Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa.
Dev Psychol. 2024 Nov;60(11):1992-2007. doi: 10.1037/dev0001657. Epub 2023 Oct 19.
Developmental science aims to explain development across the lifespan. Jerome Kagan observed that the same behavior can occur for different reasons, and differing behaviors can occur for the same reason. To help account for persistence, desistence, and transformation of behavior across development, Kagan introduced various types of continuity and discontinuity of forms and functions of behavior. This framework provides opportunities for identifying explanatory mechanisms in behavior development. However, misconceptions remain in applying the concepts that Kagan introduced. Much of the literature assumes developmental continuity in constructs without examining whether assumptions are supported, leading to faulty developmental inferences. For instance, the use of the same measure across time to assess development assumes that the behavior occurs for the same reason across time (homotypic continuity). In addition, just because one behavior predicts a different behavior at a later time does not necessarily indicate that age-differing behaviors occur for the same reason (heterotypic continuity). This review aims to advance conceptualizations of continuity and discontinuity from a contemporary perspective with aims to improve mechanistic understanding of behavior development across the lifespan. To better align behaviors, functions, and mechanisms, research should (a) examine (dis)continuity of individual behaviors rather than merely syndromes, (b) identify the function(s) of the given behavior(s), and (c) identify the cognitive and biological processes that underlie the behavior-function pairs. Incorporating examples from research on development of humans and nonhuman animals, I discuss challenges from work that has followed Kagan's ideas and ways to advance understanding of continuity and discontinuity across development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
发展科学旨在解释整个生命周期的发展。杰罗姆·卡根（Jerome Kagan）观察到，相同的行为可能出于不同的原因，而不同的行为也可能出于相同的原因。为了帮助解释行为在发展过程中的持续、停止和转变，卡根引入了各种形式和功能的连续性和非连续性。这一框架为识别行为发展中的解释机制提供了机会。然而，在应用卡根提出的概念时仍然存在误解。在没有检查假设是否得到支持的情况下，许多文献假设结构的发展连续性，导致错误的发展推断。例如，在不同时间使用相同的测量方法来评估发展，假设行为在不同时间出于相同的原因发生（同型连续性）。此外，仅仅因为一种行为在稍后时间预测了另一种行为，并不一定表明年龄不同的行为出于相同的原因（异型连续性）。本综述旨在从当代视角推进连续性和非连续性的概念化，旨在提高对整个生命周期行为发展的机制理解。为了更好地协调行为、功能和机制，研究应该：（a）研究个体行为的（不）连续性，而不仅仅是综合征；（b）确定给定行为的功能；（c）确定行为-功能对的认知和生物过程。我通过人类和非人类动物发展研究的例子，讨论了遵循卡根思想的工作所面临的挑战，以及如何推进对发展过程中连续性和非连续性的理解。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2024 APA，保留所有权利）。
