Some theoretical issues confronting developmental psychologists.

A nagging persistent problem for developmental psychologists has always been the nativism-empiricism controversy. It is still with us today in almost every facet of developmental psychology. This issue is leading to an increasing "ecological" perspective in developmental psychology the end result of which is not clear yet. While Piagetian theory remains the reference point for much of cognitive developmental psychology, there has been a very marked decline in the degree to which many cognitive researchers subscribe to that theory. At the moment there is no grand integrative theory of cognitive development such Piaget's, much less of the field of developmental psychology as a whole. However, this may mean that the field as a whole is more open to different theoretical approaches. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)