Psychology

Please respond to each question with 2 sentences.

Describe the point at which nature begins to influence nurture in the developmental process.

Identify some of the social contexts of life.

Differentiate between cohorts and age groups.

Describe the advantages and disadvantages of quantitative research

. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of qualitative research.

Explain the similarities and differences between Freud’s and Erikson’s theories of adulthood.

Describe when social learning is most powerful.

Explain what Piaget discovered that earlier psychologists did not realize.

Identify human behaviors that were protective centuries ago but are harmful now. 

Describe why it is beneficial to know more than one theory to explain human behavior.

The Developing Person
Through the Life Span
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Christian Pierre. New Friend (front cover), Road to Opportunity (back cover). The luminous colors and
figures in New Friend and Road to Opportunity reflect the hope and discovery apparent in all Pierre’s paintings—
of adults, animals, plants, landscapes, and children. Pierre has lived in several cultures, under many life circum-
stances, but she has said that she could never make herself paint anything depressing. Instead, by combining
colors, shapes, and composition in ways that simultaneously reflect fantasy and reality, she illustrates life in ways
that allow us to recognize truths that we may not have noticed before. Development is about connections—
between one age and another, between one group and another, or even between one living creature and another.
Joy and affection for every developing person, of whatever age or status, combine as the theme of this text.
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iii
Bronx Community College
City University of New York
The Developing Person
Through the Life Span
Kathleen Stassen Berger
SEVENTH EDITION
WORTH PUBLISHERS
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iv
Publisher: Catherine Woods
Senior Sponsoring Editor: Jessica Bayne
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Composition: TSI Graphics
Printing and Binding: R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company
Cover Art: Christian Pierre, New Friend (front) and
Road to Opportunity (back)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007937431
ISBN-13: 978-0-7167-6072-6
ISBN-10: 0-7167-6072-X
ppbk. ISBN-13: 978-0-7167-6080-1
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Credit is given to the following sources for permission to use the photos indicated:
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Christophe Boisvieux/Corbis, pp. xv, Ep-0
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K
athleen Stassen Berger received her undergraduate education at
Stanford University and Radcliffe College, earned an M.A.T. from
Harvard University and an M.S. and Ph.D from Yeshiva University.
Her broad experience as an educator includes directing a preschool, teach-
ing philosophy and humanities at the United Nations International School,
teaching child and adolescent development to graduate students at Fordham
University, teaching undergraduates at Montclair State University in New
Jersey and at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, as well as inmates earn-
ing paralegal degrees at Sing Sing Prison.
For the past 35 years, Berger has taught at Bronx Community College of
the City University of New York. She has taught introduction to psychology,
child and adolescent development, adulthood and aging, social psychology,
abnormal psychology, and human motivation. Her students—who come
from many ethnic, economic, and educational backgrounds and who have a
wide range of interests—consistently honor her with the highest teaching
evaluations. Her own four children attended New York City public schools,
one reason that she was elected as president of Community School Board in
District Two.
Berger is also the author of The Developing Person Through Childhood and
Adolescence. Her developmental texts are currently being used at nearly 700
colleges and universities worldwide and are available in Spanish, French,
Italian, and Portuguese as well as English. Her research interests include
adolescent identity, sibling relationships, and bullying, and she has con-
tributed articles on developmental topics to the Wiley Encyclopedia of
Psychology. Berger’s interest in college education is manifest in articles pub-
lished by the American Association for Higher Education and the National
Education Association for Higher Education. She continues to teach and
learn with every semester and every edition of her books.
A B O U T T H E AU T H O R
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B R I E F C O N T E N T S
vi
Preface xvii
PART I The Beginnings 1
Chapter 1 Introduction 3
Chapter 2 Theories of Development 33
Chapter 3 Heredity and Environment 61
Chapter 4 Prenatal Development and Birth 91
PART II The First Two Years 123
Chapter 5 The First Two Years: Biosocial Development 125
Chapter 6 The First Two Years: Cognitive Development 155
Chapter 7 The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development 179
PART III The Play Years 205
Chapter 8 The Play Years: Biosocial Development 207
Chapter 9 The Play Years: Cognitive Development 231
Chapter 10 The Play Years: Psychosocial Development 255
PART IV The School Years 281
Chapter 11 The School Years: Biosocial Development 283
Chapter 12 The School Years: Cognitive Development 307
Chapter 13 The School Years: Psychosocial Development 333
PART V Adolescence 361
Chapter 14 Adolescence: Biosocial Development 363
Chapter 15 Adolescence: Cognitive Development 391
Chapter 16 Adolescence: Psychosocial Development 415
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PART VI Emerging Adulthood 445
Chapter 17 Emerging Adulthood: Biosocial Development 447
Chapter 18 Emerging Adulthood: Cognitive Development 471
Chapter 19 Emerging Adulthood: Psychosocial Development 499
PART VII Adulthood 525
Chapter 20 Adulthood: Biosocial Development 527
Chapter 21 Adulthood: Cognitive Development 555
Chapter 22 Adulthood: Psychosocial Development 577
PART VIII Late Adulthood 611
Chapter 23 Late Adulthood: Biosocial Development 613
Chapter 24 Late Adulthood: Cognitive Development 649
Chapter 25 Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development 679
Epilogue Death and Dying Ep-1
Appendix A Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables A-1
Appendix B More About Research Methods B-1
Appendix C Suggestions for Research Assignments C-1
Glossary G-1
References R-1
Name Index NI-1
Subject Index SI-1
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ix
Preface xvii
PART I
The Beginnings 1
Chapter 1 Introduction 3
Defining Development 3
Science 3
Diversity 4
Connections Between Change and Time 4
Five Characteristics of Development 7
Multidirectional 7
Multicontextual 9
Multicultural 10
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS: “My Name Wasn’t
Mary” 12
Multidisciplinary 13
Plasticity 15
A CASE TO STUDY: My Nephew David 15
Developmental Study as a Science 16
Steps of the Scientific Method 16
Ways to Test Hypotheses 17
Studying Change over Time 21
Cautions from Science 25
Correlation and Causation 25
Quantity and Quality 26
Ethics in Research 27
Chapter 2 Theories of Development 33
What Theories Do 33
Grand Theories 34
Psychoanalytic Theory 35
Behaviorism 38
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST: What’s a Mother For? 40
Cognitive Theory 43
Emergent Theories 46
Sociocultural Theory 46
Epigenetic Theory 49
IN PERSON: My Beautiful, Hairless
Babies 53
What Theories Contribute 54
The Nature–Nurture Controversy 55
No Answers Yet 57
Chapter 3 Heredity and Environment 61
The Genetic Code 61
What Genes Are 61
The Beginnings of Life 63
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS: Too Many Boys? 65
From One Cell to Many 66
New Cells, New Functions 66
Gene–Gene Interactions 67
More Complications 68
IN PERSON: “I Am Not Happy With Me” 72
From Genotype to Phenotype 73
Addiction 74
Visual Acuity 75
Practical Applications 77
Chromosomal and Genetic Abnormalities 79
Not Exactly 46 Chromosomes 79
Dominant-Gene Disorders 81
Recessive-Gene Disorders 84
Genetic Counseling and Testing 84
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST: Who Decides? 85
C O N T E N T S
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x CONTENTS
Ethnic Variations 141
IN PERSON: The Normal Berger Babies 142
Public Health Measures 143
Immunization 144
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome 146
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS: Back to Sleep 148
Nutrition 148
Chapter 6 The First Two Years:
Cognitive Development 155
Sensorimotor Intelligence 155
Stages One and Two: Primary Circular Reactions 156
Stages Three and Four: Secondary Circular Reactions 157
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST: Object Permanence
Revisited 158
Stages Five and Six: Tertiary Circular
Reactions 159
Piaget and Research Methods 160
Information Processing 161
Affordances 162
Memory 165
Language:What Develops in the First Two Years? 167
The Universal Sequence 168
The Naming Explosion 169
Theories of Language Learning 171
Chapter 7 The First Two Years:
Psychosocial Development 179
A CASE TO STUDY: Parents on Autopilot 179
Emotional Development 180
Specific Emotions 180
Self-Awareness 182
Theories About Infant Psychosocial
Development 183
Psychoanalytic Theory 183
Behaviorism 184
Cognitive Theory 184
Epigenetic Theory 185
Sociocultural Theory 188
A CASE TO STUDY: “Let’s Go to Grandma’s” 189
The Development of Social Bonds 191
Synchrony 191
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST: The Still-Face
Technique 192
Attachment 192
Social Referencing 196
Infant Day Care 197
Conclusions in Theory and Practice 199
Chapter 4 Prenatal Development
and Birth 91
From Zygote to Newborn 91
Germinal: The First 14 Days 91
Embryo: From the Third Through the Eighth Week 93
Fetus: From the Ninth Week Until Birth 94
Risk Reduction 97
Determining Risk 98
Protective Measures 101
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST: On Punishing Pregnant
Drinkers 102
Benefits of Prenatal Care 104
A CASE TO STUDY: What Do People Live to Do? 106
A CASE TO STUDY: What Does That Say About Me? 108
The Birth Process 108
The Newborn’s First Minutes 109
Variations 110
Birth Complications 112
Social Support 116
A CASE TO STUDY: “You’d Throw Him in a Dumpster” 118
Postpartum Depression 118
PART II
The First Two Years 123
Chapter 5 The First Two Years:
Biosocial Development 125
Body Changes 125
Body Size 125
Sleep 127
Brain Development 129
Connections in the Brain 129
Necessary and Possible Experiences 132
Implications for Caregivers 133
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST: Plasticity and
Orphans 134
Senses and Motor Skills 136
Sensation and Perception 136
Motor Skills 138
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CONTENTS xi
PART III
The Play Years 205
Chapter 8 The Play Years: Biosocial
Development 207
Body Changes 207
Growth Patterns 207
Eating Habits 208
Brain Development 210
Speed of Thought 210
Connecting the Brain’s Hemispheres 210
Planning and Analyzing 212
Emotions and the Brain 213
Motor Skills 215
Injuries and Abuse 218
Avoidable Injury 219
IN PERSON: “My Baby Swallowed Poison” 221
Child Maltreatment 222
A CASE TO STUDY: A Series of Suspicious Events 224
Chapter 9 The Play Years: Cognitive
Development 231
Piaget and Vygotsky 231
Piaget: Preoperational Thinking 231
Vygotsky: Social Learning 234
Children’s Theories 236
Theory-Theory 236
Theory of Mind 238
Language 240
Vocabulary 240
IN PERSON: “Mommy the Brat” 241
Grammar 242
Learning Two Languages 243
Early-Childhood Education 245
Child-Centered Programs 246
Teacher-Directed Programs 248
Intervention Programs 249
Costs and Benefits 251
Chapter 10 The Play Years: Psychosocial
Development 255
Emotional Development 255
Initiative Versus Guilt 255
Psychopathology 258
Empathy and Antipathy 259
Parents 264
Parenting Style 264
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS: Planning Punishment 267
The Challenge of Media 268
Becoming Boys and Girls 271
Theories of Gender Differences 271
IN PERSON: Berger and Freud 273
Gender and Destiny 276
PART IV
The School Years 281
Chapter 11 The School Years: Biosocial
Development 283
A Healthy Time 283
Size and Shape 284
Physical Activity 286
Chronic Illness 288
Brain Development 290
Advances in Brain Functioning 290
Measuring the Mind 291
Children with Special Needs 295
A CASE TO STUDY: Billy: Dynamo or Dynamite? 295
Developmental Psychopathology 296
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST: Overdosing and
Underdosing 298
Educating Children with Special Needs 301
Chapter 12 The School Years: Cognitive
Development 307
Building on Theory 307
Piaget and School-Age Children 307
Vygotsky and School-Age Children 309
Information Processing 310
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The Transformations of Puberty 371
Growing Bigger and Stronger 371
Sexual Maturation 373
Brain Development 375
A CASE TO STUDY: What Were You Thinking? 375
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS: Calculus at 8 A.M.? 379
Possible Problems 380
Sex Too Soon 380
Drug Use and Abuse 383
Learning from Experience 387
Chapter 15 Adolescence: Cognitive
Development 391
Adolescent Thinking 391
Egocentrism 391
IN PERSON: Bethany and Jim 394
Formal Operational Thought 395
Intuitive, Emotional Thought 397
Better Thinking 400
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST: Teenage Religion 400
Teaching and Learning 401
Middle School: Less Learning 402
Technology and Cognition 404
Transition and Translations 406
Teaching and Learning in High School 407
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS: Diversity of Nation,
Gender, and Income 407
Chapter 16 Adolescence: Psychosocial
Development 415
Identity 415
Not Yet Achieved 416
Four Arenas of Identity Achievement 416
Relationships 419
Adults and Teenagers 419
Peer Support 422
IN PERSON: The Berger Daughters
Seek Peer Approval 423
Sexuality 427
Before Committed Partnership 427
Learning About Sex 429
Sexual Behavior 432
Sadness and Anger 433
Depression 433
Suicide 434
A CASE TO STUDY: He Kept His Worries to Himself 437
More Destructiveness 437
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST: A Feminist
Looks at the Data 439
Language 314
Vocabulary and Pragmatics 314
Second-Language Learning 315
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS: SES and Language
Learning 317
Teaching and Learning 317
Curriculum 318
The Outcome 321
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST: International Achievement
Tests 321
Education Wars and Assumptions 323
A CASE TO STUDY: When Did You Learn Tsunami? 326
Culture and Education 328
Chapter 13 The School Years:
Psychosocial
Development 333
The Peer Group 333
The Culture of Children 334
Children’s Moral Codes 335
Social Acceptance 337
Bullies and Victims 339
Families and Children 342
Shared and Nonshared Environment 343
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST: “I Always Dressed One
in Blue Stuff . . . “ 343
Families Function and Dysfunction 344
Family Trouble 348
The Nature of the Child 351
Psychoanalytic Theory 351
Self-Concept 352
Coping and Overcoming 353
PART V
Adolescence 361
Chapter 14 Adolescence: Biosocial
Development 363
Puberty Begins 364
Hormones 364
When Will Puberty Start? 366
Too Early, Too Late 369
Nutrition 370
xii CONTENTS
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PART VI
Emerging
Adulthood 445
Chapter 17 Emerging Adulthood:
Biosocial Development 447
Growth, Strength, and Health 447
Ages and Stages 447
Strong and Attractive Bodies 449
Bodies Designed for Health 450
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS: Who Should
Get the Bird Flu Shot? 451
Sexual Activity 453
Habits and Risks 456
Exercise 456
Eating Well 457
A CASE TO STUDY: “Too Thin, As If That’s Possible” 461
Taking Risks 462
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS: What’s Wrong with the
Men? 464
Chapter 18 Emerging Adulthood:
Cognitive Development 471
Postformal Thought 472
The Practical and the Personal: A Fifth Stage? 472
Cognitive Flexibility 475
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST: Reducing Stereotype
Threat 479
Dialectical Thought 480
Morals and Religion 483
Which Era? What Place? 483
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS: Clear Guidelines for
Cheaters 485
Measuring Moral Growth 486
Stages of Faith 486
IN PERSON: Faith and Tolerance 488
Cognitive Growth and Higher Education 488
The Effects of College 489
Changes in the College
Context 490
Evaluating the Changes 494
Chapter 19 Emerging Adulthood:
Psychosocial
Devleopment 499
Identity Achieved 499
Ethnic Identity 500
Vocational Identity 502
Intimacy 503
Friendship 504
Romance and Relationships 507
IN PERSON: Changing Expectations
About Marriage 507
What Makes Relationships Work 511
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS: Domestic Violence 513
Family Connections 513
Emotional Development 516
Well-Being 516
Psychopathology 518
Continuity and Discontinuity 520
PART VII
Adulthood 525
Chapter 20 Adulthood: Biosocial
Development 527
The Aging Process 528
Senescence 528
The Sexual-Reproductive System 532
The Impact of Poor Health Habits 536
Tobacco and Alcohol Use 537
Lack of Exercise 539
Overeating 540
Preventive Medicine 543
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS: Responding to Stress 544
Measuring Health 545
Mortality and Morbidity 545
Disability and Vitality 546
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS: QALYs and DALYs 546
Variations in Aging 548
Gender Differences 548
Socioeconomic Status 549
Conclusion 550
CONTENTS xiii
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xiv CONTENTS
The Demographic Shift 616
Dependents and Independence 618
Senescence 620
Aging and Disease 620
Selective Optimization with Compensation 623
Health Habits 624
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS: Getting from Place to
Place 626
The Brain 628
Physical Appearance 629
Dulling of the Senses 630
Compression of Morbidity 633
Theories of Aging 635
Wear and Tear 635
Genetic Adaptation 636
Cellular Aging 639
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST: Can the
Aging Process Be Stopped? 641
The Centenarians 643
Other Places, Other Stories 643
The Truth About Life After 100 644
Chapter 24 Late Adulthood: Cognitive
Development 649
The Usual: Information-Processing After Age 65 649
Sensing and Perceiving 650
A CASE TO STUDY: “That Aide Was Very Rude” 650
Memory 651
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST: John, Paul, Ringo, and . . . 653
Control Processes 654
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST: Neuroscience and Brain
Activity 656
Staying Healthy and Alert 659
Ageism 660
The Impaired: Dementia 662
Alzheimer’s Disease 663
Many Strokes 665
Subcortical Dementias 666
Reversible Dementia 667
A CASE TO STUDY: Is It Dementia or Drug Addiction? 668
Prevention and Treatment 669
The Optimal: New Cognitive Development 670
Aesthetic Sense and Creativity 671
The Life Review 672
Wisdom 673
Chapter 21 Adulthood: Cognitive
Development 555
What Is Intelligence? 556
Research on Age and Intelligence 556
A CASE TO STUDY: “At Very Different Levels” 560
Components of Intelligence: Many and Varied 561
Diversity and Intelligence 564
A CASE TO STUDY: Jenny: ”Men Come and Go” 566
Selective Gains and Losses 567
Optimization with Compensation 567
Expert Cognition 569
Expertise and Age 571
IN PERSON: An Experienced Parent 574
Chapter 22 Adulthood: Psychosocial
Development 577
Ages and Stages 578
A CASE TO STUDY: She “Began to Make a New Life on Her
Own” 579
The Social Clock 579
Personality Throughout Adulthood 581
Intimacy 585
Friends 585
Family Bonds 587
IN PERSON: Childhood Echoes 590
Marriage 590
Homosexual Partners 592
Divorce 593
Generativity 596
Caregiving 596
Employment 600
A CASE TO STUDY: Linda: “A Much Sturdier Self” 607
PART VIII
Late Adulthood 611
Chapter 23 Late Adulthood: Biosocial
Development 613
Prejudice and Predictions 615
Ageism 615
Gerontology 616
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CONTENTS xv
Chapter 25 Late Adulthood:
Psychosocial
Development 679
Theories of Late Adulthood 680
Self Theories 680
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS: Thinking Positively 683
Stratification Theories 684
A CASE TO STUDY: Doing Just Fine? 689
Dynamic Theories 689
Coping with Retirement 691
Deciding When to Retire 691
Retirement and Marriage 691
Aging in Place 692
Continuing Education 693
Volunteer Work 693
Religious Involvement 695
Political Activism 695
Friends and Relatives 696
Long-Term Marriages 697
Losing a Spouse 698
Relationships with Younger Generations 700
Friendship 703
The Frail Elderly 706
Activities of Daily Life 706
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS: Buffers Between Fragile and
Frail 707
Caring for the Frail Elderly 708
Epilogue Death and Dying Ep-1
Death and Hope Ep-1
Death Throughout the Life Span Ep-2
Many Religions, Many Cultures Ep-6
Dying and Acceptance Ep-10
Attending to the Needs of the Dying Ep-10
A CASE TO STUDY: “Ask My Son and My Husband” Ep-11
Choices and Controversies Ep-13
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS: Let Terry Schiavo
Live/Die/Live/Die Ep-17
Bereavement Ep-18
Normal Grief Ep-18
IN PERSON: Blaming Martin, Hitler, and Me Ep-19
Complicated Grief Ep-20
Diversity of Reactions Ep-22
Appendix A Supplemental Charts,
Graphs, and Tables A-1
Appendix B More About Research
Methods B-1
Appendix C Suggestions for Research
Assignments C-1
Glossary G-1
References R-1
Name Index NI-1
Subject Index SI-1
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xvii
Preface
Each year, each day, and even each hour is a gift, to be filled with joy andwork. At least that is how it seems to me. I write for the tens of thousandsof students (in 12 nations and five languages) who will read this book. I hope
each of you sees your life as a gift and finds joy and work in this book, as you come
to understand and appreciate development.
Change and continuity are the dynamic themes of development. Both are
evident in my life and in this book.
I recently sold our house and moved into a new apartment near the Hudson
River, beside which I walk almost every day; many gifts there. I watch my children
grow, and I realize that their lives and this text are intertwined.
To be specific, my interest in development began in earnest when our first two
children (Bethany and Rachel) were infants; as a young professor I often told
anecdotes of their early days. Some of those stories appear in this book. A few
years later, our third baby (Elissa) cried and needed a walk; that led to an encounter
that led to a book contract. Our fourth child (Sarah) was conceived because this
text was widely adopted. She is the only one whose photographs we could afford
to have taken professionally, and only they made it into this text.
Now all four are adults. Their recent experiences showed me the need for new
chapters in this seventh edition, a trio on emerging adulthood. The deaths of my
parents and my husband over the past seven years have made me think more
deeply about dying; the Epilogue is twice as long as before, with new insights not
present in previous editions.
Changes come from the wider community of social scientists as well. Global-
ization, neuroscience, dynamic systems, and genetic analysis have all provided new
insights. This book now has Research Design features, data, and many discussions
of the similarities and differences among developing persons worldwide. Further,
the integration of mind and body is much better understood, and you will find
specifics about the brain and about heredity at every stage of life.
Teaching and writing remain my life’s work and passion. I strive to make this
text challenging and accessible to every student, remembering that my students
were my original reason to write a developmental text. They deserved a text that
respected their intellect and experiences, without making development seem dull
or obscure. Overall, I believe that a better world is possible because today’s stu-
dents will become tomorrow’s wise leaders; this book is my contribution—I hope
you see it as a gift—toward that goal.
To learn more about the specifics of this text, including the material that is new
to this edition, read on. Or you can turn to the beginning of Chapter 1, and begin
your study.
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xviii PREFACE
New Material
Every year brings new concepts and research. The best of these are integrated into
the text, including hundreds of new references on many topics—among them
mirror neurons, the use of prescription medication in young children, autistic
spectrum disorders, attachment over the life span, high-stakes testing, brain
changes in midlife, and public policy about dying.
Revised Chapters on Adolescence
and Emerging Adulthood
I’ve been sensitive to current research throughout the book, but I’ve been partic-
ularly impressed with the magnitude of the changes that are happening in our
understanding of adolescence and the years now referred to as emerging adult-
hood. As a result, I have spent a lot of time reading and rewriting the six chapters
covering the period from age 12 to age 25. Highlights include new discoveries
about the adolescent brain (e.g., the prefrontal cortex is not fully mature until the
early 20s), the onset of puberty even before the teen years, and the dramatic shift
in emerging adulthood—once a time for settling down, but now a time for explor-
ing, learning, and risk taking.
It no longer makes sense to divide adulthood into “early,” “middle,” and “late,” as
the previous editions did. Now three chapters (17, 18, and 19) cover emerging
adulthood (ages 18 to 25) and the next three chapters (20, 21, and 22) cover adult-
hood (ages 25 to 65). This reorganization reflects the fact that the major events of
those years, including ongoing senescence, expertise, intimate partnership, and
parenthood may occur at every age during those 40 years, depending on the spe-
cific choices and circumstances of each developing person. The work and love—
that is, vocation and family—of adulthood are no longer split between two periods.
This new view of adult life is a dramatic example of the way the scientific study of
development shifts as new research and theories appear.
Cognition on Display Shared facials, pedicures, nail painting, eyebrow waxing, and
other such beauty rituals are bonding experiences for teenage girls. Parents may blame
teen magazines or the superficiality of the culture in general, but their daughters’ ego-
centric thinking may be the true origin of these activities.
TE
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Extensive Coverage of Brain Development
Beyond organizational changes, every page of this text reflects new research and
theory. Brain development is the most obvious example: Every trio of chapters
includes a section on the brain. A sampling of this new material is listed below.
Patterns of developmental growth, pp. 7–8
Mirror neurons, p. 14
Brain development and the epigenetic model of development, pp. 50–51
From one cell to many: Genetic development, pp. 66–67
Genotypes and phenotypes, pp. 73–74
Down syndrome and brain development, pp. 79–80
Fetal brain development, pp. 93–96
Prenatal growth of the brain, p. 97
Teratogens and brain development, pp. 97–99
Brain development during infancy and toddlerhood, pp. 129–136
Sensation, perception, and the brain, pp. 136–139
Brain maturation within the motor cortex, p. 140
Effects of nutrition on the brain, pp. 148–150
Some techniques used by neuroscientists to understand brain function, p. 160
Information processing, p. 161
Measuring infant temperament, pp. 186–188
Synchrony, p. 192
Biosocial development and the brain during early childhood, pp. 207–214
Memory and brain systems, pp. 213–214
Cognitive development and brain maturation during early childhood, pp. 238–239
Emotional regulation during the play years, pp. 258–259
Epigenetic theory, p. 276
The school years: Brain development, pp. 290–303
The school years: Memory formation, p. 311
Hormones in adolescence, pp. 364–365
Brain development in adolescence, pp. 375–380
Drug use in adolescence, pp. 386–387
Cognitive development in adolescence: “Dual-process model” of adolescent
thought, p. 398
Information-processing approach: How brain encodes, stores, and retrieves
information, p. 473
The aging brain, pp. 530–532
Fluid and crystallized intelligence, pp. 561–562
Brain effects on intelligence, p. 564
PREFACE xix
BO
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Front Front
Back Back
(a) (b)
The Prefrontal Cortex Matures These are composite scans of
normal brains of (a) children and adolescents and (b) adolescents
and adults. The red areas indicate both an increase in brain size
and a decrease in gray matter (cerebral cortex). The red areas in
(b) are larger than in (a) and are concentrated in the frontal area of
the brain, which is associated with complex cognitive processes.
The growth of brain areas as their gray matter decreases is
believed to reflect an increase in white matter, which consists of
myelin—the axon coating that makes the brain more efficient.
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The brain in late adulthood, pp. 628–629
Thinking Like a Scientist: Neuroscience and Brain Activity, pp. 656–657
Brain slowdown: Primary and secondary aging, pp. 658–659
Dementia, pp. 662–670
Brain death, p. Ep-3
New Research Design Feature
A new element appears in this edition, to highlight the science of development.
Each chapter includes two or more Research Design boxes. Each is keyed to a
study cited in the adjacent text and explains more about the participants and
methods of that study. Students are encouraged to read the original studies, which
also reveal the many ways—via statistics, hypotheses, and research findings—by
which scientists move beyond their original assumptions.
Content Changes to the Seventh Edition
Life-span development, like all sciences, builds on past learning. Many facts and
concepts must be restated in every edition of a textbook—stages and ages, norms
and variations, dangers and diversities, classic theories and fascinating applications.
However, the study of development is continually changed by discoveries and
innovations, so no page in this seventh edition is exactly what it was in the sixth
edition, much less the first. Highlights of this updating appear below.
Part I: The Beginnings
1. Introduction
■ New subsection “Defining Development” discusses the three crucial elements
of the science of human development.
■ Increased focus on dynamic systems theory.
■ Issues and Applications: “My Name Wasn’t Mary,” about the childhood of
poet Maya Angelou.
■ New coverage of mirror neurons.
■ New discussion of quantitative vs. qualitative research.
■ New discussion of protection of research participants.
2. Theories of Development
■ Expanded, updated coverage of epigenetic theory.
■ Extensively revised discussion of selective adaptation with new examples.
■ New subsection on nature–nurture interaction.
3. Heredity and Environment
■ Expanded discussion of identical twins.
■ New coverage of cloning.
■ New coverage of infertility and assisted reproductive technology, including
In Person: “I Am Not Happy with Me,” about in vitro fertilization.
■ New subsection “Visual Acuity,” on genetic and cultural factors in
nearsightedness.
■ New coverage of type 2 diabetes epidemic.
4. Prenatal Development and Birth
■ Updated data on preterm births.
■ New subsection “Protective Measures,” on reducing the risks of teratogens.
■ New subsection “Benefits of Prenatal Care,” focusing on diagnostic testing.
■ Expanded and updated coverage of low birthweight.
■ New: A Case to Study: “What Does That Say About Me?”
xx PREFACE
Research Design
Scientists: Six researchers, sponsored
by the RAND Corporation.
Publication: Pediatrics (2006).This study
was also reported in many news stories.
Participants:Total of 1,461 U.S.
teenagers, randomly selected to be rep-
resentative of all U.S. teens.
Design:Teenagers were interviewed by
phone three times over three years
and asked which of 16 popular music
groups they listened to. Coders rated
whether songs contained sexually
degrading lyrics. Some participants
refused to answer questions about sex,
but responses of 938 who were virgins
when the study began were analyzed.
Major conclusion: Listening to degrad-
ing music about sex, but not other teen
music about sex, encourages teenagers
to have sexual intercourse.
Comment:This is a correlational study.
The longitudinal sequence (music, then
intercourse) prompted the conclusions,
but others disagree about the relation-
ship between the variables.
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PREFACE xxi
Part II: The First Two Years
5. The First Two Years: Biosocial Development
■ New coverage of co-sleeping
■ New subsection “Implications for Caregivers,” covering self-righting, plasticity,
and sensitive periods in brain development.
■ Expanded coverage of infant reflexes, walking, immunization, and
breast-feeding.
6. The First Two Years: Cognitive Development
■ New subsection on recent research on early affordances.
■ New coverage of implicit and explicit memory.
■ Updated coverage of the hybrid perspective on language development.
7. The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development
■ Updated and expanded coverage of temperament—and what it means for
caregivers.
■ Expanded coverage of sociocultural theory, with new material on ethnotheories
(including A Case to Study: “Let’s Go to Grandma’s,” on the difference be-
tween North American and Mayan parents’ ethnotheories) and on proximal
and distal parenting practices.
■ Expanded coverage of synchrony, including Thinking Like a Scientist:
The Still-Face Technique, on infants’ responses to parental “still face.”
■ Updated coverage of attachment.
■ Updated and expanded coverage of infant day care.
Part III: The Play Years
8. The Play Years: Biosocial Development
■ New material on maturation of the prefrontal cortex.
■ New section “Emotions and the Brain,” on the limbic system and on the
effects of stress.
■ Updated and reorganized coverage of injuries and abuse, including In Person:
“My Baby Swallowed Poison,” on strategies for injury prevention.
A Beneficial Beginning These new mothers in a maternity ward in Manila are
providing their babies with kangaroo care.
AL
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My Youngest at 8 Months When I look
at this photo of Sarah, I see evidence of
Mrs. Todd’s devotion. Sarah’s hair is washed
and carefully brushed, her jumper and blouse
are clean and pressed, and the carpet and
stepstool are perfect equipment for standing
practice. Sarah’s legs—chubby and far apart—
indicate that she is not about to walk early;
but, given all these signs of Mrs. Todd’s
attention to caregiving, it is not surprising, in
hindsight, that my fourth daughter was my
earliest walker.
HA
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9. The Play Years: Cognitive Development
■ New subsection on theory-theory.
■ Expanded and updated coverage of vocabulary development and bilingualism,
including new subsection “Constant Change.”
■ Expanded coverage of preschools, including Montessori, Reggio Emilia, and
Head Start.
10. The Play Years: Psychosocial Development
■ New subsection “Intrinsic Motivation.”
■ Expanded discussions of empathy and aggression.
■ New box on punishment.
■ Expanded, updated coverage of the media and its effects.
Part IV: The School Years
11. The School Years: Biosocial Development
■ Revised, expanded, and updated discussion of overweight children.
■ New section on physical activity, covering benefits and hazards, neighborhood
play, exercise in school, and clubs and leagues.
■ Expanded coverage of chronic illness and asthma.
■ New subsection on gifted children and mentally retarded children.
■ New box on prescribing psychoactive drugs for children.
■ New subsection “Autistic Spectrum Disorders.”
12. The School Years: Cognitive Development
■ Updated, expanded coverage of education, particularly bilingual education,
curriculum (internationally and in the United States, including the No Child
Left Behind Act), and math instruction in the United States, as well as new
subsections on education in Japan and on education and culture.
■ New boxes: Issues and Applications: SES and Language Learning; Thinking
Like a Scientist: International Achievement Tests; and A Case to Study:
Where Did You Learn Tsunami?
13. The School Years: Psychosocial Development
■ Extensively revised and updated section on the peer group, with new focus
on the culture of children, children’s moral codes, and social acceptance.
xxii PREFACE
He’s Listening With tilted head and pink
tutu, this girl exemplifies two of the best
characteristics often found in young children:
empathy and self-confidence. Responding to
her personality and concern, the distressed
boy may well decide to rejoin the group. ELL
EN
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■ New box Thinking Like a Scientist: “I Always Dressed One in Blue Stuff,” on
parental effects on children’s development.
■ Expanded, updated material on effects of family income.
Part V: Adolescence
14. Adolescence: Biosocial Development
■ New box: A Case to Study: What Were You Thinking? on physical risk taking.
■ New section on brain development, focusing on recent brain research, the
relationship between brain and behavior, and puberty and biorhythms.
■ New box Issues and Applications: Calculus at 8 A.M.?
■ Updated discussions of teenage pregnancy and STIs.
■ Reorganized, updated discussion of drug use and abuse.
15. Adolescence: Cognitive Development
■ New section on the possibilities and problems related to adolescent use of
the Internet and other new technologies.
■ New major section “Teaching and Learning,” with new subsections on middle
schools, the transition from middle school to high school, including high-stakes
testing, dropouts, school violence, and new approaches.
■ New Issues and Applications: Diversity of Nation, Gender, and Income, on
an international study of problem-solving abilities of adolescents.
16. Adolescence: Psychosocial Development
■ New section “Technology for Everyone,” on technology and identity exploration
■ New subsections on religious identity and vocational identity.
■ Updated and expanded material on sexual/gender identity and political/
ethnic identity.
■ Updated and expanded material on parent–adolescent relationships.
■ New subsection “Cliques and Crowds” (including new In Person: The Berger
Daughters Seek Peer Approval).
■ New subsection on peer selection and peer facilitation.
■ New major section “Sexual Activity.”
■ Updated material on suicide and parasuicide, including A Case to Study:
He Kept His Worries to Himself.
■ Updated material on lawbreaking and delinquency, including Thinking Like
a Scientist: A Feminist Looks at the Data.
Part VI: Emerging Adulthood
17. Emerging Adulthood: Biosocial Development
■ New subsection “Looking Good” on concern with attractiveness.
■ Expanded discussions of sexual activity and problems with sex, including
new material on STIs and unwanted pregnancies.
■ Issues and Applications: Who Gets the Bird Flu Shot? on the question of
which age group should be immunized first against bird flu.
■ New major section “Health Habits,” with subsections on exercise and nutrition.
■ New major section “Taking Risks,” with new material on social protection,
time perspective, and social norms.
18. Emerging Adulthood: Cognitive Development
■ New material on cognitive flexibility.
■ Revised and updated material on morals and religion.
■ Revised and updated material on diversity among college students and on
graduates and dropouts.
PREFACE xxiii
Disabled but Vital Therapists find that the
most serious consequence of losing a limb is
losing the will to live. This young man not only
learned to cope with crutches after losing a
leg but also regained his spirit: He completed
the 26.2-mile New York City marathon.
RU
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19. Emerging Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
■ Updated material on the dimensions of love.
■ New section “Family Connections,” on continuing family dependence.
■ New section “Emotional Development,” including sections on well-being,
psychopathology (substance abuse, mood disorders, anxiety disorders,
schizophrenia), and continuity and discontinuity.
Part VII: Adulthood
20. Adulthood: Biosocial Development
■ Updated and revised discussion of the sexual-reproductive system.
■ New material on nutrition and obesity.
■ New section “Preventive Medicine.”
■ New material on health and ethnicity.
21. Adulthood: Cognitive Development
■ New A Case to Study: “At Very Different Levels,” on individual variations
over time.
■ Revised and updated material on age and culture.
■ New material on automatic expert cognition.
■ New and updated material on coping with stress, including In Person:
An Experienced Parent.
22. Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
■ New section “Friends.”
■ Revised and updated material on marriage. including new material on
homogamy and marital equity.
■ New section “Caregiving,” including new, revised, and updated material on
parenthood and on caring for aging parents.
■ Extensively revised and updated section on employment.
Part VIII: Late Adulthood
23. Late Adulthood: Biosocial Development
■ New Issues and Applications: Getting from Place to Place, on the importance
of maintaining mobility.
■ Updated and revised section on genetic aging, including discussions of average
and maximum life expectancy and selective adaptation.
■ New box on theories of aging and attempts to prolong life.
xxiv PREFACE
Thumbs Up! These graduates in Long
Beach, California, are joyful that they have
reached a benchmark. Ideally, their diplomas
will earn them not only better jobs but also
an intellectual perspective that will help them
all their lives. LOU
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24. Late Adulthood: Cognitive Development
■ New A Case to Study: “That Aide Was Very Rude,” on sensory declines.
■ Revised and updated section on control processes.
■ Revised and updated section on secondary aging.
■ New A Case to Study: Is It Dementia or Drug Addiction?,
on problems of overmedication and drug abuse.
■ New section on prevention and treatment of dementia.
25. Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
■ New Issues and Applications: Thinking Positively.
■ New section on recent work and retirement trends and issues.
Epilogue: Death and Dying
■ Greatly expanded, revised, and reorganized throughout.
■ New main section “Death and Hope,” with new material on
death throughout the life span, death and religion, acceptance
of dying, and choosing death (including new Issues and
Applications: Let Terri Schiavo Live/Die/Live/Die).
■ New subsection “Seeking Blame and Meaning,” including In
Person: Blaming Martin, Hitler and Me, on a husband’s death.
■ Revised and expanded material on diversity of reactions to
bereavement.
Ongoing Features
Many characteristics of this book have been acclaimed since the first edition and
have been retained in this revision.
Writing That Communicates the Excitement
and Challenge of the Field
An overview of the science of human development should be lively, just as real
people are. Each sentence conveys tone as well as content. Chapter-opening
vignettes bring student readers into the immediacy of development. Examples and
explanations abound, helping students make the connections among theory,
research, and their own experiences.
PREFACE xxv
Determined to Vote Older voters tend to
have stronger political opinions, more party
loyalty, and higher voting rates than younger
adults. This Punjabi woman takes an active
interest in politics, even though she must
depend on her son to carry her to the polling
place.AP
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Shared Grief When Seung-Hui Cho, a dis-
turbed student, killed 32 people and wounded
17 on the campus of Virginia Tech in April
2007, many outsiders looked for something or
someone to blame—the university’s security
arrangements and mental health policies, the
state’s gun laws, even Korean Americans as a
group. Students, preferring to seek meaning
rather than blame, gathered to pray, sing, and
embrace one another.
AP
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Coverage of Diversity
Cross-cultural, international, multiethnic, rich and poor, old and young, male and
female, newborn and centenarian—all these words and ideas are vital to appreciat-
ing how we all develop. Research uncovers surprising commonalities and notable
differences: We are all the same, yet each of us is unique. From the discussion of
social contexts in Chapter 1 to the coverage of cultural differences in mourning in
the Epilogue, each chapter highlights the possibilities and variations of human life.
New research on family structures, immigrants, bilingualism, and ethnic differ-
ences in health are among the many topics that illustrate human diversity. Listed
here is a smattering of the discussions of culture and diversity in this new edition.
Respect for human differences is evident throughout. You will note that examples
and research findings from many parts of the world are included, not as add-on
highlights, but as integral parts of the description of each age.
Defining diversity, p. 4
Multiculturalism as a characteristic of development, p. 7
Defining culture, pp. 10–11
Ethnicity, race, and income, p. 11
Issues and Applications: “My Name Wasn’t Mary,” about Maya Angelou, pp. 12–13
Three domains of human development, p. 13
Response for social scientists, p. 23
Culture as one major difference between Erikson’s and Freud’s theories, pp. 36–37
Sociocultural theory, pp. 46–48
Sociocultural theory and nature vs. nurture, p. 54
Sexual orientation and identity differences according to culture, p. 56
Issues and Applications: Too Many Boys? p. 65
Shyness: Genotype or phenotype? Cultural differences, p. 74
Addiction, personality, and culture, pp. 74–75
Cultural variations in visual acuity, pp. 75–76
Practical applications of the nature vs. nurture argument, p. 77
xxvi PREFACE
Learning from One Another Every nation
creates its own version of early education.
In this scene at a nursery school in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, note the head coverings,
uniforms, bare feet, and absence of boys.
None of these elements would be found in
most early-childhood education classrooms
in North America or Europe.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 252):
What seemingly universal aspects of child-
hood are visible in this photograph? PAU
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International and domestic diversity in low birthweight, pp. 113–114
International variations in birthing procedures, pp. 110–111
Social support and birth issues: Cultural differences, p. 116
Family sleeping arrangements as an example of cultural traits, p. 128
Association between adoption and IQ of institutionalized Romanian children,
pp. 134–135
Ethnic variations in the development of motor skills, pp. 141–142
Ethnicity, infant-care routines by culture, and SIDS, pp. 146–147
Infant nutrition worldwide, pp. 148–150
Cultural variations in language development, pp. 169–171
Influence of culture on emotion, p. 180–181
Applying Erikson’s theories across cultures, p. 184
Cross-cultural application of epigenetic theory, p. 185–186
Sociocultural theory, pp. 188–190
Attachment and culture, pp. 193–195
Social referencing, p. 196
Eating habits, p. 208
Cultural adaptation to fine motor skills, p. 217–218
Guided participation (Vygotsky) and social activities, p. 234
Culture and the development of theory of mind, pp. 238–239
International comparison: Children’s performance on false-belief tests, p. 239
Language: Word-mapping and culture, p. 241
Bilingualism, cognition, and culture, pp. 244–245
Intrinsic motivation: Emotional regulation and culture, p. 258
Cultural emphasis on prosocial and antisocial behavior, p. 260
How empathy is taught: American vs. Japanese culture, p. 261
Cultural variations in parenting during early childhood, pp. 265–266
Punishment styles by culture, pp. 266–268
Amount of media exposure in various cultures, p. 269
Sociocultural theory and developing gender roles, pp. 275–276
Gender and destiny, p. 277
Size and shape of children, pp. 284–286
Influence of culture on motor skills, p. 287
PREFACE xxvii
Four Generations of Caregiving These four
women, from the great-grandmother to her
17-year-old great-granddaughter, all care for
one another. Help flows to whoever needs it,
not necessarily to the oldest or youngest.PH
OT
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IQ testing, pp. 293–294
Thinking Like a Scientist: Prescription Drugs, p. 298
Cultural variations in cognition and education in the school years, pp. 309–310
Spectrum disorders and culture, p. 300
Control processes and culture, pp. 312–313
Second-language learning, pp. 315–316
Education around the world, pp. 318–321
International educational assessment, pp. 321–324
Comparison of education in the United States and Japan, pp. 323–324
Culture and education, pp. 328–329
Maintaining tradition in the classroom, p. 330
The culture of children worldwide, pp. 334–337
Friendship and culture, p. 339
Study of bullying in Norwegian schools, p. 341
Diverse household structures, pp. 345–346
Family structure: Culture and ethnic differences, p. 348–350
Cultural variations in parenting and family roles, pp. 349–350
Cultural differences in self-concept/self-esteem, p. 353
Social support and religious faith, pp. 355–356
Impact of environment on the timing of puberty, pp. 366–368
Sexual maturation in various cultures, pp. 373–375
Cultural attitudes toward pregnancy, pp. 380–381
Drug use: Variations by nation, gender, and ethnicity, pp. 384–385
Formal operational thought and culture, p. 395
Identity and religion, ethnicity, and vocation worldwide, pp. 416–419
Teaching and learning, pp. 406–407
International comparisons: Average problem-solving scores among 15-year-olds,
p. 408
Adults and teenage conflict: Cultural values, pp. 419–420
United States high school dropout rates by race, p. 410
The peer group for immigrant teens, pp. 425–427
Immigrant youth, p. 425
Adolescent sexuality and culture, pp. 427–429
Sex education: Differences by culture, p. 431
Depression and culture, p. 434–435
Teen suicide rates in various cultures, pp. 435–436
Culture and ages and stages of growth, strength and health, pp. 447–449
Emotional stress and culture, p. 454
Nutrition and culture, p. 457
Eating disorders and culture, p. 459, 461
Cultural variations on violence, p. 466
Kohlberg’s postformal thought and culture, pp. 472–473
Stereotype threat, pp. 471, 477–480
Dialectical thought and culture, pp. 480–482
Morals and culture, pp. 483–484
Ethnic identity, pp. 500–502
Anxiety disorders within the cultural context, p. 520
Culture and obesity, p. 542
Diversity and intelligence, pp. 564–565
Culture, cohort, and SES, p. 580
Culture and personality, p. 583
Divorce rates and predictors by culture, p. 595
xxviii PREFACE
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Diversity and employment, p. 605
Cultural effects of wisdom, p. 27
Centenarians around the world, pp. 643–644
Ethnic discrimination in late adulthood, pp. 687–689
Views of death in major religions, Ep-6–Ep-10
A Case to Study: “Ask My Son and My Husband”; cultural views of communi-
cation about dying, pp. Ep-11–Ep-12
Up-to-Date Coverage
I learned from my mentors curiosity, creativity, and skepticism; as a result, I am
eager to read and ready to analyze the thousands of journal articles and books on
everything from Alzheimer’s to zygosity. The recent explosion of research in neu-
roscience and genetics has challenged me, once again, first to understand and
then to explain many complex findings and speculative leaps. My students con-
tinue to ask questions and share their experiences, always providing new perspec-
tives and concerns.
Topical Organization within
a Chronological Framework
The book’s basic organization remains unchanged. Four chapters begin the book
with coverage of definitions, theories, genetics, and prenatal development. These
chapters function not only as a developmental foundation but also as the structure
for explaining the life-span perspective, plasticity, nature and nurture, multicul-
tural awareness, risk analysis, the damage-repair cycle, family bonding, and many
other concepts that yield insights for all of human development.
The other seven parts correspond to the major periods of development. Each
part contains three chapters, one for each of the three domains: biosocial, cogni-
tive, and psychosocial. The topical organization within a chronological framework
is a useful scaffold for students’ understanding of the interplay between age and
domain. The chapters are color-coded with tabs on the right-hand margins. The
pages of the biosocial chapters have green tabs, the cognitive chapters have purple
tabs, and the psychsocial chapters have pink tabs.
Four Series of Integrated Features
Four series of deeper discussions appear as integral parts of the text, and only
where they are relevant. Readers of earlier editions have particularly liked these
series. The categories are “In Person,” “A Case to Study,” “Thinking Like a
Scientist,” and “Issues and Applications.”
Pedagogical Aids
Each chapter ends with a summary, a list of key terms (with page numbers indi-
cating where the word is introduced and defined), key questions, and three or
four application exercises designed to let students apply concepts to everyday
life. Key terms appear in boldface type in the text and are defined in the margins
and again in a glossary at the back of the book. The outline on the first page of
each chapter and the system of major and minor subheads facilitate the survey-
question-read-write-review (SQ3R) approach. A “Summing Up” feature at the
end of each section provides an opportunity for students to pause and reflect on
PREFACE xxix
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what they’ve just read. Observation quizzes inspire readers to look more closely
at certain photographs, tables, and graphs. The “Especially for . . . ” questions in
the margins, many of which are new to this edition, apply concepts to real-life
careers and social roles.
Photographs, Tables, and Graphs That
Are Integral to the Text
Students learn a great deal from this book’s illustrations, because Worth Publishers
encourages authors to choose the photographs, tables, and graphs and to write
captions that extend the content. Appendix A furthers this process by presenting
a chart or table for each chapter that contains detailed data for further study.
Supplements
As an instructor myself, I know that supplements can make or break a class. I
personally have rejected textbook adoptions because I knew that that publisher
historically had provided inaccurate test banks, dull ancillaries, and slow service.
That is not the case with Worth Publishers, which has a well-deserved reputation
for providing supplements that are extensive and of high quality, for both profes-
sors and students. With this edition you will find:
Exploring Human Development: A Media Tool Kit
For this edition, the acclaimed Media Tool Kit takes a technological leap forward.
Our materials will now be available online for students and instructors—as well
as on CD and (for instructors) VHS and DVD. The tool kit was prepared by a
talented team of instructors, including: Victoria Cross, University of California,
Davis; Sheridan Dewolf, Grossmont College; Pamela B. Hill, San Antonio
College; Lisa Huffman, Ball State University; Thomas Ludwig, Hope College;
Cathleen McGreal, Michigan State University; Amy Obegi, Grossmont College;
xxx PREFACE
Same Birthday, Same (or Different?) Genes Twins who are of different sexes or who have obvious differences
in personality are dizygotic, sharing only half of their genes. Many same-sex twins with similar temperaments are
dizygotic as well. One of these twin pairs is dizygotic; the other is monozygotic.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 72): Can you tell which pair is monozygotic?
JO
HN
ER
IM
AG
ES
/
GE
TT
Y
IM
AG
ES
DA
VI
D
YO
UN
G-
W
OL
FF
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T
Especially for Teachers You are teaching in
a school that you find too lax or too strict, or
with parents who are too demanding or too
uncaring. Should you look for a different line
of work?
➤Response for Teachers (from page 324):
Nobody works well in an institution they hate,
but, before quitting the profession, remember
that schools vary. There is probably another
school nearby that is much more to your liking
and that would welcome an experienced
teacher. Before you make a move, however,
assess the likelihood that you could adjust to
your current position in ways that would make
you happier. No school is perfect; nor is any
teacher.
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Michelle L. Pilati, Rio Hondo College; Tanya Renner, Kapiolani Community
College; Catherine Robertson, Grossmont College; Stavros Valenti, Hofstra
University; and Pauline Zeece, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
The media activities now offered range from investigations of classic experiments
(like the visual cliff and the strange situation) to observations on children’s play and
adolescent risk taking. More than 50 video clips and animations have been added
for this edition—including a stunning new animation of brain development from
birth until late life, classic historical footage from Harry Harlow, and spellbinding
new footage from a variety of news sources on topics ranging from children in war to
the biology of love in middle age. The assessment available on the student tool kit
has also been updated and revised—students now can get a better assessment of
their learning through randomized, timed quizzes from a large quiz-bank pool.
For instructors, the tool kit includes more than 350 video clips and animations,
along with discussion starters and PowerPoint slides available as a set of CD-ROMs,
DVDs, VHS tapes, or an online database of more than 350 video clips. The student
tool kit includes 49 interactive activities, quizzes, and flashcards. The online student
tool kit (available in the spring of 2008) includes more than 70 activities.
PsychPortal
This is the complete online gateway to all the student and instructor resources
available with the textbook. PsychPortal brings together all the resources of the
media tool kits, integrated with an eBook and powerful assessment tools to com-
plement your course. The ready-to-use course template is fully customizable and
includes all the teaching and learning resources that go along with the book, pre-
loaded into a ready-to-use course; sophisticated quizzing, personalized study plans
for students and powerful assessment analyses that provide timely and useful
feedback on class and individual student performance; and seamless integration
of student resources, eBook text, assessment tools, and lecture resources. The
quiz bank (featuring more than 80 questions per chapter) that powers the student
assessment in both PsychPortal and the Media Tool Kit was written by Pamela
Hill, San Antonio College, and Michelle L. Pilati, Rio Hondo College. These
questions are not from the test bank!
eBook
The beautiful and interactive eBook fully integrates the complete text and its elec-
tronic study tools in a format that instructors and students can easily customize—
at a significant savings on the price of the printed text. It offers easy access from
any Internet-connected computer; quick, intuitive navigation to any section or
subsection, as well as any printed book page number; a powerful notes feature
that allows you to customize any page; a full-text search; text highlighting; and a
full, searchable glossary.
Companion Web Site
Edited by Catherine Robertson, Grossmont College, the companion Web site (at
www.worthpublishers.com/berger) is an online educational setting for students
and instructors. It is free, and tools on the site include interactive flashcards
in both English and Spanish; a Spanish language glossary; quizzes; annotated
Web Links; and Frequently Asked Questions About Development. A password-
protected Instructor Site offers a full array of teaching resources, including
PowerPoint slides, an online quiz gradebook, and links to additional tools.
PREFACE xxxi
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“Journey Through the Life Span” Observational Videos
Bringing observational learning to the classroom, this video series allows students
to watch and listen to real children as a way of amplifying their reading of the
text. “Journey Through the Life Span” offers vivid footage of people of all ages
from around the world (North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America),
as seen in everyday environments (homes, hospitals, schools, and offices) and at
major life transitions (birth, marriage, divorce, being grandparents). Interviews
with prominent developmentalists—including Charles Nelson, Barbara Rogoff,
Ann Peterson, and Steven Pinker—are integrated throughout to help students
link research and theory to the real world. Interviews with a number of social
workers, teachers, and nurses who work with children, adults, and the aged give
students direct insight into the practical challenges and rewards of their voca-
tions. One hour of unedited footage helps students sharpen their observation
skills. Available on VHS and DVD.
“Scientific American Frontiers” Videos
for Developmental Psychology
This remarkable resource provides instructors with 17 video segments of approxi-
mately 15 minutes each, on topics ranging from language development to
nature–nurture issues. The videos can be used to launch classroom lectures or to
emphasize and clarify course material. The Faculty Guide by Richard O. Straub
(University of Michigan) describes and relates each segment to specific topics in
the text.
Life-Span Development Telecourse
Transitions Through the Life Span, developed by Coast Learning Systems and
Worth Publishers, teaches fundamentals of human development. The course also
explores the variety of individual and developmental contexts that influence
development, such as socioeconomic status, culture, genetics, family, school, and
society. Each video lesson includes specific real-life examples interwoven with
commentary by subject matter experts. The course includes 26 half-hour video
lessons, a telecourse study guide, and a faculty manual with test bank. The test
bank is also available electronically.
eLibrary
The Worth Publishers eLibrary brings together all the existing text and supple-
mentary resources in a single, easy-to-use Web interface. This searchable, Web-
based integrator includes materials from the textbook, the Instructor’s Resources,
and select electronic supplements, including PowerPoint slides and video clips.
Through simple browse-and-search tools, instructors can quickly access virtually
any piece of content and either download it to a computer or create a Web page to
share with students. The eLibrary also features prebuilt, customizable collections
for each chapter, allowing adopters to quickly access the “best of” the eLibrary and
adapt it for their needs.
Instructor’s Resources
This collection of resources written by Richard O. Straub (University of Michigan,
Dearborn) has been hailed as the richest collection of instructor’s resources in
xxxii PREFACE
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developmental psychology. This manual features chapter-by-chapter previews and
lecture guides, learning objectives, springboard topics for discussion and debate,
handouts for student projects, and supplementary readings from journal articles.
Course planning suggestions, ideas for term projects, and a guide to audiovisual
and software materials are also included.
Study Guide
The Study Guide by Richard O. Straub helps students evaluate their understand-
ing and retain their learning longer. Each chapter includes a review of key con-
cepts, guided study questions, and section reviews that encourage students’ active
participation in the learning process. Two practice tests and a challenge test help
them assess their mastery of the material.
PowerPoint Slides
A number of different presentation slides prepared by Madeleine L. Tattoon,
Riverside Community College, are available on the Web site or on the Exploring
Human Development: Instructor’s Media Tool Kit CD-ROM. There are two pre-
built PowerPoint slide sets for each text chapter—one featuring chapter outlines,
the other featuring all chapter art and illustrations. These slides can be used as is
or customized to fit individual needs. Video presentation slides provide an easy
way to connect chapter content to the selected video clip and follow each clip
with discussion questions designed to promote critical thinking. In addition,
Madeline Tattoon has produced a set of enhanced lecture slides focusing on key
themes from the text and featuring tables, graphs, and figures.
Overhead Transparencies
This set of 50 full-color transparencies consists of key illustrations, charts, graphs,
and tables from the textbook.
Test Bank and Computerized Test Bank
The test bank, prepared by Vivian Harper (San Joaquin Delta College) and myself,
includes at least 90 multiple-choice and 70 fill-in, true-false, and essay questions
for each chapter. Each question is keyed to the textbook by topic, page number,
and level of difficulty. The Diploma computerized test bank, available on a dual-
platform CD-ROM for Windows and Macintosh, guides instructors step by step
through the process of creating a test, and it allows them to quickly add an unlim-
ited number of questions, edit, scramble, or resequence items, format a test, and
include pictures, equations, and media links. The accompanying gradebook en-
ables instructors to record students’ grades throughout the course and includes
the capacity to sort student records, view detailed analyses of test items, curve
tests, generate reports, and add weights to grades.
The CD-ROM is also the access point for Diploma Online Testing, which
allows instructors to create and administer secure exams over a network or over
the Internet. In addition, Diploma has the ability to restrict tests to specific com-
puters or time blocks. Blackboard- and WebCT-formatted versions of each item
in the Test Bank are available on the CD-ROM.
PREFACE xxxiii
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xxxiv PREFACE
In addition, I wish to thank the instructors who participated in our online
survey. We’ve tried very hard to apply the insights gained from their experiences
with the sixth edition to make this new edition better.
Jackie Adamson, South Dakota School of Mines
& Technology
Karin Alaniz, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Carol Allen, Miami-Dade Community College, North
Ariel Anderson, Western Michigan University
Don Beach, Tarleton State University
Kaye Bedell, Gavilan College
Mara Bentley, Los Angeles Southwest College
Mark Birchfield, Warner Southern College
Margaret Bischoff, South Texas College
Kathryn Bojczyk, Florida State University
Devorah Bozella, Mount Aloysius College
Michael Brislawn, Bellevue Community College
Chris Burkett, Newberry College
Shawn Christiansen, Southern Utah University
Aileen Collins, Chemeketa Community College
Melanie Conti, College of Saint Elizabeth
Elizabeth DeGiorgio, Mercer County Community College
Deborah Dobay, Chemeketa Community College
Jill Durby, Fullerton College
Pamela Fergus, Minneapolis Community & Technical
College
TeneInger Abrom-Johnson, Prairie View A&M University
Jackie Adamson, South Dakota School of Mines
& Technology
Ryan Allen, The Citadel
Tracy C. Babcock, Montana State University
Don M. Beach, Tarleton State University
Kathryn Bojczyk, Florida State University
Tanya Boone, California State University, Bakersfield
Jennifer L. Boothby, Indiana State University
Janine P. Buckner, Seton Hall University
Paul Burinskas, University of Hartford
Tracie Burt, Southeast Arkansas College
Amy Carrigan, University of Saint Francis
Julia W. Chang, Mount St. Mary’s College
Aileen M. Collins, Chemeketa Community College
Patricia Ann Crowe, North Iowa Area Community College
John Crumlin, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Linda De Villers, Chaffey College
Jacqueline Elder, Triton College
Tony Fowler, Florence-Darlington Technical College
Don Gasparini, Manhattan College
Jessica Gillooly, Glendale Community College
Lynn Haller, Morehead State University
Myra M. Harville, Holmes Community College
Scott L. Horton, University of Southern Maine, and Mitchell
College
Tasha R. Howe, Humboldt State University
Alycia M. Hund, Illinois State University
David P. Hurford, Pittsburg State University
Russ Isabella, University of Utah
D. Lamar Jacks, Santa Fe Community College
Jeffrey S. Kaplan, University of Central Florida
Michelle L. Kelley, Old Dominion University
Kristina T. Klassen, Northern Idaho College
Joseph Lao, Teachers College
Brian McCoy, Nichols College
Joann M. Montepare, Emerson College
Melissa Baartman Mork, Northwestern College
Ronnie Naramore, Angelina College
Alison Paris, Claremont McKenna College
Robert Pasnak, George Mason University
Michelle L. Pilati, Rio Hondo College
Curtis D. Proctor-Artz, Wichita State University, School of
Social Works
Celinda M. Reese, Oklahoma State University
Lilian M. Romero, San Jacinto College Central Campus
Rosalind Shorter, Jefferson Community College
Peggy Skinner, South Plains College
James E. Snowden, Midwestern State University
Kevin Sumrall, Montgomery College
Margot Sutorius, Northern Illinois University
Donna Thompson, Midland College
R. Bruce Thompson, University of Southern Maine
Dean D. VonDras, University of Wisconsin—Green Bay
Robert W. Wildblood, Indiana University Kokomo
Wanda A. Willard, Monroe Community College
Betsy Wisner, SUNY Cortland
Thanks
I’d like to thank the academic reviewers who have read this book in every edition
and who have provided suggestions, criticisms, references, and encouragement.
They have all made this a better book. I want to mention especially those who
have reviewed this edition:
xvii-xxxv_BergerLS7e_FM-Pref.qxp 9/21/07 12:38 PM Page xxxiv

The editorial, production, and marketing people at Worth Publishers are dedi-
cated to meeting the highest standards of excellence. Their devotion of time, effort,
and talent to every aspect of publishing is a model for the industry. I particularly
would like to thank Stacey Alexander, Jessica Bayne, Anthony Calcara, Cele
Gardner, Lorraine Klimowich, Tom Kling, Tracey Kuehn, Paul Lacy, Sharon
Merritt, Katherine Nurre, Donna Ranieri, Babs Reingold, Amy Shefferd, Walter
Shih, Barbara Seixas, Ted Szczepanski, Vivien Weiss, and Catherine Woods.
Dedication
Billions of people worldwide deserve respect, but humans focus better on one
person at a time. Accordingly, I dedicate this book to Jean Montreville, the father
of the family in sanctuary at Judson Memorial Church.
New York, September 2007
PREFACE xxxv
Don Gasparini, Manhattan College
Michael Gibbons, Southern Virginia College
Marian Gibney, Phoenix College
Stacey Glaesmann, San Jacinto College
Drusilla Glascoe, Salt Lake Community College
Arthur Gonchar, University of La Verne
Christina Gotowka, Tunxis Community College
Amy Guimond, Arizona State University
Lisa Hager, Spring Hill College
Lynn Haller, Morehead State University
Abby Heckman, Georgia Institute of Technology
Susan Higgins, Pennsylvania Valley Community College
Elaine Hogan, University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Scott Horton, University of Southern Maine
Abbie Jenks, Greenfield Community College
David Johnson, John Brown University
Jennifer Jones, University of New Mexico
Barbara Kabat, Sinclair Community College
Wendy Kallina, Macon State College
Janice Kennedy, Georgia Southern University
Veena Khandke, Univ of South Carolina, Spartanburg
Barbara Lusk, Collin County Community College
Brian McCoy, Nichols College
Elizabeth Miller, Northern Illinois University
Nicholas Murray, East Carolina University
Regina O’Shea-Hockett, Great Basin College-Elko
Rosamaria Pena, Laredo Community College
Donald Ratcliff, Vanguard University
Kristina Roberts, Barstow College
Edna Ross, University of Louisville
Linda Russ, SUNY University at Buffalo
Jonathan Schindelheim, Tufts University
Eliezer Schnall, Touro College
Peggy Skinner, South Plains College
Kevin Sumrall, Montgomery College
Margo Sutorius, Northern Illinois University
Lynda Szymanski, College of Saint Catherine
Byron Tharpe, Jefferson Community College, Southwest
Kathy Tinsley, Central Carolina Community College
Paul Toscano, College of Southern Maryland
Connie Veldink, Everett Community College
Catherine Wambach, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Diane Weber, Gardendale High School
Larry Weiss, Suffolk County Community College
Steve Wisecarver, Lord Fairfax Community College
xvii-xxxv_BergerLS7e_FM-Pref.qxp 9/21/07 12:38 PM Page xxxv

The
Beginnings
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CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
he science of human development has
many beginnings.
Chapter 1 introduces what we study,
why, and how. Chapter 2 explains five
theories that organize and guide our study. Chapter
3 traces the interaction of heredity and environment,
the interplay between the chemical instructions on
the genes and the nurturance of the surroundings,
from the mother’s prenatal diet to the care of the
hospice nurse. Chapter 4 details the beginning of
human life, from a single dividing cell to a fully
formed newborn.
Together these four chapters start our study of
human life. A journey around the globe begins with
a single step; a life span begins with a millisecond.
Turn the page.
PA R T I
1
T
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Introduction
What will happen to the baby just born, or to the schoolchildtrying to make a friend, or to the emerging adult wonderinghow to pay for college, or to the elder contemplating retire-ment? What about you, or your child, or your father—how
does anyone become who they are, and what will happen to them tomorrow
or 30 years from now? This book is about those people and billions of others,
worldwide.
Why should you care? There are dozens of reasons. Some are explained in
this chapter and others will become evident as you study. Here is one now:
You will look more closely at the people around you, making small moments
precious.
This happened to me.
I entered my 8-month-old baby’s room to be surprised by a smile and
“hahh” as she held on to the slats of her crib, bending her chubby little legs
excitedly.
“Hi, Elissa,” I grinned back. “You’re talking!”
Few people would consider “hahh” talking. But I had learned that lan-
guage starts with noises and gestures, months before the first identifiable
words. I was delighted. You will be joyful, too, in moments you might not
have noticed before today.
Defining Development
The science of human development seeks to understand how and why
people—all kinds of people, everywhere—change or remain the same over time.
This definition has three crucial elements.
Science
First, and most important, developmental study is a science. It depends on
theories, data, analysis, critical thinking, and sound methodology, just like
every other science does. The goal is to understand “how and why,” to dis-
cover the processes of development and the reasons for it. As scientists, we
ask questions and seek answers.
Science cannot decide the purpose of life; we need philosophy or religion
for that. Literature and art can also provide insight beyond the scientific
experiment. But “the empirical sciences will show us the way, the means,
and the obstacles” involved in making life what we want it to be (Koops,
2003, p. 18).
1
3
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� Defining Development
Science
Diversity
Connections Between Change and Time
� Five Characteristics of
Development
Multidirectional
Multicontextual
Multicultural
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS:
My Name Wasn’t Mary
Multidisciplinary
Plasticity
A CASE TO STUDY: My Nephew David
� Developmental Study as a Science
Steps of the Scientific Method
Ways to Test Hypotheses
Studying Change over Time
� Cautions from Science
Correlation and Causation
Quantity and Quality
Ethics in Research
science of human development The sci-
ence that seeks to understand how and
why people change or remain the same
over time. Developmentalists study people
of all ages and circumstances.
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To say that something is empirical means that it is based on data, on many
experiences, on demonstrations, on facts. Empirical sciences enable people to live
full lives. Without scientific conclusions followed by applications, human life
might be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short,” as it was for most people before
the scientific revolution (Hobbes, 1651/1997).
Diversity
Second, we study all kinds of people—young and old; rich and poor; of every eth-
nicity, background, sexual orientation, culture, and nationality. The challenge is to
identify universalities (beyond birth and death) and differences (beyond every-
one’s unique genetic code) and then to describe them in ways that simultaneously
distinguish and unify all humans.
For example, when you first meet someone, you recognize that person as
human (universal) and as your age, or older, or younger (differences within univer-
sals; we all have an age). But when you think about yourself or someone you know
well, you realize how much more complex each person is. In some ways you are
atypical for your age—everyone is. Perhaps you are “wise beyond your years” or
you still look at the world with “childlike wonder.” Developmental scientists seek
to convey both: the generalities and the specifics.
Fiction writers can offer insights in this area, too. In one novel, a vehemently
anti-Communist Cuban American asks her teenage daughter to paint a mural of
the Statue of Liberty for the opening of a new store. At the public unveiling, the
mother sees the mural for the first time: Liberty’s torch floats above her grasp and
a safety pin is stuck through her nose. The daughter reports:
The blood has drained from my mother’s face and her lips are moving as if she
wants to say something but can’t find the words. . . . A lumpish man charges
Liberty with a pocket knife. . . . Mom swings her new handbag and clubs the
guy cold, inches from the painting. . . . And I, I love my mother very much at
that moment.
[Garcia, 2004, pp. 143, 144]
As for specifics, did this episode actually happen? No, probably not (it appears
in a work of fiction). As for generalities, can mother–daughter love overcome gen-
erational and political differences? Yes. Researchers have documented the power
of family bonds; the dramatic power of this incident arises from that universality.
You might wonder how a novel relates to science, since science, unlike art,
depends on objective data, empirical observations, and tested theories. Yet the
struggle to understand both the universal and the unique in all kinds of people is
the goal of both artists and scientists—and, for that matter, of philosophers,
preachers, and every other thoughtful person. Using science to study people is an
effective means to that end.
Connections Between Change and Time
The third crucial element of the definition is change or remain the same over time.
The science of human development includes all the transformations and consis-
tencies of human life, from the very beginning to the very end. There is a “recipro-
cal connection between age-focused developmental specialties [such as infancy,
childhood, adolescence, adulthood] and their integration into a life span view”
(Baltes et al., 2006, p. 644). That is, each stage is better understood by remember-
ing the whole life, and, conversely, the whole life is understood best by knowing
each segment.
empirical Based on observation, experience,
or experiment; not theoretical.
4 CHAPTER 1 ■ Introduction
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Dynamic-Systems Theory
This emphasis on the interaction between people and within each person, such
as between parent and child, between prenatal and postnatal life, between ages
2 and 102, is central to the study of the life span. One way to highlight this is
via dynamic-systems theory, which stresses fluctuations and transitions, “the
dynamic synthesis of multiple levels of analysis” (Lerner et al., 2005, p. 38).
The word systems captures the idea that a change in one part of a person, or
family, or society will affect all the other aspects of development, because each
part is connected to all the other parts. Dynamic-systems theory may be a new
“grand theory of development” (traditional grand theories are explained in Chapter
2) (Spencer et al., 2006, p. 1521). In any case, this perspective is pervasive
throughout the human life span, since every moment of life affects all the others.
Applying dynamic-systems theory to human development is a “relatively new”
effort (Thelen & Smith, 2006, p. 258), but this perspective has aided natural sci-
entists for over 50 years. They have recognized that systemic change over time is
the nature of life:
Seasons change in ordered measure, clouds assemble and disperse, trees grow to
certain shape and size, snowflakes form and melt, minute plants and animals
pass through elaborate life cycles that are invisible to us, and social groups come
together and disband.
[Thelen & Smith, 2006, p. 271]
Bioecological Systems
A leader in understanding levels of development was Urie Bronfenbrenner, who
recommended an ecological-systems approach to developmental study. He
argued that, just as a naturalist studying an organism examines the ecology, or the
interrelationship of the organism and its environment, developmentalists need to
examine all the systems that surround the development of each person.
These systems continue to unfold over the natural course of the human life,
affecting every thought, action, and emotion (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006).
Bronfenbrenner described three nested levels that affect each person (diagrammed
in Figure 1.1): microsystems (elements of the person’s immediate surroundings,
such as family and peer group), exosystems (such local institutions as school and
church), and macrosystems (the larger social setting, including cultural values, eco-
nomic policies, and political processes).
Bronfenbrenner also recognized that conditions change over time, and therefore
the chronosystem (historical conditions) affects the other three systems. Appreciat-
ing the dynamic interaction between the microsystem, the exosystem, and the
macrosystem led him to name a fifth system, the mesosystem, which involves the
connections between systems or between parts of a single system.
One example of a mesosystem is all the connections between home and
school, including all the communication processes (letters home, parent–teacher
conferences, phone calls, back-to-school nights) between a child’s parents and
teachers. Another mesosystem is all the connections between work and family,
not only direct connections such as family-leave policies and work hours but also
connections between such macrosystem factors as unemployment rates, which
affect the microsystems of those families in which the head of household cannot
find work.
Bronfenbrenner particularly objected to capturing the artificial behavior of a
person at one moment, without considering how that behavior has been shaped by
overarching systems. Referring in 1974 to research on mother–child attachment
(discussed in Chapter 7), he complained, “Much of contemporary developmental
dynamic-systems theory A view of human
development as always changing. Life is
the product of ongoing interaction
between the physical and emotional being
and between the person and every aspect
of his or her environment, including the
family and society. Flux is constant, and
each change affects all the others.
Defining Development 5
ecological-systems approach A vision of
how human development should be stud-
ied, with the person considered in all the
contexts and interactions that constitute a
life.
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psychology is the science of the strange behavior of children in strange situations
with strange adults for the briefest possible period of time” (p. 1).
Throughout his life, Bronfenbrenner emphasized the importance of studying
humans in natural settings, as they actually live their lives. His emphasis on the
dynamic biological systems that allow ongoing change inspired him to rename his
theory from ecological to bioecological (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). A similar
perspective is found in dynamic-systems theory, which holds that “thought is al-
ways grounded in perception and action” (Spencer et al., 2006, p. 1529).
This idea that each person develops in various nested contexts, which overlap
and interact over time, is central to a dynamic-systems approach to life-span
development (Thelen & Smith, 2006) as well as to the bioecological perspective
(Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). You will soon see this in all five of the charac-
teristics of life-span study, as well as throughout this book.
SUMMING UP
The science of human development seeks to understand how and why people—all kinds
of people, everywhere—change or remain the same over time. As a science, it seeks
empirical data to answer crucial questions regarding humans of every age and back-
ground. In stressing change, the study of development is dynamic, never static, and
focuses on the interaction among people and among the nested levels of influence that
external systems have on individual persons.
■
6 CHAPTER 1 ■ Introduction
MICROSYSTEMS
EXOSYSTEM
MACROSYSTEM
Family Classroom
Religious
Setting
Peer
Group
School System

M
as
s
M
ed
ia

C
o
m
m
un
ity

Cu
ltu
ra
l V
al
ue
s
S
ocial Conditions
Econom
ic Patterns
M
es
o
sy
st
em

Mesosystem
M
eso
system

Mesosystem
M
ed
ical In
stitu
tio
ns
CHRONOSYSTEM
FIGURE 1.1
The Ecological Model According to develop-
mental researcher Urie Bronfenbrenner, each
person is significantly affected by interactions
among a number of overlapping systems,
which provide the context of development.
Microsystems—family, peer groups, class-
room, neighborhood, house of worship—
intimately and immediately shape human
development. Mesosystems refer to interac-
tions among microsystems, as when parents
coordinate their efforts with teachers to edu-
cate the child. Surrounding and supporting
the microsystems are the exosystems, which
include all the external networks, such as
community structures and local educational,
medical, employment, and communications
systems, that influence the microsystems.
Influencing all three of these systems is the
macrosystem, which includes cultural values,
political philosophies, economic patterns, and
social conditions. Bronfenbrenner later added
a fifth system, the chronosystem, to empha-
size the importance of historical time.
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Five Characteristics of Development
Developmentalists (people from many academic disciplines who study human de-
velopment) are acutely aware of the reciprocal connection between one moment
in life and another. This awareness leads them to five principles that are useful for
understanding any age of human life (Baltes et al., 2006; Staudinger & Linden-
berger, 2003).
■ Multidirectional. Change occurs in every direction, not always in a straight
line. Gains and losses, predictable growth and unexpected transformations,
are evident.
■ Multicontextual. Human lives are embedded in many contexts, including
historical conditions, economic constraints, and family patterns.
■ Multicultural. Many cultures—not just between nations but also within
them—affect how people develop.
■ Multidisciplinary. Numerous academic fields—especially psychology,
biology, education, and sociology, but also neuroscience, economics, religion,
anthropology, history, medicine, genetics, and many more—contribute data
and insights.
■ Plasticity. Every individual, and every trait within each individual, can be
altered at any point in the life span. Change is ongoing, although neither
random nor easy.
Each of these five principles merits further explanation.
Multidirectional
The study of human development is the study of change; development is dynamic,
not static. Developmentalists sometimes analyze each fraction of a second, as
when a barely perceptible change in a newborn’s face reflects a parent’s fleeting
glance (e.g., Lavelli & Fogel, 2005). More often years, not seconds, are analyzed,
revealing unexpected twists and turns.
Gains and Losses
In studying dynamic systems, developmentalists have discovered
that each aspect of life (physical health, intellectual growth,
social interaction) is multidirectional; any direction—up, down,
stable, or erratic—is possible. There is evidence for simple growth,
radical transformation, improvement, and decline as well as for
continuity—day to day, year to year, and generation to generation
(see Figure 1.2). A gain and a loss may occur at the same time, or
a loss may lead to a gain or vice versa (Baltes et al., 2006).
When movement occurs, the cause could be something that
seems tangential, because the person is systemically affected by a
change in any aspect of development. An apparent loss in one di-
mension is often accompanied by a gain in another. The emphasis
on multidirectional change is particularly important in late adulthood, because
during old age people tend to focus on the declines, not on the gains. One gain is
that many older people become more nurturant toward other family members.
This may be clearer with another example. When newborn babies are held up
in a standing position, they move their legs as if walking. It was once thought
that this stepping reflex disappeared at about 3 months. At birth, babies have
many other reflexes that seem to disappear later. For decades, developmentalists
hypothesized that these disappearances reflected losses in brain function, which
Especially for College Students Which
pattern of developmental growth best
describes the change from high school to
college?
Five Characteristics of Development 7
Growth
Continuity
Time
Growth and
decline
Unpredictable
Growth in stages
Linear growth
FIGURE 1.2
Patterns of Developmental Growth Many
patterns of developmental growth have been
discovered by careful research. Although linear
(or near-linear) progress seems most common,
scientists now find that almost no aspect of
human change follows the linear pattern exactly.
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they believed were necessary for more advanced brain processes to occur. How-
ever, later researchers found that babies still make stepping movements when
they are lying on their backs or when their lower bodies are in water. This observa-
tion led to the idea that possibly less is lost than is gained. Aha: 3-month-olds
have become heavier; their little legs cannot support them, and that’s why step-
ping disappears while standing but not when on their backs or in water (Thelen &
Ulrich, 1991).
The Butterfly Effect
One aspect of multidirectional study is that the eventual direction and power of
change should not be judged immediately. Small changes may have large effects,
because every change affects a dynamic system. The power of a small change is
called the butterfly effect, after a 1972 speech by weather expert Edward
Lorenz, titled “Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil Set Off
a Tornado in Texas?”
The idea of the butterfly effect is that, just as one drop of water might make an
overfull glass suddenly spill over, so a small increase in wind velocity caused by a
butterfly might be the final force that triggers a storm a thousand miles away. The
possibility that small input may result in large output applies to human thoughts
and actions as well (Masterpasqua & Perna, 1997). To use a developmental exam-
ple, one cigarette smoked by a pregnant woman could result in a fetus’s death if it
is already fragile and underweight for other reasons. Of course, most butterfly
wings have no effects, nor do most single cigarettes. The butterfly effect means
that a tiny event could have an enormous impact, not that it always does.
The opposite can occur: Large changes can affect people in contradictory ways.
Lottery jackpot winners become euphoric and then less happy than before (Argyle,
2001; Gilbert, 2006). Christopher Reeve earned fame and fortune as a star in
more than 40 films. When he became paralyzed, he first wanted to kill himself but
soon welcomed life, explaining that he grew to appreciate other people much more
(Reeve, 1999).
butterfly effect The idea that a small effect
or thing can have a large impact if it happens
to tip the balance, causing other changes
that create a major event.
8 CHAPTER 1 ■ Introduction
AP
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Holding On Children from war-torn Kosovo
rest at a refugee center near Sarajevo, Bosnia.
They are actively coping with their situation as
best they can, holding a friend, a little sister,
or a loaf of bread in their arms.
➤Response for College Students (from
page 7): All of them, depending on which
aspect of development, in which person, is
considered. As the text states, “Any direction
is possible.”
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Multicontextual
Humans develop in dozens of contexts that profoundly affect their development.
Contexts include physical surroundings (climate, noise, population density, etc.)
and family patterns. Here we explain only two aspects of the social context.
The Historical Context
All persons born within a few years of one another are said to be a cohort, a group
of people whose shared age means that they travel through life together. Those in
a cohort are all affected by the values, events, technologies, and culture of their
era. The war in Iraq has a different meaning for U.S. adults
whose lives were changed by World War II, the Vietnam
War, or the Gulf War.
If you doubt that national trends and events touch indi-
viduals, consider your first name—a very personal word
chosen especially for you. Look at Table 1.1, which lists the
most popular names for boys and girls born into cohorts 20
years apart, beginning in 1925.
The popularity of your name is influenced by the era,
and so is your reaction to it. If you are troubled that your
name is popular, or rare, or old-fashioned, blame history,
not your parents. Cohort affects many other aspects of de-
velopment. Be grateful you were born after 1900, because
severe beatings, deadly childhood diseases, and grueling
child labor were common before then, when historical con-
ditions resulted in many unwanted children.
The Socioeconomic Context
When social scientists study the socioeconomic context, they often focus on
socioeconomic status, abbreviated SES. Sometimes SES is called “social class”
(as in “middle class” or “working class”).
SES involves more than money, in the form of income or wealth. It is also
measured by factors such as occupation, education, and place of residence. The
SES of a family consisting of, say, an infant, an unemployed mother, and a father
who earns $15,000 a year would be low if the wage earner was an illiterate dish-
washer living in an urban slum but would be much higher if that income was
earned by a postdoctoral student living on campus and teaching part time.
cohort A group pf people who were born at
about the same time and thus move
through life together, experiencing the
same historical events and cultural shifts.
socioeconomic status (SES) A person’s
position in society as determined by
income, wealth, occupation, education,
place of residence, and other factors.
Five Characteristics of Development 9
TABLE 1.1
Which First Names for U.S. Girls and Boys Were Most Popular
in 1925, 1945, 1965, 1985, and 2005?
Year Top Five Girls’ Names Top Five Boys’ Names
Mary, Dorothy, Betty, Helen, Margaret Robert, John, William, James, Charles
Lisa, Mary, Karen, Kimberly, Susan Michael, John, David, James, Robert
Emily, Emma, Madison, Abigail, Olivia Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Matthew, Ethan
Mary, Linda, Barbara, Patricia, Carol James, Robert, John, William, Richard
Jessica, Ashley, Jennifer, Amanda, Sarah Michael, Christopher, Matthew, Joshua, Daniel
Guess First If your answers, in order from top to bottom, were 1925, 1965, 2005, 1945, and 1985, you are
excellent at detecting cohort influences. If you made a mistake, perhaps that’s because the data are com-
piled from applications for Social Security numbers during each year, so the names of those who did not get
a Social Security number are omitted.
Computer Expert in a Baseball Cap Cohort
differences become most apparent when
new technology appears. Which age group is
most likely to download music onto iPods or
to send text messages on cellular phones?
©
2
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EN
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OM
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R
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“And this is Charles, our web-master.”
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As this example illustrates, SES includes advantages and
disadvantages, opportunities and limitations, past history and
future prospects—all of which affect housing, nutrition, knowl-
edge, and habits. Although low income obviously limits a per-
son, other factors (such as education) can make poverty better
or worse.
A question for developmentalists is whether low SES does
most damage in infancy, when malnutrition, poor medical care,
and low family education could stunt a baby’s brain, or in late
adulthood, when accumulated stress overwhelms the body’s re-
serves. The answer is not clear; SES is powerful at every age.
Multicultural
Culture affects each human at every moment. Precisely be-
cause culture is so pervasive, people rarely notice their culture
while they are immersed in it—just as fish do not notice the
water they are surrounded by.
Deciding What to Do Each Moment
When social scientists use the term culture, they refer to the “patterns of behavior
that are passed from one generation to the next . . . [and] that serve as the re-
sources for the current life of a social group” (Cole, 2005, p. 49). The social group
may be citizens of a nation, residents of a region within a nation, members of an
ethnic group, people living in one neighborhood, or even students in a college class.
Any group may have its own culture—its own values, customs, clothes,
dwellings, cuisine, and assumptions. Culture affects every action. For example,
some students use highlighters, study in the library, and call professors by their
first names; others do not. The reasons are cultural.
Cultures are dynamic, always changing, because children resist some tradi-
tional values and adults abandon some aspects of their culture when historical,
geographical, or family circumstances change (Smedley & Smedley, 2005). Each
10 CHAPTER 1 ■ Introduction
Culturally Acceptable Putting very young
children to work is still a widespread custom
in many parts of the world. The International
Labor Organization estimates that, world-
wide, 246 million children aged 5 to 17 are
employed—often at very low wages. The
children pictured here are working in an em-
broidery shop in Pakistan.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 12):
Why are they using only their right hands?
The Culture of Poverty In this southern Illi-
nois neighborhood, littered yards are part of a
“culture of poverty” that also includes poor
nutrition, substandard housing, and an aver-
age life expectancy of 52 years.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 13): A
13-year-old is in this photo, trying to garden.
Can you find her?
AS
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AP
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cohort experiences, and then transmits, a different culture than previous genera-
tions did.
People are influenced by more than one culture. In multiethnic nations such as
the United States and Canada, many individuals are multicultural, functioning
not only within the dominant culture but also within various regional, ethnic,
school, and other cultures.
Ethnicity, Race, and Income
Confusion arises whenever people—scientists or nonscientists—refer to ethnic
groups, races, cultures, and socioeconomic classes, because these categories over-
lap. The preceding discussion and the following definitions should clarify the situ-
ation.
People of an ethnic group share certain attributes, almost always ancestral
heritage and often national origin, religion, culture, and language (Whitfield &
McClearn, 2005). (Heritage refers to customs and traditions passed down to the
present; national origin refers to one’s ancestors’ country of birth.) Ethnic cate-
gories arise from history, sociology, and psychology, not from biology.
The term race, in contrast, has been used to categorize groups of people based
on appearance. However, about 95 percent of the genetic differences between one
person and another occur within, not between, supposed racial groups. Genetic
variation is particularly apparent among dark-skinned people whose ancestors
were African (Tishkoff & Kidd, 2004). Race is misleading as a biological category.
Instead, although race was long thought to be a valid biological category, it is
actually a social construction, an idea created by society. That does not render
the term meaningless: Perceived racial differences lead to discrimination, and
racial identity affects cognition (see the discussion of stereotype threat in Chapter
18). But race “is a socially constructed concept, not a biological one” (Sternberg
et al., 2005), and thus racial categories may change over time.
SES overlaps with ethnicity and race. When one careful study found many
health differences among Americans of African, Asian, European, and Hispanic
heritage living in New England, a close examination found that half of those dif-
ferences could be traced to SES, not ethnicity (Krieger et al., 2005).
ethnic group People whose ancestors were
born in the same region and who often
share a language, culture, and religion.
race A group of people who are regarded (by
themselves or by others) as genetically
distinct from other groups on the basis of
physical appearance.
social construction An idea that is built
more on shared perceptions than on
objective reality. Many age-related terms,
such as childhood, adolescence, yuppies,
and senior citizens are social constructions.
Heritage Aloft At least ten major ethnic
groups make up China’s population of more
than a billion. This man shows his grandson
the multicolored lanterns displayed on
Lantern Day in Hangzhou. Other nations, and
other parts of China, have no Lantern Day
festival, but all have special traditional cele-
brations of their own.
Five Characteristics of Development 11
No Raisins? For centuries at St. Andrews
University in Scotland, new students gave
seniors a pound of raisins or else got dunked
in a fountain. Wine has replaced raisins, and
foam is sprayed instead of water—but on
Raisin Monday a social construction lives on.
ZH
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Both national history and SES affect culture and hence development. For ex-
ample, one cross-cultural study found that learning was stressed for middle-class
preschoolers in the United States and Kenya but not for lower-class children in
those two nations or for children of any SES in Brazil (Quintana et al., 2006).
The multicultural emphasis in human development requires that researchers
be aware of cultural assumptions and values, respecting their power. But culture is
dynamic, and people of every ethnic or economic background can accept or reject
cultural values. Ethnic, racial, and economic differences do not necessarily deter-
mine culture. Consider the childhood experience of poet Maya Angelou, one of
many who reshaped U.S. culture during the twentieth century.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
10): They are actually using both hands. The
left hand pulls the needle from underneath.
Note that they work in rhythm—to keep up
the pace as well as to avoid getting in each
other’s way.
12 CHAPTER 1 ■ Introduction
“My Name Wasn’t Mary”
Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in 1929 into a
community so racially segregated that she thought “white folks
couldn’t be people because their feet were too small, their skin
too white and see-throughy, and they didn’t walk on the balls of
their feet the way people did—they walked on their heels like
horses” (Angelou, 1970, p. 76).
Young Marguerite’s best friend was her older brother, Bailey,
who gave her the nickname Maya, from “Mya sister,” as he
called her. At age 10 she began to learn about White people (her
“finishing school,” she called it) as an apprentice to Miss Glory,
who worked as a maid for Mrs. Cullinan. Once, when Mar-
guerite was serving Mrs. Cullinan and her friends:
One of the women asked, “What’s your name, girl?” It was the
speckled-face one. Mrs. Cullinan said, “She doesn’t talk much.
Her name is Margaret.” . . .
I smiled at her. Poor thing . . . couldn’t even pronounce my
name correctly.
“She’s a sweet little thing, though.”
“Well, that may be, but the name’s too long. I’d never bother
myself. I’d call her Mary if I were you.”
I fumed into the kitchen. That horrible woman would never
have the chance to call me Mary because if I was starving I’d
never work for her. I decided I wouldn’t pee on her if her heart
was on fire. . . .
The very next day . . . Miss Glory and I were washing up the
lunch dishes when Mrs. Cullinan came to the doorway, “Mary?”
Miss Glory asked, “Who?” . . . “Her name is Margaret, ma’am.
Her name’s Margaret.”
“That’s too long. She’s Mary from now on. Heat that soup
from last night and put it in the china tureen and Mary, I want
you to carry it carefully.”
Every person I knew had a hellish horror of being “called out
of his name.” It was a dangerous practice to call a Negro anything
that could be loosely construed as insulting because of the cen-
turies of their having been called niggers, jigs, dinges, blackbirds,
crows, boots and spooks.
. . . I had to quit the job, but the problem was going to be how
to do it. Momma wouldn’t allow me to quit for just any reason. . . .
Then Bailey solved my dilemma. He had me describe the
contents of the cupboard and the particular plates she liked best.
Her favorite piece was a casserole shaped like a fish and the
green glass coffee cups. I kept his instructions in mind, so on the
next day when Miss Glory was hanging out clothes and I had
again been told to serve the old biddies on the porch, I dropped
the empty serving tray. When I heard Mrs. Cullinan scream,
“Mary!” I picked up the casserole and two of the green glass cups
in readiness. As she rounded the kitchen door, I let them fall to
the tiled floor.
I could never absolutely describe to Bailey what happened
next, because each time I got to the part where she fell on the
floor and screwed up her ugly face to cry, we burst out laughing.
She actually wobbled around on the floor and picked up shards
of cups and cried “Oh, Momma. Oh, dear Gawd. It’s Momma’s
china from Virginia. Oh, Momma, I sorry.”
Miss Glory came running in from the yard. . . . “You mean to
say she broke our Virginia dishes. What we gone do?”
Mrs. Cullinan cried louder, “That clumsy nigger. Clumsy lit-
tle black nigger.”
Old Speckled Face leaned down and asked, “Who did it,
Viola? Was it Mary? Who did it?” . . .
issues and applications
Today, Everybody Knows Her Name Poet and best-selling author
Maya Angelou speaks at the University of Northern Iowa about the
healing and saving nature of poetry. She encouraged the members
of the audience to become the “composers” of their own lives.
DA
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IN
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Multidisciplinary
Powerful forces pull scientists to specialize, to study one phenomenon in one species
at one age. This tight focus can provide a deeper understanding of, for instance,
the rhythms of vocalization among 3-month-old infants, or the effects of alcohol on
adolescent mice, or wives’ experiences of husbands’ retirement. (Each of these has
been studied extensively, and the results inform later sections of this book.)
However, the study of human development requires insight and information
from a broad array of disciplines and cross-cutting topics, because each person
develops simultaneously in body, mind, and spirit. Although development is often
divided into three domains—biosocial, cognitive, and psychosocial—all three
domains interact as part of the dynamic systems that make up a person. (Figure
1.3 provides a full definition of each domain.) For example, although giving birth
is primarily biosocial because reproduction is biological, childbirth is also cogni-
tive (it is a decision) and psychosocial (families and cultures vary tremendously in
how newborns are treated). Placing a topic within one domain never means that
that topic belongs exclusively to that domain, whether biosocial, cognitive, or
psychosocial.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 10): Carolyn Whitaker, in an orange shirt,
is at the far left.
Five Characteristics of Development 13
Mrs. Cullinan said “Her name’s Margaret, goddam it, her
name’s Margaret.”
And she threw a wedge of broken plate at me. It could have
been the hysteria which put her aim off, but the flying crockery
caught Miss Glory right over her ear and she started screaming.
I left the front door wide open so all the neighbors could hear.
Mrs. Cullinan was right about one thing. My name wasn’t
Mary.
[Angelou, 1970, pp. 90–93]
Maya Angelou did not follow the cultural script expected of a
poor African American girl. Note, however, that her culture made
it unthinkable for her either to ask Mrs. Cullinan to call her
“Marguerite” or to tell her mother she wanted to quit.
Why was Maya so unlike Miss Glory, even though they were
of the same ethnicity and SES? Cohort and family history are
part of the answer. Miss Glory was born 20 years earlier, a de-
scendant of slaves owned by Mrs. Cullinan’s family. Mrs. Culli-
nan and Old Speckled Face were also products of their culture,
unaware of the “hellish horror” of renaming.
But this incident demonstrates more than the power of culture
to shape perception. It also shows that people sometimes break
free of the restrictions imposed by their cohort, culture, or SES.
DOMAINS OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Biosocial
Development
Includes all the growth and
change that occur in a
person’s body and the
genetic, nutritional, and
health factors that affect that
growth and change. Motor
skills—everything from
grasping a rattle to driving a
car—are also part of the
biosocial domain. In this
book, this domain is called
biosocial, rather than
physical or biological.
Cognitive
Development
Includes all the mental
processes that a person
uses to obtain knowledge
or to think about the
environment. Cognition
encompasses perception,
imagination, judgment,
memory, and language
—the processes people use
to think, decide, and learn.
Education—not only the
formal curriculum in schools
but also informal learning—
is part of this domain as
well.
Psychosocial
Development
Includes development of
emotions, temperament,
and social skills. Family,
friends, the community,
the culture, and the larger
society are particularly
central to the psychosocial
domain. For example,
cultural differences in
“appropriate” sex roles or
in family structures are part
of this domain.
FIGURE 1.3
The Three Domains The division
of human development into three
domains makes it easier to study,
but remember that very few factors
belong exclusively to one domain or
another. Development is not piece-
meal but holistic: Each aspect of
development is related to all three
domains.
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Many more disciplines besides biology, psychology, and sociology contribute to
our study. As one expert explains: “The study of development is a huge community
enterprise that spans generations and many disciplines” (Moore, 2002, p. 74).
Multiple disciplines are needed because human beings develop in many domains,
in multifaceted contexts, and in diverse cultures.
Although scientists feel a powerful impulse to study just one particular thing,
there is also a powerful urge toward interdisciplinary, multifaceted study.
Mirror Neurons
One example of the benefit of the interdisciplinary approach to human develop-
ment is shown by research on mirror neurons. This began about a decade ago,
when neuroscience researchers saw that parts of a monkey’s brain responded to
observed actions as if the actions were performed by the monkey itself. Thus,
when one monkey watched another reach for a piece of fruit, the same brain areas
were activated in both monkeys. The researchers located this response in the F5
area of the monkey premotor cortex and called those reflective brain cells mirror
neurons (Rizzolatti & Craighero, 2004). Hundreds of other experiments have cor-
roborated the existence of mirror neurons.
This neuroscientific discovery quickly crossed disciplines and species. Scien-
tists “turned to the human brain and found neural activity that mirrors not only the
movement but also the intentions, sensations, and emotions of those around us”
(Miller, 2005, p. 945). As “cognitive science meets neurophysiology” (Garbarini
& Adenzato, 2004, p. 100), it becomes apparent that mirror neurons affect how
people learn, imitate, and think.
Mirror neurons in the human brain reflect gestures, mouth movements, and whole-
body actions. When experts in dance or in martial arts watch a performance, their
brains are activated as if they themselves were performing (Calvo-Merino et al., 2005).
Implications of Mirror-Neuron Research
Currently, scientists in many disciplines are trying to understand the implications
and limitations of this discovery (Wilson & Knoblich, 2005). Anthropologists think
it might explain some aspects of cultural transmission or social organization
(Adenzato & Garbarini, 2006; Morrison, 2002; Rizzolatti & Craighero, 2004);
psychopathologists connect a lack of mirror neurons with autism (Williams et al.,
2006); linguists think mirror neurons are relevant to language learning (Buccino
et al., 2004); social psychologists wonder whether mirror neurons are one reason
people understand other people’s intentions and have empathy for those in pain
(Harris, 2003; Nakahara & Miyashita, 2005).
Mirror neurons are evident not only in adults but also in children and even in
babies—an aspect that adds to the interest of developmentalists (Chen et al., 2004;
Lepage & Théoret, 2006). New possibilities are raised that must be explored.
For example, children whose parents fight a lot learn less in school and have
difficulty establishing supportive friendships or intimate relationships, even
though neither parent has hit or yelled at them directly. The leading explanation
(suggested by research) is that parents enmeshed in conflict are less sensitive to
their children (Davies et al., 2002). The discovery of mirror neurons raises another
possibility: Observing a fight may be like experiencing it.
Although scientists enjoy thinking of possibilities, they are cautious in drawing
conclusions. Research on human brains is notoriously difficult. Perhaps humans
merely echo monkeys; perhaps human brains respond only to hand and body move-
ments, not intentions. Yet because developmental research is multidisciplinary,
thousands of scientists are pursuing implications suggested by monkeys’ brains.
mirror neurons Brain cells that respond to
actions performed by someone else, as if
the observer had done that action. For
example, the brains of dancers who wit-
ness another dancer moving onstage are
activated in the same movement areas as
would be activated if they themselves did
that dance step, because their mirror neu-
rons reflect the activity.
14 CHAPTER 1 ■ Introduction
Especially for Parents Who Want Their
Children to Enjoy Sports While your baby
is still too young and uncoordinated to play
any sports, what does the research on mirror
neurons suggest you might do?
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Plasticity
The term plasticity denotes two complementary aspects of development: Human
traits can be molded (as plastic can be), yet people maintain a certain durability
of identity (again, like plastic, which takes decades to disintegrate). Culture and
upbringing affect both aspects of plasticity; so do genes and other biological influ-
ences.
Plasticity provides both hope and realism—hope because change is possible, and
realism because each developing person must build on what has come before. In
some ways, plasticity underlies all the other four characteristics of development.
People reexamine earlier values and overcome handicaps throughout their lives,
but they cannot erase them. No matter what path a life takes, the journey begins
and then proceeds from some particular point, moving up, down, or straight ahead,
plastic and multidirectional, connected to context and culture. I have learned all
this from David.
Especially for Public Health Professionals
Can immunization protect an embryo?
Five Characteristics of Development 15
a case to study
My Nephew David
In the spring of 1967, in rural Kentucky, an epidemic of rubella
(German measles) reached two more people: my sister-in-law,
who had a sore throat for a couple of days, and her embryo, who
was damaged for life. David was born in November. His survival
was in doubt. He required immediate surgery for a serious heart
ailment, and he was born with thick cataracts on both eyes and
malformations of his thumbs, feet, teeth, and spine.
My brother is a professor and his wife is a nurse; their cul-
tural and socioeconomic contexts encouraged them to seek
help. Soon a consultant from the Kentucky School for the
Blind told them how to help David learn. One instruction was
to put him on a large rug to play. If he crawled off the rug, they
should say “No” and place him back in the middle. His sense of
touch would enable him to explore without bumping
into walls.
Progress was slow. At age 3, David could not yet
talk, chew solid food, use the toilet, coordinate his fin-
gers, or even walk normally. An IQ test showed him to
be severely mentally retarded. Fortunately, although
deafness is common in children with rubella syn-
drome, David could hear. By age 5, one eye had been
destroyed, but surgery had removed the cataract on
the other eye, allowing some vision.
By then, the social construction that children with
severe disabilities are unteachable was changing.
David’s parents enrolled him in four schools. Two
were for children with cerebral palsy; one offered
morning classes and the other was open in the after-
noon. On Fridays, when both those schools were
closed, David attended a school for the mentally re-
tarded. On Sundays he went to church school, his
first “mainstreaming”—the social construction that children
with special needs should learn with regular children.
At age 7, David entered public school. His motor skills were
poor (he had difficulty controlling a pencil); his efforts to read
were limited by his faulty vision; and his social skills were im-
paired (he pinched people and laughed at the wrong times).
By age 10, David had made great strides. He had skipped a
year of school and was a fifth-grader. He could read—with a
magnifying glass—at the eleventh-grade level. Outside school
he began to learn a second language, play the violin, and sing in
the choir. He eventually went to college.
David (at right in photo below, with his brothers) now works
as a translator of German texts, which he enjoys because “I like
GR
EG
S
TA
SS
EN
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The five characteristics of human development lead to one conclusion: Nobody
is exactly like a typical person of his or her cohort, SES, or culture. Each is influ-
enced in divergent directions by many domains and contexts, whose power varies
from person to person. Prediction is never precise. David will always be affected
by his early damage, but he was not expected to survive, much less be able to
“provide a service” to other people.
SUMMING UP
Each life is characterized by multiple changes that are multidirectional, increasing, de-
creasing, zigzagging, and so on. Development is also multicontextual, with every con-
text having an impact. For example, historical and socioeconomic conditions facilitate
some paths through life and close off others. A multicultural approach to the study of de-
velopment recognizes that culture is pervasive, affecting every action. Developmental
study is also multidisciplinary, drawing on biology, psychology, education, sociology, and
many other disciplines. Plasticity is always evident but never infinite: Humans are nei-
ther stuck in their past nor free of it.
■
Developmental Study as a Science
Because the study of development is a science, it is based on objective evidence.
Because it concerns human life and growth, it is also laden with subjective percep-
tions. This interplay of the objective and the subjective, of the universal and the
personal, makes developmental science a challenging, fascinating, and even trans-
formative study.
Adults have heartfelt opinions about how children should be raised; how
emerging adults should find work or romance; whether they themselves should
marry, or divorce, or have children. Opinions are subjective. Science helps us
progress from opinion to truth, from wishes to actual outcomes.
Steps of the Scientific Method
Scientists ask questions and seek answers. To avoid the distortions of unexamined
opinions and to control the biases of personal experience, they use the scientific
method. This method involves four basic steps and sometimes a fifth:
scientific method A way to answer ques-
tions that requires empirical research and
data-based conclusions.
16 CHAPTER 1 ■ Introduction
Not the Typical Path This woman’s lifelong
ambition is to walk the 2,160-mile Appalachian
Trail from Maine to Georgia. She is consider-
ably more active than the average member of
her cohort.
VI
N
CE
D
E
W
IT
T
/ S
TO
CK
, B
OS
TO
N
providing a service to scholars, giving them access to something
they would otherwise not have” (personal communication with
David, 2007). He reported a few years ago that he is
generally quite happy, but secretly a little happier lately . . .
because I have been consistently getting a pretty good vibrato
when I am singing, not only by myself but in congregational
hymns in church. [I asked what vibrato is; he explained:]
When a note bounces up and down within a quarter tone either
way of concert pitch, optimally between 5.5 and 8.2 times per
second.
Amazing. David is both knowledgeable and happy, and he
continues to develop his skills. He also has a wry sense of
humor. When I told him that I wasn’t progressing as fast as I
wanted to in revising this text, even though I was working very
hard every day, he replied, “That sounds just like a certain father
I know.”
The rubella damage will always be with David, limiting his
development. But as his aunt, I have watched him defy pes-
simistic predictions. David is a testament for plasticity: No
human is entirely, inevitably restricted by past experiences.
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replication The repetition of a scientific
study, using the same procedures on a
similar (but not identical) group of partici-
pants, in order to verify, refine, or dispute
the original study’s conclusions.
scientific observation A method of testing
hypotheses by unobtrusively watching and
recording participants’ behavior in a sys-
tematic and objective manner, either in a
laboratory or in a natural setting.
1. Ask a question. On the basis of previous research or a particular theory or
personal observation, pose a question. Scientists are curious about almost
everything.
2. Develop a hypothesis. Reformulate and segment the question into a hypothesis,
a specific prediction to be tested.
3. Test the hypothesis. Design and conduct research to provide empirical evidence
(data) about the validity or falsehood of the hypothesis.
4. Draw conclusions. Use the evidence to support or refute the hypothesis. Note
limitations of the research and alternative explanations.
5. Make the findings available. Publish the procedure and results in sufficient
detail so that other scientists will be able to evaluate the conclusions or repli-
cate the research.
Replication is the repetition of a scientific study, using similar procedures with
new participants, to verify or dispute the original study’s conclusions. Science builds
on science: New studies continually refine, refute, replicate, and extend the old.
Between the questions developmental scientists ask (steps 1 and 2) and the an-
swers they find (steps 4 and 5) lies methodology—the specific strategies, or meth-
ods, used to gather and analyze data and to test hypotheses. A research study’s
validity (does it measure what it purports to measure?), reliability (would repeating
the measurements produce the same results?), generalizability (do the conclusions
apply beyond this study?), and usefulness (can it solve real-life problems?) affect
the power of each study.
Research design can advance or undercut that power. Thus, step 3 is the pivot.
Like keystones, without a good design the entire structure will collapse. Some
strategies to make research valid, reliable, generalizable, and useful are described
in Appendix B. In every chapter, details about the design of some research studies
are provided in the margins.
Ways to Test Hypotheses
Now we turn to four methods of testing hypotheses: observations, experiments,
surveys, and case studies. Remember, the overall goal is to find evidence that an-
swers questions as accurately as possible.
Observation
Scientific observation requires the researcher to observe
and record behavior systematically and objectively. Observa-
tions often occur in a naturalistic setting, such as at home, in
a school, or in a public park, because such settings encourage
people to behave as they usually do. The observer tries to be
unobtrusive so that research participants will act naturally.
Observation can also occur in a laboratory or in searches of
archival data.
Observation has been used to note the worldwide increase
in obesity during the past few decades, which has affected
children more than any other age group. Obesity rates for
U.S. children are charted in Figure 1.4. One important devel-
opmental question (step 1 of the scientific method) is, “Why
is childhood obesity increasing?” One hypothesis (step 2) is
that children today do not get as much exercise as they once
did—specifically, most children no longer walk to school.
Observation can be used to test this hypothesis (step 3).
hypothesis A specific prediction that is
stated in such a way that it can be tested
and either confirmed or refuted.
Developmental Study as a Science 17
AL
AM
Y
Can They See Her? No, and they cannot hear
each other. This scientist is observing three
deaf boys through a window that is a mirror
on the other side. Her observations will help
them learn to communicate.
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Several observers went to eight elementary schools (some rural, some urban),
noting how the children arrived at school. To make sure they would catch any
fluctuations by day of the week, they observed for five consecutive days. As Figure
1.5. shows, 95 percent of the children arrived by car or school bus; only 5 percent
got to school under their own power, on foot or on a bicycle (Sirard et al., 2005).
Observation has one major limitation: It does not indicate what causes people
to do what they do. Do children grow heavier because their parents drive them
to school, or do parents drive their children because they are too heavy to walk?
Is inactivity the result or the cause of overweight? Observation cannot tell us
(see Research Design). An experiment can.
The Experiment
The experiment is the research method that scientists use to establish cause. In
the social sciences, experimenters typically give people a particular treatment, or
expose them to a specific condition, and then note whether their behavior changes.
In technical terms, the experimenters manipulate an independent variable
(the treatment or special condition, also called the experimental variable). They
note whether the independent variable affects the specific behavior they are
studying, called the dependent variable (which, in theory, depends on the inde-
pendent variable). Thus, the independent variable is the new, special treatment;
the dependent variable is the result of that treatment.
The purpose of an experiment is to find out whether an independent variable
affects the dependent variable. Statistics are often used to analyze the results.
Sometimes results are reported by effect size, to distinguish slight, moderate, or
large effect. Sometimes tests of significance are used, to indicate whether the re-
sults might have occurred by chance. (A finding that chance would produce the
results less than 5 times in 100 is significance at the 0.05 level; 1 time in 100 is
0.01 significance.)
18 CHAPTER 1 ■ Introduction
0
5
10
15
20
1963–70 1971–74 1976–80 1988–94 1999–2002 2003–04
Percent
overweight
or obese
Age in years
Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity Among Children and Adolescents Aged 6–19
6–11 12–19
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2006, National Center for Health Statistics Web site,
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/childhood/prevalence.htm; accessed February 8, 2007.
Years
FIGURE 1.4
The Obesity Epidemic The percentage of children and adolescents who are overweight or
obese has more than tripled in less than 50 years. The rate of increase has been especially rapid
in the past 20 years. Currently, 18 percent of the U.S. population aged 18 or younger have BMI
(body mass index) values that are at or above the 95th percentile of the Centers for Disease
Control’s growth charts, which is the criterion for classification as overweight.
How Children Arrived at School
Percent
10 20 30 40 50 60
By car
By bus
On foot
On a bike
Source: Sirard et al., 2005.
FIGURE 1.5
Why Walk When You Can Ride? An observa-
tional study of eight South Carolina elemen-
tary schools found that only 5 percent of the
children rode their bikes or walked to school.
Such a study could not explain why so few
children got to school under their own steam.
For that, an experiment would be needed.
Research Design
Scientists: John Sirard, Barbara E.
Ainsworth, Kerri L. McIver, and Russell
R. Pate.
Publication: American Journal of Public
Health (2005).
Participants:Total of 3,911 children at-
tending 8 public elementary schools in
and around Columbia, South Carolina.
Schools were diverse in SES, ethnicity,
and location.
Design: Observational study.Two or
three observers at each school, on five
consecutive school days, arrived an
hour before school started and left two
hours later, counting children who
arrived via car, bus, bike, or on foot.
Similar observations occurred in the
afternoon.Weather (e.g., rain) was also
noted.
Major conclusion: No matter the SES,
ethnic group, urban/suburban neigh-
borhood, or weather, only about 4 per-
cent of the children walked to school
and 1 percent rode a bike.
Comment:This is an excellent observa-
tional study. However, because the
schools were all in one South Carolina
community, replication elsewhere is
needed.
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To make sure a change in the dependent variable is caused by the independent
variable, experimenters often compare two groups of participants: one that gets
the special treatment and the other, similar in every relevant way, that does not.
Thus, in a typical experiment (as diagrammed in Figure 1.6), two groups of partic-
ipants are studied: an experimental group, which gets a particular treatment (the
independent variable), and a comparison group (also called a control group),
which does not.
To understand the relationship between movement and obesity, investigators
(Levine et al., 2005) recruited inactive adults (they described themselves as
“couch potatoes”) who agreed to wear electronic monitoring equipment to record
their bodily movement. The data were automatically recorded 120 times each
minute, 24 hours a day. Half the volunteers were lean, and half were overweight.
The recordings revealed that the lean adults moved around in “the routines of
daily life” more than the overweight adults did (Levine et al., 2005). For instance,
they spent an average of nine hours a day on their feet, standing or walking; the
obese ones averaged only six hours. So far this is merely observation.
Then came the experiment. Both groups were put on strict diets, the lean group
to gain weight and the overweight ones to lose weight, for two months. The over-
weight participants lost about 20 pounds (8 kg) each, and the lean ones gained
about 10 pounds (4 kg) each. (The changes were temporary; most participants re-
turned to their usual weight when they stopped dieting.) Then daily activity was
measured again.
The crucial question was whether or not the overweight people moved more
than before and the leaner people moved less than before now that their weight
had changed. The answer was no. The monitors recorded no significant change.
In fact, there was a trend toward less movement than before among the heavier
people who had lost weight. This shows cause and effect: People do not move less
because they are overweight; instead, they are overweight because they move less.
experiment A research method in which the
researcher tries to determine the cause-
and-effect relationship between two
variables by manipulating one variable
(called the independent variable) and then
observing and recording the resulting
changes in the other variable (called the
dependent variable).
independent variable In an experiment, the
variable that is introduced to see what
effect it has on the dependent variable.
(Also called experimental variable.)
dependent variable In an experiment, the
variable that may change as a result of
whatever new condition or situation the
experimenter adds. In other words, the
dependent variable depends on the inde-
pendent variable.
experimental group A group of participants
in a research study who experience some
special treatment or condition (the inde-
pendent variable).
comparison group/control group A group
of participants in a research study who are
similar to the experimental group in all rel-
evant ways but who do not experience the
experimental condition (the independent
variable).
Developmental Study as a Science 19
Many participants,
measured on many
characteristics,
including the
dependent variable
(the behavior
being studied)
Experimental
group
Procedure:
1. Divide participants into two groups that are matched on important characteristics, especially the behavior that
is the dependent variable on which this study is focused.
2. Give special treatment, or intervention (the independent variable), to one group (the experimental group).
3. Compare the groups on the dependent variable. If they now differ, the cause of the difference was probably the
independent variable.
4. Publish the results.
Special treatment
(independent variable)
Significant
change in the
dependent variable
No change in the
dependent variable
No special treatment
(two equal groups) (predicted outcome)
Comparison
(or control) group
FIGURE 1.6
How to Conduct an Experiment Observation Quiz (see answer, page 23): Does the experimental group always change?
Especially for Nurses In the field of
medicine, why are experiments conducted to
test new drugs and treatments?
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The Survey
A third research method is the survey. Information is collected from a large num-
ber of people by interview, questionnaire, or some other means. This is a quick
and direct way to obtain data. However, getting valid survey data is not easy. For
example, in every poll designed to predict who will win an election, the surveyed
respondents must vote as they say they will, and each of them must reflect the
views of the thousands of others in the voting population. Researchers know that
these are both uncertainties and therefore adjust for them. The adjustment cannot
be precise; many elections are “too close to call.”
Further, the wording and the sequence of questions can influence answers, and
some respondents present themselves as they would like to be perceived, not as
they really are. For example, in a 1998 nationwide telephone survey, 25 percent of
parents said their children walked to school. The authors of the observation study
described earlier believe that their finding of only 5 percent is “more accurate . . .
than survey-based estimates” (Sirard et al., 2005, p. 237).
Whenever surveys ask husbands and wives, or parents and teachers, or adults
and children about the same thing, the two groups’ responses differ. For example,
“parents portray a much rosier picture of children’s well-being than children do of
themselves” (Scott, 2000, p. 99).
To illustrate the problems that surveys can pose, note the responses among
ninth graders in the United States. More than twice as many boys as girls (12 to 5
percent) say they have experienced sex before age 13 (MMWR, June 9, 2006).
That is unlikely, especially since girls reach puberty sooner and their sexual part-
ners are usually older, not younger, boys. Either boys exaggerate or girls underre-
port their sexual activity. Surveys may not be accurate.
The Case Study
A fourth research method, the case study, is an intensive study of one individual.
Often the researcher begins by asking the person about past history, current think-
ing, and future plans. Others (friends, family, teachers) who know the individual
are also interviewed. Although some questions are prepared in advance, follow-up
questions allow deeper understanding of the nuances of each particular case. A
case study can begin less formally, when researchers question people they know,
testing ideas in the process.
A case study can provide unanticipated insight. Jeffrey Arnett was a junior pro-
fessor at the University of Missouri when he interviewed several of his students.
He was surprised that the traditional markers of adulthood (marriage and vocation)
did not seem important to their happiness or maturation. For example, one student
named Angela
returned to Missouri a year ago after spending two years at Michigan State. . . .
She loved being on her own, and she would have liked to finish her bachelor’s
degree at Michigan State. However, she decided she wanted to change her major
from horticulture therapy to “just plain horticulture” and when university officials
resisted, she dropped out. . . .
If you look at Angela’s life right now, as it is, you might not see much in her
favor. She has dropped out of college, and she is working at a job she enjoys but
that doesn’t pay well and doesn’t offer much in the way of long-term prospects.
She is living with a boyfriend she doesn’t respect and certainly doesn’t want to
marry. Yet she is reasonably happy with her life, less for what it is now than for
what she believes it will be in the future. . . . At age 21, even if she is currently
adrift in many ways, all of her hopes are alive and well.
[Arnett, 2004, pp. 41–44]
Beginning with such cases, Arnett hypothesized that a new stage of life had de-
veloped among 18- to 25-year-olds; he called this stage emerging adulthood.
survey A research method in which informa-
tion is collected from a large number of
people by interviews, written question-
naires, or some other means.
case study A research method in which one
individual is studied intensively.
20 CHAPTER 1 ■ Introduction
Especially for Social Scientists What are
some of the benefits of cross-cultural research?
➤Response for Public Health
Professionals (from page 15): No and yes.
Embryos cannot be vaccinated, but immuni-
zation can prevent the spread of disease and
keep a pregnant woman healthy if she
already has antibodies.
➤Response for Parents Who Want Their
Children to Enjoy Sports (from page 14):
The results of mirror-neuron research imply
that people of all ages learn by observing body
movements in others. This suggests that
parents should make sure their baby gets
many chances to watch them (or someone
else) throwing balls, running, and playing
sports.
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General statements cannot be proven with case studies, because each person is
unique. Beyond that, collecting and interpreting the information reflects individ-
ual biases and idiosyncrasies, and case studies are qualitative, not quantitative (a
topic discussed later).
No developmental scientist reaches conclusions based only on a case study. At
best, a case study raises hypotheses that need more formal exploration. That is ex-
actly what Arnett did, and now many other research designs also find that emerging
adulthood is a distinct period in the human life span (Arnett & Tanner, 2006;
Settersten et al., 2005). (Emerging adulthood is discussed in Chapters 17–19.)
Studying Change over Time
Developmental scientists use the methods just described—observations, experi-
ments, surveys, and case studies—but they add another dimension. Their re-
search must include time, or aging. Usually they accomplish this by using one of
three basic designs: cross-sectional, longitudinal, or cross-sequential (summarized
graphically in Figure 1.7).
Developmental Study as a Science 21
14-year-olds 10-year-olds 6-year-olds 2-year-olds
Time 1 Time 1 + 4 years Time 1 + 8 years Time 1 + 12 years Time 1 + 16 years
Time 1 Time 1 + 4 years Time 1 + 8 years Time 1 + 12 years Time 1 + 16 years
Time 1 Time 1 Time 1 Time 1 Time 1
14-year-olds 10-year-olds 6-year-olds 2-year-olds
10-year-olds 6-year-olds 2-year-olds
[4 years later] [4 years later]
CROSS-SEQUENTIAL
Total time: 16 years, plus double and triple analysis
18-year-olds 14-year-olds 10-year-olds 6-year-olds 2-year-olds
[4 years later] [4 years later] [4 years later] [4 years later]
LONGITUDINAL
Total time: 16 years, plus analysis
CROSS-SECTIONAL
Total time: A few days, plus analysis
18-year-olds 14-year-olds 10-year-olds 6-year-olds 2-year-olds
Collect data five times, at 4-year intervals. Any differences for these individuals are definitely the result of
passage of time (but might be due to events or historical changes as well as age).
Collect data five times, following the original group but also adding a new group each time. Analyze data three
ways, first comparing groups of the same ages studied at different times. Any differences over time between
groups who are the same age are probably cohort effects. Then compare the same group as they grow older.
Any differences are the result of time (not only age). In the third analysis, compare differences between the
same people as they grow older, after the cohort effects (from the first analysis) are taken into account.
Any remaining differences are almost certainly the result of age.
Collect data once. Compare groups. Any differences, presumably, are the result of age.
For cohort effects,
compare groups
on the diagonals
(same age, different years).
18-year-olds
[4 years later] [4 years later] [4 years later]
[4 years later] [4 years later] [4 years later]
[4 years later]
FIGURE 1.7
Which Approach Is Best? Cross-sequential
research is the most time-consuming and
most complex approach, but it also yields the
best information about development. This is
one reason why hundreds of scientists con-
duct research on the same topics, replicating
one another’s work—to gain some of the ad-
vantages of cross-sequential research without
having to wait all those years.
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cross-sectional research A research design
that compares groups of people who differ
in age but are similar in other important
characteristics.
longitudinal research A research design in
which the same individuals are followed
over time and their development is repeat-
edly assessed.
Cross-Sectional Research
The most convenient, and thus most common, way to study development is with
cross-sectional research. Groups of people who differ in age but share other
important characteristics (such as education, SES, and ethnicity) are compared.
Cross-sectional design seems simple enough, but it is difficult to ensure that the
various groups being compared are similar in every important background variable
except age.
In addition, historical change might affect one cohort more than another. One
example would be the number of people in a cohort. Look at Figure 1.8 on page 24.
Do you think that the attitudes, opportunities, or fears of the baby-boom genera-
tion are affected by the fact of its huge size? If so, that is a cohort effect that might
mistakenly be thought to be an age effect.
Longitudinal Research
To help discover whether age itself, not cohort differences, causes a developmental
change, scientists undertake longitudinal research. This approach involves col-
lecting data repeatedly on the same individuals as they age. Longitudinal research
22 CHAPTER 1 ■ Introduction
Compare These with Those The apparent
similarity of these two groups in gender and
ethnic composition makes them candidates for
cross-sectional research. Before we could be
sure that any difference between the two
groups is the result of age, we would have to
be sure the groups are alike in other ways,
such as socioeconomic status and religious
affiliation. Even if two groups seem identical
in everything but age, there may be unknown
differences.
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is particularly useful in studying development over a long age span (Elder &
Shanahan, 2006). Some valuable and surprising findings of longitudinal research
are given in Table 1.2.
Longitudinal research has several drawbacks. Over time, participants may with-
draw, move far away, or die. This can skew the final results if those who disappear
are unlike those who stay, and usually they are. In almost every longitudinal study,
people of low SES or with serious illnesses are less likely to remain involved.
Often researchers cannot find them. Another problem is that participants become
increasingly familiar with the questions or the goals of the study and therefore
change in ways that a typical person would not.
Probably the biggest problem comes from the changing historical context. Sci-
ence, popular culture, and politics alter life experiences, and those changes limit
the current relevance of data collected on people born decades ago. Meanwhile,
waiting for analysis of the effects of longitudinal research harms people living now.
For example, dozens of chemicals, drugs, and additives might eventually cause
cancer. Yet millions died of lung cancer before longitudinal research proved that
17-year-old smokers risked death at age 67.
Developmental Study as a Science 23
TABLE 1.2
Some Findings from Longitudinal Research
■ Adjustment to parents’ divorce. Negative effects linger, sometimes even into middle age,
but not for everyone (Amato & Afifi, 2006; Hetherington & Kelly, 2002).
■ Preventing delinquency. Patient parenting at age 5, using conversation rather than physical
punishment, decreases the likelihood of delinquency 10 years later (Pettit, 2004).
■ The effects of day care. The quality and extent of child care in infancy and early childhood
are less influential than the mother’s warmth and responsiveness or coldness and
rejection (NICHD, 2005).
■ The stability of personality. Personality is quite stable over the decades of adulthood. The
outgoing, agreeable young adult is likely to become an outgoing, easygoing grandmother
(Caspi & Shiner, 2006; McCrae & Costa, 2003).
©
SA
RA
H-
M
AR
IA
V
IS
CH
ER
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
➤Response for Nurses (from page 19):
Experiments are the only way to determine
cause-and-effect relationships. If we want to
be sure that a new drug or treatment is safe
and effective, an experiment must be con-
ducted to establish that the drug or treatment
improves health.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 19): No. Note the word predicted. The
hypothesis is that change will occur for the
experimental group and not the control group,
but the reason for doing the experiment is to
discover whether that prediction does indeed
come true.
➤Response for Social Scientists (from
page 20): Different cultures have different
ideas about child rearing. Cross-cultural
research provides us with information that
may be shared among various cultures and
may benefit the children of those cultures.
Six Stages of Life The baby at the far left
is Sarah-Maria, born in 1980 in Switzerland.
Each of these photos is of a girl at another
stage described in this text: infancy (age 1),
the play years (age 3), the school years
(age 8), adolescence (age 15), emerging
adulthood (age 19), and adulthood (age 27).
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 24): Why is there no photo showing the seventh and last stage, late adulthood?
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Cross-Sequential Research
Cross-sectional and longitudinal research each have advantages that compensate
for the other’s disadvantages. Scientists use the two together, often with complex
statistical analysis (Hartmann & Pelzel, 2005). The simplest combination is
cross-sequential research (also referred to as cohort-sequential research or time-
sequential research). With this design, researchers study several groups of people
who are of different ages (a cross-sectional approach) and follow all of them over
the years (a longitudinal approach).
A cross-sequential design can compare findings for a group of, say, 18-year-olds
with findings for the same individuals at age 8, as well as with findings for groups
who were 18 a decade or two earlier and groups who are 8 years old at the present
(see Figure 1.7). Cross-sequential research thus allows scientists to disentangle
differences related to chronological age from those related to historical period.
For example, a cross-sequential study (the Seattle Longitudinal Study) finds
that some intellectual abilities (such as vocabulary) increase throughout adult-
hood and others (such as speed of thinking) decline starting at about age 30
(Schaie, 2005). This study has also discovered that declines in math ability are
more closely related to education than to age, a finding that neither cross-
sectional nor longitudinal research could have revealed.
SUMMING UP
The scientific method is designed to help researchers answer questions objectively and
honestly, with carefully gathered evidence, drawing conclusions based on the data they
collect. Methods, findings, and conclusions are reported so that other scientists can
build on past work and reexamine results. Researchers observe people unobtrusively,
and they conduct experiments under controlled conditions. They may survey hundreds
or even thousands of people or study one case in detail. To understand change over
time, researchers undertake cross-sectional, longitudinal, and cross-sequential research.
Every method has strengths and weaknesses.
■
cross-sequential research A hybrid research
method in which researchers first study
several groups of people of different ages
(a cross-sectional approach) and then follow
those groups over the years (a longitudinal
approach). (Also called cohort-sequential
research or time-sequential research.)
24 CHAPTER 1 ■ Introduction
1920 Years 2010 (projected)
0.5
Age Structure of the U.S. Population, 1920 and 2010 (population in millions)
0.7
1.2
1.7
2.2
3.0
3.6
4.7
5.8
6.3
7.8
8.1
9.1
9.3
9.4
10.6
11.4
11.6
6.1
5.7
7.2
9.1
12.1
16.7
19.5
22.1
22.6
21.0
20.1
20.2
21.4
21.7
21.3
19.7
20.7
21.4
85+

80–84
75–79
70–74
65–69
60–64
55–59
50–54
45–49
40–44
35–39
30–34
25–29
20–24
15–19
10–14
5–9
0–4
Sources: U.S. Bureau of the Census,1975 (left); U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2006 (right).
FIGURE 1.8
The Baby-Boom Population Bulge Unlike
earlier times, when each generation was
slightly smaller than the one that followed,
each cohort today has a unique position, de-
termined by the reproductive patterns of the
preceding generation and by the medical ad-
vances developed during their own lifetime.
As a result, the baby boomers, born between
1947 and 1964, represent a huge bulge in the
U.S. population. In another three decades,
the leading edge of the baby-boom genera-
tion, largely intact, will begin moving into the
upper age group.
Especially for Future Researchers What
is the best method for collecting data?
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 23): All of these photos are of the same
person, and she will not reach late adulthood
until 2045. Longitudinal research shows con-
tinuity (that happy smile) and change (her hair).
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Cautions from Science
No doubt the scientific method illuminates and illustrates human development as
nothing else does. Facts, hypotheses, and possibilities have all emerged that would
not be known without science, and people of all ages are healthier and more capa-
ble than they were in previous generations because of it. For example, infectious
diseases in children, illiteracy in adults, depression in late adulthood, racism and
sexism at every age are much less prevalent today than a century ago. Science is
one reason.
Developmental scientists also discover changes that are not beneficial. Television,
divorce, shift work, and automobiles are less benign than people first thought.
Although the benefits of science are many, so are the pitfalls. We discuss three of
them: misinterpreting data, overdependence on numbers, and unethical practices.
Correlation and Causation
Probably the most common mistake made in the interpretation of research is the
confusion of correlation with causation. A correlation exists between two variables
if one variable is more (or less) likely to occur when the other occurs. 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. (Try taking the quiz in Table 1.3.)
To illustrate: From birth to age 9, there is a positive correlation between age
and height (children grow taller as they grow older), a negative correlation be-
tween age and amount of sleep (children sleep less as they grow older), and zero
correlation between age and number of toes. None of these correlations is surpris-
ing, but many are fascinating, such as the finding that first-born children have
higher rates of asthma.
correlation A number indicating the degree
of relationship between two variables,
expressed in terms of the likelihood that
one variable will (or will not) occur when
the other variable does (or does not). A
correlation is not an indication that one
variable causes the other, only that the
two variables are related to the indicated
degree.
Cautions from Science 25
TABLE 1.3
Quiz on Correlation
Positive, Negative, Why? (Third
Two Variables or Zero Correlation? Variable)
1. Ice cream sales and murder rate
2. Learning to read and number of baby teeth
3. Adult gender and number of offspring
For each of these three pairs of variables, indicate whether the correlation between them is positive,
negative, or nonexistent. Then try to think of a third variable that would determine the direction of
the correlation. The correct answers are printed upside down below.
Answers:
1.Positive; third variable: heat
2.Negative; third variable: age
3.Zero; each child must have a parent of
each sex; no third variable
Correlations are easy to misinterpret; people assume that one variable causes
another. For instance, a longitudinal study found a correlation between teenagers’
listening to degrading music (with males depicted as sexually insatiable studs and
women as mindless sex objects) and beginning to have sexual intercourse before
age 20 (see Table 1.4).
Although the authors of this study say that they cannot be certain of the direction
of effects, because correlation is not causation, they write that
reducing the amount of degrading sexual content in popular music, or reducing
young people’s exposure to music with this type of content, could delay initiation
of intercourse. . . . Intervention possibilities include reaching out to parents of
adolescents, to teens, and to the recording industry.
[Martino et al., 2006, p. 338]
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The researchers assert that lyrics that glorify uncommitted sex encourage teen-
agers to accept those values. Others who read this study objected. One criminal
justice professor at the University of Massachusetts wrote:
The fact that sexually active kids listen to music with a sexual content should
not be surprising. Did we expect they would listen to Mozart’s Requiem?
[Siegel, 2006]
With correlation, there is always the possibility that the direction is opposite to
that hypothesized or that a third variable may be the underlying cause. Did that
happen here? (See Research Design.) Alternative explanations from each domain
for the connection between sex and music include the following:
■ Biosocial: Some teenagers have high levels of sexual hormones, which drive
them to seek sexual experiences and explicitly sexual music. Sexual inter-
course is the result of those hormones (a third variable).
■ Cognitive: Some teenagers seek sexual experiences, and they find music to
reinforce their values (this correlation runs in the opposite direction from the
authors’ assumption).
■ Psychosocial: Teenagers idolize some music stars, going to concerts, watching
videos, buying posters. They emulate their idol’s lifestyle, which may include
sexual activities. Listening to music is a by-product of this idolization (a third
variable).
Each of these three explanations is possible, as is the original conclusion. Many
other hypotheses could be formulated. Correlation indicates connection, not cause.
Quantity and Quality
A second caution concerns how much scientists should rely on data produced by
quantitative research (from the word quantity). Quantitative research data can be
categorized, ranked, or numbered and thus can be easily translated across cultures.
People are asked questions with quantifiable answers—for example, whether they
agree or disagree with a statement (only two choices) or whether they do some-
thing well, not well, or not at all (three choices). People are also asked to provide
factual information, such as what the family income is.
Since quantities can be easily summarized, compared, charted, and replicated,
many scientists prefer quantitative research. Statistics, including correlation, signifi-
cance, and effect size, begin with quantitative data, which has been described as
providing “rigorous, empirically testable representations” (Nesselroade & Molenaar,
2003, p. 635).
quantitative research Research that pro-
vides data that can be expressed with
numbers, such as ranks or scales.
26 CHAPTER 1 ■ Introduction
TABLE 1.4
Correlates of First Sexual Intercourse Before Age 20
Variable Correlation
Listening to degrading sexual music 0.36*
Having friends who will approve of sex 0.39
Having parents who know where teen is –0.30
Engaging in heavy petting before age 15 0.47
Source: Martino et al., 2006.
*The correlation between music and first intercourse remained significant and positive after
other factors were taken into account.
➤Response for Future Researchers
(from page 24): There is no best method for
collecting data. The method used depends on
many factors, such as the age of participants
(infants can’t complete questionnaires), the
question being researched, and the time
frame.
Research Design
Scientists: Six researchers, sponsored
by the RAND Corporation.
Publication: Pediatrics (2006).This study
was also reported in many news stories.
Participants:Total of 1,461 U.S.
teenagers, randomly selected to be rep-
resentative of all U.S. teens.
Design:Teenagers were interviewed by
phone, three times over three years,
and asked which of 16 popular music
groups they listened to. Coders rated
whether songs contained sexually de-
grading lyrics. Some participants re-
fused to answer questions about sex,
but responses of 938 who were virgins
when the study began were analyzed.
Major conclusion: Listening to degrad-
ing music, but not other teen music
about sex, encourages teenagers to
have sexual intercourse.
Comment:This is a correlational study.
The longitudinal sequence (music, then
intercourse) prompted the conclusions,
but others disagree about the relation-
ship between the variables.
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However, by reducing data to categories and numbers, some nuances and indi-
vidual distinctions are lost. Many developmental researchers use qualitative re-
search (from quality), asking open-ended questions, reporting answers that are
not easily translated into numbers and categories, allowing “a rich description of
the phenomena of interest” (Hartmann & Pelzel, 2005, p. 163).
Consider this example. A group of kindergarteners began a playground “grass
war” triggered by freshly mown grass and a boy who hit Carlotta.
The grass war now escalates, with girls and boys on both sides becoming involved.
In fact, all but a few of the 5-year-old group I am observing are now in the grass
war. The war continues for some time until Marina [one of the children] suggests
to the children in our group that they make peace. Marina with several children
behind her marches up to the boy who hit Carlotta and offers her hand in peace.
The boy responds by throwing grass in Marina’s face . . . over the objections of
another boy who is in his group. Marina stands her ground after being hit with
the grass. The second boy pulls his friend aside and suggests that they make peace.
The other boy is against the proposal, but eventually agrees and the two then
shake hands with Marina. Marina then returns to our group and declares “Peace
has been established.” The two groups now meet for a round of handshaking.
[Corsaro & Molinari, 2000, p.192]
Notice that this is scientific observation. The researcher did not intervene. At
this point, months into his observational study, the children did not expect him to
do so. His neutrality allowed him to witness young children, on their own, resolv-
ing a conflict.
How would this observation be expressed in numbers? Since the weapon was
grass, would this interaction be categorized as a conflict or not? A girl was the
peacemaker and a boy started the fight, a gender difference that might be lost in a
quantitative study. This particular incident happened in Italy. Does that matter?
Without qualitative reports from many other places, we do not know if the Italian
location is relevant.
Qualitative research may seem preferable, in that it reflects cultural and con-
textual diversity and complexity. But it is also more vulnerable to bias and harder
to replicate. Developmentalists pay attention to both kinds of research, sometimes
translating qualitative research into quantifiable data, sometimes using qualitative
information to suggest hypotheses for quantitative research (Hartmann & Pelzel,
2005).
Ethics in Research
The most important caution for all scientists, especially those studying humans, is
to ensure that their research meets the ethical standards of their field. Each aca-
demic discipline and professional society involved in the study of human develop-
ment has a code of ethics, or a set of moral principles, and a scientific culture
that protect the integrity of research.
Ethical standards and codes have become increasingly stringent as scientists
have become increasingly concerned that “research is not only valid and useful,
but also ethical” (Lindsay, 2000, p. 20). Most educational and medical institu-
tions have an IRB (Institutional Research Board), a group charged with permitting
only ethical research. Although IRBs often slow down scientific study, some re-
search done before they existed was clearly unethical, especially when children,
members of minority groups, prisoners, and animals were involved (Blum, 2002;
Washington, 2006).
code of ethics A set of moral principles that
members of a profession or group are
expected to follow.
Cautions from Science 27
qualitative research Research that con-
siders qualities instead of quantities.
Descriptions of particular conditions and
participants’ expressed ideas are often
part of qualitative studies.
Especially for People Who Have Applied
to College or Graduate School Is the admis-
sions process based on quality or quantity?
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Protection of Research Participants
Researchers must ensure that participation is voluntary, confidential, and harm-
less. In Western nations, this entails “informed consent” of the participants and, if
children are involved, of the parents. In some other nations, this can require con-
sent of the village elders or heads of families, as well as, of course, the research
participants themselves (Doumbo, 2005).
The need to protect participants is especially obvious with children, but the
same principles apply no matter what the age of the participants (Gilhooly, 2002).
These include explaining the purposes and procedures of the study in advance,
obtaining written permission to proceed, and allowing the participants to stop at
any time.
If researchers discover something that is potentially harmful to any participant,
they must stop being dispassionate, objective observers. They must intervene even
though their study might be jeopardized. One researcher wanted to learn whether
residential care (a form of foster care used in England for children who have spe-
cial needs or whose parents cannot care for them) is humane. Here is an exchange
between the researcher and a boy in residential care:
[Researcher:] Sometimes a person might talk about a situation where they
have been harmed by someone. If this happens, I may need to talk to someone
else, especially if it is something awful which is still happening to you, or if the
person who harmed you may still be hurting someone else. I would want to be
able to agree with you what should be done, and who should be told.
[Resident:] Well, that’s one part of my life I’m not going to be able to talk
to you about then, isn’t it? I’m not having you deciding who to go and talk to
about me.
[Morris, 1998]
As you can see, protection of participants sometimes conflicts with the goals
of science. The Canadian Psychological Association makes this explicit in its
code of ethics, which states that the first principle of ethical research is “respect
for the dignity of persons”; the second and the third are “responsible caring” and
“integrity in relationships.” Fourth is “responsibility to society.” All four principles
should be observed if possible, but they are ranked in order of importance: Indi-
viduals must be safeguarded before the other ethical principles can be followed
(Canadian Psychological Association, 2000).
Implications of Research Results
Once a study has been completed, additional ethical issues arise. Scientists are
obligated to report research results as accurately and completely as possible, with-
out distorting the results to support any political, economic, or cultural position.
An obvious breach of ethics is to “cook” the data, arranging the numbers so that
a particular conclusion seems the only reasonable one. Deliberate falsification is
rare; it leads to ostracism from the scientific community, dismissal from a teaching
or research position, and, sometimes, criminal prosecution.
A more insidious danger is that research is unintentionally slanted. To prevent
this, scientific training, collaboration, and replication are crucial. Numerous pre-
cautions are built into methodology, several of which have already been explained.
In addition, scientific reports in professional journals include (1) details of the study
to allow for replication, (2) a section describing the limitations of the findings, and
(3) alternative interpretations of the results.
None of this is to be taken for granted, as one researcher in animal behavior ex-
plains: “Desirable modes of scientific conduct require considerable self-awareness
28 CHAPTER 1 ■ Introduction
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as well as a reaffirmation of the old virtues of honesty, skepticism, and integrity”
(Bateson, 2005, p. 645). Such virtues need to be stressed for every scholar, writer,
and student of child development, including you and me.
There is an additional ethical concern. “In reporting results, . . . the investigator
should be mindful of the social, political, and human implications of his research”
(Society for Research in Child Development, 1991). What does it mean to be
“mindful” of research implications?
In one study, a group of college students who listened to Mozart before taking a
cognitive test scored higher than another group who heard no music (Rauscher
et al., 1993; Rauscher & Shaw, 1998). The researchers reported this finding, but
they did not stress the limitations of the study. They should have been more mind-
ful, because this “Mozart effect” was wildly misinterpreted: The governor of Geor-
gia ordered that all babies born in his state be given a free Mozart CD in order to
improve their intelligence, and Florida passed a law requiring every state-funded
infant day-care center to play classical music.
In fact, the initial research did not use infants. In a later study that did use chil-
dren, Mozart did not fare as well as more child-centered music (Schellenberg et al.,
2007). The original results could not be replicated (Crncec et al., 2006; McKelvie
& Low, 2002).
What Should We Study?
Every reader of this book should consider the most important ethical concern of
all: Are scientists answering the questions that are crucial to human development?
■ Do we know enough about prenatal nutrition and drugs to protect every
fetus?
■ Do we know enough about the effects of poverty to enable everyone to be
healthy?
■ Do we know enough about sexual behavior to eliminate AIDS, unwanted
pregnancy, sex abuse, and domestic violence?
■ Do we know enough about dying to enable everyone to die with dignity?
The answer to all these questions is a resounding NO. The reasons are many,
including the fact that each of these questions touches on topics so controversial
that some researchers avoid them and few funders support objective studies. Yet
ethical standards include more than caring for participants, ensuring confidential-
ity, and reporting research honestly. Developmentalists have an obligation to study
topics that are of major importance for the human family. Many people suffer
because questions are unanswered or not even asked.
The next cohort of developmental scientists will build on what is known, mind-
ful of what needs to be explored. That is probably the most important answer to
the question posed in the fourth sentence of this chapter: “Why should you care?”
SUMMING UP
Correlations are useful, but they do not prove cause and effect. Quantitative research is
more objective and easier to replicate than qualitative research, but it loses the nuances
that qualitative research can reveal. Scientists follow codes of ethics to safeguard re-
search participants. Scientists also must be careful to prevent misinterpretations. The
most urgent issues are controversial and therefore difficult to study or to report hon-
estly. That is precisely why further scientific research is needed.
■
Cautions from Science 29
➤Response for People Who Have
Applied to College or Graduate School
(from page 27): Most institutions of higher
education emphasize quantitative data—
the SAT, the GRE, GPA, class rank, and so on.
Decide for yourself whether this is fairer than
a more qualitative approach.
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30 CHAPTER 1 ■ Introduction
Defining Development
1. The study of human development is a science that seeks to un-
derstand how people change over time. Sometimes these changes
are linear—gradual, steady, and predictable—but more often they
are not. Change may be small or large, caused by something
seemingly insignificant, like the flap of a butterfly’s wings, or
something large that affects people in unexpected ways.
2. The dynamic-systems perspective on development is now per-
vasive in the study of life-span development, evident in the five
characteristics of development and in every topic in this text.
3. Development is neither static nor localized; it is the result of
interactions among all the systems (microsystems, macrosystems,
and exosystems) that impinge on each person. Bronfenbrenner
was among many who emphasized the bioecological approach to
developmental study.
Five Characteristics of Development
4. Development is multidirectional, multicontextual, multicultural,
multidisciplinary, and plastic. It is the product of dynamic systems,
so that any change affects an interconnected system, and any person
affects all the other people in a family or social group.
5. Each individual develops within unique historical, cultural, and
socioeconomic contexts. Life is quite different for a low-income
child in a traditional culture, for instance, than for a middle-class
child in a modern, multicultural society.
6. One way to subdivide development is by domains, or general
aspects of growth and change. This division can be thought of
as biosocial, cognitive, and psychosocial, or even body, mind, and
social self. All development affects all domains at once as the
dynamic-systems perspective makes clear.
7. To understand development, it is necessary to compare many
cultures and use research from many disciplines. Nevertheless,
because each person has unique genes and experiences, contexts
do not determine an individual’s development—but they always
influence it.
8. Plasticity means that change is always possible but is never un-
restricted: Childhood becomes the foundation for later growth.
Developmental Study as a Science
9. The five steps of the scientific method lead researchers to ques-
tion assumptions and to gather data to test conclusions. Although
far from infallible, the scientific method helps researchers avoid
biases and guides them in asking questions.
10. Commonly used research methods are scientific observation,
the experiment, the survey, and the case study. Each method has
strengths and weaknesses. The most reliable conclusions can be
drawn when various methods all reach similar conclusions and
when replications using many subjects in diverse cultures confirm
the results.
11. To study change over time, scientists use three research de-
signs: cross-sectional research (comparing people of different
ages), longitudinal research (studying the same people over time),
and cross-sequential research (combining the other two methods).
Each method has advantages.
Cautions from Science
12. A correlation shows that two variables are related but does
not prove that one variable causes the other.
13. In qualitative research, information is recorded without being
quantified, or translated into numbers. Qualitative research best
captures the nuances of individual lives, but quantitative research
is easier to replicate and verify.
14. Ethical behavior is crucial in all sciences. Not only must par-
ticipants be protected, but results must be clearly reported and
understood. Scientists must be mindful of the implications of
their research.
15. Appropriate application of scientific research depends partly
on the training and integrity of the scientists. The most important
ethical question is whether the research that is critically needed
is being designed, conducted, analyzed, and published.
SUMMARY
science of human development
(p. 3)
empirical (p. 4)
dynamic-systems theory (p. 5)
ecological-systems approach
(p. 5)
butterfly effect (p. 8)
cohort (p. 9)
socioeconomic status (SES) (p. 9)
ethnic group (p. 11)
race (p. 11)
social construction (p. 11)
mirror neurons (p. 14)
scientific method (p. 16)
hypothesis (p. 17)
replication (p. 17)
scientific observation (p. 17)
experiment (p. 18)
independent variable (p. 18)
dependent variable (p. 18)
experimental group (p. 19)
comparison group/control group
(p. 19)
survey (p. 20)
case study (p. 20)
cross-sectional research (p. 22)
longitudinal research (p. 22)
cross-sequential research (p. 24)
correlation (p. 25)
quantitative research (p. 26)
qualitative research (p. 27)
code of ethics (p. 27)
KEY TERMS
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7. In what ways can surveys be considered the opposite of case
studies?
8. Why would a scientist conduct a cross-sectional study?
9. Why would people refuse to participate or quit before a re-
search study was finished?
10. Cite two probable correlations (positive and negative) regard-
ing how you spend your time.
11. What are the disadvantages and advantages of qualitative
research?
12. What is one additional question about development that
should be answered?
1. What does it mean to say that the study of human develop-
ment is a science?
2. Give an example of a social construction. Why is it a construc-
tion, not a fact?
3. What is the difference between an ethnic group and a culture?
4. What are some cohort differences between you and your
parents?
5. Why does the fact that SES and ethnic differences overlap
pose a problem?
6. What are the differences between scientific observation and
ordinary observation?
3. Design an experiment to answer a question you have about
human development. Specify the question and the hypothesis,
and then describe the experiment, including the sample size and
the variables. (Look first at Appendix B.)
1. It is said that culture is pervasive but that people are unaware
of it. List 30 things you did today that you might have done differ-
ently in another culture.
2. How would your life be different if your parents were much
higher or lower in SES than they are?
KEY QUESTIONS
APPLICATIONS
Summary 31
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2
33
Theories of
Development
As we saw in Chapter 1, the science of human development beginswith questions. Among the thousands of questions are the follow-ing five, each connected to one of the five theories described inthis chapter:
1. Do early experiences—of breast-feeding or bonding or abuse—affect
adulthood?
2. Does intelligence depend on past instruction, punishment, and examples?
3. Are children and adolescents less logical than adults?
4. Does culture cause variations in adult behavior, such that, say, more
people vote in Ontario than in Ohio?
5. If a newborn’s parents are alcoholics, should that child never drink?
For every answer, more questions arise: Why or why not? When and how?
And the most crucial question of all: So what?
What Theories Do
Each of the five questions listed above is answered yes by one of the five major
theories—in order: (1) psychoanalytic theory, (2) behaviorism, (3) cognitive
theory, (4) sociocultural theory, and (5) epigenetic theory. Each question is
answered less affirmatively by several other theories, perhaps with “not nec-
essarily” or “only sometimes” or even “never.”
To find and frame the critical questions regarding development, and then
to answer them, we must organize thousands of observations. For that, we
need a theory.
A developmental theory is a systematic statement of principles and
generalizations that provides a coherent framework for understanding how
and why people change as they grow older. Developmental theorists “try to
make sense out of observations . . . [and] construct a story of the human jour-
ney from infancy through childhood or adulthood” (P. H. Miller, 2002, p. 2).
Theories connect facts and observations with patterns and explanations,
weaving the details of life into a meaningful whole.
As an analogy, imagine building a house. A person could have a heap of
lumber, nails, and other materials, but without a blueprint or construction
drawings, the heap cannot become a house. Observations of human devel-
opment are essential raw materials, but theories are needed to put them
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� What Theories Do
� Grand Theories
Psychoanalytic Theory
Behaviorism
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST:
What’s a Mother For?
Cognitive Theory
� Emergent Theories
Sociocultural Theory
Epigenetic Theory
IN PERSON: My Beautiful, Hairless Babies
� What Theories Contribute
The Nature–Nurture Controversy
No Answers Yet
developmental theory A group of ideas,
assumptions, and generalizations that
interpret and illuminate the thousands of
observations that have been made about
human growth. In this way, developmental
theories provide a framework for explain-
ing the patterns and problems of
development.
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together. As Kurt Lewin (1943) once quipped, “Nothing is as practical as a good
theory.”
To be more specific:
■ Theories lead to pivotal hypotheses, each of which becomes “a direct test of a
question” (Salkind, 2004, p. 14).
■ Theories generate discoveries.
■ Theories offer practical guidance. If a 5-year-old shouts “I hate you!” at his
father, the man’s reaction (laughing, ignoring, slapping, or asking “Why?”) de-
pends on his theory of child development (whether or not he knows it).
Hundreds of theories pertain to developmental science. A few (the psycho-
analytic, behaviorist, and cognitive theories) are called grand theories because
they describe universal processes and development throughout the entire life
span. They offer “a powerful framework for interpreting and understanding . . .
change and development of all individuals” (Renninger & Amsel, 1997, p. ix).
Some (the sociocultural and epigenetic theories) are emergent theories; they
may become the new systematic and comprehensive theories of the future.
Literally thousands of theories are minitheories, about some part of develop-
ment, perhaps only one age or one domain. For example, one minitheory concerns
racial identity (theory of racial socialization), another, friendships in late adult-
hood (theory of socioemotional selectivity). Minitheories are not presented in this
chapter, but remember that, no matter what interests you, theories are a useful
way to organize and select your observations.
The distinction between grand and emergent theories is best understood by re-
ferring to the multidisciplinary perspective, first noted in Chapter 1. The grand
theories of human development originated in the discipline of psychology, while
observations and explanations originating in history, biology, sociology, and anthro-
pology led to the emergent theories.
Historical events (notably, increasing globalization and immigration) and genetic
discoveries (for example, from the International Hapmap Project, finding alternate
versions of genes) highlight the need for the cultural and genetic approaches of the
new theories. Two emergent theories (sociocultural and epigenetic) are not yet as
coherent as the grand theories, but they are broader than the traditional grand the-
ories that draw only on psychology.
SUMMING UP
Theories are useful—even essential—for scientific study. They provide a framework for
organizing the thousands of observations that may be made about any aspect of devel-
opment. This chapter describes three grand theories—psychoanalytic, behaviorist, and
cognitive—and two emergent theories—sociocultural and epigenetic. Throughout the
remaining chapters of the book, these five theories will repeatedly be referred to (see
the Subject Index entry for each theory). Several minitheories will also be cited.
■
Grand Theories
In the first half of the twentieth century, two opposing theories—psychoanalytic
theory and behaviorism (also called learning theory)—began as general theories of
psychology and later were applied specifically to human development. By mid-
century, cognitive theory had emerged, and it gradually became the dominant
seedbed of research hypotheses. All three theories are “grand” in that they are
comprehensive, enduring, and widely applied (McAdams & Pals, 2006).
grand theories Comprehensive theories of
psychology, which have traditionally inspired
and directed psychologists’ thinking about
child development. Psychoanalytic theory,
behaviorism, and cognitive theory are all
grand theories.
emergent theories Theories that bring
together information from many disciplines
in addition to psychology and that are
becoming comprehensive and systematic
in their interpretations of development
but are not yet established and detailed
enough to be considered grand theories.
34 CHAPTER 2 ■ Theories of Development
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Psychoanalytic Theory
Inner drives and motives, many of them irrational, originating in childhood, and
unconscious (hidden from awareness), are crucial concepts in psychoanalytic
theory. These basic underlying forces are thought to influence every aspect of
thinking and behavior, from the smallest details of daily life to the crucial choices
of a lifetime.
Freud’s Ideas
Psychoanalytic theory originated with Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), an Austrian
physician who treated patients suffering from mental illness. He listened to their
accounts of dreams and fantasies, thought deeply about
Greek drama and “primitive” art, and constructed an elabo-
rate, multifaceted theory.
According to Freud, development in the first six years oc-
curs in three stages, each characterized by sexual pleasure
centered on a particular part of the body. In infancy, the
erotic body part is the mouth (the oral stage); in early child-
hood, it is the anus (the anal stage); in the preschool years, it
is the penis (the phallic stage), a source of pride and fear
among boys and a reason for sadness and envy among girls.
Then comes latency and, beginning at adolescence and last-
ing lifelong, the genital stage (see Table 2.1).
Freud maintained that at each stage, sensual satisfaction
(from stimulation of the mouth, anus, or penis) is linked to
major developmental needs and challenges. Each stage in-
cludes its own potential conflicts. For instance, according to
Freud, how people experience and resolve these conflicts—
especially those related to weaning, toilet training, and
sexual pleasure—determine personality patterns, because “the early stages provide
the foundation for adult behavior” (Salkind, 2004, p. 125).
A psychoanalytic interpretation would be that adults may be stuck in uncon-
scious struggles rooted in a childhood stage if they smoke cigarettes (stuck in the
oral stage) or keep careful track of money (anal) or are romantically attracted to
much older partners (phallic). For all of us, childhood fantasies and memories re-
main powerful lifelong. If you have ever wondered why lovers call each other
“baby” or why many people refer to their spouse as their “old lady” or “sugar
psychoanalytic theory A grand theory of
human development that holds that irra-
tional, unconscious drives and motives,
often originating in childhood, underlie
human behavior.
Grand Theories 35
Freud at Work In addition to being the
world’s first psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud
was a prolific writer. His many papers and
case histories, primarily descriptions of his
patients’ bizarre symptoms and unconscious
sexual urges, helped make the psychoanalytic
perspective a dominant force for much of the
twentieth century.AK
G
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, I
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S
Childhood Sexuality The girl’s interest in
the statue’s anatomy may just reflect simple
curiosity, but Freudian theory would maintain
that it is a clear manifestation of the phallic
stage of psychosexual development, when
girls are said to feel deprived because they
lack a penis.
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daddy,” then Freud’s theory provides an explanation: The parent–child relationship
is the model for all intimacy.
This idea has been developed by researchers interested in attachment theory,
building on the idea that early relationships between parent and child echo
throughout life. These researchers have found that “infant attachment history”
predicts numerous aspects of intimate relationship functioning (Sroufe et al.,
2005, p. 203), including romance (Mikulincer & Goodman, 2006).
Erikson’s Ideas
Many of Freud’s followers became famous theorists themselves. The most notable
in the field of human development was Erik Erikson (1902–1994).
Erikson never knew his biological father. He spent his childhood in Germany,
his adolescence wandering through Italy, and his young adulthood in Austria,
working with Freud’s daughter Anna. He married an American, and he fled to the
United States just before World War II. Once in the United States, he continued
his interest in various cultures: He studied Harvard students, Boston children at
play, and Native Americans.
As you can see, Erikson was interested in cultural diversity, social change, and
psychological crises throughout the life span. For example, he wrote a massive
case study of Mahatma Gandhi (Erikson, 1969), born in India, educated in
36 CHAPTER 2 ■ Theories of Development
TABLE 2.1
Comparison of Freud’s Psychosexual and Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages
Approximate Age Freud (Psychosexual) Erikson (Psychosocial)
Oral Stage
The lips, tongue, and gums are the focus of pleasurable
sensations in the baby’s body, and sucking and feeding are
the most stimulating activities.
Anal Stage
The anus is the focus of pleasurable sensations in the
baby’s body, and toilet training is the most important
activity.
Phallic Stage
The phallus, or penis, is the most important body part, and
pleasure is derived from genital stimulation. Boys are proud
of their penises, and girls wonder why they don’t have one.
Latency
Not really a stage, latency is an interlude during which
sexual needs are quiet and children put psychic energy into
conventional activities like schoolwork and sports.
Genital Stage
The genitals are the focus of pleasurable sensations, and
the young person seeks sexual stimulation and sexual
satisfaction in heterosexual relationships.
Freud believed that the genital stage lasts throughout
adulthood. He also said that the goal of a healthy life is “to
love and to work.”
Birth to 1 year
1–3 years
3–6 years
6–11 years
Adolescence
Adulthood
Trust vs. Mistrust
Babies either trust that others will care for their basic
needs, including nourishment, warmth, cleanliness, and
physical contact, or mistrust the care of others.
Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
Children either become self-sufficient in many activities,
including toileting, feeding, walking, exploring, and talking,
or doubt their own abilities.
Initiative vs. Guilt
Children want to undertake many adultlike activities or fear
the limits set by parents and feel guilty.
Industry vs. Inferiority
Children busily learn to be competent and productive in
mastering new skills or feel inferior and unable to do
anything well.
Identity vs. Role Confusion
Adolescents try to figure out “Who am I?” They establish
sexual, political, and vocational identities or are confused
about what roles to play.
Intimacy vs. Isolation
Young adults seek companionship and love or become
isolated from others because they fear rejection and
disappointment.
Generativity vs. Stagnation
Middle-aged adults contribute to the next generation
through meaningful work, creative activities, and/or raising
a family, or they stagnate.
Integrity vs. Despair
Older adults try to make sense out of their lives, either
seeing life as a meaningful whole or despairing at goals
never reached.
Especially for Adults Who Blame Their
Parents Freud believed that every emotional
or personality problem adults might have was
caused by poor parenting in the first five
years of life. Do you think this is true for you?
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Britain, a lawyer in South Africa, and leader of the nonviolent revolution that
helped India gain independence.
Erikson described eight developmental stages, each characterized by a chal-
lenging developmental crisis (summarized in Table 2.1). Although Erikson named
two polarities at each stage, he recognized a wide range of outcomes between
these opposites. For most people, development at each stage leads to neither ex-
treme but to something in between.
As you can see from Table 2.1, Erikson’s first five stages follow the same se-
quence and include the core concepts of Freud’s stages. Erikson, like Freud, be-
lieved that the problems of adult life echo the conflicts of childhood. For example,
an adult who has difficulty establishing a secure, mutual relationship with a life
partner may never have resolved the first crisis of early infancy, trust versus mis-
trust. However, Erikson’s stages differ significantly from Freud’s: They emphasize
family and culture, not sexual urges, and they continue throughout adulthood.
For Erikson, the resolution of each crisis depends on the interaction between
the individual and the social environment as the family and culture construct it. In
the stage of initiative versus guilt, for example, children between ages 3 and 6
often want to undertake activities that exceed their abilities or the limits set by
their parents. They jump into swimming pools, put their shirts on backwards,
make cakes with their own recipes. Such initiatives may lead to pride or failure,
with failure perhaps producing guilt.
The outcome of the initiative-versus-guilt crisis depends on how the child
seeks independence, how the parents react, and what the society expects. As an
example, some families and cultures encourage 5-year-olds to be assertive, seeing
them as creative spirits, whereas others call them “rude” or “fresh” if they insist on
getting their own way.
Children internalize, or accept, such responses from their parents, peers, and
cultures, and those internalized reactions persist throughout life. Even in late
adulthood, one person may be bold and outspoken while another fears saying the
wrong thing because these two resolved their initiative-versus-guilt stage in oppo-
site ways.
Both Erikson and Freud emphasize the first years of life, and both consider
early conflicts when they seek to explain later problems. This is the main criticism
of psychoanalytic theory, especially from behaviorists, as you will now see.
Grand Theories 37
CO
RB
IS
What’s in a Name?—Erik Erikson As a
young man, this neo-Freudian changed his
last name to the one we know him by. What
do you think his choice means? (See the
caption to the next photograph.)
Who Are We? The most famous of Erikson’s
eight crises is the identity crisis, during ado-
lescence, when young people find their own
answer to the question “Who am I?” Erikson
did this for himself by choosing a last name
that, with his first name, implies “son of my-
self” (Erik, Erik’s son). These children in north-
ern Ireland may be smoking because their
search for identity is taking place in a socio-
cultural context that allows an unhealthy path
toward adulthood.GID
EO
N
M
EN
DE
L
/ C
OR
BI
S
Especially for Teachers Your kindergartners
are talkative and always moving. They almost
never sit quietly and listen to you. What would
Erik Erikson recommend?
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Behaviorism
The second grand theory, behaviorism, arose in direct opposition to the psycho-
analytic emphasis on unconscious, hidden urges (described in Table 2.2). Such
urges could not be quantified, and the raw material for Freud’s theories came from
his patients and Greek drama, which did not seem scientific. Early in the twenti-
eth century, John B. Watson (1878–1958) argued that if psychology was to be a
science, psychologists should examine only what they could see and measure: be-
havior, not thoughts and hidden urges. In Watson’s words:
Let us limit ourselves to things that can be observed, and formulate laws con-
cerned only with those things. . . . We can observe behavior—what the organism
does or says.
[Watson, 1924/1998, p. 6]
According to Watson, if psychologists focus on behavior, they will realize that
anything can be learned. He wrote:
Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to
bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to
become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant
chief, and yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants,
tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race.
[Watson, 1924/1998, p. 82]
Other psychologists, especially in the United States, thought that Watson’s em-
phasis on learning was insightful. They found it difficult to use the scientific
method to verify the unconscious motives and drives that Freud described (Cairns
& Cairns, 2006). Some developed behaviorism to study actual behavior, objec-
tively and scientifically.
Laws of Behavior
For every individual at every age, from newborn to centenarian, behaviorists seek
the overarching laws that govern how simple actions and environmental responses
shape such complex actions as reading a book or making a family dinner. Behav-
iorists are also called learning theorists, because they believe that all behavior is
learned step by step. Then they become habits, repeated without much thought,
which is true for at least half of what we do (Neal et al., 2006).
behaviorism A grand theory of human devel-
opment that studies observable behavior.
Behaviorism is also called learning theory
because it describes the laws and
processes by which behavior is learned.
38 CHAPTER 2 ■ Theories of Development
AR
CH
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F
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E
HI
ST
OR
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OF
A
M
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AN
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T
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IV
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An Early Behaviorist John Watson was an
early proponent of learning theory. His ideas
are still influential and controversial today.
TABLE 2.2
Psychoanalytic Theory vs. Behaviorism
Area of Disagreement Psychoanalytic Theory Behaviorism
Emphasizes unconscious wishes and urges, unknown
to the person but powerful all the same
Holds that observable behavior is a symptom, not the
cause—the tip of an iceberg, with the bulk of the
problem submerged
Stresses that early childhood, including infancy, is
critical; even if a person does not remember what
happened, the early legacy lingers throughout life
Holds that most aspects of human development are
beyond the reach of scientific experiment; uses ancient
myths, the words of disturbed adults, dreams, play, and
poetry as raw material
The unconscious
Observable behavior
Importance of childhood
Scientific status
Holds that the unconscious not only is unknowable but
also may be a destructive fiction that keeps people from
changing
Looks only at observable behavior—what a person does
rather than what a person thinks, feels, or imagines
Holds that current conditioning is crucial; early habits
and patterns can be unlearned, even reversed, if
appropriate reinforcements and punishments are used
Is proud to be a science, dependent on verifiable data
and carefully controlled experiments; discards ideas
that sound good but are not proven
➤Response for Adults Who Blame
Their Parents (from page 36): Scientists
vehemently disagree about Freud. Some
think he was an insightful genius; others
believe he was a deluded drug addict. For
you, the relevant question might be: If
someone else had the same childhood you
did, would he or she be just like you?
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The specific laws of learning apply to
conditioning, the processes by which
responses become linked to particular
stimuli. There are two types of condi-
tioning: classical and operant.
More than a century ago, Russian
scientist Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936), after
winning the Nobel Prize for his work on
animal digestion, noted that his experi-
mental dogs drooled not only when they
saw and smelled food but also when they
heard the footsteps of the attendants
who brought the food. This observation
led Pavlov to perform his famous experi-
ments, conditioning dogs to salivate
when they heard a bell.
Pavlov began by ringing the bell just
before presenting food. After a number
of repetitions of the bell-then-food sequence, dogs began salivating at the bell’s
sound even when there was no food. This simple experiment demonstrated
classical conditioning (also called respondent conditioning), by which a person
or animal is conditioned to associate a neutral stimulus with a meaningful stimu-
lus, gradually responding to the neutral stimulus in the same way as to the mean-
ingful one.
The most influential North American behaviorist was B. F. Skinner (1904–
1990). Skinner agreed with Watson that psychology should focus on the scientific
study of behavior, and he agreed with Pavlov that classical conditioning explains
some behavior. However, Skinner believed that another type of conditioning,
operant conditioning (also called instrumental conditioning), is often crucial,
especially in complex learning. In operant conditioning, animals behave in some
way and a response occurs. If the response is useful or pleasurable, the animal is
likely to repeat the behavior. If the response is painful, the animal is not likely to
repeat the behavior.
Pleasant consequences are sometimes called “rewards,” and unpleasant conse-
quences are sometimes called “punishments.” Behaviorists hesitate to use those
words, however, because what people commonly think of as a punishment can
actually be a reward, and vice versa. For example, parents punish their children by
withholding dessert, by spanking them, by not letting them play, by speaking
harshly to them, and so on. But a particular child might, for instance, dislike the
dessert, so being deprived of it is actually a reward, not a punishment. Another
child might not mind a spanking, especially if he or she craves parental attention.
In that family, the intended punishment (spanking) is actually a reward (attention).
Any consequence that follows a behavior and makes the person (or animal)
likely to repeat that behavior is called a reinforcement, not a reward. Once a
behavior has been conditioned, humans and other creatures will do it even if
reinforcement occurs only occasionally. Similarly, punishment might make a
creature never repeat a certain action. Almost all daily behavior, from socializing
with others to earning a paycheck, can be understood as a result of past operant
conditioning, according to many behaviorists.
For that reason, early parenting is considered crucial, because it teaches habits
that may endure. For instance, if parents want their child to share, when their
baby hands them a gummy, half-eaten cracker, they should take the gift with ap-
parent delight and then return it, smiling. Adults should never pull at a toy a child
conditioning According to behaviorism, the
processes by which responses become
linked to particular stimuli and learning
takes place. The word conditioning is used
to emphasize the importance of repeated
practice, as when an athlete gets into
physical condition by training for a long time.
classical conditioning The learning process
that connects a meaningful stimulus (such
as the smell of food to a hungry animal)
with a neutral stimulus (such as the sound
of a bell) that had no special meaning
before conditioning. Also called respon-
dent conditioning.
operant conditioning The learning process
by which a particular action is followed by
something desired (which makes the person
or animal more likely to repeat the action)
or by something unwanted (which makes
the action less likely to be repeated). Also
called instrumental conditioning.
reinforcement A technique for conditioning
behavior in which that behavior is followed
by something desired, such as food for a
hungry animal or a welcoming smile for a
lonely person.
Grand Theories 39
A Contemporary of Freud Ivan Pavlov was
a physiologist who received the Nobel Prize in
1904 for his research on digestive processes.
It was this line of study that led to his discov-
ery of classical conditioning.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 40):
In appearance, how is Pavlov similar to Freud,
and how do both look different from the other
theorists pictured?
SO
VF
OT
O
➤Response for Teachers (from page 37):
Erikson would note that the behavior of 5-
year-olds is affected by their developmental
stage and by their culture. Therefore you
might design your curriculum to
accommodate active, noisy children.
Especially for Teachers Same problem as
previously (talkative kindergartners, but what
would a behaviorist recommend?
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is holding, encouraging the child to hold tight. Strangers sometimes did that with
my children, teaching possessiveness—a lesson I didn’t want my children to learn.
The science of human development has benefited from behaviorism. The the-
ory’s emphasis on the antecedents and consequences of observed behavior led re-
searchers to realize that many actions that seem to be genetic, or to result from
deeply rooted emotional problems, are actually learned. And if something is
learned, it can be unlearned. No longer are “the events of infancy and early child-
hood . . . the foundation for adult personality and psychopathology,” as psychoana-
lysts believed (Cairns & Cairns, 2006, p. 117). People can change, even in old age.
That makes behaviorism a very hopeful theory. It encourages scientists to find
ways to eliminate destructive behaviors, among them temper tantrums, phobias,
and addictions. Many teachers, counselors, and parents use behaviorist tech-
niques to break undesirable habits and teach new behaviors (Kazdin, 2001).
Tantrums cease, phobias disappear, addicts recover, and so on, although not al-
ways as easily as the theory predicts.
Like all good theories, both behaviorism and psychoanalytic theory have led to
hypotheses and scientific experiments, such as those described in the following
feature.
40 CHAPTER 2 ■ Theories of Development
thinking like a scientist
What’s a Mother For?
Why do children love their mothers, even if their mothers are
mean or unresponsive? Is it because their mothers fed or com-
forted them when they were infants? To explore such questions,
scientists need theories, and then data to disprove or confirm
their theories.
Both behaviorism and psychoanalytic theory originally hy-
pothesized that mothers are loved because they satisfy the new-
born’s hunger and sucking needs. In other words, “the infant’s
attachment to the mother stemmed from internal drives which
triggered activities connected with the libations of the mother’s
breast. This belief was the only one these two theoretical groups
ever had in common” (C. Harlow, 1986). During infancy, moth-
ers were for feeding, and not much else.
Physicians in every hospital were taught that germs caused
disease, so they assumed that mothers who kissed and hugged
their babies would “spoil” and sicken them. As a consequence, a
hundred years ago, orphanages and hospitals kept babies clean
and well fed but forbade caregivers to caress them, because
“human contact was the ultimate enemy of health” (Blum,
2002, p. 35).
In the 1950s, Harry Harlow (1905–1981), a psychologist who
studied learning in monkeys, observed something surprising.
We had separated more than 60 of these animals from their
mothers 6 to 12 hours after birth and suckled them on tiny bot-
tles. . . . During the course of our studies we noticed that the
laboratory-raised babies showed strong attachment to the folded
gauze diapers which were used to cover the . . . floor of their
cages.
[Harlow, 1958, p. 673 ]
In fact, the infant monkeys seemed more attached to the
cloth diapers than to their bottles. This was contrary to the two
prevailing theories, since psychoanalytic theory predicted that
infants would love whatever satisfied their oral needs and be-
haviorism predicted that infants would cherish whatever pro-
Clinging to “Mother” Even though it gave no milk, this “mother”
was soft and warm enough that infant monkeys spent almost all
their time holding on to it. Many infants, some children, and even
some adults cling to a familiar stuffed animal when life becomes
frightening. According to Harlow, the reasons are the same: All pri-
mates are comforted by something soft, warm, and familiar.
HA
RL
OW
P
RI
M
AT
E
LA
BO
RA
TO
RY
, U
N
IV
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SI
TY
O
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W
IS
CO
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SI
N
➤Response for Teachers (from page 39):
Behaviorists believe that anyone can learn
anything. If your goal is quiet, attentive
children, begin by reinforcing a moment’s
quiet or a quiet child, and soon all the children
will be trying to remain attentive for several
minutes at a time.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
39): Both are balding, with white beards. Note
also that none of the other theorists in this
chapter have beards—a cohort difference, not
an ideological one.
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Grand Theories 41
vided reinforcing food. Motherless monkeys should love their
bottles, not their floorcloths.
Harlow set out to make a “direct experimental analysis” of
human love via his monkeys because he believed that “the basic
processes relating to affection, including nursing, contact, cling-
ing, and even visual and auditory exploration, exhibit no funda-
mental differences in the two species” (H. Harlow, 1958).
Harlow was troubled that few psychologists recognized the cru-
cial role of physical contact—cuddling, soothing, hugging, and
so on—for all social species, including monkeys and humans.
Harlow raised eight infant monkeys, each in a cage with no
other animals but with two “surrogate” (artificial) mothers, both
mother-monkey size. One surrogate was made of bare wire and
the other was covered by soft terrycloth, with a face designed to
be ugly—two red bicycle reflectors for eyes and a strip of green
for a mouth—but otherwise “soft, warm, and tender, a mother
with infinite patience.” Four of the baby monkeys were fed by a
bottle stuck through the chest of the cloth “mother,” the other
four by a bottle on the wire “mother” (see Research Design).
Harlow measured how much time each infant monkey spent
clinging to each of the two surrogates. The monkeys who had a
cloth, milk-providing mother clung to it and ignored the wire
mother; this was to be expected, since feeding was connected
with mothering. However, even the four babies that fed from
the wire mother clung to the cloth mother, going to the wire
mother only when hunger compelled them (see Figure 2.1). In
short, no attachment to, or love for, the nourishing wire mother
could be observed, but the cloth mother had the infants’ affec-
tion whether or not it provided food. The answer to the question
“Does food equal mother love?” was a resounding “No!”
The next question was whether the cloth mothers might re-
assure infants when frightening events occurred, just as a live
mother does. Harlow devised another experiment. He put an
unfamiliar mechanical toy into each infant’s cage. The monkeys
immediately sought comfort from their cloth mother, clinging to
the soft belly with one hand and then timidly exploring the new
object with the other.
The wire mother provided no such reassurance. Monkeys con-
fronted by the same mechanical toy with access only to their wire
mother were terrified—freezing, screaming, shivering, hiding,
Hours
per
day
Time on
Cloth Mother
Cloth-fed
Wire-fed
Time on
Wire Mother
Cloth-fed
Wire-fed
Time Infant Monkeys Spent on Cloth and Wire Mothers
18
15
12
9
6
3
0
5 25 85
Mean age (in days)
Source: Adapted from H. Harlow, 1958.
105 125 145 165
FIGURE 2.1
Softer Is Better During the first three weeks
of Harlow’s experiment, the infant monkeys
developed a strong preference for the cloth-
covered “mothers.” That preference lasted
throughout the experiment, even among the
monkeys who were fed by a wire-covered
mother.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 44):
At five days, how much time did the wire-fed
monkeys (compared with the cloth-fed
monkeys) spend on the cloth mothers?
Research Design
Scientists: Harry Harlow and many others.
Publication: Reprinted in Learning to Love:The Selected
Papers of H. F. Harlow (1986), edited by Clara Mears Harlow.
Subjects: Eight infant rhesus monkeys born in Harlow’s
laboratory.
Design:The monkeys were raised from birth in separate
cages, each with two “surrogate mothers”: one made of
bare wire and the other of wire covered with terrycloth.
Half the monkeys were fed by a bottle stuck onto the wire
mother, the other half by a bottle stuck onto the cloth
mother. Harlow recorded how much time the monkeys
spent feeding from and clinging to each mother.
Major conclusion: Monkeys, and presumably all primate
infants, need “contact comfort,” the warm and soft reassur-
ance of a mother’s touch.
Comment: Many design problems are apparent: too few
subjects, ethical questions about treatment of animals,
and uncertainty about whether data on lab-reared, socially
isolated rhesus monkeys applies to humans, or even to
other primates in nature. However, the results of this ex-
periment were so dramatic that it has been replicated and
revised by dozens of other researchers. Harlow’s research
revolutionized child care.
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Social Learning
Originally, behaviorists believed that all behavior arose from a chain of learned re-
sponses, the result of classical and operant conditioning. One refinement of be-
haviorism came from evidence (from humans as well as monkeys) that all social
creatures appreciate another’s touch, warmth, reassurance, and example.
This revision is called social learning theory (see Figure 2.2). Its central
premise is that humans can learn from observing others, without personally expe-
riencing any reinforcement. We learn from other people because we are social be-
ings. We grow up in families, we learn from friends and teachers, we love and hate
and admire other people—even when we wish we were more independent.
social learning theory An extension of
behaviorism that emphasizes the influence
that other people have over a person’s
behavior. Even without specific reinforce-
ment, every individual learns many things
via observation and imitation of other
people.
42 CHAPTER 2 ■ Theories of Development
PH
OT
OG
RA
PH
ER
’S
C
HO
IC
E
/ G
ET
TY
Social Learning in Action Social learning validates the old maxim
“Actions speak louder than words.” If the moments here are typical for
each child, the girl on the left is likely to grow up with a ready sense of
the importance of this particular chore of infant care. Unfortunately,
the girl on the right with a candy “cigarette” may smoke tobacco like
her mother—even if her mother warns her not to do so.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 46): What shows that these
children imitate their parents? DA
VI
D
YO
UN
G-
W
OL
FF
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T
IN
C.
urinating. Harlow concluded that mothering is not primarily
about feeding but about what he called “contact comfort” or
“love.”
Later Harlow’s students discovered that mother love involves
more than contact. To become psychologically healthy adults,
infant monkeys (and humans as well) need interaction with an-
other living, responsive creature (who could be either sex)
(Blum, 2002).
Harlow’s experiments are a classic example of the use of the-
ories. Although aspects of both behaviorism and psychoanalytic
theory were disproved, that is not the most significant point. Re-
member, theories are meant to be useful, not necessarily true.
Because Harlow knew what theories predicted about love and
comfort, he was intrigued by the baby monkeys’ attraction to the
gauze diapers covering the floors of their cages. That led to
closer observation, a hypothesis, a clever series of experiments,
and some amazing results.
This research revolutionized the treatment of sick or mother-
less children. Even very tiny, fragile preterm infants now have
contact with their parents, typically including very gentle
touch—and their chances of survival are better because of it
(see Chapter 4).
Today’s mothers do much more cuddling and infants do
much less crying than their predecessors did a century ago be-
cause one creative scientist contrasted theory and observations,
performing ingenious experiments to test a hypothesis.
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An integral part of social learning is modeling, in which people ob-
serve what someone else does and then copy it. Even hairstyles or dance
steps are copied from others—which explains why they change with
each generation. Modeling is far more complex than simple imitation,
because people model only some actions, of some individuals, in some
contexts. For example, you may know people who, as children, were
never personally abused but saw their parents hit each other. Some be-
come adults who are violent with their romantic partners, while others
are careful to avoid such behavior. These opposite responses support so-
cial learning theory; they show the continuing impact of the original example. One
child identified with the abuser and the other with the victim, thus, each learned
a different lesson. Generally, modeling is likely when the observer is uncertain or
inexperienced and when the model is admired, powerful, nurturing, or similar to
the observer (Bandura, 1986, 1997).
As this example shows, social learning is connected to perceptions and interpre-
tations. It is also related to self-understanding, social reflection, and self-efficacy,
a feeling of self-confidence that people develop when they have high aspirations
and notable achievements (Bandura, 2006).
Self-efficacy explains a paradox found in recent research: Parents who do not
believe in their own efficacy and who think their babies are strong-willed are
stricter and less responsive than other parents. Why? The explanation from social
learning theory is that their own parents probably never let them develop a strong
sense of themselves, so they still feel ineffective (Guzell & Vernon-Feagans,
2004). Their parents probably punished them when they tried to assert them-
selves. Their lack of self-efficacy and their parents’ example lead them to be overly
controlling with their children.
Current versions of social learning theory incorporate elements of two of the
other major theories, cognitive theory and sociocultural theory (Bandura, 2006).
Cognitive Theory
The third grand theory, cognitive theory, emphasizes the structure and develop-
ment of thought processes. According to this theory, thoughts and expectations
profoundly affect attitudes, beliefs, values, assumptions, and actions. Cognitive
theory has dominated psychology since about 1980 and has branched into many
versions, each adding insights about human development. A major extension of
cognitive theory is information-processing theory, which focuses on the step-by-step
activation of various parts of the brain, as described in Chapter 6 (brain function-
ing is explained in Chapter 5).
The original cognitive theorist was the Swiss scientist Jean Piaget (1896–1980),
who was trained in the natural sciences and studied shellfish. Piaget became inter-
ested in the science of human behavior when he got a job in Paris, field-testing
questions for a standardized IQ test. Although he was hired to find the age at which
children could answer various questions correctly, the incorrect answers and the
thinking behind them caught his attention. How children think is more revealing,
Piaget concluded, than what they know; process, not product, is important.
Piaget’s interest in cognitive development grew as he observed his own three
children. He realized that babies are much more curious and thoughtful than
other psychologists had imagined. Later he studied hundreds of schoolchildren.
From this work Piaget developed the central thesis of cognitive theory: How
people think changes with time and experience, and thought processes always af-
fect behavior. Piaget maintained that cognitive development occurs in four major
periods, or stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal op-
erational (see Table 2.3). These periods are age-related, and, as you will see in
Grand Theories 43
modeling The central process of social learn-
ing, by which a person observes the
actions of others and then copies them.
self-efficacy In social learning theory, the
belief of some people that they are able to
change themselves and effectively alter
the social context.
cognitive theory A grand theory of human
development that focuses on changes in
how people think over time. According to
this theory, our thoughts shape our atti-
tudes, beliefs, and behaviors.
Learning occurs through:
Classical conditioning Through association,
neutral stimulus becomes conditioned stimulus.
Operant conditioning Through reinforcement,
weak or rare response becomes strong, frequent
response.
Social learning Through modeling, observed
behaviors become copied behaviors.
FIGURE 2.2
Three Types of Learning Behaviorism is also
called “learning theory” because it emphasizes
the learning process, as shown here.
Would You Talk to This Man? Children loved
talking to Jean Piaget, and he learned by lis-
tening carefully—especially to their incorrect
explanations, which no one had paid much
attention to before. All his life, Piaget was ab-
sorbed with studying the way children think.
He called himself a “genetic epistemologist”
—one who studies how children gain knowl-
edge about the world as they grow up.
YV
ES
D
EB
RA
IN
E
/ B
LA
CK
S
TA
R
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later chapters, each period fosters particular ways of thinking and acting (Inhelder
& Piaget, 1958; Piaget, 1952b).
Intellectual advancement occurs because humans seek cognitive equilibrium
—that is, a state of mental balance. An easy way (called assimilation) to achieve
this balance is to interpret new experiences through the lens of preexisting ideas.
For example, infants discover that new objects can be grasped in the same way as
familiar objects, and adolescents explain the day’s headlines as evidence for their
existing worldviews. For example, a news story might at first seem surprising, such
44 CHAPTER 2 ■ Theories of Development
TABLE 2.3
Piaget’s Periods of Cognitive Development
Age Range Name of Period Characteristics of the Period Major Gains During the Period
Sensorimotor
Preoperational
Concrete operational
Formal operational
Infants use senses and motor abilities to
understand the world. Learning is active;
there is no conceptual or reflective
thought.
Children think magically and poetically,
using language to understand the world.
Thinking is egocentric, causing children to
perceive the world from their own
perspective.
Children understand and apply logical
operations, or principles, to interpret
experiences objectively and rationally.
Their thinking is limited to what they can
personally see, hear, touch, and
experience.
Adolescents and adults think about
abstractions and hypothetical concepts
and reason analytically, not just
emotionally. They can be logical about
things they have never experienced.
Birth to 2 years
2–6 years
6–11 years
12 years through adulthood
Infants learn that an object still exists
when it is out of sight (object
permanence) and begin to think through
mental actions.
The imagination flourishes, and language
becomes a significant means of self-
expression and of influence from others.
By applying logical abilities, children learn
to understand concepts of conservation,
number, classification, and many other
scientific ideas.
Ethics, politics, and social and moral
issues become fascinating as
adolescents and adults take a broader
and more theoretical approach to
experience.
(a) (b)
PI
OT
R
KA
PA
/
CO
RB
IS
©
IG
AL
J
US
ID
M
AN
How to Think About Flowers A person’s
stage of cognitive growth influences how he
or she thinks about everything, including
flowers. (a) To 7-month-old Maya, in the sen-
sorimotor stage, flowers are “known”
through pulling, smelling, and even biting.
(b) A slightly older child might be egocentric,
wanting to pull up all the flowers within
reach, now. (c,d) At the adult’s formal opera-
tional stage, flowers can be part of a larger,
logical scheme—either to earn money or to
cultivate beauty. Thinking is an active process
from the beginning of life until the end.
cognitive equilibrium In cognitive theory, a
state of mental balance in which people
are not confused because they can use
their existing thought processes to under-
stand current experiences and ideas.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 41): Six hours, or one-third less time.
Note that later on, the wire-fed monkeys
(compared with the cloth-fed monkeys) spent
equal, or even more, time on the cloth
mothers.
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as the report that a suicide bomber had killed 23 people in Afghanistan on Febru-
ary 27, 2007. But, as an analysis of the story noted, most people interpret news
headlines using existing concepts, much as Vice President Richard Cheney did
when he said that such suicide bombings are proof that terrorism is still a world-
wide threat, or as critics of President Bush did when they said that the U.S. govern-
ment was being distracted by the ongoing conflict in Iraq (Sanger, 2007, p. A-1).
Sometimes a new experience is jarring and incomprehensible. Then the indi-
vidual experiences cognitive disequilibrium, an imbalance that initially creates con-
fusion. As Figure 2.3 illustrates, disequilibrium leads to cognitive growth because
people must adapt their old concepts. Piaget describes two types of adaptation:
■ Assimilation, in which new experiences are reinterpreted to fit into, or assimi-
late with, old ideas
■ Accommodation, in which old ideas are restructured to include, or accommo-
date, new experiences
Accommodation requires more mental energy than assimilation, but it is some-
times necessary because new ideas and experiences may not fit into existing cog-
nitive structures. Accommodation produces significant intellectual growth,
including advancement to the next stage of cognitive development. For example, if
your mother says something you never expected her to (such as “I’m going to study
ballet”), you will experience cognitive disequilibrium and you will need to adapt.
You might assimilate your mother’s words by deciding she didn’t mean what she
said. Intellectual growth would occur if, instead, you accommodate by expanding
and revising your concept of your mother.
Ideally, when people disagree, adaptation is mutual. For example, parents are
often startled by their adolescents’ strong opinions—perhaps that all drugs should
be legalized or that even cigarettes should be outlawed. Parents may grow intellec-
tually if they revise their concepts. As the adolescents become emerging adults,
they, too, might revise their notions of their parents. Cognitive growth is active, re-
sponsive to clashing ideas and challenging experiences, not primarily dependent
on maturation (as postulated in psychoanalytic theory) or repetition (as postulated
in behaviorism).
Grand Theories 45
Equilibrium
New Idea or Experience
Adaptation
Assimilation Accommodation
New Equilibrium
discre
pancy
puz
zles
dissonance
d
isco
rd
chaos
co
nf
us
io
n
q
u
e
stio
n
s
Disequilibrium
FIGURE 2.3
Challenge Me Most of us, most of the time,
prefer the comfort of our conventional con-
clusions. According to Piaget, however, when
new ideas disturb our thinking, we have an
opportunity to expand our cognition with a
broader and deeper understanding.
(c) (d)
RA
N
DY
D
UC
HA
IN
E,
B
RO
OK
LY
N
, N
Y
PH
OT
OD
IS
C
/ P
UN
CH
ST
OC
K
32-59_BergerLS7e_Ch02.qxp 8/30/07 9:22 AM Page 45

