Decades of Pursuing Knowledge for Action

Reviews the book, Child development and social policy: Knowledge for action edited by J. Lawrence Aber, Sandra J. Bishop-Josef, Stephanie M. Jones, Kathryn Taaffe McLearn, and Deborah A. Phillips (see record 2006-11739-000). This edited volume of 16 chapters plus an introduction and epilogue describes several decades of efforts to use research to improve the life circumstances of children and families. Its subtitle is therefore appropriately "knowledge for action." Most of the contributors are researchers. All are trained in research. Together they make the important but often neglected point that action should always be based on knowledge and science is one of the most important vehicles we have for gathering knowledge. No other scholar of developmental psychology has been more active or more influential in bringing research to bear on social policy than has Edward Zigler. Child development and social policy: Knowledge for action, therefore, celebrates the life and scholarship of Zigler, Sterling Professor of Psychology emeritus and founder and director of the Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy, Yale University. This impressive volume, part of the Decade of Behavior series of the American Psychological Association, is a fitting documentation and recognition of the outstanding lifelong contribution Zigler has made to this field. The volume itself is a product of a festschrift in honor of Zigler. This is an outstanding volume that should help chart our future course in producing knowledge for action. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)