DEVELOPMENT, METHODOLOGY AND RECURRENCE OF UNSOLVED PROBLEMS - ON THEMODERNITY OF OLD IDEAS

Contemporary developmental psychology may be in a historical phase of attempting to eliminate development from its focus. Such paradoxical s tate may be an example of a recurrent state of non-developmentalism in the tension that exists between non-developmental and developmental p erspectives within psychology. The major contribution of Piaget and Vy gotsky was the effort to maintain an explicit, processes-oriented deve lopmental perspective on psychological phenomena. That perspective is in line with other directions of theoretical thought in developmental biology, and fits the axiomatic basis of development - its open-system ic nature. The latter sets up strict criteria for empirical research m ethodology, which is oriented towards the description of emergent proc esses.