There is considerable variability in the extent to which young people with developmental language disorder (DLD) experience mental health difficulties. What drives these individual differences remains unclear. In the current article, data from the Twin Early Development Study were used to investigate the genetic and environmental influences on…

In the multidisciplinary field of developmental cognitive neuroscience, statistical associations between levels of description play an increasingly important role. One example of such associations is the observation of correlations between relatively common gene variants and individual differences in behavior. It is perhaps surprising that such…

According to models of differential susceptibility, the same neurobiological and temperamental traits that determine increased sensitivity to stress and adversity also confer enhanced responsivity to the positive aspects of the environment. Differential susceptibility models have expanded to include complex developmental processes in which genetic…

Socioeconomic status (SES) is an important environmental predictor of language and cognitive development, but the causal pathways by which it operates are unclear. We used a computational model of development to explore the adequacy of manipulations of environmental information to simulate SES effects in English past-tense acquisition, in a data…

This article begins with a brief survey of the recent update of the "Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent" (DMGT). The DMGT defines talent development as the transformation of outstanding natural abilities (called gifts) into outstanding knowledge and skills (called talents). Two types of catalysts, intrapersonal and…

This paper presents a new perspective on the transition from early to middle childhood (i.e., human juvenility), investigated in an integrative evolutionary framework. Juvenility is a crucial life history stage, when social learning and interaction with peers become central developmental functions; here it is argued that the "juvenile transition"…

Basic quantitative genetic models of human behavioral variation have made clear that individual differences in behavior cannot be understood without acknowledging the importance of genetic influences. Yet these basic models estimate average, population-level genetic and environmental influences, obscuring differences that might exist within the…

A restatement of the environmental interaction paradigm may be found in the B-P-E paradigm which states that Behavior is a function of the Person and Environment. The B-P-E paradigm lends itself to the conceptualization of complex problems. Four characteristics of this paradigm are described. (BJG)

The work reported aims at the construction of a sufficient theory of transition in cognitive development. The method of theory construction employed is computer simulation of cognitive process. The core of the model of transition presented comprises self-modification processes that, as a result of continuously monitoring an exhaustive record of…

Explored genetic and environmental etiologies of individual differences in printed word recognition and related skills in identical and fraternal twin 8- to 18-year-olds. Found evidence for moderate genetic influences common between IQ, phoneme awareness, and word-reading skills and for stronger IQ-independent genetic influences that were common…

This paper addresses the unevenness of the existing knowledge base on development and individual differences, and presents a structural model diagraming organismic and environmental influences on development. The model identifies sets of conditions which can result in gifted performance, the development of giftedness, and the maintenance of…

Analyzed limitations of empirical research models in terms of ability to reflect an interactional perspective on suicidal behavior. A new research model was developed. Findings indicated such real-life behaviors cannot be understood by recourse to individual differences variables alone or environmental variables alone. (Author/BEF)

Notes that psychologists' interest in behavioral development concerns individual differences in behavior. Explores complexities of genetic and environmental determination of development, and of canalization. Intelligence is considered as an example of the canalization of human behavior. (BC)

Maintains that (1) research questions must address intra- and extraorganism contextual relations and must be multidisciplinary in scope; (2) research must be sensitive to contextual variability and individual differences; and (3) scholars must develop empirically generative models linking the development of human beings with changing contexts. (BC)

This study examined the power of nonshared environment to differentiate adolescent monozygotic twin development and the extent to which this power varied across social structural contexts. Findings indicated that differences in maternal closeness, teacher bonding, and religious participation differentiated twins on emotional distress. Family…