Action and Self-Development: Theory and Research Through the LifeSpan

This volume presents the reader with a stimulating rich tapestry of essays exploring the nature of action and intentionality, and discussing their role in human development. As the contributions make clear, action is an integrative concept that forms the bridge between our psychological, biological, and sociocultural worlds. Action is also integrative in the sense of entailing motivational, emotional, and cognitive systems, and this integration too is well represented in the chapters. Action is defined, and distinguished from behavior, according to its intentional quality. Thus, a constantly recurring theme in the volume involves the dialectic of action-intentionality, and specifically the questions of how and when these concepts are to be distinguished. For action theorists, action—as distinguished from behavior—constitutes the fundamental mechanism of human development. This commitment is detailed in several essays that explore the life-span implications of action. This timely volume will be must reading for all who want to learn about, or stay current with, contemporary action theoretical approaches to human development. – Willis F. Overton, Temple University The present volume advances the view that we cannot go far in understanding development over the life span without paying heed to self-reflective processes. In a reciprocal way, self-reflection links developmental change in the ways in which the person constructs his or her own development over the life span. Development, action, and intentionality exist, then, in an intimate relationship: As development forms the social and historical settings within which intentional activity is embedded, thus become indispensable categories for developmental theory and research. Due to their potential to integrate culture, history, and personality, action-theoretical concepts have made strong inroads in many areas of social and behavioral research. Within the field of developmental psychology, researchers have come to recognize that developmental patterns, and their variation across historical and social contexts, cannot easily be reduced to invariant laws. Instead, they reflect the agency of both the culture and the person. Issues of intentional self-development gain particular importance within the developmental settings of modernity. Under conditions of cultural acceleration, globalization, and pluralization of life forms, normative "scripts" and timetables of development have become blurred, and people are increasingly forced to take a planful, self-monitoring, and optimizing stance toward their own behavior and development. As will become evident throughout this ground-breaking book, an action perspective on development covers a broad spectrum of theoretical approaches. Concepts such as "personal goals," "personal projects," "life themes," "meaning," "life planning," "compensation," or "intentional self-development" have become the nuclei of innovative research programs. The chapters collected in this volume, by scholars on the forefront of action theory and research, provide an indication of the promise that these notions hold for life-span developmental psychology, motivation research, and research on aging.

Table of Contents:
Introduction - Jochen Brandtstädter and Richard M Lerner Development, Action and Intentionality PART ONE: DEVELOPMENT AS A PERSONAL AND SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION Revisiting ′Individuals as Producers of Their Development′ - Richard M Lerner and Ted Walls From Dynamic Interactionism to Developmental Systems The Self in Action and Development - Jochen Brandtstädter Cultural, Biosocial and Ontogenetic Bases of Intentional Self-Development Selectivity in Lifespan Development - Jutta Heckhausen and Richard Schulz Biological and Societal Canalizations and Individuals′ Developmental Goals Freedom Isn′t Free - Dale Dannefer Power, Alienation and the Consequences of Action The Dynamic Co-Development of Intentionality, Self and Social Relations - Michael F Mascolo, Kurt W Fischer and Robert Neimeyer PART TWO: DESIGNING PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS: GOALS, PLANS AND FUTURE SELVES The Pursuit of Personal Goals - Joachim C Brunstein, Oliver C Schultheiss and Günter W Maier A Motivational Approach to Well-Being and Life Adjustment Personal Projects and Social Ecology - Brian R Little Themes and Variations across the Life-Span Life Planning - Jacqui Smith Anticipating Future Life Goals and Managing Personal Development The Process of Meaning Construction - Ingrid E Josephs, Jaan Valsiner and Seth E Surgan Dissecting the Flow of Semiotic Activity A Motivational-Volitional Perspective on Identity Development - Peter M Gollwitzer et al Free Fantasies about the Future and the Emergence of Developmental Goals - Gabriele Oettingen PART THREE: RESILIENCE AND EFFICACY ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN Psychological Control in Later Life - Helene H Fung, Ronald P Abeles and Laura L Carstensen Implications for Life-Span Development Intentional Self-Development through Adulthood and Later Life - Jochen Brandtstädter, Dirk Wentura and Klaus Rothermund Tenacious Pursuit and Flexible Adjustment of Goals Successful Development and Aging - Alexandra M Freund, Karen Z H Li and Paul B Baltes The Role of Selection, Optimization and Compensation in Successful Aging Emotional Learning and Mechanisms of Intentional Psychological Change - Karen S Quigley and Lisa Feldman Barrett Action Regulation, Coping and Development - Ellen A Skinner

About the Author :
Richard M. Lerner is the Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science and the Director of the Applied Developmental Science Institute in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University. A developmental psychologist, Lerner received a Ph.D. in 1971 from the City University of New York. He has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Psychological Association, and American Psychological Society. Prior to joining Tufts University, he held administrative posts at Michigan State University, Pennsylvania State University, and Boston College, where he was the Anita L. Brennan Professor of Education and the Director of the Center for Child, Family, and Community Partnerships. In 1994-95, he held the Tyner Eminent Scholar Chair in the Human Sciences at Florida State University. He is author or editor of 55 books and more than 360 scholarly articles and chapters. He edited Volume 1 (Theoretical Models of Human Development) for the fifth edition of the Handbook of Child Psychology. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Research on Adolescence and Applied Developmental Science. He is known for his theory of, and research about, relations between life-span human development and contextual or ecological change. Lerner has done foundational studies of adolescents’ relations with their peer, family, school, and community contexts and is a leader in the study of public policies and community-based programs aimed at the promotion of positive youth development. With Sage, he authored America’s Youth in Crisis: Challenges and Options for Programs and Policies (1995), co-edited the four-volume Handbook of Applied Developmental Science, and is co-editing the two-volume Encyclopedia of Applied Developmental Science.