Understanding Children's Development, 4th Edition

by Peter K. Smith (Goldsmiths College, University of London); Helen Cowie (University of Surrey); Mark Blades (University of Sheffield)

• ISBN13: 9780631228233
• ISBN10: 0631228233
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-01
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This leading child development text, widely acclaimed for its international coverage and its rigorous research-based approach, has been thoroughly revised and updated: Provides international coverage. Takes a rigorous research-based approach. Now includes an additional chapter on prenatal development and birth. Student-friendly features include detailed case studies, suggestions for further reading, and ideas for classroom discussion. Useful online support material, including multiple choice questions, to accompany this text is available at www.blackwellpublishing.com/ucd.

Author Biography

Peter K. Smith is Professor of Psychology and Head of the Unit for School and Family Studies at Goldsmiths College, London.

Helen Cowie is Professor of Psychology and on the senior management team of the School of Psychology and Counselling at the University of Surrey Roehampton.

Mark Blades is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Sheffield.

Table of Contents

List of Plates and Box Plates	xii
List of Figures and Box Figures	xiv
List of Tables and Box Tables	xx
Series Preface	xxiv
Preface to the Fourth Edition	xxv
Preface to the Third Edition	xxvii
Preface to the Second Edition	xxix
Preface to the First Edition	xxxi
Acknowledgements	xxxiii
Part One Theories and Methods	1	(64)
1 Studying Development	3	(22)
Development Observed	4	(1)
What Is 'Development'?	5	(6)
Obtaining Information about Behaviour and Development	11	(6)
Working with the Data: Quantitative and Qualitative Methods	17	(2)
What Implications does Psychological Knowledge have for Society?	19	(2)
The Scientific Status of Psychology	21	(2)
Further Reading	23	(1)
Discussion Points	24	(1)
2 Biological and Cultural Theories of Development	25	(40)
Genetics and the Groundplan for Development	25	(8)
How Behaviour Develops: Nature and Nurture	33	(14)
Evolution and Human Behaviour	47	(7)
Culture and Development	54	(3)
Social Constructionist Approaches	57	(2)
Further Reading	59	(1)
Discussion Points	59	(8)
Box 2.1: The behaviour of free-living chimpanzees in the Combe Stream Reserve	60	(2)
Box 2.2: Development through participation in sociocultural activity	62	(3)
Part Two The Social World of the Child	65	(252)
3 Prenatal Development and Birth	67	(25)
From Conception to Birth	67	(3)
The Nature of Birth	70	(7)
Early Social Behaviour and Social Interactions	77	(8)
Further Reading	85	(1)
Discussion Points	85	(7)
Box 3.1: Newborn and fetal response to the human voice	86	(2)
Box 3.2: Cognitive status, language attainment, and prereading skills of 6-year-old very preterm children and their peers: the Bavarian longitudinal study	88	(4)
4 Parents and Families	92	(44)
The Development of Attachment Relationships	92	(14)
Bowlby's 'Maternal Deprivation' Hypothesis	106	(4)
Care Outside the Family: Day Care and Childminding	110	(2)
Relationships with Other Family Members	112	(7)
Styles of Parenting	119	(2)
Divorce and Step-parenting	121	(3)
Harsh Physical Punishment, and Child Abuse	124	(3)
Models of Parenting	127	(2)
Further Reading	129	(1)
Discussion Points	129	(7)
Box 4.1: Infant-mother attachment among the Dogon of Mali	130	(4)
Box 4.2: The effect of early institutional rearing on the behaviour problems and affectional relationships of 4-year-old children	134	(2)
5 The Peer Group	136	(39)
Early Peer Relationships	136	(2)
Siblings	138	(3)
Peer Relationships in Preschool and School	141	(9)
Friendship	150	(3)
The Importance of Peer Relations and Friendship	153	(4)
