Abstract
Developmental contextualism (Lerner, 1986, 1991, 1995, 1998b) is an instance of a theoretical orientation to human development termed “developmental systems theory” (Ford & Lerner, 1992; Sameroff, 1983; Thelen & Smith, 1998). Developmental contextualism has its roots in the multidisciplinary and multiprofessional field of home economics (Lerner & Miller, 1993; Miller & Lerner, 1994), a field now labeled family and consumer sciences. In addition, developmental systems theory, generally, and developmental contextualism, more specifically, have emerged within the current study of human development as representing important, and arguably key, theoretical orientations within the field because of their “co-evolution” with the life-span view of human development (Baltes, 1987; Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 1998), the life-course study of human development (Elder, 1974, 1980, 1998), and the ecological view of human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Bronfenbrenner & Crouter, 1983; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lerner, R.M., Sparks, E.E., McCubbin, L.D. (1999). Developmental Contextualism and the Developmental Systems Perspective. In: Family Diversity and Family Policy: Strengthening Families for America’s Children. Outreach Scholarship, vol 2. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5206-9_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5206-9_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-5098-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-5206-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive