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Chapter 1
Introduction
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Sixteenth Edition
JOHN W. SANTROCK
KIRBY DEATER-DECKARD
JENNIFER E. LANSFORD
© McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.
Learning Goals
• Identify five areas in which children’s lives need to be
improved and explain the roles of resilience and social policy
in children’s development.
• Discuss the most important processes, periods, and issues in
development.
• Summarize why research is important in child development,
the main theories of child development, and research
methods, designs, and challenges.
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Caring for Children
To better care for children, we need to examine:
• children’s development;
• areas in which children’s lives need to be improved; and
• the roles of resilience and social policy in development
Development is the pattern of movement or change that
begins at conception and continues through the life span.
• It involves growth, but it also includes decline.
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Improving the Lives of Children
Some topics of contemporary concern:
health and well-being;
parenting and education; and
sociocultural contexts and diversity:
•
Context: the settings in which development occurs.
•
Culture: behavior patterns, beliefs, and other products of a people
that are passed on from generation to generation.
•
Cross-cultural studies compare two or more cultures.
•
Ethnicity: characteristic based on cultural heritage, nationality
characteristics, race, religion, and language.
•
Socioeconomic status (SES): a person’s position within society
based on occupational, educational, and economic characteristics.
•
Gender: the characteristics of people as males and females.
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Resilience, Social Policy, and Children’s Development 1
Resilience is exemplified by children who develop confidence
in their abilities despite serious obstacles.
• These include negative stereotypes about their gender or
ethnic group; and poverty or other adversities.
A number of individual factors influence resiliency, including:
• good self-control;
• good intellectual functioning;
• a close relationship to a caring parent figure; and
• bonds to caring adults outside the family
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Figure 2 Characteristics of Resilient Children and Their
Contexts
Source
Characteristic
Individual
Good intellectual functioning.
Appealing, sociable, easygoing disposition.
Self-confidence, high self-esteem.
Talents.
Faith.
Family
Close relationship to caring parent figure.
Authoritative parenting: warmth, structure, high expectations.
Socioeconomic advantages.
Connections to extended family supportive family networks.
Extrafamilial
context
Bonds to caring adults outside the family.
Connections to positive organizations.
Attending effective schools.
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Resilience, Social Policy, and Children’s Development 2
Social policy: government’s course of action designed to
promote the welfare of its citizens.
• Children who grow up in poverty represent a special
concern.
• Strategies for improving the lives of children include
improving social policy for families.
• When families fail or seriously endanger a child’s wellbeing, governments often step in to help.
Developmental psychologists and other researchers seek
ways to help families living in poverty improve their wellbeing.
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Figure 3 Exposure to Six Stressors Among Poor and
Middle-Income Children.
One study analyzed the exposure to six stressors among poor children and
middle-income children (Evans & English, 2002). Poor children were much more
likely to face each of these stressors.
Access the text alternative for slide images.
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Developmental Processes, Periods, and Issues
Psychologists who study development are drawn to both our
shared characteristics and those that make us unique.
What shapes the common path of human development, and
what are its milestones?
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Biological, Cognitive, and Socioemotional Processes 1
Biological processes produce changes in an individual’s
physical nature.
• Examples: height, weight, and motor skill changes.
Cognitive processes involve changes in an individual’s
thought, intelligence, and language.
• Examples: two-word sentences and solving a puzzle.
Socioemotional processes involve changes in an
individual’s relationships with other people, in emotions, and
in personality.
• Examples: smiling in response to a parent’s touch.
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Biological, Cognitive, and Socioemotional Processes 2
Biological, cognitive, and socioemotional processes interact
and can influence each other.
Developmental cognitive neuroscience explores links
between development, cognitive processes, and the brain.
Developmental social neuroscience examines connections
between development, socioemotional processes, and the
brain.
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Figure 4 Changes in Development Are the Result of
Biological, Cognitive, and Socioemotional Processes.
The processes interact as individuals develop.
