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MY DECISION TO WRITE Child Development was inspired by a wealth of professional and personal experiences. First and foremost were the interests and needs of hundreds of students of child development with whom I have worked in over three decades of college teaching. I aimed for a text that is intellectually stimulating, that provides depth as well as breadth of coverage, that portrays the complexities of child development with clarity and excitement, and that is relevant and useful in building a bridge from theory and research to children's everyday lives. Instructor and student enthusiasm for the book not only has been among my greatest sources of pride and satisfaction, but also has inspired me to rethink and improve each edition. The fourteen years since Child Development first appeared have been a period of unprecedented expansion and change in theory and research. This sixth edition represents these rapidly transforming aspects of the field, with a wealth of new content and teaching tools: Increased attention is granted to multiple levels of the environment in which the child develops. The contemporary move toward viewing the child's thoughts, feelings, and behavior as an integrated whole, affected by a wide array of influences in biology, social context, and culture, has motivated developmental researchers to strengthen their links with other fields of psychology and other disciplines. Topics and findings including in the text increasingly reflect the contributions of educational psychology, social psychology, health psychology, clinical psychology, neuropsychology, biology, pediatrics, sociology, anthropology, and other fields. Diverse pathways of change are highlighted. Investigators have reached broad consensus that variations in biological makeup, everyday tasks, and the people who support children in mastery of those tasks lead to wide individual differences in children's skills. This edition pays more attention to variability in development and to recent theories-including ecological, sociocultural, and dynamic systems-that attempt to explain it. The complex, bidirectional relationship between biology and environment is given greater emphasis. Accumulating evidence on development of the brain, motor skills, cognitive competencies, temperament, and developmental problems underscores how biological influences share power with experience. The interconnection between biology and environment is revisited throughout the text narrative and in a "Biology and Environment" feature with new and updated topics. The link between theory, research, and applications-a theme of this book since its inception-is strengthened. As researchers intensify their efforts to generate findings that can be applied to real-life situations, I have placed greater weight on social policy issues and sound theory- and research-based applications. Education and health issues are given stronger focus. The home, school, and community are featured as vital educational contexts in which the child develops, both throughout the text narrative and in Social Issues: Education special feature boxes. Treatment of childhood health concerns is deepened, through enhanced and updated discussion of many health issues and interventions, including Social Issues: Health special feature boxes. The role of active student learning is made more explicit. "Ask Yourself" questions at the end of each major section have been expanded to promote three approaches to engaging actively with the subject matter-Review, Apply, and Connect. This feature assists students in reflecting on what they have read from multiple vantage points. TEXT PHILOSOPHY The basic approach of this book has been shaped by my own professional and personal history as a teacher, researcher, and parent. It consists of seven philosophical ingredients that I regard as essential for students to emerge from a course with a thorough understanding of child development: 1. An understanding of major theories and the strengths and shortcomings of each. The first chapter begins by emphasizing that only knowledge of multiple theories can do justice to the richness of child development. In each topical domain, I present a variety of theoretical perspectives, indicate how each highlights previously overlooked contributions to development, and discuss research that has been used to evaluate them. If one or two theories have emerged as especially prominent in a particular area, I indicate why, in terms of the theory's broad explanatory power. Consideration of contrasting theories also serves as the context for an evenhanded analysis of many controversial issues throughout the text. 2. An appreciation of research strategies to investigate child development. To evaluate theories, students need a firm grounding in basic research design and methodology. I devote an entire chapter to a description and critique of research strategies. Throughout the book, numerous studies are discussed in sufficient detail for students to use what they have learned to critically assess the findings, conclusions, and implications of research. 