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Abstract
Developmental science theorists fully acknowledge the wide array of complex interactions among biology, behavior, and environment that together give rise to development. However, despite this conceptual understanding of development as a system, developmental science has not fully applied analytic methods commensurate with this systems perspective. This article provides a brief introduction to systems science, an approach to problem solving that involves the use of methods especially equipped to handle complex relationships and their evolution over time. In addition, a rationale is provided for why and how these methods can serve the needs of the developmental science research community.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank Michael Spittel and Laura M. Koehly for reviewing an earlier version of this work. N.D.O. thanks the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for financial support of his research program (NSERC Discovery Grant RGPIN-327290-20).
The article presented here is the sole work of the author and does not imply or reflect official positions of the National Institutes of Health or the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research.
Notes
1The Add Health database (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth) is a rich source of publicly available, longitudinal, network data relevant to the interests of developmental scientists.
2These opportunities are disseminated via the BSSR-Systems Science Listserv. Contact the list owner (Patricia Mabry: [email protected]) to join the listserv.