Individuals as Producers of Their Development

Book excerpt: Individuals as Producers of Their Development: A Life-Span Perspective provides an assessment of the usefulness of viewing the individual as an active contributor to his or her development. It extends the breadth of organism-environment reciprocities beyond those involved with the child and family. On the one hand, this extension involves a consideration of the role of evolutionary biological processes; on the other, it pertains to the broader ecology of human development—the social network lying outside the family, and the physical environmental contexts of development. Person-context reciprocities linked to variables that may play their greatest role in the extrafamilial context are also considered. Variables such as physical attractiveness, race, and physical handicap are examples of those discussed in this regard. Finally, because of the greater scope of the analysis, a potentially greater data base is examined in a search for documentation of the presence and role of dynamic person-context interactions.