3. Knowledge of both the sequence of child development and the processes that underlie it. Students are provided with a discussion of the organized sequence of development, along with processes of change. An understanding of process-how complex combinations of biological and environmental events produce development-has been the focus of most recent research. Accordingly, the text reflects this emphasis. But new information about the timetable of change has also emerged. In many ways, children are more competent than they were believed to be in the past. Current evidence on the timing and sequence of development, along with its implications for process, is presented throughout the book. 4. An appreciation of the impact of context and culture on child development. A wealth of research indicates that children live in rich physical and social contexts that affect all aspects of development. In each chapter, the student travels to distant parts of the world as I review a growing body of cross-cultural evidence. The text narrative also discusses many findings on socioeconomically and ethnically diverse children within the United States. Besides highlighting the role of immediate settings, such as family, neighborhood, and school, I underscore the impact of larger social structures-societal values, laws, and government programs-on children's well-being. 5. An understanding of the joint contributions of biology and environment to development. The field recognizes more powerfully than ever before the joint roles of hereditary/constitutional and environmental factors-that these contributions to development combine in complex ways and cannot be separated in a simple manner. Numerous examples of how biological dispositions can be maintained as well as transformed by social contexts are presented throughout the book. 6. A sense of the interdependency of all aspects of development-physical, cognitive, emotional, and social. Every chapter takes an integrated approach to understanding children. I show how physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development are interwoven. Within the text narrative and in a special series of "Ask Yourself . . . Connect" questions at the end of major sections, students are referred to other parts of the book to deepen their grasp of relationships between various aspects of change. 7. An appreciation of the interrelatedness of theory, research, and applications. Throughout this book, I emphasize that theories of child development and the research stimulated by them provide the foundation for sound, effective practices with children. The link between theory, research, and applications is reinforced by an organizational format in which theory and research are presented first, followed by implications for practice. In addition, a current focus in the field-harnessing child development knowledge to shape social policies that support children's needs-is reflected in every chapter. The text addresses the current condition of children in the United States and around the world and shows how theory and research have sparked successful interventions. NEW COVERAGE IN THE SIXTH EDITION In this edition I continue to represent a rapidly transforming contemporary literature with theory and research from more than 1,300 new citations. To make room for new coverage, I have condensed and reorganized some topics and eliminated others that are no longer as crucial in view of new evidence. The following is a sampling of major content changes, organized by chapter: Chapter 1: New section on evolutionary developmental psychology o Updated consideration of Vygotsky's view of development o Updated section on the dynamic systems perspective o New Social Issues: Education box on the Access Program, a community-researcher partnership. Chapter 2: Updated discussion of psychophysiological methods o New Social Issues: Education box on immigrant youths, illustrating ethnography. Chapter 3: New findings on how PKU leads to mental retardation o Updated discussion of teratogens o New Biology and Environment box on what controls the timing of birth o Expanded section on understanding birth complications o New section on environmental influences on gene expression, including discussion of epigenesis o New Biology and Environment box on uncoupling genetic-environmental correlations for mental illness and antisocial behavior. Chapter 4: New evidence on the functions of REM sleep o New research on maternal characteristics related to sensitivity to infant crying o New research on the impact of NBAS-based intervention on parent-newborn interaction o Updated discussion of limitations of habituation research on infant memory and new findings on operant conditioning o New research on hearing o New evidence on crawling and coordinating action with depth information o New research on infants' perception of complex, meaningful visual patterns o Expanded consideration of newborn face perception o Revised and updated section on perception of object unity o Expanded discussion of the role of affordances in perceptual development o New evidence on intermodal perception o Revised and updated section on infancy as a sensitive period. Chapter 5: New evidence on lateralization and handedness, including genetic and environmental contributions o Enhanced coverage of sensitive periods in brain development o Updated discussion of childhood obesity o New evidence on the contribution of family experiences to pubertal timing o New research on adolescent moodiness o Expanded discussion of factors related to adolescent parenthood o New Biology and Environment box on intergenerational continuity in adolescent parenthood. Chapter 6: New findings on development and benefits of make-believe play o Revised and updated section on preschoolers understanding of symbol-real world relations, focusing on mastery of dual representation o New research on development of cognitive maps o New findings on implications of the personal fable for adolescent risk taking o New evidence on development of propositional thought o Revised overall evaluation of Piaget's