sociocultural theory An emergent theory
that holds that development results from
the dynamic interaction between each per-
son and the surrounding social and cultural
forces.
46 CHAPTER 2 ■ Theories of Development
SUMMING UP
The three grand theories originated almost a century ago, each pioneered by men who
developed theories so comprehensive and creative that they deserve to be called
“grand.” Each theory has a different focus: emotions (psychoanalytic theory), actions
(behaviorism), or thoughts (cognitive theory) (see Figure 2.4).
Freud and Erikson thought it was important to understand unconscious drives and
early experiences in order to understand personality and actions. Behaviorists instead
stress experiences in the recent past, especially learning by association, by reinforce-
ment, and by observation. Cognitive theory holds that, to understand people, we need
to appreciate how they think. According to Piaget, the way people think changes with
age as their brains mature and their experiences challenge their past assumptions.
Emergent Theories
You have surely noticed that the grand theorists were all men born more than a
hundred years ago whose biological and academic ancestors were from western
Europe and North America. These background variables are limiting. (Of course,
female, non-Western, and contemporary theorists are limited by their back-
grounds as well.)
Two new theories have emerged that, unlike the grand theories, are multicul-
tural and multidisciplinary, developed not only by men of European ancestry but
also by many non-Western, non-White, and female scientists. One, sociocultural
theory, draws on research in education, anthropology, and history. The other, epige-
netic theory, arises from biology, genetics, and neuroscience. The wide-ranging
multicultural and multidisciplinary approach makes these theories particularly
pertinent to our study.
Neither emergent theory has yet developed a comprehensive, coherent expla-
nation of all of human development, of how and why people change. However,
both provide significant and useful frameworks leading to better understanding,
which is precisely what good theories do.
Sociocultural Theory
Although “sociocultural theory is still emerging” (Rogoff, 1998, p. 687), many de-
velopmentalists believe that “individual development must be understood in, and
cannot be separated from, its social and cultural-historical context” (Rogoff, 2003,
p. 50). The central thesis of sociocultural theory is that human development
results from the dynamic interaction between developing persons and their
surrounding society.
Cultural Variations
Consider this question: What should you do if your 6-month-old daughter starts to
fuss? You could give her a pacifier, turn on a musical mobile, change her diaper,
prepare a bottle, rock her, sing a lullaby, offer a breast, shake a rattle, ask for help,
or close the door and walk away. Each is the right thing to do in some cultures but
not in others. In fact, some parents are warned not to “spoil” their crying babies by
picking them up, while others are told that if they let their babies cry, they are
abusive and neglectful.
Few adults realize that their responses are shaped by culture, yet this is pre-
cisely the case, according to sociocultural theory. Societies provide not only cus-
toms but also the tools and theories. For instance, some places have no pacifiers,
Behaviorism:
Actions
(what the person does)
Cognitive theory:
Ideas, beliefs,
assumptions
Psychoanalytic
theory:
Emotions (love,
hate, fear, etc.)
FIGURE 2.4
Major Focuses of the Three Grand Theories
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 42): The obvious part of the answer is
that one girl is feeding her doll and the other
is pretending to smoke a cigarette, but
modeling goes far beyond that. Notice that
the first girl is holding her spoon at exactly
the same angle as her mother is holding hers,
and that the positions of the second girl’s
hand, fingers, and arm mirror her mother’s.
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bottles, or mobiles—or even diapers or doors. The tools available for baby care
profoundly affect parents and infants in ways that echo throughout life. Posses-
sions and privacy are valued much more in some cultures than in others, a value
learned in infancy.
The pioneer of the sociocultural perspective was Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934), a
psychologist from the former Soviet Union. Vygotsky studied cognitive compe-
tency among the ethnically and economically diverse people of his huge nation, as
well as among children who were mentally retarded. He studied how Asian farm-
ers used tools, how illiterate people used abstract ideas, and how children learned
in school. In his view, each person, schooled or not, is taught by more skilled
members of his or her community (Vygotsky, 1934/1986).
Novices must acquire whatever knowledge and capabilities their society re-
quires. This is best accomplished through guided participation: Tutors (not
only those designated to teach, but also friends and strangers who know more than
the novice) engage learners in joint activities, offering not only instruction but also
“mutual involvement in several widespread cultural practices with great impor-
tance for learning: narratives, routines, and play” (Rogoff, 2003, p. 285).
Each of us begins life knowing nothing about our culture, which includes such
basic knowledge as how and what to eat, when to express emotions, and even how
to communicate. Guided participation (also called apprenticeship in thinking) is a
central concept of sociocultural theory. Learning is informal, social, and pervasive.
One of my students recently came to my office with her young son, who eyed
my candy dish but held tightly to his mother’s hand.
“He can have one if it’s all right with you,” I whispered.
She nodded and told him, “Dr. Berger will let you have one piece of candy.”
He smiled shyly and quickly took one.
“What do you say?” she prompted.
“Thank you,” he replied, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.
“You’re welcome,” I said.
In that brief moment, all three of us were engaged in guided participation. We
were surrounded by cultural traditions and practices, including my role as profes-
sor, the fact that I have an office and a candy dish (a custom that I learned from
one of my teachers), and the authority of the parent. This mother had taught her
son to say thank you, as some families do and others don’t. Specifics differ, but all
adults teach children skills they may need in their society.
Social interaction is pivotal in sociocultural theory (Wertsch & Tulviste, 2005).
This contrasts with learning in the grand theories, which depends, primarily, on ei-
ther the student or the teacher, not on both simultaneously. In guided participa-
tion neither student nor teacher is passive; they learn from each other, through
words and activities that they engage in together (Karpov & Haywood, 1998), be-
cause “cognitive development occurs in, and emerges from, social situations”
(Gauvain, 1998, p. 191).
The concept that cultural patterns and beliefs are social constructions (ex-
plained in Chapter 1) is easy for sociocultural theorists to grasp. They believe that
socially constructed ideas are no less powerful than physical or emotional con-
straints; indeed, quite the opposite is true. For example, for centuries, women
were not allowed to work as firefighters. Reasons centered on their physical limi-
tations (they were too weak to pull hoses), and questions about their judgment
(they were too emotional to deal with emergencies). But now it seems that the so-
cial reasons (it just wasn’t proper) were (and are) more powerful.
Values shape development, even though values are constructed. This point was
stressed by Vygotsky, who believed that mentally and physically disabled children
should be educated (Vygotsky, 1925/1994). That belief has taken hold in U.S.
Especially for Nurses Using guided
participation, how would you teach a young
child who has asthma to breathe with a
nebulizer?
Emergent Theories 47
guided participation In sociocultural theory,
a technique in which skilled mentors help
novices learn not only by providing instruc-
tion but also by allowing direct, shared
involvement in the activity. Also called
apprenticeship in thinking.
The Founder of Sociocultural Theory
Lev Vygotsky, now recognized as a seminal
thinker whose ideas are revolutionizing
education and the study of development,
was a contemporary of Freud, Skinner,
Pavlov, and Piaget. Vygotsky did not attain
their eminence in his lifetime, partly because
his work, conducted in Stalinist Russia, was
largely inaccessible to the Western world and
partly because he died young, at age 38.
CO
UR
TE
SY
O
F
DR
. M
IC
HA
EL
C
OL
E,
L
AB
OR
AT
OR
Y
OF
C
OM
PA
RA
TI
VE
H
UM
AN
C
OG
N
IT
IO
N
, U
C,
S
AN
D
IE
GO
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culture in the past 30 years, revolutionizing the education of children with special
needs (Rogoff, 2003).
The Zone of Proximal Development
According to sociocultural theory, people always learn in the same way, whether
they are learning a manual skill, a social custom, or a language. For learning to
occur, a teacher (parent, peer, or professional) must locate the learner’s zone of
proximal development, which consists of the skills, knowledge, and concepts
that the learner is close to acquiring but cannot yet master without help.
Through sensitive assessment of the learner, the teacher engages the student
and together, in a “process of joint construction,” new knowledge is attained
(Valsiner, 2006). The teacher must avoid two opposite dangers: boredom and fail-
ure. Some frustration is permitted, but the learner must be actively engaged, never
passive or overwhelmed (see Figure 2.5).
To make this seemingly abstract process more concrete, consider an example: a
father teaching his daughter to ride a bicycle. He begins by rolling her along, sup-
porting her weight while telling her to keep her hands on the handlebars, to push
the right and left pedals in rhythm, and to look straight ahead. As she becomes
more comfortable and confident, he begins to roll her along more quickly, praising
her for steadily pumping. Within a few lessons, he is jogging beside her, holding
only the handlebars. When he senses that she could maintain her balance by her-
self, he urges her to pedal faster and slowly loosens his grip. Perhaps without even
realizing it, she is riding on her own.
zone of proximal development In sociocul-
tural theory, a metaphorical area, or “zone,”
surrounding a learner that includes all the
skills, knowledge, and concepts that the
person is close (“proximal”) to acquiring
but cannot yet master without help.
48 CHAPTER 2 ■ Theories of Development
too difficult)
or able
to learn (don’t teach;
What
the learner is not yet ready
(d
on
’t r
eteac
h; too boring)
Th
e l
earn
er
W
ha
t th
e le
arner already knows
exci
ting, challenging) w
ith g
uidance (do teach; Wh
at th
e lear
ner could understand Zo
ne
of P
roximal Development
FIGURE 2.5
The Magic Middle Somewhere between
the boring and the impossible is the zone of
proximal development, where interaction be-
tween teacher and learner results in knowl-
edge never before grasped or skills not
already mastered. The intellectual excitement
of that zone is the origin of the joy that both
instruction and study can bring
Especially for Teachers Following
Vygotsky’s precepts, how might you teach
reading to an entire class of first-graders at
various skill levels?
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Note that this is not instruction by preset rules. Sociocultural learning is active:
No child learns to ride a bike by reading and memorizing written instructions, and
no good teacher merely repeats a prepared lesson.
Because each student has personal traits, experiences, and aspirations, educa-
tion must be individualized. Learning styles vary: Some children need more assur-
ance than others; some learn best by looking, others by hearing. A mentor needs to
sense when support or freedom is needed and how peers can help (they are some-
times the best mentors). Teachers know how the zone of proximal development
expands and shifts.
Excursions into and through the zone of proximal development, such as the boy
prompted to say “thank you” or the girl learning to balance on a bike, are common-
place for all of us. Our mentors, attuned to ever-shifting abilities and motivation,
continually urge a new level of competence; learners ask questions, show interest,
and demonstrate progress, thus guiding and inspiring the mentors. When edu-
cation goes well, both teachers and students are fully engaged and productive.
Particular skills and processes vary enormously from culture to culture, but the
overall social interaction is the same.
Sociocultural theorists have been criticized for overlooking developmental
processes that are not primarily social. Vygotsky’s theory, in particular, may neglect
the power of genes to guide development, especially if neurological immaturity or
disability makes some learning impossible (Wertsch, 1998). Every child can learn,
but not every child can learn anything at any moment. Further, while culture is
pervasive and informal teachers abound, the prevailing sociocultural values are
not necessarily always best.
Epigenetic Theory
The central idea of epigenetic theory is that genes interact with the environ-
ment to allow development (Gottlieb, 2003). Epigenetic development contrasts
sharply with preformism, the theory that genes determine every aspect of develop-
ment.
Epigenetic theory is the newest developmental theory, but it incorporates several
established bodies of research. Many disciplines—including biology (especially
the principles of evolution), genetics, and chemistry—provided a foundation.
Many psychologists, including Erikson and Piaget, described aspects of their
theories as epigenetic, recognizing that development builds on genes but is not
determined by them.
Many specialties within the social sciences—especially sociobiology (the study
of how individuals within society seek to pass along their genetic heritage), evolu-
tionary psychology (the study of the inherited patterns of behavior that were once
adaptive), and ethology (the study of animals in their natural environments)—
stress the interaction of genes and the environment.
With, On, and Around the Genes
What, then, is new about epigenetic theory? One way to answer that question is to
consider the name, derived from the root word genetic and the prefix epi-. Genetic
refers to the entire genome, which includes (1) the particular genes that make
each person (except monozygotic twins) genetically unique, (2) the genes that dis-
tinguish our species as human, and (3) the genes that all living creatures share.
We now know that all psychological as well as all physical traits—from bashful-
ness to blood type, from moodiness to metabolism, from vocational aptitude to
voice tone—are influenced by genes. How religious a person is, or whether some-
one votes for a liberal candidate, is influenced by genes (Bouchard et al., 2004).
epigenetic theory An emergent theory of
development that considers both the
genetic origins of behavior (within each
person and within each species) and the
direct, systematic influence that environ-
mental forces have, over time, on genes.
Emergent Theories 49
Learning to Ride Although they are usually
not aware of it, children learn most of their
skills because adults guide them carefully.
What would happen if this father let go?
AR
IE
L
SK
EL
LE
Y
/ C
OR
BI
S
➤Response for Nurses (from page 47): You
would guide the child in the zone of proximal
development, where teacher and child interact.
Thus, you might encourage the child to prepare
the nebulizer (by putting in the medicine, for
instance) and then breathe through it yourself,
taking turns with the child.
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Even the timing of developmental change is genetic: Humans walk and talk at
about 1 year and can have babies in adolescence because genes switch on those
abilities (unless something is terribly wrong). Thus, half of epigenetic theory is
about the power of genes.
The other half is equally important. The prefix epi- means “with,” “around,” “be-
fore,” “after,” “on,” or “near.” Thus, epigenetic refers to all the surrounding factors
that affect the expression of genetic influences. Those factors stop some genes
before they have any effect, and they give other genes extensive influence. Some
factors cause stress, such as injury, temperature, and crowding; some facilitate,
such as nourishing food, loving care, and freedom to play. In “epigenetic program-
ming . . . environmental effects on . . . health or behavior are mediated through al-
tered gene expression” as well as vice versa (Moffitt et al., 2006, pp. 5–6).
Epigenetic theory puts the two halves together in one word to signify this
inevitable interaction between genes and the environment. This is illustrated by
Figure 2.6, which was first published in 1992 by Gilbert Gottlieb, a leading pro-
ponent of epigenetic theory. That simple diagram, with arrows going up and down
over time, has been redrawn and reprinted dozens of times to emphasize that
dynamic interaction continues in each person’s life long after conception
(Gottlieb, 1992).
Epigenetic effects are easier to notice in lower animals than in people
(Koolhaas et al., 2006). For example, the color of an animal’s fur is genetically de-
termined, but environment causes some rabbit species to have white fur in cold
climates and brown fur in warm ones.
Even biological sex can be epigenetic. Alligator eggs become males when the
nest temperature is 34ºC or above during days 7 to 21 of incubation and hatch
as females at nest temperatures of 28–31ºC (Ferguson & Joanen, 1982). For
humans, the age of the parents correlates with the sex of their child, an epigenetic
effect. Teenagers conceive more boys.
As development progresses, each person proceeds along the course set by ear-
lier genetic–environmental interactions, which allow a range of possible outcomes
called the reaction range. Thus, some toddlers cannot be musical masters, because
that is above the range of their inherited potential. But they still have a spread of
possible reactions to music, depending on their experiences, from being an avid
listener to being indifferent to music.
Some aspects of development become less plastic, or changeable, with age
(Baltes et al., 2006), which explains why prenatal conditions (e.g., drugs or alcohol)
damage the brain and body of a fetus far more than they damage the pregnant
woman. However, even in adulthood contexts can change inherited patterns.
50 CHAPTER 2 ■ Theories of Development
Environment
(physical, cultural, social)
Behavior
Neural activity
Individual development
Genetic activity
Conception Death
Bidirectional influences
Source: Adapted from Gottlieb, 1992.
FIGURE 2.6
An Epigenetic Model of Development
Notice that there are as many arrows going
down as going up, at all levels. Although de-
velopment begins with genes at conception,
it requires that all four factors interact.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 52):
According to this diagram, does genetic
influence stop at birth?
➤Response for Teachers (from page 48):
First of all, you wouldn’t teach them “to read”;
you would find out each child’s skill level and
what he or she was capable of learning next,
so that instruction would be tailored to each
child’s zone of proximal development. For
some, this might be letter recognition; for
others, comprehension of paragraphs they
read silently. Second, you wouldn’t teach the
whole class. You would figure out a way to
individualize instruction—maybe by forming
pairs, with one child teaching the other; by
setting up appropriate computer instruction;
or by having parents or other teachers
(maybe older children) work with small
groups of three or four children.
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Dramatic evidence comes from drug addiction. A person’s potential to become
addicted is genetic. That potential can be realized—a genetically vulnerable per-
son becomes an addict or alcoholic—if the person repeatedly consumes an addic-
tive substance. Thus, addiction is epigenetic, the outcome of the interaction of
genes and environment. Even monozygotic twins (who have the same genes) can
differ in whether or not they become alcoholics (Moffitt et al., 2006).
Once people are addicts, something in their biochemistry and brain makes
them hypersensitive to that drug. For example, one drink makes a nonalcoholic
pleasantly tipsy but awakens a powerful craving in the alcoholic. The role of expe-
rience in addiction and in creating hypersensitivity to a drug has been demon-
strated in countless experiments (Crombag & Robinson, 2004). Nonetheless, as
one team of researchers explains:
Within the epigenetic model, each intermediary phenotype [genetic manifesta-
tion] is an outcome as well as a precursor to a subsequent outcome contingent
on the quality of person–environment interactions. . . . Sudden shifts . . . can
occur. . . . [For example,] 86 percent of regular heroin users among soldiers in
Vietnam abruptly terminated consumption upon return to the United States
(Robins, Helzer, & Davis, 1975). In effect, a substantial change in the environ-
ment produced a major phenotype change.
[Tarter et al., 1999, p. 672]
The fact that these addicted soldiers kicked the habit permanently is astonish-
ing to anyone who has watched an addict get “clean” and then relapse time after
time. The conventional explanation for the repeated relapses is that, once a person
is addicted, the biochemical pull of the drug is too strong to resist. However, the
example of the Vietnam veterans suggests that the biochemical (and genetic) as-
pect of addiction does not work in isolation; the social context (epi-) is powerful as
well—a point confirmed by more recent research (Baker et al., 2006).
Thus, a crucial aspect of epigenetic theory is that genes never function alone;
their potential is not actualized unless certain epi- factors occur. For example,
many psychological disorders, including schizophrenia, autism, antisocial person-
ality disorder, and some forms of depression, have a genetic component. But none
are purely genetic; all are epigenetic, with the severity and even the existence of
the psychopathology dependent on environment as well as genes (Krueger &
Markon, 2006; Moffitt et al., 2006).
People who inherit a particular variant of one gene (called the short allele of
5-HTT) are more likely to become depressed. However, even people who have this
variant do not usually become depressed unless they are maltreated as children or
experience stressful events as adults (Caspi et al., 2003). Epigenetic again.
Genetic Adaptation
So far we have described epigenetic factors that affect individuals. Epigenetic fac-
tors also affect groups of people and entire species. It is apparent that over billions
of years there has been “continual reorganization of epigenetic and genetic deter-
minants.” That makes it foolhardy to try to understand species development, even
of lower organisms, as solely genetic, transmitted without change over eons (New-
man & Müller, 2006, p. 61). Selective adaptation of genes and environments is
ongoing, which means that the environment favors genes in a population if they
increase survival and reproduction. At the same time, selective adaptation makes
destructive genes increasingly rare.
Selective adaptation begins when a particular genetic variant benefits the or-
ganism that has it, enabling survival and many offspring. About half of those off-
spring inherit the same gene as their fortunate father or mother. They, too, will
selective adaptation The process by which
humans and other organisms gradually
adjust to their environment. Specifically,
the frequency of a particular genetic trait
in a population increases or decreases
over generations, depending on whether
or not the trait contributes to the survival
and reproductive ability of members of
that population.
Emergent Theories 51
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have many children, and thus that beneficial gene will become more common
with each succeeding generation. Eventually, almost everyone has that gene and
the entire population thrives.
Whether a gene is beneficial, harmful, or neutral depends on the particular en-
vironment. For instance, allergy to bee stings is genetic, but inheriting it is no
problem if the neighborhood has no bees and the person does not travel. Complex
genetic traits depend on the context for their impact. For example, people who in-
herit fearfulness have an advantage in a hostile place (they may escape attack) but
not in a benign environment (they may avoid other people). Similarly, specialized
bills (for birds) or teeth (for mammals), which enable creatures to obtain food
more easily, perhaps emerged first as a mutation that subsequently spread through
the population. Thus, a woodpecker’s strong, narrow bill pries insects out of the
bark of trees, but a duck’s broad, rounded bill strains food from water. So because
of genes, a “duck out of water” is a dead duck.
Human differences can also be traced to selective adaptation.
All humans may originally have been lactose-intolerant, getting
sick if they drank cow’s milk; but in regions where dairy farming
was introduced thousands of years ago, a few fortunate people had
an odd gene that produced an enzyme that let them digest milk.
They became healthier than the others, so they had more children.
In fact, the genetic variant that allows milk digestion appeared in-
dependently in several cattle-herding populations and spread
among those people (Gibbons, 2006).
For tribes and clans as well as individuals, the interaction of
genes and environment affects survival. Genetic variations are
needed when conditions change. If no member of a species inher-
its some variants of genes needed for adaptation, the entire species
can disappear. About 90 percent of all species that ever existed
have become extinct, partly because none of the animals could adapt to changes in
conditions (Buss et al., 1998). Thus far, humans have adapted well, surviving in
dramatically diverse climates and ecosystems.
Epigenetic theory suggests that adaptation occurs for all living creatures, no
matter where and how they live (Fish, 2002). Consider humans and chimpanzees:
Those two species share 99 percent of their genes, yet there are about a million
times as many humans alive at this moment than chimpanzees. That 1 percent ge-
netic difference includes several characteristics that have enabled humans to sur-
vive and multiply. For instance, as a species, humans are taller than chimpanzees
and have longer legs, making it easier for humans to walk long distances. Bipedal
(two-legged) locomotion increased mobility, enabling humans (but not chimps) to
journey from Africa to distant fertile regions. Humans are the only mammals that
have traveled, reproduced, and thrived on every landmass of the world (except
Antarctica).
Some aspects of epigenetic theory are widely accepted, including one that
helps us understand why human children and parents love each other: It origi-
nates with the genes (Hofer, 2006). Children depend for survival on a decade or
more of adult care, so for the human species to survive, children and parents
must become attached to each other. Consequently, babies instinctively smile at
faces, and a newborn’s physical appearance and trusting grasp stir almost any
adult’s protective affection.
Over the millennia, unloved children were likely to die and thus never have
children of their own, so parent–child affection became adaptive and widespread
among the population. Parental love is strengthened by the same hormones that
accompany birth—an example of selective adaptation that I know well.
52 CHAPTER 2 ■ Theories of Development
ST
OC
K
IM
AG
E
/ I
N
A
AG
EN
CY
Got Milk! Many people in Sweden (like this
pair) and the other Scandinavian countries
regularly drink cow’s milk and digest it easily.
That may be because their ancient occupation
of cattle herding coincided with a genetic
tendency toward lactose tolerance.
Especially for Students Who are Bored
with Reading About Genes How can
reading this textbook help you live longer and
be happier?
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 50): No. Arrows originating with genetic
activity extend throughout development until
death.
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Emergent Theories 53
My Beautiful, Hairless Babies
In the beginning, infants accept help from anyone—a good sur-
vival strategy during the centuries when women regularly died
in childbirth. By the time they are able to crawl, however, in-
fants are emotionally attached to their specific caregivers and
fearful of unfamiliar situations—another good survival tactic.
Both accepting help and forming attachments are evidence
of selective adaptation. Infants who stayed near caregivers were
unlikely to be lost in a blizzard or eaten by an animal in the jun-
gle—and thus survived to have children of their own. Stressed
adults, especially women, are hormonally inclined to “tend and
befriend,” another survival impulse (Taylor, 2006).
Adults are genetically disposed to nurture babies. Logically,
no reasonable person would become a parent. It is irrational to
endure sleepless nights, dirty diapers, and years of self-sacrifice.
But reason and logic disappear when it comes to mothering,
which can be a “minefield” for destructive emotions and actions
in mothers, fathers, and children (Hrdy, 2000). Yet millions of
adults undergo substantial pain and expense in their quest for
the joy of parenthood.
As the mother of four, I have been surprised by the power of
genetic programming many times. With my first-born, I asked
my pediatrician whether Bethany wasn’t one of the most beauti-
ful, perfect babies he had ever seen.
“Yes,” he said, with a twinkle in his eyes, “and my patients are
better looking than the patients of any other pediatrician in the
city.”
When my second child was 1 day old, the hospital offered to
sell me a photograph of her—hairless, chinless, and with
swollen eyelids. I glanced at it and said no, because the photo
didn’t look at all like her—it made my beautiful Rachel look al-
most ugly. I was similarly enamored of Elissa and Sarah.
However, I am not only a woman who loves her children; I am
also a woman who loves her sleep. On one predawn morning, as
I roused myself yet again to feed Sarah, I asked myself why I
had chosen for the fourth time to add someone to my life who
I knew would deprive me of my precious slumber. The answer,
of course, is that some genetic instincts are even stronger than
the instinct for comfort.
in person
UN
EP
/
SA
Y
BO
ON
F
OO
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
DI
GI
TA
L
VI
SI
ON
/
PU
N
CH
ST
OC
K
Open Wide Caregivers and babies elicit responses from each other
that ensure survival of the next generation. The caregiver’s role in this
vital interaction is obvious, but infants do their part. They chirp, meow,
whine, bleat, squeal, cry, or otherwise signal hunger—and then open
their mouths wide when food arrives. Both the baby birds and the baby
human obviously know what to do.
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SUMMING UP
The two emergent theories point in opposite directions. Sociocultural theory looks out-
ward, to the overarching social, historical, and cultural patterns that affect communities,
families, and, ultimately, individuals. Sociocultural theory emphasizes that social and
cultural groups transmit their values and skills to children through the zone of proximal
development, which differs for each learner. By contrast, epigenetic theory begins by
looking inward, at thousands of genes, and then moves outward to incorporate the envi-
ronmental factors that directly affect the expression of those genes. Epigenetic theory
includes individual genetic transmission and centuries-old, species-wide adaptation. Both
of these emergent theories combine insights, data, and methods from many academic
disciplines and take into account current research and techniques.
■
What Theories Contribute
Each major theory discussed in this chapter has contributed a great deal to our
understanding of human development (see Table 2.4):
■ Psychoanalytic theory has made us aware of the impact of early-childhood
experiences, remembered or not, on subsequent development.
■ Behaviorism has shown the effect that immediate responses, associations,
and examples have on learning.
■ Cognitive theory reveals how thoughts, beliefs, and intellectual frameworks
affect every aspect of our development.
■ Sociocultural theory reminds us that human development is embedded in a
rich and multifaceted cultural context, evident in every social interaction.
■ Epigenetic theory emphasizes the interaction between genetic instructions
and surrounding contexts.
In order, these five theories focus on: early childhood, environment, mind, culture,
and genes. No comprehensive view of development can ignore any of these factors.
Each theory has faced severe criticism. Psychoanalytic theory has been faulted
for being too subjective; behaviorism, for being too mechanistic; cognitive theory,
for undervaluing cultural diversity; sociocultural theory, for neglecting individual
initiative; and epigenetic theory, for neglecting the human spirit. Depending on
one’s perspective, all the major theories can be considered as variations on the
universal human experience (McAdams & Pals, 2006). Alternatively, each can be
seen as “fundamentally irreconcilable” (Wood & Joseph, 2007, p. 57).
54 CHAPTER 2 ■ Theories of Development
TABLE 2.4
Five Perspectives on Human Development
Fundamental Depiction of Relative Emphasis on
Theory Area of Focus What People Do Nature or Nurture?
Psychosexual (Freud) or psychosocial
(Erikson) stages
Conditioning through stimulus
and response
Thinking, remembering, analyzing
Social context, expressed through
people, language, customs
Genes and factors that repress or
encourage genetic expression
Battle unconscious impulses and
overcome major crises
Respond to stimuli, reinforcement,
and models
Seek to understand experiences while
forming concepts and cognitive
strategies
Learn the tools, skills, and values of
society through apprenticeships
Develop impulses, interests, and
patterns inherited from ancestors
Psychoanalytic
theory
Behaviorism
Cognitive
theory
Sociocultural
theory
Epigenetic
theory
More nature (biological, sexual
impulses, and parent–child bonds)
More nurture (direct environment
produces various behaviors)
More nature (person’s own mental
activity and motivation are key)
More nurture (interaction of mentor
and learner, within cultural context)
Begins with nature; nurture is also
crucial, via nutrients, toxins, and so on
➤Response for Students Who are
Bored With Reading About Genes (from
page 52): Genetic adaptation of the species
has allowed people to learn from one another,
thus preventing extinction of the human race.
The same process might apply to individuals
learning in college.
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Most developmentalists prefer an eclectic perspective. That is, rather than
adopt any one of these theories exclusively, they make selective use of all of them,
sometimes severely criticizing or ignoring one or another, but always open to sur-
prises from scientific studies that cause rethinking and new theorizing. Research
in human development has been characterized as “theoretical pluralism,” because
no single theory fully explains the behavior of humans through the life span
(Dixon & Lerner, 1999).
Being eclectic, not tied to any one theory, is beneficial because everyone, scien-
tists as well as laypeople, tends to be biased. It is easy to dismiss alternative points
of view, but using all five theories opens our eyes and minds to aspects of develop-
ment that we might otherwise ignore. Remember the father at the start of this
chapter whose 5-year-old said “I hate you”? If the father’s first response is a slap,
he might recognize that each of these five theories would suggest he reconsider
that harsh reaction.
Whatever the limitations of particular theories, developmental theories time
and time again illuminate life’s myriad experiences and events. Development is
dazzling and confusing without some perspective. Ideology and prejudice easily
overcome reality without scientific theory and data. One illustration comes from
the dispute that has echoed through every decade of developmental study: the
nature–nurture controversy.
The Nature–Nurture Controversy
Nature refers to the genes that people inherit. Nurture refers to all the environ-
mental influences, beginning with the mother’s health and diet during prenatal
development and continuing lifelong, including the individual’s experiences with
family, school, community, society.
Nature and Nurture Always Interact
The nature–nurture controversy has many other names, among them heredity ver-
sus environment and maturation versus learning. Under whatever name, the basic
question is: How much of any characteristic, behavior, or pattern of development
is the result of genes and how much is the result of experiences?
Family responses make a child’s genetic tendencies develop. Nature and nurture
interact (Moffitt et al., 2006; Reiss et al., 2000). The family responses are elicited
by the child’s genes, but each parent’s genes, status (as biological, adoptive, or
stepparent), culture, experience, and so on affect how he or she acts. The combi-
nation of child and parent, nature and nurture—not one or the other alone—
leads to development.
This interaction is complex—“feedback loops swirling in all directions, all inex-
tricably intertwined” (Lippa, 2002, p. 197)—yet developmentalists seek to under-
stand how nature and nurture interact for each trait. As one expert wrote:
Both nature and nurture now have seats at the theoretical table, and so the really
hard work now begins—to specify, in nitty gritty detail, exactly how the many biolog-
ical and social environmental factors identified by recent theories weave together.
[Lippa, 2002, p. 206]
Theories help with this “really hard work.” Imagine a parent and a teacher dis-
cussing a child’s behavior. Each suggests a possible explanation that makes the other
say, “I never thought of that.” Having five theories is like having five very perceptive
observers. All five are not always on target, but it is certainly better to use alternate
theories to expand perception than to stay stuck in one narrow groove. A hand
functions best with five fingers, even though some fingers are more useful than
others. To get back to nature and nurture, the five theories differ in how and when
eclectic perspective The approach taken by
most developmentalists, in which they
apply aspects of each of the various theo-
ries of development rather than adhering
exclusively to one theory.
What Theories Contribute 55
nature A general term for the traits, capaci-
ties, and limitations that each individual
inherits genetically from his or her parents
at the moment of conception.
nurture A general term for all the environ-
mental influences that affect development
after an individual is conceived.
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they see the interaction between the two, and since no simple formula describes
the nature–nurture combination, it is helpful to consider many perspectives.
Theoretical Perspectives on Hyperactivity and Homosexuality
Consider two very different human characteristics: hyperactivity and homosexual-
ity. How, and to what extent, are nature and nurture involved in each?
Some children seem always active, running around or restless even when they
should be still. They are impulsive, unable to attend to anything for more than a
moment. These are symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD
(American Psychiatric Association, 2000). The symptoms and treatment are dis-
cussed in Chapter 11, but here let us look at how nature and nurture contribute.
Several facts support the idea that this disorder is genetic. Children with
ADHD share the following characteristics:
■ They are usually boys who have male relatives with the same problem.
■ They are overactive in every context, home as well as school.
■ They are often calmed by stimulants, such as Ritalin, Adderall, and even coffee.
This last fact convinces many: Since biochemical treatment works, the cause of
ADHD must be biochemical—that is, essentially, “nature” (Faraone et al., 2005).
Many researchers are looking for better drugs, believing that nature is the cause
(e.g., Lopez, 2006).
But wait. There is also evidence that “nurture,” or something in the environ-
ment, is the cause:
■ The rapid increase in ADHD (from 1 to 5 percent of all U.S. children within
the past 50 years) cannot be genetic, since selective adaptation takes centuries.
■ Many environmental factors correlate with ADHD, including crowded homes,
television, lead, food additives, and rigid teaching (e.g., Bateman et al., 2004).
Now consider the influence of nature and nurture on homosexuality. Most social
scientists once theorized that homosexuality was the product of nurture. Psycho-
analytic theory blamed a weak father and an overbearing mother; behaviorists
thought that people learned sexual behavior; cognitive theory suggested that some
people’s thoughts about family and society led them to rebel by becoming homo-
sexual; sociocultural theorists noted that the frequency of homosexuality in a soci-
ety depended on whether everyone was expected to be homosexual during
adolescence or whether homosexuals were killed, or something in between. Thus
nurture, whether within the individual, the family, or the culture, was seen as
causing homosexuality.
However, when scientists tried to confirm these theories, they found that chil-
dren raised by homosexual couples (either adopted or the biological offspring of
one of the parents) become heterosexual or homosexual in about the same propor-
tions as children raised by heterosexuals and do not seem particularly rebellious or
emotionally disturbed (Patterson, 2006; Wainwright et al., 2004). Researchers fol-
lowing the sociocultural perspective began to make a distinction between sexual
orientation (erotic inclinations and thoughts) and sexual expression (actual be-
havior); those researchers found that many people have homosexual impulses (na-
ture), which they do not express in hostile cultures but do express in more
receptive cultures. Thus nurture affects only expression, not orientation. In fact,
depending on definition and context, between 1 percent (self-proclaimed identity
of lesbians in the United States) and 21 percent (sexual attraction to other girls
among female adolescents in Norway) of people are homosexual (Savin-Williams,
2006). How much of homosexuality is nature and how much is nurture depends
partly on definition.
56 CHAPTER 2 ■ Theories of Development
sexual orientation A person’s impulses and
internal direction regarding sexual interest.
A person may be oriented to people of the
same sex, of the other sex, or of both
sexes. Sexual orientation may differ from
sexual expression, appearance, identity, or
lifestyle.
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No Answers Yet
Both hyperactivity and homosexuality are discussed in greater detail later in this
text. This chapter is not the place to decide how much nature or nurture con-
tributes to either of them. Epigenetic theory emphasizes that interaction is key.
Choosing nature or nurture is “a dangerous quagmire.” According to some psy-
chologists:
Those who dichotomize sexual orientation into pure biological or social causation
fall into a dangerous quagmire. To deny any role for biology affirms an untenable
scientific view of human development. Equally harsh and deterministic would
be to deny the significance of the environment.
[Savin-Williams & Diamond, 1997, p. 235]
Similar complications are evident for ADHD. If one
monozygotic twin is hyperactive, the other twin is also
likely to be (evidence for nature) but is not always (evi-
dence for nurture) (Lehn et al., 2007).
The problem for both homosexuality and hyperactivity
is that opinions about them may be harmful. For exam-
ple, those who emphasize nurture worry that boisterous
children are needlessly medicated for ADHD (Breggin,
2001). Many believe that, by not accepting homosexual-
ity as part of nature, societies impair the mental health of
people by making them feel ashamed about being who
they are (Omoto & Kurtzman, 2006).
Impassioned but opposite opinions about nature and
nurture that can lead to developmental harm are evident
regarding many other issues in development, including
birth defects, school curricula, aggression, marriage, di-
vorce, and retirement. Ideology and ignorance often add
to polarization. As one scholar, using the example of ag-
gression, points out: “Individual differences in aggression
can be accounted for by genetic or socialization differ-
ences, with politically conservative scientists tending to believe the former and
more liberal scientists the latter” (M. Lewis, 1997, p. 102). Many questions for
developmental scientists become weapons in cultural or political wars.
On nature versus nurture, “opinions shift back and forth between extreme posi-
tions” (W. Singer, 2003, p. 438). Because false assumptions lead to contradictory
and even harmful policies, it is critical to use scientific inquiry and data as a buffer
between opinions and conclusions. How can we avoid extremes, resist the pull of
ideology, and overcome bias? Consider theory! Actually, consider more than one
theory, and use theory to suggest possibilities and perspectives, which will lead to
hypotheses to be explored.
SUMMING UP
As the nature–nurture controversy makes clear, theories are needed to suggest hy-
potheses, investigation, and, finally, answers, so that objective research can replace per-
sonal assumptions. For instance, although it is now known that the parental relationship
is not the cause of homosexuality, this conclusion could not be drawn until researchers
tested that psychoanalytic hypothesis. Theories are not true or false, but they serve to
move the scientific process forward from the first step (ask a question) to the last (draw
conclusions). Given the impact of some applications (e.g., the widespread medication of
children with ADHD), such progress is sorely needed.
■
What Theories Contribute 57
Learning from Dad What is this boy learning
from his two fathers? Tennis.
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58 CHAPTER 2 ■ Theories of Development
What Theories Do
1. A theory provides a framework of general principles to guide
research and to explain observations. Each of the five major
developmental theories—psychoanalytic, behaviorist, cognitive,
sociocultural, and epigenetic—interprets human development
from a distinct perspective, and each provides guidance for under-
standing how human experiences and behaviors change over time.
Good theories are practical: They aid inquiry, interpretation, and
daily life.
Grand Theories
2. Psychoanalytic theory emphasizes that human actions and
thoughts originate from unconscious impulses and childhood
conflicts. Freud theorized that sexual urges arise during three
stages of childhood development: oral, anal, and phallic. Parents’
reactions to conflicts associated with their children’s erotic im-
pulses have a lasting impact on personality, according to Freud.
3. Erikson’s version of psychoanalytic theory emphasizes psycho-
social development, specifically as societies, cultures, and parents
respond to children. Erikson described eight successive stages of
psychosocial development, each involving a developmental crisis
that occurs as people mature within their context.
4. Behaviorists, or learning theorists, believe that scientists
should study observable and measurable behavior. Behaviorism
emphasizes conditioning—a learning process. The process of
conditioning occurs lifelong, as reinforcement and punishment
affect behavior.
5. Social learning theory recognizes that much of human behav-
ior is learned by observing the behavior of others. The basic
process is modeling. Children are particularly susceptible to so-
cial learning, but all of us learn to be more or less effective be-
cause of social influences.
6. Cognitive theorists believe that thought processes are power-
ful influences on human attitudes, behavior, and development.
Piaget proposed that children’s thinking develops through four
age-related periods, propelled by an active search for cognitive
equilibrium.
Emergent Theories
7. Sociocultural theory explains human development in terms of
the guidance, support, and structure provided by cultures and so-
cieties. For Vygotsky, learning occurs through social interactions,
when knowledgeable members of the society guide learners
through their zone of proximal development.
8. Epigenetic theory begins with genes, powerful and om-
nipresent, affecting every aspect of development. Genes are al-
ways affected by environmental influences, from prenatal toxins
and nutrients to long-term stresses and nurturing families and
friends. This interaction can halt, modify, or strengthen the ef-
fects of the genes within the person and, via selective adaptation
over time, within the species.
What Theories Contribute
9. Psychoanalytic, behavioral, cognitive, sociocultural, and epige-
netic theories have each aided our understanding of human de-
velopment, yet no one theory is broad enough to describe the full
complexity and diversity of human experience. Most developmen-
talists are eclectic, drawing upon many theories.
10. Each theory can shed some light on almost every develop-
mental issue. One example is the nature–nurture controversy. All
researchers agree that both genes and the environment influence
all aspects of development, but the specific applications that
stem from an emphasis on either nature or nurture can affect
people in opposite ways. More research is needed, and theories
point toward questions that need to be answered.
developmental theory (p. 33)
grand theories (p. 34)
emergent theories (p. 34)
psychoanalytic theory (p. 35)
behaviorism (p. 38)
conditioning (p. 39)
classical conditioning (p. 39)
operant conditioning (p. 39)
reinforcement (p. 39)
social learning theory (p. 42)
modeling (p. 43)
self-efficacy (p. 43)
cognitive theory (p. 43)
cognitive equilibrium (p. 44)
sociocultural theory (p. 46)
guided participation (p. 47)
zone of proximal development
(p. 48)
epigenetic theory (p. 49)
selective adaptation (p. 51)
eclectic perspective (p. 55)
nature (p. 55)
nurture (p. 55)
sexual orientation (p. 56)
SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
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7. What would a teacher influenced by Vygotsky do?
8. How might sociocultural theory explain how students behave
in class?
9. How might epigenetic theory explain the behavior of a pet dog
or cat?
10. How might genetic diversity help a species survive?
11. Why are most developmentalists said to be eclectic?
12. Why does it make a difference whether hyperactivity stems
primarily from nature or primarily from nurture?
1. Why do developmental scientists use theories?
2. How might a psychoanalytic theorist interpret a childhood ex-
perience, such as the arrival of a new sibling?
3. How can behaviorism be seen as a reaction to psychoanalytic
theory?
4. According to behaviorism, why might some teenagers begin
smoking cigarettes?
5. According to Piaget’s theory, what happens when a person ex-
periences cognitive disequilibrium?
6. What are the background similarities among Freud, Pavlov,
and Piaget?
noting the reinforcers for each instance. Then, and only then, try
to develop a substitute behavior by reinforcing yourself for it.
Keep careful records; chart the data over several days. What did
you learn?
3. The nature–nurture debate can apply to many issues. Ask
three people to tell you their theories about what factors create a
criminal and how criminals should be punished or rehabilitated.
Identify which theory described in this chapter is closest to each
explanation you are given.
1. Developmentalists sometimes talk about “folk theories,” which
are theories developed by ordinary people, who may not know
that they are theorizing. Choose three sayings commonly used in
your culture, such as (from the dominant U.S. culture) “A penny
saved is a penny earned” or “As the twig is bent, so grows the
tree.” Explain the underlying assumptions, or theory, that each
saying reflects.
2. Behaviorism has been used to change personal habits. Think
of a habit you’d like to change (e.g., stop smoking, exercise more,
watch less TV). Count the frequency of that behavior for a week,
KEY QUESTIONS
APPLICATIONS
Summary 59
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Heredity and
Environment
enes play a leading role in the drama of human development, yet
they rarely take center stage. Genes are pervasive and powerful,
but they are also hidden and elusive.
One day when I arrived to pick up my daughter Rachel from
school, another mother pulled me aside. She whispered that Rachel had
fallen on her hand and that her little finger might be broken. My daughter
was happily playing, but when I examined her finger, I saw that it was
crooked. Trying to avoid both needless panic and medical neglect, I took
Rachel home and consulted my husband. He smiled and spread out his
hands, revealing the same bent little finger. Aha! An inherited abnormality,
not an injury. But why had I never noticed this before?
That bent finger is one small example of millions of genetic surprises in
human development. This chapter anticipates and explains some of those
mysteries, going behind the scenes to reveal not only what genes are but also
how they work. Many ethical issues are raised by genetics, and we will ex-
plore those, too. First, the basics.
The Genetic Code
A person is much more than a set of genetic instructions. Although life be-
gins with genes, development is dynamic, ongoing, and interactional. Each
person is unlike any other, not only because of unique instructions, locked in
DNA, but also because of all the personal, social, and cultural influences
that affect each person lifelong.
What Genes Are
To reveal the secrets of the genetic code, we begin by reviewing some biology.
All living things are made up of tiny cells. The work of these cells is done by
proteins. Each cell manufactures certain proteins according to instructions
stored at the heart of each cell in molecules of DNA (deoxyribonucleic
acid). Each molecule of DNA is called a chromosome, and these chromo-
somes contain the instructions to make all the proteins that a living being
needs (see Figure 3.1).
Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes (46 in all). One member of each
pair is inherited from each parent. The instructions in these 46 chromo-
somes are organized into units called genes, with each gene (about 25,000
3
61
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� The Genetic Code
What Genes Are
The Beginnings of Life
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS:
Too Many Boys?
� From One Cell to Many
New Cells, New Functions
Gene–Gene Interactions
More Complications
IN PERSON: “I Am Not Happy With Me”
� From Genotype to Phenotype
Addiction
Visual Acuity
Practical Applications
� Chromosomal and Genetic
Abnormalities
Not Exactly 46 Chromosomes
Dominant-Gene Disorders
Fragile X Syndrome
Recessive-Gene Disorders
Genetic Counseling and Testing
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST:
Who Decides?
G
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) The molecule
that contains the chemical instructions for
cells to manufacture various proteins.
chromosome One of the 46 molecules of
DNA (in 23 pairs) that each cell of the
human body contains and that, together,
contain all the genes. Other species have
more or fewer chromosomes.
gene A section of a chromosome and the
basic unit for the transmission of heredity,
consisting of a string of chemicals that code
for the manufacture of certain proteins.
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in all for a human) located on a particular chromosome. Thus, every gene is a sep-
arate section of a chromosome, and each gene contains the instructions for mak-
ing a specific type of protein.
You are familiar with proteins in the diet. But what exactly is a protein? A pro-
tein is composed of a sequence of chemicals, a long string of building blocks
called amino acids. The recipe that a cell needs to manufacture a protein consists
of instructions for stringing together the right amino acids in the right order. These
instructions are transmitted to the cell via pairs of only four chemicals called bases
(adenine, thiamine, cytosine, and guanine, abbreviated A, T, C, and G), which pair
up in only four possible ways (A-T, T-A, C-G, and G-C). There are more than
3 billion pairs in all, and these are arranged in triplets (three pairs) on those
25,000 genes.
Most genes have thousands of precise pairs and triplets, making amino acids
(20 types in all). Some instructions are crucial, and any alterations in their code—
even a few extra repeats of a triplet—can be fatal. Other unusual codes are normal
variations, and still others make no difference that scientists can see (Marcus,
2004).
The entire packet of instructions to make a living organism is called the
genome. There is a genome for every species of plant and animal. Each person
(except monozygotic twins) has a slightly different code, but the human genome
is 99.9 percent the same for any two persons. Our similarities far outweigh our
differences.
genome The full set of genes that are the
instructions to make an individual member
of a certain species.
62 CHAPTER 3 ■ Heredity and Environment
Nucleus 23 pairs of
chromosomes
Amino acid
Strands of
double helix
Triplet
(specifies an
amino acid)
Triplet
(specifies an
amino acid)
Amino acid
PROTEIN
CELL
GENE
NUCLEUS CHROMOSOME
(DNA MOLECULE
= DOUBLE HELIX)
Gene
Gene
Gene
FIGURE 3.1
How Proteins Are Made The genes on the
chromosomes in the nucleus of each cell
instruct the cell to manufacture the proteins
needed to sustain life and development.
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The human genome contains about 25,000 genes (on 46 chromosomes), which
instruct the developing body to produce the proteins that make each person
unique, yet similar to all other humans. The total is awe-inspiring. As one expert
explains:
If each triplet is considered a word, this sequence of genes is . . . as long as 800
Bibles. If I read the genome out to you at the rate of one word per second for
eight hours a day, it would take me a century. . . . This is a gigantic document, an
immense book, a recipe of extravagant length, and it all fits inside the micro-
scopic nucleus of a tiny cell that fits easily upon the head of a pin.
[Ridley, 1999, p. 7]
There is another amazing part of human genetics: how genes work together to
make human beings.
The Beginnings of Life
Development begins at conception, when a male reproductive cell (sperm; plural:
sperm), penetrates the membrane of a female reproductive cell (ovum; plural: ova).
Each human reproductive cell, or gamete, contains 23 chromosomes, half of that
person’s 46. Thus, although each man has two chromosomes at each site (two at
the 10th site, for instance), each of his sperm has only one chromosome at the
10th site. Randomly, about half the time it would be the chromosome 10 he inher-
ited from his mother and half the time the chromosome 10 he inherited from his
father.
Since the particular member of each chromosome pair on a given gamete is
random, some gametes have one chromosome of the pair, some have the other.
Each person can produce 223 different gametes, more than 8 million versions of
his or her own 46 chromosomes.
One in 8 million from the father’s gamete, which joins with one in 8 million
from the mother’s gamete, is only the beginning of the vast diversity among humans.
People also differ in genes, in triplets and pairs within genes, and in experiences
from conception onward.
Matching Genes
When conception occurs in the usual way, some of several mil-
lion sperm find their way through the vagina, cervix, and uterus
and then into a fallopian tube (oviduct), where it might find an
ovum. After about an hour, the nucleus of one sperm meets
the nucleus of the ovum, and they form a new living cell called
a zygote. Two reproductive cells have literally become one,
and that one new cell is unlike the cells of either parent.
The chromosomes from the father match up with the chro-
mosomes from the mother, so that the zygote contains 23 pairs
of chromosomes, arranged in father/mother pairs. The genetic
information on those 46 chromosomes constitutes the organ-
ism’s genetic inheritance, or genotype, which endures
throughout life, repeated in almost every cell. (Sometimes a
zygote has more or fewer than 46 chromosomes, a problem
discussed later in this chapter.)
In 22 of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes, both chromo-
somes are closely matched. Each of these 44 chromosomes is
called an autosome, which means that it is independent (auto
means self) of the sex chromosomes (the other 2).
Especially for Number Crunchers A
hundred years ago, it was believed that
humans had 48 chromosomes, not 46; 10
years ago, it was thought that humans had
100,000 genes, not 25,000. Why?
gamete A reproductive cell; that is, a sperm
or ovum that can produce a new individual
if it combines with a gamete from the
other sex to make a zygote.
zygote The single cell formed from the fusing
of two gametes, a sperm and an ovum.
genotype An organism’s entire genetic
inheritance, or genetic potential.
The Genetic Code 63
The Moment of Conception This ovum is
about to become a zygote. It has been pene-
trated by a single sperm, whose nucleus now
lies next to the nucleus of the ovum. Soon,
the two nuclei will fuse, bringing together
about 25,000 genes to guide development.
CO
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Each autosome, from number 1 to number 22, contains hundreds of genes in
the same positions and sequence, and each gene on each autosome matches with
its counterpart from the other parent at conception. If the gene from one parent is
exactly like the gene from the other parent, that gene pair is said to be homozygous
(literally, “same-zygote”). The match is not always letter perfect, because the codes
within a few genes vary slightly. A person with some differences between the code
of one gene and that of its counterpart from the other parent is said to be heterozy-
gous (“different-zygote”) for that trait.
Each version of a gene that has variations is called an allele. A person could
have the same allele from each parent and be homozygous for that trait or have dif-
ferent alleles and be heterozygous. Usually it does not matter which allele a person
has, but some alleles are harmful, especially if the person inherits two of them.
Very rarely, a gene has no counterpart on the other autosome and that gene stands
alone. But more than 99.9 percent of the genes on the 22 pairs of chromosomes
find a match, usually a homozygotic match but sometimes a heterozygotic one.
Male or Female?
The 23rd pair is a special case, because these are the sex chromosomes. In fe-
males, the 23rd pair is composed of two large X-shaped chromosomes. Accord-
ingly, it is designated XX. In males, the 23rd pair has one large X-shaped
chromosome and one smaller Y-shaped chromosome. It is called XY.
Because a female’s 23rd pair is XX, every ovum contains either one X or the
other—but always an X. And because a male’s 23rd pair is XY, half of his sperm
carry an X chromosome and half a Y. The X chromosome is bigger and has more
genes, but the Y chromosome has a crucial gene, called SRY, that directs a devel-
oping fetus to make male organs. Thus, the sex of a baby depends on which kind
of sperm penetrates the ovum—a Y sperm, creating a boy (XY), or an X sperm, cre-
ating a girl (XX) (see Figure 3.2).
The natural sex ratio at birth is close to 50/50. (The actual ratio among new-
borns in the United States is 52 males to 48 females.) This ratio can be affected
by serious adversity, such as famine, when male fetuses are more likely to experi-
ence spontaneous abortion (also called miscarriage), or by induced abortion,
as the following explains.
allele A slight, normal variation of a particular
gene.
23rd pair The chromosome pair that, in
humans, determines the zygote’s (and
hence the person’s) sex. The other 22 pairs
are autosomes, the same whether the
23rd pair is for a male or a female.
XX A 23rd chromosome pair consisting of
two X-shaped chromosomes, one each
from the mother and the father. XX
zygotes become female embryos, female
fetuses, and girls.
XY A 23rd chromosome pair consisting of an
X-shaped chromosome from the mother
and a Y-shaped chromosome from the
father. XY zygotes become male embryos,
male fetuses, and boys.
spontaneous abortion The naturally occur-
ring termination of a pregnancy before the
embryo or fetus is fully developed. (Also
called miscarriage.)
induced abortion The intentional termination
of a pregnancy.
64 CHAPTER 3 ■ Heredity and Environment
L.
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, I
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Mapping the Karyotype A karyotype
portrays a person’s chromosomes. To create
a karyotype, a cell is grown in a laboratory,
magnified, and then usually photographed.
The photo is cut into pieces and rearranged
so that the matched pairs of chromosomes
are lined up from largest (at top left) to small-
est (at bottom right, fourth box from the left).
Shown at the bottom right are the 23rd
chromosome pair: XX for a female and XY
for a male.
➤Response for Number Crunchers (from
page 63): There was some scientific evidence
for the wrong numbers (e.g., chimpanzees
have 48 chromosomes), but the reality is that
humans tend to overestimate many things,
from the number of genes to their grades on
the next test.
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The Genetic Code 65
OvaSperm
Zygotes
FemaleFemaleMaleMale
44+
XX
44+
XX
44+
XY
44+
XY
22+
X
22+
Y
22+
Y
22+
X
Mother’s chromosomes
44+XX
Father’s chromosomes
44+XY
22+
X
22+
X
22+
X
22+
X
Possible Combinations of Sex Chromosomes
FIGURE 3.2
Determining a Zygote’s Sex Any given cou-
ple can produce four possible combinations
of sex chromosomes; two lead to female chil-
dren and two, to male. In terms of the future
person’s sex, it does not matter which of the
mother’s Xs the zygote inherited. All that
matters is whether the father’s Y sperm or
X sperm fertilized the ovum. However, for
X-linked conditions it matters a great deal,
because typically one, but not both, of the
mother’s Xs carries the trait.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 66):
In the chapter-opening photograph (p. 60),
can you distinguish the Y sperm from the X
sperm?
Too Many Boys?
Historically, wars, diseases, and famine sometimes killed many
people before they could reproduce. Usually, more girls survived
than boys. Because there were far more women than men, and
the overall population was dwindling, some cultures encouraged
polygamy or single motherhood. Some also allowed men to
discard wives who bore no sons (England’s King Henry VIII
divorced or executed five wives for this reason). Many pregnant
women tried to ensure that they would have a boy by resorting
to such folk customs as eating “hot” foods. These interventions
worked—but only half the time!
Many contemporary cultures still favor boys. For example, in
1979, in an effort to halt starvation by slowing population
growth, the government of China began forbidding Chinese
couples to have more than one child. (This policy did not apply
to members of minority groups or rural residents.) Poverty has
been dramatically reduced in China over the two decades since
then, but the policy has had one unexpected effect: too many
boys. Many Chinese couples want their only child to be a boy
because sons are expected to take care of their parents in old
age. Millions of female fetuses were aborted, and thousands of
newborn girls were made available for adoption. Since 1993, the
Chinese government has prohibited prenatal testing solely to
determine sex, but “the law has been spottily enforced” (French,
2005, p. 3). In the city of Guiyang, about 75 girls are born for
every 100 boys (French, 2005).
Similar data come from other countries. In 1999, in Punjabi,
India (where sex-selection laws similar to those in China have
been enacted), only 79 females were born for every 100 males
(Dugger, 2001). In Nepal, far more women use contraception
after the birth of a son than a daughter (Leone et al., 2003),
again skewing the sex ratio.
Is this imbalance a private matter or a public concern? Might
a society with many males have more learning disabilities, drug
abuse, violent crimes, wars, and suicides but fewer nurses,
day-care centers, and family caregivers? Chinese doctors worry
about the spread of AIDS if young men with no wives turn to
risky sex (Cohen, 2004). The Chinese government now allows
couples to have two children if both parents are “onlies.”
But wait. Gender does not determine behavior directly. Men
do not have to abuse drugs or turn to prostitutes. Although
women traditionally are caregivers, many single fathers and
loving grandfathers provide excellent care of children, and many
husbands and sons care for elderly women. In former times,
cultures adjusted to having more girls; perhaps today they could
adjust to having more boys. Or is there something better about a
sex ratio that is close to 50/50?
Unlike China and India, most nations have no laws against sex
selection, or about any other attempt to create “designer babies”
—children who have the genes the parents prefer. Should they?
issues and applications
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SUMMING UP
The fusion of two gametes (sperm and ovum) creates a zygote, a tiny one-celled crea-
ture that has the potential to develop into a human being. One way to describe that
process is chemically: DNA is composed of four chemicals that pair up; three of those
pairs (a triplet) direct the formation of an amino acid; amino acids in a particular
sequence make up proteins; and proteins make a person. Another way to describe it is
with numbers: The genetic code for a human being consists of about 3 billion base pairs
on 25,000 genes on 46 chromosomes, half from the mother and half from the father.
The father’s 23rd chromosome pair is XY, which means that half his sperm are X and half
are Y; thus, the future baby’s sex is determined by which sperm penetrates the ovum
and forms a zygote.
■
From One Cell to Many
As already explained, when sperm and ovum combine into a zygote, they establish
the genotype: all the genes that the developing person has. Creation of an actual
person from one cell involves several complex processes of duplication of genetic
information, cell division, and differentiation of cells into different types.
Some genes on the genotype are ignored and others amplified in the formation
of the phenotype, which is the actual appearance and manifest behavior of the
person. Let’s begin by describing the early development of that one original cell.
New Cells, New Functions
Within hours after conception, the zygote begins duplication and division. First,
the 23 pairs of chromosomes duplicate, forming two complete sets of the genome.
These two sets move toward opposite sides of the zygote, and the single cell splits
neatly down the middle into two cells, each containing the original genetic code.
These two cells duplicate and divide, becoming four, which duplicate and divide,
becoming eight, and so on.
By the time you (or I, or any other person) were born, your original zygote had
become about 10 trillion cells. By adulthood, those cells had become more than
100 trillion. But no matter how large the total number, no matter how much divi-
sion and duplication occur, almost every cell carries an exact copy of the complete
genetic instructions inherited by the one-celled zygote. This explains why DNA
testing of any body cell, even one from a drop of blood or a snip of hair, can iden-
tify “the real father,” “the guilty criminal,” or “the long-lost brother.”
The fact that every cell in the embryo contains the developing human being’s
complete genetic code does not mean that any cell could become a person—far
from it. At about the eight-cell stage, a third process, differentiation, is added to
duplication and division. Cells begin to specialize, taking different forms and
reproducing at various rates, depending on where they are located. As one expert
explains, “We are sitting with parts of our body that could have been used for
thinking” (Gottlieb, 2002, p. 172).
As a result of this specialization and differentiation, very early in development
cells change from being able to become any part of a creature to being able to
become only one part—an eye or a finger, for instance. All cells carry the same
genetic information, but cells take on new functions as needed and cannot switch
back. An eyelash cannot become a fingernail, although both have the same
instructions as the original cell that could have become an eyelash or a fingernail.
Certain genes switch on at particular times, a fact that helps us understand
development because it explains why children should not be expected to act like
phenotype The observable characteristics of
a person, including appearance, personality,
intelligence, and all other traits.
66 CHAPTER 3 ■ Heredity and Environment
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 65): Probably not. The Y sperm are
slightly smaller, which can be detected via
scientific analysis (some cattle breeders raise
only steers using such analysis), but visual
inspection, even magnified as in the photo,
may be inaccurate.
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adults. One fascinating aspect of human genetics is that almost half
of all human genes affect the brain, not other parts of the body. Genes
not only develop neurological functions, they also activate specific
aspects of cognitive development, such as the ability to think about
abstractions or to plan ahead (Marcus, 2004), neither of which young
children can do. Even learning a language begins with genetically trig-
gered maturation of certain brain areas.
Keep in mind that “genes merely produce proteins, not mature
traits” (Gottlieb, 2002, p. 164). In other words, the genotype instigates
body and brain formation, but the phenotype (the visible traits and
behaviors) depends on many genes and on the environment. A zygote
might have the genes for becoming, say, a musical genius, but that
potential will not be realized without the contributions of many other
factors. Epigenesis (see Chapter 2) is pervasive.
Gene–Gene Interactions
Conception brings together genetic instructions from both parents
for every human characteristic. Exactly how do these instructions
influence the specific traits that a given offspring inherits? The answer is quite
complex, because most traits are polygenic—affected by many genes—and
multifactorial—influenced by many factors.
The Human Genome Project is the international effort to map the human
genome. Its researchers have found that humans have only about 25,000 genes,
99 percent of which are present in the genomes of other creatures as well. For ex-
ample, the eyes of flies, mice, and people all originate from the Pax6 gene; another
gene produces legs for a butterfly, a cat, a centipede, and a person.
The genetic similarity among living creatures might make you wonder what ac-
counts for the differences. The genomes of humans and chimpanzees are more
than 99 percent identical, so why are humans and chimps so different? The
answer lies in the activities of 100 or so “regulator” genes, which influence thou-
sands of other genes (Marcus, 2004). Regulator genes make a creature who talks,
walks, and thinks as humans do, unlike other animals. Regulator genes regulate
genetic interaction, and that makes all the difference.
Human brain size (about 1,400 cubic centimeters) is highly heritable and is quite
similar among humans worldwide, especially when compared with the small brains
(about 370 cubic centimeters) of our nearest relatives, the chimpanzees (Holden,
2006). Of course, bigger animals (elephants) have bigger brains, but the proportion
of brain to body is significantly greater for humans than for other creatures.
Now we’ll look at some specifics of gene interaction, in those cases in which
the genes exist in several versions (alleles).
Additive Heredity
Some alleles are additive genes because their effects add up to influence the
phenotype. When genes interact additively, the trait reflects the contributions of
all the genes that are involved. Height, hair curliness, and skin color, for instance,
are usually the result of additive genes. Indeed, height is affected by an estimated
100 genes, each contributing a small amount, some to make a person a little taller
than average, some a little shorter (Little, 2002).
In modern nations, most people have ancestors of various heights, hair curliness,
skin color, and so on, so their children’s phenotype may not reflect the parents’
phenotypes, although it always reflects their genotypes. My daughter Rachel (with
the crooked little finger) is of average height, shorter than either my husband or I
From One Cell to Many 67
HY
BR
ID
M
ED
IC
AL
A
N
IM
AT
IO
N
/
PH
OT
O
RE
SE
AR
CH
ER
S,
IN
C
Twelve of Three Billion Pairs This is a com-
puter illustration of a small segment of one
gene, with several triplets. Even a small
difference in one gene, such as a few extra
triplets, can cause major changes in the
phenotype of a person.
polygenic Referring to a trait that is influenced
by many genes.
multifactorial Referring to a trait that is
affected by many factors, both genetic and
environmental.
Human Genome Project An international
effort to map the complete human genetic
code. This effort was essentially completed
in 2001, though analysis is ongoing.
additive gene A gene that has several alleles,
each of which contributes to the final
phenotype (such as skin color or height).
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but taller than either of her grandmothers. She apparently inherited some of her
grandmothers’ genes for relatively short height from us.
How any additive trait turns out depends on all the genes (half from each parent)
a child happens to inherit. All additive genes contribute something to the pheno-
type. To make this more complex, genes interact with each other (called epistasis)
to produce traits that no ancestor had (Grigorenko, 2003). For instance, the SRY
gene on the Y chromosome adds hormones, and one effect of those hormones is to
make the boy grow taller. That adds about three inches of height that would not be
added if all the autosomes (which carry the height genes) were the same but the
23rd pair was XX instead of XY, so the person was a girl with no SRY.
Dominant–Recessive Heredity
Some alleles are not additive. Of course, the fact that a particular allele is non-
additive doesn’t matter with homozygotic pairs, because both genes provide the
same instructions. It does matter for heterozygotic pairs. In one nonadditive form,
alleles are said to interact in a dominant–recessive pattern, which occurs when
one allele, the dominant gene, is more influential than the other, the recessive gene.
Sometimes the dominant gene entirely controls the characteristic. In this case,
the recessive gene is carried on the genotype but has no obvious effect on the phe-
notype. For example, blood type B is dominant and blood type O is recessive,
which means that a person whose genotype is BO would have B blood type.
An additional factor with blood is Rh-positive or -negative. Rh-negative is re-
cessive, so a person whose blood genotype is Rh-positive and Rh-negative would
have Rh-positive blood. (Some of the complex relationships of blood genotype and
phenotype are shown in Appendix A, p. A-3). For blood transfusion the phenotype,
not the genotype, matters.
Blue eyes are determined by a recessive allele and brown eyes by a dominant
one. Many recessive traits are not completely hidden. For example, a phenotype of
hazel eyes hints at a recessive blue-eye gene.
A special case of the dominant–recessive pattern occurs with genes that are
X-linked, located on the X chromosome. If an X-linked gene is recessive—as are
the genes for most forms of color blindness, many allergies, several diseases, and
some learning disabilities—the fact that it is on the X chromosome is critical (see
Table 3.1).
Since the Y chromosome is much smaller than the X, an X-linked recessive
gene almost always has no dominant counterpart on the Y. For this reason, reces-
sive traits carried on the X chromosome affect the phenotypes of sons much more
often than those of daughters (who have another X, which usually has the domi-
nant normal gene). This explains, for instance, why males who have an X-linked
disorder, such as color blindness, inherited it from their mothers.
More Complications
As complex as the preceding explanation may seem, it simplifies genetic interac-
tion by making genes appear to be separately functioning entities. But remember
that genes merely direct the creation of 20 types of amino acids, which combine to
produce thousands of proteins, which then form the body’s structures and direct
biochemical functions. The proteins of each cell interact with other proteins, nu-
trients, and toxins.
For any living creature, the outcome of these interactions is difficult to predict.
A small alteration in the sequence of base pairs or several extra repetitions in one
triplet may be inconsequential or may cascade to create a major problem. The
consequences depend on dozens of factors, many of which are not yet understood
(Kirkwood, 2003; Plomin & McGuffin, 2003).
dominant–recessive pattern The interaction
of a pair of alleles in such a way that the
phenotype reveals the influence of one
allele (the dominant gene) more than that
of the other (the recessive gene).
X-linked Referring to a gene carried on the X
chromosome. If a boy inherits an X-linked
recessive trait from his mother, he
expresses that trait, since the Y from his
father has no counteracting gene. Girls are
more likely to be carriers of X-linked traits
but are less likely to express them.
Especially for Future Parents Suppose
you wanted your daughters to be short and
your sons to be tall. Could you achieve that?
68 CHAPTER 3 ■ Heredity and Environment
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For example, although females are always XX, one of those X chromosomes is
relatively inactive. It seems random whether the dominant X is the one from the
mother or the father, and it is not known what the implications are. This is just
one example of hundreds of newly discovered complications, especially for human
development. To understand these complications, scientists look closely at twins
and clones.
Twins
Although every zygote is genetically unique (i.e., has a unique genotype) and most
newborns are similarly unique, there is one human exception: monozygotic multi-
ple births.
Rarely—about once in 250 conceptions—on the first day of development, cells
not only duplicate but split completely apart, creating two, or four, or even eight
identical, separate zygotes. They originate from one (mono) zygote. If each implants
and grows, they become multiple births, usually monozygotic (MZ) twins (also
called identical twins) but sometimes monozygotic quadruplets or even octuplets.
Because monozygotic twins originate from the same zygote, their genotype is
the same, as are their genetic instructions for physical appearance, psychological
traits, vulnerability to diseases, and everything else. One monozygotic twin can
donate a kidney for surgical implantation in the other twin with no risk of organ
rejection.
Remember that genes start development, affecting every trait, but environment
(including chance) is crucial (Kirkwood, 2003). Monozygotic twins differ in birth-
weight because of where in the mother’s uterus each happened to be. Parents treat
twins differently, sometimes favoring the larger one, sometimes the smaller (Caspi
et al., 2004; Piontelli, 2002).
When monozygotic twins differ in a genetic trait, that helps scientists recognize
a nongenetic effect. For example, a pair of 13-year-old monozygotic twins, Brian
and Jason, were raised together, which means that their nature (as MZ twins) is
monozygotic (MZ) twins Twins who origi-
nate from one zygote that splits apart very
early in development. (Also called identical
twins.) Other monozygotic multiple births
(for example, quadruplets) can occur as
well.
From One Cell to Many 69
TABLE 3.1
The 23rd Pair and X-Linked Color Blindness
X indicates an X chromosome with the X-linked gene for color blindness
23rd Pair Phenotype Genotype Next Generation
Normal woman
Normal man
Normal woman
Normal woman
Color-blind man
Color-blind
woman (rare)
1. XX
2. XY
3. XX
4. XX
5. XY
6. XX
Not a carrier
Normal X from
mother
Carrier from
father
Carrier from
mother
Inherited from
mother
Inherited from
both parents
No color blindness from mother
No color blindness from father
Half her children will inherit her X.
The girls with her X will be carriers;
the boys with her X will be color-blind.
Half her children will inherit her X.
The girls with her X will be carriers;
the boys with her X will be color-blind.
All his daughters will have his X.
None of his sons will have his X.
All his children will have normal vision,
unless their mother also had an X for
color blindness.
Every child will have one X from her.
Therefore, every son will be color-blind.
Daughters will be only carriers, unless
they also inherit an X from the father,
as their mother did.
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identical and much of their environment is shared. Both have Asperger syndrome
(explained in Chapter 11). However, Asperger’s makes Brian shy and socially awk-
ward, in ways that are quite common for 13-year-olds. He probably would not
have been diagnosed were it not for Jason, who displays much more noticeable
symptoms of Asperger syndrome—he “fails miserably” in social interaction and his
“stilted conversations typically include inappropriate questions and comments”
(Bower, 2006, p. 106). Why is one monozygotic twin so much more impaired than
the other? Probably because Brian breathed normally at birth, but Jason did not
breathe for several seconds until doctors administered oxygen. That loss of oxygen
impaired his brain. These boys show that nature matters (both have Asperger’s)
but that nurture does as well.
Most twins (about two-thirds) are dizygotic (DZ) twins, also called fraternal
twins. They began life as two separate zygotes created by the fertilization of two
ova by two sperm at roughly the same time. (Usually, only one ovum is released
per month, but sometimes two or more ova become available for fertilization.)
The incidence of dizygotic twins varies by ethnicity and age. For example, DZ
twins occur about once in every 11 births among Yoruba women from Nigeria;
once in 100 births among British women; and once in 700 births among Japanese
women (Gall, 1996; Piontelli, 2002). Women in their late 30s are three times as
likely to have DZ twins as are women in their early 20s.
Like all siblings from the same parents, DZ twins have about half of their genes
in common. And like any other siblings, they can differ markedly (including in
whether they are male or female) or they can look quite similar. Some look so
much alike that only genetic tests can determine whether they are monozygotic or
dizygotic.
Clones
A clone is an organism that is produced from another organism through artificial
replication of cells and is genetically identical to that organism. Unlike mono-
zygotic twins, which occur naturally, clones are artificially created. Cloning of
animals involves removing a cell from a living creature and making it develop into
another, genetically identical creature. Since every cell of an organism carries the
entire genetic code, cloning is theoretically possible for all living things.
Cloning is routine with plants but is difficult with animals; more than 99 per-
cent of all cloning attempts with animals have failed. The most famous successful
animal clone was a sheep named Dolly, created in Scotland in 1997 when a cell
dizygotic (DZ) twins Twins who are formed
when two separate ova are fertilized by
two separate sperm at roughly the same
time. (Also called fraternal twins.)
clone An organism that is produced from
another organism through artificial replica-
tion of cells and is genetically identical to
that organism.
70 CHAPTER 3 ■ Heredity and Environment
Same Birthday, Same (or Different?) Genes
Twins who are of different sexes or who have
obvious differences in personality are dizygotic,
sharing only half of their genes. Many same-
sex twins with similar temperaments are
dizygotic as well. One of these twin pairs is
dizygotic; the other is monozygotic.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 72):
Can you tell which pair is monozygotic?
JO
HN
ER
IM
AG
ES
/
GE
TT
Y
IM
AG
ES
DA
VI
D
YO
UN
G-
W
OL
FF
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T
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in vitro fertilization (IVF) Fertilization that
takes place outside a woman’s body
(as in a glass laboratory dish). Sperm are
mixed with ova that have been surgically
removed from the woman’s ovary. If the
combination produces a zygote, it is
inserted into the woman’s uterus, where
it may implant and develop into a baby.
infertility The inability to produce a baby
after at least a year of trying to conceive
via sexual intercourse.
assisted reproductive technology (ART) A
general term for the techniques designed
to help infertile couples conceive and then
sustain a pregnancy.
From One Cell to Many 71
from the mammary gland of one ewe was chemically induced to begin duplicating;
the embryo was then implanted in the uterus of another ewe. Dolly was the only
live birth that resulted from 434 cloning attempts. She aged rapidly and died at
age 6, young for a ewe. The scientists who created her have described the hazards
of cloning (Wilmut & Highfield, 2006).
Mice are the only mammals that are successfully cloned, time and again. Many
other research techniques—including interbreeding, cross-breeding, knocking out
genes (disabling a gene to learn its function), and drug dosing—that are unethical
with people and that would take years with most animals are used with mice.
Mice are helping social scientists learn how to reverse addiction (Crabbe, 2003)
and prevent mental illness (Williams, 2003).
For ethical reasons, cloning of humans is illegal, although cloning of cells (not
whole organisms) is part of research on many human diseases. Technically, human
clones would be possible via in vitro fertilization (IVF). Ova are surgically re-
moved from a woman and mixed with sperm. If fertilization occurs, viable zygotes
begin to duplicate in vitro, which literally means “in glass” (i.e., a glass laboratory
dish). In duplication, sometimes one cell is removed to test for abnormal genes
(done only for serious genetic conditions); if the severe condition is not found, the
remaining cells are inserted into the woman’s uterus to develop into a healthy
baby. This is not cloning, and doing so raises no ethical issues.
It is theoretically possible, with IVF, to extract one of those early cells, allow it to
duplicate and divide, insert both groups of cells into a woman, and hope that both
will implant. This would result in monozygotic twins, a form of cloning that is illegal.
Not at all illegal is the usual in vitro fertilization method. After several zygotes
are created and reach the 4- or 8-cell stage, the developing cells are inserted into
the uterus. About a third of the time, at least one zygote implants and develops into
a baby. Almost half of those times, two or more cell masses implant, and twins or
other multiples occur (Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology & American
Society for Reproductive Medicine, 2002).
Assisted Reproduction
Depending primarily on age, between 2 and 30 percent of all couples are troubled
by infertility, defined as the inability to produce a baby after at least a year of trying.
The lowest rates of infertility are among emerging adults (age 18–25) who have
avoided drugs and sexually transmitted diseases and who live in medically advanced
nations; the highest rates worldwide are probably among older couples in South
Africa. About one-third of all infertility originates with the woman and one-third
with the man; the other one-third is of unknown origin. Counseling, as well as med-
ical intervention, usually includes both partners (Covington & Burns, 2006).
In developed nations, infertile couples often turn to assisted reproductive
technology (ART). One simple treatment for some female infertility is to use
drugs to cause ovulation. For male infertility, sperm from a donor may be inserted
into the female partner’s uterus, a process called artificial insemination, which has
been in use for 50 years.
Increasingly common are various techniques that begin with in vitro fertilization,
as just described. Although failure is more common than success, a million IVF
children (more than half of them twins or triplets) have been born in 40 nations
since the first “test-tube” baby was born in England in 1978 (Gerris et al., 2004).
The usual reason for IVF is that a woman fails to ovulate or has blocked fallopian
tubes. Another reason is low sperm production, which is overcome by injecting a
single viable sperm into an ovum (Bentley & Mascie-Taylor, 2000).
Many methods for overcoming infertility result in multiple births. In the
United States, triplet births have increased by 500 percent since 1980, according
➤Response for Future Parents (from
page 68): Yes, but you wouldn’t want to.
You would have to choose one mate for your
sons and another for your daughters, and
you would still have to use sex-selection
methods. Even so, it might not work, given
all the genes on your genotype. More
important, the effort would be unethical,
unnatural, and possibly illegal.
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to the Center for Health Statistics, and twin births have almost doubled (U.S.
Bureau of the Census, 2004). Many couples who thought they could never have
any children now have two or three, to the delight of some parents but not of
physicians (Newton et al., 2007). (ART is further discussed in Chapter 20.)
72 CHAPTER 3 ■ Heredity and Environment
“I Am Not Happy with Me”
Successful IVF produces several zygotes. All could be inserted;
some could be frozen for later use; some could be used for re-
search; or some could be discarded. Each option is permitted by
some nations, clinics, and couples and forbidden by others
(Jones & Cohen, 2001). One factor in deciding which option to
use is cost: In the United States, each IVF attempt costs about
$12,000, with no guarantee of success. Some couples travel to
nations with lower costs; others hope to improve their odds by
having several zygotes implanted (Newton et al., 2007).
Implantation of more than one zygote creates problems,
however. For humans, birthing more than one baby is hazardous
for both mother and newborns. Complications of pregnancy, in-
cluding high blood pressure and toxemia, are common, and mul-
tiples are almost always born small and early—twins three weeks
early on average, triplets six weeks, and quadruplets nine weeks.
Generally, the more embryos that develop together, the
smaller, less mature, and more vulnerable each one is. Through-
out life, multiples have higher rates of early death, disease, and
disabilities. Triplets, for example, produce more stress in their
parents, develop language more slowly, and form weaker social
bonds than do equally small single babies or twins (Feldman &
Eidelman, 2004).
Since fertility treatments are one cause of multiples, Finland
allows only two zygotes to be implanted after in vitro fertiliza-
tion. The limit is three in Norway and four in several other na-
tions. In Belgium, the government pays only for single-embryo
transfers, a policy that has reduced the rate of twins by half
(Ombelet, 2007). The United States has no legal limit, but
many doctors recommend selective abortion if multiple embryos
begin to develop.
ART can separate biological parenthood from child rearing.
IVF can be done with donated sperm and ova, with the resulting
embryos growing in the uterus of another woman, who can allow
yet another couple to adopt the newborn. At birth, that infant
already has five “parents.” Is that ethical?
Perhaps all ART is unethical, when thousands of children
with special needs await loving adoptive parents. When I sug-
gested this to a friend who was infertile, she called me “insensi-
tive, arrogant, and ignorant” because my children had been
easily conceived. She said it was no more ethical of me to con-
ceive naturally than for her to use ART. Since then I have read
the words of many infertile women. One wrote:
I just cannot imagine ever feeling good about anything again. I do
not even know if my husband will stay with me when he realizes
that children are not an option for us. My guess is he will find
someone else who will be able to give him a baby. Since I cannot
do that, I cannot imagine that he would be happy with me. I am
not happy with me.
[quoted in Deveraux & Hammerman, 1998]
Complex social issues collide with the personal urge to pro-
create (Covington & Burns, 2006; Dooley et al., 2003). Compas-
sionate, thoughtful people, including many developmentalists,
disagree.
in person
SUMMING UP
A person’s genotype influences almost every characteristic. Genes interact additively,
recessively, and in many other ways; almost every trait is polygenic. Human diversity is
guaranteed not only by the process of gamete formation and conception but also by life
experiences. Each zygote is unlike any other ever conceived; diversity becomes even
greater.
Most twins are dizygotic, with no more genes in common than any other siblings.
About a third are monozygotic, developing from one zygote and hence having the same
genotype. Clones also have the same genotype as the creature they are derived from,
but cloning is illegal for humans and problematic for other animals. Some infertile cou-
ples turn to assisted reproductive technology (ART) to conceive.
■
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 70): The Japanese American girls are
the monozygotic twins. If you were not sure,
look at their teeth, their eyebrows, and the
shape of their faces, compared with the ears
and chins of the boys.
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carrier A person whose genotype includes a
gene that is not expressed in the pheno-
type. Such an unexpressed gene occurs in
half of the carrier’s gametes and thus is
passed on to half of the carrier’s children,
who will most likely be carriers, too. Gen-
erally, only when the gene is inherited
from both parents does the characteristic
appear in the phenotype.
From Genotype to Phenotype
The main goal of this chapter is to help every reader grasp the complexity of the
interaction between genotype and phenotype. Hundreds of scientists in many
nations have studied thousands of twins, both monozygotic and dizygotic, raised
together in the same home and raised separately in different homes. When this re-
search began, scientists assumed that monozygotic twins reared together would
share both genes and environment and that monozygotic twins raised apart would
have the same genes but contrasting environments. This assumption led scientists
to hope that twin studies would allow them to distinguish genetic influences from
environmental ones (e.g., Segal, 1999).
Members of the next generation of scientists were skeptical. They undertook
more research—on stepsiblings, adopted siblings raised together, biological sib-
lings raised apart, and all kinds of twins raised in all kinds of homes (e.g., Reiss
et al., 2000; see Research Design). They benefited from molecular analysis,
mouse genomes, linkage analysis, and many other methods developed not only to
treat physical illness but also used to understand inheritance of psychological
traits. They discovered four generalities that virtually all developmentalists accept:
1. Genes affect every aspect of human behavior, including social and cognitive
behavior.
2. Most environmental influences on children raised in the same home are not
shared.
3. Each child’s genes elicit other people’s responses, and these responses shape
development. In other words, a child’s environment is partly the result of his
or her genes.
4. Children, adolescents, and especially adults choose environments that are
compatible with their genes (called niche-picking), and thus genetic influences
increase in adulthood.
[Ellis & Bjorklund, 2005; Plomin et al., 2003; Posthuma et al., 2003]
As you learn more about the interactions among genetic and nongenetic influ-
ences, remember to distinguish between a person’s genotype, or genetic potential,
and his or her phenotype, the actual expression of that genetic inheritance in phys-
ical appearance, health, intelligence, and actions.
Everyone has many genes in his or her genotype that are not expressed in the
phenotype. In genetic terms, each person is a carrier of unexpressed genes; that
is, a person might “carry” an allele on his sperm or her ova and transmit it to off-
spring. Only rarely does one gene, or even one pair, cause an identifiable disorder
(some instances are described later in this chapter), but combinations of genes
might affect the phenotype, additively or in some other way. Schizophrenia, for
instance, probably results from many genes, and one reason for the varied types,
severity, and developmental patterns of schizophrenia is that each person has a
different combination of genes. Each person also has unique experiences, of
course, and that difference also affects every mental illness.
About half of all genes affect the brain, not the rest of the body. Thus, personal-
ity patterns and cognitive skills are affected by thousands of genetic combinations,
with each gene having the potential for small but measurable effects. The
specifics depend on other genes, on family, and on culture (Vogler, 2006). A team
of eight scientists who are working to decipher the coding variations of 11 million
alleles (called the Hapmap Project) put it this way:
Many different genes distributed throughout the human genome contribute to
the total genetic variability of a particular complex trait, with any single gene
accounting for no more than a few percent of the overall variability.
[Hinds et al., 2005, p. 1079]
From Genotype to Phenotype 73
Research Design
Scientists: David Reiss, Jenae M.
Neiderhiser, E. Mavis Hetherington,
and Robert Plomin.
Publication: The Relationship Code
(Harvard University Press, 2000), as well
as many journals.
Participants: 720 families, each with two
children aged 10–18 with varied genetic
links: monozygotic twins, dizygotic
twins, full siblings, half siblings, and
unrelated siblings with biological and
stepparents.
Design: Dozens of checklists, inter-
views, and observations, including
longitudinal measures, were used to in-
dicate emotions and cognitive abilities
of parents and adolescents, as well as
their interactions. Extensive analysis
was undertaken to distinguish genetic
and environmental effects.
Major conclusion: Genes have a strong
impact on every characteristic, but fam-
ily structure and parental style modify
genetic influence.
Comment: By including siblings with
so many kinds of relationships to each
other and to their parents, with multi-
ple, longitudinal measures, this study
untangles some complex nature–
nurture interactions.
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Thus, when something is “genetic,” that does not mean that its genetic origins
are substantial, fixed, or unalterable. It means that it is part of a person’s basic
foundation, affecting many aspects of life but determining none (T. D. Johnston &
L. Edwards, 2002). Rachel’s little finger, mentioned in the chapter’s opening, was
the product of genes, but it might have not been crooked if her prenatal environ-
ment had been different.
Every trait, action, and attitude has a genetic component: Without genes, no
behavior could exist. But without environment, no gene could be expressed. Now
we examine two complex traits: addiction and visual acuity. As you read about two
specific expressions (alcoholism and nearsightedness) of those traits, you will see
that understanding the progression from genotype to phenotype has many practi-
cal uses.
Addiction
At various times, drug addiction, including alcoholism, has been considered a moral
weakness and a personality defect. Addicts were locked up in jails or in mental
institutions. Some nations tried to stop alcoholism by making alcohol illegal, as
the United States did from 1919 to 1933, and most nations have laws forbidding
certain drugs and taxes to discourage use of other drugs.
Nonaddicts have long wondered why addicts don’t just quit. Now we know that
inherited biochemistry makes people vulnerable to various addictions. Anyone can
abuse drugs and alcohol, but genes create an addictive pull that can be overpower-
ing, extremely weak, or somewhere in between (Heath et al., 2003).
Alcoholism, particularly, has been studied for decades (Agarwal & Seitz, 2001).
The brain patterns of alcoholics’ sons who have never consumed alcohol differ
from sons of nonalcoholics. The way a person’s body digests and metabolizes alco-
hol allows some people to “hold their liquor” without getting sick and therefore to
drink too much; it causes others, notably many East Asians, to sweat and become
red-faced after just a few sips. This embarrassing response is one reason many
Asians avoid alcohol (Heath et al., 2003).
74 CHAPTER 3 ■ Heredity and Environment
Shyness Is Universal Inhibition is a psycho-
logical trait that is influenced by genetics. It
is more common at some ages (late infancy
and early adolescence) and in some gene
pools (natives of northern Europe and East
Asia) than others. But every community in-
cludes some individuals who are unmistak-
ably shy, such as this toddler in Woleai, more
than 3,000 miles west of Hawaii.
CO
RB
IS
/
TH
E
PU
RC
EL
L
TE
AM
Too Cute? This portrait of the Genain sisters was taken 20 years before they all
developed schizophrenia. However, from their identical hair ribbons to the identical
position of their feet, it is apparent that their unusual status as quadruplets set
them apart as curiosities. Could their life in the spotlight have nurtured their
potential for schizophrenia? There is no way to know for sure.
CO
UR
TE
SY
O
F
ED
N
A
M
OR
LO
K
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Among people of all ethnicities, reactions to alcohol vary, just as reactions to
prescription drugs or many foods vary. Some drinkers become sleepy, others nau-
seated, others aggressive, and others euphoric. Each of these reactions makes that
person more, or less, likely to have another drink.
Alcoholism is not simply biochemical. As with all addictions, it is psychological
as well. Certain personality traits (a quick temper, a readiness to take risks, and a
high level of anxiety) make it more likely that a person will drink and use drugs
(Bau et al., 2001; Nielsen et al., 1998). Certain contexts, such as many fraternity
parties, make it hard not to drink; other contexts, such as a church in a “dry”
county, make it hard to drink.
Gender also mitigates or increases alcoholism, depending on culture. For biolog-
ical reasons (body size, fat composition, genes for metabolism), women become
drunk on less alcohol than men do. In Japan, although women have the same genes
as men for metabolizing alcohol, they drink only about a tenth as much. When
Japanese women live in the United States, their average alcohol consumption
increases about fivefold (Higuchi et al., 1996).
Thus, culture is crucial. If people inherit genes that predispose them to alco-
holism but live where alcohol is unavailable (in rural Saudi Arabia, for example),
the genotype will never be expressed in the phenotype. Similarly, if alcohol-prone
children grow up where alcohol abounds but belong to a religious group that
forbids it (such as Seventh-Day Adventists in California), they may escape their
genetic destiny. Nature and nurture create the alcoholic.
Visual Acuity
Almost every factor that affects overall development also affects vision. Remember
that we study change over the life span. People see differently depending on their age:
■ Newborns cannot focus more than 2 feet away.
■ Children see better each year until about age 8.
■ Many adolescents become nearsighted when eyeball shape changes.
■ Vision is more likely to improve than to worsen until about age 40.
■ In middle age, the elasticity of the lens decreases and the eyeball shape changes
again, so that many people become farsighted and need reading glasses.
■ Among the old, eye diseases, including cataracts, are common.
■ About 10 percent of people over age 90 are blind.
Especially for People Who Are Easily
Bored Is your wish for excitement likely to
lead to addiction?
From Genotype to Phenotype 75
Especially for College Students Who
Enjoy a Party You wonder if one of your
male friends is an alcoholic because he
sometimes drinks too much. He may be OK,
though, because he can still talk clearly after
drinking twice as much as you do. What
should you ask him?
RA
YM
ON
D
GE
HM
AN
/
CO
RB
IS
Early Death or Long Life? Jerzy Skibo is a
Polish farmer pausing to enjoy his lunch of
sausage, cheese, and wine. This diet could
be unhealthy if he is genetically vulnerable to
heart disease or alcoholism. Or he might have
protective genes and live to age 100, as some
Polish farmers do.
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Nearsightedness and Genes
Children usually see quite well, but if they do have a vision problem it is most often
nearsightedness (also called myopia). Nearsightedness is a symptom in more than
150 genetic syndromes (Morgan, 2003). It may also be caused by physical trauma
or illness (such as the rubella virus that caused my nephew David’s cataracts; see
Chapter 1) or by poor nutrition (such as vitamin A deficiency). Most of these
factors cause “high” nearsightedness, so severe that it can lead to blindness.
What about the more common “low” nearsightedness, which makes it hard to
read signs that are too far away? A study of British twins found that the Pax6 gene,
which governs eye formation, has many alleles that make people somewhat near-
sighted (Hammond et al., 2004). This research found heritability of almost 90 per-
cent, which means that if one monozygotic twin is nearsighted, the other twin will
almost always be nearsighted, too.
From this and other research, it is evident that genes affect vision. Eye shape is
genetic and familial as well as age-related.
Culture and Cohort
If the science of human development arose from the study of only one cohort or
culture (such as, in this case, contemporary Britons), scientists might conclude
that genes were the major cause of poor vision (Farbrother & Guggenheim, 2001).
However, historical and multicultural research finds that environment powerfully
influences nearsightedness as well.
The most dramatic example is that if a child’s diet is deficient in vitamin A,
then he or she will not be able to see well. More than 100,000 African children
have partial vision or are blind, for that very reason (West & Sommer, 2001). In
their case, genes are irrelevant: The environmental cause and the solution (sup-
plemental vitamin A) are clear.
But what about well-nourished children? Barring trauma or illness, is their visual
acuity entirely genetic? Cross-cultural research indicates that it is not.
In Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, myopia has recently increased so much
that the surge has been called an epidemic. The first published research on this
phenomenon appeared in 1992, when scholars noticed that, in army-mandated
medical exams of all 17-year-old males in Singapore, 43 percent were nearsighted
76 CHAPTER 3 ■ Heredity and Environment
Young Scholars In Japan and other countries
of East Asia, the incidence of nearsightedness
is increasing at a rapid rate. One reason may be
the amount of time children in those cultures
spend indoors studying, which far exceeds the
time spent by children in Western societies. HA
SH
IM
OT
O
N
OB
OR
U
/ C
OR
BI
S
SY
GM
A
➤Response for People Who Are Easily
Bored (from page 75): It depends on you.
Some people who love risk become addicts;
others develop a healthy lifestyle that includes
adventure, new people, and exotic places.
Any trait can lead in various directions.
➤Response for College Students Who
Enjoy a Party (from page 75): Your friend’s
ability to “hold his liquor” is an ominous sign;
his body probably metabolizes alcohol
differently from the way most other people’s
do. Alcoholics are often deceptive about their
own drinking habits, so you might ask him
about the drinking habits of his relatives. If he
has either alcoholics or abstainers in his
family, you should be concerned, since both
patterns are signs of a genetic problem with
alcohol. Ask your friend whether he could
have only one drink a day for a month.
Alcoholics find such restricted drinking
virtually impossible.
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in 1990 compared with only 26 percent a decade earlier (Tay et al., 1992). Further
studies found that nearsightedness increased in Taiwan between ages 6 and 17
from 12 to 84 percent; in Singapore between ages 6 and 9 from 28 to 44 percent;
in Hong Kong between ages 7 and 10 from 10 to 60 percent (cited in Grosvenor,
2003). These studies occurred in many circumstances and decades, but the trend
was the same.
These increases are partly developmental (remember that nearsightedness in-
creases with puberty), and perhaps some of the young children were already near-
sighted but had not yet been diagnosed. Thus, some scholars are not ready to
conclude that “myopia is increasing at an ‘epidemic’ rate, particularly in East Asia”
(Park & Congdon, 2004, p. 21).
However, these increases are far higher than they are among children outside
East Asia. Further, parents of these same children are much less nearsighted. This
suggests an environmental cause (Morgan, 2003; Saw, 2003). What could it be?
One possible culprit is cited again and again: the increasing amount of time
children spend studying. In Chapter 12 you will learn that East Asian children are
amazingly proficient in math and science, and one reason is that they spend more
time doing schoolwork than Western children do. As their developing eyes focus
on the pages in front of them, they may lose acuity for objects far away—which is
exactly what nearsightedness means. Ophthalmologists suggest that if these chil-
dren spent more time outside playing, walking, or relaxing in regular daylight,
fewer might need glasses (Goss, 2002; Grosvenor, 2003).
As one expert concludes, “The extremely rapid changes in the prevalence of
myopia and the dependence of myopia on the level of education indicate that there
are very strong environmental impacts” on Asian children’s vision (Morgan, 2003,
p. 276). Genes are crucial, of course, but it is not surprising that myopia, alco-
holism, and almost every other complex human characteristic are highly heredi-
tary and highly environmental.
Practical Applications
Some developmental applications of the nature–nurture interaction are obvious.
Knowing that genes affect every disorder keeps parents from putting all the blame
on their child or their parenting. Knowing that there is a family history of a genetic
problem or, better yet, that someone inherited a problem can lead to practical
steps. For instance, if alcoholism is in the genes, parents can avoid drinking and
their children can be kept away from alcohol. If nearsightedness runs in the fam-
ily, parents can make sure that children spend time each day playing outdoors.
Of course, nondrinking and outdoor play are recommended for every child, as
are dozens of other behaviors, such as flossing the teeth, saying thank you, getting
enough sleep, eating vegetables, and writing thank-you notes. However, no child
can do everything, and no parent can enforce every proper action. Awareness of
genetic vulnerability helps parents set priorities, avoid blame, and take constructive
action.
To illustrate, consider one more epidemic. In type 2 diabetes (once called
adult-onset diabetes), the body’s production of insulin gradually becomes less effi-
cient. In the United States in 2004, diabetes was the sixth most common cause of
death, and it is estimated that 1 in 3 children who were born in 2000 will develop
diabetes (Lazar, 2005).
Type 2 diabetes is increasing in the United States, partly because obesity leads
to expression of the genetic vulnerability (Schwartz & Porte, 2005). Figure 3.3
depicts this, based on data reported in MMWR (see Research Design). Some eth-
nic groups (African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and many Native Americans)
type 2 diabetes A chronic disease in which
the body does not produce enough insulin
to adequately metabolize carbohydrates
(glucose). It was once called adult-onset
diabetes because it typically developed in
people aged 50 to 60; today, however, it
often appears in younger people.
From Genotype to Phenotype 77
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are genetically more vulnerable to diabetes. One reason is that they may have a
“thrifty gene” that protected their ancestors in times of famine (Lazar, 2005) but
that encourages the accumulation of body fat when food is plentiful (Hildyard &
Wolfe, 2002).
Worldwide, the incidence of diabetes is expected to double by 2025, when 300
million people will have the disease (Kiberstis, 2005). The United States now has
a childhood obesity epidemic (see Chapter 11), and some adolescents already
have type 2 diabetes (Kiberstis, 2005). Knowing this, parents who have diabetic
relatives can redouble their efforts to encourage healthy eating and exercise in
their children (and themselves). Once again, understanding the interaction be-
tween nature and nurture can prevent or moderate genetic problems.
SUMMING UP
Genes affect every trait—whether it be something wonderful, such as a wacky sense of
humor; something fearful, such as a violent temper; or something quite ordinary, such
as the tendency to be bored. The environment affects every trait as well, in ways that
change as maturational, cultural, and historical processes unfold. The expression of
genes can sometimes be directed or deflected, depending on the culture and the soci-
ety and even on the individual and the family. This is apparent in alcoholism, nearsight-
edness, and type 2 diabetes, all of which have strong genetic roots, distinctive
developmental patterns, and environmental triggers. Genes are always part of the story,
influential on every page, but they never determine the plot or the final paragraph.
■
78 CHAPTER 3 ■ Heredity and Environment
Percent of
overall
population
Obese – Body mass index (BMI) over 30*
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
19
91
19
93
19
95
19
97
19
99
20
01
20
03
20
04
Year
Diabetic – Diagnosed by a health professional
* For calculation of BMI, see Table 17.3.
Source: MMWR, July 14, 2006, and August 22, 2003.
FIGURE 3.3
Getting Worse Obesity is often associated with diabetes, but some people are geneti-
cally protected, which means that they can be seriously overweight but disease-free.
The graph illustrates that, while obesity and diabetes are both on the rise, the rate of
obesity is far higher and is increasing more rapidly than that of diabetes. Detailed data
suggest that obesity is often the trigger for the genetic risk of diabetes, but the two
conditions do not automatically go hand in hand.
Research Design
Scientists: Hundreds at the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.
Publication: MMWR (Morbidity and
Mortality Weekly Report), July 14, 2006.
Participants: Adults living in the United
States, contacted by random telephone
dialing.The participants had to be over
age 18 and willing to answer questions.
In 2004, 303,822 (about half those con-
tacted) were interviewed.
Design:This is a repeated, cross-
sectional study, interviewing thousands
in every state. Standard questions are
asked about many health-related behav-
iors and conditions. Obesity is calculated
based on the person’s self-reported
height and weight.
Major conclusion: Many people have
health problems, including almost two-
thirds who are overweight many who
are diabetic.
Comment:This huge national survey
has been repeated over 25 years, with
efforts to assure validity. However,
people may underreport their weight,
diabetics may not be diagnosed, no
interviewees are in institutions (e.g.,
prisons and hospitals), and only people
with phones who agree to talk are
included. So the rates of obesity and
diabetes may be even higher than de-
picted in Figure 3.3.
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Chromosomal and Genetic Abnormalities
We now focus on abnormalities that are caused by an identifiable problem, such
as an extra chromosome or a single gene. Such abnormalities are relevant to our
study of development for three reasons:
■ They provide insight into the complexities of nature and nurture.
■ Knowing their origins helps limit their effects.
■ Information combats the prejudice that surrounds such problems.
Information is needed as much for the families as for the individuals. Infants born
with genetic and chromosomal problems are much more likely to live into adult-
hood than was the case a few decades ago. This development raises emotional and
cognitive issues for their parents and siblings that are not yet well understood
(Lewis et al., 2006).
Not Exactly 46 Chromosomes
Gametes with more or fewer than 23 chromosomes are formed for many reasons,
both inherited and environmental (such as a parent’s exposure to excessive radia-
tion). The variable that most often correlates with chromosomal abnormalities is
the age of the mother. Paternal age (if a father is over age 40) is also relevant, but
maternal age is more crucial (Crow, 2003), presumably because a woman’s ova
(which begin to form before she is born) become increasingly fragile by midlife.
Chromosomal abnormalities occur not only in the formation of gametes but
also in their early duplication. In those instances, cells of one person may have
more or fewer than 46 chromosomes, while other cells of that person have exactly
46. The result is someone who is mosaic—that is, who has a mixture of normal
and abnormal cells.
Zygotes often have too many or too few chromosomes. One scientist estimates
that only half of all conceptions have the usual 46 (Borgaonkar, 1997). Most ab-
normal zygotes do not duplicate, divide, and differentiate (K. L. Moore & Persaud,
2003). Those that start to grow usually are spontaneously aborted early in preg-
nancy; other such embryos are aborted by choice when the parents learn about
the condition. If a fetus survives to be born, birth is hazardous: About 5 percent of
stillborn (dead-at-birth) babies have more than 46 chromosomes (O. J. Miller &
Therman, 2001).
Once in about every 200 births, a live infant is born with 45, 47, or, rarely, 48 or
49 chromosomes. Each abnormality leads to a recognizable syndrome, a cluster of
distinct characteristics that tend to occur together. Usually the cause is three
chromosomes (a condition called a trisomy) at a particular location instead of the
usual two.
Down Syndrome
The most common extra-chromosome condition is Down syndrome, also called
trisomy-21 because everyone with Down syndrome has three copies of chromo-
some 21. The chances that a baby will be born with Down syndrome increase with
the mother’s age. According to one estimate, a 20-year-old woman has about 1
chance in 800 of carrying a fetus with Down syndrome; a 39-year-old woman, 1 in
67; and a 44-year-old woman, 1 in 16 (see Appendix A, p. A-3). A few decades ago,
infants with Down syndrome usually died in early childhood (usually of heart ail-
ments), but now most survive to adulthood.
Some 300 distinct characteristics can result from the presence of that extra
chromosome 21. No individual with Down syndrome is quite like another, either
mosaic Having a condition (mosaicism) that
involves having a mixture of cells, some
normal and some with an odd number of
chromosomes or a series of missing genes.
Down syndrome A condition in which a per-
son has 47 chromosomes instead of the
usual 46, with three rather than two chro-
mosomes at the 21st position. People with
Down syndrome typically have distinctive
characteristics, including unusual facial fea-
tures, heart abnormalities, and language
difficulties. (Also called trisomy-21.)
Chromosomal and Genetic Abnormalities 79
Is She the Baby’s Grandmother? No.
Women over age 40 now have a higher birth
rate than women that age did just a few
decades ago. Later-life pregnancies are more
likely to involve complications, but the out-
come is sometimes what you see here: a
gray-haired mother thrilled with her happy,
healthy infant.
GE
TT
Y
(T
AX
I)
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in symptoms or in severity, for three reasons: (1) Some are
mosaic, having some cells with 46 chromosomes and others
with 47; (2) sometimes only part of that third chromosome is
present, so the person has, say, 461⁄4 chromosomes; (3) genes
on other chromosomes and environmental experiences differ
for each person, so genes on other chromosomes affect that
21st trio.
Despite this variability, most people with trisomy-21 have
specific facial characteristics—a thick tongue, round face,
slanted eyes—as well as distinctive hands, feet, and finger-
prints. Many also have hearing problems, heart abnormali-
ties, muscle weakness, and short stature. They are usually
slower to develop intellectually, especially in language
(Cohen, 2005). Their eventual intellect varies: Some are se-
verely retarded; others are of average or even above-average
intelligence.
Many young children with trisomy-21 are sweet-tempered,
less likely to cry or complain than other children. This may become a liability if a
child with Down syndrome gets less adult attention and thus less opportunity to
learn (Wishart, 1999).
Adults with Down syndrome age faster than other adults, with the ailments of
aging usually beginning at about age 30. By middle adulthood, they “almost invari-
ably” develop Alzheimer’s disease, which severely impairs their communication
skills and makes them much less compliant (Czech et al., 2000). They may de-
velop other problems as well.
This generally pessimistic description, however, does not reflect the actual ex-
perience of individuals with Down syndrome. Language does not come easily for
them, and many have medical problems. But they may still become happy, proud,
and successful young adults. One advised others:
You may have to work hard, but don’t ever give up. Always remember that you
are important. You are special in your own unique way. And one of the best ways
to feel good about yourself is to share yourself with someone else.
[Christi Todd, quoted in Hassold & Patterson, 1999]
80 CHAPTER 3 ■ Heredity and Environment
AP
P
HO
TO
/
AL
EX
AN
DE
R
ZE
M
LI
AN
IC
HE
N
KO
Universal Happiness All young children
delight in painting brightly colored pictures on
a big canvas, but this scene is unusual for
two reasons: Daniel has trisomy-21, and this
photograph was taken at the only school in
Chile where normal and special-needs children
share classrooms.
RE
UT
ER
S
/ C
LA
UD
IA
D
AU
T
Great Theater A leading man named Sergei
Makarov, shown here acting in a Gogol play, is
extraordinarily talented. He is a member of
Moscow’s Theater of Simple Souls, all of whom
have Down syndrome. Does “simple souls”
evoke pity? No need; a film starring Makarov
won the top prize in Russia’s national film
festival in 2006.
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Abnormalities of the 23rd Pair
Every human has at least 44 autosomes and one X chromosome; an embryo can-
not develop without an X. However, about 1 in every 500 infants has only one X
and no Y (the X stands alone) or has three or more sex chromosomes, not just two
(Hamerton & Evans, 2005).
Having an odd number of sex chromosomes impairs cognitive and psychosocial
development as well as sexual maturation. The specifics depend on the particular
configuration. The only condition in which a person with 45 chromosomes can
survive is in the case of a girl with only one X (written as X0, with the 0 standing
for no chromosome). This is called Turner syndrome, which results in underdevel-
oped female organs and other anomalies.
If there are three sex chromosomes instead of two, a child may seem normal
until puberty, particularly if he is a male with Klinefelter syndrome, XXY. Such a
boy will be a little slow in elementary school, but not until age 12 or so—when the
double X keeps his penis from growing and fat begins to accumulate around his
breasts—is it clear that something is wrong. For XXY boys, supplemental hormones
can alleviate some physical problems, and special education aids learning—an
example of nurture compensating for nature.
Dominant-Gene Disorders
Everyone carries genes or alleles that could produce serious diseases or handicaps
in the next generation (see Table 3.2). Given that most genes contribute only a
small amount to a disorder and that the human genome was just recently mapped,
the exact impact of each allele of multifactorial disorders is not yet known (Hinds
et al., 2005). However, we do know a great deal about single-gene disorders, since
they have been studied for decades.
Most of the 7,000 known single-gene disorders are dominant (always expressed).
They are easy to notice: Their dominant effects are apparent in the phenotype.
With a few exceptions, severe dominant disorders are rare because people who
have such disorders rarely have children and thus the gene dies with them.
One exception is Huntington’s disease, a fatal central nervous system disorder
caused by a genetic miscode—this time more than 35 repetitions of a particular
triplet. Unlike most dominant traits, the effects of this allele do not begin until
middle adulthood. By then a person could have had several children, half of whom
would inherit the same dominant gene and therefore would eventually develop
Huntington’s disease.
Another disorder, which is probably dominant, is Tourette syndrome. This condi-
tion is common because it is not disabling and because its effects vary (Olson,
2004). About 30 percent of those who inherit the syndrome exhibit recurrent, un-
controllable tics and explosive verbal outbursts, usually beginning at about age 6.
The remaining 70 percent have milder symptoms, such as an occasional twitch
that is barely noticeable or a postponable impulse to clear their throat. Many chil-
dren and adults without Tourette’s also have such symptoms (Olson, 2004). A per-
son with mild Tourette syndrome might curse and tremor when alone but behave
normally in public. Girls who have the Tourette genotype often do not express it,
at least not with the obvious tics and verbal explosions of young boys. Tourette
syndrome is developmental: It often appears at school age, and sometimes disap-
pears in adolescence.
Fragile X Syndrome
Several genetic disorders are sex-linked, or carried on the X chromosome. Males
are thus more likely to be affected by such conditions. One, called fragile X
syndrome, is caused by a single gene that has more than 200 repetitions of one
fragile X syndrome A genetic disorder in
which part of the X chromosome seems to
be attached to the rest of it by a very thin
string of molecules. The actual cause is
too many repetitions of a particular part of
a gene’s code.
Chromosomal and Genetic Abnormalities 81
Especially for Those Worried About
Their Sexuality Might you have an undiag-
nosed abnormality of your sex chromosome?
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82 CHAPTER 3 ■ Heredity and Environment
Albinism
Alzheimer’s
disease
Breast
cancer
Cleft palate,
cleft lip
Club foot
Cystic
fibrosis
Diabetes
Deafness
(congenital)
Hemophilia
Hydro-
cephalus
Muscular
dystrophy
(30 diseases)
TABLE 3.2
Common Genetic Diseases and Conditions
Probable Carrier Prenatal
Name Description Prognosis Inheritance Incidence* Detection?† Detection?
No melanin;
person is very
blond and pale
Loss of memory
and increasing
mental
impairment
Tumors in breast
that can spread
The two sides of
the upper lip or
palate are not
joined
The foot and
ankle are twisted
Mucous
obstructions,
especially in lungs
and digestive
organs
Abnormal sugar
metabolism
because of
insufficient insulin
Inability to hear
from birth on
Absence of
clotting factor in
blood
Obstruction
causes excess
fluid in the brain
Weakening of
muscles
Normal, but must
avoid sun damage
Eventual death,
often after years
of dependency
With early
treatment, most
are cured;
without it, death
within 3 years
Correctable by
surgery
Correctable by
surgery
Most live to
middle adulthood
Early onset (type
1) fatal without
insulin; for later
onset (type 2),
variable risks
Deaf children can
learn sign
language and live
normally
Death from
internal bleeding;
blood transfusions
prevent damage
Brain damage and
death; surgery
can make normal
life possible
Inability to walk,
move; wasting
away and
sometimes death
Recessive
Early onset—
dominant; after
age 60—
multifactorial
BRCA1 and
BRCA2 genes
seem dominant;
other cases,
multifactorial
Multifactorial
Multifactorial
Recessive gene;
also spontaneous
mutations
Multifactorial;
for later onset,
body weight is
significant
Multifactorial;
some forms are
recessive
X-linked recessive;
also spontaneous
mutations
Multifactorial
Recessive or
multifactorial
Rare overall; 1 in 8
Hopi Indians is a carrier
Fewer than 1 in 100
middle-aged adults;
perhaps 25 percent of
all adults over age 85
1 woman in 8 (only 20
percent of breast
cancer patients have
BRCA1 or BRCA2)
1 in every 700 births;
more common in Asian
Americans and
American Indians
1 in every 200 births;
more common in boys
1 in 3,200; 1 in 25
European Americans is
a carrier
Type 1: 1 in 500 births;
more common in
American Indians and
African Americans.
Type 2: 1 adult in 6 by
age 60
1 in 1,000 births; more
common in people
from Middle East
1 in 10,000 males;
royal families of
England, Russia, and
Germany had it
1 in every 100 births
1 in every 3,500 males
develops Duchenne’s
No
Yes, for
some genes;
ApoE4 allele
increases
incidence
Yes, for
BRCA1 and
BRCA2
No
No
Sometimes
No
No
Yes
No
Yes, for some
forms
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes, in most
cases
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes, for some
forms
*Incidence statistics vary from country to country; those given here are for the United States. All these diseases can occur in any ethnic group. Many affected groups limit transmis-
sion through genetic counseling; for example, the incidence of Tay-Sachs disease is declining because many Jewish young adults obtain testing and counseling before marriage.
†“Yes” refers to carrier detection. Family history can also reveal genetic risk.
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Chromosomal and Genetic Abnormalities 83
Neural-tube
defects (open
spine)
Phenylketo-
nuria (PKU)
Pyloric
stenosis
Rett
syndrome
Schizophrenia
Sickle-cell
anemia
Tay-Sachs
disease
Thalassemia
Tourette
syndrome
TABLE 3.2
Probable Carrier Prenatal
Name Description Prognosis Inheritance Incidence* Detection?† Detection?
Anencephaly
(parts of the brain
missing) or spina
bifida (lower
spine not closed)
Abnormal
digestion of
protein
Overgrowth of
muscle in
intestine
Neurological
developmental
disorder
Severely distorted
thought
processes
Abnormal blood
cells
Enzyme disease
Abnormal blood
cells
Uncontrollable
tics, body jerking,
verbal outbursts
Anencephalic—
severe retardation;
spina bifida—poor
lower body control
Mental
retardation,
preventable by
diet begun by 10
days after birth
Vomiting, loss of
weight, eventual
death; correctable
by surgery
Boys die at birth.
At 6–18 months,
girls lose
communication
and motor
abilities
No cure; drugs,
hospitalization,
psychotherapy
ease symptoms
Possible painful
“crisis”; heart
and kidney failure;
treatable with
drugs
Healthy infant
becomes weaker,
usually dying by
age 5
Paleness and
listlessness, low
resistance to
infections, slow
growth
Appears at about
age 5; worsens
then improves
with age
Multifactorial; folic
acid deficit and
genes
Recessive
Multifactorial
X-linked
Multifactorial
Recessive
Recessive
Usually recessive,
occasionally
dominant
Dominant, but
variable penetrance
Anencephaly—1 in
1,000 births; spina
bifida—3 in 1,000;
more common in
Welsh and Scots
1 in 100 European
Americans is a carrier,
especially Norwegians
and Irish
1 male in 200, 1
female in 1,000; less
common in African
Americans
1 in 10,000 female
births
1 in 100 people
develop it by early
adulthood
1 in 11 African
Americans and 1 in 20
Latinos is a carrier
1 in 30 American Jews
and 1 in 20 French
Canadians and Old
Order Amish are
carriers
1 in 10 Americans from
southern Europe,
northern Africa, or
south Asia is a carrier
1 in 250 children
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Sometimes
Yes
Yes
No
Sometimes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Sources: Briley & Sulser, 2001; Butler & Meaney, 2005; Klug & Cummings, 2000; Mange & Mange, 1999; K. L. Moore & Persaud, 2003; Shahin et al., 2002.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 84):
Is there any ethnic group that does not have
a genetic condition that is more common
among its members than among the general
population?
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genetic counseling Consultation and testing
by trained experts that enable individuals to
learn about their genetic heritage, including
harmful conditions that they might pass
along to any children they may conceive.
triplet (Plomin et al., 2003). (Some repetitions are normal, but not this many.) The
repetitions multiply when that X chromosome is passed from one generation to
the next.
Although it is an X-linked, single-gene disorder, fragile X syndrome is not
strictly recessive or dominant. About two-thirds of females with the fragile X gene
are normal; one-third show some mental deficiency. Of males who inherit a fragile
X, about 20 percent seem unaffected, about 33 percent are somewhat retarded,
and the rest are severely retarded. Many of those have autistic symptoms as well.
If a man with a fragile X is normal, half the sons of his daughters (his grandsons)
will probably be significantly impaired because of the increased number of repeti-
tions with each generation. But such predictions are approximate as the actual
transmission pattern varies.
The cognitive deficits caused by fragile X syndrome are the most common form of
inherited mental retardation (many other forms, such as trisomy-21, are not inher-
ited) (Sherman, 2002). In addition to having cognitive problems, children with frag-
ile X syndrome often are shy, with poor social skills (Hagerman & Hagerman, 2002).
Recessive-Gene Disorders
Most recessive disorders are not X-linked. For example, cystic fibrosis, thalassemia,
and sickle-cell anemia are all equally common and devastating in males and fe-
males (see Table 3.2). About 1 in 12 North Americans is a carrier for one of these
three conditions. That high incidence rate results from the fact that although the
double recessive pattern is lethal, one recessive gene is protective. For example,
carriers of the sickle-cell trait are less likely to die of malaria, which is still a problem
in central Africa. Their descendants in North America, including 10 percent of all
African Americans, carry a gene that is no longer needed for protection. Cystic
fibrosis is most common among people whose ancestors came from northern
Europe; carriers may have been protected from cholera.
Sometimes a person who carried a lethal gene has many descendants who
marry each other. In that case, the genetic disease becomes common in that group.
This happened among Jews in one area of eastern Europe, many of whom inher-
ited the recessive Tay-Sachs gene. An infant born with Tay-Sachs disease begins
life normally, as a bright, cuddly baby, but then develops slowly and dies before
age 5. Many disorders became common because parents of such children tended
to have a “replacement” child, who often was a carrier for the same condition.
Tay-Sachs also is common among another group with high rates of intermarriage,
the French in Louisiana. Probably everyone is a carrier for some recessive disease,
but most people do not have children with someone who happens to be a carrier
of the same condition.
Genetic Counseling and Testing
Until recently, after the birth of a child with a serious or even fatal disorder, cou-
ples blamed fate, not genes or chromosomes. Today, many young adults worry
about their genes long before they marry. Almost all adults have a relative with a
serious disease that is partly genetic, and they want to know the chances of their
children inheriting the same disease.
Who Should Get Counseling, and When?
Genetic counseling can relieve some of these worries by providing facts and
helping prospective parents discuss issues that are relevant to their decisions.
Especially for History Students Some
genetic diseases may have changed the
course of history. For instance, the last czar
of Russia had four healthy daughters and one
son with hemophilia. Once called the royal
disease, hemophilia is X-linked. How could
this rare condition have affected the
monarchies of Russia, England, Austria,
Germany, and Spain?
84 CHAPTER 3 ■ Heredity and Environment
Response for Those Worried About
Their Sexuality (from page 81): That is
highly unlikely. Chromosomal abnormalities
are evident long before adulthood. It is quite
normal for adults to be worried about
sexuality for social, not biological, reasons.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 83): No. As you see, all the major groups
are mentioned in Table 3.2. In fact, even much
smaller groups whose members tend to
marry within the group also have higher rates
of particular conditions.
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Counselors must be carefully trained, because many people, especially when con-
sidering personal and emotional information, misinterpret words such as “risks”
and “probability” (O’Doherty, 2006).
Preconception, prenatal, or even prenuptial genetic testing and counseling are
recommended for the following:
■ Individuals who have a parent, sibling, or child with a serious genetic condition
■ Couples who have a history of spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, or infertility
■ Couples from the same ethnic group, particularly if they are relatives
■ Women age 35 or older and men age 40 or older
Genetic counselors try to follow two ethical guidelines. First, the results of
their clients’ tests are kept confidential, beyond the reach of insurance com-
panies and public records. Second, decisions are made by the clients, not by
the counselors. These guidelines are not always easy to follow, as the following
illustrates.
Is Knowledge Always Power?
Genetic counselors, scientists, and the general public usually favor testing, rea-
soning that having some information is better than having none. However, high-
risk individuals (who might hear bad news) do not always want to know, especially
if the truth might jeopardize their marriage, their insurance coverage, or their
chance of parenthood (Duster, 1999).
Chromosomal and Genetic Abnormalities 85
thinking like a scientist
Who Decides?
One of the most difficult parts of being a scientist is knowing
how to use information so it does not harm others. Consider
these cases (adapted from Fackelmann, 1994):
1. A pregnant woman and her husband both have achondro-
plastic dwarfism, a dominant condition that affects appear-
ance (very short stature, large head) but not intellect. They
want genetic analysis of the fetus; they plan to abort if the
child would be of normal height.
2. A 40-year-old woman is tested and is told that she has the
BRCA1 gene. That means she has about an 80 percent
chance of developing breast cancer and is at high risk for
ovarian and colon cancer. She does not believe these results
and wants no one to tell her mother, her four sisters, or her
three daughters, some of whom may be in the early stages of
cancer.
3. A 30-year-old mother of two daughters (no sons) is a carrier
for hemophilia. She requests IVF and pre-implantation
analysis so that only male zygotes without the hemophilia-
carrying X chromosome will be implanted. Female zygotes,
all healthy but half of them carriers, would be destroyed, as
would the hemophiliac half of her male zygotes.
4. A couple has a child with cystic fibrosis. They want to know
if they both carry the recessive gene, in which case they will
have no more children, or if the child’s illness was the result
of a spontaneous genetic change, as may happen at concep-
tion. The test results make it apparent to the counselor that
the couple will not have a child with cystic fibrosis, because
the husband is not the child’s biological father.
Should test results be kept confidential from other family
members who are directly affected (as in examples 2 and 4)?
Should a client be given information that will lead to a decision
that the counselor believes is unethical (as in examples 1 and
3)? Most counselors answer yes, but many students say that
they would break confidentiality for examples 2 and 4 and
would refuse to test in examples 1 and 3. As a scientist, you
might try to explain information so that others reach your con-
clusions, but your job is research, not opinion. What would
you do?
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For instance, most people who have a 50/50 risk of developing Huntington’s
disease do not want to know their status unless they are contemplating parent-
hood. Those who learn that they are not carriers often have a more difficult time
coping with the news, psychologically, than their siblings who are carriers (Skirton
& Patch, 2002).
It is understandable why people might want to know the risk of conceiving a
child with a serious disorder or whether a particular fetus has a disorder, especially
if the couple already has had a child with that problem. But an entirely different
set of issues is raised by testing after birth.
Sometimes testing is helpful, because knowledge can prevent harm. This is the
case for phenylketonuria (PKU), a recessive condition that is more prevalent
among northern Europeans than other population groups (Welsh & Pennington,
2000). Newborns with the double recessive genes for PKU will become severely
retarded if they consume phenylalanine, a substance found in many foods. If such
a baby is immediately started on a diet free of that amino acid, he or she will de-
velop normally, or close to it (Hillman, 2005).
In many nations, including the United States, every newborn is tested for PKU.
Dozens of other conditions are often tested for (specifics vary by state and nation),
sometimes when no treatment is available. Is that ethical? Might bad news make
the parents less affectionate toward their baby, making the problem worse? Coun-
selors disagree (Twomey, 2006).
Coping with Uncertainty
Actually, much is uncertain in genetic testing and counseling. Those who learn
that they have a harmful dominant gene, or that they and their partner both carry
the same dangerous recessive gene, have new information but also new uncertain-
ties. Odds are that half their children will inherit the dominant gene, or that one
out of four will have the double recessive, but before actual conception those are
merely odds. Some, all, or none of their children could have the disease. Each
pregnancy is a new risk, another roll of the same dice.
Further, the interaction of genes and the environment makes development over
the life span unpredictable, even if the genes are known. For example, some people
with sickle-cell anemia suffer terribly and then die young, while others live satisfy-
86 CHAPTER 3 ■ Heredity and Environment
RO
BI
N
M
OR
GA
N
There’s Your Baby For many parents, their
first glimpse of their future child is an ultra-
sound image. This is Alice Morgan, 63 days
before birth.
phenylketonuria (PKU) A genetic disorder in
which a child’s body is unable to metabolize
an amino acid called phenylalanine. Unless
phenylalanine is eliminated from the child’s
diet, the resulting buildup of that substance
in body fluids causes brain damage, pro-
gressive mental retardation, and other
symptoms.
➤Response for History Students (from
page 84): Hemophilia is a painful chronic dis-
ease that (before blood transfusions became
feasible) killed a boy before adulthood. Though
rare, it ran in European royal families, whose
members often intermarried, which meant
that many queens (including England’s
Queen Victoria) were carriers of hemophilia
and thus were destined to watch half their
sons die of it. All families, even rulers of
nations, are distracted from their work when
they have a child with a mysterious and lethal
illness. Some historians believe that hemo-
philia among European royalty was an under-
lying cause of the Russian Revolution of 1917
as well as the spread of democracy in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
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ing lives, with occasional painful crises that can be weathered. Much depends on
the family and social context but also on medical treatments yet to be discovered
(Gustafson et al., 2006).
People respond to genetic information in different ways. Some couples at high
risk refuse to be tested. Others with the exact same genetic risk are tested and
then choose sterilization or adoption. Still others take their chances, either ac-
cepting the possibility that they may have a seriously ill child or testing the fetus
and aborting it if the double recessive is found.
For many problems, including most recessive genetic disorders and chromosomal
abnormalities, a definitive diagnosis can be made after conception but not before.
Is a couple willing to start a pregnancy and then end it if the embryo would
develop into a seriously ill child? One couple that said no and another that said yes
are presented in the next chapter, along with a more general discussion of the
methods and problems of prenatal testing.
SUMMING UP
Every person is a carrier for some serious genetic conditions. Most of them are rare,
which makes it unlikely that the combination of sperm and ovum will produce severe
disabilities. Those recessive diseases that are common occur because carriers survived
to reproduce as a result of being protected against some conditions that plagued many
of our ancestors.
Often a zygote does not have 46 chromosomes. Such zygotes rarely develop, with
two primary exceptions: Down syndrome (trisomy-21) and abnormalities of the sex
chromosomes. Genetic counseling helps couples clarify their values and understand
the risks before they conceive, but every decision raises ethical questions. Counselors
try to explain facts and probabilities, but the final decision is made by those directly
involved.
■
Chromosomal and Genetic Abnormalities 87
“The Hardest Decision I Ever Had to Make”
That’s how this woman described her deci-
sion to terminate her third pregnancy when
genetic testing revealed that the fetus had
Down syndrome. She soon became pregnant
again with a male fetus that had the normal
46 chromosomes, as did her two daughters.
Many personal factors influence such deci-
sions. Do you think she and her husband
would have made the same choice if they
had had no other children?RO
BE
RT
S
PE
N
CE
R
/ T
HE
N
EW
Y
OR
K
TI
M
ES
Especially for a Friend A female friend
asks you to go with her to the hospital, where
she is planning to be surgically sterilized. She
says she doesn’t want children, especially
since her younger brother recently died of
sickle-cell anemia, a recessive disease. What,
if anything, should you do?
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88 CHAPTER 3 ■ Heredity and Environment
The Genetic Code
1. Genes are the foundation for all development, first instructing
the living creature to form the body and brain, and then regulating
behavior. Human conception occurs when two gametes (an ovum
and a sperm, each with 23 chromosomes) combine to form a zygote,
46 chromosomes in a single cell.
2. The sex of an embryo depends on the sperm: A Y sperm creates
an XY (male) embryo; an X sperm creates an XX (female) embryo.
Every cell of every living creature has the unique genetic code of
the zygote that began that life. The human genome contains about
25,000 genes in all.
From One Cell to Many
3. Genes interact in various ways, sometimes additively, with each
gene contributing to development, and sometimes in a dominant–
recessive pattern. Environmental factors influence the phenotype
as well.
4. The environment interacts with the genetic instructions for
every trait, even for physical appearance. Every aspect of a person
is almost always multifactorial and polygenic.
5. Combinations of chromosomes, interactions among genes, and
myriad influences from the environment all assure both similarity
and diversity within and between species. This aids health and
survival.
6. Twins occur if a zygote splits into two separate beings (mono-
zygotic, or identical, twins) or if two ova are fertilized by two sperm
(dizygotic, or fraternal, twins). Monozygotic multiples are geneti-
cally the same. Dizygotic multiples have only half of their genes in
common, as do all other siblings who have the same parents.
7. Fertility treatments, including drugs and in vitro fertilization,
have led not only to the birth of millions of much-wanted babies
but also to an increase in multiple births, which have a higher rate
of medical problems.
From Genotype to Phenotype
8. Environmental influences are crucial for almost every complex
trait. This includes alcoholism and nearsightedness. Some people
are genetically susceptible to each of these, but nongenetic fac-
tors affect every condition.
9. Knowing the impact of genes and the environment can be
helpful. People are less likely to blame someone for a characteris-
tic that is inherited, but realizing that someone is at risk of a seri-
ous condition helps with prevention.
Chromosomal and Genetic Abnormalities
10. Often a gamete has fewer or more than 23 chromosomes,
creating a zygote with an odd number of chromosomes. Usually
such zygotes do not develop. The main exceptions are three
chromosomes at the 21st location (Down syndrome, or trisomy-
21) or an odd number of sex chromosomes. In such cases, the
child has physical and cognitive problems but can live a nearly
normal life.
11. Everyone is a carrier for genetic abnormalities, but usually
those conditions are recessive (not affecting their phenotype). If
dominant, the trait is usually mild, varied, or inconsequential
until late adulthood. If being a carrier for a genetic abnormality,
such as the sickle-cell trait, is protective, then that gene can be-
come widespread in a population.
12. Genetic testing and counseling can help many couples learn
whether their future children are at risk for a chromosomal or
genetic abnormality. Genetic testing usually provides information
about risks, not actualities. Couples, counselors, and cultures dif-
fer in the decisions they make.
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)
(p. 61)
chromosome (p. 61)
gene (p. 61)
genome (p. 62)
gamete (p. 63)
zygote (p. 63)
genotype (p. 63)
allele (p. 64)
23rd pair (p. 64)
XX (p. 64)
XY (p. 64)
spontaneous abortion (p. 64)
induced abortion (p. 64)
phenotype (p. 66)
polygenic (p. 67)
multifactorial (p. 67)
Human Genome Project (p. 67)
additive gene (p. 67)
dominant–recessive pattern
(p. 68)
X-linked (p. 68)
monozygotic (MZ) twins (p. 69)
dizygotic (DZ) twins (p. 70)
clone (p. 70)
in vitro fertilization (IVF) (p. 71)
infertility (p. 71)
assisted reproductive technology
(ART) (p. 71)
carrier (p. 73)
type 2 diabetes (p. 77)
mosaic (p. 79)
Down syndrome (p. 79)
fragile X syndrome (p. 81)
genetic counseling (p. 84)
phenylketonuria (PKU) (p. 86)
SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
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Summary 89
6. What are the differences among monozygotic twins, dizygotic
twins, other siblings, and clones?
7. From the prospective parents’ perspective, what are the advan-
tages and disadvantages of adoption versus ART?
8. Explain how the course of alcoholism or nearsightedness is
affected by nature and by nurture.
9. What are the causes and effects of Down syndrome?
10. Why is genetic counseling a personal decision and usually
confidential?
11. Genetic testing for various diseases is much more common
than it once was. What are the advantages and disadvantages?
1. What are the relationships among proteins, genes, chromo-
somes, and the genome?
2. How and when is the sex of a zygote determined? Why is the
ratio of boy babies to girl babies significant?
3. Which method of identifying a criminal do you think is most
accurate: a lineup of suspects, a confession, a fingerprint match,
DNA identification? Why?
4. Genetically speaking, how similar are people to one another
and to other animals?
5. Sometimes parents have a child who looks like neither of
them. How does that happen?
3. Draw a genetic chart of your biological relatives, going back as
many generations as you can, listing all serious illnesses and
causes of death. Include ancestors who died in infancy. Do you
see any genetic susceptibility? If so, how can you overcome it?
4. List a dozen people you know who need glasses (or other cor-
rective lenses) and a dozen who do not. Are there any patterns? Is
this correlation or causation?
1. Pick one of your traits, and explain the influences that both
nature and nurture have on it. For example, if you have a short
temper, explain its origins in your genetics, your culture, and your
childhood experiences.
2. Many adults have a preference for a son or a daughter. Interview
adults of several ages and backgrounds about their preferences. If
they give the socially preferable answer (“It does not matter”), ask
how they think the two sexes differ. Listen and take notes—don’t
debate. Analyze the implications of the responses you get.
KEY QUESTIONS
APPLICATIONS
➤Response for a Friend (from page 87):
She needs the information you have. She
may not be a carrier of the sickle-cell trait
(you know she doesn’t have the disease, so
she has one chance in three of not being a
carrier). Even if she is a carrier, she can have
a child with the disease only if the father of
her child is also a carrier—and then there is
only one chance in four. Urge your friend not
to do anything irreversible.
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Prenatal Development
and Birth
Wonder and worry, worry and wonder. Boy or girl? One baby ortwo? What color hair, eyes, and skin? What shape head, nose,and chin? When, how, and where will birth occur? Will thebaby be healthy, well formed, ready for life?
My friend Judy, who taught history at the United Nations School, habitu-
ally contrasted the broad sweep of global history and the immediate, local
particulars. She did this even when she was pregnant: She rubbed her belly
and said, “Statistically, this is probably a Chinese boy.”
Judy was right. The majority of newborns are male (about 52 percent), and
more of them are Chinese than any other ethnicity (about 25 percent). Given
Judy’s personal particulars, though, no one was surprised when she gave birth
to a European American girl. Judy herself seemed awestruck, repeatedly
recounting tiny details, as if no baby like hers had ever appeared before. She
was right about that, too.
This anecdote illustrates the dual themes of this chapter. Every topic—
prenatal development, possible toxins, birthweight, medical assistance,
bonding, and so on—is directly relevant to the 150 million babies born in
the world every year. Yet each pregnancy and every birth is unique. This
chapter includes both generalities and variations. Learn all you can, and
then, if you have a baby, expect to be awed by your personal miracle.
From Zygote to Newborn
The most dramatic and extensive transformation of the entire life span occurs
before birth. To make it easier to study, the awesome process of prenatal
development is often divided into three main periods. The first two weeks
are called the germinal period; the weeks from the third through the eighth
are the embryonic period; the months from the ninth week until birth are
the fetal period. (Alternative terms are discussed in Table 4.1.)
Germinal: The First 14 Days
You learned in Chapter 3 that the one-celled zygote soon begins to duplicate,
divide, and differentiate (see Figure 4.1). When the cells take on distinct
characteristics and gravitate toward particular positions, the entire cell
mass—still very fragile and tiny—is called a blastocyst.
4
91
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� From Zygote to Newborn
Germinal: The First 14 Days
Embryo: From the Third Through
the Eighth Week
Fetus: From the Ninth Week Until Birth
� Risk Reduction
Determining Risk
Protective Measures
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST:
On Punishing Pregnant Drinkers
Benefits of Prenatal Care
A CASE TO STUDY: “What Do People
Live to Do?”
A CASE TO STUDY: “What Did That
Say About Me?”
� The Birth Process
The Newborn’s First Minutes
Variations
Birth Complications
Social Support
A CASE TO STUDY: “You’d Throw
Him in a Dumpster”
Postpartum Depression
germinal period The first two weeks of pre-
natal development after conception,
characterized by rapid cell division and the
beginning of cell differentiation.
embryonic period The stage of prenatal
development from approximately the third
through the eighth week after conception,
during which the basic forms of all body
structures, including internal organs,
develop.
fetal period The stage of prenatal develop-
ment from the ninth week after conception
until birth, during which the organs grow in
size and mature in functioning.
blastocyst A cell mass that develops from
the zygote in the first few days after con-
ception, during the germinal period, and
forms a hollow sphere in preparation for
implantation.
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About a week after conception, the blastocyst, now consisting of more than 100
cells, separates into two distinct masses. The outer cells form a shell that will be-
come the placenta (the organ that develops within the mother’s uterus to protect
and nourish the developing creature), and the inner cells form the nucleus of what
will next become the embryo.
The first task of the outer cells is to achieve implantation—that is, to embed
themselves in the nurturing environment of the uterus. Implantation occurs about
10 days after conception and is hazardous (K. L. Moore & Persaud, 2003). At least
60 percent of all natural conceptions and 70 percent of all in vitro conceptions fail
to implant (see Table 4.2).
placenta The organ that surrounds the devel-
oping embryo and fetus, sustaining life via
the umbilical cord. The placenta is attached
to the wall of the uterus.
implantation The process, beginning about
10 days after conception, in which the
developing organism burrows into the pla-
centa that lines the uterus, where it can
be nourished and protected as it continues
to develop.
92 CHAPTER 4 ■ Prenatal Development and Birth
Two-celled stage
Ova
Zygote (single cell)
Conception
Fallopian
tube
Implantation
Sperm
Ovary
Ovum
FIGURE 4.1
The Most Dangerous Journey In the first
10 days after conception, the organism does
not increase in size because it is not yet nour-
ished by the mother. However, the number of
cells increases rapidly as the organism pre-
pares for implantation, which occurs success-
fully about a third of the time.
TABLE 4.1
Timing and Terminology
Popular and professional books use various phrases to segment pregnancy. The following
comments may help to clarify the phrases used.
■ Beginning of pregnancy: Pregnancy begins at conception, which is also the starting point
of gestational age. However, the organism does not become an embryo until about two
weeks later, and pregnancy does not affect the woman (and cannot be confirmed by blood
or urine testing) until implantation. Paradoxically, many obstetricians date the onset of
pregnancy from the date of the woman’s last menstrual period (LMP), about 14 days
before conception.
■ Length of pregnancy: Full-term pregnancies last 266 days, or 38 weeks, or 9 months. If
the LMP is used as the starting time, pregnancy lasts 40 weeks, sometimes expressed as
10 lunar months. (A lunar month is 28 days long.)
■ Trimesters: Instead of germinal period, embryonic period, and fetal period, some writers
divide pregnancy into three-month periods called trimesters. Months 1, 2, and 3 are called
the first trimester; months 4, 5, and 6, the second trimester; and months 7, 8, and 9, the
third trimester.
■ Due date: Although doctors assign a specific due date (based on the woman’s LMP), only
5 percent of babies are born on that exact date. Babies born between three weeks before
and two weeks after that date are considered “full term” or “on time.” Babies born earlier
are called preterm; babies born later are called post-term. The words preterm and post-
term are more accurate than premature and postmature.
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Embryo: From the Third Through the Eighth Week
The start of the third week initiates the embryonic period, when the former blasto-
cyst becomes a distinct being—not yet recognizably human but worthy of a new
name, embryo. The first sign of a human body structure appears as a thin line
(called the primitive streak) down the middle of the embryo. This line becomes the
neural tube 22 days after conception, eventually developing into the central nervous
system—the brain and spinal cord (K. L. Moore & Persaud, 2003).
The head begins to take shape in the fourth week, as eyes, ears, nose, and
mouth form. Also in the fourth week, a minuscule blood vessel that will become
the heart begins to pulsate, making the cardiovascular system the first to show any
activity.
By the fifth week, buds that will become arms and legs appear. The upper arms
and then forearms, palms, and webbed fingers form. Legs, feet, and webbed toes,
in that order, emerge a few days later, each with the beginning of a skeletal struc-
ture. Then—52 and 54 days after conception, respectively—the fingers and toes
separate.
embryo The name for a developing organism
from about the third through the eighth
week after conception.
From Zygote to Newborn 93
TABLE 4.2
Vulnerability During Prenatal Development
The Germinal Period
At least 60 percent of all developing organisms fail to grow or implant properly and thus do
not survive the germinal period. Most of these organisms are grossly abnormal.
The Embryonic Period
About 20 percent of all embryos are aborted spontaneously, most often because of
chromosomal abnormalities.
The Fetal Period
About 5 percent of all fetuses are aborted spontaneously before viability at 22 weeks or are
stillborn, defined as born dead after 22 weeks.
Birth
About 31 percent of all zygotes grow and survive to become living newborn babies.
Sources: Bentley & Mascie-Taylor, 2000; K. L. Moore & Persaud, 2003.
First Stages of the Germinal Period The original zygote as it divides into (a) two cells, (b) four cells, and (c) eight cells. Occasionally
at this early stage, the cells separate completely, forming the beginning of monozygotic twins, quadruplets, or octuplets.
(a) (b) (c)
AL
L:
P
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IT
F
OR
M
AT
/
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/ S
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S
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, I
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C.
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At the eighth week after conception (56 days), the embryo weighs just one-
thirtieth of an ounce (1 gram) and is about 1 inch (21⁄2 centimeters) long. The head
has become rounded, and the features of the face are formed. The embryo has all
the basic organs and body parts of a human being, including elbows and knees,
nostrils and toes, and a unisex structure called the indifferent gonad. It moves
frequently, about 150 times an hour (Piontelli, 2002).
Fetus: From the Ninth Week Until Birth
The developing organism is called a fetus from the ninth week after conception
until birth. During the fetal period, it develops from a tiny, sexless creature smaller
than the last joint of your thumb to a 71⁄2-pound, 20-inch (3,400 grams, 51 cen-
timeters) boy or girl.
The Third Month
If an embryo is male (XY), the SRY gene on the Y chromosome commands that
male sexual organs develop; with no such command, the indifferent gonad devel-
ops into female sex organs. By the 12th week, the genitals are fully formed and are
sending hormones to the developing brain. Although most functions of the brain
are gender-neutral, hormones cause some sex differences in brain organization by
mid-pregnancy (Cameron, 2001).
At the end of the third month, the fetus has all its body parts, weighs approxi-
mately 3 ounces (87 grams), and is about 3 inches (7.5 centimeters) long. Early
prenatal growth is very rapid, but there is considerable variation from fetus to fetus,
especially in body weight (K. L. Moore & Persaud, 2003). The numbers just given
—3 months, 3 ounces, 3 inches—are rounded off for easy recollection. (For those
on the metric system, “100 days, 100 millimeters, 100 grams” is similarly useful.)
Despite the variations, some aspects of third-month growth are universal. The
fetus is too small to survive outside the womb, the organs are not yet functioning,
but all the body structures are in place.
94 CHAPTER 4 ■ Prenatal Development and Birth
fetus The name for a developing organism
from the ninth week after conception
until birth.
The Embryonic Period (a) At 4 weeks past conception, the embryo is
only about 1⁄8 inch (3 millimeters) long, but already the head (top right) has
taken shape. (b) At 5 weeks past conception, the embryo has grown to
twice the size it was at 4 weeks. Its primitive heart, which has been puls-
ing for a week now, is visible, as is what appears to be a primitive tail,
which will soon be enclosed by skin and protective tissue at the tip of the
backbone (the coccyx). (c) By 7 weeks, the organism is somewhat less
than an inch (21⁄2 centimeters) long. Eyes, nose, the digestive system,
and even the first stage of toe formation can be seen. (d) At 8 weeks, the
1-inch-long organism is clearly recognizable as a human fetus.
(a) (b) (c) (d)
(A
–C
):
PE
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TL
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(D
):
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IC
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LI
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/
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M
ED
IC
AL
S
TO
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TO
Especially for Feminists Many people
believe that the differences between the
sexes are primarily sociocultural, not
biological. Is there any prenatal support for
that view?
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The Middle Three Months:
Preparing to Survive
In the fourth, fifth, and sixth months,
the heartbeat becomes stronger and the
cardiovascular system becomes more
active. Digestive and excretory systems
develop. Fingernails, toenails, and buds
for teeth form, and hair grows (includ-
ing eyelashes).
Amazing as body growth is, the brain
is even more impressive, increasing
about six times in size and developing
many new neurons, or brain cells (in a
process called neurogenesis), and syn-
apses (synaptogenesis), which are con-
nections between neurons. The neurons
begin to organize themselves, some
dying, some extending long axons to
distant neurons (Kolb & Whishaw,
2003). Brain growth and neurological
organization continue for years, as you will see in later chapters (in which neu-
rons, synapses, and axons are explained more fully), but the entire central nervous
system first emerges during mid-pregnancy.
Advances in fetal brain functioning are critical to attainment of the age of via-
bility, the age at which a preterm newborn can survive. That’s because the brain
regulates basic body functions, such as breathing and sucking. With advanced
medical care, the age of viability is about 22 weeks after conception, although
most such babies weigh under 500 grams (less than a pound). (For a summary of
information about preterm birthweights, see Table 4.7 on page 113.)
Babies born before 22 weeks of gestation do not survive. This 22-week barrier
has not been reduced by even the most sophisticated respirators and heart regula-
tors, probably because maintaining life requires some brain response (Paul et al.,
2006). At 23–26 weeks, the survival rate improves to up to two-thirds (Kelly, 2006;
Wilson-Costello et al., 2007).
However, these newborns are vulnerable. A study that compared 8-year-olds
who had been born very early with others who had been born “full term” (at 35–40
weeks) found that 20 percent of the preterm children had cerebral palsy, 41
percent had some mental retardation, and only 20 percent had no
disabilities (Marlow et al., 2005). Although fewer 22- to 28-week-
old newborns were stillborn in the past decade, their mortality and
morbidity have not improved, leading one team to suggest that
neonatal care has reached its limits (Paul et al., 2006).
At about 28 weeks, brain-wave patterns include occasional
bursts of activity that resemble the sleep–wake cycles of a newborn
(Joseph, 2000), and heart rate and body movement become reac-
tive, not random, decreasing when the fetus needs rest. Because of
brain maturation, most babies born at 28 weeks develop normally.
Weight is also significant. By 28 weeks, the typical fetus weighs
about 3 pounds (1.3 kilograms), and its chances of survival are 95
percent.
Maturity is more crucial than birthweight. Even very tiny babies
sometimes live if they are a few weeks past the age of viability.
From Zygote to Newborn 95
The Fetus At the end of 4 months, the fetus,
now 6 inches long, looks fully formed but
out of proportion—the distance from the top
of the skull to the neck is almost as long as
that from the neck to the rump. For many
more weeks, the fetus must depend on the
translucent membranes of the placenta and
umbilical cord (the long white object in the
foreground) for survival.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 96):
Can you see eyebrows, fingernails, and
genitals?
Can He Hear? A fetus, just about at the age
of viability, is shown fingering his ear. Such
gestures are probably random; but, yes, he
can hear.
age of viability The age (about 22 weeks
after conception) at which a fetus might
survive outside the mother’s uterus if
specialized medical care is available.
S.
J
. A
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/
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SE
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C.
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Rumaisa Rahman was born after 25 weeks and 6 days weighing only
8.6 ounces (244 grams). Rumaisa had four advantages besides her ges-
tational maturity: her sex (boys are more likely to die); her birthplace
(Chicago’s Loyola University Hospital, which specializes in preterm ba-
bies); her birth process (cesarean delivery is easier on the fetus); and
the reason she was so tiny (she was a twin) (CBS News, 2005).
Another very tiny preterm infant has bucked the odds and survived.
Amillia Taylor was born in October 2006 after only 21 weeks and six
days in the uterus—a new record. Since she was conceived via IVF, she
was actually 22 weeks old at birth, weighing just 10 ounces (284 grams)
and measuring a mere 91⁄2 inches. As with Rumaisa, her survival was
aided by her sex and place of birth, a specialized neonatal facility within
Baptist Children’s Hospital of Miami, Florida (Wingert, 2007).
The Final Three Months: From Viability to Full Term
Attaining viability simply means that life outside the womb is possible. Each day of
the final three months of prenatal growth improves the odds not merely of survival
but of a healthy and happy baby.
A viable preterm infant born in the seventh month is a tiny creature requiring
intensive hospital care and life-support systems for each gram of nourishment and
for every shallow breath. By contrast, after nine months or so, the typical full-term
infant is a vigorous person, ready to thrive at home on mother’s milk—no expert
help, oxygenated air, or special feeding required.
The critical difference between a fragile preterm baby and a robust newborn is
maturation of the neurological, respiratory, and cardiovascular systems. In the last
three months of prenatal life, brain waves indicate responsiveness; the lungs ex-
pand and contract using the amniotic fluid as a substitute for air; and heart valves,
arteries, and veins circulate the fetal blood.
Weight gain in the last three months is about 41⁄2 pounds (2,000 grams). This
ensures adequate nutrition to the rapidly developing brain and thus avoids severe
malnutrition in the second half of pregnancy, which would reduce the baby’s abil-
ity to learn (Georgieff & Rao, 2001). At full term, human brain growth is so exten-
sive that the cortex (the brain’s advanced outer layer) forms several folds in order
to fit into the skull (see Figure 4.2).
The relationship between mother and child intensifies during the final three
months, for fetal size and movements make the pregnant woman very aware of it.
In turn, the fetus becomes aware of her sounds (voice and heartbeat), smells (via
amniotic fluid), and behavior (Aslin & Hunt, 2001). Regular walking is soothing,
and sudden noises cause the fetus to jump. When the mother is highly fearful
or anxious, the fetal heart beats faster and body movements increase (DiPietro
et al., 2002).
SUMMING UP
In two weeks of rapid cell duplication, differentiation, and finally implantation, the one-
celled zygote becomes a blastocyst and then a many-celled embryo. The embryo devel-
ops the beginning of the central nervous system (3 weeks), a heart and a face (4 weeks),
arms and legs (5 weeks), hands and feet (6 weeks), and fingers and toes (7 weeks),
while the inner organs take shape. By 8 weeks, all the body structures, except male and
female organs, are in place. Fetal development proceeds rapidly, with weight gain
(about 2 pounds, or 900 grams) and brain maturation, which make viability possible by
about 22 weeks. Further development of the brain, lungs, and heart make the full-term,
35- to 40-week-old newborn ready for life.
■
96 CHAPTER 4 ■ Prenatal Development and Birth
The World’s Littlest Baby For reasons dis-
cussed in the text, tiny Rumaisa Rahmon has
a good chance of living a full, normal life.
Rumaisa gained 5 pounds (2,270 grams) in
the hospital and then, 6 months after her
birth, went home. Her twin sister, Hiba, who
weighed 1.3 pounds (600 grams) at birth, had
gone home two months earlier. At their one-
year birthday, the twins seemed normal, with
Rumaisa weighing 15 pounds (6,800 grams)
and Hiba 17 (7,711 grams) (CBS News, 2005).
LO
YO
LA
U
N
IV
ER
SI
TY
H
EA
LT
H
SY
ST
EM
H
O
/ A
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O
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
95): Yes, yes, and no. Genitals are formed, but
they are not visible in this photo. The object
growing from the lower belly is the umbilical
cord.
➤Response for Feminists (from page 94):
Only one of the 46 human chromosomes
determines sex, and the genitals develop last
in the prenatal sequence. Sex differences are
apparent before birth, but they are relatively
minor.
090-121_BergerLS7e_CH04.qxp 9/21/07 12:18 PM Page 96

Risk Reduction
Many toxins, illnesses, and experiences can harm a developing person before
birth. If this topic alarms you, bear in mind that the large majority of newborns are
healthy and capable. Only about 3 percent have major structural anomalies, such
as cleft palate, malformed organs, or missing limbs (K. L. Moore & Persaud, 2003),
and another 10 percent have minor physical problems that modern medicine can
treat, such as an extra digit or an undescended testicle.
Prenatal development should be thought of not as a dangerous period to be
feared but as a natural process to be protected. The goal of teratology, the study of
birth defects, is to increase the odds that every newborn will have a healthy start.
Teratogens are substances (such as drugs and pollutants) and conditions (such
as severe malnutrition and extreme stress) that increase the risk of prenatal
abnormalities.
Teratogens cause not only physical problems but also impaired learning and be-
havior. Teratogens that harm the brain, making a child hyperactive, antisocial,
learning-disabled, and so on, are called behavioral teratogens. The origins of
Risk Reduction 97
teratogens Agents and conditions, including
viruses, drugs, and chemicals, that can
impair prenatal development and result in
birth defects or even death.
behavioral teratogens Agents and conditions
that can harm the prenatal brain, impairing
the future child’s intellectual and emotional
functioning.
Brain
stem
Forebrain
Hindbrain
Midbrain
(a) 25 days (b) 50 days (c) 100 days
(d) 20 weeks (e) 28 weeks
(f) 36 weeks (full term)
Source: Adapted from Cowan, 1997, p. 116.
Neural tube
(forms spinal cord)
FIGURE 4.2
Prenatal Growth of the Brain Just 25 days after conception (a), the central nervous system is already
evident. The brain looks distinctly human by day 100 (c). By the 28th week of gestation (e), at the very
time brain activity begins, the various sections of the brain are recognizable. When the fetus is full term
(f), all the parts of the brain, including the cortex (the outer layer), are formed, folding over one another
and becoming more convoluted, or wrinkled, as the number of brain cells increases.
Especially for the Friend of a Pregnant
Woman Suppose that your friend is
frightened of having an abnormal child. She
refuses to read about prenatal development
because she is afraid to learn about what
could go wrong. What could you tell her?
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such problems are difficult to trace, but about 20 percent of all children have be-
havioral difficulties (usually not noticed until years after birth) that could be con-
nected to damage done during the prenatal period.
Determining Risk
It was once believed that the placenta screened out all harmful substances. Then
two tragedies occurred. Doctors on an Australian military base traced an increase
in blindness among newborns to rubella (German measles) contracted by preg-
nant women a few months earlier (Gregg, 1941, in Persaud et al., 1985); a sudden
increase in European infants born with missing or deformed arms and legs in the
late 1950s was traced to a new drug called thalidomide (Schardein, 1976). It be-
came obvious that scientists needed to know how this happened, and teratology
began.
Teratology is a science of risk analysis, of weighing the chances that a particu-
lar teratogen (substance or condition that could cause harm) will affect the fetus.
Understanding risk is crucial for understanding human development; every period
of life entails certain risks, and much harm can be avoided.
All teratogens increase risk, but none always cause damage. Several influential
prenatal factors—timing, dosage, and genes—are described here. Other, postnatal
influences—such as early care and attachment—are discussed in the three chap-
ters on infancy (5, 6, and 7). Still others—education, friendship, vocation—are
discussed later in this text.
Timing of Exposure
One crucial factor is timing—the age of the developing organism when it is ex-
posed to the teratogen. Some teratogens cause damage early in prenatal develop-
ment, when a particular part of the body is forming. Thalidomide, for example,
stopped the formation of arms and legs in weeks 6 or 7 but caused no damage
after week 9.
The time of greatest susceptibility is called the critical period. As you can see
in Figure 4.3, each body structure has its own critical period. The entire six weeks
of the embryonic stage can be called a critical period for physical structure and
form, with the specifics varying somewhat week by week (K. L. Moore & Persaud,
2003).
Because the early days are critical, most obstetricians today recommend that
before pregnancy, all couples get counseling, stop using recreational drugs (espe-
cially alcohol), and update their immunizations (Kuller et al., 2001). In addition, a
prospective mother should make sure her body is ready by supplementing a bal-
anced diet with extra folic acid and iron. Not all women follow these recommen-
dations (see Table 4.3).
Since the brain continues to grow throughout prenatal development, there is no
safe period for behavioral teratogens. Teratogens that cause preterm birth or low
birthweight (notably cigarettes) are particularly harmful in the second half of preg-
nancy, but, for many reasons, women should stop smoking or ingesting any drugs,
and start eating well and taking prenatal vitamins, before conceiving.
Amount of Exposure
A second important factor is the dose and/or frequency of exposure. Some teratogens
have a threshold effect; that is, they are virtually harmless until exposure reaches
a certain level, at which point they “cross the threshold” and become damaging
(Reece & Hobbins, 2007). Indeed, a few substances are beneficial in small amounts
risk analysis The science of weighing the
potential effects of a particular event, sub-
stance, or experience to determine the
likelihood of harm. In teratology, risk analy-
sis attempts to evaluate everything that
affects the chances that a particular agent
or condition will cause damage to an
embryo or fetus.
critical period In prenatal development, the
time when a particular organ or other body
part of the embryo or fetus is most sus-
ceptible to damage by teratogens.
threshold effect A situation in which a certain
teratogen is relatively harmless in small
doses but becomes harmful once exposure
reaches a certain level (the threshold).
98 CHAPTER 4 ■ Prenatal Development and Birth
➤Response for the Friend of a Pregnant
Woman (from page 97): Reassure her that
almost all pregnancies turn out fine, partly
because most defective fetuses are spontane-
ously aborted (miscarried) and partly because
protective factors are active throughout
pregnancy. Equally important, the more she
learns about teratogens, the more she will
learn about protecting her fetus. Many birth
defects and complications can be prevented
with good prenatal care.
090-121_BergerLS7e_CH04.qxp 9/25/07 3:19 PM Page 98

but fiercely teratogenic in large quantities. For example, vitamin A is an essential
part of the prenatal diet, but more than 10,000 units per day may be too much and
50,000 units can cause abnormalities in body structures.
For most teratogens, experts hesitate to specify a safe threshold. One reason
is the interaction effect, when one teratogen intensifies the impact of another.
Alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana interact, doing more harm in combination than
any one of them does alone. Ironically, using any one of these three makes a preg-
nant woman likely to use the others as well.
Genetic Vulnerability
A third factor that determines whether a specific teratogen will be harmful, and to
what extent, is the developing organism’s genes (Mann & Andrews, 2007). Although
Especially for Nutritionists Is it beneficial
that most breakfast cereals are fortified with
vitamins and minerals?
Risk Reduction 99
interaction effect The result of a combination
of teratogens. Sometimes risk is greatly
magnified when an embryo or fetus is
exposed to more than one teratogen at
the same time.
3 2 1 4 5 6 7 8 9 16 32 38
Fetal Period (in weeks) Main Embryonic Period (in weeks) Germinal Period
Major congenital anomaliesTeratogens often
prevent implantation
Source: Adapted from K. L. Moore & Persaud, 2003.
Palate
Sex organs
Masculinization of
female genitalia
Functional defects and minor anomalies
Cleft palate
Enamel staining
Cataracts, glaucoma
Low-set malformed ears and deafness
Cleft lip
Heart
Arms
Legs
Lips
Ears
Eyes
Teeth
Birth Defects from Teratogens: Time of Exposure and Effect on Major Organs
Neural-tube defects Mental retardation Learning disabilities
Common site(s)
of action of
teratogens
Less critical
period
Highly critical
period
Central nervous system
CNS
CNS CNS
CNS
Ear Ear
Eye
Eye
Eye Eye
Heart
Heart
Heart Sex organs
Arm
Arm
Leg
FIGURE 4.3
Critical Periods in Human Development The most serious damage from teratogens (orange bars) is likely to
occur early in prenatal development. However, significant damage (purple bars) to many vital parts of the body,
including the brain, eyes, and genitals, can occur during the last months of pregnancy as well.
090-121_BergerLS7e_CH04.qxp 9/10/07 4:51 PM Page 99

precise genetic research has not yet connected fetal genes and teratogens, it is ap-
parent that dizygotic twins, exposed to the same teratogens, experience different
effects. Cleft lip, cleft palate, and club foot almost certainly result from a combi-
nation of genetic vulnerability, stress, and inadequate nutrition (Botto et al., 2004;
Hartl & Jones, 1999).
International comparisons of rates of birth defects also suggest that genes are a
factor (World Health Organization, 2003). For example, Japan has relatively low
rates of many birth defects, but its rate of newborns with cleft lip is three times
that of Canada. The fact that nations, and even regions within nations, have high
rates of some defects and low rates of others suggests genetic vulnerabilities and
protections.
Genes are known to affect the likelihood of neural-tube defects (see Table 3.2,
pp. 82–83). Both spina bifida and microcephaly are more common in some ethnic
groups (specifically, among infants of Irish, English, and Egyptian descent) and
less common in others (most Asian and African groups), because some groups
have more carriers of an allele that decreases the normal utilization of folic acid
(Mills et al., 1995). Knowing this led to a solution: If every pregnant woman con-
sumed extra folic acid, the embryos with this allele would still get enough of this B
vitamin to develop a normal nervous system.
Since the genes of the fetus are unknown, and the central nervous system be-
gins to form in the third week after conception, women are urged to take vitamins
with folic acid before becoming pregnant. Only a third of U.S. women take extra
folic acid before conception (Suellentrop et al., 2006). However, thanks to a 1996
U.S. law and a 1998 Canadian one, cereal and bread manufactured in those coun-
tries are now fortified with folic acid. As a result, folic acid consumption in the
United States has increased by 50 percent (Bentley et al., 2006), and neural-tube
defects have decreased by 26 percent (MMWR, September 13, 2002). In Europe,
where no food fortification has occurred, neural-tube defects have not decreased
(Botto et al., 2005).
100 CHAPTER 4 ■ Prenatal Development and Birth
TABLE 4.3
Before You Become Pregnant
What Prospective Mothers Should Do What Prospective Mothers Really Do (U. S. data)
1. Take a daily multivitamin with folic acid.
2. Avoid binge drinking (defined as 4 or more drinks in a row).
3. Update immunizations against all teratogenic viruses,
especially rubella.
4. Gain or lose weight, as appropriate.
5. Reassess your use of prescription drugs.
6. Know status regarding sexually transmitted diseases.
1. In 2004, 40 percent of women aged 18 to 45 did so, up from 30
percent in previous years.
2. One-eighth of all women who might become pregnant (are sexually
active, use no contraception) binge-drink (55 percent of binge drinkers
are alcoholics).
3. Because of laws regarding school admission, most young women in
the United States are well immunized.
4. Babies born to underweight women are at risk for low birthweight.
Babies born to obese women have three times the usual rate of birth
complications.
5. Eighty-five percent of pregnant women are taking prescription drugs
(not counting vitamins).
6. Only a third of sexually active women get tested for the most
common STD, chlamydia. Even fewer are screened for other, more
dangerous infections, such as syphilis and HIV.
Sources: Andrade et al., 2004; Cedergren, 2004; MMWR, September 17, 2004; MMWR, October 29, 2004; MMWR, December 24, 2004.
➤Response for Nutritionists (from page
99): Useful, yes; optimal, no. Some essential
vitamins are missing (too expensive), and
individual needs differ, depending on age, sex,
health, genes, and eating habits. The reduction
in neural-tube defects is good, but many
women do not benefit because they don’t eat
cereal or take vitamin supplements before
becoming pregnant.
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In some cases, genetic vulnerability is related to the sex of the developing or-
ganism. Generally, males (XY) are at greater risk. That is one explanation for the
more frequent spontaneous abortions of male than female fetuses. In addition,
boys have more birth defects, learning disabilities, and other problems caused by
behavioral teratogens.
Protective Measures
Because of the many variables involved, the results of teratogenic exposure cannot
be predicted in individual cases. However, much is known about common and
damaging teratogens and about how individuals and society can reduce the risks.
Table 4.4, on pages 103–104, lists some teratogens and their effects, as well as
preventive measures.
Some pregnant women are exposed to these teratogens with no evident harm,
and some defects occur for reasons unknown. Women are advised to avoid all
drugs, chemicals in pesticides (including bug spray), construction materials (in-
cluding solvents), and cosmetics (including hair dye) before becoming pregnant.
Such advice is easy to give but not easy to follow. Even doctors should be more
careful. A study (see Research Design) of 152,000 births in eight U.S. health main-
tenance organizations (HMOs) found that doctors wrote an average of three pre-
scriptions per pregnant woman, including many for drugs not declared safe during
pregnancy (prescribed for 38 percent) and some for drugs with proven risks to
human fetuses (prescribed for 5 percent). Some of those drugs with proven risks
(3.4 percent) were in the Food and Drug Administration’s category D, meaning that
even though they have been proven to be sometimes harmful, they may be worth
the risk for the sake of the mother’s health. A few (1 percent) were in category X,
meaning that they should never be taken because they are proven teratogens and
alternatives are available (Andrade et al., 2004).
How could this happen? Perhaps the doctors did not know that their patients
were pregnant (the women had already had their first prenatal visit, but they
might not have told the prescribing doctor), or perhaps the women did not take
the drugs. But women are not always cautious: A nationwide survey has found that
some women acknowledge smoking (14 percent) and drinking (5 percent) during
the last 3 months of their pregnancies (Suellentrop et al., 2006).
In the past few decades, scientists have identified hundreds of teratogens that
might harm an embryo or fetus. Almost every common disease, almost every food
additive, most prescription and nonprescription drugs (even caffeine and aspirin),
trace minerals in the air and water, emotional stress, exhaustion, and even hunger
are suspected of impairing prenatal development. Why have scientists not acted
on this information, perhaps by calling on the authorities to take away the license
of any doctor who prescribed any drug to a pregnant woman or to arrest any
woman who smoked or drank?
Remember the scientific method. A hypothesis is tested in many ways, conclu-
sions are tentatively drawn, and researchers note limitations and examine alterna-
tive explanations. Most research on teratogens has been done with mice; harm to
humans is rarely proven to the satisfaction of every scientist. Definitive proof may
take decades, and scientists are taught to be careful.
What would it take for scientists to agree that a substance was a teratogen for
humans? A substance would need to be given to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of
pregnant women, at various times in the pregnancy (early, late, throughout), with
no confounding influences (the women would need to be similar in genes, nutri-
tion, health, medical care). Then their offspring would have to be examined not
Risk Reduction 101
Research Design
Scientists: Susan Andrade and others.
Publication: American Journal of
Obstetrics and Gynecology (2004).
Participants: 152,531 women who gave
birth from 1996 to 2000.
Design: Computer search of records
from eight HMOs for prescriptions
written for these participants between
the date of the first prenatal visit and
the delivery date.
Major conclusion: Many doctors pre-
scribe drugs for pregnant women that
are not known to be safe.
Comment:This method avoids the pos-
sibility of women or doctors forgetting
or denying drug use during pregnancy.
However, some of the women may not
have taken the drugs that were pre-
scribed for them, either by their own
choice or on advice from a physician.
Follow-up research is needed to estab-
lish a correlation between birth defects
and drugs prescribed.
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102 CHAPTER 4 ■ Prenatal Development and Birth
thinking like a scientist
On Punishing Pregnant Drinkers
Alcohol in high doses is a proven teratogen. Proof did not come
easy; 40 years ago drinking alcohol during pregnancy was be-
lieved to be harmless. But some obstetricians noted that a few
patients who drank heavily had babies with distorted facial fea-
tures, including small eyes and a thin upper lip. As those chil-
dren grew, they turned out to be mentally retarded, impulsive,
and hyperactive. This combination was given the name fetal al-
cohol syndrome (FAS).
The diagnosis of FAS was possible because alcohol was
widely used. That meant that, once suspicions were raised, the
correlation between excessive maternal drinking and fetal harm
became “obvious.” This hypothesis was tested with thousands of
mice and monkeys and with alcoholic women throughout the
world, including, recently, in South Africa (May et al., 2005).
Replication over the decades has convinced all scientists.
However, not every pregnant woman who drinks heavily has
a newborn with FAS. Might the risk of being born with FAS be
dose-related or genetic? If FAS is not visibly present, might the
infant become hyperactive or a slow learner? Surveys and longi-
tudinal studies have confirmed a correlation between drinking
by a pregnant woman and damage to the fetus (Streissguth &
Connor, 2001).
Not all scientists are convinced. Some infants born to drink-
ing mothers seem unharmed, and many pregnant drinkers have
other problems: drug abuse; unstable eating and sleeping pat-
terns; bouts of anxiety, stress, or depression; accidental injuries;
domestic violence; sexual infections; malnutrition; illnesses;
lack of family support; and inadequate medical care. Any of
these can lead to hyperactivity and slower learning in a child,
whether the mother drinks or not. Some scientists (especially in
Europe) wonder whether occasional, moderate drinking during
pregnancy might be acceptable. They note that moderate drink-
ing aids human longevity (Smith & Hart, 2002).
Nevertheless, most doctors in the United States advise preg-
nant women to abstain completely from alcohol. Moreover,
since 1998, four states have authorized “involuntary commit-
ment” ( jail or forced residential treatment) for pregnant women
who do not stop drinking (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse
and Addiction, 2006). Many individual doctors and the Ameri-
can Medical Association fear that the threat of such punish-
ment will cause the women who most need prenatal care to
avoid getting it. Developmental scientists ask whether, since
every person is powerfully affected by his or her social context,
not just pregnant women who drink but also their husbands,
mothers, and bartenders should also risk jail.
Of course, that would be madness—millions of people
would be jailed. But if that were not done, the law would be se-
lectively enforced, and that is a problem as well. Prejudice
might also be involved: The four states that do incarcerate preg-
nant drinkers (North and South Dakota, Wisconsin, Oklahoma)
all have more American Indians than the national average.
Only after a fetus is born does FAS become apparent. To tar-
get only one teratogen and to punish women before harm be-
comes evident is contrary to the scientific method, which seeks
proof. But will scientific caution mean that millions of children
will suffer because of substances not yet proven to be terato-
gens? If a pregnant woman you knew ordered a glass of wine,
would you try to stop her?
fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) A cluster of
birth defects, including abnormal facial
characteristics, slow physical growth, and
retarded mental development, caused
by the mother’s drinking alcohol while
pregnant.
Yes, But . . . An adopted boy points out something to his disabled
father—a positive interaction between the two. The shapes of the
boy’s eyes, ears, and upper lip indicate that he was born with fetal
alcohol syndrome. Scientists disagree about a correlation between
FAS and drinking alcohol during pregnancy.
©
D
AV
ID
H
. W
EL
LS
/
CO
RB
IS
only at birth but for decades afterward, because the damage done by some terato-
gens becomes evident only in adulthood. For example, many pregnant women took
a drug called DES in the 1960s; their adult children have a higher than average
risk of problems with their sex organs.
The clash between the urgency of protecting future children and the caution of
the scientific method is further illustrated by the story of fetal alcohol syndrome.
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(continued on page 104)
Risk Reduction 103
TABLE 4.4
Teratogens: Effects of Exposure and Prevention of Damage
Teratogens Effects on Child of Exposure Measures for Preventing Damage
Diseases
Rubella (German measles)
Toxoplasmosis
Measles, chicken pox, influenza
Syphilis
AIDS
Other sexually transmitted diseases,
including gonorrhea and chlamydia
Infections, including infections of urinary
tract, gums, and teeth
Pollutants
Lead, mercury, PCBs (polychlorinated
biphenyls), dioxin, and some pesticides,
herbicides, and cleaning compounds
Radiation
Massive or repeated exposure to radiation,
as in medical X-rays
Social and Behavioral Factors
Very high stress
Malnutrition
Excessive, exhausting exercise
Medicinal Drugs
Lithium
Tetracycline
Retinoic acid
Streptomycin
ACE inhibitors
Phenobarbital
Thalidomide
Get immunized before becoming pregnant
Avoid eating undercooked meat and handling
cat feces, garden dirt
Get immunized before getting pregnant;
avoid infected people during pregnancy
Early prenatal diagnosis and treatment with
antibiotics
Prenatal drugs and cesarean birth make AIDS
transmission very rare.
Early diagnosis and treatment; if necessary,
cesarean section, treatment of newborn
Get infection treated, preferably before
becoming pregnant
Most common substances are harmless in
small doses, but pregnant women should still
avoid regular and direct exposure, such as
drinking well water, eating unwashed fruits or
vegetables, using chemical compounds,
eating fish from polluted waters
Get sonograms, not X-rays, during
pregnancy; pregnant women who work
directly with radiation need special protection
or temporary assignment to another job
Get adequate relaxation, rest, and sleep;
reduce hours of employment; get help with
housework and child care
Eat a balanced diet (with adequate vitamins
and minerals, including, especially, folic acid,
iron, and vitamin A); achieve normal weight
before getting pregnant, then gain 25–35 lbs
(10–15 kg) during pregnancy
Get regular, moderate exercise
Avoid all medicines, whether prescription or
over-the-counter, during pregnancy unless
they are approved by a medical professional
who knows about the pregnancy and is
aware of the most recent research
In embryonic period, causes blindness and
deafness; in first and second trimesters,
causes brain damage
Brain damage, loss of vision, mental
retardation
May impair brain functioning
Baby is born with syphilis, which, untreated,
leads to brain and bone damage and eventual
death
Baby may catch the virus. If so, illness and
death are likely during childhood.
Not usually harmful during pregnancy but
may cause blindness and infections if
transmitted during birth
May cause premature labor, which increases
vulnerability to brain damage
May cause spontaneous abortion, preterm
labor, and brain damage
In the embryonic period, may cause
abnormally small head (microcephaly) and
mental retardation; in the fetal period,
suspected but not proven to cause brain
damage. Exposure to background radiation,
as from power plants, is usually too low to
have an effect.
Early in pregnancy, may cause cleft lip or cleft
palate, spontaneous abortion, or preterm
labor
When severe, may interfere with conception,
implantation, normal fetal development, and
full-term birth
Can affect fetal development when it
interferes with pregnant woman’s sleep or
digestion
Can cause heart abnormalities
Can harm the teeth
Can cause limb deformities
Can cause deafness
Can harm digestive organs
Can affect brain development
Can stop ear and limb formation
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104 CHAPTER 4 ■ Prenatal Development and Birth
Psychoactive Drugs
Caffeine
Alcohol
Tobacco
Marijuana
Heroin
Cocaine
Inhaled solvents
(glue or aerosol)
TABLE 4.4 (continued from page 103)
Teratogens: Effects of Exposure and Prevention of Damage
Teratogens Effects on Child of Exposure Measures for Preventing Damage
Normal use poses no problem
May cause fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) or
fetal alcohol effects (FAE) (see Thinking Like a
Scientist, p. 102)
Increases risk of malformations of limbs and
urinary tract, and may affect the baby’s lungs
Heavy exposure may affect the central
nervous system; when smoked, may hinder
fetal growth
Slows fetal growth and may cause premature
labor; newborns with heroin in their blood-
stream require medical treatment to prevent
the pain and convulsions of withdrawal
May cause slow fetal growth, premature
labor, and learning problems in the first years
of life
May cause abnormally small head, crossed
eyes, and other indications of brain damage
Avoid excessive use: Drink no more than
three cups a day of beverages containing
caffeine (coffee, tea, cola drinks, hot
chocolate)
Stop or severely limit alcohol consumption
during pregnancy; especially dangerous are
three or more drinks a day or five or more
drinks on one occasion
Stop smoking before and during pregnancy
Avoid or strictly limit marijuana consumption
Get treated for heroin addiction before
becoming pregnant; if already pregnant,
gradual withdrawal on methadone is better
than continued use of heroin
Stop using cocaine before pregnancy; babies
of cocaine-using mothers may need special
medical and educational attention in their first
years of life
Stop sniffing inhalants before becoming
pregnant; be aware that serious damage can
occur before a woman knows she is
pregnant
Note: This table summarizes some relatively common teratogenic effects. As the text makes clear, many individual factors in each pregnancy affect whether
a given teratogen will actually cause damage and what that damage might be. This is a general summary of what is known; new evidence is reported almost
daily, so some of these generalities will change. Pregnant women or women who want to become pregnant should consult with their physicians.
Sources: Reece & Hobbins, 2007; Mann & Andrews, 2007; O’Rahilly & Müller, 2001; Shepard & Lemire, 2004; L.T. Singer et al., 2002.
Benefits of Prenatal Care
There are many advantages to obtaining early prenatal care (Reece & Hobbins,
2007). Chief among them is protection against teratogens—knowing what medi-
cines to avoid and what foods to eat, for instance. Another advantage is that a sono-
gram (an image of the fetus, taken with sound waves) allows parents and doctors to
see if the fetus is developing normally, to anticipate the due date, and to determine
if there is more than one fetus. In addition, at least a dozen tests of substances in
the mother’s blood and urine are routinely done, early and again later in pregnancy,
to diagnose problems with the fetus. (Table 4.5 provides information about sono-
grams and some other prenatal tests.)
Only a few decades ago, most twins came as a surprise to their parents at birth;
no more. This information may be life-saving. For instance, in about 15 percent of
all twin pregnancies with only one placenta, the bloodstreams of the twins are not
separate, and one twin gets too much nourishment from the other. This twin-to-
twin transfusion problem often killed both twins, but now it can be detected on a
sonogram and treated in mid-pregnancy (Sakata et al., 2006).
Further, since twins are often born too early and too small, a woman carrying
twins can try to avoid factors that cause low birthweight, such as poor nutrition,
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work that includes night shifts and hours of standing, or exhaustion and social
stress at home (Croteau et al., 2006). Indeed, every woman who learns that her
fetus is growing slowly, or that her blood has insufficient iron, or that her blood
pressure is climbing, or that she has gestational diabetes can take measures to
moderate all these conditions.
Early prenatal care can also prevent the impact of some deadly teratogens. For
example, syphilis and AIDS do not harm the fetus if the woman is diagnosed and
treated early in pregnancy. Indeed, only a decade ago, 26 percent of women with
HIV would pass the virus on to their baby, who often suffered and died in child-
hood. Now routine early diagnosis of HIV leads to treatment with antiviral drugs
that prevent prenatal transmission of the virus (McDonald et al., 2007; Read, 2005).
Risk Reduction 105
TABLE 4.5
Methods of Postconception Testing
Method Description Risks, Concerns, and Indications
Pre-implantation
testing
Tests for pregnancy-
associated plasma protein
(PAPPA) and human
chorionic gonadotropin
Alpha-fetoprotein assay
Sonogram (ultrasound)
Chorionic villi sampling
(CVS)
Amniocentesis
Not entirely accurate.
Requires surgery, in vitro fertilization, and rapid assessment. This
delays implantation and reduces the likelihood of successful birth. It
is used only when couples are at high risk of known, testable
genetic disorders.
Indicate normal pregnancy, but false positive or false negative
results sometimes occur.
Indicate neural-tube defects, multiple embryos (both cause high
AFP), or Down syndrome (low AFP). Normal levels change each
week; interpretation requires accurate dating of conception.
Reveals problems such as a small head or other body
malformations, excess fluid accumulating on the brain, Down
syndrome (detected by expert, looking at neck of fetus), and several
diseases (for instance, of the kidneys).
Estimates fetal age and reveals multiple fetuses, placental position,
and fetal growth, all of which are useful in every pregnancy.
Sometimes sex is apparent.
No known risks, unlike the X-rays that it has replaced.
Provides the same information as amniocentesis but can be
performed earlier.
Can cause a spontaneous abortion (1%)
Spontaneous abortion caused by the syringe is now very rare
(0.05 percent).
Detects chromosomal abnormalities and other genetic and prenatal
problems.
The amniotic fluid also reveals the sex of the fetus.
Is done later in pregnancy than other tests, and it takes a week
before results are known.
After in vitro fertilization, one cell is
removed from each zygote at the four- or
eight-cell stage and analyzed.
Blood tests are usually done at about 11
weeks to indicate levels of these
substances.
The mother’s blood is tested for the level of
alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), now usually done
at mid-pregnancy; often combined with
other blood tests and repeat sonogram.
High-frequency sound waves are used to
produce a “picture” of the fetus as early as
8 weeks. Sonograms are more accurate
later in pregnancy to detect less apparent
problems, to confirm earlier suspicions, and
to anticipate birth complications.
A sample of the chorion (part of the
placenta) is obtained (via sonogram and
syringe) at about 10 weeks and analyzed.
Since the cells of the placenta are
genetically identical to the cells of the fetus,
this can indicate many chromosomal or
genetic abnormalities.
About half an ounce of the fluid inside the
placenta is withdrawn (via sonogram and
syringe) at about 16 weeks. The cells are
cultured and analyzed.
Sources: Eddleman et al., 2006; Malone et al., 2005; K. L. Moore & Persaud, 2003; Newnham et al., 2004; Philip et al., 2004; Wright et al., 2006.
Especially for Social Workers When is it
most important to convince women to be
tested for HIV: a month before pregnancy, a
month after conception, or immediately after
birth?
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Pediatric AIDS has almost disappeared from North America and Europe. It is
still on the increase in Africa, where prenatal care is scarce and where, even with
care, antiviral drugs are often unavailable or unaffordable. Further, the social
stigma of HIV/AIDS is so great that some pregnant women fear that their hus-
bands and families will abandon them if they suspect they are HIV-positive.
One problem with diagnostic tests done early in pregnancy is that about 20 per-
cent of the time, their results suggest that more tests are needed. Many such
warnings are “false positives,” a test result that is positive for a birth defect, yet the
fetus is actually fine. It is also possible to have a “false negative,” when the test
finds no problem but a defect actually does exist. Usually, the cutoff scores for var-
ious prenatal tests are set to produce more false positives than false negatives, but
in either case, testing can strain a marriage, as the following illustrates.
106 CHAPTER 4 ■ Prenatal Development and Birth
a case to study
“What Do People Live to Do?”
John and Martha, graduate students at Harvard, were expecting
their second child. Martha was four months pregnant, and her
initial prenatal screening revealed an abnormally low level of
alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), which could indicate that the fetus
had Down syndrome. It was too early for amniocentesis, a more
definitive test, so another blood test was scheduled to double-
check the AFP level.
John met Martha at a café after a nurse had drawn the sec-
ond blood sample but before the laboratory reported the test re-
sult. Later, Martha wrote about their conversation.
“Did they tell you anything about the test?” John said. “What
exactly is the problem?” . . .
“We’ve got a one in eight hundred and ninety-five shot at a
retarded baby.”
John smiled, “I can live with those odds.”
I tried to smile back, but I couldn’t. . . . I wanted to tell John
about the worry in my gut. I wanted to tell him that it was more
than worry—that it was a certainty. Then I realized all over again
how preposterous that was. “I’m still a little scared.”
He reached across the table for my hand. “Sure,” he said,
“that’s understandable. But even if there is a problem, we’ve
caught it in time. . . . The worst case scenario is that you might
have to have an abortion, and that’s a long shot. Everything’s
going to be fine.”
. . . “I might have to have an abortion?” The chill inside me
was gone. Instead I could feel my face flushing hot with anger.
“Since when do you decide what I have to do with my body?”
John looked surprised. “I never said I was going to decide
anything,” he protested. “It’s just that if the tests show something
wrong with the baby, of course we’ll abort. We’ve talked about
this.”
“What we’ve talked about,” I told John in a low, dangerous
voice, “is that I am pro-choice. That means I decide whether or
not I’d abort a baby with a birth defect. . . . I’m not so sure of
this.”
“You used to be,” said John.
AP
P
HO
TO
The Legacy of AIDS Orphanages have
closed in developed nations because they are
no longer needed. In contrast, the need for
orphanages is increasing in many parts of the
developing world, where AIDS has orphaned
11 million children, according to UNICEF data.
These children are in an orphanage in Zim-
babwe. Some of them may have inherited
the AIDS virus from their parents.
➤Response for Social Workers (from
page 105): Testing and then treatment are
useful at any time, because women who
know they are HIV-positive are more likely to
get treatment, reduce risk of transmission,
and avoid pregnancy. If pregnancy does
occur, early diagnosis is best. Getting tested
after birth is too late for the baby.
Especially for Women of Childbearing
Age If you have decided to become pregnant
soon, you cannot change your genes, your
age, or your economic status. But you can do
three things in the next month or two that
can markedly reduce the risk of having a low-
birthweight or otherwise impaired baby a
year from now. What are they?
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Before they conceive, many couples discuss whether or not they would carry a
severely abnormal fetus to term. But, as the dialogue between Martha and John
reveals, couples tend to be much less certain once pregnancy occurs. We will re-
turn to this couple at the end of this chapter. In the meantime, consider another
difficult case.
Risk Reduction 107
“I know I used to be.” I rubbed my eyes. I felt terribly con-
fused. “But now . . . look, John, it’s not as though we’re deciding
whether or not to have a baby. We’re deciding what kind of baby
we’re willing to accept. If it’s perfect in every way, we keep it. If it
doesn’t fit the right specifications, whoosh! Out it goes.”. . .
John was looking more and more confused. “Martha, why are
you on this soapbox? What’s your point?”
“My point is,” I said, “that I’m trying to get you to tell me
what you think constitutes a ‘defective’ baby. What about . . . oh,
I don’t know, a hyperactive baby? Or an ugly one?”
“They can’t test for those things and—”
“Well, what if they could?” I said. “Medicine can do all kinds
of magical tricks these days. Pretty soon we’re going to be abort-
ing babies because they have the gene for alcoholism, or homo-
sexuality, or manic depression. . . . Did you know that in China
they abort a lot of fetuses just because they’re female?” I
growled. “Is being a girl ‘defective’ enough for you?”
“Look,” he said, “I know I can’t always see things from your
perspective. And I’m sorry about that. But the way I see it, if a
baby is going to be deformed or something, abortion is a way to
keep everyone from suffering—especially the baby. It’s like shoot-
ing a horse that’s broken its leg. . . . A lame horse dies slowly, you
know? . . . It dies in terrible pain. And it can’t run anymore. So it
can’t enjoy life even if it doesn’t die. Horses live to run; that’s
what they do. If a baby is born not being able to do what other
people do, I think it’s better not to prolong its suffering.”
“. . . And what is it,” I said softly, more to myself than to John,
“what is it that people do? What do we live to do, the way a horse
lives to run?”
[Beck, 1999, pp. 132–133, 135]
The second AFP test came back low but in the normal range,
“meaning there was no reason to fear that [the fetus] had Down
syndrome” (Beck, p. 137).
John thought they had decided to abort a Down syndrome
fetus, but his response as they waited for test results had Martha
“hot with anger.” As Chapter 3 explains, genetic counselors help
couples discuss their choices before becoming pregnant, but
John and Martha had no counseling because they hadn’t planned
this pregnancy and they were at low risk for any problems, in-
cluding chromosomal ones.
The opposite of the false positive is the false negative, a mis-
taken assurance that all is well. The second AFP test was in the
reassuring normal range. Martha still had “a worry in my gut.”
Amniocentesis later revealed that the second AFP was a false
negative. The fetus had Down syndrome after all.
PU
RE
ST
OC
K
/ P
UN
CH
ST
OC
K
AP
P
HO
TO
/
LY
N
N
E
SL
AD
KY
The Same Event, A Thousand Miles Apart: Preparing for Birth The husbands
of the pregnant American women (left) are learning to massage their wives dur-
ing labor. The pregnant woman in Afghanistan (above) and her doctors discuss
why labor will soon be induced: One of her twins is not developing normally.
Neither is expected to live. Virtually all newborns in developed nations survive;
the Afghani woman has already lost two children at birth.
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SUMMING UP
Risk analysis is a complex but necessary aspect of prenatal development, especially be-
cause the placenta does not protect the fetus from all hazards, such as diseases, drugs,
and pollutants. Many factors reduce risk, including the mother’s good health and ade-
quate nutrition before pregnancy and early prenatal care (to diagnose and treat problems
and to teach the woman how to protect her fetus). Risk is affected by dose, frequency,
and timing of exposure to teratogens, as well as by the fetus’s genetic vulnerability. Pre-
natal testing often reassures the prospective parents but may reveal severe problems
that require difficult decisions.
■
The Birth Process
For a full-term fetus and a healthy mother, birth can be simple and quick. At some
time during the last month of pregnancy, most fetuses change position, turning
upside down so that the head is low in the mother’s pelvic cavity. They are now in
position to be born in the usual way, head first. About 1 in 20 babies does not turn
and is positioned to be born “breech,” that is, buttocks or, rarely, feet first. Obste-
tricians sometimes manually turn such fetuses before birth or perform a cesarean
section (described below), because breech babies may get insufficient oxygen dur-
ing labor (Reece & Hobbins, 2007).
Usually about 38 weeks after conception, the fetal brain signals the release of
certain hormones that trigger the woman’s uterine muscles to contract and relax,
starting active labor. Uterine contractions eventually become strong and regular,
less than 10 minutes apart.
108 CHAPTER 4 ■ Prenatal Development and Birth
a case to study
“What Did That Say About Me?”
Tom Horan and his wife saw a sonogram that showed that their
fetus’s legs were bowed and shortened. They were told that the
condition could be healed through braces, growth hormones,
and surgical procedures in childhood, and they began to think
about how they would care for a child who needed so much
medical attention.
A closer examination by a specialist revealed other deformities:
The left arm was missing below the elbow, and the right hand was
undeveloped. Sometimes such deformities signify neurological
impairment, the doctors told them, but it was impossible to tell
for sure.
“Our main concern was the quality of life that the child would
have, growing up with such extensive limb deformities, even in
the absence of cognitive problems,” Mr. Horan said.
He and his wife, who have three other children, were reared
Roman Catholic and had never considered terminating a preg-
nancy. Yet even his father, Mr. Horan said, who had long been op-
posed to abortion, supported their decision to end the pregnancy.
“Confronted with this question and knowing what we knew,
it changed his mind,” Mr. Horan said. “It’s not just a question of
right and wrong; it introduces all sorts of other questions that
one has to consider, whether it is the survivability of the child,
quality of life of parents, quality of life of siblings, social needs.
And it becomes much more real when you’re confronted with an
actual situation.”
After the termination, an examination showed . . . an ex-
tremely rare condition, Cornelia de Lange syndrome. [The child]
would have been severely mentally and physically disabled.
The news was a relief to Mr. Horan, who said he felt sadness
and grief, but no regrets. . . . Before the diagnosis, he felt guilt and
uncertainty. . . . “I wondered about the ethical implications. . . .
What did that say about me?”
[Harmon, 2004, p. 22]
The Horans had to reexamine their values, something they
did not think necessary before the sonogram. As one review re-
ports, “Most couples say they are both profoundly grateful for
the new information and hugely burdened by the choices it
forces them to make” (Harmon, 2004, p. 1).
➤Response for Women of Childbearing
Age (from page 106): Avoid all drugs (includ-
ing legal ones, like nicotine and alcohol),
check your weight (gain, or lose, some if you
are under, or over, the norm), and receive
diagnosis and treatment for any infections—
not just sexually transmitted ones but those
anywhere in the body, including the teeth
and gums.
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The baby is born, on average, after 12 hours of active labor for first births and
7 hours for subsequent births (K. L. Moore & Persaud, 2003), although it is not
unusual for labor to take twice, or half, as long. Women’s birthing positions also
vary—sitting, squatting, lying down (Blackburn, 2003), or even immersed in warm
water. Figure 4.4 shows the sequence of stages in the birth process.
The Newborn’s First Minutes
Do you picture just-delivered babies as being held upside down and spanked so
that they will start crying and breathing? Wrong. Gentle handling is best, because
newborns usually breathe and cry on their own.
Between spontaneous cries, the first breaths cause the infant’s color to change
from bluish to pinkish as oxygen begins to circulate. Hands and feet are the last
body parts to turn pink. (“Bluish” and “pinkish” refer to the blood color, visible be-
neath the skin, and apply to newborns of all skin colors.) The eyes open wide; the
tiny fingers grab; the tinier toes stretch and retract. The newborn is instantly, zest-
fully ready for life.
Nevertheless, there is much to be done. Mucus in the baby’s throat is removed,
especially if the first breaths seem shallow or strained. The umbilical cord is cut to
detach the placenta, leaving the “belly button.” The placenta is then expelled. If
birth is assisted by a trained worker—as are 99 percent of the births in industrial-
ized nations and about half of all births worldwide (Rutstein, 2000)—newborns
are weighed, examined to make sure no problems require prompt medical atten-
tion, and wrapped to preserve body heat.
The Birth Process 109
Uterus
Umbilical cord
Amniotic sac
Cervix
Birth canal
Placenta
(a) (b)
(d) (e)
(c)
FIGURE 4.4
A Normal, Uncomplicated Birth
(a) The baby’s position as the birth process
begins. (b) The first stage of labor: The cervix
dilates to allow passage of the baby’s head.
(c) Transition: The baby’s head moves into the
“birth canal,” the vagina. (d) The second stage
of labor: The baby’s head moves through the
opening of the vagina (“crowns”) and
(e) emerges completely.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 111):
In drawing (e), what is the birth attendant
doing as the baby’s head emerges?
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One widely used assessment is the Apgar scale (see
Table 4.6). The examiner checks five vital signs—heart rate,
breathing, muscle tone, color, and reflexes—at one minute
and again at five minutes after birth, assigning each a score
of 0, 1, or 2 and totaling all five scores (Moster et al., 2001).
The Apgar scale is a quick way for birth attendants to check
the baby.
The five-minute Apgar score is the crucial one. An Aus-
tralian study found that at one minute, many healthy new-
borns look bluish because they are low on oxygen (saturation
rate 63 percent), but the blood level of oxygen quickly rises
(to 90 percent or more) (Kamlin et al., 2006). If the five-
minute total score is 7 or above, all is well.
If the score is below 7, the infant needs help. If the score
is below 4, the newborn is in critical condition, and the at-
tending physician might page “Dr. Apgar,” which alerts the
neonatalist on duty to rush to the delivery room. Fortunately,
most newborns are fine, pink, and alert, which reassures the
new parents, who cradle their newborn and congratulate
each other.
Variations
How closely any given birth matches the foregoing description depends on the
parents’ preparation for birth, the physical and emotional support provided by
birth attendants, the position and size of the fetus, and the customs of the culture.
In developed nations, births usually include drugs to dull pain or speed contrac-
tions, sterile procedures, and various hospital protocols to be ready for emergen-
cies and to avoid lawsuits.
Medical Intervention
In about 28 percent of births in the United States, a cesarean section is per-
formed. The fetus is removed through incisions in the mother’s abdomen and
uterus (Hamilton et al., 2004). The rate of surgical birth varies markedly from
place to place, with many developed nations having far fewer cesareans than the
United States but others having more (see Figure 4.5).
If serious organic abnormalities are evident, microsurgery on tiny hearts, lungs,
and digestive systems has been amazingly successful in recent years. If the new-
born needs specialized feeding, or warmth, or extra oxygen, that is also available.
110 CHAPTER 4 ■ Prenatal Development and Birth
TABLE 4.6
Criteria and Scoring of the Apgar Scale
Reflex Respiratory
Score Color Heartbeat Irritability Muscle Tone Effort
0
1
2
Blue, pale
Body pink,
extremities blue
Entirely pink
Absent
Slow (below 100)
Rapid (over 100)
No response
Grimace
Coughing, sneezing,
crying
Flaccid, limp
Weak, inactive
Strong, active
Absent
Irregular,
slow
Good; baby
is crying
Source: Apgar, 1953.
No Doctor Needed In this Colorado Springs
birthing center, most babies are delivered with
the help of nurse-midwives. This newborn’s
bloody appearance and bluish fingers are com-
pletely normal; an Apgar test at five minutes
revealed that the baby’s heart was beating
steadily and that the body was “entirely pink.”
SE
AN
C
AY
TO
N
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
Apgar scale A quick assessment of a new-
born’s body functioning. The baby’s color,
heart rate, reflexes, muscle tone, and res-
piratory effort are given a score of 0, 1, or
2 twice—at one minute and five minutes
after birth—and the total of all the scores
is compared with the ideal score of 10.
cesarean section A surgical birth, in which
incisions through the mother’s abdomen
and uterus allow the fetus to be removed
quickly, instead of being delivered through
the vagina. (Also called c-section or simply
section.)
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Eighty years ago, 5 percent of all newborns in the United
States died (De Lee, 1938). Today almost every newborn
lives. The death rate in the first days of life is only 1 in 200,
with that one almost always in critical condition at birth be-
cause of an obvious problem, such as extremely low birth-
weight or massive birth defects.
In developed nations, newborns are tested for various dis-
eases. If a problem is confirmed by further testing, parents
and medical staff can begin protective measures (such as the
diet to prevent PKU, explained in Chapter 3) (MMWR, Oc-
tober 15, 2004). Just as during prenatal testing, false posi-
tives cause needless worry, and even correct tests may reveal
problems that cannot be treated. Nonetheless, most profes-
sionals, including those involved with the March of Dimes,
advocate testing all newborns for dozens of conditions
(Green et al., 2006).
Every year worldwide, obstetricians, midwives, and nurses
save millions of lives—of mothers as well as of infants. In-
deed, a lack of medical attention during childbirth and illegal
abortions are the major reasons why motherhood is still haz-
ardous in the least developed nations; about 1 in 20 women
in Africa dies of complications of abortion and birth
(Daulaire et al., 2002).
However, intervention is not always best for mother and
child. In Pelotas, Brazil, most births are by cesarean (82 per-
cent for private patients in 2004). The rate of low-birthweight
infants in that region of Brazil is rising (from 11 to 16 percent
in 10 years) because some infants are born before they are
ready (Barros et al., 2005). In general, cesareans are easier
for the fetus, and quicker for doctor and mother, but increase
the rate of birth complications in later pregnancies (Getahun
et al. 2006).
Only 1 percent of U.S. births take place at home—about half of these by
choice, attended by a doctor or midwife, and half due to unexpectedly rapid birth.
Home births are usually quite normal and healthy, but any complications can be-
come more serious while the mother is waiting for emergency medical help (Pang
et al., 2002).
In many regions of the world, as modern medicine is introduced, a clash devel-
ops between traditional home births attended by a midwife and hospital births at-
tended by an obstetrician: Home births risk complications, and hospital births risk
too much intervention. All too often, women must choose one or the other, rather
than combining the best features of each. An example of such a combination is re-
ported regarding the Inuit people of northern Canada:
Until thirty or forty years ago every woman, and most men, learned midwifery
skills and knew what to do to help at a birth if they were needed. . . . They
helped the woman kneel or squat on caribou skins, and tied the cord with cari-
bou sinews. . . . Since the 1950s, as the medical system took control in the belief
that hospital birth was safer, more and more pregnant women were evacuated by
air to deliver in large hospitals in Winnipeg and other cities. . . . Around three
weeks before her due date a woman is flown south to wait in bed and breakfast
accommodation for labor to start, and to have it induced if the baby does not ar-
rive when expected. Anxious about their children left at home, mothers became
bored and depressed. . . . Women . . . deliver in a supine position [on their back]
The Birth Process 111
Rates of Cesarean Sections in Selected Countries
Percent of deliveries
5 10 15 20 25 30 4035
Chad
Egypt
Syria
Colombia
Costa Rica
Venezuela
England
Canada
Mexico
China
Dominican Republic
Brazil
United States
Taiwan
Chile
Sources: Armson, 2007; Belizán et al., 1999; Khawaja et al., 2004;
Stanton & Holtz, 2006; Tang et al., 2006.
FIGURE 4.5
Too Many Cesareans or Too Few? Rates of
cesarean deliveries vary widely from nation
to nation. In general, cesarean births are de-
clining in North America and increasing in
Africa. Latin America has the highest rates in
the world (note that 40 percent of all births in
Chile are by cesarean), and sub-Saharan
Africa has the lowest. The underlying issue is
whether some women who should have ce-
sareans do not get them, while other women
have unnecessary cesareans.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 109): The birth attendant is turning the
baby’s head after it has emerged; doing this
helps the shoulders come out more easily.
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instead of an upright one, which was part of their tradition, and also describe
being tied up while giving birth. Many women say that children who have been
born in a hospital are different and no longer fit into the Inuit lifestyle. . . .
Several new birth centres have now been created [in the Inuit homeland] and
nurse-midwives are bringing in traditional midwives as assistants during child-
birth, training some Inuit midwives to work alongside them, and at the same
time learning some of the old Inuit ways themselves.
[Kitzinger, 2001, pp. 160–161]
Another example of a traditional custom incorporated into a modern birth is the
presence of a doula. Long a fixture in many Latin American countries, a doula is
a woman who helps other women with labor, delivery, breast-feeding, and new-
born care. Increasing numbers of women in North America now hire a profes-
sional doula to perform these functions (Douglas, 2002).
From a developmental perspective, such combinations of traditional and modern
birthing practices are excellent. Some practices in every culture are helpful and
some are harmful to development; a thoughtful combination of traditional and mod-
ern is likely to be an improvement over a wholesale rejection of one or the other.
Birth Complications
A birth complication includes anything in the newborn, the mother, or the birth
process itself that requires special medical attention. When a fetus is already at
risk because of a genetic abnormality or exposure to a teratogen, when a mother is
unusually young, old, small, or ill, or when labor occurs too soon, birth complica-
tions become more likely. Complications usually are part of a sequence of events
and conditions that begin long before birth and may continue for years. This
means that prevention and treatment must be ongoing. We focus now on one of
the most serious complications—lack of oxygen—and one of the most common—
low birthweight.
Anoxia
Anoxia literally means “no oxygen.” Inadequate oxygen during birth can kill the
infant if it lasts longer than a few seconds. Some forms of anesthesia once used
during the birth process have been discontinued because they slowed down the
delivery of oxygen to the fetus or made it more difficult for a newborn to breathe
on its own. Lack of oxygen, even for a few seconds, can cause brain damage, espe-
cially in a preterm infant.
112 CHAPTER 4 ■ Prenatal Development and Birth
anoxia A lack of oxygen that, if prolonged
during birth, can cause brain damage or
death to the baby.
doula A woman who helps with the birth
process. Traditionally in Latin America, a
doula was like a midwife, the only profes-
sional who attended childbirths. Now doulas
are likely to work alongside a hospital’s
medical staff to help mothers through
labor and delivery.
DA
VI
D
HA
N
CO
CK
/
AL
AM
Y
N
AT
AL
IE
B
EH
RI
N
G
/ O
N
AS
IA
.C
OM
The Same Event, A Thousand Miles Apart:
Back to Basics The physical process of giv-
ing birth is the same for all women, but the
circumstances vary widely. Many Western
women are forgoing the traditional hospital
birth in favor of such methods as water birth
(left). For women in many developing coun-
tries, meanwhile, a sanitary hospital birth
would be an improvement—but the hospitals
cannot afford even basic supplies. In a deliv-
ery room in Afghanistan (right), the doctor is
wearing a cooking apron instead of surgical
scrubs and an eye mask over her mouth.
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Cerebral palsy (difficulties with movement and speech resulting from brain
damage) was once thought to be caused solely by birth procedures: excessive pain
medication, slow breech birth, or delivery by forceps (an instrument used to pull
the fetus’s head through the birth canal). In fact, however, cerebral palsy often re-
sults from genetic vulnerability, worsened by teratogens and a birth that incudes
anoxia.
A pair of monozygotic twins were mentioned in Chapter 3, one of whom had a
much more severe case of Asperger syndrome than the other. The more severely
affected twin also experienced anoxia at birth: He did not begin to breathe on his
own; doctors needed to give him oxygen and clear mucus from his throat before he
started breathing. That is the likely explanation for his more severe brain damage.
Similarly, one reason some people develop schizophrenia is thought to be a bout of
anoxia at birth. In both disorders, the underlying problem is genetic, but anoxia
can further stress the immature brain.
Anoxia has many causes and is always risky; that’s why the fetal heart rate is
monitored during labor and why the newborn’s color is one of the five criteria on
the Apgar scale. How long a fetus can experience anoxia without suffering brain
damage depends on genes, weight, neurological maturity, drugs in the blood-
stream (either taken by the mother before birth or given by the doctor during
birth), and a host of other factors.
Low Birthweight
The World Health Organization defines low birthweight (LBW) as a weight of
less than 51⁄2 pounds (2,490 grams) at birth. The smallest LBW babies are further
grouped into very low birthweight (VLBW), a weight of less than 3 pounds, 5
ounces (1,500 grams), and extremely low birthweight (ELBW), a weight of
less than 2 pounds, 3 ounces (990 grams). Table 4.7 correlates these birthweights
with the various stages of prenatal development.
cerebral palsy A disorder that results from
damage to the brain’s motor centers. Peo-
ple with cerebral palsy have difficulty with
muscle control, so their speech and body
movements are impaired.
low birthweight (LBW) A body weight at
birth of less than 51⁄2 pounds (2,490 grams).
very low birthweight (VLBW) A body
weight at birth of less than 3 pounds,
5 ounces (1,500 grams).
extremely low birthweight (ELBW) A body
weight at birth of less than 2 pounds,
3 ounces (990 grams).
The Birth Process 113
End of embryonic
period
End of first trimester
At viability (50/50
chance of survival)
End of second
trimester
End of preterm period
Full-term
8
13
22
26–28
35
38
1⁄30 oz.
3 oz.
20 oz.
2–3 lb.
51⁄2 lb.
71⁄2 lb.
1 g
85 g
570 g
900–1,400 g
2,490 g
3,400 g
A birthweight less than 2 lb., 3 oz.
(965 g) is considered extremely low
birthweight (ELBW).
Less than 3 lb., 5 oz. (1,500 g) is
very low birthweight (VLBW).
Less than 51⁄2 lb. (2,490 g) is low
birthweight (LBW).
Between 51⁄2 and 9 lb.
(2,490–4,080 g) is considered
normal weight.
*To make them easier to remember, the weights are rounded off (which accounts for the inexact correspondence between metric and nonmetric
measures). Actual weights vary. For instance, a normal full-term infant can weigh between 51⁄2 and 9 pounds (2,490 and 4,080 grams); a viable infant,
especially one of several born at 26 or more weeks, can weigh less than shown here.
TABLE 4.7
AT ABOUT THIS TIME: Average Prenatal Weights*
Weeks After Weight Weight
Period of Development Conception (Nonmetric) (Metric) Notes
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The rate of LBW varies widely from nation to nation (see Figure 4.6). The U.S.
rate of 8.2 percent in 2005 has been rising steadily over the past two decades and
is now higher than it has been in more than 30 years (see Figure 4.7).
Remember that fetal body weight normally doubles in the last trimester of preg-
nancy, with a typical gain of almost 2 pounds (900 grams) occurring in the final
three weeks. Thus, in a preterm birth, defined as occurring 3 or more weeks be-
fore the standard 38 weeks, the baby usually (though not always) is LBW.
Although most preterm babies are LBW because they missed those final weeks
of weight gain, some babies are underweight because they gained weight too slowly
throughout pregnancy. They are called small for dates or small for gestational age
(SGA). An underweight SGA infant causes more concern than an underweight
preterm birth, because SGA signifies impairment during prenatal development.
If a sonogram reveals slow growth, the mother is alerted to see if she can remedy
the problem (stop drinking and smoking, eat more, find a less stressful job). But if
SGA continues (perhaps because the mother cannot affect it), birth may be induced
early or a cesarean performed in order to prevent the neurological consequences of
continued slow growth. Newborns who are both preterm and SGA make up the
most rapidly increasing category of low-birthweight infants (Ananth et al., 2003).
Normally, in the first months outside the womb, a low-birthweight infant gains
weight faster than average (called “catch-up growth”). However, a significant num-
ber of SGA infants do the opposite and undereat. They are then likely to be diag-
nosed with “failure to thrive,” and be at high risk of becoming mentally slow and
physically small (Casey et al., 2006). Problems
with the placenta or umbilical cord can cause
SGA, as can maternal illness. However, maternal
drug use is a far more common cause. Every psy-
choactive drug slows fetal growth.
Tobacco is the worst and the most prevalent
cause of SGA, implicated in 25 percent of all
LBW births worldwide. Smoking among pregnant
women is declining in the United States but rising
in many other nations, especially in Asia. This
may increase the rates of LBW shown in Figure
4.6. Prescription drugs can also cause low birth-
weight. For instance, antidepressants double the
incidence of both preterm and SGA infants (Käl-
lén, 2004). Some pregnant women need drugs to
stave off serious depression, but, as with many
measures already mentioned (cesarean sections,
genetic testing, anesthesia), the costs and benefits
to mother and fetus need to be analyzed case by
case (Cohen et al., 2006).
Every psychoactive drug, including prescribed
medicines and legal drugs (such as alcohol and
nicotine), crosses the placenta and may make a
newborn jittery and irritable—signs that the in-
fant is withdrawing from that drug. If the mother
is heavily addicted (as with heroin or methadone),
the newborn may need to be given some of the
drug in order to ease withdrawal.
Another common reason for slow fetal growth
is maternal malnutrition. Women who begin preg-
nancy underweight, who eat poorly during preg-
114 CHAPTER 4 ■ Prenatal Development and Birth
Low-Birthweight Rates in Selected Countries, 1996–2004
LBW infants (percent)
5 10 15 20 25 30
Iceland, Sweden,
Republic of Korea (South Korea)
Canada, Norway
China, Ireland, Italy,
New Zealand, Spain
Algeria, Argentina, Australia
Japan, United Kingdom, United States
Colombia, Indonesia, Jamaica,
Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam
Brazil, Bulgaria, Malaysia
Dominican Republic, Ghana, Kenya, Peru
Congo, Egypt, Nicaragua
Guatemala, Tanzania
Honduras, Mozambique, Nigeria
Pakistan
Haiti
Bangladesh, India
Source: United Nations Development Programme, 2006.
FIGURE 4.6
Low Birthweight Around the World The
LBW rate is often considered a reflection of a
country’s commitment to its children as well
as a reflection of its economic resources.
preterm birth A birth that occurs three or
more weeks before the full 38 weeks of
the typical pregnancy has elapsed—that is,
at 35 or fewer weeks after conception.
small for gestational age (SGA) A term for
a baby whose birthweight is significantly
lower than expected, given the time since
conception. For example, a 5-pound
(2,265-gram) newborn is considered SGA
if born on time but not SGA if born two
months early. (Also called small for dates.)
090-121_BergerLS7e_CH04.qxp 9/10/07 4:51 PM Page 114

nancy, or who gain less than 3 pounds (1,360 grams) per month in the last six
months are more likely to have an underweight infant. Ironically, obese women
(those with BMI over 30) also are at higher risk of having ELBW infants because
serious pregnancy complications, such as preeclampsia, require preterm delivery
(G. C. S. Smith et al., 2007) (see Table 4.8). The healthiest pregnancies occur in
women who are neither too thin nor too heavy. This conclusion came from a study
of all the first births in Scotland over a decade, so it is quite reliable (see Research
Design).
Malnutrition (not age) is the primary reason teenage girls often have small ba-
bies: If they eat haphazardly and poorly, their diet cannot support their own
growth, much less the growth of another developing person (Buschman et al.,
2001). Unfortunately, many of the risk factors just mentioned—underweight, un-
dereating, underage, and drug use—tend to occur together.
Finally, as you remember from Chapter 3, multiple births are usually LBW.
Assisted reproductive technology (ART) has dramatically increased the rate of mul-
tiples and thus of LBW (Pinborg et al., 2004). Half of all U.S. in vitro births are
multiples.
The Birth Process 115
6.6
7.0
7.4
7.8
8.2
8.6
1960 ’62 ’64 ’66 ’68 ’70 ’72 ’74 ’76 ’78 ’80 ’82 ’84 ’86 ’88 ’90 ’02 ’04’92 ’94 2000’96 ’98
Babies
born
at low
birthweight
(percent)
Low-Birthweight Rates in the United States, 1960–2004
Year
Source: Martin et al., 2002; National Center for Health Statistics, 2006.
FIGURE 4.7
Not Improving The LBW rate is often taken
to be a measure of a nation’s overall health.
In the United States, the rise and fall of this
rate are related to many factors, among them
prenatal care, maternal use of drugs, overall
nutrition, and number of multiple births.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 116):
In what year was 1 out of every 13 U.S.
babies (7.5 percent) born weighing less than
51⁄2 pounds (2,490 grams)?
Which Baby Is Oldest? The baby at the left is the oldest, at almost 1 month; the baby at the right
is the youngest, at just 2 days. Are you surprised? The explanation is that the 1-month-old was born
9 weeks early and now weighs less than 51⁄2 pounds (2,490 grams); the 2-day-old was full-term and
weighs almost 8 pounds (3,600 grams). The baby in the middle, born full-term but weighing only 2
pounds (900 grams), is the most worrisome. Her ears and hands are larger than the preterm baby’s,
but her skull is small; malnutrition may have deprived her brain as well as her body.
RO
N
S
UT
HE
RL
AN
D
/ S
CI
EN
CE
P
HO
TO
L
IB
RA
RY
/
PH
OT
O
RE
SE
AR
CH
ER
S,
IN
C.
Research Design
Scientists: Gordon C. S. Smith and four
other British researchers.
Publication: American Journal of Public
Health (2007).
Participants: All 84,701 women in Scot-
land who had their first child between
1991 and 2001, except those with multi-
ple births, stillbirths, or births after 43
weeks of gestation.
Design: Correlation of mother’s weight
in early pregnancy with birth outcome.
Major conclusion: Obese women have
significantly more elective preterm de-
liveries (usually because the physician
insists), and thus more ELBW infants.
The reason is usually preeclampsia (a
serious complication during pregnancy),
which halts at delivery.
Comment: Although overweight
women are less likely to have a sponta-
neous preterm birth, obese women risk
pregnancy complications. Ideally,
women should be neither too thin nor
too fat when pregnancy begins.
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Social Support
None of the factors that impede or interrupt prenatal growth are inevitable. Qual-
ity of medical care, education, culture, and social support affect every developing
person before birth, via their impact on the pregnant woman.
The importance of these factors is made starkly evident in data from Gambia, a
poor nation in Africa. Preterm births are highest (17 percent) in July, when many
women are working long hours in the fields. SGA births are more common (31
percent) in November, the end of the “hungry season,” when most women have
been undernourished for three months or more (Rayco-Solon et al., 2005).
Fathers and other relatives, neighbors, cultures, and clinics can reduce risks
markedly. For example, the rate of low birthweight among Mexican Americans is
lower than the overall U.S. rate, because families are more likely to make sure that
their pregnant women do not smoke, drink, or undereat. This is especially true for
women who were born in Mexico but give birth in the United States; their babies
are remarkably healthy (Aguirre-Molina et al., 2001).
In contrast, there is a high rate of birth complications among women of African
American descent, even when they are well nourished, do not use drugs, and ob-
tain good prenatal care. One explanation is that the racism of the larger society
adds stress to their lives that they cannot shake off, a factor that takes a toll on
African Americans’ health overall (Geronimus et al., 2006). Genetic vulnerability
is another possibility, but it’s unlikely; women from Africa and the Caribbean who
give birth in the United States do not have as many birth complications.
Mothers, Fathers, and a Good Start
Birth complications can have a lingering impact on the new family, depending
partly on the sensitivity of hospital care (Field, 2001) and the home. In fact, LBW
babies are more likely to become adults who are overweight and have health prob-
lems, particularly of the heart (Hack et al., 2002). This correlation could result
from high levels of stress hormones that the infants experienced in their early days
or perhaps because their parents fed them more or raised them differently from
other children.
Even when a newborn is small and fragile and must stay in the hospital for weeks
after birth, the parents should be encouraged to share in the early caregiving, not
only because it benefits the baby but because they, too, are deprived and stressed
(Eriksson & Pehrsson, 2005). When the infant’s survival and normality are in doubt,
many parents feel inadequate, sad, guilty, or angry. Such emotions become more
manageable when the parents touch and care for their vulnerable newborn.
116 CHAPTER 4 ■ Prenatal Development and Birth
TABLE 4.8
Risking Birth Complications: Impact of Mother’s BMI
Incidence of Complication (Percent)
Spontaneous Elective
Preterm Preterm ELBW
BMI Preeclampsia Births Births Newborns
Less than 20 (underweight) 2.2% 5.3% 2.5% 0.4%
20–24.9 (healthy weight) 3.0 3.6 2.3 0.3
25–29.9 (overweight) 4.9 3.3 2.7 0.4
30–34.9 (obese) 7.4 3.1 3.6 0.4
More than 35 (morbidly obese) 10.0 3.0 5.0 1.0
Source: G. C. S. Smith et al., 2007.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
115): In 1998. After having declined, the LBW
rate began an upward climb in the mid-1980s.
090-121_BergerLS7e_CH04.qxp 9/10/07 4:51 PM Page 116

