Comparisons In Human Development: Understanding Time & Contex

Description:
This important volume deals with the issue of how to make comparisons in the field of human development. In their comparisons of various social groups, social scientists generally focus on what the differences are, rather than elucidating how and why the groups differ. Comparisons in Human Development examines ways in which different disciplines have treated comparisons and development and provides empirical examples that take a comparative, developmental approach to human activity and thought. Contributors share the view that the study of development must be concerned with processes that operate over time and are regulated by their physical, biological, social and cultural contexts. Development is understood in systemic terms, with multidirectional influences that cross levels of analysis, including the cellular, the individual, the family, and the cultural and historical.

Review:
'...the quality of the chapters is generally high, and they are well written and well referenced...a stimulating and fertile resource.' Contemporary Psychology

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction; Part I. Metatheoretical Approaches to Developmental Comparison: 2. Developmental comparison Lucien Winegar; 3. Developmental concepts across disciplines Michael J. Shanahan, Jaan Valsiner, and Gilbert Gottlieb; 4. Ecological perspectives in human development: a comparison of Gibson and Bronfenbrenner Jonathan Tudge, Jacquelyn Gray, and Diane Hogan; Part II. Paradigmatic Statements: 5. Nested comparisons in the study of historical change and individual adaptation Michael J. Shanahan and Glen H. Elder, Jr; 6. The value of comparisons in developmental psychology Debra Mekos and Patricia A. Clubb; 7. Implications from developmental cross-cultural research for the study of acculturation in Western civilizations Beth Costes, Rona McCall, and Wolfgang Schneider; Part III. Comparisons at the Level of Data: 8. The co-development of identity, agency and lived worlds Dorothy C. Holland and Debra G. Skinner; 9. Sociocultural promotions constraining children's social activity: comparisons and variability in the development of 'friendships' Paul A. Winterhoff; 10. The everyday experiences of North American preschoolers in two cultural communities: a cross-disciplinary and cross-level analysis Jonathan Tudge and Sarah Putnam; Part IV. Commentaries: 11. Developmental science: a case of the bird flapping the wing, or the wing flapping the bird?: commentary on Winegar's chapter Jeanette A. Lawrence; 12. Conceptual transposition, parallelism and inter-disciplinary communication: commentary on Shanahan, Valsiner, and Gottlieb's chapter Jeanette A. Lawrence and Agnes E. Dodds; 13. The 'ecological' approach: when labels suggest similarities beyond basic concepts in psychology Angela Branco; 14. Problems of comparison: methodology, the art of story-telling, and implicit models Hideo Kojima; 15. The promise of comparative, longitudinal research for studies of productive-reproductive processes in children's lives William A. Corsaro; 16. Integrating psychology into social science: a commentary on Tudge and Putnam, and Holland and Skinner James Youniss.