Understanding Children's Development (3rd Edition) (Basic Psychology S.) [Paperback]

“There is no other book on the market that comes near in its scholarship, coverage and accessibility.” Professor Martyn Barrett, University of Surrey <!––end––>

“A very valuable text for everyone interested in children′s development.” Professor Judith Dunn, Institute of Psychiatry, King′s College London“Understanding Children′s Developmentis one of the best introductory treatments of this discipline that I know.”Professor C. Philip Hwang, Gothenburg University, Sweden

A very valuable text for everyone interested in children's development. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Understanding Children's Development is one of the best introductory treatments of this discipline that I know. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

“This classic textbook provides an outstanding introduction to the field of developmental psychology. It is comprehensive in its coverage, and presents the latest developments in contemporary scholarship in a highly accessible format. It is a real pleasure to read. There is no better introductory level book on the market.” 
—Professor Martyn Barrett, University of Surrey

“This book is a comprehensive, accessible and valuable addition to the field of psychology. It provides extensive insights into current research and contemporary issues in the area with both clarity and authority. The book is highly recommended to anyone engaged with the research and practice of child development.” 
—Marilyn Hackney, Manchester Metropolitan University

"This is definitely one of my favorite developmental textbooks! It´s very comprehensive and covers all the topics I cover in my courses and more."
—C. Philip Hwang, Gothenburg University, Sweden --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

This leading child development text, widely acclaimed for its international coverage and its rigorous research–based approach, has now been thoroughly revised and updated.

This leading child development text has been widely acclaimed for its international coverage and its rigorous research–based approach. It begins by introducing the ways in which psychologists study developmental processes before going on to consider all major aspects of development, including biological, social, moral and cognitive components.

For the fourth edition, the entire text has been updated to take account of recent developments in the field. Major revisions include:

coverage of a range of theoretical perspectives – from evolutionary developmental psychology to cultural–ecological and social–constructionist viewpoints

a new chapter on prenatal development and birth

extensive new material on developments in attachment theory

extended discussion of implications of the social contexts of learning for cognition and education

recent perspectives on disadvantage. Each chapter provides lucid discussion of the material, enlivened by the inclusion of revealing case studies, and ideas for classroom discussion. Throughout the text the practical and applied implications of developmental research are emphasized and discussed.

Peter Smith is Professor of Psychology and Head of the Unit for School and Family Studies at Goldsmith′s 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.

Parents and Families The newborn baby has a lot to find out about the social world. If you pick her up, she will respond no differently to you than to anyone else. Yet some 9 months later the infant will discriminate familiar and unfamiliar persons, and will probably have developed one or more selective attachments. If you pick her up now she may well look anxious or cry; whereas if her mother or father picks her up, she will be reassured and pacified. In this chapter we look first at the development of social interactions and attachment relationships between infants, parents, and other family members. The importance of such attachments for later development is considered, with its implications for policy issues such as institutional rearing, day care and childminding for young children. Finally we examine some of the factors affecting successful and less successful parenting. Early Social Behaviour and Social Interactions The human infant is fairly helpless (or altricial) at birth. He or she depends on parents, or caregivers, for food, warmth, shelter and protection. For these reasons alone it is important for human infants, as for any other young mammal, that an attachment develops between the infant and the mother (or father, or other caregiver; we will use the term caregiver generically). In addition, human infants acquire something from this relationship that is largely absent in other mammals, the beginnings of symbolic communication and cultural meaning. The particular relevance of early caregiver-infant interaction for language development is considered in chapter 10. Although fairly helpless, the human infant does have some reflexive (instinctive or highly canalized) abilities which assist the development of social interactions with caregivers. These are: (1) behaviours which operate primarily in social situations; (2) behaviours to which social responses are given; (3) an enjoyment of contingent responding by others; (4) an ability to learn, including discriminating social stimuli and attempting to imitate certain observed behaviours. Let us consider these in turn. 1 Behaviours that operate primarily in social situations. The types of auditory and visual stimulation which adults provide are especially attractive to infants at or soon after birth (see also chapter 9). For example, infants orientate to (i.e. turn their head towards) patterned sounds rather than monotones, and especially to patterned sounds within the frequency range of human speech. They are interested in visual stimuli which move around, and which have a lot of contour information. The human face provides moving stimulation with much contour information, often at just the right distance for the infant to fixate easily. Infant reflexes, such as grasping, and rooting and sucking at the breast, are also used primarily with caregivers. None of these reflexive behaviours is directed only to adults, but all are well designed to operate with adults and to give the infant an initial orientation to social situations. 2 Behaviours to which social responses are given. Newborn babies will both smile and cry. In both cases this behaviour has no social meaning to the baby at first. She smiles apparently randomly from time to time, and cries if hungry or uncomfortable. However, caregivers respond to these signals as if they were social. They tend to smile and talk back if the infant smiles; and to pick up an infant and talk to her if she is crying (plate 3.1: one study found that picking up an infant reduced crying on 88 per cent of occasions, which is very rewarding for the adult). Gradually the infant will learn the social consequences of smiling, and crying, because of the social meaning and social responses which caregivers give to them. It is similar with babbling, which begins around 2 months of age. 3 An enjoyment of contingent responding by others. From quite early on it seems as though infants like to get 'contingent' stimulation - that is, stimulation which appropriately follows quickly on some action of their own; as it were, a 'reply' to their own action. An experiment which demonstrated this very neatly is described in box 3.1: usually caregivers provide contingent responding in a rapid and appropriate fashion when they react to the infant's smiling, crying, cooing or babbling, or a bit later on engage in games such as peek-a-boo. Many studies of mother-infant interaction in the home have found that maternal 'sensitivity' (which is largely synonymous with contingent responsiveness) is correlated with good social development and attachment in the infant. Enjoyment of contingent responsiveness can develop into turn-taking and into proper interactions such conversations, or games. A game such as peek-a-boo is initially structured solely by the adult, who takes advantage of the infant's pleasure at the surprise generated by the sudden appearance and disappearance of the adult's face, or a teddy-bear; it becomes a more genuine turn-taking sequence as the infant comes to expect the next repetition of the game and thus take a more active part itself in the exchange (see Bruner and Sherwood, 1976). 4 An ability to learn. The development of perceptual abilities in infancy is discussed in detail in chapter 9. We saw in chapter 2 (box 2.1) how some aspects of the mother's voice are learnt even before birth; infants learn to discriminate the sound of the mother's voice from that of a stranger within a few days of birth (p. 285), and learn to prefer pictures of faces to similar but scrambled up pictures by 2 months of age (p. 276; figure 9.4). Throughout the first months of life, infants are discriminating social stimuli and learning the consequences of social actions. By around 6 months of age they quite clearly discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar adults, for example in orienting and in ease of being comforted.