On the idiographic approach in the context of developmental psychology

The paper addresses some theoretical and methodological issues concerning the application of the idiographic approach in the context of developmental studies. The nature of the scientific inquire according to a Galilean perspective will be described and we will discuss how this perspective can be employed in order to explore the issue of causality and prediction in the domain of developmental phenomena. We will intro- duce the Vygotskijan approach that takes as the basic unit of study the-child-active-in– a-context. We will argue that the microgenetic method can indeed provide a suitable framework to describe development and learning in single case studies by tracking evolution and change on the run, provided that a very rigorous control of setting and timing is granted by the research design. Relevant points will be illustrated with the material provided by the two studies by Travers Simon (2010) and by Rodriguez (2010), published in this volume.