Discontinuities Versus Continuities in Behavioural Development and the Neglect of Process

Abstract

The view that behavioural development is continuous, with the child's state at each point in time influencing future behaviour, has recently been challenged. However, the evidence for radical discontinuities between underlying organisations at different stages varies greatly in character and is often equivocal. Apparent discontinuities may appear for trivial reasons. Furthermore, an unequivocal sudden change in behaviour in the course of development may arise from continuous change at an underlying level of organisation. There need be no straightforward relationship between behaviour and the underlying 'psychological structure'. In addition, the complex interaction between sources of variation, and the existence of negative and positive feedback mechanisms in development, make the effects of a given experience difficult to predict. For these different reasons it is argued that a polarisation of views about whether development is continuous or discontinuous is distracting and liable to impede understanding of developmental processes.