One way to achieve parental involvement is through kangaroo care, in which
the mother of a low-birthweight infant spends at least an hour a day holding her
tiny newborn between her breasts, skin-to-skin, allowing the tiny baby to hear her
heart beat and feel her body heat. Fathers also can cradle newborns next to their
chests. A comparison study (Feldman et al., 2002) in Israel found that kangaroo-
care newborns slept more deeply and spent more time alert than did infants who
received standard care. By 6 months of age, infants who had received kangaroo
care were more responsive to their mothers. These findings could be the result of
either improved infant maturation or increased maternal sensitivity, but either
way, this is good news. Other research confirms the benefits of kangaroo care
(Ludington-Hoe et al., 2006; Tallandini & Scalembra, 2006).
All humans are social creatures, interacting with their families and their soci-
eties. Accordingly, prenatal development and birth involve not only the fetus but
also the mother, father, and many others. As you have already read, a woman’s
chance of avoiding risks during pregnancy depends
partly on her family, her ethnic background, and the
nation where she lives.
Help from Fathers
Fathers can be crucial. A supportive father-to-be
helps a mother-to-be stay healthy, well nourished,
and drug-free. Alcohol is not good for a fetus, but
neither education nor employment correlates with
decreased alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
Marriage does (MMWR, April 5, 2002). When it
comes to alcohol, at least, husbands seem to help
their wives abstain. Overall, a woman’s drug con-
sumption and nutrition during pregnancy are power-
fully affected by the father’s health habits.
An alternate explanation for the correlation be-
tween marriage and healthy newborns is that preg-
nancies within marriage are more often wanted and
planned by both parents, and that fact in itself en-
courages both the pregnant woman and her husband
to make sure she takes care of herself. Only about
The Birth Process 117
A Beneficial Beginning These new mothers
in a maternity ward in Manila are providing
their babies with kangaroo care.
His Baby,Too This new father’s evident joy
in his baby illustrates a truism that develop-
mental research has only recently reflected:
Fathers contribute much more than just half
their child’s genes.
kangaroo care A form of child care in which
the mother of a low-birthweight infant
spends at least an hour a day holding the
baby between her breasts, like a kangaroo
that carries her immature newborn in a
pouch on her abdomen. If the infant is
capable, he or she can easily breast-feed
in this position.
AL
EX
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AL
UY
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AS
IA
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OM
BU
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PH
OT
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AL
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half of all U.S. pregnancies are planned; women who are young and unwed are
particularly unlikely to become pregnant intentionally.
Not only by example, but also more directly, fathers and other family members
can decrease or increase a mother’s stress, which in turn affects her circulation,
diet, rest, and digestion and, ultimately, the fetus. One study in northern India
found that 18 percent of fathers abused their wives during pregnancy, and the re-
sult was a doubling of the rate of fragile newborns and infant death (Ahmed et al.,
2006). Another way to see this is that 82 percent of fathers took better care of
their wives, to good effect.
The need for social support is mutual. Fathers need reassurance, just as moth-
ers do. Levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, correlate between expectant fathers
and mothers: When one parent is stressed, the other often is, too (Berg & Wynne-
Edwards, 2002), as the following illustrates.
parental alliance Cooperation between a
mother and a father based on their mutual
commitment to their children. In a parental
alliance, the parents agree to support each
other in their shared parental roles.
118 CHAPTER 4 ■ Prenatal Development and Birth
This couple’s lack of communication up to this point, and the sudden eruption
of previously unexpressed emotions, is not unusual during pregnancy or in the
days after birth. Honest discussion between expectant or new parents is difficult,
especially because birth raises powerful memories from childhood and irrational
fears about the future. Some fathers disappear, either literally or by increasing
their work hours. Yet open and intimate communication is crucial if a couple is to
form a parental alliance, a cooperative working relationship between two par-
ents who raise their child together. The need for a parental alliance is evident in
an unexpected, yet common, consequence of birth: postpartum depression.
Postpartum Depression
In the days and weeks after birth, between 8 and 15 percent of women experience
postpartum depression, a sense of inadequacy and sadness (called baby blues in
the mild version and postpartum psychosis in the most severe form) (Perfetti et al.,
2004). These rates are for the United States; other nations may be even higher.
For example, rates in Pakistan were 36 percent on a standard postpartum scale
(Husain et al., 2006). The mother with postpartum depression finds normal baby
a case to study
“You’d Throw Him in a Dumpster”
Remember John and Martha, the young couple whose amnio-
centesis revealed that their fetus had trisomy-21? Martha de-
cided to have the baby, but they had never really discussed the
issue. One night at 3:00 A.M., Martha, seven months pregnant,
was crying uncontrollably. She told John she was scared.
“Scared of what?” he said. “Of a little baby who’s not as perfect
as you think he ought to be?”
“I didn’t say I wanted him to be perfect,” I said. “I just want
him to be normal. That’s all I want. Just normal.”
“That is total bullshit. . . . You don’t want this baby to be nor-
mal. You’d throw him in a dumpster if he just turned out to be
normal. What you really want is for him to be superhuman.”
“For your information,” I said in my most acid tone, “I was the
one who decided to keep this baby, even though he’s got Down’s.
You were the one who wanted to throw him in a dumpster.”
“How would you know?” John’s voice was still gaining volume.
“You never asked me what I wanted, did you? No. You never even
asked me. . . .”
[Beck, 1999, p. 255]
This episode ended well, with a long, warm, and honest con-
versation between the two prospective parents. Both parents
learned what their fetus meant to the other, a topic that had
been taboo until that night. Adam, their future son, became an
important part of their relationship.
postpartum depression A new mother’s
feelings of inadequacy and sadness in the
days and weeks after giving birth.
Especially for Fathers-to-Be When does
a man’s nongenetic influence on his children
begin?
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care (feeding, diapering, bathing) to be very burdensome, and she may have
thoughts of neglecting or abusing the infant. Postpartum depression lasting more
than a few weeks can have a long-term impact on the child, so it should be diag-
nosed and treated as soon as possible.
The father’s reaction is crucial when a mother experiences postpartum depres-
sion. His active caregiving is likely to help the baby thrive and the mother to re-
cover. Some fathers become depressed themselves after birth. Even if the mother
is not depressed, the father’s depression is likely to affect the baby. One study
found that sons of fathers who were depressed after their birth had notable behav-
ior problems as toddlers (Ramchandani et al., 2005).
From a developmental perspective, some causes predate the pregnancy (such
as preexisting depression, financial stress, or marital problems); others occur dur-
ing pregnancy (women are more often depressed two months before birth than
two months after); and still others are specific to the infant (health, feeding, or
sleeping problems) and to the birth (Ashman & Dawson, 2002; Jones, 2006).
The birth experience itself can affect the woman’s well-being. Among those
who had babies in the United States between 1993 and 1997, 42 percent had a
medical problem (Danel et al., 2003), an added burden for the father as well as
the mother. For every woman, birth is stressful, with major hormonal changes,
some pain, and a baby who is never exactly what the mother or father anticipated.
Focusing on the parents’ emotions raises the question: To what extent are the
first hours crucial for the parent–infant bond, the strong, loving connection that
forms as parents hold, examine, and feed their newborn? It has been claimed that
this bond develops in the first hours after birth when a mother touches her naked
baby, just as sheep and goats must immediately smell and nuzzle their newborns if
they are to nurture them (Klaus & Kennell, 1976). However, research does not
find that early skin-to-skin contact is essential for humans (Eyer, 1992; Lamb,
1982). Unlike sheep and goats, most other mammals do not need immediate con-
tact for parents to nurture their offspring. In fact, substantial research on monkeys
begins with cross-fostering, a strategy in which newborns are removed from their
biological mothers in the first days of life and raised by another female or even a
male. A strong and beneficial relationship sometimes develops (Suomi, 2002).
Most developmentalists hope that mothers, fathers, and newborns strengthen
their relationship in the hours and days after birth. That is a good foundation for
the difficult days, nights, and years ahead. But bonding immediately after birth is
neither necessary nor sufficient for a strong parental alliance and for parent–child
attachment throughout life.
SUMMING UP
Most newborns weigh about 71⁄2 pounds (3,400 grams), score at least 7 out of 10 on the
Apgar scale, and thrive without medical assistance. Although modern medicine has
made maternal or infant death and serious impairment less common in advanced na-
tions, many critics deplore the tendency to treat birth as a medical crisis instead of a
natural event. Developmentalists note that birth complications are rarely the conse-
quence of birth practices alone; prenatal problems are usually involved.
Many factors in the family, fetus, and social conditions lead to low birthweight, a po-
tentially serious and increasingly common problem. Postpartum depression is not rare,
but, again, factors before and after birth affect how serious and long-lasting this problem
is. Human parents and infants seem to benefit from close physical contact following the
birth, but it is not essential for emotional bonding. The family relationship begins before
conception, may be strengthened by the birth process, and continues lifelong.
The Birth Process 119
A Teenage Mother This week-old baby, born
in a poor village in Myanmar (Burma), has a
better chance of survival than he might other-
wise have had, because his 18-year-old
mother has bonded with him.
Especially for Scientists Research
with animals can benefit people, but it is
sometimes used too quickly to support
conclusions about people. When does that
happen?
parent–infant bond The strong, loving con-
nection that forms as parents hold their
newborn.
SH
EH
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IN
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120 CHAPTER 4 ■ Prenatal Development and Birth
From Zygote to Newborn
1. The first two weeks of prenatal growth are called the germinal
period. During this period, the single-celled zygote develops into
a blastocyst with more than 100 cells, travels down the fallopian
tube, and implants itself in the lining of the uterus. Most zygotes
do not develop.
2. The period from the third through the eighth week after con-
ception is called the embryonic period. The heart begins to beat,
and the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth begin to form. By the eighth
week, the embryo has the basic organs and features of a human,
with the exception of the sex organs.
3. The fetal period extends from the 9th week until birth. By the
12th week, all the organs and body structures have formed. The
fetus attains viability at 22 weeks, when the brain is sufficiently
mature to regulate basic body functions. Babies born before the
26th week are at high risk of death or disability.
4. The average fetus gains approximately 41⁄2 pounds (2,040 grams)
during the last three months of pregnancy and weighs 71⁄2 pounds
(3,400 grams) at birth. Maturation of brain, lungs, and heart en-
sures survival of more than 99 percent of all full-term babies.
Risk Reduction
5. Some teratogens (diseases, drugs, and pollutants) cause physi-
cal impairment. Others, called behavioral teratogens, harm the
brain and therefore impair cognitive abilities and personality ten-
dencies.
6. Whether a teratogen harms an embryo or fetus depends on
timing, amount of exposure, and genetic vulnerability. To protect
against prenatal complications, good public and personal health
practices are strongly recommended.
7. Many methods of prenatal testing inform pregnant couples
how the fetus is developing. Such knowledge can bring anxiety
and unexpected responsibility as well as welcome information.
The Birth Process
8. Birth typically begins with contractions that push the fetus,
head first, out of the uterus and then through the vagina. The
Apgar scale, which rates the neonate’s vital signs at one minute
and again at five minutes after birth, provides a quick evaluation
of the infant’s health.
9. Medical intervention can speed contractions, dull pain, and
save lives. However, many aspects of the medicalized birth have
been faulted. Contemporary birthing practices are aimed at find-
ing a balance, protecting the baby but also allowing more parental
involvement and control.
10. Birth complications, such as unusually long and stressful
labor that includes anoxia (a lack of oxygen to the fetus), have
many causes. Long-term handicaps, such as cerebral palsy, are
not inevitable for such children, but careful nurturing from their
parents may be needed.
11. Low birthweight (under 51⁄2 pounds, or 2,500 grams) may
arise from multiple births, placental problems, maternal illness,
malnutrition, smoking, drinking, drug use, and age. Compared
with full-term newborns, preterm and underweight babies experi-
ence more medical difficulties. Fetuses that grow slowly (SGA)
are especially vulnerable.
12. Many women feel unhappy, incompetent, or unwell in the
days immediately after giving birth. Postpartum depression may
lift with appropriate help; fathers are particularly crucial to the
well-being of mother and child, although they also are vulnerable
to depression.
13. Kangaroo care is particularly helpful when the newborn is of
low birthweight. Mother–newborn interaction should be encour-
aged, although the parent–infant bond depends on many factors
in addition to birth practices.
germinal period (p. 91)
embryonic period (p. 91)
fetal period (p. 91)
blastocyst (p. 91)
placenta (p. 92)
implantation (p. 92)
embryo (p. 93)
fetus (p. 94)
age of viability (p. 95)
teratogens (p. 97)
behavioral teratogens (p. 97)
risk analysis (p. 98)
critical period (p. 98)
threshold effect (p. 98)
interaction effect (p. 99)
fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
(p. 102)
Apgar scale (p. 110)
cesarean section (p. 110)
doula (p. 112)
anoxia (p. 112)
cerebral palsy (p. 113)
low birthweight (LBW) (p. 113)
very low birthweight (VLBW)
(p. 113)
extremely low birthweight
(ELBW) (p. 113)
preterm birth (p. 114)
small for gestational age (SGA)
(p. 114)
kangaroo care (p. 117)
parental alliance (p. 118)
postpartum depression (p. 118)
parent–infant bond (p. 119)
SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
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Summary 121
6. How much influence do husbands and mothers have on preg-
nant women? Explain your answer.
7. How have medical procedures helped and harmed the birth
process?
8. Why do hospitals encourage parents of fragile newborns to
provide some care, even if the newborn is in critical condition?
9. What are the differences between a typical pregnancy and
birth in Africa and a typical one in North America?
10. What can be done about postpartum depression, for mother,
father, and infant?
1. What are the major differences between an embryo at 2 weeks
and at 8 weeks after conception?
2. What are the factors in achieving viability?
3. Since almost all fetuses born at 30 weeks survive, why don’t
women avoid the last month of pregnancy by having an elective
cesarean at that time?
4. Which maternal behavior or characteristic seems most harm-
ful to the fetus: eating a diet low in folic acid, drinking a lot of al-
cohol, or being HIV-positive? Explain your answer.
5. Reconsider the Horans’ decision to abort their fetus. Accord-
ing to this published account, which considerations were crucial
for them? If you were in this situation, which considerations
would be crucial for you?
ing especially any influences of culture, personality, circum-
stances, or cohort.
3. People sometimes wonder how any pregnant woman could
jeopardize the health of her fetus. Consider your own health-
related behavior in the past month—exercise, sleep, nutrition,
drug use, medical and dental care, disease avoidance, and so on.
Would you change your behavior if you were pregnant? Would it
make a difference if your family, your partner, or you yourself did
not want a baby?
1. Go to a nearby greeting-card store and analyze the cards re-
garding pregnancy and birth. Do you see any cultural attitudes
(e.g., variations depending on the sex of the newborn or of the
parent)? If possible, compare those cards with cards from a store
that caters to another economic or cultural group.
2. Interview three mothers of varied backgrounds about their
birth experiences. Make your interviews open-ended—let them
choose what to tell you, as long as they give at least a 10-minute
description. Then compare and contrast the three accounts, not-
KEY QUESTIONS
APPLICATIONS
➤Response for Scientists (from page 119): Animal research tends to
be used too quickly whenever it supports an assertion that is popular but
has not been substantiated by research data, as in the social construction
about physical contact being crucial for parent–infant bonding.
➤Response for Fathers-to-Be (from page 118): It begins before
conception and continues throughout prenatal development, through
his influence on the mother’s attitudes and health.
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The First
Two Years
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A
dults don’t change much in a year or
two. Their hair might grow longer,
grayer, or thinner; they might be a little
fatter; or they might learn something
new. But if you saw friends you hadn’t seen for two
years, you’d recognize them immediately.
By contrast, if you cared for a newborn 24 hours
a day for a month, went away for two years, and
then came back, you might not recognize him or
her, because the baby would have quadrupled in
weight, grown taller by more than a foot, and
sprouted a new head of hair. Behavior would have
changed, too. Not much crying, but some laughter
and fear—including of you.
A year or two is not much compared with the 75
or so years of the average life span. However, in two
years newborns reach half their adult height, talk in
sentences, and express almost every emotion—not
just joy and fear but also love, jealousy, and shame.
The next three chapters describe these radical and
awesome changes.
PA R T I I
123
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
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The First Two Years:
Biosocial Development
In the first two years, rapid growth is obvious in all three domains—body, mind, and social relationships. Here we chronicle biosocial de-velopment: Sit . . . stand . . . walk . . . run! Reach . . . touch . . . grab . . .throw! Listen . . . stare . . . see! Each object, each person, each place
becomes something to explore with every sense, limb, and digit.
Invisible developments are even more striking. Infant brains triple in size,
with neurons connecting to one another at a dizzying, yet programmed, pace.
Tiny stomachs digest more food and more kinds of food, dispatching nour-
ishment to the brain and body to enable phenomenal growth.
Parents and cultures are pivotal to this process, which makes it biosocial—
not merely biological—development. Adults provide the nurture that enables
infant growth, with specifics that change daily because infants change daily.
As one expert explains, “Parenting an infant is akin to trying to hit a moving
target” (Bornstein, 2002, p. 14).
This chapter describes that target as it moves—not only weight, height,
and motor skills at key ages but also the brain growth that provides the
foundation for all other developments. You will learn in this chapter how to
help the infants you know, and some whom you will never meet, make it
safely to age 2.
Body Changes
In infancy, growth is so fast, and the consequences of neglect are so severe,
that gains need to be closely monitored. Medical checkups, including meas-
urement of height, weight, and head circumference, occur every few weeks
at first.
Body Size
Exactly how rapidly does growth typically occur? We saw in Chapter 4 that at
birth the average infant weighs 71⁄2 pounds (3,400 grams) and measures about
20 inches (51 centimeters). This means that the typical newborn weighs less
than a gallon of milk and is about as long as the distance from a man’s elbow
to the tips of his fingers.
Infants typically double their birthweight by the fourth month and triple it
by their first birthday. Physical growth slows in the second year, but it is still
rapid. By 24 months most children weigh almost 30 pounds (131⁄2 kilograms)
5
125
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� Body Changes
Body Size
Sleep
� Brain Development
Connections in the Brain
Necessary and Possible Experiences
Implications for Caregivers
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST:
Plasticity and Orphans
� Senses and Motor Skills
Sensation and Perception
Motor Skills
Ethnic Variations
IN PERSON: The Normal Berger Babies
� Public Health Measures
Immunization
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS:
Back to Sleep
Nutrition
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and are between 32 and 36 inches (81–91 centimeters) tall. This means that typ-
ical 2-year-olds are already half their adult height. They are also about 15 to 20
percent of their adult weight, four times as heavy as at birth. (See Appendix A,
pp. A-6, A-7.)
Each of the above numbers is a norm, an average or standard for a particular
population. Norms must be carefully interpreted. The “particular population” for
the norms above is a representative sample of North American infants, who may
be unlike representative samples of infants from other regions of the world. To un-
derstand norms, you also need to understand percentiles. A child who is average is
at the 50th percentile, a number that is midway between 0 and 100, with half of
the children above it and half below it.
Percentiles allow a child’s growth to be compared not only with that of other
children but also with his or her own prior development. Pediatricians and nurses
notice all children whose growth is far from the norms, but they pay closer atten-
tion to the ranking: A drop in percentile means that something might be wrong.
Much of the weight increase in the early months is fat, to provide insulation for
warmth and a store of nourishment. This stored nutrition keeps the brain growing
norm An average, or standard, measure-
ment, calculated from the measurements
of many individuals within a specific group
or population.
percentile A point on a ranking scale of 0 to
100. The 50th percentile is the midpoint;
half the people in the population rank
higher and half rank lower.
126 CHAPTER 5 ■ The First Two Years: Biosocial Development
Both Amazing and Average Juwan’s growth from (a) 4 months to (b) 12 months to (c) 24 months
is a surprise and delight to everyone who knows him. At age 2, this Filipino American toddler
seems to have become a self-assured, outgoing individual, obviously unique. Yet the norms indi-
cate that he is developing right on schedule—weight, teeth, motor skills, and all.
AL
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IN
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if teething or the sniffles interfere with eating. When nutrition is temporarily inad-
equate, the body stops growing but not the brain—a phenomenon called head-
sparing (Georgieff & Rao, 2001). (Chronic malnutrition is discussed later in this
chapter.)
Sleep
New babies spend most of their time sleeping, about 17 hours or more a day.
Throughout childhood, regular and ample sleep correlates with normal brain mat-
uration, learning, emotional regulation, and psychological adjustment in school
and within the family (Bates et al., 2002; Sadeh et al., 2000). A child who does not
sleep well—who wakes up easily or frequently or gets too little sleep—has some
kind of health problem, although it is not known if poor sleeping is a cause or a
symptom of that problem.
Over the first months, the relative amount of time spent in
each type or stage of sleep changes. Newborns apparently dream
a lot, or at least they have a high proportion of REM sleep (rapid
eye movement sleep, characterized by flickering eyes, dreaming,
and rapid brain waves). Dreaming sleep declines over the early
weeks, as does “transitional sleep,” the dozing stage when a per-
son is half awake. At 3 or 4 months, quiet sleep (also called slow-
wave sleep) increases markedly (Salzarulo & Fagioli, 1999).
At about this time, the various “states” of waking and sleeping
become more evident. Thus, although many newborns rarely
seem sound asleep or wide awake, by 3 months most babies have
periods of alertness, when they are neither hungry nor sleepy, and
periods of deep sleep, when noises do not waken them.
Sleep patterns are affected by birth order, newborn diet, and
child-rearing practices, as well as by brain maturation. For exam-
ple, if parents respond to predawn cries with food and play, babies
learn to wake up night after night. First-born infants typically
REM sleep Rapid eye movement sleep, a
stage of sleep characterized by flickering
eyes behind closed lids, dreaming, and
rapid brain waves.
head-sparing The biological protection of
the brain when malnutrition affects body
growth. The brain is the last part of the
body to be damaged by malnutrition.
Body Changes 127
The Weigh-In At her 1-year well-baby
checkup, Blair sits up steadily, weighs more
than 20 pounds, and would scramble off the
table if she could. Both Blair’s development
and the nurse’s protective arm are quite
appropriate.MI
CH
AE
L
N
EW
M
AN
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T,
IN
C.
Dreaming, Dozing, or Sound Asleep? Babies spend most of their
time sleeping.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 128): Can you tell which kind
of sleep this infant is experiencing?
DA
VI
D
YO
UN
G-
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OL
FF
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T,
IN
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“receive more attention” (Bornstein, 2002, p. 28), and that may be why they exhibit
more sleep problems than later-borns. Consider this report from one mother:
I . . . raised my first taking him wherever I went, whenever I went, confident he
would adapt. While he was always happy, he was never a good sleeper and his
first 4 years were very hard on me (I claim he didn’t sleep through the night until
he was 4, but I could be wrong, I was so sleep-deprived). . . . [When my third
child] came along . . . , I was determined to give her a schedule. . . . She is a
GREAT sleeper, happy to go to bed. I am convinced, anecdotally, that schedules
are the most important part of this.
[Freda, personal communication, 1997]
That is good advice. Developmentalists agree that insisting that an infant con-
form to the parents’ schedule can be frustrating to the parents and, in some cases,
harmful to the infant; but letting a child continually interrupt the adults’ sleep can
be harmful to the parents. Ideally, families interact and adapt until every member’s
basic needs are met.
One question for many parents is: Where should infants sleep? Traditionally,
Western parents put their infants to sleep in a crib in a separate bedroom, unless
the family did not have a spare room. Parents in Asia, Africa, and Latin America
slept beside their infants, a practice called co-sleeping or bed-sharing.
Today, many Western parents allow bed-sharing, at least in the first months. In
fact, a recent survey of British parents found that half of them slept with their
infants some of the time (Blair & Ball, 2004). A study of California families found
that about a third practiced co-sleeping from birth; about one-fourth of couples
had newborns sleep in another room but allowed their toddlers to sleep with
them; and the rest kept babies in a separate room throughout childhood (Keller &
Goldberg, 2004).
Co-sleeping does not seem to be harmful unless the adult is drugged or
drunk—and thus in danger of “overlying” the baby. According to one report:
Mothers instinctively take up a protective posture when sharing a bed with their
infants, lying in a fetal position with their lower arm above the infant’s head and
the infant lying within around 20–30 centimeters [about 10 inches] from the
mother’s chest. The position of the mother’s thighs prevents the baby from slid-
ing down the bed.
[Wailoo et al., 2004, p. 1083]
Although a videotape analysis found that co-sleeping infants wake up twice as
often (six times a night) as solo-sleeping infants (three times), co-sleepers get just
as much sleep as solo sleepers because they go back to sleep more quickly (Mao
et al., 2004). Sleeping patterns and practices are like other aspects of infant care:
Many different paths can lead to normal child development and normal family
functioning.
SUMMING UP
Birthweight doubles, triples, and quadruples by 4 months, 12 months, and 24 months, re-
spectively. Height increases by about a foot (about 30 centimeters) in the first two years.
Such norms are useful as general guidelines, but individual percentile rankings over time
indicate whether a particular infant is growing normally. Sleep becomes regular, dreaming
less common, and distinct sleep–wake patterns develop, usually including a long night’s
sleep by age 1. Time spent dreaming decreases to about what it is for an older child.
Cultural and caregiving practices influence norms, schedules, and expectations.
■
Especially for New Parents You are aware
of cultural differences in sleeping practices,
and this raises a very practical issue: Should
your newborn sleep in bed with you?
128 CHAPTER 5 ■ The First Two Years: Biosocial Development
co-sleeping A custom in which parents and
their children (usually infants) sleep together.
(Also called bed-sharing.)
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 127): The baby’s outstretched left arm
suggests dreaming, which occupies about six
hours of every day’s sleep at this age. Direct
observation or a video, not a photograph,
could demonstrate whether this is REM
(dreaming) sleep. Quiet sleep is characterized
by shallow breathing, still eyes, and relaxed
muscle tone.
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Brain Development
Recall that the newborn’s skull is disproportionately large. That’s because it
must be big enough to hold the brain, which at birth is already 25 percent of
its adult weight. The neonate’s body, by comparison, is typically only 5 per-
cent of the adult weight. By age 2, the brain is almost 75 percent of adult
brain weight; the child’s total body weight is only about 20 percent of its
adult weight (see Figure 5.1).
Connections in the Brain
Head circumference provides a rough idea of how the brain is growing, and
that is why medical checkups include measurement of the skull. The dis-
tance around the head typically increases about 35 percent (from 13 to 18
inches, or from 33 to 46 centimeters) within the first year. Much more sig-
nificant (although harder to measure) are changes in the brain’s communication
system. To understand this, we review the basics of neurological development (see
Figure 5.2).
Basic Brain Structures
The brain’s communication system begins with nerve cells, called neurons. Most
neurons are created before birth, at a peak production rate of 250,000 new brain
cells per minute in mid-pregnancy (Bloom et al., 2001). In infancy, the human
brain has billions of neurons. Some neurons are deep inside the brain or in the
brain stem, a region that controls automatic responses such as heartbeat, breath-
ing, temperature, and arousal. About 70 percent of neurons are in the cortex, the
brain’s six outer layers (sometimes called the neocortex) (Kolb & Whishaw, 2003).
The cortex is crucial for humans, as is evident in the following three facts:
■ About 80 percent of the human brain material is in the cortex.
■ In other mammals the cortex is proportionally smaller, and non-mammals
have no cortex.
■ Most thinking, feeling, and sensing take place in the cortex, although other
parts of the brain join in (Kolb & Whishaw, 2003).
Brain Development 129
0
25
50
75
100
Brain
weight
Height Weight
Percentage
of adult size
In Just the First Two Years . . .
FIGURE 5.1
Growing Up Two-year-olds are barely talking
and are totally dependent on adults, but they
have already reached half their adult height and
three-fourths of their adult brain size. This is
dramatic evidence that biosocial growth is the
foundation for cognitive and social maturity.
Frontal cortex The front part
of the cortex assists in planning,
self-control, and self-regulation.
It is very immature in the
newborn.
Auditory cortex Hearing is
quite acute at birth, the result
of months of eavesdropping
during the fetal period.
Cortex The crinkled outer layer of
the brain (colored here in pink, tan,
purple, and blue) is the cortex.
Visual cortex Vision is the
least mature sense at birth
because the fetus has nothing
to see while in the womb.
FIGURE 5.2
The Developing Cortex The infant’s cortex
consists of four to six thin layers of tissue
that cover the brain. It contains virtually all
the neurons that make conscious thought
possible. Some areas of the cortex, such as
those devoted to the basic senses, mature
relatively early. Others, such as the frontal
cortex, mature quite late.
neuron One of the billions of nerve cells in
the central nervous system, especially the
brain.
cortex The outer layers of the brain in humans
and other mammals. Most thinking, feeling,
and sensing involve the cortex. (Sometimes
called the neocortex.)
122-153_BergerLS7e_CH05.qxp 9/10/07 5:07 PM Page 129

Various areas of the cortex specialize in particular functions. For instance, there
is a visual cortex, an auditory cortex, and an area dedicated to the sense of touch
for each body part—even for each finger of a person or, in rats, for each whisker
(Bloom et al., 2001). Regional specialization within the cortex occurs not only for
motor skills and senses but also for particular aspects of cognition.
One of the fascinating aspects of brain specialization is that a particular part of
the brain (called the fusiform face area) seems dedicated to perception of faces. In
newborns, this area is activated not only by real faces but also by visual stimuli
(e.g., pictures) that look like faces. The infant’s experiences refine perception in
this area, so 6-month-olds recognize their mothers and fathers, examine faces of
strangers, and no longer pay careful attention to monkey faces (Johnson, 2005).
Within and between brain areas, neurons are connected to other neurons by in-
tricate networks of nerve fibers called axons and dendrites (see Figure 5.3). Each
neuron has a single axon and numerous dendrites, which spread out like the
branches of a tree. The axon of one neuron meets the dendrites of other neurons at
intersections called synapses, which are critical communication links within the
brain. To be more specific, neurons communicate by sending electrochemical
impulses through their axons to synapses, to be picked up by the dendrites of other
neurons. The dendrites bring the message to the cell bodies of their neurons, which,
in turn, convey the message via their axons to still other neurons. Axons and den-
drites do not touch at synapses. Instead, the electrical impulses in axons typically
cause the release of chemicals called neurotransmitters, which carry information
130 CHAPTER 5 ■ The First Two Years: Biosocial Development
Dendrites receive
messages from
other neurons
Neuron Axon sends
messages to
other cells
Axon
Synapse Dendrite
Neurotransmitters
Myelin covering
the axon speeds
transmission of
neural impulses
In the synapse, or intersection between an
axon and dendrite, neurotransmitters carry
information from one neuron to another.
FIGURE 5.3
How Two Neurons Communicate The link between
one neuron and another is shown in the simplified dia-
gram at right. The infant brain actually contains billions
of neurons, each with one axon and many dendrites.
Every electrochemical message to or from the brain
causes thousands of neurons to fire simultaneously,
each transmitting the message across the synapse to
neighboring neurons. The electron micrograph directly
above shows several neurons, greatly magnified, with
their tangled but highly organized and well-coordinated
sets of dendrites and axons.
axon A fiber that extends from a neuron and
transmits electrochemical impulses from
that neuron to the dendrites of other
neurons.
dendrite A fiber that extends from a neuron
and receives electrochemical impulses
transmitted from other neurons via their
axons.
synapse The intersection between the axon
of one neuron and the dendrites of other
neurons.
➤Response for New Parents (from page
128): From the psychological and cultural
perspectives, babies can sleep anywhere as
long as the parents can hear them if they cry.
The main consideration is safety: Infants
should not sleep on a mattress that is too
soft, nor should a baby sleep beside an adult
who is drunk or drugged or sleeps very
soundly (Nakamura et al., 1999). Otherwise,
the family should decide for itself where its
members would sleep best.
©
M
AN
FR
ED
K
AG
E
/ P
ET
ER
A
RN
OL
D,
IN
C.
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from the axon of the sending neuron, across the synaptic gap,
to the dendrites of the receiving neuron, a process speeded
up by myelination (described in Chapter 8).
Transient Exuberance and Pruning
At birth, the brain contains more than 100 billion neurons,
more than any person will ever use (de Haan & Johnson,
2003). By contrast, the newborn brain has far fewer den-
drites and synapses than the person will eventually possess.
During the first months and years, rapid growth and refine-
ment in axons, dendrites, and synapses occur, especially in
the cortex. Dendrite growth is the major reason that brain
weight triples in the first two years (Johnson, 2005).
An estimated fivefold increase in dendrites in the cortex
occurs in the 24 months after birth, with about 100 trillion
synapses being present at age 2 (Schwartz & Begley, 2002).
This early growth is called transient exuberance, because
the expanded growth of dendrites is followed by pruning
(see Figure 5.4), in which unused neurons and miscon-
nected dendrites atrophy and die (Barinaga, 2003). (This
process is called pruning because it resembles the way a gardener might prune a
rose bush by cutting away some stems to enable more, or more beautiful, roses to
bloom.) Transient exuberance enables neurons to become connected to, and com-
municate with, a greatly expanding number of other neurons within the brain.
Synapses, dendrites, and even neurons continue to form and die throughout life,
though more rapidly in infancy than at any other time (Nelson et al., 2006).
Thinking and learning require that such connections between many parts of
the brain be made. For example, to understand any word in this text, you need to
understand the surrounding words, the ideas they convey, and how they relate to
your other thoughts and experiences. Baby brains have the same requirement, al-
though at first they have few experiences to build on, and the various parts of the
brain have not yet developed to the adult level or even to the level of a 2-year-old.
Brain Development 131
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 21 12 13 14 15 163 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Months Years
Age
Receptive language areas/
speech production
(angular gyrus/Broca’s area)
Higher cognitive
functions
(prefrontal
cortex)
Seeing/hearing
(visual cortex/
auditory cortex)
Synapse Formation and Dendrite Formation
Source: Adapted from R. A. Thompson & C. A. Nelson, 2001, p. 8.
FIGURE 5.4
Brain Growth in Response to Experience
These curves show the rapid rate of experience-
dependent synapse formation for three functions
of the brain (senses, language, and analysis).
After the initial increase, the underused neurons
are gradually pruned, or inactivated, as no func-
tioning dendrites are formed from them.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 132):
Why do both “12 months” and “1 year” appear
on the “Age” line?
Electric Excitement Milo’s delight at his
mother’s facial expressions is visible, not just
in his eyes and mouth but also in the neurons
of the outer layer of his cortex. Electrodes
map his brain activation region by region and
moment by moment. Every month of life up to
age 2 shows increased electrical excitement.
transient exuberance The great increase in
the number of dendrites that occurs in an
infant’s brain during the first two years of
life.
BE
N
JA
M
IN
B
EN
SC
HN
EI
DE
R
/ T
HE
S
EA
TT
LE
T
IM
ES
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Experience Shapes the Brain
The specifics of brain structure and growth depend on genes but also on experience,
which produces the “postnatal rise and fall” of synapses (de Haan & Johnson,
2003, p. 5). Soon after exuberant expansion, some dendrites wither away because
they are underused—that is, no experiences have caused them to send a message
to the axons of other neurons. Strangely enough, this loss increases brain power by
promoting a more intricate organization of existing connections; the “increasing
cognitive complexity of childhood is related to a loss rather than a gain of synapses”
(de Haan & Johnson, 2003, p. 8).
Further evidence of the benefit of cell death comes from neurological research
regarding fragile X syndrome (described in Chapter 3), which includes “a persistent
failure of normal synapse pruning” (Irwin et al., 2002, p. 194). In children with
fragile X syndrome, dendrites are too dense and too long; without pruning, children
cannot think normally.
Stress and the Brain
An unfortunate example of the role of experience in brain development begins
when the brain produces cortisol and other hormones in response to stress, which
happens throughout life (Gunnar & Vasquez, 2001). If the brain produces an over-
abundance of stress hormones early in life (as when an infant is frequently terri-
fied), then the brain becomes incapable of normal stress responses. Later, that
person’s brain may either overproduce stress hormones, making the person hyper-
vigilant (always on the alert), or underproduce them, making the person emotion-
ally flat (never happy, sad, or angry).
A kindergarten teacher might notice that one child becomes furious or terrified
at a mild provocation and another child seems indifferent to everything. Why? In
both cases, the underlying cause could be excessive stress-hormone production in
infancy, which changes the way the brain responds to stress. Similarly, if an adult
loves or hates too quickly, extremely, and irrationally, the cause could be abnormal
brain hormones resulting from early experiences such as abuse (Teicher, 2002).
Necessary and Possible Experiences
A scientist named William Greenough has identified two experience-related as-
pects of brain development (Greenough et al., 1987):
■ The development of experience-expectant brain functions requires the
individual’s exposure to basic common experiences—experiences that almost
every infant has and all infants need for normal brain development.
■ The development of experience-dependent functions depends on the indi-
vidual’s exposure to particular, variable experiences—experiences that some
infants in some families and cultures may have but others may not have, and
which vary from one infant to another.
The basic, common experiences must happen for normal brain maturation to
occur, and they almost always do happen: The brain is designed to expect them
and use them for growth. Human brain development is dependent on many such
expected experiences. In deserts and in the Arctic, on isolated farms and in
crowded cities, almost all babies do have things to see, objects to manipulate, and
people to love them. As a result, their brains develop normally.
In contrast, dependent experiences might happen; because of them, one brain
differs from another. Particular experiences vary, such as which language babies
hear or how their mother reacts to frustration. Depending on those particulars,
infant brains are structured and connected one way or another, as some dendrites
experience-expectant Refers to brain
functions that require certain basic com-
mon experiences (which an infant can be
expected to have) in order to develop
normally.
experience-dependent Refers to brain func-
tions that depend on particular, variable
experiences and that therefore may or
may not develop in a particular infant.
132 CHAPTER 5 ■ The First Two Years: Biosocial Development
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
131): “One year” signifies the entire year, from
day 365 to day 729, and that is indicated by its
location between “12 months” and “2 years.”
122-153_BergerLS7e_CH05.qxp 9/10/07 5:07 PM Page 132

grow and neurons thrive while others die. Consequently,
all people are similar, but each person is unique, be-
cause of particular early experiences.
This distinction can be made for all mammals. Some
of the most persuasive research has been done with
songbirds. All male songbirds have a brain region dedi-
cated to listening and reproducing sounds (experience-
expectant), but each species in a particular locality
learns to produce a slightly different song (experience-
dependent) (Knudsen, 1999). Birds develop the neu-
rons that they need: neurons dedicated to learning new
songs (canaries) or to finding hidden seeds (chicka-
dees). Both of these functions require experiences that
circumstances offer to some birds but not to others
(Barinaga, 2003).
In unusual situations, knowledge of which develop-
mental events are experience-expectant at what ages is
helpful. For example, proliferation and pruning occur at about 4 months in the
visual and auditory cortexes. For this reason, treatment of blind or deaf infants
(whether with surgery, eyeglasses, or hearing aids) should occur early in life to
prevent atrophy of those brain regions that expect sights and sounds (Leonard,
2003). Thus, deaf infants whose deficits are recognized at birth and remediated in
their first year become better at understanding and expressing language than do
those whose hearing deficits are not noticed until later (Kennedy et al., 2006).
If early visual or auditory neuronal connections are not made, those areas of the
brain may become dedicated to other senses, such as touch. Braille, for that rea-
son, is easier for a blind person to read than for a seeing person, because blind
people often have more brain cells dedicated to the sense of touch (Pascual-Leone
& Torres, 1993).
The language areas of the brain develop most rapidly between the ages of 6 and
24 months, so infants need to hear a lot of speech during that period in order to
talk fluently. In fact, speech heard between 6 and 12 months helps infants recog-
nize the characteristics of their local language long before they utter a word (Saf-
fran et al., 2006).
The last part of the brain to mature is the prefrontal cortex, the area for
anticipation, planning, and impulse control. It is virtually inactive in early infancy
but gradually becomes more efficient over the years of childhood and adolescence
(Luciana, 2003). Thus, telling an infant to stop crying is pointless, because the
infant cannot decide to stop crying. Such decisions require brain functions that
are not yet present.
Much worse is for an adult to become angry and shake the baby to stop the
crying. This can cause shaken baby syndrome, a life-threatening condition that
occurs when an infant is held by the shoulders and shaken back and forth, sharply
and quickly. The shaking stops the crying because of ruptured blood vessels in the
brain and broken neural connections. In the United States, brain scans show that
more than one in five of all children hospitalized for maltreatment suffer from
shaken baby syndrome (Rovi et al., 2004).
Implications for Caregivers
What does early brain development mean for parents and other caregivers? First,
early brain growth is rapid and dependent on experience. This means that caress-
ing a newborn, talking to a preverbal infant, and showing affection toward a toddler
Brain Development 133
Let’s Talk Infants evoke facial expressions
and baby talk, no matter where they are or
which adults they are with. Communication is
thus experience-expectant: Young human
brains expect it and need it.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 134):
Are these two father and daughter? Where
are they?
EA
ST
CO
TT
/
M
OM
AT
IN
K
/ T
HE
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
prefrontal cortex The area of cortex at the
front of the brain that specializes in antici-
pation, planning, and impulse control.
shaken baby syndrome A life-threatening
condition that occurs when an infant is
forcefully shaken back and forth, rupturing
blood vessels in the brain and breaking
neural connections.
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may be essential to develop the child’s full potential. If such experiences are miss-
ing from the child’s early weeks and months, lifelong damage may result.
Second, each part of the brain has a sequence of growing, connecting, and
pruning. Some kinds of stimulation are meaningless before the brain is ready, and
some potential learning is irrelevant to a particular person. That means it is advis-
able to follow the baby’s lead to figure out what stimulation is needed. Infants re-
spond most strongly and positively to whatever their brains need; that is why very
young babies like to look at and listen to musical mobiles, strangers on the street,
and, best of all, their own caregivers.
This preference reflects self-righting, the inborn drive to remedy deficits. An
infant with limited stimulation will develop the brain by using whatever experi-
ences are available. Babies do not need the latest educational toys—their brains
will develop with normal stimulation. Just don’t keep them in a dark, quiet place
all day long.
Human brains are designed to grow and adapt; some plasticity is retained
throughout life (Baltes et al., 2006). Brains protect themselves from overstimula-
tion; for example, overstimulated babies sometimes cry or sleep. They also adjust
to understimulation, responding to any experience by developing new connections
lifelong (Greenough, 1993; Schwartz & Begley, 2002).
Neuroscientists once thought that brains were influenced solely by genes and
prenatal influences. By contrast, many social scientists once thought that child-
hood environment was crucial. Cultures (according to anthropologists) or societies
(according to sociologists) or parents (according to psychologists) could be credited
or blamed for a child’s emotions and actions.
Now most scientists, especially life-span developmentalists, are multidiscipli-
nary, incorporating perspectives from both neuroscience and social science
(Nelson et al., 2006). They believe that plasticity is an “inherent property of devel-
opment” (Johnson, 2005, p. 189), but they do not think plasticity is unlimited.
Rather, there are sensitive periods, which are times when particular kinds of
development are primed to occur (Baltes et al., 2006). The first two years of life
are widely considered a sensitive period during which the brain needs some
experiences if it is to develop normally.
For an explanation of why social scientists let go of their faith in the brain’s
ability to recover from deprivation at any age, read the following.
self-righting The inborn drive to remedy a
developmental deficit.
sensitive period A time when a certain kind
of growth or development is most likely to
happen or happens most readily.
134 CHAPTER 5 ■ The First Two Years: Biosocial Development
thinking like a scientist
Plasticity and Orphans
How much, and when, can experience affect the brain? Two
studies—one involving caged rats and the other involving adopted
babies—provide some answers.
In research by Marion Diamond, William Greenough, and
their colleagues, some “enriched” rats were raised with other rats
in large cages filled with interesting rat toys; other “deprived” rats
were isolated in small, barren cages. The rats were randomly
assigned, and all came from the same few litters. At autopsy,
their brains were examined. The brains of the “enriched” rats
were larger and heavier and had more dendrites than the brains
of the “deprived” rats (Diamond et al., 1988; Greenough &
Volkmar, 1973).
Many other researchers have confirmed this phenomenon:
Isolation and sensory deprivation harm the developing brain of a
rat, and a complex social environment enhances neurological
growth (Curtis & Nelson, 2003). The most recent extensions of
this research suggest that rats raised in cognitively stimulating
environments are less likely to suffer from brain disease, includ-
ing Alzheimer’s disease, in late adulthood.
Such experiments are unthinkable with humans, but a chill-
ing natural experiment began in Romania in the 1980s, when
dictator Nicolae Ceausesçu forbade all birth control and out-
lawed abortions except for women who had five children or
more. Parents were paid for every birth but received no financial
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 133): The man’s straight black hair, high
cheekbones, and weather-beaten face indicate
that he could be an Indian from North or South
America. Other clues pinpoint the location
more closely. Note his lined, hooded jacket
and the low, heat-conserving ceiling of the
house—he is an Inuit in northern Canada.
A father’s attention makes a baby laugh and
vocalize, not look away, so this man is not the
6-month-old baby’s father. She is being held
by a family friend whom she is visiting with
her parents.
122-153_BergerLS7e_CH05.qxp 9/10/07 5:07 PM Page 134

Brain Development 135
support for raising a child. Illegal abortions became the leading
cause of death for women age 15–45 (Verona, 2003), and more
than 100,000 children were abandoned to crowded, impersonal
state-run orphanages (D. E. Johnson, 2000). These children
were overstressed and overstimulated because they lacked the
buffers of social reassurance and love. They experienced “severe
and pervasive restriction of human interactions, play conversa-
tion, and experiences” (Rutter & O’Connor, 2004, p. 91).
Ceausesçu was ousted and killed in 1989. During the next
two years, thousands of Romanian children were adopted by
North American and western European families who believed
that “lots of love and good food would change the skinny, floppy
waif they found in the orphanage into the child of their dreams”
(D. E. Johnson, 2000, p. 154).
All the Romanian adoptees experienced catch-up growth,
becoming taller and gaining weight until they reached normal
size (Rutter & O’Connor, 2004). However, many showed signs
of emotional damage: They were too friendly to strangers, or
too angry without reason, or too frightened of normal events
(Chisholm, 1998). The children who fared best were adopted
before 6 months of age (Rutter, 2006).
For scientists who expected dire consequences, the news
was good: “The human infant has built-in ‘buffers’ against early
adversity” (O’Connor et al., 2000). Self-righting was apparent,
especially in weight and height. By age 11, children who had
been adopted by 6 months were normal in IQ and in other ways.
For those who hoped for the eventual recovery of all these
children, however, the news was bad. No further gains occurred
after age 6, except for the most severely impaired children, who
were still below average. The 11-year-olds who had been
adopted after they were 6 months old scored an average of 85 on
the WISC IQ test, which is 15 points below normal. Depriva-
tion was also apparent in language and social interaction, abili-
ties controlled by the cortex.
Research on maltreated children in the United States has
reached similar conclusions. If maltreatment begins early in life
and continues past 1 year, complete social and emotional recov-
ery is much more elusive than catch-up physical growth (Bolger
& Patterson, 2003). Plasticity is not infinite; some effects of
early deprivation probably persist no matter how nurturant later
life is (Rutter, 2006). On the other hand, some plasticity is evi-
dent throughout life; some research focuses on a 6-month window,
others a year, others two years. Ideally of course, no deprivation
occurs at all.
Neither dire nor sunny predictions about maltreated children
are accurate. A team of scientists who have devoted their lives to
impaired children advise: “Be skeptical about ‘miracle’ cures of
severely affected individuals which appear in the media, or even
in scientific journals, while recognizing that partial amelioration
can occur in individual cases” (Clarke & Clarke, 2003, p. 131).
Thinking like a scientist means working to stop every govern-
ment, culture, or family that allows young children to be raised
without the experiences they need in order to develop normally.
Head-sparing, plasticity, self-righting, and experience-expectant
events all compensate for the many imperfections and lapses of
human parenting, but they cannot overcome extreme early dep-
rivation that lasts too long.
A Fortunate Pair Elaine Himelfarb (shown in the background), of San
Diego, California, is shown here in Bucharest to adopt 22-month-old
Maria. This adoption was an exception to the Romanian government’s
ban at the time on international adoptions. Adopted children like
Maria, who have been well fed and who are less than 2 years old, are
especially likely to develop well.
AP
/
W
ID
E
W
OR
LD
P
HO
TO
S
SUMMING UP
Brain growth is rapid during the first months of life, when dendrites and the synapses
within the cortex increase exponentially. By age 2 the brain already weighs three-fourths
of its adult weight. Shrinkage of underused and unconnected dendrites begins in the
sensory and motor areas and then occurs in other areas. Although some brain develop-
ment is maturational, experience is also essential—both the universal experiences that
almost every infant has (experience-expectant brain development) and the particular ex-
periences whose nature depends on the child’s family or culture (experience-dependent
brain development).
■
Especially for Social Workers An infertile
couple in their late 30s asks for your help in
adopting a child from eastern Europe. They
particularly want an older child. How do you
respond?
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Senses and Motor Skills
You learned in Chapter 2 that Piaget called the first period of intelligence the
sensorimotor stage, emphasizing that cognition develops from the senses and motor
skills. The same concept—that infant brain development depends on sensory
experiences and early movements—underlies the discussion you have just read.
For that reason, within hours of birth, doctors and nurses make sure the vital
organs are functioning, assessing basic senses and motor responses. Many of them
use the Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale, which measures 26 items of newborn
behavior (such as cuddling, listening, and self-soothing) as well as several reflexes.
Now we describe the sequence in which these abilities—all very immature at
birth—develop.
Sensation and Perception
All the senses function at birth. Newborns have open eyes, sensitive ears, and re-
sponsive noses, tongues, and skin. Throughout their first year, infants use their
senses to sort and classify their many experiences. Indeed, “infants spend the
better part of their first year merely looking around” (Rovee-Collier, 2001, p. 35).
You may have noticed that very young babies seem to attend to everything,
without focusing on anything in particular. Up until about age 1, taste is one of the
primary ways humans learn about objects. Babies bring everything to their mouths
as soon as they can do so (Adolph & Berger, 2005).
Since all of a newborn’s senses function, why don’t newborns seem to perceive
much? To understand this, you need to understand the distinction between sensa-
tion and perception. Sensation occurs when a sensory system detects a stimulus,
as when the inner ear reverberates with sound or the retina and pupil of the eye
intercept light. Thus, sensations begin when an outer organ (eye, ear, skin, tongue,
or nose) meets anything in the external world that can be seen, heard, touched,
tasted, or smelled.
Perception occurs when the brain notices and processes a sensation. Percep-
tion occurs in the cortex, usually as the result of a message from one of the sensing
organs—a message that experience suggests might be worth interpreting. Some
sensations are beyond comprehension at first: A newborn does not know that the
letters on a page might have significance, that Mother’s face should be distin-
guished from Father’s face, or that the smells of roses and garlic have different
connotations. Perceptions require experience.
Infant brains are especially attuned to experiences that are repeated, striving to
make sense of them (Leonard, 2003). Thus, newborn Emily has no idea that
Emily is her name, but she has the brain capacity to hear sounds in the usual
speech range (not the high sounds that only dogs can hear) and an inborn prefer-
ence for repeated patterns. At about 4 months, especially when her auditory cor-
tex is rapidly creating and pruning dendrites, the repeated word Emily is perceived
as well as sensed, and the sound is associated with attention from other people
(Saffran et al., 2006).
Before 6 months, Emily may open her eyes and turn her head when her name is
called, and she associates the words Mommy and Daddy with those people. It will
take many more months before she tries to say “Emmy” and still longer before she
knows that Emily is indeed her name or what a mother and father are.
Thus, cognition goes beyond perception. It occurs when people think about
and interpret what they have perceived. (Later, cognition no longer requires sensa-
tion and perception: People can imagine, fantasize, hypothesize.) There is a
sequence of comprehension, from sensation to perception to cognition. A baby’s
sensation The response of a sensory system
(eyes, ears, skin, tongue, nose) when it
detects a stimulus.
perception The mental processing of sensory
information, when the brain interprets a
sensation.
136 CHAPTER 5 ■ The First Two Years: Biosocial Development
Especially for Parents of Grown
Children Suppose that you realize that you
seldom talked to your children until they
talked to you and that you never used a
stroller or a walker but put them in cribs and
playpens. Did you limit their brain growth and
their sensory capacity?
➤Response for Social Workers (from
page 135): Tell them that such a child would
require extra time and commitment, more
than a younger adoptee would. Ask whether
both are prepared to cut down on their
working hours in order to meet with other
parents of international adoptees, to obtain
professional help (for speech, nutrition,
physical development, and/or family therapy),
and to help the child with schoolwork, play
dates, and so on. You might encourage them
instead to adopt a special-needs child from
their own area, to become foster parents, or
to volunteer at least 10 hours a week at a
day-care center. Their response would
indicate their willingness to help a real—not
imagined—child. If they demonstrate their
understanding of what is required, then you
might help them adopt the child they want.
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sense organs must function if this sequence is to begin. No won-
der the parts of the cortex dedicated to the senses develop rapidly:
That is the prerequisite for the other developments.
Hearing
The sense of hearing is already quite acute at birth. Certain
sounds seem to trigger reflexes, even without conscious percep-
tion. Sudden noises startle newborns, making them cry; rhythmic
sounds, such as a lullaby or a heartbeat, soothe them and put them
to sleep. Even in the first days of life, infants turn their heads
toward the source of a sound, and they soon begin to adapt that
response to connect sight and sound with increasing accuracy
(Morrongiello et al., 1998).
Young infants are particularly attentive to the human voice, developing rapid
comprehension of the rhythm, segmentation, and cadence of spoken words long
before comprehension of their meaning (Saffran et al., 2006). As time goes on,
sensitive hearing combines with the developing brain to distinguish patterns of
sounds and syllables.
Infants become accustomed to the rules of their language, such as which sylla-
ble is usually stressed (various English dialects have different rules), whether
changing voice tone is significant (as it is in Chinese), whether certain sound
combinations are often or never repeated, and so on. All this is based on very care-
ful listening to human speech, even speech not directed toward them and uttered
in a language they do not yet understand.
Seeing
Vision is the least mature sense at birth. Although the eyes open in mid-pregnancy
and are sensitive to bright light (if the woman is sunbathing in a bikini, for in-
stance), the fetus has nothing much to see. Newborns are “legally blind”; they see
only objects between 4 and 30 inches (10 and 75 centimeters) away (Bornstein
et al., 2005).
Soon visual experience combines with maturation of the visual cortex to im-
prove visual ability. By 2 months, infants look more intently at a human face, and,
tentatively and fleetingly, smile. Over time, visual scanning becomes more organ-
ized and more efficient, centered on important points. Thus, 3-month-olds look
more closely at the eyes and mouth, the parts of a face that contain the most infor-
mation, and they much prefer photos of faces with features over photos of faces
with the features blanked out (Johnson & Morton, 1991).
Binocular vision is the ability to coordinate the two eyes to see one image.
Because using both eyes together is impossible in the womb, many newborns
seem to focus with one eye or the other, or to use their two eyes independently, so
that they momentarily look wall-eyed or cross-eyed. At about 14 weeks, binocular
vision appears quite suddenly, probably because the underlying brain mechanisms
are activated and the infant becomes able to focus both eyes on one thing (Atkin-
son & Braddick, 2003).
Tasting, Smelling, and Touching
As with vision and hearing, the senses of taste, smell, and touch function at birth
and rapidly adapt to the social world. For example, one study found that a taste of
sugar calmed 2-week-olds but had no effect on 4-week-olds—unless accompanied
by a reassuring look from a caregiver (Zeifman et al., 1996). Another study found
that sugar is a good pain reliever for newborns (Gradin et al., 2002).
binocular vision The ability to focus the two
eyes in a coordinated manner in order to
see one image.
Senses and Motor Skills 137
Before Leaving the Hospital As mandated
by a 2004 Ohio law, 1-day-old Henry has his
hearing tested via vibrations of the inner ear
in response to various tones. The computer
interprets the data and signals any need for
more tests—as is the case for about 1 baby
in 100. Normal newborns hear quite well;
Henry’s hearing was fine.
AP
P
HO
TO
/
TH
E
PL
AI
N
D
EA
LE
R,
D
AV
ID
I.
A
N
DE
RS
EN
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Similar adaptation occurs for the senses of smell and touch. As babies learn to
recognize their caregiver’s smell and handling, they relax only when cradled by
their familiar caregiver, even when their eyes are closed. The ability to be com-
forted by touch is one of the important “skills” tested in the Brazelton Neonatal
Assessment Scale. Although almost all newborns respond to cuddling, over time
they become responsive to whose touch it is and what it communicates. For in-
stance, 12-month-olds respond differently, depending on whether their mother’s
touch is tense or relaxed (Hertenstein & Campos, 2001).
The entire package of early sensation seems organized for two goals: social
interaction (to respond to familiar caregivers) and comfort (to be soothed amid
the disturbances of infant life). Even the sense of pain and the sense of motion,
which are not among the five basic senses because no body part is dedicated to
them, are adapted by infants to aid both socialization and comfort.
The most important experiences are perceived with all the senses at once.
Breast milk, for instance, is a mild sedative, so the newborn literally feels happier
at the mother’s breast, connecting pleasure with taste, touch, smell, and sight.
Because infants respond to motion as well as to sights and sounds, many new
parents soothe their baby’s distress by rocking, carrying, or even driving (with
the baby in a safety seat) while humming a lullaby; here again, infant comfort is
connected with social interaction. A variant of this technique is to carry the infant
around the house while vacuuming the carpet: Steady noise, movement, and
touch combine to soothe distress. In sum, infants’ senses are immature, but they
function quite well to help babies join the human family.
Motor Skills
We now come to the most visible and dramatic advances of infancy, those that ul-
timately allow the child to “stand tall and walk proud.” Thanks to ongoing changes
in size and proportion and to increasing brain maturation, infants markedly
improve their motor skills, which are the abilities needed to move and control
the body.
Reflexes
Newborns can move their bodies—curl their toes, grasp with their fingers, screw
up their faces—but these movements are not under voluntary control. Strictly
speaking, the infant’s first motor skills are not really skills but reflexes. A reflex
is an involuntary response to a particular stimulus. Newborns have dozens of
motor skill The learned ability to move some
part of the body, from a large leap to a
flicker of the eyelid. (The word motor here
refers to movement of muscles.)
reflex A responsive movement that seems
automatic because it almost always occurs
in reaction to a particular stimulus. New-
borns have many reflexes, some of which
disappear with maturation.
138 CHAPTER 5 ■ The First Two Years: Biosocial Development
Learning About a Lime As with every other
normal infant, Jacqueline’s curiosity leads to
taste, then to a slow reaction, from puzzle-
ment to tongue-out disgust. Jacqueline’s re-
sponses demonstrate that the sense of taste
is acute in infancy and that quick brain reac-
tions are still to come.
AL
L:
C
IN
DY
C
HA
RL
ES
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T,
IN
C.
➤Response for Parents of Grown
Children (from page 136): Probably not.
Experience-expectant brain development is
programmed to occur for all infants, requiring
only the stimulation that virtually all families
provide—warmth, reassuring touch, overheard
conversation, facial expressions, movement.
Extras such as baby talk, music, exercise,
mobiles, and massage may be beneficial but
are not essential.
122-153_BergerLS7e_CH05.qxp 9/10/07 5:07 PM Page 138

reflexes, 18 of which are mentioned in italics below. Three sets of reflexes are crit-
ical for survival:
■ Reflexes that maintain oxygen supply. The breathing reflex begins in normal
newborns even before the umbilical cord, with its supply of oxygen, is cut.
Additional reflexes that maintain oxygen are reflexive hiccups and sneezes, as
well as thrashing (moving the arms and legs about) to escape something that
covers the face.
■ Reflexes that maintain constant body temperature. When infants are cold, they
cry, shiver, and tuck in their legs close to their bodies, thereby helping to keep
themselves warm. When they are hot, they try to push away blankets and
then stay still.
■ Reflexes that manage feeding. The sucking reflex causes newborns to suck any-
thing that touches their lips—fingers, toes, blankets, and rattles, as well as
natural and artificial nipples of various textures and shapes. The rooting reflex
causes babies to turn their mouths toward anything that brushes against their
cheeks—a reflexive search for a nipple—and start to suck. Swallowing is an-
other important reflex that aids feeding, as are crying when the stomach is
empty and spitting up when too much has been swallowed too quickly.
Other reflexes are not necessary for survival but are important signs of normal
brain and body functioning. Among them are the following:
■ Babinski reflex. When infants’ feet are stroked, their toes fan upward.
■ Stepping reflex. When infants are held upright with their feet touching a flat
surface, they move their legs as if to walk.
■ Swimming reflex. When they are laid horizontally on their stomachs, infants
stretch out their arms and legs.
■ Palmar grasping reflex. When something touches infants’ palms, they grip it
tightly.
■ Moro reflex. When someone startles them, perhaps by banging on the table
they are lying on, infants fling their arms outward and then bring them to-
gether on their chests, as if to hold on to something, while crying with wide-
open eyes.
Senses and Motor Skills 139
Never Underestimate the Power of a Reflex
For developmentalists, newborn reflexes are
mechanisms for survival, indicators of brain
maturation, and vestiges of evolutionary his-
tory. For parents, they are mostly delightful and
sometimes amazing. Both of these viewpoints
are demonstrated by three star performers:
A 1-day-old girl stepping eagerly forward on
legs too tiny to support her body; a newborn
grasping so tightly that his legs dangle in
space; and a newborn boy sucking peacefully
on the doctor’s finger.
PE
TI
T
FO
RM
AT
/
PH
OT
O
RE
SE
AR
CH
ER
S,
IN
C.
JE
N
N
IE
W
OO
DC
OC
K;
R
EF
LE
CT
IO
N
S
PH
OT
OL
IB
RA
RY
/
CO
RB
IS
AS
TI
ER
/
BS
IP
/
SC
IE
N
CE
S
OU
RC
E
/ P
HO
TO
R
ES
EA
RC
HE
RS
, I
N
C.
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fine motor skills Physical abilities involving
small body movements, especially of the
hands and fingers, such as drawing and
picking up a coin. (The word fine here
means “small.”)
Gross Motor Skills
Deliberate actions coordinating many parts of the body, producing large move-
ments, are called gross motor skills. These emerge directly from reflexes. Crawl-
ing is one example. Newborns placed on their stomachs reflexively move their
arms and legs as if they were swimming. As they gain muscle strength, they start to
wiggle, attempting to move forward by pushing their arms, shoulders, and upper
bodies against the surface they are lying on. Usually by 5 months or so, they be-
come able to use their arms, and then legs, to inch forward on their bellies, a gross
motor skill.
Between 8 and 10 months after birth, most infants can lift their midsections
and crawl (or creep, as the British call it) on “all fours,” coordinating the move-
ments of their hands and knees in a smooth, balanced manner (Adolph et al.,
1998). Crawling is experience-dependent. Some normal babies never do it, espe-
cially if they have always slept on their backs.
It is not true that babies must crawl to develop normally. All babies figure out
some way to move before they can walk (inching, bear walking, scooting, creeping,
or crawling); but many babies who are put to sleep on their backs (as is recom-
mended, to prevent sudden death) resist “tummy time,” rolling over and fussing to
indicate that they do not want crawling practice (Adolph & Berger, 2005).
Sitting also develops gradually, a matter of developing the muscles to steady the
heavy top half of the body. By 3 months, babies have enough muscle control to be
lap-sitters if the lap’s owner provides supportive arms. By 6 months, they can sit
unsupported.
Walking progresses from reflexive, hesitant, adult-supported stepping to a smooth,
coordinated gait (Bertenthal & Clifton, 1998). Some children can walk while holding
on at 9 months, stand alone momentarily at 10 months, and walk well, unassisted,
at 12 months. Three factors combine to allow toddlers to walk (Adolph et al., 2003):
■ Muscle strength. Newborns with skinny legs and infants buoyed by water
make stepping movements, but 6-month-olds on dry land do not; their legs
are too chubby for their underdeveloped muscles.
■ Brain maturation within the motor cortex. The first leg movements—kicking
(alternating legs at birth and then kicking both legs together or one leg re-
peatedly at about 3 months)—occur without much thought or aim. As the
brain matures, deliberate leg action becomes possible.
■ Practice. Unbalanced, wide-legged, short strides become a steady, smooth
gait after hours of practice.
Once the first two developments have made walking possible, infants become
passionate walkers, logging those needed hours of practice. They take steps on
many surfaces, with bare feet or wearing socks, slippers, or shoes. They hate to be
pushed in their strollers when they can walk.
Walking infants practice keeping balance in upright stance and locomotion for
more than 6 accumulated hours per day. They average between 500 and 1,500
walking steps per hour so that by the end of each day, they have taken 9,000
walking steps and traveled the length of 29 football fields.
[Adolph et al., 2003, p. 494]
Fine Motor Skills
Small body movements are called fine motor skills. Hand and finger movements
are fine motor skills, enabling humans to write, draw, type, tie, and so on. Move-
ments of the tongue, jaw, lips, and toes are fine movements, too. Actually, mouth
skills precede finger skills by many months, and skillful grabbing with the feet
sometimes precedes grabbing with the hands (Adolph & Berger, 2005). However,
gross motor skills Physical abilities involving
large body movements, such as walking
and jumping. (The word gross here means
“big.”)
140 CHAPTER 5 ■ The First Two Years: Biosocial Development
Bossa Nova Baby? This boy in Brazil demon-
strates his joy at acquiring the gross motor
skill of walking, which quickly becomes danc-
ing whenever music plays.
RI
CK
G
OM
EZ
/
M
AS
TE
RF
IL
E
122-153_BergerLS7e_CH05.qxp 9/10/07 5:07 PM Page 140

hand skills are most praised by adults. Skill at spitting or chewing is not
valued as much as skill at copying a letter of the alphabet.
Regarding finger skills, newborns have a strong reflexive grasp but
seem to lack hand and finger control. During their first 2 months, ba-
bies excitedly stare and wave their arms at an object dangling within
reach. By 3 months of age, they can usually touch it; but they cannot
yet grab and hold on unless the object is placed in their hands, partly
because their eye–hand coordination is too limited.
By 4 months, infants sometimes grab, but their timing is off: They
close their hands too early or too late, and their grasp tends to be of
short duration. Finally, by 6 months, with a concentrated, deliberate
stare, most babies can reach for, grab at, and hold onto almost any
object that is of the right size. They can hold a bottle, shake a rattle,
and yank a sister’s braids.
Infants need not be able to see their hands to grab; they can grasp a slowly mov-
ing object that is lit in an otherwise dark room (Robin et al., 1996). When the
lights are on, they use vision to help with accuracy (McCarty & Ashmead, 1999).
Once reaching is possible, babies practice it enthusiastically. In fact, “from 6 to
9 months, reaching appears as a quite compulsive behaviour for small objects pre-
sented within arm’s reach” (Atkinson & Braddick, 2003, p. 58).
Toward the end of the first year and throughout the second, finger skills im-
prove, as babies master the pincer movement (using thumb and forefinger to pick
up tiny objects) and self-feeding (first with hands, then fingers, then utensils). In
the second year, grabbing becomes more selective (Atkinson & Braddick, 2003).
Toddlers learn when not to pull at sister’s braids, Mommy’s earrings, and Daddy’s
glasses, although, as you will learn in the next chapter, curiosity sometimes over-
whelms such inhibition.
Ethnic Variations
All healthy infants develop skills in the same sequence, but they vary in the age at
which they acquire them. Table 5.1 shows age norms for gross motor skills, based
on a large, representative, multiethnic sample of U.S. infants. When infants are
grouped by ethnicity, generally African Americans are ahead
of Hispanic Americans, who are ahead of European Ameri-
cans. Internationally, the earliest walkers in the world are in
Uganda, where well-nourished and healthy babies walk at 10
months, on average. Some of the latest walkers are in France.
What accounts for this variation? The power of genes is
suggested not only by ethnic differences but also by identical
twins, who begin to walk on the same day more often than
fraternal twins do. Striking individual differences are appar-
ent in infant strategies, effort, and concentration in mastering
motor skills, again suggesting something inborn in motor-skill
achievements (Thelen & Corbetta, 2002).
But genes are only a small part of most ethnic differences.
Cultural patterns of child rearing can affect sensation, percep-
tion, and motor skills. For instance, early reflexes are less likely
to fade if culture and conditions allow extensive practice.
This principle has been demonstrated with legs (the stepping
reflex), hands (the grasping reflex), and crawling (the swim-
ming reflex). Senses and motor skills are part of a complex
and dynamic system in which practice counts (Thelen &
Corbetta, 2002).
Senses and Motor Skills 141
Mind in the Making Pull, grab, look, and
listen. Using every sense at once is a baby’s
favorite way to experience life, generating
brain connections as well as commotion.
LA
UR
A
DW
IG
HT
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T,
IN
C.
TABLE 5.1
At About This Time:
Age Norms (in Months) for Gross Motor Skills
When 50% When 95%
of All Babies of All Babies
Skill Master the Skill Master the Skill
Sit, head steady 3 months 4 months
Sit, unsupported 6 7
Pull to stand
(holding on) 9 10
Stand alone 12 14
Walk well 13 15
Walk backwards 15 17
Run 18 20
Jump up 26 29
Note: As the text explains, age norms are approximate. Mastering skills a few weeks earlier
or later is not an indication of health or intelligence. Mastering them very late, however, is a
cause for concern.
Source: Coovadia & Wittenberg, 2004; based primarily on Denver II (Frankenburg et al., 1992).
122-153_BergerLS7e_CH05.qxp 9/21/07 12:19 PM Page 141

For example, Jamaican caregivers provide rhythmic stretching exercises for their
infants as part of daily care; their infants are among the world’s youngest walkers
(Adolph & Berger, 2005). Other cultures discourage or even prevent infants from
crawling or walking. The people of Bali, Indonesia, never let their infants crawl, for
babies are considered divine and crawling is for animals (Diener, 2000). Similar
reasoning appeared in colonial America, where “standing stools” were designed
for children so they could strengthen their walking muscles without sitting or
crawling (Calvert, 2003).
By contrast, the Beng people of the Ivory Coast are proud when their babies
start to crawl but do not let them walk until at least 1 year. Although the Beng do
not recognize the connection, one reason for this prohibition may be birth control:
Beng mothers do not resume sexual relations until their baby begins walking
(Gottlieb, 2000).
Although variation in the timing of the development of motor skills is normal, a
pattern of slow development suggests that the infant needs careful examination.
Slow infants may be retarded, ill, neglected—or perfectly fine, as I know from
experience.
142 CHAPTER 5 ■ The First Two Years: Biosocial Development
The Normal Berger Babies
Cultural beliefs and the demands of daily life affect every parent
and baby. When I had our first child, Bethany, I was a graduate
student. I had already memorized many norms including “sitting
by 6 months, walking by 12.” During her first year, Bethany
reached all the developmental milestones pretty much on time.
However, at 14 months, she was still not walking.
I became anxious. I read about norms with a sharper eye and
learned three comforting facts:
■ Variation in timing is normal.
■ When late walking signifies brain damage, other signs of
delayed development are evident. (Thankfully, Bethany
was already talking.)
■ Norms for motor-skill development vary from nation to
nation. (My grandmother came from France, where babies
tend to walk late.)
Two months later, Bethany was walking. In my relief, I began
marshaling evidence that motor skills are genetic. My students
provided additional testimony to the power of genes. Those from
in person
Safe and Secure Like this Algonquin baby in
Quebec, many American Indian infants still
spend hours each day on a cradle board, to
the distress of some non-Native adults until
they see that most of the babies are quite
happy that way. The discovery in the 1950s
that Native American children walked at
about the same age as European American
children suggested that maturation, not prac-
tice, led to motor skills. Later research found
that most Native American infants also re-
ceived special exercise sessions each day,
implying that practice plays a larger role than
most psychologists once thought. MI
KE
G
RE
EN
LA
R
/ T
HE
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
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Public Health Measures 143
SUMMING UP
The five senses (seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling) function quite well at birth,
although hearing is far superior to vision, probably because of experience: The fetus has
much more to hear than to see. After birth, vision develops rapidly, leading to binocular
vision at about the 14th week. Quite sensitive perception from all sense organs is evident
by 1 year. The senses work together and are particularly attuned to human interaction.
Motor skills begin with survival reflexes but quickly expand to include various body
movements that the infant masters. Infants lift their heads, then sit, then stand, then walk
and run. Sensory and motor skills follow a genetic and maturational timetable, but they
are also powerfully influenced by experiences, guided by caregivers and culture, and by
practice, which infants do as much as their immature and top-heavy bodies allow.
■
Public Health Measures
Although precise worldwide statistics are unavailable, at least 8 billion children
were born between 1950 and 2005. About 2 billion of them died before age 5. As
high as this figure is, the death toll would have been twice that without advances in
child care, especially such aspects of preventive care as childhood immunization,
clean water, adequate nutrition, and one particular medical treatment: oral rehydra-
tion therapy (giving restorative liquids to children who are sick and have diarrhea).
Oral rehydration saves 3 million young children per year, almost all in developing
nations, but it helps in developed nations as well (Spandorfer et al., 2005).
Jamaica, Cuba, and Barbados expected babies to walk earlier
than those from Russia, China, and Korea. Many of my African
American students proudly cited their sons, daughters, or
younger siblings who walked at 10 months, or even 8 months, to
the chagrin of their European American classmates.
Believing now in a genetic timetable for walking, I was not
surprised when our second child, Rachel, took her first steps at
15 months. Our third child, Elissa, also walked “late”—though
on schedule for a Berger child with some French ancestry. By
then Bethany had become the fastest
runner in her kindergarten.
When our fourth child, Sarah, was
born, I was an established professor and
author, able to afford a full-time care-
giver, Mrs. Todd, from Jamaica. Mrs.
Todd thought Sarah was the brightest,
most advanced baby she had ever seen—
except, perhaps, for her own daughter
Gillian. I agreed, but I cautioned Mrs.
Todd that Berger children walk late.
“She’ll be walking by a year,” Mrs.
Todd told me. “Maybe sooner. Gillian
walked at 10 months.”
“We’ll see,” I replied, confident in my
genetic interpretation.
I underestimated Mrs. Todd. She
bounced baby Sarah on her lap, day after
day. By the time Sarah was 8 months old, Mrs. Todd was already
spending a good deal of time bent over, holding Sarah by both
hands to practice walking—to Sarah’s great delight. Lo and be-
hold, Sarah took her first step at exactly 1 year—late for a Todd
baby, but amazingly early for a Berger.
As a scientist, I know that a single case proves nothing. It
could be that the genetic influences on Sarah’s walking were
different from those on her sisters’. Furthermore, she is only
one-eighth French, a fraction I had ignored when I sought reas-
surance regarding Bethany. But in my
heart I think it likely that practice, fos-
tered by a caregiver with a cultural tradi-
tion unlike mine, made the difference.
My Youngest at 8 Months When I look at
this photo of Sarah, I see evidence of Mrs.
Todd’s devotion. Sarah’s hair is washed and
carefully brushed, her jumper and blouse
are clean and pressed, and the carpet and
stepstool are perfect equipment for stand-
ing practice. Sarah’s legs—chubby and far
apart—indicate that she is not about to
walk early; but, given all these signs of
Mrs. Todd’s attention to caregiving, it is not
surprising, in hindsight, that my fourth
daughter was my earliest walker.HA
ZE
L
HA
N
KI
N
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immunization A process that stimulates the
body’s immune system to defend against
attack by a particular contagious disease.
A person may acquire immunization either
naturally (by having the disease) or through
vaccination (by having an injection, wear-
ing a patch, swallowing, or inhaling).
Most children now live to adulthood (UNICEF, 2006). In the healthiest nations,
99.9 percent who survive the first month (when the sickest and smallest newborns
sometimes die) live to age 15. Even in the least healthy nations, where a few
decades ago half the children died, now about three-fourths live (see Table 5.2).
Public health measures (clean water, adequate food, immunization) are the main
reason childhood mortality now is much lower in most nations.
Immunization
Measles, whooping cough, pneumonia, and other illnesses were once familiar
childhood killers. Although these diseases can still be fatal, especially for malnour-
ished children, they are no longer common in developed nations. Most children
are protected because of immunization, which primes the body’s immune system
to defend against a specific contagious disease. This medical development is said
to have had “a greater impact on human mortality reduction and population growth
than any other public health intervention besides clean water” (J. P. Baker, 2000).
When people catch a contagious disease, their immune system produces anti-
bodies to prevent a recurrence. In a healthy person, a vaccine—a small dose of in-
active virus (often via a “shot” in the arm)—stimulates antibodies. Some details
about various vaccines are given in Table 5.3. (Immunization schedules, giving the
ages at which children and adolescents should be vaccinated, appear in Appendix
A, p. A-4.)
Immunization Successes
Stunning successes in immunization include the following:
■ Smallpox, the most lethal disease for children in the past, was eradicated
worldwide as of 1971. Vaccination against smallpox is no longer needed.
Emergency workers are immunized as a precaution against bioterrorism, not
a normal outbreak.
■ Polio, a crippling and sometimes fatal disease, is very rare. Widespread vacci-
nation, begun in 1955, has led to the elimination of polio in most nations (in-
cluding the United States). Just 784 cases worldwide were reported in 2003.
In 2003, however, rumors about the safety of the polio vaccine halted immu-
nization in northern Nigeria; consequently, polio reappeared in West Africa in
2004, and there were 1,948 cases worldwide in 2005 (Arita et al., 2006).
■ Measles (rubeola, not rubella) is disappearing, thanks to a vaccine developed
in 1963. Prior to that time, 3 to 4 million cases were reported each year in
the United States alone (CDC, 2007). In all of the Americas, fewer than 100
cases of measles occurred in 2003, down from 53,683 in 1997 (MMWR,
June 13, 2003). One reason is the introduction of a new method of vaccinat-
ing against measles by inhalation rather than injection, now widely used in
Mexico.
■ A recent success is a newly developed vaccine against rotovirus, which now
kills half a million children a year (Glass & Parashar, 2006).
Immunization protects children not only from diseases but also from serious
complications, including deafness, blindness, sterility, and meningitis. Each vacci-
nated child stops the spread of the disease and thus protects others. Newborns
may die if they catch a disease; the fetus of a pregnant woman who contracts
rubella (German measles) may be born blind, deaf, and brain-damaged; adults
who contract mumps or measles become quite ill; and people who have impaired
immune systems (who are HIV-positive, very old, or undergoing chemotherapy)
can die from “childhood” diseases.
144 CHAPTER 5 ■ The First Two Years: Biosocial Development
TABLE 5.2
Deaths of Children Under Age
5 in Selected Countries
Number of
Country Deaths per 1,000
Singapore 3*
Iceland 3*
Japan 4†
Italy 4*
Sweden 4
Spain 5†
Australia 5†
United Kingdom 6†
Canada 6
New Zealand 6†
United States 7†
Russia 18†
Vietnam 19*
China 27†
Mexico 27†
Brazil 33†
Philippines 33†
India 74†
Nigeria 194
Afghanistan 257
Sierra Leone 282
* Reduced by at least one-third since 1990.
† Reduced by half since 1990.
Source: UNICEF, 2006.
This table shows the number of deaths per
1,000 children under age 5 for 20 of the 192
members of the United Nations. Most nations
have improved markedly on this measure
since 1990. Only when war destroys families
and interferes with public health measures
(as it has in Afghanistan and Sierra Leone) are
nations not improving.
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Public Health Measures 145
TABLE 5.3
Details About Vaccinations: United States
Year of Peak Annual 2006 Consequences of Percent of Children Known Vaccine
Vaccine Introduction Disease Total Total Natural Disease Vaccinated (U.S.) Side Effects
Chicken pox 1995 4 million* 203 Encephalitis (2 in 59.4 Mild rash (1 in 20 doses)
(varicella) 10,000 cases), bacterial
skin infections, shingles
(300,000 per year)
DTaP 83.3 Prolonged crying, fever of
105ºF or higher (1 in 20)
Diphtheria 1923 206,939 10 Death (5 to 10 in 100
cases), muscle paralysis,
heart failure
Tetanus 1927 1,560* 30 Death (30 in 100 cases), Peripheral neuritis,
fractured bones, Guillain-Barré syndrome
pneumonia (temporary paralysis—rare)
Pertussis 1926 (whole cell) 265,269 49 Death (2 in 1,000 cases), Brain disease (0 to 10 in 1
1991 (acellular) pneumonia (10 in 100 million doses—whole-cell
cases), seizures (1 to 2 vaccine only)
in 100 cases)
H influenzae 1985 20,000* 300 Death (2 to 3 in 100 93.5 None proven
(for B) cases), meningitis,
(childhood) pneumonia, blood
(all serotypes) poisoning, inflammation
of epiglottis, skin or
bone infections
MMR 91.5 Fever of 103°F or higher (5
to 15 in 100 doses)
Measles 1963 894,134 734 Encephalitis (1 in 1,000
cases), pneumonia (6 in
100 cases), death (1 to 2
in 1,000 cases), seizure
(6 to 7 in 1,000 cases)
Mumps 1967 152,209 6,358 Deafness (1 in 20,000
cases), inflamed testicles
(20 to 50 in 100
postpubertal males)
Rubella 1969 56,686 8 Blindness, deafness, Temporary joint pain (25
heart defects, and/or in 100 adult doses in
retardation in 85 percent women)
of children born to
mothers infected in
early pregnancy
Pneumococcus† 2000 93,000* 15 Death or serious illness Fever over 100.3°F
(childhood) caused by meningitis, (22 in 100 doses)
pneumonia, blood
poisoning, ear infections
Polio 1955 21,269 0 Death (2 to 5 in 100 89.6 Vaccine-induced polio
(paralytic) cases in children), (oral vaccine only—1 in
respiratory failure, 2.4 million doses)
paralysis, postpolio
syndrome
*Estimated.
†Lieu et al., 2000.
Source: MMWR, January 12, 2007.
122-153_BergerLS7e_CH05.qxp 9/10/07 5:07 PM Page 145

Problems with Immunization
Parents do not notice if their child does not get seriously ill. One doctor, who wants
people to attend to disease prevention, laments, “No one notices when things go
right” (Bortz, 2005, p. 389). Unfortunately, “minor” diseases can kill. One Kansas
father, age 36, caught varicella (chicken pox) from his 9-year-old daughter. He
suffered numerous complications and died on March 9, 2002 (MMWR, June 13,
2003). No one in his family had been vaccinated (Kansas did not require varicella
immunization for school entry). The 9-year-old was the carrier, but the parents,
school, pediatrician, and lawmakers were also part of the problem. Before the vac-
cine, more than 100 people in the United States died each year from chicken pox
and 1 million were itchy and feverish for a week. Fortunately, the death and disease
rates have been dramatically reduced (Nguyen et al., 2005).
Many parents are concerned about potential side effects of vaccinations.
However, the risks of the diseases are far greater than the risks from immuniza-
tion (as Table 5.3 indicates). A review of the published research concludes: “The
data demonstrate consistently that the overall benefit of vaccinations ranks
among the foremost achievements in modern public health” (Dershewitz, 2002).
A hypothesis that the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine causes autism has
been repeatedly disproved (Shattuck, 2006).
More than 1 million children in developing nations die each year because
effective vaccines against AIDS, malaria, cholera, typhoid, and shigellosis are not
yet ready for widespread use (Russell, 2002). Another 2 to 3 million die each year
from diphtheria, tetanus, and measles because they have not been immunized
(Mahmoud, 2004); 100,000 children in India died in 2005 from measles alone
(Duggar, 2006). Even in the United States, although most 2-year-olds are fully
immunized, only one-third get all their vaccinations on time, with no unneeded
extras (Mell et al., 2005).
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
Infant mortality worldwide has plummeted in recent years (see Figure 5.5). Several
reasons have already been mentioned: advances in newborn care, better nutrition,
access to clean water, and widespread immunization. Another reason is that fewer
babies are dying of unknown causes, especially sudden infant death syndrome
(SIDS).
sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
A situation in which a seemingly healthy
infant, at least 2 months of age, suddenly
stops breathing and dies unexpectedly
while asleep. The cause is unknown, but it
is correlated with sleeping on the stomach
and having parents who smoke.
146 CHAPTER 5 ■ The First Two Years: Biosocial Development
Look Away! The benefits of immunization
justify the baby’s brief discomfort, but many
parents still do not appreciate the importance
of following the recommended schedule of
immunizations. STE
VE
N
R
UB
IN
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
Especially for Nurses and Pediatricians
A mother refuses to have her baby immunized
because she wants to prevent side effects.
She wants your signature for a religious
exemption. What should you do?
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Still, some young infants who appear healthy—already gaining weight, learning
to shake a rattle, starting to roll over, and smiling at their caregivers—die unex-
pectedly in their sleep. If autopsy and careful investigation find no apparent cause
of death, the diagnosis is SIDS (Byard, 2004).
In 1990 in the United States, about 5,000 babies died of SIDS, about 1 infant
in 800. Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and virtually every European and South
American nation experienced a similar rate. Today, that rate has been cut in half,
primarily because fewer infants are put to sleep on their stomachs and because
fewer mothers smoke cigarettes. The first of these preventive measures
has arisen from an increased awareness of and a greater respect for
cultural differences.
Within ethnically diverse nations such as the United States, Canada,
Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, babies of Asian descent
have always been far less likely than babies of European or African de-
scent to succumb to SIDS (Byard, 2004). Although low socioeconomic
status (SES) is also a risk factor for SIDS, poverty does not seem to be
the primary explanation for this ethnic difference. For example,
Bangladeshi infants in England tend to be from low-SES families, yet
they are much less vulnerable to SIDS than are traditional British in-
fants from middle-class families. For decades, pediatricians thought
that genes were the underlying cause.
Fortunately, awareness of the impact of culture led to examination of
infant-care routines. Bangladeshi infants are usually breast-fed, and
when they sleep, they are surrounded by family members in a rich sen-
sory environment, hearing noises and feeling the touch of their care-
givers. They do not sleep deeply for very long. By contrast, their
traditional British age-mates tend to sleep in their own private spaces,
and these “long periods of lone sleep may contribute to the higher rates
of SIDS among white infants” (Gantley et al., 1993).
Similarly, infants of Chinese heritage rarely die of SIDS (Beal &
Porter, 1991). In fact, before a worldwide campaign to reduce the risk,
only 1 baby in 3,000 in Hong Kong died of SIDS, compared with 1 baby
in 200 in New Zealand (Byard, 2004). Why? First, Chinese parents
tend to their babies periodically as the infants sleep, caressing a cheek
Public Health Measures 147
Sleeping Like a Baby It’s best to lay babies
on their backs to sleep—even if it’s in a ham-
mock in a Cambodian temple.
JO
HN
V
IN
K
/ M
AG
N
UM
P
HO
TO
S
Sources: National Center for Health Statistics, 2000; U.S. Census Bureau, 2006.
20
10
30
50
40
70
60
80
90
110
100
140
120
130
India Chile Mexico Poland United
States
Deaths before
age 1
per 1,000
newborns
Infant Mortality Rates: 1970 and 2005
1970 2005
FIGURE 5.5
More Babies Are Surviving Improvements
in public health—better nutrition, cleaner
water, more widespread immunization—over
the past three decades have meant millions
of survivors.
Critical Thinking Question (see answer,
page 150): The United States seems to be
doing very well on reducing infant deaths.
Can you suggest another way to present the
U.S. data that would lead to another
impression?
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or repositioning a limb. Second, almost all Chinese infants are breast-fed. This
makes them sleep less soundly, and deep sleep is a factor in SIDS. (Cow’s milk
is harder to digest, so it causes tiredness and thus a deeper sleep.) And third,
Chinese parents put their infants to sleep on their backs. This is crucial, as the
following explains.
Especially for Police Officers and Social
Workers If an infant died suddenly, what
would you look for to distinguish SIDS from
homicide?
148 CHAPTER 5 ■ The First Two Years: Biosocial Development
Back to Sleep
When pediatricians, nurses, and anthropologists observed in-
fant care among Asians and Europeans, they noticed a crucial
difference: sleeping position. In all the ethnic groups with a low
incidence of SIDS, babies were put to sleep on their backs; in
all those with high rates, babies slept on their stomachs. The ex-
pressed reasons varied. For example, until recently, Benjamin
Spock’s book of advice for parents (more than 30 million copies
sold) recommended stomach sleeping:
There are two disadvantages to babies sleeping on their back. If
they vomit, they’re more likely to choke. Also, they tend to keep
the head turned toward the same side, usually toward the center
of the room. This may flatten that side of the head. It won’t hurt
the brain, and the head will gradually straighten out, but it may
take a couple of years.
[Spock, 1976, p. 199]
Contrary advice was provided to Turkish mothers, who were
told: “Never put a swaddled baby to sleep on its stomach, for it
would not be able to breathe. Instead, put the baby down to
sleep on its back” (Delaney, 2000, p. 131).
Both these experts were mistaken: Babies sleeping on their
stomachs can breathe, and babies sleeping on their backs do not
choke. Neither expert realized the connection between SIDS
and sleeping position.
As a new mother, I remember reading these chilling words:
“Every once in a while, a baby between the ages of 3 weeks and
7 months is found dead in bed. There is never an adequate
explanation, even when a postmortem examination is done”
(Spock, 1976, pp. 576–577). I put my babies to sleep on their
stomachs, as my mother did with me and as the hospital where
they were born did with thousands of newborns every year. My
infants survived, but I know parents whose babies did not.
About two decades ago, researchers in Australia advised a
group of non-Asian mothers to put their infants to sleep on their
backs. Other scientists in other nations tried the same experi-
ment. The results were dramatic: Fewer infants died. For exam-
ple, one comparison study found that the risk of SIDS was only
one-fourth as high when infants slept supine (on their backs)
instead of prone (Ponsonby et al., 1993).
It is now accepted that “back to sleep” (as the public-awareness
slogan puts it) is safest. Worldwide, SIDS rates have fallen—to
1 in 1,000 in New Zealand, for instance. In the United States, in
the four years between 1992 and 1996, the stomach-sleeping rate
decreased from 70 to 24 percent, and the SIDS rate dropped
from 1.2 to 0.7 per 1,000, a “remarkable success” (Pollack &
Frohna, 2001).
Sleeping position does not prevent all SIDS deaths. Low
birthweight, overdressed infants, and teenage parenthood are
risk factors (Byard, 2004). Maternal smoking is particularly risky
(Anderson et al., 2005). Both breast-feeding and pacifier use are
protective (Li et al., 2006), perhaps because they strengthen in-
fants’ breathing reflexes. Recently, it has been discovered that
the existence of too many serotonin receptors in the brain stem,
which controls heart rate and breathing, may be a major risk fac-
tor for SIDS (Paterson et al., 2006). Infants with this condition
do not automatically rouse themselves to breathe when their
blood oxygen falls, and death sometimes results. Unfortunately,
this abnormality becomes apparent only upon autopsy.
issues and applications
Nutrition
Indirectly, nutrition has been a theme throughout this chapter. You read that pedi-
atricians closely monitor early weight gain, that head-sparing protects the brain
from temporary undernourishment, that oral rehydration prevents childhood diar-
rhea from being fatal. Now, we focus directly on how infants are fed.
Breast Is Best
For most newborns, good nutrition starts with mother’s milk. First comes colostrum,
a thick, high-calorie fluid secreted by the woman’s breasts at the birth of her child.
After about three days, the breasts begin to produce milk, which is the ideal infant
122-153_BergerLS7e_CH05.qxp 9/10/07 5:07 PM Page 148

food (see Table 5.4). Mother’s milk helps prevent almost every infant illness and
allergy (Isolauri et al., 1998). It is always sterile and at body temperature; it con-
tains more iron, vitamins C and A, and many other nourishing substances than
cow’s or goat’s milk.
Babies who are exclusively breast-fed are less likely to get sick. This is true in
infancy because breast milk provides antibodies against any disease to which the
mother has natural or acquired immunity. Breast-feeding also decreases the risk of
diseases that appear in childhood and adulthood, among them asthma, obesity,
and heart disease (Oddy, 2004).
The specific fats and sugars in breast milk make it more digestible, and proba-
bly better for the infant brain, than any prepared formula (Riordan, 2005). The
particular composition of breast milk adjusts to the age of the baby, with breast
milk for premature babies distinct from breast milk for older infants.
Quantity increases to meet the demand: Twins and even triplets can grow
strong while being exclusively breast-fed for months. In fact, breast milk appears
to have so many advantages over formula that critics question the validity of the
research: Although studies control for education and income, it is possible that
women who choose to breast-feed are better caregivers in some ways not affected
by SES. In the United States, a survey finds that parents of breast-fed babies
are more likely to be married, college graduates, or immigrants (Gibson-Davis &
Brooks-Gunn, 2006; see Research Design).
Bottle-feeding may be better than breast-feeding in unusual circumstances,
such as when the mother is HIV-positive or uses toxic or addictive drugs. Even
then, however, breast milk may be best. In Africa, HIV-positive women are en-
couraged to breast-feed because their infants’ risk of catching the virus is less than
their risk of dying from infections, diarrhea, or malnutrition as a result of improper
bottle-feeding. Formula is recommended only if it is “acceptable, feasible, afford-
able, sustainable, and safe” (WHO, 2000).
Virtually all doctors worldwide recommend exclusive breast-feeding for the first
four to six months. Then other foods can be added—especially cereals and bananas,
Public Health Measures 149
Research Design
Scientists: Christina Gibson-Davis and
Jeanne Brooks-Gunn.
Publication: American Journal of Public
Health (2006).
Participants: A study called Fragile Fami-
lies surveyed about 5,000 new mothers
from 75 U.S. hospitals.
Design: Mothers and fathers were asked
about their social status (e.g., education,
marriage, immigration, income, employ-
ment) and breast-feeding, with assur-
ance of confidentiality. Questions were
asked of both parents soon after birth
and again of the mothers a year later.
Major conclusion: A mother’s decision
to start and continue breast-feeding is
affected by many aspects of her social
context. U.S.-born mothers are espe-
cially less likely to breast-feed.
Comment:This finding is for a popula-
tion often omitted from other surveys.
Confirmation that education and mar-
riage are significant correlates of breast-
feeding suggests that husbands and
greater exposure to education promote
breast-feeding.
The Same Event, A Thousand Miles Apart: Breast-Feeding Breast-feeding is universal. None of
us would have existed if our foremothers had not successfully breast-fed their babies for millennia.
Currently breast-feeding is practiced worldwide, but it is no longer the only way to feed infants,
and each culture has particular practices.
➤Response for Nurses and Pediatricians
(from page 146): It is very difficult to convince
people that their method of child rearing is
wrong, although, given what you know, you
should try. In this case, listen respectfully and
then describe specific instances of serious
illness or death from a childhood disease.
Suggest that the mother ask her grandparents
if they knew anyone who had polio, tuber-
culosis, or tetanus (they probably did). If you
cannot convince this mother, do not despair:
Vaccination of 95 percent of toddlers protects
the other 5 percent. If the mother has deeply
held religious reasons, talk to her clergy
adviser, if not to change the mother’s mind,
at least to understand her perspective.
©
J
EN
N
IE
H
AR
T
/ A
LA
M
Y
©
W
.L
AY
ER
/
PE
TE
R
AR
N
OL
D,
IN
C.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 153):
What three differences do you see between
these two breast-feeding women—one in the
United States and one in Madagascar?
122-153_BergerLS7e_CH05.qxp 9/10/07 5:07 PM Page 149

which are easily digested and provide the iron and
vitamin C that older infants need. Breast milk
should be part of the diet for a year (longer if
mother and baby wish). Babies who do not get
enough sunlight may need additional vitamin D—
whether through supplemental drops or pills or
cereal and milk—to prevent rickets (Stokstad,
2003).
In developing nations, breast-feeding dramati-
cally reduces infant death. In the United States
and worldwide, more than 90 percent of infants
are breast-fed at birth, but only 36 percent are ex-
clusively breast-fed for the first six months. Rates
are slightly lower for the least developed nations.
By their second birthday, half of the world’s in-
fants (especially in poor nations) are still being
fed some breast milk, usually at night (UNICEF,
2006).
Whether or not a breast-feeding mother con-
tinues to breast-feed for 6 months depends a great
deal on her experiences in the first week, when
encouragement and practical help are most
needed (DiGirolamo et al., 2005). Ideally, nurses
visit new mothers at home for several weeks; such
visits also increase the likelihood that breast-feed-
ing will continue (Coutinbo et al., 2005).
Malnutrition
Protein-calorie malnutrition occurs when a
person does not consume sufficient food of any
kind. Roughly 9 percent of the world’s children
suffer from “wasting,” being severely and chroni-
cally malnourished because they do not get adequate calories and protein
(UNICEF, 2006). These 9 percent are very short for their age and underweight for
their height. Many more children are too short or too underweight (2 or more stan-
dard deviations below the average well-nourished child). According to this crite-
rion, between 25 and 30 percent of the world’s children are malnourished
(UNICEF, 2006).
To measure a particular child’s nutritional status, compare weight and height
with the detailed norms presented in Appendix A, pages A-6 and A-7. A child
may simply be genetically short or thin, but a decline in percentile ranking during
the first two years is an ominous sign. Birthweight should triple by age 1, and the
1-year-old’s legs and cheeks should be chubby with baby fat (which disappears
over the next several years).
Chronically malnourished infants and children suffer in three ways:
■ Their brains may not develop normally. If malnutrition has continued long
enough to affect the baby’s height, it may also have affected the brain
(Grantham-McGregor & Ani, 2001).
■ Malnourished children have no body reserves to protect them against com-
mon diseases. About half of all childhood deaths occur because malnutrition
makes a childhood disease lethal.
■ Some diseases result directly from malnutrition.
protein-calorie malnutrition A condition in
which a person does not consume suffi-
cient food of any kind. This deprivation can
result in several illnesses, severe weight
loss, and sometimes death.
150 CHAPTER 5 ■ The First Two Years: Biosocial Development
TABLE 5.4
The Benefits of Breast-Feeding
For the Baby
Balance of nutrition (fat, protein, etc.) adjusts to age of baby
Breast milk has micronutrients not found in formula
Less infant illness: including allergies, ear infections, stomach upsets
Less childhood asthma
Better childhood vision
Less adult illness, including diabetes, cancer, heart disease
Protection against measles and all other childhood diseases, since breast milk
contains antibodies
Stronger jaws, fewer cavities, advanced breathing reflexes (less SIDS)
Higher IQ, less likely to drop out of school, more likely to attend college
Later puberty, less prone to teenage pregnancy
Less likely to become obese
For the Mother
Easier bonding with baby
Reduced risk of breast cancer and osteoporosis
Natural contraception (with exclusive breast-feeding, for several months)
Pleasure of breast stimulation
Satisfaction of meeting infant’s basic need
No formula to prepare; no sterilization needed
Easier to travel with the baby
For the Family
Increased survival of other children (because of spacing of births)
Increased family income (because both formula and medical care are expensive)
Less stress on father, especially at night (he cannot be expected to feed the baby)
Sources: DiGirolamo et al., 2005; Oddy, 2004; Riordan, 2005.
➤Answer to Critical Thinking Question
(from page 147): The same data could be
presented in terms of rate of reduction in
infant mortality. Chile’s rate in 2005 was only
10 percent of what it had been in 1970—
much better than the U.S. rate, which in 2005
was 35 percent of what it had been in 1970.
(Other data show that about 25 developed
nations have lower infant mortality rates than
the United States.)
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The worst disease directly caused by malnutrition is marasmus. Growth stops,
body tissues waste away, and the infant victim eventually dies. Prevention of
marasmus begins long before birth, with good nutrition for the pregnant woman.
Then breast-feeding on demand (eight or more times a day) and frequent check-
ups to monitor the baby’s weight can stop marasmus before it begins. Infants who
show signs of “failure to thrive” (they do not gain weight) can be hospitalized and
treated before brain damage occurs.
Malnutrition after age 1 may cause kwashiorkor. Ironically, kwashiorkor means
“a disease of the older child when a new baby arrives”—signifying cessation of
breast-feeding and less maternal attention. In kwashiorkor, the child’s growth is
retarded; the liver is damaged; the immune system is weakened; the face, legs,
and abdomen swell with fluid (edema); the energy level is reduced (malnourished
children play less); and the hair becomes thin, brittle, and colorless.
SUMMING UP
Many public health practices save millions of infants each year. Immunizing children,
putting infants to sleep on their backs, and breast-feeding are simple yet life-saving
steps. These are called “public health” measures rather than parental practices because
they are affected by culture and national policies.
An underlying theme of this chapter is that healthy biological growth is the result not
simply of genes and nutrition but also of a social environment that provides opportuni-
ties for growth: lullabies and mobiles for stimulating the infant’s senses, encourage-
ment for developing the first motor skills, and protection against disease. Each aspect of
development is linked to every other aspect, and each developing person is linked to
family, community, and world.
■
Public Health Measures 151
The Same Event, A Thousand Miles Apart: Children Still Malnourished Infant malnutrition is
common in nations at war (like Afghanistan, at right) or with crop failure (like Niger, at left ). UNICEF
relief programs reach only half the children in either nation. The children in these photographs are
among the lucky ones.
PA
UL
A
BR
ON
SO
N
/
GE
TT
Y
IM
AG
ES
marasmus A disease of severe protein-
calorie malnutrition during early infancy, in
which growth stops, body tissues waste
away, and the infant eventually dies.
kwashiorkor A disease of chronic malnutri-
tion during childhood, in which a protein
deficiency makes the child more vulnera-
ble to other diseases, such as measles,
diarrhea, and influenza.
➤Response for Police Officers and
Social Workers (from page 148): An
autopsy, or at least a speedy and careful
examination by a medical pathologist, is
needed. Suspected foul play must be either
substantiated or firmly rejected—so that the
parents can be arrested or warned about
conditions that caused an accident, or can
mourn in peace. Careful notes about the
immediate circumstances—such as the
infant’s body position when discovered, the
position of the mattress and blankets, the
warmth and humidity of the room, and the
baby’s health—are crucial. Further, although
SIDS victims sometimes turn blue and seem
bruised, they rarely display signs of specific
injury or neglect, such as a broken limb, a
scarred face, an angry rash, or a skinny body.
AP
P
HO
TO
/
SC
HA
LK
V
AN
Z
UY
DA
M
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152 CHAPTER 5 ■ The First Two Years: Biosocial Development
Body Changes
1. In the first two years of life, infants grow taller, gain weight,
and increase in head circumference—all indicative of develop-
ment. The norm at birth is 71⁄2 pounds in weight, 20 inches long
(about 3,400 grams, 51 centimeters). Birthweight doubles by 4
months, triples by 1 year, and quadruples by 2 years, when tod-
dlers weigh about 30 pounds (131⁄2 kilograms).
2. Sleep gradually decreases over the first two years. As with all
areas of development, variations in sleep patterns are normal,
caused by both nature and nurture. Co-sleeping is increasingly
common for very young infants, and many developmentalists con-
sider it a harmless, or even beneficial, practice.
Brain Development
3. The brain increases dramatically in size, from about 25 to 75
percent of adult weight, in the first two years. Complexity in-
creases as well, with transient exuberance of cell growth, develop-
ment of dendrites, and formation of synapses. Both growth and
pruning aid cognition.
4. Experience is vital for dendrites and synapses to link neurons.
In the first year, parts of the cortex dedicated to the senses and
motor skills mature. If neurons are unused, they atrophy, and the
brain regions are rededicated to other sensations. Normal stimu-
lation, which almost all infants obtain, allows experience-expectant
maturation.
5. Most experience-dependent brain growth reflects the varied,
culture-specific experiences of the infant. Therefore, one person’s
brain differs from another’s. However, all normal infants are equally
capable in the basic ways—emotional, linguistic, and sensory—
that humans share.
Senses and Motor Skills
6. At birth, the senses already respond to stimuli. Prenatal expe-
rience makes hearing the most mature sense and vision the least
mature sense. Vision improves quickly. Infants use their senses to
strengthen their early social interactions.
7. Newborns have many reflexes, including the survival reflexes of
sucking and breathing. Gross motor skills are soon evident, from
rolling over to sitting up (at about 6 months), from standing to
walking (at about 1 year), from climbing to running (before age 2).
8. Fine motor skills are difficult for infants, but babies gradually
develop the hand and finger control needed to grab, aim, and ma-
nipulate almost anything within reach. Experience, time, and mo-
tivation allow infants to advance in all their motor skills.
Public Health Measures
9. About 2 billion infant deaths have been prevented in the past
half-century because of improved health care. One major innova-
tion is immunization, which has eradicated smallpox and virtually
eliminated polio and measles in developed nations.
10. Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) once killed about
5,000 infants per year in the United States and thousands more
worldwide. This number has been reduced by half since 1990,
primarily because researchers discovered that putting infants to
sleep on their backs makes SIDS less likely. If mothers stopped
smoking, hundreds more infants would survive.
11. Breast-feeding is best for infants, partly because breast milk
reduces disease and promotes growth of every kind. Most babies
are breast-fed at birth, but less than half are exclusively breast-fed
for 6 months, as most doctors worldwide recommend.
12. Severe malnutrition stunts growth and can cause death, di-
rectly through marasmus or kwashiorkor and indirectly through
vulnerability if a child catches measles, an intestinal disorder, or
other illness.
norm (p. 126)
percentile (p. 126)
head-sparing (p. 127)
REM sleep (p. 127)
co-sleeping (p. 128)
neuron (p. 129)
cortex (p. 129)
axon (p. 130)
dendrite (p. 130)
synapse (p. 130)
transient exuberance (p. 131)
experience-expectant (p. 132)
experience-dependent (p. 132)
prefrontal cortex (p. 133)
shaken baby syndrome (p. 133)
self-righting (p. 134)
sensitive period (p. 134)
sensation (p. 136)
perception (p. 136)
binocular vision (p. 137)
motor skill (p. 138)
reflex (p. 138)
gross motor skills (p. 140)
fine motor skills (p. 140)
immunization (p. 144)
sudden infant death syndrome
(SIDS) (p. 146)
protein-calorie malnutrition
(p. 150)
marasmus (p. 151)
kwashiorkor (p. 151)
SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
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Summary 153
7. Why would parents encourage early (before 12 months) or
late (after 12 months) walking?
8. In what ways does immunization save lives?
9. What are the signs of malnutrition?
10. Since breast-feeding is best, why do most North American
mothers bottle-feed their 6-month-olds?
11. When is it better not to breast-feed an infant?
1. In what aspects of development (at any age) would it be best
to be at the 10th, 50th, and 90th percentiles? Give an example
for each.
2. How might stress hormones affect later development?
3. Why is pruning an essential part of brain development?
4. What is the relationship between the cortex and the dendrites?
5. What are the differences in the visual abilities of a newborn
and a 3-month-old?
6. What characteristics of the human brain seem designed for
hearing and understanding speech?
the caregiver how old the infant is. (Most caregivers know the in-
fant’s exact age and are happy to tell you.)
3. This project can be done alone, but it is more informative if sev-
eral students pool responses. Ask 3 to 10 adults whether they were
bottle-fed or breast-fed and, if breast-fed, for how long. If anyone
does not know, or if anyone expresses embarrassment about how
long they were breast-fed, that itself is worth noting. Is there any
correlation between adult body size and mode of infant feeding?
1. Immunization regulations and practices vary, partly for social
and political reasons. Ask at least two faculty or administrative
staff members what immunizations students at your college must
have and why. If you hear “it’s a law,” ask why that law is in place.
2. Observe three infants (whom you do not know) in public places
such as a store, playground, or bus. Look closely at body size and
motor skills, especially how much control each baby has over legs
and hands. From that, estimate the age in months, and then ask
KEY QUESTIONS
APPLICATIONS
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page 149): The babies’ ages,
the settings, and the mothers’ apparent attitudes. The U.S. mother (left)
is in a hospital indoors and seems attentive to whether she is feeding
her infant the right way. The mother in Madagascar (right) seems
confident and content as she feeds her older baby in a public place,
enjoying the social scene.
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The First Two Years:
Cognitive Development
This chapter is about infant cognition, a word that means “thinking”in a very broad sense, including language, learning, memory, andintelligence in the first two years of life. My aunt’s husband, UncleHenry, boasted that he did nothing with his three children until
they were smart enough to talk. He may have found a good excuse to avoid
diapering, burping, and bathing, but his beliefs about cognition were wrong.
Babies are smart from the first days of life, and they communicate quite well
long before they begin talking. Uncle Henry missed his children’s most im-
pressive cognitive accomplishments.
Infants strive to organize sensations and perceptions and to understand
sequence and direction, the familiar and the strange, objects and people,
events and experiences, permanence and transiency, cause and effect. By
the end of the first year—often much sooner—babies have succeeded at all
these. They have goals and know how to reach them. By the end of the sec-
ond year, they speak in sentences, think before acting, and pretend to be
someone or something (a mother, an airplane) that they know they are not.
Smart? Yes.
We begin this chapter by looking at Piaget’s framework for observing this
amazing intellectual progression, from newborns who know nothing to tod-
dlers who can make a wish, say it out loud, and blow out their birthday can-
dles. We end by asking how cognitive accomplishments, particularly the
acquisition of language, occur.
Sensorimotor Intelligence
As you learned in Chapter 2, Jean Piaget was a Swiss scientist, born in
1896. He was “arguably the most influential researcher of all times within
the area of cognitive developmental psychology” (Birney et al., 2005,
p. 328). Contrary to the popular ideas of his day (including those of my
Uncle Henry), Piaget realized that infants are smart and active learners,
adapting to experience. And adaptation, according to Piaget, is the essence
of intelligence.
Piaget described four distinct periods of cognitive development. The first
period begins at birth and ends at about 24 months. Piaget called it sensori-
motor intelligence because infants learn through their senses and motor
skills. This two-year-long period is subdivided into six stages (see Table 6.1).
6
155
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� Sensorimotor Intelligence
Stages One and Two: Primary Circular
Reactions
Stages Three and Four: Secondary Circular
Reactions
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST:
Object Permanence Revisited
Stages Five and Six: Tertiary Circular
Reactions
Piaget and Research Methods
� Information Processing
Affordances
Memory
� Language: What Develops in the
First Two Years?
The Universal Sequence
The Naming Explosion
Theories of Language Learning
sensorimotor intelligence Piaget’s term for
the way infants think—by using their
senses and motor skills—during the first
period of cognitive development.
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Stages One and Two: Primary Circular Reactions
In every aspect of sensorimotor intelligence, there is an active (not passive) inter-
action between the brain and the senses. Sensation, perception, and cognition
cycle back and forth (circling round and round) in what Piaget calls a circular re-
action. The first two stages of sensorimotor intelligence are examples of primary
circular reactions, which are reactions that involve the infant’s own body.
Stage one, called the stage of reflexes, lasts only for a month. It includes senses as
well as reflexes, which are the foundation of infant thought. Reflexes become de-
liberate movements; sensation leads into perception and then cognition. Sensori-
motor intelligence begins.
As reflexes adjust, the baby enters stage two, first acquired
adaptations (also called the stage of first habits). Adaptation is
crucial to learning, as it includes both assimilation and accom-
modation (see p. 45), which the person uses to make sense of
experience. This adaptation from reflexes to deliberate action
occurs because repeated responses provide information about
what the body does and how that action feels.
As an example, newborns suck anything that touches their
lips; sucking is one of the strongest reflexes. By about 1 month,
infants start to adapt sucking. Some items require not just
assimilation but accommodation: Pacifiers need to be sucked
without the reflexive tongue-pushing and swallowing that
other nipples require. This adaptation is a sign that infants
have begun to interpret their perceptions; as they accommo-
date to pacifiers, they are “thinking.”
primary circular reactions The first of three
types of feedback loops in sensorimotor
intelligence, this one involving the infant’s
own body. The infant senses motion, suck-
ing, noise, and so on, and tries to
understand them.
156 CHAPTER 6 ■ The First Two Years: Cognitive Development
TABLE 6.1
The Six Stages of Sensorimotor Intelligence
For an overview of the stages of sensorimotor thought, it helps to group the six stages into
pairs. The first two stages involve the infant’s responses to its own body.
Primary Circular Reactions
Stage One
(birth to 1 month)
Stage Two
(1–4 months)
Stage Three
(4–8 months)
Stage Four
(8–12 months)
Stage Five
(12–18 months)
Stage Six
(18–24 months)
Reflexes: sucking, grasping, staring, listening.
The first acquired adaptations: accommodation and coordination of
reflexes. Examples: sucking a pacifier differently from a nipple;
grabbing a bottle to suck it.
An awareness of things: responding to people and objects.
Example: clapping hands when mother says “patty-cake.”
New adaptation and anticipation: becoming more deliberate
and purposeful in responding to people and objects.
Example: putting mother’s hands together in order to make her start
playing patty-cake.
New means through active experimentation: experimentation and
creativity in the actions of the “little scientist.” Example: putting a
teddy bear in the toilet and flushing it.
New means through mental combinations: considering before doing
provides the child with new ways of achieving a goal without
resorting to trial-and-error experiments. Example: before flushing,
remembering that the toilet overflowed the last time, and hesitating.
The next two stages involve the infant’s responses to objects and people.
Secondary Circular Reactions
The last two stages are the most creative, first with action and then with ideas.
Tertiary Circular Reactions
FS
TO
P
/ P
UN
CH
ST
OC
K
Time for Adaptation Sucking is a reflex at
first, but adaptation begins as soon as an in-
fant differentiates a pacifier from her mother’s
breast or realizes that her hand has grown too
big to fit into her mouth. This infant’s expres-
sion of concentration suggests that she is
about to make that adaptation and suck just
her thumb from now on.
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In other words, adaptation in the early weeks relies primarily on reflexive assim-
ilation: Everything suckable is assimilated as worthy of being sucked until accom-
modation occurs. After several more months, more adaptation of the sucking reflex
is evident. The infant’s cognitive responses include: Suck some things to soothe
hunger, suck some for comfort, and never suck others (fuzzy blankets, large balls).
Adaptation is apparent when babies are not hungry but want the reassurance of
rhythmic sucking. Then they suck a pacifier, or, if their reflexes have not adapted to
a pacifier (because one was not offered), they suck thumbs, fingers, or knuckles.
Stages Three and Four: Secondary Circular Reactions
In stages three and four, development switches from primary circular reactions,
involving the baby’s own body (stages one and two), to secondary circular reac-
tions, involving the baby and a toy or another person.
During stage three (age 4 to 8 months), infants interact diligently with people
and things to produce exciting experiences, making interesting events last. Realizing
that rattles make noise, for example, they wave their arms and laugh whenever
someone puts a rattle in their hand. The sight of something that normally delights
an infant—a favorite toy, a smiling parent—can trigger active efforts for interaction.
Stage four (8 months to 1 year) is called new adaptation and anticipation, or
“the means to the end,” because babies now think about a goal and begin to un-
derstand how to reach it. Thinking is more innovative in stage four than it was in
stage three because adaptation is more complex. For instance, instead of always
smiling at Daddy, an infant might assess Daddy’s mood first. Stage-three babies
merely understand how to continue an experience. Stage-four babies anticipate.
A 10-month-old girl who enjoys playing in the bathtub might see a bar of soap,
crawl over to her mother with it as a signal to start her bath, and then remove her
clothes to make her wishes crystal clear—finally squealing with delight when the
bath water is turned on. Similarly, if a 10-month-old boy sees his mother putting
on her coat to leave, he might try to stop her or drag over his own jacket to signal
that he wants to go, too.
These examples reveal goal-directed behavior—that is, purposeful action. The
baby’s obvious goal-directedness stems from an enhanced awareness of cause and
effect, as well as from better memory for actions already completed and better
secondary circular reactions The second of
three types of feedback loops in sensori-
motor intelligence, this one involving
people and objects. The infant is respon-
sive to other people and to toys and other
objects the infant can touch and move.
Sensorimotor Intelligence 157
Talk to Me This 4-month-old is learning how to make interesting sights
last: The best way to get Daddy to respond is to vocalize, stare, smile,
and pat his cheek.
ES
BI
N
-A
N
DE
RS
ON
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
Where’s Rosa? At 18 months, Rosa knows all about object
permanence and hiding. Her only problem here is distinguishing
between “self” and “other.”
LA
UR
A
DW
IG
HT
Especially for Parents When should
parents decide whether to feed their baby
only by breast, only by bottle, or using some
combination? When should they decide
whether or not to let their baby use a
pacifier?
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understanding of other people’s intentions (Behne et al., 2005; Willatts, 1999).
Cognitive awareness coincides with the emergence of the motor skills (e.g., crawl-
ing, walking) needed to achieve goals; both developments are the result of neuro-
logical maturation (Adolph & Berger, 2006).
Piaget thought that the concept of object permanence emerges at about 8
months. Object permanence refers to the awareness that objects or people con-
tinue to exist when they are no longer in sight. Other researchers agreed that a goal-
directed search for toys that have fallen from the baby’s crib, rolled under a couch,
or disappeared under a blanket does not begin to emerge until about 8 months, just
as Piaget indicated. However, many current scientists question Piaget’s interpreta-
tions, as the following explains.
object permanence The realization that
objects (including people) still exist when
they cannot be seen, touched, or heard.
158 CHAPTER 6 ■ The First Two Years: Cognitive Development
thinking like a scientist
Object Permanence Revisited
Before Piaget, it was assumed that infants understood objects
just as adults do. Piaget demonstrated with a simple experiment
that that assumption was wrong. An adult shows an infant an
interesting toy, covers it with a lightweight cloth, and observes
the infant’s response. The results:
■ Infants younger than 8 months do not search (by removing
the cloth).
■ At about 8 months, infants search immediately after the
object is covered but seem to forget about the object if
they have to wait a few seconds.
■ By 2 years, children seem to understand object perma-
nence: They search well but not perfectly. Imperfection is
evident when playing hide-and-seek: Preschoolers may
fear that someone has really disappeared, or they may hide
in obvious places (such as behind a coat rack with their
feet still visible or as a big lump under a sheet on a bed).
As you learned in Chapter 1, thinking like a scientist means:
(1) replication (thousands of scientists in dozens of nations have
done this with Piaget’s original research design) and (2) question-
ing the conclusions. Piaget claimed that failure to search for a
hidden object meant that infants have no concept of object per-
manence. Other researchers ask whether other immaturities,
such as imperfect motor skills or fragile memory, could mask an
infant’s understanding that objects still exist when they are no
longer visible (Cohen & Cashon, 2006; Ruffman et al., 2005).
Apparently they can. As one researcher points out, “Amid his
acute observation and brilliant theorizing, Piaget . . . mistook
infants’ motor incompetence for conceptual incompetence”
(Mandler, 2004, p. 17). A series of clever experiments, in which
objects seemed to disappear behind a screen while researchers
traced eye movements and brain activity, revealed some inkling of
object permanence in infants as young as 41⁄2 months (Baillargeon
& DeVos, 1991; Spelke, 1993).
The specific finding that contradicted Piaget is that, long
before 8 months, infants showed surprise (by staring longer, for
instance) when an object they saw was hidden by a screen and
Peek-a-Boo The best hidden object is Mom under an easily
moved blanket, as 7-month-old Elias has discovered. Peek-a-boo
is fun from about 7 to 12 months. In another month, Elias will
search for more conventionally hidden objects. In a year or two,
his surprise and delight at finding Mom will fade.
BO
TH
: L
AU
RA
D
W
IG
HT
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tertiary circular reactions The third of three
types of feedback loops in sensorimotor
intelligence, this one involving active
exploration and experimentation. The
infant explores a range of new activities,
varying his or her responses as a way of
learning about the world.
“little scientist” Piaget’s term for the stage-
five toddler (age 12 to 18 months) who
experiments without anticipating the
results.
deferred imitation A sequence in which
an infant first perceives something that
someone else does and then performs the
same action a few hours or even days
later.
Stages Five and Six: Tertiary Circular Reactions
In their second year, infants start experimenting in deed and in thought, typically
acting first and thinking later. Tertiary circular reactions begin when 1-year-
olds take their first independent and varied actions to discover the properties of
other people, animals, and things. Infants no longer simply respond to their own
bodies (primary reactions) or to other people or objects (secondary reactions); they
also begin new sequences, in a pattern more like a spiral than a closed circle.
The first stage of tertiary circular reactions, Piaget’s stage five (age 12 to 18
months), is called new means through active experimentation. This builds on the
accomplishments of stage four, but goal-directed and purposeful activities become
more expansive and creative. Toddlerhood is a time of active exploration, when
babies delight in squeezing all the toothpaste out of the tube, taking apart the
iPod, uncovering the anthill.
Piaget referred to the stage-five toddler as a “little scientist” who “experi-
ments in order to see.” Their scientific method is trial and error. Their devotion to
discovery is familiar to every adult scientist—and to every parent.
Finally, in the sixth stage (age 18 to 24 months), toddlers begin to anticipate
and solve simple problems by using mental combinations, an intellectual experi-
mentation that supersedes the active experimentation of stage five. The child is
able to put two ideas together, such as that a doll is not a real baby but a doll can
be belted into a stroller and taken for a walk. Because they combine ideas, stage-
six toddlers think about consequences, hesitating a moment before yanking the
cat’s tail or dropping a raw egg on the floor. Their strong impulse to discover
sometimes overwhelms reflection; they do not always choose wisely. But at least
thought precedes action.
Being able to use mental combinations makes it possible for the child to pre-
tend. A toddler might sing to a doll before tucking it into bed. This is in marked
contrast to the younger infant, who treats a doll like any other toy, throwing or bit-
ing it, or to the stage-five toddler, who tries to pull off the head, arms, and legs to
see what is inside.
Piaget describes another stage-six intellectual accomplishment, involving both
thought and memory. Deferred imitation occurs when infants copy behavior
they noticed hours or even days earlier (Piaget, 1962). A classic example is Piaget’s
daughter, Jacqueline, who observed another child
who got into a terrible temper. He screamed as he tried to get out of a playpen
and pushed it backward, stamping his feet. Jacqueline stood watching him
in amazement, never having witnessed such a scene before. The next day, she
herself screamed in her playpen and tried to move it, stamping her foot lightly
several times in succession.
[Piaget, 1962, p. 63]
Sensorimotor Intelligence 159
then vanished, became two objects, or moved in an unexpected
way. This reaction suggests object permanence, in that the in-
fants seemed to think the object still existed behind the screen
(Baillargeon, 1994).
Further exploration of infant cognition came from a series of
experiments in which 2-, 4-, and 6-month-olds watched balls
moving behind a screen, sometimes disappearing, sometimes
reemerging in a smooth path, sometimes reemerging in the
wrong place (Johnson et al., 2003). The 2-month-olds showed
no awareness of anything odd, no matter what the balls did; the
4-month-olds showed signs that they knew something was
amiss; the 6-month-olds demonstrated (with attentive stares)
that they expected the balls to move in the usual way and were
surprised when they didn’t.
These researchers do not believe that the concept of object
permanence (or, at least, perception regarding object trajectories)
is inborn. It is the result of maturation and experience, as Piaget
thought. The difference between this research and Piaget’s is
the age at which infants demonstrate the concept. With clever
experiments (i.e., relying on visual tracking rather than on the
motor skills involved in reaching), researchers have shown that
object permanence begins to emerge at 41⁄2 months.
Bib and Bath Learning to use eating utensils
is a cognitively stimulating experience that is
largely a matter of trial and—often messy—
error.
M
EY
ER
R
AN
GE
LL
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
Especially for Parents One parent wants
to put all the breakable or dangerous objects
away because a toddler is now able to move
around independently. The other parent says
that the baby should learn not to touch
certain things. Who is right?
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Piaget and Research Methods
Infants reach the various stages of sensorimotor intelligence earlier than Piaget
predicted. Not only do 41⁄2-month-olds comprehend object permanence, but many
researchers have found that babies pretend and defer imitation as early as 9
months (Bauer, 2006; Meltzoff & Moore, 1999).
One reason Piaget underestimated the speed of infant cognition is that he
based his conclusions on what he could see his own three infants do. Direct ob-
servation of only three children is a start, but no contemporary researcher would
stop there. There are problems with “fidelity and credibility” (Bornstein et al.,
2005, p. 287) in collecting data on infants; modern researchers have statistics,
design, sample size, and new strategies to overcome these problems (Hartmann &
Pelzel, 2005). For example, habituation (from the word habit) refers to getting
used to an experience after repeated exposure to it. Habituation occurs when the
school cafeteria serves macaroni day after day or when an infant repeatedly hears
the same sound, sees the same picture, plays with the same toy. Evidence of habit-
uation is loss of interest (or, for macaroni, loss of appetite).
Using habituation as a research strategy involves repeating one stimulus until
babies lose interest and then presenting another, slightly different stimulus (a new
sound, sight, or other sensation). Babies can indicate in many ways—a longer or
more focused gaze; a faster or slower heart rate; more or less muscle tension
around the lips; a change in the rate, rhythm, or pressure of suction on a nipple—
that they detect a difference between the two stimuli. These often subtle indica-
tors are recorded by technology that was unavailable to Piaget.
By inducing habituation and then presenting a new stimulus, scientists have
learned that even 1-month-olds can detect the difference between a pah sound
and a bah sound, between a circle with two dots inside it and a circle without
any dots, and much more. Babies younger than 6 months perceive far more than
Piaget imagined.
More recent techniques involve measurement of brain activity (see Table 6.2)
(Johnson, 2005). In functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, a burst of
electrical activity within the brain is recorded, indicating that neurons are firing,
which leads researchers to conclude that a particular stimulus has been noticed
fMRI Functional magnetic resonance imaging,
a measuring technique in which the brain’s
electrical excitement indicates activation any-
where in the brain; fMRI helps researchers
locate neurological responses to stimuli.
habituation The process of getting used to
an object or event through repeated expo-
sure to it.
160 CHAPTER 6 ■ The First Two Years: Cognitive Development
I’m Listening This 14-month-old is a master
at deferred imitation. He knows how to hold
a cell phone and what gestures to use as the
“conversation” goes on.
LW
A-
DA
N
N
T
AR
DI
FF
/
CO
RB
IS
TABLE 6.2
Some Techniques Used by Neuroscientists to Understand Brain Function
Technique Use Limitations
EEG (electroencephalogram)
ERP (event-related potential)
fMRI (functional magnetic
resonance imaging)
PET (positron emission
tomography)
Especially in infancy, much brain activity of interest
occurs below the cortex.
Reaction within the cortex signifies perception, but
interpretation of the amplitude and timing of brain
waves is not straightforward.
Signifies brain activity, but infants are notoriously
active, which can make fMRIs useless.
Many parents and researchers hesitate to inject
radioactive dye into an infant’s brain unless a serious
abnormality is suspected.
Measures electrical activity in the top layers of the
brain, where the cortex is.
Notes the amplitude and frequency of electrical
activity (as shown by brain waves) in specific parts of
the cortex in reaction to various stimuli.
Measures changes in blood flow anywhere in the
brain (not just the outer layers).
Also (like fMRI) reveals activity in various parts of the
brain. Locations can be pinpointed with precision, but
PET requires injection of radioactive dye to light up
the active parts of the brain.
For both practical and ethical reasons, these techniques have not been used with large, representative samples of normal infants. One of the
challenges of neuroscience is to develop methods that are harmless, easy to use, and comprehensive for the study of normal children.
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and processed. Using such advanced methods, scientists have been convinced
that infants have memories, goals, and even mental combinations in advance of
Piaget’s stages.
As explained in Chapter 5, many measurements of neurons show that early
brain development is wide-ranging: Dendrites proliferate, and pruning is extensive.
The first years of life are filled with mental activity and may be prime time for
cognitive development (Johnson, 2005). In fact, discoveries have given develop-
mentalists a new worry: People might think that these years are the only ones for
brain growth. Not so. As 20 leading developmentalists explain, the
focus on “zero to three” as a critical or particularly sensitive period is highly
problematic, not because this isn’t an important period for the developing brain,
but . . . attention to the period from birth to 3 years begins too late and ends
too soon.
[National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2000, p. 7]
SUMMING UP
Piaget discovered, described, and then celebrated active infant learning, which he de-
scribed in six stages of sensorimotor intelligence. Babies use their senses and motor
skills to gain an understanding of their world, first with reflexes and then by adapting
through assimilation and accommodation. Object permanence, pursuit of goals, and
deferred imitation all develop earlier in infancy than Piaget realized. The infant is a little
scientist, not only at age 1, as Piaget described so well, but even in the first months of
life. Thinking develops before motor skills can execute thoughts.
■
Information Processing
Piaget was a “grand” theorist of cognition; he had an appreciation of shifts in the
nature of cognition that occur at about ages 2, 6, and 12 years. His sweeping over-
view, with its notion of distinct stages, contrasts with information-processing
theory, a perspective modeled on computer functioning, including input, mem-
ory, programs, calculation, and output.
Information-processing theorists believe that a step-by-step description of the
mechanisms of thought add insight to our understanding of cognition at every age.
Human information processing begins with input picked up by the five senses;
proceeds to brain reactions, connections, and stored memories; and concludes with
some action, such as a word or gesture. For infants, the output might be moving a
hand to uncover a toy (object permanence), saying a word (e.g., mama) to signify
recognition, or simply staring at a new photo (habituation). For example, instead
of crying reflexively at the pain of hunger, an infant might focus on a bottle,
remember that it can relieve hunger, reach for it, and then suck on it. Each step
of this process requires information processing except the reflexive sucking, and
even with that, the older infant is much more effective than the newborn because
of better information processing.
With the aid of the sensitive technology just described, information-processing
research has found some impressive intellectual capacities in the infant. For ex-
ample, concepts and categories seem to develop in the infant brain by about 6
months (Mandler, 2004; Quinn, 2004). This perspective helps tie together various
aspects of infant cognition. We review two of these now: affordances and memory.
Affordances concern perception or, by analogy, input. Memory concerns brain
organization and output—that is, information storage and retrieval.
information-processing theory A perspective
that compares human thinking processes,
by analogy, to computer analysis of data,
including sensory input, connections, stored
memories, and output.
Information Processing 161
➤Response for Parents (from page 159):
It is easier and safer to babyproof the house,
because toddlers, being “little scientists,”
want to explore. However, it is important for
both parents to encourage and guide the
baby, so it is preferable to leave out a few
untouchable items if that will help prevent a
major conflict between husband and wife.
Especially for Computer Experts In what
way is the human mind not like a computer?
➤Response for Parents (from page 157):
Both decisions should be made within the
first month, during the stage of reflexes. If
parents wait until the infant is 4 months or
older, they may discover that they are too
late. It is difficult to introduce a bottle to a 4-
month-old who has been exclusively breast-
fed or a pacifier to a baby who has already
adapted the sucking reflex to a thumb.
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Affordances
Perception, remember, is the mental processing of information that arrives at the
brain from the sensory organs. It is the first step of information processing the
input to the brain. One of the puzzles of development is that two people can have
discrepant perceptions of the same situation, not only interpreting it differently
but actually observing it differently.
Decades of thought and research led Eleanor and James Gibson to conclude
that perception is far from automatic (E. Gibson, 1969; J. Gibson, 1979). Percep-
tion—for infants, as for the rest of us—is a cognitive accomplishment that re-
quires selectivity: “Perceiving is active, a process of obtaining information about
the world. . . . We don’t simply see, we look” (E. Gibson, 1988, p. 5).
The Gibsons contend that the environment (people, places, and objects) affords,
or offers, many opportunities for perception and for interaction with what is per-
ceived (E. Gibson, 1997). Each of these opportunities is called an affordance.
Which particular affordance is perceived and acted on depends on four factors: sen-
sory awareness, immediate motivation, current development, and past experience.
As a simple example, a lemon may be perceived as something that affords
smelling, tasting, touching, viewing, throwing, squeezing, and biting (among other
things). Each of these affordances is further perceived as offering pleasure, pain,
or some other emotion. Which of the many affordances a particular person per-
ceives and acts on depends on the four factors just mentioned: sensations, mo-
tives, age, and experience. Consequently, a lemon might elicit quite different
perceptions from an artist about to paint a still life, a thirsty adult in need of a re-
freshing drink, and a teething baby wanting something to gnaw on.
Clearly, infants and adults perceive quite different affordances. A toddler’s idea
of what affords running might be any unobstructed surface—a meadow, a long
hallway in an apartment building, or a road. To an adult eye, the degree to which
these places afford running may be restricted by such factors as a bull grazing in
the meadow, neighbors in the hallway, or traffic on the road. Moreover, young chil-
dren love to run, so they notice affordances for running; some adults prefer to stay
put—so they do not perceive whether running is afforded or not.
affordance An opportunity for perception
and interaction that is offered by a person,
place, or object in the environment.
162 CHAPTER 6 ■ The First Two Years: Cognitive Development
RO
BE
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T,
IN
C.
Look at Me These 1-year-olds are just learning
about the affordances of objects. Thus, a rattle
may be pushed against a friend’s face to gain
the friend’s attention. This “little scientist” has
not yet discovered that doing so may not be a
good idea.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 164):
Are these two toddlers boys or girls?
Baby in Charge As this mother no doubt re-
alizes, for her toddler, playing with blocks af-
fords touching, stacking, and tossing them,
not trying to identify the letters and numbers
on them.
RO
YA
LT
Y-
FR
EE
/
CO
RB
IS
➤Response for Computer Experts (from
page 161): In dozens of ways, including speed
of calculation, ability to network across the
world, and vulnerability to viruses. In one
crucial way the human mind is better:
Computers crash within a few years, while
human minds keep working until death.
154-177_BergerLS7e_CH06.qxp 9/10/07 5:04 PM Page 162

