Traditional View Of Development Research Articles

Epigenetic legacy of parental experiences: Dynamic and interactive pathways to inheritance.

The quality of the environment experienced by an individual across his or her lifespan can result in a unique developmental trajectory with consequences for adult phenotype and reproductive success. However, it is also evident that these experiences can impact the development of offspring with continued effect on subsequent generations. Epigenetic mechanisms have been proposed as a mediator of both these within- and across-generation effects, and there is increasing evidence to support the role of environmentally induced changes in DNA methylation, posttranslational histone modifications, and noncoding RNAs in predicting these outcomes. Advances in our understanding of these molecular modifications contribute to increasingly nuanced perspectives on plasticity and transmission of phenotypes across generations. A challenge that emerges from this research is in how we integrate these "new" perspectives with traditional views of development, reproduction, and inheritance. This paper will highlight evidence suggestive of an epigenetic impact of the environment on mothers, fathers, and their offspring, and illustrate the importance of considering the dynamic nature of reproduction and development and inclusive views of inheritance within the evolving field of behavioral and environmental epigenetics.

Az integratív várospolitika tapasztalatai a hazai várostérségekben

A tanulmány áttekinti az Európai Unióban ldalakult integratív várospolitikák főbb jellemzőit, kérdéseit, az ehhez kapcsolódó térségelemzésekben az új tagországokra vonatkozó megállapításokat. Ezt összeveti kilenc hazai város önkormányzati vezetőivel (főépítészek, fejlesztési bizottságok vezetői) és a várostérség 86 önkormányzati vezetőjével készített kérdőíves felmérés eredményeivel. A kutatásokból leszűrhető, hogy a hazai önkormányzatok gyakorlata neoliberális, illetve jórészt tradicionális jellegű, abban kevéssé jelennek meg a részvételi demokrácia és a helyi társadalom kohéziója megteremtésének értékei. Hosszú távon a városfejlődésben áttörést egy koherens nemzeti szintű városfejlesztési program eredményezhet, új társadalmi nézőpontokkal és a demokratizmus, szolidaritás értékeinek beemelésével.

At play in Belfast.

The Psychological Development of Girls and Women: Rethinking Change in Time. Sheila Greene. New York: Routledge. 2003. 167 pp. ISBN 0-415-17862-2. $27.95 (hardcover). Developmental Psychology, long considered a policy science, has traditionally focused on individual development and progression. But what is that progression aiming toward? How influential are the elements of prediction and control? In The Psychological Development of Girls and Women: Rethinking Change in Time, Sheila Greene argues for a critical development perspective that she believes would provide the framework for understanding the psychological development of girls and in ways that mainstream developmental has heretofore failed to provide. Rather than relying on the traditional view of development as determined, given, universal, and natural, Greene suggests an understanding that views development as historically and culturally contingent and emergent. She stresses that the typically andocentric nature of traditional developmental must be acknowledged and eliminated if we are to have an understanding of feminine that benefits and eliminates gender blindness and bias. And although she recognizes that there may be something to be gained from observing a particular phenomenon at a specific juncture in time, Greene presses us to consider the significance of the passage of time, of timing, age, growth, aging and mortality (p. 1) with regard to the psychological development of girls and women. As with other professional and powerful traditional theories, Developmental Theory has previously been impervious to challenges and immune to introspection. This can be both dangerous and derisive. Greene argues that many of the traditional theories are inapplicable to or restrict their potential because of their parochial and patriarchal nature. As an example, from the standpoint of goal setting, the ways in which fashion their short- and long-term life goals is often directly related to the way that girls and tend to internalize the expectations set by society (e.g., the understanding of what it means to be a good mother and a good wife). The examination of the tensions and debates within developmental is, according to Greene, an antidevelopmental developmental (p. 37). The fact is, no one grows up or develops in a historical or social vacuum. Class, race, culture, and gender are all defining and integral aspects of development and, according to Greene, despite claims of impartiality and freedom from ideology, has been employed frequently and uncritically as a discipline of social control in schools, mental hospitals, prisons, and even, most insidiously, in the home (p. 27). Greene engages the binary opposition of the nature versus nurture/biological versus environmental debates in her discussion of biology as destiny, which she claims ignores the possibility of personal agency, as both subject and agent, and disallows individuals the ability and right to reconstruct their own histories and shape their own futures. Instead of erring on the side of either extreme, the answer, says Greene, is to think in terms of interaction. She also acknowledges the importance of keeping an open mind about the extent to which our pasts may influence who we are in the present. In the end, although we are motivated by our need for predictability and continuity, it is clear that we can neither disregard nor overemphasize history when we are theorizing development and the construction of self. Greene argues that within the disciplines labeled psychology of women and feminist psychology-and, by extension, the interdisciplinary field of women's studies-there is a need for a (more) clearly articulated developmental perspective (p. 36). She devotes an entire chapter to an examination of the traditional theories and subtheories that discuss girls' and women's with reference to origins, formation, socialization, assumed developmental pathways, tasks or goals, and changes with age or in time, and another chapter to theories written from a woman-centered perspective. …

