| Abstract: | Comments on establishing the concept of development as a dynamic force in the field of health psychology. It is contended that one potential direction is an increased emphasis on life-span interventions and on the identification of critical developmental junctures of vulnerability to health risks and receptivity toward health interventions. The most effective way to map those areas of development in which highest risk or greatest receptivity in intervention occurs is to examine the process of development by using a longitudinal design with age-appropriate, periodic measurement of all relevant variables. For the most part, psychologists' interests should be on the area in the developmental continuum that characterizes study participants' abilities and experiences, instead of participants' chronological age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
