This collection of essays examines how the social sciences in America were developed as a means of social reform and later, especially after World War II, as a tool in federal policymaking and policy analysis. It also uses arenas of policymaking, such as early childhood education and welfare and its reform, as case studies in which social research was used, in policy decisions or in setting and evaluating policy goals. The book is written to aid students of public policy to appreciate the complex relationship of information--principally, of social science research--to policymaking at the...

The final volume in this significant series, this publication mirrors the broad scientific attention given to ideas and issues associated with the life-span perspective: constancy and change in human development; opportunities for and constraints on plasticity in structure and function across life; the potential for intervention across the entire life course (and thus for the creation of an applied developmental science); individual differences (diversity) in life paths, in contexts (or the ecology) of human development, and in changing relations between people and contexts; interconnections...

This volume continues the tradition of the Life-Span Development Series, presenting overviews of research programs on a variety of developmental topics. Research and theory in life-span development have given increased attention to the issues of constancy and change in human development and to the opportunities for, and constraints on, plasticity in structure and function across life. Acknowledging the need for and existence of interconnection between age and developmental periods, it focuses on conditions for possibly discontinuous development that emerge at later periods. Contributors to...

This volume continues the tradition of the Life-Span Development Series, presenting overviews of research programs on a variety of developmental topics. Research and theory in life-span development have given increased attention to the issues of constancy and change in human development and to the opportunities for, and constraints on, plasticity in structure and function across life. Acknowledging the need for and existence of interconnection between age and developmental periods, it focuses on conditions for possibly discontinuous development that emerge at later periods. Contributors to...

The final volume in this significant series, this publication mirrors the broad scientific attention given to ideas and issues associated with the life-span perspective: constancy and change in human development; opportunities for and constraints on plasticity in structure and function across life; the potential for intervention across the entire life course (and thus for the creation of an applied developmental science); individual differences (diversity) in life paths, in contexts (or the ecology) of human development, and in changing relations between people and contexts; interconnections...