Individuality, Context, and the Search for Meaning

Abstract

A developmental systems approach incorporates clinical perspectives and offers a background for thinking about some of the ways we do research. Recent advances reveal both research opportunities and needs related to fostering child development in a pluralistic, democratic society. 4 topics are addressed that deal with individuality, context, and the search for meaning. First, individuality is discussed wherein our abstract thinking and our quantitative individual differences methods have revealed an urgent need to study the developing person. Second, classification is considered wherein our systematizing efforts reveal a need to understand the interplay among classified features of the person, as well as the particular methods that underlie our classifications. Third, the experiencing of development is discussed, wherein recent advances have revealed new ways of thinking about an individual's nonconscious--procedural and practicing--activities in development, as well as those activities that are conscious. Fourth, the issue of values is considered. Values contribute to our doing research, and we also need to acknowledge their importance as the object of developmental study in 4 children. The appreciation of context, of multiple windows of observation, and of our emotional "centeredness" as human beings who communicate and cooperate with others are crosscutting themes of the essay.