The dynamic systems (DS) approach has emerged as an influential and potentially unifying metatheory for developmental science. Its central platform--the argument against design--suggests that structure spontaneously and without prescription emerges through self-organization. In one of the most prominent accounts of DS, Thelen and her colleagues…

The symposium is described as being devoted to the question of whether and to what extent action may constitute a useful paradigm for developmental psychology, where action is understood as voluntary behavior employed by the agent as a means of attaining certain ends. (Author/RH)

To illustrate the need for careful analysis, discusses (1) intrapersonal versus interpersonal paradigms of intention and (2) differentiation between reason and cause and their joint consideration.(RH)

Views developmental schemes as closed formal depictions of the dialectic which cannot account for their own existential relativity within experience. Shows how the internal logic of a scheme depends on the experimental perspective from which it is posited. Argues for the possibility of constructing a "positional logic" that would relate…

Points out that while some symposium papers pursue a model of the individual mind, others explore the social mind. Argues that concepts of cognitive theory originally based on social existence have been deformed to emphasize the individual as a self-contained entity.(RH)

Summarizes the general perspectives represented in the symposium and attempts to reconcile them by reconstructing a dialog between them. Issues addressed include the intersubjective nature of intentionality, the nature of action theoretical explanations, and the distinctive characteristics of action theory. (RH)

Argues that the study of the life course is necessarily a historical form of inquiry that demands acknowledgment of narrative structure. Because the data of narration derive from experience, the idea of development can only be placed within the realm of subjectivity. (RH)

Comments on the potential importance for developmental theory of recent advances in the thermodynamics of "self-organizing" systems by Ilya Prigogine and the Brussels School. Implications of the concepts of classical and modern thermodynamics of structural development for an understanding of psychological evolution and development are…

Argues that the status of the concept of equilibration is classified by considering Piagetian theory as a research program in the sense elaborated in 1974 by Lakatos. A pilot study was made to examine the precision and testability of equilibration in Piaget's 1977 model.(Author/RH)

Outlines a life-span model which extends Piaget's theory of cognitive development to adulthood. (SS)

Drawing on a model of wisdom that includes components in three domains (personality, cognition, and conation) and across three levels (intrapersonal, interpersonal, and transpersonal), highlights potential differences in the ways women and men attain and express wisdom; and examines interactive patterns across the components of wisdom. (BC)

Argues that the reduction of competence models to performance models is countered both by epistemological arguments and by examining the weakness of supposed refutations of Piaget's logical competence model. Points out flaws in Piaget's position. (Author/RH)

The distinction between competence and performance models in psycholinguistics is used to analyze current theory and research strategies in the study of cognitive development. The analysis is used to argue for the construction of performance models of cognitive skills which do not reify the elements of competence models. (Author/SS)

Develops a model of "knowing" and discusses the implications of this model for an understanding of the nature of developmental stages. (BD)

An action theoretic account of skill learning and skill use is offered as a useful heuristic for life-span developmental psychology. The version presented is one that is particularly prominent in industrial psychology in the German-speaking countries. (Author/RH)