An Introduction to Child Development How Children Develop (2^nd ed.)

Siegler, DeLoache & Eisenberg

Chapter 1

What is development?

General terms:

Changes in individual’s height, weight, behavior, or other characteristics or traits

But not all changes are development…

Formal term: Changes that are:

Systematic not haphazard

Successive not independent - for example, walking.

Werner: Global to complex - Walking counts but not weight increase

What aspects of development are important?

1. abilities do children develop?

• Can infants perform arithmetic? (e.g., 1+1 = 2)

2. do children develop an ability?

• At what age can infants perform arithmetic?

3. do children develop?

• How do infants perform arithmetic? How do they advance from this point? How did it develop in the first place?

4. do children develop some abilities and not others?

• Why are infants able to add and subtract?

Why Study Child Development?

Reason #1: Raising Children

Knowledge of child development can help parents and teachers meet the challenges of rearing and educating children

Researchers have identified effective approaches that caregivers can use successfully

Reason #2: Choosing Social Policies

Knowledge of child development permits informed decisions about social-policy questions that affect children

Research on children’s responses to leading interview questions helped  

Reason #3: Understanding Human Nature

Child-development research provides important insights into some of the most intriguing questions regarding human nature

· The existence of innate concepts

· The relationship between early and later experiences

Children adopted from inadequate orphanages in Romania show that the timing of experiences often influences their effects

Historical Foundations of the Study of Child Development: Early Philosophical Views

Provided enduring insights about critical issues in childrearing – but their methods were unscientific

Both Plato and Aristotle believed that the long-term welfare of society depended on children’s being raised properly, but they differed in their approaches

Plato emphasized self-control and discipline

Aristotle was concerned with fitting child rearing to the needs of the individual child

Plato believed that children are born with

Aristotle believed that knowledge comes from experience

Later Philosophers

John Locke, like Aristotle, saw the child as a tabula rasa

Jean-Jacques Rousseau parents and society should give the child maximum freedom from the beginning

Research-Based Approach

Emerged in the nineteenth century, in part as a result of two converging forces

Social reform movements: research conducted for the benefit of children

Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution inspired research in child development in order to gain insights into the nature of the human species

Formal Field of Inquiry

Child development emerged as a formal field of inquiry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

Sigmund Freud and John Watson formulated influential theories of development during this period

Freud: biological drives, especially sexual ones, are crucial

Watson:  children’s behavior arises from the rewards and punishments following behaviors

The research methods for these theories were limited: but they were better grounded in research and inspired more sophisticated thinking 

Enduring Themes in Child Development

1. Nature and Nurture

2. The Active Child

3. Continuity/Discontinuity

4. Mechanisms of Developmental Change

5. The Sociocultural Context

6. Individual Differences

7. Research and Children’s Welfare

Questions and Themes

Nature and Nurture

The single most basic question about child development is how nature and nurture interact to shape the developmental process

Developmentalists now recognize that every characteristic we possess is created through

Accordingly, they ask how nature and nurture work together to shape development

How do children shape their own development?

Children contribute to their own development from early in life, and their contributions increase
as they grow older

Three of the most important contributions during children’s first years are their

Use of language

Older children and adolescents choose many environments, friends, and activities for themselves; their choices can exert a large impact on their future

Continuity vs. Discontinuity

            Stage theories propose that development occurs in a progression of age-related, qualitative shifts

Depending on how it is viewed, changes in height can be viewed as either continuous or discontinuous

Examining a boy’s height at yearly intervals from birth to 18 years makes the growth look

Examining changes in the same boy’s height from one year to the next makes growth seem

How does developmental change occur?

Darwin’s theory of evolution provides a useful framework for thinking about the mechanisms that produce change in children’s development

Variation refers to differences in                                                                                    individuals

Selection describes the more frequent survival and reproduction of organisms that are well adapted to their environment

Psychological variation and selection appear to produce changes within an individual lifetime

Variation and selection are apparent in brain development and in the strategies used to solve single-digit addition problems

How does the sociocultural context influence development?

Sociocultural context: Refers to the physical, social, cultural, economic, and historical circumstances that make up any child’s environment

Contexts of development differ within and between cultures

Mayan children typically                              their parents for several years

The US culture prizes independence and self-reliance, whereas the Mayan culture values interdependence

Development is affected by  and                                                    which is a measure of social class based on income and education

How do children become so different from each other?

Individual differences among children arise very quickly in development

Children’s  their treatment by other people, their subjective reactions
to other people, and their  all contribute to differences

How can research promote a child’s well-being?

Child-development research yields practical benefits in diagnosing children’s problems and in helping children to overcome them

Preferential looking enabled the diagnosis of the effects of cataracts in infants as young as two months of age