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C H A P T E R
Introduction
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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 life-span 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?
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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 Rapport; 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.
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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.
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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 (CDROM)
➤ “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).
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Introduction
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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.