The objective of this book is to examine the methods used in basic research on child development. Studies of replications and near-replications of commonly employed procedures of data collection and analysis are used. Evidence of consistency in research results is sought, thereby enabling the authors to assess the methodological adequacy of using…

Researchers in the fields of cognitive and language development have made less use of large-scale longitudinal designs and of person-centered approaches to data analysis than have researchers in the fields of social and personality development. It is argued that differences among domains of developmental psychology in the research methods employed…

The contributions of child development research to the understanding and prediction of children's behavior are assessed. Substantive achievement in the areas of parent-child relationships, personality development, and day care/preschool education is summarized. (SK)