Relational Developmental Systems: A Metatheory of Human Development, Lecture notes of Human Development

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CONTEMPORARY THEORIES

OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Richard M. Lerner Tufts University 26 Winthrop Street, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155 – Phone (617) 627-

A (Very) Brief Overview of Approaches to

Theories of Human Development

from the 19

th

Century to the 21

st

Century

►Metatheories of human development: Mechanistic, Organismic, Relational Developmental (Dynamic) Systems  Mechanistic theories: Nature or Nurture reductionism  Organismic theories: Stages and predetermined versus probabilistic epigenesis  Relational Developmental Systems (RDS)-based theories

Relational Development Systems-Based

Theories

►The integration of levels of organization, from biology/physiology through culture, the physical ecology, and history (temporality) ►Developmental regulation across life involves mutually influential individual  context relations ►Integrated actions, individual  context relations, are the basic unit of analysis within human development ►Temporality and relative plasticity in human development ►Optimism, the application of developmental science, and the promotion of positive human development: The potential for furthering social justice

Relational Developmental Systems (RDS)

Metatheory

►In contemporary developmental science, RDS-based theories are at the cutting-edge of developmental science research. ►The following slides present several illustrations of such models in developmental science. ►These examples are drawn from evolutionary biology, molecular genetics (specifically, epigenetics), comparative psychology, sociology, and human development.

►Epigenetics researcher David Crews presents an RDS-based model of the molecular epigenotype  molar epiphenotype relations involved in individual  context relations.

►Derived from Johanson and Edey (1981), this figure provides an RDS model of human evolution. It provides a view of the phylogenetic (evolutionary) history of the components of individual  context relations that provided a basis for the evolution of the suite of characteristics that define homo sapiens. The RDS-based ideas presented in the model are analogous to the ideas associated with the work of the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould (e.g., 1977).

► Writing in 1998, Glen H. Elder, Jr. presented a life- course theory that embraced RDS thinking and included the idea that time had a different meaning at different levels of the relational developmental system (individual life time, family time, and historical time). Elder’s conception influenced the bioecological model of Urie Bronfenbrenner.

► This figure presents the well-known (perhaps the best known) instance of an RDS-based model for human development across the life span: Urie Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model. The model evolved across the period of 1979-2005 (when Urie passed away). The chronosystem portion of the model was influenced by Urie’s discussions with sociologist Glen H. Elder, Jr. (the next slide presents a different rendition of the Bronfenbrenner model).

►Ford and Lerner (1992) presented an RDS-based model of individual  context relations across time, operationalized in the model as individual state  physical structures and functions.

►R. M. Lerner, writing from the early 1990s through the mid-part of the first decade of the 21st century presented what he termed a developmental contextual model of the individual  context relations within the relational developmental system. The influences of Bronfenbrenner and of Elder are clearly evident in this model.

The Key Idea In RDS-Based Theories of Human

Development

►The individual and the context must be aligned in order to demonstrate a child’s developmental range and potential for thriving. ►There must be aligned individual  context relations for an individual to thrive. “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Albert Einstein

Marc Bornstein’s Specificity Principle:

►The process of development involves mutually influential (dynamic) relations between an individual and his/her context: Individual  Context Relations. ►The specificity principle emphasizes that specific contextual conditions, of specific people, occurring at specific times, shapes specific facets of development (e.g., physiological, psychological, sociocultural) through specific processes of individual  context coaction. ►The specificity principle emphasizes, then whole-child development AND the individuality of each child’s development. Development Involves Relations Between a Specific Individual Occurring at a Specific Time and in a Specific Place

Three Concepts that Go Beyond an

Exclusive Focus on Average

1. Jaggedness

2. Context

3. Pathways