Developmental Psychology in Action looks at how psychologists contribute to the development and well-being of children in practical ways. The role of psychologists and psychological theory is considered with respect to specific topics which focus on child development in the context of social, educational and clinical issues. The chapters are authored by active researchers and practitioners in each field. Each chapter provides an introduction to the topic under discussion and aims to stimulate reflection and evaluation. This is the final book in a series of four which form part of the Open University course Child Development. The series provides a detailed and thorough undergraduate-level introduction to the central concepts, theories, current issues and research evidence in developmental psychology. Developmental Psychology in Action is a course text for the Open University course ED209 Child Development.

This volume presents the reader with a stimulating rich tapestry of essays exploring the nature of action and intentionality, and discussing their role in human development. As the contributions make clear, action is an integrative concept that forms the bridge between our psychological, biological, and sociocultural worlds. Action is also integrative in the sense of entailing motivational, emotional, and cognitive systems, and this integration too is well represented in the chapters. Action is defined, and distinguished from behavior, according to its intentional quality. Thus, a constantly recurring theme in the volume involves the dialectic of action-intentionality, and specifically the questions of how and when these concepts are to be distinguished. For action theorists, action—as distinguished from behavior—constitutes the fundamental mechanism of human development. This commitment is detailed in several essays that explore the life-span implications of action. This timely volume will be must reading for all who want to learn about, or stay current with, contemporary action theoretical approaches to human development. – Willis F. Overton, Temple University The present volume advances the view that we cannot go far in understanding development over the life span without paying heed to self-reflective processes. In a reciprocal way, self-reflection links developmental change in the ways in which the person constructs his or her own development over the life span. Development, action, and intentionality exist, then, in an intimate relationship: As development forms the social and historical settings within which intentional activity is embedded, thus become indispensable categories for developmental theory and research. Due to their potential to integrate culture, history, and personality, action-theoretical concepts have made strong inroads in many areas of social and behavioral research. Within the field of developmental psychology, researchers have come to recognize that developmental patterns, and their variation across historical and social contexts, cannot easily be reduced to invariant laws. Instead, they reflect the agency of both the culture and the person. Issues of intentional self-development gain particular importance within the developmental settings of modernity. Under conditions of cultural acceleration, globalization, and pluralization of life forms, normative "scripts" and timetables of development have become blurred, and people are increasingly forced to take a planful, self-monitoring, and optimizing stance toward their own behavior and development. As will become evident throughout this ground-breaking book, an action perspective on development covers a broad spectrum of theoretical approaches. Concepts such as "personal goals," "personal projects," "life themes," "meaning," "life planning," "compensation," or "intentional self-development" have become the nuclei of innovative research programs. The chapters collected in this volume, by scholars on the forefront of action theory and research, provide an indication of the promise that these notions hold for life-span developmental psychology, motivation research, and research on aging.

Originally published in 1986, there was a divorce between the immense amount of research taking place in child psychology and the real world of professional carers or teachers working with children at the time. The aim of this book was therefore to examine the relationship between research and practice in order to promote links between the two. The discussions are wide-ranging and the book will be of interest to many groups of readers. These include: (1) developmental psychologists and others involved in applied research with children and their families; (2) those involved in training professionals such as teachers, social workers and speech therapists who will work with children; (3) educational and clinical psychologists whose work involves psychological intervention with children and their caretakers; and (4) students of educational or child psychology.

This is the 33rd volume in the Minnesota Symposium on Child Psychology held in October 2002. The symposium was held to honor the scientific and mentoring contributions of Anne Danielson Pick and Herbert L. Pick, Jr.--two longtime and beloved professors of the Institute of Child Development. It focused on "Action as an Organizer of Learning and Development" and integrated the best and most innovative research on the role of action in perceiving and understanding. Taken together, the book captures the intellectual excitement that characterized the 33rd symposium and appeals to developmental psychologists, particularly those interested in perceptual development.

