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…

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…

Gilbert Gottlieb's theory of probabilistic epigenesis is a fertile ground for further theoretical construction in developmental science. It fills the gap in the domineering empiricism and honoring of inductive generalization that dominates psychology in the beginning of the 21st century, by offering a basic deductive framework for guiding the…

Is human ontogenesis a product of evolution or a result of individual decisions and actions? In the present paper we aim at solving this apparent conflict between a behavioral genetics approach and an action-theoretical perspective to human development. After a discussion of the idea of active and intentional self-development and the role of genes…

Both the polyvalent notions of culture and development have been central for building psychological theories. In the present paper, both notions are discussed within the framework of general developmental science and thus from a necessarily systemic perspective. Development is surely culturally informed, yet the process of cultivation is largely…

Gottlieb promoted the value of a developmental psychobiological systems approach to the study of human development. This approach recognizes the importance of comparative, animal-based research to advancing our understanding of the complexities and dynamics of the process of development. The major contribution of animal developmental studies is…

In the wake of his death, it is a fair tribute to Gilbert Gottlieb to recognize him as a central figure in the creation of conditions that permitted the introduction of developmental thinking in developmental psychology. These included exposing the sterility of the nature-nurture debate and the adoption of a biological framework that conceives of…

An analysis of views of early socialization and sociogenetic theorists will provide a foundation for regarding internalization as a process involving transformations of semiotic material imported from the social world into personally constructed subjective experience. Argues that researchers embracing the sociogenetic tradition should make…

Agrees with the distinction, made by Lawrence and Valsiner in the previous article, between theoretical approaches concerning internalization that view internalization as cultural transmission and internalization as constructive transformation. Concurs with criticisms of these approaches, and questions the need for the notion of internalization in…

Recognizes some of the limitations of the field of behavioral genetics, but argues that the methods employed in multivariate behavior genetics and developmental behavior genetics have become the dominant paradigms in the field. (MDM)

Supports Gottlieb's conclusion that developmental behavior genetics is unsuitable for analyzing developmental coactional processes because it does not concern itself with mechanisms through which genotypes are transformed into phenotypes. But maintains that modern behavior genetics provides an indispensable tool to analyze nonlinear epigenetic…

Criticizes the application of the statistical procedures of the population-genetic approach within evolutionary biology to the study of psychological development. Argues that the application of the statistical methods of population genetics--primarily the analysis of variance--to the causes of psychological development is bound to result in a…

Argues that Gottlieb rejects population sampling and statistical analyses of distributions as he proposes that his experimental brand of mechanistic science is the only legitimate approach to developmental research. Maintains that Gottlieb exaggerates developmental uncertainty, based on his own research with extreme environmental manipulations.…

Argues that a truly developmental behavior genetics will have to go beyond the traditional quantitative approach of population genetics in order to produce developmental explanatory content about differences and similarities in developmental outcomes. (MDM)

Evaluates the epigenetic landscape metaphor in light of behavioral development. Cites two common errors in integrated models of behavior and biology: (1) fixing behavior as structure, thereby robbing it of dynamics and plasticity; and (2) assuming that a single optimal trajectory applies to development of organisms or systems. (BC)