The emerging field of molecular epigenetics studies relatively stable changes in genetic activity that are not due to changes in the DNA sequence. Initial research results indicate a functional role for epigenetic mechanisms in neuron development and neuronal cell function. However, concepts that integrate these findings in an overall theory of…

Technological and methodological advances, in particular next-generation sequencing and chromatin profiling, has led to a deluge of data on epigenetic mechanisms and processes. Epigenetic regulation in the brain is no exception. In this commentary, Ehud Lamm writes that extending existing frameworks for thinking about psychological development to…

Psychobiological systems theory is a relational approach to development that challenges the longstanding views that (1) genetic and environmental influences on the phenotype can be meaningfully partitioned and that (2) genes are capable of directly specifying phenotypes. Gilbert Gottlieb's theoretical innovations including the notion of…

Developmental science aims to understand relations between the past, present, and future. Prior emphases on deterministic predictions based on continuities in biological or psychological traits have given way to multivariate and multilevel probabilistic estimates based on environmental transactions at every level. Continuity is now seen as an…

This review encompasses a time-span of about 50 years of research on morality and moral development. It discusses Kohlberg's (1984) work as a milestone that constituted the cognitive developmental viewpoint of morality and that dominated research for about three decades. In this paradigm the role of reasoning and deliberation was emphasized as the…

In this commentary, the author states that a major step in bringing developmental studies into correspondence with other disciplines that give civic and political engagement central importance has taken place. The projects reported in this issue represent an important historical development within the discipline of developmental studies. Seen is a…

Developmental science (DS) is defined somewhat differently by different researchers. In the present essay DS is defined as (1) it concerns understanding "individual" development, partly in contrast to "group" development, (2) DS is cross-disciplinary, and (3) the individual is regarded as a "functioning whole,"…

Research on bullying and victimization, especially in school settings, has become an important area of developmental research, with strong practical implications. In this article we overview some considerations from neuropsychology, quantitative genetics, developmental neuroscience, we discuss CU traits and conduct problems, individual, group,…

The empirical and conceptual interrelations of phylogeny (evolution) and ontogeny (development) may prove to be more important than previously acknowledged. It is argued that this holds particularly for evolutionary psychology. For instance, an evolutionary point of view will add to the explanation of (the shape of) pre- and post-reductive phases…

The goal of developmental science is to describe, explain, and optimize intraindividual changes in adaptive developmental regulations and, as well, interindividual differences in such relations, across life. The history of developmental science is reviewed and its current foci, which are framed by relational developmental systems models that…

This essay describes briefly population neuroscience, the merging of genetics and epidemiology with neuroscience, and its goals with regard to (1) gaining new knowledge about "processes" leading to a particular "state" of brain structure and function, and (2) using this knowledge to predict the risk (and resilience) of an…

In this commentary, the authors discuss the topic of ostracism--being ignored and excluded--as a painful social phenomenon that most individuals have experienced at least once in their lives, and sometimes daily. The harmful power of ostracism is not short-lived; data suggest that participants asked to relive ostracism by writing an…

The idea of successful development is used as the conceptual platform for a proposal that three basic principles of developmental science be expanded. Specifically, we propose that (a) developmental science needs to be reframed as a guide for what successful development is and how it is manifested at different times of the life course; (b) that…

Reaction times are still rarely reported in developmental psychology although they are an indicator of the neural maturity of children's information processing system. Competence and capacity are confounded in development, where children may be able to reason, or remember, but are unable to cope with information processing load. Furthermore, there…

Although there are certainly traditions of conducting longitudinal/developmental analyses to trace outcomes of preventive behavior and academic interventions (i.e., traditions that collectively can be referred to as "development through intervention" practices), less attention has been given to combined analyses of the changes behavior…