visual cliff An experimental apparatus that
gives an illusion of a sudden drop between
one horizontal surface and another.
Research on Early Affordances
As information processing improves over the first year, infants become quicker to
recognize affordances. A detailed study traced the responses of infants to eight dif-
ferent displays on a TV screen (Courage et al., 2006; see Research Design). This
research measured, among other things, how many times the infants glanced away
from the displays, how long their most extensive look lasted, and whether their
heart rate slowed down. The older infants were quicker to process the display and
decide if it was interesting, a sign of better information processing. For example,
the 14-week-olds looked at static dots for 10 seconds at a time, the 20-week-olds
for 6 seconds, and babies from 26 to 52 weeks for only 5 seconds.
Developmental trends were apparent, especially for the most interesting dis-
play, which was a video from Sesame Street. Babies stared at this video for an aver-
age of 18 seconds at 14 weeks (usually one long look), 10 seconds at 26 months,
and then back up to 15 seconds at 52 months. According to the researchers, input
became quicker with age (hence shorter looks for less interesting things), but cog-
nitive processing advanced (hence more intense looks at Sesame Street) (Courage
et al., 2006).
Affordances are sought by infants of every age. For instance, one study found
that when 9- to 12-month-olds were presented with unknown objects that rattled,
rang, squeaked, or were silent, they decided what noise the object afforded on the
basis of whether the object’s shape was similar to that of another noise-making
object. By 12 months, they also used vocabulary: They predicted the noise that an
object would make according to whether the object’s name was like the name of
another object that, they knew, rattled, rang, or squeaked (Graham et al., 2004).
In another experiment, 12- to 24-month-olds watched adults look at or bend a
laminated photograph and then followed the example, either looking at or bending
it themselves. They did not yet know that photos are primarily for viewing, so they
used whichever affordance they had been shown (Callaghan et al., 2004).
Sudden Drops
The fact that experience affects which affordances are perceived is quite apparent
in studies of depth perception. This research began with an apparatus called the
visual cliff, designed to provide the illusion of a sudden dropoff between one
horizontal surface and another. Mothers were able to urge their 6-month-olds to
wiggle toward them over the supposed edge of the cliff, but even with mothers
urging, 10-month-olds fearfully refused to budge (E. Gibson & Walk, 1960).
Researchers once thought that inade-
quate depth perception kept young ba-
bies from seeing the drop and that, as
the visual cortex became more mature,
8-month-olds could see it. Later research
(using advanced technology) found that
that interpretation was wrong. Even 3-
month-olds notice a drop: Their heart
rate slows and their eyes open wide when
they are placed over the cliff. But until
Information Processing 163
Research Design
Scientists: Mary L. Courage, Greg D.
Reynolds, and John E. Richards.
Publication: Child Development (2006).
Participants: One hundred infants aged
14, 20, 26, 39, and 52 weeks (20 at each
age). None had birth complications or
known disabilities. Each was tested sit-
ting in the mother’s lap.
Design: Babies saw eight displays on a
TV monitor, four of them motionless (a
face, dots, triangles and lines, a Sesame
Street scene) and the other four show-
ing the same objects in motion. Dura-
tion of looking was measured in
seconds by researchers who did not
know what the babies saw, and heart
rate was measured via an electrocardio-
gram (EEG).
Major conclusions: Look time and heart
rate varied by age and display. Moving
displays captured attention more than
static ones; human forms were more at-
tractive than geometric designs.The
youngest babies often just stared
blankly (and showed almost no slowing
of heart rate), while the older babies
glanced, glanced away, and then looked
more closely. Age differences suggested
advances in processing; the oldest ba-
bies were most “stimulus dependent”—
that is, most influenced by the specifics
of what they saw.
Comment:This study provides rich data
on age and information processing, in-
cluding one table with 360 data
points—72 at each age.This richness
complicates analysis, but because the
study compares heart rate, look time,
age, and display, its conclusions are
more reliable.
Depth Perception This toddler in a labora-
tory in Berkeley, California, is crawling on the
experimental apparatus called a visual cliff.
She stops at the edge of what she perceives
as a dropoff.MA
RK
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HA
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HO
TO
ED
IT
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they can crawl, they do not realize that crawling over an edge affords falling, per-
haps with a frightening and painful result. This depends, of course, on each infant’s
particular history. The difference is in processing, not input; in affordance, not
mere perception. The same process happens with walking: Novice walkers are fear-
less and reckless; experienced walkers are more cautious and deliberate (Adolph &
Berger, 2005).
Movement and People
Despite all the variations from one infant to another in the particular affordances
they perceive, two general principles of perception are shared by all infants:
dynamic perception and people preference. Both of these principles were demon-
strated by the study of the 8 displays mentioned above (Courage et al., 2006).
Dynamic perception is primed to focus on movement and change. Infants
love motion. As soon as they can, they move their own bodies—grabbing, scooting,
crawling, walking. To their delight, these movements change what the world af-
fords them; as a result, perception and body motion advance as quickly as possible
(Adolph & Berger, 2005).
Other creatures that move, especially their own caregivers, are among the first
and best sources of pleasure, again because of dynamic perception. That is one
reason it’s almost impossible to teach a baby not to chase and grab a moving dog, a
cat, or even a cockroach.
The other universal principle of infant perception is people preference. This
characteristic may have evolved over the centuries because humans of all ages sur-
vived by learning to attend to, and rely on, one another. As you remember from
Chapter 5, all human senses are primed to respond to social stimuli (Bornstein
et al., 2005).
Very young babies are interested in the emotional affordances of their care-
givers (whether a person is likely to elicit laughter or fear), using their limited per-
ceptual abilities to respond to smiles, shouts, and so on. Infants connect facial
expressions with tone of voice long before they understand language. This ability
has led to an interesting hypothesis:
Given that infants are frequently exposed to their caregivers’ emotional displays
and further presented with opportunities to view the affordances (Gibson, 1959,
1979) of those emotional expressions, we propose that the expressions of famil-
iar persons are meaningful to infants very early in life.
[Kahana-Kalman & Walker-Andrews, 2001, p. 366]
Building on earlier research by other scientists on infant perception, these re-
searchers presented infants with two moving images on a video screen. Both im-
ages were of a woman, either their mother or a stranger. In one, the woman visibly
expresses joy; in the other, sorrow. Each image is accompanied by an audiotape
of that woman’s happy or sad talk. By 7 months, but not before,
babies show that they can match emotional words with facial
expressions by looking longer at the face expressing the same
emotion as in the tone of voice.
Some infants in this experiment were only 31⁄2 months old.
When they did not know the woman, they failed to match the ver-
bal emotion with the facial expression. In other words, when the
face was that of a stranger, these 31⁄2-month-olds did not tend to
look more at the happy face when they heard the happy talk or
to match sad voice and sad face.
However, when the 31⁄2-month-olds saw their own mother on
the video (two images, happy and sad) and heard her happy or her
dynamic perception Perception that is
primed to focus on movement and change.
people preference A universal principle of
infant perception, consisting of an innate
attraction to other humans, which is evi-
dent in visual, auditory, tactile, and other
preferences.
164 CHAPTER 6 ■ The First Two Years: Cognitive Development
One Constant, Multisensual Perception
From the angle of her arm and the bend of
her hand, it appears that this infant recognizes
the constancy of the furry mass, perceiving it
as a single entity whether it is standing still,
rolling in the sand, or walking along the
beach.
UL
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Especially for Parents of Infants When
should you be particularly worried that your
baby will fall off the bed or down the stairs?
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 162): Surprise! Both babies are girls,
named Anne and Sarah. Illustrating the power
of stereotyping, many observers would have
guessed that they are boys because their
blue garments afford masculinity.
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sad voice, they correctly matched visual and vocal emotions. They looked longest
at their happy mothers talking in a happy way, but they also looked at their sad
mothers when they heard their mother’s sad voice—an amazing display of con-
necting speech tone with facial expressions.
The researchers noticed something else. When infants saw and heard their
happy mothers, as opposed to the happy strangers, they smiled twice as quickly,
seven times as long, and much more brightly (with cheeks raised as well as lips up-
turned) (Kahana-Kalman & Walker-Andrews, 2001). Obviously, experience had
taught these babies that a smiling mother affords joy. The affordances of a smiling
stranger are difficult to judge.
Memory
A certain amount of experience and brain maturation are required in
order to process and remember experiences. Infants have great difficulty
storing new memories in their first year, and older children are often un-
able to describe events that occurred when they were younger. But on the
basis of a series of experiments, developmentalists now agree that very
young infants can remember under the following circumstances:
■ Experimental conditions are similar to real life.
■ Motivation is high.
■ Special measures are taken to aid memory retrieval.
The most dramatic evidence for infant memory comes from a series of
innovative experiments in which 3-month-olds were taught to make a
mobile move by kicking their legs (Rovee-Collier, 1987, 1990). The in-
fants lay on their backs, in their own cribs, connected to a mobile by
means of a ribbon tied to one foot (see photograph).
Virtually all the infants began making some occasional kicks (as well as
random arm movements and noises) and realized, after a while, that kick-
ing made the mobile move. They then kicked more vigorously and fre-
quently, sometimes laughing at their accomplishment. So far, this is no
surprise—self-activated movement is highly reinforcing to infants, part of
dynamic perception.
When some infants had the mobile-and-ribbon apparatus reinstalled in their
cribs one week later, most started to kick immediately; this reaction indicated that
they remembered their previous experience. But when other infants were retested
two weeks later, they began with only random kicks. Apparently they had forgotten
what they had learned—evidence that memory is fragile early in life.
Reminders and Repetition
The lead researcher, Carolyn Rovee-Collier, developed another experiment that
demonstrated that 3-month-old infants could remember after two weeks if they
had a brief reminder session before being retested (Rovee-Collier & Hayne,
1987). A reminder session is any perceptual experience that is intended to help
a person recollect an idea, a thing, or an experience.
In this particular reminder session, two weeks after the initial training, the in-
fants watched the mobile move but were not tied to it and were positioned so that
they could not kick. The next day, when they were again connected to the mobile
and positioned so that they could move their legs, they kicked as they had learned
to do two weeks earlier.
Watching the mobile move on the previous day revived their faded memory.
The information about how to make the mobile move was stored in their brains;
Especially for Parents This research on
early affordances suggests a crucial lesson
about how many babysitters an infant should
have. What is it?
reminder session A perceptual experience
that is intended to help a person recollect
an idea, a thing, or an experience, without
testing whether the person remembers it
at the moment.
Information Processing 165
He Remembers! In this demonstration of
Rovee-Collier’s experiment, a young infant
immediately remembers how to make the fa-
miliar mobile move. (Unfamiliar mobiles do
not provoke the same reaction.) He kicks his
right leg and flails both arms, just as he
learned to do several weeks ago.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 167):
How and why is this mobile unlike those
usually sold for babies?
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they needed some processing time to retrieve it. The reminder session provided
that time. Overall, some early memories can be “highly enduring, and become
even more so after repeated encounters with reminders” (Rovee-Collier & Ger-
hardstein, 1997).
A Little Older, a Little More Memory
After about 6 months, infants can retain information for longer periods of time
than younger babies can, with less training or reminding. Toward the end of the
first year, many kinds of memory, including that involved in deferred imitation, are
apparent (Meltzoff & Moore, 1999). For example, suppose a 9-month-old watches
someone playing with a toy he or she has never seen before. The next day, if given
the toy, the 9-month-old is likely to play with it in the same way as he or she had
observed. (Younger infants do not.)
By the middle of the second year, toddlers can remember and reenact more
complex sequences. In one study, 16- and 20-month-olds watched an experi-
menter perform various activities, such as putting a doll to bed, making a party
hat, and cleaning a table (Bauer & Dow, 1994). For each activity, the experimenter
used props and gave a brief “instruction” for performing each step. For instance, to
clean the table, the experimenter wet it with water from a white spray bottle, say-
ing, “Put on the water”; wiped it with a paper towel, saying, “Wipe it”; and placed
the towel in a wooden trash basket, saying, “Toss it.”
A week later, most toddlers remembered how to carry out the sequence when
they heard “Put on the water. Wipe it. Toss it.” They followed what they had seen,
not only with the same props but also with different props (for instance, a clear
spray bottle, a sponge, and a plastic garbage can). This shows that infants are de-
veloping concepts, not imitating behavior (Mandler, 2004). Many other experi-
ments also show that toddlers are thinking conceptually, not just repeating what
they have experienced.
Aspects of Memory
Memory is not one thing, “not a unitary or monolithic entity” (Schacter &
Badgaiyan, 2001, p.1). People are inaccurate when they make general statements
about their “memory,” as in “I have a good memory” or “My memory is failing.”
Brain-imaging techniques (such as fMRI) reveal many distinct brain regions de-
voted to particular aspects of memory. There is probably a memory for faces, for
sounds, for events, for sights, for phrases, and much more.
One distinction is between implicit memory, which is memory for routines and
memories that remain hidden until a particular stimulus brings them to mind (like
the mobile), and explicit memory, which is memory that can be recalled on de-
mand. As you can see in Table 6.3, explicit memory is probably impossible in the
first months of life. Some aspects of it are evident after age 1 (see Chapter 9); at
about age 5 or 6, when children begin school, explicit memory improves dramati-
cally as those parts of the brain mature (Nelson et al., 2006).
Because there are so many types of memory, it is not surprising that infants re-
member some things better than others: That’s the way human brains are con-
structed. Thus, early memories may be either fragile or enduring, depending on
which type of memory is involved (Nelson & Webb, 2003).
Infants probably store within their brains many emotions and sensations that
they cannot readily retrieve, whereas memories of motion (dynamic perception)
are remembered once that particular action is cued by the context (as when the
infants remembered how to kick to make the mobile move). Once they under-
stand words, a verbal reminder aids retrieval, even after a delay (Bauer, 2006).
166 CHAPTER 6 ■ The First Two Years: Cognitive Development
Memory Aid Personal motivation and action
are crucial to early memory, and that is why
Noel has no trouble remembering which
shape covers the photograph of herself as a
baby.
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➤Response for Parents of Infants (from
page 164): Constant vigilance is necessary
for the first few years of a child’s life, but the
most dangerous age is from about 4 to 8
months, when infants can move but do not
yet have a fear of falling over an edge.
➤Response for Parents (from page 165):
It is important that infants have time for
repeated exposure to each caregiver, because
infants adjust their behavior to maximize
whatever each particular caregiver affords in
the way of play, emotions, and vocalization.
Parents should find one steady babysitter
rather than several.
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SUMMING UP
Infant cognition can be studied using the information-processing perspective, which
analyzes each component of how thoughts begin and are organized, remembered, and
expressed. Infant perception is powerfully influenced by particular experiences and
motivation, so the affordances perceived by one infant differ from those perceived by
another. Memory depends on both brain maturation and experience. That is why mem-
ory is fragile in the first year (being increased by dynamic perception and reminders)
and becomes more evident (although many types of memory remain quite fragile) in
the second year.
■
Language: What Develops
in the First Two Years?
The acquisition of language, with its thousands of words, idiomatic phrases, gram-
mar rules, and exceptions, is the most impressive intellectual achievement of the
young child. In fact, language is the most impressive human accomplishment: It
differentiates Homo sapiens from all other species, and it may be the reason
human brains are more complex than those of other animals (Leonard, 2003).
For instance, humans and gorillas are close relatives, with about 99 percent of
their genes in common. Gorillas are bigger than people, but an adult gorilla’s brain
is only one-third as big as a human’s and has far fewer dendrites, synapses, and
other components. This means that a 2-year-old human has twice as much brain-
power as a full-grown gorilla. Many animals communicate, but no species has any-
thing approaching the neurons and networks that support the 6,000 human
languages.
Language: What Develops in the First Two Years? 167
TABLE 6.3
The Major Memory Systems and Developmental Tasks
Brain Systems
General System Subsystems Tasks Related to Tasks Infancy Example
Implicit memory
(nondeclarative
memory)
Explicit memory
Rare before age 1
Procedural learning
Conditioning
Perceptual
representation system
Pre-explicit memory
Semantic memory
(generic knowledge)
Episodic memory
(autobiographical)
Serial reaction time (SRT)
task
Visual expectation paradigm
(VExP)
Conditioning
Perceptual priming
paradigms
Novelty detection in
habituation and paired
comparison tasks
Semantic retrieval, word
priming, and associative
priming
Episodic encoding
Recall and recognition
Striatum, supplementary motor
association, motor cortex,
frontal cortex
Frontal cortex, motor areas
Cerebellum, basal ganglia
Modality dependent; parietal
cortex, occipital cortex, inferior
temporal cortex, auditory cortex
Hippocampus
Left prefrontal cortex, anterior
cingulate cortex, hippocampal
cortex
Left prefrontal cortex, left
orbitoprefrontal cortex
Right prefrontal cortex, anterior
cingulate cortex, parietal cortex,
cerebellum, hippocampal cortex
Kick to make mobile move
Laugh when tickled
Recognize mother’s voice
Hear difference between
sounds
First spoken words
Remember usual routines of
dinner
Remember when and how a
painful event occurred
Source: Adapted from Nelson & Webb, 2003, p. 103.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 165): It is black and white, with larger
objects—designed to be particularly attractive
to infants, not to adult shoppers.
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The Universal Sequence
The timing of language acquisition varies; the most
advanced 10 percent of 2-year-olds speak more than
550 words, and the least advanced 10 percent speak
fewer than 100 words—a fivefold difference (Merri-
man, 1999). (Some explanations are discussed at the
end of this chapter.) But children around the world
follow the same sequence of early language devel-
opment (see Table 6.4).
Listening and Responding
Infants begin learning language before birth, via brain
organization and auditory experiences during the final
prenatal months. Newborns prefer to hear speech
over other sounds; they prefer to listen to high-
pitched, simplified, and repetitive adult speech. This
form of speech is quite distinct from normal speech. It is sometimes called baby
talk, since it is talk directed to babies, and sometimes called motherese, since
mothers all over the world speak it. Both these terms may have misleading impli-
cations, so scientists prefer the more formal term child-directed speech.
Newborns respond to adult noises and expressions (as well as to their own in-
ternal pleasures and pain) in many ways, crying, cooing, and making a variety of
other sounds even in the first days of life. Their responses gradually become more
varied. By 4 months, most babies squeal, growl, gurgle, grunt, croon, and yell, as
well as make speechlike sounds (Hsu et al., 2000).
child-directed speech The high-pitched,
simplified, and repetitive way adults
speak to infants. (Also called baby talk or
motherese.)
168 CHAPTER 6 ■ The First Two Years: Cognitive Development
TABLE 6.4
AT ABOUT THIS TIME: The Development of
Spoken Language in the First Two Years
Age* Means of Communication
Newborn
2 months
3–6 months
6–10 months
10–12 months
12 months
13–18 months
18 months
21 months
24 months
Reflexive communication—cries, movements, facial expressions
A range of meaningful noises—cooing, fussing, crying, laughing
New sounds, including squeals, growls, croons, trills, vowel sounds
Babbling, including both consonant and vowel sounds repeated in
syllables
Comprehension of simple words; speechlike intonations; specific
vocalizations that have meaning to those who know the infant well. Deaf
babies express their first signs; hearing babies also use specific gestures
(e.g., pointing) to communicate.
First spoken words that are recognizably part of the native language
Slow growth of vocabulary, up to about 50 words
Vocabulary spurt—three or more words learned per day. Much variation:
Some toddlers do not yet speak.
First two-word sentence
Multiword sentences. Half the toddler’s utterances are two or more
words long.
*The ages of accomplishment in this table reflect norms. Many healthy children with normal intelligence attain
these steps in language development earlier or later than indicated here.
Source: Bloom, 1993, 1998; Fenson et al., 2000; Lenneberg, 1967.
Too Young for Language? No. The early
stages of language are communication
through noises, gestures, and facial expres-
sions, very evident here between this !Kung
grandmother and granddaughter.
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Babbling
Between 6 and 9 months, babies begin to repeat certain syllables (ma-ma-ma,
da-da-da, ba-ba-ba), a phenomenon referred to as babbling because of the way
it sounds. Babbling is experience-expectant; all babies do it, even deaf ones.
Responses encourage babbling; deaf babies stop (because they cannot hear re-
sponses) and hearing babies continue. All babies make rhythmic gestures, waving
their arms as they babble, again in response to the actions of others (Iverson &
Fagan, 2004). Toward the end of the first year, babbling begins to sound like the
native language; infants imitate what they hear.
Videotapes of deaf children whose parents sign to them show that 10-month-
old deaf infants use about a dozen distinct hand gestures—which resemble the
signs their parents use—in a repetitive manner similar to babbling. Parents of
hearing babies should also use gestures; children understand and express con-
cepts with gestures sooner than with speech (Goldin-Meadow, 2006).
Pointing is an advanced gesture that requires understanding another person’s
perspective. Most animals cannot interpret pointing; most humans can do so at 10
months. This is one of the intriguing aspects of human development, since point-
ing indicates a strong preference for social interaction.
First Words
Finally, at about 1 year of age, the average baby speaks (or signs) a few words.
Usually, caregivers understand the first word before strangers do, which makes it
hard for researchers to pinpoint exactly what a 12-month-old can say. For example,
at 13 months, Kyle knew standard words such as mama, but he also knew da, ba,
tam, opma, and daes, which his parents knew to be, respectively, “downstairs,”
“bottle,” “tummy,” “oatmeal,” and “starfish” (yes, that’s what daes meant) (Lewis
et al., 1999).
In the first months of the second year, spoken vocabulary increases very gradu-
ally (perhaps one new word a week). However, 6- to 15-month-olds learn mean-
ings rapidly, and they comprehend about 10 times as many words as they speak
(Schafer, 2005; Snow, 2006).
The Naming Explosion
Once vocabulary reaches about 50 expressed words (understood words are more
extensive), it builds rapidly, at a rate of 50 to 100 words per month, with 21-
month-olds saying twice as many words as 18-month-olds (Adamson & Bakeman,
2006). This language spurt is called the naming explosion because many of the
early words are nouns, or naming words (Gentner & Boroditsky, 2001).
In almost every language, each significant caregiver (often dada, mama, nana,
papa, baba, tata), sibling, and sometimes pet is named between 12 and 18 months
(Bloom, 1998). (See Appendix A, p. A-4.) Other frequently uttered words refer
to the child’s favorite foods and to elimination (pee-pee, wee-wee, poo-poo, ka-ka,
doo-doo).
No doubt you have noticed that all these words have a similar structure: two
identical syllables, each a consonant followed by a vowel sound. Many more words
follow that pattern—not just baba but also bobo, bebe, bubu, bibi. Others are
slightly more complicated—not just mama but also ma-me, ama, and so on.
Cultural Differences
Although all new talkers say names, using similar sounds, and say more nouns than
any other part of speech, the ratio of nouns to verbs and adjectives shows cultural
naming explosion A sudden increase in an
infant’s vocabulary, especially in the num-
ber of nouns, that begins at about 18
months of age.
Language: What Develops in the First Two Years? 169
babbling The extended repetition of certain
syllables, such as ba-ba-ba, that begins
between 6 and 9 months of age.
ST
OC
K
CO
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EC
TI
ON
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IS
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IB
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IO
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/
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AM
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Lip-Reading Communication begins in early
infancy. Infants closely watch speakers’ mouth
movements and facial expressions. By this
baby’s age, 5 months, bilingual infants can tell
by looking who is speaking French and who is
speaking English.
Especially for Caregivers A toddler calls
two people “Mama.” Is this a sign of
confusion?
Especially for Nurses and Pediatricians
The parents of a 10-month-old have just been
told that their child is deaf. They don’t believe
it, because, as they tell you, the baby doesn’t
always respond to noises, but he babbles as
much as their other children did. What do you
tell them?
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influences (Bornstein et al., 2004). For example, by 18 months, English-speaking
infants use relatively more nouns but fewer verbs than Chinese or Korean infants
do. Why?
One explanation goes back to the language itself. Chinese and Korean are
“verb-friendly,” in that verbs are placed at the beginning or end of sentences, which
makes them easier to learn. In English, verbs occur in various positions within
sentences, and their forms change in illogical ways (think of go, gone, will go,
went). This irregularity makes English verbs harder than nouns for novice learners
(Gentner & Boroditsky, 2001).
An alternative explanation considers the entire social context: Playing with a
variety of toys and learning about dozens of objects are crucial in North American
culture, whereas East Asian cultures emphasize human interactions—specifically,
how one person responds to another. Accordingly, North American infants are ex-
pected to name many objects, whereas Asian infants are expected to encode social
interactions into language.
Every language has some concepts encoded in adult speech that are easy and
some that are hard for infants. English-speaking infants confuse before and after;
Dutch-speaking infants misuse out when it refers to taking off clothes; Korean
infants need to learn two meanings of in (Mandler, 2004).
Learning adjectives is easier in Italian and Spanish than in English or French
because of patterns in those languages (Waxman & Lidz, 2006). Specifically,
adjectives can stand by themselves without the nouns. If I want a blue cup from a
group of multicolored cups, I would ask for “a blue cup” or “a blue one” in English
but simply “uno azul” (a blue) in Spanish. Despite such variations, in every language,
infants demonstrate impressive speed and efficiency in acquiring both vocabulary
and grammar (Bornstein et al., 2004).
Sentences
The first words soon take on nuances of tone, loudness, and cadence that are
precursors of the first grammar, because a single word can convey many messages
by the way it is spoken. Imagine meaningful sentences encapsulated in “Dada!”
“Dada?” and “Dada.” Each is a holophrase, a single word spoken in such a way
that it expresses an entire thought (Tomasello, 2006).
holophrase A single word that is used to
express a complete, meaningful thought.
170 CHAPTER 6 ■ The First Two Years: Cognitive Development
Where in the World? Different cultures influ-
ence children’s language learning in different
ways. Children who spend a lot of time with
adults receive abundant exposure to the
unique speech patterns of their culture.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 173):
What elements in this photograph suggest
cultural differences between this family and
most European or North American ones? JO
RG
EN
S
CH
YT
TE
/
PE
TE
R
AR
N
OL
D
➤Response for Caregivers (from page
169): Not at all. Toddlers hear several people
called “Mama” (their own mother, their
grandmothers, their cousins’ and friends’
mothers) and experience mothering from
several people, so it is not surprising if they
use “Mama” too broadly. They will eventually
narrow the label down to the one correct
person.
➤Response for Nurses and Pediatricians
(from page 169): Urge the parents to accept
the diagnosis and take action. They should
begin learning sign language immediately and
investigate the possibility of cochlear implants.
Babbling has a biological basis and begins at
a specified time, in deaf as well as hearing
babies. However, deaf babies eventually begin
to use gestures more and to vocalize less than
hearing babies.
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Intonation (variations of tone and pitch) is extensive in babbling and again in
holophrases at about 18 months, with a dip in between (at about 12 months). At
that one-year point, infants seem to reorganize their vocalization from universal to
language-specific (Snow, 2006). They are no longer just singing and talking to
themselves (babbling) but communicating with others (uttering holophrases).
Grammar includes all the methods that languages use to communicate
meaning. Word order, prefixes, suffixes, intonation, verb forms, pronouns and
negations, prepositions and articles—all of these are aspects of grammar. Gram-
mar is obvious when two-word combinations begin, at about 21 months. These
sentences follow the word order “Baby cry” or “More juice,” rather than the
reverse. Soon the child is combining three words, usually in subject–verb–object
order in English (for example, “Mommy read book”), rather than any of the five
other possible sequences of those words.
A child’s grammar correlates with the size of his or her vocabulary (Snow,
2006). The child who says “Baby is crying” is advanced in language development
compared with the child who says “Baby crying” or simply the holophrase “Baby”
(Dionne et al., 2003). Comprehension advances as well. Their expanding knowl-
edge of both vocabulary and grammar helps toddlers understand what others are
saying (Kedar et al., 2006).
If the child’s family is bilingual, the acquisition of language is not slowed down,
but “development in each language proceeds separately and in a language-specific
manner” (Conboy & Thal, 2006, p. 727). Thus an English–French bilingual child
who understands the word on does not yet necessarily understand sur.
Theories of Language Learning
Worldwide, people who are not yet 2 years old already use language well. Bilingual
children keep two languages separate, and speak whatever language a given lis-
tener understands. Some teenagers compose lyrics or deliver orations that move
thousands of their co-linguists. Some adults are fluent in two, three, or even more
languages. For many older adults, cognitive abilities decline, but language contin-
ues to advance. How do these amazing examples of language learning happen?
Answers come from three schools of thought, each of which is connected to a
theory (behaviorism, epigenetic theory, and sociocultural theory, respectively). The
first says that infants are directly taught, the second that infants naturally under-
stand language, and the third that social impulses propel infants to communicate.
Each theory of language acquisition has implications for parents
and educators, all of whom want children to speak fluently, but none
of whom want to teach something that infants cannot learn or that
they will learn without instruction. Which theory should guide them?
Theory One: Infants Need to Be Taught
The seeds of the first perspective were planted more than 50 years
ago, when the dominant theory in North American psychology was
behaviorism, or learning theory. The essential idea was that all learn-
ing is acquired, step by step, through association and reinforcement.
Just as Pavlov’s dogs learned to associate the sound of a bell with the
presentation of food (see Chapter 2), behaviorists believe that infants
associate objects with words they have heard often, especially if rein-
forcement occurs.
B. F. Skinner (1957) noticed that spontaneous babbling is usually
reinforced. Typically, every time the baby says “ma-ma-ma-ma,” a grin-
ning mother appears, repeating the sound as well as showering the
grammar All the methods—word order,
verb forms, and so on—that languages
use to communicate meaning, apart from
the words themselves.
Language: What Develops in the First Two Years? 171
Cultural Values If his infancy is like that of
most babies raised in the relatively taciturn
Ottavado culture of Ecuador, this 2-month-old
will hear significantly less conversation than
infants from most other regions. According to
many learning theorists, a lack of reinforce-
ment will result in a child who is insufficiently
verbal. In most Western cultures, that might
be called maltreatment. However, each cul-
ture tends to encourage the qualities it most
needs and values, and verbal fluency is not a
priority in this community. In fact, people
who talk too much are ostracized and those
who keep secrets are valued, so encourage-
ment of language may be maltreatment here.
EL
LI
OT
T
VA
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ER
S
M
IT
H
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baby with attention, praise, and perhaps food. These affordances of mothers are ex-
actly what the infant wants, and the baby will make those sounds again to get them.
Most parents are excellent instructors. For instance, parents who talk to their
young infants typically name each object—“Here is your bottle,” “There is your
foot,” “You want your juice?” and so on—often touching and moving the named
object at the same time as they speak the target word loudly, clearly, and slowly
(Gogate et al., 2000). They also use child-directed speech, capturing the baby’s
interest with high pitch, short sentences, stressed nouns, and simple grammar—
exactly the kind of teaching techniques that behaviorists would recommend.
The core ideas of this theory are the following:
■ Parents are expert teachers, although other caregivers help.
■ Frequent repetition is instructive, especially when linked to daily life.
■ Well-taught infants become well-spoken children.
Behaviorists note that some 3-year-olds converse in elaborate sentences; others
just barely put one simple word with another. Such variations correlate with the
amount of language teaching the child receives. Parents of the most verbal chil-
dren teach language throughout infancy—singing, explaining, listening, respond-
ing, and reading. For instance, parents of the most verbal children typically read to
them every day, even at age 1 (Raikes et al., 2006; see Research Design).
Providing another example, researchers analyzed the language that mothers (all
middle-class) used with their preverbal infants, aged 9 to 17 months (Tamis-
LeMonda et al., 2001). One mother never imitated her infant’s babbling; another
mother imitated 21 times in 10 minutes, babbling back as if in conversation. Over-
all, mothers were most likely to describe things or actions (e.g., “That is a spoon you
are holding—spoon”). The range was vast: In 10 minutes, one mother described
things only 4 times, while another provided her baby with 33 descriptions.
The frequency of maternal responsiveness at 9 months predicted language ac-
quisition many months later (see Figure 6.1). It was not that noisy infants, whose
genes would soon make them start talking, elicited more talk from their mothers.
Some quiet infants had noisy mothers, who suggested play activities, described
things, and asked questions. Quiet infants with talkative mothers usually became
talkative later on.
This research is in keeping with the behaviorist theory that adults teach lan-
guage and then infants learn it. If adults want language-proficient children who
speak, understand, and (later) read well, they must talk to their babies.
Especially for Nurses and Pediatricians
Bob and Joan have been reading about
language development in children. They are
convinced that language is “hardwired,” so
they need not talk to their 6-month-old son.
How do you respond?
172 CHAPTER 6 ■ The First Two Years: Cognitive Development
100
80
60
40
20
0
13.0 15.0 17.0
Age in months
19.0 21.0
Percent of
infants
knowing at
least 50 words
Infants of highly
responsive mothers
Infants of less
responsive (bottom
10 percent) mothers
Source: Adapted from Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2001, p. 761.
FIGURE 6.1
Maternal Responsiveness and Infants’
Language Acquisition Learning the first 50
words is a milestone in early language acqui-
sition, as it predicts the arrival of the naming
explosion and the multiword sentence a few
weeks later. Researchers found that half the
infants of highly responsive mothers (top 10
percent) reached this milestone as early as
15 months of age and the other half reached
it by 17 months. The infants of nonresponsive
mothers (bottom 10 percent) lagged signifi-
cantly behind.
Research Design
Scientists: Helen Raikes, Barbara
Alexandra Pan, Gayle Luze, Catherine S.
Tamis-LeMonda, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn,
Jill Constantine, et al.
Publication: Child Development (2006).
Participants: From 17 Early Head Start
programs, 2,581 mother–infant pairs
were interviewed. All were low income;
26 percent were married; 53 percent
were high school graduates. About a
third each were Americans of European,
African, and Hispanic heritage.
Design:When the infants were 14, 24,
and 36 months old, their language abil-
ity was measured and the mothers
were asked how often they read to
them and how many books the babies
had.The children’s language abilities
were compared to 15 variables.
Major conclusions: Being read to corre-
lated with language, but early reading
(at 14 months) was not as strong a pre-
dictor of future language scores as were
two other factors, maternal warmth and
education. By 36 months, children
whose mothers read to them often
were quite verbal.
Comment:The size and diversity of this
sample add to confidence in the conclu-
sions. Being read to as a baby is one of
many factors that foster language.
Some of the details of this study could
be used to confirm all three theories of
language learning discussed here.
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Theory Two: Infants Teach Themselves
A contrary theory holds that language learning is innate; adults need not teach it.
The seeds of this perspective were planted soon after Skinner proposed his theory
of verbal learning. Noam Chomsky (1968, 1980) and his followers felt that lan-
guage is too complex to be mastered merely through step-by-step conditioning.
Although behaviorists focus on variations among children in vocabulary size,
Chomsky focused on similarities in language acquisition.
Noting that all young children master basic grammar at about the same age,
Chomsky cited this universal grammar as evidence that humans are born with a
mental structure that prepares them to seek some elements of human language—
for example, the use of a raised tone at the end of an utterance to indicate a
question. Chomsky labeled this hypothesized mental structure the language
acquisition device, or LAD. The LAD enables children to derive the rules of
grammar quickly and effectively from the speech they hear every day, regardless
of whether their native language is English, Thai, or Urdu.
Other scholars agree with Chomsky that infants are innately ready to use their
minds to understand and speak whatever language is offered (Gopnik, 2001). The
various languages of the world, as different as they are from one another, are all
logical, coherent, and systematic. Infants, who are also logical, are primed to grasp
the particular language they are exposed to, making caregiver speech “not a ‘trigger’
but a ‘nutrient’” (Slobin, 2001, p. 438). There is no need for a language trigger,
according to theory two, because words are “expected” by the developing brain,
which quickly and efficiently connects neurons in the first year to support
whichever particular language the infant hears.
Research supports this perspective as well. As you remember, all infants babble
ma-ma and da-da sounds (not yet referring to mother or father) (Goldman, 2001).
No reinforcement or teaching is needed; all infants need is for dendrites to grow,
mouth muscles to strengthen, neurons to connect, and speech to be heard. Then,
in the second year, infants shape their noisemaking quickly to whatever language
they hear. Toddlers are naturally endowed to learn vocabulary simply by overhear-
ing it, as many parents discover—occasionally to their dismay (Akhtar et al., 2001).
Theory Three: Social Impulses Foster Infant Language
The third theory is called social-pragmatic because it perceives the crucial starting
point to be neither vocabulary reinforcement (behaviorism) nor the innate con-
nection (epigenetic), but rather the social reason for language: communication.
Language: What Develops in the First Two Years? 173
language acquisition device (LAD)
Chomsky’s term for a hypothesized mental
structure that enables humans to learn
language, including the basic aspects of
grammar, vocabulary, and intonation.
Show Me Where Pointing is one of the earli-
est forms of communication, emerging at
about 10 months. As Carlos demonstrates,
accurate pointing requires a basic under-
standing of social interaction, because the
pointer needs to take the observer’s angle of
vision into account.MI
CH
EL
LE
D
. B
RI
DW
EL
L
/ P
HO
TO
ED
IT
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 170): At least four elements are unusual
in today’s Western families: large size (four
children), a child held in the mother’s lap to
eat (i.e., no high chair for the baby), the father
pouring for everyone, and the fact that the
whole family, including teenagers, is eating
together. This family lives in Mozambique, in
southeastern Africa.
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According to this perspective, infants communicate
in every way they can because humans are social be-
ings, dependent on one another for survival and joy.
Newborns look searchingly at human faces and
listen intently to human voices because they seek to
respond to emotions, not because they want to know
content. Before age 1, infants vocalize, babble, ges-
ture, listen, and point—with an outstretched little
index finger that is soon accompanied by a very so-
phisticated glance to see if the other person is look-
ing at the right spot. These and many other examples
show that communication is the servant of social in-
teraction (Bloom, 1998).
Here is an experiment. Suppose an 18-month-old
is playing with an unnamed toy and an adult utters a
word. Does the child connect that word to the toy? A
behaviorist, learning-by-association prediction would be yes, but the answer is no.
When toddlers played with a fascinating toy and adults said a word, the toddlers
looked up, figured out what the adult was looking at, and assigned the new word
to that, not to the fascinating toy (Baldwin, 1993). This supports theory three: The
toddlers were socially focused.
According to theory three, then, social impulses, not explicit teaching or brain
maturation (as in the first two perspectives), lead infants to learn language, “as
part of the package of being a human social animal” (Hollich et al., 2000). They
seek to understand what others want and intend, and therefore “children acquire
linguistic symbols as a kind of by-product of social action with adults” (Tomasello,
2001).
A Hybrid Theory
Which of these three perspectives is correct? As you can see, each position has
been supported by research. Scholars have attempted to integrate all three per-
spectives, notably in a monograph based on 12 experiments designed by eight
researchers (Hollich et al., 2000). The authors developed a hybrid (which literally
means “a new creature, formed by combining other living things”) of previous the-
ories. They called their model an emergentist coalition because it combines valid
aspects of several theories about the emergence of language during infancy.
These researchers point out that children learn language to do numerous
things—indicate intention, call objects by name, put words together, talk to family
members, sing to themselves, express their wishes, remember the past, and much
more. Therefore, the scientists hypothesize that some aspects of language are best
learned in one way at one age, others in another way at another age.
For example, the name of the family dog may be learned by association and rep-
etition, with family members and eventually the dog itself reinforcing the name, a
behaviorist process. However, the distinction between cat and dog may reflect a
neurological predilection (epigenetic), which means that the human brain may be
genetically wired to differentiate those species.
Which theory do you think explains the fact that the 6-month-old’s ability to
hear a difference in sounds predicts that child’s ability to talk at 13 months, 18
months, and 24 months? This could be the result of listening to many words
(behaviorist), of inborn potential (Chomsky), or of social impulses (sociocultural).
After intensive study, the scientists who reported that hearing differences lead
to spoken proficiency endorsed a hybrid theory, concluding that “multiple atten-
Especially for Babysitters Should you do
anything for your clients’ infants besides
keeping them safe and clean?
174 CHAPTER 6 ■ The First Two Years: Cognitive Development
BR
AN
D
X
PI
CT
UR
ES
/
AL
AM
Y
Not Talking? No words yet, but this infant
communicates well with Dad, using eyes,
mouth, and hands. What are they telling each
other?
➤Response for Nurses and Pediatricians
(from page 172): While much of language
development is indeed hardwired, many
experts assert that exposure to language is
required. You don’t need to convince Bob and
Joan of this point, though—just convince
them that their baby will be happier if they talk
to him.
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tional, social and linguistic cues” contribute to early language (Tsao et al., 2004,
p. 1081).
Another study supporting the hybrid theory began, as did a study previously
mentioned (Baldwin, 1993), with infants looking at objects that they had never
seen and never heard named. One of each pair was fascinating to babies and the
other was boring, specifically “a blue sparkle wand . . . [paired with] a white cabi-
net latch . . . a red, green, and pink party clacker . . . [paired with] a beige bottle
opener” (Pruden et al., 2006, p. 267).
The experimenter said a made-up name (not an actual word), and then the in-
fants were tested to see if they assigned the word to the object that had the exper-
imenter’s attention (the dull one) or the one that was interesting to the child.
These were 10-month-old infants, not 18-month-old toddlers as in the earlier ex-
periment, and they seemed to assign the word to the fascinating object, not the
dull one. This response is what behaviorists, not social-pragmatists, would predict,
because the more rewarding object was named.
These researchers interpret their experiment as supporting the emergentist-
coalition model, which holds that how language is learned depends on the par-
ticular circumstances. Behaviorism works for young children, social learning for
slightly older ones: “The perceptually driven 10-month-old becomes the socially
aware 19-month-old” (Pruden et al., 2006, p. 278).
It makes logical and practical sense for nature to provide several paths toward
language learning. Each path may be preferred or more efficient in some stages,
cultures, and families, but every child learns to communicate and uses a variety of
ways to do so. This hybrid perspective returns the child to center stage: Infants are
active learners not only of the concepts described in the first half of this chapter
but also of language, and they use many ways to master knowledge. As one expert
concludes:
Word learning theories will have to come to terms with the fact that children . . .
are more than perceivers, receivers, or possessors of external supports. Instead,
the word learning child is a child with feelings and thoughts about other persons,
a child engaged in dynamic real-life events, a child learning to think about a world
of changing physical and psychological relationships—in short, a child poised to
act, to influence, to gain control . . . to embrace the learning of language for the
power of expression it provides.
[Bloom, 2000, p. 13]
SUMMING UP
From the first days of life, babies attend to words and expressions, responding as well
as their limited abilities allow—crying, cooing, and soon babbling. Before age 1, they un-
derstand simple words and communicate with gestures. At 1 year, most infants speak.
Vocabulary accumulates slowly at first, but then more rapidly with the naming explosion
and with the emergence of the holophrase and the two-word sentence.
The impressive language learning of the first two years can be explained in many
ways. One theory contends that caregivers must teach language, reinforcing the infant’s
vocal expressions. Another theory relies on the idea of an inborn language acquisition
device, a mental structure that facilitates the acquisition of language as soon as matura-
tion makes that possible. A third theory stresses social interaction, implying that infants
learn language because they are social beings. A hybrid model combines all three of
these theories. Because infants vary in culture, learning style, and social context, the
hybrid theory acknowledges that each of the other theories may have some validity at
different points in the acquisition of language.
■
Language: What Develops in the First Two Years? 175
Especially for Educators An infant day-
care center has a new child whose parents
speak a language other than the one the
teachers speak. Should the teachers learn
basic words in the new language, or should
they expect the baby to learn the majority
language?
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176 CHAPTER 6 ■ The First Two Years: Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor Intelligence
1. Piaget realized that very young infants are active learners,
seeking to understand their complex observations and experiences.
Adaptation in infancy is characterized by sensorimotor intelli-
gence, the first of Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development.
At every time of their lives, people adapt their thoughts to the
experiences they have.
2. Sensorimotor intelligence develops in six stages—three pairs
of two stages each—beginning with reflexes and ending with the
toddler’s active exploration and use of mental combinations. In
each pair of stages, development occurs in one of three types of
circular reactions, or feedback loops, in which the infant takes in
experiences and tries to make sense of them.
3. Reflexes provide the foundation for intelligence. The continual
process of assimilation and accommodation is evident in the first
acquired adaptations, from about 1 to 4 months. The sucking re-
flex accommodates the particular nipples and other objects that
the baby learns to suck. As time goes on, infants become more
goal-oriented, creative, and experimental as “little scientists.”
4. Infants gradually develop an understanding of objects over the
first two years of life. As shown in Piaget’s classic experiment, in-
fants understand object permanence and begin to search for hid-
den objects at about 8 months. Other research finds that Piaget
underestimated the cognition of young infants.
Information Processing
5. Another approach to understanding infant cognition is infor-
mation-processing theory, which looks at each step of the think-
ing process, from input to output. The perceptions of a young
infant are attuned to the particular affordances, or opportunities
for action, that are present in the infant’s world.
6. Objects that move are particularly interesting to infants, as are
other humans. Objects as well as people afford many possibilities
for interaction and perception, and therefore these affordances
enhance early cognition.
7. Infant memory is fragile but not completely absent. Reminder
sessions help trigger memories, and young brains learn motor
sequences long before they can remember verbally. Memory is
multifaceted; explicit memories are rare in infancy.
Language:What Develops in the First Two Years?
8. Eager attempts to communicate are apparent in the first year.
Infants babble at about 6 to 9 months, understand words and ges-
tures by 10 months, and speak their first words at about 1 year.
9. Vocabulary begins to build very slowly until the infant knows
approximately 50 words. Then a naming explosion begins. Toward
the end of the second year, toddlers begin putting two words to-
gether, showing by their word order that they understand the
rudiments of grammar.
10. Various theories attempt to explain how infants learn lan-
guage as quickly as they do. The three main theories emphasize
different aspects of early language learning: that infants must be
taught, that their brains are genetically attuned to language, and
that their social impulses foster language learning.
11. Each of these theories seems partly true. The challenge for
developmental scientists has been to formulate a hybrid theory
that uses all the insights and research on early language learning.
The challenge for caregivers is to respond appropriately to the in-
fant’s early attempts to communicate.
sensorimotor intelligence
(p. 155)
primary circular reactions
(p. 156)
secondary circular reactions
(p. 157)
object permanence (p. 158)
tertiary circular reactions
(p. 159)
“little scientist” (p. 159)
deferred imitation (p. 159)
habituation (p. 160)
fMRI (p. 160)
information-processing theory
(p. 161)
affordance (p. 162)
visual cliff (p. 163)
dynamic perception (p. 164)
people preference (p. 164)
reminder session (p. 165)
child-directed speech (p. 168)
babbling (p. 169)
naming explosion (p. 169)
holophrase (p. 170)
grammar (p. 171)
language acquisition device
(LAD) (p. 173)
SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
4. Why are some researchers concerned about too much empha-
sis being placed on early brain development?
5. How do researchers figure out whether an infant has a con-
cept of something even if the infant cannot talk about it yet?
6. What does research on affordances suggest about cognitive
differences between one infant and another?
1. Why is Piaget’s first period of cognitive development called
sensorimotor intelligence? Give examples.
2. Give examples of some things adults learn via sensorimotor
intelligence.
3. What does the active experimentation of the stage-five toddler
suggest for parents?
KEY QUESTIONS
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Summary 177
10. How would a caregiver who subscribes to the behaviorist the-
ory of language learning respond when an infant babbles?
11. According to the sociocultural theory of language learning,
what might explain why an 18-month-old is not yet talking?
12. What does the research on language learning suggest to care-
givers?
7. Why would a child remember very little about experiences in
infancy?
8. What indicates that toddlers use some grammar?
9. How do deaf and hearing babies compare in early language
learning?
3. Many educators recommend that parents read to babies even
before the babies begin talking. What theory of language develop-
ment does this reflect?
4. Test an infant’s ability to search for a hidden object. Ideally,
the infant should be about 7 or 8 months old, and you should
retest over a period of weeks. If the infant can immediately find
the object, make the task harder by pausing between the hiding
and searching or by secretly moving the object from one hiding
place to another.
1. Elicit vocalizations from an infant—babbling if the baby is
under age 1, words if older. Write down all the baby says for 10
minutes. Then ask the primary caregiver to elicit vocalizations for
10 minutes, and write these down. What differences are apparent
between the baby’s two attempts at communication? Compare
your findings with the norms described in the chapter.
2. Piaget’s definition of intelligence is adaptation. Others con-
sider a good memory or an extensive vocabulary to be a sign of in-
telligence. How would you define intelligence? Give examples.
APPLICATIONS
➤Response for Educators (from page 175): Probably both. Infants
love to communicate, and they seek every possible way to do so.
Therefore, the teachers should try to understand the baby, and the
baby’s parents, but should also start teaching the baby the majority
language of the school.
➤Response for Babysitters (from page 174): Yes. Babies need to
hear language, so you can assist in their language development by
talking and singing to them.
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The First Two
Years: Psychosocial
Development
The dynamic interaction of infants’ emotions and their social con-texts is the substance of this chapter. You have witnessed thisinterplay whenever you have seen a tiny baby smile at an engagingface or a toddler flop to the floor, kicking and screaming, after
being told “no.” I continue to be surprised by mothers and babies.
As I sat on a crowded subway train, a young woman boarded with an
infant in one arm and a heavy shopping bag on the other. She tried to steady
herself as the train started to move. I asked, “Can I help you?” Wordlessly
she handed me . . . the baby. I began softly singing a children’s song. The
baby was very quiet, keeping her eyes on her mother. That was a psycho-
social moment for all three of us.
This chapter opens with a much longer psychosocial episode, the early
development of a boy named Jacob. Then we trace infant emotions over the
first two years. This discussion is followed by a review of the five theories
first described in Chapter 2, with an overview of what each has to say about
psychosocial development in infancy. This leads us into an exploration of
research on caregiver–infant interaction, particularly synchrony, attachment,
and social referencing—all pivotal to psychosocial development. We then
consider the pros and cons of infant day care. The chapter ends with practi-
cal suggestions regarding Jacob, whose story appears below.
7
179
CHAPTER OUTLINE
A CASE TO STUDY: Parents on Autopilot
� Emotional Development
Specific Emotions
Self-Awareness
� Theories About Infant Psychosocial
Development
Psychoanalytic Theory
Behaviorism
Cognitive Theory
Epigenetic Theory
Sociocultural Theory
A CASE TO STUDY: “Let’s Go to Grandma’s”
� The Development of Social Bonds
Synchrony
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST:
The Still-Face Technique
Attachment
Social Referencing
Infant Day Care
� Conclusions in Theory and Practice
a case to study
Parents on Autopilot
A father writes about his third child, Jacob:
[My wife, Rebecca, and I] were convinced that we were set. We
had surpassed our quota of 2.6 children and were ready to engage
parental autopilot. I had just begun a prestigious job and was
working 10–11 hours a day. The children would be fine. We hired
a nanny to watch Jacob during the day. As each of Jacob’s early
milestones passed, we felt that we had taken another step toward
our goal of having three normal children. We were on our way to
the perfect American family. Yet, somewhere back in our minds
we had some doubts. Jacob seemed different than the girls. He
had some unusual attributes. There were times when we would
be holding him and he would arch his back and scream so loud
that it was painful for us.
[Jacob’s father, 1997, p. 59]
As an infant, Jacob did not relate to his parents (or to anyone
else). His parents paid little heed to his psychosocial difficul-
ties, focusing instead on physical development. They noted that
Jacob sat up and walked on schedule, and when they “had some
doubts,” they found excuses, telling themselves that “boys are
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Emotional Development
Within the first two years, infants progress from reactive
pain and pleasure to complex patterns of social aware-
ness (see Table 7.1). This is the period of life with “high
emotional responsiveness” (Izard et al., 2002, p. 767),
marked by speedy, uncensored reactions—crying, star-
tling, laughing, raging—and, by toddlerhood, complex
responses, from self-satisfied grins to mournful pouts.
Specific Emotions
At first there is pleasure and pain. Newborns look
happy and relaxed when fed and drifting off to sleep.
They cry when they are hurt or hungry, are tired or
frightened (as by a loud noise or a sudden loss of support), or have colic, the recur-
rent bouts of uncontrollable crying and irritability that afflict about a third of all
infants in the early months.
Soon, additional emotions become recognizable (Lavelli & Fogel, 2005). Curi-
osity is increasingly evident as infants distinguish the unusual from the familiar
(Kagan, 2002). Happiness is expressed by the social smile in response to a human
face at about 6 weeks and by laughter at about 3 or 4 months. Parents elicit laugh-
ter, and so do adept strangers. Among the Navajo, whoever brings forth that first
laugh gives a feast to celebrate that the baby is becoming a person (Rogoff, 2003).
Laughter builds as curiosity does, so that a typical 6-month-old not only discovers
new things but also laughs loudly, with evident joy.
Anger is evident at 6 months, usually triggered by frustration. It is most appar-
ent when infants are prevented from reaching a graspable object or moving as they
wish (Plutchik, 2003). One-year-olds hate to be strapped in, caged in, closed in, or
just held tight on someone’s lap when they want to explore. Anger in infancy is a
healthy response to frustration, unlike sadness, which also appears in the first
months. Sadness indicates withdrawal and is accompanied by an increase in the
level of cortisol, a stress hormone (M. Lewis & D. Ramsay, 2005). Reliable hormone
assays are more difficult with infants than with older people, so not all the hor-
monal changes that accompany infant emotions are known. However, the fact that
sadness brings stress suggests that sorrow is not a superficial emotion for infants.
social smile A smile evoked by a human face,
normally evident in infants about 6 weeks
after birth.
180 CHAPTER 7 ■ The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development
different” or that Jacob’s language delays stemmed from the fact
that his nanny spoke little English. As time went on, however,
their excuses fell short. His father continues:
Jacob had become increasingly isolated [by age 2]. I’m not a psy-
chologist, but I believe that he just stopped trying. It was too
hard, perhaps too scary. He couldn’t figure out what was ex-
pected of him. The world had become too confusing, and so he
withdrew from it. He would seek out the comfort of quiet, dark
places and sit by himself. He would lose himself in the bright,
colorful images of cartoons and animated movies.
[Jacob’s father, 1997, p. 62]
Jacob was finally diagnosed at age 3 with “pervasive develop-
mental disorder.” This is a catchall diagnosis that can include
autism (discussed in Chapter 11). At the moment, you need to
know only that Jacob’s psychosocial potential was unappreciated.
His despairing parents were advised to consider residential
placement because Jacob would always need special care and,
with Jacob living elsewhere, they would not be constantly re-
minded of their “failure.” This recommendation did not take into
account the commitment that Jacob’s parents, like most parents,
felt toward their child.
Yet, despite their commitment, they had ignored signs of trou-
ble, overlooking their son’s sometimes violent reaction to being
held and his failure to talk. The absence of smiling, of social play,
and of imitation should have raised an alarm. The father’s use of
the word autopilot shows that he realized this in hindsight. Later
in this chapter, you will learn the outcome.
TABLE 7.1
AT ABOUT THIS TIME: Ages When Emotions Emerge
Age Emotional Expression
Birth Crying; contentment
6 weeks Social smile
3 months Laughter; curiosity
4 months Full, responsive smiles
4–8 months Anger
9–14 months Fear of social events (strangers, separation from caregiver)
12 months Fear of unexpected sights and sounds
18 months Self-awareness; pride; shame; embarrassment
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Fully formed fear in response to some person, thing, or situation (not just dis-
tress at a surprise) emerges at about 9 months and then rapidly becomes more fre-
quent as well as more apparent (Kagan, 1998). Two fears are obvious:
■ Stranger wariness, when an infant no longer smiles at any friendly face,
and cries if an unfamiliar person moves too close, too quickly
■ Separation anxiety, expressed in tears, dismay, or anger when a familiar
caregiver leaves
Separation anxiety is normal at age 1, intensifies by age 2, and usually subsides
after that. If it remains strong after age 3, it is considered an emotional disorder
(Silverman & Dick-Niederhauser, 2004).
Many 1-year-olds fear not just strangers but also anything unexpected, from the
flush of a toilet to the pop of a jack-in-the-box, from the sudden closing
of elevator doors to the friendly approach of a dog. With repeated expe-
riences and caregiver protection, older infants might themselves enjoy
flushing the toilet (again and again) or calling the dog (crying if the dog
does not come).
Many emotions that emerge in the first months of life take on new
strength at about age 1 (Kagan, 2002). Throughout the second year and
beyond, anger and fear typically become less frequent but more focused,
targeted toward infuriating or terrifying experiences. Similarly, laughing
and crying become louder and more discriminating.
New emotions appear toward the end of the second year: pride,
shame, embarrassment, and guilt. These emotions require an awareness
of other people. They emerge from family interactions, influenced by
the culture (Eid & Diener, 2001). For example, pride is encouraged in
North American toddlers (“You did it all by yourself”—even when that is
stranger wariness An infant’s expression of
concern—a quiet stare, clinging to a famil-
iar person, or sadness—when a stranger
appears.
separation anxiety An infant’s distress
when a familiar caregiver leaves; most
obvious between 9 and 14 months.
Emotional Development 181
Friendship Begins Emotions connect
friends to each other—these two 1-year-olds
as well as friends of any age. The shared
smiles indicate a strong social connection.
What will they do next?GE
RI
E
N
GB
ER
G
/ T
HE
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
Stranger Wariness Becomes Santa Terror For toddlers, even a
friendly stranger is cause for alarm, especially if Mom’s protective
arms are withdrawn. The most frightening strangers are men who
are unusually dressed and who act as if they might take the child
away. Ironically, therefore, Santa Claus remains terrifying until
children are about 3 years old. JO
UR
N
AL
-C
OU
RI
ER
/
TI
FF
AN
Y
HE
RM
ON
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
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untrue), but Asian families discourage pride and cultivate modesty and shame
(Rogoff, 2003).
Two-year-olds have many emotional reactions. They are taught which expres-
sions of emotion are acceptable and which are not (Saarni et al., 2006). For exam-
ple, if a toddler holds on tightly to his mother’s skirt and hides his face when a
friendly but strange dog approaches, the mother could pick the child up or bend
down to pet the dog. The mother’s response encourages fear or happiness when a
dog next appears.
Self-Awareness
In addition to social interactions, another foundation for emotional growth is self-
awareness, the infant’s realization that his or her body, mind, and actions are
separate from those of other people (R. A. Thompson, 2006). At about age 1, an
emerging sense of “me” and “mine” leads to a new consciousness of others. As one
developmentalist explains:
With the emergence of consciousness in the second year of life, we see vast
changes in both children’s emotional life and the nature of their social relation-
ships. . . . The child can feel . . . self-conscious emotions, like pride at a job well
done or shame over a failure.
[M. Lewis, 1997, p. 132]
Very young infants have no sense of self—at least, of self as some people define
it. In fact, a prominent psychoanalyst, Margaret Mahler, theorized that for the first
4 months of life infants see themselves as part of their mothers. They “hatch” at
about 5 months and spend the next several months developing a sense of them-
selves as separate from their mothers (Mahler et al., 1975). The period from 15 to
18 months “is noteworthy for the emergence of the Me-self, the sense of self as the
object of one’s knowledge” (Harter, 1998, p. 562).
In a classic experiment (M. Lewis & J. Brooks, 1978), babies aged 9–24 months
looked into a mirror after a dot of rouge had been surreptitiously put on their
noses. If the babies reacted by touching their noses, that meant they knew the
mirror showed their own faces. None of the babies less than 12 months old re-
acted as if they knew the mark was on them (they sometimes smiled and touched
the dot on the “other” baby in the mirror). However, those between 15 and 24
months usually showed self-awareness, touching their own noses with curiosity
and puzzlement.
Self-recognition usually emerges at about 18 months, at the same time as two
other advances: pretending and using first-person pronouns (I, me, mine, myself,
my). Some developmentalists connect self-recognition with self-understanding
(e.g., Gallup et al., 2002), although “the interpretation of this seemingly simple
task is plagued by controversy” (Nielsen et al., 2006, p. 166).
Pride and shame seem to be, at this phase, linked to the maturing self-concept,
not necessarily to other people’s opinions. If someone tells a toddler, “You’re very
smart,” the child may smile but usually already feels smart—and thus is already
pleased and proud. Telling toddlers that they are smart, strong, or beautiful may
even be unhelpful.
One longitudinal study found that positive comments from mothers to 2-year-
olds did not lead to more pride or less shame by age 3 (Kelley et al., 2000). How-
ever, certain negative comments (such as “You’re doing it all wrong”) diminished
effort and increased shame. Neutral suggestions fostered a willingness to try new
challenges. Toddlers’ self-esteem seems to result more from accomplishments than
from praise.
self-awareness A person’s realization that
he or she is a distinct individual, with body,
mind, and actions that are separate from
those of other people.
182 CHAPTER 7 ■ The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development
She Knows Herself This 18-month-old is
happy to see herself in her firefighter’s hel-
met. She is adjusting the helmet with her
hands on it, and that’s evidence that she un-
derstands what a mirror is. Note, however,
that she is not yet aware that a hat has a front
and a back.
LA
UR
A
DW
IG
HT
Especially for Nurses and Pediatricians
Parents come to you concerned that their 1-
year-old hides her face and holds onto them
tightly whenever a stranger appears. What do
you tell them?
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SUMMING UP
Newborns seem to have only two simple emotions, distress and contentment, which
are expressed by crying or looking happy. Very soon curiosity and obvious joy, with
social smiles and laughter, appear. By the second half of the first year, anger and fear are
increasingly evident, especially in reaction to social experiences, such as encountering
a stranger. In the second year, as infants become self-aware, they express emotions
connected to themselves, including pride, shame, and embarrassment, and emotions
about other people. Universal maturation makes these emotions possible at around 18
months, but context and learning affect their timing, frequency, and intensity.
■
Theories About Infant
Psychosocial Development
The five major theories described in Chapter 2 have somewhat different perspec-
tives on the origin and significance of infants’ emotions.
Psychoanalytic Theory
Psychoanalytic theory connects biosocial and psychosocial development, empha-
sizing the need for responsive maternal care. Both major psychoanalytic theorists,
Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson, described two distinct early stages. Freud
(1935, 1940/1964) wrote about the oral stage and the anal stage. Erikson (1963)
called his first stages trust versus mistrust and autonomy versus shame and doubt.
Freud: Oral and Anal Stages
According to Freud (1935), psychological development in the first year of life is in
the oral stage, so named because the mouth is the young infant’s primary source of
gratification. In the second year, with the anal stage, the infant’s main pleasure
comes from the anus—particularly from the sensual pleasure of bowel movements
and, eventually, the psychological pleasure of controlling them.
Freud believed that both the oral and anal stages are fraught with potential
conflicts that have long-term consequences. If a mother frustrates her infant’s
urge to suck—weaning the infant too early, for example, or preventing the child
from sucking on fingers or toes—the child may become distressed and anxious,
eventually becoming an adult with an oral fixation. Such a person is stuck (fixated)
at the oral stage and therefore eats, drinks, chews, bites, or talks excessively, in
quest of the mouth-related pleasure denied in infancy.
Similarly, if toilet training is overly strict or if it begins before the infant is mature
enough, parent–infant interaction may become locked into a conflict over the
toddler’s refusal, or inability, to comply. The child becomes fixated and develops an
anal personality—as an adult, seeking self-control with an unusually strong need for
regularity in all aspects of life.
Erikson: Trust and Autonomy
According to Erikson, the first crisis of life is trust versus mistrust, when infants
learn whether the world can be trusted to satisfy basic needs. Babies feel secure
when food and comfort are provided with “consistency, continuity, and sameness
of experience” (Erikson, 1963, p. 247). If social interaction inspires trust and se-
curity, the child (and later the adult) will confidently explore the social world.
trust versus mistrust Erikson’s first psy-
chosocial crisis. Infants learn basic trust if
the world is a secure place where their
basic needs (for food, comfort, attention,
etc.) are met.
Theories About Infant Psychosocial Development 183
Especially for Nursing Mothers You have
heard that if you wean your child too early, he
or she will overeat or become an alcoholic. Is
it true?
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The next crisis is called autonomy versus shame and doubt.
Toddlers want autonomy (self-rule) over their own actions and bodies.
If they fail to gain it, they feel ashamed of their actions and doubtful
about their abilities.
Some cultures encourage independence and autonomy (as in the
United States); in others (for example, China) “shame is a normative
emotion that develops as parents use explicit shaming techniques”
to encourage children’s loyalty and harmony within their families
(Mascolo et al., 2003, p. 402). Westerners expect toddlers to go
through the stubborn and defiant “terrible twos”; parents in many non-
Western societies expect the opposite.
Like Freud, Erikson believed that problems arising in early infancy
could last a lifetime, creating an adult who is suspicious and pessimistic
(mistrusting) or who is easily shamed (insufficient autonomy). These
traits could be destructive or not, depending on the norms and expecta-
tions of the culture.
Behaviorism
From the perspective of behaviorism, emotions and personality are molded as par-
ents reinforce or punish the child’s spontaneous behaviors. For example, if parents
smile and pick up their infant at every glimmer of a grin, he or she will become a
child—and later an adult—with a sunny disposition. The opposite is also true.
Early behaviorists, especially John Watson, expressed this idea in very strong terms:
Failure to bring up a happy child, a well-adjusted child—assuming bodily health
—falls squarely upon the parents’ shoulders. [By the time the child is 3] parents
have already determined . . . [whether the child] is to grow into a happy person,
wholesome and good-natured, whether he is to be a whining, complaining neurotic,
an anger-driven, vindictive, over-bearing slave driver, or one whose every move in
life is definitely controlled by fear.
[Watson, 1928, pp. 7, 45]
Later behaviorists noted that infants also experience social learning, which is
learning by observing others, as in Albert Bandura’s experiment in which young
children who had seen an adult punching a rubber Bobo clown treated the doll the
same way (Bandura, 1977). Social learning is apparent in many families, when
toddlers express emotions—from giggling to cursing—in much the same way their
parents or older siblings do. A boy might develop a hot temper, for instance, if his
father’s outbursts seem to win respect from his mother.
Both psychoanalytic and behaviorist theories emphasize parents. Freud thought
that the mother was the young child’s first and most enduring “love object,” and
behaviorists stress the power of a mother over her children. In retrospect, this
focus seems too narrow. The other three theories reflect more recent research and
the changing historical context.
Cognitive Theory
Cognitive theory holds that thoughts and values determine a person’s perspective.
Early experiences are important because beliefs, perceptions, and memories make
them so, not because they are buried in the unconscious (psychoanalytic theory)
or burned into the brain’s patterns (behaviorism).
Infants use their early relationships to develop a working model, a set of as-
sumptions that become a frame of reference that can be called on later in life
(Bretherton & Munholland, 1999; R. A. Thompson & Raikes, 2003). It is called a
social learning Learning by observing others.
working model In cognitive theory, a set of
assumptions that the individual uses to
organize perceptions and experiences. For
example, a person might assume that other
people are trustworthy, and be surprised
when this model of human behavior seems
in error.
184 CHAPTER 7 ■ The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development
A Mother’s Dilemma Infants are wonder-
fully curious, as this little boy demonstrates.
Parents, however, must guide as well as en-
courage the drive toward autonomy. Notice
this mother’s expression as she makes sure
her son does not crush or eat the flower.
JO
SE
L
UI
S
PE
LE
AZ
, I
N
C.
/
CO
RB
IS
autonomy versus shame and doubt
Erikson’s second crisis of psychosocial
development. Toddlers either succeed or
fail in gaining a sense of self-rule over their
own actions and bodies.
➤Response for Nurses and Pediatricians
(from page 182): Stranger wariness is normal
up to about 14 months. This baby’s behavior
actually sounds like secure attachment!
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“model” because these early relationships form a prototype, or blueprint, for later
relationships; it is called “working” because, while usable, it is not necessarily
fixed or final.
For example, a 1-year-old girl might develop a working model, based on her par-
ents’ inconsistent responses to her, that people are unpredictable. All her life she
will apply that model whenever she meets a new person. Her childhood relation-
ships will be insecure, and in adulthood she might be on guard against further
disappointment. To use Piaget’s terminology, she has developed a cognitive schema
to organize her perceptions. According to cognitive theory, a child’s interpretation
of early experiences is crucial, not necessarily the experiences themselves (Schaffer,
2000).
The hopeful message of cognitive theory is that people can rethink and reorgan-
ize their thoughts, developing new working models that are more positive than
their original ones. Our mistrustful girl can learn to trust if her later experiences—
such as marriage to a faithful and loving husband—provide a new model.
Epigenetic Theory
As you remember from Chapter 2, epigenetic theory holds that every human char-
acteristic is strongly influenced by each person’s unique genotype. Thus, a child
might be happy or anxious not because of early experiences (the three grand theo-
ries) but because of inborn predispositions. DNA remains the same from concep-
tion on, no matter how emotions are blocked (psychoanalytic theory), reinforced
(behaviorism), or interpreted (cognitive theory).
Temperament
Among each person’s genetic predispositions are the traits of temperament,
defined as “constitutionally based individual differences” in emotions, activity, and
self-regulation (Rothbart & Bates, 2006, p. 100). “Constitutionally based” means
that these traits originate with nature (genes) more than nurture.
The concept of temperament is similar to that of personality. Some researchers
believe that the line between temperament and personality is unclear (e.g., Caspi
& Shiner, 2006). Generally, however, personality traits (e.g., honesty and humility)
are considered to be primarily learned, whereas temperamental traits (e.g., shy-
ness and aggression) are considered to be primarily genetic. Although tempera-
mental traits originate with the genes, the way these traits are expressed can be
modified by experiences.
temperament Inborn differences between
one person and another in emotions, activ-
ity, and self-control. Temperament is
epigenetic, originating in genes but
affected by child-rearing practices.
Theories About Infant Psychosocial Development 185
CO
RR
OO
N
A
N
D
CO
M
PA
N
Y
/ M
ON
KM
EY
ER
Twins They were born on the same day and
now are experiencing a wading pool for the
first time.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 186):
Are these babies monozygotic or dizygotic
twins?
➤Response for Nursing Mothers (from
page 183): Freud thought so, but there is no
experimental evidence that weaning, even
when ill timed, has such dire long-term
effects.
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In laboratory studies of temperament, some infants have experi-
ences that might be frightening. Four-month-olds might see spinning
mobiles or hear unusual sounds. Older babies might confront a noisy,
moving robot or a clown who quickly moves close. At such experi-
ences, some children laugh (and are classified as “easy”), some cry
(“difficult”), and some are quiet (“slow to warm up”) (Fox et al., 2001;
Kagan & Snidman, 2004).
The categories of “easy,” “difficult,” and “slow to warm up” come
from a classic study called the New York Longitudinal Study (NYLS).
Begun in the 1960s, the NYLS was the first among many studies to
recognize that each newborn has distinct inborn traits. Although tem-
perament begins in the brain, it is difficult to detect via brain scans,
so most of the research uses parents’ reports and direct observation.
In order to avoid merely reflecting the parents’ hopes and biases,
researchers ask for specifics. As the NYLS researchers explain:
If a mother said that her child did not like his first solid food, we . . .
were satisfied only when she gave a description such as “When I put
the food into his mouth he cried loudly, twisted his head away, and
let it drool out.”
[Chess et al., 1965, p. 26]
According to the NYLS, by 3 months, infants manifest nine temperamental
traits that can be clustered into the three categories described above, with a fourth
category of “hard to classify” infants:
■ Easy (40 percent)
■ Difficult (10 percent)
■ Slow to warm up (15 percent)
■ Hard to classify (35 percent)
Other researchers began by studying adult personality traits and came up with
the “Big Five” (whose first letters form the easy-to-remember acronym OCEAN):
■ Openness: imaginative, curious, welcoming new experiences
■ Conscientiousness: organized, deliberate, conforming
■ Extroversion: outgoing, assertive, active
■ Agreeableness: kind, helpful, easygoing
■ Neuroticism: anxious, moody, self-critical
As is further explained in Chapter 22, the Big Five traits are found in many
cultures, among people of all ages (McCrae & Costa, 2003). This universality adds
to the evidence that some basic temperamental differences are innate, preceding
child-rearing practices and cultural values (Rothbart et al., 2000). The Big Five
are more complex than the easy/difficult/slow-to-warm-up classifications; but an
infant high in agreeableness might be classified as easy, one high in neuroticism
would be difficult, and one low in openness would be slow to warm up.
The Parents’ Role
Studies of temperament find that the traits found in the NYLS or described by the
Big Five correspond to clusters of behaviors that appear early in life. Easy babies
are happy and outgoing most of the time, adjusting quickly to almost any change.
Difficult babies are the opposite: irregular, intense, unhappy, disturbed by every
noise, and hard to distract—quite a handful. Slow-to-warm-up babies take their
time to adapt to new people and experiences.
186 CHAPTER 7 ■ The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development
Which Sister Has a Personality Problem?
Culture always affects the expression of tem-
perament. In Mongolia and many other Asian
countries, females are expected to display
shyness as a sign of respect to elders and
strangers. Consequently, if the younger of
these sisters is truly as shy as she seems, her
parents are less likely to be distressed about
her withdrawn behavior than the typical North
American parent would be. Conversely, they
may consider the relative boldness of her
older sister to be a serious problem.
LE
ON
G
KA
T
AI
/
M
AT
ER
IA
L
W
OR
LD
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
185): True tests of zygosity involve analysis of
blood type, although physical appearance
often provides some clues. Here such clues
are minimal: We cannot see differences in
sex, coloring, or hand formation—although
the shapes of the skulls seem different. The
best clue from this photo is personality.
Confronting their first experience in a wading
pool, these twins are showing such a differ-
ence on the approach–withdrawal dimension
of temperament that they are probably
dizygotic.
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One longitudinal study (Fox et al., 2001) identified three distinct groups—
positive (exuberant), negative, and inhibited (fearful)—at 4 months. (Many infants
fit into none of these groups.) The researchers followed the children in each group,
with laboratory measures, mothers’ reports, and brain scans at 9, 14, 24, and 48
months. Half were very stable in temperament, reacting the same way and having
similar brain-wave patterns when confronted with frightening experiences all four
times they were tested.
The other half changed their reaction to frightening experiences on at least one
later assessment. Those who had been fearful at 4 months were most likely to
change, and the exuberant infants were least likely to change (see Figure 7.1).
That speaks to the influence of child rearing, since parents and other adults are
likely to coax frightened children to be braver but usually encourage happy chil-
dren to stay positive.
In response to such adult guidance, infant temperament often changes. In gen-
eral, however, the interaction between cultural influences and inherited traits
tends to shape behavior by early childhood (Rothbart & Bates, 2006). Traits that
are present at age 3 often are still evident at age 26 (Caspi et al., 2003).
Whatever their child’s temperament, parents need to find a goodness of fit—
that is, a temperamental adjustment that allows smooth infant–caregiver inter-
action. With a good fit, parents of difficult children are able to build a close
relationship; parents of exuberant, curious children learn to protect them from
harm; parents of slow-to-warm-up children give them time to adjust.
In general, stubborn and anxious children (i.e., high in neuroticism) are more
affected by their mother’s responsiveness than positive children are (Pauli-Pott
et al., 2004). Ineffective or harsh parenting combined with a negative temperament
creates antisocial, destructive children (Caspi et al., 2002). Some children natu-
rally cope easily with life’s challenges, whereas “a shy child must control his or her
fear and approach a stranger, and an impulsive child must constrain his or her de-
sire and resist a temptation” (Derryberry et al., 2003, p. 1061).
The epigenetic perspective emphasizes that inherited differences in tempera-
ment are affected by parental behavior (Kagan & Fox, 2006). Parents must first
goodness of fit A similarity of temperament
and values that produces a smooth inter-
action between an individual and his or her
social context, including family, school, and
community.
Theories About Infant Psychosocial Development 187
Fearful at 9, 14, 24,
and 48 months
42%
Positive
(every later time)
12%
Fearful (every
later time)
Variable (sometimes
positive, sometimes not)
Variable (sometimes fearful,
sometimes not)
44%
Positive at 9, 14, 24,
and 48 months
80%
Inhibited (fearful) at 4 months and . . . Positive (exuberant) at 4 months and . . .
Changes in Temperament Between Ages 4 Months and 4 Years
Source: Adapted from Fox et al., 2001.
15%
5%
FIGURE 7.1
Do Babies’ Temperaments Change? The
data suggest that fearful babies are not nec-
essarily fated to remain that way. Adults who
are reassuring and do not act frightened them-
selves can help children overcome an innate
fearfulness. Some fearful children do not
change, however, and it is not known whether
that’s because their parents are not suffi-
ciently reassuring (nurture) or because they
are temperamentally more fearful (nature).
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 188):
Out of 100 4-month-olds who react positively
to noises and other experiences, how many
are fearful at later times in early childhood?
Especially for Nurses and Pediatricians
Parents come to you with their fussy 3-
month-old. They say that they have read that
temperament is “fixed” before birth, and
they are worried that their child will always be
difficult. What do you tell them?
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understand their child’s temperamental traits and then teach and guide the child
so that those inborn traits are expressed constructively, not destructively.
Many developmentalists caution against too much emphasis on genes, espe-
cially in infancy when observations of actual interactions suggest that the mother’s
parenting style has more influence on the infant’s behavior than the infant’s
temperament does (Roisman & Fraley, 2006). At the same time, it is important
to remember that inborn temperament is evident in brain activity as well as in
reactions from early infancy, and it influences behavior from childhood through
old age (Kagan & Snidman, 2004). (Parenting styles and attitudes are discussed in
Chapters 10 and 13.)
Sociocultural Theory
No one doubts that “human development occurs in a cultural context” (Kagitcibasi,
2003, p. 166). The crucial question is how much influence culture has. Sociocul-
tural theorists argue that the influence is substantial, that the entire social and
cultural context has a major impact on infant–caregiver relationships and thus on
infant development.
Ethnotheories
An ethnotheory is a theory that is embedded in a particular culture or ethnic
group (Dasen, 2003). Usually the group members are unaware that their theories
underlie their customs. However, as you have already seen with breast-feeding
and co-sleeping, many child-rearing practices are connected to ethnotheories
(Greenfield et al., 2003).
This is true for emotional development as well. For example, if a culture’s ethno-
theory includes the idea that ancestors are reincarnated in the younger generation,
then “children are not expected to show respect for adults, but adults [are expected
to show respect] for their reborn ancestors.” Such cultures favor indulgent child-
rearing practices, with no harsh punishments. “Western people perceive [these
cultures] as extremely lenient” (Dasen, 2003, pp. 149–150).
For example, we noted earlier that infants become angry when they are re-
strained. Nonetheless, many European American parents force their protesting
toddlers to sit in strollers, to ride in car seats, to stay in cribs and playpens or
188 CHAPTER 7 ■ The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development
Learning to Worship This boy in Borneo has
learned that Allah is to be shown respect with
a covered head and bare feet. He already prays
five times a day as part of an ethnotheory that
includes concepts of life and death, male and
female, good and evil—just like everyone else
in the world, although the specifics vary
widely. R. I
AN
L
LO
YD
/
M
AS
TE
RF
IL
E
ethnotheory A theory that underlies the
values and practices of a culture and that
becomes apparent through analysis and
comparison of those practices, although it
is not usually apparent to the people
within the culture.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 187): Out of 100 4-month-olds, 20 are
fearful at least occasionally later in childhood,
but only 5 are consistently fearful.
➤Response for Nurses and Pediatricians
(from page 187): It’s too soon to tell. Tempera-
ment is not truly “fixed” but variable, especially
in the first few months. Many “difficult” infants
become happy, successful adolescents and
adults.
Especially for Parents of Young Adults
U.S. culture includes the term empty nest,
signifying an ethnotheory about mothers
whose children live elsewhere. What cultural
values are expressed by that term?
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Proximal and Distal Parenting
Another example of ethnotheory involves how much parents should hold their
infants. Proximal parenting involves being physically close to a baby, often hold-
ing and touching. Distal parenting involves keeping one’s distance, providing
toys, feeding by putting finger food within reach, and talking face to face instead
of handling. Those who are convinced that one of these is right are expressing an
ethnotheory.
A longitudinal study comparing child rearing among the Nso people of
Cameroon, West Africa, and among Greeks in Athens found marked differences
in proximal and distal parenting (H. Keller et al., 2004). The researchers video-
taped 78 mothers as they played with their 3-month-old infants. Coders (who did
not know the study’s hypothesis) rated the play as either proximal (e.g., carrying,
Theories About Infant Psychosocial Development 189
a case to study
“Let’s Go to Grandma’s”
The ethnotheory of Mayan parents includes the belief that chil-
dren should never be forced to comply with their parents’ wishes.
When 18-month-old Roberto did not want to wear a diaper, his
mother used a false promise, and then a distraction.
“Let’s put on your diaper . . . Let’s go to Grandma’s . . . We’re
going to do an errand.” This did not work, and the mother invited
Roberto to nurse, as she swiftly slipped the diaper on him with
the father’s assistance. The father announced, “It’s over.”
[Rogoff, 2003, p. 204]
Lack of compliance by toddlers is a problem for many West-
ern parents because their ethnotheory values independence, as
Erikson recognized in the name he gave his second stage, auton-
omy versus shame and doubt. Many Western parents battle with
their autonomy-seeking 1-year-olds when the child’s self-will
manifests itself in stubborn behavior. Yet the parents value inde-
pendence, so they inadvertently encourage that emotion.
For instance, if a child refuses to get dressed, parents some-
times force compliance by holding the child tight and pulling on
clothes as the child cries and kicks. Or, if the room is warm and
the child will stay inside, parents might give up and let the child
remain half-dressed. Note that, in both cases, one person wins and
the other loses, setting the emotional stage for another battle.
Roberto’s mother chose neither option, even with
increasing exasperation that the child was wiggling and not
standing to facilitate putting on his pants. Her voice softened as
Roberto became interested in the ball, and she increased the
stakes: “Do you want another toy?” They [father and mother]
continued to try to talk Roberto into cooperating, and handed
him various objects, which Roberto enjoyed. But still he stub-
bornly refused to cooperate with dressing. They left him alone
for a while. When his father asked if he was ready, Roberto
pouted “nono!”
After a bit, the mother told Roberto that she was leaving and
waved goodbye. “Are you going with me?” Roberto sat quietly
with a worried look. “Then put on your pants, put on your pants
to go up the hill.” Roberto stared into space, seeming to consider
the alternatives. His mother started to walk away, “OK then, I’m
going. Goodbye.” Roberto started to cry, and his father persuaded,
“Put on your pants then!” and his mother asked, “Are you going
with me?”
Roberto looked down worriedly, one arm outstretched in half
a take-me gesture. “Come on, then,” his mother offered the
pants and Roberto let his father lift him to a stand and cooper-
ated in putting his legs into the pants and in standing to have
them fastened. His mother did not intend to leave; instead she
suggested that Roberto dance for the audience. Roberto did a
baby version of a traditional dance.
[Rogoff, 2003, p. 204]
This is an example of an ethnotheory that “elders protect and
guide rather than giving orders or dominating” (Rogoff, 2003,
p. 205). A second ethnotheory is apparent as well. Not only did
the parents avoid dominating, they also used deception.
If a European American mother threatened to leave and then
her child submitted, she probably would take him or her some-
where, because North American ethnotheory holds that false
threats lead children to doubt their parents. The bogeyman and
Santa Claus are less often invoked by today’s educated parents
than they were a few generations ago, more because of changed
ethnotheory than because of new science.
behind gates. If toddlers do not lie down quietly to allow diapers to be changed
(and few do), some parents simply hold the protesting child still while diapering.
Compare this to the approach used by Roberto’s parents, below.
proximal parenting Parenting practices that
involve close physical contact with the
child’s entire body, such as cradling and
swinging.
distal parenting Parenting practices that
focus on the intellect more than the body,
such as talking with the baby and playing
with an object.
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swinging, caressing, exercising the child’s body) or distal (e.g., face-to-face talking)
(see Table 7.2 and Research Design).
The Nso mothers were proximal parents, holding their babies all the time and
almost never using objects. The Greek mothers were distal parents, using objects
almost half the time and holding their babies less.
The researchers hypothesized that proximal parenting would result in toddlers
who were less self-aware but more compliant—traits needed in an interdependent
and cooperative society such as rural Cameroon. By contrast, distal parenting might
result in toddlers who are self-aware but less obedient—traits needed in modern
Athens, where independence, self-reliance, and competition are highly valued.
The predictions were accurate. At 18 months these children were tested on self-
awareness (the rouge test) and compliance. The African toddlers didn’t recognize
themselves in the mirror but obeyed; the opposite was true of the Greek children.
Replicating their own work, these researchers studied a dozen mother–infant
pairs in Costa Rica, where play patterns and later toddler behavior were midway
between those of the Nso and the Greeks. They then reanalyzed their original lon-
gitudinal data, child by child. They found that proximal or distal play at 3 months
was highly predictive of toddler behavior, even apart from culture. In other words,
Greek mothers who, unlike most of their peers, were proximal parents had more
obedient toddlers (H. Keller et al., 2004).
As this study suggested, every aspect of early emotional development interacts
with cultural ideas of what is appropriate. For example, other research has found
that separation anxiety is more evident in Japan than in Germany, because Japan-
ese infants “have very few experiences with separation from the mother,” whereas
in Germany “infants are frequently left alone outside of stores or supermarkets”
while the mother shops (Saarni et al., 2006, p. 237). From the beginning of life,
some emotions are dampened and others are fueled by family responses.
SUMMING UP
The five major theories differ in their explanations of the origins of early emotions and
personality. Psychoanalytic theory stresses the mother’s responses to the infant’s needs
for food and elimination (Freud) or for security and independence (Erikson). Behaviorism
also stresses caregiving—especially as parents reinforce the behaviors they want their
baby to learn or as they thoughtlessly teach unwanted behaviors.
Learning is also crucial in cognitive theory—not the moment-by-moment learning of
behaviorism, but the infant’s self-constructed concept, or working model. Epigenetic
190 CHAPTER 7 ■ The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development
TABLE 7.2
Play Patterns in Rural Cameroon and Urban Greece
Amount of Time Spent
in Play (percent)
Age of Babies Type of Play Nso, Cameroon Athens, Greece
3 months Held by mother 100 31
3 months Object play 3 40
Toddler Behavior Measured
18 months Self-recognition 3 68
18 months Compliance (without prompting) 72 2
Source: Adapted from Keller et al., 2004.
Research Design
Scientists: A team of six from three
nations (Germany, Greece, Costa Rica).
Publication: Child Development (2004).
Participants: A total of 90 mothers
participated when their babies were 3
months old and again when they were
18 months old (32 from Cameroon,
46 from Greece, 12 from Costa Rica).
In Greece and Costa Rica, researchers
recruited mothers in hospitals. In
Cameroon, permission was first
sought from the local leader, and then
announcements were made among
local people.
Design: First, mothers played with their
3-month-olds, and that play was video-
taped and coded for particular behav-
iors. Fifteen months later, the toddlers’
self-recognition was assessed with the
rouge test, and compliance with preset
maternal commands was measured.
The mother’s frequency of eye contact
and body contact with the infant at 3
months was compared with the tod-
dler’s self-awareness and compliance at
18 months.
Major conclusion:Toddlers with proxi-
mal mothers were more obedient but
less self-aware; toddlers with distal
mothers tended to show the opposite
pattern.
Comment:This is one of the best com-
parison studies of child-rearing practices
in various cultures. Families differed in
income and urbanization; these variables
need to be explored in other research.
Especially for Parents of Toddlers Your
child refuses to stay in the car seat, spits out
disliked foods, and almost never does what
you say. What can you do?
➤Response for Parents of Young Adults
(from page 188): The implication is that human
mothers are like sad birds, bereft of their
fledglings, who have flown away. Chapter 22
details the accuracy of this ethnotheory.
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theory begins with the inherited temperament and then describes how inborn tempera-
ment is shaped. Sociocultural theory also sees an interaction between nature and
nurture but emphasizes that the diversity of nurture explains much of the diversity of
emotions. According to sociocultural theory, child-rearing practices arise from ethnothe-
ories, unexpressed and implicit but very powerful.
■
The Development of Social Bonds
All the theories of development agree that healthy human development depends
on social connections, as you have already seen in the abnormal behavior of emo-
tionally deprived Romanian orphans (Chapter 5), in the social exchanges required
for language learning (Chapter 6), and in dozens of other examples. All the emo-
tions already described elicit social reactions, and infants are happier and health-
ier when others (especially their mothers) are nearby (Plutchik, 2003). Now we
look closely at infant–caregiver bonds.
Synchrony
Synchrony is a coordinated interaction between caregiver and infant, an exchange
in which they respond to each other with split-second timing. Synchrony has been
described as the meshing of a finely tuned machine (Snow, 1984), an emotional
“attunement” of an improvised musical duet (Stern, 1985), and a smoothly flowing
“waltz” (Barnard & Martell, 1995).
Detailed research reveals the mutuality of the interaction:
Adults rarely smile at newborns until the infant smiles at them,
at which point adults grin broadly and talk animatedly (Lavelli
& Fogal, 2005). Since each baby has a unique temperament,
parents must be sensitive to their particular infant (Feldman &
Eidelman, 2005). Via synchrony, infants learn to read other
emotions and to develop the skills of social interaction, such as
taking turns and paying attention.
Although infants imitate adults, synchrony usually begins
with parents imitating infants (Lavelli & Fogal, 2005). If parents
detect an emotion from an infant’s expression (easy to do,
because infant facial expressions and body motions reflect uni-
versally recognizable emotions), and if an infant sees a familiar
face expressing that emotion, the infant learns to connect an
internal state with an external expression (Rochat, 2001).
For example, suppose an infant is unhappy. An adult who
mirrors the distress, and then tries to solve the problem, will
teach the infant that although unhappiness is a negative emotion, it is a valid one,
and it can be relieved. Obviously, if the adult’s reaction to unhappiness is always
to feed the infant, that might teach a destructive lesson (food equals comfort re-
gardless of the cause of the distress). But if an adult’s reponse is more nuanced
(by differentiating hunger, pain, boredom, or fear, for instance, and by responding
differently to each), then the infant will learn to perceive the varied reasons for
unhappiness and the varied ways of responding to it.
One of the important discoveries regarding synchrony is that adults do not
merely echo infant emotions; they try to make them more positive. Thus, when
their babies seem angry, mothers tend to react not with anger but with surprise
(Malatesta et al., 1989).
synchrony A coordinated, rapid, and smooth
exchange of responses between a care-
giver and an infant.
The Development of Social Bonds 191
Dance with Me Synchrony in action, with
each one’s hands, eyes, and open mouth
reflecting the other’s expression. The close
timing of synchrony has been compared to a
waltz—and these partners look as if they
never miss a beat.
M
YR
LE
EN
F
ER
GU
SO
N
C
AT
E
/ P
HO
TO
E
DI
T
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still-face technique An experimental practice
in which an adult keeps his or her face un-
moving and expressionless in face-to-face
interaction with an infant.
Synchrony is experience-expectant, developing connections within the brain
(Schore, 2001). For example, parents of triplets spend less time in synchrony
with each of them than parents of single infants spend with their child (Feldman
et al., 2004); perhaps for that reason, triplet cognition tends to be slightly delayed.
Some mothers rarely play with their infants, and that slows down those children’s
development (Huston & Aronson, 2005). Apparently, infant brains need social
interaction to develop to their fullest. Babies usually elicit such interaction (as you
have seen when a stranger makes faces to a baby in a public place), but some adults
are too overwhelmed to play. In that case, the brain lacks an essential, expected
stimulant.
Synchrony becomes more frequent and more elaborate as time goes on; a 6-
month-old is a more responsive social partner than a 3-month-old. Parents and in-
fants average about an hour a day in face-to-face play, although variations are
apparent from baby to baby, from time period to time period, and from culture to
culture (Baildam et al., 2000; Lee, 2000).
attachment According to Ainsworth, “an
affectional tie” that an infant forms with
the caregiver—a tie that binds them
together in space and endures over time.
192 CHAPTER 7 ■ The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development
thinking like a scientist
The Still-Face Technique
Is synchrony needed for normal development? If no one plays
with an infant, how will that infant develop? Experiments using
the still-face technique have addressed these questions
(Tronick, 1989; Tronick et al., 1978). An infant is placed facing
an adult, who plays with the baby while a video camera records
each partner’s reactions. Frame-by-frame comparison of the two
videotapes reveals the sequence. Typically, mothers synchronize
their responses to the infants’ movements, usually with exagger-
ated tone and expression, and babies reciprocate with smiles
and arm waving.
Then, on cue, the adult erases all facial expression and stares
with a “still face” for a minute or two. Not usually at 2 months,
but clearly at 6 months, babies are very upset by the still face,
especially from their parents (less so for strangers). Babies frown,
fuss, drool, look away, kick, cry, or suck their fingers.
Interestingly, babies are much more upset when parents
show a still face than when parents leave the room for a minute
or two (Rochat, 2001). From a psychological perspective, this is
healthy: It shows that “by 2 to 3 months of age, infants have
begun to expect that people will respond positively to their initia-
tives” (R. A. Thompson, 2006, p. 29). In one set of experiments,
infants became upset if someone had a still face for any reason—
to look at a wall, to look at someone else, or merely to look away
(Striano, 2004).
In another study, infants experienced not just one but two
episodes of a parent’s still face. The infants quickly readjusted
when their parent became responsive again if synchrony charac-
terized the parent–infant relationship. If the parent was typi-
cally unresponsive, however, infants stayed upset (with faster
heart rate and more fussing) even after the second still-face
episode ended (Haley & Stansbury, 2003).
Many research studies lead to the same conclusion: A parent’s
responsiveness to an infant aids development, measured not only
psychosocially but also biologically (with heart rate, weight gain,
and brain maturation) (Moore & Calkins, 2004). If a mother is
unresponsive to her infant (as usually happens with postpartum
depression; see Chapter 4), the father or another caregiver should
establish synchrony to help ensure normal development (Tronick
& Weinberg, 1997).
Attachment
Toward the end of the first year, face-to-face play almost disappears. Once infants
can move around and explore, they are no longer content to stay in one spot and
follow an adult’s facial expressions and vocalizations. Remember that, at about
12 months, most infants can walk and talk, which changes the rhythms of their
social interaction (Jaffee et al., 2001). At this time a new type of connection,
called attachment, replaces synchrony.
Attachment is a lasting emotional bond that one person has with another.
Attachments form in infancy. According to attachment theory, new close relation-
ships that arise later in life are influenced by these first attachments (R. A.
➤Response for Parents of Toddlers
(from page 190): Remember the origins of
the misbehavior—probably a combination of
your child’s inborn temperament and your
own distal parenting. Blended with your
ethnotheory, all contribute to the child’s being
stubborn and independent. Acceptance is
more warranted than anger.
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Thompson & Raikes, 2003). In fact, adults’ attachment to their own parents,
formed decades earlier, affects their relationships with their children. Humans
learn in childhood how to relate to people, and those lessons echo lifelong (Gross-
man et al., 2005; Sroufe et al., 2005).
When two people are attached, they respond to each other in particular
ways. Infants show their attachment through proximity-seeking behaviors, such
as approaching and following their caregivers, and through contact-maintaining
behaviors, such as touching, snuggling, and holding. A securely attached toddler
is curious and eager to explore but maintains contact by looking back at the
caregiver.
Caregivers show attachment as well. They keep a watchful eye on their baby
and respond sensitively to vocalizations, expressions, and gestures. For example,
many mothers or fathers, awakening in the middle of the night, tiptoe to the crib
to gaze fondly at their sleeping infant. During the day, many parents instinctively
smooth their toddler’s hair or caress their child’s hand or cheek.
Over humanity’s evolutionary history, proximity-seeking and contact-maintaining
behaviors contributed to the survival of the species (R. A. Thompson, 2006).
Attachment keeps infants near their caregivers and keeps caregivers vigilant.
Secure and Insecure Attachment
The concept of attachment was originally developed by John Bowlby (1969, 1973,
1988), a British developmentalist influenced by both psychoanalytic theory and
ethology. Inspired by Bowlby’s work, Mary Ainsworth, then a young
American graduate student, studied the relationship between par-
ents and infants in Uganda (Ainsworth, 1973).
Ainsworth discovered that virtually all infants develop special
attachments to their caregivers. Some infants are more securely
attached than others—an observation later confirmed by hundreds
of other researchers studying in dozens of nations and cultures
(Cassidy & Shaver, 1999; Grossman et al., 2005; Sroufe, 2005;
R. A. Thompson, 2006).
Attachment is classified into four types, labeled A–D (see Table
7.3). Infants with secure attachment (type B) feel comfortable
and confident, The infant derives comfort from being close to
the caregiver, and that provides him or her the confidence to ex-
plore. The caregiver becomes a base for exploration, giving the
child the assurance to venture forth. A toddler might, for example,
The Development of Social Bonds 193
BR
AN
D
X
PI
CT
UR
ES
/
AL
AM
Y
RO
BE
RT
W
. G
IN
N
/
AL
AM
Y
Synchrony Father–infant play is often more
fun than mother–infant play. This father is
teaching his son important lessons about
manhood!
M
IC
HA
EL
N
EW
M
AN
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T
secure attachment A relationship in which an
infant obtains both comfort and confidence
from the presence of his or her caregiver.
Learning Emotions Infants respond to
their parents’ expressions and actions. If the
moments shown here are typical, one young
man will be happy and outgoing and the
other will be sad and quiet.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 194):
For the pair on the left, where are their feet?
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scramble down from the caregiver’s lap to play with a toy but periodically look
back, vocalize a few syllables, and return for a hug.
By contrast, insecure attachment (types A and C) is characterized by fear, anxi-
ety, anger, or indifference. Insecurely attached children have less confidence. Some
play without maintaining contact with the caregiver; this is insecure-avoidant
attachment (type A). An insecurely attached child might instead be unwilling
to leave the caregiver’s lap; this is insecure-resistant/ambivalent attachment
(type C).
The fourth category (type D) is called disorganized attachment; it may have
some elements of any of the other types, but it is clearly different from them. Type
D infants may shift from hitting to kissing their mothers, from staring blankly to
crying hysterically, from pinching themselves to freezing in place.
About two-thirds of all infants are securely attached (type B). Their mother’s
presence gives them courage to explore. The father’s presence makes some infants
even more confident. The caregiver’s departure may cause distress; the caregiver’s
return elicits positive social contact (such as smiling or hugging) and then more
playing. A balanced reaction—being concerned about the caregiver’s departure
but not overwhelmed by it—reflects secure attachment.
Almost a third of all infants are insecure, appearing either indifferent (type A)
or unduly anxious (type C). The remaining infants fit into none of these categories
and are classified as disorganized (type D).
Measuring Attachment
Ainsworth (1973) developed a now-classic laboratory procedure, called the Strange
Situation, to measure attachment. In a well-equipped playroom, an infant is
closely observed for eight episodes, during which the infant is with the caregiver
(usually the mother), with a stranger, with both, or alone.
First, the caregiver and child are together. Then every three minutes the
stranger or the caregiver enters or leaves the playroom. Infants’ responses to the
stress of caregiver departure and stranger presence indicate which type of attach-
ment they have formed to their caregivers. For research purposes, observers are
carefully trained and are certified when they are able to accurately differentiate
types A, B, C, and D. The key aspects to focus on are the following:
■ Exploration of the toys. A securely attached toddler plays happily.
■ Reaction to the caregiver’s departure. A secure toddler misses the caregiver.
■ Reaction to the caregiver’s return. A secure toddler welcomes the caregiver.
insecure-avoidant attachment A pattern of
attachment in which an infant avoids con-
nection with the caregiver, as when the
infant seems not to care about the care-
giver’s presence, departure, or return.
insecure-resistant/ambivalent attachment
A pattern of attachment in which anxiety
and uncertainty are evident, as when an
infant is very upset at separation from the
caregiver and both resists and seeks con-
tact on reunion.
disorganized attachment A type of attach-
ment that is marked by an infant’s
inconsistent reactions to the caregiver’s
departure and return.
194 CHAPTER 7 ■ The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development
TABLE 7.3
Patterns of Infant Attachment
Name of Toddlers in
Type Pattern In Play Room Mother Leaves Mother Returns Category (percent)
A
B
C
D
Insecure-avoidant
Secure
Insecure-resistant/
ambivalent
Disorganized
Child plays happily
Child plays happily
Child clings, is
preoccupied with
mother
Child is cautious
Child continues
playing
Child pauses, is
not as happy
Child is unhappy,
may stop playing
Child may stare or
yell; looks scared,
confused
Child ignores her
Child welcomes her,
returns to play
Child is angry, may
cry, hit mother, cling
Child acts oddly—
may freeze, scream,
hit self, throw things
10–20
50–70
10–20
5–10
Strange Situation A laboratory procedure
for measuring attachment by evoking
infants’ reactions to stress.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 193): The father uses his legs and feet
to support his son at just the right distance
for a great fatherly game of foot-kissing.
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[It is reactions to the caregiver that indicate attachment; reactions to strangers
(whether tears or signs of interest) are a matter of temperament more than of
affectional bond.]
Attachment is not always measured via the Strange Situation, which requires
that infants be assessed one by one in a laboratory by carefully trained researchers.
Sometimes attachment is measured via 90 questions to be sorted by parents about
their children or via an extensive interview with parents about their relationships
with their own parents. All these measures find a correlation between secure
attachment and desirable personality traits and cognitive development. All also
find that the type of attachment changes when circumstances (such as the re-
sponsiveness of the mother) change. Many aspects of good parenting correlate
with secure attachment (see Table 7.4).
The Development of Social Bonds 195
The Attachment Experiment In this episode
of the Strange Situation, Brian shows every
sign of secure attachment. (a) He explores the
playroom happily when his mother is present;
(b) he cries when she leaves; and (c) he is
readily comforted when she returns.
(a) (b) (c)
AL
L:
C
OU
RT
ES
Y
OF
M
AR
Y
AI
N
SW
OR
TH
These family and infant characteristics influence
a child’s attachment status in the ways stated
here, but none fully determine it. For example,
parental sensitivity predicts only a modest
amount of the variation between secure and
insecure children. All these correlations have
been found in several studies, but none appear
in every study, because infant temperaments,
contexts, and cultures vary too much.
TABLE 7.4
Predictors of Attachment Type
Secure attachment (type B) is more likely if:
■ The parent is usually sensitive and responsive to the infant’s needs.
■ The infant–parent relationship is high in synchrony.
■ The infant’s temperament is “easy.”
■ The parents are not stressed about income, other children, or their marriage.
■ The parents have a working model of secure attachment to their own parents.
Insecure attachment is more likely if:
■ The parent mistreats the child. (Neglect increases type A; abuse increases C and D.)
■ The mother is mentally ill. (Paranoia increases type D; depression increases type C.)
■ The parents are highly stressed about income, other children, or their marriage. (Parental
stress increases types A and D.)
■ The parents are intrusive and controlling. (Parental domination increases type A.)
■ The parents are active alcoholics. (Alcoholic father increases type A; alcoholic mother
increases type D.)
■ The child’s temperament is “difficult.” (Difficult children tend to be type C.)
■ The child’s temperament is “slow to warm up.” (This correlates with type A.)
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Insecure Attachment and Social Setting
Early researchers expected secure attachment to “predict all the outcomes rea-
sonably expected from a well-functioning personality” (R. A. Thompson & Raikes,
2003, p. 708). But this turned out not to be the case. Securely attached infants
are more likely to become secure toddlers, socially competent preschoolers, aca-
demically skilled schoolchildren, and better parents (R. A. Thompson, 2006).
However, the correlations are not large, and that makes prediction very tentative.
Many children shift in attachment status between one age and another (NICHD,
2001; Seifer et al., 2004).
The most troubled children may be those who are classified as type D. If their
disorganization makes them unable to develop an effective strategy for dealing
with other people (even an avoidant or resistant strategy, type A or C), they may
lash out. Sometimes they become hostile and aggressive, difficult for anyone
else to relate to (Lyons-Ruth et al., 1999). (An unusually high percentage of the
Romanian children who were adopted after age 2 were type D.)
Social Referencing
Infants seek to understand caregivers’ emotions. At about age 1, social referencing
becomes evident when an infant looks to another person for clarification or infor-
mation, much as someone might consult a dictionary or other “reference” work.
A glance of reassurance or words of caution, an expression of alarm, pleasure, or
dismay—each becomes a social guide, telling an infant how to react to an unfamil-
iar situation.
After age 1, when infants reach the stage of active exploration (Piaget) and the
crisis of autonomy versus shame and doubt (Erikson), the need to consult care-
givers becomes urgent. Toddlers search for cues in gaze and facial expressions, pay
close attention to adults’ expressed emotions, and watch carefully to de-
tect intentions behind other people’s actions (Baldwin, 2000).
Social referencing has many practical applications. Consider meal-
time. Caregivers the world over smack their lips, pretend to taste, and
say “yum-yum,” encouraging toddlers to eat and enjoy their first beets,
liver, or spinach. For their part, toddlers become astute at reading expres-
sions, insisting on the foods that the adults really like. Through this
process, children in some cultures develop a taste for raw fish or curried
goat or smelly cheese—foods that children in other cultures refuse.
Referencing Mothers
Most everyday instances of social referencing occur with mothers. In-
fants usually heed their mother’s wishes, expressed in tone and facial ex-
pression. This does not mean that infants are always obedient, especially
in cultures where parents and children value independence. Not surpris-
ingly, compliance has been the focus of study in the United States,
where it often conflicts with independence.
For example, in one experiment, few toddlers obeyed their mother’s
request (required by the researchers) to pick up dozens of toys that they
had not scattered (Kochanska et al., 2001). Their refusal indicates some
emotional maturity: Self-awareness had led to pride and autonomy. The
body language and expressions of some of the mothers implied that they did not
really expect their children to obey.
These same toddlers were quite obedient when their mothers told them not to
touch an attractive toy. The mothers used tone, expression, and words to make
this prohibition clear. Because of social referencing, toddlers understood the
social referencing Seeking information about
how to react to an unfamiliar or ambiguous
object or event by observing someone
else’s expressions and reactions. That other
person becomes a social reference.
196 CHAPTER 7 ■ The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development
Social Referencing Should I be happy or
scared to ride on a bicycle through the streets
of Osaka, Japan? Check with Mom to find out.
CO
RB
IS
/
M
IC
HA
EL
S.
YA
M
AS
HI
TA
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Especially for Grandmothers A grand-
mother of an infant boy is troubled that the
baby’s father stays with him whenever the
mother is away. She says that men don’t know
how to care for infants, and she notes that he
sometimes plays a game in which he tosses
his son in the air and then catches him.
message. Even when the mothers were out of sight, half of the 14-month-olds and
virtually all of the 22-month-olds obeyed. Most (80 percent) of the older toddlers
seemed to agree with the mothers’ judgment (Kochanska et al., 2001).
Referencing Fathers
In North America, increases in maternal employment have expanded the social
references available to infants. Fathers—once thought to be uninvolved with their
infants (as was the case with Uncle Henry)—now spend considerable time with
their children.
For example, the stereotype is that Latino fathers leave caregiving to their
wives. However, a study of more than 1,000 Latino 9-month-olds found “fathers
with moderate to high levels of engagement” (Cabrera et al., 2006. p. 1203).
Although many possible correlates of father involvement (income, education, age)
were analyzed, only one significant predictor of the level of engagement was
found: how happy the father was with the infant’s mother. Happier husbands tend
to be more involved fathers.
The social information that infants get from their fathers tends to be more en-
couraging than that from mothers, who are more cautious and protective. When
toddlers are about to explore, they often seek their father’s approval, expecting fun
from their fathers and comfort from their mothers (Lamb, 2000; Parke, 1996).
In this, infants show social intelligence, because fathers play imaginative and
exciting games. They move their infant’s legs and arms in imitation of walking,
kicking, or climbing; or play “airplane,” zooming the baby through the air; or tap
and tickle the baby’s stomach. Mothers caress, murmur, read, or sing soothingly;
combine play with caretaking; and use standard sequences such as peek-a-boo
and patty-cake. In short, fathers are generally more proximal, engaging in play that
involves the infant’s whole body.
Infant Day Care
You have seen that social bonds are crucial for infants. How is this need affected
by time spent with paid caregivers? More than half of all 1-year-olds in the United
States are in “regularly scheduled” nonmaternal care, sometimes by relatives (usu-
ally the father or grandmother) but often not (Loeb et al., 2004). Mothers usually
prefer care by a relative because it is the least expensive, often free. However,
family care varies in quality and availability. (If a mother is employed, chances are
her husband and mother are as well.)
Family day care (children of various ages cared for in someone else’s home) is
more often used for infants, and older children are more often in center day care
(several paid caregivers in a place designed for young children). Quality varies in
such places, with standards varying markedly from state to state as well as from
nation to nation.
In the United States, most parents encounter a “mix of quality, price, type of
care, and government subsidies” (Haskins, 2005, p. 168). Some center care is
excellent (see Table 7.5), with adequate space, equipment, and trained providers
(the ratio of adults to infants should be about 2:5), but it is hard to find. House-
holds with higher incomes are more likely to use center care. In other nations,
people of all incomes use center care, funded by the government.
The evidence is overwhelming that good preschool education (reviewed in
Chapter 9) is beneficial for young children. Infant day care is more controversial
(Waldfogel, 2006), but most developmentalists find that infants are not likely to
be harmed by—and, in fact, can benefit from—professional day care (Brooks-
Gunn et al., 2002; Lamb, 1998).
The Development of Social Bonds 197
family day care Child care that occurs in
another caregiver’s home. Usually the
caregiver is paid at a lower rate than in
center care, and usually one person cares
for several children of various ages.
center day care Child care in a place espe-
cially designed for the purpose, where
several paid providers care for many chil-
dren. Usually the children are grouped by
age, the day-care center is licensed, and
providers are trained and certified in child
development.
Up, Up, and Away! The vigorous play typical
of fathers is likely to help in the infant’s mas-
tery of motor skills and the development of
muscle control.
CH
RO
M
OS
OH
M
/
SO
HM
/
PH
OT
O
RE
SE
AR
CH
ER
S,
IN
C.
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A longitudinal study has followed the development of more than 1,300 children
from birth to age 11 (NICHD, 2005). The effects of various types of infant care on
attachment was a major concern of the researchers, but most analyses of the data
found that attachment to the mother is as secure among infants in center care as
among infants cared for at home. Like other, smaller studies, this NICHD study
confirms that infant day care, even for 40 hours a week before age 1, has much
less influence on child development than does the warmth of the mother–infant
relationship. Infant and child cognition, especially language learning, advance
with center care (NICHD, 2005; see Research Design).
Good infant day care is expensive and scarce, however, because infants need
individualized and affectionate attention, which are likely to be in short supply if
a caregiver has many infants to care for and limited experience and training
(Waldfogel, 2006). Probably for this reason, “disagreements about the wisdom
(indeed, the morality) of nonmaternal child care for the very young remain”
(NICHD, 2005, p. xiv).
No study finds that children of employed mothers suffer solely because their
mothers are working. Many employed mothers make infant care their top priority.
For example, time-use research finds that mothers who work full time outside the
home spend almost as much time playing with their babies (141⁄2 hours a week) as
do mothers without outside jobs (16 hours a week) (Huston & Aronson, 2005).
Employed mothers spend half as much time on housework and almost no time on
leisure. The study concludes:
There was no evidence that mothers’ time at work interfered with the quality of
their relationship with their infants, the quality of the home environment, or
children’s development. In fact, the results suggest the opposite. Mothers who
spent more time at work provided slightly higher quality home environments.
[Huston & Aronson, 2005, p. 479]
Other research confirms that much depends on the quality of care, wherever
it occurs and whoever provides it. According to the NICHD Early Child Care
Research Network, early day care seems detrimental only when the mother is in-
Especially for Day-Care Providers A
mother who brings her child to you for day
care says that she knows she is harming her
baby but must work out of economic
necessity. What do you say?
198 CHAPTER 7 ■ The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development
TABLE 7.5
High-Quality Day Care
High-quality day care during infancy has five essential characteristics:
1. Adequate attention to each infant. This means a low caregiver-to-infant ratio and, probably
even more important, a small group of infants. The ideal situation might be two reliable
caregivers for five infants. Infants need familiar, loving caregivers; continuity of care is very
important.
2. Encouragement of language and sensorimotor development. Infants should receive
extensive language exposure through games, songs, conversations, and positive talk of all
kinds, along with easily manipulated toys.
3. Attention to health and safety. Cleanliness routines (e.g., handwashing before meals),
accident prevention (e.g., no small objects that could be swallowed), and safe areas for
exploration (e.g., a clean, padded area for crawling and climbing) are good signs.
4. Well-trained and professional caregivers. Ideally, every caregiver should have a degree or
certificate in early-childhood education and should have worked with children for several
years. Turnover should be low, morale high, and enthusiasm evident. Good caregivers love
their children and their work.
5. Warm and responsive caregivers. Providers should engage the children in problem solving
and discussions, rather than giving instructions. Quiet, obedient children may be an
indication of unresponsive care.
For a more detailed evaluation of day care, see the checklist in NICHD, 2005.
Research Design
Scientists: NICHD Early Child Care
Research Network, 30 developmental-
ists cooperating in a study sponsored
by the National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development (NICHD) .
Publication: Hundreds of research arti-
cles in every major child developmental
journal and a book, Child Care and Child
Development (2005), have been pub-
lished analyzing these data.
Participants:Total of 1,364 mother–
infant pairs, from 25 hospitals at 10 sites
throughout the United States. Partici-
pants were recruited within days after
birth. Participating mothers had to be
over 18, English-speaking, and healthy.
Design: Ongoing longitudinal study,
with many repeated measures from
birth to age 10, looking especially at
child-care arrangements and at social,
emotional, and cognitive development.
The data from this study have been
used for many purposes; here we focus
on correlations between infant care and
later development.
Major conclusions: Quality of maternal
care is more important than specifics of
care. Poor-quality day care, especially in
infancy, has some long-term negative
effects. Some researchers have found
that nonmaternal care for 40 or more
hours per week increases the risk of
later aggression.
Comment:This study is large, diverse,
and ongoing, and it continues to pro-
vide fascinating results. One strength is
that many regions within the United
States were sampled; one weakness is
that only one nation was studied.The
main drawback is that low-SES and im-
migrant mothers are not adequately
represented.
➤Response for Grandmothers (from
page 197): Fathers can be great caregivers,
and most mothers prefer that the father
provide care. It’s good for the baby and the
marriage. Being tossed in the air is great fun
(as long as the father is careful and a good
catcher!). A generation or two ago, mothers
seldom let fathers care for infants.
Fortunately, today’s mothers are less likely to
act as gatekeepers, shutting the fathers out.
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sensitive and the infant spends more than 20 hours a week in a poor-
quality program in which there are too few caregivers, with too little
training) (NICHD, 2005).
Although the mother’s sensitivity is the best predictor of a child’s social
skills, day care can have a significant effect, too. Some children, espe-
cially boys, who receive extensive nonmaternal care are more quarrel-
some and have more conflicts with their teachers than does the average
student (NICHD, 2003).
The negative effects of poor care have also been found in a study in
Israel of 758 infants. Those cared for at home by an attentive father or
grandmother seemed to do very well, as did those in a high-quality day-
care center. However, those cared for in a center with untrained care-
givers and only one adult for five infants fared poorly (Sagi et al., 2002).
Other studies also find that a 5:1 ratio of infants to adults is too high;
5:2 not only allows caregivers to provide better instruction and support
but also makes children more cooperative (de Schipper et al., 2006).
Regarding home care, children whose primary caregiver is depressed
fare worse than they would in center care (Loeb et al., 2004). Many studies find
that out-of-home day care is better than in-home care if an infant’s family does not
provide adequate stimulation and attention (Ramey et al., 2002; Votruba-Drzal
et al., 2004).
Among the benefits of day care is the opportunity to learn to express emotions.
When a toddler is temperamentally very shy or aggressive, he or she is less likely to
remain so if caregivers and other children are available as social references (Fox
et al., 2001; Zigler & Styfco, 2001). But no expert would say that all infants are
better off either in day care or at home.
SUMMING UP
Infants seek social bonds, which they develop with one or several people. Synchrony
begins in the early months: Infants and caregivers interact face to face, making split-
second adjustments in their emotional responses to each other. Synchrony evolves into
attachment, an emotional bond with adult caregivers. Secure attachment allows learning
to progress; insecure infants are less confident and may develop emotional impairments.
As infants become more curious and as they encounter new toys, people, and events,
they use social referencing to learn whether such new things are fearsome or fun.
The emotional connections evident in synchrony, attachment, and social referencing
may occur with mothers, fathers, other relatives, and day-care providers. Instead of
harming infants, as was once feared, nonmaternal care sometimes enhances infants’
psychosocial development. The quality and continuity of child care matter more than
who provides it.
■
Conclusions in Theory and Practice
You have seen in this chapter that the first two years are filled with psychosocial
interactions, all of which result from genes, maturation, culture, and caregivers.
Each of the five major theories seems plausible. No single theory stands out as
the best.
All theorists agree that the first two years are crucial, with early emotional and
social development influenced by the parents’ behavior, the quality of day care,
cultural patterns, and inborn traits. It has not been proven whether one influence,
such as a good day-care center, compensates for another, such as a depressed
mother (although parental influence is always significant). Multicultural research
Especially for Potential Day-Care
Providers What are some of the benefits
and costs of opening and running a day-care
center?
Conclusions in Theory and Practice 199
Secure Attachment Kirstie and her 10-
month-old daughter Mia enjoy a moment of
synchrony in an infant day-care center spon-
sored by a family-friendly employer, General
Mills. High-quality day care and high-quality
home care are equally likely to foster secure
attachment between mother and infant.
AN
N
H
EI
SE
N
FE
LT
/
AP
P
HO
TO
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has identified a wide variety of practices in differ-
ent societies. These discoveries imply that no one
event (such as toilet training, in Freud’s theory)
determines emotional health.
On the basis of what you have learned, you
could safely advise parents to play with their in-
fants; respond to their physical and emotional
needs; let them explore; maintain a relationship;
pay attention to them; and expect every toddler to
be sometimes angry, sometimes proud, sometimes
fearful. Parental actions and attitudes may or may
not have a powerful impact on later development,
but they certainly can make infants happier or sad-
der. Parental attentiveness leads to synchrony, at-
tachment, and social referencing, which are crucial
to infant and toddler development.
Such generalities are not good enough for
Jacob, or for all the other infants who show signs
of malnutrition, delayed language, poor social
skills, abnormal emotional development, insecure
or disorganized attachment, or other deficits. In
dealing with individual children who have prob-
lems, we need to be more specific.
Jacob was 3 years old but not talking. Even in
his first year, his psychosocial development was
impaired. Looking at Table 7.6 on infant develop-
ment, you can see that even at 3 months he was
unusual in his reaction to familiar people. All in-
fants need one or two people who are emotionally
invested in them from the first days of life, and it
is not clear that Jacob had anyone, including his
nanny, who did not speak English, or his parents.
There is no indication of synchrony or attachment.
Something had to be done, as the parents even-
tually realized. They took Jacob for evaluation at a
major teaching hospital. He was seen by at least
10 experts, none of whom said anything encouraging. The diagnosis was “pervasive
developmental disorder,” which suggests serious brain abnormality.
Fortunately, Jacob’s parents then consulted a psychiatrist who specialized in chil-
dren with psychosocial problems (Greenspan & Wieder, 2003). He showed them
how to relate to Jacob, saying, “I am going to teach you how to play with your son.”
They learned about “floor time,” four hours a day set aside to get on their son’s level
and interact: Imitate him, act as if they are part of the game, put their faces and
bodies in front of his, create synchrony even though Jacob did not initiate it.
The father reports:
We rebuilt Jacob’s connection to us and to the world—but on his terms. We were
drilled to always follow his lead, to always build on his initiative. In a sense, we
could only ask Jacob to join our world if we were willing to enter his. . . . He would
drop rocks and we would catch them. He would want to put pennies in a bank
and we would block the slot. He would want to run in a circle and we would get
in his way.
I remember a cold fall day when I was putting lime on our lawn. He dipped
his hand in the powder and let it slip through his fingers. He loved the way it
200 CHAPTER 7 ■ The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development
TABLE 7.6
AT ABOUT THIS TIME: Infancy
Approximate Age Characteristic or Achievement
3 months Rolls over
Stays half-upright in stroller
Uses two eyes together
Grabs for object; if rattle in hand, can shake it
Makes cooing noises
Joyous recognition of familiar people
6 months Sits up, without adult support (but sometimes using arms)
Grabs and can grasp objects with whole hand
Smiles and laughs
Babbles, listens, and responds with facial expression
Tries to crawl (on belly, not yet on all fours)
Stands and bounces with support
(on someone’s lap, in a bouncer)
Begins to shows signs of anger, fear, attachment
12 months Stands without holding on
Crawls well
Takes a few unsteady steps
Uses fingers, including pincer grasp (thumb and forefingers)
Can feed self with fingers
Speaks a few words (mama, dada, baba)
Strong attachment to familiar caregivers
Apparent fear of strangers, of unexpected noises and events
18 months Walks well
Runs, but also falls
Tries to climb on furniture
Speaks 50–100 words; most are nouns
Begins toilet training
Likes to drop things, throw things, take things apart
Recognizes self in mirror
24 months Runs well
Climbs up (down is harder)
Uses simple tools (spoon, large marker)
Combines words (usually noun/verb,
sometimes noun/verb/noun)
Can use fingers to unscrew tops, open doors
Very interested in new experiences and new children
An Eventful Time This table lists aspects of
development that have been discussed in
Chapters 5, 6, and 7. Throughout infancy, tem-
perament and experience affect when and
how babies display the characteristics and
achievements listed here. The list is meant as
a rough guideline, not as a yardstick for indi-
cating a child’s progress in intelligence or any
other trait.
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Emotional Development
1. Two emotions, contentment and distress, appear as soon as
an infant is born. Anger emerges with restriction and frustration,
between 4 and 8 months of age, and becomes stronger by age 1.
2. Reflexive fear is apparent in very young infants. However, fear
of something specific, including fear of strangers and fear of sepa-
ration, does not appear until toward the end of the first year.
3. In the second year, social awareness produces more selective
fear, anger, and joy. As infants become increasingly self-aware
at about 18 months, emotions—specifically, pride, shame, and
affection—emerge that encourage an interface between the self
and others.
Theories About Infant Psychosocial Development
4. According to all five major theories, caregiver behavior is espe-
cially influential in the first two years. Freud stressed the mother’s
impact on oral and anal pleasure; Erikson emphasized trust and
autonomy.
5. Behaviorists focus on learning; parents teach their babies
many things, including when to be fearful or joyful. Cognitive
theory holds that infants develop working models based on their
experiences.
6. Epigenetic theory emphasizes temperament, a set of genetic
traits whose expression is influenced by the environment.
Parental practices inhibit and guide a child’s temperament, but
they do not create it. Ideally, a good fit develops between the
parents’ actions and the child’s personality.
7. The sociocultural approach notes the impact of social and
cultural factors on the parent–infant relationship. Ethnotheories
shape infant emotions and traits so that they fit well within the
culture. Some cultures encourage proximal parenting (more
physical touch); others promote distal parenting (more talk and
object play).
The Development of Social Bonds
8. By 3 months, infants become more responsive and social, and
synchrony begins. Synchrony involves moment-by-moment inter-
action. Caregivers need to be responsive and sensitive. Infants
are disturbed by a still face because they expect and need social
interaction.
SUMMARY
felt. I took the lawn spreader and ran to the other part of our yard. He ran after
me. I let him have one dip and ran across the yard again. He dipped, I ran, he
dipped, I ran. We did this until I could no longer move my arms.
[Jacob’s father, 1997, p. 62]
Jacob’s case is obviously extreme, but many infants and parents have difficulty
establishing synchrony. From the perspective of early psychosocial development,
nothing could be more important than a connection like the one Jacob and his
parents established.
In Jacob’s case it worked. He said his first word at age 3, and by age 5 . . . he
speaks for days at a time. He talks from the moment he wakes up to the moment
he falls asleep, as if he is making up for lost time. He wants to know everything.
“How does a live chicken become an eating chicken? Why are microbes so small?
Why do policemen wear badges? Why are dinosaurs extinct? What is French?
[A question I often ask myself.] Why do ghosts glow in the dark?” He is not
satisfied with answers that do not ring true or that do not satisfy his standards of
clarity. He will keep on asking until he gets it. Rebecca and I have become expert
definition providers. Just last week, we were faced with the ultimate challenge:
“Dad,” he asked: “Is God real or not?” And then, just to make it a bit more chal-
lenging, he added: “How do miracles happen?”
[Jacob’s father, 1997, p. 63]
Miracles do not always happen. Children with pervasive developmental disor-
der usually require special care throughout childhood; Jacob may continue to
need extra attention. Nevertheless, almost all infants, almost all the time, develop
strong relationships with their close family members. The power of early psycho-
social development is obvious to every developmentalist and, it is hoped, to every
reader of this text.
Summary 201
➤Response for Potential Day-Care
Providers (from page 199): A high-quality
day-care center needs trained and responsive
adults and a clean, safe space—all of which
can be expensive and may mean that you
will have to charge higher fees than many
families can afford to pay. The main benefit
for you is knowing that you can make a major
contribution to the well-being of infants and
their families.
➤Response for Day-Care Providers
(from page 198): Reassure the mother that
you will keep her baby safe and will help to
develop the baby’s mind and social skills by
fostering synchrony and attachment. Also
tell her that the quality of mother–infant
interaction at home is more important than
anything else for psychosocial development;
mothers who are employed full time usually
have wonderful, secure relationships with
their infants. If the mother wishes, you can
discuss ways she can be a more responsive
mother.
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7. Why would a mother and father choose not to care for their
infant themselves, 24/7?
8. What are the advantages and disadvantages of three kinds of
nonmaternal infant care: relatives, family day care, and center day
care?
9. Attachments are said to be lifelong. Describe an adult who is
insecurely attached.
10. How would psychosocial development be affected if an infant
spent every day in a crowded day-care center—for example, a
center with eight infants for every caregiver?
11. In terms of infant development, what are the differences be-
tween employed and unemployed mothers?
1. How would a sensitive parent respond to an infant’s distress?
2. How do emotions in the second year of life differ from emotions
in the first year?
3. What are similarities and differences in the two psychoanalytic
theories of infancy?
4. How might synchrony affect the development of emotions in
the first year?
5. What is an example of an ethnotheory of your culture that dif-
fers from those of other cultures?
6. What are the similarities between epigenetic and sociocultural
theories of infant emotions?
infant is available, observe a pair of lovers as they converse. Note
the sequence and timing of every facial expression, sound, and
gesture of both partners.
3. Telephone several day-care centers to try to assess the quality
of care they provide. Ask about such factors as adult–child ratio,
group size, and training for caregivers of children of various ages.
Is there a minimum age? If so, why was that age chosen? Analyze
the answers, using Table 7.5 as a guide.
1. One cultural factor influencing infant development is how
infants are carried from place to place. Ask four mothers whose
infants were born in each of the past four decades how they trans-
ported them—front or back carriers, facing out or in, strollers or
carriages, car seats or on mother’s laps, and so on. Why did they
choose the mode(s) they chose? What are their opinions and yours
on how that cultural practice might affect infants’ development?
2. Observe synchrony for three minutes. Ideally, ask the parent of
an infant under 8 months of age to play with the infant. If no
KEY QUESTIONS
APPLICATIONS
202 CHAPTER 7 ■ The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development
social smile (p. 180)
stranger wariness (p. 181)
separation anxiety (p. 181)
self-awareness (p. 182)
trust versus mistrust (p. 183)
autonomy versus shame and
doubt (p. 184)
social learning (p. 184)
working model (p. 184)
temperament (p. 185)
goodness of fit (p. 187)
ethnotheory (p. 188)
proximal parenting (p. 189)
distal parenting (p. 189)
synchrony (p. 191)
still-face technique (p. 192)
attachment (p. 192)
secure attachment (p. 193)
insecure-avoidant attachment
(p. 194)
insecure-resistant/ambivalent
attachment (p. 194)
disorganized attachment
(p. 194)
Strange Situation (p. 194)
social referencing (p. 196)
family day care (p. 197)
center day care (p. 197)
KEY TERMS
9. Attachment, measured by the baby’s reaction to the caregiver’s
presence, departure, and return in the Strange Situation, is crucial.
Some infants seem indifferent (type A—insecure-avoidant) or
overly dependent (type C—insecure-resistant/ambivalent), instead
of secure (type B). Disorganized attachment (type D) is the most
worrisome form.
10. Secure attachment provides encouragement for infant explo-
ration. As they play, toddlers engage in social referencing, looking
to other people’s facial expressions to detect what is fearsome and
what is enjoyable.
11. Fathers are wonderful playmates for infants, who frequently
consult them, as well as their mothers, as social references.
12. Day care for infants seems, on the whole, to be a positive
experience, especially for cognitive development. Psychosocial
characteristics, including secure attachment, are influenced more
by the mother’s warmth than by the number of hours spent in
nonmaternal care. Quality of care is crucial, no matter who pro-
vides that care.
Conclusions in Theory and Practice
13. Experts debate exactly how critical early psychosocial devel-
opment may be: Is it the essential foundation for all later growth
or just one of many steps along the way? However, all infants
need caregivers who are committed to them and are dedicated to
encouraging each aspect of early development.
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The First Two Years
PA R T I I
BIOSOCIAL
Body Changes Over the first two years, the body quadruples in weight and the brain
triples in weight. Connections between brain cells grow increasingly dense, with com-
plex neural networks of dendrites and axons. Neurons become coated with an insulat-
ing layer of myelin, sending messages faster and more efficiently, and the various
states—sleeping, waking, exploring—become more distinct. Experiences that are uni-
versal (experience-expectant) and culture-bound (experience-dependent) both aid brain
growth, partly by allowing pruning of unused connections between neurons.
Senses and Motor Skills Brain maturation underlies the development of all the
senses. Seeing, hearing, and mobility progress from reflexes to coordinated voluntary
actions, including focusing, grasping, and walking. Culture is evident in sensory and
motor development, as brain networks respond to the particulars of each infant’s life.
Public Health Infant health depends on immunization, parental practices (including
“back to sleep”), and nutrition (ideally, breast milk). Survival rates are much higher
today than they were even a few decades ago, yet in some regions of the world infant
growth is still stunted because of malnutrition.
COGNITIVE
Sensorimotor Intelligence and Information Processing As Piaget describes it, during
the first two years (sensorimotor intelligence) infants progress from knowing their world
through immediate sensory experiences to being able to “experiment” on that world
through actions and mental images. Information-processing theory stresses the links be-
tween input (sensory experiences) and output (perception). Infants develop affordances,
their own ideas regarding the possibilities offered by the objects and events of the world.
Recent research finds traces of memory at 3 months, object permanence at 4 months,
and deferred imitation at 9 months—all much younger ages than Piaget described.
Language Interaction with responsive adults exposes infants to the structure of com-
munication and thus language. By age 1, infants can usually speak a word or two; by
age 2, language has exploded, as toddlers talk in short sentences and add vocabulary
words each day. Language develops through reinforcement, neurological maturation,
and social motivation.
PSYCHOSOCIAL
Emotions and Theories Emotions develop from basic newborn reactions to complex,
self-conscious responses. Infants’ increasing self-awareness and independence are
shaped by parents, in a transition explained by Freud’s oral and anal stages, by Erikson’s
crises of trust versus mistrust and autonomy versus shame and doubt, by behaviorism
in the focus on parental responses, and by cognitive theory’s working models. Much of
basic temperament—and therefore personality—is inborn and apparent throughout life,
as epigenetic theory explains. Sociocultural theory stresses cultural norms, evident in
parents’ ethnotheories that guide them in raising their infants.
The Development of Social Bonds Early on, parents and infants respond to each
other by synchronizing their behavior in social play. Toward the end of the first year,
secure attachment between child and parent sets the stage for the child’s increasingly
independent exploration of the world. Insecure attachment—avoidant, resistant, or
disorganized—signifies a parent–child relationship that hinders infant learning. Infants
become active participants in social interactions. Fathers and day-care providers, as
well as mothers, encourage infants’ social confidence.
The Developing Person So Far:
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The Play
Years
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CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
T
he years from age 2 to age 6 are often
called early childhood or the preschool
period. In this book we also call them the
play years. People of all ages play, of
course, but this is prime time. During early child-
hood, children spend most of their waking hours
discovering, creating, laughing, and imagining as
they acquire the skills they will need. They chase
each other and attempt new challenges (developing
their bodies); they play with sounds, words, and
ideas (developing their minds); they invent games
and dramatize fantasies (learning social skills and
moral rules).
Playfulness makes young children exasperating
as well as delightful. To them, growing up is a game,
and their enthusiasm for it seems unlimited—
whether they are quietly tracking a beetle through
the grass or riotously turning their bedroom into a
shambles. Their minds seem playful, too, when they
explain that “a bald man has a barefoot head” or
that “the sun shines so children can go outside to
play.”
If you expect young children to sit quietly or
think logically, you’ll be disappointed. But if you
enjoy play, then these children will bring you joy.
PA R T I I I
205
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The Play Years:
Biosocial Development
When you were 3 years old, I hope you wanted to fly like a bird,a plane, or Superman, and I hope someone kept you safe.Protection is needed, as well as appreciation of this period ofdevelopment. Do you remember learning to skip or to write
your name? Three-year-olds try all these, but they shuffle instead of skip,
and they forget letters of the alphabet. By age 6, they can skip, write, and
much more, as long as they have had enough practice.
Thus, not only do children grow bigger and stronger, they also become
more skilled at hundreds of tasks. These advances and the need to protect
children against serious problems that sometimes occur, are themes of this
chapter.
Body Changes
Compared with cute and chubby 1-year-olds, 6-year-olds are grown up. As
in infancy, the body and brain develop according to powerful epigenetic
forces, biologically driven as well as socially guided, experience-expectant
and experience-dependent (as explained in Chapter 5).
Growth Patterns
Just comparing a toddling 1-year-old and a cartwheeling 6-year-old makes
some differences obvious. During the play years, children become slimmer
as the lower body lengthens and baby fat turns to muscle. In fact, the body
mass index (or BMI, the ratio of weight to height) is lower at age 5 than at
any other age in the entire life span (Guillaume & Lissau, 2002). Gone are
the protruding belly, round face, short limbs, and large head that characterize
the toddler. The center of gravity moves from the breastbone to the belly
button, enabling cartwheels and many other motor skills.
Increases in height and weight accompany these changes in proportions.
Each year from age 2 through 6, well-nourished children add almost 3 inches
(about 7 centimeters) and gain about 41⁄2 pounds (2 kilograms). By age 6, the
average child in a developed nation weighs about 46 pounds (21 kilograms)
and is 46 inches (117 centimeters) tall. (As my nephew David said at that
point, “In numbers I am square now.”)
8
207
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� Body Changes
Growth Patterns
Eating Habits
� Brain Development
Speed of Thought
Connecting the Brain’s Hemispheres
Planning and Analyzing
Emotions and the Brain
Motor Skills
� Injuries and Abuse
Avoidable Injury
IN PERSON: “My Baby Swallowed Poison”
Child Maltreatment
A CASE TO STUDY: A Series of
Suspicious Events
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A typical 6-year-old:
■ Is at least 31⁄2 feet tall (more than 100 centimeters)
■ Weighs between 40 and 50 pounds (between 18 and 22 kilograms)
■ Looks lean, not chubby (ages 5–6 are lowest in body fat)
■ Has adult-like body proportions (legs constitute about half the total height)
When many ethnic groups live together in the same developed nation, children
of African descent tend to be tallest, followed by those of European descent, then
Asians, and then Latinos. However, height differences within groups are greater
than the average differences between groups. Body size is especially variable
among children of African descent, because Africans are more genetically diverse
than people from other continents (Goel et al., 2004).
Over the centuries, low-income families encouraged their children to eat, so
that they would have a reserve of fat to protect them in times of famine. Now the
same pattern has become destructive. In Brazil, for example, undernutrition
caused two-thirds of all nutrition problems in 1975. By l997, overnutrition was the
most common problem (Monteiro et al., 2004).
A detailed study of 2- to 4-year-olds in low-income families in New York City
found many overweight children, with the proportion increasing as income fell
(Nelson et al., 2004). Further, more 4-year-olds than 2-year-olds were overweight
(27 percent compared with 14 percent), which suggests that eating habits, not
genes, were the cause. Overweight children were
more likely to be of Hispanic (27 percent) or Asian
(22 percent) descent than of African (14 percent) or
European background (11 percent).
Such problems are not limited to New York City.
Worldwide, an epidemic of adult heart disease and
diabetes is spreading, and the major cause is the
overfeeding of children (Gluckman & Hanson, 2006).
It has been predicted that by 2020 more than 228
million adults worldwide will have diabetes (more in
India than in any other nation) as a result of un-
healthy eating habits acquired in childhood.
Eating Habits
Compared with infants, young children—especially
modern children, who play outdoors less than their
parents or grandparents did—need far fewer calories per pound of body weight.
Consequently, appetite decreases between ages 2 and 6. Instead of appreciating
this natural development, many parents fret, threaten, and cajole their children
into eating more than they should (“Eat all your dinner, and you can have ice
cream”).
Nutritional Deficiencies
Although most children in developed nations consume enough calories, they do
not always obtain adequate iron, zinc, and calcium. For example, consumption of
calcium is lower than it was 20 years ago because children today drink less milk
and more soda (Jahns et al., 2001). Another problem is sugar. Many cultures en-
courage children to eat sweets, in birthday cake, holiday candy, desserts, and other
treats. Yet sugar causes tooth decay, the most common disease of young children
in developed nations (Lewit & Kerrebrock, 1998).
208 CHAPTER 8 ■ The Play Years: Biosocial Development
No Spilled Milk This girl is demonstrating
her mastery of the motor skills involved in
pouring milk, to the evident admiration of her
friend. The next skill will be drinking it—not a
foregone conclusion, given the lactose intol-
erance of some children and the small ap-
petites and notorious pickiness of children
this age.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 211):
What three things can you see that indicate
that this attempt at pouring will probably be
successful?
LA
UR
A
DW
IG
HT
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Sweetened cereals and drinks that are advertised as containing 100 percent of a
day’s vitamin requirements are a poor substitute for a balanced diet for many rea-
sons besides their high sugar content. One is that some essential nutrients have
probably not yet been identified, much less listed on food labels. Another is that
fresh fruits and vegetables provide more than vitamins; they also provide other
diet essentials, such as fiber and fat.
Just Right
Many young children are quite compulsive about daily routines, including meals.
They insist on eating only certain foods, prepared and placed in a particular way.
This rigidity, known as the “just right” or “just so” phenomenon, would be patholog-
ical in adults but is normal and widespread among young children. For example:
Whereas parents may insist that the child eat his vegetables at dinner, the child
may insist that the potatoes be placed only in a certain part of the plate and must
not touch any other food; should the potatoes land outside of this area, the child
may seem to experience a sense of near-contamination, setting off a tirade of
fussiness for which many 2- and 3-year-olds are notorious.
[Evans et al., 1997]
Most young children’s food preferences and rituals are far from ideal. (One
3-year-old I know wanted to eat only cream cheese sandwiches on white bread;
one 4-year-old, only fast-food chicken nuggets.) When 1,500 parents were surveyed
about their 1- to 6-year-olds (Evans et al., 1997), over 75 percent reported that
their children’s just-right phase peaked at about age 3, when the children:
■ Preferred to have things done in a particular order or in a certain way
■ Had a strong preference to wear (or not wear) certain clothes
■ Prepared for bedtime by engaging in a special activity, routine, or
ritual
■ Had strong preferences for certain foods
By age 6, this rigidity fades somewhat (see Figure 8.1). Another team
of experts puts it this way: “Most, if not all, children exhibit normal
age-dependent obsessive compulsive behaviors [which are] usually
gone by middle childhood” (March et al., 2004, p. 216).
The best advice for parents is probably to be patient until the just-
right obsession fades away. Insistence on a particular routine, a pre-
ferred pair of shoes, or a favorite cup can usually be accommodated
until the child gets a little older.
Overeating is another story. Almost no young child anywhere in the
world, except in times of famine or war, is underfed during these
years. Ideally, children would have only healthy foods to eat, a strategy
that would protect their health lifelong (Gluckman & Hanson, 2006).
Instead, at least in the United States, most children have several
unhealthy snacks each day (Jahns et al., 2001).
SUMMING UP
During the play years, children grow steadily taller and proportionately thinner, with vari-
ations depending on genes, gender, nutrition, income, and other factors. Overweight
is more common than underweight. One reason is that adults encourage overeating.
Another is that young children usually have small appetites and picky habits but are
rewarded with foods that are high in calories yet low in nutrition.
■
Especially for Parents of Fussy Eaters
You prepare a variety of vegetables and fruits,
but your 4-year-old wants only French fries
and cake. What should you do?
Body Changes 209
Score on
“just right”
survey items
1 2 43
Age (in years)
5
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
Source: Evans et al., 1997.
FIGURE 8.1
Young Children’s Insistence on Routine
This chart shows the average scores of
children (who are rated by their parents) on
a survey indicating the child’s desire to have
certain things—including food selection and
preparation—done “just right.” Such strong
preferences for rigid routines tend to fade
by age 6.
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Brain Development
Brains grow rapidly even before birth. By age 2, not only have brains increased in
size but also a great deal of pruning of dendrites has already occurred. The 2-year-
old brain weighs 75 percent of what it will weigh in adulthood. (The major struc-
tures of the brain are diagrammed in Appendix A, p. A-30.)
Since most of the brain is already present and functioning, what remains to
develop after age 2? The most important parts! Those functions of the brain that
make us most human are the ones that develop after infancy, enabling quicker,
more coordinated, and more reflective thought (Kagan & Herschkowitz, 2005).
Brain growth after infancy is a crucial difference between humans and other
animals.
Speed of Thought
After infancy, continued proliferation of the communication pathways (dendrites
and axons) results in some brain growth. However, most of the increase in brain
weight (to 90 percent of adult weight by age 5) occurs because of myelination
(Sampaio & Truwit, 2001). Myelin is a fatty coating on the axons that speeds signals
between neurons, like insulation wrapped around electric wires to aid conduction.
The effects of myelination are most noticeable in early childhood (Nelson
et al., 2006). Greater speed becomes pivotal when several thoughts must occur in
rapid succession. By age 6 most children can listen and then answer, catch a ball
and then throw it, write the alphabet in sequence, and so on.
Parents must still be patient when listening to young children talk, when help-
ing them get dressed, or when watching them try to write their names. All these
tasks are completed more slowly by 6-year-olds than by 16-year-olds. However,
thanks to myelination, preschoolers are at least quicker than toddlers, who may
take so long that they forget what they were doing before they finish.
Connecting the Brain’s Hemispheres
One part of the brain that grows and myelinates rapidly during the play years is the
corpus callosum, a band of nerve fibers that connect the left and right sides of
the brain (see Figure 8.2). Growth of the corpus callosum makes communication
between the two brain hemispheres more efficient, allowing children to coordinate
the two sides of the brain or body. Failure of the corpus callosum to develop normally
may result in serious disorders, including autism (Diwadkar & Keshavan, 2006).
To understand the significance of coordination of the two brain hemispheres,
you need to realize that the two sides of the body and brain are not identical.
Each side specializes, so each is dominant for certain functions—a process called
lateralization. Lateralization, or “sidedness,” is apparent not only in right- or
left-handedness but also in the feet, eyes, ears, and the brain itself. Such special-
ization is epigenetic, prompted by genes, prenatal hormones, and early experiences.
The Left-Handed Child
Infants and toddlers usually prefer one hand over the other for grabbing a spoon, a
rattle, and so on. For centuries, parents who saw a preference for the left hand
forced their children to be right-handed. Indeed, since most people are right-
handed, the common assumption was that right-handedness was best. This bias is
still evident in language. In English, a “left-handed compliment” is insincere, and
no one wants to be “left back” or “out in left field.” In Latin, dexter (as in dexterity)
means “right” and sinister means “left” (and also “evil”). Gauche, which in English
means “socially awkward,” is the French word for “left.”
myelination The process by which axons
become coated with myelin, a fatty sub-
stance that speeds the transmission of
nerve impulses from neuron to neuron.
corpus callosum A long band of nerve fibers
that connect the left and right hemispheres
of the brain.
lateralization Literally, sidedness. The spe-
cialization in certain functions by each side
of the brain, with one side dominant for
each activity. The left side of the brain con-
trols the right side of the body, and vice
versa.
210 CHAPTER 8 ■ The Play Years: Biosocial Development
Especially for Early-Childhood Teachers
You know you should be patient, but you feel
your frustration rising when your young
charges dawdle on the walk to the playground
a block away. What should you do?
➤Response for Parents of Fussy Eaters
(from page 209): The nutritionally wise answer
would be to offer only fruits, vegetables, and
other nourishing, low-fat foods, counting on
the child’s eventual hunger to drive him or her
to eat them. However, centuries of cultural
custom make it almost impossible for parents
to be wise in such cases. Perhaps the best
you can do is to discuss the dilemma with a
nutritionist or pediatrician, who can advise you
about what to do for your particular child.
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Customs, including taboos, also favor right-handed people. For example, in many
Asian and African nations, only the left hand is used for wiping after defecation;
it is a major insult to give someone anything with that “dirty” hand.
Developmentalists advise against trying to switch a child’s handedness, not only
because this causes needless parent–child conflict but also because it might inter-
fere with the natural and necessary process of lateralization. Left-handed adults
tend to have thicker corpus callosa than others, which may enable better coordi-
nation of both sides of the body (Cherbuin & Brinkman, 2006). A disproportion-
ate number of artists, musicians, and sports stars are left-handed.
The Whole Brain
Through studies of people with brain damage as well as through brain imaging,
neurologists have determined how the brain’s hemispheres specialize: The left
half controls the right side of the body and contains the areas dedicated to logical
reasoning, detailed analysis, and the basics of language; the right half controls the
left side of the body and contains the areas dedicated to generalized emotional and
creative impulses, including appreciation of most music, art, and poetry. Thus, the
Brain Development 211
Corpus callosum
(a)
(b)
FIGURE 8.2
Connections Two views of the corpus callosum, a band
of nerve fibers (axons) that convey information between
the two hemispheres of the brain. When developed, this
“connector” allows the person to coordinate functions
that are performed mainly by one hemisphere or the
other. (a) A view from between the hemispheres, looking
toward the right side of the brain. (b) A view from above,
with the gray matter removed in order to expose the
corpus callosum.
Especially for Left-Handed Adults If you
have a left-handed child (as you very well
might, since handedness is partly genetic), at
what age would you try to switch him or her?
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 208): The cup, the pitcher, and the
person. The cup has an unusually wide
opening; the pitcher is small and has a sturdy
handle; and the girl is using both hands and
giving her full concentration to the task.
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left side notices details and the right side grasps the big picture—a
distinction that should provide a clue in interpreting Figure 8.3.
No one (except severely brain-damaged people) is exclusively left-
brained or right-brained. Every cognitive skill requires both sides of
the brain, just as gross motor skills require both sides of the body
(Hugdahl & Davidson, 2002). Because older children have more
myelinated fibers in the corpus callosum to speed signals between
the two hemispheres, better thinking and less clumsy actions are
possible for them.
Planning and Analyzing
You learned in Chapter 5 that the prefrontal cortex (sometimes called
the frontal cortex or frontal lobe) is an area in the very front part of the
brain’s outer layer (the cortex), under the forehead. It “underlies
higher-order cognition, including planning and complex forms of goal-directed
behavior” (Luciana, 2003, p. 163). The prefrontal cortex is crucial for humans; it is
said to be the executive of the brain because all the other areas of the cortex are
ruled by prefrontal decisions. For example, a person might feel anxious on meeting
someone new, whose friendship may be valuable in the future. The prefrontal cortex
can calculate and plan, not letting the anxious feelings prevent the acquaintance.
Maturation of the Prefrontal Cortex
The frontal lobe “shows the most prolonged period of postnatal development of
any region of the human brain” (Johnson, 2005, p. 210), with dendrite density and
myelination increasing throughout childhood and adolescence (Nelson et al.,
2006). Several notable benefits of maturation of the prefrontal cortex occur from
ages 2 to 6:
■ Sleep becomes more regular.
■ Emotions become more nuanced and responsive to specific stimuli.
■ Temper tantrums subside.
■ Uncontrollable laughter or tears become less common.
In one series of experiments, 3-year-olds consistently made a stunning mistake
(Zelazo et al., 2003). The children were given a set of cards with clear outlines of
trucks or flowers, some red and some blue. They were asked to “play the shape
game,” putting trucks in one pile and flowers in another. Three-year-olds can do
this correctly, as can some 2-year-olds and almost all older children.
Then the children were asked to “play the color game,” sorting the
cards by color. Most of them failed at this task, sorting by shape
instead. This study has been replicated in many nations, and 3-year-
olds usually get stuck on their initial sorting pattern (Diamond &
Kirkham, 2005). Most older children, even 4-year-olds, make the
switch.
When this result was first obtained, experimenters wondered
whether the children didn’t know their colors, so the scientists
switched the order, first playing “the color game.” Most 3-year-olds
did that correctly. Then, when they were asked to play “the shape
game,” they still sorted by color. Even with a new set of cards, such
as yellow or green rabbits or boats, they still tend to sort by the
criterion (either color or shape) that was used in their first trial.
Researchers are looking into many possible explanations for this
surprising result (Müller et al., 2006; Yerys & Munakata, 2006). All
212 CHAPTER 8 ■ The Play Years: Biosocial Development
FIGURE 8.3
Copy What You See Brain-damaged adults
were asked to copy the figure at the left in
each row. One person drew the middle set,
another the set at the right.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 214):
Which set was drawn by someone with left-
side damage and which set by someone with
right-side damage?
No Writer’s Block The context is designed
to help this South African second-grader
concentrate on her schoolwork. Large, one-
person desks, uniforms, notebooks, and
sharp pencils are manageable for the brains
and skills of elementary school children, but
not yet for preschoolers.
M
. M
EY
ER
SF
EL
D
/ M
AS
TE
RF
IL
E
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agree, however, that something in the executive function of the brain must mature
before children are able to switch from one way of sorting objects to another.
An everyday example is the game Simon Says, in which children are supposed
to follow the leader only when his or her orders are preceded by the words “Simon
says.” Thus when leaders touch their noses and say, “Simon says touch your nose,”
children are supposed to touch their noses; but when leaders touch their noses
and merely say, “Touch your nose,” no one is supposed to follow the example.
Young children quickly lose at this game because they impulsively do what they
see and are told to do. Older children are better at it because they can think
before acting.
Maturation of the prefrontal cortex is also discussed in Chapters 5, 11, and 14.
Attention
A major function of the prefrontal cortex is to focus attention and thus to curb impul-
siveness. A 3-year-old jumps from task to task and cannot be still, even in church or
any other place that requires quiet. Similarly, younger children may want to play with
a toy that another child has but lose interest by the time that toy becomes available.
The opposite of the impatient child is the child who plays with one toy for
hours. Perseveration is the name for the tendency to persevere in, or stick to,
one thought or action. Perseveration is evident in the card-sorting study and in
young children’s tendency to repeat one phrase or question again and again or to
throw a tantrum when their favorite TV show is interrupted. That tantrum itself
may perseverate: The child’s crying may become uncontrollable and unstoppable,
as if the child is stuck in that emotion.
Impulsiveness and perseveration are opposite behaviors with the same under-
lying cause: immaturity of the prefrontal cortex. Over the play years, brain matura-
tion (innate) and emotional regulation (learned) decrease both impulsiveness and
perseveration. Children gradually become able to pay attention when necessary
(de Haan & Johnson, 2003).
Emotions and the Brain
Now that we have looked at the brain structures involved in planning and analyzing,
we turn to the limbic system, an area of the brain that is crucial in the expression
and regulation of emotions. Both expression and regulation advance during the
play years (more about that in Chapter 10). Three major parts of the limbic system
are the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the hypothalamus.
The amygdala, a tiny structure deep in the brain (named after an almond, be-
cause it is about that shape and size), registers emotions, both positive and negative,
especially fear (Nelson et al., 2006). Increased activity of the amygdala is one reason
some young children have terrifying nightmares or sudden terrors.
Fear can overwhelm the prefrontal cortex and disrupt a child’s ability to reason.
If a child is scared of, say, a lion in the closet, an adult should open the closet door
and tell the lion to go home, not laugh or insist that the fear is nonsense.
The amygdala responds to facial expressions (Vasa & Pine, 2004). This is part
of social referencing, explained in Chapter 7. If a child sees a parent look terrified
when a strange dog approaches, the child may also feel extreme fear, and if this
recurs often enough, the child’s amygdala may become hypersensitive. If instead
the parent conveys pleasure or curiosity about the dog, the child will probably
overcome initial feelings of fear because of another structure in the brain’s limbic
system, the hippocampus.
The hippocampus is located right next to the amygdala. It is a central proces-
sor of memory, especially memory of locations. The hippocampus responds to the
perseveration The tendency to persevere in,
or stick to, one thought or action for a long
time.
amygdala A tiny brain structure that registers
emotions, particularly fear and anxiety.
Brain Development 213
➤Response for Early-Childhood
Teachers (from page 210): One solution is to
remind yourself that the children’s brains are
not yet myelinated enough to enable them to
quickly walk, talk, or even button their jackets.
Maturation has a major effect, as you will
observe if you can schedule excursions in
September and again in November. Progress,
while still slow, will be a few seconds faster
in November than it was in September.
➤Response for Left-handed Adults
(from page 211): Preferably never! Most
left-handed adults are quite proud of their
distinctiveness. Developmentalists now
recommend that natural dominance prevail.
However, if you still want your child to switch,
early childhood is too late, as brain lateraliza-
tion has begun. In the first weeks of life, you
might encourage right-handedness—but
don’t insist.
hippocampus A brain structure that is a
central processor of memory, especially
the memory of locations.
Especially for Brain Experts Why do
most neurologists think the limbic system is
an oversimplification?
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anxieties of the amygdala with memory; it makes the child remember, for instance,
that Mother petted a dog at a neighbor’s house.
Memories of location are fragile in early childhood because the hippocampus is
still developing. Indeed, every type of memory has its own timetable (Nelson &
Webb, 2003); for example, memory for context is less advanced than memory for
content, and source memory (of when, where, and how a certain fact was learned)
is hazy (Cycowicz et al., 2003). A preschool child might claim “No one told me
that. I always knew it” or might remember that something happened but mis-
remember who was involved.
The amygdala and the hippocampus are sometimes helpful, sometimes not, de-
pending on how useful fear and memory are. Some children, because their amyg-
dala and hippocampus are not well developed, might be fearless when they should
remember past events and be cautious. When the amygdala is surgically removed
from animals, they are fearless in situations that should scare them; cats will stroll
nonchalantly along when monkeys are nearby, for instance—something no normal
cat would do (Kolb & Whishaw, 2003).
A third part of the limbic system, the hypothalamus, responds to signals from
the amygdala (arousing) and the hippocampus (usually dampening) to produce
hormones that activate other parts of the brain and body (see Figure 8.4). Ideally,
this occurs in moderation. If excessive stress hormones flood the brain, part of the
hippocampus may be destroyed. Permanent deficits in learning and memory may
result (Davis et al., 2003).
hypothalamus A brain area that responds to
the amygdala and the hippocampus to pro-
duce hormones that activate other parts of
the brain and body.
214 CHAPTER 8 ■ The Play Years: Biosocial Development
The HPA (Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Cortex) Axis
Hypothalamus
Brain
CORT CORT
ACTH
CRH
Pituitary
gland
Amygdala Hippocampus
Adrenal cortex
Hypothalamus
Positive feedback loop
Negative feedback loop
Adrenal cortex
Pituitary
Source: Adapted from Davis et al., 2003, p. 183.
Hippocampus Amygdala
FIGURE 8.4
A Hormonal Feedback Loop This diagram simplifies a hormonal linkage, the HPA axis, involving the limbic system.
Both the hippocampus and the amygdala stimulate the hypothalamus to produce CRH (corticotropin-releasing hormone),
which in turn signals the pituitary gland to produce ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone). ACTH then triggers the pro-
duction of CORT (glucocorticoids) by the adrenal cortex (the outer layers of the adrenal glands, atop the kidneys). The
initial reaction to something frightening may either build or disappear, depending on other factors, including memories,
and on how the various parts of the brain interpret that first alert from the amygdala. (Some other components of this
mechanism have been omitted for the sake of clarity.)
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 212): The middle set, with its careful
details, reflects damage to the right half of
the brain, where overall impressions are
formed. The person with left-brain damage
produced the drawings that were just an M
or a �, without the details of the tiny z’s and
rectangles. With a whole functioning brain,
people can see both “the forest and the
trees.”
➤Response for Brain Experts (from page
213): The more we discover about the brain,
the more complex we realize it is. Each part
has specific functions and is connected to
every other part.
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Stressful experiences—meeting new friends, entering school, visiting a strange
place—probably foster growth if the child has someone or something to moderate
the stress. In an experiment, brain scans and tests of hormone levels measured
stress in 4- to 6-year-olds after a fire alarm. Two weeks later, they were questioned
about the event. Compared with less reactive children, those with higher stress
reactions to the alarm remembered more with a friendly interviewer but less with
a stern interviewer (Quas et al., 2004).
Other research also finds that preschoolers remember traumatic experiences
better if the interviewer is a warm and attentive listener (Bruck et al., 2006). But
stress should not be relentless, without long recovery, because developing brains
are fragile; “prolonged physiological responses to stress and challenge put chil-
dren at risk for a variety of problems in childhood, including physical and mental
disorders, poor emotional regulation, and cognitive impairments” (Quas et al.,
2004, p. 379).
Prolonged stress, with emotional and cognitive impairment, seemed to occur for
the thousands of Romanian children in orphanages (see Chapter 5). When they
saw pictures of happy, sad, frightened, and angry faces, their limbic systems were
less reactive than were those of Romanian children living with their parents. The
brains of the orphans were less lateralized, suggesting less specialized, less efficient
thinking (Parker & Nelson, 2005).
Motor Skills
Maturation of the prefrontal cortex improves impulse control, while myelination
of the corpus callosum and lateralization of the brain permits better coordination.
No wonder children move with greater speed and grace as they age from 2 to 6,
becoming better able to direct and refine their actions. (Table 8.1 lists approxi-
mate ages for the acquisition of various motor skills.)
Brain Development 215
TABLE 8.1
AT ABOUT THIS TIME: Motor Skills at Ages 2–6*
Approx. Skill or Approx. Skill or
Age Achievement Age Achievement
2 years Run for pleasure, without falling (but bumping into things)
Climb chairs, tables, beds, out of cribs
Walk up stairs
Feed self with spoon
Draw lines, spirals
3 years Kick and throw a ball
Jump with both feet off the floor
Pedal a tricycle
Copy simple shapes (e.g., circle, rectangle)
Walk downstairs
Climb ladders
4 years Catch a ball (not too small or thrown too fast)
Use scissors to cut
Hop on either foot
Feed self with fork
Dress self (no tiny buttons, no ties)
Copy most letters
Pour juice without spilling
Brush teeth
5 years Skip and gallop in rhythm
Clap, bang, sing in rhythm
Copy difficult shapes and letters (e.g., diamond shape,
letter S)
Climb trees, jump over things
Use knife to cut
Tie a bow
Throw a ball
Wash face, comb hair
6 years Draw and write with one hand
Write simple words
Scan a page of print, moving the eyes systematically in
the appropriate direction
Ride a bicycle
Do a cartwheel
Tie shoes
Catch a ball
*Context is crucial. (Many 6-year-olds cannot tie shoelaces because they have no shoes with laces.)
DI
GI
IT
AL
V
IS
IO
N
/
PU
N
CH
ST
OC
K
The Joy of Climbing Would you delight in
climbing on an unsteady rope swing, like
this 6-year-old in Japan (and almost all his
contemporaries worldwide)? Each age has
special sources of pleasure.
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According to a study of middle-class and working-class children in Brazil,
Kenya, and the United States (Tudge et al., 2006; see Research Design), young
children spend the majority of their waking time in play, more than they spend in
three other important activities (doing chores, learning lessons, or having conver-
sations with adults) combined (see Figure 8.5). Mastery of gross and fine motor
skills is one result of the extensive active play of young children.
Gross Motor Skills
Gross motor skills—which, as defined in Chapter 5, involve large body move-
ments—improve dramatically. When you watch children play, you can see clumsy
2-year-olds who fall down and sometimes bump into each other, but you can also
see 5-year-olds who are both skilled and graceful.
Most North American 5-year-olds can ride a tricycle; climb a ladder; pump a
swing; and throw, catch, and kick a ball. Some can skate, ski, dive, and ride a
bicycle—activities that demand balance as well as coordination. In some nations,
5-year-olds swim in oceans or climb cliffs. A combination of brain maturation, mo-
tivation, and guided practice makes each of these skills possible.
Adults need to make sure children have safe space, time, and playmates; skills
will follow. According to sociocultural theory, children learn best from peers who
demonstrate whatever skills—from catching a ball to climbing a tree—the child
is ready to try.
216 CHAPTER 8 ■ The Play Years: Biosocial Development
Source: Tudge et al., 2006.
65
60
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
Middle-
class
European
Americans
African
Americans
Brazilians Kenyans
Working-
class
Middle-
class
Working-
class
Middle-
class
Working-
class
Middle-
class
Working-
class
Percent
Time Spent by 3-Year-Olds in Various Activities Play
Activity Categories:
Lessons Work Conversation Other
FIGURE 8.5
Mostly Playing When researchers studied 3-year-olds in the United States, Brazil, and Kenya,
they found that, on average, the children spent more than half their time playing. Note the low
percentages of both middle- and working-class Brazilian children in the Lessons category, which
included all intentional efforts to teach children something. There is a cultural explanation: Unlike
parents in Kenya and the United States, most Brazilian parents believe that children this age
should not be in organized day care.
Research Design
Scientists: Jonathan Tudge and others
(e.g., researchers in Brazil and Kenya).
Publication: Child Development (2006).
Participants: About 20 3-year-olds from
each of four ethnic groups: European
American and African American in
Greensboro, North Carolina; Luo in
Kisumu, Kenya; and European descent
in Porto Alegre, Brazil. On the basis of
parents’ education and occupation, half
the children in each group were from
middle-class families and half were
from working-class families.
Design: Children were observed for
20 hours each in their usual daytime
activities.The child wore a wireless
microphone; every 6 minutes, the
observer recorded what the child was
doing. Later the time was allocated
among five categories: Lessons (deliber-
ate attempts to impart information),
Work (household tasks), Play (activities
for enjoyment), Conversation (sustained
talk with adults about things not the
current focus of activity), and Other
(eating, bathing, sleeping).
Major conclusion: All eight groups
spent much more time playing than
doing anything else. Much larger differ-
ences were found in time spent in
lessons, work, and conversation.
Comment: Many features of good
research are evident in this study.
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Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills, which involve small body movements (especially those of the hands
and fingers), are harder to master. Pouring juice into a glass, cutting food with a
knife and fork, and achieving anything more artful than a scribble with a pencil
require muscular control, patience, and judgment that are beyond most 2-year-olds.
Many fine motor skills involve two hands and thus both sides of the brain: The
fork stabs the meat while the knife cuts it; one hand steadies the paper while the
other writes; tying shoes, buttoning shirts, pulling on socks, and zipping zippers
require both hands. An immature corpus callosum and prefrontal cortex may be the
underlying reason that shoelaces get knotted, paper gets ripped, and zippers get
stuck. Short, stubby fingers and confusion about handedness add to the problem.
Artistic Expression
During the play years, children are imaginative, creative, and not yet self-critical.
They love to express themselves, especially if their parents applaud, display their
artwork, and otherwise communicate approval. It may be that the relative immatu-
rity of the prefrontal cortex allows imagination free rein, without the social anxiety
of older children, who might say “I can’t draw” or “I am horrible at dancing.”
All forms of artistic expression blossom during early childhood. Children love
to dance around the room, build an elaborate tower of blocks, make music by
pounding in rhythm, and put bright marks on shiny paper.
Children’s artwork reflects their unique perception and cognition. For example,
researchers asked young children to draw a balloon and, later, a lollipop. To adults,
the drawings were indistinguishable, but the children who made the drawings
were quite insistent as to which was which (Bloom, 2000) (see Figure 8.6).
Especially for Immigrant Parents You
and your family eat with chopsticks at home,
but you want your children to feel comfortable
in Western culture. Should you change your
family’s eating customs?
Brain Development 217
BA
N
AN
A
ST
OC
K
/ P
IC
TU
RE
QU
ES
T
Snip, Snip Cutting paper with scissors is a
hard, slow task for a 3-year-old, who is just
beginning to develop fine motor control.
Imagine wielding blunt “safety” scissors and
hoping that the paper will be sliced exactly
where you want it to be.
FIGURE 8.6
Which Is Which? The child who made these drawings
insisted that the one at top left was a lollipop and the
one at top right was a balloon (not vice versa) and that
the drawing at bottom left was the experimenter and
the one at bottom right was the child (not vice versa).
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In every artistic domain, from dance to sculpture, maturation of brain and
body is gradual and comes with practice. For example, when drawing the human
figure, 2- to 3-year-olds usually draw a “tadpole”—a circle for a head with eyes
and sometimes a smiling mouth, and then a line or two beneath to indicate the
rest of the body. Gradually, children’s drawings of people evolve from tadpoles
into more human forms.
Tadpoles are “strikingly characteristic” of children’s art (Cox, 1993); they are
drawn universally, in all cultures. Similarly, children worldwide seek places to
climb—on rocky hillsides, playground structures, and the dining room table—
imagining as they play. They like challenges that they can meet.
SUMMING UP
The brain continues to mature during early childhood, with myelination in several crucial
areas. One is the corpus callosum, which connects the left and right sides of the brain
and therefore the right and left sides of the body. Increased myelination speeds up
actions and reactions. The prefrontal cortex enables impulse control, allowing children to
think before they act as well as to stop one action in order to begin another. As impul-
siveness and perseveration decrease, children become better able to learn. Several key
areas of the brain—including the amygdala, the hypothalamus, and the hippocampus—
make up the limbic system, which also matures from ages 2 to 6. The limbic system
aids emotional expression and control. Maturation of the brain leads to better control of
the body and hence to development of motor skills.
■
Injuries and Abuse
Throughout this text, we have assumed that parents want to foster their children’s
development and protect them from danger. That is true in the vast majority of
families. Yet more children die of violence—either accidental or deliberate—than
from any other cause.
In the United States, where accurate death records are kept, out of every
100,000 1- to 4-year-olds, 10.9 died accidentally, 2.5 died of cancer (the leading
218 CHAPTER 8 ■ The Play Years: Biosocial Development
No Ears? (a) Jalen was careful to include all
seven of her family members who were pres-
ent when she drew her picture. She tried to
be realistic—by, for example, portraying her
cousin, who was slumped on the couch, in a
horizontal position. (b) Elizabeth takes pride in
a more difficult task, drawing her family from
memory. All have belly buttons and big
smiles that reach their foreheads, but they
have no arms or hair. (c) By age 6, this Virginia
girl draws just one family member in detail—
nostrils and mustache included.
(a) (b) (c) (A)
N
IC
OL
E
VI
LL
AM
OR
A
(B
) L
AU
RA
D
W
IG
HT
(C
) B
LE
N
D
IM
AG
ES
/
AL
AM
Y
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fatal disease at this age), and 2.4 were murdered in 2003 (U.S. Bureau of the
Census, 2006).
Young children are more vulnerable to injuries and abuse than are slightly older
ones, partly because they are impulsive yet dependent on others, as we have just
seen. Much of the harm to children can be prevented, and that is our primary
reason for discussing this topic in detail.
Avoidable Injury
Worldwide, injuries cause millions of premature deaths among young adults as well
as children: Not until age 40 does any disease overtake accidents as a cause of
mortality. Among children, the 1- to 4-year-olds are most vulnerable to accidental
death and injury (MMWR, September 3, 2004).
Age-related trends are apparent in the particular kinds of injuries. Teenagers
and young adults are most often killed as passengers or drivers in motor-vehicle
accidents. Falls are more often fatal for the very young (under 24 months) and
very old (over 80 years) than for preschoolers. For preschoolers, fatal accidents are
more likely to involve poison, fire, choking, or drowning.
Why do small children have so many accidents? Immaturity of the prefrontal
cortex makes young children impulsive, so they plunge into dangerous places and
activities (Zeedyk et al., 2002). Unlike infants, their motor skills allow them to run,
leap, scramble, and grab in a flash. Their curiosity is boundless; their impulses are
uninhibited.
Injury Control
As one team of experts notes, “Injuries are not unpredictable, unavoidable events.
To a large extent, society chooses the injury rates it has” (Christoffel & Gallagher,
1999, p. 10). How could a society choose unnecessarily high rates of injury, pain,
and lifelong damage? Injury prevention is no accident; it is a choice made by par-
ents, by legislators, and by society as a whole.
To understand this, consider the implications of the terminology. The word acci-
dent implies that an injury is a random, unpredictable event. If anyone is at fault,
a careless parent or an accident-prone child might be blamed. This is called the
“accident paradigm”; it implies that “injuries will occur despite our best efforts,”
and it allows the general public to feel blameless (Benjamin, 2004, p. 521).
In response, experts now prefer the term injury control (or harm reduction)
instead of accident prevention. Injury control implies that harm can be minimized
if appropriate controls are in place. Minor mishaps are bound to occur, but the
damage is reduced if a child falls on a safety surface instead of concrete, if a car
seat protects the body in a crash, if a bicycle helmet cracks instead of a skull, if
the swallowed pills come from a tiny bottle.
Only half as many 1- to 5-year-olds in the United States were fatally injured
in 2005 as in 1985, thanks to laws that govern poisons, fires, and cars. But now
the leading cause of unintentional death for children aged 1 to 5 is drowning in
a swimming pool (Brenner et al., 2001). To prevent most such deaths, govern-
ment officials need only require that any body of water near a home have a high
fence around it.
A pool-fencing ordinance in southern California allowed one side of the enclo-
sure to be the wall of a house, with a door that could be locked. This seemed rea-
sonable to homeowners but not to pediatricians. The law protected trespassing
children but not the family’s own children, who knew how to open those doors.
After the law was passed, California child drownings did not decline (Morgenstern
et al., 2000).
injury control/harm reduction Practices
that are aimed at anticipating, controlling,
and preventing dangerous activities; these
practices reflect the beliefs that accidents
are not random and that injuries can be
made less harmful if proper controls are in
place.
Injuries and Abuse 219
➤Response for Immigrant Parents (from
page 217): Children develop the motor skills
that they see and practice. They will soon
learn to use forks, spoons, and knives. Do
not abandon chopsticks completely, because
young children can learn several ways of
doing things, and the ability to eat with
chopsticks is a social asset.
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Three Levels of Prevention
Injury prevention should begin long before any particular child, parent, or politician
does something foolish or careless. Of the three levels of prevention described
below, the one that is least noticed by individuals but most effective overall is the
first level (Cohen et al., 2007).
■ In primary prevention, the overall situation is structured to make injuries
less likely. Primary prevention fosters conditions that reduce everyone’s
chance of injury, no matter what their circumstances.
■ Secondary prevention is more specific, averting harm to individuals in
high-risk situations.
■ Tertiary prevention begins after an injury, limiting the damage it causes.
Tertiary prevention saves lives and reduces the number and severity of per-
manent disabilities.
To illustrate, the rate of pedestrian deaths in motor-vehicle accidents has
steadily decreased in the past 20 years because of all three levels of prevention.
How does each level contribute to this welcome decline?
Primary prevention includes sidewalks, speed bumps, pedestrian overpasses,
brighter streetlights, and single-lane traffic circles (Retting et al., 2003; Tester
et al., 2004). Cars have been redesigned (e.g., better headlights and brakes) and
drivers’ skills improved (e.g., as a result of more frequent vision tests and stronger
drunk-driving penalties).
Secondary prevention reduces the dangers in high-risk situations. For children
this means requiring flashing lights on stopped school buses, employing school-
crossing guards, refusing alcohol to teenagers, and insisting that young children
walk with adults, who are more careful crossing streets. For the aged, this means
longer red lights and well-marked crosswalks.
The distinction between primary prevention and secondary prevention is not
clear-cut. In general, secondary prevention is more targeted, focusing on specific
risk groups (e.g., young children) and proven dangers (e.g., walking to school)
rather than on the overall culture, politics, or environment.
Finally, tertiary prevention reduces damage after accidents. Laws against hit-
and-run driving, improved emergency-room procedures (e.g., faster action to re-
Especially for Urban Planners Describe
a neighborhood park that would benefit 2- to
5-year-olds.
primary prevention Actions that change
overall background conditions to prevent
some unwanted event or circumstance,
such as injury, disease, or abuse.
secondary prevention Actions that avert
harm in a high-risk situation, such as stop-
ping a car before it hits a pedestrian.
tertiary prevention Actions, such as imme-
diate and effective medical treatment, that
are taken after an adverse event such as
illness or injury occurs, and are aimed at
reducing the harm or preventing disability.
220 CHAPTER 8 ■ The Play Years: Biosocial Development
M
AN
OR
P
HO
TO
GR
AP
HY
/
AL
AM
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IN
M
AG
IN
E
M
YR
LE
EN
F
ER
GU
SO
N
C
AT
E
/ P
HO
TO
ED
IT
(c)(b)(a)
And If He Falls . . . None of these children is
injured, so no tertiary prevention is needed.
Photos (b) and (c) both illustrate secondary
prevention. In photo (a), the metal climbing
equipment with large gaps and peeling paint
is hazardous. Primary prevention suggests
that this “attractive nuisance” be dismantled.
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duce brain swelling), and more effective rehabilitation are examples of tertiary
prevention. Speedy and well-trained ambulance teams may be the most important:
If an injured person arrives at a hospital within the “golden hour” after an acci-
dent, the chances of recovery are much better (Christoffel & Gallagher, 1999). In
many European countries, tertiary prevention has involved redesigning the fronts
of cars so that they are less destructive to pedestrians when accidents do occur
(Retting et al., 2003).
Many measures at all three levels have been instituted, to good effect. In the
United States, pedestrian deaths decreased from 8,842 in 1990 to 4,600 in 2004
(U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2006). Similar trends are found in almost every
nation, for almost every fatal injury.
Injuries and Abuse 221
RI
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AR
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IS
A Safe Leap What makes this jump safe as
well as fun are the high fences on all sides of
the pool, the adequate depth of the water,
and the presence of at least one adult (taking
the picture).
“My Baby Swallowed Poison”
The first strategy that most people think of for preventing in-
jury to young children is parental education. However, public
health research finds that laws that apply to everyone are more
effective than education, especially if parents are not ready to
learn and change or are overwhelmed by the daily demands of
child care.
For example, the best time to convince parents to use an
infant seat in their car (which has saved thousands of young
lives) is before they bring their newborn home from the hospi-
tal. Voluntary use of car seats is much less common than man-
dated use.
As one expert explains: “Too often, we design our physical
environment for smart people who are highly motivated” (Baker,
2000). In real life, everyone has moments of foolish indifference.
At those moments, automatic safety measures save lives.
I know this firsthand. My daughter Bethany, at age 2, climbed
onto the kitchen counter to find, open, and swallow most of a
bottle of baby aspirin. Where was I? A few feet away, nursing our
second child and watching television. I did not notice what
Bethany was doing until I checked on her during a commercial.
What prevented serious injury? Laws limiting the number of
baby aspirin per container (primary prevention), my pediatrician
telling me on my first well-baby checkup to buy syrup of ipecac
(secondary prevention), and my phone call to Poison Control
(tertiary prevention). I told the stranger who answered the
phone, “My baby swallowed poison.” He calmly asked me ques-
tions and then told me to make Bethany swallow ipecac so
that she’d throw up the aspirin. I did and she did. I still blame
myself, but I am grateful for all three levels of prevention that
protected my child.
in person
Especially for Socially Aware Students
In the “In Person” feature below, how did
Kathleen Berger’s SES protect Bethany from
serious harm?
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child maltreatment Intentional harm to or
avoidable endangerment of anyone under
18 years of age.
child abuse Deliberate action that is harmful
to a child’s physical, emotional, or sexual
well-being.
child neglect Failure to meet a child’s basic
physical, educational, or emotional needs.
Child Maltreatment
The next time you read news headlines about some horribly neglected
or abused child, think of these words from a leading researcher in
child maltreatment:
Make no mistake—those who abuse children are fully responsible
for their actions. However, creating an information system that
perpetuates the message that offenders are the only ones to blame
may be misleading. . . . We all contribute to the conditions that
allow perpetrators to succeed.
[Daro, 2002, p. 1133]
We all contribute in the sense that the causes of child maltreat-
ment are multifaceted, involving not only the parents but also the
maltreated children, the community, and the culture. For example,
infants are most at risk of being maltreated if they themselves are
difficult (fragile, needing frequent feeding, crying often) and if their
mothers are depressed and do not feel in control of their lives or their infants and
if the family is under stress because of poverty (Bugental & Happaney, 2004).
Maltreatment Noticed and Defined
Noticing is the first step. Until about 1960, people thought child maltreatment
was rare and usually consisted of a sudden attack by a disturbed stranger. Today,
thanks to a pioneering study based on careful observation in one Boston hospital
(Kempe & Kempe, 1978), we know better: Maltreatment is neither rare nor sud-
den and the perpetrators are often the child’s own parents. That makes it much
worse: Ongoing maltreatment, with no safe haven, is much more damaging to
children than a single brief incident, however abusive (Manly et al., 2001).
With this recognition came a broader definition: Child maltreatment now
refers to all intentional harm to, or avoidable endangerment of, anyone under 18
years of age. Thus, child maltreatment includes both child abuse, which is delib-
erate action that is harmful to a child’s physical, emotional, or sexual well-being,
and child neglect, which is failure to appropriately meet a child’s basic physical
or emotional needs.
The more that researchers study child maltreatment, the more apparent the
harmful effects of neglect become (Hildyard & Wolfe, 2002). As one team wrote,
“Severe neglect occurring in the early childhood years has been found to be partic-
ularly detrimental to successful adaptation” (Valentino et al., 2006, p. 483). How
frequently does maltreatment occur? It is impossible to say. Not all cases of mal-
treatment are noticed, not all that are noticed are reported, and not all that are
reported are substantiated.
Reported maltreatment occurs when the authorities have been informed
about the situation. Since 1993, the number of reported cases of maltreatment in
the United States has ranged from 2.7 million to 3 million a year (U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, 2006). Cases of substantiated maltreatment
are those that have been investigated and verified (see Figure 8.7). The number of
substantiated cases in 2004 was 872,000 (one-fourth of which victimized 2- to
5-year-olds), or about 1 maltreated child in every 70 aged 2 to 5 (U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, 2006). This 3-to-1 ratio of reported to substanti-
ated cases can be attributed to three factors:
■ Each child is counted once, even if repeated maltreatment is reported.
■ Substantiation requires proof in the form of unmistakable injuries, serious mal-
nutrition, or a witness willing to testify. Such evidence is not always available.
■ A report may be false or deliberately misleading (less than 1 percent).
222 CHAPTER 8 ■ The Play Years: Biosocial Development
Nobody Watching? Madelyn Gorman
Toogood looks around to make sure no one
is watching before she slaps and shakes her
4-year-old daughter, Martha, who is in a car
seat inside the vehicle. A security camera
recorded this incident in an Indiana depart-
ment store parking lot. A week later, after the
videotape was repeatedly broadcast nation-
wide, Toogood was recognized and arrested.
The haunting question is: How much child
abuse takes place that is not witnessed?
M
IS
HA
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ET
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ES
reported maltreatment Harm or endanger-
ment about which someone has notified
the authorities.
substantiated maltreatment Harm or
endangerment that has been reported,
investigated, and verified.
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How often does maltreatment go unreported? According to a national, confi-
dential survey of young adults in the United States, 1 in 4 had been physically
abused (“slapped, hit, or kicked” by a parent or other adult caregiver) before sixth
grade and 1 in 22 had been sexually abused (“touched or forced to touch someone
else in a sexual way”) (Hussey et al., 2006; see Research Design).
One reason for these high rates may be that young adults were asked if they
had ever been mistreated by someone who was caring for them, while most other
sources report annual rates. The authors of this study think the rates they found
are underestimates!
Warning Signs of Maltreatment
Often the first sign of maltreatment is delayed development, such as slow growth,
immature communication, lack of curiosity, or unusual social interactions. All
these difficulties may be evident even at age 1 (Valentino et al., 2006).
During the play years, a maltreated child may seem fearful, startled by noise,
defensive and quick to attack, and confused between fantasy and reality. These
may be symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a disorder first
identified in combat veterans, then in adults who had experienced some emotional
injury or shock (in reaction to a serious accident or violent crime, for example). It
now seems evident in some maltreated children (De Bellis, 2001; Yehuda, 2006).
By school age, neglected children tend to be withdrawn and self-critical;
abused children tend to be aggressive; neither is resilient to stress. At every age,
maltreated children are less likely to have friends (Manly et al., 2001).
Table 8.2 lists signs of maltreatment, both neglect and abuse. None of these
signs are proof, but whenever any of them occurs, it signifies trouble. Many nations,
including the United States, now require professionals who deal with children
(teachers, nurses, social workers, doctors, police officers) to report any suspected
maltreatment. Not all professionals know when to be suspicious, however. For
Injuries and Abuse 223
16
15
14
13
12
11
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996
Year
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006 and previous years.
Number of cases
per 1,000 children
FIGURE 8.7
Rates of Substantiated Child Maltreatment, United States, 1990–2004 The number of reported
and substantiated cases of maltreatment of children under age 18 in the United States is too high,
but there is some good news: The rate has declined significantly from the peak in 1993.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 225): The dot for 1999 is close to the bottom of the graph.
Does that mean it is close to zero?
Research Design
Scientists: Jon Hussey and others at
the University of North Carolina.
Publication: Pediatrics (2006).
Participants:Total of 15,197 young
adults, interviewed at age 18–26 as part
of the third wave of a large longitudinal
study called Add Health, which began in
1995 with a representative sample of
over 20,000 U.S. adolescents.
Design: Participants were asked to
report, confidentially (via headphones
and a computer, a method that yields
more accurate answers than face-to-
face or written questions do), whether
their caregivers had ever maltreated
them. Questions were specific (e.g.,
“slapped, hit, or kicked”), and partici-
pants indicated how often the behavior
occurred (once, twice, or more).
Major conclusions: Maltreatment was
common: One in four had been physi-
cally abused. Each type of
maltreatment was associated with mul-
tiple health risks.
Comment: Although one would hope
that these rates are overestimates,
actual rates may be even higher, for
three reasons: (1) Young adults tend to
idealize their childhood; (2) the original
participants were all in high school and
had their parents’ permission to respond
to the survey; and (3) the participants in
this third wave of interviews were, on
average, more advantaged than those
who dropped out or could not be found.
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
A delayed reaction to a trauma or shock,
which may include hyperactivity and hyper-
vigilance, displaced anger, sleeplessness,
sudden terror or anxiety, and confusion
between fantasy and reality.
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instance, child patients are reported for maltreatment three times more often in
teaching hospitals (where ongoing education is part of the hospital’s mission) than
in regular hospitals, where “child abuse and neglect are underidentified, under-
diagnosed, and undercoded” (Rovi et al., 2004, p. 589). Would better reporting
make a difference? It might have for a child known as B.V.
224 CHAPTER 8 ■ The Play Years: Biosocial Development
TABLE 8.2
Signs of Maltreatment in Children Aged 2 to 10
Injuries that do not fit an “accidental” explanation: bruises on both sides of the face or body;
burns with a clear line between burned and unburned skin; “falls” that result in cuts, not scrapes
Repeated injuries, especially broken bones not properly tended
Fantasy play, with dominant themes of violence or sexual knowledge
Slow physical growth, especially with unusual appetite or lack of appetite
Ongoing physical complaints, such as stomachaches, headaches, genital pain, sleepiness
Reluctance to talk, to play, or to move, especially if development is slow
No close friendships; hostility toward others; bullying of smaller children
Hypervigilance, with quick, impulsive reactions, such as cringing, startling, or hitting
Frequent absences from school, changes of address, or new caregivers
Expressions of fear rather than joy on seeing the caregiver
Source: Adapted from Scannapieco & Connell-Carrick, 2005.
a case to study
A Series of Suspicious Events
Three million reported cases of maltreatment per year in the
United States seems like a huge number, yet most cases of neg-
lect are not reported. Consider one team’s report on a child in a
low-income family:
B.V., a 2-year-old male, was found lying face down in the bath-
tub by an 8-year-old sent to check on him. He had been placed
in the bathtub by his mother, who then went to the kitchen and
was absent for approximately 10 minutes. B.V. was transported
by ambulance to a local hospital. He was unresponsive and had a
rectal temperature of 90 degrees Fahrenheit. After medical treat-
ment, the child’s breathing resumed, and he was transported to a
tertiary care hospital. B.V. remained in the pediatric intensive
care unit for 9 days with minimal brain function and no response
to any stimuli. He was then transferred to a standard hospital
room where he died 2 days later. The mother refused to have an
autopsy performed. Subsequently, the death certificate was
signed by an attending physician, and cause of death was pneu-
monia with anoxic brain injury as a result of near-drowning.
The CPS [Child Protective Services] worker advised B.V.’s
mother that 10 minutes was too long to leave a 2-year-old in the
bathtub unsupervised. B.V.’s mother replied that she had done it
many times before and that nothing had happened. Further ex-
amination of the medical chart revealed that prior to B.V.’s death,
he had a sibling who had experienced an apparent life-threaten-
ing event (previously termed a “near miss” sudden infant death
syndrome). The sibling was placed on cardiac and apnea (breath-
ing) monitors for 7 to 8 months. In addition, B.V. had been to the
children’s hospital approximately 2 weeks prior for a major injury
to his big toe. B.V.’s toe had been severed and required numerous
stitches. The mother stated that this incident was a result of the
4-year-old brother slamming the door on B.V.’s foot. Furthermore,
B.V. had been seen in a different local hospital for a finger frac-
ture the month before his death. None of the available reports
indicate the mother’s history of how the finger fracture occurred.
[Bonner et al., 1999, pp. 165–166]
No charges were filed in this death. The team notes:
This case illustrates chronic supervisory neglect. . . . The series
of suspicious events that preceded the death did not result in
protective or preventive services for the family.
[Bonner et al., 1999, p. 166]
This case is indeed a chilling example of “chronic supervisory
neglect.” Professionals who dealt with the family ignored many
medical signs that something was wrong—the sibling’s “near-
miss” SIDS, the fractured finger, and the severed toe. No mention
is made of language, emotions, or social skills, which probably
would have raised alarm as well.
Even after death, the neglect of neglect continued. No help
was provided for the 8-year-old who found his dying brother or
for the 4-year-old who reportedly severed the toddler’s toe.
These children were also at high risk of maltreatment. Indeed,
they had already been maltreated: Children are damaged by
chronic feelings of helplessness and danger (De Bellis, 2001).
Especially for Nurses While weighing a
4-year-old, you notice several bruises on the
child’s legs. When you ask about them, the
child says nothing and the parent says the
child bumps into things. What should you do?
➤Response for Urban Planners (from
page 220): The adult idea of a park— a large,
grassy open place—is not best for young
children. For them, you would design an
enclosed area, small enough and with
adequate seating to allow caregivers to
socialize while watching their children. The
playground surface would have to be
protective (since young children are clumsy),
with equipment that encouraged both gross
motor skills (such as climbing) and fine motor
skills (such as sandbox play). Swings are not
beneficial, since they do not develop many
motor skills. Teenagers and dogs should have
their own designated areas, far from the
youngest children.
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Consequences of Maltreatment
The impact of any child-rearing practice is affected by the
cultural context. Certain customs (such as circumcision,
pierced ears, and spanking) are considered abuse in some cul-
tures but not in others, and their actual effects on children
vary accordingly. Children suffer if their parents seem not to
love them according to their community’s standards for
parental love.
Maltreatment compromises basic health in every way
(Hussey et al., 2006). Abused and neglected children are
more often injured, sick, and hospitalized for reasons not di-
rectly related to their maltreatment (Kendall-Tackett, 2002).
Many neglectful parents do not enroll their children in
day-care centers or schools that would teach them well. Visits
to a park, to a zoo, to the grandparents’ home, or to a neighbor
child’s house are infrequent, since social isolation is a result
as well as a cause of child maltreatment. Maltreated children
learn less and suffer more.
Although biological and academic handicaps are substantial, deficits are even
more apparent in the child’s social skills. Maltreated children often regard other
people as hostile and exploitative; hence, they are less friendly, more aggressive,
and more isolated than other children. The longer their abuse continues and
the earlier it started, the worse their peer relationships are (Manly et al., 2001;
Scannapieco & Connell-Carrick, 2005).
A life-span perspective reveals that all these deficits can continue lifelong.
Maltreated children and adolescents are often bullies or victims or both. Adults
who were severely maltreated in childhood (physically, sexually, or emotionally)
often use drugs or alcohol to numb their emotions; they often enter unsupportive
relationships, become victims or aggressors, sabotage their own careers, eat too
much or too little, and generally engage in self-destructive behavior (M. G. Smith
& Fong, 2004). From a developmental perspective, the worst consequences result
from chronic neglect, which is least likely to be reported.
Three Levels of Prevention, Again
Just as with injury control, there are three levels of prevention of maltreatment.
The ultimate goal is to stop it before it begins. This is primary prevention; it
focuses on the mesosystem and exosystem (see Chapter 1). Examples of primary-
prevention conditions include stable neighborhoods; family cohesion; income
equality; and measures that decrease financial instability, family isolation, and
teenage parenthood.
Secondary prevention involves spotting the warning signs and intervening to keep
a problematic situation from getting worse. For example, insecure attachment,
Abuse or Athletics? Four-year-old Budhia
Singh ran 40 miles in 7 hours with adult
marathoners. He says he likes to run, but his
mother (a widow who allowed his trainer to
“adopt” him because she could not feed
him) has charged the trainer with physical
abuse. The government of India has declared
that Singh cannot race again until he is fully
grown. If child, parent, and community approve
of some activity, can it still be maltreatment?
Injuries and Abuse 225
RE
UT
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/ S
AN
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Physical abuse and neglect are most likely to be experienced
by children who:
■ Are under age 6
■ Have two or more siblings
■ Have an unemployed or absent father
■ Have a mother who did not complete high school
■ Live in a poor, high-crime neighborhood
All these risk factors were present for B.V. If he had not been
poor, he might have had a private pediatrician, who might have
noticed the danger he was in. If his mother had had fewer chil-
dren and a supportive husband, she might have watched him
in the tub. A higher level of education might have helped her
understand how to cope. Neighbors and relatives might have
helped. Instead, B.V. died.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 223): No. The number is actually 11.8
per 1,000. Note the little squiggle on the
graph’s vertical axis below the number 11.
This means that numbers between zero and
11 are not shown.
➤Response for Socially Aware Students
(from page 221): Preschoolers from families
at all income levels can have accidents, but
Kathleen Berger’s SES allowed her to have a
private pediatrician as well as the income to
buy ipecac “just in case.” She also had a
working phone and the education to know
about Poison Control.
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Especially for the General Public You
are asked to give a donation to support a
billboard campaign against child abuse and
neglect. You plan to make charitable contribu-
tions totaling $100 this year. How much of
this amount should you contribute to the
billboard campaign?
especially of the disorganized type (described in Chapter 7), is a sign of a disrupted
parent–child relationship. Someone needs to repair that interaction. Secondary
prevention includes measures such as home visits by nurses or social workers,
high-quality day care, and preventive medical treatment—all designed to help
high-risk families.
Tertiary prevention includes everything intended to reduce the harm when mal-
treatment has already occurred. Reporting and substantiating abuse are only the
first steps. Action is needed. Someone must help the family or remove the child. If
hospitalization is required, intervention should have begun much earlier. At that
point, care is more expensive and hospitalization is longer than for other condi-
tions (Rovi et al., 2004); in addition, lengthy hospitalization further damages the
fragile parent–child bond.
Children fare better when they are secure in their environment, whether they
live with their biological parents who have learned to provide good care, with a
Where’s Mom? Inside the shop, buying
something for her baby. In many European
towns, as here in Largs, Scotland, parents
consider it beneficial to let the baby wait out-
side and breathe fresh air rather than join
them inside. In the United States, parents
have been jailed for doing this. Can both cul-
tures be right?
226 CHAPTER 8 ■ The Play Years: Biosocial Development
The Same Event, A Thousand Miles Apart:
Fun with Grandpa Grandfathers, like those
shown here in Japan and India, often delight
their grandchildren. Sometimes, however, they
protect them—either in kinship care, when
parents are designated as neglectful, or as
secondary prevention before harm is evident.
PH
OT
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JA
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/
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AM
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ST
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M
CC
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M
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M
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BO
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foster family, or with an adoptive family. Permanency planning involves efforts
by authorities to find a home that will nurture the child until adulthood (Waddell
et al., 2004).
In foster care, children are officially removed from their parents’ custody and
entrusted to another adult who is paid to nurture them. In 2004 more than half a
million children in the United States were in foster care. About half of them
were in a special version of foster care called kinship care, in which a relative
of the maltreated child becomes the foster caregiver (U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, 2004). This estimate is for official kinship care; three
times as many children are informally cared for primarily by relatives who are not
their parents.
In the United States, most foster children are from low-income families; half
are African American or Latino; and many have multiple physical, intellectual, and
emotional problems (Pew Commission on Foster Care, 2004). Despite these prob-
lems, children develop better in foster care (including kinship care) than with
their original abusive families if a supervising agency screens foster families and
provides ongoing financial and emotional support (Berrick, 1998).
However, many agencies are inadequate. One obvious failing is that many move
children from one home to another for reasons that are unrelated to the child’s
behavior or wishes. Foster children average three placements before finding a
permanent home (Pew Commission on Foster Care, 2004).
Adoption is the preferred permanent option, but judges and biological parents
are reluctant to release children for adoption, and some agencies reject all but
“perfect” families—those headed by a heterosexual married couple who are middle
class, and of the same ethnicity as the child, and in which the wife is not employed.
Since a healthy permanency, not perfection, is the goal, most experts want adop-
tion restrictions loosened, courts to act more quickly in the interests of the children,
and permanent guardianship allowed if adoption is impossible.
SUMMING UP
As they move with more speed and agility, young children encounter new dangers,
becoming seriously injured more often than older children. Three levels of prevention
are needed. Laws and practices should be put in place to protect everyone (primary
Injuries and Abuse 227
permanency planning An effort by authori-
ties to find a long-term living situation that
will provide stability and support for a mal-
treated child. A goal is to avoid repeated
changes of caregiver or school, which can
be particularly harmful for the child.
foster care A legal, publicly supported plan in
which a maltreated child is removed from
the parents’ custody and entrusted to
another adult, who is paid to be the child’s
caregiver.
kinship care A form of foster care in which a
relative of a maltreated child becomes the
approved caregiver.
Tertiary Prevention Adoption has been
these children’s salvation, particularly for
9-year-old Leah, clinging to her mother. The
mother, Joan, has five adopted children.
Adoption is generally better than foster care
for maltreated children, because it is a perma-
nent, stable arrangement.STE
PH
AN
IE
M
AZ
E
/ C
OR
BI
S
➤Response for Nurses (from page 224):
Any suspicion of child maltreatment must be
reported, and these bruises are suspicious.
Someone in authority must find out what is
happening so that the parent as well as the
child can be helped.
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228 CHAPTER 8 ■ The Play Years: Biosocial Development
7. Muscle control, practice, and brain maturation are also in-
volved in the development of fine motor skills. Young children
enjoy expressing themselves artistically, developing their motor
skills as well as their self-expression.
Injuries and Abuse
8. Accidents are by far the leading cause of death for children,
with 1- to 4-year-olds more likely to suffer a serious injury or pre-
mature death than older children. Biology, culture, and commu-
nity conditions combine to make some children more vulnerable.
9. Injury control occurs on many levels, including long before
and immediately after each harmful incident, with primary, sec-
ondary, and tertiary prevention. Laws seem more effective than
educational campaigns. Close supervision is required to protect
young children from their own eager, impulsive curiosity.
10. Child maltreatment typically results from ongoing abuse and
neglect by a child’s own parents. Each year almost 3 million cases
of child maltreatment are reported in the United States, almost 1
million of which are substantiated.
11. Health, learning, and social skills are all impeded by ongoing
child abuse and neglect. Physical abuse is the most obvious form
of maltreatment, but neglect is common and probably more
harmful.
12. Foster care, including kinship care, is sometimes necessary.
Permanency planning is needed because frequent changes are
harmful to children. Primary and secondary prevention helps
parents care for their children and reduces the need for tertiary
prevention.
Body Changes
1. Children continue to gain weight and height during early child-
hood. Many become quite picky eaters.
2. Culture, income, and family customs all affect children’s
growth. Worldwide, an increasing number of children have unbal-
anced diets, eating more fat and sugar and less iron and calcium
than they need. Childhood obesity is increasingly common, be-
cause children exercise less and snack more than children once
did, laying the foundation for chronic adult illness.
Brain Development
3. Myelination is substantial during early childhood, speeding
messages from one part of the brain to another. The corpus callo-
sum becomes thicker and functions much better. The prefrontal
cortex, known as the executive of the brain, is strengthened as
well.
4. Brain changes enable more reflective, coordinated thought and
memory; better planning; and quicker responses. Many brain
functions are localized in one hemisphere of the brain. Left/right
specialization is apparent in the brain as well as in the body.
5. The expression and regulation of emotions are fostered by sev-
eral brain areas, including the amygdala, the hippocampus, and
the hypothalamus. Abuse in childhood may cause an overactive
amygdala and hippocampus, creating a flood of stress hormones
that interfere with learning.
6. Gross motor skills continue to develop, so that clumsy 2-year-
olds become 6-year-olds able to move their bodies in whatever
ways their culture values and they themselves have practiced, as
long as height and judgment are not required.
SUMMARY
myelination (p. 210)
corpus callosum (p. 210)
lateralization (p. 210)
perseveration (p. 213)
amygdala (p. 213)
hippocampus (p. 213)
hypothalamus (p. 214)
injury control/harm reduction
(p. 219)
primary prevention (p. 220)
secondary prevention (p. 220)
tertiary prevention (p. 220)
child maltreatment (p. 222)
child abuse (p. 222)
child neglect (p. 222)
reported maltreatment (p. 222)
substantiated maltreatment
(p. 222)
post-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD) (p. 223)
permanency planning (p. 227)
foster care (p. 227)
kinship care (p. 227)
KEY TERMS
prevention); supervision, forethought, and protective measures should prevent mishaps
(secondary prevention); and when injury occurs, treatment should be quick and effective
and changes should be made to avoid repetition (tertiary prevention).
Each year, abuse or neglect is substantiated for almost a million children in the
United States. About 2 million other cases are reported but not substantiated, and mil-
lions more are not reported. Preventing maltreatment of all kinds is urgent but complex,
because the source is often the family system and the cultural context, not a deranged
stranger. Primary prevention includes changing the social context to ensure that parents
protect and love their children. Secondary prevention focuses on families at high risk—
the poor, the young, the drug-addicted. In tertiary prevention, the abused child is res-
cued before further damage occurs.
■
➤Response for the General Public (from
page 226): Maybe none of it. Educational
campaigns seldom change people’s habits
and thoughts, unless they have never
thought about an issue at all. If you want to
help prevent child abuse and neglect, you
might offer free babysitting to parents you
know who seem overwhelmed, or you might
volunteer for a community group that helps
troubled families.
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Summary 229
1. Keep a food diary for 24 hours, writing down what you eat,
how much, when, how, and why. Then think about nutrition and
eating habits in early childhood. Do you see any evidence in your-
self of imbalance (e.g., not enough fruits and vegetables, too much
sugar or fat, not eating when you are hungry)? Did your food
habits originate in early childhood, in adolescence, or at some
other time?
2. Go to a playground or other place where young children play.
Note the motor skills that the children demonstrate, including
abilities and inabilities, and keep track of age and sex. What dif-
ferences do you see among the children?
3. Ask several parents to describe each accidental injury of each
of their children, particularly how it happened and what the con-
sequences were. What primary, secondary, or tertiary prevention
measures would have made a difference?
4. Think back on your childhood and the friends you had at that
time. Was there any maltreatment? Considering what you have
learned in this chapter, why or why not?
APPLICATIONS
6. What conditions are best for children to develop their motor
skills?
7. What are the differences among the three kinds of prevention?
8. What are the arguments for and against laws to protect chil-
dren from injury?
9. Why might neglect be worse than abuse?
10. What are the advantages and disadvantages of foster care?
11. What are the advantages and disadvantages of kinship care?
1. How are growth rates, body proportions, and motor skills re-
lated during early childhood?
2. Does low family income tend to make young children eat more
or less? Explain your answer.
3. What are the crucial aspects of brain growth that occur after
age 2?
4. How do emotions, and their expression, originate in the brain?
5. Why do public health workers prefer to speak of “injury control”
or “harm reduction” instead of accidents?
KEY QUESTIONS
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9
231
The Play Years:
Cognitive Development
Iwas among dozens of adults on a subway who were captivated by alittle girl, perhaps 3 years old, with sparkling eyes and many braids. Shesat beside a large stranger, looking at her mother, who stood about 6feet to her left, holding onto a pole. The little girl repeatedly ducked
her head behind the stranger and said, “You can’t see me, Mama,” unaware
not only that her stockinged legs and shiny shoes stuck out in front of her
but also that her whole body was constantly visible to her mother.
Like that little girl, every young child has much to learn. They are some-
times egocentric, understanding only their own perspective. Among their
developing ideas is a theory of mind, an understanding of how minds work
(as in knowing that your mother can sometimes see you when you cannot
see her).
Since children learn so much from age 2 to 6, developmentalists have
gained a new respect for early education. No longer merely “day care,” or
“home care,” early learning is now considered vital, whether it occurs at
home or in a center.
The halting, simple sentences of the typical 2-year-old become the non-
stop, complex outpourings of a talkative 6-year-old, who can explain almost
anything. How does that happen? This chapter describes thinking and learn-
ing from age 2 to 6, including remarkable advances in language as well as
thought.
Piaget and Vygotsky
Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky (introduced in Chapter 2) are justly famous for
their descriptions of cognition. Their theories, especially in what they have
to say about the eager learning of young children, are “compatible in many
ways” (Rogoff, 1998, p. 681).
Piaget: Preoperational Thinking
For Piaget, early childhood is the second of four stages of cognition. He termed
cognitive development between the ages of about 2 and 6 preoperational
intelligence, which goes beyond senses and motor skills (sensorimotor
intelligence) to include language and imagination. Preoperational thinking is
magical and self-centered; pre-operational means that the child is not yet
ready for logical operations (or reasoning processes) (Inhelder & Piaget, 1964).
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� Piaget and Vygotsky
Piaget: Preoperational Thinking
Vygotsky: Social Learning
� Children’s Theories
Theory-Theory
Theory of Mind
� Language
Vocabulary
IN PERSON: Mommy the Brat
Grammar
Learning Two Languages
� Early-Childhood Education
Child-Centered Programs
Teacher-Directed Programs
Intervention Programs
Costs and Benefits
preoperational intelligence Piaget’s term
for cognitive development between the
ages of about 2 and 6; it includes language
and imagination (in addition to the senses
and motor skills of infancy), but logical,
operational thinking is not yet possible.
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Obstacles to Logical Operations
Piaget described four characteristics of thinking in early childhood, all of which make
logic difficult: centration, focus on appearance, static reasoning, and irreversibility.
Centration is the tendency to focus on one aspect of a situation to the exclu-
sion of all others. Young children may, for example, insist that lions and tigers seen
at the zoo or in picture books cannot be cats, because the children “center” on the
house-pet aspect of the cats they know. Or they may insist that Daddy is a father,
not a brother, because they center on the role that each family member fills for
them. The latter example illustrates a particular type of centration, ego-centration,
which Piaget called egocentrism, literally self-centeredness. Egocentric children
contemplate the world exclusively from their personal perspective.
Piaget did not equate egocentrism with selfishness. Consider, for example, a
3-year-old who chose to buy a model car as a birthday present for his mother,
stubbornly convinced that she would be delighted. In fact, his “behavior was not
selfish or greedy; he carefully wrapped the present and gave it to his mother with an
expression that clearly showed that he expected her to love it” (Crain, 2005, p. 108).
A second characteristic of preoperational thought is a focus on appearance
to the exclusion of other attributes. A girl given a short haircut might worry that
she has turned into a boy. In preoperational thought, a thing is whatever it appears
to be.
Third, preoperational children use static reasoning, assuming that the world
is unchanging, always in the state in which they currently encounter it. A young
boy might want the television turned off while he goes to the bathroom, assuming
that when he returns, he can pick up the program exactly where he left off.
The fourth characteristic of preoperational thought is irreversibility. Preoper-
ational thinkers fail to recognize that reversing a process sometimes restores what-
ever existed before. A 3-year-old might cry because his mother put lettuce on his
hamburger. Overwhelmed by his desire to have things “just right” (as explained in
Chapter 8), he might reject the hamburger even after the lettuce is removed be-
cause he believes that what is done cannot be undone.
Conservation and Logic
Piaget devised many experiments demonstrating the constraints on thinking that
result from preoperational reasoning. A famous set of experiments involved con-
servation, the fact that the amount of something remains the same (is conserved)
despite changes in its appearance.
Suppose two identical glasses contain the same amount of liquid, and the liquid
from one glass is poured into a tall, narrow glass. If young children are asked
whether one glass contains more liquid or they both contain the same, they will
insist that the narrower glass, in which the liquid level is higher, has more.
All four characteristics of preoperational thought are evident in this mistake.
Young children fail to understand conservation of liquids because they focus (center)
on what they see (appearance), noticing only the immediate (static) condition. It
does not occur to them that they could reverse the process and re-create the liquid
level of a moment earlier (irreversibility). (See Figure 9.1 for other examples.)
Limitations of Piaget’s Research
Notice that Piaget’s test of conservation required the child’s words, not actions.
Other research has found that even 3-year-olds can distinguish appearance from
reality if the test is nonverbal or playful (Sapp et al., 2000). Many children indi-
cate that they know something via their gestures before they say it in words
(Goldin-Meadow, 2006).
egocentrism Piaget’s term for children’s
tendency to think about the world entirely
from their own personal perspective.
centration A characteristic of preoperational
thought in which a young child focuses
(centers) on one idea, excluding all others.
focus on appearance A characteristic of
preoperational thought in which a young
child ignores all attributes that are not
apparent.
static reasoning Thinking that nothing
changes: Whatever is now has always
been and always will be.
irreversibility The idea that nothing can be
undone; the inability to recognize that
something can sometimes be restored to
the way it was before a change occurred.
conservation The idea that the amount of a
substance remains the same (i.e., is con-
served) when its appearance changes.
Especially for Parents Who Want Their
Children to Eat Better How can Piaget’s
theory help you encourage your child to eat?
232 CHAPTER 9 ■ The Play Years: Cognitive Development
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Piaget and Vygotsky 233
Tests of Various Types of Conservation
Type of
Conservation
Initial
Presentation
Preoperational
Child’s AnswerTransformation Question
Volume Two equal glasses of
liquid.
The taller one.Pour one into a taller,
narrower glass.
Which glass contains
more?
Number Two equal lines of
checkers.
The longer one.Increase spacing of
checkers in one line.
Which line has more
checkers?
Matter Two equal balls of clay. The long one.Squeeze one ball into
a long, thin shape.
Which piece has more
clay?
Length Two sticks of equal
length.
The one that is farther
to the right.
Move one stick. Which stick is longer?
FIGURE 9.1
Conservation, Please According to Piaget, until children grasp the concept of conservation at (he
believed) about age 6 or 7, they cannot understand that the transformations shown here do not
change the total amount of liquid, checkers, clay, and wood.
CO
UR
TE
SY
O
F
KA
TH
LE
EN
B
ER
GE
R
Demonstration of Conservation My youngest daughter, Sarah, here at age 53⁄4, demonstrates
Piaget’s conservation-of-volume experiment. First, she examines both short glasses to be sure
they contain the same amount of milk. Then, after the contents of one are poured into the tall
glass and she is asked which has more, she points to the tall glass, just as Piaget would have ex-
pected. Later she added, “It looks like it has more because it’s taller,” indicating that some direct
instruction might change her mind.
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Researchers now believe that Piaget underestimated the conceptual ability of
young children, just as he underestimated it in infants (Halford & Andrews, 2006).
He designed his experiments to reveal what young children seemed not to under-
stand, rather than to identify what they could understand, and he relied on the
children’s words in an experimental setting rather than their nonverbal signs in a
play context.
Vygotsky: Social Learning
It is undeniable that young children’s thinking is often magical and self-centered.
For many years, this aspect of cognition dominated descriptions of early childhood
by developmentalists, especially Piaget.
Vygotsky was the first leading developmentalist to emphasize a second aspect of
early cognition: Young children are not always egocentric; they can be very sensitive
to the wishes and emotions of others. This second aspect emphasizes the social
side of preschool thought, which contrasts with Piaget’s emphasis on the individual.
Children as Apprentices
Vygotsky believed that every aspect of children’s cognitive development is embed-
ded in a social context (Vygotsky, 1935/1987). Children are curious and observant.
They ask questions—about how machines work, why weather changes, where the
sky ends—assuming that others know the answers.
In many ways, a child is what Vygotsky called an apprentice in thinking,
someone whose intellectual growth is stimulated and directed by older and more
skilled members of society. The parents and older siblings are usually the child’s
teachers (Maynard, 2002; Rogoff, 2003). If the child attends a day-care program,
learning from “more capable peers” is central (C. Thompson, 2002).
According to Vygotsky, children learn because their elders do the following:
■ Present challenges
■ Offer assistance (not taking over)
■ Provide instruction
■ Encourage motivation
With the help of their mentors, children learn to think by
means of their guided participation in social experiences and
in explorations of their universe, with both the mentor and the
child talking as well as acting. For example, children learning to
draw or write or dance are quite willing to copy from one another.
A child who is copied is not resentful but rather appreciates the
recognition.
The reality that children are curious about everything, learn-
ing and remembering whatever they experience, is evidence of
cognition. The ability to learn (not the measure of what is known)
indicates intelligence. Vygotsky (1935/1978) said: “What children
can do with the assistance of others might be in some sense even
more indicative of their mental development than what they can
do alone” (p. 5).
apprentice in thinking Vygotsky’s term for
a person whose cognition is stimulated
and directed by older and more skilled
members of society.
guided participation The process by which
people learn from others who guide their
experiences and explorations.
234 CHAPTER 9 ■ The Play Years: Cognitive Development
Guided Participation Through shared social activity, adults in
every culture guide the development of their children’s cognition,
values, and skills. Typically, the child’s curiosity and interests,
rather than the adult’s planning for some sort of future need,
motivate the process. That seems to be the case as this
Guatemalan girl eagerly tries to learn her mother’s sewing skills.AV
E
BA
RT
RU
FF
/
ST
OC
K,
B
OS
TO
N
Especially for Aunts and Uncles It is a
special family occasion, and you want to take
presents to your nieces and nephews. What
should you take?
➤Response for Parents Who Want
Their Children to Eat Better (from page
232): It may help if you take each of the four
characteristics of preoperational thought into
account. Because of egocentrism, having a
special place and plate might assure the child
that this food is exclusively his or hers. Since
appearance is important, food should look
tasty. Since static thinking dominates, if
something healthy is added (e.g., grate
carrots into the cake, add milk to the soup),
the addition should be done before the food
is given to the child. In the reversibility
example in the text, the lettuce should be
removed out of the child’s sight and the
“new” hamburger presented.
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Scaffolding
As you saw in Chapter 2, Vygotsky believed that for each developing individual,
there is a zone of proximal development (ZPD), which includes all the skills
that the person can perform with assistance but cannot quite perform independ-
ently. How and when children master their potential skills depends, in part, on the
willingness of others to provide scaffolding, or temporary sensitive support, to
help them traverse that zone.
Good caregivers scaffold often, teaching children to look both ways before
crossing a street (while holding the child’s hand) or letting them stir the batter for
a cake (perhaps stirring a few times themselves to make sure the ingredients are
well mixed).
Scaffolding is particularly important for experiences that are directly cognitive
—that is, ones that will produce better understanding of words and ideas. For
example, adults reading to 3-year-olds usually provide excellent scaffolding—
explaining, pointing, listening—toward the child’s ZPD in response to the child’s
needs at the moment (Danis et al., 2000). The sensitive reader would never tell
the child to be quiet and listen but might instead prolong the session by asking the
child questions.
Siblings can also provide scaffolding. In one study in Chiapas, Mexico, 8-year-
old Tonik taught his 2-year-old sister, Katal, how to wash a doll. After several min-
utes of demonstrating and describing, Tonik continues:
Tonik: Pour it like this. (Demonstrates)
Tonik: Sister, pour it. (Hands glass)
Tonik: Look! Pour it.
Katal: (Pours, with some difficulty)
Tonik: Like that. (Approval)
Katal: (Looks away)
Tonik: It’s finished now.
[quoted in Maynard, 2002, p. 977]
Note that when Katal looked away, Tonik wisely declared the session finished.
Such a response, not criticism, encourages the learner to participate in later ap-
prenticeships. Motivation is crucial in early education—one reason why sensitive
social interaction is so powerful.
Language as a Tool
Vygotsky believed that words are used to build scaffolds, developing cognition.
Just as a builder could not construct a house without tools, the mind needs lan-
guage. Talking, listening, reading, and writing are tools to advance thought.
Language advances thinking in two ways. First, internal dialogue, or private
speech, occurs when people talk to themselves, developing new ideas (Vygotsky,
1934/1987). Young children use private speech often, typically talking out loud
to review, decide, and explain events to themselves (and, incidentally, to anyone
else within earshot). Older preschoolers use private speech more selectively and
effectively, sometimes in a whisper or even without any audible sound (Winsler
et al., 2000). Adults use private speech quietly, and write down their ideas to help
them think.
The second way in which language advances thinking, according to Vygotsky, is
by mediating the social interaction that is vital to learning. This social mediation
function of speech occurs during both formal instruction (when teachers explain
things) and casual conversation.
Language used in social mediation is evident as children, guided by their men-
tors, learn numbers, recall memories, and follow routines. Among the differences
between 2-year-olds and 6-year-olds is that the latter can count objects, assigning
zone of proximal development (ZPD)
Vygotsky’s term for the skills that a person
can exercise only with assistance, not yet
independently. ZPD applies to the ideas or
cognitive skills a person is close to master-
ing as well as to more apparent skills.
scaffolding Temporary support that is tai-
lored to a learner’s needs and abilities and
aimed at helping the learner master the
next task in a given learning process.
private speech The internal dialogue that
occurs when people talk to themselves
(either silently or out loud).
Piaget and Vygotsky 235
social mediation A function of speech by
which a person’s cognitive skills are
refined and extended through both formal
instruction and casual conversation.
Especially for Someone Teaching a
Friend to Drive You want to teach a friend
to drive using your car, but you fear a temper
explosion or a crash. How would Vygotsky
advise you to proceed?
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one number per item (called one-to-one correspondence), can remember accurately
(although false memories can confuse anyone), and can verbalize scripts (such as
the usual scenario for a birthday party or a restaurant meal).
Adult instruction and verbal encouragement are crucial for all these cognitive
accomplishments (e.g., Hubbs-Tait et al., 2002; Mix et al., 2002). Thus, by age 3
or 4, children’s brains are mature enough to comprehend numbers, store memo-
ries, and know routines, but whether or not a child actually demonstrates this
understanding depends on family, school, and culture. Language is a key mediator
between brain potential and what children actually understand and remember be-
cause other people teach via the words children use to think (Haden et al., 2001;
Schneider & Pressley, 1997).
SUMMING UP
Cognition develops rapidly from age 2 to 6. Children’s active search for understanding was
first recognized by Piaget, who realized that children of this age are generally not capable
of performing logical operations (which is why he called this period preoperational ).
Their egocentrism limits their understanding and they center on only one thing at a time,
focusing on appearance. Their thinking is static, not dynamic. They do not understand
reversibility.
Vygotsky emphasized the social and cultural aspects of children’s cognition. He be-
lieved that children must be properly guided as apprentices, within their zones of proxi-
mal development. Language is a tool that mediates between the child’s curiosity and
the mentor’s knowledge.
■
Children’s Theories
Both Piaget and Vygotsky realized that children actively work to understand their
world. Recently, many other developmentalists have attempted to show exactly how
children’s knowledge develops. Children seek to explain what they experience,
especially why and how people behave as they do. If no one provides satisfying
explanations, they develop their own answers.
Theory-Theory
One theory of cognitive development begins with the human drive to develop
theories, a drive that is especially apparent in early childhood. The term theory-
theory refers to the idea that children construct theories to explain everything
they see and hear:
More than any animal, we search for causal regularities in the world around us.
We are perpetually driven to look for deeper explanations of our experience, and
broader and more reliable predictions about it. . . . Children seem, quite literally,
to be born with . . . the desire to understand the world and the desire to discover
how to behave in it.
[Gopnik, 2001, p. 66]
Thus, according to theory-theory, the best conceptualization of, and explanation
for, mental processes in young children is that humans always seek reasons, causes,
and underlying principles. Figure 9.2, with its narrative-style “recipe” for cooking a
turkey, captures the essential idea of theory-theory: that children don’t want logical
definitions but rather explanations of various things, especially things that involve
them.
Exactly how are explanations sought in early childhood? In one study, Mexican
American mothers kept detailed diaries of every question their 3- to 5-year-olds
theory-theory The idea that children attempt
to explain everything they see and hear by
constructing theories.
236 CHAPTER 9 ■ The Play Years: Cognitive Development
Especially for Adults Answering a
3-Year-Old’s Questions A characteristic of
young children is that they ask questions,
often frustrating adults by asking “Why?”
getting an answer, and immediately asking
“Why?” again. Now that you know that such
questions are almost always about purpose,
not science, how would you answer the
question “Why is my brother bad?” or
“Why is there night?”
➤Response for Aunts and Uncles (from
page 234): Remember that preschool children
focus on appearances and are egocentric.
Whatever you give a 2- to 5-year-old must be
seen as equal to any present you give another
child. Thus, you would choose identical gifts
(perhaps markers, toys, or articles of clothing),
so that no child can compare presents and
decide that you love another child more.
➤Response for Someone Teaching a
Friend to Drive (from page 235): Use guided
participation, and scaffold the instruction so it
does not all come at once. Both you and your
student might hold the steering wheel at first,
and practice in a large, empty parking lot. Be
sure to provide lots of praise and days of
practice.
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asked and how the mothers responded (Kelemen et al., 2005; see Research Design).
Generally, younger children asked more questions than older children, and more
educated mothers heard (or recorded) more questions. This study focused partic-
ularly on children’s curiosity and how adults respond.
Most of the questions were about human behavior and characteristics (see Fig-
ure 9.3). For example, children asked, “Why do you give my mother a kiss?” “Why
is my brother bad?” “Why do women have breasts?” and “Why are there Black
kids?” Fewer questions were about nonliving things (“Why does it rain?”) or objects
(“Why is my daddy’s car white?”).
Many questions concerned the un-
derlying purpose of various natural
phenomena, although parents usually
responded as if children were asking
about science instead. For example,
when children asked why women have
breasts, parents would tell them about
hormones and maturation, not that
breasts are for feeding babies.
Children’s Theories 237
A whole turkey
1 big bag full of a whole turkey (Get the kind with no feathers on,
not the kind the Pilgrims ate.)
A giant lump of stuffin’
1 squash pie
1 mint pie
1 little fancy dish of sour berries
1 big fancy dish of a vegetable mix
20 dishes of all different candies; chocolate balls, cherry balls,
good’n plenties and peanuts
Get up when the alarm says to and get busy fast. Unfold the turkey and
open up the holes. Push in the stuffin’ for a couple of hours. I think you get
stuffin’ from that Farm that makes it.
I know you have to pin the stuffin’ to the turkey or I suppose it would get
out. And get special pins or use big long nails.
Get the kitchen real hot, and from there on you just cook turkey.
Sometimes you can call it a bird, but it’s not.
Then you put the vegetables in the cooker—and first put one on top,
and next put one on the bottom, and then one in the middle. That makes a
vegetable mix. Put 2 red things of salt all in it and 2 red things of water also.
Cook them to just 1⁄2 of warm.
Put candies all around the place and Linda will bring over the pies.
When the company comes put on your red apron.
Percentage of Questions Asked
by 3- to 5-Year-Olds, by Domain
Source: Adapted from Kelemen et al., 2005.
Human behavior
47%
Biology
31%
Other
4%
Nonliving
natural things
9%
Objects
9%
FIGURE 9.3
Questions, Questions Parents found that
most of their children’s questions were about
human behavior—especially the parents’
behavior toward the child. Children seek to
develop a theory to explain things, so the
question “Why can’t I have some candy?”
is not satisfactorily answered by “It’s almost
dinnertime.”
Research Design
Scientists: Deborah Kelemen and others.
Publication: Developmental Psychology
(2005).
Participants: A total of 48 Mexican
American mothers and their 3- to 5-
year-olds. Most of the women were
born in Mexico and all lived in central
California at the time of the study.
Design: After an initial interview, the
researchers phoned the mothers every
two days for two weeks to hear what
“Why?” or “How?” questions the chil-
dren asked and what answers the
children were given.
Major conclusion: Children ask many
questions about the purpose of things
and about human behavior; they seem
less curious about inanimate objects.
Comment: These families were often
bilingual, immigrant, and religious.
These characteristics may not have
affected the results, but replication is
needed to find out for sure. Ideally,
children’s actual questions would be
tape-recorded, not simply reported by
the mothers (whose reports might be
distorted by unconscious biases).
FIGURE 9.2
Unfold the Turkey This recipe (from Smashed Potatoes,
edited by Jane Martel) shows many characteristics of pre-
school thought, among them literal interpretation of words
(“Sometimes you can call it a bird, but it’s not”) and an
uncertain idea of time (“Push in the stuffin’ for a couple
hours”) and quantity (“A giant lump of stuffin’ ”).
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Theory of Mind
Human mental processes—thoughts, emotions, beliefs, motives, and intentions—
are among the most complicated and puzzling phenomena that we encounter
every day. Adults seek to understand why people fall in love, or vote as they do, or
make foolish choices. Children are puzzled about a playmate’s unexpected anger, a
sibling’s generosity, or an aunt’s too-wet kiss.
To know what goes on in another’s mind, people develop a “folk psychology,” an
understanding of others’ thinking called theory of mind. Theory of mind typically
appears rather suddenly (Wellman et al., 2001), in “an important intellectual
change at about 4 years” (Perner, 2000, p. 396).
Belief and Reality: Understanding the Difference
Actually, theory of mind includes many concepts, some of which are difficult for
much older children. However, a sudden leap in understanding does seem to
occur at about age 4. What is it that children suddenly understand? Between the
ages of 3 and 6, children come to realize that thoughts may not reflect reality. This
idea leads to the theory-of-mind concept that people can be deliberately deceived
or fooled—an idea that is beyond the understanding of most younger children,
even when they have themselves been deceived.
Consider an experiment. An adult shows a 3-year-old a candy box and asks,
“What is inside?” The child says, naturally, “Candy.” But the child has been tricked:
Adult: Let’s open it and look inside.
Child: Oh . . . holy moly . . . pencils!
Adult: Now I’m going to put them back and close it up again. (Does so) Now
. . . when you first saw the box, before we opened it, what did you think
was inside it?
Child: Pencils.
Adult: Nicky [friend of the child] hasn’t seen inside this box. When Nicky
comes in and sees it . . . what will he think is inside it?
Child: Pencils.
[adapted from Astington & Gopnik, 1988, p. 195]
This experiment has become a classic, performed with thousands of children
from many cultures. Three-year-olds almost always confuse what they know now
with what they once thought and what someone else might think. Another way of
describing this is to say that they are “cursed” by their own knowledge (Birch &
Bloom, 2003), too egocentric to grasp other perspectives.
As a result, young children are notoriously bad at deception. They play hide-
and-seek by hiding in the same place time after time, or their facial expression
betrays them when they tell a fib. Closely related is their inability to change their
minds (remember perseveration from Chapter 8), even when they recognize that
they must think something new. With static reasoning (characteristic of preopera-
tional thought), changing one’s mind is difficult.
Contextual Influences
Recently, developmentalists have asked what, precisely, strengthens theory of
mind at about age 4. Is this change more a matter of nature or of nurture, of brain
maturation or of experience?
Neurological maturation is a plausible explanation. In one study, 68 children aged
21⁄2 to 51⁄2 were presented with four standard theory-of-mind situations, including a
Band-Aid box that really contained pencils (similar to the candy-box experiment
just described) (Jenkins & Astington, 1996). More than one-third of the children
238 CHAPTER 9 ■ The Play Years: Cognitive Development
theory of mind A person’s theory of what
other people might be thinking. In order to
have a theory of mind, children must real-
ize that other people are not necessarily
thinking the same thoughts that they
themselves are. That realization is seldom
possible before age 4.
Especially for Social Scientists Can you
think of any connection between Piaget’s
theory of preoperational thought and 3-year-
olds’ errors in this theory-of-mind task?
➤Response for Adults Answering a
3-Year-Old’s Questions (from page 236):
Do not talk about the toy the brother broke or
explain the earth’s rotation! Instead, connect
the answer to the child. You might say, “Your
brother probably wishes he had your toy” or
“There’s night so you know when it is time to
go to sleep.”
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Children’s Theories 239
succeeded at all four tasks, and more than one-third failed at
three or four. Age was the main factor: The 5-year-olds were
most likely to succeed on all tasks, the 4-year-olds had mid-
dling success, and the 3-year-olds were most likely to fail every
time.
This age-related advance suggests that context is less cru-
cial than maturation of the brain’s prefrontal cortex (Perner et
al., 2002). Further evidence that brain maturation is a prereq-
uisite for theory of mind is the fact that impaired brain func-
tioning is the most likely cause of autism (see Chapter 11),
and many autistic children are advanced in numerical under-
standing but slow to develop theory of mind (Baron-Cohen,
1995).
Two other influences that are affected by context are key:
language and siblings. Children with greater verbal fluency (at
any age) are more likely to have a theory of mind. This is partly
the result of experience, especially mother–child conversations that involve
thoughts and wishes (Ruffman et al., 2002). Deaf children are delayed in develop-
ing a theory of mind, probably because their language development is delayed
(Lundy, 2002).
When the effects of both age and language ability are accounted for, a third im-
portant factor emerges: having at least one older brother or sister (Jenkins &
Astington, 1996). One researcher estimates that, in theory-of-mind development,
“two older siblings are worth about a year of chronological age” (Perner,
2000, p. 383). The arguing, agreeing, competing, and cooperating that
siblings normally do apparently lead children to understand that their
own thinking is not shared by everyone.
A study comparing theory of mind among young children in preschools
in Canada, India, Peru, Samoa, and Thailand found that the Canadian
children were slightly ahead and the Samoan children were slightly be-
hind, but across cultures most of the children in the study sample passed
the false-belief tests (such as a culture-fair version of the one involving
pencils in the candy box) by age 5 (see Figure 9.4). The researchers con-
cluded that brain maturation was the primary factor in the acquisition of
theory of mind but that language development and social interaction
were also influential (Callaghan et al., 2005).
The child’s own logic and maturation are important (Piaget), but lan-
guage and social interaction are mediators (Vygotsky) once the necessary
brain structures are in place. In most cultures, “a certain amount of expe-
rience hearing and participating in conversation” occurs by age 3, allow-
ing theory of mind to develop (Callaghan et al., 2005, p. 382).
SUMMING UP
Scholars have recently noted that children develop theories to explain whatever they
observe, and those theories do not necessarily spring from explanations given to them
by adults. Children seem to be much more interested in the underlying purpose of
events within the grand scheme of life; adults are more focused on immediate scientific
causes. Many researchers have explored the development of theory of mind, the under-
standing that other people can have thoughts and ideas that are unlike one’s own.
Neurological maturation, linguistic competence, family context, and culture all affect the
attainment of theory of mind at about age 4.
■
Road Rage? From their expressions, it looks
as if this brother and sister may crash their
toy jeep and cry, each blaming the other for
the mishap. But a benefit of such sibling in-
teractions is that they can advance theory of
mind by helping children realize that people
do not always think the same way.
©
P
UN
CH
ST
OC
K
Children’s Performance on False-Belief Tests
Number of children
5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Canada
India
Peru
Samoa
Thailand
Source: Callaghan et al., 2005.
Age 3:
Pass Fail
Age 5:
Pass Fail
FIGURE 9.4
Few at Age 3, Most by Age 5 The advantage
of cross-cultural research is that it can reveal
universal patterns. Although the number of
children in each group is small (from 31 3-year-
olds in Peru to 13 5-year-olds in Thailand), the
pattern is obvious. Something changes at
about age 4.
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Language
Language is pivotal to cognition in early childhood, as we have seen in the ex-
amples of Vygotsky’s social mediation and the development of theory of mind.
Language is also the leading cognitive accomplishment during these years:
24-month-old children begin this period with short sentences and limited vocabu-
lary, and 6-year-olds end it with the ability to understand and discuss almost any-
thing (see Table 9.1).
Maturation and myelination added to extensive social interaction make age 2 to
6 the usual time for learning language. Indeed, scientists once thought that these
years were a critical period, the only time when a first language could be mas-
tered and the best time for learning a second or third language. This hypothesis
has been disproven. Millions of older children and adults learn to be fluent in sec-
ond languages (Bialystok, 2001; Hakuta et al., 2003).
Nonetheless, early childhood is a sensitive period for language learning—for
rapidly and easily mastering vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Young chil-
dren are sometimes called “language sponges” because they soak up every drop of
language they encounter.
They also talk a lot—to adults, to each
other, to themselves, to their toys—unfazed
by mispronunciation, misuse, stuttering, or
other impediments to fluency. Note a crucial
developmental asset as well: Language comes
easily because, compared with most older
children and adults, young children are not as
self-conscious about what they say.
Vocabulary
In childhood, new words are added rapidly.
The average child knows about 500 words at
age 2 and more than 10,000 at age 6. One
scholar says that 2- to 6-year-olds learn 10
words a day (Clark, 1995); another estimates
one word for every two waking hours from
about age 2 to age 20 (Pinker, 1994). The
naming explosion (explained in Chapter 6) be-
comes a more general explosion, with new
verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and conjunctions as
well as many more nouns mastered during
early childhood.
Precise estimates of vocabulary vary be-
cause contexts are diverse; the estimates given here may be high. However, all
researchers agree that vocabulary builds quickly and that most children could
learn far more language than they do. Every child could probably become fluently
bilingual if their context encouraged that.
Fast-Mapping
How does the vocabulary explosion occur? After painstakingly learning one word
at a time at age 1, children develop an interconnected set of categories for words,
a kind of grid or mental map, which makes speedy vocabulary acquisition possible.
The process is called fast-mapping (Woodward & Markman, 1998) because,
rather than figuring out an exact definition after hearing a word used in several
240 CHAPTER 9 ■ The Play Years: Cognitive Development
TABLE 9.1
AT ABOUT THIS TIME: Language in Early Childhood
Approximate Age Characteristic or Achievement
2 years Vocabulary: 100–2,000 words
Sentence length: 2–6 words
Grammar: Plurals, pronouns, many nouns, verbs, adjectives
Questions: Many “What’s that?”questions
3 years Vocabulary: 1,000–5,000 words
Sentence length: 3–8 words
Grammar: Conjunctions, adverbs, articles
Questions: Many “Why?” questions
4 years Vocabulary: 3,000–10,000 words
Sentence length: 5–20 words
Grammar: Dependent clauses, tags at ends of sentences
(“. . . didn’t I?” “. . . won’t you?”)
Questions: Peak of “Why?” questions; also many “How?”
and “When?” questions
5 years Vocabulary: 5,000–20,000 words
Sentence length: Some seem unending (“. . . and . . . who . . .
and . . . that . . . and . . .”)
Grammar: Complex, sometimes using passive voice
(“Man bitten by dog”); subjunctive (“If I were . . .”)
Questions: Include some about differences (male/female,
old/young, rich/poor)
critical period A time when a certain devel-
opment must happen if it is ever to happen.
For example, the embryonic period is
critical for the development of arms and
legs. It was once thought that early child-
hood was the critical period for language
learning, but today it is considered a
sensitive period.
sensitive period A time when a certain type
of development is most likely to happen
and happens most easily. For example,
early childhood is considered a sensitive
period for language learning.
fast-mapping The speedy and sometimes
imprecise way in which children learn new
words by mentally charting them into
categories according to their meaning.
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contexts, children hear a word once and tentatively stick it into one of the cate-
gories on their mental language map.
Like more conventional mental mapping, language mapping is not always pre-
cise. Thus, when asked where Nepal is, most people can locate it approximately
(“in Asia”), but few can name each bordering country. Similarly, children quickly
learn new animal names, for instance, because they are mapped in the brain close
to already-known animal names. Thus, tiger is easy to map if you know lion. A
trip to the zoo facilitates fast-mapping of dozens of animal words, especially since
zoos scaffold such learning by placing similar animals together.
The benefit of knowing at least one word of a category is evident in a classic ex-
periment. A preschool teacher taught a new word by saying, “Give me the
chromium tray, not the red one” (Carey, 1985). Those children who already knew
red quickly grasped the new word, chromium, and remembered it more than a
week later. Those children who knew no color words did not remember the new
word (a week later, they could not select a chromium object) because they were
unable to map it (Mandler, 2004).
Another set of experiments began in cultures whose languages had only a few
counting words: the equivalents of one, two, and many. People in such cultures
were much worse at estimating quantity because they did not have the words to
guide them (Gordon, 2004). Mapping and understanding a new number word,
such as nineteen, is easier if one already knows a related word, such as nine.
Generally, the more linguistic clues children already have, the better their fast-
mapping is (Mintz, 2005). To increase vocabulary, parents should talk to them
often, adding new vocabulary (Hoff & Naigles, 2002). Alas, preschoolers also map
words their parents would rather they didn’t, as I learned.
Language 241
What’s That? By far the best way for a par-
ent to teach a young child new vocabulary is
by reading aloud. Ideally, the interaction
should be a very social one, with much point-
ing and talking, as this Idaho pair demon-
strate. If such experiences are part of her
daily routine, this little girl not only will de-
velop language but also will be among the
first of her classmates to learn how to read.
M
IC
HA
EL
W
IC
KE
S
/ T
HE
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
“Mommy the Brat”
Fast-mapping has an obvious benefit: It fosters quick acquisi-
tion of vocabulary. However, it also means that children seem to
know words merely because they use them when, in actuality,
their understanding of the words’ meaning is quite limited.
Realizing that children often do not fully comprehend the
meanings of words they use makes it easier to understand—and
forgive—their mistakes. I still vividly recall an incident when my
youngest daughter, then 4, was furious at me.
Sarah had apparently fast-mapped several insulting words
into her vocabulary. However, her fast-mapping did not provide
precise definitions or reflect nuances. In her anger, she called
me first a “mean witch” and then a “brat.” I smiled at her inno-
cent imprecision, knowing the first was fast-mapped from fairy
tales and the second from comments she got from her older
sisters. Neither label bothered me, as I don’t believe in witches
and my brother is the only person who can appropriately call me
a brat.
But then Sarah let loose an X-rated epithet that sent me reel-
ing. Struggling to contain my anger, I tried to convince myself
that fast-mapping had left her with no real idea of what she had
just said. “That word is never to be used in this family!” I sput-
tered. My appreciation of the speed of fast-mapping was deep-
ened by her response: “Then how come Rachel [her older sister]
called me that this morning?”
in person
Words and the Limits of Logic
Closely related to fast-mapping is logical extension: After learning a word, children
use it to describe other objects in the same category. One child told her father
she had seen some Dalmatian cows on a school trip to a farm. He understood her
because he remembered that she had petted a Dalmatian dog the weekend before.
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Children use their available vocabulary to cover all the territory they
want to talk about (Behrend et al., 2001). They use logic to figure out
what words mean—for instance, deciding that butter comes from
butterflies and birds grow from bird seed.
One child, jumping on a bed, knew that live with means reside in the
same home.
Mother: Stop. You’ll hurt yourself.
Child: No I won’t. (Still jumping)
Mother: You’ll break the bed.
Child: No I won’t. (Still jumping)
Mother: OK. You’ll just have to live with the consequences.
Child: (Stops jumping) I’m not going to live with the consequences.
I don’t even know them.
[adapted from Nemy, 1998]
An experiment in teaching the names of parts of objects (e.g., the
spigot of a faucet) found that children learned much better if the adults
named the object that had the part, and then spoke of the part in the
possessive (e.g., “See this butterfly? Look, this is its thorax”) (Saylor &
Sabbagh, 2004). This finding shows that how a new word is presented
affects the likelihood that a child will learn that word.
Young children have difficulty with words that express comparisons
(such as tall and short, near and far, high and low, deep and shallow) because they
do not understand that the meaning of these words depends on the context
(Ryalls, 2000). Young children who know that one end of the swimming pool is the
deep end might obey parental instructions to stay out of deep puddles by splash-
ing through every puddle they see, insisting that none of them are deep.
Words expressing relationships of place and time—such as here, there, yester-
day, and tomorrow—are difficult as well. More than one pajama-clad child has
awakened on Christmas morning and asked, “Is it tomorrow yet?” A child told to
“stay there” or “come here” may not follow instructions, partly because the terms
are confusing.
One example of childlike understanding comes from Italian preschoolers who
were discussing a war nearby. They seemed to understand the issues, advocating
peace. But their words revealed their egocentrism. Giorgia, age 4, said, “The dad-
dies, mommies, and children get their feelings hurt by war” (Abbott & Nutbrown,
2001, p. 123).
Grammar
Chapter 6 noted that the grammar of language includes the structures, techniques,
and rules that are used to communicate meaning. Word order and word repetition,
prefixes and suffixes, intonation and emphasis—all are part of grammar.
By age 3, English-speaking children understand many aspects of grammar.
They know word order (subject/verb/object), saying “I eat the apple,” not any of
the 23 other possible sequences of those four words. They also use plurals, tenses
(past, present, and future), and nominative, objective, and possessive pronouns
(I/me/mine or my). They use articles (the, a, an) correctly, even though the use of
articles in English has many complexities.
Parents’ input and encouragement, as well as their use of grammar, lead directly
to faster and more correct language use by children (Barrett, 1999; Hoff &
Naigles, 2002). In a study of twins (who are often delayed in grammar because
they experience less individualized conversation), researchers found that the
speed and scope of language learning depended on how much the parents spoke
242 CHAPTER 9 ■ The Play Years: Cognitive Development
Fangs for the Memories Museums, zoos,
parks, farms, factories—all provide abundant
opportunities for vocabulary building and
concept formation. These parents may be
teaching their children not only mountain lion
but also habitat, carnivore, and incisors.
BA
N
AN
AS
TO
CK
/
PI
CT
UR
EQ
UE
ST
➤Response for Social Scientists (from
page 238): According to Piaget, preschool
children focus on appearance and on static
conditions (so they cannot mentally reverse
a process). Further, they are egocentric,
believing that everyone shares their point of
view. No wonder they believe that they had
always known that the candy box held pencils
and that their friend would know that, too.
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to each twin (Rutter et al., 2003). Some parents speak more to one twin than the
other, and that difference affects language development.
Each specific aspect of language develops differently, because many genetic
and environmental influences have an impact, and no two children have the same
influences. Genes may be more influential for expressive than for receptive
language, since the latter is more dependent on experience (Kovas et al., 2005).
Grammar is strongly influenced by experience.
Young children learn grammar so well that they tend to apply rules when they
should not. This tendency, called overregularization, creates trouble when a
language includes many exceptions, as English does. An example involves one of
the first grammatical rules that English-speaking children apply: the addition of a
final -s to form the plural of a noun. Many young children overregularize, talking
about foots, tooths, sheeps, and mouses.
A fascinating aspect of the increasing intelligence of young children is that
many of them first say words correctly and then, when they understand the rule,
start making overregularizing mistakes. Although even the first sentences show
some understanding of grammar, it takes many years before children use all the
grammar structures of their native language correctly (Tomasello, 2006).
Learning Two Languages
In today’s world, bilingualism is an asset, even a necessity. Yet as they grow up,
language-minority children (those who speak a language that is not the dominant
language of their nation) are at a disadvantage in almost every measure. They are
more likely to do poorly in school, to feel ashamed, to become unemployed as
adults, and so on (see Chapter 12). Learning the majority language is crucial for
them, but how should this learning happen?
What Is the Goal?
The first question that must be answered is, What is the goal of having a second
language? Parents, teachers, and the public often disagree. Should young children
become bilingual, learning two distinct languages? Some say no, arguing that
young children need to become proficient in one, and only one, language and that
trying to teach them two languages might confuse them. Others say yes, arguing
that everyone should learn at least two languages and that the language-sensitive
years of early childhood are the best time for it.
The second argument has more research support.
Remarkably, soon after the vocabulary explosion,
young children are able to master two languages’
distinct sets of words and grammar, with each lan-
guage’s characteristic pauses, pronunciations, into-
nations, and gestures (Bates et al., 2001; Mayberry
& Nicoladis, 2000). Adults who are bilingual can
use one language and temporarily inhibit the other,
experiencing no confusion, thanks to a specific area
of the brain that stores language and uses the appro-
priate words (Crinion et al., 2006).
Young children have difficulty with pronunciation
in every language, but this does not slow down their
learning of a second language, as it does for adults.
When expressing themselves, many of them transpose
sounds (magazine becomes mazagine), drop conso-
nants (truck becomes ruck), convert difficult sounds
overregularization The application of rules
of grammar even when exceptions occur,
so that the language is made to seem
more “regular” than it actually is.
Language 243
Tiene Identificación Lista Are you pleased
or angered by this bilingual sign at a school in
Chelsea, Massachusetts, that serves as a
polling place on election day? In this election,
voters were deciding whether or not to elimi-
nate government funding for bilingual educa-
tion. Those who favored immersion argued
that signs like this one would soon become
unnecessary if children were taught only in
English. Those who favored bilingual education
held that without it, children from minority-
language families would be likely to drop out
of school before mastering any language.
AP
/
W
ID
E
W
OR
LD
P
HO
TO
S
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244 CHAPTER 9 ■ The Play Years: Cognitive Development
( father becomes fadder), and make other errors. But they can hear better than they
can talk (receptive more than expressive). For example, my daughter Rachel at age
4 asked for a “yeyo yayipop.” Her father said, “You want a yeyo yayipop?” She
replied, “Daddy, sometimes you talk funny.”
Bilingualism, Cognition, and Culture
Since language is integral to culture, bilingualism is embedded in emotions of
ethnic pride and fear. This reality hampers developmental research. One group of
researchers explains:
A question of concern to many is whether early schooling [in the play years] in
English for language minority children harms the development and/or mainte-
nance of their mother tongue and possibly children’s language competence in
general. . . . [The] debate quickly and unfortunately becomes . . . hampered by
extreme and emotional political positions.
[Winsler et al., 1999, p. 350]
Research finds that bilingualism has both advantages and disadvantages. Sup-
porters point out, correctly, that children who speak two languages by age 5 are
less egocentric in their understanding of language and more advanced in their
theory of mind. Opponents point out, also correctly, that bilingual children often
are less fluent in one or both languages, slowing down reading as well as other
linguistic skills (Bialystok, 2001).
This last fact makes many who speak the dominant language strive to have every
child learn that language. This issue is of particular importance in California,
where more than half of all public school children have parents who are immi-
grants. Many such parents find that their children make a language shift, becoming
more fluent in their new language than in their home language (Min, 2000;
S.-L. C. Wong & M. G. Lopez, 2000).
It is not unusual for 5-year-olds to understand their parents’ language but re-
fuse to speak it, especially if their parents understand the dominant language.
Nor is it unusual for adults to depend on a child as interpreter when they deal
with monolingual bureaucrats. This dependency, which
amounts to a role reversal, makes practical sense, but it
widens the gap between child and parent. (Even native-
born monolingual families have a generational and cohort
parent–child gap.)
Language shift and role reversal are unfortunate, not
only for the child and the parents but also for the society.
Having many bilingual citizens is a national strength,
and respect for family traditions is a bulwark against ado-
lescent rebellion. Yet young children are preoperational:
They center on the immediate status of their parents and
their language, on appearances more than past history or
future benefits. No wonder many shift toward the domi-
nant language.
Again, what is the goal of second-language learning?
Parents are reluctant to deprive children of their roots,
heritage, and identity, and yet they know that speaking,
reading, and writing the dominant language are necessary
for success (Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco, 2001).
Many adults who are proud of their home language criti-
cize members of their ethnic group who have “lost” their
heritage language. But they also know that their children
One Family’s Multiculturalism One of the
first cultural preferences to travel successfully
is food, and Italian cuisine is one of the world’s
most popular. This family lives in New York,
the parents were born in Taiwan, their chil-
dren are learning to speak both Chinese and
English—and they all love pepperoni pizza.
SU
SA
N
K
UK
LI
N
/
PH
OT
O
RE
SE
AR
CH
ER
S,
IN
C.
Especially for Immigrant Parents You
want your children to be fluent in the language
of your family’s new country, even though you
do not speak that language well. Should you
speak to your children in your native tongue or
in the new language?
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will face discrimination if they speak with a “foreign” accent and are less than
fluent in the dominant language.
The best solution seems to be for every child to become a balanced bilingual,
fluent in two languages, speaking both so well that no audible hint suggests the
other language. Is balanced bilingualism possible? Yes. In many nations, during
these sensitive play years, children become fluent in two or more languages.
Constant Change
The basics of language learning—explosion, fast-mapping, overregularization, ex-
tensive practice—apply to bilingual learning. Parents who want a child to learn
two languages need to intensify the child’s exposure to both languages.
Fortunately, children have a powerful urge to communicate and a readiness to
learn as much as they can. This was dramatically illustrated by children in
Nicaragua at a boarding school for the deaf (Siegal, 2004). Their teachers tried to
teach spoken Spanish and used no sign language. (This strategy is no longer com-
mon, since it is now clear that deaf children learn best if they are taught sign lan-
guage from infancy. However, war delayed the teachers’ awareness of this finding.)
The children in Nicaragua invented their own sign language, using it among
themselves and teaching it to the new arrivals. Their created language flourished,
with each new generation of children refining it. Younger children were more flu-
ent than older ones because they built on what had already been invented, adding
new gestures.
Similarly, established languages continually change. In English in the past few
decades, the word Negro gave way to Black, which was soon replaced by African
American. New terms include hip-hop, e-mail, DVD, spam, blog, cell (phone), rap
(music), buff (in shape), and hundreds more. Words from other languages have
become basic English vocabulary, such as salsa, loco, amour, kowtow, and mensch.
Some key terms in this book, doula and kwashiorkor among them, originated in
other languages. Young people learn such changes before adults do.
SUMMING UP
Children aged 2 to 6 have impressive linguistic talents. They explode into speech, from
about a hundred words to many thousands, from halting baby talk to fluency. Fast-
mapping and grammar are among the sophisticated devices they use, strategies that
can backfire. No other time in the entire life span is as sensitive to language learning,
especially to mastering pronunciation. Children can readily learn two languages during
these years. Extensive exposure to both languages is necessary to become a balanced
bilingual.
■
Early-Childhood Education
A hundred years ago children had no formal education until first grade, which is
why it was called “first” and why younger children were called “preschoolers.”
Today most 3- to 5-year-olds in developed nations are in school (see Figure 9.5 for
U.S. trends), partly because research “documents the rapid development and
great learning potential of the early years” (Hyson et al., 2006, p. 6).
Names of early educational institutions differ (such as preschool, nursery
school, day care, pre-primary), but names do not indicate the nature of a program.
We will consider three clusters: child-centered, teacher-directed, and intervention
programs.
Early-Childhood Education 245
balanced bilingual A person who is fluent
in two languages, not favoring one or the
other.
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Child-Centered Programs
Many programs are developmental, or child-centered, stressing children’s devel-
opment and growth. This approach stresses children’s need to play and explore
rather than to follow adult directions (Weikart, 1999). Many child-centered pro-
grams use a Piaget-inspired model that allows children to discover ideas at their
own pace. The physical space and the materials—dress-up clothing, art supplies,
puzzles, blocks of many sizes, and other toys—are or-
ganized to encourage self-paced exploration.
Many child-centered programs encourage artistic ex-
pression. Some educators argue that young children
“are all poets” in that they are gifted in seeing the world
more imaginatively than older people do. According to
advocates of child-centered programs, this peak of cre-
ative vision should be encouraged; children should be
given lots of opportunities to tell stories, draw pictures,
dance, and make music for their own delight (Egan &
Ling, 2002).
Child-centered programs also show the influence of
Vygotsky, who thought that children learn from other
children, with adult guidance. For example, in order to
learn number skills, classrooms have games that include
math (counting objects, keeping score), routines that
use measurements (daily calendars, schedules), and
number guidelines (only three children in the blocks
corner, two volunteers to get the juice).
246 CHAPTER 9 ■ The Play Years: Cognitive Development
Percentage of U.S. 3-, 4-, and 5-Year-Olds Enrolled in Preprimary Programs
Percent
50
40
30
20
10
19701965 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2004
Year
Source: Snyder et al., 2004, p. 65; U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2006.
90
80
70
60
3-year-olds
4-year-olds
5-year-olds
FIGURE 9.5
Changing Times As research increasingly finds that preschool education provides a foundation
for later learning, more and more young children are in educational programs.
“We teach them that the world can be an unpredictable,
dangerous, and sometimes frightening place, while being careful
not to spoil their lovely innocence. It’s tricky.”
©
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Montessori Schools
One type of preschool that is child-centered began a hundred years ago, when
Maria Montessori opened nursery schools for poor children in Rome. She believed
that children needed structured, individualized projects to give them a sense of
accomplishment, such as completing particular puzzles, using a sponge and water
to clean a table, and drawing shapes.
Like Piaget (her contemporary), Montessori (1936/1966) realized that children
have different thoughts and needs from adults. They learn from activities that
adults might call play, and teachers should provide tasks that dovetail with the
cognitive eagerness of the child. For example, because they have a need for order,
for language learning, and for using all their senses, children will learn from exer-
cises that allow them to develop these skills.
Today’s Montessori schools still emphasize individual pride and accomplish-
ment, presenting many literacy-related tasks (such as outlining letters and looking
at books) to the children at age 4 or so (Lillard, 2005). Many tasks differ from
those Montessori developed, but the underlying philosophy is the same. Children
collaborate with each other and do not sit quietly while a teacher instructs them.
That is what makes this child-centered, although some things children enjoy (pre-
tend play, for example) are not Montessori.
The goal is for the children to feel proud of themselves and engaged in learning.
Many aspects of Montessori’s philosophy are in accord with current developmen-
tal research, and that is one reason this kind of school remains popular in many
nations. A study of 5-year-olds in inner-city Milwaukee who were chosen by lottery
to attend Montessori programs found that they were better at pre-reading and
early math tasks, as well as at theory of mind, than a group of their peers who had
not been selected (Lillard & Else-Quest, 2006).
The Reggio Emilia Approach
Another form of early-childhood education is called the Reggio Emilia approach
because it was inspired by a program pioneered in the Italian town of that name,
where today 13 infant–toddler centers and 21 preschools are funded by the city.
Almost all local parents want their children to participate; there is a waiting list,
and more centers are planned.
In Reggio Emilia, every preschooler is encouraged to master skills not usually
seen in American schools until age 7 or so, such as writing and using tools, but no
child is required to engage in such learning (Edwards et al., 1998). There is no
large-group instruction, with formal lessons in, say, forming letters or cutting paper.
Children are seen as “rich and powerful learners” and as “competent, creative
individuals” (Abbott & Nutbrown, 2001, pp. 24, 47), each with his or her own
learning needs and artistic drive.
Appreciation of the arts is evident not only in the children’s activities but also in
the physical design of the schools. Every Reggio Emilia school has a large central
room where children gather, with floor-to-ceiling windows open to a spacious,
plant-filled playground. Big mirrors are part of every school’s décor (again fostering
individuality), and children’s art is displayed on white walls and hung from high
ceilings. Among the characteristics of Reggio Emilia programs (now evident in
every developed nation) are a low teacher/child ratio, ample space, and abundant
materials.
One of the distinctive features of the curriculum is that a small group of children
become engaged in long-term projects of their choosing. Such projects foster the
children’s pride in their accomplishments (which are displayed for all to admire)
while teaching them to plan and work together.
Early-Childhood Education 247
➤Response for Immigrant Parents (from
page 244): Children learn by listening, so it is
important for you to speak with them often,
and it is probably best to do so in both
languages. Depending on how comfortable
you are with the new language, you might
prefer to read to your children, sing to them,
and converse with them primarily in your
native language and find a good preschool
where they will learn the new language. The
worst thing you could do would be to restrict
speech in either tongue.
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Teachers have 6 hours of work time each week without the children, which they
spend planning activities, having group discussions, and talking to parents. Parental
involvement is expected: They teach in special subject areas, meet with one another,
and receive frequent reports, often with photographs, written observations, and
their child’s artwork. The entire town is proud of their children and schools.
Teacher-Directed Programs
Unlike Reggio Emilia, some programs stress academics taught by the teacher to the
entire class. The curriculum teaches children letters, numbers, shapes, and colors,
as well as how to listen to the teacher and sit quietly. Praise and other reinforce-
ments are given for good behavior, and time-outs (brief separation from activities)
are punishments.
In teacher-directed programs, there is a clear distinction between the serious
work of schooling and the cozy play of home. As one German boy explained:
So home is home and kindergarten is kindergarten. Here is my work and at home
is off-time, understand? My mum says work is me learning something. Learning is
when you drive your head, and off-time is when the head slows down.
[quoted in Griebel & Niesel, 2002, p. 67]
The teachers’ goal is to make all children “ready to learn” when they enter ele-
mentary school. Some of these programs explicitly teach basic skills, including
reading, writing, and arithmetic, sometimes with the teacher asking questions that
all the children answer together. Children are given practice in forming letters,
sounding out words, counting objects, and writing their names. If a 4-year-old
learns to read, that is success. (In a developmental program, it might arouse suspi-
cion that the child was not being allowed enough time to play.) Many teacher-
directed programs were inspired by behaviorism, which emphasizes step-by-step
learning and repetition.
The contrast between child-centered and teacher-directed philosophies is evi-
dent in many areas, not only in lessons but also in social interactions. For instance,
if one child bothers another child, should the second child tell the teacher, or
248 CHAPTER 9 ■ The Play Years: Cognitive Development
Another Place for Children High ceilings,
uncrowded play space, varied options for art
and music, a glass wall revealing trees and
flowers—all these features reflect the Reggio
Emilia approach to individualized, creative
learning for young children. Such places are
rare in nations other than Italy.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 250):
How many children appear in this photograph
and how many are engaged in creative
expression?
AT
EL
IE
R—
FR
OM
“
OP
EN
W
IN
DO
W
S,
”
©
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IT
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OF
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should the two children work it out by themselves? If one child bites another,
should the biter be isolated, reprimanded, or—as sometimes happens—should the
victim be allowed to bite back? Each preschool has rules for such situations, which
vary because of contrasting philosophies.
Intervention Programs
Developmental scientists, linking research findings and practical applications,
have discovered that early childhood is a prime learning period. It is also evident
that some children learn much more than others. Five-year-olds differ dramati-
cally in their ability to learn, talk, and even listen. The main reason is thought to be
exposure to language and other learning opportunities that some parents provide
and others do not (Hart & Risley, 1995).
Many nations try to narrow the gap by offering high-quality early education.
Some nations (e.g., China, France, Italy, and Sweden) make programs available
to all children; others vary (for example, in the United States, Oklahoma, and
some other states provide full-day kindergarten and preschool education for all
children, while other states provide only a few hours a day for those who are
particularly needy).
Head Start
In the United States, the most widespread early-childhood-education program is
Project Head Start, which began in 1965 and continues to this day. This federal pro-
gram was designed for low-income or minority children who were thought to need
a “head start” on their education. The quality and results of Head Start programs
vary from place to place. Some long-term effects are unknown, because scientific
evaluation was not included in the original planning (Phillips & White, 2004).
Nevertheless, Head Start has provided half-day education for millions of 3- to
5-year-olds, boosting their social and learning skills at least temporarily, and has
probably provided long-term benefits as well (Zigler et al., 1996). Some programs
are now 6 hours long rather than 3, because researchers realize that learning cor-
relates with the length of school time.
There are many problems in evaluating Head Start. Over the decades, its goals
have been diffuse and varied, from lifting families out of poverty to promoting lit-
eracy, from providing dental care and immunizations
to teaching standard English. Some teachers practice
child-centered education and others prefer a teacher-
directed approach; some consider parents part of the
problem and others regard parents as allies. In any
case, intervening with parents has proven difficult
(Powell, 2006).
Many of the early Head Start programs had no spe-
cific curriculum or goals, which made valid evaluation
impossible (Whitehurst & Massetti, 2004). An added
problem has been the political turmoil that surrounds
the topics of poverty, government programs, and the
education of young children in the United States.
The federal government has continued to fund Head
Start year after year, partly because early education is
proven to be beneficial in dozens of ways, but the pro-
gram’s priorities and direction have changed continu-
ally as the political winds have shifted (Zigler &
Styfco, 2004).
Early-Childhood Education 249
Learning Is Fun The original purpose of the
Head Start program was to boost disadvan-
taged children’s academic skills. The most en-
during benefits, however, turned out to be
improved self-esteem and social skills, as is
evident in these happy Head Start partici-
pants, all crowded together.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 251):
How many of these children are in close
physical contact without discomfort or
disagreement?
LA
UR
A
DW
IG
HT
Especially for Parents In trying to find a
preschool program, what should a parent
look for?
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Experimental Programs
The same social imperatives that led to Head Start also led to several intensive
programs (involving many hours and years, with cognitive emphasis) that have
been well evaluated through longitudinal research. Three projects in particular
have excellent follow-up data: one in Michigan, called Perry or High/Scope
(Schweinhart & Weikart, 1997; Schweinhart et al., 2005); one in North Carolina,
called Abecedarian (Campbell et al., 2001); and one in Chicago, called Child–
Parent Centers (Reynolds, 2000; Reynolds et al., 2004).
All three programs enrolled children from low-income families for several years
before kindergarten, all compared experimental groups of children with matched
control groups, and all reached the same conclusion: Early education can have
substantial long-term benefits, which become apparent when the children are in
the third grade or later.
Children in these three programs scored higher on math and reading achieve-
ment tests by age 10 than did other children from the same backgrounds, schools,
and neighborhoods. They were significantly less likely to be placed in special
classes for slow or disruptive children or to repeat a year of school. In adolescence,
they had higher aspirations and a greater sense of achievement and were less likely
to be mistreated. As young adults, they were more likely to attend college and less
likely to go to jail.
All three research projects found that direct cognitive training (not simply let-
ting children play), with specific instruction in various school-readiness skills, was
useful as long as each child’s needs and talents were considered. The curriculum
was neither child-centered nor teacher-directed, but a combination. Parents were
engaged with the child’s learning.
Although these programs were expensive (perhaps as much as $15,000 annu-
ally per child in 2007 dollars), many believe that the decreased need for special
education and other social services eventually makes such programs a wise invest-
ment. Indeed, one economist calculates that governments eventually spend at
250 CHAPTER 9 ■ The Play Years: Cognitive Development
Learning from One Another Every nation
creates its own version of early education.
In this scene at a nursery school in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, note the head coverings,
uniforms, bare feet, and absence of boys.
None of these elements would be found in
most early-childhood education classrooms
in North America or Europe.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 252):
What seemingly universal aspects of child-
hood are visible in this photograph? PAU
L
CH
ES
LE
Y
/ S
TO
N
E
/ G
ET
TY
IM
AG
ES
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 248): Eight children, and all of them are
engaged in creative projects—if the boy
standing at right is making music, not just
noise, with that cymbal.
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least five times more per person when children do not have the benefit of an in-
tensive preschool program (Lynch, 2004). Children from low-income families who
did not attend preschool have higher rates of many costly conditions later in life:
special education (four times more expensive per student per year); unemploy-
ment (no taxes); and even imprisonment ($150,000 per inmate per year).
Costs and Benefits
The financial aspect may be especially significant. For many early-childhood edu-
cators, Reggio Emilia is the gold standard because the teacher/child ratio is low
and the physical space is luxurious, but the cost per child for such a program is
about twice that of most other types of preschool care.
Since parents pay the bulk of the cost of preschool education in the United
States (except for some intervention programs), Reggio Emilia is beyond the
means of most families. Child-centered programs open to all children may be fea-
sible only in places with community support and a low birth rate (like Italy, where
most families have only one child).
A key finding from all the research is that the quality of early-childhood educa-
tion counts. The most recent reauthorization of Head Start emphasizes educational
quality and evaluative research (Lombardi & Cubbage, 2004). Comparisons of
programs find that the specific curricula and philosophy matter less than teachers
who know how to respond to the needs of young children. Generally, an educa-
tional, center-based program is better than family day care or home care, but high-
quality home care is better than a low-quality day-care center (Clarke-Stewart &
Allhusen, 2005).
Some characteristics of quality care have been described in Chapter 7: safety,
adequate space and equipment, a low adult/child ratio, positive social interactions
among children and adults, and trained staff (and educated parents) who are likely
to stay in the program. Continuity helps, for the child as well as for the adults.
One of the best questions that parents comparing options can ask is, “How long
has each staff member worked at this center?”
Curriculum is also important, especially by age 4 or 5. Best may be programs
with an emphasis on learning, reflected in a curriculum that includes extensive
practice in language, fine and gross motor skills, and basic number skills. Such
programs may be found in child-centered or teacher-directed schools. As this
chapter emphasizes, young children love to learn and can master many skills and
ideas, as long as adults do not expect them to think and behave like older children.
Beyond that, history teaches that new research will find additional cognitive
potential among 2- to 6-year-olds and additional strategies to develop that poten-
tial. Valid evaluation (longitudinal comparisons with experimental and control
groups) are still rare. Some readers of this book will undertake the research and
staff the schools that will update our view of cognition in childhood.
SUMMING UP
Research, particularly on preschool programs for children in low-income families, has
proved that high-quality early education benefits children, who improve in language, in
social skills, and in prospects for the future (Clarke-Stewart & Allhusen, 2005). A variety
of programs, including child-centered (Montessori and Reggio Emilia) and teacher-
directed are available—although sometimes very expensive. Nations, states, and parents
differ in what they seek from early education for their children, and programs vary in
teacher preparation, curriculum, physical space, and adult/child ratios.
■
Early-Childhood Education 251
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 249): All five—not four (look again at the
right-hand side of the photograph)!
➤Response for Parents (from page 249):
There is much variation. None fit every
parent’s values. However, children should
be engaged in learning, not allowed to sit
passively or to squabble with one another.
Before deciding, parents should look at
several programs, staying long enough to
see the children in action and the teachers
showing warmth and respect for the children.
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252 CHAPTER 9 ■ The Play Years: Cognitive Development
Piaget and Vygotsky
1. Piaget stressed the egocentric and illogical aspects of thought
during the play years. He called this stage preoperational thought
because young children often cannot yet use logical operations to
think about their observations and experiences.
2. Young children, according to Piaget, sometimes focus on only
one thing (centration) and see things only from their own view-
point (egocentrism), remaining stuck on appearances and on cur-
rent reality. They cannot understand that things change, actions
can be reversed, and other people have other perspectives.
3. Vygotsky stressed the social aspects of childhood cognition,
noting that children learn by participating in various experiences,
guided by more knowledgeable adults or peers. That guidance
assists learning within the zone of proximal development, which
encompasses the knowledge and skills that the child has the
potential to learn.
4. According to Vygotsky, the best teachers use various hints,
guidelines, and other tools to provide the child with a scaffold for
new learning. Language is a bridge of social mediation between
the knowledge that the child already has and the learning that the
society hopes to impart. For Vygotsky, words are a tool for learning
that both mentor and child use.
Children’s Theories
5. Children develop theories, especially to explain the purpose of
life and their role in it. Among these theories is theory of mind—
an understanding of what others may be thinking. Notable ad-
vances in theory of mind occur at around age 4. Theory of mind is
partly the result of brain maturation, but a child’s language and
experiences (in the family and community) also have an impact.
Language
6. Language develops rapidly during early childhood, which is a
sensitive period but not a critical one for language learning.
Vocabulary increases dramatically, with thousands of words added
between ages 2 and 6. In addition, basic grammar is mastered.
7. Many children learn to speak more than one language. Ideally,
children become balanced bilinguals, equally proficient in two
languages, by age 6.
Early-Childhood Education
8. Organized educational programs during early childhood ad-
vance cognitive and social skills, although specifics vary a great
deal. Montessori and Reggio Emilia are two child-centered pro-
grams that began in Italy and now are offered in many nations.
Behaviorist principles led to many specific practices of teacher-
directed programs.
9. Head Start is a government program that generally helps low-
income children. Longitudinal research on three other programs
for low-income children has demonstrated that early-childhood
education reduces the likelihood of later problems. Graduates of
these programs are less likely to need special education and more
likely to become law-abiding, gainfully employed adults.
10. Although many preschool programs are successful, the qual-
ity of early education matters. Children learn best if there is a
clear curriculum and if the adult–child ratio is low. The training
and continuity of early-childhood teachers are also important.
preoperational intelligence
(p. 231)
centration (p. 232)
egocentrism (p. 232)
focus on appearance (p. 232)
static reasoning (p. 232)
irreversibility (p. 232)
conservation (p. 232)
apprentice in thinking (p. 234)
guided participation (p. 234)
zone of proximal development
(ZPD) (p. 235)
scaffolding (p. 235)
private speech (p. 235)
social mediation (p. 235)
theory-theory (p. 236)
theory of mind (p. 238)
critical period (p. 240)
sensitive period (p. 240)
fast-mapping (p. 240)
overregularization (p. 243)
balanced bilingual (p. 245)
SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page 252): Three aspects are
readily apparent: These girls enjoy their friendships; they are playing a
hand-clapping game, some version of which is found in every culture;
and, most important, they have begun the formal education that their
families want for them.
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Summary 253
6. How does fast-mapping apply to children’s learning of curse
words?
7. How do children learn grammar without formal instruction?
8. What are the differences between child-centered and teacher-
directed instruction?
9. Why is there disagreement about the extent to which Head
Start benefits children?
10.Why do some cities and nations provide much better pre-
school education than others?
1. Piaget is often criticized for his description of early cognition.
Why is this, and is the criticism fair? (Discuss with particular ref-
erence to preoperational thought.)
2. Give an example of the process of cognition in early childhood
as Vygotsky would describe it, highlighting at least three of his
specific concepts.
3. What are the main similarities between Vygotsky and Piaget?
4. How would parents act differently toward their child accord-
ing to whether they agreed with Piaget or with Vygotsky?
5. How does Piaget’s idea of egocentrism relate to the research
on theory of mind?
3. Theory of mind emerges at about age 4, but many adults still
have trouble understanding other people’s thoughts and motives.
Ask several people why someone in the news did whatever they
did (e.g., a scandal, a crime, a heroic act). Then ask your inform-
ants how sure they are of their explanation. Compare and analyze
the reasons as well as the degrees of certainty. (One person may
be sure of an explanation that someone else thinks is impossible.)
4. Think about an experience in which you learned something
that was initially difficult. To what extent do Vygotsky’s concepts
(guidance, language mediation, apprenticeship, zone of proximal
development) explain the experience? Write a detailed, step-by-
step description of your learning process as Vygotsky would
describe it.
The best way to understand thinking in early childhood is to listen
to a child, as applications 1 and 2 require. If some students have
no access to children, they should do application 3 or 4.
1. Replicate one of Piaget’s conservation experiments. The easi-
est one is conservation of liquids (pictured in Figure 9.1). Find a
child under age 5, and make sure the child tells you that two
identically shaped glasses contain the same amount of liquid.
Then carefully pour one glass of liquid into a narrower, taller
glass. Ask the child which glass now contains more or if the
glasses contain the same amount.
2. To demonstrate how rapidly language is learned, show a pre-
school child several objects and label one with a nonsense word
the child has never heard. (Toma is often used; so is wug.) Or
choose a word the child does not know, such as wrench, spatula,
or a coin from another nation. Test the child’s fast-mapping.
KEY QUESTIONS
APPLICATIONS
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10
255
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� Emotional Development
Initiative Versus Guilt
Psychopathology
Empathy and Antipathy
� Parents
Parenting Style
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS:
Planning Punishment
The Challenge of Media
� Becoming Boys and Girls
Theories of Gender Differences
IN PERSON: Berger and Freud
Gender and Destiny
The Play Years:
Psychosocial
Development
Imagine that you have two children, a typical 2-year-old and a 6-year-old. What a contrast! If you take your 2-year-old to the playground,don’t become absorbed in conversation. Before you realize it, yourchild may be crying atop a high slide, tasting a sandbox cake, grabbing
a toy, or, worse, nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile, as long as adults are nearby,
your 6-year-old is probably safe, sliding and sharing, not swallowing sand or
disappearing without permission.
This chapter describes that 2-to-6 transformation. Maturation and moti-
vation are crucial; so are emotions and experiences. Psychosocial develop-
ment is multifaceted, involving genes, gender, parents, peers, and culture, all
readily apparent in this chapter.
Emotional Development
Learning when and how to express emotions (made possible as the emotional
hotspots of the brain become linked to the executive functions) is the pre-
eminent psychosocial accomplishment between ages 2 and 6 (N. Eisenberg
et al., 2004). Children who master this task, called emotional regulation,
become more capable in every aspect of their lives (Denham et al., 2003;
Matsumoto, 2004).
Emotions are regulated and controlled by 6-year-olds in ways unknown to
exuberant, expressive, and often overwhelmed toddlers. Children learn to be
friendly to new acquaintances but not too friendly, angry but not explosive,
frightened by a clown but not terrified, able to distract themselves and limit
their impulses if need be. (All these abilities emerge during the preschool
period and continue to develop throughout life.) Now we explain some spe-
cific aspects of emotional regulation.
Initiative Versus Guilt
Initiative is saying something new, extending a skill, beginning a project. De-
pending on the outcome (including the parents’ response), some initiatives
make children feel guilty—a consequence that can make children afraid to
try new activities again. Children internalize past experiences of pride or
shame, thus affecting their self-esteem or feelings of guilt.
emotional regulation The ability to control
when and how emotions are expressed.
This is the most important psychosocial
development to occur between the ages of
2 and 6, though it continues throughout life.
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More generally, positive enthusiasm, effort, and self-evaluation characterize ages
3 to 6, according to Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory. During what he called his
third developmental stage, initiative versus guilt, Erikson described self-esteem
as emerging from the acquisition of skills and competencies described in the
previous two chapters.
Self-esteem is the belief in one’s own ability, a personal estimate of success
and worthiness. As self-esteem builds, children become more confident and inde-
pendent. The autonomy of 2-year-olds, often expressed as stubborn reactions,
becomes the initiative of 5-year-olds, often seen in their self-motivated activities.
In the process, children form a self-concept, or understanding of themselves,
which includes not only self-esteem but also facts such as gender and size.
Balancing one’s own wishes with the expectations embedded in the social context
is not easy, especially if one’s only playmate has been a mother who never thwarted
the child’s initiative. For example, one child (about age 3) was new to peers and to
preschool:
She commanded another child, “Fall down. Go on, do what I say.” When the
other child stayed stalwartly on his feet, she pushed him over and was clearly
amazed when he jumped up and said, “No pushing!” and the teacher came over
and reproved her.
[Leach, 1997, p. 474]
In this example, the more experienced child has a strong self-concept that he
was ready to defend. The inexperienced girl was “reproved,” not punished. The
teacher hoped she would internalize the rule so that she would feel guilt (not
shame) if she broke it again. Most older children and adults, but fewer 4- or 5-year-
olds, experience guilt when their initiative clashes with the rules and regulations
they have learned (Lagattuta, 2005).
Pride
Erikson recognized that typical 3- to 5-year-olds have immodest and quite positive
self-concepts, holding themselves in high self-esteem. They believe that they are
strong, smart, and good-looking—and thus that any goal is quite achievable.
Whatever they are (self-concept) is also thought to be good (for instance, little boys
are proud of being male).
In the play years, children are confident that their good qualities will endure but
that any bad qualities (even biological traits such as poor eyesight) will disappear
with time (Lockhart et al., 2002). As one group of researchers explained:
initiative versus guilt Erikson’s third psy-
chosocial crisis. Children begin new
activities and feel guilty when they fail.
self-esteem How a person evaluates his or
her own worth, either in specifics (e.g.,
intelligence, attractiveness) or overall.
self-concept A person’s understanding of
who he or she is. Self-concept includes
appearance, personality, and various traits.
256 CHAPTER 10 ■ The Play Years: Psychosocial Development
Close Connection Unfamiliar events often
bring developmental tendencies to the sur-
face, as with the curious boy and his worried
brother, who are attending Colorado’s Pikes
Peak or Bust Rodeo breakfast. Their attentive
mother keeps the livelier boy calm and reas-
sures the shy one.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 259):
Mother is obviously a secure base for both
boys, who share the same family and half the
same genes but are different ages: One is 2
and the other is 4. Can you tell which boy is
younger? SEA
N
C
AY
TO
N
/
TH
E
IM
AG
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W
OR
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Young children seem to be irrepressibly optimistic about themselves. . . . Consider,
for example, the shortest, most uncoordinated boy in a kindergarten class who
proclaims that he will be the next Michael Jordan.
[Lockhart et al., 2002, pp. 1408–1409]
The new initiative that Erikson describes is aided by a longer attention span
(made possible by neurological maturity); now children have a purpose for what
they do. Concentrated attention is believed to be crucial for later competence of
all kinds, but concentration is not an automatic result of brain growth.
Self-esteem and concentration are connected to motivation,
cognition, and experience, all of which correlate with matura-
tion but are not caused by it. For example, 6-year-olds who have
been chronically mistreated feel inadequate and incompetent,
with abnormally low self-esteem (Kim & Cicchetti, 2006).
Feeling proud of oneself is the foundation for practice and
then mastery, as children learn to pour juice or climb a tree.
For most children, self-criticism does not arise until later.
Preschoolers predict that they can solve impossible puzzles, re-
member long lists of words, change every undesirable trait, and
control the dreams that come when they are asleep (Stipek
et al., 1995; Woolley & Boerger, 2002). Such naive predictions,
sometimes called “protective optimism,” help them learn
(Lockhart et al., 2002) because they are not afraid to try new
things.
Guilt and Shame
Notice that Erikson called the negative consequence of this crisis “guilt,” not
shame. Erikson believed that because children develop self-awareness, they feel
guilty when they realize their own mistakes. Generally, guilt means that people
blame themselves because they have done something wrong, while shame means
that people feel that others are blaming them.
Shame can be based on what is, such as one’s ethnic background. In this case,
the shame is rooted in the belief that others devalue those of certain ethnicities or
minorities. To counter such feelings of shame, many parents of minority children
(Mexican, African, or Indian American, among others) wisely make sure their chil-
dren feel proud of their identity (Parke & Buriel, 2006).
Guilt and shame often occur together, though they do not necessarily go hand
in hand. For example, children who misbehave may shame the parents, but the
parents do not usually feel guilty. Or a person could feel guilty (of driving too fast,
for instance) but not ashamed.
Many thoughtful people believe that guilt is a more mature emotion than shame
because guilt is internalized (Bybee, 1998; Tangney, 2001; Zahn-Waxler, 2000).
Guilt originates within; it may bother a person even if no one else knows about the
misdeed. Shame depends on other people; it comes from knowing that someone
else might see and criticize what a person has done. Thus, Erikson’s expectation of
shame at age 2 and guilt by age 5 signifies emotional maturation during these years.
Intrinsic Motivation
The idea that guilt comes from within highlights the distinction between intrinsic
motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is evident when a per-
son does something for the joy of doing it—such as a musician who plays simply
for the delight of making music, even if no one else is around to hear it. Extrinsic
motivation comes from outside (ex-), when the reason to do something is to gain
praise or some other reward from someone else.
intrinsic motivation Goals or drives that
come from inside a person, such as the
need to feel smart or competent.
extrinsic motivation The need for rewards
from outside, such as material possessions
or someone else’s esteem.
Emotional Development 257
AR
IE
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SK
EL
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/ C
OR
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S
Happy and Colorful No wonder this 5-year-
old is proud—her picture is worth framing.
High self-esteem is one of the strengths of
being her age. Can you imagine a 9-year-old
holding an equally colorful picture so proudly?
Especially for College Students Is
extrinsic or intrinsic motivation more
influential in your study efforts?
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For the most part, preschool children are intrinsically motivated.
They enjoy learning, playing, and practicing for their own joy, not be-
cause someone else sets a goal for them. For instance, when they play
games, young children might not keep score; the fun is in playing more
than in winning.
In a classic experiment, preschool children were given Magic Mark-
ers with which to draw and then placed into one of three groups with
different conditions: (1) no award, (2) expected award (told before they
had drawn anything that they would get a certificate), and (3) unex-
pected award (they heard “You were a big help” and received a certifi-
cate after they had drawn something) (Lepper et al., 1973). When the
children returned to their classrooms, observers noted how often they
chose to draw. Those who got the expected award drew less than those
with the unexpected award. This was interpreted to mean that the
extrinsic award undercut intrinsic motivation.
This research triggered a flood of studies. Researchers tried to un-
cover whether, when, and how rewards should be given. The consensus
is that praising or paying a person after work has been done encourages
that behavior, as long as the reinforcement is based on actual accom-
plishment. However, if substantial rewards are promised in advance for
something that the person already enjoys doing, the extrinsic conse-
quences may backfire by diminishing intrinsic motivation (Cameron &
Pierce, 2002; Deci et al., 1999).
Cross-cultural research makes this more complex. Cultures differ re-
garding which emotions need regulation and which internal and external
motivations work best. For example, children are especially encouraged
to overcome their fears in the United States, to modify their anger in Puerto Rico,
to temper their pride in China, and to control their aggression in Japan (Harwood
et al., 1995; Hong et al., 2000; J. G. Miller, 2004). Emotional regulation is valuable
everywhere, but cultures differ in the specifics (Matsumoto, 2004).
Psychopathology
At every age, developmentalists are concerned with preventing or treating psy-
chopathology, which is an illness or disorder (-pathology) that involves the mind
(psycho-). The first signs of psychopathology in children usually involve emotions
that seem to overwhelm the child. Emotional regulation begins with impulse con-
trol. Often the impulse that most needs control is anger, because “dysregulated
anger may trigger aggressive, oppositional behavior” (Gilliom et al., 2002, p. 222).
Before such regulation, a frustrated 2-year-old might flail at another person or lie
down screaming and kicking. A 5-year-old usually has more self-control, perhaps
pouting and cursing, but not hitting and screaming.
Emotional Balance
Without adequate control, emotions overpower children. This occurs in two,
seemingly opposite, ways. Some children have externalizing problems: They
lash out in impulsive anger, attacking other people or things. They are sometimes
called “undercontrolled.”
Other children have internalizing problems: They are fearful and withdrawn,
turning emotional distress inward. They are sometimes called “overcontrolled.”
Both externalizing and internalizing children are unable to regulate their emotions
properly or, more precisely, unable to regulate the expression of their emotions.
They do not exercise enough control or they control themselves too much (Caspi
& Shiner, 2006; Hart et al., 2003).
externalizing problems Difficulty with emo-
tional regulation that involves outwardly
expressing emotions in uncontrolled ways,
such as by lashing out in impulsive anger
or attacking other people or things.
internalizing problems Difficulty with emo-
tional regulation that involves turning one’s
emotional distress inward, as by feeling
excessively guilty, ashamed, or worthless.
258 CHAPTER 10 ■ The Play Years: Psychosocial Development
Emotional Regulation Older brothers are
not famous for being loving caregivers. How-
ever, in the Mayan culture, older children
learn to regulate their jealousy and provide
major care for younger siblings while their
parents work.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 260):
What do you see that suggests that this boy
is paying careful attention to his brother?
JE
FF
G
RE
EN
BE
RG
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
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Emotional regulation is in part neurological, a matter of brain functioning.
Because a child’s ability to regulate emotions requires thinking before acting,
deciding whether and how to display joy, anger, or fear, emotional regulation is the
province of the prefrontal cortex, the executive area of the brain. As you remember
from Chapter 8, the prefrontal cortex reacts to the limbic system (by acting or
inhibiting action), including those parts of the brain (including the amygdala)
where powerful emotions, especially fear and anxiety, form.
Normally, neurological advances in the prefrontal cortex occur at about age 4 or
5, when children become less likely to throw a temper tantrum, provoke a physical
attack, or burst into giggles (Kagan & Hershkowitz, 2005). Throughout the period
from age 2 to 6, violent outbursts, uncontrollable crying, and terrifying phobias
diminish, and the capacity for self-control—such as not opening a wrapped gift
immediately if asked to wait—becomes more evident (Carlson, 2003; Grolnick
et al., 2006).
Emotional differences between younger and older children begin within the
brain, perhaps going beyond simple maturation to differences more closely linked
to the XX or XY chromosomes (Colder et al., 2002). Although girls are better at
regulating their externalizing emotions, they are less successful with internalizing
ones. By adolescence, undercontrolled boys may be delinquents; overcontrolled
girls may be anxious or depressed (Pennington, 2002).
Differences in Early Care
Neurological damage can occur during early development, either pre-
natally (if a pregnant woman is stressed, ill, or a heavy drug user) or in
infancy (if an infant is chronically malnourished, injured, or frightened).
Extensive stress can kill some neurons and stop others from developing
properly (Sanchez et al., 2001). This may affect the child’s ability to reg-
ulate his or her emotions—the temper tantrum of a particular 5-year-old
may not be as readily controllable as for most kindergarten children.
Early care prevents or worsens innate problems with emotional
control. Highly stressed infant rats develop abnormal brain structures.
However, if stressed rat pups are raised by nurturing mothers, their brains
are protected by hormones elicited by their mothers, who lick, nuzzle,
groom, and feed them often (J. Kaufman & Charney, 2001). Similarly in
humans, nurturing caregivers guide reactive children toward emotional regulation,
helping them become more competent than many other children (Hane & Fox,
2006; Quas et al., 2004).
The harm of poor caregiving is evident in maltreated 4- to 6-year-olds. Most
such children (80 percent in one study) are “emotionally disregulated,” either
indifferent or extremely angry when strangers criticize their mothers (Maughan &
Cicchetti, 2002). If neglect or abuse occurs in the first few years, it is more likely
to cause internalizing or externalizing problems than mistreatment that begins
when the child is older, probably because it harms the developing brain (Lopez
et al., 2004; Manly et al., 2001).
Always remember that many influences affect each child. Nurture and nature
interact, influencing the brain as well as behavior, through “multiple converging
pathways,” many originating in the brain but also activated by experiences
(Cicchetti & Walker, 2001, p. 414).
Empathy and Antipathy
With increasing social awareness and decreasing egocentrism (as reviewed in Chap-
ter 9), two other emotions develop: empathy, an understanding of the feelings and
concerns of others, and antipathy, a dislike or even hatred of other people.
➤Response for College Students (from
page 257): Both are important. Extrinsic
motivation includes parental pressure and the
need to get a good job after graduation.
Intrinsic motivation includes the joy of
learning, especially if you can express that
learning in ways others recognize. Have you
ever taken a course that was not required
and was said to be difficult? That was intrinsic
motivation—a sign that you will benefit from
your college studies.
empathy The ability to understand the emo-
tions of another person, especially when
those emotions differ from one’s own.
antipathy Feelings of anger, distrust, dislike,
or even hatred toward another person.
Emotional Development 259
Who’s Chicken? Genes and good parenting
have made this boy neither too fearful nor too
bold. Appropriate caution is probably the best
approach to meeting a chicken.
FR
AN
K
SI
M
ON
ET
TI
/
ST
OC
K
CO
N
N
EC
TI
ON
/
PI
CT
UR
EQ
UE
ST
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
256): Size is not much help, since children
grow slowly during these years and the heads
of these two boys appear about the same
size. However, emotional development is
apparent. Most 2-year-olds, like the one at the
right, still cling to their mothers; most 4-year-
olds are sufficiently mature, secure, and
curious to watch the excitement as they drink
their juice.
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Empathy is not the same as sympathy, which is feeling sorry for someone. It is
feeling sorry with someone, feeling their pain as if it were one’s own. Research with
mirror neurons (see Chapter 1) suggests that observing someone else may activate
the same areas of the brain as in the person directly involved. This is how empathy
works. Antipathy likewise is a personal and emotional reaction, much stronger
than merely disagreeing with someone.
Preschoolers develop empathy, but as you may remember from the Chapter 9
discussion of egocentrism and theory of mind, they do not always read others’
emotions accurately (Saarni et al., 2006). For instance, when a person says in a
very sad voice, “I came in first place in a race,” virtually every 6-year-old judges the
person to be unhappy, but almost no child younger than 6 recognizes the impor-
tance of tone (Morton et al., 2003). In other words, it takes maturity to correctly
read tone, expression, and body language when they contradict what the child
would feel in that situation.
Young children (ages 3 and 4) also confuse another person’s intentions and
desires, a mistake that older children and adults rarely make (Leslie et al., 2006;
Schult, 2002). Finally, young children can experience too much empathy, becom-
ing so distressed by someone else’s problem that they are not able to help (Saarni
et al., 2006). An overly empathetic 3-year-old whose friend bumped his head may
be overwhelmed with sadness and unable to find ice, tell an adult, or even express
words of comfort.
Leading to Behavior
Ideally, empathy leads to prosocial behavior, being helpful and kind without
gaining any obvious benefit. Expressing concern, offering to share food or a toy, and
including a shy child in a game or conversation are examples of prosocial behavior.
Antipathy can lead to antisocial behavior, deliberately injuring someone or
destroying something that belongs to another (Caprara et al., 2001). Antisocial
actions include verbal insults, social exclusion, and physical assaults. An antisocial
4-year-old might look another child in the eye, scowl, and then kick him hard
without provocation.
By age 4 or 5—as a result of brain maturation, theory of mind, emotional regu-
lation, and interactions with caregivers—most children can be deliberately proso-
cial or antisocial, with prosocial behavior generally increasing from age 3 to 6 and
beyond (N. Eisenberg et al., 2006). Imagine that a boy hits his mother. If he is a
toddler, the mother usually realizes that he is experimenting, a tertiary circular
reaction, and she should stop him with a stern
expression but not feel personally attacked.
However, if her son is 5, something is seriously
wrong. In fact, according to a study in Montreal,
when 5-year-olds are mean to their mothers (phys-
ically or verbally), that signifies a disturbed rela-
tionship, and the child is headed for externalizing
problems with others at school, with friends, and
probably later in life (Moss et al., 2004).
Cultures vary in how much they allow, punish,
or encourage both prosocial and antisocial behav-
ior, as well as in what particular behaviors are con-
sidered good and bad. In one specific example (see
Figure 10.1), when Japanese and U.S. mothers
were helping their 4-year-olds with a puzzle, the
Japanese mothers were likely to emphasize mutu-
ality (e.g., “This puzzle is hard for us”), while the
He’s Listening With tilted head and pink
tutu, this girl exemplifies two of the best
characteristics often found in young children:
empathy and self-confidence. Responding to
her personality and concern, the distressed
boy may well decide to rejoin the group.
prosocial behavior Feeling and acting in
ways that are helpful and kind, without
obvious benefit to oneself.
antisocial behavior Feeling and acting in
ways that are deliberately hurtful or
destructive to another person.
260 CHAPTER 10 ■ The Play Years: Psychosocial Development
EL
LE
N
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. S
EN
IS
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T
HE
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OR
KS
Especially for Adults Who Are Unhappy
What would prompt a young child to cheer
someone up?
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 258): Look at his hands, legs, and face.
He is holding the bottle and touching the
baby’s forehead with delicacy and care;
he is positioning his legs in a way that is
uncomfortable but suited to the task; and his
eyes and mouth suggest he is giving the
baby his full concentration.
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instrumental aggression Hurtful behavior
that is intended to get or keep something
that another person has.
reactive aggression An impulsive retaliation
for another person’s intentional or acciden-
tal actions, verbal or physical.
bullying aggression Unprovoked, repeated
physical or verbal attack, especially on
victims who are unlikely to defend them-
selves.
Emotional Development 261
U.S. mothers tended to emphasize individuality (e.g., “You are having a hard time
with this puzzle”) (Dennis et al., 2002; see Research Design). If this is typical,
then Japanese children might learn to empathize more than U.S. children would.
Preschool children are capable of feeling empathy for others of their own group
(national, ethnic, religious, or familial) without feeling antipathy toward people of
other groups, never realizing that their values and goals are not universally shared
(Verkuyten, 2004). In fact, their innocence can be astonishing, as researchers
found in Northern Ireland: Most 6-year-olds said they did not know of any prob-
lems between the Catholics and Protestants (Sani & Bennett, 2004). Meanwhile,
many adults in their communities felt such antipathy that even killing was possible.
Most young children are not prejudiced against other children because of back-
ground characteristics such as gender or ethnicity. A 5-year-old girl might say
“I hate boys” because her older sister says that, but she may consider a boy her best
friend. Typically, best friends are of the same sex and background, but that is
because of personal interests more than categories (Rubin et al., 2006). When
children are prejudiced (and some are), that usually begins when they are older,
influenced by family and culture (Nesdale, 2004; Ruble et al., 2004). More often,
young children feel empathy toward any child who is hurt, hungry, or otherwise in
trouble.
Aggression
The gradual regulation of emotions and emergence of antipathy is nowhere more
apparent than in the most antisocial behavior of all, active aggression, which occurs
when a child’s dislike erupts into action. Learning when and how to be aggressive
is a major goal of the play of young children. This is evident on close observation
of rough-and-tumble play; or in the fantasies of domination and submission that
shine through sociodramatic play; or in the sharing of art supplies, construction
materials, and wheeled vehicles (J. D. Peterson & Flanders, 2005). Children learn
to inhibit their angry impulses in emotional regulation.
Researchers recognize many types of aggression, described in Table 10.1.
Instrumental aggression is very common among young children, who often
want something they do not have and will try, without thinking, to get it. Reactive
aggression is impulsive as well, and this type, particularly, becomes better con-
trolled with emotional regulation. Finally, bullying aggression is the most omi-
nous, when a child seems to deliberately hurt another.
Research Design
Scientists:Tracy A. Dennis, Pamela Cole,
Carolyn Zahn-Waxler, and Ixchiro
Mizuta.
Publication: Child Development (2002).
Participants: Sixty 4-year-olds in two
groups of 30, one in Japan and one in
the United States.
Design: Mothers played with their chil-
dren while their interaction was video-
taped. Later, coders who were blind to
the hypothesis coded the mother’s and
the child’s actions and speech in more
than 20 categories. One was individual-
ity and one was autonomy.Validity and
reliability checks on the coding helped
ensure standardization.
Major conclusion: Many similarities and
a few differences (some opposite to the
stereotypes) were found. Japanese
mothers emphasized mutuality much
more, and U.S. mothers emphasized in-
dividuality.
Comment:The two groups were closely
matched on many factors, including
child’s age, parents’ age, and education.
This suggests that the differences were
primarily cultural. Replication, with 4-
year-olds in these and other nations, is
needed.
Source: Dennis et al., 2002.
30
20
10
0
Individuality Mutuality
Japanese mothers
U.S. mothers
Percentage
of time
Time Mothers Spent Emphasizing Either Individuality or Mutuality
FIGURE 10.1
How Empathy Is Taught During free play with their 4-year-olds, Japanese
mothers were more likely than U.S. mothers to emphasize mutuality, or inter-
dependence. U.S. mothers tended to stress individuality, or self-reliance. This
study demonstrates the role of culture in children’s development of empathy.
Especially for Young Adults When you
were younger, you might have had an
imaginary friend with whom you played,
slept, and talked. Does this mean you were
emotionally disturbed?
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Bullying is not always physical; it can be verbal or relational when the goal is
to disrupt a child’s friendships. Physical aggression declines over the preschool
and school-age years, but verbal attacks may increase (Dodge et al. 2006). So might
relational aggression (described in Chapter 13).
Bullying is apparent among some young children, with boys particularly likely
to use physical attacks. Preschool bullies must be stopped, and victims must learn
to defend themselves, lest the bully/victim patterns continue throughout middle
childhood and adolescence. The various forms of bullying and the consequences
are described in detail in Chapter 13, on school-age children.
Aggression follows a developmental pattern, becoming less common, but more
hurtful, with time. Infants are very aggressive; they naturally pinch, slap, and even
bite others. In Richard Tremblay’s dramatic words, “The only reason babies do not
kill each other is that we do not give them knives or guns” (quoted in Holden,
262 CHAPTER 10 ■ The Play Years: Psychosocial Development
TABLE 10.1
The Four Forms of Aggression
Type of Aggression Definition Comments
Hurtful behavior that is aimed at gaining something
(such as a toy, a place in line, or a turn on the swing)
that someone else has
An impulsive retaliation for a hurt (intentional or
accidental) that can be verbal or physical
Nonphysical acts, such as insults or social rejection,
aimed at harming the social connections between the
victim and others
Unprovoked, repeated physical or verbal attack,
especially on victims who are unlikely to defend
themselves
Instrumental aggression
Reactive aggression
Relational aggression
Bullying aggression
Often increases from age 2 to 6; involves objects more
than people; quite normal; more egocentric than
antisocial.
Indicates a lack of emotional regulation, characteristic
of 2-year-olds. A 5-year-old should be able to stop and
think before reacting.
Involves a personal attack and thus is directly
antisocial; can be very hurtful; more common as
children become socially aware.
In both bullies and victims, a sign of poor emotional
regulation; adults should intervene before the school
years. (Bullying is discussed in Chapter 13.)
Ladies and Babies A developmental differ-
ence is visible here between the 14-month-
old’s evident curiosity and the 4-year-old
friends’ pleasure in sociodramatic play.
The mother’s reaction—joy at the children’s
mastery play or irritation at the mess they’ve
made—is less predictable. FEL
IC
IA
M
AR
TI
N
EZ
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T,
IN
C.
➤Response for Young Adults (from page
261): No. In fact, imaginary friends are quite
common, especially among creative children.
➤Response for Adults Who Are
Unhappy (from page 260): Young children
are not good at guessing emotions from voice
tone, facial expression, or sarcasm. They are
naturally sympathetic if an adult sheds a few
tears while describing a sad event, thereby
expressing feelings clearly and directly.
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2000, p. 580). Fortunately, babies are not strong and they have no weapons, giving
parents time to teach them some self-control before any serious harm occurs.
Almost all 2-year-olds are still somewhat aggressive, but the incidence of such
behavior diminishes over the next two years. If a child has not begun to modify his
or her antisocial behavior by age 3 or 4, that child may be violent throughout child-
hood, adolescence, and early adulthood (Loeber et al, 2005; Tremblay & Nagin,
2005). However, if parents have a good relationship with their child
and they help him or her decrease aggression, then the child will
probably do well, academically and socially, displaying only average
aggression by middle childhood (NICHD Early Child Care Research
Network, 2004).
Remember that emotions need regulation, not repression. Since
overcontrol, not just undercontrol, can lead to psychological problems,
some assertive and self-protective behaviors are probably beneficial
(Hawley, 1999). An internalizing 4-year-old who cries and retreats
from every threat may become a victim, overwhelmed by anxiety or
depression later on. Thus, some aggression in early childhood is
quite normal (NICHD Early Child Care Network, 2004).
As self-esteem and the self-concept build, children become more
likely to defend their interests. As emotional regulation increases,
they do not attack without reason. Normal 4-year-olds have learned to
choose issues and targets as well as to control the type and intensity
of aggression (Tremblay & Nagin, 2005).
SUMMING UP
As Erikson describes, pride, purpose, and initiative are integral components in the self-
concept of young children. Preschoolers typically have high self-esteem. Children who
have difficulty with emotional regulation often develop internalizing or externalizing
problems. Many researchers believe that emotional regulation is the foundation for later
social skills and cognitive growth, as children become more prosocial and less antisocial,
expressing empathy more than anger. Some aggression is normal in young children,
who gradually learn to regulate their anger.
■
Emotional Development 263
Male Bonding Sometimes the only way to
distinguish aggression from rough-and-tumble
play is to look at the faces. The hitter is not
scowling, the hittee is laughing, and the hug-
ger is just joining in the fun. Another clue that
this is rough-and-tumble play comes from
gender and context. These boys are in a Head
Start program, where they are learning social
skills, such as how to avoid fighting.LAU
RA
D
W
IG
HT
RI
CH
AR
D
HU
TC
HI
N
GS
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T
IN
C.
A Real Fight? Could be. We cannot see the
boys’ faces, and we do not know what led up
to this moment.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 264):
Are any signs of a serious fight visible?
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Parents
We have seen that young children’s emotions and actions are affected by many
factors, including brain maturation and culture. Now we focus on another primary
influence: parents.
Parenting Style
Parents differ a great deal in what they believe about children and how they act
with them. Although thousands of researchers have traced the effects of parenting
on child development, the work of one person, 40 years ago, continues to be most
influential. Diana Baumrind (1967, 1971) studied 100 preschool children, all
from California, almost all middle-class European Americans. (The cohort and
cultural limitations of this sample were not obvious at the time.)
Baumrind found that parents differed on four important dimensions:
■ Expressions of warmth. Some parents are very affectionate, others cold and
critical.
■ Strategies for discipline. Parents vary in whether and how they explain, criticize,
persuade, ignore, and punish.
■ Communication. Some parents listen patiently; others demand silence.
■ Expectations for maturity. Parents vary in standards for responsibility and self-
control.
Baumrind’s Three Patterns of Parenting
On the basis of these dimensions, Baumrind identified three parenting styles (see
Table 10.2).
■ Authoritarian parenting. The parents’ word is law, not to be questioned.
Misconduct brings strict punishment, usually physical (but not so harsh as to
be considered abusive). Authoritarian parents set down clear rules and hold
high standards. They do not expect children to give their opinions; discussion
about emotions is especially rare. (One adult from such a family said that the
question “How do you feel?” had only two possible answers: “Fine” and
“Tired.”) Authoritarian parents love their children, but they seem aloof, rarely
showing affection.
■ Permissive parenting. Permissive parents make few demands, hiding any
impatience they feel. Discipline is lax partly because permissive parents have
low expectations for maturity. Instead, permissive parents are nurturing and
accepting, listening to whatever their offspring say. They want to be helpful,
but they do not feel responsible for shaping their children.
■ Authoritative parenting. Authoritative parents set limits and enforce rules,
but they also listen to their children. The parents demand maturity, but they
are usually forgiving (not punishing) if the child falls short. They consider
themselves guides, not authorities (as authoritarian parents do) or friends
(as permissive parents do).
As explained in Chapter 8, no researcher has ever found that abusive or neg-
lectful parenting helps children. This means that authoritarian parents must take
care not to punish too often or too harshly and that permissive parents must be
concerned about, not indifferent to, their children’s well-being.
Many other researchers continue to study parenting styles. The three-part de-
scription above, although still influential, is too simple (e.g., Bornstein, 2006;
Galambos et al., 2003; Lamb & Lewis, 2005; Parke & Buriel, 2006). Baumrind’s
original sample was limited (very little economic, ethnic, or cultural diversity):
authoritarian parenting Child rearing with
high behavioral standards, punishment of
misconduct, and low communication.
264 CHAPTER 10 ■ The Play Years: Psychosocial Development
permissive parenting Child rearing with
high nurturance and communication but
rare punishment, guidance, or control.
authoritative parenting Child rearing in
which the parents set limits but listen to
the child and are flexible.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 263): No. Boys acting out of antipathy
kick and pummel, grab and pull, bite and
pound. None of that is shown here.
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She focused on style more than daily processes; she did not take into account the
child’s substantial contribution to parent–child relationships; and she did not
realize that some authoritarian parents are very loving and that some permissive
parents guide their children with words, if not with rules.
Children growing up with these three styles have been followed longitudinally,
and the following correlations have been reported (Baumrind, 1991; Steinberg
et al., 1994):
■ Authoritarian parents raise children who are likely to be conscientious,
obedient, and quiet but not especially happy. The children tend to feel guilty
or depressed, internalizing their frustrations and blaming themselves when
things don’t go well. As adolescents, they sometimes rebel, leaving home
before age 20.
■ Permissive parents raise unhappy children who lack self-control, especially in
the give-and-take of peer relationships. Inadequate emotional regulation makes
them immature and impedes friendships, which is the main reason for their
unhappiness. They tend to live at home, still dependent, in early adulthood.
■ Authoritative parents raise children who are successful, articulate, happy with
themselves, and generous with others. These children are usually liked by
teachers and peers, especially in cultures where individual initiative is valued.
An especially important factor regarding parenting style during the preschool
years is a child’s temperament. Fearful children and impulsive children need
different parental responses (Kochanska et al., 2001; Van Leeuwen et al., 2004).
This means that any simple formula of the best parenting is likely to be wrong in
some cases; a child’s personality and the social context are always significant.
Cultural Variations
Effective Chinese American, Caribbean American, and African American parents
are often stricter than effective parents of northern or western European back-
grounds (Chao, 2001; Wachs, 1999). It is important to acknowledge that multi-
cultural and international research has found that specific discipline methods and
family rules are less important than parental warmth, support, and concern
(McLoyd & Smith, 2002; Parke & Buriel, 2006). Children from every ethnic
group and every country benefit if they believe that their parents appreciate them;
children everywhere suffer if they feel rejected and unwanted (Khaleque &
Rohner, 2002; Maccoby, 2000).
An example of the role of culture in discipline comes from the contrast between
mothers in Japan and in the United States. Japanese mothers tend to use reason-
ing, empathy, and expressions of disappointment to control their children more
than North American mothers do. These techniques work well, partly because the
Especially for Political Activists Many
observers contend that children learn their
political attitudes at home, from the way their
parents treat them. Is this true?
Parents 265
TABLE 10.2
Characteristics of Parenting Styles Identified by Baumrind
Characteristics
Communication
Style Warmth Discipline Expectations of Maturity Parent to Child Child to Parent
Authoritarian Low Strict, often physical High High Low
Permissive High Rare Low Low High
Authoritative High Moderate, with much discussion Moderate High High
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Japanese mother–child relationship is strongly affectionate (it is called amae,
a close interpersonal bond) (Rothbaum et al., 2000).
Would North American parents successfully raise their children if they
expressed more sympathy and less anger with their misbehaving 4-year-olds?
There is no simple answer. But cross-cultural differences in disciplining
young children are apparent (e.g., physical punishment is illegal in some
Scandinavian nations, common in some Latin American ones).
Dozens of other differences in values, climate, economy, history, and so
on are evident between nations (and among groups within nations). Each
of these factors could affect child-rearing practices. It is impossible to
draw simple conclusions about discipline and adult personality, because
definitive research linking cross-cultural variables has not been done
(Matsumoto & Yoo, 2006).
Given this appreciation that cultural differences reflect a group’s adapta-
tion to its specific setting, developmentalists hesitate to recommend any
one particular style of parenting as best for everyone (Dishion & Bullock,
2002; J. G. Miller, 2004). That does not mean that they believe all parents
function equally well—far from it. Signs of serious trouble are obvious in a
child’s behavior, including several mentioned in this chapter: overcontrol,
undercontrol, bullying, and antisocial play. Ineffective parenting is not the
only explanation for such problems, but it is one common cause. Solutions,
however, vary.
Discipline and Punishment
A particular issue for many developmentalists and parents is discipline,
which varies a great deal from family to family, culture to culture. Given what re-
searchers have learned about cognition (that children do not understand complex
causes), ideally parents anticipate misbehavior and guide their children toward
patterns that will help them lifelong. But parents cannot always anticipate and
prevent problems; punishment is sometimes necessary.
No disciplinary technique works quickly and automatically to teach any and
all children desired behavior. It is easy to stop a child for a moment, with a threat
or a slap, but it is hard to shape behavior so that the child gradually internalizes
the parents’ standards. Yet this is the goal and sometimes the result. Between
ages 2 and 6, children learn to reflect on consequences, to control their emotions,
and to bring their actions closer to what their parents
expect. The child becomes self-regulating, not just
obedient.
In every nation and family, the first step is clarity
about what is expected. What is “rude” or “nasty” or
“undisciplined” behavior in one community is often
accepted, even encouraged, in another. Each family
needs to decide its goals and make them explicit
for the child. Parents have a wide range of expecta-
tions and thoughts regarding child rearing, although
they are often unaware of them (Bornstein, 2006;
Bugental & Grusec, 2006). This diversity is all
the more reason both parents need to discuss their
expectations—to form a strong parental alliance.
The second step is to remember what the child is
able to do. Many parents forget how immature chil-
dren’s control over their bodies and minds is. For
instance, some parents punish children for wetting
266 CHAPTER 10 ■ The Play Years: Psychosocial Development
LA
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Parenting Style This woman is disciplining
her son, who does not look happy about it.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 270):
Which parenting style is shown here?
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Pay Attention Children develop best with
lots of love and attention. They shouldn’t have
to ask for it!
“He’s just doing that to get attention.”
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the bed, but no child deliberately wets the bed. Three-year-olds are clumsy and
irrational; they inevitably break things and tell “lies.”
Punishment should be rare, reserved for misdeeds that the child understands
and could reasonably control. Other developmental characteristics to remember
are listed in Table 10.3, and different methods of punishment are discussed in the
following.
Parents 267
Planning Punishment
Physical punishment (slapping, spanking, or beating) is used
more on children between the ages of 2 and 6 than on children
of any other age group. Many parents believe that spanking is
acceptable, legitimate, and sometimes necessary, and they often
remember being spanked themselves.
However, the life-span perspective reminds us of long-term
consequences. Physical punishment works at the moment it is
administered—spanking stops a child’s misbehavior—but longi-
tudinal research finds that children who are physically punished
are likely to become bullies, delinquents, and then abusive
adults. Domestic violence of every type—spousal abuse, threats,
and insults—correlates with antisocial behavior in childhood and
then adulthood (Jaffee et al., 2004; Straus, 1994). Of course,
many children who are spanked do not become violent adults.
Spanking increases the risk, but other factors (poverty and tem-
perament, among others) are stronger influences. Nonetheless,
developmentalists wonder why parents would increase any risk.
Since physical punishment increases the possibility of aggression
and only temporarily increases obedience, it is not recommended
(Amato & Fowler, 2002; Gershoff, 2002).
In truth, every form of punishment may have unintended
consequences. Another method, psychological control, uses
guilt and the child’s gratitude toward the parent and may dam-
age a child’s initiative and achievement (Barber, 2002).
Consider the results of a study of an entire cohort (the best
way to obtain an unbiased sample) of children born in Finland
(Aunola & Nurmi, 2004). Their parents were asked 20 ques-
tions about their approach to child rearing. The following four
items, which the parents rated from 1 (“Not at all like me”) to 5
(“Very much like me”), measured psychological control:
1. My child should be aware of how much I have done for
him/her.
2. I let my child see how disappointed and shamed I am if he/she
misbehaves.
3. My child should be aware of how much I sacrifice for him/her.
4. I expect my child to be grateful and appreciate all the advan-
tages he/she has.
The higher the parents scored on psychological control, the
lower the children’s math scores. The connection grew stronger
as the children advanced in school. Math achievement suffered
most if parents were high in both psychological control and
affection (e.g., they frequently hugged their children) (Aunola
& Nurmi, 2004). Other research also finds that psychological
issues and applications
TABLE 10.3
Relating Discipline to Developmental Characteristics
During Early Childhood
1. Remember theory of mind. Young children gradually come to understand things from other
viewpoints. Encouraging empathy (“How would you feel if someone did that to you?”)
increases prosocial and decreases antisocial behavior.
2. Remember emerging self-concept. Young children are developing a sense of who they are
and what they want. Adults should protect that emerging self, neither forcing 3-year-olds to
share their favorite toys nor saying, “Words do not hurt.” Instead, children need to know
when and how to protect their favorite possessions and their emerging sense of self. For
instance, a child can learn not to bring a toy to school unless he or she is willing to share it
with everyone.
3. Remember the language explosion and fast-mapping. Young children are eager to talk and
think, but they say more than they really understand. Children who “just don’t listen”
should not always be punished, because they may not have understood a command.
Discussion before and after they misbehave helps children learn.
4. Remember that young children are not yet logical. The connection between misdeed and
punishment needs to be immediate and transparent, but usually it is not. If you were
spanked as a child, do you remember why? Did you ever do the same misdeed again?
psychological control A disciplinary tech-
nique that involves threatening to withdraw
love and support and that relies on a child’s
feelings of guilt and gratitude to the parents.
➤Response for Political Activists (from
page 265): There are many parenting styles,
and it is difficult to determine each one’s
impact on children’s personalities. At this
point, attempts to connect early child rearing
with later political outlook are speculative at
best.
Especially for Parents Suppose you agree
that spanking is destructive, but you some-
times get so angry at your child’s behavior
that you hit him or her. Is your reaction
appropriate?
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The Challenge of Media
Some people (not parents) imagine that parenting is straightforward and that good
parents always have good children. Not so. Children are emotionally immature,
sometimes angry or fearful or defiant. Preschoolers, in particular,
talk when they should be quiet, run when they should walk,
show off when they should be modest.
Further, each cohort of parents is faced with challenges that
their parents never confronted. Currently, those challenges
include new junk food; far more single-parent families than in
the past (about 40 percent, discussed in the following chapters);
earlier sexual awareness; and an explosion of media, including
the Internet (Comstock & Scharrer, 2006).
Parents allow their young children to watch television or use
the computer not only because the children demand it but also
because video keeps children engaged. Parents easily ignore
the possible impact on the emotionally immature child, who is
dazzled by fast-moving images and entranced by cartoon figures
that have no empathy. Almost no preschooler understands “the
motivated purpose of a commercial as a self-interested vehicle
intended to benefit the advertiser” (Comstock & Scharrer,
2006, p. 833).
268 CHAPTER 10 ■ The Play Years: Psychosocial Development
control can depress children’s achievement and social accept-
ance, although affection does not always make things worse
(Barber, 2002).
One disciplinary technique often used in North America is
the time-out, in which an adult requires the child to sit quietly
apart from other people for a few minutes. For young children, a
time-out can be quickly effective; one minute of time-out per
year of age is suggested. Another common practice is withdrawal
of love, when the parent expresses disappointment or looks
sternly at the child, as if the child were no longer lovable.
A third method is induction, in which the parents talk with
the child, getting the child to under-
stand why the behavior was wrong.
Conversation helps children internalize
standards, but listening takes time and
patience from the child as well as from
the adult. Since 3-year-olds do not un-
derstand causes and consequences, they
cannot answer an angry “Why did you do
that?”
Each method varies in consequences
and effectiveness, depending on the
child’s temperament, the culture, the
parents’ personalities, and the parent–
child relationship. For example, a time-
out is effective if the child prefers to be
with other people. One version of time-
out for older children is suspension from
school, which works if the child wants to
be in the classroom. However, if a child
dislikes school, time-out becomes a reinforcement for the child
(and the teacher), making future disobedience more likely.
There is no simple answer partly because children’s personal-
ities and parental pressures vary. As a mother, I know that pa-
tient guidance is necessary and that prevention is better than
punishment, but emotions can be overwhelming. Rachel, at age
3, took a glass orange juice bottle from the refrigerator, dropping
it on the kitchen floor. It shattered. I wanted to slap her. “Time-
out!” I yelled, putting her on the couch (20 feet away) until I
cleaned it up. I needed that time-out more than she did.
Parents have powerful emotions, memories, and stresses.
That’s why punishment is not a simple
issue. One young child who was disci-
plined for fighting protested, “Some-
times the fight just crawls out of me.”
Ideally, punishment won’t just crawl out
of the parent.
Angela at Play Research suggests that
being spanked is a salient and memorable
experience for young children, not because
of the pain but because of the emotions.
Children seek to do what they have learned;
they know not only how to place their
hands but also that an angry person does
the hitting. The only part of the lesson they
usually forget is what particular misdeed
precipitated the punishment. Asked why
she is spanking her doll, Angela will likely
explain, “She was bad.”DA
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time-out A disciplinary technique in which a
child is separated from other people for a
specified time.
“Why don’t you get off the computer and watch some TV?”
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Experts advise parents to minimize media exposure, including no television
before age 2. Six major organizations devoted to the health of children (the Ameri-
can Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American
Medical Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,
the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American Psychiatric
Association) implore parents to stop exposing their children to video violence—
whether in cartoons, in situation comedies, in video games, or on the evening news.
This leaves almost nothing to watch (C. A. Anderson & Bushman, 2002).
Did you notice that all six organizations have American in their titles? That
requires a cross-cultural advisement: Most of the research reported here studied
U.S. children watching U.S. media (C. A. Anderson & Bushman, 2002; Roberts
& Foehr, 2004). Readers need to ask themselves whether this limits the conclu-
sions reported here or whether American media are so pervasive that the same
problems exist worldwide.
The Importance of Content
Most young children of every ethnic and economic group in the United States
spend more than three hours each day using some sort of media (see Table 10.4).
Among young children, television is the most popular medium. Almost every home
has at least two televisions, and children usually watch apart from their parents,
often in their own rooms. By age 3, more than one-fourth of all children already
have a television in their bedrooms, and this percentage rises as children grow
older (Roberts & Foehr, 2004).
What do children see? The “good guys,” whether in cartoons or police dramas,
do as much hitting, shooting, and kicking as the “bad guys,” yet the consequences
of their violence are sanitized, justified, or made comic. Almost all the good guys
are male and White. Women are usually portrayed as victims or adoring girl-
friends, not as leaders—except in a very few girl-oriented programs that boys
rarely watch.
Attempts to restrict children’s watching have limited success. For instance,
many TV programs and movies are now labeled regarding their appropriateness for
children, but this is voluntary and many producers refuse to do it. Parents can
install a V-chip in their television to limit what children can see, but few families
have done so successfully. For many reasons, such voluntary measures have little
effect on children’s exposure to violence and sex, especially for children who are
most vulnerable.
Evidence from every perspective and method confirms that violence is pervasive
and that children of all ages who watch violence on television become more violent
themselves (C. A. Anderson et al., 2003; Huesmann et al., 2003; J. G. Johnson
et al., 2002; Singer & Singer, 2005). For example, they are more likely to get into
fights with each other and even to break things and hurt people when they grow
up. For obvious reasons, extensive longitudinal research has not been published for
the newer media, but virtually all developmentalists expect that sexual messages
and aggression on all media (DVDs, MP3 players, the Internet) undermine opti-
mal development of young children (Comstock & Scharrer, 2006).
Past research gives parents good reason to limit their children’s media involve-
ment. Consider the results of a longitudinal study that began with children at
about age 5 and queried those same children again as adolescents (D. R. Anderson
et al., 2001; see Research Design).
Preschoolers who watched a lot of violence on television and copied the actions
of cartoon characters were more violent and less creative. They had lower grades
in school when they were older. This was true for both sexes and evident in every
subject, but some correlations were particularly strong. For instance, 5-year-old
Parents 269
TABLE 10.4
Average Daily Exposure
to Electronic Media
Age 2 to 4 Years Hours per Day
White 3:18
Black 4:30
Hispanic 3:37
Age 5 to 7 Years Hours per Day
White 3:17
Black 4:16
Hispanic 3:38
Source: Adapted from Roberts & Foehr, 2004.
Research Design
Scientists: Daniel Anderson, Aletha C.
Huston, Kelly L. Schmitt, Deborah L.
Linebarger, and John C. Wright.
Publication: Monographs of the Society
for Research in Child Development
(2001).
Participants: A total of 570 adolescents
from Massachusetts and Kansas, whose
television watching and other character-
istics were studied in depth (viewing
diaries recorded exactly what they
watched).
Design:These participants and their
television viewing were first studied at
age 5. As adolescents, they were asked
questions about their current lives,
and their high school transcripts were
obtained. Researchers controlled for
many factors (e.g., SES, gender, region),
seeking correlations between viewing
habits at age 5 and behavior at age 16
or so. Efforts were made to understand
causation, not just correlation.
Major conclusion: Sixty-five correlations
were found between television viewing
at preschool and adolescent behavior
and characteristics. Most but not all
effects were negative, leading to the con-
clusion that content matters: “Marshall
McLuhan appears to have been wrong.
The medium is not the message.The
message is the message” (p. 134).
Comment:These researchers wisely fol-
lowed up on hundreds of preschoolers
who had been carefully surveyed many
years earlier.The result confirms the
conclusions of many cross-sectional and
shorter longitudinal studies:Television
in the early years affects behavior in
school.The other interesting result was
not predicted by those most critical of
TV:The content of some programs facili-
tates learning.
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girls generally watched less violence than boys did, but when they did, the effects
were greater.
There were also some positive effects of early television watching, depending
on the programs watched. Young children who watched only educational programs
(mostly Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood) became teenagers who earned
higher grades and read more than other high school students did, especially if they
were boys. This study also examined what the children watched as adolescents
and again found an impact, almost always negative.
From a developmental perspective, early childhood is the best time to raise this
issue because that is when household media habits are established. Young children
are strongly influenced by their parents and older siblings, who often watch TV
during meals or spend hours with television, computer, and hand-held video games.
Already in 1999, one-fourth of all 6-year-olds had played a computer or video game
within the past 24 hours (Roberts & Foehr, 2004). And the numbers are rising each
year.
Early childhood is a vulnerable period for media effects for other reasons as
well. First, young children spend more time in front of TV and computer screens
than do people of any other age group. Second, young children are not very knowl-
edgeable about society, culture, and people; they are novices at interpreting and
regulating emotions. For example, when a cartoon animal or even a person ex-
plodes on the screen, they are more likely to cheer than to cry.
The Effects on Family life
Probably the worst effect of the media is how it interferes with family life. Chil-
dren benefit when their parents are involved in their lives, as already apparent in
the discussion of parenting patterns. As you have seen, language development (the
crucial cognitive achievement of early childhood) depends on hours of one-on-one
conversations every day. Likewise, emotional regulation (the crucial psychosocial
accomplishment of early childhood) depends on parental responsiveness.
Unfortunately, all the research reports that the more media a family uses, the
less time they spend together. Parents and children talk only
briefly when they watch together, and they rarely watch together.
In most families, parents and children have their own TVs, often
in separate rooms. Further interfering with family time, the tele-
vision often stays on during meals and even when no one is
watching.
All told, the result is “parental abdication of oversight on chil-
dren’s media behavior” (Roberts & Foehr, 2004, p. 202). Not only
do the media cut into the time children spend with their parents,
they also reduce the amount of time children spend in imagina-
tive and social play—and thus on learning.
Although many adults hope that more time spent with one type
of media would mean less time spent with another, this is not the
case. The only exception is with print: Children who read many
books tend to watch less TV (Roberts & Foehr, 2004). It is not
surprising that grades suffer and impulsive violence increases as
children watch more TV.
No wonder those six organizations recommend limited televi-
sion. But few parents can enforce a total prohibition. (When you
read about fast-mapping in Chapter 9, did you wonder why Sarah
called me angry names? It was because I had momentarily un-
plugged the TV.) Parents can, however, limit their own and their
children’s media exposure and play, read, and talk with their chil-
Dangerous Toy? Would this 4-year-old at the
computer be safer playing outside with a ball?
270 CHAPTER 10 ■ The Play Years: Psychosocial Development
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➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 266): The authoritative style. Note the
firm hold this woman has on her defiant son;
he must listen (evidence that she is not
permissive). Also note that she is talking to
him, not hitting or yelling, and that her
expression is warm (evidence that she is not
authoritarian).
“Have some respect for my learning style.”
Video Style Children who spend a lot of time watching television
and playing video games are likely to develop a visual learning style.
They get used to receiving information in the form of vivid images
and brief scenes, making it harder for them to concentrate on and
comprehend anything that is longer and presented in verbal form.
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dren more. Few children know a proven fact: An animated parent can be more en-
tertaining than Mickey Mouse.
SUMMING UP
Over the past 40 years, Diana Baumrind and most other developmentalists have found
that authoritative parenting (warm, with guidance) is more effective than either authori-
tarian (very strict) or permissive (very lenient) parenting. In any culture, children thrive
when their parents appreciate them and care about their accomplishments. The children
of parents who are uninvolved, uncaring, or abusive are seldom happy, well-adjusted,
and high-achieving.
Good parenting is not achieved by following any one simple rule; children’s tempera-
ments vary, and so do cultural patterns. The media pose a particular challenge world-
wide because children are attracted to colorful, fast-paced images, yet violent TV
programs, in particular, lead to more aggressive behavior. Parental monitoring of the
quality and quantity of the media—the underlying messages as well as the overt
themes—to which children are exposed is recommended by every expert.
■
Becoming Boys and Girls
Identity as a male or female is an important feature of a child’s self-concept, a
major source of self-esteem (with each gender believing that it is best) (Powlishta,
2004). The first question asked about a newborn is “Boy or girl?” and parents select
gender-distinct clothes, blankets, diapers, and even pacifiers. Toddlers already
know their own sex, and children become more aware of gender with every passing
year of childhood (Maccoby, 1998).
Social scientists attempt to distinguish between sex differences, which are
the biological differences between males and females, and gender differences,
which are culturally imposed masculine or feminine roles and behaviors. In the-
ory, this may seem like a straightforward separation, but, as with every nature–
nurture distinction, the interaction between sex and gender makes it hard to sepa-
rate the two (Hines, 2004).
Even 2-year-olds can apply gender labels (Mrs., Mr., lady, man) consistently.
That simple cognitive awareness becomes, by age 3, a rudimentary understanding
that sex distinctions are lifelong (although some pretend, hope, or imagine other-
wise). By age 4, children are convinced that certain toys (such as dolls or trucks)
and certain roles (such as nurse or soldier) are appropriate for one gender but not
the other (Bauer et al., 1998; Ruble et al., 2006).
Throughout the play years, children confuse gender and sex. Awareness that a
person’s sex is a biological characteristic, not determined by words, opinions, or
clothing, develops gradually, becoming firm at age 8 or so (Szkrybalo & Ruble,
1999). This uncertainty about the biological determination of sex was demon-
strated by a 3-year-old who went with his father to see a neighbor’s newborn
kittens. Returning home, the child told his mother that there were three girl kit-
tens and two boy kittens. “How do you know?” she asked. “Daddy picked them up
and read what was written on their tummies,” he replied.
Theories of Gender Differences
Experts as well as parents disagree about what proportion of observed gender dif-
ferences is biological (perhaps hormones, brain structure, body shape) and what
proportion is environmental (perhaps embedded in the culture or in the family)
sex differences Biological differences
between males and females, in organs,
hormones, and body type.
gender differences Differences in the roles
and behavior of males and females that
originate in the culture.
Becoming Boys and Girls 271
➤Response for Parents (from page 267):
The worst time to spank a child is when you
are angry, because you might seriously hurt
the child and because the child will associate
anger with violence and may follow your ex-
ample. You would do better to learn to control
your anger and develop other strategies for
discipline and for prevention of misbehavior.
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(Leaper, 2002; Ruble et al., 2006). For example, you read earlier that girls are
often ahead of boys in emotional regulation. Is that connected to the twenty-third
pair of chromosomes that affects brain development, or is it that parents treat
their sons and daughters differently? Evidence supports both.
Neuroscientists tend to look for male–female brain differences, and they find
many; sociologists tend to look for male–female family and culture patterns, and
they also find many. Similar but varied predilections apply to historians, anthropol-
ogists, political scientists, and psychologists of every perspective. Consider the
explanations for sex/gender differences during early childhood from each of our five
theories.
Psychoanalytic Theory
Freud (1938) called the period from about age 3 to 6 the phallic stage because
he believed its central focus is the phallus, or penis. At about 3 or 4 years of age,
said Freud, the process of maturation makes a boy aware of his male sexual organ.
He begins to masturbate, to fear castration, and to develop sexual feelings toward
his mother.
These feelings make every young boy jealous of his father—so jealous, according
to Freud, that every son secretly wants to replace his dad. Freud called this the
Oedipus complex, after Oedipus, son of a king in Greek mythology. Abandoned as
an infant and raised in a distant kingdom, Oedipus later returned to his birthplace
and, not realizing who they were, killed his own father and married his mother.
When he discovered what he had done, he blinded himself in a spasm of guilt.
Freud believed that this ancient drama has been replayed for two millennia
because it dramatizes emotions all boys feel about their parents—both love and
hate. Every male feels guilty because of the incestuous and murderous impulses
that are buried in his unconscious. Boys fear that their fathers will inflict terrible
punishment if their secret impulses are discovered.
In self-defense, boys develop a powerful conscience called the superego,
which is quick to judge and punish “the bad guys.” According to Freud’s theory, a
young boy’s fascination with superheroes, guns, kung fu, and the like arises from
his unconscious urges to kill his father. An adult man’s homosexuality, homopho-
bia, or obsession with punishment might be explained by an imperfectly resolved
phallic stage.
272 CHAPTER 10 ■ The Play Years: Psychosocial Development
AL
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Biology or Culture? Could the trio on the left dress as pirates and the three on the right all eat ice cream cones
with multicolored sprinkles? If they did, and if new photographs were taken, would their expressions, clothes, close-
ness, and hair switch as well? Probably not: By age 5, dozens of differences between boys and girls are evident.
Oedipus complex The unconscious desire
of young boys to replace their father and
win their mother’s exclusive love.
phallic stage Freud’s third stage of develop-
ment, when the penis becomes the focus
of concern and pleasure.
superego In psychoanalytic theory, the
judgmental part of the personality that
internalizes moral standards of the
parents.
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Freud offered several descriptions of the phallic stage in girls. One centers on
the Electra complex (also named after a figure in classical mythology). the Elec-
tra complex is similar to the Oedipus complex in that the little girl wants to elimi-
nate the same-sex parent, her mother, and become intimate with the opposite-sex
parent, her father.
Children of both sexes cope with their guilt and fear through identification,
that is, by allying themsleves with another person—the same-sex parent—by sym-
bolically taking on that person’s behavior and attitudes. Because they cannot re-
place their parents, young boys copy their fathers’ mannerisms, opinions, actions,
and so on, and girls copy their mothers’. Both sexes exaggerate the appropriate
male or female role.
Since the middle of the twentieth century, social scientists generally have
agreed that Freud’s explanation of sexual and moral development “flies in the face
of sociological and historical evidence” (David et al., 2004, p. 139). More recently,
however, some of Freud’s ideas have become more acceptable to psychologists. I
myself have softened my criticism of Freud, as the following explains.
Electra complex The unconscious desire of
girls to replace their mother and win their
father’s exclusive love.
identification An attempt to defend one’s
self-concept by taking on the behaviors
and attitudes of someone else.
Becoming Boys and Girls 273
Berger and Freud
My family’s first “Electra episode” occurred in a conversation
with my eldest daughter, Bethany, when she was about 4 years
old:
Bethany: When I grow up, I’m going to marry Daddy.
Mother: But Daddy’s married to me.
Bethany: That’s all right. When I grow up, you’ll probably be
dead.
Mother: (determined to stick up for myself) Daddy’s older
than me, so when I’m dead, he’ll probably be dead,
too.
Bethany: That’s OK. I’ll marry him when he gets born again.
At this point, I couldn’t think of a good reply, especially since
I had no idea where she had gotten the concept of reincarna-
tion. Bethany saw my face fall, and she took pity on me:
Bethany: Don’t worry, Mommy. After you get born again, you
can be our baby.
The second episode was a conversation I had with my daugh-
ter Rachel when she was about 5:
Rachel: When I get married, I’m going to marry Daddy.
Mother: Daddy’s already married to me.
Rachel: (with the joy of having discovered a wonderful solu-
tion) Then we can have a double wedding!
The third episode was considerably more graphic. It took the
form of a “valentine” left on my husband’s pillow by my daughter
Elissa, who was about 8 years old at the time. It is reproduced
at right.
Finally, when my youngest daughter, Sarah, turned 5, she
also expressed the desire to marry my husband. When I told her
she couldn’t, because he was married to me, her response re-
vealed one more hazard of watching TV: “Oh, yes, a man can
have two wives. I saw it on television.”
I am not the only feminist developmentalist to be taken
aback by her own children’s words. Nancy Datan (1986) wrote
about the Oedipal conflict: “I have a son who was once five
years old. From that day to this, I have never thought Freud
mistaken.” Obviously, these bits of “evidence” do not prove that
Freud was correct. I still think he was wrong on many counts.
But I now find Freud’s description of the phallic stage less
bizarre than I once did.
in person
Pillow Talk Elissa placed this artwork on my husband’s pillow.
My pillow, beside it, had a less colorful, less elaborate note—
an afterthought. It read “Dear Mom, I love you too.”
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Behaviorism
In contrast with psychoanalytic theorists, behaviorists believe that virtually all roles
are learned and therefore result from nurture, not nature. To behaviorists, gender
distinctions are the product of ongoing reinforcement and punishment.
Some evidence supports this aspect of learning theory. Parents, peers, and
teachers all reward behavior that is “gender appropriate” more than behavior that
is “gender inappropriate.” For example, “adults complement a girl when she wears
a dress but not when she wears pants” (Ruble et al., 2006, p. 897). According to
social learning theory, children themselves notice the ways men and women behave
and then internalize the standards they observe, becoming proud of themselves
when they act like “little men” and “little ladies” (Bandura & Bussey, 2004; Bussey
& Bandura, 1999).
The male–female distinction seems to be more significant to males than to fe-
males (Banerjee & Lintern, 2000; David et al., 2004). Boys are more often criticized
for being “sissies” than girls are criticized for being “tomboys.” Fathers, more than
mothers, expect their daughters to be feminine and their sons to be tough.
Behaviorists believe children learn about proper behavior not only directly
(such as receiving a gender-appropriate toy or a father’s praise) but also indirectly,
through social learning. Children model their behavior particularly after that of
people they perceive to be nurturing, powerful, and yet similar to themselves. For
young children, those people are usually their parents. And parental attitudes
about gender differences become increasingly influential as children become
more aware of the thoughts and attitudes other people might hold (Tenenbaum &
Leaper, 2002).
This theory explains why gender prejudice is particularly strong during the play
years. If a college man wants to teach young children, his classmates will probably
respect him and may know another man who made the same choice. If a 4-year-
old boy wants the same thing, his peers will laugh because their experience has
been quite gender-segregated. As one professor reports:
My son came home after 2 days of preschool to announce that he could not grow
up to teach seminars (previously his lifelong ambition, because he knew from
personal observation that everyone at seminars got to eat cookies) because only
women could be teachers.
[Fagot, 1995, p. 173]
Cognitive Theory
Cognitive theory offers an alternative explanation for the strong gender identity
that becomes apparent during the play years. Cognitive theorists focus on children’s
understanding—on the way a child intellectually grasps a specific issue or value.
Children develop concepts about their experiences, developing many schemas or
general beliefs. In this case, a gender schema is the child’s understanding of sex
differences (Kohlberg et al., 1983; Martin et al., 2002).
Young children, they point out, have many gender-related experiences but not
much cognitive depth. They tend to see the world in simple terms. For this reason,
they categorize male and female as opposites, even when some evidence contra-
dicts such a sexist assumption. Nuances, complexities, exceptions, and gradations
about gender (as well as about everything else) are beyond the intellect of the pre-
operational child.
The self-esteem and self-concept that young children develop lead to a cogni-
tive drive to categorize themselves as male or female and then to behave in a way
that fits the category. For that reason, cognitive theorists see “Jill’s claim that she is
a girl because she is wearing her new frilly socks as a genuine expression of her
gender identity” (David et al., 2004, p. 147).
274 CHAPTER 10 ■ The Play Years: Psychosocial Development
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Rehearsal for Future Motherhood This pre-
schooler is demonstrating three behaviors
that are considered appropriate for girls and
are almost never seen in boys: She is wear-
ing a dress, tucking one crossed leg behind
the other, and cradling and “feeding” a doll.
gender schema A cognitive concept or
general belief based on one’s experiences
—in this case, a child’s understanding of
sex differences.
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An example comes from a 31⁄2-year-old boy whose aunt called him cute. He
insisted he should be called handsome instead (Powlishta, 2004). Obviously he had
developed gender-based categories, and he wanted others to see him as the young
man his own cognition had decided he was.
According to cognitive theory, children develop a mental set, or a cognitive
schema, which biases their views of whatever experiences they have. For 2- to 6-
year-olds, that cognitive schema is, of necessity, quite simple, which is why their
sex stereotyping peaks at about age 6.
Cognitive theory differs from social learning theory in that “while both theories
explain how the social reality of sex differences is internalized, social learning theory
proposes that society socializes children, while cognitive developmental theory pro-
poses that children actively socialize themselves” (David et al., 2004, pp. 139–140).
Sociocultural Theory
Proponents of the sociocultural perspective point
out that many traditional cultures enforce gender
distinctions with dramatic stories, taboos, and ter-
minology. In societies where adult activities and
dress are strictly separated by gender, girls and
boys attend sex-segregated schools and virtually
never play together. Regardless of how strictly gen-
der distinctions are enforced in different cultures,
however, children all over the world adopt what-
ever patterns of talking, behaving, and even think-
ing that are prescribed for their sex (Leaper &
Smith, 2004).
Every society has powerful values and attitudes
regarding preferred behavior for men and women,
and every culture teaches these values to its
young, even though the particular tasks assigned to
males and to females vary. To sociocultural theo-
rists, this proves that society, not biology, segregates the sexes and transmits its
version of proper male or female behavior (Kimmel, 2004).
This is blatantly apparent during adolescence, when sexual urges might drive
young people to seek out the other sex. Instead, in most nations, young people work
beside adults of the same sex as themselves and socialize in sex-segregated but
cross-age groups, “from the pottery making sessions of the Hopi to the gathering
parties of the !Kung Bushmen to the groups of Sicilian women neighbors, sitting
together as they embroider” (Schlegel, 2003, pp. 243–244).
To break through the restrictiveness of culture and to encourage individuals to
define themselves primarily as humans, rather than as males or females, some
parents and teachers have embraced the idea of androgyny. As psychologists use
the term, androgyny means a balance, within a person, of traditionally masculine
and feminine characteristics. To achieve androgyny, boys would be encouraged to
be nurturant and girls to be assertive so that they can develop less restrictive, gen-
der-free self-concepts (Bem, 1993). However, androgyny does not necessarily lead
to a healthier self-concept (Ruble et al., 2006).
Sociocultural theory stresses that androgyny (or any other gender concept)
cannot be taught simply through parental reinforcement, as behaviorism might
propose. Children will not be androgynous unless their culture promotes such
ideas and practices—something no culture has done. Why not? The reasons may
lie buried far deeper in human nature than in political forces or social values. That
is what epigenetic theory suggests.
Becoming Boys and Girls 275
AR
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Trick or Treat? Any doubt about which of these
children are girls and which are boys? No. Any
question about whether such strict gender dis-
tinctions are appropriate at age 4? Maybe.
Especially for Gender Idealists Suppose
you want to raise an androgynous child. What
do you think would happen if you told no one
your newborn’s sex, dressed it in yellow and
white rather than pink or blue, and gave it a
gender-neutral name, such as Chris or Lee?
androgyny A balance, within a person, of
traditionally male and female psychological
characteristics.
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Epigenetic Theory
We saw in Chapter 2 that epigenetic theory contends that our traits and behaviors
are the result of interaction between genes and early experience—not just for each
of us as individuals but for the human race as a whole. The idea that gender differ-
ences are based in genetics is supported by recent research in neurobiology, which
has found dozens of biological differences between male and female brains
(Hines, 2004). Sex hormones, circulating before birth, affect the brain throughout
life, as male and female brains differ not only in overall size (male brains are
larger) but also in connections between parts (female brains often have more con-
nections) and in many other ways.
In nonhuman creatures, sex differences in brain shape and function are legion.
For example, male and female voices differ partly because of vocal control systems
within the brains of all jawed vertebrates. In an experiment, male and female
hormones quickly changed the brain impulses, altering the pattern of vocalization
in a fish species. The authors believe this may apply to all “vocal vertebrates,”
including people (Remage-Healey & Bass, 2004).
Although epigenetic theory stresses the biological and genetic origins of behav-
ior, it also recognizes that the environment can shape, enhance, or halt those
genetic impulses. Here is one example: Girls seem to be genetically inclined to
talk earlier than boys, perhaps because in prehistoric times, when women stayed
behind to care for the children while the men hunted, women had to become
more adept at social interaction. Consequently, female brains evolved to favor
language (Gleason & Ely, 2002).
Today, women still specialize in caregiving, using language to show support and
agreement, while men are still more assertive, favoring speech that is more direc-
tive, with shorter, louder sentences. Even when these patterns are shown to be
stereotypes that no longer apply to a specific person, genetic adaptation of the
species may have led to sex differences that began several millennia ago and
would take centuries to change.
Researchers repeatedly find that girls tend to be more responsive to language
than boys and that mothers and daughters typically talk more than fathers and
sons (Leaper, 2002; Leaper & Smith, 2004; Maccoby, 1998). The female advan-
tage in language is more apparent from ages 2 to 5 than at any other age (Leaper
& Smith, 2004). Those are the sensitive years when the brain is most likely to
respond to language and thus when epigenetic effects are most likely to appear.
In the same way, all sex and gender differences may have genetic, hormonal roots,
for reasons that originated millions of years ago and helped our ancestors form
families and thus survive. Modern society has quite different needs and can create
different conditions that may enhance or redirect those inherited tendencies.
Such redirection is uncommon. Accordingly, male–female distinctions are
among the first that children recognize, and by age 5 children show a strong same-
sex favoritism as well as strong impulses to avoid playing with toys they believe
belong to the other gender. Preschool boys avoid dolls, a preference that seems as
evident in the twenty-first century as in historic times (Ruble et al., 2006).
Gender and Destiny
The first and last of our five major theories—psychoanalytic theory and epigenetic
theory—emphasize the power of biology. A reader might seize on those theories to
decide that, since gender-based behavior and sexual stereotypes originate in the body
and brain, they are difficult to change. But the other three theories—behaviorism,
cognitive theory, and sociocultural theory—all present persuasive evidence for the
influence of family and culture.
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Thus, our five major theories lead in two opposite directions:
■ Gender differences are rooted in biology.
■ Biology is not destiny: Children are shaped by their experiences.
Given nature and nurture, both these conclusions are valid. That creates a dilemma.
Since human behavior is plastic, what gender patterns should children learn, ideally?
Answers vary among developmentalists as well as among mothers, fathers, and
cultures.
If children responded only to their own inclinations, some might choose behav-
iors, express emotions, and develop talents that are taboo—even punished—in
certain cultures. In Western societies, little boys might put on makeup, little girls
might play with guns, and both sexes might play naked outside in hot weather.
Whether these behaviors should be permitted is a question for adults, not children.
My daughter Bethany, at about age 5, challenged one of my young male students
to a fight.
“Girls don’t fight,” he said, laughing.
“Nobody fights,” I sternly corrected him.
To this day I wonder if my response, although cast in unisex words, was
nonetheless quite female. Should I have just left it alone, allowing my student to
teach Bethany gender norms? Or should I have championed androgyny, telling
Bethany that girls can fight and urging my student to engage in the same rough-
and-tumble play fighting that might have occurred if she were a boy? I remember
this incident now, years later, because I am still not sure of the answer.
SUMMING UP
Young boys and girls are seen as quite different, not only by parents and other adults but
especially by the children themselves. Gender stereotypes are held most forcefully at
about age 6. Each of the five major theories has an explanation for this phenomenon:
Freud describes unconscious incestuous urges; behaviorists note social reinforcement;
cognitive theorists describe immature categorization; sociocultural explanations focus on
patterns throughout the culture; and epigenetic theory begins with the hereditary aspects
of brain and body development. Although each theory offers an explanation, theories don’t
answer questions about moral and social values. Perhaps that is why cultures and individu-
als draw contradictory conclusions about everyday practices regarding sex and gender.
■
Becoming Boys and Girls 277
➤Response for Gender Idealists (from
page 275): Since babies are raised by a
society and community as well as by their
parents, and since some gender differences
are biological, this attempt at androgyny
would not succeed. First, other interested
parties would decide for themselves that the
child was male or female. Second, the child
would sooner or later develop gender-specific
play patterns, guided by other boys or girls.
Emotional Development
1. Regulation of emotions is crucial during the play years, when
children learn emotional control. Emotional regulation is made
possible by maturation of the brain, particularly of the prefrontal
cortex, as well as by experiences with parents and peers.
2. In Erikson’s psychosocial theory, the crisis of initiative versus
guilt occurs during the play years. Children normally feel pride
and self-esteem, sometimes mixed with feelings of guilt.
3. Both externalizing and internalizing problems indicate im-
paired self-control. Many severe emotional problems that are evi-
dence of psychopathology are first evident during these years.
4. Empathy, which leads to prosocial behavior, and antipathy,
which leads to antisocial behavior, develop during early child-
hood. These emotions come from within the child, but family ex-
periences either enhance or undercut the process.
5. As children become more aware of themselves and their peers,
they regulate their aggression. Instrumental aggression occurs
when children fight over toys and privileges, and reactive aggres-
sion occurs when children react to being hurt. More worrisome is
bullying aggression, damaging to both aggressor and victim.
Parents
6. Three classic styles of parenting have been identified: authori-
tarian, permissive, and authoritative. Generally, children are more
successful and happy when their parents express warmth and set
guidelines. Parenting that is rejecting and uninvolved is harmful.
SUMMARY
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278 CHAPTER 10 ■ The Play Years: Psychosocial Development
them. If your sources agree, find a parent (or a classmate) who
has a different view.
3. Gender indicators often go unnoticed. Go to a public place
(park, restaurant, busy street) and spend at least 10 minutes
recording examples of gender differentiation, such as articles of
clothing, mannerisms, interaction patterns, and activities. Quan-
tify what you see, such as baseball hats on eight males and two
females or (better but more difficult) four male–female conversa-
tions, with gender difference in length and frequency of talking,
interruptions, vocabulary, and so on.
1. Observe the interactions of two or more young children. Sort
your observations into four categories: emotion, reasons, results,
and emotional regulation. Note every observable emotion (laugh-
ter, tears, etc.), the reason for it, the consequences, and whether
or not emotional regulation was likely. For example: “Anger:
friend grabbed toy; child suggested sharing; emotional regulation
probable.”
2. Ask three parents about punishment, including their preferred
type, at what age, for what misdeeds, and by whom. Ask your
three informants how they were punished and how that affected
APPLICATIONS
emotional regulation (p. 255)
initiative versus guilt (p. 256)
self-esteem (p. 256)
self-concept (p. 256)
intrinsic motivation (p. 257)
extrinsic motivation (p. 257)
externalizing problems (p. 258)
internalizing problems (p. 258)
empathy (p. 259)
antipathy (p. 259)
prosocial behavior (p. 260)
antisocial behavior (p. 260)
instrumental aggression (p. 261)
reactive aggression (p. 261)
bullying aggression (p. 261)
authoritarian parenting (p. 264)
permissive parenting (p. 264)
authoritative parenting (p. 264)
psychological control (p. 267)
time-out (p. 268)
sex differences (p. 271)
gender differences (p. 271)
phallic stage (p. 272)
Oedipus complex (p. 272)
superego (p. 272)
Electra complex (p. 273)
identification (p. 273)
gender schema (p. 275)
androgyny (p. 275)
KEY TERMS
7. What are the consequences of using time-out and of psycho-
logical control?
8. How do children change from age 2 to 6 in their male and
female roles and behaviors?
9. Describe the differences among three of the five theories of
sex differences.
10. List the similarities between two of the five theories of sex
differences.
1. How can adults help children develop self-esteem?
2. What are the differences between shame and guilt?
3. What is the connection between temperament and emotional
regulation?
4. How do early caregiving and culture affect emotional control?
5. How do parenting styles relate to cultural differences?
6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of physical pun-
ishment?
KEY QUESTIONS
Punishment should fit not only the age and temperament of the
child but also the culture.
7. Children are prime consumers of many kinds of media, usually
for several hours a day, often without their parents’ involvement.
Content is crucial. The themes and characters of many television
programs and video games can lead to increased aggression, as
shown in longitudinal research.
Becoming Boys and Girls
8. Even 2-year-olds correctly use sex-specific labels, and young
children become aware of gender differences in clothes, toys, fu-
ture careers, and playmates. Gender stereotypes, favoritism, and
segregation peak at about age 6.
9. Nature and nurture are both involved with sex and gender; dis-
entangling them is very difficult. Every type of scientist and each
major theory has a perspective on sex and gender distinctions.
10. Freud emphasized that children are attracted to the opposite-
sex parent and eventually seek to identify, or align themselves,
with the same-sex parent. Behaviorists hold that gender-related
behaviors are learned through reinforcement and punishment (es-
pecially for males) and social modeling.
11. Cognitive theorists note that simplistic preoperational thinking
leads to gender schema and therefore stereotypes. Sociocultural
theorists point to the many male–female distinctions apparent in
every society.
12. An epigenetic explanation notes that some sex differences re-
sult from hormones affecting brain formation. Experiences en-
hance or halt those neurological patterns.
13. Thus each theory has an explanation for the sex and gender dif-
ferences that are apparent everywhere. Parents need to decide which
differences are useful to encourage and which are destructive.
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BIOSOCIAL
Body Changes Children continue to grow from ages 2 to 6, but their rate of growth
slows down. Normally the BMI (body mass index) is lower at about age 5 than at any
other time of life. Children often become more discriminating eaters, eating too much
unhealthy food and refusing to eat certain other foods altogether.
Brain Development Both the proliferation of neural pathways and myelination con-
tinue. Specific parts of the brain (including the corpus callosum, prefrontal cortex,
amygdala, hippocampus, and hypothalamus) begin to connect, allowing lateralization
and coordination of left and right as well as less impulsivity and perseveration. Gross
motor skills, such as drawing, develop more slowly.
Injuries and Maltreatment Injury control is particularly necessary in these years, since
far more children worldwide die of avoidable accidents than of diseases. Child abuse and
neglect are likely in homes with many young children and few personal or community
resources. Prevention requires that abused children be protected from further harm
(tertiary prevention), that risk factors be reduced (secondary prevention), and—most dif-
ficult but crucial—that social changes make maltreatment less likely (primary prevention).
COGNITIVE
Piaget and Vygotsky Piaget stressed the young child’s egocentric, illogical perspective,
which prevents the child from grasping concepts such as conservation. Vygotsky
stressed the cultural context, noting that children learn extensively from others. Many
children develop their own theories, including a theory of mind as they realize that not
everyone thinks as they do.
Language Language abilities develop rapidly. By age 6, the average child knows
10,000 words and demonstrates extensive grammatical knowledge. Young children are
quite capable of becoming balanced bilinguals if their social context is encouraging.
Early Childhood Education Young children are avid learners as they play. Child-
centered, teacher-directed, and intervention programs can all nurture learning; the
actual outcome depends on the skill and number of teachers.
PSYCHOSOCIAL
Emotional Development Self-esteem is usually high during the play years. In Erikson’s
stage of initiative versus guilt, self-concept emerges, as does the ability to regulate
emotions. Externalizing problems may be the result of too little emotional regulation;
internalizing problems may result from too much control. Empathy produces prosocial
behavior; antipathy leads to antisocial actions. Aggression takes many forms: Instru-
mental aggression is quite normal; bullying aggression is ominous.
Parents Parenting styles that are warm and responsive, with much communication,
are most effective in encouraging the child’s self-esteem, autonomy, and self-control.
This parenting style is called authoritative. The authoritarian and permissive styles are
less beneficial, especially if spanking or psychological control is used as discipline.
Extensive use of television and other media by children can disrupt family life.
Becoming Boys and Girls Children develop stereotypic concepts of sex differences
(biological) and gender differences (cultural). Theories give contradictory explanations of
nature and nurture, but all agree that sex and gender identities become increasingly
salient to young children.
279
The Play Years
PA R T I I I The Developing Person So Far:
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The School
Years
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CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
F
amilies and cultures have always stressed
education for children who are past early
childhood but not yet adolescents. In
some cultures and centuries, girls and
poor children were not sent to school; they learned
how to perform the tasks required of adults in their
cultures. Today, most children worldwide—including
girls and less advantaged boys—begin their educa-
tion before early childhood and continue after ado-
lescence, preparing for school or building on what
they have learned. But the period from age 7 to 11 is
still prime time for learning—hence these are “the
school years.” Although sometimes called middle
childhood, we have chosen to emphasize what is
special about these years—and schooling is it.
If asked to pick the best years of the entire life
span, you might choose ages 7 to 11 and defend your
choice persuasively. For many children, these healthy
and productive years allow measured (not dramatic)
growth; mastery of new athletic skills; and acquisition
of concepts, vocabulary, and intellectual abilities. In
psychosocial development, children typically appre-
ciate their parents, make new friends, and are proud
of their nationality, gender, and ethnicity.
All this is true for many, but not all. Some school-
age children struggle with special educational needs;
some live in dysfunctional families; some cope with
poverty or homelessness; some contend with obesity,
chronic health problems, learning disabilities, or
bullying. The next three chapters celebrate the joys
and acknowledge the difficulties of these school
years.
PA R T I V
281
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The School Years:
Biosocial Development
Context changes, so everything changes. No longer do childrendepend entirely on their families to dress, feed, and wash them,or to send them to a preschool where they encounter a limitednumber of similar children. By age 6 or 7, self-care (dressing,
eating, bathing) is routine and attendance at school is mandated—usually a
school with a formal curriculum and, often, hundreds of fellow learners from
many backgrounds.
This chapter describes similarities among all school-age children, but also
differences that suddenly become significant—in size, in health, in learning
ability, and in almost everything else. Children make comparisons, and
almost every child sometimes feels inadequate. I moved a thousand miles in
the second grade, entering a new school. I was self-conscious and lonely.
Cynthia talked to me; she seemed willing to be my friend.
“We cannot be friends,” she told me, “because I am a Democrat.”
“So am I,” I answered. (I knew my family believed in democracy.)
“No you’re not. You are a Republican,” she said.
I was stunned. We never became friends.
Neither Cynthia nor I realized that each child is unusual in some way (per-
haps from another culture, family type, or, in this case, political background)
and yet capable of friendship with children who are different. I wish that
some adult had noticed my loneliness and helped me. Cynthia would have
made a good friend.
A Healthy Time
Genetic and environmental factors safeguard childhood. Most fatal child-
hood diseases and accidents occur before age 7, and by the school years a
measure of caution and several doses of vaccine are protective. Even during
times of high infant mortality and before immunization, school-age children
have always been quite hardy, protected until they reach their reproductive
years and can produce the next generation.
The same factors operate today. Middle childhood, the period after
early childhood and before adolescence, approximately from age 7 to 11, is
the healthiest period of the entire life span (see Figure 11.1). Fatal illness is
very rare and mortal injuries are unusual during this time.
11
283
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� A Healthy Time
Size and Shape
Physical Activity
Chronic Illness
� Brain Development
Advances in Brain Functioning
Measuring the Mind
� Children with Special Needs
A CASE TO STUDY:
Billy: Dynamo or Dynamite?
Developmental Psychopathology
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST:
Overdosing and Underdosing
Educating Children with Special Needs
middle childhood The period between
early childhood and early adolescence,
approximately from age 7 to 11.
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overweight In an adult, having a BMI (body
mass index) of 25 to 29. In a child, being
above the 85th percentile, based on the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s 1980
standards for his or her age and sex.
obesity In an adult, having a BMI (body mass
index) of 30 or more. In a child, being above
the 95th percentile, based on the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control’s 1980 stan-
dards for his or her age and sex.
284 CHAPTER 11 ■ The School Years: Biosocial Development
Size and Shape
The rate of growth slows down, allowing school-age children to undertake their
basic self-care, from brushing their teeth to buttoning their jackets, from making
their own lunch to walking to school. Muscles become stronger: The average
10-year-old can throw a ball twice as far as a 6-year-old. Lung capacity expands:
With each passing year, children run faster and exercise longer without breathing
more heavily (Malina et al., 2004).
In fact, partly because of slower growth and stronger muscles, during these
years children can master almost any motor skill that doesn’t require adult size.
For instance, 9-year-olds can race their elders on bicycles, but they can’t compete
in adult basketball.
Culture, motivation, and practice are crucial for any motor skill. This is illus-
trated by the use of chopsticks, a fine motor skill that is attained in chopstick-
using cultures by half of the 4-year-olds and virtually all the 6-year-olds (Wong
et al., 2002), but by almost no 7- to 11-year-olds elsewhere.
Typically, school-age children in developed nations eat enough, as their bodies
grow taller. Healthy 6-year-olds tend to have the lowest body mass index (BMI, a
number expressing the relationship of height to weight) of any age group (Guillaume
& Lissau, 2002) and, until puberty, children typically stay slim.
As you know, however, not every school-age child is slim. The most common
nutritional problem at this age is overweight, defined as having a BMI above the
85th percentile of the growth charts as compiled (according to age and sex) by
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Obesity is defined as having a BMI above
the 95th percentile. (The definitions for adults are different: a BMI between 25
and 29 for overweight and 30 or above for obesity).
0
.20
.50
1.00
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Age (years)
Number of
deaths,
per 1,000
individuals
U.S. Annual Death Rates
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, “Deaths: Final Data for 2003”, Table 4; www.cde.gov/nchs/fastats, accessed August 15, 2007.
0
70
50
60
40
30
20
10
5–9
Age (years)
Number of
deaths,
per 1,000
individuals
10–14 15–19 20–24 25–29 30–34 35–39 40–44 45–49 50–54 55–59 60–64 65–69 70–74 75–79 80+
FIGURE 11.1
Death at an Early Age? Almost Never!
Schoolchildren are remarkably hardy, as
measured in many ways. These charts show
that death rates for 7- to 11-year-olds are
lower than those for children under 7 or over
11 and about a hundred times lower than
for adults.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 286):
From the bottom graph, it looks as if ages 9
and 19 are equally healthy, but they are
dramatically different in the top graph. What
is the explanation?
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The average child of every age, family income, nationality, and cultural group is
heavier today than in 1980 (see Figure 11.2). Older and poorer children show the
most worrisome gains (Ogden et al., 2006). Quality of food (e.g., high-calorie, low-
nutrition “junk foods”), not quantity, is the problem. Even in China, where more
than a billion people are poor, obesity is becoming a medical problem (Gu et al.,
2005). Poverty no longer means starvation, except in nations beset by famine or
war, where crop failures and forced migration make food very scarce.
Excess weight hinders development in every domain. Overweight children ex-
ercise less and have higher blood pressure, risking health problems in adulthood,
including type 2 diabetes (which is increasing among older children), heart dis-
ease, and stroke. School achievement often decreases, self-esteem falls, and lone-
liness rises with excessive increases in weight (Friedlander et al., 2003; Guillaume
& Lissau, 2002; Mustillo et al., 2003).
What makes one child more vulnerable to being overweight than another of the
same age? Genes are part of the explanation; they affect activity level, food preferences,
body type, and metabolic rate. People who inherit from both parents a particular allele
of a gene called FTO (as about 16 percent of all children of European ancestry do) are
much more likely to be obese than are other children (Frayling et al, 2007). It is not
known how often this genetic combination is found in children of other backgrounds.
But genes do not act alone: “Fat runs in families but so do frying pans, which
makes it hard to know whether DNA or dripping is more to blame for today’s
plague of obesity” (Jones, 2006, p. 1879).
Vulnerable children become obese because of the
influence of an estimated 250 genes and because of
many influences in the environment, including their
parents’ and grandparents’ diets (Gluckman & Hanson,
2006). Studies suggest dozens of other environmental
culprits. For instance, children who daily watch more
than two hours of television and drink more than two
servings of soda (“pop”) are more often overweight than
are those who do neither (Institute of Medicine, 2005).
Adults may not realize that their children are over-
weight and thus may not think that they have any rea-
son to limit their consumption of junk food, their time
spent playing video games and watching TV, and their
lack of physical activity. For instance, in one study of
obese African American children, only 30 percent of
the parents acknowledged that their children were
overweight (Young-Hyman et al., 2003).
Especially for Teachers A child in your
class is overweight, but you are hesitant to
say anything to the parents, who are also
overweight, because you do not want to
insult them. What should you do?
A Healthy Time 285
All The Same These boys are all friends in
the third grade, clowning in response to the
camera—as school-age boys like to do. Out-
siders might notice the varied growth rates
and genetic differences, but the boys them-
selves are more aware of what they have in
common.
LA
UR
A
DW
IG
HT
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey (NHANES), www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs; accessed August 15, 2007;
Ogden et al., 2006.
20
15
10
5
0 1963–70 1971–74 1976–80 1988–94 1999–2004
Percent
Prevalence of Overweight Among U.S. Children Aged 6–11
FIGURE 11.2
No Improvement in Sight The prevalence
of overweight among 6- to 11-year-olds in-
creased by 8 percentage points between
1988 and 1994 and between 1999 and 2004.
The picture is not much brighter among ado-
lescents: Overweight among 12- to 19-year-
olds increased by 6 percentage points, from
11 percent to 17 percent, during the same
period.
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If parents do recognize the problem, their attempt to put the child on a diet
may boomerang. One study of 7- to 12-year-olds found that “restricting access to
certain foods increases rather than decreases preference. Forcing a child to eat a
food will decrease liking for that food” (Benton, 2004, p. 858). A better strategy is
for adults to keep their own weight down and to exercise with the child (Patrick
et al., 2004).
Physical Activity
Active play benefits children in every way, not only with weight and motor skills.
Children often play joyfully, “fully and totally immersed” (Loland, 2002, p. 139).
Much more than for younger children, the maturation of body and brain enables
school-age children to join in active games. For them, the benefits of sports can
last a lifetime:
■ Better overall health
■ Less obesity
■ Appreciation of cooperation and fair play
■ Improved problem-solving abilities
■ Respect for teammates and opponents of many ethnicities and nationalities
There are hazards as well:
■ Loss of self-esteem as a result of criticism from teammates or coaches
■ Injuries (the infamous “Little League elbow” is one example)
■ Reinforcement of prejudices (especially against the other sex)
■ Increases in stress (evidenced by altered hormone levels, insomnia)
■ Time and effort taken away from learning academic skills
Where can children potentially reap the benefits and avoid the hazards? Three
possibilities are neighborhoods, schools, and sports leagues.
Neighborhood Games
Neighborhood play is flexible; children improvise to meet their needs. Rules,
boundaries of where play can occur, and times are adapted to children’s availability
(usually any school-age children whose parents let them). Stickball, touch football,
tag, hide-and-seek, jump rope, and dozens of other games that involve running
Especially for Parents Suppose that you
always serve dinner with the television on,
tuned to a news broadcast. Your hope is that
your children will learn about the world as
they eat. Can this practice be harmful?
286 CHAPTER 11 ■ The School Years: Biosocial Development
Will She Drink Her Milk? The first word
many American children read is McDonald’s,
and they all recognize the golden arches. Fast
food is part of almost every family’s diet—
one reason the rate of obesity has doubled in
every age group in the United States since
1980. Even if the young girl stops playing with
her straw and drinks the milk, she is learning
that soda and French fries are desirable food
choices. MI
CH
AE
L
N
EW
M
AN
/
PH
OT
O
ED
IT
➤Response for Teachers (from page 285):
Speak to the parents, not accusingly (because
you know that genes and culture have a major
influence on body weight), but helpfully. Alert
them to the potential social and health problem
that their child’s weight poses. Most parents
are very concerned about their child’s well-
being and will work with you to improve the
child’s snacks and exercise level.
Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
284): Look at the vertical axis. From age 1 to 20,
the annual death rate is less than 1 in 1,000.
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and catching, or kicking and jumping, can go on forever, or at least
until dark. The play is active and interactive, ideal for children.
Modern life has made informal neighborhood games increasingly
scarce. Exploding urbanization means fewer open areas that are
both fun and safe. For example, Mexico City had an estimated 3
million residents in 1970 and 20 million in 2005; an inevitable re-
sult is overcrowding, with less space for children to play.
Further, many parents keep their children inside because of
“stranger danger”—although “there is a much greater chance that
your child is going to be dangerously overweight from staying inside
than that he is going to be abducted” (Layden, 2004, p. 96). Home-
work, television, and video games all compete with outdoor play.
Exercise in School
When opportunities for neighborhood play are scarce, physical edu-
cation in school is an alternative. Good gym teachers know develop-
mentally appropriate, cooperative games and exercises for children
(Belka, 2004). However, children may enjoy sports but hate physi-
cal education. One author cites an example of two children who
participate enthusiastically in sports every weekend but have a different attitude
in school:
Their current softball unit in physical education hardly provokes any excitement.
There are 18 students on each side, sides that are formed in an ad hoc manner
each lesson. . . . Few students get turns to pitch, and many are satisfied playing the
deepest of outfield positions in order to have minimal involvement in the game.
[Hastie, 2004, p. 63]
As schools are pressured to increase reading and math knowledge (see Chapter
12), time for physical education and recess has declined to a few hours a week.
Typically, many children share a confined space, spending more time waiting than
moving.
Athletic Clubs and Leagues
Private or nonprofit clubs and organizations offer opportunities for children to play.
Culture and family influence this type of play: Some children learn golf, others
tennis, others boxing. Cricket and rugby are common in England and in former
British colonies, such as Australia and Jamaica; baseball is common in Japan, the
United States, Cuba, Panama, and the Dominican Republic; soccer is central in
many European, African, and Latin American nations.
The best-known organized recreation program for children is Little League, with
2.7 million children playing baseball and softball on 180,000 teams in 75 countries.
When it began in 1939, Little League had only three teams of boys aged 9–12.
Now it includes girls, younger and older children, and 22,000 children with dis-
abilities, an expansion that indicates the desire of children and their parents to
play sports—increasingly less available at school or on a neighborhood vacant lot.
Despite possible problems, most children enjoy organized sports. One adult
confesses:
I was a lousy Little League player. Uncoordinated, small, and clueless are the accu-
rate adjectives I’d use if someone asked politely. . . . What I did possess, though,
was enthusiasm. Wearing the uniform—cheesy mesh cap, scratchy polyester shirt,
old-school beltless pants, uncomfortable cleats and stirrups that never stayed up
—gave me a sort of pride. It felt special and made me think that I was part of
something important.
[Ryan, 2005]
A Healthy Time 287
Keep It Rolling This boy in Orissa, India, is
using an old bicycle tire as a hoop. Although
they use different objects, children every-
where have the impulse to play, and many of
their games are the same.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 289):
Is this boy malnourished?
SE
AN
S
PR
AG
UE
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
“Just remember son, it doesn’t matter
whether you win or lose—
unless you want Daddy’s love.”
TH
E
N
EW
Y
OR
KE
R
CO
LL
EC
TI
ON
2
00
1
PA
T
BY
RN
ES
FR
OM
C
AR
TO
ON
BA
N
K.
CO
M
. A
LL
R
IG
HT
S
RE
SE
RV
ED
.
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Belonging is important to every child, but that point raises one final problem
with organized children’s sports: Many children are left out (Collins, 2003). Parents
must pay their children’s fees, transport them to practices and games, and support
their children’s teams. Children who are from poor families, who are not well coor-
dinated, or who have chronic illnesses are less likely to belong to sports teams.
Those are the very children who could benefit most from the exercise.
Chronic Illness
We noted that middle childhood is generally a healthy time, more so now in every
nation of the world than just 30 years ago. Immunization has reduced deaths
dramatically, and serious accidents, fatal illnesses, and even minor diseases are
less common.
In the United States, the improved health of school-age children is evidenced in
fewer chronic illnesses, less exposure to environmental toxins, and fewer surgeries
performed in childhood. Hearing impairments and anemia are half as frequent as
they were two decades ago, and only 1 percent of 5- to 10-year-olds had elevated
blood levels of lead in 2001, compared with almost 30 percent in 1978 (MMWR,
May 27, 2005; see Research Design). Elevated blood lead correlates with many
disabilities, especially affecting the brain (mental retardation, hyperactivity).
Health-related problems still occur, of course. About 13 percent of all children
have special health needs, some of which get worse during the school years, in-
cluding Tourette syndrome, stuttering, and allergies. Such conditions often have
social side effects, impairing children’s learning as well as peer acceptance. Rela-
tively minor problems, such as walking with a limp, wearing glasses, repeatedly
having to blow one’s nose, or even having a visible birthmark, may make children
self-conscious.
Basic practices, such as eating a balanced diet, getting enough exercise and
sleep, and breathing clean air, continue to be important for health and learning
during these years; some evidence suggests that they become more important. Just
50 years ago, most poor children lived in rural areas; they exercised more and
breathed cleaner air than city children. Now most poor children live in cities. The
children who are at risk of illness for economic or social reasons are also the most
vulnerable if basic health needs are not met—which is all too often the case
(Buckhalt et al., 2007; Dilworth-Bart & Moore, 2006).
Any chronic condition that limits active play, impedes focused attention, or
prevents regular school attendance correlates with emotional and social problems
of every kind. For illustration, we examine the condition that is the most common
reason for children to miss school: asthma.
Asthma
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways that makes breathing diffi-
cult. Although asthma affects people of every age, rates are highest among school-age
children and are increasing worldwide (Bousquet et al., 2007). In the United States,
asthma affects 9 percent of all children under age 18, with higher rates for Puerto
Rican (19 percent) and African American (13 percent) children. These rates are about
twice as high as they were in 1980 (Akinbami, 2006).
Many researchers are studying the possible causes of asthma, including genetic
factors. Suspect alleles have been identified, but asthma has varied genetic roots
(Bossé & Hudson, 2007).
In any case, as you saw with obesity, genes increase the risk of asthma, but en-
vironment is crucial. Some experts suggest a “hygiene hypothesis,” the idea that
contemporary children are so overprotected from viruses and bacteria that they do
Especially for Phys. Ed. Teachers A
group of parents of fourth- and fifth-graders
has asked for your help in persuading the
school administration to sponsor a
competitive sports team. How should you
advise the group to proceed?
288 CHAPTER 11 ■ The School Years: Biosocial Development
Research Design
Scientists: Nine scientists working for
three U.S. government agencies: Envi-
ronmental Protection, Housing and
Urban Development, and Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
Publication: Mortality and Morbidity
Weekly Report (MMWR) of May 27,
2005, published by the Massachusetts
Medical Society.
Participants: A large, representative U.S.
sample is examined every few years as
part of NHANES (the National Health
and Nutrition Examination Survey).The
study cited was the 1999–2002 survey,
and these data were from blood tests of
6,283 people aged 6–19.
Design: Blood levels of lead were ana-
lyzed by spectrophotometry in a CDC
laboratory. The cutoff for an “elevated”
level was 10 µg per deciliter, a standard
recognized by many public health
authorities.
Major conclusion: Compared with previ-
ous NHANES data, a marked decrease in
blood levels of lead was found among
all groups.The decrease was attributed
to “coordinated, intensive efforts” that
included removing lead from gasoline,
paint, and the metal used to make food
cans.
Comment:This study confirmed that a
public health campaign to reduce expo-
sure to lead was succeeding.The data
also reveal some problems: Children
under 6 years are about 10 times more
likely to have elevated lead levels than
are adolescents, and rates are still rela-
tively high among African and Latino
Americans.
asthma A chronic disease of the respiratory
system in which inflammation narrows the
airways from the lungs to the nose and
mouth, causing difficulty in breathing.
Signs and symptoms include wheezing,
shortness of breath, chest tightness, and
coughing.
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not get the infections and childhood diseases that would strengthen their immune
systems (Busse & Lemanske, 2005; Tedeschi & Airaghi, 2006).
Several aspects of modern life—carpets, pets inside the home, airtight windows,
less outdoor play—are known to contribute to the increased rates of asthma (Tamay
et al., 2007). Many allergens that trigger asthma attacks (pet dander, cigarette
smoke, dust mites, cockroaches, and mold) are more concentrated in today’s well-
insulated homes than in the houses of a century ago. Air pollution is also a problem.
A study in Mongolia, where many people still live in sparsely populated and poor
rural areas, confirmed that asthma increases with modern, city life, even though
Mongolian urban dwellers are still quite poor (Viinanen et al., 2007).
Prevention of Asthma
The three levels of prevention discussed in Chapter 8 apply
to every chronic health problem, including asthma. Primary
prevention is the most difficult. Better ventilation of schools
and homes, decreased pollution, eradication of cockroaches,
and construction of many more outdoor play areas would
make asthma less common by helping all children.
The benefit of primary prevention was revealed during the
1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Various meas-
ures aimed at reducing traffic congestion (e.g., free mass
transit) also reduced air pollution and, unexpectedly, cut the
number of asthma attacks almost in half (Friedman et al.,
2001). Similar conclusions, using an entirely different
methodology, were found regarding air pollution and asthma
in Beijing (Pan et al., 2007).
Secondary prevention reduces the occurrence of asthma among high-risk chil-
dren. When asthma runs in the family, then breast-feeding and ridding the house
of dust, pets, smoke, and other allergens cut the rate of allergies and asthma in
half (Elliott et al., 2007; Gdalevich et al., 2001). For asthma (as well as all other
health problems), regular checkups aid secondary prevention.
Finally, tertiary prevention (reducing the damage caused by asthma once it
develops) includes the prompt use of injections and inhalers, which markedly
reduce acute wheezing and overnight hospitalizations (Glauber et al., 2001). The
use of hypoallergenic materials (e.g., for mattress covers) can also reduce the rate
of asthma attacks—but not by much, probably because tertiary prevention at
home occurs too late (MMWR, January 14, 2005).
Adequate tertiary prevention is provided for less than half the children with
asthma in the United States. Why? One reason is economic. One-third of school-
age children, including more than half of African American and Hispanic children,
have no health insurance (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2004).
Another reason is mistrust of doctors (mostly White, high-income older men) by
parents of young children (often non-White, low-income young women).
Language and cultural barriers add to the problem. Among one group of immi-
grant mothers of asthmatic children, 88 percent thought drugs were overused in
the United States, and 72 percent did not give their children the medication their
doctors prescribed (Bearison et al., 2002). In a large multiethnic study, half the
parents who bought drugs for childhood asthma did not acknowledge that their
child was asthmatic (Roberts, 2003). It may be that the prescribing doctor did not
explain, or that the parents did not understand, or that they refused to acknowl-
edge a chronic illness.
Children reflect their parents’ attitudes. Only half of a group of 8- to 16-year-
olds with asthma followed their doctor’s advice about medication; those children
Especially for School Nurses For the past
month, a 10-year-old fifth-grade girl has been
eating very little at lunch and has visibly lost
weight. She has also lost interest in daily
school activities. What should you do?
A Healthy Time 289
KA
TH
Y
M
CL
AU
GH
LI
N
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
➤Response for Parents (from page 286):
Habitual TV watching correlates with obesity,
so you may be damaging your children’s
health rather than improving their intellect.
Your children would probably profit more if
you were to make dinner a time for family
conversation.
Pride and Prejudice In some city schools,
asthma is so common that using an inhaler is
a sign of prestige, as suggested by the facial
expressions of these two boys. The prejudice
is more apparent beyond the walls of this
school nurse’s room, in a society that allows
high rates of childhood asthma to occur.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 287): Although malnutrition is common
in India, school-age children worldwide are
more often too fat than too thin. This boy has
healthy hair; his ribs do not show; and, most
important, he seems to have adequate energy
and coordination for active play. Although a
definitive answer depends on percentiles, he
is probably just fine.
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who were older, minority, and low-income were least likely to comply (McQuaid
et al., 2003). This lack of compliance among older children is also a major prob-
lem in the treatment of diabetes, PKU, sickle-cell anemia, and almost every other
chronic childhood condition.
Asthma and many other adult health problems can be prevented during the
school years if two things occur. First, parents must be diligent in providing regular
preventive care for dental health (early treatment prevents later tooth loss and gum
disease), eye health (specific exercises can postpone the need for glasses), spine
curvature (a back brace may encourage normal growth), and so on. Second, chil-
dren must develop the habit of taking care of their health so that their adolescent
rebellion erupts in some way (such as green hair) that does not make them sick.
SUMMING UP
School-age children are usually healthy, strong, and capable. Immunizations during the
play years protect them against childhood diseases, and developmental advances give
them sufficient strength and coordination to take care of their own basic needs (eating,
dressing, bathing). However, their growing awareness of themselves and of each other
makes every physical condition a potential problem that might interfere with peer ac-
ceptance and school attendance. Obesity and asthma are two notable examples. Both
have genetic and early-childhood origins, but both become more problematic during
middle childhood. Primary prevention is crucial, but many children do not get the safe,
active play or the ongoing care that they need.
■
Brain Development
Recall that, in early childhood, emotional regulation, theory of mind, and
left–right coordination emerge. The maturing corpus callosum connects the two
hemispheres of the brain. The prefrontal cortex—the executive part of the brain—
plans, monitors, and evaluates. These developments continue in middle child-
hood. We look now at advances in reaction time, attention, and automatization,
and at ways to measure brain activity, particularly tests of ability that indicate
whether a child is developing as expected.
Advances in Brain Functioning
Increasing myelination results “by 7 or 8 years of age, in a massively intercon-
nected brain” (Kagan & Herschkowitz, 2005, p. 220). One consequence is a
reduction in reaction time, the length of time it takes to respond to a stimulus.
Over the decades of adulthood, reaction time slowly lengthens again. Conse-
quently, for instance, grandparents might lose to a teenage grandchild at rapid-
response video games but be fairly matched with an 8-year-old one.
Advances in the “mental control processes that enable self-control” (Verté
et al., 2005, p. 415) allow planning for the future, which is beyond the ability
of the impatient younger child. Now children can analyze possible consequences
before they lash out in anger or dissolve in tears and can figure out when a curse
word seems advisable (on the playground to a bully, perhaps) and when it does not
(in the classroom or at home).
Neurological advances allow children to process different types of information
in many areas of the brain at once and to pay special heed to the most important
elements. Selective attention, the ability to concentrate on some stimuli while
reaction time The time it takes to respond
to a stimulus, either physically (with a
reflexive movement such as an eye blink)
or cognitively (with a thought).
selective attention The ability to concentrate
on some stimuli while ignoring others.
290 CHAPTER 11 ■ The School Years: Biosocial Development
➤Response for Phys. Ed. Teachers (from
page 288): Discuss with the parents their
reasons for wanting the team. Children need
physical activity, but some aspects of compet-
itive sports are better suited to adults than to
children. Recommend that the parents think
of ways to foster their children’s health and
cooperative spirit without the element of
competition.
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ignoring others, is crucial for early school competence (NICHD Early Child Care
Research Network, 2003). Selective attention requires ongoing myelination and
the increased production of neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) and improves
noticeably at about age 7. School-age children not only notice various stimuli
(which is one form of attention) but can also judge the appropriate response when
several possibilities conflict (Rueda et al., 2007).
Attention deficits may underlie many of the problems seen in 6-year-olds,
including poor motor skills that gradually improve with age (Wassenberg et al.,
2005). Motor and cognitive impairments are not entirely the result of inattention,
but inattention is part of the problem.
In the classroom, selective attention allows children to listen, take concise
notes, and ignore distractions (all very difficult at age 6, better by age 10). In the
din of the cafeteria, children can understand one another’s gestures and expres-
sions and respond quickly. Playing ball, batters ignore the other team’s attempts to
distract them, while alert fielders start moving into position as soon as a ball is hit
their way. Selective attention underlies all of these abilities.
Another major advance in brain function in middle childhood is automatiza-
tion, the repetition of a sequence of thoughts and actions until it becomes auto-
matic, or routine. At first, almost all behaviors under conscious control require
careful and slow thought. After many repetitions, as neurons fire in sequence,
actions become automatic and patterned. Less thinking is needed because firing
one neuron sets off a chain reaction.
Increased myelination and hours of practice lead to the “automatic
pilot” of cognition (Berninger & Richards, 2002). Consider a child learn-
ing to read. At first, eyes (sometimes aided by a finger) concentrate,
painstakingly making out letters and sounding out each one. This se-
quence of actions leads to perception of syllables and then words. Even-
tually the process becomes so automatic that a glance at a billboard
results in reading without any intentional effort.
Automatization is apparent in the acquisition of every skill. Speaking
a second language, reciting the multiplication tables, and writing one’s
name are haltingly, even painfully, difficult at first but then gradually
become automatic. A transformation to a more efficient form of neural
processing, freeing the brain for more advanced reading, speaking, com-
putation, and writing, is the reason for this advance (Berninger &
Richards, 2002). Practice makes perfect (almost).
Measuring the Mind
Measuring developmental changes in brain functioning can be done via
repeated brain scans, such as the fMRI. One laboratory reported that the
cortex (the top layers of the brain) is relatively thin at the beginning of
childhood and then grows thicker during the school years, reaching a
peak at about age 8. The brains of children who are very intelligent
follow the same pattern, but it is more pronounced (notably thinner and
then thicker) and the thickening develops more slowly, particularly in the
prefrontal cortex (Miller, 2006).
Intriguing research like this is arduous and expensive; it has not yet been repli-
cated or even fully understood. More often, mental processes are measured via
written questions on a standardized test. Each child’s answers are compared with
those of other children the same age (to assess aptitude) or the same school grade
(to measure achievement).
automatization A process in which repeti-
tion of a sequence of thoughts and actions
makes the sequence routine, so that it no
longer requires conscious thought.
Brain Development 291
DI
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➤Response for School Nurses (from page
289): Something is wrong, and you (or the
school psychologist, or both) should talk to
the girl’s parents. Ask whether they, too, have
noticed any changes. Recommend that the
child see her pediatrician for a thorough
physical examination. If the girl’s self-image
turns out to be part of the problem, stress
the importance of social support.
Neurons at Work Brain development is
evident in this duet, since playing the piano
requires selective attention, practice, and
automatization, as does singing in harmony.
These girls are about 9 years old; compare
their proficiency with the piano banging and
off-key singing of the typical preschooler.
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Aptitude and Achievement
In theory, aptitude is the potential to master a particular skill or to learn a par-
ticular body of knowledge. The most important aptitude for school-age children
is intellectual aptitude, or the ability to learn in school. Intellectual aptitude is
measured by IQ tests (see Figure 11.3).
In theory, achievement is distinct from aptitude. Achievement is not what a
person might learn but what a person has learned. Achievement tests are taken
routinely by students (as mandated in the United States by the No Child Left
Behind Act, discussed in Chapter 12), measuring learning in reading, math, writ-
ing, science, and other subjects.
The words in theory precede those definitions because aptitude and achieve-
ment tests are designed to measure different traits; but the scores on them are
highly correlated, not just for individuals but also for nations, according to a study
of 46 countries (Lynn & Mikk, 2007). Both aptitude and achievement also corre-
late with wealth, individually and nationally (Lynn & Vanhanen, 2002). It is not
surprising, then, that a child’s IQ score predicts later education and then adult
success. To be specific, children with high IQs usually earn good grades in school
and graduate from college. As adults, they typically hold professional or manage-
rial jobs, marry, and own homes (Sternberg et al., 2001).
The average IQs of entire nations have risen substantially—a phenomenon
called the Flynn Effect, after the researcher who first described it (Flynn, 1999).
At first, the Flynn Effect was doubted because IQ was thought to be totally
genetic and genes don’t change. But developmentalists now agree that the Flynn
Effect is real (Rodgers & Wänström, 2007) and believe that the reasons are envi-
ronmental, including better health, smaller families, and more schooling.
IQ is an abbreviation for “intelligence quotient.” Originally, an IQ score was
based on an actual quotient: mental age (as indicated on the test) divided by
chronological age, and the result was then multiplied by 100. Children whose test
performance equals the average performance of all children the same age have a
mental age equal to their chronological age. In that case, mental age divided by
chronological age equals 1, and 1 times 100 gives an IQ of 100. Thus, an IQ of
100 is exactly average.
The current method of calculating IQ is more complicated, but it is still
assumed that a person’s aptitude for learning increases through adolescence, so
dividing the score by years of age equals the IQ. An IQ of 100 is held to be average
at any age. In adulthood, aptitude is assumed not to change year by year (see
Chapter 21). About two-thirds of people of all ages have an IQ between 85 and
115. Almost all (96 percent) are between 70 and 130.
292 CHAPTER 11 ■ The School Years: Biosocial Development
aptitude The potential to master a particular
skill or to learn a particular body of knowl-
edge.
IQ tests Tests designed to measure intellec-
tual aptitude, or ability to learn in school.
Originally, intelligence was defined as
mental age divided by chronological age,
times 100—hence the term intelligence
quotient, or IQ.
achievement tests Measures of mastery or
proficiency in reading, math, writing, sci-
ence, or any other subject.
40
Theoretical Distribution of IQ Scores
16055 70 85 100 115 130 145
Superior
Gifted
Genius
Slow learner
Mild retardation
Moderate to
severe retardation
Average
68.26% 13.6%13.6% 2.13%
0.14%
2.13%0.14%
IQ Score
FIGURE 11.3
In Theory, Most People Are Average Almost
70 percent of IQ scores fall within the normal
range. Note, however, that this is a norm-
referenced test. In fact, actual IQ scores have
risen in many nations; 100 is no longer exactly
the midpoint. Further, in practice, scores below
50 are slightly more frequent than indicated by
the normal curve shown here, because severe
retardation is the result not of the normal dis-
tribution but of genetic and prenatal factors.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 295):
If a person’s IQ is 110, what category is he or
she in?
Flynn Effect The rise in average IQ scores
that has occurred over the decades in
many nations.
Especially for People Who Know Their
IQ Score How would you interpret scores of
125, 100, and 75?
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Highly regarded and widely used IQ tests include the
Stanford-Binet test, now in its fifth edition (Roid, 2003), and
the Wechsler tests. There are Wechsler tests for preschoolers
(the WPPSI, or Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intel-
ligence), for adults (the WAIS, or Wechsler Adult Intelligence
Scale), and for school-age children—the WISC, or Wechsler
Intelligence Scale for Children, now in its fourth edition
(Wechsler, 2003).
The WISC has 10 subtests, including tests of vocabulary,
general knowledge, memory, and visual awareness, each of which
provides a score. The Wechsler tests allow calculation of two
IQ scores, one “verbal” (measured by tests of vocabulary, word
problems, etc.) and the other “performance” (solving puzzles,
copying shapes, etc.).
Gifted or Retarded
A child with a very high IQ (usually above 130) may be considered gifted and
placed in “gifted and talented” classes. In the United States, school policies and
programs for gifted children vary from state to state. In 2000, 14 percent of children
in Oklahoma were in gifted classes; in Vermont, only 1 percent were (Digest of
Educational Statistics, 2005). Very high IQs are just as common among children in
Vermont as in Oklahoma, but adults—voters, legislators, educators—in these two
states have decided to educate these children in different ways.
Thirty years ago the definition of mental retardation was straightforward: All
children or adults with an IQ below 70 were classified as mentally retarded, with
further subdivisions for progressively lower scores: mild retardation, 55–70; mod-
erate retardation, 40–54; severe retardation, 25–39; profound, below 25. Each of
these categories signified different expectations, from “educable” (mildly retarded,
able to learn to read and write) to “custodial” (profoundly retarded, unable to learn
any skills). However, the mere label mentally retarded sometimes led parents and
teachers to expect less of a child than the child was actually capable of, which
reduced learning.
Further, in the population as a whole, where the average IQ is 100, only about
2 percent of children score below 70; but children in many immigrant, low-
income, and minority groups have an average IQ well below 100. The reason is
probably cultural bias embedded in the IQ tests, not those children’s lack of intel-
lectual aptitude. The result is that disproportionate numbers of those children
(significantly more than 2 percent) are designated mentally retarded (Edwards,
2006; Pennington, 2002). That seems unfair.
Accordingly, the current definition stipulates that, in addition to having an IQ
below 70, children who are designated as mentally retarded must be unusually far
behind their peers in adaptation to life. Thus, a 6-year-old who, without help, gets
dressed, fixes breakfast, walks to school, and knows the names of her classmates
would not be considered mentally retarded, even if she had an IQ of 65. Adapta-
tion is often measured with the Vineland Test of Adaptive Intelligence or some
other assessment tool (Venn, 2004).
Criticisms of IQ Testing
Many developmentalists criticize IQ tests. They argue that no test can measure
potential without also measuring achievement and that every test score reflects
the culture of the people who wrote, administer, and take it (Armour-Thomas
& Gopaul-McNicol, 1998; Cianciolo & Sternberg, 2004). Even tests designated
as culture-free, because they ask children to perform universally familiar tasks
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
(WISC) An IQ test designed for school-
age children. The test assesses potential in
many areas, including vocabulary, general
knowledge, memory, and spatial compre-
hension.
mental retardation Literally, slow, or late,
thinking. In practice, people are consid-
ered mentally retarded if they score below
70 on an IQ test and if they are markedly
behind their peers in adaptation to daily
life.
Brain Development 293
Performance IQ This puzzle, part of a per-
formance subtest on the Wechsler IQ test,
seems simple until you try it. The limbs are
difficult to align correctly, and time is of the
essence. This boy has at least one advantage
over most African American boys who are
tested. Especially during middle childhood,
boys tend to do better when their examiner is
of the same sex and ethnicity.
LE
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KM
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like drawing a person or naming their classmates, depend on cultural
experiences.
Developmentalists also know that intellectual potential does in fact
change over the life span. A child who needs special education in an
early grade might later be classified as above average, or even gifted, like
my nephew David (see Chapter 1). Like any other psychological test, an
IQ test is a snapshot, providing a static, framed view of a dynamic, ever-
developing brain at work.
Many measures are thus used to indicate learning potential. If an 8-year-
old cannot read, for instance, vision and hearing assessments are done;
then tests of comprehension, word recognition, and phonetic skills are given
to supplement the IQ test. If brain damage is suspected, tests of balance
and coordination (“Hop on one foot,” “Touch your nose”) or of brain–
eye–hand connection (“Copy this drawing of a diamond”) are useful.
Even with a battery of tests, assessment may be inaccurate, especially
when tests that have been standardized in the United States are used
in cultures where academic intelligence is not prized (Sternberg &
Grigorenko, 2004).
Like many other Western technological inventions (such as the printing
press, the sewing machine, the bicycle, and the tractor), the intelligence
test (popularly known as the IQ test) has been widely exported around
the world. Like tractors, intelligence tests bring with them both osten-
sible utility and hidden implications.
[Serpell & Haynes, 2004, p. 166]
A more fundamental criticism concerns the very concept that there is
one general thing called intelligence (often referred to as g, for general
intelligence). Humans may have multiple intelligences. If they do, then the use of
a test to find one IQ score is based on a false premise. Robert Sternberg (1996)
describes three distinct types of intelligence:
■ Academic, measured by IQ and achievement tests
■ Creative, evidenced by imaginative endeavors
■ Practical, seen in everyday problem solving
Other psychologists stress a kind of intelligence called emotional intelligence,
including the ability to regulate one’s emotions and perceptive understanding of
other people’s feelings. Emotional intelligence is thought to be more important
than intellectual ability in determining success in adulthood (Goleman, 1995;
Salovey & Grewal, 2005).
The most influential of all multiple-intelligence theories is Howard Gardner’s,
which describes eight intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical,
spatial, bodily-kinesthetic (movement), interpersonal (social understanding), intra-
personal (self-understanding), and naturalistic (understanding of nature, as in
biology, zoology, or farming) (Gardner, 1983, 1999; Gardner & Moran, 2006).
A person might be gifted spatially but not linguistically (a visual artist who can-
not describe her work), or someone might have interpersonal but not naturalistic
intelligence (a gifted clinical psychologist whose houseplants wither). Gardner’s
theory has been influential in education, especially with young children (e.g.,
Rettig, 2005); it has also been widely criticized (Kincheloe, 2004; Visser et al.,
2006; Waterhouse, 2006).
According to those who hold that humans have multiple intelligences, standard
IQ tests measure only part of brain potential. If intelligence is the multifaceted
jewel that Gardner believes it to be, tests and schools need to expand their curric-
ula so that every child can shine.
Especially for Teachers What are the
advantages and disadvantages of using
Gardner’s eight intelligences to guide your
classroom curriculum?
294 CHAPTER 11 ■ The School Years: Biosocial Development
Demonstration of High IQ? If North
American intelligence tests truly reflected
all aspects of the mind, children would be
considered mentally slow if they could not
replicate the proper hand, arm, torso, and
facial positions of a traditional dance, as this
young Indonesian girl does brilliantly. She is
obviously adept in kinesthetic and interper-
sonal intelligence. Given her culture, it would
not be surprising if she were deficient in the
logical-mathematical intelligence required to
use the Internet effectively or to surpass an
American peer in playing a video game.
©
O
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EN
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B
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SUMMING UP
During middle childhood, neurological maturation allows faster, more automatic reactions.
Selective attention enables focused concentration in school and in play. Aptitude tests,
including IQ tests, compare mental age to chronological age. Actual learning is measured
by achievement tests. The concept that an IQ score measures underlying aptitude (g) is
challenged by Robert Sternberg, Howard Gardner, and others, who believe that the brain
contains not just one aptitude but many. Determining who is gifted and who is retarded
may be useful for educators, but there is much more change in IQ scores than originally
imagined. Adaptation to circumstances is crucial.
■
Children with Special Needs
Parents watch with pride as their offspring become smarter, taller, and more skilled.
These feelings may mingle with worry when their children are not like other children.
Often slowness, impulsiveness, or clumsiness is the first problem to be noticed;
other problems become apparent once formal education begins.
Such children with special needs require extra help in order to learn because
of differences in their physical or mental characteristics. Many of them seem fine
until they encounter the demands of primary school. One example is Billy.
children with special needs Children who,
because of a physical or mental disability,
require extra help in order to learn.
Children with Special Needs 295
a case to study
Billy: Dynamo or Dynamite?
Billy was born full term after an uncomplicated pregnancy;
he sat up, walked, and talked at the expected ages. His parents
were proud of his energy and curiosity: “Little Dynamo,” they
called him affectionately. He began to read on schedule, and he
looked quite normal. But when Billy was in third grade, his
teacher, Mrs. Pease, referred him to a psychiatrist because his
behavior in class was “intolerably disruptive” (Gorenstein &
Comer, 2002, p. 250), as the following episode illustrates:
Mrs. Pease had called the class to attention to begin an oral ex-
ercise: reciting a multiplication table on the blackboard. The
first child had just begun her recitation when, suddenly, Billy
exclaimed, “Look!” The class turned to see Billy running to the
window.
“Look,” he exclaimed again, “an airplane!”
A couple of children ran to the window with Billy to see the
airplane, but Mrs. Pease called them back, and they returned to
their seats. Billy, however, remained at the window, pointing at
the sky. Mrs. Pease called him back, too.
“Billy, please return to your desk,” Mrs. Pease said firmly. But
Billy acted as though he didn’t even hear her.
“Look, Mrs. Pease,” he exclaimed, “the airplane is blowing
smoke!” A couple of other children started from their desks.
“Billy,” Mrs. Pease tried once more, “if you don’t return to your
desk this instant, I’m going to send you to Miss Warren’s office.”
[Billy did sit down, but before Mrs. Pease could call on anyone,
Billy blurted out the correct answer to the first question she asked.]
Mrs. Pease tried again. “Who knows 3 times 7?” This time Billy
raised his hand, but he still couldn’t resist creating a disruption.
“I know, I know,” Billy pleaded, jumping up and down in his
seat with his hand raised high.
“That will do, Billy,” Mrs. Pease admonished him. She delib-
erately called on another child. The child responded with the
correct answer.
“I knew that!” Billy exclaimed.
“Billy,” Mrs. Pease told him, “I don’t want you to say one
more word this class period.”
Billy looked down at his desk sulkily, ignoring the rest of the
lesson. He began to fiddle with a couple of rubber bands, trying
to see how far they would stretch before they broke. He looped
the rubber bands around his index fingers and pulled his hands
farther and farther apart. This kept him quiet for a while; by this
point, Mrs. Pease didn’t care what he did, as long as he was quiet.
She continued conducting the multiplication lesson while Billy
stretched the rubber bands until finally they snapped, flying off
and hitting two children, on each side of him. Billy let out a yelp
of surprise, and the class turned to him.
“That’s it, Billy,” Mrs. Pease told him, “You’re going to sit out-
side the classroom until the period is over.”
“No!” Billy protested. “I’m not going. I didn’t do anything!”
“You shot those rubber bands at Bonnie and Julian,” Mrs.
Pease said.
“But it was an accident.”
“I don’t care. Out you go!”
Billy stalked out of the classroom to sit on a chair in the hall.
Before exiting, however, he turned to Mrs. Pease. “I’ll sue you for
this,” he yelled, not really knowing what it meant.
[Gorenstein & Comer, 2002, pp. 250–251]
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 292): He or she is average. Anyone with
a score between 85 and 115 is of average IQ.
➤Response for People Who Know Their
IQ Score (from page 292): Above average,
average, and below average compared with
others the same age. For example, if three
children are 12 years old, one might have a
mental age (as determined by the test) of 15,
another 12, and the third, 8. Then their IQ
scores would be: 15/12 =1.25 × 100 = 125
(above average); 12/12 = 1 × 100 = 100
(average); 8/12 = 0.75 × 100 = 75 (below
average).
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You will read more about Billy later in this chapter.
Dozens of specific diagnoses lead to classification as a child with special needs,
including anxiety disorder, Asperger syndrome, attachment disorder, attention-
deficit disorder, autism, bipolar disorder, conduct disorder, clinical depression,
developmental delay, and Down syndrome. In the United States, two-thirds of
school-age children with special needs are said to have a learning or language
disability—neither of which may have been evident in earlier years or may still be
evident in later years.
Every special need probably begins with a biological anomaly, perhaps the extra
chromosome of Down syndrome or simply an unusual allele that affects some
neurological connections. Biology is only the beginning; the social context affects
how disabling the condition becomes.
296 CHAPTER 11 ■ The School Years: Biosocial Development
the 21st pair (trisomy-21) do not have “Down’s syndrome,”
although a Dr. Down first described the condition in 1866. They
are now referred to as people with Down syndrome (no ’s) so as
not to imply that their condition belongs to someone else.
In addition, some people choose to refer to themselves as
challenged, not handicapped, because challenges can more read-
ily be overcome. Disability is preferred over handicap.
Using Language Carefully: People First
Labels can stereotype and restrict rather than describe and enable.
People-first designations are preferred when speaking or writing
about people with special needs. The idea is to begin with the
general human term (e.g., child, boy, person) and add “with [the
type of special need].” Thus, we write about children with autism,
not autistic children, people with AIDS, not AIDS patients.
Further, the names of syndromes are no longer expressed in
the possessive. For example, people with three chromosomes at
Developmental Psychopathology
One part of the science of development is called developmental psychopath-
ology, which links the study of typical development to that of various disorders,
and vice versa. The goal is “to understand the nature, origins, and sequelae [con-
sequences] of individual patterns of adaptation and maladaptation over time”
(Davies & Cicchetti, 2004, p. 477).
Four lessons from developmental psychopathology apply to everyone:
1. Abnormality is normal. Most people sometimes act oddly, and those with seri-
ous disabilities are, in many respects, like everyone else.
2. Disability changes year by year. Someone who is severely disabled at one stage
may become quite capable, or vice versa.
3. Adulthood may be better or worse. Prognosis is difficult. Many infants and chil-
dren with serious disabilities that affect them psychologically (e.g., blindness)
become happy and productive adults. Conversely, some conditions become
more disabling at maturity, when interpersonal skills become more important.
4. Diagnosis depends on the social context. According to the widely used Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-R), “nuances of an
individual’s cultural frame of reference” must be considered before a diagnosis
can be made (American Psychiatric Association, 2000, p. xxxiv). Perhaps psycho-
pathology resides “not in the individual but in the adaptiveness of the relation-
ship between individual and context” (Sameroff & MacKenzie, 2003, p. 613).
We now focus on only three of the many categories of disorders that develop-
mental psychopathologists study: attention deficits, learning disabilities, and autistic
spectrum disorders. Understanding these three can lead to a better understanding
of all children.
developmental psychopathology The field
that uses insights into typical development
to study and treat developmental disorders,
and vice versa.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-R) The Ameri-
can Psychiatric Association’s official guide
to the diagnosis (not treatment) of mental
disorders. (IV-R means “fourth edition,
revised.”)
➤Response for Teachers (from page 294):
The advantages are that all the children learn
more aspects of human knowledge and that
many children can develop their talents. Art,
music, and sports should be an integral part
of education, not just a break from academics.
The disadvantage is that they take time and
attention away from reading and math, which
might lead to less proficiency in those subjects
on standard tests and thus to criticism from
parents and supervisors.
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comorbidity The presence of two or more
unrelated disease conditions at the same
time in the same person.
Attention-Deficit Disorders
A major problem for about 10 percent of all young children is that they have
difficulty paying attention. They have an attention-deficit disorder (ADD), which
is sometimes accompanied by an impulse to be continually active, leading to
one of the most exasperating developmental disruptions, attention-deficit/
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Children with ADHD have three problems:
They are inattentive, impulsive, and overactive, with individual variations in
which of these three is most evident (Barkley, 2006).
After sitting down to do homework, a child with ADHD might look up, ask
questions, think about playing, get a drink, fidget, squirm, tap the table, jiggle his
or her legs, and go to the bathroom—and then start the whole sequence again.
The child’s difficulty may be caused by a slow-developing prefrontal cortex, an
overactive limbic system, or an imbalance of neurotransmitters (Wolraich &
Doffing, 2005). No matter what the cause, their brains make it hard to pay atten-
tion, and this often becomes a lifelong problem (Barkley, 2006).
About 5 percent of U.S. children are diagnosed with ADHD (more boys than girls,
more European Americans than Latinos). One such child was Billy, the 8-year-old
already described, who ran to the window when he was supposed to stay seated
and who blurted out the answers without waiting to be called on. Children with
ADHD often think they are being punished unfairly. Remember that Billy com-
plained: “I knew that!”, “I didn’t do anything!”, and finally “I’ll sue you.”
Often, other disorders are comorbid with ADHD (Barkley, 2006). (Comorbid-
ity means the presence of two or more unrelated disease conditions at the same
time in the same person.) Some comorbid conditions, such as delinquency, may
be consequences of untreated ADHD, but many predate it and may have the
same underlying cause. Among these conditions are “conduct disorder, depres-
sion, anxiety, Tourette syndrome, dyslexia, and bipolar disorder, . . . autism and
schizophrenia” (Pennington, 2002, p. 163).
The most effective treatment for ADHD is usually medication plus psychother-
apy, with training for parents and teachers (Abikoff & Hechtman, 2005). Curiously,
many drugs that are stimulants for adults, including amphetamines (e.g., Adderall)
and methylphenidate (Ritalin), calm down children with ADHD. Prescribing
drugs for children is controversial, with some fearing overdosing while others
argue that refusing to prescribe drugs for ADD is akin to withholding insulin from
a diabetic. The following feature details the ongoing debate.
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD) A condition in which a person
not only has great difficulty concentrating
for more than a few moments but also is
inattentive, impulsive, and overactive.
Children with Special Needs 297
Especially for Health Workers Parents
ask that some medication be prescribed for
their kindergarten child, who they say is much
too active for them to handle. How do you
respond?
Not a Cure-All Ritalin has been found to
calm many children with ADHD—but it does
not necessarily make them models of good
behavior. Like this 5-year-old boy with multi-
ple handicaps, including ADHD (for which he
is given Ritalin), they are still capable of hav-
ing a tantrum when frustrated.ELL
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298 CHAPTER 11 ■ The School Years: Biosocial Development
thinking like a scientist
Overdosing and Underdosing
In the United States, more than 2 million children and adoles-
cents under age 18 take prescription drugs to regulate their
emotions and behavior. This rate doubled between 1987 and
1996 (Brown, 2003; Zito et al., 2003). It has leveled off in re-
cent years but remains high, with 1 in 20 children aged 6 to 12
taking stimulants (usually for ADHD) (Zuvekas et al., 2006).
The most commonly prescribed drug is Ritalin, but at least
20 other psychoactive drugs, including Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil,
are being used to treat children as young as 2 for depression,
anxiety, and many other conditions (Gorski, 2002). Few of these
substances have been studied with children, who might respond
better with higher or lower doses than those given to adults
(Brown, 2003).
Many people fear that drugs are prescribed too early and too
often. One writer contends:
Squirming in a seat and talking out of turn are not “symptoms”
and do not reflect a syndrome. [Such behaviors may be] caused
by anything from normal childhood energy to boring classrooms
or overstressed parents and teachers. We should not suppress
these behaviors with drugs.
[Breggin & Baughman, 2001, p. 595]
Almost all child psychologists agree that drugs are both un-
derused and overused in treating children with ADHD (Angold
et al., 2000; Brown, 2003). Some children who would benefit
are never given medication; other children are given more med-
ication than they need. Dosage is a particular concern, because
children’s weight and metabolism change continuously, so that a
dose that is right at age 5 might be too low at age 10. Further,
overdosage could be especially problematic when brains and
bodies are still developing.
We all have opinions about drugs: Some of us are suspicious
of anything that is not natural; others believe that medication
can cure almost anything. Thinking like a scientist requires
looking at evidence, not being swayed by preconceived ideas.
Of course, it is impossible to be entirely objective, but many
researchers, doctors, and parents try to consider the particular
needs of each child rather than acting on general principles.
One group of researchers, seeking to find out whether drugs
helped children with ADHD, began with small doses that were
gradually increased until behavior improved as much as possible
without side effects. After several weeks at that optimal dose,
the children were given a placebo for a week. The children, par-
ents, and teachers knew that this might occur but did not know
when. Without the medication, the children’s ability to function
deteriorated rapidly, according to all observers. That convinced
the scientists that the medication was effective (Hechtman
et al., 2005).
Might childhood drug treatment for psychological problems
(whether or not the origin is in the brain) have long-term conse-
quences? This is a common fear. A particular concern is that
such children will become drug dependent and will abuse
chemical substances as adolescents. However, longitudinal re-
search comparing nonmedicated and medicated children with
ADHD finds the opposite: Childhood medication reduces the
risk of adolescent drug abuse (Faraone & Wilens, 2003).
Far fewer children are diagnosed with ADHD in Europe than
in North America. In the United States, rates of medication are
highest among boys from low-income, non-Hispanic, southern
households (see Table 11.1) (Martin & Leslie, 2003; Rowland
et al., 2002; Witt et al., 2003; Zito et al., 2003). To a scientist,
these differences suggest that culture and setting, not just bio-
chemistry, influence diagnosis and treatment. Might girls in
Kansas or London be underdiagnosed or English-speaking boys
in Mississippi be overdiagnosed? Is prejudice at work here?
A British writer suggests that the diagnosis of ADHD is a way
for low-income families to get more public money, part of the
“madhouse of modern Britain, where families of badly behaved
children are rewarded by the state” (McKinstry, 2005). Such an
opinion obviously reflects bias more than science, but it indi-
cates the need for public understanding.
Thinking like a scientist means asking questions. For each
child, exactly what genetic or environmental conditions foster
ADHD and what intervention is best (not just drugs, but which
drug at what dose; not just family, but which child-rearing prac-
tices and family structures; not just school, but which teacher
and placement)? Literally thousands of scientists in dozens of
nations are seeking answers.
Ritalin was prescribed for Billy, and his parents and teacher
were taught how to help him. He “improved considerably,” be-
coming able not only to stay in his seat and complete his school-
work but also to make friends (Gorenstein & Comer, 2002).
TABLE 11.1
Rates of Diagnosis and Medication for ADHD
Percent of Those
Diagnosed Taking
Percent Diagnosed Medication
with ADHD for ADHD
Girls 4.7 63
Boys 14.8 73
1st and 2nd grades 7.4 70
3rd, 4th, and 5th grades 12.2 72
Non-Hispanic White 10.8 76
Non-Hispanic Black 9.1 56
Hispanic 4.0 53
Source: Rowland et al., 2002.
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Learning Disabilities
Many people have some specific learning disability that leads to difficulty mas-
tering a particular skill that most other people acquire easily. If Gardner’s theory of
multiple intelligences is correct, almost everyone has a learning disability. Perhaps
one person is clumsy (low on kinesthetic
intelligence), while another sings off key
(low in musical intelligence).
A learning disability becomes prob-
lematic when the child falls markedly
behind in some aspect of school curricu-
lum, despite the best efforts of the child
and the teacher. The child may have an
average or above-average IQ but “scat-
tered” scores on subtests, with some
high and others low. The child may seem
less capable in some areas than in others.
Learning disabilities do not usually
result in lifelong impediments. Children
typically find ways to compensate; they
learn effective strategies to work around
their deficiency. As an adult, such a
child may function well. This seems to
have been true of Winston Churchill,
Albert Einstein, and Hans Christian An-
dersen, all of whom probably had learning disabilities as children. Or an adult may
feel inferior, afraid to do many things, because of childhood disability.
One common learning disability is dyslexia, which refers to unusual difficulty
with reading. No single test accurately diagnoses dyslexia (or any other learning
disability), because every academic achievement includes many skills (Sofie &
Riccio, 2002). A child with a reading disability might have trouble sounding out
words but excel in other reading skills, such as comprehension and memory of
printed text. Thus, various forms of dyslexia have been identified.
Poor listening skills are often at the root of dyslexia. Early theories of dyslexia
hypothesized that visual difficulties—e.g., reversals of letters (reading was instead
of saw) and mirror writing (b instead of d)—were the origin, but in fact dyslexia
originates with speech and hearing problems (Pennington, 2002). An early warn-
ing occurs if a 3-year-old does not talk clearly and does not experience a language
explosion. Early speech therapy might not only improve talking but also reduce or
prevent later reading problems.
Autistic Spectrum Disorders
Autism is a disorder characterized by woefully inadequate social skills. Two
decades ago, it was considered a single, rare disorder affecting fewer than one in a
thousand children, who experienced “an extreme aloneness that, whenever possi-
ble, disregards, ignores, shuts out anything . . . from the outside” (Kanner, 1943).
Children who developed slowly but were not so withdrawn were diagnosed as
being mentally retarded or as having a “pervasive developmental disorder.” Now
such children are usually said to have an autistic spectrum disorder, which
characterizes about 1 in every 150 8-year-olds (three times as many boys as girls)
in the United States (MMWR, February 9, 2007).
There are three signs of an autistic spectrum disorder: delayed language,
impaired social responses, and unusual play. Underlying all three is a kind of
emotional blindness (Scambler et al., 2007). Children with any form of autism
autism A developmental disorder marked by
an inability to relate to other people nor-
mally, extreme self-absorption, and an
inability to acquire normal speech.
autistic spectrum disorder Any of several
disorders characterized by inadequate
social skills, impaired communication, and
abnormal play.
dyslexia Unusual difficulty with reading;
thought to be the result of some neurolog-
ical underdevelopment.
Children with Special Needs 299
learning disability A marked delay in a par-
ticular area of learning that is not caused
by an apparent physical disability, by men-
tal retardation, or by an unusually stressful
home environment.
Is She Dyslexic? No. Some young readers
have difficulty “tracking” a line of print with
their eyes alone. Using a finger to stay on
track can be a useful temporary aid.LAU
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➤Response for Health Workers (from
page 297): Medication helps some hyper-
active children, but not all. It might be useful
for this child, but other forms of intervention
should be tried first. Compliment the parents
on their concern about their child, but refer
them to an expert in early childhood for an
evaluation and recommendations. Behavior-
management techniques geared to the
particular situation, not medication, will be
the first strategy.
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find it difficult to understand the emotions of others. Consequently, they do not
want to talk, play, or otherwise interact with anyone. The problem may be a deficit
in the brain’s mirror neurons (see Chapter 1; Oberman & Ramachandran, 2007)
that makes them feel alien, like an “anthropologist on Mars,” as one adult with
autism expressed it (Sacks, 1995).
Because autistic disorders cover a wide spectrum, or range, their degree of
severity varies. Some children never talk, rarely smile, and play for hours with one
object (such as a spinning top or a toy train). Others, including those with
Asperger syndrome, are called “high-functioning,” which means that they are
unusually intelligent in their specialized area and that their speech is close to
normal. However, their social interaction is impaired. Still others are slow in all
three areas (language, social interaction, play) but are not as severely impaired as
are children with classic autism.
Some children with autistic characteristics show signs in early infancy (no social
smile, for example) and continue to resist social contact. Others improve by age 3
(Chawarska et al., 2007). Still others (about a fourth) start out developing normally
and then deteriorate (MMWR, February 9, 2007). The most dramatic example of
the latter pattern occurs in girls with Rhett syndrome. They seem normal at first,
but their brains develop very slowly and are much smaller than those of other
children the same age (Bienvenu, 2005).
In other children with autism, the problem may be too much neurological
activity, not too little. Their heads are large, and parts of the brain (especially
the limbic system) are unusually sensitive to noise, light, and other sensations
(Schumann et al., 2004). The effect was described by Temple Grandin, a woman
with autism:
Every time you take the kid into Wal-Mart, he’s screaming. Well, the reason for
that is that the fluorescent lights are flickering and driving him crazy, the noise in
there hurts his ears, the smells overpower his nose. Wal-Mart is like being inside
the speaker at a rock and roll concert.
[Medscape Psychiatry and Mental Health, 2005]
300 CHAPTER 11 ■ The School Years: Biosocial Development
Culture Clash This Tibetan boy attends a
Chinese school. Chinese is very difficult to
learn to read, especially if it is not one’s native
language. He may indeed have learned to
decode the printed symbols—or he may have
learned to fake it.
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Hope for Autism The prime prerequisite in break-
ing through the language barrier in a nonverbal
autistic child, such as this 4-year-old, is to get the
child to pay attention to another person’s speech.
Note that this teacher is sitting in a low chair to
facilitate eye contact and is getting the child to
focus on her mouth movements—a matter of little
interest to most children but intriguing to many
autistic ones. Sadly, even such efforts were not
enough: At age 13, this child was still mute. ALA
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Asperger syndrome A specific type of
autistic spectrum disorder characterized by
extreme attention to details and deficient
social understanding.
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The incidence of autistic spectrum disorders may have tripled during the
1990s, as reported in California, Minnesota, and other areas. Certainly the num-
ber of children receiving special educational services because of autistic disorders
has increased dramatically (Newschaffer et al., 2005).
This increase may reflect an expanded definition of the condition, earlier diag-
nosis, and availability of special education (before 1980, children diagnosed as
autistic were not provided special education in the United States) (Gurney et al.,
2003; Parsell, 2004). This hypothesis received support from a detailed study in
Texas, showing that, over a six-year period, the number of children with autism
tripled in the wealthiest school districts but did not change in the poorest districts
(with fewer specialists) (Palmer et al., 2005; see Research Design).
Another possibility is that some new teratogen is harming many embryonic or
infant brains. One suspect was thimerosal, an antiseptic containing mercury that
is used in childhood immunizations. Many parents of autistic children first
noticed their infants’ impairments after their MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vac-
cinations (Dales et al., 2001).
This immunization hypothesis has been disproven. Of all 500,000 children born
in Denmark from 1991 to 1998, about a fifth never received MMR vaccinations.
They were just as likely to be diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorders as those
who were vaccinated (Madsen et al., 2002). Further, thimerosal was removed
from vaccines a decade ago, but the rates of autism are still rising.
Many other substances (pesticides, cleaning chemicals, some of the ingredi-
ents in nail polish) remain to be tested. Problems with risk analysis (explained in
Chapter 4) are evident in this research, as in all research in developmental psycho-
pathology. Scientists are not sure exactly why some children have autistic spectrum
disorders, nor why symptoms vary.
It is known, however, that the original cause of autistic spectrum disorders is
biological (genes, stress, perhaps chemicals). But treatment that relieves symptoms
of autism involves early education. Each core symptom (problems with language,
social connections, and play) has been a focus of treatment.
In programs that emphasize language, one-on-one training with teachers and
parents helps children learn to communicate. Usually, this training involves ap-
plied behavior analysis, with data collection and intervention that reinforces each
step in the right direction, a method developed from behavioral theory (Wolery
et al., 2005). Other programs emphasize play (Greenspan & Wieder, 2006), as
with Jacob in Chapter 7. Remember that when Jacob’s parents learned to play
with him, his language abilities improved dramatically.
Still other programs stress attachment (Beppu, 2005). Achieving even stronger
parent–child bonds of attachment is a goal favored in Japan, where “successful
diagnosis of high-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome has resulted in high
detection rates” (p. 204). In one program, a 6-year-old boy with autism noticed his
older brother pouring water and tried to take a turn. “When his mother praised
him, [the boy] looked back at his mother with a smile and poured his water even
more eagerly” (p. 211). According to this therapist, the boy’s smile and pride were
signs that he was aware of social praise and formed an attachment by connecting
with his mother.
Educating Children with Special Needs
For all children with special needs, individualized instruction before age 6 can
help them develop better learning strategies (Berninger & Richards, 2002; Silver
& Hagin, 2002). Even children with severe symptoms of autism can be helped,
although few ever learn to function normally (Ben-Itzchak & Zachor, 2007). For
Children with Special Needs 301
Research Design
Scientists: Raymond Palmer, Stephen
Blanchard, and David Mandall designed
the study, and C. R. Jean provided criti-
cal interpretation.
Publication: American Journal of Public
Health, (2005).
Participants: All 1,040 school districts in
Texas over six school years, 1994 to 2001.
Design:The school districts were sorted
into tenths according to their resources:
income, salaries, community wealth,
proportion of disadvantaged students
and so on.Within each tenth, the num-
ber of students designated as autistic
was tallied each year.
Major conclusion: Increases in rate of
students with autistic spectrum disor-
ders correlated with wealth, from an
increase of 300 percent in districts in
the top two-tenths to no change in the
bottom tenth. For every 10,000 children,
21 in the top districts and 3 in the bot-
tom districts were designated as having
autism.
Comment:These findings, covering an
entire state, suggest that increases in
the incidence of autism are caused by
better diagnosis, greater availability of
special education, and perhaps parental
insistence on diagnosis and treatment.
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all disorders, psychologists advocate “preventive intervention rather than waiting
to intervene when language and learning problems begin to cast a long and wide
shadow” (Plomin, 2002, p. 59).
Although the underlying physiological roots of childhood disorders are probably
the same everywhere, the education of children with special needs during the
school years varies dramatically. Most children with special needs are first spotted
by a teacher (not a parent or pediatrician), who makes a referral, a request for
evaluation. Then other professionals observe and test the child. If they agree that
the child has special needs, they discuss an individual education plan (IEP)
with the parent (see Table 11.2). Some parents want such specialized help; others
dread the social consequences of special education for their child.
Before 1960, most children with special needs simply left school—they either
dropped out or were forced out. Some were never even accepted to any school
at all. That changed in the United States with a 1969 law that required that all
children be educated. At first, children with special needs were placed together,
but neither their social skills nor their academic achievement advanced.
individual education plan (IEP) A document
that specifies educational goals and plans
for a child with special needs.
302 CHAPTER 11 ■ The School Years: Biosocial Development
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She Knows the Answer Physical disabilities
often mushroom into additional emotional
and cognitive problems. However, a disability
can be reduced to a minor complication if it is
recognized and if appropriate compensation
or remediation is made a part of the child’s
education. As she signs her answer, this deaf
girl shows by her expression that she is ready
to learn.
TABLE 11.2
Laws Regarding Special Education in the United States*
PL (Public Law) 91-230: Children with Specific Learning Disabilities Act, 1969
Recognized learning disabilities as a category within special education. Before 1969, learning-
disabled children received no special education or services.
PL 94-142: Education of All Handicapped Children Act, 1975
Mandated education of all school-age children, no matter what disability they might have, in
the least restrictive environment (LRE)—which meant with other children in a regular class-
room, if possible. Fewer children were placed in special, self-contained classes, and even
fewer in special schools. This law required an individual education plan (IEP) for each child
with special needs, specifying educational goals and periodic reassessment.
PL 105-17: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA], 1990;
updated 1997 and 2004
Refers to “individuals,” not children (to include education of infants, toddlers, adults), and to
“disabilities,” not handicaps. Emphasizes parents’ rights in placement and IEP.
*Other nations have quite different laws and practices, and states and school districts within the United States vary
in interpretation and practice. Consult local support groups, authorities, and legal experts, if necessary.
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In response, a 1975 U.S. law called the Education of All Handicapped Children
Act mandated that children with special needs must learn in the least restrictive
environment (LRE). Often that meant educating them with children in the
regular class, a policy called mainstreaming.
Some schools set aside a resource room, where mainstreamed children with
special needs spent time with a teacher who worked individually with them. How-
ever, pulling children out of the regular classroom so that they could spend time in
the resource room sometimes undermined their friendships and learning.
Another approach, inclusion, seemed wiser. Children with special needs were
“included” in the general classroom, with “appropriate aids and services” (special
help from a trained teacher who worked with the regular teacher).
In theory, parents decide what education their children receive. This is not
always the case, however, partly because experts, teachers, and parents often
disagree about the goals and practices of special education (Connor & Ferri, 2007;
Rogers, 2007). Currently, children with special needs typically have fewer friends
and learn less than other children, no matter what placement they are given
(Wiener & Schneider, 2002).
Compared with the United States, most other nations recognize fewer children
with special needs and have fewer laws and specialized teachers for helping those
children. It is not clear whether singling them out for special education is better or
worse for children with special needs.
SUMMING UP
Many children have special learning needs that originate in their brain development.
Developmental psychopathologists emphasize that no one is typical in every way; the
passage of time sometimes brings improvement and sometimes not. People with
attention-deficit disorders, learning disabilities, and autistic spectrum disorders may
function adequately or may have lifelong problems, depending on severity, family,
school, and culture as well as on comorbid conditions. Specifics of diagnosis, prog-
nosis, medication, and education are debatable; no child learns or behaves exactly like
another.
■
Children with Special Needs 303
least restrictive environment (LRE) A legal
requirement that children with special
needs be assigned to the most general
educational context in which they can be
expected to learn.
resource room A room in which trained
teachers help children with special needs,
using specialized curricula and equipment.
inclusion An approach to educating children
with special needs in which they are includ-
ed in regular classrooms, with “appropriate
aids and services,” as required by law.
Every Child Is Special One reason for a
school policy of inclusion is to teach children
to accept and appreciate children who have
special needs. The girl with Down syndrome
(in yellow) benefits from learning alongside
her classmates, as they learn from her. An ef-
fective teacher treats every child as a special
individual.LAU
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A Healthy Time
1. Middle childhood is a time of steady growth and few serious ill-
nesses. Increasing independence and self-care allow most school-
age children to be relatively happy and competent.
2. Childhood obesity is becoming a worldwide epidemic. Although
genetics plays a role in body weight, less exercise and the greater
availability of unhealthy food are also culprits. Many adults, includ-
ing parents, have not fully recognized this problem, which allows
contempory children to be heavier than children a generation ago.
3. Physical activity not only retards obesity, it aids health and joy
in many ways. Current environmental conditions make child play
increasingly scarce.
4. Most other health problems are less common than they were
30 years ago, but the incidence of asthma is increasing. Although
the origins of asthma are genetic and the triggers are specific al-
lergens, effective primary prevention involves extending the
breast-feeding period, making sure children get more outdoor
play, and reducing air pollution.
Brain Development
5. Brain development continues during middle childhood, enhanc-
ing every aspect of development. Myelination increases, speeding
communication between neurons. The prefrontal cortex and the
corpus callosum continue to mature, allowing not only analysis
and planning but also selective attention and automatization.
6. IQ tests are designed to quantify intellectual aptitude. Most
such tests emphasize language and logical ability and predict
school achievement. IQ tests also reflect the culture in which they
were created.
7. Achievement tests measure what a person has actually accom-
plished. Most standard achievement tests measure academic
learning. Sometimes measuring adaptation to daily life is crucial,
especially in diagnosing mental retardation.
8. Critics contend that intelligence is actually manifested in mul-
tiple ways, which conventional IQ tests are too limited to measure.
The concept of multiple intelligences recognizes creative and
practical abilities, some of which are difficult to test.
Children with Special Needs
9. Developmental psychopathology uses an understanding of
normal development to inform the study of unusual development.
Four general lessons have emerged: Abnormality is normal; dis-
ability changes over time; adolescence and adulthood may make a
condition better or worse; and diagnosis depends on context.
Every disability has a physical and psychic component.
10. Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
have potential problems in three areas: inattention, impulsiveness,
and overactivity. The treatment for attention deficits is a combi-
nation of medication, home management, and education. Stimu-
lant medication often helps children with ADHD to learn, but the
dosage must be carefully monitored.
11. Some young children with obvious educational or psychologi-
cal disabilities are recognized, referred, evaluated, diagnosed, and
treated in early childhood. For the most part, however, behavioral
or learning problems are not spotted until children enter elemen-
tary school and are compared with other children in a setting that
demands maturity and learning.
12. Children with autistic spectrum disorders typically show odd
and delayed language ability, impaired interpersonal skills, and un-
usual play. Several specific disorders, including Asperger syndrome
and Rhett syndrome, fall under this category. Autism may improve
with intensive early education but never disappears.
13. People with learning disabilities have unusual difficulty in
mastering a specific skill that other people learn easily. The most
common learning disability that manifests itself during the school
years is dyslexia, unusual difficulty with reading. Children with
learning disabilities can be helped if the problem is spotted early
and if the assistance is individualized to suit the particular child.
14. About 10 percent of all school-age children in the United
States receive special education services. These services begin with
an IEP (individual education plan) and assignment to the least
restrictive environment.
15. Inclusion of children with special needs into regular educa-
tion may aid the social skills of all children. However, inclusion
does not meet every child’s needs.
middle childhood (p. 283)
overweight (p. 284)
obesity (p. 284)
asthma (p. 288)
reaction time (p. 290)
selective attention (p. 290)
automatization (p. 291)
aptitude (p. 292)
IQ tests (p. 292)
achievement tests (p. 292)
Flynn Effect (p. 292)
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for
Children (WISC) (p. 293)
mental retardation (p. 293)
children with special needs
(p. 295)
developmental psychopathology
(p. 296)
Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders
(DSM-IV-R) (p. 296)
attention-deficit/hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD) (p. 297)
comorbidity (p. 297)
learning disability (p. 299)
dyslexia (p. 299)
autism (p. 299)
autistic spectrum disorder
(p. 299)
Asperger syndrome (p. 300)
individual education plan
(IEP) (p. 302)
least restrictive environment
(LRE) (p. 303)
resource room (p. 303)
inclusion (p. 303)
SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
304 CHAPTER 11 ■ The School Years: Biosocial Development
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Summary 305
5. What are some good uses of intelligence tests?
6. What are some misuses of intelligence tests?
7. Why was the field of developmental psychopathology created?
8. Why might parents decide to ask a doctor to prescribe Ritalin
for their child?
9. What are the signs of autistic spectrum disorders?
10. How could it happen that an adult might have a learning dis-
ability that was never spotted?
1. How does the growth of the school-age child compare with the
growth of the younger child?
2. What are the main reasons for the recent increase in child-
hood obesity?
3. What measures to reduce asthma would also benefit all other
children?
4. How does reaction time affect a child’s ability to learn and
behave?
children with special needs. Pick one childhood disability or dis-
ease and find several information sources on the Internet devoted
to that condition. How might parents evaluate the information
provided?
4. Special education teachers are in great demand. In your local
public schools, what is the ratio of regular to special education
teachers? How many are in self-contained classrooms, resource
rooms, and inclusion classrooms? What does your data reveal about
the education of children with special needs in your community?
1. Compare play spaces for children in different neighborhoods—
ideally, urban, suburban, and rural areas. Note size, safety, and use.
How might children’s weight and motor skills be affected?
2. Developmental psychologists believe that every teacher should
be skilled at teaching children with a wide variety of needs. Does
the teacher-training curriculum at your college or university reflect
this goal? Should all teachers take the same courses, or should
some teachers be specialized? Give reasons for your opinions.
3. Internet sources vary in quality, no matter what the topic, but
this may be particularly true of Web sites designed for parents of
KEY QUESTIONS
APPLICATIONS
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The School Years:
Cognitive Development
School-age children are learners. As long as it’s not too abstract, theycan learn almost anything: how to divide fractions, when to surf theWeb, what to feed an orphaned kitten, and much more. Each dayadvances knowledge a tiny bit.
Time matters, but the depth and content of learning reflect motivation
more than maturation—motivation guided by cultural priorities and chan-
neled by brain networks. Thus, nurture and nature interact to allow each
child’s mind to develop. Every school-age child is primed to learn, and adults
everywhere are eager to teach.
In the United States, concerns that children were not learning enough led
to a federal law called No Child Left Behind, which was passed in 2001 and
is scheduled for revision and renewal in 2007. Meanwhile, the people of Japan
worried that their children felt too much academic pressure, so their govern-
ment in 2002 began yutori kyoiku, which means “more relaxed education.”
Both these policies, and many other ideas about education, are described
later in this chapter.
First, however, we describe theories and research on cognitive development
during the school years. By the time you finish this chapter, you will under-
stand what school-age children might learn and why adults argue about it.
Building on Theory
Every theory, as Chapter 2 stressed, is practical. The dominant theories of
cognition in school-age children, as expressed by Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky,
and information-processing theorists, have been used to structure education.
Piaget and School-Age Children
In Piaget’s view, the most important cognitive structure attained in middle
childhood is called concrete operational thought, characterized by a
collection of concepts that enable children to reason.
Piaget thought that many logical concepts are almost impossible for
younger children to comprehend but that children begin to understand them
sometime between ages 5 and 7 (Inhelder & Piaget, 1964). Soon they apply
logic in concrete situations—that is, situations that deal with visible, tangible,
real things. Children thereby become more systematic, objective, scientific
—and educable—thinkers.
12
307
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� Building on Theory
Piaget and School-Age Children
Vygotsky and School-Age Children
Information Processing
� Language
Vocabulary and Pragmatics
Second-Language Learning
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS:
SES and Language Learning
� Teaching and Learning
Curriculum
The Outcome
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST:
International Achievement Tests
Education Wars and Assumptions
A CASE TO STUDY:
Where Did You Learn Tsunami?
Culture and Education
concrete operational thought Piaget’s
term for the ability to reason logically
about direct experiences and perceptions.
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An Example: Classification
One crucial logical concept is classification, the organization of things into groups
(or categories or classes) according to some property that they have in common. For
example, a child’s parents and siblings are classified as belonging to a group called
family. Other common classes are people, animals, food, and toys. Each class
includes some elements and excludes others, and each is part of a hierarchy. Food,
for instance, contains the subclasses of meat, grains, fruits, and so on.
Most subclasses can be further divided: Meat includes poultry, beef, and pork,
which again can be further subdivided. It is apparent to adults who have mastered
classification, but not always to children, that items at the bottom of the hierarchy
belong to every higher category (bacon is always pork, meat, and food) but that the
process does not work in reverse (most foods are not bacon).
Piaget developed many experiments to reveal children’s understanding of clas-
sification. For example, an examiner shows a child a bunch of nine flowers—seven
yellow daisies and two white roses (revised and published in Piaget et al., 2001).
The examiner makes sure the child understands “flowers,”
“daisies,” and “roses.” Then comes the crucial question:
“Are there more daisies or more flowers?” Until about age
7, most children say, “More daisies.” Pushed to justify their
answer, the youngest children usually have no explanation,
but some 6- or 7-year-olds say that there are more yellow
ones than white ones or that, because the daisies are
daisies, they aren’t flowers (Piaget et al., 2001). By age 8,
most children have a solid understanding of the classifica-
tion of objects they can see (concrete objects, not yet hypo-
thetical ones) and they confidently answer, “More flowers
than daisies.”
The Significance of Logic
What do Piaget’s classification experiments mean? Despite
Piaget’s interpretation, they do not prove a dramatic logical
shift between preoperational and concrete operational
thought. Other research finds that classification appears before middle child-
hood (Halford & Andrews, 2006). Even infants seem to have brain networks
ready to categorize what they see (Quinn, 2004), and 4-year-olds can judge
whether a certain food is breakfast food, junk food, both, or neither (S. P. Nguyen
& Murphy, 2003).
Nonetheless, Piaget’s experimentation revealed something important. What
develops during middle childhood is the ability to use mental categories and sub-
categories flexibly, inductively, and simultaneously. This is apparent with flowers
and daisies or (a greater challenge) with cars, which can be transportation, toys,
lethal weapons, imports, consumer products, Toyotas, SUVs, and so on. Although
preschool children can categorize, older children are more precise and flexible in
classification, so that they are able to separate the essential from the irrelevant
(Hayes & Younger, 2004).
The same flexibility is evident for other logical concepts. Remember from
Chapter 9 that younger children do not understand conservation because they
are swayed by appearance. School-age children grasp the concept of identity,
the principle that objects remain the same even if some characteristics appear to
shift. A ball is still a ball when it rolls into a hole; a child is the same person
awake and asleep.
They also understand reversibility, the principle that things can return to their
original state. By middle childhood, a child might prove conservation by using
classification The logical principle that
things can be organized into groups (or
categories or classes) according to some
characteristic they have in common.
308 CHAPTER 12 ■ The School Years: Cognitive Development
After “Gee Whiz!” After he sees the magni-
fied image that his classmate expects will
amaze him, will he analyze his observations?
Ideally, concrete operational thought enables
children to use their new logic to interpret
their experiences.
VE
ER
identity The logical principle that certain
characteristics of an object remain the
same even if other characteristics change.
reversibility The logical principle that a thing
that has been changed can sometimes be
returned to its original state by reversing
the process by which it was changed.
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identity (“It’s still the same milk”) or by reversing the process (pouring the liquid
back into the first container).
Piaget realized that school-age children gradually become more logical, less
egocentric, and quite concrete in their understanding. This is evident not only in
Piaget’s experiments but also in research regarding math, physics, sickness, and so
on (Astuti et al., 2004; C. Howe, 1998; Keil & Lockhart, 1999).
This movement away from egocentrism toward a more flexible logic was illus-
trated by 5- to 9-year-olds who were asked about two hypothetical boys—David,
who thought chocolate ice cream was yucky, and Daniel, who found chocolate ice
cream yummy. Most 5-year-olds (63 percent) thought David was wrong, and many
felt he was bad or stupid as well. By contrast, virtually all (94 percent) of the
9-year-olds thought both boys could be right, and few were critical of David
(Wainryb et al., 2004).
Vygotsky and School-Age Children
Vygotsky (1934/1994) also felt that educators should consider the thought
processes of the child. This approach was a marked improvement over the dull
“meaningless acquisition” approach of many educators, which rendered the child
“helpless in the face of any sensible attempt to apply any of this acquired knowl-
edge” (pp. 356–357), which was apparent not only in Vygotsky’s home nation
(Russia), but in schools worldwide.
The Role of Instruction
Unlike Piaget, who stressed the child’s own discovery of important concepts,
Vygotsky regarded instruction by others as crucial, with peers and teachers pro-
viding the bridge between the child’s developmental potential and the necessary
skills and knowledge. In each child’s zone of proximal development, or almost-
understood ideas, other people are crucial.
Confirmation of the role of social interaction comes from children who, because
of their school’s entry-date requirement, are relatively old kindergarteners or young
first-graders. Learning among 5-year-old first-graders (those who were born in
December, for instance) far exceeds that of 5-year-olds who are only slightly
younger but who (because they were born in January) are in kindergarten.
Additional confirmation comes from the effect on children of high-quality
teaching. There is a direct correlation between the percentage of qualified teach-
ers in a school and learning, even when other factors (SES, prior achievement,
neighborhood) are considered (Wayne & Youngs, 2003).
Remember that, for Vygotsky, formal education is only one of many contexts for
learning. Children are apprentices as they play with each other, watch television,
eat dinner with their families, and engage in other daily interactions.
In short, Vygotsky’s emphasis on the sociocultural context contrasts with Piaget’s
more maturational approach. Vygotsky believed that cultures (tools, customs, and
people) teach people. The social setting guides children in their zone of proximal
development. For example, a child who is surrounded by adults who read for
pleasure, by well-stocked bookcases, and by street signs is likely to read sooner
than a child with little or no exposure to any of these things—even if both are in
the same classroom—because the former is enticed into the zone of reading.
Cultural Variations
Most research on children’s cognition has been done in North America and west-
ern Europe, but the same patterns are apparent worldwide. In Zimbabwe, for ex-
ample, children’s understanding of classification is influenced not only by their
Building on Theory 309
Especially for Teachers How might
Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s ideas help in teaching
geography to a class of third-graders?
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310 CHAPTER 12 ■ The School Years: Cognitive Development
age (Piaget) but also by factors related to social interactions (Vygotsky),
such as the particulars of their schooling, and by their family’s SES
(Mpofu & van de Vijver, 2000).
The most detailed international example comes from Brazil, specifi-
cally from the street children who sell fruit, candy, and other products to
earn their living. Many have never attended school and consequently
score poorly on standard math achievement tests. This is no surprise to
developmentalists, who have seen many examples of slower academic
proficiency in children who are unschooled (Rogoff et al., 2005).
However, most young Brazilian peddlers are adept at pricing their
wares, making change, and giving discounts for large quantities—a set of
operations that must be recalibrated almost every day because of infla-
tion, wholesale prices, and customer demand. These children calculate
“complex markup computations and adjust for inflation in these compu-
tations by using procedures that were widespread in their practice but
not known to children in school” (Saxe, 1999, p. 255).
Thus, the knowledge of advanced math that is reflected in these street
children’s cognitive performance comes from three sources:
■ Demands of the situation
■ Learning from other sellers
■ Daily experience
None of this would surprise Vygotsky, who would expect that street culture
would teach children what they needed to know. The researchers found that
school was not completely irrelevant. The best math skills were demonstrated by
children who had some schooling as well as street experience (Saxe, 1991).
Today’s educators and psychologists regard both Piaget and Vygotsky as insight-
ful theorists. Developmentalists’ understanding of how children learn depends
largely on “a framework that was laid down by Piaget and embellished by Vygotsky”
(C. Howe, 1998, p. 207). In other words, Piaget’s appreciation that children are
eager learners, trying to understand the world in ways limited by their maturation,
has been developed by Vygotsky. Vygotsky realized how much children learn from
each other and from their teachers—as long as those mentors know what motiva-
tion and understanding the children already possess.
Information Processing
An alternative approach to understanding cognition arises from information-
processing theory. As you learned in Chapter 6, this approach takes its name
from computer functioning. Computers receive and store vast quantities of infor-
mation (numbers, letters, pixels, or other coded symbols) and then use software
programs to process that information.
People, too, take in large amounts of information. They use mental processes to
perform three functions: search for specific units of information when needed (as a
search engine does); analyze (as software programs do); and express the analysis in
a format that another person (or a networked computer) can interpret. By tracing
the paths and links of each of these functions, scientists can better understand the
mechanisms of learning. Information processing focuses on the specifics of a child
learning a particular thing, not on theories but on details. It’s thinking that pro-
gresses from models and hypotheses to practical demonstrations (Munakata, 2006).
Learning is particularly rapid in childhood, even without explicit adult instruc-
tion. As they search, analyze, and express information, many 7- to 11-year-olds not
only soak up knowledge in school but also outscore their elders in video games,
memorize the lyrics of popular songs, and recognize out-of-towners by the clothes
Street Smarts Javier Garcias sells candy
and cigarettes on the streets of San Salvador,
the capital of El Salvador, from 5:00 A.M. until
1:00 P.M. and from 5:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. In
between, he goes to school. That combina-
tion of work experience and formal education
may add up to excellent math skills—if Javier
is awake enough to learn.
VI
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CA
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W
OR
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information-processing theory The view of
cognition as comparable to the functioning
of a computer and as best understood by
analyzing each aspect of that functioning—
sensory data input, connections, stored
memories, and output.
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they wear. Some children, by age 11, beat their elders at chess, play music so well
that adults pay to hear them, or write poems that are published. Other children
live by their wits on the street or become soldiers in civil wars, learning lessons
that no child should know (Grigorenko & O’Keefe, 2004). All this is evidence of
rapid acquisition of knowledge.
As with a computer, greater efficiency in learning requires more than just the
storage of information within the brain. Greater efficiency requires retrieval strategies
and analysis, which make 11-year-olds better thinkers than 7-year-olds, who are
better thinkers than 3-year-olds. Nonetheless, as with computers, memory is crucial.
Memory
Sensory memory (also called the sensory register) is the first component of the
human information-processing system. It stores incoming stimuli for a split second
after they are received, to allow them to be processed. To use terms first explained
in Chapter 5, sensations are retained for a moment so that some of them can
become perceptions. This first step of sensory awareness is already quite good in
early childhood, improves slightly until about age 10, and remains adequate until
late adulthood.
Once some sensations become perceptions, the brain selects meaningful percep-
tions to transfer to working memory for further analysis. It is in working memory
(previously called short-term memory) that current, conscious mental activity occurs.
Working memory improves steadily and significantly every year from age 4 to age
15 (Gathercole et al., 2004). For example, capacity increases, and sounds are
remembered. These improvements are possible in part because of changes in the
brain: increased myelination and dendrite formation in the prefrontal cortex—the
massive interconnection described in Chapter 11.
Finally, some information is transferred to long-term memory, which stores it
for minutes, hours, days, months, or years. The capacity of long-term memory—
how much information can be crammed into one brain—is virtually limitless by
the end of middle childhood. Together with sensory memory and working memory,
long-term memory assists in organizing ideas and reactions. Crucial to the process
of measuring and using long-term memory is not merely storage (how much mate-
rial has been deposited) but also retrieval (how readily the material can be brought
into working memory to be used). Retrieval is easier for some memories—especially
memories of vivid, highly emotional experiences—than for others.
Speed and Knowledge
Having looked at the components of the information-processing system, let’s look
more closely at two keys to cognitive development in school-age children: greater
speed and greater knowledge.
Speed of thinking continues to increase throughout the first two decades of
life. Neurological maturation, including ongoing myelination, helps to account for
these changes (Benes, 2001). So does experience.
Repetition (pronouncing the same word, rehearsing the same dance step,
adding the same numbers) makes neurons fire in a coordinated and seemingly
instantaneous sequence (Merzenich, 2001). As children repeatedly use their intel-
lectual skills, processes that once required hard mental labor become automatic.
sensory memory The component of the
information-processing system in which
incoming stimulus information is stored for
a split second to allow it to be processed.
(Also called the sensory register.)
working memory The component of the
information-processing system in which
current conscious mental activity occurs.
(Also called short-term memory.)
long-term memory The component of the
information-processing system in which
virtually limitless amounts of information
can be stored indefinitely.
Building on Theory 311
Especially for Teachers How might your
understanding of memory help you teach a
2,000-word vocabulary list to a class of
fourth-graders?
Eye on the Ball This boy’s concentration while heading the
ball and simultaneously preparing to fall is a sign that he has
practiced this maneuver enough times that he can perform it
automatically. Not having to think about what to do on the
way down, he can think about what to do when he gets up,
such as pursuing the ball or getting back to cover his position. KA
Z
M
OR
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T
HE
IM
AG
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BA
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K
➤Response for Teachers (from page 309):
Here are two of the most obvious ways.
(1) Use logic. Once children can grasp classifi-
cation and class inclusion, they can understand
cities within states, states within nations,
and nations within continents. Organize your
instruction to make logical categorization
easier. (2) Make use of children’s need for
concrete and personal involvement. You might
have the children learn first about their own
location, then about the places where relatives
and friends live, and finally about places
beyond their personal experience (via books,
photographs, videos, and guest speakers).
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This automatization (described in Chapter 11) increases processing speed, frees
up memory capacity, allows more information to be remembered, and advances
thinking in every way (Demetriou et al., 2002).
Progress from initial effort to automatization often takes years, making repetition
and practice essential. Many children lose cognitive skills over the summer because
the lack of daily schooling for a few months erases earlier academic learning
(Alexander et al., 2007). Even adults who leave college for a decade feel “rusty” when
they first return. The most problematic aspect of children’s television watching may
be that it crowds out time for reading and thus reduces achievement (Roberts &
Foehr, 2004). Not until something is overlearned does it become automatic.
The more people know, the more they can learn and remember. That is, having
an extensive knowledge base, a broad body of knowledge in a particular subject
area, makes it easier to master new information in that area. Ongoing develop-
ment of knowledge depends on past experience, current opportunity, and personal
motivation. This is evident from millions of school-age children: Their knowledge
base is far greater in some domains, and far smaller in others, than their parents or
teachers would like.
A British study provides an example (Balmford et al., 2002; see Research Design).
Schoolchildren were asked to identify 10 out of a random sample of 100 Pokémon
creatures and 10 out of 100 types of wildlife common in the United Kingdom.
As you can see in Figure 12.1, the 4- to 6-year-olds knew only about a third of the
20 items but could identify more living things than imaginary ones. In contrast,
8- to 11-year-olds recognized more Pokémon creatures than living things. A peak in
Pokémon knowledge occurred at about age 9, more for boys than girls (gender
breakdowns are not shown in the graph). It is easy to understand why: Third-grade
boys were often intensely engaged in collecting Pokémon cards.
control processes Mechanisms (including
selective attention, metacognition, and
emotional regulation) that combine mem-
ory, processing speed, and knowledge to
regulate the analysis and flow of informa-
tion within the information-processing
system.
312 CHAPTER 12 ■ The School Years: Cognitive Development
Research Design
Scientists: Andrew Balmford, Lizzie
Clegg,Tim Coulson, and Jennie Taylor.
Publication: Science (2002) (a weekly
journal published by the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science).
Participants: A total of 109 British
schoolchildren, aged 4–11.
Design: Each child was asked to name
20 pictures, 10 of British wildlife (plants,
mammals, invertebrates, and birds) and
10 of Pokémon characters, randomly
chosen from two packs of 100.To be
considered correct, the children did not
have to name the genus of insect or
plant (saying “beetle” was enough), but
they had to do so for mammals (e.g.,
“badger”). Pokémon creatures had to
be identified by their correct names.
Major conclusion: Children are great
learners, but they do not learn much
about nature. Identification increased
markedly from age 4 to 8, from 32 per-
cent to 53 percent for natural creatures,
and from 7 to 78 percent for Pokémon
characters.
Comment:This straightforward study is
presented as a wake-up call for conser-
vationists.The authors quote Robert
Pyle: “What is the loss of a condor to a
child who has never seen a wren?”
knowledge base A body of knowledge in a
particular area that makes it easier to mas-
ter new information in that area.
Children’s Ability to Identify Images on Flashcards
Source: Adapted from Balmford et al., 2002, p. 2367.
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 124
Age (in years)
Score
(average
number of
correct
identifica-
tions)
Pokémon
characters
Types of
British wildlife
FIGURE 12.1
Knowledge of the Real and
the Imaginary Every child’s
knowledge base expands with
age, but the areas of special in-
terest tend to shift as the child
grows older. At about 8 years
of age, British schoolchildren’s
ability to identify Pokémon
characters on flashcards began
to surpass their ability to iden-
tify real-life animals and plants.
Observation Quiz (see
answer, page 314): What does
this graph suggest about the
state of wildlife conservation
in the United Kingdom in the
year 2020?
Control Processes
The mechanisms that put memory, processing speed, and the knowledge base
together are called control processes; they regulate the analysis and flow of in-
formation within the system. Control processes include selective attention,
metacognition, and emotional regulation. They assume an executive role in the
information-processing system. When someone concentrates on only the crucial
➤Response for Teachers (from page 311):
Children this age can be taught strategies
for remembering by making links between
working memory and long-term memory.
You might break down the vocabulary list into
word clusters, grouped according to root
words, connections to the children’s existing
knowledge, applications, or (as a last resort)
first letters or rhymes. Active, social learning
is useful; perhaps in groups the students
could write a story each day that incorporates
15 new words. Each group could read its
story aloud to the class.
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part of the material bombarding the sensory memory, or summons a
rule of thumb from long-term memory to working memory, or uses
the knowledge base to connect new information, control processes
are active. They organize, decide, and direct, as the chief executive
officer of a large corporation is supposed to do.
Control processes develop spontaneously with age, but they are
also taught. Sometimes this teaching is explicit. For instance, class-
room instruction often includes spelling rules such as “i before e
except after c” and helpful sentences for remembering things such
as the order of the planets from the sun (“My Very Eager Mother
Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas”—Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto). Once children know these, they
can use the same techniques to make up their own mnemonic
devices (memory aids). In fact, now that Pluto is no longer considered
a planet, they have an opportunity to do so.
Sometimes it is more implicit. Cultures teach children general
strategies, such as whether they should learn by attending to one
thing at a time, as is the expectation in North American schools, or
should learn while doing other things, as some cultures (for example,
in Latin America) encourage. This latter approach is not necessarily
inefficient because “simultaneous attention may be important when
learning relies on observation of ongoing events” (Correa-Chavez
et al., 2005, p. 665).
During the school years, children develop a more comprehensive form of think-
ing called metacognition, sometimes called thinking about thinking. Metacogni-
tion is the ability to evaluate a cognitive task to determine how best to accomplish
it and then to monitor and adjust one’s performance on that task.
Marked advances in metacognition occur when children become better aware
of what they know and what they need to learn. School-age children with such an
awareness might, for example, test themselves to judge whether they have learned
their spelling words, rather than insisting (as younger children might) that they
know it all (Harter, 1999).
With the advances in metacognition come strikingly evident improvements in
children’s ability to store information so that retrieval is possible. The relationship
is clear, for example, from an experiment in which 7- and 9-year-olds memorized
two lists of 10 items each (M. L. Howe, 2004). Some children had separate lists of
toys and vehicles; others had two mixed lists, with toys and vehicles combined in
both. A day later, they were asked to remember one of the lists. Having had sepa-
rate lists of toys and vehicles helped the 7-year-olds somewhat, compared to the
7-year-olds with mixed lists, but having organized lists was particularly beneficial
for the 9-year-olds. They remembered notably more items than did other 9-year-
olds whose lists had mixed toys and vehicles.
Some of these children had been explicitly told about the categories of the lists
and some had not. That did not make much difference, because the 9-year-olds
spontaneously noted the categories, and that helped them remember (M. L. Howe,
2004). In other words, the 9-year-olds used metacognitive skills without prompting.
The relative benefits of spontaneous use of metacognition versus instruction in
memory techniques have been the focus of decades of research (Pressley &
Hilden, 2006). Such research has thus looked at both discovery (inspired by Piaget)
and explicit scaffolding (inspired by Vygotsky) from an information-processing
perspective.
It is apparent that during the school years, children benefit from learning spe-
cific cognitive strategies in every academic subject (math, reading, writing, science),
Building on Theory 313
They’ve Read the Book Acting in a play
based on The Lion, the Witch, and the
Wardrobe suggests that these children have
metacognitive abilities beyond those of al-
most any preschooler. Indeed, the book itself
requires a grasp of the boundary between
reality (the wardrobe) and fantasy (the witch).
“Thinking about thinking” is needed in order
to appreciate the allegory.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 314):
Beyond understanding the book, what are
three examples of metacognition implied
here? Specifically, how does the ability to
memorize lines, play a part, and focus on the
play illustrate metacognition?
BA
CH
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PH
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SE
AR
CH
ER
S,
IN
C.
metacognition “Thinking about thinking,” or
the ability to evaluate a cognitive task to
determine how best to accomplish it, and
then to monitor and adjust one’s perform-
ance on that task.
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especially if they are given practice over weeks and months. To use the language
of computers, once a program is installed, if the operator uses it frequently and
understands its application, output is faster and more accurate. That works for
children, too.
SUMMING UP
Piaget and Vygotsky both recognized that school-age children are avid learners who ac-
tively build on the knowledge they already have. Piaget emphasized the child’s own logical
thinking, as the principles of classification, identity, and reversibility are understood during
concrete operational thought. Research inspired by Vygotsky and the sociocultural per-
spective fills in Piaget’s outline with details of the actual learning situation. Cultural differ-
ences can be powerful; specific instruction and practical experience make a difference.
An information-processing analysis highlights many components of thinking that ad-
vance during middle childhood. Although sensory memory and long-term memory do not
change much during these years, the speed and efficiency of working memory improve
dramatically, which makes school-age children better thinkers than they previously were.
Another advantage of older children is that past learning results in a greater knowledge
base.
In addition, control processes, such as selective attention and metacognition, enable
children to become more strategic thinkers, able to direct their minds toward whatever
they are motivated to learn and adults are motivated to teach.
■
Language
As you remember, many aspects of language advance rapidly before middle child-
hood. By age 6, children have mastered most of the basic vocabulary and grammar
of their first language, and many even speak a second language. However, as we
will now see, because school-age children have the abilities described in the chap-
ter to this point (noted by Piaget, Vygotsky, and information-processing theorists),
they advance in language.
Some school-age children learn as many as 20 new words a day and apply gram-
mar rules they did not use before. These new words and applications are unlike
the language explosion. Increases in logic, flexibility, memory, speed of thinking,
metacognition, and connections between facts enhance the learning of a first and
second language (Kagan & Herschkowitz, 2005).
Vocabulary and Pragmatics
Young children know the names of thousands of objects, and they understand
many other parts of speech as well. But school-age children are more flexible and
logical in their knowledge and use of vocabulary, understanding metaphors, pre-
fixes and suffixes, and compound words.
For example, 2-year-olds know egg, but 10-year-olds also know egg salad, egg-
drop soup, eggless, eggplant, egghead, and walking on eggshells, egg on my face, and
last one in is a rotten egg. They understand that each of these expressions is logi-
cally connected to egg (benefits of the knowledge base) but is also distinct from
the dozen uncooked eggs in the refrigerator. They use each expression in the
appropriate contexts.
One aspect of language that advances markedly in middle childhood is prag-
matics, the practical use of language, including communication with varied audi-
ences in different contexts. This ability is obvious to linguists when they listen
to children talk informally with their friends and formally with their teachers or
Especially for Parents You’ve had an
exhausting day but are setting out to buy
groceries. Your 7-year-old son wants to go
with you. Should you explain that you are so
tired that you want to make a quick solo trip
to the supermarket this time?
314 CHAPTER 12 ■ The School Years: Cognitive Development
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
312): As the authors of this study observe,
“People care about what they know.” As their
knowledge about their country’s animal and
plant life declines with age, these British
children’s concern for wildlife conservation is
likely to decline, too.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 313): (1) Memorizing extensive passages
requires an understanding of advanced
memory strategies that combine meaning
with form. (2) Understanding how to play a
part so that other actors and the audience
respond well requires a sophisticated theory
of mind. (3) Staying focused on the moment
in the play despite distractions from the
audience requires selective attention.
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parents, never calling the latter a rotten egg—regardless of
whether they are the last one to sit down to dinner or not.
Children are thus able to switch back and forth, depending
on the audience, between different manners of speaking, or
“codes.” Each code includes many aspects of language—tone,
pronunciation, gestures, sentence length, idioms, vocabulary,
and grammar. Sometimes the switch is between formal code
(used in academic contexts) and informal code (used with
friends); sometimes it is between dialect or vernacular (used
on the street) and standard or proper speech. Many children
use a new code in text messaging, with numbers (411), abbre-
viations (LOL), and emoticons (☺).
During middle childhood, many children excel at pragmat-
ics, using the appropriate code in each context. They not only
adjust to their audience but can use logic to do so, applying
grammatical rules when they need to. Children need help
from teachers to become fluent in the formal code so that they will be able to
communicate with educated adults from many places. The peer group teaches the
informal code, and each local community teaches dialect and pronunciation.
Second-Language Learning
The most obvious need for school-age children to use various codes pragmatically
occurs when children speak one language at home and another at school. Almost
every nation’s population includes many children who speak a minority language,
and most of the world’s 6,000 languages are never used in school. Consequently,
about a billion children are educated in a language other than their mother tongue
(John-Steiner et al., 1994). Many will lose fluency in their first language. It is
estimated that at least 5,000 languages will die by 2050 (May, 2005).
In the United States, 4 million students (10 percent of the school population)
are English-language learners (ELLs) (formerly called LEP, limited English
proficiency) and thus do not yet speak English well. Many live with their co-
linguists in California, Texas, New York, New Jersey, and Florida, while others are
surrounded by people who cannot converse with them. Many public school
classes (43 percent) have at least one ELL student (Zehler et al., 2003).
Middle childhood is a good time for learning a second language. As explained
earlier, children aged 7 to 11 are eager to communicate, are logical, and have an
ear (and brain) for nuances of code and pronunciation. Experience in Canada, in
Israel, and in many other nations proves that most children can become fluent
in two languages before puberty (DeKeyser & Larson-Hall, 2005).
In the United States, as in many other countries, some students learning the
majority language in school have a first language that is relatively close to it, while
others have a quite different first language. Those who already read and write Span-
ish, French, or another Romance language have a foundation for learning English,
since the letters, many sounds, and some words are similar. If their teachers show
them how to sound out letters and recognize words that are cognates, they grasp
English more quickly (Carlo et al., 2004). Children whose first language uses differ-
ent symbols and has a markedly different sound system, as is the case, for example,
with Arabic and Asian languages, have a harder time (Snow & Kang, 2006).
Many American children, most notably from Asian American backgrounds,
make a language shift, replacing their original language with English rather than
becoming fluent in both languages (Tse, 2001). Partly to avoid this, many Asian
communities provide “heritage” language classes after school or on Saturdays. In
the 1990s in the Los Angeles area, there were 80 Chinese heritage schools with
Language 315
Connections Basic vocabulary is learned by
age 4 or so, but the school years are best for
acquiring expanded, derivative, and specialized
vocabulary, especially if the child is actively
connecting one word with another. With his
father’s encouragement, this boy in San Jose,
California, will remember Jupiter, Mars, and
the names of the other planets and maybe
even orbit, light-years, and solar system.
RA
CH
EL
E
PS
TE
IN
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
English-language learner (ELL) A child who
is learning English as a second language.
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bilingual education A strategy in which
school subjects are taught in both the
learner’s original language and the second
(majority) language.
ESL (English as a second language) An
approach to teaching English in which all
children who do not speak English are
placed together and given an intensive
course in basic English so that they can be
educated in the same classroom as native
English speakers.
15,000 pupils. Despite such classes, many Asian American children lose their
original language (Liu, 2006). This is unfortunate, not only because fluently bilin-
gual adults are needed but also because language is intimately connected to values
and emotions, and parents and others fear language loss may represent a loss of
culture. Immigrant parents want their children to maintain their culture even as
they want their children to succeed.
Bilingual speakers are aware of the connection between language and emotion,
and they choose how to say what to whom (Myers-Scotton & Bolonyai, 2001).
Things learned in English are more readily remembered in English, and things
learned in the original language are remembered better in that language (Marian
& Fausey, 2006).
Many educators fear that immigrant children may suffer if they are expected to
relinquish their first language.
Challenges of adaptation to a new language and culture for child migrants are
reflected in data about their academic achievement. Language minority children
are at demonstrably greater risk than native speakers of experiencing academic
difficulty . . . in the United States, . . . in the Netherlands, . . . in Great Britain, . . .
and in Japan.
[Snow & Kang, 2006, p. 76]
Experts agree that all children should learn to speak and write in the majority
language while not losing their native tongue, and that those children who already
speak the majority language should learn a second language, ideally before puberty.
Experts do not agree on the best way to reach these goals. Political controversies
have made objective research difficult; no single approach has been proven to
be best for all children in all contexts (Bialystok, 2001; Hinkel, 2005; Snow &
Kang, 2006).
Approaches range from total immersion, in which instruction in all school
subjects occurs entirely in the second (majority) language, to the opposite ap-
proach, in which children learn in their first language until the second language
can be taught as a “foreign” tongue. Variations between these extremes include
bilingual education, with instruction in two languages, and, in North America,
ESL (English as a second language), programs in which ELL children are
taught intensively and exclusively in English to prepare them for regular classes.
The success of any of these methods seems to depend on the literacy of the
home (the specific language used at home matters less than the frequency of
reading, writing, and listening), the warmth and skill of the teacher, and the over-
all cultural context. Any method tends to fail if children feel shy, stupid, or lonely
because of their language.
Second-language learning remains controversial in the United States, even
among immigrants who do not speak English. Cognitive research leaves no doubt
that school-age children can learn a second language if it is taught logically, step by
step, and they can maintain their original language. The best strategies included
a language-rich environment (at home and school), with ample reading, writing,
and speaking instruction.
The likelihood of parents, school, and culture encouraging bilingualism in chil-
dren is affected by the socioeconomic status of the family and of the minority
group. This is one explanation for the experience of Korean immigrant children,
who usually have more success at learning English in the United States than the
typical immigrant child but do much worse in Japan (where they often are at the
bottom of the economic ladder). An overview finds that “language teaching has
always been susceptible to political and social influences” (Byram & Feng, 2005,
p. 926). Let’s take a closer look at the role of SES in language learning.
total immersion A strategy in which instruc-
tion in all school subjects occurs in the
second (majority) language that a child is
learning.
316 CHAPTER 12 ■ The School Years: Cognitive Development
➤Response for Parents (from page 314):
Your son would understand your explanation,
but you should take him along if you can do
so without losing patience with him. Any
excursion can be a learning opportunity. You
wouldn’t ignore his need for food or medicine;
don’t ignore his need for learning. While
shopping, you can teach vocabulary (does he
know pimientos, pepperoni, polenta?),
categories (“root vegetables,” “freshwater
fish”), and math (which size box of cereal is
cheaper?). Explain in advance that you need
him to help you find items and carry them
and that he can choose only one item that
you wouldn’t normally buy. Seven-year-olds
can understand rules, and they enjoy being
helpful.
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SUMMING UP
Children continue to learn language rapidly during the school years. They become more
flexible, logical, and knowledgeable, figuring out the meaning of new words. Many
converse with friends using informal speech and master a more formal code in school.
Millions become proficient in a second language, a process facilitated by teachers
who help them see connections between the new language and their original one, and
by peers who do not make them feel ashamed. Speaking and listening to each child, in
school and at home, continues to help with language learning.
■
Teaching and Learning
School-age children are great learners. They develop strategies, accumulate
knowledge, apply logic, and think quickly. Magical and egocentric thinking no
longer dominate, yet 7- to 11-year-olds are not yet as resistant to authority as ado-
lescents sometimes are.
Children universally are given responsibility and instruction at about age 7,
because that is when their bodies and brains are ready. Traditionally, this occurred
within the family, but now 95 percent of the world’s 7-year-olds are in school.
Communities and cultures choose what happens at school, including what chil-
dren learn.
Teaching and Learning 317
SES and Language Learning
Decades of research throughout the world have found a power-
ful connection between language development and socioeco-
nomic status (Plank & MacIver, 2003). Compared with their
peers, children from low-SES families tend to fall behind in
talking, then in reading, and then in other subjects. Not only do
children from low-income families have smaller vocabularies,
but their grammar is simpler (fewer compound sentences, de-
pendent clauses, and conditional verbs) and their sentences are
shorter (Hart & Risley, 1995; Hoff, 2003).
The information-processing perspective forces us to look at
specifics of daily input that might affect the child’s brain and
thus the child’s ability to learn language. Possibilities abound—
lead in house paint, inadequate prenatal care, lack of a nourish-
ing breakfast, overcrowded household, too few books at home,
teenage parenthood, authoritarian child rearing . . . the list
could go on and on. All of these correlate with low SES, but no
one of them has been proven to be in itself a major cause of poor
language learning.
There are two factors, however, that do appear to play an
important role in the connection between low SES and poor
language learning. One is extent of early exposure to language.
Unlike parents with higher education, many less educated par-
ents tend not to speak extensively or elaborately with their chil-
dren. The reasons correlate with low income (financial stress,
not enough time for each child, neighborhood noise) but are not
caused by it. In one study, researchers observed young children
at home for three years, recording an average of 30 hours of talk
per family. Children in high-SES families heard about 2,000
words an hour, while children in low-SES families heard only
about 600 words per hour (Hart & Risley, 1995). Many studies
have found a “powerful linkage” between adult linguistic input
and later child output (Weizman & Snow, 2001, p. 276). Remem-
ber that dendrites in the brain grow to accommodate the child’s
experiences, including experience with language.
A second factor is expectation. Many people believe that
teachers’ and parents’ expectations are the reason some children
master language quickly while others do not, and SES may
affect expectations. Expectations can, of course, make a positive
difference. For example, E. P. Jones, who won the 2004 Pulitzer
Prize for his novel The Known World (E. P. Jones, 2003), grew
up in a very poor family, headed by a single mother who was illit-
erate. Jones writes:
For as many Sundays as I can remember, perhaps even Sundays
when I was in the womb, my mother has pointed across “I” street
to Seaton [school] as we come and go to Mt. Carmel [church].
“You gonna go there and learn about the whole world.”
[E. P. Jones, 1992/2003, p. 29]
He did.
issues and applications
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Schools are pivotal. In the United States, this is particularly true for young
children whose families are immigrants, have low SES, and/or do not speak the
majority language. Two such children, both educated in southern California,
describe their experiences.
Yolanda:
When I got here [from Mexico at age 7], I didn’t want to stay here, ’cause I didn’t
like the school. And after a little while, in third grade, I started getting the hint of
it and everything and I tried real hard in it. I really got along with the teachers. . . .
They would start talking to me, or they kinda like pulled me up some grades, or
moved me to other classes, or took me somewhere. And they were always con-
gratulating me.
Paul:
I grew up . . . ditching school, just getting in trouble, trying to make a dollar,
that’s it, you know? Just go to school, steal from the store, and go sell candies at
school. And that’s what I was doing in the third or fourth grade. . . . I was always
getting in the principal’s office, suspended, kicked out, everything, starting from
the third grade.
My fifth grade teacher, Ms. Nelson . . . she put me in a play and that like
tripped me out. Like, why do you want me in a play? Me, I’m just a mess-up. Still,
you know, she put me in a play. And in the fifth grade, I think that was the best
year out of the whole six years. I learned a lot about the Revolutionary War. . . .
Had good friends. . . . We had a project we were involved in. Ms. Nelson . . . just
involved everyone. We made books, this and that. And I used to write, and wrote
two, three books. Was in a book fair. . . . She got real deep into you. Just, you
know, “Come on now, you can do it.” That was a good year for me, fifth grade.
[quoted in Nieto, 2000, pp. 220, 249]
Note that initially Yolanda didn’t like the United States because of school, but
her teachers “kind of pulled me up.” By third grade she was beginning to get “the
hint of it.” For Paul, school was where he sold stolen candy and where his teachers
sent him to the principal, who suspended him. Ms.
Nelson’s fifth grade, though it was “a good year” for
him, was too late; Paul was sent to a special school
and probably (suggested, not confirmed in the text)
had been in jail by age 18.
Curriculum
Everywhere children are taught to read, write, and do
arithmetic, although beyond basic skills, nations vary
in how and what they teach their children and how
much they spend to do it (see Figure 12.2). For exam-
ple, reasoned speaking and logical argument are
taught in Russia and France but not in India or the
United States (Alexander, 2000); memorization is
important in India but is less so in England. In some
places, physical education and the arts are essential;
in France, for example, every week physical education
takes three hours and arts education more than two
hours (Marlow-Ferguson, 2002). Even nations that
are geographically and culturally close to each other
differ in specifics. For example, every elementary
school student in Australia spends at least two hours
per week studying science, but this is true for only 23
percent in nearby New Zealand (Snyder et al., 2004).
318 CHAPTER 12 ■ The School Years: Cognitive Development
Public Spending per Child in Elementary School, Selected Countries
Annual expenditure per child
(in U.S. dollars)
$1,000 $2,000 $3,000 $4,000 $5,000 $6,000 $7,000 $8,000
Australia
Denmark
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Italy
Japan
Mexico
New Zealand
Poland
Sweden
United Kingdom
United States
Source: Snyder et al., 2006.
FIGURE 12.2
What Money Can’t Buy The United States
spends more on elementary school education,
but U.S. students do not learn more than stu-
dents in other developed nations. Depending
on your personal and political perspective,
you can blame the children, the teachers, the
curriculum, or government policies.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 320):
Four other nations have relatively high per
capita spending on education. Do you know
anything else noteworthy about them?
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When, how, to whom, and whether second-language instruction should occur
also varies markedly from nation to nation. Within some nations, including
the United States, second-language instruction varies from district to district, as
already explained. Even in the same district and under the same policy, teacher
quality is crucial, as the quotations from Yolanda and Paul illustrate and as re-
search has confirmed (Hinkel, 2005). In other nations, including most European
countries, every elementary school child learns at least one language in addition
to his or her native tongue.
Religious instruction is another major variable. In some nations, every public
school teaches religion. For instance, Finnish schools require religious education
—but provide parents only three choices: Lutheran, Christian Orthodox, or non-
sectarian (Marlow-Ferguson, 2002). In other nations, religious instruction is
forbidden in state-sponsored schools. This is true in the United States, where 88
percent of children attend public schools; the other 12 percent are home-schooled
(2 percent) or attend a private school (10 percent), often with a religious bent
(U.S. Department of Education, 2006). Almost every nation has some private
schools that are sponsored by religious groups. Again, international variation is
large. Sixteen percent of French children attend church-related schools; only
1 percent of Japanese children do (Marlow-Ferguson, 2002).
Another major difference is whether the parents, the local community, the
state, or the nation decides curriculum. The following is from a minister of educa-
tion in Australia:
Education is a national priority and it is too important to be left at the mercy of
state parochialism . . . with an increasingly mobile workforce, why should students
and teachers be disadvantaged when they move interstate from one educational
system to another?
[Bishop, quoted in Manzo, 2007, p. 40]
In Australia local control of curriculum clashes with a push for national stan-
dards. The same clash is at the heart of the controversy in the United States over
the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, a federal law that mandates annual
standardized achievement tests for public school children beginning in the third
grade. If schools do not meet the achievement standards (which keep rising) for
several years, parents can transfer their children out, and low-scoring schools will
lose funding and may have to close.
Some states (e.g., Utah) have opted out of No Child Left Behind. Other states
have achievement tests that allow most schools to progress (and thus get funding).
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a federal Depart-
ment of Education project that measures achievement in reading, mathematics,
and other subjects over time, finds fewer children proficient in various skills than
state tests show (see Figures 12.3 and 12.4). Yet
local control of public schools is a hallowed tradition in American education and
there has long been antipathy to the idea of a national test. . . . Some state edu-
cators say comparisons are unfair because NAEP is too rigorous and was designed
to chart long-term trends, not to measure what states feel students should know.
[Vu, 2007]
One problem with national standards, as is evident with NAEP, is that states
disagree about what children should know and how they should learn it. Many
schools (71 percent in one study) cut back on parts of the curriculum (especially
art or music) in order to offer more instruction in reading and math (Rentner
et al., 2006). One reason for this shift in emphasis is that No Child Left Behind
implemented Reading First, reflecting the notion that the primary item of
curriculum (and the primary goal of national standards and topic of achievement
tests) should be reading. In addition, nationally approved materials for teaching
No Child Left Behind Act A U.S. law passed
by Congress in 2001 that was intended to
increase accountability in education by
requiring standardized tests to measure
school achievement. Many critics, espe-
cially teachers, say the law undercuts
learning and fails to take local needs into
consideration.
Especially for Parents Suppose you and
your school-age children move to a new
community that is 50 miles from the nearest
location that offers instruction in your faith or
value system. Your neighbor says, “Don’t
worry, they don’t have to make any moral
decisions until they are teenagers.” Is your
neighbor correct?
Teaching and Learning 319
National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP) An ongoing and nation-
ally representative measure of children’s
achievement in reading, mathematics, and
other subjects over time; nicknamed “the
Nation’s Report Card.”
Reading First A federal program that was
established by the No Child Left Behind Act
and that provides states with funding for
early reading instruction in public schools,
aimed at ensuring that all children learn to
read well by the end of the third grade.
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reading favor the phonics side of the reading wars (discussed below) (Manzo,
2006). For all these reasons, reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, scheduled
for 2007, required major revision.
In addition to formal mandates, there is a hidden curriculum, which consists
of the unrecognized lessons that children absorb in school. The hidden curricu-
lum typically involves such matters as tracking, teacher characteristics, discipline,
teaching methods, sports competition, student government, and extracurricular
activities. For example, if most of the teachers are different from most of the chil-
dren in terms of gender, ethnicity, or economic background, the hidden message
may be that some children are not expected to succeed in school.
One obvious manifestation of the hidden curriculum is the physical setting.
Some schools have spacious classrooms; wide hallways; personal computers; and
large, grassy playgrounds. Others have small, poorly equipped rooms and cement
play yards or “play streets,” closed to traffic for a few hours a day. A former New
York State Commissioner of Education explained:
320 CHAPTER 12 ■ The School Years: Cognitive Development
Percentage of 12th-Graders Within and At or Above the Mathematics
Achievement Levels, 1990–2000
1990 1995 2000
Source: Perie et al., 2005.
Proficient
Advanced
Basic
At or above
Proficient
At or above
Basic
Below Basic
10% 14% 14%
1%
12% 16% 17%
69% 65%
58%
2% 2%
42%
31% 35%
46%
53% 48%
2005
23%
25%
61%
2%
39%
36%FIGURE 12.3
Better or Worse? Should a country’s educa-
tion policy emphasize helping more students
become “Proficient” or better in mathematics
or trying to make sure that fewer students
score “Below Basic”? The United States
seems to be choosing the former, with more
resources allocated to the schools where
students score high in math achievement.
FIGURE 12.4
Local Standards Each state sets its own
level of proficiency, which helps low-scoring
states obtain more federal money for educa-
tion, but it may undercut high standards for
student learning.
Percentage-Point
Difference in
State vs. Federal
Proficiency Ratings
0–20
21–40
41–60
61+
NY
VT ME
NH
MA
RI
CT
NJ
DE
MD
PA
VAWV
OH
IN
MI
WI
IL
MO
AR
IA
MN
ND
Rating Fourth-Graders’ Reading Proficiency: The Gap Between NAEP and the States
SD
NE
KS
OK
TX LA
NM
CO
MT
ID
WY
UT
AZ
NV
CA
OR
WA
AK
HI
KY
NC
TN
MS
SC
GAAL
FL
Source: EPE Research Center, in Hoff, 2007, p. 23.
hidden curriculum The unofficial, unstated,
or implicit rules and priorities that influence
the academic curriculum and every other
aspect of learning in school.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
318): Denmark, Italy, Japan, and Sweden have
very low birth rates and thus have relatively
few schoolchildren.
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If you ask the children to attend school in conditions where plaster is crumbling,
the roof is leaking and classes are being held in unlikely places because of over-
crowded conditions, that says something to the child. . . . If, on the other hand,
you send a child to a school in well-appointed or [adequate facilities], that sends
the opposite message. That says this counts. You count. Do well.
[Sobol, quoted in Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State of New York, 2001]
In some countries, school is held outdoors. Students sit quietly on the ground.
The school day must end whenever it rains. What messages does this kind of
school setting convey?
In all these variations in curriculum, those who advocate one “best” practice
risk becoming tangled in ideology, politics, and culture, disconnected from the
findings of educational research (Rayner et al., 2001). On their part, children do
not necessarily learn what policy makers intend, or even what their own teachers
teach. Intended, implemented, and attained curricula are three different things
(Robitaille & Beaton, 2002).
The Outcome
Most parents, teachers, and political leaders believe that their children are learn-
ing what they need. Parents give higher ratings to their children’s schools than
nonparents in their community do, although nonparents do rate their own com-
munity’s schools higher than schools nationwide (Snyder et al., 2004). Similarly,
many parents of home-schooled and private school children believe that public
schools are worse than research finds them to be (Green & Hoover-Dempsey,
2007; Lubienski & Lubienski, 2005).
This does not necessarily mean that parents are fooling themselves, only that
people disagree about what children should learn and how to best measure that
learning (Elmore et al., 2004; R. S. Johnson, 2002). Objective, international tests
do not put an end to these disagreements, as the following explains.
Teaching and Learning 321
thinking like a scientist
International Achievement Tests
Objective assessment of educational achievement might be done
by comparing results from international, culture-neutral tests.
Ideally, each nation would give the same tests, under the same
conditions, to a representative group of children of a particular
age and year of schooling. Such even-handed comparisons are
impossible, however, because educational practices vary too
widely in different countries. For example, Scottish children, who
begin school at age 4, have a three-year advantage over Russian
children, who usually begin school at age 7 (Mullis et al., 2004).
Despite such problems, international tests are useful. One
such assessment, administered periodically to fourth- and
eighth-graders worldwide, is called the TIMSS (Trends in
Math and Science Study). The average 10-year-old in Singa-
pore is ahead of the top 5 percent of U.S. students in math, ac-
cording to the TIMSS. Fourth-graders in Hong Kong, Japan, and
Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) also did better than their counterparts
“Big deal, an A in math. That would be a
D in any other country.”
©
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TIMSS (Trends in Math and Science Study)
An international assessment of the math
and science skills of fourth- and eighth-
graders. Although the TIMSS is very useful,
scores are not always comparable, because
sample selection, test administration, and
content validity are hard to keep uniform.
➤Response for Parents (from page 319):
No. In fact, these are prime years for moral
education. You might travel those 50 miles
once or twice a week or recruit other parents
to organize a local program. Whatever you do,
don’t skip moral instruction. Discuss and
demonstrate your moral and religious values,
and help your children meet other children
who share those values.
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Western nations score better on international reading assessments, such as the
Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). In the first
round of testing, in 2001, only 3 of the 35 participating nations (Sweden, England,
and Bulgaria) surpassed the United States in the percentage of fourth-graders who
read in the top 10 percent.
For all international tests, data can be interpreted in various ways. For instance,
critics of U.S. education focus more on math and science (assessed by the TIMSS)
than on reading (assessed by the PIRLS). Those who are concerned about educa-
tional disparities notice the spread between the children in the top fourth (above
the 75th percentile) and the bottom fourth (below the 26th percentile). On the
PIRLS, 24 nations had a wider spread than the United States, and ten had less
disparity (Sweden, England, Bulgaria, Canada, the Netherlands, Lithuania,
Latvia, the Czech Republic, France, Hong Kong) (Mullis et al., 2003).
Gender differences in performance are both confirmed and refuted by the data.
Internationally, girls are ahead in verbal skills (by 4 percentage points, on average)
and boys in math, but nations differ from one another much more than boys do
from girls, and the gender spread varies. To pick two extremes, Scottish fourth-
grade boys averaged 11 points higher in math than girls, but Filipino girls averaged
9 points above the boys. National scores ranged from 339 (Tunisia) to 594 (Singa-
pore), a much greater difference than the gender differences. Such results led one
team to propose a gender similarities hypothesis that males and females are similar
on most measures, with very few exceptions (Hyde & Linn, 2006).
International testing is too costly to be done every year. Current TIMSS analy-
sis is of tests conducted in 2003. Students worldwide are taking a TIMSS test
in 2007, and the results will be reported and analyzed by 2009. Beyond the slow
Progress in International Reading Literacy
Study (PIRLS) Inaugurated in 2001, a
planned five-year cycle of international
trend studies in the reading ability of
fourth-graders.
322 CHAPTER 12 ■ The School Years: Cognitive Development
in western nations. This trend of East Asian superiority continues
through high school (see Table 12.1).
Canada, England, and the United States are above average
on the TIMSS, but not by much. The lowest-ranking nations—
Tunisia, Morocco, and the Philippines (not shown in the table)
—do not have a long history of universal fourth-grade education.
No very poor nations participated in the testing, finding it too
expensive, too discouraging, or too difficult.
Is the TIMSS fair? Here is a sample math question for
fourth-graders:
Jasmine made a stack of cubes the same size. The stack
had 5 layers, and each layer had 10 cubes. What is the
volume of the stack?
a. 10 cubes
b. 15 cubes
c. 30 cubes
d. 50 cubes
Is this item equally difficult for children in every nation, or
are East Asians favored?
TABLE 12.1
TIMSS Rankings of Average Math Achievement
Scores of Eighth-Graders, Selected Countries*
Year
Country 2003 1999 1995
Singapore 1 1 1
Korea 2 2 2
Hong Kong 3 3 4
Japan 4 4 3
Netherlands 5 6 6
Canada** 6 5 7
Hungary 7 8 8
Czech Republic 8 7 5
Russian Federation 9 9 9
Australia 10 10 10
United States 11 11 12
New Zealand 12 12 11
Cyprus 13 13 13
Iran 14 14 14
*Not all of the countries that participated in TIMSS (25 in 2003) are reported
because most of them did not give this test in all three years. Eighth-grade
rankings are given here; the fourth-grade rankings are similar, but not as much
comparative data are available.
**Results for Canada are for the provinces of Ontario and Quebec only and thus
are not strictly comparable with other countries’ average scores.
Source: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement,
2003; http://timss.bc.edu, accessed April 25, 2007.
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Teaching and Learning 323
Catching Up with the West These Iranian
girls are acting out a poem that they have
memorized from their third-grade textbook.
They attend school in a UNICEF-supported
Global Education pilot project. Their child-
centered classes encourage maximum
participation.SH
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Especially for Future Research
Scientists What should you watch for in
news reports about the TIMSS data?
reporting of results, another problem is that both participation and emphasis vary
from nation to nation. For cultural and cost reasons, some nations participate in
TIMSS but not PIRLS (e.g., Japan and South Korea), or in PIRLS but not
TIMSS (e.g., Iran and Greece), or in neither (most developing nations). The
United States has participated in both, as well as in PISA (Programme for Inter-
national Assessment), a third international test designed to assess 15-year-olds’
ability to apply knowledge (reviewed in Chapter 15). The United States scores
well in reading and poorly in applications, but its middling TIMSS scores are
most widely publicized.
Education Wars and Assumptions
Adults differ in their beliefs about what children should learn—and how. Virtually
every aspect of education is not merely debatable; it has caused bitter dispute.
Almost everyone has opinions about Japanese education, about teaching reading,
about learning math, and many other issues, and those opinions often do not
square with the research findings, as you will now see.
Japanese Education
How good is Japanese education? Your answer is probably affected by whether you
were educated in Japan or elsewhere. The Japanese are much more critical of
their schools than people in the United States are of them.
Ever since Harold Stevenson first compared schoolchildren in North America
and Japan (H.W. Stevenson, Lee, et al., 1990; H.W. Stevenson, Chen, et al., 1993),
many Americans have envied Japanese education. Japanese children spend more
time in school, with longer days, weeks (including Saturday mornings), and years
(only one month of summer vacation). Children study at school (and so have less
free time) and at home (and so have fewer household chores). Three-fourths of
them attend juko, private classes that supplement public school.
Japanese teachers are respected by students and parents, and they learn from
one another; time is specifically scheduled for collaboration (Stigler & Hiebert,
1999). Further, the Japanese government funds and guides education. That involve-
ment by national government fosters equity and allows children who move mid-
year from one region to another to lose no time in catching up with their new
classmates. Absenteeism is low, and less than 2 percent of high school students
leave school before graduation.
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All these factors and others are cited to explain why Japanese
children score far above their U.S. peers in math and science.
The contrast was among the reasons almost all U.S. Congress
members voted for No Child Left Behind in 2001: The program
anticipated that every child in the United States would eventu-
ally learn as well and as much as Japanese children do.
Meanwhile, in Japan, many parents and government officials
express disappointment with the outcomes of public education
(Hosaka, 2005; Sugie et al., 2006). Some Japanese children need
help developing metacognitive skills that are not taught in
school, partly because large class sizes and detailed curriculum
requirements make individualized attention difficult (Ichikawa,
2005). In addition, the system may sacrifice creativity and inde-
pendent thought, at least according to Western critics (Kohn,
2006).
In 2002 the Japanese eased educational and testing require-
ments by instituting yutori kyoiku, which means “more relaxed
education.” The required curriculum was reduced by 30 percent to allow more
emphasis on learning to think rather than memorizing facts to get high test scores
(Magara, 2005). The long-term results, like the results of No Child Left Behind,
are not yet known.
The Reading Wars
Reading is complex. The ability to read with speedy, automatic comprehension is
the cumulative result of many earlier steps—from looking closely at pictures (at
age 2 or earlier) to learning to figure out unknown technical words (at age 10 and
beyond). There are two distinct methods of teaching children to read: phonics and
whole language (Rayner et al., 2001). Clashes over the two approaches have led to
“serious, sometimes acrimonious debate, fueling the well-named ‘reading wars’”
(Keogh, 2004, p. 93).
Historically, schools used the phonics approach (from the root word for
“sound”), in which children learn to read by learning letter–sound correspon-
324 CHAPTER 12 ■ The School Years: Cognitive Development
Collaborative Learning Japanese children
are learning mathematics in a more struc-
tured and socially interactive way than are
their North American counterparts.
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/ P
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Reading with Comprehension (left) Reading and math scores in third-grader Monica’s Illinois elementary school showed
improvement under the standards set by the No Child Left Behind Act. The principal noted a cost for this success in less time
spent on social studies and other subjects. (right) Some experts believe that children should have their own books and be able
to read them wherever and however they want. This strategy seems to be working with Josue and Cristo, two 8-year-olds
who were given books through their after-school program in Rochester, Washington.
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phonics approach Teaching reading by first
teaching the sounds of each letter and of
various letter combinations.
Especially for Teachers You are teaching in
a school that you find too lax or too strict, or
with parents who are too demanding or too
uncaring. Should you look for a different line
of work?
306-331_BergerLS7e_CH12.qxp 9/12/07 8:30 PM Page 324

