ABSTRACT
Such knowledge may provide both rich and detailed depictions of past, contemporary, and likely future scholarship pertinent to the adolescent developmental period. For instance, such knowledge may elucidate why the field is structured as it now is, explain why particular theories, methods, and substantive areas are of contemporary focal concern, and indicate what scientific issues have been resolved, what limitations of scholarship have been overcome, and what challenges exist for advancing science and its application. In short, the value of understanding the history of the developmental science of adolescence is that such knowledge provides lessons (“sample cases”)
about how to best describe, explain, and optimize the life chances of the diverse young people of our world. To paraphrase philosopher George Santayana (1905), if we want to gain from our successes and learn from our failures, we need to understand our history.
