Abstract: When first asked to discuss a paper on applications and misapplications of developmental psychology, I immediately thought of issues such as uses and abuses of drug therapy for children, uses and abuses of psychological testing, and assorted failures to apply our knowledge. Instead, when Dr. Salzinger’s paper arrived, I found a survey of our field followed by a discussion of applications of child psychology to education and child rearing. This section did provide a survey of failures to apply our knowledge such as I had anticipated. While I shall discuss her paper one section at a time, it does seem appropriate to set the stage with a more general point. Salzinger seems to feel that there are the good guys and the bad guys. Primarily the latter are characterized by not being active agents for change. It appears to me that the fundamental difference between us lies in the degree to which we think our psychological knowledge can dictate wise directions for efforts to manipulate or change behavior. I would like to cite Sears:3 . . . Experimental methods applied in the laboratory can only discover what antecedents can influence action or development. They can never determine what does. . . . Until meticulous research in naturalistic settings is undertaken, the complex interactions of these [various antecedent conditions] . . . cannot be understood with respect to the behavior of real people in the real world. Many of the points that I make in my comments should be understood as a plea for more studies in naturalistic settings, studies which will enable us to move on into the realm of application with more confidence.

Abstract: ction learning is a recent trend in American A education that is helping redefine the school’s relationship to the community and forecasts a new educational mission and a new set of opportunities and problems for the school. Community-based action learning may involve youth participating in the work and life of the community in at least three ways. As an observer, often in the role of researcher, the student may study how community institutions such as the city manager’s office operates and functions to fulfill civic needs. As an apprentice, usually in an internship, the student learns about the world of the workplace by actually performing in a work role. Finally, in a servicelearning role, a student provides friendship and direct aid to the very young, the old or the infirm in day care centers, nursing homes or hospitals as he or she learns first-hand about the social needs and problems of diverse groups in his or her community. As a promising educational development, it is especially important to assess the costs and benefits of action learning and to weigh carefully its anticipated and unanticipated effects on the individual student, on the school as an institution, and on the larger community. Action learning must be seen in the light of larger societal issues: the relationship of schooling to the transition to adulthood and our nation’s deferred commitment to equal educational opportunity. At the heart of providing quality education for a diversity of students are these questions: What are the competencies-the skills, knowledge,