dences in order to decipher simple words. This approach seemed to be supported
by behaviorism (see Chapter 2) and, more recently, by information-processing
theory in that step-by-step instructions, with frequent repetition, was favored.
Piaget’s theory—that children learn on their own as soon as their minds are
ready—provided the rationale for another method, called the whole-language
approach. For concrete operational thinkers, Piaget’s followers explained, abstract,
decontextualized memorization (as in traditional phonics) is difficult. Literacy is
the outcome of natural motivation in talking and listening, reading and writing.
When teachers instruct using the whole-language approach, young children
(in addition to reading) draw, talk, and write. They also invent their own spelling,
because many languages, including English, are too variable to be spelled phonet-
ically (see Figure 12.5).
However, unlike talking, which is experience-expectant, reading and writing are
experience-dependent. Children need instruction, as Vygotsky might argue. Be-
ginning readers may need to be taught to translate spoken words into printed ones,
and vice versa. Some children may never “discover” how to read on their own.
Research arising from every contemporary developmental theory has noted the
uniqueness of each child as a beginning reader, including individual patterns of
language proficiency, learning style, and maturation. In practical terms, this
means that phonics may be essential for those children who need help learning
how to sound out new words. Targeted early instruction in letter–sound combina-
tions may be crucial (Torgesen, 2004). Score one for phonics.
Yet for comprehension and memory, children need to make connections be-
tween concepts, not just between letters. Thus, children need to read books that
are challenging and interesting and must write about their own experiences and
interests. Score one for whole language.
The answer to this tie is also a truce in the reading wars. A focus on phonics
need not undercut instruction that motivates children to read, write, and discuss
with their classmates and their parents. For reading comprehension and fluency,
phonemic awareness is a beginning, but other aspects of literacy are important
as well (Muter et al., 2004). As the editors of a leading publication for teachers
explain:
In any debate on reading instruction that counterposes a focus on skills with a
focus on enjoyment—or that pits phonological skills against the knowledge
necessary to comprehend grade-level material—there is only one good answer:
Kids need both.
[The Editors, American Educator, 2004, p. 5]
Fortunately, experts on the two sides in the reading wars have stopped their
bitter feud. Most developmentalists and many reading specialists now believe that
teachers should use a variety of methods and strategies, for there are “alternate
pathways in learning to read” (Berninger et al., 2002, p. 295). Research leaves
little doubt that in the early grades systematic phonics instruction “is important”
(Camilli et al., 2003, p. 34) but that it should not come at the expense of meaning
and pleasure.
Researchers are less sure of “the best approaches and methods of reading and
writing instruction for students older than age 9 and interventions for those who
are struggling readers in grades 4–12” (McCardle & Chhabra, 2004, pp. 472–
473). It is, however, known that, for older children, reading instruction can and
should be connected to literature, history, science, and other areas of study. An
expanding knowledge base aids comprehension and helps avoid the “fourth-grade
slump.” One teacher who knew that and taught accordingly may have saved some
people’s lives.
Teaching and Learning 325
whole-language approach Teaching reading
by encouraging early use of all language
skills—talking and listening, reading and
writing.
FIGURE 12.5
“You Wud Be Sad Like Me” Although Karla
uses invented spelling, her arguments show
that she is reasoning quite logically; her
school-age mind is working quite well. (If you
have trouble deciphering Karla’s note, turn
the book upside down for a translation.)
“From Karla to my mom. It’s no fair that you
made me let my lady bug go. What if I was
your mom and I made you take your lady bug.
I am sure you would be sad like me. That lady
bug might have been an orphan. So you
should have let me have it anyway.”
➤Response for Future Research
Scientists (from page 323): The next set of
published results of the TIMSS is expected in
2009. As someone who knows how to think
like a scientist, see if the headlines accurately
reflect the data.
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The Math Wars
Mathematics instruction in the United States has become even more problematic
than instruction in reading, for a number of reasons. First, economic development
depends on science and technology, and math is vital in both those fields. Second,
many children hate math, as suggested by a 2007 Google search that found
36,100 sites for “math phobia” and just 171 for “reading phobia,” a 210-to-1 ratio.
Third, U.S. students are weaker in math than students from other nations, espe-
cially East Asian nations, at least as measured by TIMSS. This last reason makes
math education vulnerable to quick solutions suggested by angry adults—not the
best way to develop curriculum.
One reason the United States does not rank higher may be just that: The battle
over how to teach math is not always to the benefit of children (Boaler, 2002).
According to one report, “U.S. mathematics instruction has been scorched in the
pedagogical blaze known as the ‘math wars’—a divide between those who see a
need for a greater emphasis on basic skills in math and others who say students
lack a broader, conceptual understanding of the subject” (Cavenaugh, 2005, p. 1).
Historically, math was taught by rote; children memorized number facts, such
as the multiplication tables, and filled page after page of workbooks. In reaction
against this approach, many educators, inspired especially by Piaget and Vygotsky,
sought to make math instruction more active and engaging, less a matter of mem-
orization than of discovery (Ginsburg et al., 1998).
This newer approach is controversial. Many parents and educators believe that
children need to memorize number facts. Educators as well as mathematicians
stress that math involves a particular set of rules, symbols, and processes that
must be taught, with limits to the role discovery can play (Mervis, 2006).
As with reading, researchers have attempted to understand what teachers can
do to help children learn, and enjoy, math. TIMSS experts videotaped 231 math
classes in three nations—Japan, Germany, and the United States—to analyze
national differences (Stigler & Hiebert, 1999). The U.S. teachers presented math
326 CHAPTER 12 ■ The School Years: Cognitive Development
a case to study
Where Did You Learn Tsunami ?
Before December 26, 2004, perhaps 1 percent of the world’s
population knew the word tsunami. I was in the other 99. Over
Christmas that year, when my nephew Bill said we should
pray for the victims of the tsunami, I marveled that he could
pronounce a word that I had not known until I read that day’s
headlines.
Even among the 1 percent who knew the word, few under-
stood it. Some British 10-year-olds were the exceptions. In early
December 2004 their teacher, Andrew Kearny, had shown them
a video clip of survivors of a tsunami that struck Hawaii in the
1950s and had drawn a diagram on the board that his students
copied into their exercise books. Tilly Smith was his student.
Two weeks later, Tilly was on Maikhao Beach in Phuket,
Thailand, with her parents and her 7-year-old sister. Suddenly,
the tide went out, leaving a wide stretch of sand where the
ocean had been. Most tourists stood gawking at the disappear-
ing ocean, but Tilly grabbed her mother’s hand: “Mummy, we
must get off the beach now. I think there’s going to be a
tsunami.”
Tilly’s parents alerted other holiday makers nearby, then raced
to tell their hotel staff in Phuket. The hotel swiftly evacuated
Maikhao Beach, and minutes later a huge wave crashed onto the
sand, sweeping all before it. Incredibly, the beach was one of the
few in Phuket where no one was killed.
[Larcombe, 2005]
Tilly and her family survived for many reasons: Tilly remem-
bered what she had learned; her parents heeded her warning;
higher ground was nearby. But some credit goes to her teacher,
who did more than list tsunami as a vocabulary word. He used
examples and activities to give the concept meaning. Ten-year-
olds are ready to learn and remember as long as knowledge is
concrete (Piaget) and instruction includes examples and active
participation (Vygotsky). This is not just good fortune, but also
good education.
➤Response for Teachers (from page 324):
Nobody works well in an institution they hate,
but, before quitting the profession, remember
that schools vary. There is probably another
school nearby that is much more to your liking
and that would welcome an experienced
teacher. Before you make a move, however,
assess the likelihood that you could adjust to
your current position in ways that would make
you happier. No school is perfect; nor is any
teacher.
306-331_BergerLS7e_CH12.qxp 9/12/07 8:30 PM Page 326

