2. Microtime: Refers to the stability or instability of proximal processes over time
This stability or instability influences individual development

3. Steinberg, Darling, & Fletcher (1995)
Focuses on the mesosystem and exosystem
Purpose: To examine the relation between authoritative parenting and adolescents’ academic achievement

4. No relation between authoritative parenting and academic achievement in Hispanic, African-American, or Asian-American (adolescents)
Relation emerged only for European-American adolescents
Why?
Examined links between parenting style and peer relations (mesosystem)
EA adolescents with authoritative parents are more likely to belong to peer crowds that encourage academic achievement

5. No relation between parenting and peer group membership for minority adolescents
Why?
Ethnic segregation of peer groups within the schools
Difficult for African-American adolescents to find a peer group that values academic achievement
Difficult for Asian-American adolescents to find a peer group that doesn’t value academic achievement

6. Also examined the exosystem
Parenting practices of adolescents’ peers’ parents
Adolescents whose parents are authoritative benefit more from a peer network with authoritative parents than do adolescents whose parents are not authoritative

7. Elder, Shanahan, & Clipp (1994)
Influence of time on individual development
Life course is shaped by historical times and events that occur over the life time (macrotime)
The developmental impact of a succession of life events depends on when they occur in a person’s life

8. Analyzed follow-up data from Terman’s (1925) study of individuals with very high IQs
Differences in later adult development were affected by early versus late entrance into military service during wartime
Late entry associated with higher risk of divorce, unsatisfying work life and decline in income, accelerated decline in physical health

9. Dynamic Systems Theory (Thelen & Smith) Two Themes:
Development as the multiple, mutual, and continuous interaction of all the levels of the developing system, from the molecular to the cultural
Development as nested processes that unfold over many timescales from milliseconds to years

10. Defining characteristic of development is the emergence of “novel forms”
New patterns of behavior emerge from “precursors” that don’t contain those patterns
How does this happen?
Neither nature, nurture, nor their interaction can account for this feature of development

11. New patterns in development are created by self-organization
Pattern and order emerge from the interaction of a complex system without explicit instructions (in the organism itself or from the environment)

13. Dynamic Principles Self-organization Open systems
Pattern and order emerge from the interaction of a complex system without explicit instructions
Open systems
Not at equilibrium
Evolve and change because they are continually infused with energy

14. Although components of a self-organizing, open system are numerous and complex, the patterns that emerge can be described more simply than the component parts
Collective variables: Variables consisting of many components
Ex: Walking is a multidetermined behavior
At the level of the Individual components (muscles, tendons, neural pathways, etc.), the system’s behavior is complex
But when the parts cooperate, we can define a collective variable that describes this cooperation

15. Dynamic Stability
A self-organizing, open system displays only one or a very limited subset of possible patterns
“Prefers” only a few modes of behavior
Attractor State: The preferred behavioral pattern of a system
Attractor states vary in terms of their relative stability

17. Soft Assemblies
Very stable attractors may look “hardwired” or “programmed”, but the system is still dynamic—given a big enough push, the system will move
Thus, system is “softly assembled”
Ex: infant crawling