Willis Overton

Willis (Bill) F. Overton is the Thaddeus Lincoln Bolton Professor of Psychology, Emeritus in the Psychology Department at Temple University. Professor Overton has been Editor of Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, Associate Editor of Developmental Psychology, and board member of many developmental and cognitive-developmental journals. He is a Fellow of Divisions 7 (Developmental), 12 (Clinical), and 20 (Aging) of the American Psychological Association; Past President of the Jean Piaget Society and currently Past-President of the Society for the Study of Human Development. His empirical research has focused on cognitive development; specifically the development of reasoning.  His theoretical writings have examined the nature and impact of metatheoretical assumptions on concepts and methods in psychology, including analyses of the structure of developmental theory, the place of a Process-Relational scientific paradigm and a Relational Developmental  Systems metamodel in our understanding of development and developmental science, the assumptive base of the nature-nurture debate, and the role of reductionism in contemporary developmental methodology.