Merrill-palmer quarterly at age 50, an occasion for appraising the past, present, and future of the human developmental sciences

In 2004 Merrill-Palmer Quarterly: A Journal of Developmental Psychology marked its 50th anniversary, which provided an occasion to celebrate the journal's heritage, its long history of scholarly contributions to the human developmental sciences, and its current and future mission as a purveyor of scientific discoveries. This juncture provided a vantage point from which to appraise the scientific endeavors that generated the contents of MPQ and its sister publications during the latter half of the 20th century and the first few years of the 21st century.