Not terribly long ago, child psychology was dominated by grand theories of change and development. These theories were named after their originators: Freud, Erikson, Piaget, Watson, Werner and so on. These were "grand" theories because each offered a powerful interpretative framework for understanding change and development. In recent years, there have been important advances in the theoretical, methodological and applied discussions of change and development. Theory, method and application, however, remain disconnected in critical ways. In order to redress these concerns, this book was designed to cross the boundaries of discipline and theoretical orientation to address four critical issues: explanation of change and development; the nature and process of change; forms of variability in performance; and finally, the promotion of change through application.
The chapters suggest that change and development in target systems from cells to selves, may not be explainable, assessable or promotable without careful reference to the context (social and otherwise) of the system, and that the process of change and development may involve variability of the system in addition to periods of stability. Together the chapters harken back to the spirit of the grand theory. Instead of proposing a grand theory, however, the chapters provide an excellent foundation for considering the importance of an individual's (or particular group's) context and variability, and discussions to facilitate thinking about what still needs to be figured out.