Loneliness becomes more prevalent as youth transition from childhood into adolescence. A key underlying process may be the puberty-related increase in biological stress reactivity, which can alter social behavior and elicit conflict or social withdrawal (fight-or-flight behaviors) in some youth, but increase prosocial (tend-and-befriend) responses…

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…

Molenaar's (2015) article concerns Developmental Systems Theory (DST) in relation to behavior genetics and he presents implications of DST for empirical research, especially the need for subject-specific studies. In this commentary, the article is discussed from a broader developmental science perspective, particularly regarded through the lens of…

Growth mixture modeling (GMM) is a method for identifying multiple unobserved sub-populations, describing longitudinal change within each unobserved sub-population, and examining differences in change among unobserved sub-populations. We provide a practical primer that may be useful for researchers beginning to incorporate GMM analysis into their…

Growth curve modeling has become a mainstay in the study of development. In this article we review some of the flexibility provided by this technique for describing and testing hypotheses about: (1) intraindividual change across multiple occasions of measurement, and (2) interindividual differences in intraindividual change. Through empirical…

The ability to understand that goals and other intentional relations are attributes of individual people is of fundamental importance to social life. It enables us to predict and interpret actions on-line by relating a person's prior and current behaviors, and distinguishing them from the behaviors of other persons. In this paper, we consider the…

Focuses on the conceptual implications of analyses of individual differences in francophone post-Piagetian research. Maintains that these analyses are preoccupied by the "American question" of measurement and method, instead of attempting a theoretical account of the issues raised by intraindividual and interindividual variability in…

Reviews research on external memory strategies, provides a rationale for using neural network models, and discusses their application to intellectual and developmental differences in the external memory strategies of typical and atypical children, including those with mental retardation. Examines mechanisms of intellectual differences and…

A model for the personal responsibility group is presented. Each person in the group chooses goals based on personal perspectives and is not subordinate to an authority or to the group. Personal responsibility for actions and decisions is taken by each group member. (RC)

Examines the meaning of reaction time (RT) and the possibility that it may predict other cognitive and motor skills in the first year of life. Considers two competing models that specify the information-processing components underlying RT performance. Describes the neural data needed to definitively choose between the models and considers…

Suggests ways to use dynamic systems analysis to illuminate the pluralistic and multidimensional model described by Larivee, Normandeau, and Parent (2000). Issues discussed include the characteristics of developmental transitions, such as hysteresis; nature of growth processes, such as hierarchical development or predator-prey interactions; and…

In analyzing various moral and legal philosophies, two perspectives emerge, absolute moral rules/higher law, and situationally-specific moral rules/legal positivism. From these two perspectives, four types of individuals emerge in accordance with their degree of adherence to ideological tenets: (1) situationists (high on idealism and relativism);…

Findings of a series of studies on individual differences and maturational changes in expressivity at the neonatal stage and during early infancy are reported. Research results indicate that newborns are able to discriminate and imitate the basic emotional expressions: happy, sad, and surprised. Results show widened infant lips when the happy…

The application of Piagetian theory to educational practices encounters a series of major difficulties. The main focus of this paper is on the notion of general stages, which has been under attack in numerous studies. Organized in four parts, the paper: (1) discusses the problem of the existence of general stages and of a developmental…