at a lower level than did their German and Japanese counterparts, with more defi-
nitions but less coherence and connection to what the students had learned in
other math classes. The “teachers seem to believe that learning terms and practic-
ing skills is not very exciting” (p. 89).
In contrast, the Japanese teachers were excited about math instruction, working
collaboratively and structuring lessons so that the children developed proofs and
alternative solutions, alone and in groups. Teachers used social interaction (among
groups of children and groups of teachers) and sequential curricula (lessons for
each day, week, and year built on previous math knowledge), often presenting the
students with problems to solve in groups.
Some have suggested that teachers should dispel math anxiety by convincing
students that they are good at math. This seems unlikely to be helpful. In the
United States, 51 percent of eighth-graders are highly confident of their math
ability, even though their scores on international math achievement tests are
unimpressive. Among 46 nations, only Israel has a higher level of math confidence
(59 percent) (Snyder et al., 2006). Unfortunately, achievement seems to fall as
confidence rises. The highest math achievement scores are from China (Taipei),
which has the lowest proportion of students who are highly confident of their
math ability (26 percent).
One idea that follows from information-processing theory is to make each
grade of elementary school math build on the previous year’s instruction. This
idea is now endorsed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
(NCTM), an influential group in the United States. For example, second-graders
will learn addition, subtraction, and place value; multiplication, fractions, and
decimals will be saved for the fourth grade (Mervis, 2006). Whether this plan will
be implemented and attained remains to be seen; children and parents like to
believe that they are advanced in math, and learning multiplication and fractions
in second grade confirms their belief, even though it will eventually slow down
their basic understanding.
Other Assumptions
The educational landscape is filled with other controversies and assumptions that
are commonly held but debatable. For example, in the past 20 years adults have
become convinced that children learn from homework, and even kindergarten
children often bring work home. Yet one researcher finds that homework under-
mines learning instead of advancing it (Kohn, 2006).
Similarly, although many parents choose to send their children to schools with
smaller class sizes, the evidence about their effect is mixed (Blatchford, 2003;
Hanushek, 1999). Wide international variation is apparent, from a teacher–pupil
ratio of 10 to 1 in Denmark to 30 to 1 in Turkey. Smaller is not necessarily better,
as evidenced by Asian nations with high ratios that tended to have high math and
science scores (Snyder et al., 2006).
Data on class size thus “do not lend themselves to straightforward implications
for policy” (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2004, p. 66; see Research
Design). Even a famous study in Tennessee, which found that smaller classes in
kindergarten benefited children for several years, is open to various interpretations
(Finn & Achilles, 1999).
Other reforms, in addition to reducing class size, that have been strongly advo-
cated—and strongly opposed—include raising teacher salaries; improving profes-
sional education; extending school hours; expanding the school year; creating
charter schools; allowing school vouchers; and increasing sports, music, or silent
reading. These might, or might not, help children learn. Valid, replicated, unbiased
research is thus far lacking. One review of the impact of class size concludes:
Teaching and Learning 327
Research Design
Scientists: NICHD Early Child Care
Research Network, consisting of 29
leading child-care researchers.
Publication: Developmental Psychology,
(2004).
Participants: A total of 890 children in
their second year of school in 651 ele-
mentary school classrooms.These
children were part of a cohort of 1,634
children followed since birth, from 10
research sites, in various locations in
the United States.
Design: Children’s achievement and
social outcomes were measured, as
were teacher behaviors, via a structured
three-hour observation in each class-
room. Measures were first adjusted to
reflect the children’s academic and
social backgrounds (e.g., SES, gender)
and the teachers’ backgrounds (e.g.,
education, ethnicity). Many factors were
controlled to learn the effects of class
size (which ranged from 10 to 39 stu-
dents per teacher).
Major conclusions: Class size was irrele-
vant for many measures. Smaller classes
(less than 20) were better in some ways
but not all. For example, first-graders in
smaller classes tended to develop better
word attack skills but were more disrup-
tive.Their teachers were less structured
but showed more warmth.
Comment:This study (cited in earlier
chapters) features a large, geographically
varied, longitudinal sample that allows
controls for preexisting factors. How-
ever, the sample had few high-risk
children (a newborn was excluded if
the mother was under 19, did not speak
English, or lived in an unsafe neighbor-
hood).
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Reductions in class size are but one of the policy options that can be pursued to
improve student learning. Careful evaluations of the impacts of other options,
preferably through the use of more true experiments, along with an analysis of
the costs of each option, need to be undertaken. However, to date there are rela-
tively few studies that even compute the true costs of large class-size reduction
programs, let alone ask whether the benefits . . . merit incurring the costs.
[Ehrenberg et al., 2001]
Similar conclusions apply for most other education reforms. Another review,
this one about home schooling, charter schools, and vouchers, complains of “the
difficulty of interpreting the research literature on this topic, most of which is
biased and far from approaching balanced social science” (Boyd, 2007, p. 7). The
call for “evidence-based” reforms is appreciated by developmentalists, as by all
other scientists. Unfortunately, as experience with Reading First has illustrated,
bias can creep in when it is left to political leaders to decide which evidence is
valid (Manzo, 2006).
Culture and Education
As you can see, many controversies regarding cognitive development as it relates
to education are political more than developmental. Piaget, Vygotsky, information-
processing theory, and, in earlier decades, progressive education and behavior
modification have all been used to support particular practices, sometimes for
good reasons, sometimes not. To conclude this chapter, we highlight again the
sometimes hidden role of culture.
Here are excerpts from two letters to a local newspaper in British Columbia,
Canada (quoted in K. Mitchell, 2001, pp. 64–65). One mother wrote:
Our children’s performances are much lower both in academic and moral areas.
I noticed the children have learned very little academically. They learned to have
self-confidence instead of being self-disciplined; learned to speak up instead of
being humbled; learned to be creative instead of self-motivated; and learned to
simplify things instead of organizing. All of these characteristics were not bal-
anced, and will be the source of disadvantage and difficulties in children in this
competitive society.
Another parent responded:
She wants her children to be self-disciplined, humble, self-motivated and organ-
ized, instead of being self-confident, assertive, creative and analytic. . . . These
repressive, authoritarian, “traditional” parents who hanker for the days of yore,
when fresh-faced school kids arrived all neatly decked out in drab-grey uniforms
and shiny lace-up leather shoes, are a menace to society.
In this district, many families were immigrants from Asia (including the author
of the first letter), while others and almost all the school administrators and teach-
ers were from families that had been in Canada for generations. Similar conflicts
erupt in every community that has diverse groups of families or a difference in
background between the teachers and the children.
Recognizing this problem is only a beginning. For example, in another Cana-
dian community, Inuit children were taught in Inuit by Inuits for their first two
years of school and were then taught in French or English, the majority languages,
by non-Inuits. The Inuit teachers prepared the children for the transition by
teaching French and English as a second language, and later teachers worked to
increase their students’ language proficiency. Both groups of teachers realized that
they were failing. Relatively few Inuit children became fluent in a second lan-
guage, and most dropped out before high school graduation. Other research has
328 CHAPTER 12 ■ The School Years: Cognitive Development
Especially for School Administrators
Children who wear uniforms in school tend to
score higher on reading tests. Why?
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found that many aboriginal adolescents (as members of Canada’s First
Nations are called) become alienated from their native culture and then
become depressed or even suicidal as adolescents (Chandler et al., 2003).
The problem may seem to be a failure of bilingual education—perhaps
total immersion coming too soon or too late. But culture, not language,
may be the pivotal factor.
A scientist using naturalistic observation found much more than a lan-
guage shift between grades 2 and 3 (Eriks-Brophy & Crago, 2003). The
Inuit teachers encouraged group learning and cooperation, almost never
explicitly judging an individual student’s response. By contrast, the non-
Inuit teachers often criticized behaviors that the earlier teachers encour-
aged, such as group cooperation (which the non-Inuit teachers called
“talking out of turn”), helping each other (“cheating”), and attempts to an-
swer (“stupid mistakes”).
A specific example illustrates this pattern. A common routine in North
American schools is called initiation/response/evaluation: The teacher
asks a question, a child responds, and the teacher states whether the
response is correct or not. An analysis of 14 teachers in this Inuit school
found that the initiation/response/evaluation routine dominated the
instruction of the non-Inuit teachers (60 percent) but not that of the
Inuit teachers (18 percent) (Eriks-Brophy & Crago, 2003). For example,
an Inuit teacher showed a picture and asked:
Teacher: This one. What is it?
Student: Tutuva (an insect).
Teacher: What is it?
Student: Tutuva.
Teacher: All of us, look carefully.
Student: Kituquianluti (another insect, this time correct.
The teacher nodded and breathed in.)
In contrast, a non-Inuit third-grade teacher asked:
Teacher: Richard, what is this?
Richard: It is an ear.
Teacher: Good.
Teacher: Rhoda, what is this?
Rhoda: Hair.
Teacher: No. What is this?
Rhoda: Face.
Teacher: It is a face.
Rhoda: It is a face.
Teacher: Very good, Rhoda.
[quoted in Eriks-Brophy & Crago, 2003]
Note that the first teacher never verbally evaluated the child (merely nodding
and breathing to signal correctness), but the second teacher did so at least three
times (“good,” “no,” “very good”). No wonder the children were confused and
discouraged. They were unprepared to make a cultural shift as well as a language
one.
Such problems can emerge anywhere. Teaching methods are the outcome of
cultural beliefs, a “social system that evolves over time” (Eriks-Brophy & Crago,
2003, p. 397), often hidden from the teachers themselves. Underlying the issues
that parents seize on—discipline, phonics, and math scores—are deeper issues
involving culture and values.
Every child wants to learn, every teacher wants to teach, and every family wants
the best for its children. This makes differences in curricula and methods much
Teaching and Learning 329
Hidden Curriculum This informal, bilingual
first-grade class in Acoma Pueblo, New
Mexico, is a contrast to the U.S. government’s
nineteenth-century policy of sending all Native
American children to English-only boarding
schools.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 330):
What three social constructions about proper
education for Pueblo children do you see?
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Building on Theory
1. According to Piaget, children begin concrete operational
thought at about age 6 or 7. Egocentrism diminishes and logic be-
gins. School-age children can understand classification, conserva-
tion, identity, and reversibility.
2. Vygotsky stressed the social context of learning, including the
specific lessons of school and the overall influence of culture.
International research finds that maturation is one factor in the
cognitive development of school-age children (as Piaget predicted)
and that cultural and economic forces are also influential (as
Vygotsky predicted).
3. An information-processing approach examines each step of
the thinking process, from input to output, using the computer
as a model. Humans are more creative than computers, but this
approach is useful for understanding memory, perception, and
expression.
4. Memory begins with information that reaches the brain from
the sense organs. Then selection processes allow some information
to reach working memory. Finally, long-term memory stores some
images and ideas indefinitely, retrieving some parts when needed.
5. Selective attention, a broader knowledge base, logical strategies
for retrieval, and faster processing advance every aspect of cog-
nition. Repeated practice makes thought patterns and skill sets
almost automatic, requiring little time or conscious effort.
6. Children become better at controlling and directing their think-
ing as the prefrontal cortex matures. Consequently, metacognition
advances.
Language
7. Language learning improves in many practical ways, including
expanded vocabulary, as words are logically linked together. Many
children learn a second language, succeeding if they are well
SUMMARY
330 CHAPTER 12 ■ The School Years: Cognitive Development
harder to reconcile than more obvious cultural manifestations. No one cares if a
particular child eats goat, chitlings, or whale for dinner, but people everywhere
care about what their own—and their neighbors’—children learn.
SUMMING UP
Societies throughout the world recognize that school-age children are avid learners and
that educated citizens are essential to economic development. However, schools differ
in what and how children are taught. The nature and content of education raise ideologi-
cal and political concerns. Examples are found in the reading wars, the math wars, class
size, and bilingual education. Research finds that direct instruction (in phonics; in mathe-
matical symbols and procedures; in the vocabulary, grammar, and syntax of second
languages) is useful, even essential, if children are to master all the skills that adults
want them to learn. Also crucial are motivation, pride, and social interaction. School-age
children are great learners, but they cannot learn everything. Adults decide the specifics,
and cultural values are apparent in every classroom.
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Maintaining Tradition Some would say that
these Vietnamese children in Texas are fortu-
nate. They are instructed in two languages by
a teacher who knows their culture, including
the use of red pens for self-correction as well
as teacher correction. Others would say that
these children would be better off in an
English-only classroom.
➤Response for School Administrators
(from page 328): The relationship reflects
correlation, not causation. Wearing uniforms
is more common when the culture of the
school emphasizes achievement and study,
with strict discipline in class and a policy of
expelling disruptive students.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (see
answer, page 330): The ideas that (1) learning
colors is important, (2) children should raise
their hands to be called on individually, and
(3) words should be written. (Note that the
Pueblo words for colors are much longer than
the English equivalents—harder for first-
grade readers.) Indeed, the very idea of
bilingual education is a social construction,
approved by most Americans but not
necessarily by research.
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concrete operational thought
(p. 307)
classification (p. 308)
identity (p. 308)
reversibility (p. 308)
information-processing theory
(p. 310)
sensory memory (p. 311)
working memory (p. 311)
long-term memory (p. 311)
knowledge base (p. 312)
control processes (p. 312)
metacognition (p. 313)
English-language learner (ELL)
(p. 315)
total immersion (p. 316)
bilingual education (p. 316)
ESL (English as a second
language) (p. 316)
No Child Left Behind Act
(p. 319)
National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP)
(p. 319)
Reading First (p. 319)
hidden curriculum (p. 320)
TIMSS (Trends in Math and
Science Study) (p. 321)
Progress in International
Reading Literacy Skills
(PIRLS) (p. 322)
phonics approach (p. 324)
whole-language approach
(p. 325)
KEY TERMS
Summary 331
7. What are some of the differences in education in various parts
of the world?
8. Why are international tests of learning given, and what are some
of the problems with such tests?
9. How might a hidden curriculum affect what a child might learn?
10. Why are disagreements about curriculum and method some-
times called “wars,” not merely differences of opinion?
1. How do logical ideas help children understand classification?
2. According to Vygotsky, if children never went to school, how
would cognitive development occur?
3. What are differences among the three kinds of memory?
4. What are the differences between language learning in early
and middle childhood?
5. What are the advantages and disadvantages in teaching children
who do not speak English in English-only classes?
6. How does metacognition affect the ability to learn something
new?
3. What do you remember about how you learned to read? Com-
pare your memories with those of two other people, one at least
10 years older and the other at least 5 years younger than you.
Can you draw any conclusions about effective reading instruc-
tion? If so, what are they? If not, why not?
4. Talk to two parents of primary school children. What do they
think are the best and worst parts of their children’s education?
Ask specific questions and analyze the results.
1. Visit a local elementary school and look for the hidden curricu-
lum. For example, do the children line up? Why or why not, when
and how? Does gender, age, ability, or talent affect the grouping of
children or the selection of staff? What is on the walls? Are par-
ents involved? If so, how? For everything you observe, speculate
about the underlying assumptions.
2. Interview a 7- to 11-year-old child to find out what he or she
knows and understands about mathematics. Relate both correct and
incorrect responses to the logic of concrete operational thought.
KEY QUESTIONS
APPLICATIONS
taught. Children of low SES are usually lower in linguistic skills,
primarily because they hear less language and adult expectations
for their learning are low.
Teaching and Learning
8. Nations and experts agree that education is critical during
middle childhood, and 95 percent of the world’s children now at-
tend primary school. Schools differ in what and how they teach,
especially in the hidden curriculum.
9. International assessments are useful as comparisons, partly
because few objective measures of learning are available. In the
United States, the No Child Left Behind law and the National
Assessment of Educational Progress attempt to raise the standard
of education, with mixed success.
10. The “reading wars” pit advocates of phonics against advocates
of the whole-language approach. These wars have quieted some-
what, as research finds that phonological understanding is essen-
tial for every child who is just learning to read but that motivation
and vocabulary are important as well.
11. Math learned by rote and math learned via social interaction
are the two sides of the “math wars.” Math and science achieve-
ment are higher in East Asian nations than elsewhere, perhaps
because in those countries math lessons are sequential and inter-
active.
12. Cultural differences in assumptions about education are fre-
quent, but scientific research on the best way for children to learn
is scarce. For example, many people believe that children learn
better in small classes, but the research is inconclusive.
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The School Years:
Psychosocial
Development
In middle childhood, children break free from the closely supervisedand limited arena of younger years. They venture forth in the neighbor-hood, community, and school, experiencing friendships, rivalries, andother social complexities.
From Cinderella to Harry Potter, school-age children’s favorite stories use
the extraordinary—either magical or coincidental—as a scaffold for deeper
themes: friendship, mistrust of adults, sharp wits, and the heroic battle of
good against evil. These are standard themes that children love.
This chapter examines the interplay between expanding freedom and
guiding forces, between brave adventures and adult society, between valuing
peers and needing parents. We look first at friends and families, then at the
children themselves, especially at their coping strategies and inner strengths.
The Peer Group
Getting along with peers is especially crucial during middle childhood,
“central to living a full life and feeling good” (Borland, 1998, p. 28). Difficul-
ties with peers can cause serious problems, and being well-liked is protective,
especially for children from conflicted, punitive, or otherwise stressful homes
(Criss et al., 2002; Rubin et al., 2006).
There is an important developmental progression in peer relationships.
Younger children have friends and learn from them, but their egocentrism
makes them less affected by another’s acceptance or rejection. School-age
children, in contrast, are well aware of their classmates’ opinions, judgments,
and accomplishments.
One way to characterize this is to distinguish between “two distinct but
intimately intertwined aspects of self” (Harter, 2006, p. 508): the “I-self ”
and the “me-self.” The I-self is the self as subject—a person who thinks,
acts, and feels independently; the me-self is the self as object—a person
reflected, validated, and critiqued by others (Harter, 2006).
In middle childhood, the me-self is crucial, because of the new strength
of social comparison, comparing oneself with other people even when no
one else explicitly makes the comparison. School-age children become
much more socially aware, judging themselves as worse or better than other
people in hundreds of ways. Ideally, social comparison helps children value
13
333
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� The Peer Group
The Culture of Children
Children’s Moral Codes
Social Acceptance
Bullies and Victims
� Families and Children
Shared and Nonshared Environment
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST:
“I Always Dressed One in Blue Stuff . . .”
Family Function and Dysfunction
Family Trouble
� The Nature of the Child
Psychoanalytic Theory
Self-Concept
Coping and Overcoming
social comparison The tendency to assess
one’s abilities, achievements, social status,
and other attributes by measuring them
against those of other people, especially
one’s peers.
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the abilities they have and abandon the imaginary, rosy
self-evaluation of preschoolers (Grolnick et al., 1997;
Jacobs et al., 2002).
The Culture of Children
Peer relationships, unlike adult–child relationships, in-
volve partners who negotiate, compromise, share, and
defend themselves as equals. Children learn social
lessons from each other that grown-ups cannot teach,
not only because adults are from a different generation
but also because they are not peers. Adults sometimes
command obedience, sometimes allow dominance, but
always are much older and bigger.
The culture of children includes the particular
rules and rituals that are passed down from slightly
older children without adult approval. “Ring around
the rosy, ashes, ashes, all fall down,” for instance, originated with children coping
with death (Kastenbaum, 2006). (Rosy is short for rosary.)
Throughout the world, the culture of children encourages independence from
adult society. By age 10, if not before, peers pity those (especially boys) whose par-
ents kiss them in public (“momma’s boy”), tease children who please the teachers
(“teacher’s pet,” “suck up”), and despise those who betray other children to adults
(“tattletale,” “grasser,” “snitch,” “rat”). Keeping secrets from adults is part of the
culture of children.
Clothes often signify independence and peer-group membership. Many 9-year-
olds refuse to wear clothes their parents buy because they are too loose, too tight,
too long, too short, or wrong in color, style, brand, or in some other way invisible to
adults.
Since children adopt the manners and values of their peers, parents may encour-
age their children to form certain friendships (Dishion & Bullock, 2002). This suc-
ceeds with young children, but not with older ones, some of whom prefer friends
who talk “dirty” or defy authority. The culture of children may include deviancy
training, when children show each other how to avoid adult restrictions (Snyder
et al., 2005). Some consequences of this are harmless (passing a note during class),
others are not (shoplifting, spray-painting graffiti, cigarette smoking).
How to Play Boys teach each other the
rituals and rules of engagement. The bigger
boy shown here could hurt the smaller one,
but he won’t; their culture forbids it in such
situations.
Yu-Gi-Oh The specifics vary tremendously—
stamps, stickers, liquor ads, matchbooks,
baseball cards, and many more—but the
impulse to collect, organize, and trade certain
items is characteristic of school-age children.
For a few years, in south Florida and else-
where, the coveted collector’s item was
Yu-Gi-Oh cards.
culture of children The particular habits,
styles, and values that reflect the set of
rules and rituals that characterize children
as distinct from adult society.
deviancy training The process whereby
children are taught by their peers to avoid
restrictions imposed by adults.
334 CHAPTER 13 ■ The School Years: Psychosocial Development
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One aspect of the culture of children that bothers
many adults in developed nations is sexism. Gender
stereotypes become more elaborate during the school
years, when children much prefer to play with other
children of their own sex (Ruble et al., 2006). While
gender segregation is strongly maintained (especially
among the boys), racial and ethnic prejudice is usually
not (Nesdale, 2004). Indeed, schoolchildren’s sense of
justice and fairness helps them recognize and reject prej-
udice, first when it affects someone else and then them-
selves (C. S. Brown & Bigler, 2005; Killen, 2007).
As already apparent in deviancy training, the culture
of children is not always benign. For example, because
communication with peers is a priority, children may
quickly master a second language but also spout curses,
accents, and slang if that signifies being in synch (or
“up,” or “down”) with their peers’ culture.
Attitudes are affected by friends as well. Remember Yolanda and Paul (from
Chapter 12)?
Yolanda:
There’s one friend . . . she’s always been with me, in bad or good things . . .
She’s always telling me, “Keep on going and your dreams are gonna come true.”
Paul:
I think right now about going Christian, right? Just going Christian, trying to do
good, you know? Stay away from drugs, everything. And every time it seems like
I think about that, I think about the homeboys. And it’s a trip because a lot of
the homeboys are my family, too, you know?
[quoted in Nieto, 2000, pp. 220, 149]
Children’s Moral Codes
Ages 7 to 11 are:
years of eager, lively searching on the part of children . . . as they try to under-
stand things, to figure them out, but also to weigh the rights and wrongs . . . This
is the time for growth of the moral imagination, fueled constantly by the willing-
ness, the eagerness of children to put themselves in the shoes of others.
[Coles, 1997]
The validity of that statement is suggested by a meta-analysis of dozens of studies:
Generally, school-age children are more likely to behave prosocially than are younger
children (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998).
A similar idea arises from the theory of social efficacy—that people come to be-
lieve that they can affect their circumstances; this belief then leads to action that
changes the social context. As Bandura writes, “the human mind is generative,
reflective, proactive and creative, not merely reactive” (2006, p. 167). Those are
exactly the cognitive traits that come to the fore in middle childhood, and they re-
sult in moral engagement, a drive to understand and weigh in on moral arguments.
Empirical studies show that, throughout middle childhood, children readily suggest
moral arguments to distinguish right from wrong (Killen, 2007).
Emotion, particularly empathy (stronger now because children are more aware
of each other), is one force that drives this interest in right and wrong. Peer
culture and personal experience is another. For example, children in multiethnic
schools are better able to argue against prejudice (Killen et al., 2006). Intellectual
maturation is a fourth, as we will now see.
The Peer Group 335
The Rules of the Game These young monks
in Myanmar (formerly Burma) are playing a
board game that adults also play, but the chil-
dren have some of their own refinements of
the general rules. Children’s peer groups
often modify the norms of dominant culture,
as is evident in everything from superstitions
to stickball.
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Stages of Moral Reasoning
Much of the developmental research on children’s morality began with
Piaget’s descriptions of the rules used by children as they play (Piaget,
1932/1997). This led to Lawrence Kohlberg’s explanation of the cognitive
stages of morality (Kohlberg, 1963). Kohlberg’s research involved asking
children and adolescents (and eventually adults) about various moral
dilemmas. The story of a poor man named Heinz, whose wife was dying,
serves as an example. A local druggist had the only cure for the wife’s ill-
ness, an expensive drug that sold for 10 times what it cost to make.
Heinz went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only
get together about half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife
was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the
druggist said “no.” The husband got desperate and broke into the man’s
store to steal the drug for his wife. Should the husband have done that?
Why?
[Kohlberg, 1963]
The crucial factor in Kohlberg’s scheme is not the final answer, but the
reasons for it. For instance, a person might say the husband should steal the
drug because he needs his wife to care for him, or because people will
blame him if he lets his wife die, or because trying to save her life is more
important than obeying the law. Each reason indicates a different level of
moral reasoning.
Kohlberg described three levels of moral reasoning, with two stages at
each level (see Table 13.1) and with clear parallels to Piaget’s stages of
cognition. Preconventional moral reasoning is similar to preoperational
thought in that it is egocentric. Conventional moral reasoning parallels
concrete operational thought in that it relates to current, observable prac-
tices. Postconventional moral reasoning is similar to formal operational
thought because it uses logic and abstractions, going beyond what is con-
cretely observed in a particular society.
According to Kohlberg, intellectual maturation, as well as experience,
advances moral thinking. During middle childhood, children’s answers shift
from being primarily preconventional to conventional: Concrete thought
and peer experiences help children move past the first two stages to the
next two.
Kohlberg has been criticized for not taking cultural or gender differences
into account. For example, caring for family members is much more impor-
tant to many people than Kohlberg seemed to recognize. In terms of chil-
dren’s psychosocial development, Kohlberg did not seem to recognize the
shift from adult to peer values. School-age children are quite capable of
questioning or ignoring adult rules that seem unfair (Turiel, 2006).
What Children Value
Sociocultural contexts are always influential at any stage. Moral specifics vary
between and within nations, even within one ethnic group in one region. Yolanda
and Paul, both Hispanic Americans from southern California, had quite different
opinions about the value of education.
Yolanda:
I feel proud of myself when I see a [good] grade. And like [if] I see a C, I’m going
to have to pull this grade up. . . . I like learning. I like really getting my mind
working. . . . [Education] is good for you.
preconventional moral reasoning
Kohlberg’s first level of moral reasoning,
emphasizing rewards and punishments.
conventional moral reasoning Kohlberg’s
second level of moral reasoning, empha-
sizing social rules.
postconventional moral reasoning
Kohlberg’s third level of moral reasoning,
emphasizing moral principles.
336 CHAPTER 13 ■ The School Years: Psychosocial Development
TABLE 13.1
Kohlberg’s Three Levels and
Six Stages of Moral Reasoning
Level I: Preconventional Moral Reasoning
The goal is to get rewards and avoid punishments;
this is a self-centered level.
■ Stage One: Might makes right (a punishment and
obedience orientation). The most important value
is to maintain the appearance of obedience to
authority, avoiding punishment while still
advancing self-interest. Don’t get caught!
■ Stage Two: Look out for number one (an instru-
mental and relativist orientation). Each person
tries to take care of his or her own needs. The
reason to be nice to other people is so that they
will be nice to you.
Level II: Conventional Moral Reasoning
Emphasis is placed on social rules; this is a
community-centered level.
■ Stage Three: “Good girl” and “nice boy.” Proper
behavior is behavior that pleases other people.
Social approval is more important than any
specific reward.
■ Stage Four: “Law and order.” Proper behavior
means being a dutiful citizen and obeying the
laws set down by society, even when no police
are nearby.
Level III: Postconventional Moral Reasoning
Emphasis is placed on moral principles; this level is
centered on ideals.
■ Stage Five: Social contract. Obey social rules
because they benefit everyone and are estab-
lished by mutual agreement. If the rules become
destructive or if one party doesn’t live up to the
agreement, the contract is no longer binding.
Under some circumstances, disobeying the law
is moral.
■ Stage Six: Universal ethical principles. General,
universally valid principles, not individual
situations (level I) or community practices
(level II), determine right and wrong. Ethical
values (such as “life is sacred”) are established
by individual reflection and may contradict
egocentric (level I) or social and community
(level II) values.
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Paul:
I try not to get influenced too much, pulled into what I don’t want to be into.
But mostly, it’s hard. You don’t want people to be saying you’re stupid. “Why do
you want to go to school and get a job? . . . Drop out.”
[quoted in Nieto, 2000, pp. 220, 221, 252]
In developed nations, almost all parents value education and expect children to
respect their teachers and other elders, but children do not necessarily do so
(Cohen et al., 2006). They seek respect from each other. In other cultures, adults
may not value school or friendship as much as children do.
In rural Kenyan villages, the most competent children are often those viewed as
having . . . accurate knowledge regarding natural herbal medicines that are used
to treat parasites and other illnesses. . . . In many rural Alaska Yup’ik villages, the
most competent children are often those viewed as having . . . superior hunting
and gathering skills.
[Sternberg & Grigorenko, 2004, p. ix]
As in this example, people disagree about which traits are most important in
children. To cite an example familiar in developed nations, some parents want cre-
ative, lively offspring and others prefer obedient, quiet ones. But as Kenya, Alaska,
and every other nation strives to modernize, political leaders, teachers, and many
of the children themselves value school success.
Similarly, children’s moral precepts are not necessarily the ones that adults en-
dorse. Parents who want a lively child may watch with dismay as their school-age
child starts acting lackadaisical and bored (which in the culture of children may
be “cool”); parents who want an obedient child may have a defiant one. Three
common values among 6- to11-year-olds are: Protect your friends, don’t tell adults
what is happening, and don’t be too different from your peers (which explains
both apparent boredom and overt defiance.)
Social Acceptance
Some children are well-liked, others not; but the children in each group change
over time (Kupersmidt et al., 2004; Ladd, 2005). In a study conducted over six
years, researchers asked 299 children which classmates they wanted, or did not
want, as playmates. Overall, about a third of the children were popular (often
chosen), about half were average (sometimes chosen), and about a sixth were
unpopular (often rejected), with some change in the size of each cluster from year
to year. Almost every child (89 percent) changed from one cluster to another over
the six years. Only 2 percent were unpopular every year, and only 6 percent were
consistently popular (Brendgen et al., 2001).
Culture and cohort affect the reasons why children are liked. For example, in
North American culture, shy children are consistently not popular; in contrast, a
study conducted in 1990 in Shanghai found that shy children were respected and
often popular (Chen et al., 1992). Over the next 12 years, however, Chinese cul-
ture changed; assertiveness became more valued. This was shown in a new survey
from the same Shanghai schools, which found that shy children were less popular
than their shy predecessors had been (Chen et al., 2005). This cultural change
also meant that fewer children identified themselves as shy.
Among young children in the United States, the most popular children are
“kind, trustworthy, cooperative.” Particularly as children grow older (around the
time of fifth grade), a new group appears—children who are “athletic, cool, domi-
nant, arrogant, and . . . aggressive.” They are feared and respected, high in social
status, but not necessarily liked (Cillessen & Mayeux, 2004a, p. 147).
The Peer Group 337
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Another development is the emergence of three distinct types of unpopular
children. Some are neglected, not really rejected; they are ignored but not
shunned. This may not be damaging to the child, especially if he or she has a
supportive family or outstanding talent (in music or the arts, say) (Sandstrom &
Zakriski, 2004).
The other two types of unpopular children suffer active rejection. Some are
aggressive-rejected—disliked because they are antagonistic and confrontational.
Others are withdrawn-rejected—disliked because they are timid, withdrawn,
and anxious. Children of these two types have much in common: They tend to
misinterpret social situations and to lack emotional regulation, and they are often
mistreated at home (Pollak et al., 2000).
Social Awareness
Interpretation of social situations (akin to emotional intelligence, discussed in
Chapter 11) may be crucial for peer acceptance. Social cognition is the ability
to understand human interactions, an ability that begins developing in infancy
(with social referencing) and continues in early childhood (as children develop a
theory of mind). In most cases, social cognition is well-established in middle
childhood. Children with impaired social cognition are likely to be rejected
(Gifford-Smith & Rabiner, 2004; Ladd, 2005).
One extensive two-year study of social awareness began with 41⁄2 – to 8-year-
olds. The researchers found that school-age children improve not only in social
cognition but also in a related ability called effortful control, which entails mod-
ifying impulses and emotions. As a result of these improvements, the older chil-
dren in this study had fewer emotional problems than did the younger ones, based
on parents’ reports (N. Eisenberg et al., 2004).
Well-liked children generally assume that social slights, from a push to an un-
kind remark, are accidental. Therefore, in contrast with rejected children, a social
slight does not provoke fear, self-doubt, or anger. Given a direct conflict between
themselves and another child, well-liked children think of the future of that rela-
tionship, seeking a compromise to maintain the friendship (Rose & Asher, 1999).
These prosocial impulses and attitudes are a sign of social maturity, rare in re-
jected children (Gifford-Smith & Rabiner, 2004).
aggressive-rejected Rejected by peers
because of antagonistic, confrontational
behavior.
withdrawn-rejected Rejected by peers
because of timid, withdrawn, and anxious
behavior.
338 CHAPTER 13 ■ The School Years: Psychosocial Development
AL
AM
Y
social cognition The ability to understand
social interactions, including the causes
and consequences of human behavior.
effortful control The ability to regulate one’s
emotions and actions through effort, not
simply through natural inclination.
Loneliness Are the girls in the background
whispering about the girl in the foreground
loudly enough for her (but not the teacher) to
hear? Perhaps this social situation is not what
it appears to be, but almost every classroom
has one or two rejected children, the targets
of gossip, rumors, and social isolation.
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Friendship
Although school-age children value acceptance by the entire peer group, personal
friendship is even more important to them (Erwin, 1998; Ladd, 1999; Sandstrom
& Zakriski, 2004). Indeed, if they had to choose between being popular but
friendless and having close friends but being unpopular, most children would take
the friends. That is a healthy choice. Friendship leads to psychosocial growth and
buffers against psychopathology.
A longitudinal study of peer acceptance (popularity) and close friendship (mu-
tual loyalty) among fifth-graders found that both affected social interactions and
emotional health 12 years later but that close friends were more important (Bagwell
et al., 2001).
Another study found that children had about the same number of acquain-
tances no matter what their home backgrounds, but those from violent homes had
fewer close friends and were lonelier. The authors explained, “Skill at recruiting
surface acquaintances or playmates is different . . . from the
skill required to sustain close relationships,” and the latter is
needed if the child is to avoid loneliness, isolation, and rejec-
tion (McCloskey & Stuewig, 2001, p. 93).
Friendships become more intense and intimate as chil-
dren grow older, an expected development with improve-
ment in social cognition and effortful control. Compared to
age 6, by age 10, children demand more of their friends,
change friends less often, become upset when a friendship
breaks up, and find it harder to make new friends. Gender
differences persist in activities (girls talk more while boys
play games), but both boys and girls want best friends
(Erwin, 1998; Underwood, 2004).
By age 10, most children know how to be a good friend.
For example, when fifth-graders were asked how they would
react if other children teased their friend, they almost all said
they would ask their friend to do something fun with them,
reassuring them that “things like that happen to everyone”
(Rose & Asher, 2004).
Older children tend to choose best friends whose interests, values, and back-
grounds are similar to their own. In fact, by the end of middle childhood, close
friendships are almost always between children of the same sex, age, ethnicity,
and socioeconomic status. This occurs not because children become more preju-
diced over the course of middle childhood (they do not) but because they seek
friends who understand and agree with them (Aboud & Amato, 2001; Aboud &
Mendelson, 1996; Powlishta, 2004).
Bullies and Victims
Almost every adult remembers isolated attacks, occasional insults, and unex-
pected social slights in childhood. Many adults also remember good friends who
kept them from being bullied.
Defining Terms
Bullying is defined as repeated, systematic attacks intended to harm those who
are unable or unlikely to defend themselves and who have no protective social
network. Bullying occurs in every nation, in every community, and in every kind of
school (religious or secular, public or private, progressive or traditional, large or
small), although some schools have much less bullying than others of the same
bullying Repeated, systematic efforts to
inflict harm through physical, verbal, or
social attack on a weaker person.
The Peer Group 339
Friends and Culture Like children every-
where, these children—two 7-year-olds and
one 10-year-old, of the Surma people in
southern Ethiopia—model their appearance
after that of slightly older children, in this
case adolescents who apply elaborate body
paint for courtship and stick-fighting rituals.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 340):
Are they boys or girls?
CA
RO
L
BE
CK
W
IT
H
&
A
N
GE
LA
F
IS
HE
R
/ H
AG
A
/ T
HE
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
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type. Bullying may be physical (hitting, pinching, or kicking), verbal (teasing,
taunting, or name-calling), or relational (designed to halt peer acceptance).
A key word in this definition is repeated. Victims of bullying typically endure
shameful experiences again and again—being forced to hand over lunch money,
laugh at insults, drink milk mixed with detergent, and so on, with others watching
and no one defending them.
Victims of bullying tend to be “cautious, sensitive, quiet . . . lonely and aban-
doned at school. As a rule, they do not have a single good friend in their class”
(Olweus et al., 1999, p. 15). Most victims are withdrawn-rejected, but some are
aggressive-rejected, called bully-victims (or provocative victims) (Unnever, 2005).
Bully-victims are “the most strongly disliked members of the peer group,” with
neither friends nor sympathizers (Sandstrom & Zakriski, 2004, p. 110).
Most bullies are not rejected. They have a few admiring friends (henchmen).
Unless they are bully-victims, they are socially perceptive—but without the em-
pathy of prosocial children. Especially over the years of middle childhood, they
become skilled at avoiding adult awareness, attacking victims who can be counted
on not to resist.
Boy bullies are often big; they target smaller, weaker boys. Girl bullies are often
sharp-tongued; they harass shyer, more soft-spoken girls. Boys tend to use force
(physical aggression), while girls tend to mock, ridicule, or spread rumors (rela-
tional aggression). This is a generality; many bullies of both sexes use multiple
tactics.
Bullying may originate with a genetic predisposition or a brain abnormality, but
parents, teachers, and peers usually succeed in teaching children to restrain their
aggressive impulses before middle childhood (part of effortful control). However,
families that create insecure attachment, provide a stressful home life, or include
hostile siblings tend to intensify children’s aggression (Cairns & Cairns, 2001;
Ladd, 2005).
The consequences of bullying can echo for years. Many victims develop low
self-esteem, and some explode violently at times; many bullies become increasingly
340 CHAPTER 13 ■ The School Years: Psychosocial Development
Picking on Someone Your Own Sex Bullies
usually target victims of the same sex. Boy
victims tend to be physically weaker than
their tormentors, whereas girl victims tend
to be socially out of step—unusually shy or
self-conscious, or unfashionably dressed. In
the photograph at right, notice that the by-
standers seem very interested in the bullying
episode, but no one is about to intervene.
JO
N
AT
HA
N
N
OU
RO
K
/ P
HO
TO
ED
IT,
IN
C.
M
IC
HE
LL
E
D.
B
RI
DE
W
EL
L
/ P
HO
TO
ED
IT,
IN
C.
bully-victim Someone who attacks others,
and who is attacked as well. (Also called
provocative victims because they do things
that elicit bullying, such as taking a bully’s
pencil.)
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 339): They are all girls. Boys would not
be likely to stand so close together. Also, the
two 7-year-olds have decorated their soon-to-
be budding breasts.
332-359_BergerLS7E_CH13.qxp 9/14/07 12:06 PM Page 340

cruel (Berger, 2007). Over time, both bullies and victims incur social costs, includ-
ing impaired social understanding and relationship difficulties (Pepler et al., 2004).
Even bystanders suffer (Nishina & Juvonen, 2005), liking school less. Perhaps
mirror neurons make them feel pain when observing victimization (Berger, 2007).
Can Bullying Be Stopped?
Most children who are attacked find ways to halt ongoing victimization, by ignor-
ing, retaliating, defusing, or avoiding. A study of older children who were bullied
one year but not the next indicated that finding new friends was crucial (P. K.
Smith, et al., 2004). Friendship helps current victims, but bullies may find new
targets. More successful efforts change conditions in the whole school, including
the behaviors of teachers and bystanders.
This “whole-school” strategy is advocated by Dan Olweus, a pioneer in antibul-
lying efforts. In 1982, after three victims of bullying in Norway killed themselves,
the government asked Olweus to survey Norway’s 90,000 school-age children. He
reported much more bullying than adults realized: 14 percent of the children in
grades 2–5 said that they were victims “now and then” and 10 percent admitted
that they deliberately hurt other children (Olweus, 1993).
To stop bullying, Olweus used an ecological-systems approach, involving every
segment of the school. He sent pamphlets to parents, showed videos to students,
trained school staff, and increased supervision during recess. In each classroom,
students discussed how to stop bullying and befriend lonely children. Bullies and
their parents were counseled. Twenty months later, Olweus surveyed the children
again. Bullying had been reduced by half (Olweus, 1992).
Similar efforts have been tried in dozens of nations, after surveys found high
rates of bullying. For example, a Canadian study reported that about a third of the
boys and a fourth of the girls had bullied another child in the previous two months
(Pepler et al., 2004). However, interventions have usually been less successful
than Olweus’s original effort.
In the United States, one recent intervention produced a decrease in observed
bullying but not in reported bullying (Frey et al., 2005; see Research Design).
After another much-acclaimed effort in Texas, reported bullying actually increased
(Rosenbluth et al., 2004). Several studies have discovered that putting troubled
students together in a therapy group or a classroom tends to increase aggression in
all of them (Kupersmidt et al., 2004). Older children are particularly stuck in their
patterns; some high school efforts have backfired.
Especially for Former Victims of
Bullying Almost everyone was bullied at
some point in childhood. When you
remember such moments, how can you
avoid feeling sad and depressed?
The Peer Group 341
Shake Hands or Yell “Uncle” Many schools,
such as this one in Alaska, have trained peer
mediators who intervene in disputes, hear
both sides, take notes, and seek a resolution.
Without such efforts, antagonists usually fight
until one gives up, giving bullies free rein.
Despite Alaska’s higher rate of adolescent al-
cohol abuse, the state’s adolescent homicide
rate is lower than the national average.
FR
AN
K
FO
UR
N
IE
R
/ W
OO
DF
IN
C
AM
P
&
A
SS
OC
IA
TE
S
FR
AN
K
FO
UR
N
IE
R
/ W
OO
DF
IN
C
AM
P
&
A
SS
OC
IA
TE
S
Especially for Parents of an Accused
Bully Another parent has told you that your
child is a bully. Your child denies it and
explains that the other child doesn’t mind
being teased.
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342 CHAPTER 13 ■ The School Years: Psychosocial Development
Even in elementary school, well-intentioned measures, such as letting children
solve problems on their own or assigning guards to the school, may make the situa-
tion worse. Teaching social cognition to victims may seem like a good idea, but the
problem arises from the school culture more than from the victims. Many anti-
bullying projects report discouraging results (J. D. Smith, et al., 2004; P. K. Smith
& Ananiadou, 2003).
A review of all research on successful ways to halt bullying (Berger, 2007) finds
the following to be true:
■ The whole school must change, not just the identified bullies.
■ Intervention is more effective in the younger grades.
■ Evaluation is critical. Programs that appear to be good might actually be
harmful.
This final point merits special emphasis. Some programs make a difference; some
do not; only objective follow-up can tell. The best recent success was reported
from a multifaceted effort that involved every school in one town over eight years.
Victimization was reduced from 9 to 3 percent (Koivisto, 2004). Sustained and
comprehensive effort may be what is needed.
SUMMING UP
School-age children develop their own culture, with customs and morals that encourage
them to be loyal to each other. Moral development is affected by cognitive maturation
and cultural values, with school-age children being more influenced by the ethics of their
peer groups than by adults. All 6- to 11-year-olds need social acceptance and close, mu-
tual friendships, to protect against loneliness and depression.
Most children experience some peer rejection as well as acceptance. However,
some are repeatedly rejected and friendless, becoming victims of bullying. Bullying oc-
curs everywhere, but the frequency and type depend on the school climate, on the cul-
ture, and on the child’s age and gender. Efforts to reduce bullying have rarely been
successful; a whole-school approach seems best.
■
Families and Children
No one doubts that genes affect temperament as well as ability, that peers are
vital, and that schools and cultures influence what, and how much, children learn.
Many people are also convinced that parental practices make a decided difference
in how children develop. On this last point, some developmental researchers have
expressed doubts, suggesting that genes, peers, and communities are so powerful
that there may be little room left for parents (Ladd & Pettit, 2002; McLeod et al.,
2007; O’Connor, 2002).
As already detailed (see Chapter 3), a substantial part of a person’s behavior
can be traced to heredity. This statement is based on research and statistical
analysis of many traits found in monozygotic twins (genetically identical) sepa-
rated at birth and raised in different homes (environment is not identical) (Canli,
2006; Lykken, 2006; Plomin et al., 2002; Wright, 1999).
Some human traits (such as height and hearing) are largely genetic; others
(especially complex traits, including moral values) are far less so.
Nothing is entirely genetic or entirely environmental: Genes always interact
with the environment, which amplifies the power of some genes and mutes the
expression of others (see Chapter 1). Also, as the dynamic-systems approach re-
minds us, the relationship between genes and the environment for any particular
Research Design
Scientists: Karin S. Frey, Miriam K.
Hirschstein, Jennie L. Snell, Leihua V. S.
Edstron, Elizabeth MacKenzie, and Car-
ole J. Broderick (all from The Committee
on Children).
Publication: Developmental Psychology
(2005).
Participants: All third- to sixth-graders
in six schools.
Design: Confidential surveys and play-
ground observations were conducted
at six schools (three experimental and
three control), both before and after in-
terventions at the experimental schools.
In the experimental schools, administra-
tive changes (such as better supervision
at recess) were coupled with a special
12-week curriculum taught by all the
third- to sixth-grade teachers.
Major conclusion: Bullying is hard to
stop. Playground observations found
that bullying at the three control
schools increased more over the school
year than in the experimental schools
(60 percent compared with 11 percent).
However, children’s attitudes and self-
reported victimization did not improve.
Comment:This is good science, with ex-
perimental and control groups, before-
and-after measures, observations, and
questionnaires. It shows, unfortunately,
that the culture of children and schools
resists change.
➤Response for Former Victims of
Bullying (from page 341): Although children
who are victims of bullying often feel inferior
and alone, you now know that adults should
have stopped the bully. Now you can become
angry at the adults who should have
protected you. You can also be proud of
yourself for having eventually gotten through
or escaped the situation. Your anger and pride
may replace your lingering sadness and
depression.
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trait changes over time. Here we focus on the environmental component of child
development between ages 6 and 10.
Shared and Nonshared Environment
Environment is subdivided into shared environment (e.g., household influences
that are the same for two people, such as children reared together) and nonshared
(e.g., when siblings have different friends and different teachers). Surprisingly,
careful research has repeatedly found that nonshared environmental factors are
more influential on siblings than are shared ones. This fact has led some to
conclude that parents have little influence on how school-age children develop
(e.g., Harris, 1998, 2002).
The latest findings, however, reassert the power of parents. The analysis of
shared and nonshared influences was correct, but the assumption was wrong.
Children raised in the same household do not necessarily share the same home
environment. If the family moves, parents divorce, or one or both lose a job, each
child is affected differently; thus, these environmental influences are nonshared.
Further, parents’ attitudes toward each of their children vary, as the following
makes clear.
Families and Children 343
thinking like a scientist
“I Always Dressed One in Blue Stuff . . .”
One way to measure family influence is to compare children of
varying genetic similarity (twins, full siblings, stepsiblings,
adopted children) raised in the same household (Reiss et al.,
2000). The extent to which children share alleles (100 percent
for monozygotic twins, 50 percent for full siblings, 25 percent
for half-siblings, much less for unrelated individuals such as
stepsiblings and adopted children) can be used to calculate how
much of the variation in a trait is inherited. The remaining vari-
ation presumably arises from the environment.
This seems simple enough. However, every research design
aimed at studying the links between parental behavior and child
behavior is vulnerable to criticism (see Figure 13.1). Conse-
quently, an expert team of scientists, noting the flaws in earlier
research, set out to compare 1,000 sets of monozygotic twins
reared by their biological parents (Caspi et al., 2004).
The team assessed each child’s temperament by asking the
mothers and teachers to fill out a detailed, standardized check-
list. They also assessed every mother’s attitudes toward each
child. These ranged from very positive (“my ray of sunshine”) to
very negative (“I wish I never had her. . . . She’s a cow, I hate
her”) (quoted in Caspi et al., 2004, p. 153).
Many mothers described personality differences between
their twins and assumed these were innate. The mothers did
not realize that they themselves may have created many of these
differences. For example, one mother spoke of her identical
daughters:
Susan can be very sweet. She loves babies . . . she can be inse-
cure . . . she flutters and dances around. . . . There’s not much
between her ears. . . . She’s exceptionally vain, more so than
Ann. Ann loves any game involving a ball, very sporty, climbs
trees, very much a tomboy. One is a serious tomboy and one’s a
serious girlie girl. Even when they were babies I always dressed
one in blue stuff and one in pink stuff.
[quoted in Caspi et al., 2004, p. 156]
Some mothers were much more cold and rejecting toward
one twin than toward the other:
He was in the hospital and everyone was all “poor Jeff, poor Jeff”’
and I started thinking, “Well, what about me? I’m the one’s just
had twins. I’m the one’s going though this, he’s a seven-week-old
baby and doesn’t know a thing about it.” . . . I sort of detached
and plowed my emotions into Mike.
[quoted in Caspi et al., 2004, p. 156]
After she was divorced, this mother blamed Jeff for favoring
his father: “Jeff would do anything for Don but he wouldn’t for
me, and no matter what I did for either of them it wouldn’t be
right” (p. 157). She said Mike was much more lovable.
The researchers controlled for genes, gender, age, and per-
sonality differences in kindergarten (by measuring, among other
things, antisocial behavior as assessed by the children’s kinder-
garten teachers). They found that twins whose mothers were
more negative toward them tended to become more antisocial
than their co-twin. The rejected twins were more likely to fight,
steal, and hurt others at age 7 than at age 5 after all background
factors were taken into account. Mothers’ attitudes were obvi-
ously influential.
➤Response for Parents of an Accused
Bully (from page 341): The future is ominous
if the charges are true. Your child’s denial is a
sign that there is a problem. (An innocent child
would be worried about the misperception
instead of categorically denying that any
problem exists.) You might ask the teacher
what the school is doing about bullying. Family
counseling might help. Because bullies often
have friends who egg them on, you may need
to monitor your child’s friendships and perhaps
befriend the victim. Talk matters over with your
child. Ignoring the situation might lead to
heartache later on.
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Family Function and Dysfunction
Exactly what do school-age children require from their families, and what factors in
family structure make it likely (or unlikely) that they will get it? Family structure
refers to the legal and genetic connections among related people living in the
same household. Family function refers to the way a family works to care for its
members.
The most important family function for people of all ages is to afford a safe
haven of love and encouragement. Beyond that, people of various ages need differ-
ent things from their families: Infants need frequent caregiving and social inter-
action; teenagers need both freedom and guidance; young adults need peace and
privacy; the aged need respect and appreciation.
family structure The legal and genetic rela-
tionships (e.g., nuclear, extended, step)
among relatives in the same home.
family function The way a family works to
meet the needs of its members. Children
need families to provide basic material
necessities, encourage learning, develop
self-respect, nurture friendships, and fos-
ter harmony and stability.
344 CHAPTER 13 ■ The School Years: Psychosocial Development
Many other nonshared factors—peers, teachers, and so on—
are important. But this change in identical twins confirms the
popular belief: Parents matter. The assumption that parents and
a home provide a completely shared environment for all their
children is false. As everyone with siblings can attest, each
child’s family experiences are unique.
Design Design does not take
into account:
The Problem
Possible “third variables”
that differ between
families (e.g., low SES,
maternal psychopathology)
Between-family,
1-child-per-family
designs
Third variables may
account for the between-
family correlations
“Genetic”
child effect
Within-family, 2-child-
per-family designs
Siblings’ different treatment
may be confounded with
genetic differences
between siblings
”Environmental”
child effect
MZ-twin
difference method
Differential treatment may
be elicited by differences
in twins’ behavior
Multisource, multi-
method measurement Continuing refinements
Single-source, single-
method data
Longitudinal design
documenting
intra-individual change
The correlation may
inflate true associations
between variables
Source: Caspi et al., 2004.
FIGURE 13.1
Improvements in Research Design Before designing a study,
researchers identify the weaknesses of earlier studies so that they
can consider ways of avoiding them. This chart shows the preliminary
analysis made by the team that found that parents’ attitudes have a
direct effect on children’s behavior. As they realized, “continuing
refinements” in research design are always possible.
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Families and Children 345
Meeting Her Need for Fit and Fashion A
10-year-old’s rapidly growing feet frequently
need new shoes, and peer pressure favors
certain styles of footwear. Here, Rebekah’s
sisters wait and watch as their mother tries
to find a boot that fits her and is fashionable.KA
TH
Y
M
CL
AU
GH
LI
N
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
School-age children thrive if their families function for them in five ways:
1. Provide basic necessities: Children aged 6 to 11 can eat, dress, wash, and sleep
without help, but someone must provide food, clothing, and shelter.
2. Encourage learning. School-age children must master academic and social
skills. Families can support and guide their education.
3. Develop self-respect. As they become cognitively mature, school-age children
become self-critical and socially aware. Families can help their children feel
competent and capable.
4. Nurture peer relationships. School-age children need friends, and families can
provide the time and opportunity to develop those friendships.
5. Ensure harmony and stability. School-age children need protective and pre-
dictable family routines, since they are particularly troubled by conflict and
change. Families can provide this kind of stability and security.
Thus, families provide resources, both material and cognitive, as well as emo-
tional and social support. No family always functions perfectly, but some malfunc-
tions are worse than others at various points of the life span. Family structures
do not determine function, but they affect it, as do other family characteristics,
particularly income.
Diverse Structures
The effects of family structure on family function are many, but before explaining
them we need to distinguish household from structure. A household as defined by
the United States Census is all the people who live together in the same home.
Many households, worldwide, are not made up of members of a single family—
that is, they are not “family households” (Georgas et al., 2006). Often, a household
consists of one person living alone (26 percent of all households in the United
States in 2005) or of nonrelatives living together (6 percent in the United States).
Among family households, most do not include children under age 18, usually
because they consist of a married couple living alone.
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Here we focus on family households that include a school-age child (about
one-fourth of all households). Table 13.2 briefly describes common family struc-
tures within these households in the United States. More than half of all school-
age children live in two-parent homes as part of a nuclear family (a married
couple and their biological offspring); worldwide as well, this is the most common
family structure (Georgas et al., 2006). Nuclear families include families in which
parents live together but are not legally married; they cohabit. Depending partly
on local customs, they are sometimes considered married.
In the United States, more than a fourth of all school-age children currently
live in a single-parent family, with only one parent. This is the dominant form
among African Americans. Most European American children will spend some
time in a single-parent family before age 18.
The nuclear and single-parent family structures are sometimes contrasted with
the extended family, in which children live not only with one or both of their
parents but also with other relatives (usually grandparents, but often aunts, uncles,
and cousins as well). Extended families are common among low-income families
and in poor nations, partly because household expenses and responsibilities can
be shared.
nuclear family A family that consists of a
father, a mother, and their biological chil-
dren under age 18.
single-parent family A family that consists
of only one parent and his or her biological
children under age 18.
extended family A family of three or more
generations living in one household.
346 CHAPTER 13 ■ The School Years: Psychosocial Development
TABLE 13.2
Common Family Structures (with percentages of U.S. children aged 6–11 in each family type)
Two-Parent Families (67%)
Most human families have two parents. These families are of several
kinds.
1. Nuclear family (56%) Named after the nucleus (the tightly
connected core particles of an atom), the nuclear family consists of
a husband and wife and their biological offspring. About half of all
families with children are nuclear. This category includes extended
families in which both parents live with the parents of one of the
spouses or when a grandparent couple acts as mother and father.
2. Stepparent family (8%) Divorced fathers (Stewart et al., 2003) are
particularly likely to remarry. Usually his children from a previous
marriage do not live with him, but if they do, they are in a step-
parent family. Mothers are less likely to remarry, but when they do,
the children often live with her and their stepfather. Many children
spend some time in a stepparent family, but relatively few spend
their entire childhood in such families.
Blended family A stepparent family that includes children born to
several families, such as the biological children from the spouses’
previous marriages and the biological children of the new couple.
This type of family is a particularly difficult structure for school-age
children.
3. Adoptive family (3%) Although as many as one-third of infertile
married couples adopt children, fewer adoptable children are
available than in earlier decades, which means that most adoptive
families have only one or two children. A single parent is sometimes
an adoptive parent, but this is unusual.
4. Polygamous family (0%) In some nations, it is common for one
man to have several wives, each bearing his children.
One-Parent Families (28%)
One-parent families are increasingly common, but they tend to have
fewer children than two-parent families.
1. Single mother, never married (11%) Many babies (about a third of
all U.S. newborns) are born to unmarried mothers, but most of
these mothers intend to marry someday (Musick, 2002). Many of
them do get married, either to their baby’s father or to someone
else. By school age, their children are often in two-parent families.
2. Single mother—divorced, separated, or widowed (12%)
Although many marriages end in divorce (almost half in the United
States, less in other nations), many divorcing couples have no
children and many others remarry. Thus, many divorced women do
not have school-age children living with them.
3. Single father, divorced or never married (5%) About one in five
divorced or unmarried fathers has physical custody of the children.
This structure is uncommon, but it is the most rapidly increasing
form.
Other Family Types (5%)
Some children live in special versions of one- or two-parent families,
described here.
1. Extended family Many children live with their grandparents as well
as with one or both of their parents.
2. Grandparents alone For some school-age children, their one or
two “parents” are their grandparents, because the biological
parents are dead or otherwise unable to live with them. This family
type is increasing, especially in Africa, where an epidemic of AIDS is
killing many parents.
3. Homosexual family Some school-age children live in a homosexual
family, usually when a custodial parent has a homosexual partner.
Less often, a homosexual couple adopts children or a lesbian has a
child. Varying laws and norms determine whether these are one- or
two-parent families.
4. Foster family This family type is usually considered temporary, and
the children are categorized by their original family structure.
Otherwise, they are in one- or two-parent families depending on the
structure of their foster family.
Source: Percentages are estimated from U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007.
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The distinctions among family types are not clear-cut, especially regarding ex-
tended families. Most nuclear and single-parent families have close connections
with other relatives who often live nearby, share meals, provide emotional and
financial support, and otherwise function as an extended family. Further, espe-
cially in developing nations, extended families who technically are in one household
nonetheless have private living areas within the home for each couple and their
children, as occurs in nuclear families (Georgas et al., 2006).
Connecting Structure and Function
Family structure and family function are intertwined. The crucial question for
children is whether the family living arrangements make it more, or less, likely
that several adults are devoted to their well-being.
From this perspective, single-mother families may be problematic, because such
households are likely to be low-income and unstable in that they are most likely to
change structure as well as location (Raley & Wildsmith, 2004). Furthermore,
there is only one adult who often has many roles to fill besides being a parent.
Children in single-mother families “are at greatest risk,” faring worse in school and
in adult life (Carlson & Corcoran, 2001, p. 789).
A blended family, the structure in which a married couple combine offspring
from earlier partnerships, also risks instability. Blended families tend to be wealthier
than single-parent families, but older children leave, new babies arrive, and mar-
riages dissolve more often than do first marriages. The likelihood that children will
thrive in blended families depends on the adults’ economic and emotional security;
blended families are not necessarily better for children than single-parent families.
Nuclear families tend to function best for children, partly because people who
marry and stay married tend to have personal and financial strengths that also
make them better parents. Correlational statistics show that, compared with adults
who never marry, married adults tend to be wealthier, better educated, healthier,
more flexible, and less hostile—even before they marry.
On average, biological and adoptive parents are more dedicated to their chil-
dren than are step or foster parents. For these reasons, children growing up in
nuclear families are more likely to have someone to teach them to brush their
teeth, to read to them at bedtime, to check their homework, and so on, as well as
to plan for their future, saving for college and inculcating health habits.
Especially for Readers Whose Parents
Are Middle-Aged Your mother tells you that
she misses taking care of young children and
wants to become a foster parent. How do
you advise her?
Families and Children 347
blended family A family that consists of
two adults and the children of the prior
relationships of one or both parents and/or
the new partnership.
A Comfortable Combination The blended
family—husband, wife, and children from
both spouses’ previous marriages—often
breeds resentment, depression, and rebellion
in the children. That is apparently not the case
for the family shown here, which provides
cheerful evidence that any family structure is
capable of functioning well.BIL
L
AR
ON
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T,
IN
C.
Especially for Single Parents You have
heard that children raised in one-parent
families will have difficulty in establishing
intimate relationships as adolescents and
adults. What can you do about this
possibility?
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Every family type is affected by culture (Heuveline & Timberlake, 2004). For
example, many French parents are not married, but they share household and
child-rearing tasks and are less likely to separate than are married adults in the
United States. Thus, the cohabiting structure functions well for French children.
However, in the United States, cohabiting parents split up more than married
parents. This makes that structure, on average, less functional for children (S. L.
Brown, 2004).
More generally, the effect of marriage and divorce on parenthood varies not
only by nation but also by ethnic group. Compared with other American ethnic
groups, divorced and single-parent families are not as common among Hispanic
Americans and Asian Americans, and marriage usually entails devotion to child
rearing by both parents. Children benefit.
However, if divorce does occur, it is more life-changing. Divorced Hispanic
American fathers are less likely to stay involved with their children than are di-
vorced fathers of other ethnic groups (King et al., 2004). (Data are not available
for Asian American divorced fathers.)
Every study finds exceptions to these patterns. In any family type, some children
develop well and others are harmed. It is “not enough to know that an individual
lives in a particular family structure without also knowing what takes place within
that structure” (Lansford et al., 2001, p. 850). Function, not structure, is key.
Family Trouble
We now look at two factors that interfere with family function in every nation: low
income and high conflict (Georgas et al., 2006). Financial stress and family fight-
ing often co-occur because they feed on each other. Imagine this scene.
Suppose a 3-year-old spills his milk, as every 3-year-old sometimes does. In a
well-functioning, financially stable family, the parents then teach the child how to
mop up a spill. They pour more milk, perhaps with a comment that encourages
family harmony, such as, “Everyone makes mistakes sometimes.”
What if the parents are already overwhelmed by unemployment, overdue rent,
an older child who wants money for a school trip? What if the last of the food
stamps bought that milk? Conflict erupts, with shouting, crying, and accusations
(a sibling claiming, “He did it on purpose”; the 3-year-old saying, “You pushed me”;
an uncle adding, “You should teach him to be careful”). Poverty can make anger
spill over when the milk does.
Family Income
As in this example, family income correlates with both function and structure.
Directly or indirectly, all five functions benefit from adequate income (Conger &
Donellan, 2007; Gershoff et al., 2007; Yeung et al., 2002), especially at ages 6 to 9
(Gennetian & Miller, 2002).
To understand exactly how income affects child development, consider the
family-stress model, which holds that the crucial question to ask about any risk
factor (such as low income, divorce, unemployment) is whether or not it increases
the stress on a family. In developed nations, poverty may not directly prevent chil-
dren from having adequate food, clothing, and other necessities, since adults are
usually able to secure at least the minimum needed. In that case, low income may
not add to stress.
However, for many families, economic hardship increases stress, which results
in the worry and tension that make adults more likely to be harsh and hostile
with their partners and children (Conger et al., 2002; Parke et al., 2004). Thus,
the adults’ stressed and stressful reaction to poverty is crucial. Many intervention
348 CHAPTER 13 ■ The School Years: Psychosocial Development
➤Response for Single Parents (from
page 347): Do not get married mainly to
provide a second parent for your child. If you
were to do so, things would probably get
worse rather than better. Do make an effort
to have friends of both sexes with whom
your child can interact.
➤Response for Readers Whose Parents
Are Middle-Aged (from page 347): Foster
parenthood is probably the most difficult type
of parenthood, yet it can be very rewarding if
all needed support is available and a long-term
arrangement is likely. Advise your mother to
make sure that medical, educational, and
psychological help is available if needed and
that the placement agency truly cares about
children’s well-being.
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programs aim to educate poor parents so that their reactions to their
children become more encouraging and patient than hostile (McLoyd
et al., 2006).
Reaction to wealth may be a problem, too. Children in high-income
families have a disproportionate share of emotional problems, which
sometimes lead to drug abuse and delinquency. One reason, again, is
thought to be the stress from parents who pressure their children to be
superstars (Luthar, 2003).
In low-income families, however, an emphasis on parental reaction
(not on income) may be misplaced. Poverty itself—inadequate child
care, poor health care, possible homelessness, and so on—may cause
stress. Perhaps raising household income, thereby reducing stress, would
be better for children than focusing on problematic parenting styles and
dysfunctional reactions.
That conclusion might be drawn from an eight-year natural experiment
(Costello et al., 2003). This study began by assessing psychopathology
among 1,420 school-age children, many of whom were Native American.
For children of every ethnicity, those from poor homes averaged four
symptoms of mental disturbance, compared with only one symptom
among the nonpoor.
Midway through the study, about 200 children suddenly were no longer in poor
families, primarily because a new casino began paying each Native American adult
about $6,000 per year. Among those children, the incidence of externalizing symp-
toms fell, reaching the same low levels as among the children who were not poor
when the study began (Costello et al., 2003). For these children, at least, no parent
education was needed to change reactions and relieve the family stress.
Other research also suggests that reducing family financial stress directly ben-
efits the children. In extended families that include several well-educated wage
earners, the children are likely to become well educated and happy. Children in
single-mother households do much better if their father pays child support
(J. W. Graham & Beller, 2002) or if the nation subsidizes single parents (as Austria
and Iceland do) (Pong et al., 2003).
In general, economic hardship (either chronic poverty or sudden loss of income)
leads to anger and depression among the adults, which makes them hostile toward
their partners and their children—and thus not the loving, firm, caring parents
they could be (Conger et al., 2002; Parke et al., 2004). This is affected by ethnic-
ity and culture, but the trends are universal. Economic distress impairs family
functioning.
Harmony and Stability
The second crucial factor for school-age children is harmony and stability, each of
which can be considered separately but which both work together (Buehler &
Gerard, 2002; Khaleque & Rohner, 2002). Ideally, parents form a parental alliance,
learning to cooperate and thus protecting the children. The need for harmony
explains why blended families can be problematic (Hetherington & Kelly, 2002).
Jealousy, stress, and conflict tend to arise when children have to share a home
with other children and must adjust to the authority of another adult. In such
situations, smooth parental alliances can take years to form.
In any family structure, children’s well-being declines if family members fight,
especially if parents physically or verbally abuse each other. In contrast, children
may learn valuable lessons from parental disagreements that result in compromise
and reconciliation (Cummings et al., 2003). But if a fight escalates, or one parent
walks out and the other sobs, that may harm a child.
Families and Children 349
The One-Parent Family Single parents are
of two types: never married and formerly
married. This divorcée is a pediatrician, so she
and her daughter have a higher income than
many other one-parent families. To combat
the other hazards faced by single parents—
including loneliness, low self-esteem, and
ongoing disputes with the former spouse—
she has established a divorce resource cen-
ter in her hometown in Michigan.
VA
LI
CA
B
OU
DR
Y
/ A
P
PH
OT
O
Especially for Readers Who Are Not
Parents Should children call their parents by
their first names and wear whatever they
choose? Or should children be deferential
toward adults and be pushed to excel in
school?
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Every family transition affects the children. They are more likely to quit school,
leave home, use drugs, become delinquent, and have early love affairs if their fam-
ilies change more frequently or drastically than average (McLanahan et al., 2005).
Some family structures typically undergo multiple transitions as children grow. For
instance, most unmarried mothers change jobs, residences, and romantic partners
several times before their children are fully grown (Bumpass & Lu, 2000).
Changing homes is particularly hard for school-age children (who have a spe-
cial need for continuity), yet each year about 16 percent of all U.S. children move
from one home to another, a rate three times that of adults over age 50 (U.S.
Bureau of the Census, 2007). Even a move that parents consider an improvement
may upset school-age children who lose their friends. A move to another culture is
obviously especially hard.
The problems associated with moving were shown by a study in Japan, where
junior employees are often transferred for several years to strengthen company
cohesiveness. If the employee is a father, about half the time his family moves
with him. Researchers compared the children who moved to those who did not,
expecting to find the benefits of daily contact with fathers. However, the school-
age children did better if they stayed put, even with absent fathers (Tanaka &
Nakazawa, 2005). (Their mothers, however, were more stressed, illustrating that
each change affects family members differently.)
Worldwide, children are more likely to move as family income falls. Hardest hit
are school-age children who are homeless or refugees. In the United States,
homeless children move, on average, two to three times a year before moving into
a shelter (Buckner et al., 1999), a major threat to their well-being.
Household harmony and continuity can be fostered by communities, as seems
to be the case with some immigrant and African American communities. Children
benefit when single mothers are not isolated, when men who aren’t part of the
household become “social fathers” to them, and when
nearby grandmothers and other adults provide free and nur-
turing child care.
By contrast, sometimes a child’s peace of mind is jeop-
ardized by conflict in the family or neighborhood. Parents
disturb a child’s development if they push their children to
take sides in a marital dispute or if they give one child
authority over another. Grandparents and parents fighting
over child-rearing practices can also be harmful.
An intriguing study of 8- to 11-year-olds assessed three
factors: conflict between parents, stress reactions in chil-
dren, and each child’s feelings. By far the most important
correlate with children’s problems was not the marital
discord but the children’s feelings of self-blame or vulnera-
bility. When children “do not perceive that marital conflict
is threatening to them and do not blame themselves”
(El-Sheikh & Harger, 2001, p. 883), they are much less
troubled (see Figure 13.2).
SUMMING UP
Parents influence child development, with some families functioning better than others.
For school-age children, families serve five crucial functions: to provide basic necessi-
ties, to encourage learning, to develop self-respect, to nurture friendships, and to pro-
vide harmony and stability. Low income, conflict, and transitions interfere with these
functions, no matter what the family structure.
Especially for Parents Who Want to
Divorce and Remarry A couple want to
divorce each other and marry other people.
At what age is this least harmful to children?
350 CHAPTER 13 ■ The School Years: Psychosocial Development
10
8
6
4
2
0
-2
-1 SD Mean +1 SD
Verbal marital conflict
Internalizing
behavior
Parental Conflict, Children’s Self-Blame, and
Level of Internalizing Behavior in Children
Lower
self-blame
Higher
self-blame
Source: El-Sheikh & Harger, 2001.
FIGURE 13.2
When Parents Fight and Children Blame
Themselves Husbands and wives who
almost never disagree are below the first
standard deviation (−1 SD) in verbal marital
conflict. Couples who frequently have loud,
screaming, cursing arguments are in the
highest 15 percent (+1 SD). In such high-
conflict households, children are not much
affected—if they do not blame themselves
for the situation. However, if children do
blame themselves, they are likely to have
internalizing problems, such as nightmares,
stomachaches, panic attacks, and feelings of
loneliness.
➤Response for Readers Who Are Not
Parents (from page 349): This is a trick
question. The crucial factor in child rearing is
parents’ genuine warmth toward the child.
While neither approach mentioned in the
question reflects the ideal, authoritative style,
both can produce happy, successful children.
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The nuclear, two-parent family is the most common, but a sizable minority of families
are headed by a single parent (including one-fourth of all families of school-age children
in the United States). Two-parent families tend to provide more income, stability, and
adult attention. Extended families, grandparent families, one-parent families, blended
families, and adoptive families can raise successful, happy children, although each of
these has its own vulnerabilities. No structure inevitably either harms children or guaran-
tees good family function.
The Nature of the Child
We have now discussed peers and parents, the two most important social influ-
ences on school-age children. However, each child is an individual, not simply a
social being reacting to others. Table 13.3 shows some of the practical ways that
children become much more responsible and mature over these years.
To delve more deeply into the nature of the school-age child, we turn first to
psychoanalytic theory, which puts forth a very specific description. Then we look
at current developmental research, which provides a different perspective.
Psychoanalytic Theory
Psychoanalytic theory stresses that school-age children are eager to learn about
their expanding social universe. Sigmund Freud described this period as latency,
when emotional drives are quiet and unconscious sexual conflicts are submerged.
Latency is a “time for acquiring cognitive skills and assimilating cultural values as
children expand their world to include teachers, neighbors, peers, club leaders,
and coaches. Sexual energy continues to flow, but it is channeled into social con-
cerns” (P. H. Miller, 2002, p. 131).
Erik Erikson agreed that middle childhood is an emotionally quiet period. The
child “must forget past hopes and wishes, while his exuberant imagination is
tamed and harnessed to the laws of impersonal things,” becoming “ready to apply
himself to given skills and tasks” (Erikson, 1963, pp. 258, 259). During Erikson’s
crisis of industry versus inferiority, children busily try to master whatever abili-
ties their culture values.
The Nature of the Child 351
TABLE 13.3
AT ABOUT THIS TIME: Signs
of Psychosocial Maturation
Between Ages 6 and 11
Children are more likely to have specific
chores to perform at home.
Children are more likely to have a weekly
allowance.
Children are expected to tell time, and
they have set times for various activities.
Children have more homework
assignments, some over several days.
Children are less often punished
physically, more often with disapproval or
withdrawal of privileges.
Children try to conform to peer standards
in such matters as clothing and language.
Children influence decisions about their
after-school care, lessons, and activities.
Children use media (TV, computers,
video games) without adult supervision.
Children are given new responsibility for
younger children, pets, or, in some
cultures, employment.
Celebrating Spring No matter where they
live, 7- to 11-year-olds seek to understand and
develop whatever skills are valued by their cul-
ture. They do so in active, industrious ways, as
described in behaviorism as well as cognitive,
sociocultural, psychoanalytic, and epigenetic
theories. This universal truth is illustrated here,
as four friends in Assam, northeastern India,
usher in spring with a Bihu celebration. Soon
they will be given sweets and tea, which is
the sociocultural validation of their energy,
independence, and skill.LIN
DS
AY
H
EB
BE
RD
/
W
OO
DF
IN
C
AM
P
&
A
SS
OC
IA
TE
S
latency Freud’s term for middle childhood,
during which children’s emotional drives
and psychosocial needs are quiet (latent).
Freud thought that sexual conflicts from
earlier stages are only temporarily sub-
merged, to burst forth again at puberty.
industry versus inferiority The fourth of
Erikson’s eight psychosexual development
crises, during which children attempt to
master many skills, developing a sense of
themselves as either industrious or infe-
rior, competent or incompetent.
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Children judge themselves as either industrious or inferior—that is, competent
or incompetent, productive or failing, winners or losers. Being productive not only
is intrinsically joyous but also fosters the self-control that is a crucial defense
against emotional problems (Bradley & Corwyn, 2005).
Concerns about inferiority are evident in the schoolchild’s ditty: “Nobody likes
me. Everybody hates me. I think I’ll go out and eat some worms.” This lament has
endured for generations because it captures, with humor that children can appre-
ciate, the self-doubt that many school-age children feel.
Self-Concept
The following self-description could have been written by many 10-year-olds:
I’m in the fourth grade this year, and I’m pretty popular, at least with the girls.
That’s because I’m nice to people and can keep secrets. Mostly I am nice to my
friends, although if I get in a bad mood I sometimes say something that can be a
little mean. I try to control my temper, but when I don’t, I’m ashamed of myself.
I’m usually happy when I’m with my friends, but I get sad if there is no one to do
things with. At school, I’m feeling pretty smart in certain subjects like Language
Arts and Social Studies. I got As in these subjects on my last report card and was
really proud of myself. But I’m feeling pretty dumb in Math and Science, espe-
cially when I see how well a lot of the other kids are doing. Even though I’m not
doing well in those subjects, I still like myself as a person, because Math and
Science just aren’t that important to me. How I look and how popular I am are
more important. I also like myself because I know my parents like me and so do
other kids. That helps you like yourself.
[quoted in Harter, 1999, p. 48]
This excerpt (from a book written by a scholar who has studied the develop-
ment of children’s self-concept for decades) captures the nature of school-age
children. As already explained, social comparison (“especially when I see how well
a lot of the other kids are doing”), effortful control (“I try to control my temper”),
loyalty (“can keep secrets”), and appreciation of peers and parents (“I know my
parents like me and so do other kids”) are typical.
Note that the child’s self-concept no longer mirrors the parents’ perspective.
Every theory and every perceptive observer notes that school-age children recog-
nize themselves as individuals, distinct from what their parents and teachers think
of them.
One study that confirmed this began by asking, “Who knows best what you are
thinking? . . . how tired you are? . . . your favorite foods?” and so on (Burton &
Mitchell, 2003). Unlike 3-year-olds who might answer, “Mommy,” and rely on a
parent to tell them, “Oh, you are tired, it’s time for your nap,” school-age children
become increasingly sure of their own minds. In this study, few (13 percent) of the
5-year-olds but most (73 percent) of the 10-year-olds thought that they knew
themselves better than their parents or teachers did (Burton & Mitchell, 2003).
Increases in self-understanding and social awareness come at a price. Self-
criticism and self-consciousness tend to rise from age 6 to 12, as self-esteem dips
(Merrell & Gimpel, 1998), especially for children who live with unusual stresses
(e.g., an abusive or alcoholic parent) (Luthar & Zelazo, 2003).
If children are already quite anxious and stressed, reduced self-esteem tends to
lead to lower academic achievement (Pomerantz & Rudolph, 2003). This is partic-
ularly true of children who are rejected by classmates (Flook et al., 2005). A loss of
self-pride in middle childhood may foreshadow emotional uncertainty and psychic
stress in adolescence—not the usual path, but the one often followed by children
who feel inferior (Graber, 2004).
352 CHAPTER 13 ■ The School Years: Psychosocial Development
➤Response for Parents Who Want to
Divorce and Remarry (from page 350):
Children usually prefer that their parents stay
together, unless one parent is abusive. There
is no best age for children when it comes to
parents’ getting divorced. However, it is
probably worst if such major family transitions
occur just when children are undergoing major
transitions of their own, such as starting
school or beginning puberty.
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As you can see, self-esteem is tricky. If it is unrealistically high, it may produce
less effortful control and thus lower achievement (Baumeister et al., 2003), but
the same consequences may occur if it is unrealistically low. Children who appre-
ciate themselves and appreciate other children (i.e., when self and peers both fare
well in social comparison) tend to have more friends and to be prosocial, able to
defend a friend if the occasion arises. In contrast, children who like themselves
but not their peers are more likely to be aggressive bullies (Salmivalli et al., 2005).
Cultural differences make self-esteem more complex. Many cultures expect
children to be modest. For example, Australians say that “tall poppies” are cut
down, and the Japanese discourage social comparison to make oneself feel supe-
rior (Toyama, 2001). Although Chinese children often excel at mathematics, only
1 percent said that they were “very satisfied” with their performance in that sub-
ject (Snyder et al., 2004). Does their dissatisfaction increase their achievement?
Would this scarcity of self-esteem occur in other nations?
It is apparent that the combination of high self-esteem and low opinion of others
is destructive; such children tend to have few friends, show more aggression, and be
more lonely (Salmivalli et al., 2005). Academic and social competence are aided by
realistic evaluation of objectively measured achievement, not by unrealistically high
self-esteem (Baumeister et al., 2003). Achieving the proper balance is not easy,
although each year of middle childhood tends to bring children closer to this goal.
Coping and Overcoming
As you have seen in these three chapters on middle childhood, the school-age
child’s expanding social world and developing cognition can bring disturbing prob-
lems. Some serious health impairments (e.g., obesity and asthma) affect psycho-
social development, and children with special needs become painfully aware of
their differences. Speaking a minority language may hinder academic learning and
impair self-esteem. Some children are socially inept, rejected, or even victimized,
and many have hostile or stressed parents and are in poor or unstable families.
Resilience and Stress
Surprisingly, some children seem unscathed by their problematic, stressful envi-
ronments. They have been called “resilient” or even “invincible.” Those who are
familiar with recent research, however, use these terms cautiously, if at all (see
Table 13.4). As dynamic-systems theory reminds us, although some children cope
better than others, none are impervious to their social context (Jenson & Fraser,
2006; Luthar et al., 2003).
Resilience has been defined as “a dynamic process encompassing positive
adaptation within the context of significant adversity” (Luthar et al., 2000, p. 543).
Note the three parts of this definition:
■ Resilience is dynamic, not a stable trait. That means a given person may be
resilient at some periods but not others.
■ Resilience is a positive adaptation to stress. For example, if rejection by a
parent leads a child to establish closer relationships with others, perhaps
a grandparent or the parent of a neighbor child, that is resilience.
■ Adversity must be significant. Some adversities are comparatively minor
(large class size, poor vision), and some are major (victimization, neglect).
One important discovery is that many small stresses that might be called “daily
hassles” can accumulate to become major if they are ongoing. Each stress can
make other stresses more likely to be harmful (Fergusson & Horwood, 2003;
Hammen, 2003).
resilience The capacity to adapt well to sig-
nificant adversity and to overcome serious
stress.
The Nature of the Child 353
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One example is the noise of airplanes overhead. If a child lives near an airport,
that stress happens several times a day, but for just a minute at a time. A study of
2,844 children living near three major airports found that the noise impaired the
reading ability of some (not all) (Stansfeld et al., 2005). A more chilling example
comes from research on the children who survived Hurricane Katrina. Many expe-
rienced several stresses (see Figure 13.3) and have a much higher rate of psycho-
logical problems than they did before the hurricane hit (see Viadero, 2007).
Daily routines may build up stress. For example, a depressed mother may have
little effect on her child if an emotionally stable and available father buffers her
influence or if the mother herself functions well when she is with the child. How-
ever, her depression may become a significant stress if the child must, day after
day, prepare for school, supervise and discipline younger siblings, and keep friends
at a distance because the mother wants quiet.
A key aspect of resilience is the ability of children to develop their own friends,
activities, and skills. After-school activities are one arena for this; participation in
extracurricular programs correlates with better emotional and academic function-
ing (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2004).
To encourage resilience, community, religious, and government programs can
develop extracurricular activities for all children, from 4-H to midnight basketball,
from choir to Little League. Children who can choose their own activities from
many possibilities are likely to find an area of competence and develop a view of
themselves as industrious, not inferior.
This was apparent in a 40-year study in Hawaii that began with children born
into poverty, often to parents who were alcoholic or mentally ill. Amazingly, about a
third of these children coped well. By middle childhood, they were already finding
354 CHAPTER 13 ■ The School Years: Psychosocial Development
TABLE 13.4
Dominant Ideas About Challenges and Coping in Children, 1965–Present
1965 All children have the same needs for healthy development.
1970 Some conditions or circumstances—such as “absent father,” “teenage mother,”
“working mom,” and “day care”—are harmful for every child.
1975 All children are not the same. Some children are resilient, coping easily with
stressors that cause harm in other children.
1980 Nothing inevitably causes harm. Indeed, both maternal employment and preschool
education, once thought to be risk factors, usually benefit children.
1985 Factors beyond the family, both in the child (low birthweight, prenatal alcohol
exposure, aggressive temperament) and in the community (poverty, violence), can
be very risky for the child.
1990 Risk–benefit analysis finds that some children seem to be “invulnerable” to, or even
to benefit from, circumstances that destroy others. (Some do well in school despite
extreme poverty, for example.)
1995 No child is invincibly resilient. Risks are always harmful—if not in education, then in
emotions.
2000 Risk–benefit analysis involves the interplay among all three domains (biosocial,
cognitive, and psychosocial), including factors within the child (genes, intelligence,
temperament), the family (function as well as structure), and the community
(including neighborhood, school, church, and culture). Over the long term, most
people overcome problems, but the problems are real.
Today The focus is on strengths, not risks. Assets in the child (intelligence, personality), the
family (secure attachment, warmth), the community (good schools, after-school
programs), and the nation (income support, health care) must be nurtured.
Sources: Luthar, 2003; Luthar et al., 2000; Maton et al., 2004; Walsh, 2002;
Werner & Smith, 2001; Jenson & Fraser, 2006.
Resilience Is Real This table simplifies the
progression of ideas about resilience; some
older ideas are still valid, and some newer
ideas were first expressed decades ago.
Nonetheless, the emphasis has shifted over
the past 40 years, as research evidence and
thoughtful critiques have deepened under-
standing of resilience in children.
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ways to avoid family stresses, choosing instead to
achieve in school, to make good friends, and to find
nonparental mentors. By adolescence, these chil-
dren had distanced themselves from their parents.
As adults, they left family problems behind (many
moved far away) and established their own healthy
relationships (Werner & Smith, 1992, 2001).
As was true for many of these children, school
can often be an escape. An easygoing temperament
and a high IQ help (Curtis & Cicchetti, 2003), but
they are not essential. In the Hawaii study, “a realis-
tic goal orientation, persistence, and ‘learned cre-
ativity’ enabled . . . a remarkable degree of personal,
social, and occupational success,” even for children
with evident learning disabilities (Werner & Smith,
2001, p. 140).
Social Support and Religious Faith
A major factor that helps children deal with prob-
lems—one we have already touched on—is the
social support they receive. A strong bond with a
loving and firm parent can see a child through many
difficulties. Even in war-torn or deeply impover-
ished neighborhoods, secure attachment to a parent who has been consistently
present since infancy tends to foster resilience (Masten & Coatsworth, 1998;
Yates et al., 2003).
Many immigrant children do well in their new culture, academically and emo-
tionally, despite all their stresses, if their families and schools are supportive
(Fuligni, 2001). Other research also finds that parenting practices can buffer
stress even for impoverished children living in very adverse conditions (Wyman
et al., 1999).
Compared with the small, homebound lives of younger children, the expanding
social world of school-age children allows new possibilities for social support. A
network of supportive relatives is a better buffer than having only one close parent
(Y. Jackson & Warren, 2000). Friends help, too, as already shown with bullying.
Grandparents, unrelated adults, peers, and even pets can help children cope with
stress (Borland, 1998).
The Nature of the Child 355
Stresses Experienced by New Orleans Children
as a Result of Hurricane Katrina
Percent
10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Had homes damaged
in the storm
Had moved
Had been separated from
a primary caregiver
Had transferred
to a new school
Had lost a family
member or friend
Had a parent who
was unemployed
Had been separated
from a pet
Source: Survey data gathered by Howard J. Osofsky et al.,
of Louisiana State University; reported in Viadero, 2007, p.7.
FIGURE 13.3
Enough Stress for a Lifetime Many children
experienced more than one kind of severe
stress during Hurricane Katrina and its after-
math. That disaster inflicted more stress on
the children of New Orleans than most adults
ever experience in their lifetime, and its long-
term impact will likely be dramatic.
Grandmother Knows Best About 20,000
grandmothers in Connecticut are caregivers
for their grandchildren. This 15-year-old boy
and his 17-year-old sister came to live with
their grandmother in New Haven after their
mother died several years ago. This type of
family works best when the grandmother is
relatively young and has her own house, as is
the case here.B C
HI
LD
/
AP
P
HO
TO
Especially for Religiously Observant
Adults A child you know seems much more
religious than his or her parents are, and the
parents are upset because the child believes
things that they do not. What should be done?
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Children naturally try to deal with problems, a self-righting characteristic that
seems evident in all humans, from the toddler who stands up after a tumble
(Chapter 5) to the very old person who faces death with equanimity (Chapter 25).
However, to right themselves, even well-equipped, well-intentioned school-age
children must connect to at least one other person. One study concludes:
When children attempt to seek out experiences that will help them overcome
adversity, it is critical that resources, in the form of supportive adults or learning
opportunities, be made available to them so that their own self-righting potential
can be fulfilled.
[Kim-Cohen et al., 2004, p. 664]
An example of such self-righting potential is children’s use of religion, which
often provides social support via an adult from the same community. As the authors
of one study explain, “The influences of religious importance and participation . . .
are mediated through trusting interaction with adults, friends and parents who
share similar views” (King & Furrow, 2004, p. 709).
The religious convictions of children are very diverse (Levesque, 2002), but
faith itself can be psychologically protective, in part because it helps children rein-
terpret their experiences. Parents can provide religious guidance, but by middle
childhood, some children pray and attend religious services more often than their
parents do. Research shows that church involvement particularly helps African
American children in communities where social stresses and racial prejudice
abound (Akiba & García-Coll, 2004).
Adults may not realize that many children (by age 8 but not at age 4) believe
that prayer is communication, and they expect that prayer will make them feel
better, especially when they are sad or angry (see Research Design and Figure 13.4)
(Bamford & Lagattuta, 2007). Thus, religious beliefs become increasingly useful
as school-age children cope with their problems.
In accord with their self-righting impulses, children try to develop competen-
cies. They find social supports, if not in their families then among their friends or
356 CHAPTER 13 ■ The School Years: Psychosocial Development
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
–0.2
–0.4
–0.6
–0.8
–1
4-year-
olds
6-year-
olds
8-year-
olds
Adults
S
am
e
B
et
te
r
W
o
rs
e
“How Would the Person in This Story Feel After He or She Prayed?”
Positive stories
Negative stories
Neutral stories
Source: Bamford & Lagattuta, 2007.
FIGURE 13.4
Help Me, God The numbers on this graph are the averages when people were asked
how characters in various scenarios would feel after praying. There were only three
choices: better (= 1), same (= 0) or worse (= −1). As you can see, virtually all the 8-year-
olds thought prayer would make a person feel better.
Research Design
Scientists: Christi Bamford and Kristin
H. Lagattuta.
Publication: Not quite published! This
was a poster at the Society for Research
in Child Development conference, held
in Boston in April 2007. All the other
studies cited in this text are published,
but this one is included partly to inspire
young researchers.
Participants: A total of 100—20 each at
ages 4, 6, and 8, and 40 college students
at the University of California. Family
backgrounds were equally divided be-
tween those who considered themselves
very religious, somewhat religious, and
not religious.
Design: Participants were shown faces
depicting various emotions and picture
stories of children in various situations
who decided to pray.They were asked
when and why people might pray as
well as how they would feel afterward.
Major conclusions: Compared with
younger children, 8-year-olds were more
likely to believe that prayer is used for
gratitude and for making something
better.They also thought people would
feel better after they prayed.
Comment: Exploring the religious be-
liefs of children is an important topic,
but it is not often done in psychological
research.This study is a good begin-
ning, but culture (even for nonreligious
families) affects beliefs. Replication in
another nation is needed.
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The Nature of the Child 357
The Peer Group
1. Peers are crucial in the social development of the school-age
child. Each group of children has a culture of childhood, passed
down from slightly older children.
2. School-age children are very interested in differentiating right
from wrong. The culture of children is one source of school-age
morality, and so is cognitive maturity. Kohlberg described three
levels of moral reasoning, with children gradually gaining in moral
wisdom.
3. Popular children may be cooperative and easy to get along with
or may be competitive and aggressive. Much depends on the age
and culture of the children.
4. Rejected children may be neglected, aggressive, or withdrawn.
All three types have difficulty interpreting the normal give-and-take
of childhood. Close friendships become increasingly important as
children grow.
5. Bullying is common among school-age children and has long-
term consequences for bullies and victims. Bullying is hard to
stop without a multifaceted, long-term, whole-school approach.
Families and Children
6. Families influence children in many ways, as do genes and
peers. The five functions of a supportive family are: to satisfy chil-
dren’s physical needs; to encourage them to learn; to help them
SUMMARY
unrelated adults. School success, religious faith, after-school achievements—any
or all of these can help a child overcome problems. As two experts explain:
Successful children remind us that children grow up in multiple contexts—in
families, schools, peer groups, baseball teams, religious organizations, and many
other groups—and each context is a potential source of protective factors as well
as risks. These children demonstrate that children are protected not only by the
self-righting nature of development, but also by the actions of adults, by their
own actions, by the nurturing of their assets, by opportunities to succeed, and by
the experience of success. The behavior of adults often plays a critical role in
children’s risks, resources, opportunities, and resilience.
[Masten & Coatsworth, 1998, p. 216]
SUMMING UP
Children gain in maturity and responsibility during the school years. According to psy-
choanalytic theory, the relative quiet of the latency period makes it easier for children to
master new skills and to absorb their culture’s values. To Erikson, the crisis of industry
versus inferiority generates self-doubt in many school-age children.
Researchers have found that school-age children develop a more realistic self-concept.
They cope by becoming more independent, using school achievement, after-school activ-
ities, supportive adults, and religious beliefs to help them overcome whatever problems
they face.
A strength-based understanding of children moves our focus from problems (e.g.,
divorce, bullies) to assets (e.g., family harmony, social understanding). If low-income
parents are not overwhelmed, children will not be, either. Similarly, social skills can
prevent children from becoming bullies or victims. At every age, the characteristics of
the person interact with past developmental history and current conditions to produce
either a well-functioning, benevolent person or the opposite.
Adolescence, the subject of the next three chapters, is a continuation of middle child-
hood as well as a radical departure from it. Stresses and strains continue to accumulate.
Risk factors, including drug availability and sexual urges, become more prevalent.
Fortunately, for many young people, protective resources and constructive coping also
increase (Masten, 2001). Personal competencies, family support, and close friends get
most people through childhood (as we saw in this chapter), adolescence, and, eventu-
ally, adulthood.
■
Become Like a Child Although the particu-
lars vary a great deal, school-age children’s
impulses toward industriousness, stability,
and dedication place them among the most
devout members of every religious faith.
BI
LL
A
RO
N
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T,
IN
C.
➤Response for Religiously Observant
Adults (from page 355): Because religious
beliefs are often helpful to children, because
respect for family is emphasized by virtually
all religions, and because maturation usually
makes people more tolerant, it may be best
to let the child develop his or her own beliefs
without interference. Of course, parents
should set a good example and protect
children from harm, no matter what the
source.
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358 CHAPTER 13 ■ The School Years: Psychosocial Development
3. How would your childhood have been different if your family
structure had been different, such as if you had (or had not) lived
with your grandparents, if your parents had (or had not) gotten
divorced, if you had (or had not) lived in a foster family?
4. The chapter suggests that school-age children develop their
own theology, distinct from the one their parents teach them.
Interview a child, aged 6 to 12, asking what he or she thinks about
God, sin, heaven, death, and any other religious topics you think
relevant. Compare the child’s responses with the formal doctrines
of the faith of his or her parents.
1. Go someplace where school-age children congregate, such as
a schoolyard, a park, or a community center, and use naturalistic
observation for at least half an hour. Describe what popular, aver-
age, withdrawn, and rejected children do. Note at least one po-
tential conflict (bullying, rough-and-tumble, turf, etc.). Describe
the sequence and the outcome.
2. Focusing on verbal bullying, describe at least two times when
someone said a hurtful thing to you and two times when you said
something that might have been hurtful to someone else. What
are the differences between the two types of situations?
APPLICATIONS
social comparison (p. 333)
culture of children (p. 334)
deviancy training (p. 334)
preconventional moral reasoning
(p. 336)
conventional moral reasoning
(p. 336)
postconventional moral
reasoning (p. 336)
aggressive-rejected (p. 338)
withdrawn-rejected (p. 338)
social cognition (p. 338)
effortful control (p. 338)
bullying (p. 339)
bully-victim (p. 340)
family structure (p. 344)
family function (p. 344)
nuclear family (p. 346)
single-parent family (p. 346)
extended family (p. 346)
blended family (p. 347)
latency (p. 351)
industry versus inferiority
(p. 351)
resilience (p. 353)
KEY TERMS
7. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a stepparent
family?
8. Why is a safe, harmonious home particularly important during
middle childhood?
9. What is the psychoanalytic view of middle childhood?
10. What makes it more likely that a child will cope successfully
with major stress?
1. How does a school-age child develop a sense of self?
2. The culture of children strongly disapproves of tattletales.
How does this affect child development?
3. Why is social rejection particularly devastating during middle
childhood?
4. Describe the personal characteristics of a bully and a victim.
5. How do schools, families, and cultures contribute to the inci-
dence of bullying?
6. What is the difference between family function and family
structure?
KEY QUESTIONS
develop friends; to protect their self-respect; and to provide them
with a safe, stable, and harmonious home.
7. The most common family structure, worldwide, is the nuclear
family, with other relatives nearby and supportive. Other struc-
tures include single-parent, stepparent, blended, adoptive, and
grandparent. Generally, it seems better for children to have two
parents rather than one because a parental alliance can support
their development. Structure matters less than function.
8. Income affects family functioning. Poor children are at greater
risk for emotional and behavioral problems because the stress of
poverty often hinders effective parenting. Conflict is also harm-
ful, even when the child is not directly involved.
9. No particular family structure guarantees good—or bad—child
development. Any change in family residence or structure, includ-
ing divorce and remarriage, is likely to hinder school achievement
and friendship formation.
The Nature of the Child
10. All theories of development acknowledge that school-age
children become more independent and capable in many ways. In
psychoanalytic theory, Freud described latency, when psychosex-
ual needs are quiet; Erikson emphasized industry, when children
are busy mastering various tasks.
11. All children are affected by any major family or peer problems
they encounter. Resilience is more likely to be found in children
with social support, independent activities, personal assets, and
religious faith.
12. Children develop their self-concept during these years, based
on a more realistic assessment of their competence than at earlier
years.
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BIOSOCIAL
A Healthy Time During middle childhood, children grow more slowly than they did
earlier or than they will during adolescence. Exercise habits are crucial for health and
happiness. Prevalent physical problems, including obesity and asthma, have genetic
roots and psychosocial consequences.
Brain Development Brain maturation continues, leading to faster reactions and better
self-control. Practice aids automatization and selective attention, which allow smoother
and quicker action. Which specific skills are mastered depends largely on culture, gender,
and inherited ability, all of which are reflected in intelligence tests. Children have many
abilities not reflected in standard IQ tests.
Special Needs Many children have special learning needs. Early recognition, targeted
education, and psychological support can help them, including those with autism spec-
trum disorders, specific learning disabilities, and attention deficit disorders.
COGNITIVE
Building on Theory Beginning at about age 7, Piaget noted, children attain concrete
operational thought, including the ability to understand the logical principles of classifi-
cation, identity, and reversibility. Vygotsky emphasized that children become more open
to learning from mentors, both teachers and peers. Information-processing abilities
increase, including greater memory, knowledge, control, and metacognition.
Language Children’s increasing ability to understand the structures and possibilities of
language enables them to extend the range of their cognitive powers and to become
more analytical in vocabulary. Children have the cognitive capacity to become bilingual.
Education Formal schooling begins worldwide, although the specifics depend on cul-
ture. International comparisons reveal marked variations in overt and hidden curriculum,
as well as in learning, between one nation and another. The United States, with the No
Child Left Behind Act, is moving toward more testing and increased emphasis on basic
skills. Other nations—notably Japan—are moving in other directions. The reading and
math wars pit traditional education against a more holistic approach to learning.
PSYCHOSOCIAL
Peers The peer group becomes increasingly important as children become less de-
pendent on their parents and more dependent on friends for help, loyalty, and sharing
of mutual interests. Moral development, influenced by peers, is notable during these
years. Rejection and bullying become serious problems.
Families Parents continue to influence children, especially as they exacerbate or buffer
problems in school and the community. During these years, families need to meet
basic needs, encourage learning, foster self-respect, nurture friendship, and—most
important—provide harmony and stability. Most one-parent, foster, or grandparent fam-
ilies are better than a nuclear family with two biological parents in open conflict, but
family structure does not guarantee optimal functioning. Household income and family
stability benefit children of all ages, particularly in middle childhood.
The Nature of the Child Theorists agree that many school-age children develop com-
petencies and attitudes to defend against stress. Some children are resilient, coping well
with problems and finding support in friends, family, school, religion, and community.
359
The School Years
PA R T I V The Developing Person So Far:
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Adolescence
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CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
361
W
ould you ride with an unskilled
driver? When my daughter
Bethany had her learner’s permit,
I tried to convey confidence. Not
until a terrified “Mom! Help!” did I grab the wheel to
avoid hitting a subway kiosk. I should have helped
sooner, but it is hard to know when children become
adults, able to manage without their mothers.
As an adolescent, Bethany was neither child nor
adult. A century ago, puberty began later: Soon after
puberty, many teenage girls married and boys found
work. Depending on customs and family income,
some married or entered the labor force even before
adolescence and some much later. Even today, in
some developing nations, by age 10 some boys are
working and some girls are betrothed.
It has been said that adolescence begins with
biology and ends with society. Today, adolescence
tends to begin earlier biologically and end later
sociologically than it once did. Growth is uneven in
both domains; some aspects of the brain mature at
puberty (emotional excitement) and some much
later (reflection). This led one observer to liken
adolescence to “starting turbo-charged engines
with an unskilled driver” (Dahl, 2004, p. 17).
In the next three chapters (covering ages 11–18),
we begin with biology (the growth increases of
puberty) and move toward society (the roles that
teenagers take on). Understanding adolescence is
more than an intellectual challenge: Those turbo-
charged engines need skilled guidance. Get ready
to grab the wheel.
PA R T V
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Adolescence:
Biosocial Development
The body changes of early adolescence rival those of infancy inspeed and drama but differ in one crucial way: Adolescents areaware. Even tiny changes (a blemish, a fingernail) matter when aperson watches his or her own body transforming.
I once overheard a conversation among three teenagers, including my
daughter Rachel. All three were past the awkward years, now becoming
beautiful. They were discussing the imperfections of their bodies. One
spoke of her fat stomach (what stomach? I could not see it), another of her
long neck (hidden by her silky, shoulder-length hair), and my Rachel com-
plained not only about a bent finger but also about her feet!
The reality that children grow into men and women is no shock to any
adult. But for teenagers, heightened self-awareness often triggers surprise
and even horror, joy, or despair. This chapter describes normal biosocial
changes, including growing bodies, emerging sexuality, and maturing brains,
and then two possible problems.
14
363
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� Puberty Begins
Hormones
When Will Puberty Start?
Too Early, Too Late
Nutrition
� The Transformations of Puberty
Growing Bigger and Stronger
Sexual Maturation
Brain Development
A CASE TO STUDY:
What Were You Thinking?
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS:
Calculus at 8 A.M.?
� Possible Problems
Sex Too Soon
Drug Use and Abuse
Learning from Experience
That’s What Friends Are For Jennifer’s
preparations for her prom include pedi-
cure and hairstyle, courtesy of her good
friends Khushbu and Meredith. In every
generation and society the world over,
teenagers help their same-sex friends
prepare for the display rituals involved in
coming of age, but the specifics vary by
cohort and culture. MI
KE
K
IN
G
/ A
P
PH
OT
O
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Puberty Begins
Puberty refers to the years of rapid physical growth and sexual maturation that
end childhood, eventually producing a person of adult size, shape, and sexual
potential. The forces of puberty are unleashed by a cascade of hormones that
produce external signs as well as the heightened emotions and sexual desires that
many adolescents experience. The process normally starts between ages 8 and 14.
The biological changes follow a common sequence (see Table 14.1).
For girls, puberty begins with growth of the nipples and initial pubic hair, then
a peak growth spurt, widening of the hips, the first menstrual period (menarche),
final pubic-hair pattern, and full breast development. The current average age of
menarche among well-nourished girls is about 12 years, 8 months (Malina et al.,
2004), although, as you will soon see, variation in timing is quite normal.
For boys, the usual sequence is growth of the testes, initial pubic hair, growth
of the penis, first ejaculation of seminal fluid (spermarche), facial hair, peak
growth spurt, voice deepening, and final pubic-hair growth (Biro et al., 2001;
Herman-Giddens et al., 2001). The modal age of spermarche is just under 13
years, the same as for menarche.
Typically, physical growth and maturation are complete four years after the first
signs appear, although some individuals (usually late developers) add height, and
most (especially early developers) gain more fat and muscle in their late teens or
early 20s.
Hormones
Just described are the visible changes of puberty. An invisible event begins the
entire process, namely a marked increase in certain hormones, which are natural
puberty The time between the first onrush
of hormones and full adult physical devel-
opment. Puberty usually lasts three to five
years. Many more years are required to
achieve psychosocial maturity.
menarche A girl’s first menstrual period,
signaling that she has begun ovulation.
Pregnancy is biologically possible, but ovu-
lation and menstruation are often irregular
for years after menarche.
spermarche A boy’s first ejaculation of
sperm. Erections can occur as early as
infancy, but ejaculation signals sperm pro-
duction. Spermache occurs during sleep
(in a “wet dream”) or via direct stimulation.
hormone An organic chemical substance
that is produced by one body tissue and
conveyed via the bloodstream to another
to affect some physiological function. Vari-
ous hormones influence thoughts, urges,
emotions, and behavior.
364 CHAPTER 14 ■ Adolescence: Biosocial Development
TABLE 14.1
AT ABOUT THIS TIME: The Sequence of Puberty
Approximate
Girls Average Age* Boys
Ovaries increase production of
estrogen and progesterone†
Uterus and vagina begin to grow
larger
Breast “bud” stage
Pubic hair begins to appear; weight
spurt begins
Peak height spurt
Peak muscle and organ growth (also,
hips become noticeably wider)
Menarche (first menstrual period)
First ovulation
Voice lowers
Final pubic-hair pattern
Full breast growth
9
91⁄2
10
11
111⁄2
12
121⁄2
13
14
15
16
18
Testes increase production of
testosterone†
Testes and scrotum grow larger
Pubic hair begins to appear
Penis growth begins
Spermarche (first ejaculation); weight
spurt begins
Peak height spurt
Peak muscle and organ growth (also,
shoulders become noticeably broader)
Voice lowers; visible facial hair
Final pubic-hair pattern
*Average ages are rough approximations, with many perfectly normal, healthy adolescents as much as three years
ahead of or behind these ages.
†Estrogens and testosterone influence sexual characteristics, including reproduction. Charted here are the in-
creases produced by the gonads (sex glands). The ovaries produce estrogens and the testes produce androgens,
especially testosterone. Adrenal glands produce some of both kinds of hormones (not shown).
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chemicals in the bloodstream that affect every body cell. Hormones regulate
hunger, sleep, moods, stress, sexual desire, and much more.
At least 23 hormones affect human growth and maturation, several of which in-
crease markedly in the months before the first signs of puberty. Technically, those
first straggly pubic hairs are “a late event” in the process (Cameron, 2004, p. 116).
You learned in Chapter 8 that the production of many hormones is regulated
deep within the brain, where biochemical signals from the hypothalamus signal
another brain structure, the pituitary. The pituitary produces hormones that
stimulate the adrenal glands, small glands located above the kidneys at either
side of the lower back. The adrenal glands produce more hormones. This HPA
axis (hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal) is the route followed by hormones that reg-
ulate stress, growth, sleep, appetite, and sexual excitement as well as puberty (see
Figure 14.1).
Sex Hormones
At adolescence, the pituitary also activates the gonads, or sex glands (ovaries in
females; testes, or testicles, in males). One hormone in particular, GnRH
(gonadotropin-releasing hormone), causes the gonads to enlarge and dramatically
increase their production of sex hormones, chiefly estradiol in girls and testos-
terone in boys. These hormones affect the entire body shape and function.
Estrogens (including estradiol) are considered female hormones, and andro-
gens (including testosterone) are considered male hormones, but the adrenal
glands produce both in everyone. Unlike those produced by the adrenal glands,
the hormones produced by the gonads are sex-specific. After a decrease during
childhood, testosterone skyrockets in boys—up to 20 times the pre-pubescent
level (Roche & Sun, 2003). For girls, estradiol increases to about 8 times the
childhood level (Malina et al., 2004).
The activated gonads eventually produce gametes (sperm and ova), whose mat-
uration and release are heralded by spermarche or menarche, signifying that the
young person has the biological potential to become a parent. (Peak fertility comes
years later, but ovulation and ejaculation signify the possibility of pregnancy.)
Sudden Emotions
Remember that the HPA axis leads from brain to body to behavior. The behaviors
that adolescents are best known for are emotional and sexual—moodiness and
lust that overtake the formerly predictable, seemingly asexual, child. Hormones
influence this. To be specific:
■ Testosterone at high or accelerating levels stimulates rapid arousal of emo-
tions, especially anger.
■ Hormonal bursts lead to quick emotional extremes (despair, ecstasy).
■ For many boys, the increase in androgens causes sexual thoughts and a desire
to masturbate.
■ For many girls, the fluctuating estrogens increase happiness in the middle of
the menstrual cycle (at ovulation) and sadness or anger at the end.
pituitary A gland in the brain that responds
to a signal from the hypothalamus by pro-
ducing many hormones, including those
that regulate growth and control other
glands, among them the adrenal and sex
glands.
adrenal glands Two glands, located above
the kidneys, that produce hormones
(including the “stress hormones” epineph-
rine [adrenaline] and norepinephrine).
HPA axis The hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal
axis, a route followed by many kinds of
hormones to trigger the changes of
puberty and to regulate stress, growth,
sleep, appetite, sexual excitement, and
various other bodily changes.
gonads The paired sex glands (ovaries in
females, testicles in males). The gonads
produce hormones and gametes.
estradiol A sex hormone, considered the
chief estrogen. Females produce more
estradiol than males do.
testosterone A sex hormone, the best
known of the androgens (male hormones);
secreted in far greater amounts by males
than by females.
Puberty Begins 365
Hypothalamus
Hormones
Pituitary Adrenal glands
HPA axis
Growth spurt
Primary sex characteristics
Secondary sex characteristics
Gonads
(ovaries or
testicles)
Increase
in many
hormones,
including
testosterone
and estrogen
Growth
hormone
(GH)
Gonadotropin-releasinghormone < >
FIGURE 14.1
Biological Sequence of Puberty Puberty
begins with a hormonal signal from the hypo-
thalamus to the pituitary gland. The pituitary,
in turn, signals the adrenal glands and the
ovaries or testes to produce more of their
hormones.
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Although adults experience these same hormonal effects, during puberty hor-
mones are more erratic and powerful, less familiar and controllable, and they come
in bursts, not a steady flow (Cameron, 2004; Susman & Rogol, 2004). Further,
when adults experience hormonal changes (especially during pregnancy and birth),
cognitive maturation helps control the effects.
Hormones sometimes make adolescents seek sexual activity and sometimes
arouse excitement, pleasure, and frustration. But human thoughts and emotions
not only result from physiological and neurological processes—they also cause
them (Damasio, 2003). An adolescent’s reactions to how other people respond to
breasts, beards, and body shapes evoke emotions that, in turn, affect hormones—
just as hormones affect emotions—with the particular emotional reaction not di-
rectly tied to specific hormones (Alsaker & Flammer, 2006).
This is clearer with an example. Suppose a 13-year-old girl hears a lewd remark,
provoked by her developing breasts in a too-tight shirt. She might feel a surge of
anger, fear, or embarrassment, but it is the remark, not her hormones, that arouses
her. Her emotions might cause a rise in stress hormones and sexual ones as well.
Evidence for a complex link between hormones and emotions came from a
study of 56 adolescents who were late to begin puberty (Schwab et al., 2001).
Doctors prescribed treatment every 3 months: injections of hormones (low,
medium, or high doses of testosterone or an estrogen) alternating with injections
of a placebo (which had no hormones). Gradually, the outward signs of puberty
appeared.
Every three months, other measures were taken: the level of sex hormones
(measured via blood tests) and the emotions felt by the adolescents (via a ques-
tionnaire). An emotional shift occurred, indirectly caused by the hormones. Over
the two years, moods became more positive, not directly because of hormones in
the body but presumably because the teenagers were happy with their physical
development.
Surprisingly, happiness and sadness did not correlate with shifting hormonal
levels. The teenagers did not seem emotionally aroused by the level of hormones
in their systems—with one exception. Both boys and girls reported more anger
when they had had moderate amounts of hormones, not the highest
levels of testosterone (for the boys) or estrogens (for the girls) (Sus-
man & Rogol, 2004).
When Will Puberty Start?
Hormones cascading into the bloodstream always trigger the changes
of puberty. However, age of onset varies. Age 11 or 12 is most likely,
but a rise in hormones is still considered normal in those as young as
age 8 or as old as age 14. This variation is not random but is affected
by genes, body fat, and stress (Ellis, 2004).
Genes
The genes on the sex chromosomes markedly affect the onset of
puberty. Among well-nourished children, at least one girl (XX) in a
fifth-grade class has already developed breasts and begun to grow to
adult height. Not until age 18 or so has her last male classmate (XY)
sprouted facial hair and grown to man-size.
On average, girls are about two years ahead of boys in height.
However, hormonally and sexually girls are ahead by only a few
months, not by years (Malina et al., 2004), because the height spurt
occurs about midway in female pubescence (before menarche) but
is a late event (after spermarche) for boys.
Especially for Parents of Teenagers
Why would parents blame adolescent moods
on hormones?
366 CHAPTER 14 ■ Adolescence: Biosocial Development
SK
JO
LD
P
HO
TO
GR
AP
HS
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
Both 12 The ancestors of these two
Minnesota 12-year-olds came from northern
Europe and West Africa. Their genes have
dictated some differences between them,
including the timing of puberty, but these
differences are irrelevant to their friendship.
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Genes influence the timing of puberty in other ways as well. Monozygotic twins
are more alike than same-sex dizygotic twins (Roche & Sun, 2003). Ethnic varia-
tions in pubertal timing are partly genetic (see Figure 14.2). In the United States,
African Americans tend to reach puberty earlier than do European Americans or
Hispanic Americans (see Figure 14.3). Asian Americans average several months
later (Herman-Giddens et al., 2001; Malina et al., 2004).
Ages in Europe also vary, probably for genetic reasons. Northern European girls
are said to reach menarche at 13 years, 4 months, on average, and southern Euro-
pean girls do so at an average age of 12 years, 5 months (Alsaker & Flammer, 2006).
Body Fat
The genetic differences noted above are apparent only when every child is well
fed. Puberty starts earlier in the cities of India and China than in the remote
villages, probably because rural children are often hungry. In Poland and Greece,
urban–rural differences are shown in that puberty occurs a year earlier in Warsaw
Puberty Begins 367
11.8
11.6
12
12.2
12.4
12.6
12.8
13Age
(years)
Median Age of Menarche, by U.S. Ethnic Group
Median age at menarche
African American girls
Asian American girls
Mexican American girls
European American girls
Source: Chumlea et al., 2003.
FIGURE 14.2
Usually by Age 13 The median age of
menarche (when half the girls have begun to
menstruate) differs somewhat among ethnic
groups in the United States.
2
0
4
6
8
10
12
14Age
(years)
Timing of Menarche, by U.S. Ethnic Group
Timing of menarche
African American girls
Mexican American girls
European American girls
Earliest 10 percent Latest 10 percent
Source: Chumlea et al., 2003.
FIGURE 14.3
Almost Always by Age 14 This graph shows
the age of menarche for the earliest and lat-
est 10 percent of girls in three U.S. ethnic
groups. Note that, especially for the slow de-
velopers (those in the 90th percentile), ethnic
differences are very small.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 368):
At first glance, ethnic differences seem
dramatic in Figure 14.2 but minimal in Figure
14.3. Why is this first glance deceptive?
360-389_BergerLS7E_CH14.qxp 9/17/07 9:58 AM Page 367

than in Polish villages and 3 months earlier in Athens than in the rest of Greece
(Malina et. al, 2004).
Worldwide, stocky individuals begin puberty before those with thinner builds.
Some believe that hormones in the food supply cause earlier puberty, and others
believe that hormones cause weight gain rather than vice versa (Ellison, 2002).
Neither of these theories has been proven. Nonetheless, it is apparent that
menarche occurs later in girls who have little body fat (because they are under-
nourished or overexercised) and that most girls weigh at least 100 pounds (45
kilograms) before their first period (Berkey et al., 2000).
In both sexes, chronic malnutrition delays puberty. This probably explains why
puberty did not occur until about age 17 in the sixteenth century. In the early
twentieth century, menarche occurred on average at age 15 in Norway, Sweden,
and Finland (Tanner, 1990), compared with age 12 or 13 today.
These are examples of the secular trend, a term that refers to earlier and
greater growth of children over the last two centuries as nutrition and medical care
have improved. Over the twentieth century, each generation experienced puberty
a few months earlier than did the preceding one (Alsaker & Flammer, 2006).
The secular trend seems to have stopped in developed nations (Roche & Sun,
2003). This has a specific application. Probably, after considering the gender dif-
ferential (men are on average about 5 inches taller than women), today’s young
adults will be about as tall as their parents unless chronic illness or undernourish-
ment as a child is a factor.
Stress
The production of many hormones is directly connected to stressful experiences
via the HPA axis (Sanchez et al., 2001). Because stress affects reproductive
hormones, many young women experience irregular menstruation when they leave
home for college or take trips abroad, and many couples find it easier to become
pregnant on vacation than when they are working.
Stress affects pubertal hormones as well, paradoxically by increasing (not
decreasing) them. Puberty tends to arrive earlier if a child’s parents are sick,
addicted, or divorced, or when the neighborhood is violent and impoverished
(Herman-Giddens et al., 2001; Hulanicka, 1999; Moffitt et al., 1992).
Before concluding that stress causes early puberty, however, you need to know
that not every scientist agrees that this is the case (Ellis, 2004). Since puberty is
partly genetic, it could be that adults who reached puberty early are likely to marry
and become parents young, which might make them more likely to be under-
educated, depressed, angry, and divorced. Consequently, their children would live
with conflicted, divorce-prone parents and thus experience early puberty not be-
cause of the conflict but because of their genes.
However, at least one careful longitudinal study of 87 girls did find a direct link
between stress and puberty (Ellis & Garber, 2000). Those girls who fought with
their mothers and who lived with an unrelated man (stepfather or mother’s
boyfriend) also had earlier puberty, even when genes and weight were taken into
account. The longer a girl lived with a man who was not her father, the earlier she
reached menarche.
Animal research also implicates stress. Mice, rats, and opossums under stress
become pregnant at younger ages than do other members of their species
(Warshofsky, 1999). Further, female mice reach puberty earlier if, as infants, they
were raised with unrelated adult male mice (Caretta et al., 1995).
The evidence for the stress hypothesis is sufficiently strong to wonder why
stress would trigger puberty. Logically, conflicted or stepfather families would
benefit if the opposite happened—if teenagers looked and acted like children and
secular trend A term that refers to the ear-
lier and greater growth of children due to
improved nutrition and medical care over
the last two centuries.
368 CHAPTER 14 ■ Adolescence: Biosocial Development
➤Response for Parents of Teenagers
(from page 366): If something causes
adolescents to shout “I hate you,” to slam
doors, or to cry inconsolably, parents may
decide that hormones are the problem.
This makes it easy to disclaim personal
responsibility for the teenager’s anger.
However, research on stress and hormones
suggests that this comforting attribution is
too simplistic.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 367): The major reason is the vertical
axis, which covers a total of 11⁄2 years in
Figure 14.2 and 14 years in Figure 14.3. In
addition, the outliers (top and bottom 10
percent) in Figure 14.2 show less variation
than the median in Figure 14.3
360-389_BergerLS7E_CH14.qxp 9/17/07 9:58 AM Page 368

