Dynamic Skill Theory

The ‘Dynamic Skill Theory’, developed by Kurt W. Fischer (Harvard University) in 1980, essentially illustrates the parallel development of individual, initially fragmented functions and competences in the dynamic interaction with their environment, considering personal development via different grades of differentiation and levels of integration.

In classical development theories, children and later adults form competences in specific development cycles in similar ways. So personal development occurs as a kind of differentiation between biologically inherent abilities and the relevant interaction with the environment. This decides which skills are expanded to operate sustainably. Despite possibly similar basic dispositions, every development proceeds individually, and thus the mature or less mature system of the self mirrors the interactive dynamism between basic disposition and response from the direct environment. Fischer’s thesis is that systems and skills develop through the combination and interaction of stable states (e.g. biological parameters) with the most differing variants of environmental conditions (reference persons, culture etc.). According to Fischer, personal skills develop in the initially fragmented strands of a network that may potentially be integrated via different grades of maturity.

The 13 Levels and 4 tiers of development in Fisher's skill theory

Like the 8-stage theory by Erikson, the Theory of Dynamic Skills describes a development in different stages, but, unlike other theories, places a focus on the fragmented, but parallel development of diverse competences, normally considered separately from one another. Hence, in Fischer’s view, development does not proceed according to a classical, singular ladder, as described by e.g. Piaget, but dynamically and in a non-linear manner.

Fischer’s theory postulates four salient stages in development. The first stage describes the fragmented form of information reception, i.e. a natural, binary subdivision into positive and negative emotional bias. The next, second stage represents a simple level of initial integration skill, expressed in the ability autonomously to switch between positive and negative emotional bias. The third stage concerns a form of partial integration and the fourth stage stable integration. Within these four central stages, there are different levels of representation and abstraction ability that can be considered in a framework of a total of twelve different skills and four more abstraction levels.

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