Systems and Dynamic Systems: The Search for Inclusive Merger

摘要

As we enter the 21st century, developmental psychology still constitutes a field in search of ontological identity and uniformity [Witherington, 2007]. New commitments to variability in development - across instances of real-time action, across contexts, individuals, cultures, and historical epochs - have underscored the need for a metatheoretical framework that embraces the developmental process in all its dynamic complexity [e.g., Baltes, 1987; Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Gottlieb, 1991; Lerner, 2006; Parent, Normandeau, & Larivee, 2000]. With their new edited volume, Human Development in the Twenty-First Century: Visionary Ideas from Systems Scientists, Fogel, King and Shanker [2008] have highlighted the important role a dynamic systems approach can play in fostering metatheoretical unity for developmental psychology.