Explores strategies frequently utilized in developmental research laboratories and discusses the power of these strategies in isolating the major variables whose effects are age (or time)-related. The paper also provides information about the key developmental antecedents of age differences. (Author/WY)

Problems in making inferences from a sample to a population and from one cohort to other cohorts are discussed. It is concluded that in most cases a longitudinal design using repeated measures is preferable to an independent samples design. (Author)

Argues that developmental psychology can profit by incorporating ideas from recent philosophies of knowledge. Delineates three "families" of philosophies of knowledge: the contemporary German critical-theoretical thinking of Holzkamp and Habermas; postmodern French thought; and North American multiple-voices approaches that emphasize the…

Notes alternative visions of the relationship between developmental psychology and three theoretical approaches described by Teo. Highlights four such visions: positivism or exclusivism, which rejects alternate viewpoints; inclusivism, which assimilates elements of alternate viewpoints; detachment or relativism, which sees different viewpoints as…

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…

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…

Argues that Gottlieb rejects population sampling and statistical analyses of distributions as he proposes that his experimental brand of mechanistic science is the only legitimate approach to developmental research. Maintains that Gottlieb exaggerates developmental uncertainty, based on his own research with extreme environmental manipulations.…

Argues that a truly developmental behavior genetics will have to go beyond the traditional quantitative approach of population genetics in order to produce developmental explanatory content about differences and similarities in developmental outcomes. (MDM)

Reviews Jessor, Colby, and Shweder's "Ethnography and Human Development: Context and Meaning in Social Inquiry." Maintains that the book invites reflection on the appropriate epistemology of contemporary social sciences, and significantly advances the integration of ethnography and developmental psychology research. Argues that concerns…

The pattern of parent-child correlations in adoption studies has long been interpreted to suggest substantial additive genetic variance underlying variance in IQ. The studies have frequently been criticized on methodological grounds, but those criticisms have not reflected recent perspectives in genetics and developmental theory. Here we apply…

Evaluates empirical studies on child development. Suggests that most such research consists of studies of a priori, nonempirical, logical relations between concepts, whose definitions guarantee the relationship studied. Argues that hypotheses are empirical if variables involved are semantically and logically independent. Research that is not based…

Comments on the ideas espoused by Smedslund (PS 522 552) in this issue. Agrees to the idea of spending more intellectual energy in distinguishing between a priori and empirical hypotheses but emphasizes that concepts are not always accurate reflections of reality and that even empirical disconfirmation of an a priori hypothesis sometimes can…