U-Shaped Changes in Behavior: A Dynamic Systems Perspective

The traditional view of development is stage-like progress toward increasing complexity of form. However, the literature cites many examples in which children do worse before they do better. A major challenge for developmental theory, therefore, is to explain both global progress and apparent regression. In this article, we situate U-shaped development as a special case of the nonlinearity that is characteristic of all developmental process. We use dynamic systems theory to show how behavioral regression can be understood as part of the ordinary mechanisms of change. Examples from our work in infant motor and language development illustrate the ways that U-shaped behavior arises from continuous changes in the collective dynamics of multiple, contingent processes. A central claim is that true regression is not possible because behavior exists continuously in time. Thus the current state of the system always depends on its past history. Instead, the appearance of regression reflects the concept of softly assembled behavior, or the ability of contributing components to self-organize in different configurations that depend upon the status of the components, the environment, and the task.

Disease and security: The effect of emerging and re‐emerging diseases

This article examines the role of emerging new and re‐emerging diseases in the failure of the ‘Health for All by 2000’ concept. The gap between infection and control has widened instead of closing, which has definite military and security implications. It is argued that there is a direct link between disease and the social order, and that the traditional view of development first, followed by an increase in health status, must change. However, the political will and the necessary resources to combat emerging and re‐emerging diseases are still lacking in many countries. Through the improper use of treatments and dosages, most notably antibiotics, new strains of previously eradicated diseases are appearing. Added to this are new patterns of relationships between man, his environment and the occurrence of disease leading to new diseases making their appearance. There is a direct relationship between war and disease, making disease something with political, military and security relevance. The aspect of intelligence which has the task of predicting the future, now has to take note of the occurrence of disease and its effects.

Criminal Justice and Development: Some Critical Observations

This paper re-examines the traditional view of development as it relates to criminal justice, particularly from the international perspective. The presumptions of the desirability of development, the paradoxical relationship between development and crime are critically analyzed. These issues are assessed in the light of positions taken by classic social theorists such as Marx, Freud and Durkheim. Finally, the conclusions that follow from this analysis are interpreted in the light of current policy of the United Nations concerning the “new international economic order,” and the right of all countries to development

On the nature of development

Development is a core concept of the systems view of the world. In contrast to the mechanistic and organismic views which are concerned with efficiency and growth, respectively, the systems view is basically concerned with development. A critical review of the major traditional views of development suggests that they are generally characterized by problems of: (1) ethnocentrism, (2) unidimensionality, and, on the whole, (3) a deterministic perspective. Misconceptions about the nature of development and the properties usually identified with it call for at least a clarification of the systems view of development and its relationship to other views. A typology of the major theoretical traditions is developed based on their underlying assumptions (explicit or implicit) with regard to the singularity or plurality attributed to function, structure and process. Finally, the telosystemic concept of development is discussed.