Dynamic System Theory: A New Approach To Developmental Psychology Research

Dynamic systems theory (DST) has been an important part in developmental psychology since 1980s. This theory absorbs the evolutionary thinking in systems science, emphasizing the non-linear development of mind and behavior of an individual. It includes two main branches: Groningen approach and Bloomington approach. The former, which is also called inclusive approach, admits the existence of mental structure. It treats mental structure and function, mental organization and process as two sides of the same coin, suggesting that both of these two things are legal in psychological research. The latter, namely exclusive approach, regards the real time activity in particular context as the primary role. It proposes that abstract concepts (e.g.,mental structure and organization) are just a by-product of real time activity, so they can not explain the mental activities all by themselves.As dynamic systems theory considers, an individual is not isolated with its environment, but forms a multi-hierarchical structure which embeds mind in brain,embeds brain in body and embeds body in environment. This structure is not static but dynamically changing in real time. The individual's development is not determined by gene or environment alone but a result of the complex interaction of multiple factors.In addition, there is no "control center" in developmental process. Instead,the development of an individual depends on his history and accomplishes adaption during the real time interaction with environment. To achieve this goal, dynamic systems theorists uses many terms (e.g., state space, attractor, self-organization,emergence, transformation and bifurcation) to describe the mental structure, dynamics and development of an individual.Dynamic systems approach powerfully shocks the status of Cartesian dualism in psychological field, actively promotes the complexity transformation of psychology and offers new research methods to developmental psychology. However, this approach is difficult and its theoretical basis is not unified. In the future, it should consummate its theory and research methods and then becomes the mainstream of developmental psychology and an irreplaceable part of the whole psychology field.