Person-in-Environment Transitions

Abstract

Four theoretical perspectives-role theory, family theory, person/life span theory, and a holistic, developmental, systems-oriented theory-that examine critical person-in-environment transitions through the life span are described and compared with respect to central theme/world hypothesis, unit of analysis, treatment of change, problem formulation, methodology, and types of research conducted. Areas are indicated where study of critical transitions can be profitably pursued.

Personality Development: Systems Theories

“…The theory developed by Seymour Wapner (2000) connects organismic and contextual approach for examining human development. It integrates individuals and their environment into a single unit which it calls the person-in-environment system.…”

“…It is based on extending the theory of Heinz Werner to life-span development (Valsiner, 2005). This approach focuses not only on the development of the child but also on the development in the adult age, social relationships, health problems, changes in the physical environment, cross-cultural psychology, psychopathology, and psychology of organizations (e.g., Wapner, 2000;Wapner and Demick, 2003;etc. It rejects any reductionism, particularly biological.…”

Distinguishing between Development and Change: Reviving Organismic-Developmental Theory

“…It has an entirely different origin; it is prior to any division into elements whatsoever … The elements are not precedent to the whole, but the whole, as a basic entity, is the precursor of its component parts. [Werner, 1940[Werner, /1980] Raeff Wapner's elaborations of organismic-developmental theory also starts with the assumption of interrelations [Wapner, 2000;Wapner & Demick, 1998. That is,…”

“…For example, he argued that person-environment relations can be conceptualized and analyzed developmentally in terms of the orthogenetic principle [Wapner, 2000;Wapner & Demick, 1998. That is, in dedifferentiated personin-environment relations, there is typically 'passive accommodation (whereby the individual passively goes along with environmental demands)' [Wapner & Demick, 2005, p. 292].…”

“…Ultimately, systematic research is needed to discern patterns of functioning along the continuous dimensions for varied modes of action. It is also important to point out that although I have referred to these constructs as continuous dimensions, Werner [1940Werner [ /1980 referred to them as 'conceptual opposites' (p. 54), and Wapner [2000] referred to them as 'polarities ' (p. 8). This terminology sets the dimensions up as dichotomies, which can easily lead to focusing on the extreme endpoints, and viewing the endpoints as mutually exclusive.…”