Thomas R. Bidell

Michael F. Mascolo

Although integrative conceptions of development have been gaining increasing interest, there have been few attempts to bring together the various threads of this emerging trend. The Handbook of Integrative Developmental Science seeks ways to bring together classic and contemporary theory and research in developmental psychology with an eye toward building increasingly integrated theoretical and empirical frameworks. It does so in the form of a festschrift for Kurt Fischer, whose life and work have both inspired and exemplified integrative approaches to development. Building upon and inspired by the comprehensive scope of Fischer’s Dynamic Skill Theory, this book examines what an integrated theory of psychological development might look like. Bringing together the work of prominent integrative thinkers, the volume begins with an examination of philosophical presuppositions of integrative approaches to development. It then shows how Dynamic Skill Theory provides an example of an integrative model of development. After examining the question of the nature of integrative developmental methodology, the volume examines the nature of developmental change processes as well as pathways and processes in the development of psychological structures both within and between psychological domains. The team of expert contributors cover a range of psychological domains, including the macro- and micro-development of thought, feeling, motivation, self, intersubjectivity, social relations, personality, and other integrative processes. It ends with a set of prescriptions for the further elaboration of integrative developmental theory, and a tribute to Kurt Fischer and his influence on developmental psychology. This book will be essential reading for graduate students and researchers of developmental psychology and human development, specifically developmental science.

Essays in Honor of Kurt W. Fischer

Handbook of Integrative Developmental Science

Sharon Griffin

The problem of development is central in the study of emotional life for two basic reasons. First, emotional life so clearly changes (dramatically in the early years) with new emotional reactions emerging against the backdrop of an increasing sensitivity to context and with self-regulation of emotion emerging from a striking dependence on regulatory assistance from caregivers. Such changes demand developmental analysis. At the same time, understanding such profound changes will surely inform our understanding of the nature of development more generally. The complexity of emotional change, when grasped, will reveal the elusive nature of development itself. At the outset, we know that development is complex. We must take seriously what is present at any given phase, including the newborn period, because a developmental analysis disallows something emerging from noth ing. Still, it is equally nondevelopmental to posit that new forms of new processes were simply present in their precursors. Rather, development is characterized by transformations in which more complex structures and organization "emerge" from new integration of prior components and new capacities. These new forms and organizations cannot be specified from prior conditions but are due to transactions of the evolving organism with its environment over time. They are not simply in the genome, and they are not simply conditioned by the environment. They are the result of the develop mental process.

Michael F. Mascolo

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