theory (applied developmental science)
What sorts of changes characterize a person as he or she develops? Where do these changes come from? Questions such as these are inevitably involved in any theoretical consideration of human development, and developmental systems theories have evolved over the past 30 years to provide conceptually new and methodologically innovative answers (e.g., Gottlieb, 1997; Lerner, 2002; Thelen & Smith, 1998). The Conceptual Orientation of Developmental Systems Theories Prior to the emergence of developmental systems theories, prototypic concepts of development were predicated on Cartesian philosophical ideas about the character of reality that separated, or “split,” what was regarded as real from what was relegated to the “unreal” or epiphenomenal (Overton, 1998). [Source: Encyclopedia of Applied Developmental Science; Developmental Systems Theories]
developmental systems theories
concepts