Chapter 2: Developing “Development” in Theory and Method: A Commentary on Kleine-Horst (2007)

Developmental thinking begins when we stop looking for the things of the world and start focusing on unfolding events. I will refer to the “things” orientation as an objects approach and its alternative as a process approach. An objects approach is concerned with classing and comparing static things. In contradistinction, by process I mean to imply an interest in movement, transformation, and synthesis. From this orientation we ask questions about the mechanisms and constraints of movement, how processes come into being and fade away. Abstractly we can distinguish the two by saying that an objects approach (nondevelopmental) is concerned with “being,” while a process approach (developmental) is concerned with “becoming” (Valsiner, 2003). Table 2.1 represents the logical form.