ABSTRACT
The study of development has been a particular hostage in psychology because its phenomena and general psychology’s methodological imperatives have passed one another by. This chapter presents a framework for analyzing and constructing scientific methods appropriate to the specific problems arising in the study of development. Developmental science, in contrast, seeks to build its generalizations ideographically. The key to Fischer’s innovation over the past four decades is in the basic acceptance of the dynamic variability of cognitive processes and viewing it as the crucial norm for development. The move toward future development can be depicted by web images unfolding over time in which some past microdevelopments have been actualized into ontogenetic development while others remain non-actualized, and potential future actualization can be seen as a function of the developing agent’s constructions in relation to differing environmental possibilities. One way to approach a specifically developmental methodology can be found in what has been called the Methodology Cycle.