could not reproduce. But that does not happen. One explanation comes from evo-
lutionary theory:
Over the course of our natural selective history, ancestral females growing up
in adverse family environments may have reliably increased their reproductive
success by accelerating physical maturation and beginning sexual activity and
reproduction at a relatively early age.
[Ellis & Garber, 2000, p. 486]
In other words, in past stressful times, adolescent parents could replace them-
selves before they died, passing on family genes. Natural selection favored genes
that adapted to wars, famine, and sickness by initiating early puberty. Currently,
early sexuality and reproduction lead to social disruption, not social survival, but
the human genome has been shaped over millennia. Although many explanations
are possible for the link between stress and early puberty, the evidence continues
to find the correlation (Romans et al., 2003).
Too Early, Too Late
For most adolescents, only one aspect of timing is important: their friends’ sched-
ules. No one wants to be early or late, with early particularly hard for girls, late for
boys. Why?
Think about the early-maturing girl. If she has visible breasts in the fifth grade,
the boys tease her; they are awed by the sexual creature in their midst. She must
fit her womanly body into a school chair designed for younger children, and she
may hide her breasts in large T-shirts and bulky sweaters and refuse to undress
for gym. Early-maturing girls tend to have lower self-esteem, more depression,
and poorer body image than later-maturing girls (Compian et al, 2004; Mendle
et al., 2007).
Some early-maturing girls have boyfriends several years older, which adds status
but more complications, including drug and alcohol use (Weichold et al., 2003).
They are “isolated from their on-time-maturing peers [and] tend to associate with
older adolescents. This increases their emotional distress” (Ge et al., 2003, p. 437).
Cohort is crucial for boys. Early-maturing boys who were born around 1930 often
became leaders in high school and beyond (M. C. Jones, 1965). Early-maturing
boys also tend to be more successful as adults (Taga et al., 2006). However, if
early-maturing boys live in stressful urban neighborhoods (with poverty, drugs, and
violence) and if their parents are unusually strict, they are likely to befriend
law-breaking, somewhat older boys (Ge et al., 2002). For both sexes, early puberty
currently correlates with early romance, sex, and parenthood, which lead to later
depression and other psychosocial problems (B. Brown, 2004; Siebenbruner et al.,
2007).
Late puberty may also be difficult, especially for boys. Ethnic differences in age
of puberty can add to ethnic tensions in high school. Remember that Asian Amer-
ican youth tend to experience later puberty. In one multiethnic high school, the
“quiet Asian boys” were teased because they were shorter and thinner than their
classmates, much to their dismay (Lei, 2003). This is a likely explanation for the
greater peer discrimination experienced by the Chinese youth in another school
(Greene et al., 2006; see Research Design). In a third multiethnic high school,
Samoan students were small numerically but advanced in puberty. As a result,
they were respected by their classmates of all backgrounds, able to moderate ten-
sions between African and Mexican Americans (Staiger, 2006). Interactions
among students in all three of these schools illustrate the importance of physical
appearance for many adolescents. Puberty can enhance or diminish a person’s
status with peers, depending partly on when it occurs.
Especially for Parents Worried About
Early Puberty Suppose your cousin’s 9-year-
old daughter has just had her first period, and
your cousin blames hormones in the food
supply for this “precocious” puberty. Should
you change your young daughter’s diet?
Puberty Begins 369
Research Design
Scientists: Melissa L. Greene, Niobe
Way, and Kerstin Pahl.
Publication: Developmental Psychology
(2006).
Participants: A total of 136 high school
students at a multiethnic high school in
New York City.
Design: Six times over the four years of
high school, students answered ques-
tionnaires about discrimination, ethnic
identity, depression, and self-esteem.
Major conclusion: For all four ethnic
groups (Black, Asian American, Puerto
Rican, and other Latino), perceived peer
discrimination had a greater impact on
self-esteem than did perceived adult
discrimination.The Asian Americans
averaged higher levels of perceived
discrimination than any other group;
the Black Americans were second.
Comment:This study is a welcome step
toward multifaceted, multiethnic, longi-
tudinal research on adolescents. More is
needed to provide, as the researchers
write, “a thorough examination of the
impact of experiences of discrimination
on well-being.”
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Nutrition
All the changes of puberty depend on nutrition, yet many adolescents are deficient
in necessary vitamins or minerals. A five-year longitudinal study found that eating
habits get worse throughout the teen years (N. I. Larson et al., 2006).
Diet Deficiencies
Fewer than half of all teenagers consume the recommended daily dose of 15 mil-
ligrams of iron, found in green vegetables, eggs, and meat—all spurned in favor of
chips, sweets, and fast food. Because menstruation depletes the body of iron,
more adolescent girls are anemic than those in any other age or gender group
(Belamarich & Ayoob, 2001). Adolescent boys also suffer from anemia, especially
if they engage in physical labor or competitive sports, because muscles need iron
(Blum & Nelson-Mmari, 2004).
Calcium is another example. About half of adult bone mass is acquired from
ages 10 to 20, yet few adolescents consume enough calcium to prevent osteoporo-
sis, which causes disability, injury, and death among older adults. Milk drinking
has declined; most North American children once drank at least a quart a day. In
2005 among ninth-graders, only 14 percent of U.S. girls and 24 percent of boys
drank even 24 ounces (3⁄4 liter) of milk a day. By twelfth grade, the rates were 10
and 18 percent (MMWR, June 9, 2006).
Nutritional deficiencies result from the choices young adolescents are allowed,
even enticed, to make. There is a direct link between deficient diets and the
availability of vending machines in schools (Cullen & Zakeri, 2004). Fast-food
establishments cluster around high schools, if zoning permits, and many such
places are hangouts for teenagers.
One reason is price. At least experimentally, 10- to 14-year-olds choose healthy
foods if they are cheaper than unhealthy ones (Epstein et al., 2006), but milk and
fruit juice are more expensive than fruit punch or soda, and McDonald’s charges
more for a salad than a hamburger. Only 20 percent of high school students in
2005 ate five or more servings of fruits or vegetables a day (MMWR, June 9,
2006), worse than a decade ago (29 percent) (MMWR, August 14, 1998).
Body Image
Another reason for poor nutrition is anxiety about body image—that is, a person’s
idea of how his or her body looks. Since puberty alters the entire body, it is almost
impossible for teenagers to welcome every change. Unfortunately, their percep-
tions are distorted; they tend to focus on and exaggerate the problems.
Girls diet because they want to be thinner, and they notice that boys tend to
date thinner girls (Halpern et al., 2005). Many boys want to look taller and
stronger, a concern that increases from ages 12 to 17 (D. Jones & Crawford,
2005). Children of ethnic minorities are bombarded with faces and bodies in films
and advertisements that have features and shapes quite different from those their
genes will produce.
Many stressed teenagers eat erratically or ingest drugs (especially diet pills or
steroids), hoping to lose weight (the girls) or to gain muscles (the boys). Their
obsession can backfire. Some adolescents give up, becoming flabby and fat
instead of strong and thin. About 12 percent of all U.S. teenagers are overweight
according to international standards, more than in any other nation that has
been studied (Lissau et al., 2004). As bad as that is, almost two-thirds (62 per-
cent) of all U.S. adolescent girls and almost a third of the boys are trying to lose
weight, according to a nationwide U.S. survey of 14,000 high school students
(MMWR, June 9, 2006).
body image A person’s idea of how his or
her body looks.
370 CHAPTER 14 ■ Adolescence: Biosocial Development
➤Response for Parents Worried About
Early Puberty (from page 369): Probably
not. If she is overweight, her diet should
change, but the hormone hypothesis is
speculative. Genes are the main factor; she
shares only 1/8 of her genes with her cousin.
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Some social scientists believe that the epidemic of obesity
(discussed in detail in Chapters 11 and 20) can be a direct result
of the wish to be thinner (e.g., P. F. Campos, 2004). Adolescent
obesity increases the risk of premature death, at least for women,
partly because overweight women are more likely to be suicidal
(van Dam et al., 2006). Girls are more likely than boys to be
obsessed with weight, an obsession that can lead to extreme
dieting. Eating disorders typically begin in early adolescence and
grow worse by young adulthood. (Anorexia and bulimia nervosa
are discussed in detail in Chapter 17.)
SUMMING UP
Puberty usually begins between ages 8 and 14 (typically at about 11)
in response to hormones deep within the brain, from the hypothala-
mus to the pituitary to the adrenal and sex glands. Hormones affect the emotions as
well as the physique, with adolescent outbursts caused by the combination of hormones
and sociocultural reactions to visible body changes. Many factors, including genes, body
fat, and probably stress, affect when puberty begins. Generally, puberty begins earlier
than in past centuries, although this aspect of the secular trend is stopping. Early
puberty (especially for girls) or late puberty (especially for boys) is problematic. All
adolescents are vulnerable to poor nutrition and body image worries.
■
The Transformations of Puberty
Every body part changes during puberty. For simplicity, the transformation from a
child into an adult is traditionally divided into two parts: growth and sexuality. We
will use that division here and add a third aspect, the transformation of the brain.
In actuality, however, every aspect of pubescent growth involves all three.
For example, suppose a young adolescent suddenly notices darker and thicker
hair growing on his or her legs, which everyone experiences as part of puberty. If
the child is a girl, she will probably shave her legs, feeling quite womanly when
she nicks herself before developing a light touch or buying a depilatory. If the child
is a boy, he may search for new hair on his upper lip, his chin, and his chest, to
mark his manhood. Thus a sexless sign of maturity (hair on the legs) is seen as sex-
ual, and thoughts and memories stored in the brain affect the adolescent’s proud
reaction.
Growing Bigger and Stronger
The first set of changes during puberty is the growth spurt—a sudden, uneven
jump in the size of almost every part of the body, turning children into adults.
Growth proceeds from the extremities to the core (the opposite of the proximal-
distal growth of the prenatal and infant periods). Thus, fingers and toes lengthen
before hands and feet; hands and feet before arms and legs; arms and legs before
the torso.
Because the torso is the last body part to grow, many pubescent children are
temporarily big-footed, long-legged, and short-waisted, appearing to be “all legs and
arms” (Hofmann, 1997, p. 12). If young teenagers complain that their jeans don’t
fit, they are probably correct, even if those same jeans fit their shorter-waisted,
thinner body when their parents paid for them a month before. (Parents had
advance warning when they had to buy shoes for their children in adult shoe sizes.)
growth spurt The relatively sudden and
rapid physical growth that occurs during
puberty. Each body part increases in size
on a schedule: Weight usually precedes
height, and the limbs precede the torso.
The Transformation of Puberty 371
Does He Like What He Sees? During ado-
lescence, all the facial features do not de-
velop at the same rate, and the hair often
becomes less manageable. If B. T. here is typ-
ical, he is not pleased with the appearance of
his nose, lips, ears, or hair.
LA
UR
A
DW
IG
HT
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Sequence: Weight, Height, Muscles
As the bones lengthen and harden (visible on an X-ray) and the growth spurt
begins, children eat more and gain weight. Exactly when, where, and how much
weight is gained depends on heredity, diet, exercise, and gender, with girls gaining
much more fat than boys. By age 17, the average girl has twice as much fat as her
male classmate, whose increased weight is mostly muscle (Roche & Sun, 2003).
A height spurt follows the weight spurt, burning up some fat and redistributing
the rest. A year or two after the height spurt, the muscle spurt occurs. Thus, the
pudginess and clumsiness of early puberty is usually gone by late adolescence. On
average, a boy’s arm muscles are twice as strong at age 18 than at age 8, enabling
him to throw a ball four times as far (Malina et al., 2004). Arm muscles show the
most sex difference (see Figure 14.4); other muscles are more gender-neutral. For
instance, running speed increases over adolescence in both sexes, with boys not
much faster than girls (see Figure 14.5).
Other Body Changes
For both sexes, organs grow and become more efficient. Lungs triple in weight,
and adolescents breathe more deeply and slowly. The heart doubles in size and
beats more slowly (which decreases the pulse), while blood pressure and volume
both increase (Malina et al., 2004). These changes increase physical endurance,
enabling many teenagers to run for miles or dance for hours.
Note that both weight and height increase before the growth of muscles and
internal organs, which means that athletic training and weight lifting should be
tailored to an adolescent’s size the previous year, to spare their immature muscles
and organs. Sports injuries are the most common school accidents, increasing at
puberty. One reason is that, because height precedes increases of bone mass,
young adolescents are more vulnerable to fractures than are adults until old age
(Roche & Sun, 2003).
372 CHAPTER 14 ■ Adolescence: Biosocial Development
Meters
6 8 12 14 16 1810
Age (years)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Source: Malina et al., 2004, p. 221.
Throwing Performance of Boys and Girls, Age 6 to 18
Girls
Boys
Ball throw for distance
FIGURE 14.4
Big Difference All children experience an increase in muscles
during puberty, but gender differences are much more apparent
in some gross motor skills than others. For instance, upper-arm
strength increases dramatically only in boys.
Running time
(seconds)
6 8 12 144 16 1810
Age (years)
3
4
5
6
7
Source: Malina et al., 2004, p. 222.
Running Speed of Girls and Boys, Age 5 to 18
30-yard (27.4-m) dash
Girls
Boys
FIGURE 14.5
Little Difference Both sexes develop longer and stronger legs
during puberty.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 374): At what age does
the rate of increase in the average boy’s muscle accelerate?
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Only one organ system, the lymphoid system (which includes the tonsils and
adenoids), decreases in size, thus making teenagers less susceptible to respiratory
ailments. Mild asthma, for example, often switches off at puberty (Busse &
Lemanske, 2005), and teenagers have fewer colds than younger children do.
Another organ system, the skin, changes in marked ways, making bodies oilier,
sweatier, and more prone to acne. Hair also changes. During puberty, hair on the
head and limbs becomes coarser and darker, and new hair grows under arms, on
faces, and above sex organs (pubic hair, from which puberty was named). Visible
facial and chest hair is sometimes considered a sign of manliness, although hairi-
ness in either sex depends on genes as well as hormones.
Sexual Maturation
The second set of changes turns boys into men and girls into women. Sexual char-
acteristics signify this transformation, as do many impulses and behaviors.
Sexual Body Changes
Primary sex characteristics are defined as those parts of the body that are
directly involved in conception and pregnancy. During puberty, every primary sex
organ (the ovaries, the uterus, the penis, and the testes) increases in size and ma-
tures in function. By the end of the process, reproduction is possible.
At the same time as maturation of the primary sex characteristics, secondary
sex characteristics develop. Secondary sex characteristics are bodily features
that do not directly affect fertility (hence they are secondary) but that signify mas-
culinity or femininity. One obvious secondary sexual characteristic is body shape,
virtually unisex in childhood. At puberty, males grow taller than females (by 5
inches, on average) and become wider at the shoulders, while girls develop breasts
and a wider pelvis.
Breasts and hips are often considered signs of womanhood; but neither is re-
quired for conception, and thus both are secondary, not primary, sex characteris-
tics. Secondary sex characteristics may be important psychologically, if not
biologically. For example, many girls buy “minimizer,” “maximizer,” “training,” or
“shaping” bras. Many boys are horrified to notice a swelling around their nipples—
a normal and temporary result of the erratic hormones of early puberty.
A welcome secondary sex characteristic is a lower voice as the lungs and larynx
grow, a change most noticeable in boys. Girls also develop lower voices, which is
why throaty female voices are considered sexy.
The pattern of growth at the scalp line differs for the two sexes, but few people
notice that. Instead, they notice gender markers in hair length and style, which
can attain the status of a secondary sex characteristic. Adolescents spend consid-
erable time, money, and thought on their visible hair—growing, shaving, curling,
straightening, brushing, combing, styling, dyeing, wetting, drying . . .
Sexual Activity
The primary and secondary sex characteristics just described are not the only
manifestations of the sexual hormones. Fantasizing, flirting, hand-holding, staring,
displaying, and touching are all done in particular ways to reflect gender, availabil-
ity, and culture. As already explained, hormones trigger thoughts and emotions,
but the social context shapes thoughts into enjoyable fantasies, shameful preoccu-
pations, frightening impulses, or actual contact.
Some experts believe that boys are more influenced by hormones and girls by
culture (Baumeister et al., 2007). Perhaps. When a relationship includes sexual
intimacy, girls seem more concerned about the depth of the romance than boys do
primary sex characteristics The parts of the
body that are directly involved in reproduc-
tion, including the vagina, uterus, ovaries,
testicles, and penis.
secondary sex characteristics Physical
traits that are not directly involved in repro-
duction but that indicate sexual maturity,
such as a man’s beard and a woman’s
breasts.
The Transformation of Puberty 373
CL
EV
E
BR
YA
N
T
/ P
HO
TO
ED
IT
Male Pride Teenage boys typically feel serious
pride when they first need to shave. Although
facial hair is taken as a sign of masculinity, a
person’s hairiness is actually genetic as well as
hormonal. Further evidence that the Western
world’s traditional racial categories have no
genetic basis comes from East Asia: Many
Chinese men cannot grow beards or mus-
taches, but most Japanese men can.
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(Zani & Cicognani, 2006). However, both sexes
are influenced by hormones and society. All
have sexual interests they did not previously
have (biology), which produce behaviors that
teenagers in other nations would not necessarily
engage in (culture) (Moore & Rosenthal, 2006).
Cultural norms affect who is likely to be a
person’s first sexual partner. Individuals might
think that this is a very private and personal
choice, but evidence suggests not.
For example, North American adolescents of
both sexes tend to express sexual impulses with
partners about the same age, which is also true
in many European nations (Zani & Cicognani,
2006). However, in Finland and Norway, girls
tend to become sexually experienced later than
boys. In Greece and Portugal, the opposite is
true (Teitler, 2002). Men in Nigeria are expected
to seek inexperienced younger teens for sexual
partners and to give them gifts. By contrast, emerging adult males in Thailand are
expected to seek older, experienced women (World Health Organization, 2005).
These generalities do not apply to everyone within those nations. Subgroups as
well as cohorts always differ, again for cultural reasons. One specific was found in
a survey of 704 adolescents in Ghana: More 16-year-old girls than boys were sexu-
ally experienced, but those experienced girls usually had only one partner whereas
the boys had several. Muslim youth were less often experienced than Christians,
who were less experienced than those of neither faith (Glover et al., 2003).
As in Ghana, religious teachings affect sexual behavior for many teenagers
worldwide; this was apparent in a study of adolescents in Israel and the United
States, with many youth being influenced by their faith. For Muslim teenagers,
romances seldom included sexual intimacy, even in thought (Magen, 1998). For
example, one Arab Israeli boy reported on “the most wonderful and happiest day
of my life”:
A girl passed our house. And she looked at me. She looked at me as though I
were an angel in paradise. I looked at her, and stopped still, and wondered and
marveled. . . . [Later] she passed near us, stopped, and called my friend, and
asked my name and who I am. I trembled all over and could hardly stand on my
feet. I used my brain, since otherwise I would have fallen to the floor. I couldn’t
stand it any longer and went home.
[quoted in Magen, 1998, pp. 97–98]
Cohort as well as culture have notable effects on sexual activity. For most of
the twentieth century, surveys in North America have reported increasing propor-
tions of adolescents becoming sexually active. This trend reversed in 1990. For
example, according to the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey (MMWR, 2006),
62 percent of eleventh-graders in the United States had had intercourse in 1991,
but only 51 percent had in 2005. The double standard (with boys expected to be
more sexually active than girls) also declined, as male rates came closer to female
ones (see Figure 14.6). Ethnic differences among high school students were also
apparent. Rates of sexual experience for African Americans were down 13 per-
centage points (from 81 to 68 percent), for European Americans down 7 percent-
age points (from 50 to 43 percent), and for Latinos down 2 percentage points
(from 53 to 51 percent).
374 CHAPTER 14 ■ Adolescence: Biosocial Development
A Woman at 15 Dulce Giovanna Mendez
dances at her quinceañera, the traditional
fifteenth-birthday celebration of a Hispanic
girl’s sexual maturity. Dulce lives in Ures,
Mexico, where many older teenagers marry
and have children. This was the expected out-
come of puberty in earlier decades in the
United States as well.
JO
AN
N
A
B.
P
IN
N
EO
/
AU
RO
RA
P
HO
TO
S
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 372): About age 13. This is most obvious
in ball throwing (see Figure 14.4), but it is also
apparent in the 30-yard dash.
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All these examples demonstrate that a universal experience (specifically, rising
hormones) that produces another universal experience (specifically, growth of
primary and secondary sex characteristics) takes many forms, depending on cohort
and culture.
Brain Development
As with all the other changes of puberty, adolescent brain growth is the conse-
quence of hormones, maturation, and experience, which together cause uneven
yet rapid growth. The limbic system (fear, emotional impulses) matures before
the prefrontal cortex (planning ahead, emotional regulation). Neuroscientists and
developmentalists are working to understand exactly how emotions and logic con-
nect, as the following explains.
The Transformation of Puberty 375
40
45
50
55
60Percent
1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005
Year
Percent of U.S. Eleventh-Grade Students Who Say They Have Had Sexual Intercourse
Source: MMWR Surveillance Summaries, June 9, 2006.
Girls
Boys
FIGURE 14.6
Surprise! Two trends are apparent from this
graph. First, fewer adolescents are sexually
experienced than was the case 15 years ago.
Second, the gap between the sexes is shrink-
ing. This is confirmed by other data, including
the number of eleventh-graders who say
they have had four or more partners, which
showed a 10 percent male–female gap in
1991 and a 5 percent gap in 2005. Both
trends (decline and sexual convergence) are
found in other nations, and neither was pre-
dicted by researchers a few decades ago.
a case to study
What Were You Thinking?
Laurence Steinberg is a noted expert on adolescent thinking.
He is also a father.
When my son, Benjamin, was 14, he and three of his friends de-
cided to sneak out of the house where they were spending the
night and visit one of their girlfriends at around two in the morn-
ing. When they arrived at the girl’s house, they positioned them-
selves under her bedroom window, threw pebbles against her
windowpanes, and tried to scale the side of the house. Modern
technology, unfortunately, has made it harder to play Romeo these
days. The boys set off the house’s burglar alarm, which activated a
siren and simultaneously sent a direct notification to the local
police station, which dispatched a patrol car. When the siren
went off, the boys ran down the street and right smack into the
police car, which was heading to the girl’s home. Instead of stop-
ping and explaining their activity, Ben and his friends scattered
and ran off in different directions through the neighborhood. One
of the boys was caught by the police and taken back to his home,
where his parents were awakened and the boy questioned.
I found out about this affair the following morning, when the
girl’s mother called our home to tell us what Ben had done. . . .
After his near brush with the local police, Ben had returned to
the house out of which he had snuck, where he slept soundly
until I awakened him with an angry telephone call, telling him to
gather his clothes and wait for me in front of his friend’s house.
On our drive home, after delivering a long lecture about what he
had done and about the dangers of running from armed police in
the dark when they believe they may have interrupted a burglary,
I paused.
“What were you thinking?” I asked.
“That’s the problem, Dad,” Ben replied, “I wasn’t.”
[Steinberg, 2004, pp. 51, 52]
Steinberg finds his son insightful. “The problem is not that
Ben’s decision-making was deficient. The problem is that it was
nonexistent” (Steinberg, 2004, p. 52). In his analysis, Steinberg
points out a characteristic of adolescent thought: When emotions
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Caution Versus Thrills
Much more interdisciplinary research is needed to integrate neurology and psy-
chology. Caution is needed, lest “incomplete brain development [becomes] an ex-
planation for just about everything about teens that adults have found perplexing,
from sleep patterns to risk taking and mood swings” (Kuhn, 2006, p. 59). The
fMRI, the PET, and other measures are expensive and complex, and longitudinal,
reliable, multifactorial research on the brains of typical 10- to 17-year-olds is not
yet extensive. As one expert explains:
We stand at the edge of very exciting new research developments as new neuro-
imaging technologies come online, but at present we are groping in the dark in
many respects. . . . The work on adolescent development is particularly recent.
[Keating, 2004, p. 69]
With excitement tempered by caution, scientists trace many hallmarks of ado-
lescent thinking and behavior to the brain. It is thrilling to learn that the frontal
lobes are the last part of the brain to mature, with ongoing myelination from ages
10 to 25. In the words of a leading neuroscientist:
The frontal lobes are essential for . . . response inhibition, emotional regulation,
planning, and organization, which may not be fully developed in adolescents . . .
[which suggests that brain immaturity underlies much] troublesome adolescent
behavior.
[Sowell et al., 2007, p. 59]
Uneven Growth
You learned in Chapter 11 that the brain functions well in middle childhood, as
dendrites, myelination, and the corpus callosum allow “a massively interconnected
brain” (Kagan & Herschkowitz, 2005, p. 220). Yet you just read that the immature
prefrontal cortex may allow “troublesome adolescent behavior.” Is this a contradic-
tion? Regression? Eight-year-olds would probably not sneak out at 2 A.M. to throw
pebbles at a girl’s window. If the idea occurred to them, they would probably think
twice and stay in bed.
Actually, there is no contradiction. Adolescents are quite capable of rational
thinking. However, they don’t necessarily use that capacity to “think twice” before
acting. As in the rest of the teenager’s body, brain growth is uneven. Myelination
and maturation proceed from inside to the cortex and from back to front (Sowell
et al., 2007).
376 CHAPTER 14 ■ Adolescence: Biosocial Development
are intense, especially with peers, the logical part of the brain
shuts down.
This is not reflected in questionnaires that require teenagers
to respond to paper-and-pencil questions regarding hypothetical
dilemmas. On those tests, teenagers think carefully and answer
correctly. They know the risks of sex and drugs. However,
the prospect of visiting a hypothetical girl from class cannot pos-
sibly carry the excitement about the possibility of surprising
someone you have a crush on with a visit in the middle of the
night. It is easier to put on a hypothetical condom during an act
of hypothetical sex than it is to put on a real one when one is in
the throes of passion. It is easier to just say no to a hypothetical
beer than it is to a cold frosty one on a summer night.
[Steinberg, 2004, p. 43]
Steinberg believes that, to understand how the brain actually
works, abstract questionnaires are inadequate. Adolescent think-
ing is more variable than earlier researchers believed (Kuhn,
2006). Now that scientists realize the limitations of prior
research, and neuroscientists have data from fMRI and other
brain scans, new discoveries about adolescent brain functioning
are on the horizon.
Ben reached adulthood safely. Some other teenagers, with
less cautious police or less diligent parents, do not. Ideally, re-
search on adolescent brains will help protect adolescents from
their own dangerous ones (Monastersky, 2007).
Especially for Parents Worried About
Their Teenager’s Risk Taking You
remember the risky things you did at the
same age, and you are alarmed by the
possibility that your child will follow in your
footsteps. What should you do?
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Further, the hormones of puberty seem to affect the amygdala more directly
than they affect the cortex, which is more influenced by age and experience. The
combination of the sequence of brain maturation and the effects of early puberty
mean that the limbic system (deep inside) matures years before the prefrontal
cortex.
Since the amygdala specializes in quick emotional reactions—sudden anger,
joy, fear, despair—and the prefrontal cortex (called the executive) coordinates,
inhibits, and strategizes, this uneven maturation puts adolescents
at increased risk for emotional problems and disorders because the brain systems
that activate emotions . . . are developed before the capacity for volitional effort-
ful control of these emotions is fully in place.
[Compas, 2004, p. 283]
The maturing limbic system is particularly attracted to strong, immediate sen-
sations, unchecked by the slowly maturing prefrontal cortex. For this reason,
Adolescents like intensity, excitement, and arousal. They are drawn to music
videos that shock and bombard the senses. Teenagers flock to horror and slasher
movies. They dominate queues waiting to ride the high-adrenaline rides at
amusement parks. Adolescence is a time when sex, drugs, very loud music, and
other high-stimulation experiences take on great appeal. It is a developmental
period when an appetite for adventure, a predilection for risks, and a desire for
novelty and thrills seem to reach naturally high levels.
[Dahl, 2004, pp. 7, 8]
Such intense experiences are sought because they short-circuit the emotional
regulation of the prefrontal cortex.
When stress, arousal, passion, sensory bombardment, drug intoxication, or dep-
rivation are extreme, the brain is overtaken by impulses that might shame adults.
Teenagers brag about being so drunk they were “wasted,” “bombed,” “smashed,”
describing a state most adults would try to avoid. Some teenagers choose to spend
a night without sleep, a day without eating, or to exercise in pain.
The consequences may be especially severe in the twenty-first
century, because puberty precedes adult employment and family
life by a decade or more and because guns, drugs, and sex can turn
a momentary lapse of judgment into a lethal mistake. It seems that
the hormones that trigger the body changes of puberty do not also
trigger the brain changes, which are more affected by birth date
than body size.
Neurological Advances
With increased myelination, reactions become lightning fast. The
white matter, which includes the axons and dendrites that link one
neuron to another, increases throughout adolescence, again from
The Transformation of Puberty 377
BO
TH
IM
AG
ES
C
OU
RT
ES
Y
OF
D
R.
E
LI
ZA
BE
TH
S
OW
EL
L,
UC
LA
/
LA
BO
RA
TO
RY
O
F
N
EU
RO
IM
AG
IN
G
Front Front
Back Back
(a) (b)
Twisted Memorial This wreck was once a
Volvo, driven by a Colorado teenager who
ignored an oncoming train’s whistle at a rural
crossing. The car was hurled 167 feet and
burst into flames. The impact instantly killed
the driver and five teenage passengers. They
are among the statistics indicating that acci-
dents, many of which result from unwise risk
taking, kill 10 times more adolescents than
diseases do.
DO
M
IN
IC
C
HA
VE
Z
/ T
HE
D
EN
VE
R
PO
ST
/
AP
P
HO
TO
The Prefrontal Cortex Matures These are composite scans of
normal brains of (a) children and adolescents and (b) adolescents
and adults. The red areas indicate both an increase in brain size
and a decrease in gray matter (cerebral cortex). The red areas in (b)
are larger than in (a) and are concentrated in the frontal area of the
brain, which is associated with complex cognitive processes. The
growth of brain areas as their gray matter decreases is believed to
reflect an increase in white matter, which consists of myelin—the
axon coating that makes the brain more efficient.
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back to front (Sowell et al., 2007). Additional pruning occurs, and the dopamine
system (neurotransmitters that bring pleasure) is very active.
Before these advances are complete (about age 25), new connections between
one synapse and another ease acquisition of new ideas, words, memories, person-
ality patterns, or dance steps (Keating, 2004). As you might imagine, values ac-
quired during adolescence are more likely to endure than those learned later, after
brain links are more firmly established.
Adolescent brain immaturity can be used positively or negatively. The fact that
“the prefrontal cortex is still developing . . . confers benefits as well as risks. It
helps explain the creativity of adolescence and early adulthood, before the brain
becomes set in its ways. But it also makes adolescents more prone to addiction”
(Monastersky, 2007, p. A17).
One expert bemoans “the deleterious consequences of drug use [which] appear
to be more pronounced in adolescents than in adults, a difference that has been
linked to brain maturation” (Moffit et al., 2006, p. 12). Another scholar celebrates
adolescent passion that “intertwines with the highest levels of human endeavor:
passion for ideas and ideals, passion for beauty, passion to create music and art”
(Dahl, 2004, p. 21).
Thus, adolescent experiences can teach compassion or mistrust, political par-
ticipation or isolation. Those who care about the next generation need attend to
the life lessons that adolescents are learning, providing “scaffolding and monitor-
ing” until brains and skills can function well on their own (Dahl, quoted in
Monastersky, 2007, p. A18).
Body Rhythms
Brain rhythms affects body rhythms (Buzsáki, 2006). The hypothalamus and pitu-
itary regulate hormones that affect stress, appetite, sleep, and so on. As you know,
the brain of every living creature responds to natural changes.
Seasons affect reproduction (more births occur in spring), weight (gains in
winter), and, in some species, migration and hibernation. Diurnal (daily) rhythms
affect tiredness, hunger, alertness, elimination, body temperature, nutrient balance,
blood composition, moods, and so on. (Some people wake up cheery and others
cranky, switching moods by nightfall.)
All creatures have a day–night cycle. That’s why jet lag affects people
who fly east–west across the globe, changing time zones, but not those
who fly the same distance north–south. Because of diurnal rhythms,
people cannot get their recommended 60 hours of sleep per week by
staying awake 24 hours for four days and then sleeping 20 hours on
each of the other three. The diurnal rise and fall of body chemicals,
melatonin among them, make sleep elusive sometimes and impossible
to postpone at other times.
Puberty alters biorhythms. Hormones from the pituitary often cause
a “phase delay” in sleep–wake patterns: Many teens are wide awake at
midnight but half-asleep all morning. Because adult brains are naturally
alert in the morning and sleepy at night, social patterns set by adults do
not necessarily accommodate adolescent rhythms.
One consequence is sleep deprivation for many teenagers, who
naturally stay up late but who nonetheless are forced to wake up early.
Evidence for this is that teenagers seldom waken spontaneously on
weekdays (see Figure 14.7) and often “sleep in” on weekends (Andrade
& Menna-Barreto, 2002).
Uneven sleep schedules (more sleep on weekends, with later bed-
times and daytime sleeping) are common among teenagers, yet this
378 CHAPTER 14 ■ Adolescence: Biosocial Development
Reasons for Waking Up on School Mornings
Percentage
of age group
100
75
50
25
0
Source: Carskadon, 2002a, p. 7.
10–11 12–13
Age group
14–18
Parent
Alarm clock
Spontaneous
FIGURE 14.7
Sleep Deprivation Humans naturally wake up once they’ve
had enough sleep. Few high school students wake up spon-
taneously, and many sleep later on weekends than on school
days. These facts suggest that most teenagers need more
sleep. Depression and irritability correlate with insufficient
sleep.
➤Response for Parents Worried About
Their Teenager’s Risk Taking (from page
376): You are right to be concerned, but you
cannot keep your child locked up for the next
decade or so. Since you know that some
rebellion and irrationality are likely, try to
minimize them by not boasting about your
own youthful exploits, by reacting sternly to
minor infractions to nip worse behavior in the
bud, and by making allies of your child’s
teachers.
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Especially for Those Who Appreciate
Folk Wisdom What is meant by “The early
bird catches the worm” and “Early to bed
and early to rise, makes a man healthy,
wealthy, and wise”?
unevenness decreases well-being just as overall sleep deprivation does (Fuligni &
Hardway, 2006). Girls are particularly likely to be sleep-deprived, which decreases
their grades and happiness (Fredriksen et al., 2004).
The Transformation of Puberty 379
Calculus at 8 A.M.?
Biology designs teenage bodies to be alert at midnight and tired
all morning, perhaps falling asleep in school (see Figure 14.8).
School schedules reflect culture, not biorhythms.
Some parents fight biology. They command their wide-awake
teen to “go to sleep,” they hang up on classmates who phone
after 10 P.M., they set early curfews, and they drag their off-
spring out of bed for school. (An opposite developmental clash
occurs when parents tell their toddlers to stay in their cribs after
dawn.)
Data on the phase delay of adolescence led social scientists
at the University of Minnesota to ask 17 school districts to con-
sider a later starting time for high school. Most adults opposed
the idea.
Teachers generally thought that early morning was the best
time to learn. Many (42 percent) parents of adolescents thought
school should begin before 8 A.M. In fact, some (20 percent)
wanted their teenagers out of the house by 7:15 A.M., as did
only 1 percent of those with younger children. Bus drivers hated
rush hour; cafeteria workers wanted to leave by mid-afternoon;
police said teenagers should be off the streets by 4 P.M.; coaches
needed sports events to end before dark; employers hired teens
to staff the afternoon shift; community program directors
wanted to schedule the gym for nonschool events (Wahlstrom,
2002).
Despite the naysayers, one school district experimented. In
Edina, Minnesota, high school began at 8:30 A.M. (previously
7:25 A.M.) and ended at 3:10 P.M., not 2:05 P.M. After one year,
most (93 percent) parents and virtually all students approved.
One student said, “I have only fallen asleep in school once this
whole year, and last year I fell asleep about three times a week”
(quoted in Wahlstrom, 2002, p. 190). The data showed fewer
absent, late, disruptive, or sick students (the school nurse be-
came an advocate) and higher grades.
Other school districts reconsidered. Minneapolis, which had
started high school at 7:15 A.M., changed the starting time to
8:40 A.M. Again, attendance improved, as did graduation rate.
School boards in South Burlington (Vermont), West Des
Moines (Iowa), Tulsa (Oklahoma), Arlington (Virginia), and
Milwaukee (Wisconsin) voted in favor of later starting times,
switching on average from 7:45 A.M. to 8:30 A.M. (Tonn, 2006).
Unexpected advantages appeared: financial savings (more effi-
cient energy use) and, at least in Tulsa, unprecedented athletic
championships.
But change is hard. Researchers believe that “without a
strategic approach, the forces to maintain the status quo in the
schools will prevail” (Wahlstrom, 2002, p. 195). Few college stu-
dents choose 8 A.M. classes. Why?
issues and applications
5
0
10
15
20
25
30
35Percent
Fatigue Among Middle- and High School Students
Grades 9–12
Grades 6–8
Too tired
to exercise
Asleep in
school
Source: National Sleep Foundation, 2006.
FIGURE 14.8
Dreaming and Learning? This graph shows the percent of U.S.
students who, once a week or more, fall asleep in class or are too
tired to exercise. Not shown are those who are too tired overall
(59 percent for high school students) or who doze in class “almost
every day” (8 percent).
Sleep deprivation and irregular sleep schedules are associated with many other
difficulties, such as falling asleep while driving, insomnia in the middle of the
night, distressing dreams, and mood disorders (depression, conduct disorder,
anxiety) (Carskadon, 2002b; Fredriksen et al., 2004; Fuligni & Hardway, 2006).
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SUMMING UP
The growth spurt, sexual differentiation, and brain maturation are notable during the
years after the first signs of puberty. Physical growth proceeds from the extremities to
the center, so the limbs grow before the internal organs. Weight precedes height, which
precedes muscles and growth of the internal organs. Both boys and girls increase in
sexual interest as their bodies develop and their hormone levels rise, with sexual behav-
ior and thoughts powerfully affected by culture.
The hormones of puberty probably cause the brain’s emotional hot spots to further
myelinate as well as grow. Adult functioning of the prefrontal cortex depends less on
specific hormones and more on age and experience; thus it matures later. Uneven
neurological advancement may be one reason adolescents take irrational risks and enjoy
intense sensory experiences. Reactions quicken and emotional memories endure. The
brain affects body rhythms, notably in the phase delay that makes adolescents stay up
late at night. As a result of school schedules, many adolescents are sleep-deprived.
■
Possible Problems
Growth and sexual awakening, emotional intensity and hormonal rushes—all of
this can be quite wonderful. However, as you will read in each of the chapters on
adolescence and emerging adulthood, maturation can bring problems. Typically, if
a young person has one problem, he or she also has several others—true for about
20 percent of all young people. That means that 80 percent are not bedeviled by
problems; for them, adolescence is more joyful than troubled. Remember that as
we look at sex and drugs, serious problems for a minority.
Sex Too Soon
Adolescent sexuality in the twenty-first century can be problematic for three reasons:
■ Puberty occurs at young ages. Early sexual experiences correlate with depres-
sion and drug use.
■ Raising a child has become more complex, which means that teenage preg-
nancy is no longer welcomed or expected.
■ Sexually transmitted infections are more common and dangerous.
The first item on this list, sexual relationships, is discussed in Chapter 16, where the
main discussion of teen romance and friendship occurs. The other two items, preg-
nancy and infections, each have specific health impacts, so they are discussed below.
Teenage Pregnancy
There is good news about pregnancy under age 18: It is about half as common as it
was 20 years ago in the United States and in many other nations (MMWR, Febru-
ary 4, 2005). Not only are teen births less frequent, the abortion rate has also de-
creased. Contraception use is higher and teen intercourse is lower.
Nonetheless, if a girl under age 15 becomes pregnant, as about 25,000 U.S. girls
did in 2002 (a rate higher than in any other developed nation), she is at greater risk
of almost every complication—including spontaneous and induced abortion, high
blood pressure, stillbirth, cesarean section, a low-birthweight baby, and even death—
than she would have been if she had waited five years or more (Menacker et al., 2004).
In some nations (notably sub-Saharan Africa), inadequate medical care makes
pregnancy the leading cause of death for teenage girls (Reynolds et al., 2006). In
regions where almost everyone is malnourished, the youngest mothers die of birth
complications three times more often than do older women (Blum & Nelson-
Mmari, 2004).
380 CHAPTER 14 ■ Adolescence: Biosocial Development
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If a pregnant teenager has an abortion (as two-thirds of all pregnant U.S. girls
under age 15 do), she avoids the problems of a sustained pregnancy and birth, but
she encounters other complications, partly because the younger a woman is, the
later in pregnancy she is likely to abort (MMWR, November 24, 2006).
Throughout puberty, bodies add bone, redistribute weight, and gain height,
while the inner organs (including the uterus) mature. Pregnancy interferes with
this, because another set of hormones directs the body to sustain new life. Nature
protects the fetus, which may take essential nutrients (especially calcium and
iron) from the mother. If normal pubescent growth is deflected, that causes the
girl to become a shorter and sicker woman than she otherwise would have been.
If a young woman lives in a developed nation and obtains good medical care, the
serious biological consequences of adolescent pregnancy are rare. Unfortunately,
the youngest teenagers are likely to postpone seeing a doctor, which increases the
risk of complications. Even in Sweden, with good nutrition and free prenatal care,
an early teen birth impairs health and achievements lifelong (Olausson et al., 2001).
If a baby of a teen mother is born healthy, he or she is still likely to experience
numerous complications later on, including poor health; inadequate education; low
intelligence; and anger at his or her family, community, and society (Borkowski
et al., 2007). That takes a greater toll on the mother as she cares for her child.
Many college students reading this book know teenage mothers. Such young
women may obtain good medical care, stay in school, and get help from her family
and the child’s father. In such a case, adolescent mothers are likely to be resilient,
becoming competent young women by age 30 or so (Borkowski et al., 2007). As
with the other problems of life, no single burden is insurmountable, although it
would be easier on the body to postpone pregnancy until all growth is complete.
Sexual Infections
A sexually transmitted infection (STI) (formerly known as a sexually transmit-
ted disease [STD] or venereal disease [VD]) is any infection transmitted through
sexual contact (oral or genital). Worldwide, sexually active teenagers have higher
rates of the most common STIs (gonorrhea, genital herpes, and chlamydia) than any
other age group (World Health Organization, 2005).
The most lethal STIs, specifically AIDS and syphilis, are more commonly caught
by people in their 20s, but teenagers are vulnerable to them as well, especially if
they already have an STI or if they have sex with an older person. One statistic
makes the point: In the United States, young persons aged 15–24 constitute only
one-fourth of the sexually active population but account for half of all sexually
transmitted infections (MMWR, October 20, 2006).
One reason is purely biological. Fully developed women have some natural bio-
logical defenses against STIs, but this is less true for pubescent girls, who are more
likely to catch every STI, including AIDS, from an infected partner (World Health
Organization, 2005). It is not known whether adolescent boys are also more vulner-
able to infection.
It is known that, for many reasons, sexually active boys and girls under age 16
are particularly likely to contract an STI (Kaestle et al., 2005) but are unlikely to
seek immediate treatment and alert their sexual partners. Not only are they
ashamed and afraid, but many do not recognize symptoms, nor do they believe
that medical treatment will be confidential.
An added complication occurs for partners of the same sex. Especially for youths
in the United States, such relationships are usually kept secret; thus it is even
more difficult for them to seek treatment than it is for heterosexual teenagers.
Many STIs have no symptoms but severe consequences (MMWR, August 4,
2006). For example, chlamydia, the most frequently reported disease (more often
than any other sexual or nonsexual disease), can cause lifelong infertility. Another
sexually transmitted infection (STI) A dis-
ease spread by sexual contact, including
syphilis, gonorrhea, genital herpes,
chlamydia, and HIV.
Possible Problems 381
➤Response for Those Who Appreciate
Folk Wisdom (from page 379): Folk wisdom
is a good way to understand popular culture.
In this case, adults enshrined their natural
rhythms with aphorisms approving adult
sleep–wake patterns.
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child sexual abuse Any erotic activity that
arouses an adult and excites, shames, or
confuses a child, whether or not the victim
protests and whether or not genital con-
tact is involved.
common STI is human papillomavirus (HPV), which increases the chances of fatal
uterine cancer. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can have no symptoms for
years, and then cause AIDS and death. There are literally hundreds more STIs
(James, 2007).
Unless a teenager has regular checkups with lab testing (which few do), he or
she may not realize that an STI is at work. Many STIs can be prevented with
immunization and confidential counseling. Although most of the research has
been done on girls, the problem may be even worse for boys, who are particularly
unlikely to see a doctor unless they are seriously injured.
Protection
Preventing and treating STIs is only one of many reasons teenagers should have
regular medical care. Basic information is no longer the usual problem. Almost
every teenager knows that pregnancy and STIs can be prevented by abstinence or
regular and proper use of condoms, but whether that information is translated into
practice depends on peers, partners, and adults. Confidence in a familiar medical
provider can be crucial.
National differences are striking. In France, 91 percent of adolescents use con-
traception (usually a condom) at first intercourse (Michaud et al., 2006), partly
because every French high school is required to provide free, confidential medical
care. However, far fewer Italian, German, and U.S. teenagers use condoms. For
instance, in the United States, only 46 percent of sexually active high school
senior girls used a condom during their most recent sexual encounter (MMWR,
June 9, 2006).
Sex education is discussed in Chapter 16. Before leaving this topic, however,
we need to note one mistake especially common in early adolescence, already
apparent in our discussion of body image. Teenagers tend to confuse appearance
and reality, not realizing that a polite, well-dressed partner could have an STI. For
example, one girl in Malawi (where AIDS is epidemic) thought she was safe
because her partner was known to her and “my mother knows his mother” (quoted
in World Health Organization, 2005, p. 11).
Sexual Abuse
We should not leave the topic of sexuality without noting that child sexual
abuse, which includes any sexual activity between a juvenile and an older person,
is most common just after puberty. Every study finds that virtually every adoles-
cent problem (including drug abuse, eating disorders, suicide, and pregnancy) is
more common in adolescents who are sexually abused. Some eventually become
abusers as well (Barbaree & Marshall, 2006).
Young people who are sexually exploited have difficulty establishing sexual rela-
tionships. This is true during the abuse, because the abuser often isolates the
victim from his or her peers, and later on, because past memories interfere with
normal sexuality.
Sex abuse is more common between the ages of 10 and 15 than at any other
time, and it is a major problem in every nation. The United Nations reports that
millions of young adolescents are forced into marriage, genital surgery, and prosti-
tution (often across national borders) each year (Pinheiro, 2006). Exact numbers
are elusive. Almost every nation has laws against sexual abuse, but these laws are
rarely enforced, and adults often let disgust and sensationalism crowd out efforts
to prevent, monitor, and eliminate the problem (Davidson, 2005).
Data on substantiated childhood sexual abuse in the United States confirm that,
as elsewhere, the rate is higher among 12- to 15-year-olds than among younger chil-
dren (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration on
Especially for Health Practitioners How
might you encourage adolescents to seek
treatment for STIs?
382 CHAPTER 14 ■ Adolescence: Biosocial Development
No Safer? Educational posters and even in-
tense educational programs have little proven
effect on the incidence of AIDS among ado-
lescents. This poster was displayed outside
an HIV testing center in Windhoek, Namibia,
a country that has one of the highest HIV in-
fection rates in the world.
SE
AN
S
PR
AQ
UE
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
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Children, Youth, and Families, 2006). Girls are particularly vulnerable, although
boys are also at risk. But overall rates are declining, perhaps because adolescents
are becoming better informed about sexual activity (Finkelhor & Jones, 2004).
Nonetheless, almost thirty thousand 12- to 15-year-olds were substantiated victims
of sexual abuse in the United States in 2005 (see Table 14.2), a statistic that under-
scores that teenagers need protection, not just information (U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, 2006).
Drug Use and Abuse
Innocence is also reflected in drug use, as few adolescents imagine that they could
become addicted. Most experiment and observe no immediate harm, enjoying the
thrill of doing something that adults think they are too young to do. Worldwide,
most young people use at least one drug before age 18.
An annual nationwide survey of U.S. high school seniors called Monitoring the
Future began in 1975 and continues to this day (see Research Design). In 2006,
many seniors drank alcohol (73 percent), puffed a cigarette (47 percent), and
smoked marijuana (42 percent) (Johnston et al., 2007) (see Figure 14.9). Drug
use is down in the United States over the life of the survey, but the number of
available drugs has increased, as have prescription-type drugs (e.g., barbiturates
and tranquilizers).
Possible Problems 383
TABLE 14.2
Age and Sex Abuse: United States, 2005
Age Number of Substantiated Victims Percent of Maltreatment That Is Sex Abuse
0–3 5,407 2.1
4–7 18,547 8.2
8–11 19,136 11.2
12–15 29,768 17.3
16–18 8,676 16.8
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, 2006
Research Design
Scientists: Lloyd D. Johnston, Patrick M.
O’Malley, Jerald G. Bachman, and John
E. Schulenberg.
Publication: Monitoring the Future is
online. Print copies are available from
the National Institute on Drug Abuse in
Bethesda, Maryland.
Participants: In 2006, 48,500 students in
410 high schools, throughout the United
States.
Design: Beginning in 1975, scientists
from the University of Michigan sur-
veyed adolescents each year, asking
about drug use, drug availability, and
personal attitudes.The basic questions
have remained the same, with new
drugs added (e.g.,Vicodin, OxyContin).
Data are reported by age, sex, ethnicity,
and region.
Major conclusion: Over the 32 years of
the survey, drug use declined, rose, and
recently declined again. New drugs con-
tinue to appear, and sometimes old
drugs become more popular again. Use
is more affected by attitudes than by
availability.
Comment:This study tracks many co-
hort changes within the United States.
Interested readers should access the
latest reports online. Note that other
nations often show different patterns
and that Monitoring the Future does not
usually include high school dropouts.
40
30
20
10
0
1976 ’78 ’80 ’82 ’84 ’86 ’88 ’90 2000’92 ’94 ’96 ’98 ’02 ’04 ’06
Percent
reporting
use of drug
Drug Use by U.S. High School Seniors in the Past 30 Days
Year
Source: Johnston et al., 2007.
Cocaine
Other
illicit drugs
(not marijuana)
Marijuana
Amphetamines
CigarettesFIGURE 14.9
Rise and Fall By asking the
same questions year after year,
the Monitoring the Future study
shows notable historical effects.
It is encouraging that something
in society, not in the adolescent,
makes drug use increase and de-
crease and that the most recent
data show a decline. However,
as Chapter 1 emphasized, survey
research cannot prove what
causes change.
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Variations by Nation, Gender, and Ethnicity
One of the fascinating aspects of adolescent drug use is how variable it is, which
indicates that much more than biology is involved. In some nations, young adoles-
cents drink alcohol more often than they use any other drug; in others, smoking
is more common than drinking. In many places (especially eastern Europe),
teenagers use both alcohol and tobacco more than in the United States; in still
other places, teenagers rarely use any drugs at all (Buelga et al., 2006; Eisner,
2002).
Laws and family practices are part of the reason for these variations, but not the
only reasons. For example, in many Arab nations, alcohol is strictly forbidden; in
many European nations, children drink wine with dinner; in many Asian nations,
anyone may smoke anywhere; in the United States, smoking is forbidden in many
public places.
Even nations with common boundaries differ radically (Buelga et al., 2006).
For example, among 15-year-olds, 9.4 percent of those in Switzerland were heavy
users of marijuana compared with only 3.3 percent in Italy. More Canadian youth
smoke marijuana, but fewer smoke cigarettes, than in the United States. Laws are
only part of the explanation: Although marijuana is legal and widely available in the
Netherlands, Dutch 15-year-olds are among the lowest heavy users (2.8 percent)
of any developed nation (Buelga et al., 2006).
Gender differences are apparent for most drugs in most nations, with boys hav-
ing higher rates of use than girls. In the United States, cigarette smoking is unisex,
but an international survey (131 nations) of 13- to 15-year-olds found that more
boys than girls are smokers (except in some European nations), including three
times as many boys as girls in Southeast Asia (Warren et al., 2006). According to
another international survey, this one of 31 nations, boys are also almost twice as
likely as girls to have tried marijuana (26 versus 15 percent) (ter Bogt et al., 2006).
For North Americans, the good news is that adolescents begin drug use later
than in many other nations. A significant minority (about 20 percent) never use
any drugs, usually because of religious values (C. Smith, 2005). However, the
United States leads the world in the number of available drugs, including syn-
thetic narcotics, unknown in most nations. During 2006, 10 percent of U.S. high
school seniors used Vicodin and 4 percent used OxyContin (Johnston et al.,
2007).
A particular problem is using drugs before age 13, because doing so is more
likely to interfere with brain and body growth as well as to lead to serious problems
Especially for Older Brothers and
Sisters A friend said she saw your 13-year-
old sister smoking. Should you tell your
parents?
384 CHAPTER 14 ■ Adolescence: Biosocial Development
The Same Event, A Thousand Miles Apart:
Teen Approaches to Drinking Adolescents
everywhere drink alcohol, including these
girls at a high school prom in New York City
(left) and at a sidewalk café in Prague (right).
Cultural differences affect the specifics but
not the general trend toward teenage experi-
mentation with drugs and alcohol.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 386):
Can you spot three cultural differences
between these two groups?
M
AR
K
PE
TE
RS
/
CO
RB
IS
ST
UA
RT
F
RA
N
KL
IN
/
M
AG
N
UM
P
HO
TO
S
➤Response for Health Practitioners
(from page 382): Many adolescents are
intensely concerned about privacy and fearful
of adult interference. This means your first
task is to convince the teenagers that you are
nonjudgmental and that everything is
confidential.
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later on. One large U.S. survey revealed that, among ninth-graders, 34
percent said that they had begun drinking before age 13, 19 percent
that they had smoked a cigarette, and 11 percent that they had tried
marijuana (MMWR, June 9, 2006). Monitoring the Future found that
16 percent of eighth-graders reported past use of inhalants (which can
be unexpectedly and rapidly fatal), again beginning before the teen
years (Johnston et al., 2007).
Rates also vary among U.S. ethnic groups (see Figure 14.10). Euro-
pean American teens use the most drugs and African and Asian Ameri-
cans the least. Hispanic adolescent drug use may be increasing,
especially marijuana smoking by younger teens who speak English well
(Delva et al., 2005).
Why would any teenager, in any nation, use drugs, especially if
forbidden by law and against parental wishes? One reason is that, for
many adolescents, peers are more important than parents. “In young
adolescence, use of substances . . . provides a form of commerce with the social
world” (Dishion & Owen, 2002, p. 489). In other words, socially awkward pubes-
cent children (especially boys) use drugs to establish friendships and be part of a
peer group.
Another reason is that the neurological drive for intense sensations without
the caution of a fully mature prefrontal cortex makes adolescents seek a quick and
intense rush, as explained by a Spanish expert:
Teenagers and young adults use licit and illicit drugs to look for states of excite-
ment that make their relationships with others more intense and satisfying and
that make their spare time activities more stimulating.
[Buelga et al., 2006, p. 351]
Possible Problems 385
Looking Cool The tight clothing, heavy
makeup, multiple rings, and cigarettes are
meant to convey to the world that Sheena,
15, and Jessica, 16, are mature, sophisticated
women.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 386):
Did these girls buy their own cigarettes?
LA
UR
EN
G
RE
EN
FI
EL
D
Percent
1997 2001 2003 20051999
Year
50
40
30
20
10
0
Source: MMWR, June 9, 2006 (Tables 22 and 28), and previous years.
Recent Trends in Drinking and Smoking Among U.S. High School Students
White females Hispanic females Black females
Hispanic males Black malesWhite males
Heavy Drinking
Percent
1997 2001 2003 20051999
Year
30
20
10
0
Regular Smoking FIGURE 14.10
Less Drinking, Still Too Much Smoking The
overall downward trend in both binge drinking
and regular smoking by adolescents is good
news, but changing many high school students’
minds about getting drunk or smoking daily
remains difficult.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 387):
Which of these categories of people is least
likely to drink alcohol during adolescence?
Which category seems most affected by
cohort changes in regular smoking?
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Harm from Drugs
Since drugs are widely used and bring peer bonding and excitement, many adoles-
cents think adults exaggerate the harm of teen drug use. That may be, but devel-
opmentalists see many immediate and long-term consequences. It would be far
better if adolescents and their communities could postpone experimentation and
never get to steady use. Here are some of the reasons.
During puberty, the body and the brain are destined to grow. Drugs interfere
with healthy eating and digestion, particularly important during puberty. All
psychoactive drugs impair the appetite, but tobacco is worst of all. Smoking or
chewing tobacco decreases food consumption and interferes with the absorption
of nutrients. This is one reason adolescent smokers become shorter and heavier
adults.
In fact, all kinds of tobacco (bidis, cigars, pipes, chewing tobacco) decrease
growth, a particularly serious problem in India, where undernutrition is chronic
and tobacco use (typically not via cigarettes) is widespread (Warren et al., 2006).
Since internal organs mature after the height spurt, drug-using teenagers who
appear full-grown may still damage their hearts, lungs, brains, and reproductive
systems.
For North Americans, alcohol is the most commonly abused drug, which is par-
ticularly harmful for the brain. Steady drinking impairs memory and self-control
(not just temporarily) by damaging the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex
(S. A. Brown et al., 2000; De Bellis et al., 2005; White & Swartzwelder, 2004).
When nonhuman animals are forced to drink alcohol, addiction occurs and
brain abnormalities result, with animals choosing the drug rather than nourish-
ment. Among rats, adolescents likely drank more than adults in the same con-
dition, and they were slower to solve problems (De Bellis et al., 2005; Sircar &
Sircar, 2005).
Many adolescents know the damage of alcohol and cigarettes from observing
adults, but they remain oblivious to the dangers of marijuana. Johanna explained:
I started off using about every other weekend, and pretty soon it increased to
three to four times a week. . . . I started skipping classes to get high. I quit soccer
because my coach was a jerk. My grades dropped, but I blamed that on my not
being into school. . . . Finally some of my friends cornered me and told me how
much I had changed, and they said it started when I started smoking marijuana.
They came with me to see the substance-abuse counselor at school.
[quoted in Bell, 1998, p. 199]
Adolescents who regularly smoke marijuana are likely to drop out of school, become
teenage parents, and be unemployed (Chassin et al., 2004). Marijuana affects
memory, language proficiency, and motivation (Lane et al., 2005)—all especially
crucial during adolescence.
For decades, researchers have noted that many drug-using adolescents distrust
their parents, injure themselves, hate their schools, and get in trouble with the
law. One hypothesis was that the psychic strains of adolescence led to drug use.
However, longitudinal research suggests that drug use causes more problems than
it solves, often preceding anxiety disorders, depression, and rebellion (Chassin
et al., 2004).
Perhaps because drugs appear to make problems better but actually make them
worse, more drugs are sought for those worse problems, which leads to abuse and
addiction. Like Johanna above, many adolescents do not notice when they move
past use (experimenting) to abuse (causing harm) and then addiction (needing the
drug to feel normal). Addiction may take years, but Monitoring the Future reports
that, in 2006, 25 percent of high school seniors were binge drinkers (5 or more
Especially for College Roommates
You and your roommate respect each other’s
privacy, but your roommate is jeopardizing his
or her health by getting drunk every weekend
and practicing unsafe sex. What should you
do?
386 CHAPTER 14 ■ Adolescence: Biosocial Development
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 384): The most important difference is
that, because moderate alcohol use during
adolescence is accepted in most European
countries, the girls in the Czech Republic are
casual about drinking in public. In addition,
the American girl is drinking straight from the
bottle, and she is drinking hard liquor—both
generally frowned upon in Europe.
➤Response for Older Brothers and
Sisters (from page 384): Smoking is very
addictive; urge your sister to stop now,
before the habit becomes ingrained. Most
adolescents care more about immediate
concerns than about the distant possibility of
cancer or heart disease, so tell your sister
about a smoker you know whose teeth are
yellow, whose clothing and hair reek of
smoke, and who is shorter than the rest of
his or her family. Then tell your parents; they
are your best allies in helping your sister have
a healthy adolescence.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 385): No; they bummed them off a
stranger at this San Jose, California, shopping
mall. If you answered no, you probably had in
mind the fact that most states, including
California, are strictly enforcing their laws
against selling cigarettes to minors. You may
also have noticed the awkward way the girls
are holding their cigarettes and realized that
they have not yet been smoking long enough
to have become addicted to nicotine.
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alcoholic drinks in a row in the past two weeks), 12 percent were daily cigarette
smokers, and 5 percent were daily marijuana users (Johnston et al., 2007). All
these suggest addiction.
Indeed, all psychoactive drugs are addictive, physically or psychologically, with
addiction more likely the younger a person is at first use (see Table 14.3). Com-
pared with nonusing high school students, users think they are using drugs as a
temporary respite, but early users often use the same drug at age 35, when most
people who first try drugs in college have quit (Merline et al., 2004). For example,
adolescent binge drinkers are almost four times more likely to drink heavily at
midlife than those who did not binge in high school (even if they drank heavily
at age 20).
Learning from Experience
As you just read, any drug that affects the brain is more harmful and yet more
attractive during adolescence than later. Herein lies another example of the
“unskilled driver,” referenced in the beginning of these chapters. Wisdom about
use and abuse, about moderation versus addiction, about tolerance and impair-
ment, and about particular risks comes with experience. A common phenomenon
is generational forgetting, the idea that each new generation forgets what the
previous generation learned about harmful drugs (Chassin et al., 2004; Johnston
et al., 2007).
Why does generational forgetting occur? One reason is that teenagers tend to
distrust adults, who experienced a different drug scene. For example, the most
widely used drug prevention program in U.S. high schools, project DARE, fea-
tures adults (usually police officers) telling high school students about the dangers
of drugs. DARE has no impact on later drug use, according to several reliable
studies (West & O’Neal, 2004).
Similarly, some antidrug advertisements and scare tactics (“your brain on
drugs”) have the opposite effect from that intended, probably because they make
the drug seem exciting (Block et al., 2002; Fishbein et al., 2002).
This does not mean that trying to halt early drug use is hopeless. Massive ad
campaigns in Florida and California have cut adolescent smoking in half, in part
by having teenagers help design the publicity. Throughout the United States,
higher prices and better law enforcement have led to a marked decline in smoking
among younger adolescents. In 2006, only 9 percent of eighth-graders had smoked
cigarettes in the past month, compared with 21 percent 10 years earlier (Johnston
et al., 2007).
Possible Problems 387
Still Smoking? Binge drinkers in high
school are 3.7 times more likely to be-
come heavy drinkers at midlife compared
with those who were not binge drinkers.
Adults generally stick to the same drugs
they used in high school (very seldom
crossing over from smoking cigarettes to
using cocaine, for instance), except that
illicit drug users often switch to abusing
prescription drugs.
TABLE 14.3
Adolescent Drug Use Predicts Adult Drug Use
As High School Senior Odds Ratio at Age 35
Binge drinking 3.7 for heavy drinking
Marijuana use 8.7 for marijuana use
Other illicit drugs 5.3 for cocaine use
3.4 for abuse of prescription drugs
Cigarette smoking, tried 3.3 for regular smoking
Cigarette smoking, in past month 12.7 for regular smoking
Cigarette smoking, regular 42.5 for regular smoking
Source: Merline et al., 2004.
generational forgetting The idea that each
new generation forgets what the previous
generation learned about harmful drugs.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 385): Black females are least likely to
drink alcohol, with Black males the next-
lowest group. The White males’ and females’
rate of smoking dropped from 21 percent to
10 percent in just the four years from 1999 to
2003.
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388 CHAPTER 14 ■ Adolescence: Biosocial Development
Puberty Begins
1. Puberty refers to the various changes that transform a child’s
body into an adult one. Even before the teenage years begin, bio-
chemical signals from the hypothalamus to the pituitary gland to
the adrenal glands (the HPA axis) increase testosterone, estrogen,
and various other hormones. These hormones cause the body to
grow and change.
2. Puberty is accompanied by many emotions. Some, such as
quick mood shifts and thoughts about sex, are directly caused by
hormones, but most are only indirectly hormonal. Instead, they
are caused by reactions (from others and from the young persons
themselves) to the body changes of adolescence.
3. The visible changes of puberty normally occur anytime from
about age 8 to 14; puberty most often begins between ages 10 and
13. The young person’s sex, genetic background, body fat, and
level of family stress all contribute to this variation.
4. Girls generally begin and end the process before boys do.
Adolescents who do not reach puberty at about the same age as
their friends experience additional stresses. Generally (depending
on culture, community, and cohort), early-maturing girls have the
most difficult time of all.
5. To sustain body growth, most adolescents consume large quan-
tities of food, although they do not always make healthy choices.
One reason for poor nutrition is anxiety about body image.
The Transformations of Puberty
6. The growth spurt is an acceleration of growth in every part of
the body. Peak weight increase usually precedes peak height,
which is then followed by peak muscle growth. The lungs and the
heart also increase in size and capacity, and body rhythms (espe-
cially sleep) change.
7. Sexual characteristics emerge at puberty. The maturation of
primary sex characteristics means that by age 13 or so, menarche
and spermarche have occurred, and the young person is soon
capable of reproducing. In many ways, the two sexes experience
the same sexual characteristics, although they emerge in different
ways.
8. Secondary sex characteristics are not directly involved in re-
production but do signify that the person is a man or a woman.
Body shape, breasts, voice, body hair, and numerous other fea-
tures differentiate males from females. Sexual activity is influ-
enced more by culture than by physiology.
9. Various parts of the brain mature during puberty, each at its
own rate. The neurological areas dedicated to emotional arousal
(including the amygdala) mature ahead of the areas that regulate
and rationalize emotional expression (the prefrontal cortex). Con-
sequently, many adolescents seek intense emotional experiences,
untempered by rational thought.
10. The prefrontal cortex matures by early adulthood, allowing
better planning and analysis. Throughout this period, ongoing
myelination and experience allow faster and deeper thinking.
Possible Problems
11. Among the problems that adolescents face is sex before their
bodies and minds are ready. Pregnancy before age 16 takes a
physical toll on a growing girl, and STIs at any age can lead to
infertility and even death.
12. Most adolescents use drugs, especially alcohol and tobacco,
although such substances impair growth of the body and of the
brain. Prevention and moderation are possible, but programs
need to be carefully designed to avoid generational forgetting.
SUMMARY
Similarly, the declining U.S. rates of adolescent sex, birth, and abortion, as well
as all the variations in drug use just described, suggest that adolescent biology is
far from destiny, that the emotions and sexual impulses of puberty need not be
harmful.
As you will see in the next two chapters, experiences of peers, guidance from
elders, and application of research together have helped most young people avoid
the hazards of this age period. The energy and sexuality of the teen years are
fondly remembered by many adults. So it should be for everyone.
SUMMING UP
Although many adolescents are not yet sexually active or users of drugs, others are,
with a substantial minority involved in such activities before age 15. Early pregnancy
takes a physiological as well as psychological toll; early sexually transmitted infections
are particularly likely to spread; early use of alcohol, nicotine, or marijuana is particularly
likely to slow down development of the brain and body. Because of generational forget-
ting, adolescents learn best from other members of the same generation, which makes
it more difficult to warn them about the hazards of sex and drugs.
■
➤Response for College Roommates
(from page 386): Think about how you would
feel if your roommate died because you kept
quiet. Discuss your concerns with your
roommate, presenting facts as well as
feelings. You cannot make anyone change,
but you must raise the issue. You might also
consult the college health service.
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Summary 389
parenthood? What would have been different had the baby been
born three years earlier or three years later?
4. Adults disagree about the dangers of drugs. Find two people
with very different opinions (e.g., a parent who would be horrified
if his or her child used any drug and a parent who believes that
young people should be allowed to drink or smoke at home).
Ask them to explain their reasons, and write these down without
criticism or disagreement. Later, present each with the arguments
from the other person. What is the response? How open, flexible,
and rational does it seem to be? Why are beliefs about drugs so
deeply held?
1. Visit a fifth-, sixth-, or seventh-grade class. Note variations in
the size and maturity of the students. Do you see any patterns
related to gender, ethnicity, body fat, or self-confidence?
2. Interview two to four of your friends who are in their late teens
or early 20s about their memories of menarche or spermarche,
including their memories of others’ reactions. Do their comments
indicate that these events are emotionally troubling for young
people?
3. Talk with someone who became a parent before the age of 20.
Were there any problems with the pregnancy, the birth, or the
first years of parenthood? Would the person recommend young
APPLICATIONS
puberty (p. 364)
menarche (p. 364)
spermarche (p. 364)
hormone (p. 364)
pituitary gland (p. 365)
adrenal glands (p. 365)
HPA axis (p. 365)
gonads (p. 365)
estradiol (p. 365)
testosterone (p. 365)
secular trend (p. 368)
body image (p. 370)
growth spurt (p. 371)
primary sex characteristics
(p. 373)
secondary sex characteristics
(p. 373)
sexually transmitted infection
(STI) (p. 381)
child sexual abuse (p. 382)
generational forgetting (p. 387)
KEY TERMS
8. Why is body image particularly likely to be distorted in adoles-
cence?
9. Almost all neuroscientists agree about certain aspects of brain
maturation. What are these aspects?
10. Why are sexually active adolescents more likely to contract
STIs than are sexually active adults?
11. What can help prevent teenage drug abuse?
1. What aspects of puberty are under direct hormonal control?
2. What psychological responses result from the physical changes
of puberty?
3. How do nature and nurture combine to enable young people
to become parents?
4. Why is experiencing puberty “off time” especially difficult?
5. What are the similarities of puberty for males and females?
6. What are the differences of puberty for males and females?
7. Name three reasons many adolescents have nutritional defi-
ciencies.
KEY QUESTIONS
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Adolescence:
Cognitive Development
Idrove four strangers to the distant birthday party of a mutual friend.One young man spoke forcefully for hours, explaining why peopleshould bear arms, citizens should support third-party candidates, par-ents should be honest with their children, everyone should love each
other despite differences in sexual orientation. And more.
My other three passengers were older. They bristled at his attitude and his
assertions. One said “Yes, but . . .” Another, “No, because . . . ” I also tried.
He did not budge. Then he said he was 16 (he looked older). Argument
stopped. Knowing his age explained his thinking and quieted us.
Like this young man, adolescents combine ego, logic, and emotion. Some-
times ego overwhelms logic; sometimes emotion overrides both. This chapter
will describe the egocentrism of early adolescence and then teenagers’ intel-
lectual advances in analysis and intuition (called dual-processing). Schools
do not always accommodate such cognitive characteristics, as we will also
explore.
Adolescent Thinking
Brain maturation, intense conversations, additional years of schooling, moral
challenges, and increased independence all occur between ages 11 and 18.
The combination furthers cognition. Scientists disagree as to how much
each of those five characteristics contributes to advances in adolescent
thought. They agree, however, that there is “enormous variability in cognitive
functioning among normal adolescents, with some performing no better
than third graders on many reasoning tasks and others performing as well as
or better than most adults” (Kuhn & Franklin, 2006, p. 955).
To understand any single adolescent of any age, keep variability in mind:
Although egocentrism is typically evident at the beginning of adolescence,
intuition in the middle, and logic at the end, any one of these forms of cogni-
tion may appear in any adolescent at any time.
Egocentrism
During puberty, people center many of their thoughts on themselves. They
wonder how others perceive them; they try to make sense of conflicting feel-
ings about their own parents, school, and classmates; they think deeply (but
not always realistically) about their future; they ruminate with close friends,
analyzing every nuance of what they did and might have done.
15
391
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� Adolescent Thinking
Egocentrism
IN PERSON: Bethany and Jim
Formal Operational Thought
Intuitive, Emotional Thought
Better Thinking
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST:
Teenage Religion
� Teaching and Learning
Middle School: Less Learning
Technology and Cognition
Transitions and Translations
Teaching and Learning in High School
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS:
Diversity of Nation, Gender, and Income
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Young adolescents not only think intensely
about themselves, they also imagine what others
think about them. This is called adolescent ego-
centrism, first described by David Elkind (1967).
Remember from Chapter 9 that egocentric means
“self at the center.”
The difference between egocentrism during
adolescence and the same trait during preopera-
tional thought (p. 231) is that adolescents, unlike
younger children, have a well-developed theory of
mind. They know that other people have their own
thoughts. Their egocentrism does not ignore others.
Instead, it distorts their understanding of what
others might be thinking, especially about them.
In egocentrism, adolescents regard themselves
as uniquely special and much more socially signifi-
cant (noticed by everyone) than they actually are.
Accurately imagining someone else’s perspective is especially difficult when ego-
centrism rules (Lapsley, 1993). For example, Ben (see Chapter 14, p. 375) did not
think how police officers might perceive a gang of young men fleeing from a patrol
car at 2 A.M.
Egocentrism leads people to interpret another’s behavior as related to them-
selves. A stranger’s frown or a teacher’s critique could make a teenager conclude
that “no one likes me,” and then deduce that “I am unlovable” or even “I dare not
appear in public.” More positive casual reactions—a smile from a sales clerk or an
extra-big hug from a younger brother—could lead to the thought “I am great” or
“Everyone loves me,” with similarly distorted self-perception.
As part of egocentrism, acute self-consciousness about appearance is probably
higher between ages 10 and 14 than earlier or later (Rankin et al., 2004). Young
adolescents would rather not stand out from their peers, hoping instead to blend
in racially, religiously, and economically. They believe that other people are as ego-
centric as they are. As one girl said:
I am a real worrier when it comes to other people’s opinions. I care deeply about
what they say, think and do. If people are very complimentary, it can give you a big
confidence boost, but if people are always putting you down you feel less confident
and people can tell. A lot of advice that is given is “do what you want and don’t
listen to anyone else,” but I don’t know one person who can do that.
[quoted in J. H. Bell & Bromnick, 2003, p. 213]
The Invincibility Fable
Elkind gave several aspects of adolescent egocentrism special names. One is the
invincibility fable, the idea that one is invincible, never defeated, protected
from harm. Some young people seem convinced that, unlike other mortals, they
will not be hurt by fast driving, unprotected sex, addictive drugs, or self-starvation.
When they do any of these things and survive without injury, they feel special and
proud, not lucky and thankful.
For instance, one survey found that only 1 in 20 teenage cigarette smokers
thought they would be smoking in five years, even though two-thirds had already
tried to stop and failed, and most teenage smokers become addicted to nicotine
and are still smoking years later (Siqueira et al., 2001). Evidence about other
people may be ignored if an adolescent believes that he or she is independent and
exceptional, impervious to human vulnerability.
adolescent egocentrism A characteristic of
adolescent thinking that leads young people
(ages 10 to 13) to focus on themselves to
the exclusion of others. A young person
might believe, for example, that his or her
thoughts, feelings, and experiences are
unique, more wonderful or awful than any-
one else’s.
invincibility fable An adolescent’s egocentric
conviction that he or she cannot be over-
come or even harmed by anything that
might defeat a normal mortal, such as
unprotected sex, drug abuse, or high-
speed driving.
392 CHAPTER 15 ■ Adolescence: Cognitive Development
Cognition on Display Shared facials, pedi-
cures, nail painting, eyebrow waxing, and
other such beauty rituals are bonding experi-
ences for teenage girls. Parents may blame
teen magazines or the superficiality of the
culture in general, but their daughters’ ego-
centric thinking may be the true origin of
these activities.
TE
D
HO
RO
W
IT
Z
/ C
OR
BI
S
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In every nation, those who volunteer for military service—hoping to be sent
into combat—are more likely to be under age 20 than over it. Young recruits take
risks, in the military as well as in civilian life, more often than older, more experi-
enced soldiers (Killgore et al., 2006).
Imaginary Audience
Egocentrism also creates an imaginary audience. Many adolescents seem to
believe that they are at center stage, with all eyes on them, that others are as in-
tensely interested in them as they themselves are. As a result, they are continually
imagining how others react to their appearance and behavior.
The imaginary audience can cause teenagers to enter a crowded room as if they
are the most attractive human beings alive. They might put studs in their lips or
blast music for all to hear, calling attention to themselves. The reverse is also
possible: They might avoid scrutiny lest someone notice a blemish on their chin
or a stain on their sleeve. Many a 12-year-old balks at going to school with a bad
haircut or the wrong shoes.
This explains many adolescents’ concern about the audience of their peers, who
presumably judge every visible oddity of their appearance and behavior. No wonder,
then, that one adolescent remarked, “I would like to be able to fly if everyone else
did; otherwise it would be rather conspicuous” (quoted in A. Steinberg, 1993).
Another, age 12, explained:
I dress different now that I’m in middle school. I used to not care about my
clothes—I’d wear whatever my mom bought for me. But now I really care [and]
take time to think about it. So it bugs me when my mom yells at me for wearing
jeans with holes or big shirts. It’s a big deal to her if my clothes aren’t clean. She
thinks my teachers will think she’s a bad mother or something.
[Daniel, quoted in R. Bell, 1998, p. 59]
Note that this young adolescent imagines that his mother is troubled by her own
audience, who are the teachers in his school. It is typical to begin with imagined
reactions of other people and end by judging the foolishness of one’s parents, as
two teens named Bethany and Jim illustrate.
imaginary audience The other people who,
in an adolescent’s egocentric belief, are
watching, and taking note of, his or her
appearance, ideas, and behavior. This
belief makes many teenagers very self-
conscious.
Especially for Parents of Adopted
Children Should adolescents be told if they
were adopted?
Adolescent Thinking 393
Not Me! A young woman jumps into the
Pacific Ocean near Santa Cruz, California,
while at a friend’s birthday party. The jump is
illegal, yet since 1975, 52 people have died
taking that leap off these cliffs. Hundreds of
young people each year decide that the thrill
is worth the risk, aided by the invincibility
fable and by what they think are sensible
precautions. (Note that she is wearing shoes.
Also note that the dog has apparently decided
against risking a jump.)NO
RB
ER
T
SC
HW
ER
IN
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
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Egocentrism Reassessed
After Elkind first described adolescent egocentrism, some psychologists blamed it
for every teenage problem, from drug use to pregnancy, from rebellion to apathy
(Eckstein et al., 1999). A more recent wave of research has found that many ado-
lescents do not feel invincible. Moreover, egocentrism “may signal growth toward
cognitive maturity” (Vartanian, 2001, p. 378) and is not necessarily irrational;
other adolescents their age are judging them (J. H. Bell & Bromnick, 2003).
For example, one 13-year-old moved to Los Angeles from a small town:
When I got to school the first day, everyone looked at me like I was from outer
space or something. It was like, “Who’s that? Look at her hair. Look at what she’s
wearing.” That’s all anybody cares about around here; what you look like and
what you wear. I felt like a total outcast. As soon as I got home, I locked myself
in my room and cried for about an hour. I was so lonely.
[Tina, quoted in R. Bell, 1998, p. 78]
The phrase “all anybody cares about around here” does not apply only to Los
Angeles. The same words could have been written by a young adolescent who
moved from Los Angeles to a small town or by almost any middle school student
who was new to a school anywhere. Part of this girl’s reaction may have been ego-
centric, if she imagined more scrutiny than actually occurred, but it does seem that
young adolescents sometimes reject their peers who dress or act in abnormal ways.
394 CHAPTER 15 ■ Adolescence: Cognitive Development
Bethany and Jim
It was a humid midsummer afternoon. Bethany prevailed on me to
go with her to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When we climbed
up to street level from the subway station, we encountered a sud-
den downpour. Bethany stopped and became angry—at me!
She: You didn’t bring an umbrella? You should have known.
Me: It’s OK—we’ll walk quickly. It’s a warm rain.
She: But we’ll get all wet.
Me: No problem. We’ll dry.
She: But people will see us with our hair all wet.
Me: Honey, no one cares how we look. And we won’t see anyone
we know.
She: That’s OK for you to say. You’re already married.
I asked, incredulously, “Do you think you are going to meet your
future husband here?”
She looked at me as if I were unbelievably stupid. “No, of
course not. But people will look at me and think, ‘She’ll never
find a husband looking like that!’”
Another example is reported by a father, himself a psycho-
therapist:
The best way I can describe what happens [during adolescence]
is to relate how I first noticed the change in my son. He was
about 13 years of age. . . . I was driving 65 miles an hour in a 55-
mile-an-hour zone.
He suddenly turned toward me and shouted, “Dad!”
I was startled and responded by saying, “What is it, Jim!”
Then there was this pause as he folded his arms and turned
slowly in my direction and said, “Dad, do you realize how fast
you are driving this car?” . . .
“Oh, I’m doing 65 miles per hour!” (as if I didn’t know it).
He then came right back at me and said, “Dad! Do you know
what the speed limit is on this highway?”
“Yes, Jim, it’s 55 miles an hour.”
He then said, “Dad! Do you realize that you are traveling 10
miles over the speed limit! . . . Don’t you care about my life at all!
Do you have any idea of how many thousands of people lose
their lives every year on our nation’s highways who exceed the
speed limit!”
Now I was beginning to get angry and I responded by saying,
“Look, Jim, I have no idea how many people are killed every year,
you were right I shouldn’t have been speeding; I promise I won’t
ever do it again, so let us just forget it!”
Not being satisfied, he continued, “Dad! Any idea what
would happen if the front wheel of this car came off doing 65
miles per hour, how many lives you might jeopardize!”
He kept on with this for another 10 minutes until I finally got
him quiet for about 20 seconds! Then he came back at me and
said, “Dad! I’ve been thinking about this.”
Once he said that, I knew I was in deep trouble! You see, my
son was so easy to deal with before he started to think!
[Garvin, 1994, pp. 39–41]
Bethany and Jim (“Don’t you care about my life at all!”) were
egocentric, with an imaginary audience (“People will look at
me and think”), but socially aware (“You’re already married,”
“thousands of people”). That’s adolescent egocentrism.
in person
➤Response for Parents of Adopted
Children (from page 393): Probably not now.
Most counselors believe that adopted children
should be told very early. Adolescents may
react irrationally to learning new information
about themselves.
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(a)
5kg 5kg
5kg
5kg
5kg 10kg
2kg
5kg
(b)
(c) (d)
Formal Operational Thought
In sorting through their life experiences, adolescents develop
logic. Jean Piaget was the first to notice and describe this ad-
vance. He realized that cognitive processes, not just cognitive
contents, can shift after childhood to a level called formal op-
erational thought. Adolescent thinking is no longer limited by
personal experiences (as in concrete operations): Adolescents
can consider abstractions (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958).
One way to distinguish formal and concrete thinking is to re-
member the school curriculum. Younger children multiply real
numbers (4 � 8); adolescents can multiply unreal numbers,
such as (2x)(3y) or even (�5xy2)(3zy3). Younger children study
other cultures by learning about daily life—drinking goat’s milk
or building an igloo, for instance, whereas adolescents grasp
concepts like “gross national product” and “fertility rate” and
can figure out how these phenomena affect politics. Younger
students plant carrots and feed rabbits; adolescents examine
cells and bacteria.
Piaget’s Experiments
Piaget and his colleagues devised a number of tasks that demonstrate formal oper-
ational thought (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958). They show that, “in contrast to con-
crete operational children, formal operational adolescents imagine all possible
determinants . . . [and] systematically vary the factors one by one, observe the
results correctly, keep track of the results, and draw the appropriate conclusions”
(P. H. Miller, 2002).
In one experiment (diagrammed in Figure 15.1), children balance a scale by
hooking weights onto the scale’s arms. To master this task, a person must realize
that the heaviness of the weights and their distance from the center interact recip-
rocally to affect balance. Therefore, a heavier weight close to the center can be
counterbalanced with a lighter weight far from the center. For example, a 12-gram
weight placed 2 centimeters to the left of the center might balance a 6-gram
weight placed 4 centimeters to the right.
Adolescent Thinking 395
Abstraction Way Beyond Counting on
Fingers and Toes This high school student
explains an algebra problem, a behavior that
requires a level of hypothetical and abstract
thought beyond that of any concrete opera-
tional child—and of many adults. At the
beginning of concrete operational thought,
children need blocks, coins, and other tangi-
ble objects to help them understand math.
By later adolescence, in the full flower of for-
mal operational thought, such practical and
concrete illustrations are irrelevant.
W
IL
L
M
CI
N
TY
RE
/
PH
OT
O
RE
SE
AR
CH
ER
S,
IN
C.
formal operational thought In Piaget’s the-
ory, the fourth and final stage of cognitive
development, characterized by more sys-
tematic logic and the ability to think about
abstract ideas.
FIGURE 15.1
How to Balance a Scale Piaget’s balance-
scale test of formal reasoning, as it is at-
tempted by (a) a 4-year-old, (b) a 7-year-old,
(c) a 10-year-old, and (d) a 14-year-old. The key
to balancing the scale is to make weight
times distance from the center equal on both
sides of the center; the realization of that
principle requires formal operational thought.
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This concept was completely beyond the ability or interest of 3- to 5-year-olds.
In Piaget’s experiments, they randomly hung different weights on different hooks.
By age 7, children realized that the scale could be balanced by putting the same
amount of weight on each arm, but they didn’t know or care that the distance from
the center was important.
By age 10, at the end of their concrete operational stage, children thought
about location, but they used trial and error, not logic. They succeeded with equal
weights at equal distances and were pleased when they balanced different
weights, but they did not figure out the formula.
Finally, by about age 13 or 14, some children hypothesized the reciprocal rela-
tionship between weight and distance, tested this hypothesis, and formulated the
mathematical formula, solving the balance problem accurately and efficiently.
Piaget attributed each of these advances to attainment of the next cognitive stage.
Hypothetical-Deductive Thought
One hallmark of formal operational thought is the capacity to think of possibility,
not just reality. Adolescents “start with possible solutions and progress to determine
which is the real solution” (Lutz & Sternberg, 1999, p. 283). “Here and now” is only
one of many alternatives including “there and then,” “long, long ago,” “nowhere,”
“not yet,” and “never.” As Piaget said:
Possibility no longer appears merely as an extension of an empirical situation or of
action actually performed. Instead, it is reality that is now secondary to possibility.
[Inhelder & Piaget, 1958, p. 251; emphasis in original]
Adolescents are therefore primed to engage in hypothetical thought, reasoning
about what-if propositions that may or may not reflect reality. For example, consider:
If dogs are bigger than elephants, and
If mice are bigger than dogs,
Are elephants smaller than mice?
Younger children, presented with such counterfactual questions, answer no.
They have seen elephants and mice, so the logic escapes them. Some adolescents
answer yes. They understand what if means (adapted from Moshman, 2005).
Hypothetical thought transforms a person’s perceptions, though not necessarily
for the better. Reflection about serious issues becomes complicated because many
possibilities are considered, sometimes sidetracking logical conclusions about the
immediate issues (Moshman, 2005).
For example, a survey of U.S. teenagers’ religious ideas found that most 13- to
17-year-olds considered themselves religious and thought that practicing their
particular faith would help them avoid hell. However, they hesitated to follow that
conviction to the next logical step by trying to convince their friends to believe as
they did. As one explained, “I can’t speak for everybody, it’s up to them. I know
what’s best for me, and I can’t, I don’t, preach” (C. Smith & Denton, 2005, p. 147).
Similarly, a high school student who wanted to keep a friend from committing
suicide hesitated to judge her friend’s intentions because
to . . . judge [someone] means that whatever you are saying is right and you
know what’s right. You know it’s right for them and you know it’s right in every
situation. [But] you can’t know if you are right. Maybe you are right. But then,
right in what way?
[quoted in Gilligan et al., 1990]
Although adolescents are not sure what is “right in what way,” they see what is
wrong. At every age it is easier to criticize something than to create it, but criticism
hypothetical thought Reasoning that
includes propositions and possibilities that
may not reflect reality.
396 CHAPTER 15 ■ Adolescence: Cognitive Development
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itself shows an advance in reasoning. (Recall Jim, who lectured his father about
speed limits because he “started thinking.”) Unlike younger children, adolescents
do not necessarily accept current conditions. They criticize everything from the
way their mother cooks spaghetti to how the world calendar counts the year. They
criticize what is, precisely because of their hypothetical thinking.
Abstract Thinking
In developing the capacity to think hypothetically, by age 14 or so, adolescents
become capable of deductive reasoning, which begins with an abstract idea or
premise and then uses logic to draw specific conclusions (Galotti, 2002; Keating,
2004). By contrast, as you remember from Chapter 12, inductive reasoning
predominates during the school years, as children accumulate facts and personal
experiences to aid their thought.
In essence, a child’s reasoning goes like this: “This creature waddles and
quacks. Ducks waddle and quack. Therefore, this must be a duck.” This reasoning
is inductive: It progresses from particulars (“waddles like” and “quacks like”) to a
general conclusion (“it’s a duck”). By contrast, deduction progresses from the gen-
eral to the specific: “If it’s a duck, it will waddle and quack” (see Figure 15.2).
deductive reasoning Reasoning from a
general statement, premise, or principle,
through logical steps, to figure out (deduce)
specifics. (Sometimes called top-down
thinking.)
inductive reasoning Reasoning from one or
more specific experiences or facts to a
general conclusion; may be less cognitively
advanced than deduction. (Sometimes
called bottom-up reasoning.)
Adolescent Thinking 397
Testing Juice How much vitamin C does
orange juice contain? You could ask the pro-
ducer, but adolescents would prefer to find
out for themselves, as these chemistry
students are doing.
RU
SS
C
UR
TI
S
/ P
HO
TO
R
ES
EA
RC
HE
RS
, I
N
C.
Inductive reasoning
General conclusion
Past experiences
Ideas from authorityObservation
Deductive reasoning
General principle
Hypothetical case
Example Extension
Test caseApplication
FIGURE 15.2
Bottom Up or Top Down? Children, as con-
crete operational thinkers, are likely to draw
conclusions on the basis of their own experi-
ences and what they have been told. This is
called inductive, or bottom-up, reasoning.
Adolescents can think deductively, from the
top down.
Most developmentalists agree with Piaget that adolescent thought can be qual-
itatively different from children’s thought (Fischer & Bidell, 1998; Flavell et al.,
2002; Keating, 2004; Moshman, 2005). They disagree about whether this change
is quite sudden (Piaget) or gradual (information-processing theory); about
whether change results from context (sociocultural theory) or biological changes
(epigenetic theory); about whether changes occur universally in every domain
(Piaget) or more selectively (all the other theories). Some adolescents and adults
still reason like concrete operational children, and “no contemporary scholarly re-
viewer of research evidence endorses the emergence of a discrete new cognitive
structure at adolescence that closely resembles . . . formal operations” (Kuhn &
Franklin, 2006, p. 954). In other words, logical thinking becomes more possible at
adolescence, but it is probably not a “discrete new structure,” sudden or universal,
as Piaget seemed to believe.
These criticisms of Piaget are familiar from previous chapters. There is much
more cognitive variability at every age than Piaget seemed to recognize. Piaget
“launched the systematic study of adolescent cognitive development” (Keating,
2004, p. 45), but his description is not the final word.
Intuitive, Emotional Thought
As many developmentalists over the past three decades have shown, the fact that
adolescents can use hypothetical-deductive reasoning does not necessarily mean
that they do use it (Kuhn & Franklin, 2006). Adolescents find it much easier and
quicker to forget about logic and follow their impulses.
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Two Modes of Thinking
Advanced logical thought is counterbalanced by the increasing power of intuitive
thinking, leading to recognition of a dual-process model of adolescent cognition
(Keating, 2004).
Researchers are increasingly convinced that the brain has at least two distinct
pathways, called dual-processing networks. The two processing networks have
been designated by various names: intuitive/analytic, implicit/explicit, contextual-
ized/decontextualized, creative/factual, unconscious/conscious, gist/quantitative,
emotional/intellectual, experiential/rational.
You may remember another pair discussed at length in Chapter 14—the limbic
system and the prefrontal cortex. Each of these pairs refers to the same two modes,
although every pair of terms describes a slightly different dichotomy. Both modes
advance during the second decade of life. The first half of each pair is the more
commonly used. It is preferred unless circumstances compel activation of the
second, more taxing, mode.
■ The first mode begins with a prior belief, past experience, or common assump-
tion, rather than with a logical premise. This is called intuitive (or contextu-
alized or experiential) thought. Thoughts spring forth from memories and
feelings. Intuitive cognition is quick and powerful; it feels “right.”
■ The second mode is the formal, logical, hypothetical-deductive thinking
described by Piaget. This is called analytic thought, because it involves
rational analysis of many factors whose interactions must be calculated, as in
the scale-balancing problem. Analytic thinking requires a
certain level of intellectual maturity, brain capacity, motiva-
tion, and practice.
In the words of one researcher, there are “two systems
but one reasoner” (De Neys, 2006, p. 428), which means
that when people use emotional reasoning they are less able
to use analytic reasoning. Another scholar writes about “two
brain networks” that interact, explaining that the intuitive
one dominates during adolescence (L. Steinberg, 2007,
p. 56). Neither mode is always best; ideally, a person learns
to coordinate both modes as “one reasoner.”
Thoughts in each mode either coexist or conflict, and both
advance during adolescence (Galotti, 2002; Klaczynski, 2005;
Moshman, 2005; Reyna, 2004). As detailed in Chapter 14,
the foundation for these cognitive advances is the brain,
which allows “stronger, more effective neuronal connections”
(Kuhn & Franklin, 2006. p. 957).
Comparing Intuition and Analysis
Paul Klaczynski has conducted many studies comparing the thinking of children,
young adolescents, and older adolescents (usually 9-, 12-, and 15-year-olds). In
one, Klaczynski (2001) presented 19 logical problems. For example:
Timothy is very good-looking, strong, and does not smoke. He likes hanging
around with his male friends, watching sports on TV, and driving his Ford Mustang
convertible. He’s very concerned with how he looks and with being in good shape.
He is a high school senior now and is trying to get a college scholarship.
Based on this [description], rank each statement in terms of how likely it is to be
true. . . . The most likely statement should get a 1. The least likely statement should
get a 6.
dual-process model The notion that two
networks exist within the human brain,
one for emotional and one for analytical
processing of stimuli.
intuitive thought Thought that arises from
an emotion or a hunch, beyond rational
explanation. Past experiences, cultural
assumptions, and sudden impulses are
the precursors of intuitive thought. (Also
called contextualized or experiential
thought.)
analytic thought Thought that results from
analysis, such as a systematic ranking of
pros and cons, risks and consequences,
possibilities and facts. Analytic thought
depends on logic and rationality.
398 CHAPTER 15 ■ Adolescence: Cognitive Development
Reality and Fantasy Because teenagers can
think analytically and hypothetically, they can
use computers not only to obtain factual
information and to e-mail friends but also to
imagine and explore future possibilities. This
opportunity may be particularly important for
adolescents like 17-year-old Julisa (right). She
is a student in a high school in Brownsville,
Texas, that offers computer labs and other
programs to children of migrant laborers.
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Timothy has a girlfriend.
Timothy is an athlete.
Timothy is popular and an athlete.
Timothy is a teacher’s pet and has a girlfriend.
Timothy is a teacher’s pet.
Timothy is popular.
In ranking these statements, most (73 percent) of the students made at least
one analytic error. Their mistake was to rank a double statement (e.g., athlete and
popular) as more likely than a single statement included in it (athlete or popular).
A double statement cannot be more likely than either of its parts; therefore, those
73 percent were illogical and wrong. This error is an example of intuitive thought:
The adolescents jumped to the more inclusive statement, taking a quick, experi-
ential leap rather than sticking to the logical task at hand.
In this study, almost all adolescents were analytical and logical
on some of the 19 problems but not on others. Logic improved
with age and education, although not with IQ. Klaczynski (2001)
concluded that, even though teenagers can use logic, “most ado-
lescents do not demonstrate a level of performance commensu-
rate with their abilities” (p. 854).
What would motivate high school students to use—or fail to
use—their newly acquired analytic mode of thinking? These
students had learned the scientific method in school, and they
knew that scientists use empirical evidence and deductive rea-
soning. But they did not always think like scientists. Why not?
Dozens of experiments and extensive theorizing have found
some answers (Diamond & Kirkham, 2005; Klaczynski, 2005;
Kuhn & Franklin, 2006). Essentially, logic is more difficult; it
does not always feel right. Once people (of any age) reach an
emotional conclusion (sometimes called a “gut feeling”), they re-
sist changing their mind, avoiding logic that might reveal their poor judgment.
Egocentrism makes rational analysis even more difficult, as one psychologist
discovered when her teenage son called to be picked up late one night from a
party that had “gotten out of hand.” The boy heard
his frustrated father lament “drinking and trouble—haven’t you figured out the
connection?” Despite the late hour and his shaky state, the teenager advanced a
lengthy argument to the effect that his father had the causality all wrong and the
trouble should be attributed to other covariates, among them bad luck.
[Kuhn & Franklin, 2006, p. 966]
Research confirming the difficulty of thinking scientifically comes from experi-
ments on the sunk cost fallacy, which is the mistaken assumption that, because
a person has already spent money, time, or effort (a cost already “sunk”), the per-
son should spend more of the same. People of all ages make this error, investing
money to repair a lemon of a car, staying in a class they are failing, and so on. An
example used in the research asked people whether they would watch more of a
movie they disliked if they had paid for it (e.g., on pay-per-view TV) than they
would if it were free. People of all ages said yes (Klaczynski & Cottrell, 2004).
Adolescents are better than younger children at recognizing the sunk cost fallacy,
realizing that “just because you made a mistake in paying to see a stupid movie, you
don’t need to torture yourself by watching the whole thing.” In this, as in all re-
search, variability is evident: Logic is not universal at adolescence.
Adolescent Thinking 399
Her Whole Brain Chess players like this girl,
who is competing in a Connecticut champion-
ship match, must be analytic, thinking several
moves ahead. But sometimes an unexpected
intuitive move unnerves the opposition and
leads to victory.
PE
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sunk cost fallacy The belief that if time or
money has already been invested in some-
thing, then more time or money should be
invested. Because of this fallacy, people
spend money trying to fix a “lemon” of a
car or sending more troops to fight for a
losing cause.
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Research Design
Scientist: Christian Smith (with more
than 100 colleagues and graduate
students).
Publication: Soul Searching, Oxford
University Press (2005).
Participants: Between 2001 and 2003,
in the National Study of Youth and
Religion, 3,360 13- to 18-year-olds and
one of their parents were interviewed
by phone. A subsample of 287 were
interviewed privately in person.To
secure a representative sample, a
random-digit-dial telephone survey of
families throughout the United States
was conducted to find families with at
least one member between the ages of
13 and 17 who would be willing to talk.
Design: Each participant was asked
questions regarding religion, school,
family, sex, and drugs. Data were
analyzed and reported by religious
allegiance, family background, and
various beliefs.
Major conclusion: Religion is important
to most adolescents, who are much less
critical or disaffected than has been
portrayed.
Comment: Research on religious beliefs
and development has been avoided by
many scientists, partly because any
conclusions are likely to be rejected by
some adherents and partly because it is
not easy to distinguish religious from
cultural beliefs.This study is part of a
new wave of research; much more needs
to be published in order to understand
the role of religion in development.
Better Thinking
Sometimes adults define “better thinking” as a more cautious approach (as in the
connection between “trouble” and alcohol above). Adults are particularly critical
of the egocentrism that leads a teenager to risk future addiction by experimenting
with drugs or to risk pregnancy and AIDS in order to avoid the awkwardness of
using a condom.
But adults may be egocentric in this judgment, assuming that adolescents share
their values. Parents want healthy, long-living children, and they conclude that
adolescents miscalculate or use faulty reasoning when they make decisions that
risk their lives. Adolescents, however, value social warmth and friendship.
A 15-year-old who is offered a cigarette might make a rational decision to choose
social acceptance over the distant risk of cancer (Engels et al., 2006).
Adolescent thinking (including egocentrism) can be positive, not necessarily
more selfish or irrational than adult thinking (Reyna & Farley, 2006). As one
expert explains, “Zeal in adolescents can fuel positive humanistic efforts to feed
the poor and care for the sick, yet it can also lead to dogmatic attitudes, intoler-
ance . . . passions captured by a negatively charismatic figure like Adolf Hitler or
Osama bin Laden” (Dahl, 2004, p. 21). Adolescents are said to “ride the waves of
historical events” (B. Brown & Larson, 2002, p. 12), being noble or naive depend-
ing on the immediate context.
At every age, sometimes the best thinking is “fast and frugal” (Gigerenzer et al.,
1999). The systematic, analytic thought that Piaget described may be slow and
costly—wasting precious time when a young person would rather act than think.
Generally, adolescents use their minds with more economy than children do
and may be as logical as adults are. As the knowledge base increases, thinking
processes accelerate; analysis and intuition become more forceful. With age,
thinking gains efficiency and is less likely to go off on a tangent. It is efficient to
use formal, analytic thinking in science class and to use emotional, experiential
thinking (which is quicker and more satisfying) for personal issues, and this tends
to happen (Kuhn & Franklin, 2006).
Which mode of thinking is best when the topic is religious beliefs? Most ado-
lescents use intuitive, not analytic, thinking for religion, as the following explains.
400 CHAPTER 15 ■ Adolescence: Cognitive Development
thinking like a scientist
Teenage Religion
As you remember from Chapter 1, scientists build on previous
research or theories, replicating, extending, or disputing the
work of others. Scientists question assumptions, seeking empir-
ical evidence to verify or refute cultural myths. This is a formal
operational approach.
Some impressionistic descriptions of teenagers and religion
(e.g., Flory & Miller, 2000) emphasize cults and sects. Young
congregants gather, “dressed as they are, piercings and all, and
express their commitment by means of hip-hop and rap music,
multimedia presentations, body modification, and anything
else that can be infused with religious meaning” (Ream &
Savin-Williams, 2003, p. 51). This evokes emotions: Many
adults consider piercings and rap music to be the antithesis of
true faith. Impressions, however, neither verify nor refute—
only science does.
A team of researchers began by “reading many published
overview reports on adolescence . . . with the distinct impression
that American youth simply do not have religious or spiritual
lives” (C. Smith & Denton, 2005, p. 4). But, thinking like scien-
tists, they sought evidence (see Research Design).
The researchers found that most adolescents (71 percent)
felt close to God and believed in heaven, hell, and angels. Most
identified with the same tradition as their parents (78 percent
Christian, 3 percent Jewish or Muslim). Some were agnostic
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Teaching and Learning 401
(2 percent), and 16 percent said they were not religious, al-
though many of those attended church and prayed. Less than 1
percent were decidedly unconventional (e.g., Wiccan).
Beliefs seemed egocentric, with faith seen as a personal tool
to be used in times of difficulty (e.g., taking an exam). Most
adolescents (60 percent) said they believed “many religions
might be true.” One said, “I think every religion is important in
its own respect. You know, if you’re Muslim, then Islam is the
way for you. If you are Jewish, well, that’s great too. If you’re
Christian, well, good for you. It’s just whatever makes you feel
good about you” (quoted in C. Smith & Denton, 2005, p. 163).
Many respondents (82 percent) claimed that their beliefs
were important to their daily life. One boy explained that reli-
gion kept him from doing “bad things, like murder or some-
thing,” and one girl said:
[Religion] influences me a lot with the people I choose not to be
around. I would not hang with people that are, you know, devil
worshipers because that’s just not my thing, I could not deal with
that negativity.
[C. Smith & Denton, 2005, p. 139]
The author doubts that “socializing with Satanists is a real
issue in this girl’s life” or that this boy “struggles with murderous
tendencies” (C. Smith & Denton, 2005, p. 139). Although daily
life in modern America presents many ethical issues, few ado-
lescents used theology to guide them. Less than 1 percent con-
nected religion with repentance, seeking justice, or loving one’s
neighbor. For most, religious beliefs were intuitive, not analytic.
Religion seemed to assure the invididuals that they were OK
(those who were most devout were less depressed) and, occa-
sionally, to bolster their criticisms of their parents.
SUMMING UP
Thinking reaches heightened self-consciousness at puberty, when adolescent egocen-
trism may be apparent. Some young adolescents have unrealistic notions about their
place in the social world, imagining themselves as invincible, unique, and the center
of attention. This self-awareness is often criticized by adults, but it shows a cognitive
advance and may be shaped by the social context.
Piaget thought the fourth and final stage of intelligence, called formal operational
thought, began in adolescence. He found that adolescents improve in deductive logic
and hypothetical thinking. Other researchers confirm that logic often improves in the
second decade of life but also recognize another mode of thinking. The second form is
experiential thinking, quicker and more intense than formal operational thought.
Because every form of thought advances during adolescence, teenagers know more,
think faster, and use systematic analysis and abstract logic beyond the capability of
younger children. Emotional passions, with fast and frugal thinking, may be preferred
over logical, methodical thought.
■
Teaching and Learning
Given the nature of the adolescent mind, what and how should teenagers be
taught? Many educators, developmentalists, political leaders, and parents want to
know exactly what curriculum and school structures are best for 11- to 18-year-
olds. We cannot present any one answer here, because no single answer is sup-
ported by the research. Various scientists, nations, and schools are trying opposite
strategies, some of which are based on opposite, but logical, hypotheses. We can,
however, provide some definitions, facts, and possibilities.
Secondary education—traditionally grades 7 through 12—is the term used
to describe the school years after elementary or grade school (known as primary
education) and before college or university (known as tertiary education). The
importance of secondary education is widely recognized, as adults in every nation
are healthier and wealthier if they have graduated from high school. Worldwide,
“secondary education has [the] transformational ability to change lives for the
better. . . . For young people all over the world, primary education is no longer
enough” (World Bank, 2005, xi–xii).
Especially for Religious Leaders
Suppose you believe very strongly in some
tenet of your faith, but the youth group
includes teenagers who act contrary to your
belief. What should you do?
secondary education Literally the period
after primary education and before tertiary
education. It usually occurs from about
age 12 to 18, although there is some varia-
tion by school and by nation.
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Even such a seemingly irrelevant condition as heart disease (the leading killer
worldwide) is about 50 percent more common among those who never graduated
from high school compared with those who graduated but never went to college
(MMWR, February 16, 2007). This statistic comes from the United States, but
data from every nation and every ethnic group indicate that high school graduation
is a surprising boon.
Partly for this reason, the number of students in secondary schools is increasing
faster than in primary or tertiary schools. In 2004, 78 percent of the world’s chil-
dren received some secondary education, including virtually all the 10- to 14-year-
olds in the Americas, East Asia, and Europe, but just 64 percent of them in South
Asia and 36 percent in sub-Saharan Africa (UNESCO, 2006).
Although almost everyone agrees that adolescents should be educated, and al-
though no one doubts that secondary education correlates with health and wealth
for individuals as well as for nations, many disagree about what and how students
should be taught.
Middle School: Less Learning
In the United States and many other nations, separate schools have been created
for children who have outgrown (literally) primary school. These were all once
called high schools, with younger students put in separate schools called junior
high schools. Now, with puberty occurring earlier than in years past (often at
age 11), many intermediate middle schools have been established to educate
sixth- (and sometimes fifth-) graders alongside seventh- and eighth-graders (who
had previously been in junior high schools). Ninth-graders are often reassigned
into high schools.
During the middle school years, academic achievement often slows down and
behavioral problems become more commonplace. The first year of middle school
is called the “low ebb” of learning (Covington & Dray, 2002), when many teachers
feel ineffective (Eccles, 2004). This affects later education: “Long term academic
trajectories—the choice to stay in school or to drop out and the selection in high
school of academic college-prep courses versus basic level courses—are strongly
influenced by experience in grades 6–8” (Snow et al., 2007, p. 72).
Many developmentalists think that one crucial problem is that students lose
connection to teachers, partly because middle school scheduling means each
teacher has dozens, sometimes hundreds, of students. Throughout secondary edu-
cation, bonding between students and teachers is key to learning as well as to
avoiding risks (Crosnoe et al., 2004).
Students’ relationships with one another also deteriorate, partly because students
suddenly find themselves with hundreds of strangers, many older and bigger than
they are. Because new middle school students have many classmates they have
never seen before, first impressions become especially significant. Unfortunately,
this coincides with the physiological changes described in Chapter 14 that make
each developing person acutely aware of every detail of appearance.
At this age, friendships and peer groups are crucial for providing validation.
Several studies find that, unlike in elementary school, in middle schools aggres-
sive and drug-using students tend to be admired over those who are conscientious
and studious (Allen et al., 2005; Mayeux & Cillessen, 2007). To stay or become
popular, many middle school students stop associating with unpopular peers
(Rose et al., 2004). This may deprive them of the opportunity to learn from those
among the ranks of the unpopular who are studious—the so-called geeks and
nerds. But many students at this age would rather sacrifice their academic stand-
ing than risk social exclusion.
middle school A school for the grades
between elementary and high school.
Middle school can begin with grade 5 or 6
and usually ends with grade 8.
Especially for Middle School Teachers
You think your lectures are interesting and
you know you care about your students, yet
many of them cut class, come late, or seem
to sleep through it. What do you do?
402 CHAPTER 15 ■ Adolescence: Cognitive Development
➤Response for Religious Leaders (from
page 401): This is not the time for dogma;
teenagers intuitively rebel against authority.
Nor is it the time to keep quiet about your
beliefs, because teenagers need some
structure to help them think. Instead of going
to either extreme, begin a dialogue. Listen
respectfully to their expressions of concern
and emotion, and encourage them to think
more deeply about the implications of their
actions.
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One longitudinal study that followed children from preschool through high
school provides an example of the changes that can occur in the middle school
years. Of all the children in the study, James was one of the most promising. In
his early school years, he was an excellent reader whose mother took great pride
in him—her only child. Once James entered middle school, however, the situation
changed:
Although still performing well academically, James began acting out. At first his
actions could be described as merely mischievous, but later he engaged in much
more serious acts, such as drinking and fighting, which resulted in his being
suspended from school. He said, “The kids were definitely afraid of me but that
didn’t stop them” from being his friends.
[Snow et al., 2007, p. 59]
In middle school James felt disconnected from his teachers and counselors and
said he had “a complete lack of motivation.” While at the end of primary school
James said he planned to go to college, by the time he reached the tenth grade, he
had dropped out of school.
Often family conflicts increase at around the time middle school begins
(Shanahan et al., 2007). For instance, James and his abusive father blamed each
other for every problem. His mother escaped blame, but she mistakenly thought
that James was as self-sufficient as his physical growth made him appear. She
“talked about how independent James was for being able to be left alone to fend
for himself, [while] he described himself as isolated and closed off” (Snow et al.,
2007, p. 59).
Although James is only one student, his experiences were not atypical in this
longitudinal study. The problems of young adolescents are “widespread and almost
certainly multiply determined” (Snow et al., 2007, p. 63), that is, pervasive, with
many causes. Middle schools can push some vulnerable children over the edge.
Many developmentalists agree that, instead of being supportive of developing
egos, middle schools are “developmentally regressive” (Eccles, 2004, p. 141)—
taking a step backward. To pinpoint the developmental mismatch, note that just
when egocentrism leads young people to feelings of shame or fantasies of stardom
(performing for an imaginary audience), they are scheduled to change rooms,
teachers, and classmates every 40 minutes or so. That makes public acclaim, per-
sonal recognition, or even private comfort difficult. When extracurricular activities
become competitive, fragile egos shun the possible glare of coaches, advisers, or
other students. Grades often fall in middle school, because teachers grade more
harshly and students are less conscientious.
One way that young adolescents cope with stress is to blame their troubles on
others—classmates, teachers, parents, nations. This may help explain the results
of a study in Los Angeles: Those in more ethnically diverse schools felt safer and
less lonely (Juvonen et al., 2006; see Research Design). The scientists suggest that
students who feel victimized “can attribute their plight to the prejudice of other
people” rather than blame themselves (Juvonen et al., 2006, p. 398).
How can middle schools encourage rather than discourage adolescent learning?
Many middle school reforms are under way, with varying success (Roney et al.,
2004).
Remember that answers are not clear, but that adolescent egocentrism is par-
ticularly strong in early adolescence and that intuitive thought generally over-
whelms logic. Developmental research finds that egocentrism, intuitive thought,
and logic coexist in every classroom. Middle school teachers need to consider the
particular ideas and styles of each individual. The emotional and personal excite-
ment of role-playing, debating, and group interaction may keep students engaged.
Teaching and Learning 403
Research Design
Scientists: Jaana Juvonen, Adrienne
Nishina, and Sandra Graham.
Publication: Psychological Science
(2006).
Participants: A total of 2,000 middle
school students from 99 classrooms in
11 Los Angeles middle schools, all low
income, with ethnic diversity.
Design: Students answered question-
naires about safety, loneliness, victim-
ization, and self-worth. Diversity was
calculated by the likelihood that any
two random students in a class or a
school would be of the same race.
Particular focus was placed on the two
groups with the greatest number of
students—Latino and African American.
Major conclusion: Diversity in the class-
rooms as well as in the schools led to
less loneliness and a greater feeling of
safety.
Comment: As the authors point out,
“the possibility that there is safety in
diversity—as opposed to safety in
numbers—is an optimistic one” (p. 399).
The focus on low-income Mexican and
African Americans is commendable.This
research needs to be extended to
include, for example, Asian minority
students who, according to other
research, experience more bullying.
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Bullying and social exclusion need to be stopped. Some
research has found that “differential learning,” treating
“students as individual learners” within each class, ad-
vances learning in middle schools (May & Supovitz,
2006, p. 252).
Technology and Cognition
Adults have divergent perspectives regarding technology
and teenage cognition. Some hope that computers will be
a boon to learning, creating a new generation of better-
informed, technologically savvy youth. Others fear that
technology will undercut respect for adults and schools,
that egocentrism will go wild when adolescents realize
what their parents don’t know (Hern & Chaulk, 1997;
Roschelle et al., 2000).
The rise of new technology, however, is far outpacing
any attempts by adults to stop, or even slow, its impact. A mere two decades ago, no
one knew about the World Wide Web, instant messaging, chat rooms, blogs, iPods,
Blackberries, and digital cameras. Yet today, teenagers are intimately acquainted
with all of these technologies, even going as far as creating whole new texting
“languages” to communicate with one another. In 1995, only half of all U.S. public
schools had Internet capacity; now all do (see Figure 15.3) (U.S. Bureau of the
Census, 2007).
The “digital divide,” bemoaned in the 1990s because it separated boys from
girls and rich from poor (Dijk, 2005; Norris, 2001) has been bridged. In the
United States, the greatest divider between Internet users and nonusers is now
age. To be specific, in 2005 (the year of the latest reliable statistics) the proportion
of adolescents who used the Internet (78 percent) was by far the largest of any age
group. The proportion of elderly Internet users was lowest (20 percent) (Snyder
et al., 2006). Income and ethnicity gaps are shrinking every year, and the gender
gap has all but disappeared, but age differences remain.
Technology is no longer limited only to developed nations.
Teenagers worldwide use the Internet for, among other things, in-
formation about sex that their schools and parents do not provide
(Borzekowski & Rickert, 2001; Gray et al., 2005; Suzuki & Calzo,
2005). An international political project involving 3,000 adoles-
cents from 129 nations linked all of them via e-mail, some from
home and others through nearby schools, libraries, or Internet cafés
(see Figure 15.4). (Cassell et al., 2006).
Computers are now often seen as essential tools for education.
This is exaggerated (those with and without computer access do
equally well on various tests), but it is thought that Internet use
404 CHAPTER 15 ■ Adolescence: Cognitive Development
Isolated No More This huge lunchroom in
a Texas high school could make any student
sad, anxious, and lonely. Technology can help,
though. This ninth-grade girl has her cell
phone and MP3 player, so a potentially lonely
lunch break is a happy, sociable time instead.
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Percentage
1997 2003 20062001
Year
100
60
70
80
90
40
50
20
30
10
0
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007.
Children and Adolescents Using the
Internet Regularly, by Age Group
Age 15–17
Age 10–14
Age 6–9
Age 3–5
FIGURE 15.3
Logging On This graph shows the explosive increase in Internet use by chil-
dren of all ages, especially teenagers, that has occurred since the mid-1990s.
By age 18, almost every U.S. teenager is using the Internet at home, at school,
or both, to check news, connect with friends, or find information. (Note: The
data for 1997–2003 used identical questions and reliable survey methods from
the annual Current Population Reports, published by the U.S. Bureau of the
Census. Because CPR data for 2006 were not yet available as of this writing,
the percentages given for that year are estimates and are not directly compara-
ble with the data for other years.)
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may improve reading and spatial skills. In an experiment conducted with 10- to
18-year-olds (mostly African American from low-income families) who were given
free Internet access at home, both reading scores and school grades were found to
rise (Jackson et al., 2006).
Traditional research conducted before the technology explosion found that,
with time, education, and experience, adolescents are more likely to move past
egocentric thought and think logically and deductively. Perhaps the information
overload of the World Wide Web will push adolescents toward deductive reason-
ing faster. Conversely, e-mail may allow adolescents to express egocentric
thoughts and intuitive impulses that are better kept private. Cyberbullying is an
example (Li, 2007).
Similar mixed consequences are apparent in many aspects of technology. Many
advances (e.g., cell phones, e-mail, texting) require social interaction, which ado-
lescents need for cognitive growth (Subrahmanyam et al., 2006). Online commu-
nication makes friends closer (Valkenburg & Peter, 2007). Even shy teens create
screen names and engage in discussion at a distance, perhaps furthering thought
and communication without the danger and intimacy of more direct contact. This
may be especially important for teenagers who feel socially isolated.
On the other hand, intuitive thought, especially when propelled by emotions
without analysis by the prefrontal cortex, can be dangerous. Teenagers may use
technology to distance themselves from adults. Adolescents are pushed toward
risk rather than caution when they are with peers (L. Steinberg, 2007).
To get a better understanding of the uses and misuses of the Internet, consider
the following example. Currently, more than 400 Web sites are dedicated to “cut-
ting,” the self-injury done primarily to relieve depression and guilt (Whitlock et al.,
2006). Cutting is addictive, particularly for adolescent girls (Yates, 2004). Analysis
of a representative sample of 3,219 posts on cutting sites found that most were
helpful, allowing self-injuring adolescents to “establish interpersonal intimacy . . . ,
Teaching and Learning 405
Hello . . . . I believe that Katia has spoken for most of us when she tells us how discour-
aged she is. I have heard it from many other people and have heard of stagnation in
other discussion groups. I am very frustrated right now. The groups I am in aren’t
doing much. . . . It’s awfully discouraging! But think of it from the perspective that we
are all part of an incredible process, a process which has never before happened in the
history of humanity. We are all children, essentially “dumped” into virtual rooms with
a broad topic in mind, and the rest is ultimately up to us. It’s difficult! The process, like
any (life, school, work, a hike, everything) has its ups and downs. That sounds kind of
trite—but it’s true. And it’s inevitable. And it is very valuable for us as human beings.
Perhaps even more so than changing the world, we are learning and growing person-
ally, which IS indirectly shaping the future. . . . Practically speaking, I have a suggestion
as to how we all can move forward from this point, and get out of the “rut.”
1. Every group, think clearly and put something together in writing asking the question,
“What is our ultimate goal?” I think that putting a finger on all of the objectives both
practical and philosophical will be a good starting point.
2.Then, start by making a timeline to carry out those objectives—dividing them, start-
ing small and then building it up. For example, “In the first two weeks we need to figure
out a general organizational flow for our project. The week following that, we need to
go into finer details and figure out what sub-groups will exist. The 4th week, we need
to figure out how people will be elected and how people will carry out the tasks in each
group. Blah, blah, blah.”
. . . And, through time and through perseverance, it will take off! I hope that we can all
move forward and get back into the fun and excitement of our work and play. I am so
privileged to know all of you. I feel happy and look forward to all the years we will
have together. What are all your thoughts?
Source: Quoted in Cassell et al., 2006.
FIGURE 15.4
Discouraged, But . . . You might think that
the logical analysis shown in this e-mail must
come from a wise adult; but, no, the writer is
14 years old. He is in India, writing to adoles-
cents he had not met in nations he had not
seen. This project joined adolescents world-
wide in a junior political summit.
➤Response for Middle School Teachers
(from page 402): Students need both challenge
and involvement; avoid lessons that are too
easy or too passive. Create small groups;
assign oral reports, debates, and role-plays;
and so on. Remember that adolescents like
to hear one another’s thoughts and their own
voices.
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[which is] especially difficult for young people
struggling with intense shame, isolation, and
distress” (Whitlock et al., 2006, p. 415). The
most common theme of the messages was infor-
mal support (28 percent), with many other posts
describing formal treatment (7 percent, usually
positively) and emotional triggers (20 percent)
(Whitlock et al., 2006). This makes it seem as if
technology was helpful for young women who
once were isolated in their pain. Some sites,
however, provided suggestions for concealment
(9 percent) or information on techniques and
paraphernalia (6 percent). Here is one chilling
exchange:
Poster 1: Does anyone know how to cut deep
without having it sting and bleed too much?
Poster 2: I use box cutter blades. You have
to pull the skin really tight and press the
blade down really hard. You can also use a
tourniquet to make it bleed more.
Poster 3: I’ve found that if you press your
blade against the skin at the depth you want
the cut to be and draw the blade really fast it doesn’t hurt and there is blood galore.
Be careful, though, ‘cause you can go very deep without meaning to.
[quoted in Whitlock et al., 2006, p. 413]
Web sites directed at young people who are vulnerable to self-starvation, homo-
phobia, violent sex, racism, and so on may encourage them, making these prob-
lems worse.
Overall, it is easy to see egocentrism and intuitive thought in adolescent use of
technology; it is also easy to see the educational possibilities. However, it is not
obvious how adults can guide teenagers through the current maze of technology.
The next generation of researchers, some of them adolescents themselves a
decade ago, may provide some answers.
Transitions and Translations
Developmentalists are able to make one definitive contribution to the issue of how
adolescents learn best. Many studies have found that changes, even positive ones,
are disruptive. As a result, transitions from one school to another are difficult,
usually decreasing a person’s ability to function and learn. Changing schools just
when the growth spurt and sexual characteristics develop is bound to create stress.
Remember from Chapter 12 that ongoing minor stresses can become over-
whelming if they accumulate. This may lead to psychic problems, as one expert
explains:
A number of disorders and symptoms of psychopathology, including depression,
self-injury behavior, substance abuse, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, and
schizophrenia have striking developmental patterns corresponding to transitions
in early and late adolescence.
[Masten, 2004, p. 310]
Of course, the transition to middle school or high school cannot be blamed for
every disorder, since hormones, body shape, sexual impulses, family, and culture
also contribute. Genes for psychopathology and sensation seeking might activate
406 CHAPTER 15 ■ Adolescence: Cognitive Development
Middle School Slump? These students in
rural India are the same age as middle school
students in developed nations, but their
enthusiasm for school has not waned. One
reason is that they do not take education for
granted; only a select few are able to stay in
school beyond age 11. Another reason may be
seen here: The government is trying to up-
grade the curriculum by providing traveling,
Internet-connected computers.
RA
JE
SH
K
UM
AR
S
IN
GH
/
AP
P
HO
TO
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at puberty, causing havoc for those with no emotional control (E. F. Walker, 2002).
However, since the first year of a new school often correlates with increased bully-
ing and decreased achievement and the onset of depression and eating disorders
(as does the first year of high school or college), schools need to pay special atten-
tion to the psychic needs of new students. There are a number of different meas-
ures that can be taken to ease the stress these students might feel, including
teaching all such students in a separate area; avoiding transitions by extending
elementary school to include grade 8; restructuring secondary schools to comprise
grades 7 through 12 (as Japan recently did); and allowing families more choice,
information, and involvement in each adolescent’s education.
One particular problem occurs when the adults and many of the students in a
new school are notably different from those in the old school, to whose culture the
students are accustomed. Contrary to the study that found that diversity within
classrooms was protective in middle school, other research has found that students
entering high schools where they are suddenly in the minority may feel alienated
and worried about their academic success (Benner & Graham, 2007). Advance
involvement of students and families might ease the transition.
As mentioned in Chapter 12, researchers distinguish intended, implemented,
and attained curricula (Robitaille & Beaton, 2002). Intended curriculum refers to
the content that educational leaders prescribe, implemented curriculum means
what the teachers and school administrators offer, and attained curriculum refers
to what the students learn.
Strong intentions can lead to blame if the intentions are not realized. Teachers
can be faulted for not implementing curricula, and students can be blamed for not
learning what is taught. The result is reduced esteem and motivation among both
teachers and students. From a developmental perspective, this direction is the
opposite of what it should be. The attained learning is crucial, and intentions and
implementation should be readjusted if students are not learning as they should—
which is often the case with students who are new to a school.
Teaching and Learning in High School
As we have seen, adolescents can think abstractly, analytically, hypothetically, and
logically—as well as personally, emotionally, intuitively, and experientially. By high
school, the curriculum and teaching style are often quite analytic and abstract. In
theory and sometimes in practice, high schools advance analytic ability in adoles-
cents, so they can use logic to override the “biases that not only preserve existing
beliefs but also perpetuate stereotypes and inhibit development” (Klaczynski,
2005, p. 71). That is good, but is it overdone?
Most academic subjects emphasize logic, often with laboratory experiments or
historical documents that require the students to make systematic deductions.
This is exactly what formal operational thinking enables adolescents to do and
what the best assessments try to measure.
Teaching and Learning 407
Diversity of Nation, Gender, and Income
Problem solving is a centerpiece of formal operational thinking.
To assess this ability in 15-year-olds, an exam was prepared and
administered under the auspices of PISA (Programme for
International Student Assessment). This exam asked 250,000
students in 41 nations to answer questions intended to deter-
mine skill level in decision making, system analysis, and trouble-
shooting. The following is an example of one of the problems
appearing on the exam.
issues and applications
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408 CHAPTER 15 ■ Adolescence: Cognitive Development
Dormitory rules:
1. Boys and girls must sleep in separate dormitories.
2. At least one adult must sleep in each dormitory.
3. The adult(s) in a dormitory must be of the same gender as the
children.
Children’s Camp—Question 1
Dormitory Allocation
Fill in the table to allocate the 46 children and 8 adults to dormitories,
keeping to the rules.
Response Coding Guide for Children’s Camp Question 1
Full Credit
Code 2: 6 conditions to be satisfied
• Total girls � 26
• Total boys � 20
• Total adults � four female and four male
can compensate for children whose families do not teach them
higher-order skills. But when the data were separated by family
and background, the results varied markedly by nation. For ex-
ample, in the United States it made little difference whether a
child was native-born or not, but in Germany it made a big dif-
Adults
Mrs. Madison
Mrs. Carroll
Ms. Grace
Ms. Kelly
Mr. Stevens
Mr. Neill
Mr. Williams
Mr. Peters
Dormitories
Name Number of beds
Red 12
Blue 8
Green 8
Purple 8
Orange 8
Yellow 6
White 6
Name Number of Boys Number of Girls Name(s) of Adult(s)
Red
Blue
Green
Purple
Orange
Yellow
White
The Zedish Community Service is organizing a five-day
Children’s Camp. Forty-six children (26 girls and 20 boys) have
signed up for the camp, and 8 adults (4 men and 4 women) have
volunteered to attend and organize the camp.
About one in five 15-year-olds were “reflective, communica-
tive problem solvers,” as those who answered most questions
correctly were called. Most earned partial credit. About one in
six were “below basic” (skipping questions or making many
mistakes). East Asian students generally did well (almost none
at the lowest level), as did students from Finland, Australia,
New Zealand, and Canada. Among developed nations, Italian
and U.S. students had the lowest scores (with about one in four
below basic), although Mexican, Brazilian, and Indonesian stu-
dents scored much lower (see Table 15.1).
Table 15.2 suggests that the biological advent of puberty
(which is experienced by age 15 in every nation) and biological
sex differences (notable by age 15) do not affect intellectual
achievement as much as cultural and schooling differences do.
As the text makes clear, scientists do not yet agree as to which
elements of culture and school are crucial. Students who took
the exam went astray in many ways. Some ignored essential ele-
ments (as in the camp problem, not realizing that the adults
needed beds), some confused numbers (e.g., switching boys and
girls), while others skipped certain problems entirely. Unlike on
multiple-choice tests, an intuitive thinker could not use quick
guessing; analysis and written responses were required.
Beyond national variation, the scientists were interested in
economic, gender, and family structure disparities. On gender,
differences were few and insignificant, even though problem-
solving ability correlates with math ability and boys usually do
better at math. Boys had a wider range of scores than girls, with
a higher proportion at the highest and lowest levels.
A particular concern was whether family and background
factors affected learning. National policies can reduce socio-
economic differences among adults, and educational practices
TABLE 15.1
Average Problem-Solving Scores
Among 15-year-olds
(Note: The highest possible score was 700, the lowest 200; the international
average was 500.)
Country Average Country Average
Score Score
Korea 550 Spain 481
Hong Kong 548 Italy 469
Japan 547 United States 477
Canada 529 Portugal 470
New Zealand 533 Turkey 408
Australia 530 Mexico 384
France 519 Brazil 371
Sweden 509 Indonesia 361
Ireland 498
Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2004.
School or Culture? Notable differences are apparent between nations,
but the reasons are not obvious. Is the culture of some nations less
conducive to problem solving, or are the schools of some nations less
adept at teaching formal operational thought?
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Especially for High School Teachers You
are much more interested in the nuances and
controversies than in the basic facts of your
subject, but you know that your students will
take high-stakes tests on the basics and that
their scores will have a major impact on their
futures. What should you do?
Teaching and Learning 409
Focus on the Brightest
From a developmental perspective, the fact that high schools emphasize formal
thinking makes sense, since by the later years of adolescence, many students are
capable of attaining that level. Few do, however, unless adults teach them to do it,
and it may be that the lack of logic among many adults is due to their lack of edu-
cation in such thinking (Kuhn & Franklin, 2006).
Some nations are trying to raise their standards of education, partly so that
more students will achieve the highest levels of thought. In the United States,
an increasing number of high school students are enrolled in classes that are
designed to be more rigorous, with externally scored exams, either the IB
(International Baccalaureate) or the AP (Advanced Placement).
In 2006, about 3 million U.S. students earned a high school diploma and more
than 1 million took at least one Advanced Placement class. The hope is that taking
such classes will lead to better thinking, or at least higher achievement, though it
is yet to be proven (McNeil, 2007; Viadero, 2006).
Another manifestation of the same trend is the greater number of requirements
for receiving an academic diploma that all students must attain; no one is allowed
to earn a vocational or general diploma unless the parents specifically request it
(Olson, 2005). Many schools require two years of math beyond algebra, a year of
laboratory science, and two years of history.
Finally, an increasing number of U.S. states require passing a high-stakes test
in order to graduate. (Any exam for which the consequences of failing are severe is
called a high-stakes test. Traditionally, such tests were used when adults sought
professional licenses—e.g., for lawyers, doctors, and clinical psychologists.) Some
see this as raising standards; others see it as destroying learning, in that teachers
who “teach to the test” stress neither logic nor intuition (Nichols & Berliner, 2007).
Ironically, just when more U.S. schools are instituting high-stakes tests, many
East Asian nations are moving in the opposite direction (Fujita, 2000). The trend
in Japan is toward fewer academic requirements for high school students, school
five days a week instead of six, and less “examination hell,” as the high-stakes tests
have been called. The science adviser to the prime minister of Japan is seeking
more flexibility in education in order to promote more innovation in Japanese
society. He wants “high school students [to] study whatever they are interested in”
rather than to narrow their study to attain high scores on one final test (quoted in
Normile, 2007).
High-stakes tests are often the subject of fierce debate. Unfortunately, it is the
students who find themselves caught in the middle. In California in 2006, for
example, 41,700 students (many of them from low-income Mexican American
ference. In 16 nations it made no significant difference whether
a child lived with one parent or two, but in the United States
this correlated with 44 points of difference. Overall, although
parental occupation (which usually signifies income) had an
effect in every nation, with children at each socioeconomic level
scoring lower than children in the next-higher tier, no back-
ground factor was as significant as the national differences,
which varied by nearly 200 points.
TABLE 15.2
Factor Average Difference Little or No Impact Large Impact
Parental occupation 76 points Korea, China-Macao Belgium, Germany
Immigrant child 36 points Canada, United States Germany, Switzerland
Single-parent family 23 points Austria, Brazil United States, Belgium
Parental education 20 points Sweden, Portugal Hungary, Uruguay
Gender 4 points (F) Canada, United States Iceland (F); China-Macao (M)
high-stakes test An evaluation that is critical
in determining success or failure. If a sin-
gle test determines whether a student will
graduate or be promoted, that is a high-
stakes test.
390-413_BergerLS7e_CH15.qxp 9/21/07 4:46 PM Page 409

families) completed the credits for graduation but failed the state’s high-stakes
exam. Days before graduation, a judge ruled that the tests were discriminatory and
that these students had earned their diplomas (McKinley, 2006). The state won an
appeal. Those 41,700 students were not granted diplomas (Jacobson, 2006); some
went to summer school to try again and some quit.
Focus on the Dropouts
Not every student who begins secondary school stays to finish it. Rates of those
aged 11 to 18 who are enrolled in school vary from less than 20 percent in the
poorest nations (Niger, Cambodia) to 100 percent in the richest (Japan, Sweden)
(World Bank, 2005).
Developed nations typically require students to be in school until they reach a
certain age, usually between 14 and 18, with age 16 being the
average (Education Week, 2007). In the United States and
Canada, 90 percent of all teenagers are either students or high
school graduates. Most of the dropouts leave toward the end
of their secondary school career, at age 17 or so.
Whenever high-stakes tests are a requisite for graduation,
there is a “potential unintended consequence” of more high
school dropouts (Christenson & Thurlow, 2004, p. 36).
Twenty-three U.S. states now require exit exams to graduate;
in those states, fewer students graduate (Robelen, 2006).
Between 2003 and 2004 in the United States, the dropout
rate increased (Hoff, 2005). As with all statistics, many inter-
pretations of the increasing dropout rate are possible, al-
though everyone seems to agree that a high school education
is beneficial for later life (Orfield, 2004).
Interpretation is even more complicated in this case be-
cause dropout statistics are presented in many ways. “Status
dropouts” are 18- to 24-year-olds who are not in school and
who have no diploma (see Figure 15.5). Not counted are 19-year-olds who are still
in high school or young adults who left school but earned a GED (General
Education Diploma, granted on passing a series of exams). Another way to count
is to note how many entering ninth-graders have not graduated four years later.
By this measure, the dropout rate is more than 50 percent in some schools.
If a school, or a school district, wants to reduce the dropout rate, one alterna-
tive is to make graduation easier. On the other hand, if more and more require-
ments are added, the dropout rate will increase. Is this a sign of a successful
school or a failing one? Those most likely to drop out are those of low income and
minority ethnicity. Is that acceptable?
Taking a long view, the percentage of status dropouts has gradually decreased in
the United States over the past 30 years, from about 14 to 10 percent. However,
the percentage of those who left in their senior year (not earlier) increased, from 26
percent of all the dropouts to 40 percent. Again, many interpretations are possible.
Student Engagement
Surprisingly, students who are capable of passing their classes are as likely to drop
out as those with learning disabilities. Persistence, diligence, and motivation seem
to play a more crucial role than intellectual ability when it comes to earning a high
school diploma (Fredricks et al., 2004). Many adolescents express boredom and
unhappiness with school (“Algebra sucks,” “The Odyssey is boring”), especially when
they are complaining to their friends (Larson, 2000; Lyons, 2004). Adolescents
seek to be admired by their peers, which may mean appearing to be detached from
410 CHAPTER 15 ■ Adolescence: Cognitive Development
Percentage
of adolescents
who are dropouts
1994 2003 20042002
Year
30
20
25
10
15
5
0
Source: Snyder et al., 2006.
Status High School Dropouts in the United States, by Race
Hispanic Americans
African Americans
European Americans
FIGURE 15.5
No diploma This graph shows a recent in-
crease in the percentage of 16- to 24-year-old
status dropouts who are not in high school
and who do not have a high school diploma.
Especially for Students Who Recently
Left High School Which would be better:
leaving without a diploma during one’s senior
year of high school or leaving in the ninth
grade, before all those additional years?
➤Response for High School Teachers
(from page 409): It would be nice to follow
your instincts, but the appropriate response
depends partly on pressures within the school
and on the expectations of the parents and
administration. A comforting fact is that
adolescents can think about and learn almost
anything if they feel a personal connection to it.
Look for ways to teach the facts your students
need for the tests as the foundation for the
exciting and innovative topics you want to
teach. Everyone will learn more, and the tests
will be less intimidating for your students.
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Especially for High School Guidance
Counselors Given what you know about
adolescent thinking, should you spend more
time helping students with college applications,
with summer jobs, with family problems, or
with course selection?
education. Attachment to school and assessment of self-
competence typically falls in each consecutive year of high
school, particularly for boys (Fredricks & Eccles, 2002;
Porche et al., 2004; Wigfield et al., 1997).
Teachers, researchers, and developmentalists describe
adolescents—honor students as well as delinquents—as hav-
ing “high rates of boredom, alienation, and disconnection
from meaningful challenge” (Larson, 2000). That conclusion
comes from an American study, but similar conclusions have
been found from as far away as Australia, where teachers
were asked what problems they had with their students
(Little, 2005). As you can see in Figure 15.6, middle school
students can be disruptive, but high school students are
often disengaged.
One reason may be that only formal operational thought is
promoted, while egocentric and intuitive thought, which are more relational and
social, are excluded. Schedules limit social interaction by allowing only a few min-
utes between classes and not allowing students to gather informally on school
grounds before or after classes. Budget cutting often targets extracurricular activi-
ties first, which undercuts attachment to school (Fredricks & Eccles, 2006).
Teachers are hired for their expertise in one or more academic fields, not for
their ability to relate to adolescents. They are able to answer complex questions
about the intricacies of theoretical physics, advanced calculus, and iambic pen-
tameter, but they are often ill equipped to deal effectively with troubled students.
Instead, these students are usually sent to meet with a guidance counselor, who
more often than not is responsible for hundreds of students. The result is that ego-
centric and intuitive thought may be devalued to the point that some adolescents
feel that they themselves are devalued.
So what can be done to encourage adolescents to be more engaged with
school? While there is no single, definitive answer to this question, there are many
possible avenues to explore.
One possible improvement may be to keep high schools small. Extensive re-
search suggests that 200 to 400 is the ideal number of students to have in a high
school, partly because there is more opportunity for almost every student to be in-
volved in some sort of team or club. Nevertheless, two-thirds of high school students
in the United States attend schools with enrollments of over 1,000 (Snyder et al.,
2006). Big schools are more economical, but they do not necessarily increase learn-
ing and motivation (Eccles et al., 2003).
Another option is to encourage extracurricular activities, because there are
“developmental benefits of participation in extracurricular activities for many
high school adolescents” (Fredricks & Eccles, 2006, p. 712). Athletic teams elicit
emotions and school bonding, which explains why students on such teams (even
those who are not star athletes) are less prone to use drugs or alcohol, have a low
incidence of depression, and earn higher grades. Overall, adolescents who are
active in school clubs and athletic teams are more likely to graduate and go to
college (Mahoney et al., 2005).
Again, these are only suggestions. A review of adolescent education throughout
the world finds that “no culture or nation has worked out a surefire educational
psychology to guarantee that every one of the youth is motivated in school”
(Larson & Wilson, 2004, p. 318). Other ideas, some from other nations, may be
better. Further experimentation and research are needed to determine more
effective methods, given that current structures and curricula seem to leave many
students disengaged (Fredricks et al., 2004).
Teaching and Learning 411
10
0
20
30
40
50
Talking out
of turn
Disobeying Doing
nothing
Coming
late
Percentage
of students
reported to
pose problem
Problems with Students Reported by Teachers in Australia
Years
Source: Little, 2005.
Grades 11–12
Grades 7–8
Grades 9–10
FIGURE 15.6
Teacher’s Complaints Teachers around the
globe concur that each adolescent age group
poses its own particular set of behavioral
problems in school. This chart is based on
data as reported by teachers in Australia.
Which is worse: a student who is actively
disruptive or one who has stopped caring?
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School Violence
The same practices that foster motivation and education can also prevent violence.
The data from the United States over the past decade suggest that fewer fights are
breaking out in school but that students are more afraid of school than they have
been in the past.
Students are unlikely to be destructive or afraid if they are engaged in learning,
bonding with their teachers and fellow students, and involved in school activities.
Such students create a protective shield throughout the school, for “students are
well aware of the problem children in their own classrooms . . . [but] for such
information to flow from students to administrators requires an atmosphere where
sharing in good faith is respected and honored” (Mulvey & Cauffman, 2001).
According to a survey of all the principals in Texas middle and high schools,
several measures seem to be effective in reducing school crime, including setting
clear rules for student behavior, rewarding students for attendance, and organizing
more sporting events within (and not just between) schools (Cheurprakobkit &
Bartsch, 2005).
This study also showed that measures that increase fear, such as installing metal
detectors and handing out strict punishments, are more likely to increase violence
than decrease it. Primary prevention to improve the school climate is needed
because measures that (1) increase peer friendships, (2) strengthen teacher–
student relationships, and (3) promote student involvement tend to reduce vio-
lence. Programs that teach conflict resolution have also had some success, perhaps
because they make a point of accomplishing the three goals just mentioned
(e.g., Breunlin et al., 2002). Unfortunately, however, some efforts boomerang. Some
programs designed to reduce bullying, halt drug use, and prevent delinquency
have in fact had the opposite effect. Evaluation is crucial.
SUMMING UP
Secondary education is an integral aspect of cognitive development. However, re-
searchers and nations disagree about how best to teach adolescents. Middle schools
tend to be less personal, less flexible, and more tightly regulated than elementary
schools, all of which may contribute to declining student achievement. Transitions are
difficult for children, especially when the demands of puberty and the self-centeredness
of egocentrism are at work. Students and educators alike turn to technology—for differ-
ent reasons. It is not clear that the benefits of Internet use outweigh possible problems,
but it is clear that most adolescents use various forms of technology every day.
High school education can advance thinking of all kinds, including analytic and intu-
itive thinking, in every domain. But it is often only formal operational thinking that is
taught and tested. High-stakes testing reflects an effort to equalize achievement and
increase accountability, but it may result in a less creative curriculum and increase the
number of students who drop out before earning a diploma. Essential to safe and suc-
cessful secondary education are activities that encourage students to engage intellectu-
ally with ideas, each other, and teachers.
■
412 CHAPTER 15 ■ Adolescence: Cognitive Development
Adolescent Thinking
1. Cognition in early adolescence may be egocentric, a kind of
self-centered thinking. Adolescent egocentrism gives rise to the
invincibility fable and the imaginary audience.
2. Formal operational thought is Piaget’s term for the last of his
four periods of cognitive development. He tested and demon-
strated formal operational thought with various problems that
might be encountered by students in a high school science or
SUMMARY
➤Response for Students Who Recently
Left High School (from page 410): In terms
of adolescent cognition, the diploma is
merely a piece of paper, and the education
gained in all those years is the true reward.
On the other hand, the diploma is used as a
credential for college admission and job
applications. The answer to this question
depends on whether you think learning in
high school has intrinsic value or is aimed
toward an extrinsic reward.
➤Response for High School Guidance
Counselors (from page 411): It depends on
what your particular students need; schools
vary a great deal. However, all students need
to talk and think about their choices and
options so that they will not act impulsively.
Therefore, providing information and a
listening ear might be the most important
thing you can spend time doing. You will also
want to keep all students in challenging and
interesting classes until they graduate.
Encouraging teachers and administrators to
improve educational structures and to
increase student motivation is a worthwhile
endeavor.
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Summary 413
3. Think of a life-changing decision you have made. How was the
decision based on logic and how on emotion? What would have
changed if you had given it more thought—or less?
4. Visit a local high school or middle school. Describe the hidden
curriculum (class assignments, rules, nonacademic activities, etc.).
How does it encourage adolescent learning?
1. Describe a time when you overestimated how much other
people were thinking about you. How was your mistake similar to
and different from adolescent egocentrism?
2. Talk to a teenager about politics, families, school, religion, or
any other topic that might reveal the way that young person
thinks. Do you hear any adolescent egocentrism? Intuitive think-
ing? Systematic thought? Flexibility? Cite examples.
APPLICATIONS
adolescent egocentrism (p. 392)
invincibility fable (p. 392)
imaginary audience (p. 393)
formal operational thought
(p. 395)
hypothetical thought (p. 396)
deductive reasoning (p. 397)
inductive reasoning (p. 397)
dual-process model (p. 398)
intuitive thought (p. 398)
analytic thought (p. 398)
sunk cost fallacy (p. 399)
secondary education (p. 401)
middle school (p. 402)
high-stakes test (p. 409)
KEY TERMS
6. Why are middle schools called developmentally regressive?
7. Why are transitions a particular concern for educators?
8. What are the advantages and disadvantages of high-stakes
testing?
9. What are the most motivating features of a good secondary
school?
10. What factors increase and decrease the likelihood of school
violence?
1. What are some of the behavioral consequences of adolescent
egocentrism?
2. Why are adolescents particularly concerned about the imagi-
nary audience?
3. What characteristics of the balance-scale question make it a
measure of cognition?
4. What are the advantages of intuitive thought?
5. How might intuition and analysis lead to opposite conclusions?
KEY QUESTIONS
math class, such as figuring out how to adjust weights on a bal-
ance scale.
3. Adolescents are no longer earthbound and concrete in their
thinking; they prefer to imagine the possible, the probable, and
even the impossible, instead of focusing on what is real. They
develop hypotheses and explore, using deductive reasoning.
4. Intuitive thinking, also known as contextualized or experiential
thinking, becomes more forceful during adolescence. Few
teenagers always use logic, although they are capable of doing so.
Emotional, intuitive thinking is quicker and more satisfying, and
sometimes better.
Teaching and Learning
5. Secondary education—after primary and before tertiary (college)
—is the fastest growing area of education in the world, partly be-
cause it correlates with the health and weath of individuals and
nations. Most of the world’s children now receive some secondary
schooling.
6. Middle school students tend to be bored by school, difficult to
teach, and hurtful to one another. One reason may be that middle
schools are not structured to accommodate egocentrism or intu-
itive thinking.
7. Many forms of psychopathology increase at the transition to
middle school, to high school, and to college. Although transitions
are always stressful, this may be particularly true in adolescence.
8. Adolescents use technology, particularly the Internet, more
than people of any other age. They reap many educational bene-
fits from doing so, but there may be hazards as well.
9. Education in high school seems to emphasize formal opera-
tional intelligence. In the United States, the demand for more
accountability has led to more AP classes and high-stakes testing.
This may have unintended consequences, including a higher
dropout rate.
10. Low motivation is often a problem among secondary school
students. Especially in very large schools, few are actively involved
in sports or other school activities, which promote school bonding
and thus engagement. If students feel disconnected from the
teachers and the school, they are more likely to be violent.
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Adolescence:
Psychosocial
Development
A 17-year-old writes:
I am interested in everything. I like new technology, computers, videos.
I have a guitar that I play at home. I usually go to play basketball with my
friends . . . Briefly, I feel good. I am friendly and I have a sense of humor . . .
Love, friendship, honesty and self-assurance are the most important values
in a person’s life.
[quoted in van Hoorn et al., 2000, p. 22]
This adolescent could be male or female and could be living almostanywhere—Tokyo, Topeka, Toronto, or your hometown. In fact, helives in Pécs, Hungary. While he was growing up, his nationchanged its political and economic system, and as a teenager he
often heard gunfire from neighboring Yugoslavia, which was undergoing a
bloody civil war that led to the birth of three new countries. Yet he says,
without irony, “There were no essential, important events in my life, only
that I was born” (quoted in van Hoorn et al., 2000, p. 22).
This boy is similar to adolescents everywhere, influenced more by micro-
systems of families and friends than by changes in exosystems (such as polit-
ical upheaval). Culture is influential, mediated through the family, but many
teenagers seem oblivious to its effects.
Almost always, adolescents seek a unique identity that is “honest and
self-assured”; they value “love and friendship” from their parents and peers.
This chapter begins with a description of the identity quest and then discusses
relationship needs and patterns. At the end of this chapter, two obstacles to
growth are described: depression and delinquency.
Identity
Psychosocial development during adolescence is often understood as a search
for identity, for a consistent understanding of oneself. Each young person
wants to know “Who am I?”
As Erik Erikson described it, life’s fifth psychosocial crisis is identity
versus diffusion. The search for identity is the primary crisis of adolescence
—a crisis in which young people struggle to reconcile their understanding of
themselves as unique but with a connection to their heritage and to the
larger society (Erikson, 1968).
16
415
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� Identity
Not Yet Achieved
Four Arenas of Identity Achievement
� Relationships
Adults and Teenagers
Peer Support
IN PERSON: The Berger Daughters
Seek Peer Approval
� Sexuality
Before Committed Partnership
Learning About Sex
Sexual Behavior
� Sadness and Anger
Depression
Suicide
A CASE TO STUDY: He Kept His
Worries to Himself
More Destructiveness
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST:
A Feminist Looks at the Data
identity A consistent definition of one’s self
as a unique individual, in terms of roles,
attitudes, beliefs, and aspirations.
identity versus diffusion Erikson’s term for
the fifth stage of development, in which
the person tries to figure out “Who am I?”
but is confused as to which of many possi-
ble roles to adopt.
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Identity achievement is the ultimate psychosocial goal, according
to Erikson. Adolescents seek to establish their own identities by recon-
sidering all the goals and values set by their parents and culture, accept-
ing some and rejecting others. Adolescents maintain continuity with
their past in order to move toward their future (Chandler et al., 2003).
Erikson first labeled this crisis “identity versus diffusion” in the mid-
dle of the twentieth century, an era unlike today in politics, social con-
text, developmental research, and adolescent self-concept. Over the
past half-century, major psychosocial shifts have made the search for
identity longer and given it new dimensions (Côté, 2006; Nurmi, 2004).
In addition to achievement, at least three other identity statuses have
been described: diffusion, foreclosure, and moratorium (Marcia, 1966).
Not Yet Achieved
The opposite of identity achievement is identity diffusion, a lack of
commitment to any goals or values, with apathy concerning every role. Even the
usual social demands, such as putting away clothes, making friends, completing
school assignments, and thinking about college or employment, are beyond the
diffused adolescent. Instead, too much sleep, long hours of mind-numbing televi-
sion, and a turn from one romance to another with neither passion nor distress are
typical. The response to school failure, parental criticism, missed deadlines, lost
papers is, “Whatever.”
Identity foreclosure occurs when young people short-circuit their search by not
questioning traditional values (Marcia, 1966; Marcia et al., 1993). They might simply
accept roles and customs from their parents or culture, never exploring alternatives.
An example of foreclosure might be a boy who has always anticipated following
in his father’s footsteps. If his father is a doctor, he might take advanced chemistry
and biology in high school; if his father is a day laborer, he might drop out of
school at age 16. For many young people, foreclosure is a comfortable shelter, a
way to avoid the stress of forging a new path.
Another shelter, considered more mature, is moratorium, a kind of time-out.
Societies provide many moratoria, chosen by adolescents just as they are graduat-
ing from high school. Identity achievement would mean selecting a mate and a
career, as people once did at about age 16 to 18. Moratorium is a way to postpone
such choices.
The most obvious moratorium in North America is going to college, because
colleges encourage studying many disciplines (general education) and provide a
rejoinder to any older relative who urges settling down to marriage and career.
Other institutions that allow postponement of identity are the military; religious
mission work; and various internships in government, academe, and industry.
Unlike identity diffusion, adolescents in moratorium try to do what is required
(as student, soldier, missionary, or whatever), but they consider it temporary, not
their final identity. The U.S. Army once advertised, “Be all you can be,” but it
also promised that, once you had become whatever you could be, you could reen-
ter civilian life with more maturity and education than when you enlisted. Then
you might be ready to achieve identity.
Four Arenas of Identity Achievement
Erikson (1968) highlighted four aspects of identity: religion, sex, politics, and
vocation. Terminology and emphasis have changed, yet these four domains remain
important.
identity achievement Erikson’s term for the
attainment of identity, or the point at which
a person understands who he or she is as
a unique individual, in accord with past
experiences and future plans.
identity diffusion A situation in which an
adolescent does not seem to know or care
what his or her identity is.
foreclosure Erikson’s term for premature
identity formation, which occurs when an
adolescent adopts parents’ or society’s
roles and values wholesale, without ques-
tioning and analysis.
moratorium A way for adolescents to post-
pone making identity achievement choices
by finding an accepted way to avoid identity
achievement. Going to college is the most
common example.
416 CHAPTER 16 ■ Adolescence: Psychosocial Development
I’m a Big Girl Now Young teenagers are
likely to use their musical taste, their clothing
and hairstyles, and sometimes their facial ex-
pression to make it very obvious to parents
that they are no longer the obedient, pre-
dictable children they once were.
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Religious Identity
The distinctions among diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium,
and achievement are evident in religious identity, which few
teenagers achieve. Diffusion is evident in those who drift
along with whatever faith their parents or their friends
favor. One teenager said, “At the moment religion’s not that
important. I guess when I get older it might become more
so, but right now being with my friends and having fun
and being a teenager is more important to me” (quoted in
C. Smith, 2005, p. 159).
Most religions expect young people to struggle with theo-
logical questions, with a moratorium on commitment. For
example, those who want to be Roman Catholic priests or
nuns must undergo years of testing and training before they
are allowed to assume that role. Mormons expect everyone
to complete a year or two of missionary work before mar-
riage. A sizable minority of Amish adolescents take part in a
tradition known as rumspringa (“running around”), where
they “venture out into the world” (Stevick, 2001, p. 166). As young adults, many
return to the fold, choosing to be baptized in the Amish faith after their explo-
ration of the world beyond their community.
Foreclosure would involve accepting a faith without questioning. The survey of
religion highlighted in the previous chapter (pp. 400–401) found that 8 percent of
the participating teenagers considered themselves to be devout (C. Smith, 2005).
They often prayed, read scripture, and attended services. It is impossible to know
whether those devout teenagers had foreclosed or had achieved their religious
identity sooner than most. Time will tell. Those who foreclosed might
“lose” their faith, but those who achieved will likely deepen their
commitment.
Sexual/Gender Identity
Erikson’s term sexual identity has, over the past 50 years, been replaced
by gender identity. As you remember from Chapter 10, for social scien-
tists sex and sexual refer to biological male/female characteristics and
gender refers to cultural and social characteristics.
A half-century ago, Erikson and other psychoanalytic theorists thought
of males and females as opposites (P. Y. Miller & Simon, 1980). They
assumed that, although many adolescents were temporarily confused
about their sexual identity, they would soon identify as men or women
and adopt sex-appropriate roles (Erikson, 1968; Freud, 1958/2000).
Later, cross-cultural research and a changing cultural environment,
prodded by the multicultural perspective and by historical change, re-
vealed the limitations of that assumption (Lippa, 2002). Sexual identity
Identity 417
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A Religious Life These young adolescents in
Ethiopia are studying to be monks. Their
monastery is a haven in the midst of civil
strife. Will the rituals and beliefs also provide
them with a way to achieve identity?
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Friendship, Romance, or Passion? Sexual iden-
tity is much more complex for today’s adolescents
than it once was. Behavior, clothing, and hairstyles
are often ambiguous. Girls with shorn hair, boys
with pierced ears, or same-sex couples embracing
are not necessarily homosexual for life—and may
not have a homosexual orientation at all.
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became known as gender identity (Denny & Pittman, 2007), which now refers
primarily to a person’s self-definition as male or female. Gender identity usually
leads to gender role and sexual orientation, but not always (Galombos, 2004).
A related term, sexual orientation, refers to a person’s erotic desires. The
word orient can be interpreted to mean “turns toward,” and thus sexual orientation
refers to whether a person is romantically attracted to people of the other sex, the
same sex, or both sexes. Sexual orientation can be relatively strong or weak, and
it can be acted upon, unexpressed, or even unconscious.
Adolescents feel strong sexual drives, but many are not sure how and with whom
to express them. That is why gender identity, gender role, and sexual orientation
all become issues during adolescence (Baumeister & Blackhart, 2007). This topic
is discussed in more detail later in this chapter.
Political/Ethnic Identity
In Erikson’s day, achieving political identity meant identifying with a particular
political party. Today, as with the young man quoted at the opening of this chapter,
many adolescents seem oblivious to national and international politics (Kinder,
2006; Torney-Purta et al., 2001). Once they are old enough to vote—if they vote
at all—they usually say they choose the person, not the party.
Since Erikson’s time, political values and attitudes have been increasingly influ-
enced by ethnic loyalty rather than political party; hence the term identity politics.
For many adolescents, ethnic identity becomes an important aspect of their over-
all identity (Phinney, 2006).
Within the United States, ethnic identity is central to many adolescents of
African, Asian, and Hispanic descent, who contend with their group’s history, their
parents’ perspectives, and their own experiences, often blending these various
components of their backgrounds into personal values and actions. As with all
adolescents, they struggle to find their own identities while remaining connected
to their roots.
The need to establish ethnic identity arises in early adolescence and peaks at
about age 15 (French et al., 2006; Pahl & Way, 2006). Ethnic identity continues
to evolve for years, partly because social and historical circumstances change.
As one developmentalist contends, for ethnic minorities, “the need to explore the
implications of their group membership may extend the identity exploration period
throughout the 20s and often beyond” (Phinney, 2006, p. 118).
418 CHAPTER 16 ■ Adolescence: Psychosocial Development
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gender identity A person’s acceptance of
the roles and behaviors that society asso-
ciates with the biological categories of
male and female.
sexual orientation A term that refers to
whether a person is sexually and romanti-
cally attracted to others of the same sex,
the opposite sex, or both sexes.
The Same Event, A Thousand Miles Apart:
Learning in School For these two groups
of Muslim girls, the distance between their
schools in Dearborn, Michigan (left), and
Jammu, Kashmir (right), is more than geo-
graphical. The schools’ hidden curricula teach
different lessons about the roles of women.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 421):
What three differences are evident?
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Ethnicity also becomes salient for many European Americans, especially those
whose families connect ethnicity with religion (as happens for millions of adoles-
cents in other nations as well). Each political or ethnic identity affects language,
manners, dating patterns, clothing, values, and so on (Trimble et al., 2003).
Vocational Identity
Vocational identity in the twenty-first century is usually postponed until age 25 or
later, for a variety of reasons. One is that few teenagers can find meaningful work
(Csikszentmihalyi & Schneider, 2000). Another is that most available jobs are
quite different from what they were a generation ago, making foreclosure difficult.
A third is that the required skills for many vocations take years to attain, which
makes selecting a vocation at age 16 premature.
To the surprise of many adults, not only is it premature for adolescents to decide
on a vocation, but adolescent employment itself may be harmful. Several studies in
the United States have found that a job during high school requiring 20 or more
hours per week can impede identity formation, family relationships, academic
achievement, and career success (Greenberger & Steinberg, 1986; Staff et al.,
2004). Money earned is often spent on drugs, clothes, cars, and entertainment.
Overall, many aspects of the identity search have become more arduous than
they seemed to be when Erikson first described them (Zimmer-Gembeck &
Collins, 2003). Fifty years ago, the drive to become an independent and autono-
mous person was thought to be the “key normative psychosocial task of adoles-
cence” (p. 177). Today researchers are aware that identity achievement before age
18 is elusive.
SUMMING UP
Erikson’s fifth psychosocial crisis, which was first described more than 50 years ago and
depicts adolescence as a time to search for a personal identity, still resonates with
those who study contemporary teenagers. Patterns of diffusion, foreclosure, and mora-
torium are still apparent. One thing that has changed, however, is the length of the
process, with few young people developing a firm sense of who they are and what
path they will follow. The specific aspects of identity—religious, political, sexual, and
vocational—have taken new forms and schedules as well. Ethnic identity is pivotal for
many contemporary teenagers, who need to incorporate their group history into current
reality.
■
Relationships
The changing seas of development are never sailed alone. At every turn, a voyager’s
family, friends, and community provide sustenance, directions, ballast for stability,
and a safe harbor when it is time to rest. Social forces also provide a reason to
move ahead or change direction. In adolescence, when the winds of change blow
particularly strong, adults and contemporaries are valuable shipmates.
Adults and Teenagers
Adolescence is often characterized as a time of waning adult influence, a period
when young people distance themselves from the values and behaviors of their
elders. There is some validity to this observation, but it need not be true, nor is
such a disconnect necessarily a good sign. In fact, when young people feel valued
by their communities, trusted by teachers, and connected to adults, they are far
Relationships 419
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less likely to abuse drugs, leave school, take unnecessary
risks, and so on (Benson, 2003; Stanton & Burns, 2003).
Parents are crucial for support and guidance (Collins &
Laursen, 2004), but other adults can also contribute sub-
stantially to the development of adolescents. “Supportive
relationships with non-parent adults are considered to be
among the key developmental assets predicting positive
youth outcomes” (Rhodes & Roffman, 2003, p. 195). These
nonparent adults can be other relatives, teachers, church
leaders, or even the parents of friends; all can contribute to
a rich social network that sustains healthy development
(Parke & Buriel, 2006).
Conflicts at Home
Parent–adolescent relationships are pivotal, but not always
peaceful. Disputes arise when a child’s drive for independ-
ence clashes with the parents’ customary control. The
specifics depend on many factors, including age, gender, and culture.
Parent–adolescent conflict typically peaks in early adolescence, especially be-
tween mothers and daughters (Arnett, 1999; Granic et al., 2003; Laursen et al.,
1998). Usually it manifests as bickering—repeated, petty arguments (more nag-
ging than fighting) about routine, day-to-day concerns, such as cleanliness, clothes,
chores, and schedules. Some bickering may indicate a healthy family, since close
relationships almost always include some conflict (Smetana et al., 2004).
Few parents can resist commenting about dirty socks thrown on the floor or a
ring through a newly pierced eyebrow, and few adolescents can calmly listen to
“expressions of concern” without feeling unfairly judged. Parents want their chil-
dren to be present at family dinners and to go along for visits to relatives, while
teenagers just want to be with their friends. Parents notice resistance and fear the
worst—addiction, jail, disappearance.
After a period during which bickering occurs regularly, most parents typically
adjust by granting more autonomy, and “friendship and positive affect typically
rebound to preadolescent levels” (Collins & Laursen, 2004, p. 337). Normally,
teenagers adjust as well; by age 18, increased emotional maturity and reduced
egocentrism bring some appreciation of their parents.
In some families, however, downright neglect on the part
of the parents can result in a decidedly different outcome.
Sixteen-year-old Joy’s stepfather said, “Teens all around here
[are] doing booze and doing drugs. . . . But my Joy here ain’t into
that stuff” (C. Smith, 2005, p. 10). In fact, Joy was smoking
pot, drinking alcohol, and having sex with her boyfriend. She
once overdosed on her mother’s medicine and lay unconscious
for two days before anyone even noticed. Obviously, she was in
far worse trouble than most “teens all around here.”
Regarding parent–adolescent relationships, it is also impor-
tant to note cultural differences in expectations and patterns.
Some cultures value family harmony above all else, and in
these cultures both generations usually avoid conflict. This
peaceableness may be either repressive or healthy, depending
on the cultural perspective. It could be that adolescent rebel-
lion is a social construction, assumed to be necessary by
middle-class Westerners but not necessarily by those of other
cultures or socioeconomic status (Larson & Wilson, 2004).
bickering Petty, peevish arguing, usually
repeated and ongoing.
420 CHAPTER 16 ■ Adolescence: Psychosocial Development
Not in My Kitchen Both parents and
teenagers are invested in their relationship,
but each generation has its own perspective
on their interactions.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 422):
What do you see in the body positions of
these two that suggests a generational
conflict?
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“So I blame you for everything—whose fault is that?”
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That is speculation. It is known, however, that the topics and the processes of
conflict vary from place to place. For example, Japanese youth expect autonomy in
their choice of music but parental guidance in their romantic choices, which
might make a U.S. adolescent bristle (Hasebe et al., 2004). In the United States,
conflict is normal, but “expressed hostility” is not, and it is likely to lead to disobe-
dient, cheating, lying adolescents, even when the influence of deviant friends is
taken into account (Buehler, 2006).
In every nation, it is not only cultural norms but also family customs that affect
the topics, timing, and severity of parent–child disagreement. Role models are
quite influential, those provided not only by parents (especially if the parents fight
with each other) but also by siblings. For instance, if older siblings are aggressive,
sexually active, or drug users, younger siblings are more likely to follow their
example than to learn from their mistakes (Bank et al., 2004; Brody, 2004; East &
Kiernan, 2001). Conflict with parents peaks earlier for younger than elder siblings,
which indicates again the power of a family role model (Shanahan et al., 2007; see
Research Design).
Closeness with the Family
As we have just seen, conflict is only one dimension of the parent–child relation-
ship, easy to notice though not necessarily the most important. Another key factor
that may have an even greater impact on the parent–child relationship is overall
closeness, which has four specific aspects:
■ Communication (Do parents and teens talk openly with one another?)
■ Support (Do they rely on one another?)
■ Connectedness (How emotionally close are they?)
■ Control (Do parents encourage or limit adolescent autonomy?)
No developmentalist doubts that the first two, communication and support, are
helpful, if not essential. Patterns set in place during childhood continue. If these
patterns are positive, they can buffer some of the turbulence of adolescence
(Cleveland et al., 2005; Collins & Laursen, 2004).
Regarding connectedness and control, consequences vary and observers differ.
Consider this example, written by one of my students:
I got pregnant when I was sixteen years old, and if it weren’t for the support of my
parents, I would probably not have my son. And if they hadn’t taken care of him,
I wouldn’t have been able to finish high school or attend college. My parents also
helped me overcome the shame that I felt when . . . my aunts, uncles, and espe-
cially my grandparents found out that I was pregnant.
[personal communication with “I.,” 2004]
My student is grateful to her parents, but others might wonder whether her early
motherhood allowed her parents too much control and necessitated a dependent
connection at a time when she should have been finding her own identity. A study
of pregnant adolescents in the United States found that young mothers and their
children fared best if the parents were supportive but did not take over the care of
the child completely (Borkowski et al., 2007). An added complexity is that my stu-
dent’s parents had emigrated from South America: Cultural differences in family
expectations may have been a factor in her pregnancy and in her family’s response.
An important correlate of family closeness in the United States is parental
monitoring—that is, parental knowledge about the child’s whereabouts, activities,
and companions. When monitoring is part of a warm, supportive relationship, the
child is likely to become a confident, well-educated adult, avoiding drug use and
risky sex (Barnes et al., 2006; Fletcher et al., 2004).
Especially for Mothers Why would young
adolescent daughters and their mothers be
most likely to bicker?
Relationships 421
Research Design
Scientists: Lilly Shanahan, Susan M.
McHale, D. Wayne Osgood, and Ann C.
Crouter.
Publication: Developmental Psychology
(2007).
Participants: Families consisting of
two siblings living with their married
parents, 201 in total.The elder children
were 10 to 14 years old at the start of
the study, and their siblings were one to
four years younger.
Design: At four intervals over five years,
participants were asked about the fre-
quency of fights with each parent in 11
domains (e.g., chores, appearance,
health, relationships).
Major conclusions: Conflict peaked at
about age 13 for first-born children and
at about age 9 for second-born.Younger
siblings had fewer conflicts overall than
first-borns.
Comment:This study considers several
family interaction patterns over time.
Not only do younger siblings tend to
follow their elder siblings (called spill-
over) but parents also tend to learn
from experience, finding ways to avoid
conflicts by the time the second child
reaches puberty. Research on other
types of families might show whether
this pattern holds for them as well.
parental monitoring Parents’ ongoing
awareness of what their children are
doing, where, and with whom.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 418): Facial expressions, degree of adult
supervision, and head covering. (Did you notice
that the Kashmiri girls wear a tight-fitting cap
under their one-piece white robes?)
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However, if parents are too restrictive and controlling, that correlates with
depression and other disorders, possibly resulting in adolescents who habitually
deceive their parents. Worst of all may be psychological control (a threat to with-
draw love and support; see Chapter 10) (Barber, 2002). Apparently, adolescents
need freedom in order to feel competent and loved. Parental monitoring itself may
be harmful when, instead of indicating a warm connection with the adolescent, it
derives from harsh suspicion (Stattin & Kerr, 2000).
Ongoing Influence
Finding the right balance is difficult. Each family adjusts to personalities and cul-
tures. The worst thing to do is to give up. Even if teenagers seem oblivious or
defiant, parents can still be influential; this is true for all families, not only for
intact, middle-class ones (B. Brown, 2005; Richardson, 2004).
One detailed study measured the self-esteem of low-income minority students
in a large New York City high school. They found that the school climate had little
impact on self-esteem but that “parents are a primary presence in their children’s
emotional lives throughout adolescence,” whether they are African American,
Latino, or Asian American (Greene & Way, 2005, p. 171).
Of course, genes, maturation, and friendships also affect a child’s personality
and activities. But parents have a decided impact through guidance, modeling,
and past decisions that affect the child (e.g., neighborhood and school choices).
Children tend to follow their parents’ examples in many activities, including reli-
gious involvement, drug use, and sports preferences (Rose, 2007).
Overall, effective parenting before the teen years is protective during adoles-
cence; ineffective parenting during childhood may produce angry, uncontrollable
youth (Cleveland et al., 2005; Li et al., 2002). This pattern continues. A longitudi-
nal study found a correlation between parenting style used when children were in
seventh grade and any problems (delinquency, risky sex, drug use, etc.) they had
by the time they were in eleventh grade. These researchers wrote:
When parents permit too much freedom, they may put their young adolescents
at risk for a negative peer context, but they can also put their young adolescents at
risk if they are perceived as being too intrusive.
[Goldstein et al., 2005, p. 409]
Peer Support
Parental influence is most direct in childhood and at the beginning of adoles-
cence. Then peer influence becomes more apparent. From hanging out with a
crowd to whispering with a confidant, peers make life a joy rather than a burden.
As one high school boy said, “A lot of times I wake up in the morning and I don’t
want to go to school, and then I’m like, you know, I have got this class and these
friends are in it, and I am going to have fun. That is a big part of my day—my
friends” (quoted in Hamm & Faircloth, 2005, p. 72).
Cliques and Crowds
Adolescents group themselves into cliques and crowds (Collins & Steinberg,
2006; Eckert, 1989), which help “bridge the gap between childhood and adult-
hood” (Bagwell et al., 2001, p. 26). A cluster of close friends is called a clique,
who are loyal to one another and who exclude outsiders. A crowd is a larger
group of adolescents who share common interests, though they may not necessar-
ily be friends. Crowds may be based predominantly on race or ethnicity, or on
some personal characteristic or activity, such as the “brains,” “jocks,” “skaters,” or
clique A group of adolescents made up of
close friends who are loyal to one another
while excluding outsiders.
crowd A larger group of adolescents who
have something in common but who are
not necessarily friends.
422 CHAPTER 16 ■ Adolescence: Psychosocial Development
➤Response for Mothers (from page 421):
Conflicts typically occur about habits of dress
and cleanliness. Mothers are most directly
involved with daily enforcement, and daughters
are traditionally more docile—so their rebellion
produces surprise and resistance in their
mothers.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 420): The mother’s folded arms show
her determination to keep her son in line.
The young man sits on the kitchen counter,
with cap but without shoes, to stress his
independence.
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“burnouts.” Crowds guide students’ decisions about clothes, music, drugs, classes,
and so on, although allegiance to a crowd is much looser than to a clique. For
example, a student could dress like others in a crowd (with preppy shirts, trench
coats, or baggy pants) but not endorse the same values as other members of that
crowd. A crowd may use small signs of identity (a certain brand of backpack, a
particular greeting) that adults do not notice but members of other crowds do
(Strouse, 1999).
Cliques and crowds provide both social control and social support. They pro-
mote group norms, not necessarily directly but through criticism and exclusion of
people who do not conform (B. Brown & Klute, 2003). Compared with primary
school children, many adolescents consider appearance and style (often in oppo-
sition to adult norms) important for peer acceptance, as I learned within my own
family.
Especially for Parents of a Teenager
Your 13-year-old comes home after a
sleepover at a friend’s house with a new,
weird hairstyle—perhaps cut or colored in a
bizarre manner. What do you say and do?
Relationships 423
The Berger Daughters Seek Peer Approval
Our oldest daughter wore the same pair of jeans to tenth grade,
day after day. She washed them each night by hand, and, at her
request, I put them in the dryer very early each morning. My be-
wildered husband watched us both (“Is this some weird female
ritual?”). He encouraged her to wear other clothes, to no avail.
Years later she explained that she wanted her classmates to
think she didn’t care how she looked. If she varied her clothing,
they would think she did care, and then they might criticize her.
Our second daughter was 16 when she told me she had
pierced her ears again. She wanted to wear more earrings at
once than anyone in my generation did. My response: “Does this
mean you are going to take drugs?” She laughed at my naiveté,
happy at my disapproval.
At age 15, our third daughter was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s
disease, a form of cancer. My husband and I weighed divergent
opinions from four physicians, all explaining why their treat-
ment would minimize the risk of death. She had her own priori-
ties: “I don’t care what you choose, as long as I keep my hair.”
(Her hair fell out temporarily, but now her health is good.)
Our youngest, in her first year of middle school, refused to
wear her jacket even on the coldest days, much to her teachers’
and parents’ dismay. In high school, she offered an explanation:
She wanted her peers to think she was tough.
What strikes me now is how oblivious I was to my children’s
need for peer respect. At the time, it did not occur to me that it
would explain their seemingly bizarre actions. I reacted as a
mother, not as a wise developmentalist. As my husband said, “I
knew they would become adolescents, but I did not realize we
would become parents of adolescents.”
in person
Choosing Friends
Peers are constructive as often as they are destructive (B. Brown, 2004). The adult
fear of peer pressure, which usually means social pressure to conform to nega-
tive peer activities, ignores the other possibility—that “friends generally encourage
socially desirable behaviors” (Berndt & Murphy, 2002, p. 281). Members of a
clique or crowd support each other in joining sports teams, studying for exams,
avoiding smoking, and applying to college.
Young people can lead one another into trouble, however. Collectively, peers
sometimes provide deviancy training, when one person shows another how
to rebel against social norms (Dishion et al., 2001). Especially if adolescents be-
lieve that their most popular, most admired peers are having sex, or doing drugs,
or ignoring homework, then “social contagion” spreads destructive behavior
(Rodgers, 2003).
To understand the true impact of peers, two concepts are helpful: selection and
facilitation. In peer selection, teenagers select friends whose values and inter-
ests they share, abandoning friends who follow other paths. Acquaintances test
peer pressure Encouragement to conform
with one’s friends or contemporaries in
behavior, dress, and attitude; usually con-
sidered a negative force, as when
adolescent peers encourage one another
to defy adult authority.
deviancy training Destructive peer support
in which one person shows another how
to rebel against authority or social norms.
peer selection An ongoing, active process
whereby adolescents select friends on the
basis of shared interests and values.
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each other with secrets, with money, and in other ways before becoming friends.
Friendships dissipate if a person feels betrayed. Peer selection during adolescence
is an ongoing, active process (Way & Hamm, 2005).
As for peer facilitation, peers encourage one another to do things that few
would dare alone. They give each other specific suggestions (Let’s all skip school
on Friday!) and support (Congratulations on that A!). Peer facilitation is evident
for both constructive and destructive behaviors—everything from using drugs on
one end of the spectrum to studying on the other.
In fact, both selection and facilitation can work in any direction (Lacourse et al.,
2003). One teenager joins a clique whose members smoke cigarettes and drink
beer, and the group takes the next step, perhaps sharing a joint at a party. Another
teenager might choose friends who enjoy math, and all of them might decide to
enroll in AP calculus. This was true for Lindsay, who says:
[Companionship] makes me excited about calculus. That is a hard class, but when
you need help with calculus, you go to your friends. You may think no one could
be excited about calculus, but I am. Having friends in class with you definitely
makes school more enjoyable.
[quoted in Hamm & Faircloth, 2005, p. 72]
An interesting experiment compared adolescents (ages 13 to 16), emerging
adults (ages 18 to 22), and adults (over age 24) (Gardner & Steinberg, 2005).
They played 15 rounds of a video driving game, “Chicken.” Periodically, the screen
would flash a yellow light, indicating that soon (from one to several seconds later)
a wall would appear. The participants had to decide when to brake. The goal was
to keep driving as long as possible and avoid crashing into the wall. Points were
gained for travel time, but a crash erased all the points from that trial.
The participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: playing
alone or with two peers (same sex and age group, but not necessarily same ethnic
group). When they played alone, adolescents, emerging adults, and adults all
averaged one crash per session; one crash was enough to make them wary. Adults
were as cautious when playing with peers as they were when playing alone. But for
adolescents, playing with peers facilitated their willingness to take a chance: They
crashed three times, on average (see Figure 16.1) (Gardner & Steinberg, 2005;
Steinberg, 2007).
That was the outcome for all the ethnic groups combined, but an interesting
result was found when those who were non-White (about half the sample) were
analyzed separately. The adolescents were far more likely to crash when they were
with their peers than when they were alone, but the non-White adults were more
cautious when with peers than when alone. Boys were more affected by peers
than girls were.
Facilitation is usually mutual, not a matter of a rebel leading an innocent astray
(B. Brown & Klute, 2003). In the video-driving experiment, each of the triad took
15 trials while the other two watched and waited for their turn. Witnessing a crash
did not diminish the willingness to risk (Gardner & Steinberg, 2005).
A teenager from another study explained:
The idea of peer pressure is a lot of bunk. What I heard about peer pressure all
the way through school is that someone is going to walk up to me and say, “Here,
drink this and you’ll be cool.” It wasn’t like that at all. You’d go somewhere and
everyone else would be doing it and you’d think, “Hey, everyone else is doing it
and they seem to be having a good time—now why wouldn’t I do this?” In that
sense, the preparation of the powers that be, the lessons that they tried to drill
into me, they were completely off. They had no idea what we are up against.
[quoted in Lightfoot, 1997]
peer facilitation The encouragement ado-
lescent peers give one another to partake
in activities or behaviors they would not
otherwise do alone, whether constructive
or destructive.
424 CHAPTER 16 ■ Adolescence: Psychosocial Development
3.4
2.9
2.4
1.9
1.4
0.9
0.4
Alone With peers
Number of
crashes
Video Game Risk Taking, by Age Group
Source: Adapted from Steinberg, 2007.
Adults
Adolescents
Young adults
FIGURE 16.1
Admire Me Everyone wants to accumulate
points in a game, earn high grades, and save
money—unless one is a teenager and other
teens are watching. Then a desire to obtain
peer admiration by taking risks may overtake
caution. At least in this game, teenage partici-
pants chose to lose points and increase
crashes when other teens were present.
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Thus, adolescents both choose and are chosen by their peers. High-functioning
adolescents have close friends who themselves are high-achieving, with no major
emotional problems. The opposite also holds: Those who are drug users, sexually
active, and alienated from school choose compatible friends and provide mutual
support to continue on that path (Crosnoe & Needham, 2004).
One other aspect should be mentioned, because it shows why parents tend to
blame their child’s misbehavior on his or her peers. When adolescents say that
they must wear something or go somewhere because “everyone else is doing it,”
they lighten their responsibility (Ungar, 2000). Peers deflect, and defend against,
adult criticism.
Friends of Both Sexes
Romance and sexual activity are important to adolescents and will be discussed
shortly. But more important than lovers are friends. Adults sometimes worry about
boy–girl contact, assuming that teenage children will have sex if adults are not
nearby. They also worry about close boy–boy buddies, fearing homosexuality.
However, it is not uncommon for teenagers to have close, even passionate, friend-
ships with peers of both the same sex and the opposite sex, with no romantic
undertones.
Close relationships help adolescents establish their identity and deal with
cliques and crowds. Disruption of friendships can cause jealousy or depression,
but this does not suggest anything sexual: Adolescents rely on friends more than
on sexual partners. Friendships are likely to last for years, whereas teenage
romances are often short-lived (B. L. Barber, 2006; Collins & van Dulmen, 2006;
Feiring, 1999; Way & Hamm, 2005).
Immigrant Youth
Friends play a special role for the millions of immigrant adolescents (either those
born abroad or those whose parents were born in another nation). This includes
one-third of all adolescents in Frankfurt, one-half in Amsterdam, and two-thirds
in Los Angeles and New York. Many immigrant children become model youth,
earning higher grades and seeming to be better adjusted than those of the same
ethnicity whose families are not immigrants (Fuligni, 1998; Rumbaut & Portes,
2001).
The immigrants’ parents and younger siblings depend on them. They help out
at home and mediate between the old and new cultures (see Figure 16.2) (Tseng,
2004). Adolescents benefit from this arrangement, in that they gain respect within
their families and experience community support, encouragement, and ethnic
pride—all of which help them in a hostile environment (Fuligni et al., 2005).
Conflict can arise if the parents seek to maintain traditional practices that differ
markedly from those of teenage culture (Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco, 2001).
Adolescents want to respect their parents and fit in with their peers—a some-
times impossible combination. One example is that Western adolescents expect
their parents to listen to them, while many immigrant adults expect their children
to silently heed their advice (Collins & Steinberg, 2006). Immigrant friends with
the same stresses help adolescents negotiate conflicting cultures, traditions, and
desires, preventing foreclosure or open rebellion.
For example, Layla’s parents were raised in Yemen, but the family now lives
near Detroit. At age 15, Layla was sent back to Yemen to marry her father’s
nephew. She later returned to her Michigan public high school and tried to keep
her marriage secret (she wore no ring).
For Layla, her school was “both liberating and a sociocultural threat” (Sarroub,
2001, p. 390). In the United States, the cultural assumption is that adolescents
Relationships 425
➤Response for Parents of a Teenager
(from page 423): Remember: Communicate,
do not control. Let your child talk about the
meaning of the hairstyle. Remind yourself
that a hairstyle in itself is harmless. Don’t say
“What will people think?” or “Are you on
drugs?” or anything that might give your child
reason to stop communicating.
Especially for Teachers of Immigrants
Your immigrant students’ parents never come
to open-school nights or answer the written
notes you send home. What should you do?
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should speak their minds, dress as they choose, and question adult authority.
Gender difficulties made it worse: Equal education for both sexes is built into
U.S. law, but “the gender gap in education in Yemen is among the highest in the
world, with more than half of the women illiterate” (UNICEF, 2005).
Layla respected her parents and adhered to Islam, but she resisted many as-
pects of her heritage. For example, she was troubled that her father chewed qaat
(a narcotic that is legal in Yemen but illegal in the United States), that he wanted
her to wear a long Arab dress (she wore jeans instead), and that he did not agree
with her plan to get a divorce and go to college. Layla especially resented Yemeni
tradition, which allowed boys more freedom than girls.
At times Layla was confused and unhappy at home. She . . . preferred going to
school where she could be with her Yemeni friends who understood her problems
and with whom she could talk. “They make me feel, like, really happy. I have
friends that have to deal with the same issues.” . . . Layla was often angry that
girls in Yemen were taken out of school. . . . She thought that the boys had
been given too much freedom, much more than the girls.
[Sarroub, 2001, pp. 408–409]
Friends may be particularly important when it comes to protecting the self-esteem
of immigrant youth from Asian backgrounds, who seem to suffer from lower self-
esteem than their European American or African American counterparts as well as
to experience more discrimination from other adolescents (Greene & Way, 2005;
Greene et al., 2006). They are also more involved with their families, as Figure
16.2 shows.
For many teenagers, immigrants and nonimmigrants alike, peers become “like
family,” “brothers and sisters” (Way et al., 2005). In violent neighborhoods, friends
not only defend against attacks but also help each other avoid physical fights. One
16-year-old boy said about his friend:
Well, with him when I’m in an argument with somebody that disrespected me
and he just comes out and backs me up and says “Yo, Chris, don’t deal with that.
Yo, let’s just go on,” you know, ’cause I could snap.
[quoted in Way et al., 2005, p. 48]
426 CHAPTER 16 ■ Adolescence: Psychosocial Development
3.75
3.5
3.25
3
2.75
2.5
Asian Latino African European
Family Obligation Attitudes
Rating*
Ethnic background Ethnic background
Number
of hours
per week
Time Participants Spent Helping Their Families
*A rating of 1 meant the participant felt that family obligations
were not important; a rating of 5 meant it was very important.
Source: Adapted from Tseng, 2004, p. 973.
50
40
30
20
10
0
Asian Latino African European
1st generation
2nd generation
3rd generation
FIGURE 16.2
A Sense of Duty Nearly 1,000 U.S. college
students from four ethnic groups were asked
how important they thought family obligations
were and how much time they spent each
week helping their families (by, for example,
doing household chores, translating for their
parents, taking care of siblings, or working in
the family business).
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 428):
How many hours a week does the average
immigrant college student spend helping out
at home?
414-443_BergerLS7e_CH16.qxp 9/21/07 4:47 PM Page 426

To “snap” is a potential danger for all adolescents, given their quick reactions of
intuitive thought. Having friends who say, “Don’t deal with that” can help calm
them and protect them from self-destruction.
SUMMING UP
Relationships with peers of both sexes as well as adults are crucial during adolescence.
Parents and adolescents often bicker over small things, but parental monitoring and
ongoing communication are helpful to adolescent psychosocial health. Parental neglect
or excessive parental control can foster adolescent rebellion.
Peers aid adolescents in their search for self-esteem and maturity. Some peer groups
encourage self-destructive, antisocial behavior, but most help teenagers to cope with
the biological, social, and emotional stresses of this period. Friends, cliques, and crowds
are chosen by adolescents and vice versa: Selection and facilitation explain how ado-
lescents influence each other. For all teenagers, friends of both sexes are important.
Immigrant adolescents are particularly influenced by their friends, as they try to make a
place for themselves and succeed in cultures unlike those that guided their parents.
■
Sexuality
No arena highlights the overlapping influences of parents, peers, and the wider
community more clearly than sexuality. Human nature endows adolescents with
strong sexual impulses. Adults then direct those impulses toward frightening
dreams, pleasurable fantasies, stolen glances, sexual arousal, or early pregnancy.
Before Committed Partnership
Decades ago, Dexter Dunphy (1963) described the sequence of male–female rela-
tionships during childhood and adolescence:
1. Groups of friends, exclusively one sex or the other
2. A loose association of girls and boys, with public interactions within a crowd
3. Small mixed-sex groups of the advanced members of the crowd
4. Formation of couples, with private intimacies
Culture affects timing and manifestations, but subsequent research in many
nations still finds the same sequence. Youth in many lands, and even of many
species, exclude the other sex in childhood and are attracted to them by adult-
hood, which suggests that biology is at work more so than culture (B. Brown,
2004; Connolly et al., 2000; Weisfeld, 1999).
In modern developed nations, where puberty begins at about age 10 and mar-
riage does not usually occur until much later, each of these four stages typically
lasts several years. Same-sex groups dominate in elementary school and often
continue through middle and high school in cliques or sports teams, when groups
of same-sex friends talk about the other sex but spend little time in one-on-one
private interaction. Early, exclusive romances are often a sign of social trouble, not
maturity (B. Brown, 2004).
Romances
The first romances appear in high school, rarely lasting more than a year, with
girls more likely to say they have a steady boyfriend than vice versa. Committed
couples form later. While romantic partners can often provide emotional support,
Sexuality 427
➤Response for Teachers of Immigrants
(from page 425): Perhaps the parents cannot
read English, or work or family obligations
may prevent them from coming to school in
the evening. You might ask your student to
set up a home visit for you at a suitable time
for the parents. Then go to praise their child
more than criticize.
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teenage romances are more about companionship than physical intimacy (Furman
et al., 2007).
Breakups are common; so are unreciprocated crushes. Both can be emotionally
devastating, in part because often entire high school crowds (“the smallest of
small towns”) are witnesses (Schwartz, 2006). It is not unusual for a teenager in
love to find it difficult to sleep, study, or even eat. Adolescents are then devastated
by rejection, often contemplating revenge or suicide (Fisher, 2006). At this point,
peer support can be a lifesaver.
Overall, healthy romances are one manifestation of a life replete with good rela-
tionships with parents and peers (Laursen & Mooney, 2007). That triple support
network means that a fight with a parent, a slight from a peer, or the breakup of
a romance can be taken in stride because the other two arenas of social support
provide comfort and reassurance.
Homosexual Youth
For homosexual adolescents, complications slow down the formation of friendship
and romantic bonds. To begin with, many do not acknowledge their sexual orienta-
tion, sometimes not even to themselves. It may be that having a defined orientation,
either homosexual or heterosexual, is less important among today’s youth than it was
when Erikson wrote about sexual identity half a century ago (Savin-Williams, 2005).
In one confidential study of more than 3,000 ninth- to twelfth-grade teenagers,
only 0.5 percent identified themselves as gay or lesbian (Garofalo et al., 1999), far
fewer than the 1 to 7 percent (varying by culture and gender) of adults who so
identify (Savin-Williams, 2006). Retrospectively, many homosexual men report
that they became aware of their sexual interests at about age 11 but told no one
until age 17 (Maguen et al., 2002). Past cohorts of gay youth had higher rates of
clinical depression, drug abuse, and even suicide than their heterosexual peers;
it is not known if the current cohort has avoided these problems (Savin-Williams
& Diamond, 2004).
Most girls who later identify as lesbian are oblivious to, or in denial of, their
sexual urges in adolescence, partly because sexual self-knowledge may be more
difficult for girls (Baumeister & Blackhart, 2007). Unlike gay men, many lesbians
first recognize their sexuality in emerging adulthood via a close friendship that
becomes romantic (Savin-Williams & Diamond, 2004).
Cultural expectations add to the complications. For example, in many Latino
cultures, “adolescents who pursue same-sex sexuality are viewed by their commu-
nities as having fundamentally failed as men or women” (Diamond & Savin-
Williams, 2003, p. 399). Many gay youth of every ethnicity date members of the
other sex to hide their true orientation (Brown, 2006).
About 10 percent of heterosexual adults report that they had same-sex encoun-
ters or desires as adolescents (Laumann et al., 1994). It is not known whether
such inclinations are part of normal sexual awakening for most adolescents (only
a fraction of whom report it) or whether many bisexual teenagers become exclu-
sively heterosexual later on.
In the Add Health study, of those few who reported exclusive same-sex attrac-
tion at the first data collection, only 11 percent reported exclusive same-sex
attraction a year later. Most had changed to exclusively other-sex attraction, and
one-third reported no sexual attraction at all (Udry & Chantala, 2005).
Eleanor Maccoby (1998), an expert on gender, finds that “a substantial number
of people experiment with same-sex sexuality at some point in their lives, and a
small minority settle into a life-long pattern of homosexuality” (p. 191). Sexual
428 CHAPTER 16 ■ Adolescence: Psychosocial Development
The Same Event, A Thousand Miles Apart:
Teenagers in Love No matter where in the
world they are, teenage couples broadcast
their love in universally recognized facial
expressions and body positions. Samantha
and Ryan (top), visiting New York City from
suburban Philadelphia, are similar in many
ways to the teen couple (bottom) in Chicute,
Mozambique, even though their social con-
texts are dramatically different.
©
D
ON
N
A
RA
N
IE
RI
/
BL
IN
KS
TO
CK
©
RI
CH
AR
D
LO
RD
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 426): The average for all three groups of
Asians is about 33 hours.
414-443_BergerLS7e_CH16.qxp 9/21/07 4:47 PM Page 428

experimentation is common in adolescence, but no one knows how many consti-
tute that “substantial number” who “experiment with same-sex sexuality.”
Much remains to be discovered about friendship, romance, and sexuality
during adolescence (Brown, 2006). Research ethics require parental permission
before questions are asked of anyone younger than 18, and many parents refuse to
let strangers ask their children about sex.
Learning About Sex
Historically, intense romantic attachments in adolescence were often considered a
threat to normal development because they disrupted traditional bonding (Coontz,
2006). Arranged childhood marriages (often to uncles or cousins), monasteries,
no-fault divorces, chastity belts, shotgun weddings, polygamy—each of these has
been considered normal in some cultures and barbaric in others.
Today, parents and societies continue to be concerned about adolescent sexual
relationships, with education (accurate or not, via schools or the media) being the
most commonly used method to control adolescent sexuality. As is probably appar-
ent to every reader, current messages about teenage sexuality are contradictory.
Consistent and reliable guidance is scarce.
One example is oral sex, which parents and teachers rarely discuss. The lack of
information leads many adolescents to conclude that it is “safe,” a dangerously
egocentric notion (Kalmuss et al., 2003). Another example is AIDS. Worldwide,
less than half of teenagers understand how AIDS is transmitted. In South Africa,
5.5 million adults (19 percent of the population, mostly young adults) are HIV-
positive—the highest number in the world (UNAIDS, 2006). One reason is that,
until 2003, the government spread misinformation about AIDS.
The opposite may be true in the United States, where young adolescents over-
estimate the risk of AIDS because adults use fear of AIDS to keep adolescents
from engaging in sex (Reyna & Farley, 2006). Fortunately, throughout the world
AIDS is much better understood than it was a decade ago. Every continent has at
least one nation where transmission rates are down (UNAIDS, 2006).
Peers
Adolescent sexual behavior is strongly influenced by the example of other adoles-
cents. Many teens discuss details of romance and sex with other members of their
clique, expecting their sexual behavior to gain them approval from their friends
(Laursen & Mooney, 2007). Often, the boys brag and the girls worry about gaining
a “reputation.” Specifics depend on the peers: All members of a clique may be
virgins, or all may be sexually active.
Among contemporary U.S. teens, some church-based crowds take a “virginity
pledge,” vowing to postpone sexual intercourse. If the group considers itself a se-
lect minority and virginity is one of its distinguishing features, then that becomes
significant for all group members (Bearman & Brückner, 2001). When crowds
disperse at high school graduation, members who had taken the pledge are more
likely to marry and less likely to use contraception than are other adolescents. As
a result, many become parents at a relatively early age but fewer become single
parents (Johnson & Rector, 2004).
Sexual interaction is also strongly influenced by whether or not an adolescent is
in an ongoing romantic relationship. Probably for this reason, adolescents who are
early to experience puberty and who are physically attractive are also likely to be
sexually experienced.
Sexuality 429
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Parents
Parents play a pivotal role in teenagers’ sexual decisions, via monitoring, modeling,
and conversation. Children who discuss sex with their parents take fewer risks,
avoid pressure to have sex, and think that their parents provide good information
(Blake et al., 2001; Jaccard et al., 2002; B. C. Miller et al., 2001).
However, honest discussions are uncommon. In one study, mothers were asked
whether their teens had had sex (Jaccard et al., 1998). Then the teens were asked
the same question, in confidence. The difference between the two sets of replies
was astounding (see Figure 16.3). For instance, more than one-third of the 14-
year-olds were sexually active, but only about one-third (13 percent of 35 percent)
of the mothers of those sexually active teens knew it.
Most mothers (72 percent) reported that they had talked with their teens about
sex, but only 45 percent of the teens agreed (Jaccard et al., 1998). Thus, 27 per-
cent of mother–child pairs did not agree about whether the topic had ever been
discussed—a gap that remained when this study was replicated (Jaccard et al.,
2000).
Parents also overestimate how much their children believe their advice. One
study concludes that “parent perceptions of how much credibility, trust, and
accessibility they think they have established with their adolescents bear only a
weak relationship to adolescent characterizations of parent credibility, trust, and
accessibility” (Guilamo-Ramos et al., 2006, p. 1242).
Religious parents are more hesitant to talk about sex (except to warn their teens
against it) (Regnerus, 2005), but religion is not the most significant correlate of
whether parent–child conversations occur; gender and age are. Parents are more
likely to talk to daughters than to sons and to older adolescents (over 15) than
younger ones. This is not good news, since young adolescent boys are most likely
to heed, and need, advice about safe sex (Kirby, 2001).
One problem is that parents underestimate adolescents’ capacity to engage in
responsible sex. For example, another study found that only 23 percent of mothers
and 33 percent of fathers thought that most teenagers were capable of using
Especially for Young Adults Suppose
your parents never talked to you about sex or
puberty. Was that a mistake?
430 CHAPTER 16 ■ Adolescence: Psychosocial Development
Sexual Activity Among Teenagers: Mothers’ Perceptions and Teens’ Reality
Percent
answering
that the
teen had
had sex
80
14
Source: Jaccard et al., 1998.
0
30
20
40
50
10
60
70
15 16 17 FemaleMale Overall
resultsGenderAge
Teens’ answers
Mothers’ answers
FIGURE 16.3
Mother Doesn’t Always Know This graph
shows the discrepancy between the answers
mothers gave to the question “Is your child
sexually active?” and the answers teenagers
gave when asked for the truth. Notice which
age group and gender had the largest gaps—
younger teens and boys!
414-443_Berger_LS7E_CH16.qxp 9/17/07 9:06 AM Page 430

a condom correctly (M. E. Eisenberg et al., 2004). Parental example may be as
important as conversations: Adolescents who live with both biological parents are
less than half as likely to begin a sexual relationship as are those who don’t (Blum
et al., 2000; Ellis et al., 2003).
Sex Education in School
Almost all parents want other adults to provide up-to-date sex education (including
information on safe sex and contraception) for adolescents (Landry et al., 2003;
Yarber et al., 2005), partly because parents realize that methods and diseases have
changed since they were teenagers. Developmentalists agree that sex education
belongs in the schools, as well as in parent–child conversations, since adolescents
need to learn from trusted and experienced adults before they misinform each
other.
The United States began a massive experiment in 1998, spending about a billion
dollars over 10 years to promote abstinence-only sex education. The goal was to
teach adolescents to wait until marriage before becoming sexually active. These
programs emphasized the need for younger teens to feel confident in themselves,
able to say no to sex. No information about nonabstinent ways to prevent STIs
or pregnancy was provided because it was feared that such information might en-
courage sexual activity.
Fortunately, funding included longitudinal evaluation (four to six years after the
start of the curriculum) using sound scientific methodology. Unfortunately, how-
ever, the special curriculum had little effect. About half of students in both the ex-
perimental and control groups had sex by age 16. The number of partners and use
of contraceptives was the same with or without the special curriculum (Trenholm
et al., 2007; see Research Design). The comparison groups knew slightly more
about preventing disease or pregnancy, but this did not affect behavior.
Although adults often disagree about what children should be taught, no cur-
riculum to date has dramatically affected age of sexual activity. The best programs
start before high school, include assignments that require parent–child communi-
cation, focus on behavior and not just information, and last for years (Kirby, 2002;
Weaver et al., 2006). Even so, whether or not an adolescent follows the urge to be-
come sexually active depends more on family, peers, and culture than on classes.
Sex education can, however, affect some of the specifics of that activity. For
example, in a Texas program, half of the ninth-graders—the experimental group—
received a two-year curriculum stressing safe sex as well as abstinence (Coyle
et al., 2001). Teachers involved parents and provided medical referrals for students
who asked for them (both highly recommended practices).
Three years later, a survey found that students in both groups began intercourse
at the same age (Coyle et al., 2001). The one benefit was that those in the experi-
mental group had sex less often and used condoms more often than those in the
comparison group. The researchers wonder if the program started too late: One-
fourth of the ninth-graders had already had sex.
Most European schools teach about sexual responsibility, masturbation, and oral
and anal sex—subjects that are rarely covered in U.S. sex-education programs.
Rates of teenage pregnancy in most European nations are less than half those in
the United States. School curriculum is only one of many possible reasons.
Worldwide, both genders need sex education, as is widely recognized in North
America and Europe but not in many developing nations. Some parents still use a
double standard, warning their daughters of sexual dangers while encouraging
experimentation by their sons (UNAIDS, 2006). This is no longer usual in the
United States, as demonstrated by one ninth-grade boy who said:
Sexuality 431
Research Design
Scientists: Christopher Trenholm, Bar-
bara Devaney, Ken Fortson, Lisa Quay,
Justin Wheeler, and Melissa Clark.
Publication: Report to the U.S. Depart-
ment of Health and Human Services by
the Mathematica Policy Research
(2007).
Participants: Students in Powhatan,
Virginia; Milwaukee,Wisconsin; Miami,
Florida; and Clarksdale, Mississippi,
were randomly assigned to be enrolled
in the abstinence-only classes or not.
Both groups were large enough to allow
valid comparisons (1,209 in the experi-
mental groups, 848 in the control
groups).
Design: All four cities’ programs were
intense (more than 50 contact hours)
and all began early (between ages 10
and 12). Significant differences among
the four regions allowed the scientists
to discover whether one version of
abstinence-only education was more
effective than the other and whether
one population (for example, two were
rural and two were urban) responded
better than another. Four to six years
after the programs began, students
(then age 16, on average) were asked
about their knowledge and behavior.
Major conclusion: No matter what the
programs were, the abstinence-only
curriculum had no impact on sexual
experience (51 percent of both groups
had had intercourse, on average at age
14) and virtually no impact on other
aspects of behavior. For example, some
adults thought that abstinence-only
students would not use condoms, but
condom use was equal in both groups
(only 9 percent of those who were sexu-
ally active never used a condom).
Comment: Neither the best hopes nor
the worst fears about abstinence-only
programs were confirmed.This report
encourages researchers to evaluate
efforts to change adolescent behavior,
and its findings were one reason Con-
gress stopped funding abstinence-only
programs in 2007.
414-443_Berger_LS7E_CH16.qxp 9/17/07 9:06 AM Page 431

I do look forward to it, if it’s with a good girl, a good person. I’m going to make
sure to wear protection, make sure she doesn’t have a disease, make sure we know
what to do if the protection doesn’t work. Make sure we know the consequences
of it, make sure she would know the consequences of what would happen if not
everything went right.
[quoted in Michels et al., 2005, p. 594]
His five “make sures” illustrate the benefits of education and analytic thinking.
Will he still think the same way a few years from now?
Sexual Behavior
Not all teenagers are having sex. Rates vary from nation to
nation; almost no teenagers are sexually active in some places,
almost all in others. In the United States in 2005, about half
of all teenagers had sexual intercourse by age 16 (or the
eleventh grade), which is a little bit later than a decade earlier
(see Figure 16.4).
Norms vary markedly within each nation. In the U.S. Youth
Risk Behavior Survey of high school students, three-fourths of
the boys in Baltimore said they had had intercourse, but less
than one-third of San Francisco girls said they had (MMWR,
June 9, 2006).
Teenage sex troubles many adults who married before hav-
ing sex because they wanted to avoid unwed pregnancy, which
often led to abortion, adoption, or unplanned weddings. In
1960, only 13 percent of all teenage mothers in the United
States were unmarried, compared with 81 percent in 2003
(U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1972, 2006). Note, however, that these data refer to
unwed motherhood. Other statistics are encouraging:
■ Teen births overall have decreased dramatically in every nation. For example,
between 1960 and 2005, the adolescent birth rate in China was cut in half
(reducing the world’s population by about a billion by 2007) and the U.S. teen
birth rate was reduced by a third. This decline is continuing in every ethnic
group and nation. For instance, in 1990, 5.7 percent of all Asian American
births were to teenagers; in 2004 only 3.4 percent were—a 40 percent
reduction.
■ The use of “protection” has increased. Contraception, particularly condom use
among adolescent boys, has doubled in most nations since 1990. The U.S.
Youth Risk Behavior survey found that 77 percent of sexually active ninth-
grade boys used a condom during their most recent intercourse (MMWR,
June 9, 2006). About 20 percent of U.S. teenage couples now use the pill and
condoms, preventing both pregnancy and infection (Manlove et al., 2003).
■ The teen abortion rate is also down. In the United States, only half as many
teenagers had abortions in 2003 as in 1973 (MMWR, November 24, 2006).
The teen abortion rate continues to decline, even though the adult rate has
been rising since 2000.
These facts lead to one hopeful conclusion: Although bodies and hormones
have changed little in recent decades, teenage responses to biological drives have
changed dramatically. Public policy and social norms affect decisions that seem to
be personal and private (Teitler, 2002).
For developmentalists in the United States, there remains one troubling set of
statistics. Proportionately speaking, teenage girls in the United States have far
Especially for an Adult Friend of a
Teenager If your 14-year-old friend asks you
where to get “the pill,” what do you say?
432 CHAPTER 16 ■ Adolescence: Psychosocial Development
30
20
10
40
50
60
70
9 10 11 12
Percentage
answering
yes
“Have You Ever Had Sexual Intercourse?”
Grade in school
Source: MMWR, June 9, 2006, Table 44, p. 78.
Total
Boys
Girls
FIGURE 16.4
Is Everybody Doing It? No. About one-third
of high school seniors and 53 percent of all
students in grades 9 through 12, both boys
and girls, are still virgins. The data for this
graph are from the Youth Risk Behavior
Survey, a national survey that asks the same
questions of thousands of U.S. students in
the ninth through twelfth grades each year.
In 2005, 14,000 students in 159 public and
private schools in 44 states were surveyed.
Some other U.S. surveys find higher rates
(these percentages do not include high school
dropouts, who are more often sexually active
than adolescents who stay in school), but the
scope and annual repetition of this survey
make trends apparent.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 436):
How do boys’ and girls’ rates of sexual
activity compare?
414-443_Berger_LS7E_CH16.qxp 9/17/07 9:06 AM Page 432

more births than do their peers in any other developed nation (eight times the rate
in Japan, twice the rate in Canada and Great Britain). The reason is not because
they are having more sex but because they use less contraception.
SUMMING UP
Adolescents have always been interested in sex, and societies have always attempted
to control sexual expression. Given the earlier onset of puberty and later marriages, ado-
lescents are especially needful of accurate information and guidance. Parents, peers,
and schools sometimes provide this information, not always teaching adolescents what
they need to know. Parents are influential role models. However, many are slow to talk
with their children about sex. Schools can teach adolescents, but sex education needs
to begin before students become sexually active. About half of all U.S. adolescents have
experienced intercourse by age 16, a rate that has not increased over the past decade.
The data show a shift in adolescent sexual behavior, including fewer births and more
contraception.
■
Sadness and Anger
Adolescence is usually a wonderful time, perhaps better for current generations
than ever before. As you have read, identity achievement is less rushed; parents
and friends are usually helpful; pregnancy and marriage are less common than
before. More teenagers are in school, fewer are malnourished, almost none die of
disease. The editor of the leading academic journal on adolescence considers this
period more joyful than problematic (Brown, 2005).
Nonetheless, for a troubled few, serious problems plague development. Most
problems are comorbid, which means that two or more disorders (“morbidities,”
in medical jargon) coexist in the same person. An angry adolescent who is, say,
unusually aggressive is also at higher risk of dropping out of school, being arrested,
and dying accidentally. A sad teenager who uses illegal drugs before age 15 is also
more vulnerable to depression, unwanted pregnancy, and suicide.
Distinguishing between normal moodiness and pathological problems is com-
plex. Some emotional reactions are quite normal: Many adolescents are less happy
and angrier than they were as children. For a few, however, emotions become
extreme, pathological, even deadly, if they are not noticed and ameliorated.
Depression
The general emotional trend from late childhood through adolescence is toward
less confidence. A dip at puberty is found in every study, although many studies
find that African Americans tend to be higher overall self-esteem and Asian
Americans lower. Some studies find a rise in self-esteem over the years of second-
ary school and college, while others do not (Fredricks & Eccles, 2002; Greene &
Way, 2005; Harter, 1999). Data from one cross-sequential study, shown in Figure
16.5, indicated that boys start out more confident than girls but decline faster as
they grow older. It is a myth that only girls, not boys, lose confidence at puberty
(Barnett & Rivers, 2004).
There are sex differences in morbidity, however, with girls much more likely
to be seriously depressed than boys. For some adolescents, the sobering self-
awareness that is typical in adolescence leads to clinical depression, an over-
whelming feeling of sadness and hopelessness that disrupts all normal, regular
activities.
Sadness and Anger 433
comorbidity A situation in which two or
more unrelated illnesses or disorders
occur at the same time.
clinical depression Feelings of hopeless-
ness, lethargy, and worthlessness that last
two weeks or more.
➤Response for Young Adults (from page
430): Yes, but maybe you should forgive
them. Ideally, parents should talk to their
children about sex, presenting honest
information and listening to the child’s
concerns. However, many parents find it very
difficult to do this because they feel
embarrassed and ignorant. Try bringing up the
subject now; your parents may feel more
comfortable discussing it with a young adult
than with a child or adolescent.
414-443_Berger_LS7E_CH16.qxp 9/17/07 3:46 PM Page 433

rumination Repeatedly thinking and talking
about past experiences; can contribute to
depression.
suicidal ideation Thinking about suicide,
usually with some serious emotional and
intellectual or cognitive overtones.
parasuicide Any potentially lethal action
against the self that does not result in
death.
The causes of depression include genetic vulnerabil-
ity and a depressed mother who was the adolescent’s
primary caregiver in infancy (Cicchietti & Toth, 1998;
Murray et al., 2006). These conditions predate adoles-
cence, but something happens at puberty to push many
vulnerable children into despair. The rate of clinical
depression more than doubles during this time, to an
estimated 15 percent, affecting about 1 in 5 teenage
girls and 1 in 10 teenage boys (Graber, 2004).
It is not known whether the reasons for the gender
differences are primarily biological, psychological, or
social (Alloy & Abramson, 2007; Ge et al., 2001;
Graber, 2004; Hankin & Abramson, 2001). Obviously,
girls experience different hormones, but they are also
subject to gender-specific pressures from families,
peers, and cultures. Recently, a cognitive explanation
has been suggested for girls’ higher rates of depression.
Rumination—talking about, remembering, and men-
tally replaying past experiences—is more common
among females than males. When the incident replayed
is unpleasant, rumination can lead to depression (Alloy
et al., 2003). Rumination may make girls sadder, but it
also may protect them from lonely, impulsive actions, as
we will now see.
Suicide
Teenagers are just beginning to explore life. When trou-
ble comes (failing a class, ending a romance, fighting
with a parent), they don’t always know that better days
lie ahead. As you have just read, this kind of stress can
lead to depression and, in more extreme cases, thoughts
of suicide. Suicidal ideation—that is, “serious, dis-
tressing thoughts about killing oneself”—peaks at about
age 15 (Rueter & Kwon, 2005).
Suicidal ideation is so common that it could be considered a normal part of
adolescence. One study revealed that, for two weeks or more in the past 12
months, more than one-third (37 percent) of U.S. high school girls felt so hopeless
that they stopped doing some of their usual activities and more than one-fifth (22
percent) seriously thought about suicide. The corresponding rates for boys are 20
percent and 12 percent (MMWR, June 9, 2006).
Suicidal ideation is common; completed suicides are not. Adolescents are actu-
ally less likely to kill themselves than adults are. Many people mistakenly think
suicide is more frequent in adolescence for four reasons:
■ The rate, low as it is, is much higher than it once was (see Figure 16.6).
■ Statistics on “youth” often include emerging adults, whose suicide rates are
higher.
■ Adolescent suicides are more likely to capture media attention than adult
suicides are.
■ Suicide attempts (parasuicide) are probably more common between the ages
of 15 and 20.
Instead of attempted suicide or failed suicide, experts prefer the term parasui-
cide, defined as any potentially lethal action against the self that does not result
434 CHAPTER 16 ■ Adolescence: Psychosocial Development
Math
competence
Changes in Children’s Feelings of Competence
from Grade 1 to Grade 12
7.0
6.5
6.0
5.5
5.0
4.5
4.0
1.0
1
Grade
Language
arts
competence
Sports
competence
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Source: Jacobs et al., 2002, p. 516.
7.0
6.5
6.0
5.5
5.0
4.5
4.0
1.0
1
Grade
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
1
Grade
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
7.0
6.5
6.0
5.5
5.0
4.5
4.0
1.0
Boys Girls
FIGURE 16.5
All the Children Are Above Average U.S.
children, both boys and girls, feel less and
less competent in math, language arts, and
sports as they move through grades 1–12.
Their scores on tests of feelings of compe-
tence could range from 1 to 7, and the fact
that the twelfth-grade average was between
4 and 5 indicates that, overall, teenagers still
consider themselves above average.
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in death. Adolescent emotions and confusion typically disguise intent, even to the
individuals themselves, which makes a distinction between attempted and com-
pleted suicide inaccurate. Parasuicide is thus a more accurate term. After a poten-
tially lethal episode, many adolescents feel relieved that they survived.
International rates of teenage parasuicide fall between 6 and 20 percent, a
range reflecting cultural differences in frequency and in data collection. Here is a
specific one: Among eleventh-graders in U.S. high schools during the year 2005,
11 percent of the girls and 4.5 percent of the boys said they had tried to kill
themselves (see Table 16.1). The rate of completed suicide for ages 15 to 19 in
the United States that year was only 4 per 100,000, which is 0.004 percent (see
Table 16.2). Where ideation leads depends on four factors (Berman et al., 2006;
Goldsmith et al., 2002):
■ Availability of guns
■ Parental supervision
■ Availability of alcohol and other drugs
■ Culture
Sadness and Anger 435
Suicide Rate in the United States by Age Group, 1962–2004
Suicides
per
100,000
in age
group
30
0
Age group
Source: Adapted from Table 3.1396.2004, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics Online, accessed August 23, 2007 (Pastore & Maguire, n.d.).
75–79 80–8470–7465–6960–6455–5950–5445–4940–4435–3930–3425–2920–2415–1910–14 85+
28
26
24
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
2004
1980
1962
FIGURE 16.6
Much Depends on Age A historical look at
U.S. suicide statistics reveals two trends, both
of which were still apparent in 2004. First,
older teenagers today are two times more
likely to take their own lives than in 1960, but
less likely than in 1980. Second, suicide rates
overall are down, but they continue to be
highest among elderly people age 75 and
older.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 437):
In a typical cross-section of 1,000 U.S. 15- to
19-year-olds, how many committed suicide in
2004?
TABLE 16.1
Suicidal Ideation and Parasuicide Among U.S. High School Students, 2005
Parasuicide Parasuicide
Seriously Considered (Attempted Requiring Actual Suicide
Attempting Suicide Suicide) Medical Attention (ages 15–19)
Less than 0.01%
(about 7 per
Overall 16.9% 8.5% 2.3% 100,000)
Girls: 9th grade 23.9 14.1 4.0
10th grade 23.0 10.8 2.4 Girls: About 2
11th grade 21.6 11.0 2.9 per 100,000
12th grade 18.0 6.5 2.2
Boys: 9th grade 12.2 6.8 2.1
10th grade 11.9 7.6 2.2 Boys: About 11
11th grade 11.9 4.5 1.4 per 100,000
12th grade 11.6 4.3 1.0
Source: MMWR, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, June 9, 2006.
414-443_BergerLS7e_CH16.qxp 9/21/07 4:47 PM Page 435

