Understanding Child Development: Psychological Perspectives & Applications

Contents

1. Introducing the Study of Child Development
• Conceptual Issues
• Children's Place in History and Culture
• The "Biological", "Social" and "Individual 'Causes of Development
• Continuity and Discontinuity in Development
• How Conceptualising Child Development Leads to Researching
• Child Development: Some Methodological Issues
• Scientific Answers to Questions Abour Child Development
• Cross-Sectional Studies -'Getting Age Differences'
• Longitudinal Studies
• 'Stages in Development
• Systems Theories
• Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Theory of Developmental Systems
• Multiple Factors at Multiple Levels
• Individuals Are Active Producers of Their Own Development

2. Biological Bases of Child Development: Evolution and Genes
• Evolution and Child Development
• Adaptation
• Neoteny, Heterochrony and the Timing of Developmental Events
• 'Evo-Devo: Developmental Psychology and Evolutionary Theory
• Humans Have Evolved to Be Social
• Humans' Reproductive Strategy Implies They Will Invest
• in Their Offspring
• Genes and Child Development
• Genes and Experience as Influences on Development
• Genetic Anomalies and Different Development
• Gene Expression
• Epigenesis Early Experience, Gene Expression and Development Over Generations
• Smoking, Gene Expression and Development
• Deprivation of Maternal Care, Gene Expression, Serotonin and Psychological Disorders
• Phenylketonuria: An Example of Why Even Gene-Caused
• Disorders Are Not Solely Caused by Genes
• Summary

3. Biological Bases of Child Development: Brain Development
• Some Basic Points About Brains and Their Role in Child Development
• An Introductory Description of the Brain
• Brain Development and Developmental Psychology
• Brains, Bodies and Stress
• Stress and the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)
• Stress and the HPA Axis: Cortisol
• Stress and the Immune System
• Stress and the Social Brain
• Developmental Fine-Tuning of Stress Systems
• Stress and Parenting
• Stress and Peers Stress and Executive Functions
• Emotion Regulation
• Testosterone and Sex Differences in Behaviour
• Psychoneuroendocrinology and Child Development: A Summary

4. Big Developmental Theories: Piaget, Information-Processing, Vygotsky Cognitive Development: Piaget, Information-Processing
• and Vygotsky
• Piagetian Theory
• Causes of Cognitive Development
• Equilibration
• Stages
• Information-Processing Approaches
• Capacity, Processes and Knowledge
• Representations
• Inhibition and Flexibility
• Rules, Algorithms and Efficiency
• Developmental Mechanisms
• Cognition and its Social Construction
• Language and Thought
• The Zone of Proximal Development'
• Cognitive Development is Socio-Cultural

5. The Development of Cognitive Skills
• Perception
• Methodology in Perceptual Development
• Perceptual Behaviour
• Findings About Perceptual Development
• Executive Functions: Attention, Memory and Metacognition
• Attention
• Memory
• The Basic Structure and Processes of Memory
• What Develops in Memory? Organisation of Detail,
• Inferential Links and Memory Strategies
• Metamemory
• Infantile Amnesia, Episodic Memory and Autobiographical
• Memory
• Metacognition
• Teaching Thinking Skills
• Social Cognition
• Diagnosing Mental States
• Moral Reasoning
• Children's Moral Reasoning
• Links Between Moral Reasoning, Identity and Emotion

6. Language Development
• Infants' Perception of Speech Sounds
• Infants Production of Speech Sounds
• Beginning to Use Words
• Words and Their Functions: Using Words as Names
• Constraints on Learning New Words
• The Growth of Vocabulary
• From Single Words to Sentences
• Language Acquisition Devices
• Language Acquisition Principles
• Language Acquisition Support Systems
• Children's Metalinguistic Behaviour
• Children With Specific Language Impairment
• Biological Bases of Language Development

7. Cognition and Education
• Reading: Linking Written Word, Sound and Meaning
• Learning to Read in a Literate Environment
• Component Skills of Reading
• Children With Reading Problems
• Biological Bases of Dyslexia
• Numeracy

8. Personality, Emotion Regulation and an Introduction to Developmental Psychopathology
• Physiological Systems for Stress Management
• Experiential and Developmental Differences in Coping With Stress
• Mechanisms for Developmental Differences in Self-Regulation
• Developmental Changes in Reaction to Stress
• Emotional Self-Regulation
• Emotional Self-Regulation and Psychosocial Disorders
• Personality Development and Life Events: Stage Models Temperament
• The Self Concept 198 The Existential Self
• The 'Me': The Categorical Self Concept 200 Functions of Self Concept
• The Development of Self Concept in Childhood
• Self Concept in Adolescence
• Self Concept, Success and Strategies: Entity and Incremental Theories
• Self-Conscious Emotions: Pride, Shame, Guilt, Embarrassment and Low Self-Esteem
• Emotion, Social Development and the Development of Well-Being 207 Mastery
• Developing a Sense of Mastery
• Depression
• Depression and Daily Life Stresses, Brain Development and Personality
• Social Support and Depression
• Early Life Events and Depression
• Macro system Issues and Depression
• Anxiety

9. Social Relationships and the Family
• Infant-Adult Interaction
• Parenting
• Bonding and Maternal Instinct
• Attachment
• Describing Relationships
• Early Experience and Later Effects
• Methodological and Conceptual Problems
• "Maternal Deprivation' and Maternal Privation
• Child-Rearing Techniques
• Dimensions of Parenting
• Warmth and Responsivity
• Discipline and Control
• Adoption
• Sibling Relationships
• Genetic and Experiential Factors in Sibling Resemblance
• Birth Order and Sibling Socialisation
• Sibling Reciprocity and Complementarity
• Sibling Relationships and Family Conflict
• Sibling Relationships and Fairness Issues
• Sibling Relationships in Adolescence and Adulthood
• Summary

10. Peers and the Child as Social Person
• Development of Peer Relations
• Attachment and Parent Influences on Peer Relationships
• Peer Group Popularity and Teachers' Views
• Peer Difficulties and Externalising Problems:
• Peer Difficulties and Internalising Problems
• Adolescents and Their Peers
• Popularity and Unpopularity with Adolescent Peers
• Adolescents and Romantic Relationships Bullying and Aggression
• Developmental Experiences Associated with Risk of Becoming a Bally or a Victim
• Gender
• Socio-Cultural Theories of Gender
• Development of Sex Differences in Children
• Infancy Differences
• Differences in the Preschool and Early School Years Influences on the Development of a Gendered Social World: Parents
• Influences on the Development of a Gendered Social World: Siblings
• Influences on the Development of a Gendered Social World: Peers
• Influences on the Development of a Gendered Social World: Schools
• Learning the Social World of School
• Children and Their Fellow Pupils 268 Children and the Media
• Media Use, Decline in Physical Activity, Diet and the Obesity Epidemic
• Media the and the Development of Cognitive Skills
• Media and Violence
• Psychological Processes in Children's Response to Media Violence

11. Play
• Defining Play
• Theories of the Causes of Play
• Some Possible Functions of Play
• Arousal Modulation
• Practising Adult Activities
• Allowing Behavioural Recombination
• Emotional and Social Functions of Play
• The Development of Play Behaviours
• On the Importance of Play
• Play
• Key Terms
• Bibliography
• Index