Chapter 1: introduciton
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The first chapter introduces the study of human development. The first
section defines development, briefly describing the how, why, and who of
this definition. The second section identifies five characteristics of the lifespan perspective on human development and explains different aspects of
the overlapping contexts in which people develop. The story of David
illustrates the importance of human plasticity. The ecological-systems
approach is Bronfenbrenner’s description of how the individual is affected
by, and affects, many other individuals, groups of individuals, and larger
systems in the environment.
The next section discusses the strategies developmentalists use in
their research, including scientific observation, experiments, and surveys.
To study people over time, developmentalists have created several
research designs: cross-sectional, longitudinal, and cross-sequential.
The final section discusses several common mistakes that can be made
in interpreting research, including the mistake of confusing correlation
with causation and the ethics of research with humans. In addition to
ensuring confidentiality and safety, developmentalists who study children
are especially concerned that the benefits of research outweigh the risks.
What Have You Learned?
The “What Have You Learned?” questions at the end of the text chapter
are reprinted here for your convenience in checking students'
understanding of the chapter contents.
1. What makes the study of human development a science?
2. What are the five steps of the scientific method?
3. Why have recommendations regarding the sleeping circumstances of
infants changed?
4. Why is it a mistake to ask how much of development is nature and
how much is
nurture?
5. What are examples of a critical period and a sensitive period of
development?
6. What factors make it more or less likely that a person will be a
juvenile delinquent?
7. Why do developmentalists insist that differences among people not be
assumed to be deficits?
8. How does the dynamic-systems concept interpret family relationships?
9. Does the multidirectional concept support continuity or discontinuity?
Why?
10. How does the ecological-systems concept affect the way individual
growth is perceived?
11. What are the differences among Bronfenbrenner’s five systems of
development?
12. How does cohort affect attitudes?
13. What impact does family SES have? Explain for one particular stage;
include three domains.
14. What are examples of the impact of culture on adolescents?
15. Why do the three domains overlap?
16. What are the implications of the research on mirror neurons?
17. What is the evidence that development is plastic?
18. How do scientific observation and experimentation differ?
19. What are the advantages and disadvantages of cross-sectional
research?
20. What are the advantages and disadvantages of longitudinal research?
21. Why do experiments need a control (or comparison) group?
22. How do independent and dependent variables make it easier to learn
what causes what?
23. Why does correlation not prove causation?
24. Why do some researchers prefer quantitative research and others,
qualitative research?
25. Why do most colleges have an Institutional Review Board (IRB)?
26. What are the ethical priorities when scientists use human subjects in
research?
27. Why are some questions about human development not yet answered
with scientific research?
Chapter Guide
I.
Defining Development
Instructional Objective: To spark students’ interest in
human development, and to describe the scientific method,
so students will begin to understand the basic tool of
developmental psychology.
“On Your Own” Activities: Develop­mental Fact or Myth?; “Dear Future
Child”; Portfolio Assignment
AV: 21st-Century Sons and Mothers; Transitions Throughout the Life
Span, Program 1: The Developing Person; The Developing Child series: History
and Trends; Child Development; Development
Teaching Tips: First Day of Class: Developmental Milestones and
Qualitative Versus Quantitative Change; Asking Students What They Want to
Know About Development; Establishing Classroom Rap-port; Becoming a
Master Teacher; Exporting Developmental Psychology; Developmental
Psychology Scrapbook Albums; Having Students Confront Their Biases and
Assumptions
Classroom Activity: The Blank Slate, the Noble Savage, and the Ghost in the
Machine
1. The science of human development seeks to understand how and
why people—all people, everywhere, of every age—change over time,
and how and why they remain the same.
2. Development is multidirectional, multicontextual,
multicultural, multidisciplinary, and plastic.
3. The science of human development is empirical, meaning that it
focuses on data, facts, observation, and experimentation.
4. The scientific method consists of five basic steps: (1) formulate a
research question, (2) develop a hypothesis, (3) test the hypothesis,
(4) draw conclusions, and (5) make the findings available.
5. Replication of research findings verifies the findings and leads
researchers to more definitive and extensive conclusions. In
replicating research, scientists use different participants.
6. The nature–nurture debate is the question of how much of any
characteristic is the result of genes (nature) and how much is the
result of experience (nurture). Genes and environment affect every
aspect of development.
7. The fact that nature and nurture interact helps clarify another
question: whether or not timing is crucial. Research has shown that
there are both critical periods and sensitive periods in
development.
8. The value of understanding that nature and nurture interact also can
be seen in research on the origins of violence in young people. One
study found that mistreated boys were more likely to be overly
aggressive if they had a particular variation in the MAOA gene (the
low-MAOA gene). However, even if they inherited the gene that
produces low levels of the enzyme monoamine oxidase A, boys who
had not been mistreated tended to become peaceable adults.
9. The emphasis on the interaction between people and within each
person is highlighted by the dynamic-systems theory, which
stresses fluctuations and transitions.
II.
The Life-Span Perspective
Instructional Objective: To introduce students to the
basic themes of the life-span perspective, including the
ecological-systems approach to the study of development.
AV: -Contexts of Development
“On Your Own” Activities: -Your Cohort; Community Service Projects
Classroom Activities: Footnote from Past Cohorts: “How to Be a Good
Wife”; Similarities and Differences in the Experience of Growing Up,; Context,
Family Structure, and Divorce Rate
1. The life-span perspective views human development as
multidirectional, multicontextual, multicultural, multidisciplinary,
and plastic.
