WELCOME TO SSHD!
Why You Should Join SSHD - Richard Lerner, Tufts University
There are five reasons why I believe colleagues and graduate students should join SSHD. Together, I believe these reasons make a compelling case for becoming a member of this singularly important scholarly organization.
1. Theory
Today, developmental science is framed by relational developmental systems theory, and SSHD is the only scholarly organization that uses this theoretical approach to organize its conferences and flagship journal, Research in Human Development (RHD).
2. Multidisciplinary integration across the life span
Given its approach to developmental theory, SSHD brings together scientists from an array of disciplines, ranging from biology (including evolution) through sociology, economics, cultural studies, and history, to discuss the study of development across the life span. As a consequence, SSHD is the only U.S.-based developmental science society that forwards a multidisciplinary, life-span approach to human development.
3. Applied developmental science
Given the approach to theory and research framing the scholarly interests of SSHD members, the potential for human plasticity is a key idea forwarded within SSHD. The focus on this idea is associated with interest in how knowledge of development may be applied to capitalize on human plasticity and to promote (through intervention programs or policies) more positive relations between individuals and their ecology.
4. Developmental methodology
Members of SSHD recognize that to study the changing systems of integrated relations within the relational developmental system, new research designs and data analytic approaches are needed. From its inceptions, SSHD has been a leader in scholarship pertinent to such methodological innovations and, in fact, several issues of RHD have been devoted to the new approaches to studying intraindividual change and developmental systems. Accordingly, membership in SSHD enable colleagues and graduate students to become part of a network composed of cutting-edge developmental methodologists.
5. Training a new generation of developmental scientists
The membership of SSHD is committed to enhancing the opportunities of graduate students and new Ph.D.s to gain the theoretical, methodological, and applied knowledge needed to use these scholarly tools in their own work, and to pursue their careers in the context of a scholarly society aimed at mentoring and on enhancing the professional networks of young scholars.
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Richard M. Lerner, Ph.D.
Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science
Director, Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development
301 Lincoln Filene Building
Tufts University
Medford, MA 02155
richard.lerner@tufts.edu