Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>The fundamentals of developmental psychobiology (DPB) include the natural history orientation in research and a historical stance on investigating development. The natural history orientation is reflected in the adoption of the four questions that Nikolaas Tinbergen proposed could be asked about any behavioral pattern (about its phylogeny, adaptiveness, proximate causes, and development), but it must be recognized that these questions reflect the interests/aims of the researcher and not separable causes of behavior. Examining development with a historical stance means that research attention is focused on how developmental abilities and traits emerge from the earlier transactions among physiological, biomechanical, and environmental processes. DPB adopted Theodore Schneirla’s emphasis on examining both the differences and the similarities in behavioral organization across species at different phyletic levels and across functional orders of organization (cellular, organ system, etc.) within an individual. These four fundamentals distinguish DPB from other developmental disciplines that integrate biological and psychological information. As a discipline, DPB more readily aligns with the modern constructs of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis than with the older, but more prevalent, Standard Theory of evolution. DPB also aligns with modern constructs from ecological evolutionary developmental (Eco-Evo-Devo) biology. This alignment also directs attention to the importance of parental care and permits developmental plasticity in morphology and behavior to become the source for adaptation and speciation rather than genetic mutation. Combining Eco-Evo-Devo with developmental psychobiology will improve greatly our understanding of nonhuman and human behavioral/psychological development, with consequential improvements in human health care, animal husbandry, ecological conservation, and human education.</jats:p>