This volume is the second in a new series designed, as the name implies, to
survey in thoughtful detail important new strides in developmental psychology.
In selecting the chapters to appear in this volume, we first identified those
researchers whose recent work has provided or promises to provide new under-
standing of the processes and course of development across the life span. Each of
the researchers so identified was then invited to prepare a manuscript describing
the research and its theoretical implications. These manuscripts were reviewed
by the editors and several consultant experts and were then revised by the authors
in the light of this feedback. As a result, the chapters present exceptionally
valuable perspectives on those aspects of developmental psychology exhibiting
significant recent progress.

Readers might find it valuable if we articulated the philosophy that guided the
preparation of this volume and will guide the preparation of later volumes in the
series. First and foremost, the "advances" worthy of treatment in our series must
involve methodologically appropriate empirical work that has clear and signifi-
cant implications for the understanding and conceptualization of developmental
process. The processes we wish to elucidate are not those that were central to
"experimental child psychology"--they are processes that facilitate expla-
nations of development across the life span. The emphasis on heuristically signif-
icant endeavors is evident in each of the chapters in this volume. The authors all
present theoretical frameworks that provide testable predictions whose verifica-
tion or refutation is likely to clarify the nature and process of development.
Finally, we have sampled from a diverse array of areas in developmental
psychology--not simply the traditional areas of social and cognitive develop-
ment. In this and in future volumes, we include chapters concerned with atypical

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