Appraising The Human Development Sciences Essays In Honor Of Merrill Palmer Quarterly: Landscapes Of

The year 2004 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Merrill-Palmer Quarterly: A Journal of Developmental Psychology, providing an occasion to celebrate the journal's heritage and its long history of scholarly contributions to its field. This volume celebrates this milestone by bringing together twenty-three distinguished essays that showcase past accomplishments, current progress, and future challenges in the human developmental sciences. The essays presented in this volume offer perspectives on many of the research domains and specialty areas that have been prominent in MPQ's history. Accordingly, chapters are organized around ten conceptual themes, including methodological and interpretive considerations, cognitive development and learning, temperament and emotional development, children's social development and peer relations, family relations, moral development, the nature-nurture debate and behavioral genetics, cultural psychology, early child care and school-readiness, and evidence-based programming and public policy. In addition, an introductory chapter provides a historical overview of MPQ, examining the events, persons, institutional forces, and publication trends that brought the journal into existence and have contributed to its success and longevity. These commentaries are accessible and of interest to all who work with infants, children, adolescents, and families. As a result, this volume will appeal to researchers and professionals alike.

The contributors to this book are indeed pioneers and giants in the field of early childhood development, including Craig Ramey, Sharon Ramey, Robert Sternberg, and Jerome Kagan, just to name a few. Selected chapters represent a broad array of topics addressed over these 50 years with excellent challenges and questions for research and application in the future."--Arie L. Nettles "professor of associate professor of pediatrics and psychologist at the Center for Child Development, Vanderbilt Medical Center, Vanderbilt University ", This volume sets out to celebrate the Quarterly's significant contribution to developmental research and to highlight the advances made in the field since the early 1950s. This is no small undertaking and the editor has successfully compiled a collection of essays that reflect the history, current status, and future directions of developmental science."--Gail A. Brumitt "associate director of the Merrill-Palmer Institute at Wayne State University "

Gary W. Ladd is professor of psychology and family and human development at Arizona State University.