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Periods of Development 1
Prenatal period: the time from conception to birth, roughly
nine months.
• A single cell grows into a fetus and then a baby.
Infancy: from birth to about 18 to 24 months of age.
• Many psychological activities are just beginning.
Early childhood: the end of infancy to about 5 or 6 years of
age; also called the preschool years.
• Young children learn to become more self-sufficient,
develop school readiness, and spend many hours in play
with peers.
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Periods of Development 2
Middle and late childhood: between about 6 and 11 years
of age; the elementary school years.
• Children master the fundamental skills of reading, writing,
and arithmetic; and they are formally exposed to the larger
world.
• Achievement becomes a more central theme.
• Self-control increases.
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Periods of Development 3
Adolescence: a period of transition from childhood to early
adulthood, from about 10 to 12 to about 18 to 19.
• It begins with rapid physical changes.
• The pursuit of independence and an identity are prominent
features.
• More and more time is spent outside the family.
• Thought becomes more abstract, idealistic, and logical.
Today, developmental psychologists do not believe change
ends with adolescence.
• Development is a lifelong process.
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Figure 5 Processes and Periods of Development.
Development moves through the prenatal, infancy, early childhood, middle and
late childhood, and adolescence periods. These periods of development are the
result of interacting biological, cognitive, and socioemotional processes.
Access the text alternative for slide images.
(Left to right): Steve Allen/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images; Dr. John Santrock; Laurence Mouton/PhotoAlto/Getty Images; Ken Karp/ McGraw Hill; SW
Productions/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
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Cohort Effects
A cohort is a group of people born at a similar point in history
who share similar experiences as a result.
• Examples: those who grew up during the Great
Depression and World War II.
Cohort effects: effects due to a person’s time of birth, era,
or generation but not to actual age.
Millennials are the generation born after 1980, characterized
in particular by:
• ethnic diversity; and
• their connection to technology
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Issues in Development 1
Nature-nurture issue: whether development is primarily
influenced by nature or by nurture—biological inheritance or
environmental experiences.
Continuity-discontinuity issue: whether development
involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct
stages (discontinuity).
Early-later experience issue: the degree to which early
experiences (especially in infancy) or later experiences are
the key determinants of children’s development.
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Issues in Development 2
Most developmental psychologists recognize it is unwise to
take an extreme position on any of these issues.
• All play a part in development throughout the life span.
There is still spirited debate.
• If there are gender differences, why?
• Can enriched experiences in adolescence remove
negative effects of early-childhood poverty and neglect?
• Answers to such questions have a bearing on social
policy.
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The Science of Child Development
Child development as a science studies such matters as:
• how parents nurture children;
• how peers interact;
• the ways in which children’s thinking develops over time;
• whether screen time is linked with being overweight;
• whether special care can repair the harm of neglect; and
• whether mentoring can improve children’s achievement
It is the way these topics are studied that makes the
approach scientific.
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The Importance of Research
Scientific research is objective, systematic, and testable,
reducing the likelihood that information will be based on
personal beliefs, opinions, and feelings.
The scientific method used by researchers is a four-step
process:
• conceptualize a process or problem to be studied;
• collect research information (data);
• analyze data; and
• draw conclusions
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Theories of Child Development
Theory: an interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps to
explain and to make predictions.
Hypothesis: a specific, testable assumption or prediction.
• Testing a hypothesis can inform researchers whether a
theory is likely to be accurate.
• Often a hypothesis is written as an if-then statement.
• Example: If children from impoverished backgrounds are
given individual attention by mentors, then the children will
spend more time studying and earn higher grades.
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Theories of Child Development: Psychoanalytic Theories 1
Psychoanalytic theories describe development as primarily
unconscious (beyond awareness) and heavily colored by
emotion.
• Behavior is merely a surface characteristic.
• Understanding development requires analyzing symbolic
meanings of behavior and the deep inner workings of the
mind.
• Theorists stress the importance of early experiences with
parents.