2. Change is apparent in each aspect of life and in every direction.
Research shows that some shifts are stagelike and other shifts are
gradual.
3. The approach that emphasizes the influence of the systems, or
contexts, that support the developing person is Urie Bronfenbrenner’s
ecological-systems approach. According to this model, human
development is supported by systems at four nested levels: the
microsystem (immediate social setting), the exosystem (local, such
as school and church), the macrosystem (cultural values, political
processes, economic policies, and social conditions), and the
chronosystem, which emphasizes the importance of historical time
on development. A fifth system, the mesosystem, connects systems,
for example, the interface between home and school. As a reflection of
the impact of biology on development, Bronfenbrenner renamed his
theory bioecological theory.
4. Developmentalists take a broad view of development, recognizing the
influence on development of external forces, that is, the context of
development. This larger perspective makes it imperative that
development be understood in its social context, including its
historical and socioeconomic contexts.
5. A cohort is a group of people born within a few years of each other
who tend to share certain historical events and cultural shifts.
6. Socioeconomic status (SES) is determined by several
overlapping variables, including income, wealth, education, place of
residence, and occupation. Although low income obviously limits a
person, other SES factors (such as education) can make poverty better
or worse.
7. Culture affects development in a multitude of interrelated ways,
from whether to cover your mouth when laughing to what to eat for
breakfast.
8. An ethnic group is a collection of people who share certain
attributes, such as ancestry, national origin, religion, and language.
9. Although race was once defined as a biological category, it is actually
a social construction, an idea that is built on shared perceptions, not
on objective reality, and, unlike genetic differences, social
constructions can change.
10. The value of an interdisciplinary approach to understanding human
development can be seen in research on mirror neurons, which
are brain cells that respond to the observed actions of others. These
neurons, which in the human brain reflect not only the movements
but also the intentions, sensations, and emotions of those around us,
may help explain some autism, language learning, empathy for other
people, and how culture is transmitted.
11. One of the most encouraging aspects of the science of development is
that development is characterized by plasticity, or the capability
of change.
III. Using the Scientific Method
Instructional Objective: To describe the various tools
developmental psychologists use to test hypotheses about
human development, so that students will appreciate the
function of research methods and results, and thus
develop a critical attitude toward them.
AV: Transitions Throughout the Life Span, Program 2: A Scientific
Approach; How Cultures Are Studied; How We Study Children; Infancy
Research Methods; Research Methods; Observation; Experimental Design;
Experiments in Human Behavior; Research Methods for the Social Sciences;
The Ethnic Flaw; Race: The World’s Most Dangerous Myth; Social
Constructionist Ideas About Research; PsychNow: Interactive Experiences in
Psychology (CD-ROM)
“On Your Own” Activities: Wording Effects in Survey Questions; Teaching
Students to Use PsycINFO Effectively
Classroom Activities: Using “Telepathy” to Demonstrate Principles of the
Scientific Method; Naturalism, the Scientific Method, and Classroom Debates;
Counting Fidgets: Bringing Naturalistic Observation to Life; Experimental
Tests of Popular Advertising Claims; Limitations of the Survey as a Research
Method; Cultural Influences on Research
Teaching Tips: Teaching Critical Thinking About Research Reports in the
Media; Motivating Students to Read Journal Articles
1. There are many ways to test hypotheses. One method is scientific
observation of people in their natural environment, in a laboratory
setting, or in searches of archival data. Observation is limited in that
it does not tell us what causes people to do what they do.
2. Experiments can reveal cause-and-effect relationships by allowing
experimenters to observe whether a change in an independent
variable affects some specific behavior, or dependent variable.
In an experiment, the participants who receive a particular treatment
constitute the experimental group; the participants who do not
receive the treatment constitute the comparison group (control
group).
3. The survey is a quick and direct way to obtain data. However, it is
especially difficult to get valid data from a survey: Some people may
refuse to answer, and others may give answers to make themselves
look better. Survey answers also are influenced by the wording and
the sequence of the questions.
4. In cross-sectional research, groups of people who are
different in age but similar in all other important ways are compared
on the characteristic that is of interest to the researcher(s). One
limitation of cross-sectional research is that it is always possible that
some variable other than age differentiates the groups.
5. In longitudinal research, the same people are studied over a
period of time. Longitudinal research is particularly useful in studying
developmental trends that occur over a long age span.
6. Both longitudinal and cross-sectional researchers must bear in mind
that research on a cohort may not be valid for people developing in an
earlier or later cohort.
7. In cross-sequential research, several groups of people at
different ages (crosssectional component) are followed over time (longitudinal component).
IV.
Cautions from Science
AV: -The Way of Science; Ethics and Scientific Research
Classroom Activity: -Limitations of Correlational Research
Critical Thinking Activity: Breast-Feeding and Intelligence
Instructional Objective: To identify possible pitfalls in
the scientific method, and to summarize some of the
ethical issues involved in conducting research with human
participants.
1. Correlation is a number indicating the degree of relationship
between two variables. A correlation is positive if both variables
tend to increase together or decrease
together, negative if one variable tends to increase when the other
decreases, and zero if no connection is evident. Correlation does not
prove causality.
2. Because numbers can be easily summarized and compared, scientists
often rely on data produced by quantitative research. This
method may be particularly limiting when researchers describe child
development. Also, many developmental researchers use
qualitative research that asks open-ended questions.
3. When studying people, scientists take special care to ensure
that participation is voluntary and harmless and that the
study’s benefits outweigh its costs. They do this by establishing
a code of ethics for researchers to follow, which is
enforced by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at
most educational and medical institutions.