Applied Developmental Science

Developmental psychology’s emergent identity as an applied developmental science (ADS) reflects our discipline’s rich and complex history and forecasts our discipline’s challenges and opportunities as we begin our second century of science and practice. As proponents of a key subdiscipline of psychology, we continue our commitment to advance psychology “as a science, as a profession, and as a means of promoting human welfare” (American Psychological Association, 2000, p. 1) and to “promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in research, application, and the improvement of human welfare” (American Psychological Society, 2000, p. 1). Fulfilling this commitment involves heeding the recent call of a Nobel Foundation symposium for better integrated models of life-span development and for interdisciplinary and international frameworks (Cairns, 1998; Magnusson, 1996). This chapter provides a brief history of the emergence, or re-emergence, of ADS as a compelling umbrella for advancing developmental psychology, with a particular focus on the first two decades of life, namely, child and adolescent psychology. Consistent with the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary mandates, consideration of the kindred disciplines that partner to advance knowledge follows. Examples of substantive areas of inquiry and action in ADS are then considered, including articulation of the special methods of ADS, the special ethical imperatives of ADS, and some particular training challenges for ADS. DEFINING APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE