xiv, 507 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

1. Introduction -- What is a theory? -- What is a developmental theory? -- Of what value is a developmental theory? -- Main issues: What is the basic nature of humans? -- Is developmental qualitative or quantitative? -- How do nature and nurture contribute to development? -- What is it that develops...

2. Piaget's cognitive-state theory and the neo-Piagetians -- General orientation to the theory: Genetic epistemology -- Biological approach -- Structuralism -- Stage approach -- Methodology -- Description of the stages: Sensorimotor period (roughly birth to 2 years) -- Preoperational period (roughly...

3. Freud's and Erikson's psychoanalytic theories -- Freud: biographical sketch -- General orientation to the theory: Dynamic approach -- Structural approach -- Topographic approach -- Normal-abnormal continuum -- Methodology -- Description of stages: Oral stage (roughly birth to 1 year) -- Anal stag...

Erikson: biographical sketch -- General orientation to the theory: Psychosocial stages -- Emphasis on identity -- Expansion of psychoanalytic methodology -- Description of the stages: Stage I: Basic trust versus basic mistrust (roughly birth to 1 year) -- Stage 2: Autonomy versus shame and doubt (ro...

4. Vygotsky and the sociocultural approach: biographical sketch -- General orientation to the theory: Child-in-activity-in-cultural-context as the unit of study -- Zone of proximal development -- The sociocultural origins of individual mental functioning: the intermental constructs the intramental -...

5. Social learning theory -- History of the theory -- Learning theory -- Social learning theory -- General orientation to the theory: Observational learning -- Causal model includes environment-person-behavior system -- Cognitive contributions to learning -- Self-efficacy and agency -- Examples of d...

6. Information-processing theory -- History of the theory -- General orientation to the theory: Humans as information-processing systems -- Development as self-modification -- Task analysis -- Methodology -- Major developmental approaches -- Memory -- Metamemory -- Strategies: acquisition, variabili...

7. Ethology and other evolutionary theories -- History of the theory -- General orientation to the theory: Species-specific innate behavior -- Evolutionary perspective -- Learning predispositions -- Methodology -- Contributions to human developmental psychology -- Infant-caretaker attachment -- Peer...

8. Gibson's ecological theory of perceptual development -- Biographical sketch -- General orientation to the theory: Ecological approach: affordances -- Information is specified in stimulation -- Humans as active perceivers -- Methodology -- Developmental trends: Increasing specificity and economy i...

9. Contemporary minitheories and emerging approaches -- The Theory theory -- Modularity nativism -- Dynamic-systems theory -- Critical psychology: are theories of development gendered? -- Position on developmental issues --

10. Reflections -- Developmental issues revisited: Human nature -- Qualitative versus quantitative development -- Nature versus nurture -- What develops A need for better theoretical accounts of mechanisms of development -- Historical progress of developmental theories.