An elaboration of non-linear, non-ergodic and self-organizing processes.:Understanding the bumps and jumps in adolescent development

Adolescence is a period in which a lot of spectacular developmental processes are visible, and that makes this period especially well-suited for a dynamic systems approach. Adolescent development is characterized by turbulence and irregularity. Developmental processes in adolescence take place in different domains at the same time and these domains influence each other in complex ways. This chapter focuses on three different but related characteristics of the developmental process: non-linearity, non-ergodicity, and self-organization. Characteristics of the individual trajectories, such as patterns of variability and change in variability, reveal much relevant information about developmental processes. The chapter elaborates an example of daily experiences and commitment formation to show how dynamic systems concepts may help to explain non-linear trajectories. De Ruiter et al. developed the SOSE model, which, starting from the notion of self-organization, describes how the real-time interactions between parents and adolescents give rise to trait self-esteem.</p

Mastering (with) a handicap : the development of task-attitudes in physically handicapped children

The research described in this book concerns the development of competence-motivation, perceived motivation and perceived control in physically handicapped children.

Detecting Patterns of Dynamic Teacher-Learner Interactions in Online Adult Learning through a Dynamic Systems Approach

This study investigated dynamic teacher-learner interaction patterns in the context of adult online learning. The significance of this study is that it shows the applicability of dynamic systems approach in research on online adult learning. We employ a dynamic systems approach method, the State Space Grid, to capture dynamic interaction patterns between a teacher and learners. Results showed that the interaction patterns and their characteristics were distinct in each experimental class, but results also indicated that some interaction patterns were recurrent over the course. Research implications are briefly discussed

An elaboration of non-linear, non-ergodic and self-organizing processes.: Understanding the bumps and jumps in adolescent development

Adolescent development is characterized by turbulence and irregularity. Developmental processes in adolescence take place at different domains at the same time and these domains influence each other in complex ways. Some processes take place at high speed, while others are slow, and in some domains no development is visible. Moreover, this development takes place in an environment that is complex and changing as well. As a result developmental trajectories in individuals are characterized by fluctuations, bumps, regressive periods, and other seemingly chaotic patterns. The common approach to development tends to focus on normative development and in development in subgroups, and often neglects the irregularities of developmental processes as resulting from random influences and noise, and our methodology is not well suited to grasp jumping and bumping adolescent development. However, these irregularities are at the core of the developmental processes, and we miss a lot of relevant knowledge if we ignore them. In this chapter I elaborate that to understand the characteristics of these developmental processes we need another conceptual framework - the dynamic systems perspective - and related to that, other methods to analyze these processes. I discuss the theoretical implications of a complex dynamic approach that can help us to get more profound insight in the developmental processes. I focus on three different but related characteristics of the developmental process: non-linearity, non-ergodicity, and self-organization. The most important consequence of each of these three characteristics is that we need to study individual development. To start with, I therefore elaborate how our knowledge expands if we focus on intra individual dynamic processes. The three types of studies I describe coincide with the more general phases in the research in developmental psychology (see Côté, this volume). In the first phase theories intended to describe normative, population-level development; in the second phase these theories were criticized for not identifying group differences and interaction effects. In this phase much research focus on these differences/effects; in the third phase, emerging in the last decades, ways of thinking came up that stated that the previous approaches neglected the intra-individual developmental processes that follow different principles. Today, we see research belonging to each of these phases, as illustrated in the first section of the chapter