Multiple methods are vital to understanding development as a dynamic, transactional process. This article focuses on the ways in which quantitative and qualitative methodologies can be combined to enrich developmental science and the study of human development, focusing on the practical questions of "when" and "how." Research situations that may…

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…

Challenges the typical treatment of causal effects in longitudinal data, arguing that models should be conceptualized and tested in ways that directly reflect prior assumptions as to the trait- or state-like nature of the variables. Examples demonstrate that meaningful longitudinal studies of state variables can be conducted without assuming their…

Methodological implications of a person-oriented, holistic-interactionistic perspective in research on individual development are outlined, desirable properties of a mathematical model of a phenomenon are discussed, and selected methods for carrying out person-oriented research are briefly overviewed. These methods are: (1) the classificatory…

Outlines and contrasts themes and methods of philosophical inquiry into personal identity with other approaches to identity development. Describes a study of identity development in adolescence in philosophical context which provides new information about the psychology of identity. (Author/RWB)

Over 600 White females between 10.5 and 18.5 years of age were studied to test construct comparability across adolescence. Assessed were emotional functioning, eating problems, self-reflection, self-image, and mastery/adjustment to examine meaning equivalence in self-concepts and developmental psychopathology. Results suggest that the five factors…

Discusses research on human development from an interactional perspective; methodological problems connected with interindividual differences in biological maturation (using empirical studies from a longitudinal program); and major implications for further development research in an interactional perspective. (Author/BE)

This study investigated how men involved in higher education settings change and develop positive attitudes toward women and feminism using naturalistic inquiry, phenomenological, and ethnographic research methods. An unstructured, open-ended, interview protocol was used to talk with men about their attitudes toward women and feminism. The five…

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…

The knowledge gap hypothesis predicts that infusions of information into an environment will lead to stronger relationships between education and knowledge for higher socioeconomic (SES) segments of the population, and ultimately, a relative gap between higher and lower SES groups. The hypothesis usually focuses on mass media but is also relevant…

Presented are a literature review and new data on correlates of newborn auditory brainstem evoked responses (ABRs). Concludes that disorders of the central components of the ABR may be more of prenatal than of postnatal origin. The I-V interval had low but reliable correlations with four of 11 Brazelton scale variables. (RH)

Many educational questions of research interest focus on individual differences in attitudes and behaviors related to academic achievement, changes in such attitudes and behaviors over time, and the types of academic environments that facilitate or prevent development of achievement attitudes and behaviors at school. This paper, the first in a…

This fifth volume of a six-volume study of a school district code-named "Milford" sketches life histories and careers of the school's original faculty some 15 years after the school was founded. Section I outlines the study's problems and procedures; describes the faculty as a group of true believers initially characterized by humor, inexperience,…

A general frame of reference for a comprehensive model of socialization is presented. This model considers different levels of theoretical analysis and a methodological combination of investigations of the "objective" social reality with "subjective" interpretations of reality as it is in the Federal Republic of Germany. The…

This critical analysis examines the claim that learning within the student's zone of proximal development is enhanced by "making connections to what the learner already knows." It is argued that Rogoff's and Gardner's use of Vygotsky's theory to explain learning in school-like tasks places primary emphasis on how the adult should connect…