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Theories of Child Development: Psychoanalytic Theories 2
Sigmund Freud (1856 to 1939) envisioned five stages of
psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and
genital.
He claimed our adult personality is determined by the way
we resolve conflicts between sources of pleasure and the
demands of reality at each stage.
Many theorists today maintain that Freud overemphasized
sexual instincts.
• They place more emphasis on cultural experiences.
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Figure 7 Freudian Stages
Oral Stage
Infant’s pleasure
centers on the
mouth.
Birth to 1½ Years
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Anal Stage
Child’s pleasure
focuses on the
anus
1½ to 3 Years
Phallic Stage
Child’s
pleasure
focuses on
the genitals.
3 to 6 Years
Latency Stage
Genital Stage
Child represses
sexual interest and
develops social and
intellectual skills.
A time of sexual
reawakening;
source of sexual
pleasure becomes
someone outside
the family.
6 Years to Puberty
Puberty Onward
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Theories of Child Development: Psychoanalytic Theories 3
Erik Erikson (1902 to 1994) said we develop in psychosocial
rather than psychosexual stages.
• The primary motivation for human behavior is social and
reflects a desire to affiliate with other people.
• Developmental change occurs throughout the life span.
In Erikson’s theory, eight stages of development unfold; and
at each stage, a unique developmental task confronts
individuals with a crisis that must be resolved.
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Figure 8 Erikson’s Eight Life-Span Stages
Erikson’s Stages
Developmental Period
Trust versus mistrust
Infancy (first year)
Autonomy versus shame and doubt
Infancy (1–3 years)
Initiative versus guilt
Early childhood (preschool years, 3–5
years)
Industry versus inferiority
Middle and late childhood (elementary
school years, 6 years to puberty)
Identity versus identity confusion
Adolescence (10–20 years)
Intimacy versus isolation
Early adulthood (20s, 30s)
Generativity versus stagnation
Middle adulthood (40s, 50s)
Integrity versus despair
Late adulthood (60s onward)
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Theories of Child Development: Cognitive Theories 1
Cognitive theories emphasize conscious thought.
Among these is the cognitive developmental theory of Jean
Piaget (1896 to 1980).
Piaget’s theory states that children actively construct their
understanding of the world in four stages of cognitive
development.
• Two processes move us through the stages: organization
and adaptation.
• Cognition in each age-related stage is qualitatively
different.
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Figure 9 Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor
Stage
Preoperational
Stage
Concrete
Operational Stage
The infant constructs
an understanding of
the world by
coordinating sensory
experiences with
physical actions.
An infant progresses
from reflexive,
instinctual action at
birth to the beginning
of symbolic thought
toward the end of
the stage.
The child begins to
represent the world
with words and
images. These words
and images reflect
increased symbolic
thinking and go
beyond the
connection of
sensory information
and physical action.
The child can now
reason logically
about concrete
events and classify
objects into different
sets.
Birth to 2 Years of
Age
2 to 7 Years of Age
7 to 11 Years of
Age
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Formal Operational
Stage
The adolescent
reasons in more
abstract, idealistic,
and logical ways.
11 Years of Age
Through Adulthood
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Theories of Child Development: Cognitive Theories 2
Lev Vygotsky (1896 to 1934) also argued that children
actively construct their knowledge.
Vygotsky’s theory is a sociocultural cognitive theory that
emphasizes how culture and social interaction guide
cognitive development.
• Children’s social interaction with more-skilled adults and
peers is indispensable to their cognitive development.
This has stimulated interest in the view that knowledge is
situated and collaborative.
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Theories of Child Development: Cognitive Theories 3
With the advent of computers, psychologists began to draw
analogies between computer hardware and the brain, and
between computer software and cognition.
Information-processing theory: individuals manipulate
information, monitor it, and strategies about it.
• Central to this theory are the processes of memory and
thinking.
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Theories of Child Development: Behavioral and Social
Cognitive Theories 1
Behaviorism holds that we can study scientifically only what
can be directly observed and measured.
