Kategoria rozwoju w psychologii life-span i jej metodologiczne implikacje

The subject of this paper is the concept of development in life span psychology. The claim was put forward that the picture of human development presented by contemporary developmental psychology is unsatisfactory, and that the reason for this is the incompatibility of the methodological paradigm of natural sciences adopted by psychology with the specificity of the object of study of developmental psychology. An analysis of the nature of development within Bernard Kaplan’s genetic-dramatism perspective and John R. Searle’s theory of mind and social reality was presented. Also, its methodological implications were delineated, drawing attention to the attempt of both perspectives to coordinate the logic of cause and effect with the one of intention, purposes and aims in studying human development.