Divergent understandings of the nature of development result from incompatible
philosophical assumptions or world views. One perspective maintains that reality is
best represented as stable and fixed, and as a consequence development or change is
understood as a function of antecedent causes. A second perspective maintains that
reality is best represented as active and changing, and as a consequence the course
of development does not permit antecedent causal explanation. Implications for the
investigation and explanation of development are discussed. A major implication of
the determining influence of the two world views involves the
continuity-discontinuity issue, i.e., the issue of the appearance of
novelty during the course of development and the explanation of novelty. The
stability perspective asserts a strict continuity in that it allows for no gaps in
antecedent-consequent causal sequences. The activity and change perspective permits discontinuity.
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