Out of this tradition grew the belief that development is
defined as observable behavior that can be learned through
experience with the environment.
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Theories of Child Development: Behavioral and Social
Cognitive Theories 2
In the early 1900s, Ivan Pavlov discovered the principle of
classical conditioning: a neutral stimulus produces a
response originally produced by another stimulus.
• Example: a bell rung with dogs’ food later elicits salivation
when presented by itself.
John Watson and Rosalie Raynor (1920) demonstrated that
classical conditioning occurs in humans.
• Many of our fears may result from classical conditioning.
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Theories of Child Development: Behavioral and Social
Cognitive Theories 3
B. F. Skinner argued that a second type of conditioning—
operant conditioning—accounts for other types of behavior.
• The consequences of a behavior produce changes in the
future probability of the behavior.
• Skinner emphasized that development consists of the
pattern of behavioral changes that are brought about by
rewards and punishments.
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Theories of Child Development: Behavioral and Social
Cognitive Theories 4
Social cognitive theory: behavior, environment, and
cognition are the key factors in development.
• Albert Bandura (1925– ) is the leading architect.
• People acquire a wide range of behaviors, thoughts, and
feelings through observing others’ behavior, and these
observations powerfully influence children’s development.
Behavioral and social cognitive theories emphasize the
importance of environmental influences.
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Figure 10 Bandura’s Social Cognitive Model.
The arrows illustrate how relations between behavior, person/cognition, and
environment reciprocally influence each other rather than being “unidirectional.”
Access the text alternative for slide images.
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Theories of Child Development: Ethological Theory
Ethology: a field that stresses that behavior is strongly
influenced by biology, is tied to evolution, and is
characterized by critical or sensitive periods.
• Konrad Lorenz (1903 to 1989) helped bring it to
prominence with his study of imprinting in graylag goslings.
John Bowlby (1989) argued that attachment to a caregiver
during the first year of life has important consequences
throughout the life span.
• The first year of life is a sensitive period for the
development of social relationships.
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Theories of Child Development: Ecological Theory
Ecological theory emphasizes environmental factors.
One such theory significant to children’s development was
proposed by Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917 to 2005).
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory: development reflects
the influence of five environmental systems.
• Microsystem: the setting in which the individual lives.
• Mesosystem: relations between microsystems.
• Exosystem: links between social setting and immediate
context.
• Macrosystem: the culture.
• Chronosystem: environmental events and transitions over
the life course, as well as historical circumstance.
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Figure 11 Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory of
Development.
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory consists of five environmental systems:
microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem.
Access the text alternative for slide images.
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Research Methods for Collecting Data 1
Systematic observation takes place in the laboratory and in
the everyday world.
Laboratory: a controlled setting where many complex factors
of the “real world” have been removed.
• Participants will be aware they are being studied.
• The unnatural setting can prompt unnatural behavior.
• Participants may not be a diverse group.
• The setting may intimidate.
• Some aspects of children’s development are difficult to
examine in the laboratory.
• Laboratory studies of certain types of stress may be unethical.
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Research Methods for Collecting Data 2
Naturalistic observation: observing behavior in real-world
settings with no effort to manipulate the situation.
• Example: a study focused on conversations in a children’s
science museum.
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Figure 13 Parents’ Explanations of Science to Sons and
Daughters at a Science Museum.
In a classic naturalistic observation study at a children’s science museum, parents were
more than three times more likely to explain science to boys than to girls (Crowley & others,
2001). The gender difference occurred regardless of whether the father, the mother, or both
parents were with the child, although the gender difference was greatest for fathers’ science
explanations to sons and daughters.
Access the text alternative for slide images.
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Research Methods for Collecting Data 3
Surveys (or questionnaires) and interviews are conducted in
person, over the phone, and online.
• One drawback is that participants may answer in a way they
think is socially desirable, rather than what they truly feel.
Standardized test: a test with uniform procedures for
administration and scoring.
• Many allow a person’s performance to be compared with the
performance of others.
