This article focuses on the common and unique contributions of three major life-span theories in addressing improvement/maintenance and reorientation, which represent central processes of coping with major life change and loss. For this purpose, we review and compare the dual-process model of assimilative and accommodative coping, the model of…

Developmental psychologists have a long history of using triangle metaphors to conceptualise the social constitution of psychological development. In this paper, we present a genealogy of triadic theories, to clarify their origins, distinctions between them, and to identify key themes for theoretical development. The analysis identifies three core…

Discusses the practice of maintaining separation between the experimenter and the subjects during scientific experiments and suggests that the dialectical interdependence between them is the very basis upon which psychological inquiries should rest. Some practical and theoretical remedies are explored. (JMB)

Examines relationships between the fields of behavior analysis and developmental psychology, surveying the influence of behavior-analytic research within developmental psychology and investigating the integration of the two approaches with respect to metatheory and methodology. (Author/MP)

This paper attempts to clarify some of the changes that have taken place in developmental psychology between 1962 and 1975. Journal references in all articles in six journals devoted primarily to research in developmental psychology were tabulated. Patterns of references to developmental and to nondevelopmental journals are analyzed and discussed.…

Through the application of life course theory to the study of sexual orientation, this paper specifies a new paradigm for research on human sexual orientation that seeks to reconcile divisions among biological, social science, and humanistic paradigms. Recognizing the historical, social, and cultural relativity of human development, this paradigm…

Comments on Gauvain's discussion, in this issue, of the development of thinking from a sociocultural perspective, expanding her analysis by comparing research on apes who have developed in natural habitats with apes raised by humans in something resembling a human culture. Argues that the study of nonhuman primates can contribute to the emerging…

Evaluates empirical studies on child development. Suggests that most such research consists of studies of a priori, nonempirical, logical relations between concepts, whose definitions guarantee the relationship studied. Argues that hypotheses are empirical if variables involved are semantically and logically independent. Research that is not based…

Proposes an operant framework for the analysis of environment-intelligence interactions in old age and calls for an implementation of research aimed at examining the range of modifiability of intellectual proficiency in the elderly. Intellectual decrement is interpreted to reflect the lack of supportive environmental contingencies. (Author/SDH)

A theoretical proposal is offered concerning individual differences in cognitive processes. The focus is on mental retardation and the comparative problem-solving performance of 'normal' and 'retarded' children. (Author/CS)

Comments on the ideas espoused by Smedslund (PS 522 552) in this issue. Agrees to the idea of spending more intellectual energy in distinguishing between a priori and empirical hypotheses but emphasizes that concepts are not always accurate reflections of reality and that even empirical disconfirmation of an a priori hypothesis sometimes can…