individual development summarize the work. (Author/JDD)

Describes an undergraduate course project where students helped mentally alert senior citizens write their life stories. By assisting senior citizens to organize memories and interpret life decisions, the students experienced stages they had not yet lived through. Students evaluated the course project as a positive learning and personal growth…

A paradigm for learning economic concepts based on cognitive development and learning theory is offered as a guideline for teaching and research. Discussion is divided into two sections. The first section establishes the model's theoretical framework, which is based on two propositions. The first of these is that economic knowledge is not a fixed…

Presents the results of a study that tested students in a research methods and a developmental psychology class on methodological and statistical reasoning at the beginning and the end of the term. Reasoning scores of research methods students improved more than the scores of developmental psychology students. (MJP)