Affiliations: Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Richard M. Lerner, Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: The goal of developmental science is to describe, explain, and optimize intraindividual changes in adaptive developmental regulations and, as well, interindividual differences in such relations, across life. The history of developmental science is reviewed and its current foci, which are framed by relational developmental systems models that emphasize that change across life occurs through mutually-regulative relations between individuals and their context, are discussed. Finally, ideas about the future of developmental science are presented.
Keywords: relational developmental systems theory, developmental regulation, plasticity, non-ergodicity, social justice
