ABSTRACT
This chapter explores principles, theories, and data within the fields of developmental psychology and developmental psychopathology that might strengthen theory and research concerning the causes of eating disorders. It offers uggestions for future research in accordance with a developmental perspective. The emerging field of developmental psychopathology offers five core principles that address these shortcomings: developmental pathways, transactional analyses, molar versus molecular structures, definitions of normal versus abnormal development, and developmental transitions. Eating disorders researchers might look at how body esteem issues or emotional lability are expressed in elementary versus middle versus high school girls. Disturbances of self have long been considered a core feature of the eating disorders. Interest in developmental transitions is more than a simple extension of stressor-appraisal-coping models. The transactional approach differs significantly from the more common additive or interactive models by emphasizing the reciprocal determinism found within the dynamic nature of development.