Dominance and Aggression in Children	157	(7)
Bullying in School	164	(2)
Group Socialization Theory and the Role of the Peer Group: How Important are Families?	166	(2)
Further Reading	168	(1)
Discussion Points	169	(6)
Box 5.1: Dimensions and types of social status: a cross-age perspective	169	(2)
Box 5.2: Bully/victim problems among schoolchildren: basic facts and effects of a school-based intervention programme	171	(4)
6 Becoming Socially Aware	175	(39)
How Children Begin to Understand Self and Others	175	(3)
Emotional Development	178	(5)
Understanding Others' Emotions, Desires and Beliefs	183	(2)
Self-concept and Self-esteem	185	(1)
Early Sex Differences and the Development of Gender Identity	186	(3)
Theories of Sex-role Identification	189	(5)
Ethnic Awareness, Identity, Preference and Prejudice	194	(5)
The Influence of Television	199	(10)
Further Reading	209	(1)
Discussion Points	209	(5)
Box 6.1: Changes in embarrassment as a function of age, sex and situation	209	(2)
Box 6.2: Television and the child: an empirical study of the effect of television on the young	211	(3)
7 Play	214	(29)
The Characteristics of Playful Behaviour	216	(3)
The Development of Play	219	(10)
Play Theorists	229	(3)
Empirical Studies	232	(5)
Further Reading	237	(1)
Discussion Points	238	(5)
Box 7.1: Exploration and play in children	238	(2)
Box 7.2: Universal, developmental, and variable aspects of young children's play: A cross-cultural comparison of pretending at home	240	(3)
8 Helping Others and Moral Development	243	(38)
The Development of Prosocial Behaviour	244	(5)
Factors Influencing Prosocial Behaviour in the Family and in School	249	(8)
The Development of Moral Reasoning	257	(17)
Further Reading	274	(1)
Discussion Points	275	(6)
Box 8.1: Child-rearing and children's prosocial initiations towards victims of distress	275	(2)
Box 8.2: The effects of primary division, student-mediated conflict resolution programs on playground aggression	277	(4)
9 Adolescence	281	(36)
The Biological and Physical Changes of Puberty	282	(5)
Psychological Effects of Puberty	287	(4)
Adolescence as a Period of Turmoil, or 'Storm and Stress'	291	(14)
Relations with Parents: Conflicts, and Mood Disruption	305	(4)
Relations with Peers and Risk Taking Behaviours	309	(1)
Adolescence in Different Cultures	310	(2)
Further Reading	312	(1)
Discussion Points	313	(6)
Box 9.1: Unravelling girls' delinquency: biological, dispositional and contextual contributions to adolescent misbehaviour	313	(2)
Box 9.2: Cultural bases of risk behaviour: Danish adolescents	315	(2)
Part Three Children's Developing Minds	317	(275)
10 Perception	319	(29)
Methods for Studying Infants' Perception	320	(2)
Visual Perception	322	(11)
Auditory Perception	333	(3)
Intermodal Perception	336	(2)
Effects of the Environment on Perceptual Development	338	(2)
Conclusions	340	(1)
Further Reading	341	(1)
Discussion Points	341	(7)
Box 10.1: The origin of form perception	341	(5)
Box 10.2: Effects of prior experience on 4.5-month-old infants' object segregation	346	(2)
11 Language	348	(40)
Main Areas of Language Development	348	(1)
Sequences in Language Development	349	(8)
The Development of Discourse and Narrative Skills	357	(4)
Pre-reading and Pre-writing Skills	361	(3)
Dyslexia	364	(2)
Theories of Language Development	366	(15)
Further Reading	381	(1)
Discussion Points	381	(7)
Box 11.1: Categorizing sounds and learning to read: a causal connection	382	(3)
Box 11.2: Facilitating children's syntax development	385	(3)
12 Cognition: Piaget's Theory	388	(32)
Underlying Assumptions: Structure and Organization	391	(2)
The Stages of Cognitive Development	393	(1)
The Sensori-motor Stage	393	(4)
Re-interpretations of Piaget: the Sensori-motor Stage	397	(2)
The Pre-operational Stage	399	(6)
