Challenges to a Science of Developmental Psychology

MCCALL, ROBERT B. Challenges to a Science of Developmental Psychology. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 333-344. This paper explores some conceptual and methodological issues in contemporary developmental psychology. It is suggested that, at present, we essentially lack a science of natural developmental processes because few studies are concerned with development as it transpires in naturalistic environments and because we rarely actually collect or analyze truly developmental data. This problem is believed to derive from the veneration of manipulative experimental methods, which have come to dictate rather than serve research questions. The wholesale denigration of nearly all longitudinal methods as either hopelessly confounded or beyond the financial and time commitments of our discipline and a lack of experience with methods of analysis that might reveal the diverse forms of ontogenetic change that probably characterize most development also contribute to this situation. Such attitudes are extreme and unjustified, and alternative strategies are offered.