• They do not always predict behavior in nontest situations;
they do not allow for the variability of personality and
intelligence; and a test may not be appropriate in all
cultures.
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Research Methods for Collecting Data 4
Case study: an in-depth look at a single individual.
• The data often cannot be generalized to others.
Physiological measures include:
• blood samples, showing the blood levels of certain
hormones; and
• neuroimaging, especially functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI)
The data-collection method often depends on the goal of the
research.
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Figure 14 Brain Imaging of 15-Year-Old Adolescents.
The two brain images indicate how alcohol can influence the functioning of an
adolescent’s brain. Notice the pink and red coloring (which indicates effective
brain functioning involving memory) in the brain of the 15-year-old nondrinker
while engaging in a memory task and the lack of those colors in the brain of the
15-year-old under the influence of alcohol.
Access the text alternative for slide images.
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(left/right): Dr. Susan F. Tapert, University of California, San Diego
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Research Designs 1
Descriptive research: aims to observe and record behavior;
it cannot prove cause.
Correlational research: aims to describe the strength of the
relationship between two or more events or characteristics.
• Correlation coefficient: a number based on a statistical
analysis that describes the degree of association between
two variables; it ranges from −1.00 to +1.00.
• Correlation does not equal causation.
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Figure 15 Possible Explanations of This Correlation
Access the text alternative for slide images.
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Research Designs 2
Experiment: a carefully regulated procedure in which one or
more of the factors believed to influence the behavior being
studied are manipulated while all other factors are held
constant.
• The independent variable is the manipulated factor.
• The dependent variable is a factor that can change in
response to changes in the independent variable.
• An experimental group is a group whose experience is
manipulated.
• A control group is a comparison group that is treated the
same way except for the manipulated factor (independent
variable).
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Research Designs: Time Span of Research
Cross-sectional approach: a research strategy in which
individuals of different ages are compared at the same point
in time.
Longitudinal approach: a research strategy in which the
same individuals are studied over time—usually several
years or more.
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Figure 17 Connections of Research Methods to Theories
Research Method
Theory
Observation
All theories emphasize some form of observation.
Behavioral and social cognitive theories place the strongest emphasis on
laboratory observation.
Ethological theory places the strongest emphasis on naturalistic observation.
Interviews/survey
Psychoanalytic and cognitive studies (Piaget, Vygotsky) often use interviews.
Behavioral, social cognitive, and ethological theories are the least likely to
use surveys or interviews.
Standardized test
None of the theories discussed emphasize the use of this method.
Correlational research
All of the theories use this research method, although psychoanalytic
theories are the least likely to use it.
Experimental research
The behavioral and cognitive theories and the information-processing
theories are the most likely to use the experimental method.
Psychological theories are the least likely to use it.
Cross-sectional/
longitudinal methods
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No theory described uses these methods more than any other.
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Challenges in Child Development Research: Conducting
Ethical Research
The American Psychological Association (APA) has
developed ethics guidelines for its members.
• Informed consent: All participants must know what their
participation will involve and what risks might develop; and
they have the right to withdraw at any time for any reason.
• Confidentiality: All data must be kept confidential and,
when possible, anonymous.
• Debriefing: After the study, participants should be informed
of its purpose and methods.
• Deception: Psychologists must ensure that any deception
will not harm participants and that participants will be
debriefed.
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Challenges in Child Development Research: Minimizing
Bias
Studies are most useful when they are conducted without
bias or prejudice.
Of special concern is bias based on gender and bias based
on culture or ethnicity.
• Ethnic gloss: use of an ethnic label such as Black
American or Latino in a superficial way that portrays an
ethnic group as being more homogeneous than it really is.
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Review
• Identify five areas in which children’s lives
need to be improved and explain the roles of
resilience and social policy in children’s
development.
• Discuss the most important processes,
periods, and issues in development.
• Summarize why research is important in child
development, the main theories of child
development, and research methods, designs,
and challenges.
© McGraw Hill LLC
53
Because learning changes everything.
®
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© McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.