Most contributions to this volume originated as papers given at an inter national conference on Integrative Perspectives on Youth Development held in Berlin (West) in May, 1983. This conference was part of a 6-year longi tudinal research program on the causes of substance use among adolescents in Berlin, which is now in its fourth year. The conference title deliberately did not refer to substance use. However, its relevance to an explanation of drug-related problem behavior was made evident to everyone invited to the conference. The search for integrative perspectives in youth development originated in a dilemma that became obvious during the planning of intensive research on concomitants of substance use. In the methodology for research on youth development, there were two lines of thought that seemed completely unre lated to each other: One line of thought was oriented toward the person, leaving situational aspects aside, while the other concentrated on ecological or situational determinants and thus neglected the aspects of development and internal processes. The integration of both these directions seemed to be an unusually promising approach for any project that aimed to understand changes in the individual within a rapidly changing urban setting. The best way to come closer to a resolution of that dilemma seemed to be an intensive exchange between the American and European scientific communities on this issue.

The Proliferation of Action Theories and Their Applications Jaan Valsiner and Louis Oppenheimer Our contemporary psychology becomes satiated by references to "action" and "activity. " Over the recent decade numerous theoretical perspectives have appeared. all of which operate with the notion of "action" (Ajzen. 1985; Eckensberger & Silbereisen. 1980; Keller & Reuss. 1984; Lantermann. 1980). each of which define it (see Oppenheimer. Chapter 1 of this volume). Likewise. the empirical literature in child psychology is filled with "action-theoretic" notions--facilitated by the ease of seeing children acting within their environments at a pace that surpasses that of even the most hyperactive adult! Of course. the empirical discourse in contemporary psychology is highly limited by its empiricistic emphasis. which dissociates empirical work from theoretically elaborate reasoning. At times. one can find in the literature an "anything goes" attitude--as long as the "umbrella" (theoretical) notion under which the given empirical study looks consensually respectable. the theoretical needs of "research" are satisfied. and psychologists can continue to accumulate "data" in their pursuit of "normal science. " The latter attitude to theory. of course, is but a convenient illusion. For any serious hope for progress in any discipline, the conceptual sphere must be explicitly developed further together with the empirical efforts. This sentiment led us to organize a symposium at the conference of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1987. The presentations at that symposium gave us the idea of editing a book on the origins of action.

This new text contains parts of Bornstein and Lamb’s Developmental Science, 6th edition, along with new introductory material, providing a cutting edge and comprehensive overview of social and personality development. Each of the world-renowned contributors masterfully introduces the history and systems, methodologies, and measurement and analytic techniques used to understand the area of human development under review. The relevance of the field is illustrated through engaging applications. Each chapter reflects the current state of knowledge and features an introduction, an overview of the field, a chapter summary, and numerous classical and contemporary references. As a whole, this highly anticipated text illuminates substantive phenomena in social and personality developmental science and its relevance to everyday life. Students and instructors will appreciate the book’s online resources. For each chapter, the website features: chapter outlines; a student reading guide; a glossary of key terms and concepts; and suggested readings with hotlinks to journal articles. Only instructors are granted access to the test bank with multiple-choice, short-answer, and essay questions; PowerPoints with all of the text’s figures and tables; and suggestions for classroom discussion/assignments. The book opens with an introduction to social and personality development as well as an overview of developmental science in general—its history and theory, the cultural orientation to thinking about human development, and the manner in which empirical research is designed, conducted, and analyzed. Part 2 examines personality and social development within the context of the various relationships and situations in which developing individuals function and by which they are shaped. The book concludes with an engaging look at applied developmental psychology in action through a current examination of children and the law. Ways in which developmental thinking and research affect and are affected by practice and social policy are emphasized. Intended for advanced undergraduate and/or graduate level courses on social and personality development taught in departments of psychology, human development, and education, researchers in these areas will also appreciate this book’s cutting-edge coverage.