PSYC 4220 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Dynamical System, Complex System, System Dynamics
22 Oct 2018
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Document Summary
Any intervention is based on the premise that activities in the here-and-now will effect long- term change. Thus, a useful developmental theory must account not just for the final outcome of development, but also for the mechanisms that engender change. A good developmental theory must encompass all outcomes, individual and atypical as well. Nonoptimal outcomes arise from the same system dynamics that produce more adaptive as universal and typical. patterns. A dynamic systems theory addresses the issues of both mechanism and outcome. Another metaphor for human behavior is a mountain stream. A stream is moving all the time in continuous flow and continuous change. Development is continuous whatever has happened in the past influences what happens in the future. Like the stream, development also has recognizable patterns: milestones and plateaus and ages and stages at which behavior is quite predictable.