theory o New section on the core knowledge perspective o New Biology and Environment box on children's understanding of health and illness o New research on the development of private speech o Enhanced discussion of features of adult-child and peer interaction that promote cognitive development o Expanded section on Vygotsky's view of make-believe play o Expanded section evaluating Vygotsky's theory o New Cultural Influences box on young children's daily life in a Yucatec Mayan village. Chapter 7: Revised consideration of the store model of information processing o Enhanced consideration of children's planning o Revised and condensed section on strategies for storing information o New research on children's reconstructive memory o Revised section on fuzzy trace theory o Expanded and updated Social Issues: Health box on children's eyewitness memory o New evidence on development of metacognition from early to middle childhood o New Social Issues: Education box on balanced teaching of whole language and basic skills in promoting reading progress. Chapter 8: Expanded treatment of Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences o New From Research to Practice box on social and emotional intelligence o New Biology and Environment box on the Flynn effect o Revised section on Ethnicity o Expanded and updated discussion of dynamic testing o Enhanced discussion of the impact of family beliefs about intellectual success on academic behavior o New evidence on nonshared environmental influences and IQ o New research on family and school influences on creativity. Chapter 9: Revised and updated section addressing whether animals can acquire language o New evidence on infants' capacity to statistically analyze the speech stream o New findings on the relationship of caregiver-child interaction to early language development o New From Research to Practice box on the impact of parent-child interaction on deaf children's language and cognitive development o Updated discussion of factors contributing to the vocabulary spurt at the end of the second year o New research on the influence of the language environment on children's early vocabularies o Revised and updated consideration of strategies for word learning o New research on development of referential communication o Enhanced discussion of sociolinguistic understanding o Updated section on bilingual education. Chapter 10: Expanded discussion of development of self-conscious emotions o Updated sections on development of emotional self-regulation and conformity to emotional display rules o New research on empathy o Expanded discussion of Rothbart's model of temperament o Revised section on measuring temperament o New research on the stability of temperament o Enhanced treatment of cultural influences on development of temperament o New findings on the relationship of disorganized / disoriented attachment to later development o Updated Social Issues: Health box on whether child care in infancy threatens attachment security. Chapter 11: New research on self-development in early infancy o New Cultural Influences box on cultural variations in personal storytelling and implications for early self-concept o New section on developing understanding of mental states in infancy and toddlerhood o New section on consequences of a belief-desire theory of mind for social development o Expanded discussion of factors contributing to young children's theory of mind o Enhanced discussion of cultural influences on self-esteem o New research on the impact of teachers' messages on achievement-related attributions o Enhanced discussion of social influences on identity development o Revised and updated section on understanding intentions o New evidence on development of prejudice o Revised section on development of perspective taking. Chapter 12: Expanded and updated coverage of the evolutionary roots of morally relevant behaviors o Enhanced discussion of induction as a disciplinary strategy for fostering conscience development o New evidence on American parents' use of corporal punishment o Expanded attention to children's grasp of ideal reciprocity as essential for moral-judgment maturity o New evidence on cultural variations in justice and care reasoning o New research on the relation of moral self-relevance to moral behavior o New Social Issues: Education box on development of civic responsibility o Enhanced consideration of the limitations of Kohlberg's theory o New discussion of Metcalfe and Mischel's hot- and cool-processing account of development of self-control o Updated research on development of stability and aggression o Enhanced discussion of antisocial youths' social-cognitive deficits and distortions. Chapter 13: New research on adults' gender-stereotyped views of children o New evidence on the early emergence of gender-stereotypes in toddlerhood o Expanded treatment of evolutionary interpretations of gender typing o New Biology and Environment box on a case study of a boy who was reared as a girl o Enhanced discussion of the pervasiveness of gender-stereotyped models in children's environments o New research on peer influences on gender-role behavior o New findings on the influence of older siblings on children's gender-role adoption o New findings on factors contributing to boys' higher rate of overt aggression o Enhanced discussion of issues related to developing non-gender-stereotyped children. Chapter 14: Updated treatment of child-rearing styles and their impact on children's development o New Biology and Environment box addressing the question, Does parenting really matter? o Expanded treatment of parenting