Individual Development and Social Change

Individual Development and Social Change: Explanatory Analysis represents a convergence of three lines of emphasis now visible in developmental research and theory building. The three are (1) the life course as a focus for the study of development and social change, and their interrelationships; (2) the life-span orientation to the study of individual development, with its acknowledgment of the salience of contextual features for understanding development; and (3) the growth of methodological innovations that provide more appropriate and powerful ways of exploiting data gathered to describe and explain developmental change processes.
The book opens with a study on how major cultural change originates and unfolds over time. This is followed by separate chapters on the use of sequential designs for explanatory analyses; evolutionary aspects of social and individual development; the concepts of the theory of causal and weak causal regressive dependence; and the concepts of age, period, and cohort from the perspective of developmental psychology. Subsequent chapters examine development and aging as lifelong processes of historical populations; the methodological integration of natural and cultural science perspectives in developmental psychology; and application of the multifaceted methodology to the mutuality of constraint between sociocultural group and individual dynamics.

Contenu

Contributors
Preface

1. Evolution and Innovation in Sociocultural Systems: A Punctuated Equilibria Model
   I. Introduction
   II. The Contributions and Limitations of a Darwinian Approach to Culture Change
   III. Paradigm Shift: The Punctuated Equilibria Model
   IV. A New Paradigm of Sociocultural Innovation
   V. Examples of Punctuated Equilibria in Techno-economic Change
   VI. Conclusion
   References
2. Sequential Strategies as Quasi-experimental Designs: Possibilities and Limitations in Explanatory Analysis
   I. Introduction
   II. Models of Individual Development and Social Change in the Context of Sequential Strategies
   III. Empirical Applications of Sequential Strategies
   IV. Conclusions
   References
3. Evolutionary Aspects of Social and Individual Development: Comments and Illustrations from the World System Perspective
   I. The Context of Development and the Development of Context
   II. Toward Worldwide Institutionalized Individualism: The Trend at the State Level
   III. The Institutionalization of Individualism at the World System Level
   IV. Conclusions
   References
4. Causal Regressive Dependencies: An Introduction
   I. Introduction
   II. Introductory Examples
   III. Causal and Weak Causal Regressive Dependence
   IV. Illustrative Applications
   V. Conclusion
   Appendix
   References
5. Structure Identification Using Nonparametric Models
   I. Structures
   II. Relations in Structures: A Formal Approach
   III. On the Detection of Structures
   IV. Application to the Study of Development and Change
   V. Summary
   References
6. Individual and Context in Developmental Psychology: Conceptual and Theoretical Issues
   I. Introduction
   II. Key Questions of Human Development
   III. The Concepts of Time and Timing in the Contextual Perspective
   IV. Limits and Problems of a Contextual Perspective
   V. Conclusions
   References
7. Age, Period, and Cohort Analysis and the Study of Individual Development and Social Change
   I. Introduction
   II. Historical Perspectives
   III. Age, Period, and Cohort Effects
   IV. Interpretation of Effects
   V. A Substantive Illustration of Concepts
   VI. Conclusion
   References
8. Individual Development and Aging as a Population Process
   I. Introduction
   II. Statement of the Thesis
   III. Evolution, Development, and Aging: A Synergistic Relationship in Human Society
   IV. Individual Development: A Critique of Personological Thinking
   V. A Conceptual Schema of Development as a Population Process
   VI. Developmental Change Functions in Historical Populations
   VII. Strategies for Analyzing Human Development as a Population Process
   VIII. Conclusion
   References
9. Individual Development in Social Action Contexts: Problems of Explanation
   I. Introduction
   II. Laws and Quasi Laws, Plasticity and Universality of Development
   III. Structural Implications and "Pseudoempirical" Research in Developmental Psychology
   IV. Developmental Psychology as a Natural and Cultural Science: Problems of Integration
   V. Conclusion
   References
10. Multifaceted Systems Modeling: Structure and Behavior at a Multiplicity of Levels
    I. Introduction
    II. A Brief Review of Multifaceted Systems Modeling
    III. Multifaceted Model Framework for Issues in Mutuality of Constraint
    IV. Conclusions
    References
11. Analysis of Qualitative Data in Developmental Psychology
    I. In Search of Appropriate Methods within the Framework of Qualitative Developmental Theories and Models
    II. Illustrations from Different Fields of Developmental Psychology
    III. Statistical Methodology
    References
12. The Generalized Group Effect Model
    I. Introduction
    II. Hierarchically Nested Design
    III. Generations Design
    IV. Group Polarization
    V. Conclusion
    References
    Author Index
    Subject Index