Re-interpretations of Piaget: the Pre-operational Stage	405	(2)
The Concrete Operational Stage	407	(1)
Re-interpretations of Piaget: the Concrete Operational Stage	407	(1)
The Formal Operational Stage	408	(2)
Re-interpretations of Piaget: the Formal Operational Stage	410	(2)
Piaget's Theory: an Overview	412	(1)
Educational Implications	412	(2)
Further Reading	414	(1)
Discussion Points	414	(6)
Box 12.1: Piaget's mountains revisited: changes in the egocentric landscape	415	(2)
Box 12.2: Conservation accidents	417	(3)
13 Cognition: The Information Processing Approach	420	(40)
Information Processing Limitations	422	(3)
Neo-Piagetians and Information Processing	425	(7)
Memory Development	432	(4)
How do Memory Strategies Develop?	436	(1)
Metacognition	437	(1)
Knowledge and Memory Development	438	(1)
Constructive Memory and Knowledge Structures	439	(3)
Children's Eyewitness Research	442	(2)
Children's Suggestibility	444	(5)
Further Reading	449	(1)
Discussion Points	450	(10)
Box 13.1: The origins of scientific reasoning	450	(6)
Box 13.2: The effects of stereotypes and suggestions on preschoolers' reports	456	(4)
14 Children's Understanding of Mind	460	(31)
Thc False-belief Task	462	(2)
Children's Knowledge of Mind before about Four Years of Age	464	(3)
When is Theory of Mind Achieved?	467	(1)
Knowledge of the Mind after about Four Years of Age	468	(3)
Theories about the Development of Understanding the Mind	471	(6)
Do Children with Autism Lack an Understanding of Others' Minds?	477	(4)
How Far can a Deficit in Understanding Mental Representations Contribute to an Explanation of Autism?	481	(2)
Further Reading	483	(1)
Discussion Points	484	(7)
Box 14.1: Beliefs about beliefs: representations and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children's understanding of deception	484	(4)
Box 14.2: Domain specificity in conceptual development: neuropsychological evidence from autism	488	(3)
15 Learning in a Social Context	491	(34)
The Challenge of Vygotsky	491	(3)
Individual Mental Functioning: its Sociocultural Origins	494	(5)
Language and Thought	499	(2)
The Impact of Bruner	501	(8)
Implications for Education	509	(4)
Is a Synthesis Possible between Piagetian and Vygotskian Theory?	513	(3)
Further Reading	516	(1)
Discussion Points	516	(9)
Box 15.1: Capturing and modelling the process of conceptual change	517	(4)
Box 15.2: Mathematics in the streets and in schools	521	(4)
16 Intelligence and Attainment	525	(28)
The Development of Intelligence Tests	525	(8)
Reliability and Validity	533	(1)
The Early Uses of Intelligence Tests	534	(1)
Concepts of Intelligence	535	(4)
Savants	539	(2)
Intelligence in a Social-cultural Context	541	(2)
The Use of Intelligence Tests	543	(3)
Attainment Tests	546	(2)
Conclusions	548	(1)
Further Reading	548	(1)
Discussion Points	549	(4)
Box 16.1: People's conceptions of intelligence	549	(1)
Box 16.2: Calendar calculating in 'idiots savants'. How do they do it?	550	(3)
17 Deprivation and Enrichment: Risk and Resilience	553	(32)
Disadvantage	553	(1)
Extreme Deprivation and Neglect	554	(5)
The Effects of Institutional Rearing on Children's Development	559	(4)
Socially Disadvantaged Children	563	(4)
Explanatory Models	567	(4)
Interventions: the Role of families	571	(1)
Compensatory Education Programmes in the UK	572	(1)
Compensatory Education Programmes in the USA	573	(1)
Compensatory Programmes Evaluated	574	(2)
A Continuing Debate	576	(3)
Further Reading	579	(1)
Discussion Points	580	(5)
Box 17.1: Children and political violence: an overview	580	(2)
Box 17.2: Lasting effects of early education: a report from the consortium of longitudinal studies	582	(3)
Appendix A Ethical Principles for Conducting Research with Human Participants	585	(5)
Appendix B Careers in Psychology	590	(2)
References	592	(52)
Index	644