and adolescent autonomy o New findings on ethnic variations in child-rearing styles o Updated findings on blended families, with enhanced attention to age differences in children's adjustment o New evidence on the consequences of child maltreatment, with special attention to psychophysiological effects and implications for long-term adjustment problems. Chapter 15: Revised and expanded section on parental influences-both direct and indirect-on children's peer sociability o Expanded treatment of cultural influences on children's peer sociability o Section on friendship moved from Chapter 11 to Chapter 15 o New research on characteristics of children's friendships o Expanded discussion of implications of friendship for adjustment o New evidence on peer acceptance, including consideration of popular-prosocial and popular-antisocial children o Revised section on peer groups o Updated findings on media violence and aggression o New evidence on implications of violent computer games for social learning o New Social Issues: Education box on school readiness, including academic redshirting and early retention o Enhanced discussion of grouping practices in schools, including recent findings on multigrade classrooms. PEDAGOGICAL FEATURES Maintaining a highly accessible writing style-one that is lucid and engaging without being simplistic-continues to be one of this text's goals. I frequently converse with students, encouraging them to relate what they read to their own lives. In doing so, I hope to make the study of child development involving and pleasurable. CHAPTER INTRODUCTIONS AND END-OF-CHAPTER SUMMARIES. To provide a helpful preview, I include an outline and overview of chapter content in each chapter introduction. Especially comprehensive end-of-chapter summaries, organized according to the major divisions of each chapter and highlighting important terms, will remind students of key points in the text discussion. Review questions are included in the summaries to encourage active study. ASK YOURSELF.... Active engagement with the subject matter is also supported by study questions at the end of each major section. Three types of questions prompt students to think about the subject matter in diverse ways: Review questions help students recall and comprehend information they have just read; Apply questions encourage the application of knowledge to controversial issues and problems faced by parents, teachers, and children; and Connect questions help students build an image of the whole child by integrating what they have learned across age periods and domains of development. Each question is answered on the text's companion website so students may compare their reasoning to a model response. Three types of thematic boxes accentuate the philosophical themes of this book: BIOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT. New to this edition, this special feature highlights the growing attention in the child development field to the complex, bidirectional relationship between biological and environmental influences. A wide range of topics include Uncoupling Genetic-Environmental Correlations for Mental Illness and Antisocial Behavior, Resilient Children, and Do Parents Really Matter? FROM RESEARCH TO PRACTICE integrates theory, research, and applications, on such topics as Social and Emotional Intelligence, Authentic Assessment, and Parent-Child Interaction: Impact on Language and Cognitive Development in Deaf Children. CULTURAL INFLUENCES boxes have been expanded and updated to deepen attention to culture threaded throughout the text. They emphasize both multicultural and cross-cultural variations. Topics include: Young Children's Daily Life in a Yucatec Mayan Village, Identity Development Among Ethnic Minority Adolescents, and Cultural Variations in Personal Storytelling: Implications for Early Self-Concept. Two types of Social Issues boxes underscore the influence of social policy on all aspects of development. SOCIAL ISSUES: EDUCATION emphasizes the role of education at home, at school, and in the community in children's physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development. Topics include: Development of Civic Responsibility and When are Children Ready for School? Academic Redshirting and Early Retention. SOCIAL ISSUES: HEALTH boxes underscore the need for social policies around the world that support the physical and psychological health of children and families. Topics include: The Pros and cons of Reproductive Technologies and Adolescent Suicide: Annihilation of the Self. MILESTONES TABLES. Milestones tables summarize major developments within each topical area, providing a convenient overview of the chronology of development. ADDITIONAL TABLES, ILLUSTRATIONS, AND PHOTOGRAPHS. Additional tables are liberally included to help readers grasp essential points in the text discussion, extend information on a topic, and consider applications. The many full-color illustrations throughout the book depict important theories, methods, and research findings. In this edition, the photo program has been carefully selected to portray the text discussion and to represent the diversity of children in the United States and around the world. MARGINAL GLOSSARY, END-OF-CHAPTER TERM LIST, AND END-OF-BOOK GLOSSARY. Mastery of terms that make up the central vocabulary of the field is promoted through a marginal glossary, an end-of-chapter term list, and an end-of-book glossary. Important terms and concepts also appear in boldface type in the text narrative and in the end-of-chapter summaries.
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