1 The Concept of Action: A Historical Perspective -- I. Introduction -- II. Action theory and the organismic paradigm -- III. On autonomous man -- IV. Alternative action models -- V. A learning theory approach -- VI. Actions and psychological theory -- VII. Intentional actions -- VIII. Structural developmental theory and action theory -- IX. The concept of "locus of control" -- X. Plans of action -- XI. A developmental perspective -- XII. Conclusion -- 2 Determinants of Action: An Organismic and Holistic Approach -- I. Introduction -- II. Self-regulation -- III. How selfish is self-regulation? -- IV. Determinants of action -- V. An activity-levels model of development: Organism- environment interaction -- VI. Development of the self-system -- 3 Self-object Relation as a Basis of Human Development -- I. Introduction -- II. The formation of self-object relations -- III. The social nature of object relations -- IV. The other side of the coin: Social interaction as shared object relations -- V. Valences of objects -- VI. General principles of self-object relations: Looking at the process -- VII. Some developmental trends -- VIII. Application of the action categories to children's role play: summarizing demonstration -- IX. Concluding remarks -- 4 The Role of Internalization in the Transfer of Mnemonic Strategies -- I. Introduction -- II. A framework for examining transfer -- III. Current research on the transfer of memory strategies -- IV. The development of transfer skill: Analyzing variability -- V. Children as adaptive memorizers: The Vygotskyan approach and the social nature of cognitive tasks -- 5 The Significance and Function of Students' Goals -- I. Introduction -- II. The significance of students' goals -- III. Dimensions of students' goals -- IV. Changes and stabilities in students' goals -- V. Conclusion -- 6 Interests and their Structural Development: Theoretical Reflections -- I. Introduction -- II. Philosophy of man: Relationships with the environment and action theory -- III. Affect and motivation -- IV. Social cognition -- V. Model of self-regulation -- VI. The development of self-regulation: A selective review of the literature -- VII. Conclusion -- 7 Interest Development as Structural Change in Person-Object Relationships -- I. Introduction -- II. Theoretical framework -- III. Structural aspects of the development of interest -- IV. The interest genesis Project: Goals and methods -- V. Theoretical clarification of casuistic results -- VI. Concluding remarks -- 8 Continuity in Young Children's Actions: A Consideration of Interest and Temperament -- I. Introduction -- II. Interest -- III. Temperament -- IV. The role of interest in young children's temperament -- V. Interest, temperament, and action -- VI. Conclusions -- 9 Interests and Their Structural Development: A Qualitative Content Analysis -- I. Introduction -- II. The development of interests -- III. Interests: Two exploratory studies -- IV. Additional empirical evidence -- V. General conclusion -- Author Index.