Outdoor adventure education (OAE) has a long history of being credited with the personal and social development (PSD) of its participants. PSD is notoriously difficult to measure quantitatively, yet stakeholders demand statistical evidence that given approaches to eliciting PSD are effective in their methods. Rightly or wrongly, many stakeholders…

In 2007, I embarked on a PhD study to explore diverse students' experiences, representations and understandings of personal development and personal development planning at one British university. The timing of this project was critical because universities were charged with a responsibility to provide opportunities for students to engage with…

Argues that more attention should be given to the specification of the independent and dependent variables which describe, explain and predict intraindividual stability and change over time. Statistical techniques for such study are briefly discussed. (Author/SDH)

Focuses on systems theory as the paradigm underlying family therapy and considers the implications of this framework for conceptions of the individual, the study of parent-child interaction, and new research formulations and areas of study. Considers trends in the developmental field that move toward such formulations. (RH)

The appropriateness of the metaphor of the purity of data is questioned, using a perspective based on L. S. Vygotsky's idea of the zone of proximal development and its emphasis on a genetic method in which development is mediated by cultural tools and signs. (SLD)

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…

Identifies some sources of theoretical confusion in the field of human development and some ways to think about this confusion. Calls for a reorientation of researchers' perspectives toward themselves and those whom they study. (PCB)

In his conceptualization of the developmental course of interpersonal understanding, Selman (1980) specifies a set of issues which are central to the concept. For each issue, he assumes that development proceeds through an ordered sequence of ontogenetic levels and that developmental progress has a high degree of inter-issue consistency. In…

Explores the degree to which individuals remain consistent within a framework of changing behavioral characteristics. Includes discussions of problems of measurement; correlational studies; and studies of changing levels under normal conditions, after major environmental shifts, and across generations. (RH)

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…

A brief review of research on protective factors that allow some individuals to make healthy adaptations despite debilitating circumstances precedes a critical discussion of symposium papers. The discussion is organized around three questions. First, does the search for protective factors demonstrate an important programmatic shift in…

Following the assumptions of ecological socialization research, adequate analysis of socialization conditions must take into account the multilevel and multivariate structure of social factors that impact on human development. This statement implies that complex models of family configurations or of socialization factors are needed to explain the…

Asserts that this book, drawn from a 1993 conference on memory development, accurately reflects the contemporary status of the field in two ways: (1) its research is matured and specialized; and (2) there are no major theoretical disputes, nor a widely shared new approach, although using microgenetic designs to study cognitive strategy choice…

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…