Editor's Welcome
Brian R. Little, Harvard University and Carleton University

Welcome to the first issue of the SSHD Networker. We chose the term "Networker" as it conveys the inter-disciplinary commitments of SSHD--from neural nets to social and community networks, and our desire to form a dynamic network of like-minded scholars. We intend the Networker to be "published" twice a year and serve a number of linked functions. Primarily, we want us all to know what we are all up to in the area of developmental science, broadly defined. Here are some of the features we plan to include in the Networker, though not all of them will appear in each issue:

o Messages and exhortations from the Steering Committee Members, including the Chair, Chair-Elect and Chairs of the various Committees. This issue we feature reports from the Chair and Chair-Elect of the Steering Committee and from the Chair of the Publishing Committee.

o Featured books and articles that will be of particular interest to the membership. These will begin with the second issue of the Networker in Spring, 2003.

o Interviews with Scholars and Students drawn from our membership highlighting their current or planned research. These will largely focus on achievements and growing points in the field, but I would be happy to see an occasional account of research ventures that didn't work out quite as well as expected. As a Canadian, writing in November, 2002, I wouldn't dare ask for examples of moronic research ventures. But many of us have personal examples of Why I Will Never Do A Study Like That Again. Students, surprisingly, seem to enjoy and recall those accounts more than our Major Success stories. However, the ratio should be sufficiently in favor of our successes that we maintain a collective illusory glow of efficacy. We welcome suggestions for people you wish to have interviewed. Self-nominations will be construed as engagement with SSHD, not narcissism.

o Featured Programs in Developmental Science or related areas which exemplify the common vision of SSHD. We very much want to sample a diversity of schools and programs, not just the Big Ones (though they are welcome) but also the smaller boutique programs which have a distinctive and compelling climate of research, teaching and community action in developmental science. In this issue we are delighted to feature Tufts University which has contributed substantially to the founding and growth of SSHD. We look forward to featuring programs in the Middle Kingdom, the Wild North and the Left Coast in future issues.

o Announcements of Forthcoming Events. Our Conferences, already a major success story, will continue to stimulate interest and growth in SSHD and the Radcliffe Conference for 2003 is well ahead of schedule and features (as you will see in this issue) a stellar array of speakers. But we will also include related Conferences and Workshops of potential interest to the membership and welcome suggestions. We are fully cognizant of the fact that most members of SSHD are psychologists. But our collegial embrace extends to biologists, physicians, educators, anthropologists, geneticists and all disciplines who care about the shape of human lives. So please let us know of your conferences and of the articles and research groups that keep you awake at night with excitement.

o Under the leadership of Elizabeth Dowling, who is de facto Student Editor of the Networker, we are very committed to providing a forum and voice for students. We will feature student interviews, sometimes linked to Feature Articles on their particular Programs; sometimes independently. This issue we feature Aida Balsano, who offers an exceptionally interesting perspective on why we are attracted to developmental science. We also are inviting students to use the Faculty members of SSHD (and their fellow students) as sounding boards for research ideas. We plan to have an interactive Q&A feature so that students planning research or running into complexities in the course of their studies can call on us for mentorly advice (or at least commiseration!).

o Unlike the formal journals, Newsletters afford us the opportunity to let our hair down. I encourage submissions from SSHD members that deal with the more human and humane aspects of our lives. For example, I see the value of having some of the following appear in future issues of the Networker:

• a column on favorite questions that doctoral committee members ask students in their final oral examination. For example, my favorite is "We are your examining committee, but you could have chosen another one. Who would have been your Committee from Hell?" The most frequent responses, other than nominating me for asking the question, is the author of their stats textbook and the infamous reviewer "C" who wrote an unpleasant review about their lab's most recent article. Other students, showing considerable creative composure under duress have invoked historical figures from the field of developmental science, broadly construed (like Aristotle, Darwin or Rich Lerner).
  
• I once had an eminent colleague show us the series of rejection letters she had received prior to publishing an article that ended up as a Citation Classic. This modeled both the unstable equilibrium known as academic reviewing and the virtues of persistence. Many students were stunned to see how much vitriol can be squeezed into reviews, but learned the virtues of “re-submitting” and resilience. Any eminent (or imminently eminent) scholars wishing to show us their "warts" and all letters of rejection, studied incomprehension are warmly invited to share them with us. It humanizes the process of scientific communication. Obviously we will respect confidentiality and names will be changed to protect the CV.
  
• Given that we are an interactive web-based Newsletter I welcome hot links to relevant sites, pictures, playful and creative invitations to reflection, anything that will consolidate our identity as a group of concerned scientists as well as caring human beings. Or cranky, for that matter. If you have another developmentalist with whom you have sharp differences of opinion on matters central to our field, why not organize a debate on it. Was William James right that by the age of thirty our personalities are "set like plaster?" I have argued that we are at most "half plastered" but others might want to make a passionate case for unmitigated plasticity. The Networker can serve as a forum for stimulating exchanges of this sort. We even aspire to being a forum for the initiation of collaboration in testing contrasting and conflicting hypotheses in a spirit of collegial curiosity.
  
• I urge you to consider ways of participating in SSHD and in using the Networker as a way of working your nets to mutual advantage. It should be a locus of passionate, poignant, and playful entries all co-mingled. Like our lives.
  

I think it is important for SSHD members to know the nature of the origin of our society. So I am delighted that Richard Lerner and Jackie James our current and future Chairs have offered very personal reflections on how we came to be. They are precisely the kind of personal statements about our field that the Networker strives to capture and disseminate. I wish to thank those all of those who have contributed to this initial Issue, particularly the heroic efforts of Karyn Lu on the technical side. And I would appreciate hearing from you with suggestions, concerns and with commitments to join in on this audacious journey in interdisciplinary science.

I welcome comments and suggestions about future issues of the Networker. Email me at little@wjh.harvard.edu.

Highlights in this issue

Chairs' Column (Richard Lerner and Jackie James): "The idea for the Society for the Study of Human Development (SSHD) arose in Sweden about six years ago, during a week long celebration and symposium in honor of the career achievements of David Magnusson. Paul Baltes and I, along with the other conference participants, were on a bus taking us from Wyk's Castle to Stockholm..." [read more]

Feature School (Tufts): In each issue, the SSHD Networker will focus on a different academic department that pursues scholarship pertinent to the vision and goals of SSHD. In this inaugural issue we have elected to describe the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University and its Applied Developmental Science Institute (ADSI). [read more]

Third SSHD Meeting (Harvard): Plans are well in place for the third SSHD Meeting to be held in November, 2003 at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. The Conference Chair, Gisela Labouvie-Vief has attracted a stellar group of developmental scientists spanning the full spectrum of SSHD's intellectual vision... [read more]

Publications Committee Report (Susan Whitbourne): "On behalf of the Publications Committee, I am pleased to announce that our Society has signed a contract with Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. Volume I of Research in Human Development is scheduled for publication in January 2004..." [read more]

Personal Projects Analysis Workshop: The Murray Center at Harvard is sponsoring 2 workshops in 2002-2003 for researchers who wish to learn more about methods for person-centered analysis. The first workshop focuses on Little’s Personal Projects Analysis (PPA), a qualitative method that has been adopted extensively in the fields of personality, health, and life-span developmental psychology. It examines the goals, tasks, and commitments people make throughout their lives and has been frequently adopted as a way of assessing quality of life and diverse forms of well-being... [read more]

Job Announcements: Listing of faculty and other positions available at various institutions... [read more]

Grants, Fellowships, and Awards: Listing of available research grants, awards, and fellowships... [read more]

Graduate Students' Corner: Meet Aida Balsano... [read more]