The first three factors suggest why youth suicide in
North America and Europe has doubled since 1960: Ado-
lescents have more access to guns, alcohol, and drugs and
have less adult supervision than they once did. Culture
also has an effect: Rates are higher in eastern Europe
than in western Europe, in the southwestern than the
southeastern United States, on the continent of Africa
than the continent of South America. For all these differ-
ences, culture is a plausible explanation.
Suicide rates show definite ethnic and gender differ-
ences as well, perhaps for cultural reasons (Berman et al.,
2006; Tatz, 2001). Here are some examples.
Gender is the most dramatic and universal factor influ-
encing suicide. Although depression and parasuicide are
more common among females, completed suicide is more
common among males (except in China). One reason is that men tend to shoot
themselves (usually an instantly lethal method) rather than overdose (which allows
time for intervention) (Gould, 2003). Boys tend to have greater access to guns. For
example, in California seven times as many boys aged 12 to 17 own guns than girls
(Sorenson & Vittes, 2004).
Adolescents are particularly influenced by media reports and therefore are sus-
ceptible to cluster suicides, which are several suicides within a group over a few
months. If a student’s “tragic end” is sentimentalized, it may elicit suicidal ideation,
parasuicides, and completed suicides among that student’s schoolmates (Joiner,
1999). Adolescent cluster suicides seem particularly prevalent among students
who identify with a subgroup, such as members of an Indian tribe (Beauvais,
2000). Overall, if one teenager commits suicide, special care must be taken to
prevent his or her acquaintances from following that example.
Socioeconomic groups also share subcultures. Wealth and education decrease
the risk of many adolescent disorders, but not suicide—quite the opposite, in fact.
The reason may be related to cluster suicides and news reports, which typically
highlight the potential of the deceased young person in headlines (e.g., “Honor
Student Kills Self”). Such media coverage may lead other honor students to think
about suicide.
Since 1990, rates of adolescent suicide have fallen, perhaps because of more
effective use of antidepressants (Gould, 2003). A British study suggested that
such drugs increase suicidal ideation (not suicide), but recent analysis of 27 con-
trolled clinical trials (similar to experiments, only with participants who have a
particular illness or disorder) found that antidepressants far more often help
young people who are depressed or anxious than increase suicidal ideation (Bridge
et al., 2007). In one study of 439 depressed 12- to 17-year-olds, the best outcome
was for those who received both cognitive-behavioral therapy and medication
(March et al., 2004).
When adolescent suicides are reported by age, gender, and ethnicity, statistics
from the past two decades find one group that does not follow the general trend of
fewer deaths. African American males aged 15 to 19 are more likely to kill them-
selves now than they were 20 years ago, although their rates remain below those of
American boys of European descent. Many cultural hypotheses have been offered,
including fewer employment opportunities, more guns, and a reluctance to ask for
help, especially if it means treatment for mental illness (Joe, 2003).
For all groups, the data show that intervention and treatment reduce the occur-
rence of suicide if the warning signs are heeded (Aseltine & DeMartino, 2004).
Consider the following case.
cluster suicides Several suicides committed
by members of a group within a brief
period of time.
436 CHAPTER 16 ■ Adolescence: Psychosocial Development
TABLE 16.2
U.S. Suicide Rates of 15- to 19-Year-Olds
by Ethnic Group, 2004
Males Females
(rate per (rate per Females as
100,000) 100,000) Percent of Total
American Indian
and Alaskan Native 22.7 9.1 25%
European American 13.4 2.6 16%
Hispanic American 9.1 2.0 20%
African American 6.9 2.3 13%
Asian American 5.7 3.3 29%
Source: Anderson & Smith, 2005.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
432): Girls tend to become sexually active a
little later than boys, but by the eleventh
grade, almost equal percentages of the two
sexes have had sexual intercourse.
➤Response for an Adult Friend of a
Teenager (from page 432): Practical advice
is important: Steer your friend to a reputable
medical center that provides counseling for
adolescents about various methods of
avoiding pregnancy (including abstinence).
You don’t want your friend using ineffective or
harmful contraception or becoming sexually
active before he or she is ready. Try to respond
to the emotions behind the question, perhaps
addressing the ethics and values involved in
sexual activity. Remember that adolescents do
not always do the things they talk about, nor
are they always logical; but they can analyze
alternatives and assess consequences if
adults lead them in that direction.
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More Destructiveness
Like low self-esteem and suicidal ideation, bouts of anger are common in adoles-
cence. Many adolescents slam doors, defy parents, and tell friends exactly how
badly other teenagers (or siblings or teachers) have behaved. Some teenagers “act
out,” becoming destructive, particularly if they are boys. They steal, damage prop-
erty, or injure others.
Is such behavior normal? Most developmentalists who agree with psychoana-
lytic theory (see Chapter 2) answer yes. A leading advocate of this view was Anna
Freud (Sigmund’s daughter, herself a prominent psychoanalyst), who wrote that
adolescent resistance to parental authority was “welcome . . . beneficial . . .
inevitable.” She explained:
We all know individual children who, as late as the ages of fourteen, fifteen or
sixteen, show no such outer evidence of inner unrest. They remain, as they have
been during the latency period, “good” children, wrapped up in their family rela-
tionships, considerate sons of their mothers, submissive to their fathers, in accord
with the atmosphere, idea and ideal of their childhood background. Convenient
as this may be, it signifies a delay of their normal development and is, as such,
a sign to be taken seriously.
[A. Freud, 1958/2000, p. 263]
Contrary to Freud, many psychologists, most teachers, and almost all parents are
quite happy with well-behaved, considerate teenagers. For them, a “good” child is
not a serious sign at all. Which view is valid? Both. Adolescents vary, and under-
standing that variation is crucial to helping them cope with emotional stresses.
Some teenagers never become destructive. Their good behavior does not pre-
dict a later explosion or breakdown. In fact, according to a 30-year longitudinal
study from Dunedin, New Zealand, by age 26 men who had never been delin-
quent usually had college degrees, “held high-status jobs, and expressed optimism
about their own futures” (Moffitt, 2003, p. 61).
Sadness and Anger 437
a case to study
He Kept His Worries to Himself
Bill is 17, a senior in high school. A good student, hard working,
some would say “driven,” Bill has achieved well and is hoping to
go to either Harvard or Stanford next year. He is also hopeful
that his college career will lead him to medical school and a
career as a surgeon like his father. Bill is a tall, handsome boy,
attractive to girls but surprisingly shy among them. When he
socializes, he prefers to hang out in groups rather than date; in
these groups, he is likely to be seen deep in introspective discus-
sion with one girl or another. Introspection has no place on the
school football team, where this past season Bill led all receivers
in pass catches. Nor does he appear at all the quiet type in his
new sports car, a gift from his parents on his 17th birthday. The
elder of two sons, Bill has always been close to his parents, and a
“good son.” Perhaps for these reasons, he has been increasingly
preoccupied as verbalized threats of separation and divorce
become common in his parents’ increasingly frequent conflicts.
These worries he has kept largely to himself.
[Berman et al., 2006, pp. 43–44]
If you were Bill’s friend, would you find help for him? Unfor-
tunately, Bill had no close friends. Even his parents did not
realize he was troubled until “Bill’s body was brought to the local
medical examiner’s office; he put his father’s .22-caliber hand-
gun to his head and ended his life in an instant” (Berman et al.,
2006, p. 44).
In retrospect, there had been warning signs—no friends, male
or female; his parents’ conflicts; his foreclosure on his father’s
profession; his drive for perfection (Harvard or Stanford, football
star); no older siblings to help him. Does the gift of a sports car
signify that his parents had ignored his emotional needs? Might
he have been worried about his sexuality, fearing rejection?
Why was his father’s gun loaded and accessible? The report does
not mention any postmortem testing for alcohol or other drugs, a
notable omission. Denial may still be a problem, even after death.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
435): Statistically speaking, none. The rates
are given per 100,000 in each age group. This
means that fewer than 1 in 10,000 teens
commit suicide in a year.
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Of the many longitudinal studies that have now been completed, most conclude
that increased anger at puberty is normal but that most young people express that
anger in acceptable ways (yelling at their peers, complaining about adult behavior).
Worse is explosive anger (breaking something, hurting someone), but that may not
necessarily signal later problems. A minority, about 7 percent (and more boys than
girls), are steadily aggressive throughout childhood and early adolescence (Broidy
et al., 2003).
Breaking the Law
A word about terminology: Juvenile delinquents are lawbreakers under age 18.
Some laws apply only to juveniles (for drinking, buying cigarettes, and breaking
curfews) and some to everyone (for stealing, raping, and killing). Our main con-
cern here is the more serious offenses, although restricting minor offenses may
prevent some of the most destructive consequences of anger.
Aggression and serious crime are more frequent during adolescence than at any
other period of life. Worldwide, arrests rise rapidly at about age 12, peak at about
age 16, and then decline slowly with every passing decade of adulthood (Rutter,
1998). The particulars vary by nation and cohort, but, almost always, the arrest
rate for violent crimes is twice as high for an older teenager as for an average adult.
Most crime data focus on incidence, obtained by determining the ages of all
people who are arrested. This does not indicate prevalence—that is, how wide-
spread lawbreaking is. To explain this distinction, suppose that only a few repeat
offenders commit almost all the crimes. In that case, the prevalence would be low,
even though the incidence was high. If this were true, and if adolescents on the
path to a criminal career could be spotted early and then imprisoned, the incidence
of adolescent crime would plummet because those few offenders could no longer
commit their many crimes.
Developmentalists over the past few decades have concluded that imprisoning
juvenile criminals as adults is a failing strategy that may even increase crime rather
than reducing it. Juveniles are experimenters; they have not yet settled on any
career, let alone a criminal one (Farrington, 2004). Most have no more than one
serious brush with the law, and even chronic offenders are usually convicted of a
mix of offenses—some minor, some serious.
The Same Event, A Thousand Miles Apart:
Following Tradition Adolescents worldwide
flout adult conventions. Here, for instance,
note the necklace on one of these boys in a
Los Angeles high school (left) and the dyed
red hair (or is it a wig?) on one of the girls in
a Tokyo park (right). As distinctive as each of
these eight rebels is, all are following a tradi-
tion for their age group—just as their parents
probably did when they were adolescents.
incidence How often a particular behavior or
circumstance occurs.
prevalence How widespread within a popula-
tion a particular behavior or circumstance is.
438 CHAPTER 16 ■ Adolescence: Psychosocial Development
©
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Prevalence is high: Many adolescent offenders commit one or a few crimes
each, rather than a few offenders committing hundreds each (Snyder, 1998). For
example, one study of urban seventh-graders found that 79 percent of the sample
of 1,559 (both sexes, all races, from parochial as well as public schools) had com-
mitted at least one crime (stolen something, damaged property, or hurt someone
physically) but less than one-third had committed five or more such acts (Nichols
et al., 2006).
Police records are imperfect measures because only about one-fourth of young
lawbreakers are arrested, or even caught and then warned and released (Dodge
et al., 2006). For example, another confidential study of an entire birth cohort
(Fergusson & Horwood, 2002) found that the average boy admitted to more than
three serious offenses between the ages of 10 and 20 and the average girl to one—
although very few had ever been arrested. Self-reports generally find the same
patterns but a much higher incidence and prevalence than official statistics: The
peak is at age 16, with almost no one reporting a first serious offense before age 10
or after age 20 (Dodge et al., 2006).
Adolescent males are arrested at least three times as often as females. In the
United States, African Americans are arrested at least three times as often as
European Americans, who are themselves arrested at least three times as often as
Asian Americans (Pastore & Maguire, 2005). Self-reports find much smaller
gender and ethnic differences (Dodge et al., 2006), another reason why incidence
statistics are suspect. The self-report data on girls is unsettling, at least to me (see
the following).
Sadness and Anger 439
thinking like a scientist
A Feminist Looks at the Data
“Sugar and spice, and everything nice, that’s what little girls are
made of” was a rhyme I showed my mother soon after I learned
to read, announcing, “That proves it.” It confirmed that I was
better than my older brother, who, like all little boys, was made
of “snakes and snails and puppy dog tails.” As my mother tells it,
I have always been proud to be female, a feminist, a girl, and
then a woman. However, as an adult scientist, I look at data.
A quick look at statistics shows that adolescent girls are
nicer than boys. For example, among U.S. high school seniors
who graduated in 2003, 11 percent of the boys, but only 4 per-
cent of the girls, had been arrested one or more times in the
previous year (Pastore & Maguire, 2005). Among high school
seniors who, five or more times in the past year, have hurt
someone badly enough to need bandages or a doctor, the male–
female ratio is 10 to 1 (3 percent to 0.3 percent) (Pastore &
Maguire, 2005).
I also reflect on expert opinion. “Boys are far more antisocial
than girls,” concludes a review of antisocial behavior written by
three men, all developmental researchers I respect (Dodge et al.,
2006, p. 73).
But I know the difference between wishful thinking and
data, between official incidence and self-reported prevalence,
between direct and indirect aggression. Several female scholars
have suggested that girls prefer relational aggression, manifested
in gossip, social exclusion, and the spreading of rumors. That
would mean that girls’ antisocial impulses would be less notice-
able than those of boys, who are more likely to hit and kick
(Crick et al., 2001; Underwood et al., 2003).
The research finds that girls are not always nice (Moffitt et al.,
2001). The study of high school seniors cited above found that
47 percent of the girls, but only 38 percent of the boys, had got-
ten into five or more arguments or fights with their parents that
year (Pastore & Maguire, 2005). A study of seventh-graders
found that more girls than boys reported getting angry and
losing self-control (Nichols et al., 2006).
Women are not always nice either. Among heterosexual cou-
ples, women are more likely to curse, hit, and even injure their
partners than men are (Archer, 2000; Moffitt et al., 2001).
Mothers mistreat their children at least twice as often as fathers
do (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Adminis-
tration on Children, Youth, and Families, 2006).
Females seem to be less likely to express anger in public,
physical ways. They are more likely to talk their way out of an ar-
rest when they are teenagers. However, neither sex is exclusively
“everything nice.” My brother is usually kind, and there are
some “snakes and snails” in me.
Especially for Police Officers You see
some 15-year-olds drinking beer in a local
park when they belong in school. What do
you do?
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Causes of Delinquency
Two clusters of factors, one from childhood and one from adoles-
cence, predict antisocial behavior and serious crime (Lahey et al.,
2003).
The first cluster relates to brain functioning. Short attention span,
severe child abuse, hyperactivity, inadequate emotional regulation,
maternal cigarette smoking, slow language development, low intelli-
gence, early and severe malnutrition, autistic tendencies—none of
these factors necessarily leads to delinquency, but all correlate with
it (Brennan et al., 2003).
These factors are more common among boys from low-income
families. However, no matter what a child’s gender or socioeconomic
status, neurological impairment increases the risk that a child will
become a life-course-persistent offender (Moffitt et al., 2001), a
term for someone who breaks the law before and after adolescence
as well as during it.
The second cluster of causes appears in adolescence, and these
risk factors are primarily psychosocial, not biological. They include
deviant friends; few connections to school; being biologically
mature but being treated like a child (a “maturity gap”); living in a
crowded, violent neighborhood; unemployment; drug use; and close
relatives (especially older siblings) in jail. This cluster is also more
prevalent among low-income, urban adolescent boys, but almost all adolescents
experience some of them. Any teen with these problems is at risk of becoming
an adolescence-limited offender, whose criminal activity stops by age 21
(Moffitt, 1997, 2003). Adolescence-limited offenders were not perfect as chil-
dren, but unlike their life-course-persistent peers, they were not the worst be-
haved in their class or the first to use drugs, have sex, or be arrested.
Adolescence-limited offenders tend to break the law with their friends, facili-
tated by their chosen antisocial clique or crowd. There are more boys than girls in
this group, but the gender gap in lawbreaking is narrower than it is in earlier ado-
lescence (Moffitt et al., 2001). By mid-adolescence, rap sheets of adolescence-
limited offenders resemble those of their life-course-persistent peers, but their
childhood provides hope. If they can be protected from various snares that could
handicap them for life (such as quitting school, time in prison, drug addiction,
early parenthood), they may grow out of their criminal behavior (Moffitt, 2003).
This is especially likely if they are female, live in a harmonious two-parent family,
avoid alcohol and other drugs, do well in school, are religious, and have parents
who monitor activity. None of these six factors is a guarantee, but they all help.
Make no mistake: Adolescent lawbreaking is neither inevitable nor insignifi-
cant; quite the contrary. Antisocial behavior tends to escalate in individuals and
communities during adolescence. Such behavior needs to be halted early on, be-
fore it becomes truly dangerous to the young delinquent and any potential victims,
who are usually other adolescents. Fighting, drug use, and vandalism are unac-
ceptable. Adult prison terms for adolescents may lead to more crimes later in life,
but ignoring adolescent rebellion is not helpful either.
When it comes to halting delinquency, relationships are crucial. Such is the
finding from studies of therapeutic foster care, a course of treatment that provides
intensive caregiving for young adolescents who are already troubled and antisocial
delinquents (Chamberlain et al., 2002). In this program, foster parents are given
extra help, training, and payment to establish a relationship with a foster child as
well as with his or her teachers. Delinquents in therapeutic foster care are ar-
rested only half as often as those in traditional care.
440 CHAPTER 16 ■ Adolescence: Psychosocial Development
life-course-persistent offender A person
whose criminal activity typically begins in
early adolescence and continues through-
out life; a career criminal.
adolescence-limited offender A person
whose criminal activity stops by age 21.
Do You Know This Boy? Warren Messner
fights back tears as he is sentenced in a
Daytona Beach, Florida, courtroom for the
2005 beating murder of a homeless man.
Messner is 16; he was sentenced to be
imprisoned until he is 39. Like most teenage
criminals, he was unhappy at school and
broke the law with friends, three other boys
who also pleaded guilty.
AP
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Summary 441
Identity
1. Adolescence is a time for self-discovery. According to Erikson,
adolescents seek their own identity, sorting through the traditions
of their families and cultures.
2. Many young adolescents either foreclose on their options with-
out exploring possibilities or experience diffusion before reaching
moratorium or identity achievement. In general, identity achieve-
ment takes much longer for contemporary adolescents than it did
half a century ago, when Erikson first described it.
3. Identity achievement can occur in many domains, including
religious identity, sexual identity (now often called gender iden-
tity), political identity (often replaced by ethnic identity), and
vocational identity.
Relationships
4. Parents continue to influence their growing children, despite
bickering over minor issues. Ideally, from age 10 to 18, communi-
cation and warmth remain high within the family, while parental
control decreases and adolescents develop autonomy.
5. Cultural differences in timing of conflicts and particulars of
monitoring are evident. Too much parental control, with psycho-
logical intrusiveness, is harmful.
6. Peers can be beneficial or harmful, depending on particular
friends, cliques, and crowds. Friends can lead each other astray,
providing training in deviance, or can encourage each other con-
structively.
7. Peers are particularly crucial for immigrant adolescents, who
often have a strong commitment to family values but who also try
to adjust to new norms and customs. Most immigrant adolescents
do well in school and help their families.
8. Friendships with both sexes are important for self-concept and
maturation. Romance need not be part of such close friendships.
Sexuality
9. Misinformation about sex can be very harmful and is common
throughout the world. Parents and peers provide some sex educa-
tion to adolescents but do not necessarily do it well.
10. In the United States, most adults want schools to teach ado-
lescents about sex, but the specifics of the curriculum are contro-
versial. No program (including abstinence-only) has made much
difference in the age at which adolescents become sexually active,
although some effectively encourage protection against pregnancy
and disease.
11. Many European nations have more extensive sex education,
begun earlier, than does the United States. The teenage birth rate
has fallen and use of contraception has increased in every nation,
although the U.S. rates of adolescent pregnancy are much higher
than in other developed nations.
Sadness and Anger
12. Almost all adolescents lose some of the confidence they
had when they were children. A few individuals become chron-
ically sad and depressed, intensifying problems they had in
childhood.
13. Many adolescents think about suicide. Parasuicides are not
rare, especially among adolescent girls. Few adolescents actually
SUMMARY
Overall, close relationships with supportive adults and avoidance of deviant
peers helps rebellious youth (adolescence-limited or not) stay within bounds
(Barnes et al., 2006; Kumpfer & Alvarado, 2003). Some adolescents never become
depressed or delinquent, and those who do usually improve by age 20 (Broidy
et al., 2003; Crockett et al., 2006; Wiesner et al., 2005). As is evident throughout
this chapter, family and friends usually help teenagers find their identity and navi-
gate through whatever difficulties they face. This process continues in emerging
adulthood, as explained in the next trio of chapters.
SUMMING UP
Compared with people of other ages, many adolescents experience sudden and extreme
emotions that lead to powerful sadness and anger. These feelings are usually expressed
within supportive families, friendships, neighborhoods, and cultures that contain and
channel them. For some teenagers, however, emotions are unchecked or intensified by
their social contexts. This situation can lead to suicide attempts (especially for girls), to
minor lawbreaking (for both sexes), and, more rarely, to completed suicide and arrests
(especially for boys). Intervention works best when it reduces the contextual risks (such
as access to guns and drugs) and develops healthy relationships between the adolescent
and constructive peers and adults.
■
➤Response for Police Officers (from page
439): Avoid both extremes: Don’t let them think
this situation is either harmless or serious. You
might take them to the police station and call
their parents in. However, these adolescents
are not life-course-persistent offenders; jailing
them or grouping them with other lawbreakers
might encourage more serious acts of
rebellion.
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442 CHAPTER 16 ■ Adolescence: Psychosocial Development
7. What are the common mistakes parents make in regard to
their adolescent children’s sexuality?
8. What facts are encouraging and discouraging about sexual ex-
periences among adolescents in the United States?
9. In what ways can adolescent suicide be considered common
and in what ways uncommon?
10. How do personal and cultural factors increase the risk of ado-
lescent suicide?
11. How are adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent of-
fenders similar, and how are they different?
1. What is the difference between identity achievement and
identity diffusion?
2. What factors might make it particularly easy, or particularly
difficult, for someone to establish his or her ethnic identity?
3. Give several examples of decisions a person must make in es-
tablishing gender identity.
4. Why and how do parents remain influential during their chil-
dren’s teen years?
5. How and when can peer pressure be helpful, and how can it
be harmful?
6. What is the usual developmental pattern of relationships be-
tween boys and girls?
broke the law when they were under 18 and, if so, how often and
in what ways. Assure them of confidentiality and ask specific
questions about minor lawbreaking (e.g., drinking, skipping
school) as well as things that would be considered crimes for
adults (e.g., stealing, injuring someone else). What hypothesis
arises about lawbreaking in your cohort?
4. As a follow-up to Application 3, ask your fellow students
about the circumstances. Was their lawbreaking done with peers
or alone? What was the effect of the responses of police, parents,
judges, and peers? Explain how the circumstances and responses
relate to adolescent psychosocial development.
1. Teenage cliques and crowds may be more important in large
U.S. high schools than elsewhere. Interview two people who
spent their teenage years in small schools, or in another nation,
about the peer relationships in their high schools. Describe and
discuss any differences you find.
2. Locate a news article about a teenager who committed sui-
cide. Were there warning signs that were ignored? Does the re-
port inadvertently encourage cluster suicides?
3. Research suggests that most adolescents have broken the law
but that few have been arrested or incarcerated. Is this true for
people you know? Ask 10 of your fellow students whether they
KEY QUESTIONS
APPLICATIONS
identity (p. 415)
identity versus diffusion (p. 415)
identity achievement (p. 416)
identity diffusion (p. 416)
foreclosure (p. 416)
moratorium (p. 416)
gender identity (p. 418)
sexual orientation (p. 418)
bickering (p. 420)
parental monitoring (p. 421)
clique (p. 422)
crowd (p. 422)
peer pressure (p. 423)
deviancy training (p. 423)
peer selection (p. 423)
peer facilitation (p. 424)
comorbidity (p. 433)
clinical depression (p. 433)
rumination (p. 434)
suicidal ideation (p. 434)
parasuicide (p. 434)
cluster suicides (p. 436)
incidence (p. 438)
prevalence (p. 438)
life-course-persistent offender
(p. 440)
adolescence-limited offender
(p. 440)
KEY TERMS
kill themselves; most who do so are boys. Drugs, alcohol, guns,
alienation from parents and peers, and lifelong depression in-
crease the risk of suicide.
14. Almost all adolescents become more independent and angry as
part of growing up. According to psychoanalytic theory, emotional
turbulence is normal during these years. Often, rebelliousness
manifests itself in delinquency, especially among adolescent boys.
15. Treatment and punishment of delinquents must take into
account differences in origin. Adolescence-limited delinquents
should be prevented from hurting themselves or others. Life-
course-persistent offenders have problems that start in early
childhood and extend into adulthood. Therapeutic foster care is
one treatment that seems effective.
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Adolescence
PA R T V The Developing Person So Far:
BIOSOCIAL
Puberty Puberty begins adolescence, as the child’s body becomes much bigger (the
growth spurt) and more sexual. Both sexes experience increased hormones, reproduc-
tive potential, and primary as well as secondary sexual characteristics. Brain growth,
hormones, and social contexts combine to make every adolescent more interested in
sexual activities, with possible hazards of early pregnancy and sexual abuse.
Drugs Another hazard is drug use and abuse, which slows growth and increases risks.
Adolescents are attracted to psychoactive drugs, but there is diversity in what drugs
they try, if any. In most nations, boys use more drugs than girls do; in North America;
the gender difference is small. Also in North America, alcohol is most commonly used,
with much lower rates of cigarette smoking than in most European and Asian nations.
COGNITIVE
Adolescent Thinking Adolescents think differently than younger children do. Piaget
stressed their new ability to use abstract logic, which is part of formal operational
thought. Many adolescents can think hypothetically and deductively, as they are taught
to do in science classes. Elkind recognized adolescent egocentrism, as many younger
teens think they are invincible or that everyone else notices what they do and wear.
Many more recent scholars find that intuitive thought increases during adolescence,
with emotional and experiential (or dual-process) thinking overcoming logic at times.
Teaching and Learning Secondary education promotes individual and national health
and success. Nations vary in how many of their adolescents graduate from high school,
for reasons of culture and economics. Particularly in the United States, middle schools
have been considered the “low ebb” of education, when grades and achievement fall,
bullying increases, and many teachers and students become disenchanted with learning.
International tests find some marked differences in achievement. In the United States,
high-stakes tests required before high school graduation are the latest effort to improve
standards of learning for adolescents.
PSYCHOSOCIAL
Identity Adolescent psychosocial development includes a search for identity, as Erik
Erikson described. Adolescents seek to forge their own identity, combining childhood
experiences, cultural values, and their unique aspirations. The four contexts of identity
are religion, sex, vocation, and politics/ethnicity. Few adolescents achieve identity in
these four arenas; identity diffusion and foreclosure are more likely.
Relationships Families continue to be influential, despite rebellion and bickering.
Adolescents seek autonomy but also rely on parental support. Friends and peers of
both sexes are increasingly important. For heterosexual as well as homosexual youth,
friends may be crucial in helping teenagers achieve sexual identity. Romances often
begin in adolescence. About half of all teens in the United States become sexually ac-
tive. Among developed nations, the United States has higher rates of teen pregnancy
and less comprehensive sex education.
Sadness and Anger Depression and rebellion become serious problems for a minority
of adolescents. This troubled group is at some risk of suicide (rates are lower than for
adults) and violent criminality (rates are higher than for adults). Most adolescents break
the law, but their delinquency is adolescence-limited; they eventually become law-
abiding adults. Some, however, are life-course-persistent delinquents.
443
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Emerging
Adulthood
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445
S
ocial scientists traditionally cite three
roles as signifying adulthood: employee,
spouse, and parent. Those roles were
expected, even coveted, once puberty
was over. Children looked forward to being “all
grown up,” anticipating privileges (like driving and
drinking) that were denied them.
By contrast, many contemporary young adults
avoid those three classic roles. Especially in devel-
oped nations, the ages 18 to 25 are characterized by
more education, later marriage, fewer births, and
postponed career choices. It is a time for exploration,
not settling down. People in their early 20s try out
various jobs, lifestyles, partners, ideas, and values.
Of course, not all young adults stretch the time
between adolescence and adulthood. Particularly in
developing nations, many begin work, marriage, and
parenthood before age 20, just as their parents and
grandparents did. But globalization has accelerated
a trend first apparent among wealthier youth. Now
adolescents and young adults everywhere put off
adult roles as long as they can, seeking more edu-
cation and independence than older generations in
their community ever had. Emerging adulthood has
become a new life stage and, here, a new trio of
chapters.
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
PA R T V I
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Emerging Adulthood:
Biosocial Development
ow does it feel to be your age?” Elissa asked me at my recent
birthday dinner.
“I don’t feel old, but the number makes me think that I am.”
“Twenty-five is old, too,” Sarah said. (She had celebrated her
birthday two weeks earlier.)
We laughed, but understood. Although at one time age 18 or 21 was con-
sidered the beginning of adulthood, age 25 has become the new turning
point. People of all ages now believe that, in their mid-20s, young adults
should devise “a good plan for what they are going to do with the rest of their
life” (Pew Research Center, 2007, p.11).
Over the past few decades, a sociocultural shift has pushed forward the
age at which people are expected to commit to career and family, or at least
to have “a good plan.” The years between adolescence and adulthood have
become distinct, containing a generation called the Millennials (Goldsmith
et al., 2003) or Gen Y (American Demographics, 2002) (a decade ago, this
age group was called Generation X) and constituting a life period called
the “frontier of adulthood” (Settersten et al., 2005) or “emerging adulthood”
(Arnett, 2004; Crouter & Booth, 2006), the label used here.
As this chapter explains, emerging adults have distinct biosocial charac-
teristics, some of which have always been part of the human experience and
some of which are new. At least in developing nations, many emerging adults
are healthier than earlier generations yet are more vulnerable to eating dis-
orders, violent death, and drug abuse. We begin with the good parts.
Growth, Strength, and Health
Today, as they have been for centuries, the years from 18 to 25 are prime
time for hard physical work, athletic achievement, and reproduction. Before
learning the details, consider the imperfect connection between biosocial
development and age.
Ages and Stages
For children, physical maturation correlates with chronological age and devel-
opmental stage. Infancy begins at birth; adolescence begins at puberty. The
play years and the school years also have biological markers, less dramatic but
still apparent in the brain.
17
447
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� Growth, Strength, and Health
Ages and Stages
Strong and Attractive Bodies
Bodies Designed for Health
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS:
Who Should Get the Bird Flu Shot?
Sexual Activity
� Habits and Risks
Exercise
Eating Well
A CASE TO STUDY: “Too Thin,
As If That’s Possible”
Taking Risks
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS:
What’s Wrong with the Men?
“H
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In childhood, age signifies cognitive norms and abilities. No one would mistake
a 3-month-old for a 3-year-old or a 7-year-old for a 17-year-old or expect them to
learn in the same way. A controversial topic in education is “redshirting,” starting
a child in kindergarten a year later than the law allows. The reason for redshirting
is that one year adds physical, cognitive, and social maturity, allowing a young
child to be an advanced kindergartner. Obviously, birthdays matter for children
(Weil, 2007).
This is not true for adults. Chronological age is an imperfect guide to develop-
ment. A 40-year-old, for instance, could have a body that functions like that of a
typical person a decade older or younger. In college, adults of all ages attend class
together. No professor prejudges students’ intellect based on age.
Social roles vary as well. Unlike in childhood, when virtually all 6- to 10-year-
olds live with their parents and go to school, in adulthood a group of 40-year-olds,
for example, might include some never married, some divorced several times, some
expecting their first child, some grandparents. Age is not definitive even within
one community, much less when comparing cohorts or cultures.
Nonetheless, developmentalists cluster adults into chronological groups and
report differences between one age group and another. For example, cited through-
out this chapter is a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center (2007) that
compares generations (see Research Design). The authors acknowledge that
“boundaries that separate generations are indistinct” but proceed to distinguish
the following: ages 18 to 25 (Generation Next, born 1981–1988), ages 25 to 40
(Generation X, born 1966–1980), ages 40 to 60 (Baby Boomers, born 1946–1964),
and age 60 and older (Seniors, born before 1946).
Why do surveys (and books such as this one) continue to compare adult age
groups, even though chronological age is an imperfect guide? Although age varia-
tions need to be considered, developmentalists nonetheless believe that cohort
and age affect behavior.
For example, although you are not precisely like the average person your age,
over the next 10 years maturation and experience will affect you. Developmental
research can alert you to some of the pressures and possibilities of your next
decade, to help you accomplish what you want. Taking this one step further,
people in your cohort share some biological and sociological characteristics with
others their age, especially when compared with those 20 or 40 years older.
The goal of our study remains to predict “changes over time” (Chapter 1) to
allow optimal growth at each life period.
People follow patterns, which vary by age,
culture, and cohort. For instance, the av-
erage age of marriage in the United States
is about 25 for women and 27 for men
(see Table 17.1), significantly later than
in the mid-twentieth century (21 and 24)
(U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1952, 2006)
Knowing that is useful if you are not yet
married.
Many such age differences result more
from social factors than biological ones
and thus differ by culture, even in the
same community. This is apparent among
the current cohort in the largest state in
Germany: Age of marriage for those of
Turkish descent averages 21 for women
and 24 for men, while for those of tradi-
448 CHAPTER 17 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Research Design
Scientists: Andrew Kohut, director of
the Pew Research Center for the People
and the Press, and hundreds of others.
Publication: A Portrait of “Generation
Next” (2007).
Participants: A total of 1,501 adults from
throughout the United States, with an
“oversample” of emerging adults.
Design: Answers to telephoned ques-
tions about habits, values, and opinions
were compared by age group, with spe-
cial care and methods to ensure validity.
Major conclusion: Emerging adults differ
markedly from older generations in many
ways (such as use of technology and
attitudes about homosexuality) but not
in others (such as views on abortion).
Comments: Although the Pew scientists
designed their research to obtain valid
results (e.g., contacting young adults
via cell phone), surveys are always vul-
nerable to bias.The report notes two
possible problems: wording and inad-
vertent selection bias (e.g., those who
have no phones might have given differ-
ent answers). A third possible problem
is the human tendency to say one thing
and do another. Confirmation from
direct behavioral research is needed.
TABLE 17.1
At About This Time . . . Following Certain Patterns, By Age (U.S., 2006)
Age 18—Graduate from high school
Age 18–19—Enroll in college (65 percent of high school graduates go to college)
Age 22—Leave college (of those who entered college)
Age 25*—Steady employment
Age 25†—Women: Average age of first marriage
Age 26—Women’s first birth (of those who have children; about 20 percent do not)
Age 27†—Men: Average age of first marriage
*At age 20–24, many have jobs but half this group has been with the current employer less than a year.
†This is the age at which half the cohort has married. It is the median but not the mean, because no one knows
when, or if, the other half will marry.
These are estimates, based primarily on data from the United States Bureau of the Census. Ages vary by source
and nation, but all report older ages for the current cohort compared with prior generations.
Sources: Dye, 2005; U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2006.
444-469_BergerLS7e_CH17.qxp 9/19/07 3:18 PM Page 448

tional German ancestry, the ages are 29 and 32 (Caldwell, 2007). You may have
been told that you are too young to marry even though you are older than your
grandparents were when they were wed.
Variations add complexity, but also understanding. Soon you will read about
possible problems arising from current emerging adults’ later age of marriage.
Knowing about adult development allows better anticipation and prevention of
these potential problems.
Overall, then, adult developmental trends are well worth description. Labels
and boundaries are fluid, variation is vast, yet patterns characterize people at each
age. Lockstep stages or chronological demarcations—no. Clusters and modes—
yes. Insight—we hope so.
Strong and Attractive Bodies
Maximum height is usually reached by age 16 for girls and 18 for boys, except for
a few late-maturing boys who gain another inch or two by age 21. During emerging
adulthood, muscles grow and shape changes in ways that differ by sex, with males
gaining more arm muscle and females more hip fat. By age 22 women have
attained adult breast and hip size and men have reached full shoulder width and
upper-arm strength. Although standards of beauty vary by culture, worldwide
male–female differences in waist/hip ratio and arm muscles add to sexual allure
(Singh, 2004), as emphasized by the clothes they wear.
Physical strength for both sexes increases in the 20s. Emerging adults are more
capable than people of any other age group of running up a flight of stairs, lifting
a heavy load, or gripping an object with maximum force. Strength gradually
decreases over the years, with some muscles weakening more quickly than others:
Back and leg muscles shrink faster than the arm muscles, for instance (Masoro,
1999). This is apparent in older baseball players who are still capable of hitting
home runs long after they’ve ceased being able to steal bases.
Every body system, including the digestive, respiratory, circulatory, and sexual-
reproductive systems, functions optimally at the beginning of adulthood (Aspinall,
2003). Serious diseases are not yet apparent, and some childhood ailments are
outgrown. For instance, childhood asthma disappears as often as it continues,
according to a careful longitudinal study in New Zealand
(Sears et al., 2003). Even the common cold is less frequent.
In a mammoth survey, 96.4 percent of young adults in
the United States rated their health as good, very good, or
excellent, and only 3.6 percent rated it as fair or poor
(National Center for Health Statistics, 2006). Similarly, 96
percent of 18- to 24-year-olds report no activity limitations
due to chronic health conditions, a rate better than that of
any other age group (see Figure 17.1). The Pew study found
that only 2 percent of emerging adults consider health their
most important problem, compared with 15 percent of
those over age 25 (Pew Research Center, 2007).
Lifelong, preventive health care protects health. If this
were the only way to stay healthy, then a great many emerg-
ing adults would be sick, because most avoid doctors unless
they are injured or pregnant. Each year in the United
States, the average young adult sees a health professional
once, compared with about 10 annual medical visits for the
typical adult age 75 or older (National Center for Health
Statistics, 2006).
Especially for a Competitive Young Man
Given the variations in aging muscle, how
might a 20-year-old respond if he loses an
arm-wrestling contest against his father?
Growth, Strength, and Health 449
Respondents Who Reported Feeling Disabled by a Chronic Illness
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
25–44
Percentage
45–5418–245–17 55–64 65+
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, 2006.
Age group (in years)
FIGURE 17.1
Strong and Independent Looking at this
graph, do you wonder why twice as many 5-
to 17-year-olds as 18- to 24-year-olds are said
to be limited in daily activities? The answer
relates to who reports the limitations. Parents
answer for children; adults answer for them-
selves. Parents tend to be more protective,
reporting that chronic conditions (mostly ADD
and asthma) limit what their children can do.
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Fortunately, bodies are naturally healthy during these years. The immune system
is strong, fighting off everything from the sniffles to cancer (Henson & Aspinall,
2003). Usually, blood pressure is normal, teeth have no new cavities, heart rate is
steady, the brain functions well, and lung capacity is sufficient. Many diagnostic
tests, such as PSA (for prostate cancer), mammograms (for breast cancer), and
colonoscopy (for colon cancer), are not recommended until age 40, unless family
history or warning signs suggest otherwise. Death from disease is rare worldwide
(Heuveline, 2002), as Table 17.2 details for the United States.
Bodies Designed for Health
This rosy picture does not mean that emerging adults are unaffected by the passing
years. The process of aging, called senescence (discussed in detail in Chapter 20),
begins as soon as full growth is reached. Habits established in early adulthood affect
health later on. However, few emerging adults are aware of senescence because of
two biological processes we now describe: homeostasis and organ reserve.
Bodies in Balance
Many body functions are designed for homeostasis, a state of equilibrium main-
tained by interactions of all the body’s physiological systems. Many homeostatic
responses are regulated in the brain by the pituitary, sometimes called “the master
gland,” which defends the body via various hormonal shifts (the HPA axis, described
on p. 215) to maintain homeostasis (Timiras, 2003). Homeostasis works most
quickly and efficiently during emerging adulthood, which is one reason emerging
adults are less likely to get sick, fatigued, or obese than older adults.
Examples of homeostasis are all around us. When people exercise, their greater
use of oxygen automatically leads to more rapid breathing and heart rate to deliver
more oxygen to their cells. If the air temperature rises, people sweat, move slowly,
and thirst for cold drinks—all to cool off. When it gets chilly, people shiver to
increase body heat. If they are really cold, their teeth chatter, a kind of shivering.
Each person’s internal thermometer is slightly different. Bodies adjust to past
experiences, and younger people are generally warmer than older ones. This ex-
plains why people who grew up in different climates react differently to weather
and why your mother tells you to put on a sweater because she is cold. For every-
one, however, homeostasis helps maintain equilibrium.
The other major reason young adults rarely experience serious illness is organ
reserve, an extra capacity of each organ that allows the body to cope with stress or
physiological extremes. Aging of the body reduces the capacity of each organ and
body system, but the reduction rarely affects daily life (Aspinall, 2003). For in-
stance, hearing is most acute at about age 12, but unless a teenager and an adult
are both listening for footsteps outside, for example, tiny hearing losses are imper-
ceptible. (The teenager would usually hear those footsteps first.)
Not only in emerging adulthood, but at least until middle age, declines in homeo-
stasis and organ reserve are usually unnoticed. A 40-year-old pregnant woman
might notice that her kidneys, blood pressure, and lung capacity are less resilient
than when she was pregnant at age 20, but she is unaware of any slowdown when
she is not expecting a baby.
Bodies have a muscle reserve as well, and this reserve is directly related to
physical strength. Maximum strength potential typically begins to decline by age
30. However, few adults develop all of their possible strength, and even if they did,
50-year-olds retain 90 percent of the muscle reserve they had at age 20 (Rice &
Cunningham, 2002). Indeed, if a 50-year-old begins lifting weights, he or she may
become stronger than ever.
senescence The process of aging, whereby
the body becomes less strong and efficient.
homeostasis The adjustment of all the body’s
systems to keep physiological functions in
a state of equilibrium. As the body ages, it
takes longer for these homeostatic adjust-
ments to occur, so it becomes harder for
older bodies to adapt to stress.
organ reserve The capacity of organs to
allow the body to cope with stress, via
extra, unused functioning ability.
450 CHAPTER 17 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Young and Healthy Young adults rarely die
of diseases, including the top four: heart dis-
ease, cancer, stroke, and obstructive pul-
monary disease. These are annual rates,
which means that for each person, the
chance of death in that decade is 10 times
the yearly rate. Thus, a 15-year-old has less
than 1 chance in 10,000 of dying of disease
before age 25; a 75-year-old has more than
1 chance in 3 of dying of disease before age
85. (As reported later in this chapter, non-
disease deaths show a different pattern.)
TABLE 17.2
U.S. Deaths from the Top
Four Diseases, by Age
Annual Rate
Age Group per 100,000
15–24 8
25–34 18
35–44 71
45–54 235
55–64 656
65–74 1,632
75–84 3,706
85+ 8,981
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, 2006.
➤Response for a Competitive Young
Man (from page 449): He might propose a
stair-climbing race and win, since leg strength
declines faster than arm strength. Of course,
intergenerational competition has psychic
ramifications; perhaps the son should simply
say “congratulations” and leave it at that.
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The most important muscle of all, the heart, shows a
similar pattern (Cameron & Bulpitt, 2003). The heart
is amazingly strong during emerging adulthood: Only 1
in 50,000 North American young adults dies of heart
disease each year. The average maximum heart rate—
the number of times the heart can beat per minute
under extreme stress—declines as the reserve is re-
duced, beginning at about age 25. But the resting heart
rate remains very stable. Once again, peak potential
performance declines, but normal functioning is not
affected by aging until late adulthood.
Even in the smaller changes of aging, such as the
wearing down of the teeth or loss of cartilage in the
knees, serious reductions are not normally evident until
old age. As one expert explains, “A remarkable feature of
aging is that various organs and structures have evolved
to ‘last a lifetime’” (Holliday, 1995). Whether that lifetime is closer to 100 years
or to a mere 65 depends largely on health habits established in early adulthood, as
we will soon describe. First, consider the implications of the overall excellent
health of young adults if an epidemic of avian influenza—“bird flu”—were to
occur.
Growth, Strength, and Health 451
M
IK
E
W
AT
SO
N
IM
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LT
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/ P
UN
CH
ST
OC
K
Who Should Get the Bird Flu Shot?
Health officials must make choices regarding immunizing the
population against H5N1, the virus that causes avian influenza.
Their priorities should reflect ethics and social science research,
yet discussion of these issues has barely begun (Emanuel &
Wertheimer, 2006; Silverstein et al., 2006).
Currently, the only humans who have contracted this disease
are those (butchers, for example) who have had close contact
with infected birds. As of summer 2007, no known trans-
mission from human to human had occurred. Social scientists
fear that scare tactics might backfire, yet efforts to prepare do
not sufficiently take into account the ethical and practical
aspects of halting the virus (Basili & Franzini, 2006; Nerlich &
Halliday, 2007).
Epidemiologists predict that the H5N1 virus, like the 1918
bird flu that killed millions, will eventually mutate and spread
among humans. It is impossible to know which mutation will
allow such transmission, which means that no precise vaccine
can be developed in advance.
Once human-to-human infection occurs, the virus can be
isolated and analyzed. Then it could take as much as a year for
75 million doses of effective vaccine to be developed, far fewer
than needed for the earth’s 6 to 8 billion people (Poland, 2006).
Scientists are working feverishly to find faster and more effec-
tive ways to produce vaccine (one report puts the time lag at
four months, not a year), but even with scientific breakthroughs,
months will elapse between the first human-to-human transmis-
sion and the availability of enough vaccine for everyone (Morse
et al., 2006). Meanwhile, thousands, millions, or maybe billions
of people will catch the bird flu. Many of them will die.
Finding novel ways to produce sufficient vaccine quickly is
only half the battle. The other half is to decide the best way to
allocate vaccine, to implement quarantine, and to slow trans-
mission so that millions of lives are spared.
Very little is known about this half. A simple suggestion—
keeping sick people at home in a room with a closed door—may
or may not be effective (Morse et al., 2006). Another possibility
—halting all air travel—was first thought to be useful but was
later discounted (Enserink, 2006). International cooperation is
erratic; data on acceptance of vaccines are contradictory (Fedson,
2005; Slonim et al., 2006; D. Smith, 2006). We know that with
smallpox, for example, sometimes people rioted to be first in line
to be vaccinated; other times, they refused the vaccine. What
does that say about H5N1?
Given limited supply, someone must decide priorities. Health
workers are usually at the top of the list; they are most likely to
be exposed and most needed to fight the disease. The people in
the nation where bird flu first appears need the vaccine first, an
argument forcefully made by Indonesia, which is likely to be that
nation (Enserink, 2007). However, other nations may not donate
scarce vaccine, an ethical issue.
issues and applications
The Best Employee At his age, this worker’s
body is in ideal condition for safely operating a
forklift: His vision is sharp, his hand is steady,
and his reactions are quick.
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452 CHAPTER 17 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Should one age group be prioritized? Emerging adults’ im-
mune systems are more responsive to immunization than the
systems of older adults, which means that any vaccine is more
effective in young adults. However, homeostasis, organ reserve,
and advanced hospital care mean that sick 18- to 25-year-olds
are less likely to die than are infants or those who are elderly or
frail. (That’s why the oldest and most feeble receive conven-
tional flu shots first.)
But to slow down transmission, the targets should be disease
vectors—that is, people and conditions that increase the spread
of illness. Children and schools are potent disease vectors. For
this reason, should the bird flu arrive, the current U.S. plan is to
shut down all schools.
Emerging adults are also prime disease vectors, but their inter-
actions are more difficult to halt. They come in close contact with
many others—as employees without private offices, as passen-
gers on buses and trains, as international travelers staying in
communal hostels, as social beings who mingle in crowded
dance clubs and bars. In the 1918 flu outbreak, emerging adults
had the highest death rates, not because flu was a more potent
killer for them (it was not) but because more of them caught
the disease (Barry, 2005).
Considering emerging adults as disease vectors is not theo-
retical. An outbreak of almost 100,000 cases of mumps occurred
recently in England and Wales. It spread rapidly among emerg-
ing adults (see Figure 17.2), partly because they were in contact
with other young adults but also because of a lapse in required
immunization. One young Briton flew to the United States as a
summer camp counselor. He became sick a week after he arrived,
and he passed mumps to 12 campers (all from the United States)
and 19 counselors (almost all from abroad). Quarantine required
513 people to stay isolated at the camp for most of the summer
until no one else became sick (MMWR, February 24, 2006).
Currently in the United States, adults are at the bottom of
the vaccine priority list, lower than embalmers (who might be
more exposed) (Emanuel & Wertheimer, 2006). Yet to prevent a
pandemic, emerging adults as disease vectors may need to be
first. In 1918, many officials lied, and more deaths resulted.
More U.S. people died of the flu than died in World War I
(Barry, 2005). Past experience with SARS and TB suggests that
emerging adults are unlikely to insist on vaccination; political
leaders are unlikely to have young adults immunized first and
thus allow frail people to die, even if doing so would save more
lives in the long term. Should they?
10,000
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34
0
Number
of cases
Source: MMWR, February 24, 2006, p. 174.
Age of patients
2005
2004
Number of Cases of Mumps, by Patient Age
FIGURE 17.2
Not a Childhood Disease In this British outbreak, young adults were major disease vectors for mumps, which is inaccu-
rately considered a childhood disease. The places with the highest rates of transmission were college campuses.
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Appearance
Partly because of their overall health, strength, and ac-
tivity, most emerging adults look vital and attractive. The
oily hair, pimpled faces, and awkward limbs of adoles-
cence are gone, and the wrinkles and hair loss of adult-
hood have not yet appeared. Muscles are stronger and
obesity is less common during emerging adulthood than
earlier or later in life. Newly prominent fashion models,
popular singers, and film stars tend to be in their early
20s, looking fresh and glamorous.
Vanity about personal appearance is generally frowned
upon, so it is not surprising that a cross-cultural study of
19- to 26-year-olds in the United States, New Zealand,
India, and China found few who admitted that they are
intensely concerned about their appearance (Durvasula
et al., 2001). Yet emerging adults spend more money on
their own clothes and shoes than adults of any other age
(American Demographics, 2002). When they exercise,
their main reason is fitness and weight control, unlike
older adults, whose main motivation is health (Biddle &
Mutrie, 2001).
Some of this concern about appearance is connected to sexual drives, since ap-
pearance attracts sexual interest. Young adults care about how they look because,
quite naturally, they want attention from each other. Further, these are the years
when many people seek employment. Attractiveness (in clothing as well as body
and face) correlates with better jobs and higher pay (Hamermesh et al., 2002).
No wonder young adults try to look their best. Usually, they succeed. In the
Add Health Longitudinal study of a large representative sample of U.S. teenagers
(Blum et al., 2000), the participants were interviewed for a third time when they
were young adults, and the interviewers noted how attractive each respondent
was. Only 7 percent were rated unattractive or very unattractive (see Figure 17.3),
a much smaller proportion of the very same people as they were rated at earlier
ages. Other data also find that adults of all ages rate this age group better looking
than any other (Mocan & Tekin, 2006).
Sexual Activity
As already mentioned, the sexual-reproductive system is at its strongest during
emerging adulthood. Young adults have a strong sex drive; fertility is greater and
miscarriage is less common; orgasm is more frequent; and testosterone, the
hormone associated with sexual desire, is significantly higher for both men and
women at age 20 than at age 40 (Anis, 2007; Huang, 2007).
Most people who have ever lived were born to women younger than 25 years
old, when mothers were most likely to survive pregnancy and childbirth. Some
women kept bearing children until menopause, but peak fertility as well as peak
newborn survival has always been between the maternal ages of 18 and 25. With
unprotected intercourse, pregnancy occurs during emerging adulthood within 3
months, on average. Both sexes become less fertile with age (Hassan & Killick,
2003). (Infertility is discussed in Chapter 20.)
However, for today’s emerging adults, these physiological assets can become
liabilities. The sex drive leads to many joyous interactions, but whereas it once led
to marriage and parenthood, many young adults today want sex but do not want
spouses or children (Lefkowitz & Gillen, 2006). In earlier times, if a woman did
Growth, Strength, and Health 453
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
Very
attractive
AttractiveAbove
average
UnattractiveVery
unattractive
0
Percentage
Source: Mocan & Tekin, 2006.
Rating
Interviewers’ Ratings of Attractiveness of Young Adults
FIGURE 17.3
Hey, Good-Looking When thousands of the
Add Health study’s adolescent participants
were reinterviewed as emerging adults, many
had become more attractive, as rated by the
interviewers.
ES
BI
N
-A
N
DE
RS
ON
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
Together Again Although biologists and psy-
chologists describe the differences between
the sexes, the reality is that young adult men
and women are similar in many ways. Both
seek one special other person and are thrilled
to be together.
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not want to become pregnant, she had few options other than ab-
stinence. Several completely unscientific “methods” were tried
(such as walking in seven circles right after sex), but they re-
sulted in many unwanted babies being born. Today there is “a
plethora of methods” (Bayer, 2007, p. 231) that actually work.
The reality that sex need not entail pregnancy is one reason
that people are marrying later. Attitudes have changed along with
practice. A national poll finds that most 18- to 24-year-olds think
premarital sex is “not wrong at all,” while only 18 percent of those
over age 65 agree (T. W. Smith, 2005). The Pew survey (Pew Re-
search Center, 2007) found that 75 percent of emerging adults
think their generation has more “casual sex” than the previous
generations.
Most emerging adults still believe that marriage is a serious
and desirable commitment that they expect to make in the fu-
ture. Although they condone premarital sex, most emerging
adults (80 percent) believe that extramarital sex is “always wrong”
(T. W. Smith, 2005). Obviously, premarital sex postpones mar-
riage without sexual deprivation; no wonder most emerging adults value it. How-
ever, this new pattern makes two complications more likely: distress and disease.
Emotional Stress
Confidential surveys find that contemporary emerging adults have more partners
and more sexual intercourse than adults who are somewhat older. Their physical
relationships usually involve emotional connections because, at least in the
United States, most sexually active adults have one steady partner at a time, a pat-
tern called serial monogamy (Laumann & Michael, 2001).
Emerging adults in France (reputedly a highly erotic culture) also follow this
pattern of serial monogamy (Gagnon et al., 2001). Indeed, although research
among emerging adults in traditional cultures is unavailable, sex and commitment
may be intertwined by nature. Human physiological responses affect neurological
patterns as well as vice versa. As one scientist explains, those who engage in casual
sex can trigger the brain system for attachment (as well as for romantic love), lead-
ing to “complex, unanticipated emotional entanglement with psychologically and
socially unsuitable mating partners” (H. E. Fisher, 2006, p. 12).
Such “unanticipated emotional entanglement” is likely to produce emotional
stress. Most sexual interactions include unspoken assumptions. Generally speak-
ing, attitudes about the purpose of sex fall into one of three categories (Laumann
& Michael, 2001):
1. Reproduction. About one-fourth of all people in the United States (more
women than men; more older adults than younger ones) believe that the pri-
mary purpose of sex is reproduction. They promote abstinence until marriage,
and for them the only acceptable contraception is abstinence when the
woman is fertile. Emerging adults with this perspective are likely to marry rel-
atively young, pressured not only by their parents but also by their values and
sexual desires.
2. Relationship. Most people in the United States (more women than men) be-
lieve that the main purpose of sex is to strengthen pair bonding. This is the
dominant belief among emerging adults. For this group the preferred se-
quence is dating, falling in love, deciding to be faithful, having sex, perhaps
living together, and finally (if both are “ready” for commitment) marriage and
parenthood. Emotional complexities arise if one partner is further along in
this sequence, but at least both are on the same path.
454 CHAPTER 17 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Biosocial Development
JU
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/
BR
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/ A
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Love Without Pregnancy Not only govern-
ment policy but also modern contraception
has changed the nature of loving relation-
ships for young Chinese couples. This Shang-
hai couple may marry, they may have sex,
and they may be together for fifty years or
more, but they will probably have only one
child.
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3. Recreation. About one-fourth of all people in the United States (more
men than women, especially young men) believe that sex is “a funda-
mental human drive and a highly pleasurable physical and mental ex-
perience” (Cockerham, 2006, p. 25), sought primarily for enjoyment.
Ideally, both partners achieve orgasm, without commitment. As al-
ready explained, this attitude may be difficult to sustain.
These labels and generalities come from the United States (Laumann
& Michael, 2001), but these same three are evident elsewhere (although
not in the same proportions). For example, a study of Canadian college
students found that about 30 percent were celibate, waiting for their life-
long partner; about 60 percent were sexually active and faithful in their
relationships; and about 10 percent were experimenters. The latter used
fewer condoms and were more accepting of sex with acquaintances (like
the recreation group above) (Netting & Burnett, 2004).
Assumptions about the purpose of sex are usually mutual when ro-
mance involves people who were raised within the same religion and cul-
ture. In that case, attitudes about fidelity, pregnancy, love, and abortion
are understood by both partners, even when not discussed. Currently,
however, many emerging adults leave their childhood community and
“have a number of love partners in their late teens and early twenties be-
fore settling on someone to marry” (Arnett, 2004, p. 73). They may feel
misused and misled because “choices about sex are not the disassociated,
disembodied, hedonistic and sensuous affairs of the fantasy world; they
are linked, and rather tightly linked by their social embeddedness, to other do-
mains of our lives” (Laumann & Michael, 2001, p. 22). Without realizing it, each
partner may be embedded in a worldview that the other does not share—or even
imagine.
An added complication is gender identity (discussed in Chapter 16). Whereas
former generations identified as either male or female, either heterosexual or ho-
mosexual, some emerging adults refuse to categorize themselves, saying they are
in all, or none, of these categories (Savin-Williams, 2005).
If two love partners hold differing assumptions about the purpose of sex or the
nature of gender, emotional pain and frustration are likely to follow. One might ac-
cuse the other of betrayal, an accusation the other considers patently unfair. Ro-
mantic breakups are often the result of such disagreements, and they sometimes
lead to depression and suicide, both of which are more frequent in emerging
adulthood than they once were. But it is not known how often misunderstandings
are at the root of such depression.
One thing that is known, however, is that the second set of possible problems
—an increase in sexually transmitted infections—is the direct result of the new
sexual patterns among today’s young adults.
Sexually Transmitted Infections
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) have been part of life since the beginning
of time. However, the incidence is much higher today than ever before. Half of
all emerging adults in the United States have had at least one STI (Lefkowitz &
Gillen, 2006). Some STIs are relatively minor and easily treatable, but others can
lead to potentially serious health problems. Even when STIs have no symptoms
(about half the time), infertility and even death can be the eventual outcome
(James, 2007).
Public health experts recommend that in order to prevent the spread of infec-
tion people see a doctor and get tested six months after the end of a sexual relation-
ship before having sex with a new partner. Few people, especially few emerging
Growth, Strength, and Health 455
Do They Talk? This couple in Schenectady,
New York, are in a “long-term relationship,”
probably years from marriage. We hope they
agree about what they would do if she got
pregnant, or if he found someone else, or if
either was offered a great job or university
scholarship in another state. Few emerging
adult couples discuss such matters until they
happen.
©
EL
LE
N
S
IN
IS
I /
T
HE
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
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adults, take this advice. Most begin new relationships almost immediately, some-
times starting a new sexual liaison before the old one is even over (Foxman et al.,
2006). Monogamy is the pattern while the relationship is ongoing, but a very quick
transition occurs at the end. Rapid transmission of STIs is one result.
Worldwide, sex workers have added to the current epidemic of STIs. It used to
be that prostitution, often referred to as “the world’s oldest profession,” was local
in scope, with regard to both prostitutes and their clients. Today, with interna-
tional flight being relatively easy and readily available, diseases caught from in-
fected prostitutes are quickly spread from nation to nation by clients who travel
the globe (James, 2007).
This is particularly tragic with HIV/AIDS, first confined primarily to gay men
in major U.S. cities and then to injection drug users who shared needles. Within
20 years, primarily because of the sexual activities of young adults, HIV became
a worldwide epidemic. In many nations, more victims are heterosexual and fe-
male than homosexual and male, and less than half receive the lifesaving drugs
they need.
Some nations, notably Thailand, Zimbabwe, and Uganda, have reduced the in-
cidence of AIDS by persuading sex workers and their clients to use condoms as
well as by encouraging young women to delay marriage (Hayes & Weiss, 2006). At
least in theory, if brides are old enough to choose their future husbands, they are
more likely to marry younger men who are HIV-negative. Postponing marriage and
educating sex workers are probable explanations for decreases in HIV in southern
India among 15- to 24-year-olds (not among older adults) (Kumar et al., 2006).
Overall, however, young adults are the main STI vectors as well as the main victims
(Cockerham, 2006).
SUMMING UP
Emerging adulthood is a distinct period of life, from roughly ages 18 to 25. Not every
young adult is typical of this stage, and age boundaries throughout adulthood change with
each culture and cohort. Nonetheless, emerging adults tend to share many characteris-
tics. They are strong, healthy, and attractive as well as endowed with well-functioning
organ systems. Homeostasis and organ reserve protect them. Typically, they satisfy their
strong sexual appetites with a series of romantic relationships that last for months or
years—although they avoid the commitment of marriage and parenthood. Two hazards
from this new pattern, not always anticipated, are emotional distress and sexually trans-
mitted infections. STIs are epidemic and serious. Young adults, as well as societies,
need to change their sexual behavior patterns to prevent harm.
■
Habits and Risks
Emerging adults experiment and select from many options. Some begin good
habits and sustain them lifelong; others make destructive choices. We focus first
on two vital choices, exercise and nutrition, and then describe the ways in which
taking certain risks can either help or harm development.
Exercise
Exercise at every stage of life protects against serious illness, even if a person has
other bad habits, such as smoking and overeating (Carnethon et al., 2003; Manson
et al., 1999). Exercise reduces blood pressure, strengthens the heart and lungs, and
456 CHAPTER 17 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Biosocial Development
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makes depression, osteoporosis, heart disease, arthritis, and even some cancers less
likely. Health benefits from exercise are substantial for men and women, old and
young, former sports stars and those who never joined an athletic team.
By contrast, sitting for long hours correlates with almost every unhealthy condi-
tion, especially heart disease and diabetes, both of which bring additional health
hazards (Hu et al., 2003). Even a little movement—gardening, light housework,
walking up the stairs or to the bus—helps. Walking briskly for 30 minutes a day,
five days a week, is better; more intense exercise (swimming, jogging, bicycling,
and the like) is ideal.
Among the goals for adults listed in Healthy People 2010 (a nationwide health
agenda launched by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) are that
25 percent of trips outside the house be walking (not driving) and that 30 percent
of the population exercise 30 minutes a day at least five days a week (McElroy,
2002). Being active during early adulthood is crucial, although few inactive young
adults realize it.
A study called CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Adulthood)
began with 18- to 30-year-olds who were followed into middle age. Those who
were the least fit were four times more likely to have diabetes and high blood pres-
sure 15 years later. The probable reason is that circulatory problems began, unno-
ticed, in early adulthood (Carnethon et al., 2003).
Fortunately, it is natural for emerging adults to keep moving—to climb stairs,
run to the store, join intramural college and company athletic teams, play neigh-
borhood games, jog, sail, or bicycle (Biddle & Mutrie, 2001). Especially in devel-
oping nations, they take jobs that require movement and strength. In the United
States, emerging adults walk more and drive less than older adults, and about two-
thirds of them reach the standard of exercising 30 minutes a day, five days a week
(National Center for Health Statistics, 2006).
Maybe this generation will maintain good exercise habits, but research suggests
otherwise. Past generations quit exercising when marriage, parenthood, and career
became more demanding. Young adults, aware of this tendency, can choose
friends and communities that support, rather than preclude, staying active. To be
specific:
1. Friendship. People exercise more if their friends do so, too. Because social net-
works typically shrink with age, adults need to maintain, or begin, friendships
that include movement, such as meeting a friend for a jog instead of a beer or
playing tennis instead of going to a movie.
2. Communities. In some places, exercise is facilitated with easy access to walk-
ing and biking paths, ample fields and parks, and subsidized pools and gyms.
Most colleges provide these amenities, but most neighborhoods and nations
do not. Exceptions include Germany and the Netherlands, which have
tripled their bike paths and banished cars from many streets, extending the
average life span of their citizens by two years (Pucher & Dijkstra, 2003).
Health experts cite extensive research showing that community design can
have a positive effect on the levels of obesity, hypertension, and depression
(Jackson, 2003; McElroy, 2002).
Eating Well
Nutrition is another lifelong habit embedded in culture. “You are what you eat” is
an oversimplification, but at every stage of life, diet affects development. Fortu-
nately, in most cultures, long before the invention of vitamin pills and bathroom
scales, young adults ate enough but not too much.
Habits and Risks 457
Especially for Emerging Adults Seeking
a New Place to Live People move more
often between the ages of 18 and 25 than at
any later time. Currently, real estate agents
describe sunlight, parking, and privacy as top
priorities for their young clients. What else
might emerging adults ask when selecting a
new home?
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For body weight there is a homeostatic set point, or settling point, which
makes people eat when they are hungry and stop eating when they are full. The
set point is affected by age, genes, diet, hormones, and exercise. Overfeeding or
starvation disrupts homeostasis (people who are malnourished in their first
months of life are especially vulnerable to obesity), but, barring unusual circum-
stances, nature works to keep every bodily system in balance.
This is particularly true for young adults. Weight is often measured via the
body mass index (BMI), which is the ratio between weight and height (see
Table 17.3). A normal weight is between 20 and 25 BMI. Above 25 is considered
overweight; BMI of 30 or more is considered obese. Emerging adulthood is the
time when the greatest proportion of people are within the normal range.
Emerging adults can change childhood patterns of all kinds. For this reason,
they consume more bottled water, organic foods, and non-meat diets than older
adults, and many become more fit. A large British study found that about half
those who were obese as children become normal-weight young adults, with
healthier eating and social patterns (Viner & Cole, 2005).
Readiness to change old patterns can have the opposite effect as well. A U.S.
study found that young adults eat more fast food (store-bought pizza, burgers, and
so on) than those of other ages. Indeed, they eat four times as many such meals as
adults over age 55 do (Bowman & Vinyard, 2003).
Although some emerging adults lose excess weight, others gain too much.
According to the British study cited above, 12 percent of normal-weight teenagers
set point A particular body weight that an
individual’s homeostatic processes strive
to maintain.
body mass index (BMI) The ratio of a per-
son’s weight in kilograms divided by his or
her height in meters squared.
458 CHAPTER 17 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Biosocial Development
TABLE 17.3
Body Mass Index (BMI)
To find your BMI, locate your height in the first column, then look across that row. Your BMI
appears at the top of the column that contains your weight.
BMI 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 35 40
Height (in feet and inches) Weight (in pounds)
4’10”
4’11”
5’0”
5’1”
5’2”
5’3”
5’4”
5’5”
5’6”
5’7”
5’8”
5’9”
5’10”
5’11”
6’0”
6’1”
6’2”
6’3”
6’4”
91
94
97
100
104
107
110
114
118
121
125
128
132
136
140
144
148
152
156
96
99
102
106
109
113
116
120
124
127
131
135
139
143
147
151
155
160
164
100
104
107
111
115
118
122
126
130
134
138
142
146
150
154
159
163
168
172
105
109
112
116
120
124
128
132
136
140
144
149
153
157
162
166
171
176
180
110
114
118
122
126
130
134
138
142
146
151
155
160
165
169
174
179
184
189
115
119
123
127
131
135
140
144
148
153
158
162
167
172
177
182
186
192
197
119
124
128
132
136
141
145
150
155
159
164
169
174
179
184
189
194
200
205
124
128
133
137
142
146
151
156
161
166
171
176
181
186
191
197
202
208
213
129
133
138
143
147
152
157
162
167
172
177
182
188
193
199
204
210
216
221
134
138
143
148
153
158
163
168
173
178
184
189
195
200
206
212
218
224
230
138
143
148
153
158
163
169
174
179
185
190
196
202
208
213
219
225
232
238
143
148
153
158
164
169
174
180
186
191
197
203
207
215
221
227
233
240
246
167
173
179
185
191
197
204
210
216
223
230
236
243
250
258
265
272
279
287
191
198
204
211
218
225
232
240
247
255
262
270
278
286
294
302
311
319
328
Normal Overweight Obese
Source: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, n.d.
Calculating Adult BMI One objective assess-
ment of appropriate weight is the amount of
body fat as represented by the body mass
index (BMI). A person’s BMI is calculated by
dividing his or her weight (in kilograms) by
height (in meters) squared. Since most U.S.
readers do not know their weight and height
on the metric system, this table calculates
BMI for them. A healthy BMI is between
19 and 25. A very muscular person may be
healthy at a BMI of 26 or even 27, because
muscle and bone weigh more than fat.
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become obese by age 30 (Viner & Cole, 2005). Particular nutritional hazards
await immigrant young adults who decide to “eat American.” They might avoid
curry, hot peppers, or wasabi—each of which has been discovered to have health
benefits—and eat too much American fast food, which tends to be high in fat,
sugar, and salt.
Eating Disorders
Obesity is considered an eating disorder. It is discussed in Chapter 20 because
it is more common in middle adulthood than in early adulthood. Most other eat-
ing disorders are especially prevalent in emerging adulthood (Shannon, 2007),
when the average woman wants to be 8 pounds lighter and the average man
5 pounds heavier, even though both are usually of normal weight (Mintz &
Kashubeck, 1999). Throughout adulthood women wish to be thinner, as confirmed
by an Australian study of women aged 20 to 84. However, obsession about weight
loss was greatest in the youngest women; the middle-aged women weighed more
but worried less (Tiggemann & Lynch, 2001).
Dieting sometimes leads to anorexia nervosa, a disorder of self-starvation.
Individuals voluntarily undereat and overexercise, depriving their vital organs of
nourishment. Between 5 and 20 percent of victims die (Mitchell & McCarthy,
2000). The direct cause of death is usually organ failure, although many young
women with anorexia are severely depressed and at increased risk of suicide.
According to DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000), anorexia
nervosa is diagnosed when four symptoms are evident:
■ Refusal to maintain a body weight that is at least 85 percent of normal for
age and height
■ Intense fear of weight gain
■ Disturbed body perception and denial of the problem
■ In adolescent and adult females, lack of menstruation
If someone’s BMI is 18 or lower, or if she (or, less often, he) loses more than 10
percent of body weight within a month or two, anorexia is suspected.
Although anorexia may have existed in earlier centuries (think of the saints who
refused all food), the disease was undiagnosed before about 1950, when some
high-achieving, upper-class young women in the United States grew so thin that
they died. Soon anorexia became evident in other developed nations, and now it is
evident worldwide, especially in urban areas (Walcott et al., 2003).
Asian, African, and Latin American emerging adults once seemed immune,
probably because their cultures are less plagued with the obsession to be skinny.
However, they are no longer exempt. One team of experts, writing for clinicians,
stated, “It is critical that the possibility of eating and body image concerns are
considered for all individuals, regardless of ethnic background” (Dounchis et al.,
2001, p. 82). Genes make anorexia more likely: If a young woman has a close rela-
tive, especially a monozygotic twin, with this disorder or with severe depression,
she is at added risk.
About three times as common as anorexia is the other major dieting disorder
of our time, bulimia nervosa. The person (again, usually female) with bulimia
repeatedly overeats compulsively, consuming thousands of calories within an hour
or two, and then purging through either induced vomiting or excessive use of
laxatives. Bingeing and purging is common among women during emerging adult-
hood; some studies find that half of all college women have done so at least once
(Fairburn & Brownell, 2002). Bulimia is present worldwide, in virtually every
major city (Walcott et al., 2003).
anorexia nervosa A serious eating disorder
in which a person restricts eating to the
point of emaciation and possible starvation.
Most victims are high-achieving females in
early puberty or early adulthood.
bulimia nervosa An eating disorder in which
the person, usually female, engages
repeatedly in episodes of binge eating fol-
lowed by purging through induced
vomiting or use of laxatives.
Habits and Risks 459
AP
P
HO
TO
/
EU
GE
N
IO
S
AV
IO
Only a Few Months Left to Live Brazilian
supermodel Ana Carolina Reston is shown
walking the runway about a year before she
died in 2006, weighing just 88 pounds.
Anorexia has become a worldwide illness.
➤Response for Emerging Adults
Seeking a New Place to Live (from page
457): Since neighborhoods have a powerful
impact on health, a person could ask to see
the nearest park, to meet a neighbor who
walks to work, or to contact a neighborhood
sports league.
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Most people with bulimia are close to normal in weight and therefore unlikely to
starve to death. However, they can experience serious health problems, including
severe damage to the gastrointestinal system and cardiac arrest from the strain of
electrolyte imbalance (Shannon, 2007). Bingeing without purging is another eating
disorder. Some binge eaters become extremely overweight because of a genetic
defect, but this is not usual (Branson et al., 2003).
To warrant a clinical diagnosis of bulimia, bingeing and purging must occur at
least once a week for three months, with uncontrollable urges to overeat and a dis-
torted self-concept of body size. Between 1 and 3 percent of women in the United
States are clinically bulimic during early adulthood (American Psychiatric Associ-
ation, 2000). Some experts argue that the DSM-IV-TR definition of anorexia and
bulimia is too restrictive and that many more young women than 3 percent have
severe eating disorders (Henig, 2004).
Theories of Eating Disorders
In all eating disorders, consumption is disconnected from the internal cues of hunger,
serving some psychological or social need rather than homeostasis (Shannon,
2007). A developmental perspective finds that eating disorders may originate early
in life, not only with genes but also with early hunger (which alters the set point)
and family food habits. According to one explanation:
Parental control in child feeding may have unintended effects on the develop-
ment of eating patterns; [especially with] emphasis on “external” cues in
eating and decreased opportunities for the child to experience self-control. . . .
Parental pressure to eat may result in food dislike and refusal, and restriction
may enhance children’s liking and consumption of restricted foods.
[ J. O. Fisher & Birch, 2001, p. 35]
It is not surprising that eating disorders are rooted in childhood, since that is
true for most serious problems. But why are females 10 times as likely as males to
engage in such destructive self-sabotage? Is nature or nurture the reason? Each of
the five theories described in Chapter 2 offers an explanation:
■ A psychoanalytic hypothesis is that women develop eating disorders to sepa-
rate psychically from their overbearing mothers, who provided their early
feeding. Refusing food becomes a disturbed way to achieve independence.
■ Behaviorism notes that for some people with low self-esteem (more often
women than men), fasting, bingeing, and purging are powerful, immediate
reinforcers in that they relieve emotional distress, setting up a destructive
stimulus–response chain.
■ One cognitive explanation is that when young adult women compete with men
in jobs and careers, they seek to project a strong, self-controlled, masculine
image antithetical to the buxom, fleshy body of the ideal woman of the past.
■ Sociocultural explanations include the cultural pressure to be “slim and trim”
and model-like—a pressure felt strongly by today’s emerging adult women,
who seek autonomy from their parents and admiration from their peers but
not marriage or motherhood.
■ The epigenetic perspective emphasizes genes and the evolutionary mandate to
reproduce. If a girl fears sex and motherhood, then a bony appearance, lack
of menstruation, and food obsession quiet her sexual impulses and preclude
pregnancy. Anorexia may be “an adaptive postponement” or “a maladaptive
suppression of fertility” (Mealey, 2003, pp. 11–12).
Each of these theories may provide insight. Which is most relevant to the follow-
ing case?
460 CHAPTER 17 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Biosocial Development
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Habits and Risks 461
a case to study
“Too Thin, As If That’s Possible”
Julia was the elder of two daughters in a suburban two-parent
family. She was a model high school student, partly because
her mother checked her homework and because both parents
monitored her closely. She decided to join the track and cross-
country teams for two reasons—to strengthen her college appli-
cations and to control her weight. She had no boyfriends; her
parents disapproved of high school romances. Julia writes about
her first semester of college:
I have never before felt so much pressure. Because my scholar-
ship depends both on my running and on my maintaining a 3.6
grade point average, I’ve been stressed out much of the time.
Academic work was never a problem for me in the past, but
there’s just so much more expected of you in college.
It was pressure from my coach, my teammates, and myself
that first led me to dieting. . . . I know that my coach was really
disappointed in me. He called me aside about a month into the
season. He wanted to know what I was eating, and he told me the
weight I had gained was undoubtedly hurting my performance.
He said that I should cut out snacks and sweets of any kind, and
stick to things like salad to help me lose the extra pounds, and get
back into shape. He also recommended some additional work-
outs. I was all for a diet—I hated that my clothes were getting
snug. . . . At that point, I was 5 feet, 6 inches and weighed 145
pounds. When I started college I had weighed 130 pounds. . . .
Once I started dieting, the incentives to continue were every-
where. My race time improved, so my coach was pleased. I felt
more a part of the team and less like an outsider. My clothes were
no longer snug, and when they saw me at my meets my parents
said I looked great. I even received an invitation to a party given by
a fraternity that only invited the most attractive . . . women. After
about a month, I was back to my normal weight of 130 pounds.
. . . I set a new weight goal of 115 pounds. I figured if I hit
the gym more often and skipped breakfast altogether, it wouldn’t
be hard to reach that weight in another month or so. Of course,
this made me even hungrier by lunchtime, but I didn’t want to
increase my lunch size. I found it easier to pace myself with
something like crackers. I would break them into several pieces
and only allow myself to eat one piece every 15 minutes. The few
times I did this with friends in the dining hall I got weird looks
and comments. I finally started eating lunch alone in my
room. . . . I couldn’t believe it when the scale said I was down to
115 pounds. I still felt that I had excess weight to lose. Some of
my friends were beginning to mention that I was actually looking
too thin, as if that’s possible.
. . . All of which brings me to the present time. Even though
I’m running great and I’m finally able to stick to a diet, everyone
thinks I’m not taking good enough care of myself. . . . I’m doing
my best to keep in control of my life, and I wish that I could be
trusted to take care of myself.
Julia’s roommate writes:
There were no more parties or hanging out at meals for her. . . .
We were all worried, but none of us knew what to do. . . . I
looked in the back of Julia’s closet. A few months ago I had asked
to borrow a tampon. She opened a new box and gave me one.
The same box was still there with only that one missing. For the
first time, I realized how serious Julia’s condition could be.
A few days later, Julia approached me. Apparently she just
met with one of the deans, who told her that she’d need to un-
dergo an evaluation at the health center before she could con-
tinue practicing with the team. She asked me point blank if I
had been talking about her to anyone. I told her how her mother
had asked me if I had noticed any changes in her over the past
several months, and how I honestly told her yes. She stormed
out of the room and I haven’t seen her since. I know how impor-
tant the team is to Julia, so I am assuming that she’ll be going to
the health center soon. I hope that they’ll be able to convince
her that she’s taken things too far, and that they can help her to
get better.
[quoted in Gorenstein & Comer, 2002, pp. 275–280]
Julia is a classic case of anorexia nervosa, with rapid weight
loss, denial, and lack of menstruation. She believes she is “finally
able to stick to a diet” and is “in control,” when in fact she is ad-
dicted to exercise and weight loss. Serious depression is linked
to anorexia; suicide is a danger.
It is not surprising that Julia’s coach, parents, and friends did
not notice her eating disorder sooner. This time lag is common:
“By the time the anorexic reaches the point at which the disorder
is clinically identified, she has already become entrapped in a
complex web of psychological attitudes” (R. A. Gordon, 2000).
Before that point, many people encourage rapid weight loss in-
stead of welcoming the normal weight gain of a healthy develop-
ing woman.
Actually, when her coach suggested she diet, Julia’s weight
after a month of college—145 pounds (65.7 kilograms) for an
athlete who is five feet, six inches (1.6 meters) tall—was within
the normal range. With a BMI of 25.6, she was only slightly
overweight (and, since muscle is heavier than fat, many experts
would not consider her overweight at all). Certainly, she was far
from obese. Yet everyone was pleased when she lost 15 pounds
in a month. Although Julia was in danger, her parents and the
fraternity boys encouraged her to continue dieting.
Considering all five theories, each seems plausible. Julia may have been overly
dependent on her mother (psychoanalytic), reinforced for weight loss (behavior-
ism), suffering from distorted thinking (cognitive), surrounded by a culture that
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encouraged thinness (sociocultural), and avoidant of parties and romance (epige-
netic). The theories lead to a concern for her younger sister: Vulnerability to eating
disorders is genetic, familial, and cultural. Julia not only needs to get well; she also
needs to protect her sister.
Taking Risks
Now we look closely at something that brings both ecstasy and despair. Emerging
adults bravely, or foolishly, take risks. Risk taking is not only age-related; it is also
genetic and hormonal. Some people—more often males than females—are natu-
rally more daring than others. Thus those who are genetically impulsive, and male,
and emerging adults are most likely to be brave or foolish.
Societies as well as individuals benefit because each generation of emerging
adults takes chances. Enrolling in college, moving to a new state or nation, getting
married, having a baby—all these endeavors are risky. So is starting a business,
filming a documentary, entering an athletic contest, enlisting in the military, and
joining the Peace Corps. Emerging adults take these risks, and the rest of society
is grateful.
Destructive risks are apparent as well, including having sex without a condom,
driving without a seat belt, carrying a loaded gun, and abusing drugs. Accidents,
homicides, and suicides are the three leading causes of death among people aged
15 to 25, killing more of them than all diseases combined. This is true even in
nations where infectious diseases and malnutrition are rampant. The only national
exception is South Africa, where death from AIDS is more frequent than suicide,
though it is obviously connected to risk taking as well (Hayes & Weiss, 2006).
Edgework
Before lamenting risk taking, we need to recognize the attraction of edgework—
that is, living on the edge by skillfully managing stress and fear to attain some goal
(Lyng, 2005). The joy is in the intense concentration and mastery; edgework is
more compelling if failure risks disaster.
Many occupations include edgework, from firefighting to bond trading. One
edgework occupation, bicycle messengering, has moments of timeless pleasure.
As one social scientist explains, “Their entire lives are wrapped inside a distinct
messenger lifestyle that cherishes thrills and threats of dodging cars as they speed
through the city” (Kidder, 2006, p. 32; see Research Design).
Most companies pay messengers per delivery, which gives them incentive to
run red lights and ride against traffic, but a few companies pay an hourly wage and
provide health insurance. One skilled messenger took a job with one of the latter
kind of companies because he was getting married and needed better pay and
benefits; he complained bitterly that the joy was gone (Kidder, 2006).
Many young adults cannot find a job that satisfies their need for danger. In-
stead they seek the edge in recreation—climbing mountains, skydiving, and so on.
Each of these activities has social guidelines that celebrate risk but not stupidity;
novices are shunned until they are recognized as “members of the same tribe”
(Laurendeau & van Brunschot, 2006; Lyng, 2005, p. 4).
Other manifestations of the risk-taking impulse are competitive extreme
sports, which were nonexistent before emerging adults were classified as a
distinct age group. For example, freestyle motocross was “practically invented” in
the mid-1990s by Brian Deegan and Mike Metzger when they were about 20 years
old (Higgins, 2006a). Motocross involves riding motorcycles over barriers and off
ramps, including a 50-foot-high leap into “big air.” As rider and cycle fall, points
are gained by doing tricks, such as backward somersaults. Today,
edgework Occupations or recreational activi-
ties that involve a degree of risk or danger.
The prospect of “living on the edge”
makes edgework compelling to some
individuals.
extreme sports Forms of recreation that
include apparent risk of injury or death and
that are attractive and thrilling as a result.
Motocross is one example.
462 CHAPTER 17 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Research Design
Scientist: Jeffrey Kidder.
Publication: Sociological Forum (2006).
Participants: Kidder was a participant-
observer: He worked as a bicycle messen-
ger, socialized with other messengers,
competed in illegal riding contests, and
attended conferences.
Design: By writing field notes, listening
carefully, and reading extensively, Kidder
connected sociological theories of labor
and edgework with his experiences.
Major conclusions: Bicycle messenger-
ing has thrills and challenges beyond
the monetary rewards (which are quite
low). Emerging adults who lack degrees
first take the job because they need
work. Some stay on because, as one
said, “It is the job that I love.”
Comment: As a participant-observer,
Kidder provides insight and detail
regarding dangerous, dirty, and law-
breaking work that few scientists
understand. As always with qualitative
work, the scientist is a filter. Another
participant-observer, or another type of
study, might report discrepant results.
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As a result of their longevity, Deegan and Metzger [now in their early thirties] are
considered legends, graybeard veterans in a much younger man’s game. . . . One
has lost a kidney and broken a leg and both wrists; the other has broken arms and
legs and lost a testicle. Watching them perform, many observers wonder whether
they have lost their minds.
[Higgins, 2006a]
Observers who wonder about the sanity of these two young men are long past
their own daredevil days, but many emerging adults are attracted to extreme
sports. One, Travis Pastrana, won the 2006 X Games motocross competition at
age 22 with a double backflip because, as he explained, “The two main things are
that I’ve been healthy and able to train at my fullest, and a lot of guys have had
major crashes this year” (quoted in Higgins, 2006b). Major crashes are part of every
sport Pastrana enjoys.
Drug Abuse
The same impulse that is admired in edgework can also lead to behaviors that are
clearly destructive, not only for individuals but for the community as well. The
most studied of these destructive behaviors are drug abuse and addiction, both ex-
amples of edgework (Reith, 2005) and both more common during contemporary
emerging adulthood than at any other age or era.
Drug abuse and addiction can involve a range of drugs, from the perfectly legal
to the highly illegal. In fact, two of the most harmful and addictive substances—
nicotine and alcohol—are legal in the United States. From a health perspective,
legality is irrelevant. What matters is the direct effects of abuse and addiction.
Drug abuse occurs whenever a person uses a drug that is harmful to physical,
cognitive, or psychosocial well-being. Technically, even one-time use of a legal
drug can be abuse. Abuse usually entails frequent use (e.g., smoking marijuana
regularly) or high doses (e.g., four or more alcoholic drinks on a single occasion).
Drug abuse can eventually lead to drug addiction, a condition of dependence
in which the absence of a drug causes intense cravings for it in order to satisfy a
need. The need may be either physical (to stop the shakes, settle one’s stomach, or
sleep) or psychological (to quiet fear or lift depression). Withdrawal symptoms are
the telltale signs of addiction.
Some adolescents and older adults abuse drugs, but emerging adults have the
highest rates of heavy drinking, pill-popping, and illicit drug use. Being with peers,
especially in college, seems to encourage drug abuse. In fact, the category of
emerging adults least likely to abuse drugs is women who do not go to college,
perhaps because many live with their families.
Rates of addiction and abuse fall over the years of adulthood, a decline attrib-
uted to both maturity and marriage (Eisner, 2002). One U.S. survey found that
69 percent of the marijuana smokers and 67 percent of the cocaine users had quit
by age 30, as had 11 percent of the drinkers (Chen & Kandel, 1995). Other data
show a less dramatic decline: Patterns are affected by historical trends as well as
age. Each drug in each region has a particular trajectory, influenced partly by use
when the adults were adolescents. However, the overall trend is curvilinear, rising
during emerging adulthood and then falling with maturity (Johnston et al., 2006).
(See Figure 17.4.)
Tobacco use is an exception to this developmental pattern, probably because
nicotine is so highly addictive with little immediate impairment. Not until about
age 60 (when health effects become obvious) do smoking rates fall dramatically
(U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2006).
Drugs illustrate a problem with numerous kinds of risks. At first, thrills and
benefits outweigh hazards, partly because generational forgetting (pp. 387) leads
drug abuse The ingestion of a drug to the
extent that it impairs the user’s biological
or psychological well-being.
drug addiction A condition of drug depend-
ence in which the absence of the given
drug in the individual’s system produces a
drive—physiological, psychological, or
both—to ingest more of the drug.
Habits and Risks 463
“Eggs and Kegs” Alcohol serves as a social
lubricant for many young adults. In this regular
ritual, college students (“eggheads”) in the
Albany, New York, area gather to drink beer
until the last keg runs out, toward dawn. By
then, most of them have made new friends
and are tired but happy. Others, however, are
sick, angry, and tearful.
AN
DR
EW
L
IC
HT
EN
ST
EI
N
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
444-469_BergerLS7e_CH17.qxp 9/19/07 3:18 PM Page 463

each generation to ignore the advice of
older adults. Alcohol, for instance, re-
duces social anxiety, a problem for those
who enter college, start a new job, speak
to strangers, or embark on a romance.
Crossing the line between use and abuse
does not ring alarms for young adults,
who justify drug use because of the mo-
mentary relief it affords and who have not
yet seen peers impaired and addicted.
Lack of personal witnessing makes gen-
erational forgetting possible. Disapproval
of drug use is lower during emerging
adulthood than at any other age (Johnston
et al., 2006).
Long-term data show that drug abuse
impairs later life. Those who use drugs
heavily in high school are less likely to go
to college (Johnston et al., 2006). Those
who use drugs heavily in emerging adult-
hood are less likely to earn a degree, find a good job, or sustain a romance (Eisner,
2002). They are also more likely to get sick and die. For instance, a 21-year study
in Scotland found that young adult men who drank heavily doubled their risk of
dying by middle age (Hart et al., 1999).
The fact that young adults ignore later consequences is an example of a logical
error called delay discounting, the tendency to undervalue, or discount, events
in the future. If offered a choice between, say, $100 now and $110 later, delay
discounting leads people to undervalue (discount) the delayed reward and choose
the immediate one. Delay discounting occurs at every age (for example, lottery
winners usually choose to take half immediately rather than all in installments).
Emerging adults are particularly likely to underestimate delayed consequences.
This tendency explains a paradox. As a result of school classes and media
messages, almost all emerging adults know the life-threatening risks of drug abuse
and unprotected sex. Nonetheless, they consume addictive drugs and have sex
with partners whose history they do not know. Why? Delay discounting.
Emerging adults who are addicted to drugs are also likely to think they can
stop on their own. This belief may help explain another discrepancy noted by re-
searchers: “Perhaps the greatest treatment-related paradox is that although early
young adulthood is the time of highest pathological alcohol involvement, treat-
ment for AUDs [alcohol use disorders] appears to peak in later adulthood” (Sher
& Gotham, 1999).
delay discounting The tendency to under-
value, or downright ignore, future
consequences and rewards in favor of
more immediate gratification.
464 CHAPTER 17 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Biosocial Development
50
40
20
10
14 16 18 19–20 21–22 23–24 25–26 27–28 29–30 35 45
0
Percentage
30
Source: Johnston et al., 2006. (Various sources report different percentages, primarily because
sampling procedures vary, but age trends are always curvilinear.)
Age group (in years)
*Five or more drinks on one occasion within a two–week period
Recent Binge Drinking* in the United States, by Age
FIGURE 17.4
Laws and Choices Abusive drinking is com-
mon throughout adulthood. Laws seem to
have some effect on those under the age of
21, and then experience and social setting
affect adults as they mature.
What’s Wrong with the Men?
It is dangerous to be a young man in the twenty-first century. In
the United States, almost 1 male in every 100 dies from suicide,
homicide, or an accident between the ages of 15 and 25 (U.S.
Bureau of the Census, 2007). (These rates do not include deaths
of soldiers.)
Young men drive recklessly, have unprotected sex, enjoy
extreme sports, abuse alcohol, take illegal drugs, gamble, volun-
teer for combat, carry guns, and more. Women and older men
do these things, too, but far less often. As a result, emerging
adult men die violently four times as often as women of the
issues and applications
444-469_BergerLS7e_CH17.qxp 9/24/07 3:15 PM Page 464

Habits and Risks 465
same age and more often than males of any other age—with the
exception of those over age 75, who are more prone to accidents.
Violent death rates among young men in Canada, Mexico,
and Australia are almost as high as those in the United States
(see Figure 17.5), with differences in specifics (cause of death)
but not the sex ratio. For example, Canada has three times as
many suicides as homicides, whereas in the United States more
young men are killed by someone else than by themselves.
Similarly, however, in both nations more men than women die
young, and accidents are the leading cause.
Worldwide, four times more young men than women commit
suicide or die in motor-vehicle accidents, and six times as many
are murdered, almost always by another young man who—in
turn, may be killed in retribution. When the data are reported by
nation or by ethnic group, the male-to-female ratio for violent
death ranges from 3:1 to 10:1 (Heuveline, 2002).
Young Adult Mortality from Three Causes of Violent Death, Selected Countries
60
50
40
30
20
10
United
States
MexicoAustraliaNew
Zealand
CanadaGermanyUnited
Kingdom
Annual
death rate
per 100,000
people aged
20 to 35
ItalyChileSpain Japan France
Source: Heuveline, 2002.
Motor-vehicle
accidents
Homicides
Suicides
FIGURE 17.5
A Dangerous Time of Life These graphs
show the rates of violent death among
young adults in selected countries world-
wide (top) and by U.S. ethnic category
(bottom). Worldwide data take years to
gather; most of these nations have re-
duced violent deaths over the last
decade. The U.S. data are more recent
and are for ages 15–24. Ethnic differences
have narrowed over the past decade, but
they are still readily apparent. Emerging
adulthood is the peak period for all forms
of violent death except suicide, which has
higher rates among older white males
and older Asian females than among
young adults.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page
467): In the United States, which group
has the smallest gender disparity? Which
has the largest?
Violent Death from Age 15–24, by Ethnic Category, United States, 2005
140
130
120
110
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Annual
death rate
per 100,000
young adult
Americans
White,
Non-Hispanic
African
American
Hispanic Asian American Indian
and Alaskan Native
Source: National Center for Health Statistics [updated, February 2007].
Motor-vehicle
accidents
Homicides
Suicides
Male Female
444-469_BergerLS7e_CH17.qxp 9/21/07 3:24 PM Page 465

social norms The standards of behavior
within a given society or culture, based
more on how people should behave than
on how they actually behave.
466 CHAPTER 17 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Why are young men so vulnerable? Biology is a prime hy-
pothesis. The hormone testosterone increases dramatically from
boyhood to manhood, and its level often correlates with impul-
sive, uncontrolled, and angry reactions. This correlation is far
from perfect, however: Many studies of humans and other ani-
mals find that testosterone is not always a trigger for risk taking
and violence (Van Goozen, 2005).
According to another theory from biology, men want to be
chosen as sex partners, so they try to prove to potential mates
that they are strong and brave, capable of producing superior
offspring (Archer, 2004). Thus, although young women may not
take risks themselves, they may admire men
who do.
A more psychosocial theory is that men
respect other men who do dangerous things.
Edgework is much more a male endeavor
than a female one, with other males acting
as companions, rivals, and admirers (Lyng,
2005). A study of young men who had been
seriously wounded by other young men
found that most of them feared loss of re-
spect and therefore were more concerned
about revenge than survival (Rich & Grey,
2005). Another researcher, explaining why
men choose more lethal means of parasui-
cide (guns more often than drugs), notes
that men feel that surviving a suicide at-
tempt is feminine, but completed suicide is
masculine (Canetto, 1997).
These explanations seem partially valid, but cultural varia-
tions require additional analysis. The male/female ratio for vio-
lent deaths varies between nations and within them, as well as
for each group and type of death. For instance, in the United
States, among Latino and African American young adults, the
male-to-female sex ratio for firearm deaths is 12:1, compared
with 4:1 for Asian Americans of the same age group (National
Center for Health Statistics, 2006). Culture, not biology, must
be the reason.
Obviously, biological sex is not the only influence on risk
taking. Family upbringing and social norms can override male–
female biology or roles to influence people
(Holder, 2006). If we understood the rea-
sons for such differences, perhaps thou-
sands more emerging adult men would
survive unscathed, at least until age 30.
RE
UT
ER
S
/ F
AB
RI
ZI
O
BE
N
SC
H
(G
ER
M
AN
Y)

Social Norms
As you have probably realized, one discovery from the study of human development
might reduce risk taking and improve health habits among emerging adults—the
power of social norms. Social norms are standards for typical behaviors within a
particular society. They are particularly strong for emerging adults. Now more than
in earlier generations, young adults are independent of their parents and do not yet
have life partners or children. They seek the approval of others of their generation;
social norms matter.
Not only are contemporary emerging adults immersed in social settings (col-
leges, parties, concerts, sports events) where risk takers are widely admired, they
notice these people, such as the classmate who brags that he waited until the last
minute and wrote a term paper in one night or the star athlete who did something
dangerous and unexpected. Noticing such individuals leads many emerging adults
to overestimate the prevalence of risk takers and thus to be influenced by them.
In one experiment, several small groups of college students were offered as
much alcohol as they wanted as they socialized with each other. In some groups,
one student was secretly recruited in advance to drink heavily; in others, one stu-
dent was assigned to drink very little; in a third condition, there was no student
confederate. In those groups with a heavy drinker, the average student drank more
than those in groups with a light drinker or no designated drinker. In these latter
two conditions, consumption was the same. Thus, they followed the norm set by
the risk takers, not by the cautious ones (reported in Miller & Carroll, 2006).
Far from the Wild West Europeans and Asians
consider the United States a violent nation, the
only developed country that imposes the death
penalty and the one with the highest homicide
rate. But they could look closer to home for
examples of violence. This young man is one of
hundreds injured in rioting after a soccer match
in southern Germany between England and
Sweden.
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The U.S. military has provided a natural experiment regarding social norms,
with a similar conclusion. In 1990, more military men than civilians abused drugs
(including alcohol), with a few loud abusers influencing the rest. Then expecta-
tions changed and prohibitions were enforced. Although only a few of the worst
offenders were actually charged with drug use, by 1997, only half as many soldiers
as civilians were using drugs (Ammerman et al., 1999). Social expectations and
perceived norms changed; behavior followed.
The power of social norms is evident in the popularity of extreme sports. For in-
stance, a small group of British men formed the Dangerous Sports Club when
they were young adults. They thought of trying bungee jumping on April Fools’
Day in 1979. On that day, at first they all backed off, telling the press it was a foolish
joke. But later in the afternoon, after drinking, one was filmed bungee jumping.
Thousands of other young men saw the video, and before long, bungee jumping
became a fad.
A similar story holds for other extreme sports—hang gliding, ice climbing,
pond swooping, base jumping—never imagined until one daredevil young adult
inspired thousands of others (Cockerham, 2006). Other risky sports, once attrac-
tive to hundred of thousands, have become safer, less edgy, and therefore less
popular. Boxing, for example, was much more popular 50 years ago than today,
now that rules make severe injury less likely.
This research has led to the social norms approach, an attempt to reduce
risk taking by conducting surveys of emerging adults and using the results to
make them aware of the prevalence of various behaviors. About half the colleges
in the United States have surveyed alcohol use on their campuses and reported the
results (Berkowitz, 2005; Wechsler et al., 2003). In general, when college students
realize that most of their classmates study hard, avoid binge drinking, refuse drugs,
and are sexually abstinent, faithful, or protected, they are more likely to follow
these social norms. Of course, if social norms surveys suggest to lonely, temperate,
conscientious students that they are odd, then the opposite of the desired effect
may result, with those students engaging in more rather than less risky behavior
(Schultz et al., 2007).
Implications
Consider again the developmental problems raised by emerging adults’ impulse to
experiment and explore. We would all suffer if young adults were timid, tradi-
tional, and afraid of innovation. They need to befriend strangers, try new foods,
explore ideas, travel abroad, and sometimes risk their lives. The tasks that await—
graduating from college, finding a challenging job, getting married, becoming a
parent—are all impossible for people who are overly cautious and unwilling to
take chances.
But risks should be taken carefully. If the independence of emerging adults
leads them to throw caution to the wind, if edgework includes injury, if delay dis-
counting means consequences are ignored, then life itself may be cut short. A col-
lege education correlates with better health—including more exercise, healthier
eating, less drug use, and longer life (Adler & Snibbe, 2003). This is all the more
reason to guard against the foolish risks that seem to accelerate during college.
One of my older students, John, told the class about his experience as an
emerging adult. His attitude was amused pride at first. But by the end of his narra-
tive, he was troubled by his actions, partly because John was now the father of a
little boy he adored, and he realized that his son might become an equally reckless
young man. John told us that, during a vacation break in his first year of college,
he and two of his male friends were sitting, bored, on a beach. One friend pro-
posed swimming to an island, barely visible on the horizon. They immediately set
Habits and Risks 467
social norms approach A method of reduc-
ing risky behavior that uses emerging
adults’ desire to follow social norms by
making them aware, through the use of
surveys, of the prevalence of various
behaviors within their peer group.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 465): The smallest gender differences
are among American Indian and Alaskan
Natives; the largest difference is between
Hispanic males and females.
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468 CHAPTER 17 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Growth, Strength, and Health
1. Emerging adulthood is a new period of development, charac-
terized by later marriage and more education. Age variations are
apparent throughout development; nonetheless, ages 18 to 25 can
be described as a distinct period.
2. Most young adults are strong and healthy. All the body systems
function optimally during these years; death from disease is rare.
3. Homeostasis and organ reserve help ensure that emerging
adults feel strong and recover quickly from infections and injuries.
The gradual slowdowns of senescence begin as soon as puberty is
complete but are not yet noticed.
4. Emerging adults are usually physically and sexually attractive.
This is also the peak time for sexual desire.
5. Reproduction is most successful during emerging adulthood
because both male and female bodies are at peak fertility. How-
ever, most people this age do not yet want to become parents.
Contraception now makes sex without parenthood possible.
6. Sexual relationships before marriage are accepted by most
young adults, although they may not realize that being sexually
active makes other problems more likely. Disagreement about the
purpose of sex—reproduction, relationship, or recreation—can
cause emotional stress between partners.
SUMMARY
out. After swimming for a long time, John realized that he was only about a third
of the way there, that he was tired, that the island was merely an empty spit of
sand, and that he would have to swim back. He turned around and swam to shore.
The friend who made the proposal eventually reached the island. The third boy
became exhausted and almost drowned (a passing boat rescued him).
What does this episode signify about the biosocial development of emerging
adults? It is easy to understand why John started swimming. The influence of
delay discounting, male ego, and social context is evident, as is that of the three
friends’ joy in their strong arms, lungs, and abilities. Young men like to be active,
feeling their physical strength.
Like John, many adults remember fondly the risks they took when they were
younger. They forget the friends who caught STIs, who had abortions, who be-
came addicts or alcoholics, or who died young, and they ignore the reality that
their younger brothers and sons might do the same. Emerging adulthood is a
strong and healthy age, but it is not without serious risks. Why attempt to swim to
a distant island? More thinking (Chapter 18) or social rescuing (Chapter 19) may
be needed.
SUMMING UP
Emerging adulthood is generally a time of excellent health, but bad choices regarding
habits and risks can have harmful effects on development. Good exercise habits estab-
lished in young adulthood contribute greatly to overall health in middle age and beyond,
while sedentary individuals are more likely to develop diabetes and high blood pressure.
Good eating habits are also key to preventing these diseases, as well as obesity. While
emerging adults are less likely to become obese than are older adults, they are more
likely to develop potentially deadly eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.
Risk taking is common during young adulthood, and risks can range from the worth-
while (going to college) to the destructive (unprotected sex). In general, males tend to
engage in risky behavior more than females do. Some choose edgework occupations—
firefighting, for instance—that involve a degree of danger. Emerging adults are particu-
larly vulnerable to drug and alcohol abuse and addiction. Problems arise in part because
they seek excitement and in part because they seek the approval of others of their
generation. In addition, emerging adults tend to discount or even ignore the potential
consequences of risky behavior in favor of a more immediate, though less logical, payoff.
Violent death, especially of young men, is too common.
■
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Summary 469
7. Why are young adults particularly susceptible to drug use and
abuse?
8. What are some ways in which risk taking among emerging
adults is influenced by delay discounting?
9. What are the sex differences in the rate of violent deaths, and
to what degree are they the result of nature or nurture?
10. How do social norms affect the incidence of health problems
in early adulthood?
11. What are the advantages to society of risk taking among
young men?
1. What age range does emerging adulthood encompass, and what
social conventions tend to characterize this period?
2. How and why is physical attractiveness of greater concern to
emerging adults than to other age groups?
3. In what ways are the concepts of organ reserve and homeosta-
sis comforting to young adults?
4. How are differing attitudes about the purpose of sex likely to
lead to emotional stress?
5. What role can friendships and communities play in maintaining
good exercise habits?
6. How can concern about being fat become a health hazard?
3. Describe the daily patterns of someone you know who has un-
healthy habits related to eating, exercise, drug abuse, risk taking,
or some other aspect of lifestyle. What would it take for that person
to change his or her habits? Consider the impact of time, experi-
ence, medical advice, and fear.
4. Use the library or Internet to investigate changes over the past
50 years in the lives of young adults in a particular nation or ethnic
group. What caused those changes? Are they similar to the changes
reported in the United States?
1. What would your priorities be in deciding which groups
should receive flu vaccine? Rank professions, ages, nationalities,
and other factors, with at least 20 categories overall. Then compare
your list with a classmate’s, discussing the reasons for similarities
and differences.
2. Describe an incident during your emerging adulthood when
taking a risk could have led to disaster. What were your feelings at
the time? What would you do if you knew that a child of yours
was about to do the same thing?
KEY QUESTIONS
APPLICATIONS
senescence (p. 450)
homeostasis (p. 450)
organ reserve (p. 450)
set point (p. 458)
body mass index (BMI) (p. 458)
anorexia nervosa (p. 459)
bulimia nervosa (p. 459)
edgework (p. 462)
extreme sports (p. 462)
drug abuse (p. 463)
drug addiction (p. 463)
delay discounting (p. 464)
social norms (p. 466)
social norms approach (p. 467)
KEY TERMS
7. Another problem is sexually transmitted infections, which are
much more common now than in earlier generations because many
young adults have several sexual relationships before marriage.
Infertility and even death can result from untreated STIs.
Habits and Risks
8. Many emerging adults engage in adequate exercise, protecting
their long-term health by so doing. Ideally, they choose friends
and neighborhoods that will keep them active.
9. Good nourishment is important lifelong. Women are especially
vulnerable to unhealthy dieting, which can lead to serious eating
disorders such as anorexia and bulimia nervosa.
10. Risk taking increases during emerging adulthood, with the
thrills of edgework being particularly attractive to young men.
Many risks can have life-threatening consequences, including
drug abuse and addiction, unprotected sex, and extreme sports.
During emerging adulthood, men in particular are at high risk of
violent death.
11. Cultural as well as gender variations are evident in risk taking
and violent death. Social norms are particularly powerful during
these years. These two facts can reduce the hazards of risk taking,
as seems to have occurred among college students who drink
heavily.
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Emerging Adulthood:
Cognitive Development
What did you learn today? When I asked my young children, Isometimes heard about things of no interest to me (like howa bunny eats a carrot); when I asked my adolescents, I some-times got silence. A child might answer by reciting cold facts,
and some adolescents might cynically reply, “Nothing.” Adults might say
something that connects people and ideas, something thoughtful. But not
always; adults do not always think like adults. Nonetheless, beginning in early
adulthood, cognition sometimes changes in quality, quantity, speed, topics,
efficiency, depth, values, and skills. When and how this happens are topics
in this book’s three chapters on adulthood cognition.
Cognitive development can be described using many approaches:
■ The stage approach evaluates whether a new stage or level is reached,
such as a postformal stage of thinking and reasoning in adulthood.
■ The psychometric approach analyzes intelligence by means of IQ tests
and other measures.
■ The information-processing approach studies how the brain encodes,
stores, and retrieves information.
All three approaches provide valuable insights into the complex patterns
of cognition throughout the life span. Yet, much more than in childhood, as
already emphasized in Chapter 17, chronological age is an imperfect marker
in adulthood: Adults of various ages think at various levels.
To avoid repetition and confusion, each of the book’s remaining chapters
on cognitive development (this one and Chapters 21 and 24) emphasize
only one approach: a stage theory that focuses on postformal thought here,
psychometrics in Chapter 21, and information processing in Chapter 24.
Each chapter also includes age-related topics. (For example, the effects of
college education on cognition are described in this chapter.) College has
major impact among emerging adults, as you will learn—and as I learned
from my children when they sometimes dismissed my innovative political
opinions as “first wave” (which meant “old-fashioned”). Each chapter on
adult cognition also includes research on various adult ages, since mere age
does not determine how adults think. Discussions of morality, religion, and
creativity appear and reappear since they are relevant at every age.
18
471
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� Postformal Thought
The Practical and the Personal: A Fifth Stage?
Cognitive Flexibility
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST:
Reducing Stereotype Threat
Dialectical Thought
� Morals and Religion
Which Era? What Place?
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS:
Clear Guidelines for Cheaters
Measuring Moral Growth
Stages of Faith
IN PERSON: Faith and Tolerance
� Cognitive Growth and
Higher Education
The Effects of College
Changes in the College Context
Evaluating the Changes
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Postformal Thought
Thinking in adulthood differs from earlier thinking in three major ways: It is more
practical, more flexible, and more dialectical. Each of these aspects will be dis-
cussed in turn. Taken together, they are sometimes thought of as constituting a
postformal stage of cognitive development, combining a new “ordering of formal
operations” with a “necessary subjectivity” (Sinnott, 1998, p. 24). This occurs
gradually, not at any particular year or decade.
The Practical and the Personal: A Fifth Stage?
Postformal thought is so called because it follows Piaget’s fourth stage, formal
operational thought (Arlin, 1984, 1989). This proposed fifth stage is considered
the practical one, characterized by “problem finding,” not just “problem solving.”
Adults do not wait for someone else to present a problem to solve. Instead, they
take a more flexible and comprehensive approach as they consider various aspects
of a situation beforehand, noting difficulties and anticipating problems, dealing
with them rather than denying, avoiding, or procrastinating because planning
realistically is so difficult.
Compare that with the thinking of adolescents, who may try to use their formal
analysis to distill universal truths, develop arguments, and resolve the world’s
problems. Or they may think spontaneously, using emotions that might lead them
astray. The combination of emotion and analysis, applied to practical problems,
eludes them. For example, they may impulsively join a protest against child labor
in Pakistan but may be unable to figure out when and how they should prepare
for a chemistry test. Both activities are important for different reasons, but the
teenager has difficulty balancing goals and priorities. Teenagers prefer to use quick,
intuitive thought and then act; they can rationally analyze issues, but they rarely
think through the specific and practical consequences of their actions.
In adulthood, intellectual skills are harnessed to real educational, occupational,
and interpersonal concerns. Conclusions and consequences matter much more.
As an example familiar to most college students, professors, in contrast to high
school teachers, typically announce assignments and due dates for the entire
semester and expect students “to decide for themselves when to do [the work,
invoking] that dreaded phrase time management” (Howard, 2006, p. 15). Teachers
realize that emerging adults only gradually master that skill, so they tailor their
expectations to their students’ abilities.
Adults accept and adapt to the contradictions and inconsistencies of everyday
experience, becoming less playful and more practical. They consider most of
life’s answers to be provisional, not necessarily permanent; they take irrational
and emotional factors into account. For example, planning when to begin writing
a term paper that is due in a month may take into account personal emotions
(e.g., anxiety, perfectionism), other obligations (at home and at work), and practi-
cal considerations (fact checking, library reserves, computer availability, proper
formatting). Ignoring all this until the last day is something teenagers might do;
emerging adults in college are expected to know better.
Really a Stage?
Some scholars doubt that childhood cognition develops in stages. When the issue
is whether stages of adult cognition exist, almost everyone is dubious. Piaget and
many other stage theorists, who describe stages of childhood, never imagined a
“postformal” stage. If reaching a “stage” means attaining a new set of cognitive
skills (as from sensorimotor to preoperational), then adulthood has no stages.
postformal thought A proposed adult stage
of cognitive development, following
Piaget’s four stages, that goes beyond
adolescent thinking by being more practi-
cal, more flexible, and more dialectical
(that is, more capable of combining contra-
dictory elements into a comprehensive
whole).
472 CHAPTER 18 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Cognitive Development
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Piaget considered formal operations to be the final cognitive stage, and brain re-
searchers report that the prefrontal cortex finally is developed by age 20 or so.
However, despite evidence that the brain and mind are fully grown by emerging
adulthood (although brain changes are continual, with new dendrites connecting
and unused neurons dying), certain ways of thinking are evident in adulthood
that are rarely found earlier. Context and culture are crucial: A 30-year-old in one
place and time may think quite differently from someone the same age in another
place and at a different time (Blanchard-Fields et al., 1999). Non-Western cultures
also describe adult thought as qualitatively different from adolescent thought,
although not everyone sees this as a distinct stage. In Hinduism, for instance,
a stage of social embeddedness (similar to problem finding) lasts through middle
age, and then a new stage appears at which people are expected to be less engaged
in immediate social concerns (Saraswathi, 2005).
In general, although stages that are neurologically based do not appear in
adulthood, many scholars find a “qualitative and quantitative change in cognitive
functioning through the adult life span” (Schaie & Willis, 2000, pp. 175–178).
The term fifth stage may be a misnomer, but a new cognitive level is reached if
adult life circumstances allow it (Labouvie-Vief, 2006).
A recent study explored the concept that adults think differently than adoles-
cents do. Researchers who did not know the participants’ ages categorized partici-
pants’ descriptions of themselves as self-protective (high in self-involvement, low in
self-doubt), dysregulated (fragmented, overwhelmed by emotions or problems),
complex (valuing openness and independence above all), or integrated (able to
regulate emotions and logic). As life experiences accumulated, adults expressed
themselves differently. No one under age 20 was at the advanced “integrated”
stage, but some adults of every age were (see Figure 18.1). The largest shift
occurred between adolescence and emerging adulthood, although not until age 30
were a third at the complex level (Labouvie-Vief, 2006).
Postformal Thought 473
Source: Labouvie-Vief, 2006.
75
70
65
60
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
11–15 15–20 20–30 30–45 45–60 60–70 70–85
Percent
Age group (in years)
Participants’ Self-Descriptions, by Category and by Age Group
Self-protective (lowest level)
Dysregulated Integrated
Complex
Category
FIGURE 18.1
Talk About Yourself People gradually became less self-centered and less confused as they described themselves over
the years of adulthood. Many adults, but no children or adolescents, achieved a level of self-acceptance at which emo-
tions and reason were integrated.
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Combining Subjective and Objective Thought
One of the practical skills of postformal thinking is combining subjective and
objective thought. Subjective thought arises from the personal experiences and
perceptions of an individual; objective thought follows abstract, impersonal logic.
Traditional models of formal operational thought devalue subjective feelings, per-
sonal faith, and emotional experience while overvaluing objective, logical thinking.
Piaget’s description of the advanced adolescent is one such model (Klaczynski,
2005), although you remember that intuitive thought is also evident.
Purely objective, logical thinking may be maladaptive when we are dealing with
the complexities and commitments of daily life. Subjective feelings and individual
experiences must be taken into account because objective reasoning alone is too
limited, rigid, and impractical (Sinnott, 1998). Yet subjective thinking is also limited.
Truly mature thought involves the interaction between abstract, objective forms
of processing and expressive, subjective forms. Adult thought does not abandon
objectivity; instead, “postformal logic combines subjectivity and objectivity” (Sinnott,
1998, p. 55) to become personal and practical.
Consolidating Emotions and Logic
Solving the complex problem of combining affect (emotion) and cognition (logic)
is the crucial intellectual accomplishment of adulthood. During most of adult-
hood, “increasing consolidation of more complex cognitive-affective structures
continues. . . . Emerging adulthood truly does emerge as a somewhat crucial
period of the life span” because “complex, critical, and relativizing thinking
emerges only in the 20s” (Labouvie-Vief, 2006, p. 78). Without this consolidation
of intellect and emotion (that is, “cognitive-affective structures”), behavioral
extremes (such as binge eating, anorexia, obesity, addiction, and violence) or cog-
nitive extremes (such as believing that one is the greatest or the lowest person on
earth) are common. By contrast, adults are better able to balance personal experi-
ence with knowledge.
As an example of such balance, a student of mine named Laura wrote:
Unfortunately, alcoholism runs in my family. . . . I have seen it tear apart not only
my uncle but my family also. . . . I have gotten sick from drinking, and it was the
most horrifying night of my life. I know that I didn’t have alcohol poisoning or
anything, but I drank too quickly and was getting sick. All of these images
flooded my head about how I didn’t want to ever end up the way my uncle was.
From that point on, whenever I have touched alcohol, it has been with extreme
caution. . . . When I am old and gray, the last thing I want to be thinking about is
where my next beer will come from or how I’ll need a liver transplant.
Laura’s thinking about alcohol is postformal in that it combines knowledge
(e.g., of alcohol poisoning) with emotions (images flooded her head). Note that
she is cautious, not abstinent: She does not need to go to the extreme of becom-
ing alcoholic (as some college students do) and then to the other extreme of
avoiding even one sip (as recovering alcoholics must). This development of post-
formal thought regarding alcohol is seen in most U.S. adults over time: Those in
their early 20s are most likely to abuse alcohol (Bingham et al., 2005), but with a
few years of experience and cognitive maturity, most are more mature with their
drinking by age 25 or 30, drinking occasionally and moderately from then on
(Schulenberg et al., 2005).
Looking at all the research makes it apparent that combining emotions and
logic is a challenge when the issue at stake is deeply personal. In Chapter 15, you
read that adolescents’ cognition suffers when their own religion is under attack or
when intuitive thinking overwhelms formal operational thought. The same prob-
subjective thought Thinking that is strongly
influenced by personal qualities of the indi-
vidual thinker, such as past experiences,
cultural assumptions, and goals for the
future.
objective thought Thinking that is not influ-
enced by the thinker’s personal qualities,
but involves facts and numbers that are
universally considered true and valid.
474 CHAPTER 18 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Cognitive Development
Especially for Someone Who Has to
Make an Important Decision Which is
better: to go with your gut feelings or to con-
sider pros and cons as objectively as you can?
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lem happens to many adults, but some adults are better able than others to put
emotions into perspective. In general, teenagers use either objective or subjective
reasoning, but adults can combine the two (Blanchard-Fields et al., 1999).
Cognitive Flexibility
The ability to be practical—to predict, to plan, and to combine objective and sub-
jective mental processes—is valuable; it is fortunate that adults can reach that
postformal level. However, plans can go awry. For example, corporate restructuring
might require looking for another job, a failure of birth control might mean dealing
with an unwanted pregnancy, a parent’s illness might require changing one’s plans
for higher education. Almost every adult experiences such events. Those with
cognitive flexibility avoid retreating into either emotions or intellect. Instead they
reflect on their options, combining emotions and reason, taking time to select the
best course of action (Lutz & Sternberg, 1999; Wethington, 2000).
Thus, a hallmark of postformal cognition is intellectual flexibility. This comes
from the realization that each person’s perspective is only one of many; that each
problem has many potential solutions; and that knowledge is dynamic, not static
(Sinnott, 1998). Emerging adults begin to realize that “there are multiple views of
the same phenomenon” (Baltes et al., 1998, p. 1093). Listening to other people,
considering their opinions without immediately agreeing or disagreeing, is a sign
of flexibility.
Working Together
Consider flexibility in trying to solve this problem:
Every card in a pack has a letter on one side and a number on the other. Imagine
that you are presented with the following four cards, each of which has some-
thing on the back. Turn over only those cards that will confirm or disconfirm this
proposition: If a card has a vowel on one side, then it always has an even number
on the other side.
E 7 K 4
Which cards must be turned over?
The difficulty of this puzzle is “notorious” (Moshman, 2005, p. 36). Almost everyone
wants to turn over the E and the 4; almost everyone is mistaken. In one experi-
ment with college students working on their own, 91 percent got it wrong. How-
ever, when groups of college students who had guessed wrong on their own
discussed the problem, 75 percent got it right, avoiding the 4 card (even if it has a
consonant on the other side, the statement could still be true) and selecting the E
and the 7 cards (if the 7 has a vowel on the other side, the proposition is proved
false). They were able to think things through, changing their minds after listening
to others (Moshman & Geil, 1998). This is cognitive flexibility.
Daily life for young adults shows many signs of such flexibility. The very fact
that emerging adults marry and become parents later than previous generations did
(as reviewed in Chapter 17) suggests that, couple by couple, thinking processes
are not tied to childhood experiences or traditional norms. Similarly, college plans
(courses to be taken, majors declared, careers sought, degrees earned) typically
change several times between students’ first and last semesters, as advice from
other students and professors, as well as personal experience, provides new infor-
mation (T. Miller et al., 2005).
Such data on behavioral change could be attributed to many factors other than
cognitive flexibility. However, research specifically examining adult cognition finds
Postformal Thought 475
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that adults are more likely than children to imagine several solutions for every
problem and then to take care in selecting the best one.
For example, in one study, adults of various ages were asked to suggest solu-
tions to 15 life problems (Artistico et al., 2003). Most participants found several
possible solutions for each dilemma, as postformal thinkers (but not concrete or
formal thinkers) usually do. The more familiar the problem, the more possibilities
were suggested. For example, losing motivation to finish a college degree evoked
an average of four solutions from younger adults but only one or two from older
adults. By contrast, a concern of late adulthood, the desire to have relatives visit
more frequently, evoked an average of four solutions from older adults but only
two from younger adults.
Research on problem-solving abilities of adults of various ages concludes that
emerging adults are better problem solvers than both adolescents and the oldest
adults. The reason is cognitive: Young adults are better able to set aside their
stereotypes and are not limited by familiar ideas (Klaczynski & Robinson, 2000;
Thornton & Dumke, 2005).
The ability to find multiple solutions to any practical problem is one hallmark
of postformal thought (Sinnott, 1998). Of course, individuals differ in their cogni-
tive flexibility, and experience helps. Evidence comes from another study, in which
older adults were asked what a man should do if his lawn needs mowing but his
doctor has told him to take it easy (Marsiske & Willis, 1995, 1998). Think of as
many solutions as you can. Now look at Table 18.1 (on page 478). If you see solu-
tions that did not occur to you, remember that this problem is more familiar to
older than younger adults. After adolescence, when people encounter complex
problems, maturity and experience help them become more strategic as well as
more flexible: They seek advice and control their initial impulses (Byrnes, 2005).
Countering Stereotypes
Cognitive flexibility, particularly the ability to change one’s childhood assumptions,
is needed to counter stereotypes. Look at the U.S. survey findings diagrammed in
Figure 18.2.
Not only do younger adults hold less gender-stereotyped views than older ones,
but a close look at age trends (comparing cohort changes over a 24-year period)
reveals that many adults changed their minds about men’s political superiority.
Half of the 18- to 24-year-olds who thought in 1972–1974 that men were better at
politics no longer held that idea 24 years later.
That this is a genuine cognitive shift is sug-
gested by other data from the same survey
showing that opinions did not shift much on
non-stereotype issues and that, over these
years, the attitudes of younger and older gen-
erations converged (T. W. Smith, 2005; see
Research Design). Since childhood experi-
ences and historical circumstances differ for
each cohort, this convergence indicates that
adults can reflect on current experiences and
can override childhood stereotypes.
Less prejudice regarding women in politics
is apparent not only in opinions but also in be-
havior: In 1973 the U.S. Senate was exclu-
sively male, but in 2006 there were 14 female
senators. The same political trend is apparent
worldwide: Dozens of female heads of state
➤Response for Someone Who Has to
Make an Important Decision (from page
474): Both are necessary. Mature thinking
requires a combination of emotions and logic.
To make sure you use both, take your time
(don’t just act on your first impulse) and talk
with people you trust. Ultimately, you will have
to live with your decision, so do not ignore
either intuitive or logical thought.
476 CHAPTER 18 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Cognitive Development
Age group (in years)
Source: T. W. Smith, 2005; data from the General Social Survey, National Opinion Research Center.
60
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
18–24 25–34 35–44 45–54 55–64 65+
Percent
answering
yes
“Do You Agree That Men Are Better at Politics Than Women?”
1972–1974 1996–1998
FIGURE 18.2
Older and Wiser? As evidence for adult
postformal thought, half of the young adults
in 1973 who thought men were better at
politics than women changed their minds by
middle age. Other data from the same survey
indicate that adults have become less preju-
diced about gender, race, and sexuality but
have not changed their minds about other
matters. This shows that opinions during adult-
hood change because of experiences and
reflection, not simply because of maturation.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 478):
How much change over 25 years is found in
the opinions of the cohort who were emerging
adults in 1973?
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have been elected over the past few decades; both Chile and Liberia elected their
first woman president in 2006.
Research on changes in racial prejudice in adulthood merits closer study. Many
European American children and adults harbor some implicit bias against African
Americans; this bias is detectable in their slower reaction time when mentally pro-
cessing photos of African Americans as compared with photos of European Ameri-
cans (Baron & Banaji, 2006). By adulthood, however, most people in the United
States today believe that they are not racially prejudiced, and their behavior reveals
no bias (at least in explicit tests in a research laboratory). Thus, many adults have
both unconscious prejudice and rational nonprejudice, a combination that illus-
trates dual processing (explained on p. 398). Cognitive flexibility allows adults to
recognize their emotional biases and to change their behaviors—both difficult
without openness and flexibility.
People are often unaware of their stereotypes, even when those false beliefs
harm themselves. One of the most pernicious self-prejudices is called stereotype
threat, the worry that other people assume that you, yourself, are stupid, lazy,
oversexed, or worse because of your race, sex, age, or weight (Steele, 1997). The
mere possibility of being negatively stereotyped arouses emotions that can disrupt
cognition as well as emotional regulation (Inzlicht et al., 2006).
Not everyone experiences stereotype threat, and not every context evokes it. The
feeling is particularly strong as ethnic and gender identities are being developed
(Good et al., 2003), a process that begins in adolescence and is usually completed
in emerging adulthood (as explained in Chapters 16 and 19).
Stereotype threat is particularly likely when circumstances remind the person
of a possible threat “in the air,” not an overt threat (Steele, 1997). For example, in
one study, young adults first answered a questionnaire that assessed how strongly
they identified with their gender and then tried to solve 20 difficult math prob-
lems (Schmader, 2002). Half of the participants simply took the test, but the
other half were told that the purpose of the exam was to discover sex differences,
which reminded them of the stereotype that women are deficient in math. Men
and women scored equally well, except for one group that had lower average scores:
women who heard that sex differences would be assessed and who identified
strongly with their sex. Apparently, the possible threat triggered anxiety, which
interfered with their performance.
Another possible example is that African American men have lower grades in
high school and earn far fewer college degrees than their peers, including their
Postformal Thought 477
Research Design
Scientist:T. W. Smith.
Publication: General Social Survey
(GSS), National Opinion Research
Center (2005).
Participants: Between 700 and 3,000
adults in U.S. households every year or
two since 1972.
Design: Questions were answered
regarding demographic characteristics
(age, ethnicity, SES) and social issues.
Participants’ opinions were then catego-
rized by age and chronological year.The
Smith study combines several years.
Major conclusion: Opinions did not shift
much on nonstereotype issues. Over
the years, the attitudes of younger and
older generations converged.
Comment:This convergence indicates
that with improved cognitive flexibility,
adults can reflect on current experiences
to potentially override preconceived
notions or stereotypes established in
childhood.
The Threat of Bias If students fear that
others expect them to do poorly in school
because of their ethnicity or gender, they
may not identify with academic achievement
and do worse on exams than they otherwise
would have.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 478):
Which of these three college students taking
an exam is least vulnerable to stereotype
threat?CO
RB
IS
stereotype threat The possibility that one’s
appearance or behavior will be misread to
confirm another person’s oversimplified,
prejudiced attitudes.
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genetic peers, African American women. Although social and economic inequality
is part of the reason, a cognitive interpretation is also possible (Cokley, 2003;
Sackett et al., 2004). If African American males become aware of a stereotype that
they are good athletes but poor scholars, it might make them anxious and then
make them disidentify with academic success. That would lead to disengagement
from studying, and then to lower grades and test scores (Ogbu, 2003).
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 476): About half of those who thought
men were better at politics changed their
minds (from 38 percent agreement to 19
percent).
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 477): It depends on what is being
tested and on the students’ backgrounds.
White males are generally least vulnerable,
but if the test is about literature and if the
male student believes that men are not as
good as women at writing about poetry and
fiction, his performance on the exam may be
affected by that stereotype.
478 CHAPTER 18 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Cognitive Development
TABLE 18.1
Four Adults’ Solutions to an Everyday Problem:
Examples of Practical Creativity
Problem: Let’s say that a 67-year-old man’s doctor has told him to take it easy because of a
heart condition. It’s summertime and the man’s yard needs to be mowed, but the man cannot
afford to pay someone to mow the lawn. What should he do?
Subject A
■ Do not mow the yard.
■ Pray that someone will do it for me . . . Let my church know I have a need . . . Tell any help
agency.
■ If I have children . . . let them know of my need.
Subject B
■ If the man has a yard, he must be living in a house. The best thing he could do would be to
sell the house and move into an apartment with no yard or upkeep.
■ He could trade services with a younger neighbor. The neighbor would mow his lawn in
return for the man walking the neighbor’s dog, watching his children, etc.
■ He could call his city or county human services department . . . and ask if there are
volunteers.
■ He could ask a grandson to mow it without pay.
Subject C
■ Immediately start planning to live in a situation that is suitable to his condition. Plan ahead.
■ In the meanwhile, he should see if relative or friend could help him until he changes
abode.
■ Possibly he could exchange the mowing for some service he can do, like babysitting or
tutoring.
■ Be sure to get a second medical opinion.
■ Talk to his church or organization people. Trade services.
■ Check civic organizations.
■ Possibly [borrowing] a riding mower might be suitable—until he changes abode.
■ Get a part-time job, and earn enough to pay for help.
Subject D
■ Move to quarters not having a yard to maintain.
■ Cover lawn with black plastic sheeting . . . remove plastic in fall and sow rye grass.
■ Rent a room to a man who will care for yard as part payment of room.
■ Marry a young physical training teacher who loves yard work.
■ Tether sheep in yard.
■ Buy a reconditioned remote-controlled power mower, shrubbery, and flowers.
■ Plant shade trees.
■ Cover yard with river rock and/or concrete and apply weed killer when necessary.
■ Plant a vegetable garden in yard.
■ Plant a grain seed and sell harvest.
Sources: Marsiske & Willis, 1995, 1998, in Adams-Price, 1998, pp. 100–101.
The problem comes from Denney and Pearce, 1989.
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Stereotype threat may affect people from many groups. In addition to those
already cited, members of “caste-like minorities in industrial and nonindustrial
nations throughout the world (e.g., the Maoris of New Zealand, the Baraku of
Japan, the Harijans of India, the Oriental Jews of Israel, and the West Indians of
Great Britain)” all show evidence of stereotype threat (Steele, 1997, p. 623).
How do unconscious prejudices relate to postformal thought? Since everyone
has some childhood stereotypes hidden in their brain, adults need flexible cogni-
tion to overcome them, abandoning prejudices learned earlier. Is this possible?
Yes, as the following explains.
Postformal Thought 479
thinking like a scientist
Reducing Stereotype Threat
Stereotype threat can make women and minorities doubt their
intellectual ability. That doubt reduces learning if they become
anxious in academic contexts, performing below their potential.
Many programs attempt to raise the academic achievement of
individuals whose potential seems unrealized. Surprisingly suc-
cessful are colleges whose students are predominantly women
or African American (Astin & Osequera, 2002; Freeman &
Thomas, 2002). Perhaps context is crucial: If everyone in a group
has the same background, stereotype threat is diminished.
But what can reduce stereotype threat when students are a
minority at their college? In theory, people will be less threat-
ened by any stereotype if they believe that achievement depends
more on their effort than on inborn, genetic traits (Steele,
1997). In other words, if adults accept that IQ can be improved
through hard work, they can overcome handicaps caused by
stereotype threat.
This idea led to a hypothesis: Intellectual performance
increases if people internalize (believe wholeheartedly, not just
intellectually) the idea that intelligence is plastic and can be
changed. One group of scientists tested this hypothesis, build-
ing on two findings from prior research: (1) Stereotype threat
regarding intellectual ability is powerful among African Ameri-
cans, and (2) people are more likely to accept and internalize
ideas when they express those ideas, a phenomenon called
“saying is believing.”
In an experiment, researchers recruited African American
and European American students at Stanford University, where
African Americans are a small minority (Aronson et al., 2002;
see Research Design). The students were randomly divided into
three equal groups. For Group I, attitudes regarding college
were measured before and after the experimental period, but no
intervention occurred.
Students in Groups II and III experienced almost identical
interventions, in three sessions. First, they read a letter suppos-
edly written by a struggling junior high student, and they were
asked to write an encouraging response that included current
research on intelligence. In the second session, the experimenter
praised their letters and gave them a thank-you note ostensibly
from the younger student. They were then to encourage other
young students by preparing a speech, which was videotaped
as a first draft and later, at the third session, was taped again in
a “final” version. All three sessions were designed to help them
internalize a message about intelligence.
The only difference between Groups II and III was in the par-
ticular research they learned about (via a video as well as written
text) and were asked to incorporate into their letters and
speeches. Group II was told to emphasize that there are multiple
intelligences (see Chapter 11). Group III was asked to explain
that intelligence expands with effort and that new neurons may
grow (e.g., Segalowitz & Schmidt, 2003). This later research
undercuts the notion that racial differences in IQ are genetic,
thus reducing stereotype threat.
The intervention in Group III succeeded. Compared with
participants in Groups I and II, participants in Group III
changed their ideas about the plasticity of intelligence, and
African Americans in particular improved their attitudes about
Research Design
Scientists: Joshua Aronson, Carrie Fried, and Catherine Good.
Publication: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (2002).
Participants: A total of 79 Stanford undergraduates of both
sexes, 42 African American and 37 European American.
Design: Students with the same measures were divided into
three groups—Group I had no intervention, Group II learned
about multiple intelligences, and Group III learned that intelli-
gence depends on effort, not innate ability.They answered
questionnaires about attitudes toward college, IQ, and GPA
before and after the intervention (if any). Results were adjusted
so that scores on the SAT (a standardized test of ability) were
equalized, which means that individuals were compared with
others of the same tested potential.
Major conclusion: Compared with participants in Groups I and
II, those in Group III changed their ideas about the plasticity
of intelligence, so the intervention in Group III succeeded in
reducing stereotype threat.
Comments:This experiment and other research suggest that
although stereotype threat is powerful, emotions about cogni-
tion can change.
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Dialectical Thought
With all aspects of postformal thinking, advanced thinking at any point of adult-
hood is a “promise, not reality” (Labouvie-Vief, 2006). Postformal thought, at its
best, becomes dialectical thought, said to be the most advanced cognitive
process (Basseches, 1984, 1989; Riegel, 1975). The word dialectic refers to a
philosophical concept (developed by the German philosopher Georg Hegel in the
early nineteenth century) that every idea or truth bears within itself the opposite
idea or truth. Other philosophers and cultures over the centuries also recognized
dialectical thought (Wong, 2006).
To use the words of philosophers, each idea, or thesis, implies an opposing idea,
or antithesis. Dialectical thought involves considering both these poles of an idea
simultaneously and then forging them into a synthesis—that is, a new idea that
integrates both the original and its opposite. Note that the synthesis is not a com-
promise; it is a new idea that incorporates both original ideas. For example, many
young children idolize their parents (thesis), many adolescents are highly critical of
their parents (antithesis), and many emerging adults appreciate their parents but
realize they are influenced by their background and age (synthesis).
Because ideas always initiate their opposites, change is continuous. Each new
synthesis deepens and refines the thesis and antithesis that initiated it: Dialectical
change results in developmental growth (Sinnott, 1998).
Dialectical thinking involves the constant integration of beliefs and experiences
with all the contradictions and inconsistencies of daily life. Educators who agree
with Russian theorist Lev Vygotsky that learning is a social interaction within the
zone of proximal development (with learners and mentors continually adjusting to
each other) are taking a dialectical approach to education (Vianna & Stetsenko,
2006). Dialectical processes are readily observable by life-span researchers, who
believe that “the occurrence and effective mastery of crises and conflicts represent
not only risks, but also opportunities for new development” (Baltes et al., 1998,
p. 1041). As Chapter 1 emphasized, life-span change is multidirectional, ongoing,
and often surprising—a dynamic, dialectical process.
A “Broken” Love Affair
Let’s look at an example of dialectical thought familiar to many: the end of a love
affair (Basseches, 1984). A nondialectical thinker is likely to believe that each
480 CHAPTER 18 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Cognitive Development
dialectical thought The most advanced cog-
nitive process, characterized by the ability
to consider a thesis and its antithesis simul-
taneously and thus to arrive at a synthesis.
Dialectical thought makes possible an
ongoing awareness of pros and cons,
advantages and disadvantages, possibili-
ties and limitations.
thesis A proposition or statement of belief;
the first stage of the process of dialectical
thinking.
antithesis A proposition or statement of
belief that opposes the thesis; the second
stage of the process of dialectical thinking.
synthesis A new idea that integrates the
thesis and its antithesis, thus representing
a new and more comprehensive level of
truth; the third stage of the process of
dialectical thinking.
TABLE 18.2
Attitudes and Grades in Academic Term Following Stereotype-Threat Experiment
Group I Group II Group III
(no intervention) (IQ is multiple) (IQ is malleable)
Blacks Whites Blacks Whites Blacks Whites
Value placed on academics,
from 1 (lowest) to 7 (highest) 3.5 5.7 3.9 5.7 4.8 5.6
Average grade B B+ B B+ B+ A–
Source: Aronson et al., 2002.
academic achievement, reported more joy in learning, and in-
creased their average grades (see Table 18.2).
This experiment and other research suggest that stereotype
threat is powerful and that emotions about cognition can change.
Emerging adults who have suffered from racial prejudice and
whose social context elicits stereotype threat can show cogni-
tive flexibility, reducing anxiety, increasing learning, and raising
their grades.
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person has stable, independent traits. Faced with a troubled romance,
then, the nondialectical thinker concludes that one partner (or the
other) is at fault, or perhaps the relationship was a mistake from the
beginning because the two were a “bad match.”
By contrast, dialectical thinkers see people and relationships as
constantly evolving; partners are changed by time as well as by their
interaction. Adjustment is necessary and inevitable for every couple.
Therefore, a romance does not become troubled because the partners
are fundamentally incompatible or because one or the other is at fault
but because both have changed without adapting. Marriages do not
“break” or “fail”; they either continue to develop over time (dialectically)
or stagnate. Ideally, both members of a relationship develop dialectical
processes, with each partner recognizing the needs of the other and
moving forward with a new synthesis (McCarthy & McCarthy, 2004).
Does this happen in practice as well as in theory? Perhaps. Cer-
tainly teenage marriages are more likely to end in divorce than adult
marriages are. People of all ages are upset when a romance ends, but,
perhaps because of neurological immaturity, the younger a person is,
the more likely he or she is to be overcome by jealousy or despair,
unable to find the synthesis (Fisher, 2006). Older couples may be
less likely to divorce because both partners think more dialectically
and therefore move from thesis (“I love you because you are perfect”)
past antithesis (“I hate you because you can’t do anything right”) to
synthesis (“Neither of us is perfect, but together we can grow”).
A similar dialectical process occurs among other people in close relationships
(Montgomery & Baxter, 1998). This was very evident in a study of grandmothers,
mothers, and daughters, whose relationships were rife with contradictions be-
tween “unified opposites” (Miller-Day, 2004, p. 77).
New demands, roles, responsibilities, and even conflicts become opportunities
for growth (Wethington, 2002). Dialectically, a student might enroll in a course in
a subject area that is unfamiliar, an employee might seek an unexpected promo-
tion, a young adult might leave his parents’ household and move to another town.
In such situations, when comfort collides with the desire for growth, dialectical
thinkers find a new synthesis, gaining insight (Newirth, 2003).
Dialectical thinking is more often found in middle-aged people than in emerg-
ing adults, and it is rare in adolescents (Vukman, 2005). Regression is possible.
Degradation of complex thinking can be caused by any emotionally charged event,
such as the death of a friend; the start of a new romance; or, according to develop-
mentalist Gisela Labouvie-Vief (2006), a national tragedy such as the terrorist
attacks of September 11, 2001, to which most adults reacted with an emotional
surge of patriotism, heroism, fear, and prejudice.
Culture and Dialectics
Does cultural background affect cognitive processes? Probably. Several researchers
believe that ancient Greek philosophy led Europeans to use analytic, absolutist
logic—to take sides in a battle between right and wrong, good and evil—whereas
Confucianism and Taoism led the Chinese and other Asians to seek compromise,
the “Middle Way.” Asians tend to think holistically, about the whole rather than
the parts, seeking the synthesis because “in place of logic, the Chinese developed
a dialectic” (Nisbett et al., 2001, p. 305). (Of course, such cultural distinctions
exaggerate the variability in both places.)
In one series of experiments, Asian and European American students were
asked to respond to various situations like this one:
Postformal Thought 481
One Woman’s Dialectical Journey In dia-
lectical thinking, individuals develop new
thoughts that seem opposed to their original
thinking. Eventually, a new cognitive pattern
incorporates both the original idea and the
opposing one. In 1994, Carolyn McCarthy
thought of herself primarily as a wife, mother,
nurse (thesis)—until her husband was sense-
lessly murdered, and her son seriously
wounded, by a gunman on a shooting ram-
page on a commuter train. She began to
question many basic assumptions in her life
and in the social order (antithesis). In particu-
lar, she opposed her Republican congressman
—whom she had previously supported—
because he was against gun control. This led
to a synthesis in which she herself ran for
Congress, as a Democrat, winning the seat
to become a public advocate for a much
wider community.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 483):
What event is Representative McCarthy
promoting?
AP
/
W
ID
E
W
OR
LD
P
HO
TO
S
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Mary, Phoebe, and Julie all have daughters. Each mother has held a set of values
that has guided her efforts to raise her daughter. Now the daughters have grown
up, and each of them is rejecting many of her mother’s values. How did it hap-
pen and what should they do?
[Peng & Nisbett, 1999]
As part of this research, judges who did not know the ethnic backgrounds of the
respondents scored the answers as to whether they sought some middle ground
(a dialectical response) or took sides. For example, a response like “Both mothers
and daughters have failed to understand each other” is a dialectical statement,
whereas “Mothers have to recognize that daughters have a right to their own
values” is not (Peng & Nisbett, 1999). Asians were more often dialectical, search-
ing for a compromise that satisfied both generations.
Another series of studies compared three groups of students: one group con-
sisting of Koreans in Seoul, Korea; one of Korean Americans who had lived most
of their lives in the United States; and one of U.S.-born European Americans.
Participants were told:
Suppose you are the police officer in charge of a case involving a graduate student
who murdered a professor. . . . As a police officer, you must establish motive.
[Choi et al., 2003]
Participants were given a list of 97 items of information and were asked to identify
the ones they would want to know about as they looked for the killer’s motive.
Some of the 97 items were clearly relevant (e.g., whether the professor had publicly
ridiculed the graduate student), and virtually every student in all three groups
wanted to know about them. Some were clearly irrelevant (e.g., the graduate stu-
dent’s favorite color), and almost everyone left them out. Other items were ques-
tionable (e.g., what the professor was doing that fateful night; how the professor
was dressed). Compared with both groups of Americans, the students in Korea
asked for 15 more items, on average. The researchers believe that students in Seoul
had been taught by their culture to include the entire context in order to find a
holistic, balanced synthesis (Choi et al., 2003).
Dialectical thought affects priorities and values.
Extensive cross-cultural research on well-being finds
that Western adults are happiest when they achieve
a personal triumph, but Chinese adults are happiest
when they find a synthesis of several social roles
(Lu, 2005). Other research finds a positive correla-
tion between the frequency of experiencing joy and
distress among Asian Americans as well as among
Japanese in Japan. No such correlation was found
among European and Hispanic Americans (Scollon
et al., 2005). One interpretation is that dialectical
thinkers seek a balance of happy and unhappy mo-
ments, reminding themselves of certain joys when
they are sad and vice versa.
Researchers agree that notable differences be-
tween Eastern and Western thought are the result of
nurture, not nature—that “cognitive differences
have ecological, historical and sociological origins”
(Choi et al., 2003, p. 47), not genetic ones. None in-
sist that one way of thinking is always better than the
other. In fact, the notion that there is one “best way”
is not dialectical, although most developmentalists
482 CHAPTER 18 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Cognitive Development
Describe This Scene According to some
research, Asians tend to take in the whole
scene, whereas European are likely to focus
on the central image.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 484):
What peripheral details are more likely to be
noticed by an Asian than by a European?
AP
P
HO
TO
/
KE
IT
H
SR
AK
OC
IC
470-497_BergerLS7e_CH18.qxp 9/19/07 3:20 PM Page 482

think that a flexible process of reflection and change is more advanced than simply
sticking to one thesis.
SUMMING UP
Adult thinking both advances and declines over many decades, not following a strict
chronological timetable or proceeding to a universally recognized stage. Some believe
that a fifth stage of cognition follows Piaget’s fourth stage of formal operational thought,
although most researchers prefer to think of adult thinking as potentially reaching new
levels, not a new stage. Postformal thinking is characterized by more practical, flexible,
and dialectical thought.
The real-life responsibilities that are typical in adulthood advance cognition, in part
because neither logical analyses nor emotional reactions are adequate in isolation.
Adults are better able to abandon their stereotypes and adapt their long-term relation-
ships because of their cognitive advances. Some adults think dialectically, with thesis
leading to antithesis and then synthesis. This ever-changing, dynamic cognition is char-
acteristic of intellectually advanced adults and is more evident in some contexts and
cultures than others.
■
Morals and Religion
According to many researchers, adult responsibilities, experiences, and education
affect moral reasoning and religious beliefs. This maturation of values appears first
in emerging adulthood and continues through middle age (Pratt & Norris, 1999).
As one expert said:
Dramatic and extensive changes occur in young adulthood (the 20s and 30s) in
the basic problem-solving strategies used to deal with ethical issues. . . . These
changes are linked to fundamental reconceptualizations in how the person un-
derstands society and his or her stake in it.
[Rest, 1993, p. 201]
According to research by this expert, one stimulus for young adult shifts in moral
reasoning is college education, especially if coursework includes extensive discus-
sion of moral issues or if the student’s future profession (such as law or medicine)
requires subtle ethical decisions.
It is known that many emerging adults enter college expecting to deepen their
values. In a U.S. survey of new college students, about 40 percent said they
thought it was important to develop a meaningful philosophy of life, and the same
percentage hoped to integrate spirituality into their lives. About 65 percent
planned to help other people who were in difficulty (Chronicle of Higher Educa-
tion, 2006). In general, when students finish college, they report having experi-
enced a “small, steady gain throughout college on developing their own values and
ethical standards” (Komives & Nuss, 2005, p. 163).
Which Era? What Place?
Before going further, we need to clarify the relationship between morals and cul-
ture. Moral values are powerfully affected by circumstances, including national
background, culture, and era. Think about historical and national differences in
body covering (topless? head coverings? burka?), diet (pork? beef? vegan?), and
much more. These practices are rooted in moral principles, such as the value and
purpose of nonhuman animals. Indeed, culture determines whether a particular
Morals and Religion 483
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
481): Reading the letters on the sign helps if
you are not only good at guessing the missing
words but also politically astute about gun
control. She is promoting the Million Mom
March that was held in May 2000 to demand
stronger gun-control laws.
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practice is a moral issue at all. For example, in the United States, abortion is
considered a moral issue, but it is less so in Japan, where specifics (e.g., did the
pregnancy result from rape?) are more important than decontextualized principles
(Sahar & Karasawa, 2005).
The power of culture makes it difficult to assess whether adult morality changes
with age. Further, age-related differences in opinions can be judged as improve-
ments or declines, depending on one’s own standards. For example, U.S. data show
that, as people age from 20 to 50, they tend to become less supportive of homosex-
ual rights, of divorce, and of the right to publish pornography but more supportive
of public spending on mass transit and health (T. W. Smith, 2005).
However, it does seem that the process (not necessarily the outcome) of moral
thinking improves with age. One important aspect is that adults become less dog-
matic. As one scholar explains it, “The evolved human brain has provided humans
with cognitive capacity that is so flexible and creative that every conceivable moral
principle generates opposition and counter principles” (Kendler, 2002, p. 503).
Evidence for moral growth abounds in biographical and autobiographical litera-
ture. Most readers of this book probably know someone (or may be that someone)
who had a narrow, shallow outlook on the world at age 18 and then developed a
broader, deeper perspective in adulthood. However, few scientific studies of moral
development have been published. At least one longitudinal study found more
understanding and empathy for other people among young adults than among the
same people when they were adolescents (Eisenberg et al., 2005).
Dilemmas for Emerging Adults
It is fortunate that adolescent egocentrism ebbs, because emerging adults often
experience moral dilemmas. They are no longer bound by their parents’ rules or by
their childhood culture (which they questioned during their identity crisis), but
they are not yet connected to a family of their own. As a result, they must decide
for themselves what to do about sex, drugs, education, vocation, and many other
matters.
One set of dilemmas concerns sexuality, reproduction, and relationships—
topics that can be discussed at length but are only mentioned as examples here.
Carol Gilligan believes that decisions about contraception and abortion advance
moral thinking, especially for women (Gilligan, 1981; Gilligan et al., 1990).
According to Gilligan, the two sexes approach these decisions differently. Women
are raised to develop a morality of care. They give human needs and relation-
ships the highest priority. In contrast, men are taught to develop a morality of
justice; their emphasis is on distinguishing right from wrong.
Other research does not support Gilligan’s description of gender differences in
morality. Factors such as education, specific dilemmas (some situations evoke
care and some justice), and culture correlate more strongly than gender with
whether a person’s morality emphasizes relationships or absolutes (Juujärvi, 2005;
Vikan et al., 2005; Walker, 1984). For example, those with less education (no
longer characteristic of women) are more swayed by immediate relationships.
Emerging adulthood is “a crucial time for the development of a world view”
(Arnett, 2004, p. 166), not only about sex and relationships but also about career
and lifestyle. Finding a job and new friends, meeting coworkers and neighbors, all
within a global economy and with advanced communication (Internet, satellite
videos, international music), means that contemporary emerging adults learn
about ethical principles that differ radically from their own. Because these experi-
ences cluster in early adulthood, as postformal thinking advances, young adults
think deeply about moral issues.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
482): Asians are more likely to notice the tele-
phone poles and wires, the long shadows on
the street, the trees in the foreground and at
top right, the varied designs of the building
roofs, the street lights, the white church spire
in the distance. If you are a native-born U.S.
resident, you may have missed most of these
details but come close to identifying the place
and time: an American city (specifically,
Pittsburgh) in the late 1990s (specifically,
1997).
484 CHAPTER 18 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Cognitive Development
morality of care In Gilligan’s view, moral
principles that reflect the tendency of
females to be reluctant to judge right and
wrong in absolute terms because they are
socialized to be nurturant, compassionate,
and nonjudgmental.
morality of justice In Gilligan’s view, moral
principles that reflect the tendency of
males to emphasize justice over compas-
sion, judging right and wrong in absolute
terms.
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Freedom of choice may become problematic. Some emerging adults cherish
their independence from family restraints and childhood prejudices. However,
others develop “an acute sense of alienation and impermanence as they grow up
with a lack of cultural certainty and a lack of clear guidelines for how life is to be
lived” (Arnett, 2001, p. 776). Researchers are discovering that people are happiest
with some choice (adults stuck in their childhood home are less happy) but not
too much (Schwartz, 2004).
Morals and Religion 485
TABLE 18.3
“Some Forms of Cheating Are Necessary to Get the
Grades I Want”: College Students Who Agree
Student Characteristics Percentage Agreeing
All students 8%
Type of institution
Two-year colleges 5
Four-year institutions 9
Universities 11
Attendance
Full-time 9
Part-time 3
Gender
Men 10
Women 5
Resident status
Residence hall or fraternity 11
Commuter 6
Age
25 or younger 10
Over 25 3
Source: Data cited in McCabe & Trevino, 1996.
Clear Guidelines for Cheaters
Cheating is wrong; cheaters should be punished. That is part of
my moral code. Yet I have read that moral values are influenced
by culture and that flexible, dialectical thinking is mature. My
reading made me halt my immediate, emotional reaction when I
discovered three identical answers on the essay portion of one of
my tests. I wondered if my students knew that there were
cheaters among them. I handed out an anonymous question-
naire. The results:
■ Thirty-five percent were certain cheating was going on in
the class.
■ Fifty-two percent strongly suspected it.
■ Thirteen percent thought there was no cheating.
I was shocked. Why had no one told me? What should I do? In
the next class, I divided the students into groups, told each group
to figure out what my response should be, and left the room.
When I returned, I learned that my students did not share
my dismay. Some noncheaters felt superior (cheaters are “only
hurting themselves”). Some expressed ethnic prejudice (foreign
students “whisper things in their language”). Some thought
cheating was my fault (“Your tests are too hard”) or a good thing
(we should “help our friends”). Obviously, my culture clashed
with theirs.
These numbers echo a nationwide poll of high school students,
titled “A Whole Lot of Cheating Going On,” in which only a third
of the students said that “not very much” cheating occurred in
their schools (Keifer, 2004). My horror is shared by many other
professors. One review called cheating “endemic” to all colleges
(Whitley & Keith-Spiegel, 2002), and a summary found that all
professors abhor plagiarism, although they differ widely in their
definitions and punishments (Robinson-Zañartu et al., 2005).
And my students are similar to others; almost all college students
know of cheating but almost no student reports it, and faculty
are much less aware than students are (Hard et al., 2006).
Obviously, professors and students view cheating differently.
This was confirmed by a professor of anthropology, who spent a
year enrolled as a student at her university. She writes: “I wish
students could more readily see . . . that finding a student cheat-
ing is not a triumphant moment, as one student suggested to
me, but an upsetting one” (Nathan, 2006, p. 11). To me, cheat-
ing means that I have failed.
But wait. Using dialectical thinking, I realized that my culture
(in this case, the academic system) considers cheating a dishon-
est attack on education, but student culture may see it as cooper-
ation and mutual support. Students cheat more if they are closely
connected to colleges—that is, if they attend full-time, live on
campus (see Table 18.3), and belong to fraternities or sororities
(Storch & Storch, 2002). My thesis is that cheating is evil; their
antithesis is that cheating may help someone get a diploma.
A political scientist reports that students who cheat are mak-
ing a rational choice in that they weigh the benefit of a higher
grade against the unlikely cost of being caught and failing the
class (Woessner, 2006). In this way, using someone else’s work
can be seen as a solution to a social problem. Note that this is a
issues and applications
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Measuring Moral Growth
How can we assess whether a person uses postformal thinking regarding moral
choices? In Lawrence Kohlberg’s scheme, people discuss standard moral dilem-
mas, responding however they choose to various probes. Over decades of longitu-
dinal research, Kohlberg (Chapter 13) noted that some respondents in his sample
seemed to regress at young adulthood, from postconventional to conventional
thought. On further analysis of the responses, this shift was seen as an advance
because the young adults incorporated human social concerns (Labouvie-Vief,
2006). They were dialectical, reaching a new level.
The Defining Issues Test (DIT) is another way to measure moral thinking; it
does not require thoughtful analysis of the level of reasoning. The DIT has a series
of questions with specific choices. For example, in one of the DIT dilemmas, a
news reporter must decide whether to publish some old personal information that
will damage a political candidate. Respondents rank their priorities, from personal
benefits (“credit for investigative reporting”) to higher goals (“serving society”).
This ranking of items leads to a number score, which makes it easier to correlate
moral development with other aspects of adult cognition, experience, and life
satisfaction (Schiller, 1998). In general, DIT scores rise with age and education
because adults gradually become less doctrinaire and self-serving and more flexi-
ble and altruistic (Rest et al., 1999).
This observation was recently confirmed by a study of adolescents and young
adults in the Netherlands (Raaijmakers, 2005; see Research Design). The relation-
ship between the DIT and delinquency was intriguing because thought shifted
from justification for past behavior to guidance for future behavior. In adoles-
cence, DIT scores rose among those who rarely broke the law. However, in early
adulthood, a rise in DIT scores preceded a drop in delinquency. For adults, then,
moral thinking produced moral behavior, not just vice versa.
Stages of Faith
A similar process may occur for the development of faith. James Fowler (1981,
1986) developed a sequence of six stages of faith, building on the work of Piaget
and Kohlberg:
■ Stage 1: Intuitive-projective faith. Faith is magical, illogical, imaginative, and
filled with fantasy, especially about the power of God and the mysteries of
birth and death. It is typical of children ages 3 to 7.
■ Stage 2: Mythic-literal faith. Individuals take the myths and stories of religion
literally, believing simplistically in the power of symbols. God is seen as re-
warding those who follow His laws and punishing others. Stage 2 is typical
from ages 7 to 11, but it also characterizes some adults. Fowler cites a woman
who says extra prayers at every opportunity, to put them “in the bank.”
■ Stage 3: Synthetic-conventional faith. This is a conformist stage. Faith is con-
ventional, reflecting concern about other people and favoring “what feels
486 CHAPTER 18 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Cognitive Development
solution used by politicians with speechwriters, celebrities with
ghost writers, authors of some best-sellers, and members of col-
lectivist cultures where people are expected to help their family
and friends. For none of them is this considered cheating.
That is not my perspective. But postformal thinking requires
me to combine my emotions with logic. My synthesis is not to
change my moral code but to make it explicit, part of the culture
of my classroom. I no longer assume that my students share my
values. I ask students to sit far apart during tests; I use alternate
versions of exams; and I require creative, current homework. If
cheating occurs, I talk privately to all the offenders, trying to
combine consequences with cognitive growth.
Research Design
Scientist: Quinten A. W. Raaijmakers.
Publication: International Journal of
Behavioral Development (2005).
Participants: A total of 846 Dutch youth,
both male and female, ages 15–23 at
outset, 21–29 at conclusion.
Design: Anonymous questionnaires
about self-reported delinquency and
scores on the Defining Issues Test.
Results were compared by age (cross-
sectionally) and over several years
(longitudinally).
Major conclusions: In adolescence, DIT
scores rose among those who rarely
broke the law. In early adulthood, a rise
in DIT scores preceded a drop in delin-
quency.
Comment:The results indicate that for
adults, moral thinking produces moral
behavior, not vice versa. A question
that arises with all research is whether
people in another nation would respond
the same way.
Defining Issues Test (DIT) A series of
questions developed by James Rest and
designed to assess respondents’ level of
moral development by having them rank
possible solutions to moral dilemmas.
470-497_BergerLS7e_CH18.qxp 9/19/07 3:20 PM Page 486

right” over what makes intellectual sense. Fowler quotes a man whose per-
sonal rules include “being truthful with my family. Not trying to cheat them
out of anything. . . . I’m not saying that God or anybody else set my rules.
I really don’t know. It’s what I feel is right.”
■ Stage 4: Individual-reflective faith. Faith is characterized by intellectual
detachment from the values of the culture and from the approval of other
people. College may be a springboard to stage 4, as the young person learns
to question the authority of parents, teachers, and other powerful figures and
to rely instead on his or her own understanding of the world. Faith becomes
an active commitment.
■ Stage 5: Conjunctive faith. Faith incorporates both powerful unconscious
ideas (such as the power of prayer and the love of God) and rational, conscious
values (such as the worth of life compared with that of property). People are
willing to accept contradictions, obviously a postformal manner of thinking.
Fowler says that this cosmic perspective is seldom achieved before middle age.
• Stage 6: Universalizing faith. People at this stage have a powerful vision of
universal compassion, justice, and love that compels them to live their lives
in a way that many other people think either saintly or foolish. A transforming
experience is often the gateway to stage 6, as happened to Moses, Muhammad,
the Buddha, and St. Paul and, more recently, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin
Luther King, Jr., and Mother Teresa. Stage 6 is rarely achieved.
If Fowler is correct, faith, like other aspects of cognition, progresses from a sim-
ple, self-centered, one-sided perspective to a more complex, altruistic (unselfish),
and many-sided view. Although not everyone agrees with Fowler’s particular
stages, the role of religion in human development is now widely accepted, espe-
cially when people are confronted with “unsettling life situations” (Day & Naedts,
1999; Miller & Thoresen, 2003). Faith, apparently, is one way people combat
stress, overcome adversity, and analyze challenges. Other evidence suggests that
this process continues over the years of adulthood, with young adults least likely
to attend religious services and to pray (Wilhelm et al., 2007). Changes over the
decades of adulthood may or may not signify a higher religious stage.
Morals and Religion 487
The Same Event, A Thousand Miles Apart: Expressions of Faith Both these photo-
graphs depict Christian worship services, one in Mount Union, Pennsylvania (left),
and the other in Lagos, Nigeria (right). In any group of worshippers, some may be at
Fowler’s first stages of faith and some may be in the final one. The difference depends
on their experiences and maturation, not on their devotion to particular elements of
creed or ritual.
AP
P
HO
TO
/
GE
N
E
J.
P
US
KA
R
LU
DO
VI
C
CA
RE
M
E
/ C
OR
BI
S
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In any case, like almost all forms of thinking and analyzing, faith changes as life
does. Cognition in adulthood is not stagnant. It is difficult, however, to imagine
that one’s own thinking, or morality, or faith is less than it will be in another
decade or two. My own experience is one example.
488 CHAPTER 18 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Cognitive Development
Faith and Tolerance
When I was in college, I once spoke with a young woman whose
religious beliefs seemed naive. She hadn’t given her faith much
thought. Wanting to deepen her thinking without being harsh,
I asked, “How can you be so sure of what you believe?”
Instead of recognizing the immaturity of her thought, she
startled me by replying, “I hope that someday you reach the cer-
tainty that I have.”
In the years since that conversation, I have encountered
many other people whose religious beliefs seem too pat, too un-
questioning, too immature; yet I realize that they might think
that my faith is less advanced than theirs. When someone tells
me that he or she is praying for me and my family, I respond gra-
ciously and gratefully and do not judge their beliefs. Does this
mean that my cognition has become more flexible, more dialec-
tical? Has my own faith moved up the hierarchy that Fowler
described?
Hunter Lewis (2000) observed that “people need to consider
their own values, consider them seriously, consider them for
themselves” (p. 248). I agree, and I think Fowler’s description of
six stages of faith can aid such consideration. There is a problem,
however: I wonder if religious beliefs do indeed advance. Because
so few people are at the upper stages (just as almost no one
reaches Kohlberg’s stage 6, and few adults always use postformal
thought), the implication is that most of us are immature.
Judging someone else’s faith, as Fowler seems to do, strikes me
as arrogant and self-satisfied—traits antithetical to my beliefs.
Yet I judge cognitive growth as I teach. Is this one of the contra-
dictions of life that adults learn to live with, or am I justifying an
irrational set of values? It troubles me to describe stages of faith
that are beyond most adults. I like to think I am at stage 6, or at
least 5. But now, at least, I recognize the possibility that my own
faith may not be as advanced as I imagine.
in person
SUMMING UP
Moral issues challenge cognitive processes, as adults move beyond the acceptance of
authority in childhood and beyond the rebellion of adolescence. Cultural values always
affect beliefs, so it is particularly difficult to judge one’s own moral position held in
adulthood as advanced compared with another person’s position. According to Gilligan,
gender shapes a person’s moral priorities, but other researchers disagree. Some people
become more open and reflective in their moral judgments and in their religious faith as
they mature and as personal experiences and education deepen their ethical under-
standing. However, as globalism advances, young adults encounter conflicting value
systems and divergent religious faiths; this exposure presents potential challenges and
practical difficulties. It is not obvious that some people are more advanced in morals
and faith than others, although postformal thinking should advance moral judgment as
well as other forms of thinking.
■
Cognitive Growth and Higher Education
Many readers of this textbook have a personal interest in the final topic of this
chapter, the relationship between college education and cognition. All the evi-
dence is positive: College graduates seem to be not only healthier and wealthier
than other adults but also deeper and more flexible thinkers. These conclusions
are so powerful that scientists view them with suspicion: Might selection effects
or historical trends, rather than college education itself, lead to such encouraging
correlations? Let us look at the data.
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The Effects of College
Contemporary students attend college primarily to secure better jobs and to learn
specific skills (especially in knowledge and service industries, such as information
technology, global business, and health care). Their secondary goal is general
education (Komives & Nuss, 2005). This is true not only in the United States
(see Figure 18.3) but also in many other nations (Jongbloed et al., 1999).
One of the students in a course I taught at Quinnipiac
University in 2004 acknowledged both goals:
A higher education provides me with the ability to
make adequate money so I can provide for my future.
An education also provides me with the ability to be
a mature thinker and to attain a better understanding
of myself. . . . An education provides the means for a
better job after college, which will support me and
allow me to have a stable, comfortable retirement.
[E., age 18]
Such worries about future costs and retirement in-
come may seem premature in an 18-year-old, but this is
not unusual. About half of all U.S. students take out
loans to pay for college, and many are concerned about
the impact the debt will have on their economic future.
Statistics confirm the economic value of college. For
example, in the year 2003 in the United States, the
average annual income of full-time workers with a BA degree was $68,000, com-
pared with $33,000 for people with only a high school diploma (U.S. Bureau of
the Census, 2007).
College also correlates with better health: College graduates everywhere smoke
less, eat better, exercise more, and live longer. They are also more likely to be
spouses, homeowners, and parents of healthy children. Does something gained in
college—perhaps knowledge, self-control, less of a tendency toward depression,
or better job prospects—affect health in positive ways? All these seem likely,
although researchers are not certain how much each element contributes (Adler
& Snibbe, 2003).
Cognitive Growth and Higher Education 489
Thumbs Up! These graduates in Long Beach,
California, are joyful that they have reached a
benchmark. Ideally, their diplomas will earn
them not only better jobs but also an intellec-
tual perspective that will help them all their
lives.
LO
UI
SE
G
UB
B
/ C
OR
BI
S
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
1970 1980 1990 1997 2002
Percent
Percentage of Students Describing Objectives as “Very Important”
Year
2005
Source: American Council on Education, in Chronicle of Higher Education, August 25, 2006.
Being well-off
financially
Developing a
meaningful
philosophy
of life
FIGURE 18.3
Primary Reason for Going to College:
Wealth Versus Wisdom The American
Council on Education surveys college fresh-
men every year. Cohort shifts are particularly
significant regarding income.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 490)
Does a generation gap exist between current
professors and their students?
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Looking specifically at cognitive development, does college make people more
likely to combine the subjective and objective in a flexible, dialectical way? Probably.
College seems to improve verbal and quantitative abilities, knowledge of specific
subject areas, skills in various professions, reasoning, and reflection. According to
one comprehensive review:
Compared to freshmen, seniors have better oral and written communication
skills, are better abstract reasoners or critical thinkers, are more skilled at using
reason and evidence to address ill-structured problems for which there are no
verifiably correct answers, have greater intellectual flexibility in that they are bet-
ter able to understand more than one side of a complex issue, and can develop
more sophisticated abstract frameworks to deal with complexity.
[Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991, p. 155]
Note that many of these abilities characterize postformal thinking.
Some research finds that thinking becomes more reflective and expansive with
each year of college (Clinchy, 1993; King & Kitchener, 1994; Perry, 1981). First-
year students believe that clear and perfect truths exist; they are distressed if their
professors do not explain these truths. Freshmen tend to gather knowledge as
if facts were nuggets of gold, each one separate from other bits of knowledge
and each one pure and true. One first-year student said he was like a squirrel,
“gleaning little acorns of knowledge and burying them for later use” (quoted in
Bozik, 2002, p. 145).
This initial phase is followed by a wholesale questioning of personal and social
values, including doubts about the idea of truth itself. If a professor makes an
assertion without extensive analysis and evidence, upper-level students are skepti-
cal. No fact is taken at face value, much less stored intact for future use.
Finally, as graduation approaches, after considering many ideas, students become
committed to certain values, even as they realize their opinions might change
(Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991; Rest et al., 1999). Facts have become neither gold
nor dross, but rather useful steps toward a greater understanding.
According to one classic study (Perry, 1981, 1999), thinking progresses through
nine levels of complexity over the four years that lead to a bachelor’s degree, moving
from a simplistic either/or dualism (right or wrong, success or failure) to a rela-
tivism that recognizes a multiplicity of perspectives (see Table 18.4). Perry found
that the college experience itself causes this progression: Peers, professors, books,
and class discussion all stimulate new questions and thoughts. In general, the
more years of higher education and of life experience a person has, the deeper and
more dialectical that person’s reasoning becomes (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991).
Which aspect of college is the primary catalyst for such growth? Is it the chal-
lenging academic work, professors’ lectures, peer discussions, the new setting, liv-
ing away from home? All are possible. Every scientist finds that social interaction
and intellectual challenge advance thinking. College students themselves expect
classes and conversations to further their thinking—which is exactly what occurs
(Kuh et al., 2005). This is not surprising, since development is “a dialectical
process” between individuals and social structures (Giele, 2000, p. 78). College is
a social structure dedicated to fostering cognitive growth.
Changes in the College Context
You probably noticed that Perry’s study was first published in 1981. The under-
graduates he studied were at Harvard. Conclusions based on elite college students
30 years ago may no longer apply, especially because both sides of the dialectic—
students and social structures—have changed. The fact just cited that college and
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 489): Maybe. If their professors are in
their 60s and have not changed their values
since their college days, a large gap is
apparent. Other evidence presented in this
chapter, however, suggests that neither of
these conditions necessarily holds.
490 CHAPTER 18 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Cognitive Development
Especially for Those Considering
Studying Abroad Given the effects of
college, would it be better for a student to
study abroad in the first year or last year of a
college education?
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universities are designed to foster cognitive growth does not necessarily mean that
they succeed, especially because student expectations shape learning and student
goals differ from institutional values (Ferrari et al., 2005; Howard, 2005). Admin-
istrators and faculty still hope for ongoing intellectual growth, but let’s look more
closely at how the college context has changed.
Changes in the Students
College is no longer for the elite few. Far more emerging adults are in college
today than ever before. For instance, in the first half of the twentieth century, in
western Europe, Japan, and North America, fewer than one in every twenty
young adults earned a college degree. In 2000 almost one in three did (Rhodes,
2001). Although the percentages are far lower in Latin America, Africa, and Asia,
the rates of college attendance in every nation have increased several times over
(see Table 18.5).
Worldwide, three times as many students are in colleges or universities today
than in 1975. The greatest expansion has occurred in nations that were British
colonies. For example, when India became independent in 1948, only 100,000
Cognitive Growth and Higher Education 491
TABLE 18.4
Perry’s Scheme of Cognitive and Ethical Development During College
Freshmen
Dualism
modified
Relativism
discovered
Commitments
in relativism
developed
Seniors
Position 1
Transition
Position 2
Transition
Position 3
Transition
Position 4a
Transition
Position 4b
Position 5
Transition
Position 6
Transition
Position 7
Transition
Position 8
Transition
Position 9
Authorities know, and if we work hard, read every word, and learn Right Answers, all will be well.
But what about those Others I hear about? And different opinions? And Uncertainties? Some of our own
Authorities disagree with each other or don’t seem to know, and some give us problems instead of Answers.
True Authorities must be Right, the others are frauds. We remain Right. Others must be different and Wrong.
Good Authorities give us problems so we can learn to find the Right Answer by our own independent
thought.
But even Good Authorities admit they don’t know all the answers yet!
Then some uncertainties and different opinions are real and legitimate temporarily, even for Authorities.
They’re working on them to get to the Truth.
But there are so many things they don’t know the Answers to! And they won’t for a long time.
Where Authorities don’t know the Right Answers, everyone has a right to his own opinion; no one is wrong!
Then what right have They to grade us? About what?
In certain courses Authorities are not asking for the Right Answer. They want us to think about things in a
certain way, supporting opinion with data. That’s what they grade us on.
Then all thinking must be like this, even for Them. Everything is relative but not equally valid. You have to
understand how each context works. Theories are not Truth but metaphors to interpret data with. You have to
think about your thinking.
But if everything is relative, am I relative too? How can I know I’m making the Right Choice?
I see I’m going to have to make my own decisions in an uncertain world with no one to tell me I’m Right.
I’m lost if I don’t. When I decide on my career (or marriage or values), everything will straighten out.
Well, I’ve made my first Commitment!
Why didn’t that settle everything?
I’ve made several commitments. I’ve got to balance them—how many, how deep? How certain, how
tentative?
Things are getting contradictory. I can’t make logical sense out of life’s dilemmas.
This is how life will be. I must be wholehearted while tentative, fight for my values yet respect others,
believe my deepest values right yet be ready to learn. I see that I shall be retracing this whole journey over
and over—but, I hope, more wisely.
Source: Perry, 1981, 1999.
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students were in college. By the early twenty-first century, India had 11
million college students (Digest of Education Statistics, 2006).
Further, “everyone knows that college students in the early twenty-
first century are more diverse in every possible way” (Moneta & Kuh,
2005, p. 68). The most obvious change is gender: In 1970, most college
students were male; now in every developed nation except Germany, a
majority of students are female. In addition, students’ ethnic, economic,
religious, and cultural backgrounds are more varied. More students are
parents, are older than age 25, attend part-time, and live and work off-
campus—all true worldwide.
Student experiences, history, skills, and goals are changing as well.
Most are technologically savvy, having spent more hours using computers
than watching television or reading. Personal blogs, chat rooms, and
pages on Facebook.com and MySpace.com have exploded, often unbe-
knownst to college staff. College majors are changing. Fewer students
concentrate in the liberal arts and more specialize in business and the
professions (e.g., law and medicine). Students have different priorities
today: Fewer seek general education and more seek financial security
(see Figure 18.4).
Such changes are not always welcome. For instance, many developing
nations still make college less accessible to women, and men generally
still prefer to marry women who have less education than they do. A
2006 law in India designed to increase the numbers of postsecondary
students from lower castes led to a nationwide student strike. Some U.S.
affirmative action policies, put in place in the 1970s to increase minority
admissions to college, were declared unconstitutional in the 1990s.
Many administrators and faculty wish that more current students studied the
liberal arts. Among them is the past president of Cornell University, who deplores
“narrow job training.” He believes that
questions of our common humanity, once confronted by the liberal arts, are now
hushed or ignored, even though we have never needed them more. A young
man or woman will become a more humane physician after some exposure to
Shakespeare and Dostoyevsky. . . . We need specialist professionals with general-
ist views.
[Rhodes, 2001, p. 35]
Changes in the Institutions
As students are changing, so are colleges. Worldwide there are thousands of new
colleges. Some nations, including China and Saudi Arabia, have recently built
huge new universities. The United States has twice as many institutions of higher
learning in 2005 as it had in 1970, with increases particularly in the number of
two-year colleges. In 1955 in the United States, only 275 junior colleges existed;
50 years later there were more than 1,000 such colleges, now called community
colleges. For-profit colleges were scarce until about 1980; now there are about
850 of them in the United States (Chronicle of Higher Education, 2006).
Compared with earlier decades, current colleges offer more career programs
and hire more part-time faculty; in the United States in 2003, 44 percent of col-
lege faculty members were part-time, compared with 22 percent in 1970. Newer
faculty are more likely to be women and/or minorities. The proportion of tenured
full professors who are European American males has decreased, although they
still predominate; in 2005 in the United States, two-thirds of all faculty at the top
rank were men. Specifics vary in each nation, but the trends toward more minority
and part-time faculty are worldwide.
492 CHAPTER 18 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Cognitive Development
First Generation in College College has
become increasingly popular among emerg-
ing adults. As is apparent from the sizable
increases in enrollment since 1980, most
of the parents of current students never
attended college. They provide motivation
and encouragement, but they can offer little
practical advice.
TABLE 18.5
Number of Students Enrolled in College in
Selected Countries, 1980 and 2002
About nine times more in 2002 than in 1980
Iran 184,000 1,714,000
China 1,663,000 15,186,000
About six times more in 2002 than in 1980
Nigeria 150,000 948,000
Three to four times more in 2002 than in 1980
Egypt 716,000 2,154,000
Bangladesh 240,000 879,000
Argentina 491,000 2,207,000
Colombia 272,000 990,000
India 3,545,000 11,215,000
United Kingdom 827,000 2,241,000
Australia 324,000 1,012,000
About two times more in 2002 than in 1980
Philippines 1,276,000 2,427,000
Italy 360,000 507,000
Mexico 930,000 2,237,000
World 51,037,000 119,332,000
Source: Snyder et al., 2006.
➤Response for Those Considering
Studying Abroad (from page 490): Since
one result of college is that students become
more open to other perspectives while
developing their commitment to their own
values, foreign study might be most beneficial
after several years of college. If they study
abroad too early, some students might be
either too narrowly patriotic (they are not yet
open) or too quick to reject everything about
their national heritage (they have not yet
developed their own commitments).
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Enrollment in public colleges has expanded, with more than 25,000 undergrad-
uates at each of 100 public universities in the United States. Private colleges still
outnumber public ones by about 3:2, but more than 75 percent (about 13 million)
of all U.S. college students attend publicly sponsored institutions. They are less
expensive than private colleges, but no college is free (although some students,
with financial aid, pay no tuition).
Family income, not individual ability, continues to be the most significant influ-
ence on whether a particular emerging adult will attend college and, once en-
rolled, will graduate (J. King, 2005). Only 48 percent of low-income students earn
a degree or certificate within 6 years of beginning college. The dropout rate is par-
ticularly high among community college students. When they enroll, 80 percent
say they are likely to earn a bachelor’s degree, but less than 20 percent of them do
(Brint, 2003).
The chance of leaving college without a degree becomes greater as income
falls, as the size of the college increases, and as other life obligations (such as
parenthood) accumulate. Living off campus and working full time make dropping
out more likely (J. King, 2004).
Verified dropout statistics overall are elusive, because some students who leave
college return several years later, and almost half transfer from one school to
another. California statistics may be most accurate, since students are tracked
within that state’s extensive system of more than 400 public institutions of higher
education. The president of California State at Monterey Bay writes:
We know, statistically, that in America, out of 100 ninth graders, 18 will have a
baccalaureate or an associate’s degree 10 years later . . . 32 out of 100 don’t grad-
uate from high school in four years (many more than we admitted), and . . . of
the 68 who graduate, 60 percent go to college, and . . . 50–60 percent graduate
within six years.
[P. Smith, 2004, p. 139]
Cognitive Growth and Higher Education 493
0
Percent
302010 40
Developing a
philosophy of life
Influencing
social values
Becoming a
community leader
Keeping up to date
with political affairs
Influencing
political structure
Being well-off
financially
Raising a family
Becoming an
authority in my field
Obtaining recognition
from my colleagues
50 60 70 80
Percentage of U.S. College Freshmen Who Consider Various
Objectives Essential or Very Important
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education, August 25, 2006.
FIGURE 18.4
Personal Aspirations The American Council
on Education began surveying college fresh-
men in 1966. Over the decades, students
have gradually become more interested in
their personal success and less concerned
about larger issues of developing a philosophy
and acting on it. For example, keeping up to
date on politics was important to 58 percent
in 1966 but to less than half as many (27 per-
cent) in 1998. It rose to 36 percent in 2005.
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Evaluating the Changes
This situation again raises the question of what today’s students get out of attend-
ing college. The major changes just described—in numbers, in diversity, in
dropouts—might mean that college no longer produces the “greater intellectual
flexibility” that earlier research found. Again, let’s look at the data.
Diversity and Enrollment
All the evidence on cognition reviewed in this chapter suggests that interactions
with people of different backgrounds and various views lead to intellectual chal-
lenges and deeper thought. Colleges that make use of their diversity—via curricu-
lum, class assignments, discussions, cooperative education, learning communities,
and so on—help students stretch their understanding, not only of differences and
similarities among people but also of themselves (Nagda et al., 2005). Young
adults of all backgrounds are likely to benefit.
Of course, college education does not automatically produce a leap ahead in
cognitive development. College tends to advance income, promote health, deepen
thinking, and increase tolerance of differing political, social, and religious views,
but not everyone receives these benefits; nor is college the only path to cognitive
growth.
Nonetheless, listening to students and professors from diverse backgrounds,
thinking new thoughts, and reading books never known before almost always
broaden a person’s perspective. College classes that are career-based, as well as
courses in the liberal arts, raise ethical questions and promote moral thinking
(Rest et al., 1999). Higher education still seems to be “a transforming element in
human development” (Benjamin, 2003, p. 11).
A special benefit may come from students who are parents, are employed,
attend school part-time, and are older than 30. They enliven conversations and
discussions with their fellow students. These students themselves make some
crucial choices: Full-time study and part-time work are much more likely to foster
learning than is the opposite combination (Pascarella, 2005), which means that
students of all backgrounds learn more if they involve themselves more in the
campus community.
Graduates and Dropouts
If postformal thinking—the ability to cope with the complexities of personal emo-
tions and logical decision making—is the result of higher education, does a high
dropout rate mean that many college students leave before reaching that level of
cognition? Many do not have family or friends who have graduated before them.
Do frustrating curricula, time-management complications, social challenges, and
financial requirements prevent them from reaping the benefits of college? Accord-
ing to one research team, many young students lack the cultural knowledge or
cognitive maturity to acquire the “social know-how” needed to navigate through
college. Some “adapt to complexities better as they proceed through college,”
but that depends on their staying long enough to attain “basic skills or increased
maturity” (Deil-Amen & Rosenbaum, 2003, p. 141).
A specific concern here is the expansion of public institutions. Does that make
it harder for students to acquire the skills they need to succeed in college? Proba-
bly private colleges offer some advantages to young adults of all incomes and back-
grounds, including less risk of dropping out. The reasons for the lower dropout
rate are many, some having more to do with the student than the institution. How-
ever, “the extent of learning and cognitive growth that happens during the first
diversity Variety or heterogeneity within a
certain category, such as plants or animals.
For developmentalists, diversity involves
differences among groups of people based
on such characteristics as race, gender,
culture, age, family income, and sexuality.
494 CHAPTER 18 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Cognitive Development
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year of college does not appear to be highly dependent on the characteristics of
the institution one attends” (Pascarella, 2005, p. 130). Much more important are
the student’s openness to learning; engagement with education; learning style; and
the particular classmates, professors, and curriculum—all of which can be found
in some colleges of every type.
Intellectually inclined and financially secure high school graduates are more
likely to attend and then graduate from college than their poorer, less studious
contemporaries. That means that some benefits universally linked to college
(health, income) are actually the result of precollege factors. However, when se-
lection effects are taken into account, college still aids cognitive development.
Some college is better than none, because the first semesters are especially impor-
tant. One expert explains: “The growth in some content areas (e.g., English, math-
ematics, social sciences) and in critical thinking that occurs during the first year of
college represents a substantial part of the total growth in those areas attributable
to the undergraduate experience” (Pascarella, 2005, p. 130).
A valid comparison can be made with young adults who never attend college.
When 18-year-old high school graduates of similar backgrounds and abilities are
compared, those who begin jobs rather than college achieve less and feel more
dissatisfied than those who earn a college degree (Schulenberg et al., 2005).
Between 1980 and 2006, about 25 million immigrants, almost all poor and non-
White, arrived in the United States. Many of their children are now of college age.
Those who attend college do much better, economically and intellectually, than
other children of immigrants from the same countries of origin who do not. Even
those who attend a community college and then drop out fare better than those
without any college experience at all (Trillo, 2004). Similar findings come from
comparing native-born Americans: By age 24, those who attended college and
postponed parenthood are more thoughtful, more secure, and seem to be better
positioned for a successful adulthood (Osgood et al., 2005).
For many readers, none of this comes as a surprise. Tertiary education stimu-
lates thought, no matter how old the student is. From first-year orientation to
graduation, emerging adults do more than learn facts and skills pertaining to their
majors; they think deeply and reflectively, as postformal thinkers do.
Cognitive Growth and Higher Education 495
United States? Canada? Guess Again!
These students attend the University of
Capetown in South Africa, where previous
cohorts of Blacks and Whites would never
have been allowed to socialize so freely.
Such interactions foster learning, as long as
stereotype threat does not interfere.SPE
N
CE
R
GR
AN
T
/ P
HO
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DI
T,
IN
C.
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496 CHAPTER 18 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Cognitive Development
Postformal Thought
1. Adult cognition can be studied in any of several ways: using a
postformal approach, a psychometric approach, or an information-
processing approach. This chapter focuses on postformal thinking.
2. Many researchers believe that, in adulthood, the complex and
conflicting demands of daily life sometimes produce a new cogni-
tive perspective, which can be called postformal thought. This is
not a true stage because it is not tied to maturation, but adults
can think at a level that few adolescents reach.
3. Postformal thought is practical, flexible, and dialectical. Adults
use their minds to solve the problems that they encounter, antici-
pating and deflecting difficulties.
4. One hallmark of adult thought is the ability to combine emo-
tions and rational analysis. This ability is particularly useful in
responding to emotionally arousing situations, as when childhood
prejudices or stereotype threats appear.
5. Dialectical thinking synthesizes complexities and contradictions.
Instead of seeking absolute, immutable truths, dialectical thought
recognizes that people and situations are dynamic, ever-changing.
Morals and Religion
6. Thinking about questions of morality, faith, and ethics may
also progress in adulthood. Specific moral opinions are strongly
influenced by culture and context, but adults generally become
less self-centered as they mature.
7. As people mature, life confronts them with ethical decisions,
including many related to human relationships and the diversity
of humankind. According to Fowler, religious faith also moves to-
ward universal principles, past culture-bound concepts.
Cognitive Growth and Higher Education
8. Research over the past several decades indicates not only that
college graduates are wealthier and healthier than other adults
but also that they think at a more advanced level. Over the years
of college, students gradually become less inclined to seek ab-
solute truths from authorities and more inclined to make their
own decisions.
9. Today’s college students are unlike those of a few decades ago.
In every nation, the sheer number of students has multiplied, and
students’ backgrounds are more diverse in every way.
10. Colleges as institutions have also changed, becoming larger
and more career oriented; in addition, enrollment in publicly
funded institutions has increased. Faculty are more often part-
time, and more diverse as well.
11. Although both students and institutions have changed, even
an incomplete college education still seems to advance young
adults, intellectually and financially. Indeed, some of the changes,
particularly the increased diversity, are likely to foster deeper
thinking.
postformal thought (p. 472)
subjective thought (p. 474)
objective thought (p. 474)
stereotype threat (p. 477)
dialectical thought (p. 480)
thesis (p. 480)
antithesis (p. 480)
synthesis (p. 480)
morality of care (p. 484)
morality of justice (p. 484)
Defining Issues Test (DIT)
(p. 486)
diversity (p. 494)
SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
SUMMING UP
Many life experiences advance thinking processes. College is one of them, as years of
classroom discussion, guided reading, and conversations with fellow students from
diverse backgrounds can lead students to consider more ideas as well as to engage in
more dynamic and dialectical reasoning. College enrollments have increased in many
nations, particularly at publicly supported colleges and universities. A major problem is
that many students drop out before learning what they need to know, but even a little
higher education seems to produce cognitive advancement. It seems likely that
although the context differs from that of a few decades ago, college education still
promotes cognitive development.
■
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Summary 497
7. How does the moral thinking of adults differ from that of chil-
dren and adolescents? Why?
8. How does culture affect morality? Pick one specific moral
issue, and show that ideas about the “right” answer are affected
by cultural differences.
9. According to research, how does college education affect the
way people think?
10. What are the main differences between college students
today and 30 years ago?
1. What are three approaches to the study of adult cognition?
2. What are the main characteristics of postformal thinking?
3. How does the emotional intensity of a problem affect the rea-
soning ability of individuals of different ages?
4. Show how an example from the text (cheating in college or the
end of a love affair) illustrates thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.
5. Describe your own example of dialectical reasoning, other
than cheating in college and the end of a love affair.
6. Is postformal thinking a stage in the Piagetian sense of the
term? Why or why not?
another nation (a reference librarian can help you find many data
sources). Report the data and discuss causes and implications.
4. One way to study cognitive development during college is to
study yourself and your classmates. Compare thoughts and deci-
sions at the beginning of college and at graduation. Remembering
that case studies are provocative but not definitive, identify some
hypotheses about college and intellectual growth from your per-
sonal experiences that you would like to examine, and explain
how you might do so.
1. Read a biography or autobiography that includes information
about the person’s thinking from age 18 to 30, paying particular
attention to practical, flexible, and dialectical thought. How did
personal experiences, education, and intellectual ideas affect the
person’s thinking?
2. Some ethical principles are thought to be universal, respected
by people of every culture. Think of one such idea, and analyze
whether it is accepted by the world’s major religions.
3. Statistics on changes in students and in colleges are fascinating,
but only a few are reported here. Find other data, perhaps from
KEY QUESTIONS
APPLICATIONS
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Emerging Adulthood:
Psychosocial Development
In psychosocial development, even more than in physical or cognitivedevelopment, the hallmark of contemporary adult life is diversity:Adults vary widely in maturity, family, work, and lifestyle. For emergingadults who are less restricted by family or culture, the choices for
education, work, friends, and partners are mind-boggling. For other young
adults, especially in poorer nations or earlier times, adulthood options are
(or were) quite limited. The patterns described soon in friendship, love, and
psychological health are relevant to all, but diversity is particularly dramatic
for the current generation.
Looking back, I now see many signs of this new diversity. For instance,
when I was 20, Phoebe and Peggy were my two closest friends. As expected
by our parents and culture, we anticipated becoming happy brides, wives,
and mothers, even describing our wedding dresses and naming our children.
Anticipations clashed with social change. Over the years of our adult-
hood, we had three husbands and five children—average for our culture
and cohort. But Phoebe never married or had children. She started her own
business, becoming a millionaire who owns a house near the Pacific Ocean.
Peggy married, divorced, remarried, and had one child at age 40. She earned
a PhD and, after many academic jobs, finally found the work she loves, as
a massage therapist.
None of us did what we expected or what was average, but in our diversity
came fulfillment. When I last saw Phoebe, I complained that my young-adult
daughters are single. She smiled, put her hand on mine, and said, “Please
notice. I never married or had children. I am happy.” So is Peggy. So am I.
So are most adults, in all their diversity, as this chapter begins to explain.
Identity Achieved
When Erik Erikson first described his eight stages, most developmentalists
believed that identity was usually achieved before adulthood. No more.
Additional years between leaving high school and shouldering adult respon-
sibilities have extended the identity crisis.
As was true 50 years ago, the search for identity (see Chapter 16) begins
at puberty, but it continues much longer; most emerging adults are still seek-
ing to establish precisely who they are (Côté, 2006; R. O. Kroger, 2006). Erikson
believed that, at each stage, the outcome of earlier crises provides the foun-
dation of each new era, as is evident in emerging adulthood (see Table 19.1).
19
499
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� Identity Achieved
Ethnic Identity
Vocational Identity
� Intimacy
Friendship
Romance and Relationships
IN PERSON: Changing Expectations
About Marriage
What Makes Relationships Work
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS:
Domestic Violence
Family Connections
� Emotional Development
Well-Being
Psychopathology
Continuity and Discontinuity
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Worldwide, emerging adults ponder religious commitments, gender roles, polit-
ical loyalties, and career options, trying to reconcile hopes for the future with
beliefs acquired in the past. Although none of these four identities are necessarily
set by age 18, two of them, ethnic and vocational identity, now seem almost im-
possible to achieve during adolescence. Therefore, we discuss them further here.
Ethnic Identity
In the United States and Canada, about half of the 18- to 25-year-olds are either
children of immigrants or native-born adults of African, Asian, Indian (Aboriginal in
Canada), or Latino descent. For them, ethnicity is a significant aspect of identity
(Phinney, 2006). Most such individuals identify with very specific ethnic groups.
For example, unlike adolescents, as emerging adults they identify as Vietnamese,
Pakistani, or Korean Americans, not simply as Asian (Dion, 2006).
Similarly, those who are descendants of American slaves no longer call them-
selves colored or Negro, but African American. This is true for almost everyone of
that ethnicity, but the first age groups to self-identify as African American were
older adolescents and younger adults. Ethnicity is particularly important to many
emerging adults.
More than any other age group, emerging adults meet many people of other
backgrounds. They become aware of national and international history, customs,
and prejudices. Their experiences shape the specifics of their ethnic identity
because “without a context, identity formation and self-development cannot occur”
(Trimble et al., 2003, p. 267).
Many European Americans, realizing the importance of ethnicity for their
friends at college or at work, become more conscious of their own background and
religion. Like the Vietnamese or Koreans mentioned above, they might go beyond
identifying as Catholic or Jewish, for instance, and call themselves Ukrainian
Catholic or Russian Jewish.
Although everyone struggles to forge an identity, this is particularly difficult for
immigrants because combining past and future means reconciling their parents’
500 CHAPTER 19 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Past as Prologue In elaborating his eight
stages of development, Erikson associated
each stage with a particular virtue and a type
of psychopathology, as shown here. He also
thought that earlier crises could reemerge,
taking a specific form at each stage. Here are
some possible problems (not directly from
Erikson) that could occur in emerging adult-
hood if earlier crises were not resolved.
TABLE 19.1
Erikson’s Eight Stages of Development
Possible in Emerging Adulthood
Stage Virtue/Pathology If Not Successfully Resolved
Trust vs. mistrust Hope/withdrawal Suspicious of others, making
close relationships difficult
Autonomy vs. shame and doubt Will/compulsion Obsessively driven, single-
minded, not socially responsive
Initiative vs. guilt Purpose/inhibition Fearful, regretful (e.g., very
homesick in college)
Industry vs. inferiority Competence/inertia Self-critical of any endeavor,
procrastinating, perfectionistic
Identity vs. role diffusion Fidelity/repudiation Uncertain and negative about
values, lifestyle, friendships
Intimacy vs. isolation Love/exclusivity Anxious about close relationships,
jealous, lonely
Generativity vs. stagnation Care/ rejectivity [In the future] Fear of failure
Integrity vs. despair Wisdom/disdain [In the future] No “mindfulness,”
no life plan
Source: Erikson, 1982.
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background with their new social context. Conflicts often arise, not only regarding
choice of vocation or partner (as can happen with any emerging adult) but in
something more basic, “the assumption that these choices should be made inde-
pendently by the young adult daughter or son” (Dion, 2006, p. 303). Young immi-
grants are often expected to be proud of their ethnic roots, and many are, but they
are also expected by their peers to make independent choices about their future.
Many clash with their parents as they do so.
A study of adolescent immigrants in 13 nations found that ethnic pride gener-
ally correlated with self-esteem but not necessarily with social adjustment. These
participants were not yet adults, which may be one reason they had not yet found
an appropriate balance between ethnic roots and national loyalty. Many aspects of
ethnic identity were yet to be resolved (Berry et al., 2006; see Research Design).
The choice of an ethnic identity affects language, manners, romance, employ-
ment, neighborhood, religion, clothing, and values. Some aspects of identification
are easier than others (Trimble et al., 2003), but ethnic identity is always complex:
■ It is reciprocal, both a personal choice and a response to others.
■ It depends on context and therefore changes with time and circumstances.
■ It is multifaceted: Emerging adults choose some attributes and reject others.
The changing contexts of life require ethnic identity to be reestablished at each
phase, perhaps with one identity in adolescence, another in emerging adulthood,
and still another as a parent. Those whose parents are from different ethnic groups
must deal with added complexity. By emerging adulthood, many self-identify with
whichever group experiences more prejudice (Herman, 2004).
Consider Kevin Johnson, son of a European American and Mexican American.
As a high school student, he thought of himself as Anglo, but as an emerging adult
he chose to identify as Mexican, criticizing his parents for not teaching him
Spanish. As an adult, he married a Mexican American, gave his children Spanish
names, and sent them to bilingual schools (Johnson, 1999).
Identity Achieved 501
The Same Event, A Thousand Miles Apart:
Family Generations In developed countries,
the social clock now permits grandmothers to
be college graduates (left) and discourages
teenagers from becoming mothers. This is in
marked contrast to developing nations such
as Indonesia, where grandmothers never go
to college and many young teenagers, like
this Javanese girl (right), become mothers.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 503):
Although these pairs are separated by 6,000
miles and at least 30 years, they display
two similiarities that are universal to close
relationships of every kind. What are they?
RO
GE
R
DO
LL
AR
HI
DE
SA
LL
Y
CA
SS
ID
Y
Research Design
Scientists: John W. Berry, Jean S. Phin-
ney, David L. Sam, and Paul Vedder.
Publication: Immigrant Youth in Cultural
Transition, Erlbaum (2006).
Participants: From 13 “settler” nations,
7,997 13- to 18-year-olds, about one-
third of them native-born and the other
two-thirds from 26 immigrant groups.
In addition, 3,165 of their parents
participated.
Design: Participants completed ques-
tionnaires about ethnic identity, school
problems, personal issues, and relations
with parents.The results were compared
by nation, age, and ethnic group.
Major conclusions: Similarities among
all of the adolescents (including native-
borns) were more apparent than differ-
ences.The immigrant adolescents’
responses to their new nations were
called integration, national identity,
ethnic identity, and diffusion, which
could be compared to Erikson’s identity
achievement, two forms of foreclosure,
and diffusion. Another finding is the
“immigration paradox”—recently
arrived youth had fewer behavior prob-
lems than their native-born peers.
Comment: Much more research is
needed on the development of immi-
grant youth; this study is a welcome
step in that direction. Additional re-
search needs observations, not just
questionnaires.
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As with Kevin Johnson, who went to Harvard and de-
cided to live in California (not Mexico), each adult chooses
which facets of his or her ethnic identity to adopt and how
to express them. In adolescence, many second-generation
immigrants criticize their parents for speaking their original
language and for restricting their teenagers’ dating choices
(Ghuman, 2003; Portes & Rumbaut, 2001). In emerging
adulthood or adulthood, however, some of those same
individuals adopt traditional values and practices.
For this reason, college classes in ethnic studies include
many emerging adults who want to learn about their
culture. Because ethnicity is multifaceted and changing, no
young adult conforms to his or her ethnic past precisely.
Meanwhile, every culture of the world keeps developing.
Some former immigrants visit their “home” country and find
that they are strangers (Long & Oxfeld, 2004).
Thus, in the globalization of the twenty-first century, when people seek to form
an ethnic identity, combining past and future is a complex but crucial task. Back-
ground cannot be ignored, but it must not become a retreat. This was powerfully
expressed by one young adult:
Questioning their identity, as inevitable as that experience is, is not enough. To
have passed through the ambiguities, contradictions, and frustration of cultural
schizophrenia is to have passed only the first test in the process. . . . We need to
embody our own history. El pueblo que pierde su memoria pierde su destino: The
people who forgets its past, forfeits its future.
[Gaspar de Alba, 2003, pp. 211–212]
Vocational Identity
Establishing a vocational identity is considered part of growing up not only by
developmental psychologists influenced by Erikson but also by emerging adults
themselves (Arnett, 2004). For many, that is one reason they go to college, which
not only provides a moratorium but also is considered an important step toward a
career (see Table 19.2).
A correlation between college education and income has always been evident,
and it is even stronger in the twenty-first century because fewer unskilled jobs are
available and more knowledge-based jobs have been created. The correlation is
not perfect (1 percent of those in the top one-fifth income bracket are not high
school graduates), but it is very high (77 percent in that top bracket have at least a
bachelor’s degree) (Swanson, 2007).
Among today’s youth, higher education is
necessary for both sexes. In the United States,
of those earning advanced degrees—master’s,
doctoral, or professional—57 percent are women
(Chronicle of Higher Education, 2006).
Most (75 percent) emerging adults work while
they are in college (Chronicle of Higher Educa-
tion, 2006). Whether in college or not, most
young adults move from job to job, not consider-
ing any of them their vocational identity. Between
ages 18 and 27, the average U.S. worker has
eight jobs (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2006).
502 CHAPTER 19 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
AP
/
W
ID
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OR
LD
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S
TABLE 19.2
Top Six “Very Important” Reasons for Deciding to Attend College*
To learn more about things that matter to me 78 percent
To be able to get a better job 72 percent
To be able to make more money 71 percent
To get training for a specific career 69 percent
To gain a general education and appreciation of ideas 65 percent
To prepare myself for graduate or professional school 58 percent
*Based on a national survey of students entering four-year colleges in the United States in Fall 2005.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education, August 25, 2006.
A Woman Now Two young girls participate in
the traditional coming-of-age ceremony in
Japan. Their kimonos and hairstyles are elabo-
rate and traditional, as is the sake (rice wine)
they drink. This is part of the ceremony signify-
ing passage from girlhood to womanhood.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 504):
At what age do you think this event occurs in
Japan—15, 16, 18, or 20?
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This job history does not foster higher vocational status or income. Over-
all, however, tertiary education is increasingly needed for careers that
allow promotions and, eventually, high salaries (Olson, 2007).
Charles, a 27-year old Princeton graduate, is typical. He has worked for
the same advertising agency for a year but still thinks of himself as a
“temp,” able to leave the company at any moment to pursue a career in
music. He explains: “I’m single. I don’t have a car or a house or a mortgage
or a significant other that’s pulling me in another direction, or kids or
anything. I’m highly portable, and I can basically do what I want as long as
I can support myself” (quoted in Arnett, 2004, p. 37).
Many developmentalists wonder if vocational identity is an illusion in
the current employment market (Moen & Roehling, 2004). Perhaps adults
of all ages should see work the way Charles and many young adults do, as
a way to earn money while they satisfy their creative, self-expressive
impulses elsewhere. Although most societies are structured as if all work-
ers were steady, dedicated, and full-time, this may be irrational in the
current economy (Vaupel & Loichinger, 2006).
Some young adults assume that they will find a vocational niche that is per-
fect for their aspirations and talents. They have high expectations for work.
They expect to find a job that will be an expression of their identity. . . .
However, there is a dark side to the work prospects of emerging adults. With
such high expectations for what work will provide to them, with the expectation
that their jobs will serve not only as a source of income but as a source of self-
fulfillment and self-expression, some of them are likely to find that the actual job
they end up in for the long term falls considerably short of this ideal.
[Arnett, 2004, pp. 143, 163]
SUMMING UP
The identity crisis continues in emerging adulthood, as young people seek to establish
their own unique path toward adulthood. Ethnic identity is especially important, but dif-
ficult, for those who realize they are a minority within their nation. Often, the specifics
of ethnic identity change with maturation as well as with historical change. Vocational
identity is also an ongoing search. Although most emerging adults are employed at
many jobs between the ages of 18 and 25, few are sure of their career identity. College
education improves job prospects and eventual income. Nonetheless, vocational iden-
tity may remain elusive.
■
Intimacy
In Erikson’s theory, after achieving identity, people experience intimacy versus
isolation. This crisis arises from the powerful desire to share one’s personal life
with someone else. Without intimacy, adults suffer from loneliness and isolation.
Erikson explains:
The young adult, emerging from the search for and the insistence on identity, is
eager and willing to fuse his identity with others. He is ready for intimacy, that
is, the capacity to commit himself to concrete affiliations and partnerships and
to develop the ethical strength to abide by such commitments, even though they
call for significant sacrifices and compromises.
[Erikson, 1963, p. 263]
intimacy versus isolation The sixth of Erik-
son’s eight stages of development. Adults
seek someone with whom to share their
lives in an enduring and self-sacrificing
commitment. Without such commitment,
they risk profound aloneness and isolation.
Intimacy 503
For the Time Being Every company would
like to hold on to its skilled employees. That is
one reason the title of this young woman’s
job, at one of Starbucks’ nearly 15,000 stores
worldwide, is “barista,” not “waitress.” Never-
theless, most emerging adults consider their
current jobs only temporary stops on the way
toward lifelong careers.
AP
P
HO
TO
/
TE
D
S.
W
AR
RE
N
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 501): Physical touching (note their hands)
and physical synchrony (note their bodies
leaning toward each other).
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As will be explained in Chapter 22, other theorists have different words for the
same human need: affiliation, affection, interdependence, communion, belonging,
love. All agree that adults seek to become friends, lovers, companions, and partners.
The urge for social connection is a powerful human impulse, at least as powerful
as the sexual drive, discussed in Chapter 17.
All intimate relationships have much in common—not only in the psychic
needs they satisfy but also in the behaviors they require (Reis & Collins, 2004).
Intimacy progresses from attraction to close connection to ongoing commitment.
Each relationship demands some personal sacrifice, including vulnerability that
brings deeper self-understanding and shatters the isolation caused by too much
self-protection. As Erikson explains, to establish intimacy, the young adult must
face the fear of ego loss in situations which call for self-abandon: in the solidarity
of close affiliations [and] sexual unions, in close friendship and in physical combat,
in experiences of inspiration by teachers and of intuition from the recesses of the
self. The avoidance of such experiences . . . may lead to a deep sense of isolation
and consequent self-absorption.
[Erikson, 1963, pp. 163–164]
According to a more recent theory, an important aspect of close human connec-
tions is “self-expansion,” the idea that each of us enlarges our understanding, our
experiences, and our resources through our intimate friends, lovers, and relatives
(Aron et al., 2004–2005). Intimacy and self-expansion are desirable parts of the
human experience, which each person may seek somewhat differently.
Friendship
Throughout life, friends defend against stress and provide joy (Bukowski et al.,
1996; Krause, 2006). They are chosen for the very qualities (e.g., understanding,
tolerance, loyalty, affection, humor) that make them good companions, trustwor-
thy confidants, and reliable sources of support. Unlike family members, friends
are earned; they choose us. No wonder having close friends is positively correlated
with happiness and self-esteem lifelong.
Choosing Friends
Friends, new and old, are particularly crucial during emerging adulthood, especially
for those who do not have a steady romantic partner (Kalmijn, 2003). At this stage
of life, family obligations are minimal, since few emerging adults have a spouse,
dependent children, or elderly parents. Instead, they have friends.
In college, work, and community, as well as in various chosen activities (from
aerobics classes to zoological society memberships), young adults have many
acquaintances who provide advice, companionship, information, and sympathy
(Radmacher & Azmitia, 2006). Emerging adulthood is when close friendships form;
people tend to make more friends during these years than at any later period.
How do acquaintances become friends? Four factors are gateways to attrac-
tion (Fehr, 1996):
1. Physical attractiveness (even in platonic same-sex relationships)
2. Apparent availability (willingness to talk, to do things together)
3. Frequent exposure
4. Absence of exclusion criteria (no unacceptable characteristics)
The first two factors on this list are straightforward. Humans throughout the
centuries have been attracted to others who are good-looking and seem interested
gateways to attraction The various qualities,
such as appearance and proximity, that are
prerequisites for the formation of close
friendships and intimate relationships.
504 CHAPTER 19 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 502): The most obvious clue—that the
girls look like teenagers—is misleading.
Remembering that the social clock is some-
what slower in developed nations and that
Asian adolescents mature relatively late, you
might accurately guess age 20, five years
after Quinceañera, the similar Latina
occasion, and four years after the European
American “Sweet Sixteen.”
498-523_BergerLS7e_CH19.qxp 9/19/07 6:36 PM Page 504

in them. People want friends and partners who appear healthy and strong and who
are willing to spend the time and effort needed to establish a friendship.
The third factor, exposure, is surprisingly powerful (Bornstein, 1989). Lifelong
friends from college are more often those who chanced to live on the same dorm
floor rather than one floor above. Work acquaintances might become friends if
they ride the same bus home.
The need for exposure helps explain a developmental process. Childhood
friendships may fade over time because friends no longer see each other when, as
emerging adults, they go to college, especially if one family moves away. E-mail,
phone calls, and letters can fill some of this gap, but unless adult friends are in
frequent contact, sometimes face to face, they “lose touch” and the friendship
withers.
Exposure does not always lead to friendship, of course. College roommates
become close friends if they share personal confidences, but they sometimes
discover exclusion criteria and keep their distance (Gore et al., 2006). It takes
time and effort to maintain an adult friendship, as close friends know, including
scheduling time together. Equity of effort in maintaining the friendship adds to
both friends’ satisfaction (Oswald et al., 2004).
The fourth factor, exclusion criteria, is noteworthy for its variability: One
person’s reason to exclude another may be insignificant to someone else. For ex-
ample, religion and politics do not matter to some people, but others would never
befriend someone who is not, for instance, a fundamentalist Christian or a devout
Muslim or a socialist. Behaviors may also be important. Some people might never
befriend anyone who smoked cigarettes or drank heavily; others do not care.
Exclusion criteria do not indicate intolerance. Most emerging adults appreciate
diversity, value tolerance, and accept a wide variety of human choices (Pew, 2007).
They believe that people who are, say, fundamentalist Christians or devout
Muslims should live where they want and worship as they wish. However, when it
comes to close confidants, people have two or three filters for screening potential
friends. These filters are often connected to the identity they have developed for
themselves: Friends tend to be similar in ethnicity, religious values, education, and
so on (Fehr, 2000). Once people become close friends, they tend to assume more
similarity between them than actually exists (Morry, 2005).
Gender and Friendship
It is a mistake to imagine that men and women have opposite friendship needs.
All humans seek intimacy, lifelong. Regarding sex differences, we need to avoid
“adopting stereotypic thinking . . . a rather simple solution . . . inadequate because
people do not reliably conform” to gender dichotomies (Canary et al., 1997, p. 3).
Claiming that men are from Mars and women are from Venus ignores reality: Peo-
ple are from earth.
Nevertheless, for cultural and biological reasons, some sex differences can be
found in typical friendships (Monsour, 2002; Radmacher & Azmitia, 2006; Wood,
2000). Men tend to share activities and interests. Male friends begin talking about
external matters—sports, work, politics, cars—and are less likely to tell other men
their weaknesses and problems. When they do bring up emotional and relation-
ship difficulties, they expect practical advice rather than sympathy.
Women’s friendships are more intimate and emotional. They tend to share
secrets more than men do. Female friends are quicker to engage in self-disclosing
talk, including difficulties with their health, romances, and relatives. Women expect
to reveal their weaknesses and problems to friends and to receive an attentive and
sympathetic ear and, if necessary, a shoulder to cry on or a reassuring hug.
exclusion criteria A person’s reasons for
omitting certain people from consideration
as close friends or romantic partners.
Exclusion criteria vary from one individual
to another, but they are strong filters.
Intimacy 505
Especially for Emerging Adults Who
Want More Close Friends Based on the
four “gateways to attraction,” what can a
person do to make more friends?
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More men than women are homophobic. For example, among college freshmen
in 2005, 35 percent of the men and only 21 percent of the women agree that laws
should prohibit homosexuality (Chronicle of Higher Education, 2006). Probably
for this reason, men avoid touching each other except after aggression, such as
competitive athletics or military combat. The butt-slapping or body-slamming that
follows a sports victory, or the sobbing in a buddy’s arms that follows a battlefield
loss, rarely occurs in everyday male friendships. By contrast, many women friends
routinely hug each other in greeting.
As already noted, these male–female differences may be cultural and seem to
be less stereotyped among contemporary emerging adults. One sign of this is the
frequency of male–female friendships. Such friendships were once rare, but now
the typical emerging adult has one or two such relationships (Lenton & Webber,
2006). A great advantage is the opportunity to learn about the other sex. To the
extent that friendships expand the self, cross-sex friendships have much to com-
mend them (Monsour, 2002).
These friendships are not usually preludes to romance, although sometimes
romance does occur (Bleske-Recheck & Buss, 2001). Nonromantic friendships
can last a lifetime, whether same-sex or cross-sex friendships, whether the friends
are homosexual or heterosexual. Cross-sex friendships are less common for
people at the extremes of gender identity (the very feminine girl and the very
masculine boy); it is not known if this is primarily due to nature or nurture
(Lenton & Webber, 2006).
Cross-sex friendships have potential problems as well as advantages. One
problem is that outsiders might assume that the relationship is sexual when it is
not. For this reason, when heterosexual couples are romantically committed to
each other, they tend to have fewer cross-sex friendships, in order to avoid partner
jealousy (S. Williams, 2005). If a cross-sex friendship between two heterosexuals,
or a same-sex friendship between two homosexuals, becomes sexual (a relation-
ship called “friends with benefits”), complications may arise (Furman & Hand,
2006). Once the hormones of sexual intimacy are activated, people become more
emotionally involved than they expected (M. F. Fisher, 2006).
Keeping a cross-sex or homosexual friendship “just friendly” is difficult and,
when a friendship has become sexual, developing a romance with a third person is
almost impossible. Humans apparently find it difficult to sustain more than one
sexual-romantic relationship at a time; even in nations where polygamy is accepted,
90 percent of husbands have only one wife (Georgas et al., 2006).
Especially for Young Men Why would you
want at least one close friend who is a
woman?
506 CHAPTER 19 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Such Good Friends Friendship patterns vary
from person to person, and gender stereo-
types regarding these patterns are often wide
of the mark. Nonetheless, friendships be-
tween men tend to take a different direction
from that taken by friendships between
women. Men typically do things together—
with outdoor activities frequently preferred,
especially if they lend themselves to showing
off and friendly bragging. Women, in contrast,
tend to spend more time in intimate conver-
sation, perhaps commiserating about their
problems rather than calling attention to their
accomplishments.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 508):
What have the young men at right just
accomplished?
W
AL
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R
SM
IT
H
/ C
OR
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S
BR
IA
N
B
AI
LE
Y
/ T
AX
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ET
TY
IM
AG
ES
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Romance and Relationships
Worldwide, couples are marrying later and divorcing more often than earlier
cohorts did (Georgas et al., 2006). However, although many emerging adults are
not married, most developmentalists believe they are postponing, not abandoning,
marriage. The trend toward later marriage is evident in the United States, but
as one sociologist explains, “despite the culture of divorce, Americans remain
optimistic about, and even eager to enter marriages” (Hill, 2007, p. 295). In every
nation, most emerging adults hope and expect to marry and stay married.
The relationship between love and marriage depends on the particular culture
(Georgas et al., 2006). In about one-third of all nations, love does not lead to
marriage because parents arrange marriages that will join two families together,
via the children. In another third of all nations, people fall in love and then
decide to marry, with the young man asking the young woman’s father for “her
hand in marriage.” Thus, young people may start the process, but parental blessing
is desired.
Finally, for most North Americans and Europeans, young people are expected
to fall in love several times but not marry until they are able, financially and
emotionally, to be independent from their parents. Waiting to marry until both love
and maturity align may also increase expectations and push marriage even later, as
the following suggests.
Intimacy 507
Changing Expectations About Marriage
In most nations of the world, marriage is not based on romantic
love. Marriages connect families more than individuals. Increas-
ingly, this traditional process is giving way to a new pattern
(Georgas et al., 2006). Emerging adults seek partners who will
be good lovers, confidants, companions, parents, and providers.
Such multiple expectations may be the reason young adults
marry later, if at all (Gibson-Davis et al., 2005; Glenn, 1998).
I take some comfort in that. I married late for my cohort (at
age 25) and had children even later (two by age 30 and another
two by age 40). Now three of my daughters are older than 25, all
admirable women working in professions that I respect. None
are wives or mothers. I could blame myself, or I could attribute
this to changing times.
Each of these three has had a long-term romantic relation-
ship with a wonderful man, but none seem to have found the
perfect person or the right time. When I hint that their expecta-
tions may be too high, they glare angrily at me.
Given that, I pay attention to my students’ expectations about
love and marriage. Emerging adult Kerri wrote:
All young girls have their perfect guy in mind, their Prince
Charming. For me he will be tall, dark, and handsome. He will
be well-educated and have a career with a strong future, . . . a
great personality, and the same sense of humor as I do. I’m not
sure I can do much to ensure that I meet my soul mate. I believe
that is what is implied by the term soul mate; you will meet them
no matter what you do. Part of me is hoping this is true, but
another part tells me the idea of soul mates is just a fable.
Kerri’s classmate Chelsey, also an emerging adult, wrote:
I dreamt of being married. The husband didn’t matter specifi-
cally, as long as he was rich and famous and I had a long, off-the-
shoulder wedding dress. Thankfully, my views since then have
changed. . . . I have a fantastic boyfriend of almost two years who
I could see myself marrying, as we are extremely compatible.
Although we are different, we have mastered . . . communication
and compromise. . . . I think I will be able to cope with the trials
and tribulations life brings.
Neither of these students is naive. Kerri uses the words
Prince Charming and fable to express her awareness that these
ideas may be childish, and Chelsey seems to have let go of her
“long, off-the-shoulder” wedding dress. Her belief that she and
her boyfriend are “extremely compatible” and have “mastered
communication” may be in error, but my students, and my
daughters, hope to marry and expect a great deal from their
partners.
As a developmentalist, I realize that romantic partnerships
keep changing with each cohort. My marriage was different
from (and, I think, better than) that of my parents, who fell in
love as young adolescents. My daughters’ ideas may be better
than mine. I hope so.
in person
➤Response for Emerging Adults Who
Want More Close Friends (from page
505): The first two gateways are simple:
Attractiveness and availability mean being
clean, appropriately dressed, with time to
chat. Exposure requires being where people
are—going to parties, conferences, meetings
of various sorts. Closely related to that are
exclusion criteria: People need to go where
like-minded others gather. For one person
this may be a soccer game; for another, a
prayer service. Once a friend is found,
establishing and maintaining friendship takes
work: phoning, meeting, sharing thoughts
and experiences—all reciprocally.
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Since more than half of those aged 18 to 25 in North America and Europe have
never married, we now discuss love, cohabitation, and lasting commitment—all
issues of primary importance for emerging adults. (Divorce and parenthood are
discussed in Chapter 22.)
The Dimensions of Love
Would you marry someone you didn’t love if he or she had all the other qualities
you seek? Most men and women in developed nations respond with a resounding
NO!, but some young adults (especially women) in developing nations say yes
(Hatfield & Rapson, 2006b).
Passion, Intimacy, and Commitment It seems as if “love” is not a simple emotion,
not something universally recognized as the glue that holds a relationship together.
In a classic analysis, Robert Sternberg (1988) described three distinct aspects of
love—passion, intimacy, and commitment. Sternberg believes that the relative
presence or absence of these three components gives rise to seven different forms
of love (see Table 19.3).
Early in a relationship, passion is evident in “falling in love,” an intense physical,
cognitive, and emotional onslaught characterized by excitement, ecstasy, and
euphoria. The entire body and mind, hormones and neurons, are activated (Aron
et al., 2005). Such moonstruck joy can become bittersweet once the two people
involved get to know each other. As one observer explains, “Falling in love is
absolutely no way of getting to know someone” (Sullivan, 1999, p. 225).
There is some evidence that passion fades with familiarity. Siblings typically
are not attracted to each other sexually. In India, future brides who have lived in
the groom’s household since they were children have fewer offspring than do
those who first met their future spouse after puberty (Lieberman, 2006). Of
course, the diminished fertility might not signify less passion. For example, if
high-SES families are more likely to have child brides, then these wealthier fam-
ilies may also have better family planning. It is plausible, but not proven, that
passion is less pronounced among children who grow up together.
Intimacy is knowing someone well, sharing secrets as well as sex. This
phase of a relationship is reciprocal, with each partner gradually revealing
more of himself or herself as well as accepting more of the other’s rev-
elations.
According to some research, lust and affection arise from different
parts of the brain (L. M. Diamond, 2004). Establishing an intimate, non-
sexual relationship, and later moving toward a sexual one, may be wiser
than the opposite—sex first and friendship later (Furman & Hand, 2006).
The research is not clear about the best sequence of passion and intimacy.
Commitment takes time. It grows gradually through decisions to be
together, mutual caregiving, shared possessions, and forgiveness (Fincham
et al., 2007). Maintaining a close romantic relationship over the years takes
dedication and work (Dindia & Emmers-Sommers, 2006).
For both men and women, children add stress to a relationship but also
make separation less likely, which is one reason most sexually active young
adults are careful to avoid pregnancy. Social forces also strengthen com-
mitment, which is why in-laws have become so important in jokes and
relationships: They have the power to strengthen or weaken a couple’s
long-term relationship.
Ideal and Reality The Western ideal of consummate love is characterized
by the presence of all three components: passion, intimacy, and commit-
ment. This ideal combines “the view of love promulgated in the movies . . .
508 CHAPTER 19 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Intimacy Shared laughter and overlapping
legs, at midday in a public place, are universal
indications of a couple who know each other
well and enjoy their relationship. This couple
is in San Sebastian, Spain, but they could be
in any European or North American country.
SO
N
DA
D
AW
ES
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 506): A day-long bike trek up and down a
mountain. Among the clues are backpacks, bike
shorts, sunglasses, smiles, and setting sun.
The setting—Aspen Mountain, Colorado—
is harder to guess.
➤Response for Young Men (from page
506): Not for sex! Women friends are particu-
larly responsive to deep conversations about
family relationships, personal weaknesses,
emotional confusion. But women friends
might be offended by sexual advances,
bragging, or advice-giving. Save these for a
potential romance.
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[and the] more prosaic conceptions of love rooted in daily and long-lived experi-
ence” (Gerstel, 2002, p. 555). For developmental reasons, this ideal is difficult
to achieve. Passion seems to be sparked by unfamiliarity, uncertainty, and risk, all
of which are diminished by the growing familiarity and security that contribute
to intimacy as well as by the time needed to demonstrate commitment.
In short, with time, passion may fade, intimacy may grow and stabilize, and
commitment may develop. This pattern occurs for all types of couples—married,
unmarried, and remarried; heterosexual and homosexual; young and old (Ganong
& Coleman, 1994; Kurdek, 1992). Romantic relationships move from passion to
intimacy to commitment. Sexual attraction is part of the process, but it is not
enough to keep a couple together. As one author explains, “Sex and love
drift in and out of each other’s territories and their foggy frontiers cannot be
rigidly staked out. . . . Although lust does not contain love, love contains
lust” (Sullivan, 1999, pp. 95–96).
As already explained, this sequence is not followed in every culture.
Arranged marriages tend to begin with commitment; intimacy and passion
sometimes follow. Families “make great efforts . . . to keep the couple
together” (Georgas et al., 2006, p. 19) by providing practical support (such
as child care) and emotional encouragement.
Given the diversity nationally and internationally, there is no one pattern
that is guaranteed to lead to a happy relationship. It is apparent that some
things are changing. One is that those who marry young are more likely to
become depressed and then divorced; consequently, “finding a love partner
in your teens and continuing in that relationship with that person through
your early twenties, culminating in marriage, is now viewed as unhealthy, a
mistake, a path likely to lead to disaster” (Arnett, 2004, p. 73).
Another change is the role of technology. Many emerging adults have
profiles on matchmaking Web sites. Doing so indicates availability, in-
creases exposure, and presets the exclusion criteria. Unfortunately, the
first gateway, attractiveness, is hard to judge from a computer image. As
one journalist puts it, many people face “profound disappointment when
the process ends in a face-to-face meeting with an actual, flawed human
being who doesn’t look like a JPEG or talk like an email message”
(D. Jones, 2006, p. 13). The most obvious change, however, is the likeli-
hood of cohabitation.
Intimacy 509
TABLE 19.3
Sternberg’s Seven Forms of Love
Present in the Relationship?
Form of Love Passion Intimacy Commitment
Liking No Yes No
Infatuation Yes No No
Empty love No No Yes
Romantic love Yes Yes No
Fatuous love Yes No Yes
Companionate love No Yes Yes
Consummate love Yes Yes Yes
Source: Sternberg, 1988.
Mail-Order Bride He was looking for a
woman with green eyes and reddish hair but
without strong religious convictions—his par-
ticular exclusion criteria, which he posted on
the Web. That led to an e-mail courtship and
eventually marriage to “the girl of my
dreams.”
AP
/
W
ID
E
W
OR
LD
P
HO
TO
S
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Living Together, Not Married
Cohabitation, the term for living together in a romantic partnership without being
married, has been called a stage of modern courtship. More than half of all emerg-
ing adults in the United States, Canada, northern Europe, England, and Australia
cohabit during emerging adulthood. In other nations, including Japan, Ireland,
and Italy, less than 10 percent of all adults have ever cohabited. (These interna-
tional variations are evident in every survey, but specific percentages change by
cohort and methodology.)
Variation is also apparent in the purpose of cohabitation (Casper & Bianchi,
2002). About half of all cohabiting couples in the United States consider living
together as a prelude to marriage, which they expect to occur when they are
financially and emotionally ready. Longitudinal research on this group finds that,
in five to seven years, many marry, one-sixth are still cohabiting, and only one-
third break up.
Some other couples live together but do not plan to marry each other; neither
considers the relationship permanent. For them, longitudinal research finds that
separation is likely (Casper & Bianchi, 2002).
Finally, cohabitation can be a substitute for marriage. Most adults in Sweden,
France, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico live together but expect neither to wed nor to sep-
arate. In the United States (but not in Canada), committed homosexual couples are
forced into this category. Many heterosexual couples—especially those who have
been divorced—also expect to stay together but not to marry. These cohabitants
tend to be older and to have more compatible relationships (King & Scott, 2005).
Although many people think of cohabitation as a good prelude to, or substitute
for, marriage, research suggests they are mistaken. Cohabitants tend to be
younger, poorer, and more likely to end their relationship than married couples—
even when the relationship is actually quite satisfying (Bouchard, 2006; Brown et
al., 2006). A Latin American study found that domestic violence is more common
among cohabiting couples than among married couples (Flake & Forste, 2006). A
study in the United States and Australia reported that, although the crime is rare,
cohabitants are nine times more likely to kill their partner than married couples
are (Shackelford & Mouzos, 2005).
cohabitation An arrangement in which a
man and a woman live together in a com-
mitted sexual relationship but are not
formally married.
510 CHAPTER 19 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Especially for Social Scientists Suppose
your 25-year-old Canadian friend, never
married, says, “Look at the statistics. If I
marry now, there is a 50/50 chance I will get
divorced.” What three statistical facts, found
in the next few pages, allow you to insist,
“Your odds of divorce are much lower”?
What’s Wrong with This Picture? The
beaming man is a proud and responsive
father, old enough to take his responsibilities
seriously. A close look at his 22-month-old
daughter suggests that he is doing a good
job: She is delighted at the game he is play-
ing with the ball, and he has moved his tall
body way down, to be exactly at face level
with her. Another fact also makes bonding
easier: She is the biological child of these two
young adults. So in terms of child and adult
development, everything is right with this
family picture—but some people might be
troubled by one detail: Neither parent has a
wedding ring. They have never married. RIC
HA
RD
L
OR
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AG
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W
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Contrary to widespread belief, living together before marriage does not preclude
problems that might arise after a wedding. The opposite is more likely (Cohan &
Kleinbaum, 2002; Kamp Dush & Amato, 2005). What, then, predicts a satisfying
relationship? Several answers have been suggested; there is no answer that all
researchers agree on.
What Makes Relationships Work
It is obvious that marriage is not what it once was—a legal and religious arrange-
ment that couples sought as the exclusive avenue for sexual expression, the only
legitimate prelude for childbearing, and a lifelong source of intimacy and support.
As a sign of this change, the tie between marriage and childbearing is loosening in
every nation. As many babies are born to unmarried as to married couples in some
nations (including Denmark, France, and Sweden).
Further evidence is found in U.S. statistics (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2006):
■ Most adults aged 20 to 30 are not yet married.
■ Compared to any year in the past, fewer adults are married (58 percent) and
more are divorced.
■ The divorce rate is half the marriage rate (3.4 compared to 7.8 per 1,000)—
not primarily because more people are divorcing but because fewer people
are marrying.
From a developmental perspective, it is noteworthy that marriages evolve over
time, sometimes getting better and sometimes worse (Waite & Luo, 2002). Among
the factors that lead to improvement are good communication, children growing
up (newborns and adolescents seem to increase marital distress), financial shifts
(income improvements or new employment), and the end of addiction or illness.
Another developmental factor is maturity. In general, the younger the partners,
the more likely they are to separate (Amato et al., 2003). This may be because, as
Erikson pointed out, intimacy is hard to establish until identity is secure.
Compatibility
Commitment benefits from similarity, probably because similar people are likely
to understand each other. Anthropologists distinguish between homogamy, or
marriage within the same tribe or ethnic group, and heterogamy, marriage out-
side the group. Traditionally, homogamy meant marriage between people of the
same cohort, religion, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. For contemporary part-
ners, homogamy and heterogamy also refer to similarity in interests, attitudes, and
goals (Cramer, 1998; Hohmann-Marriott, 2006). Educational similarity is becom-
ing increasingly important (Schoen & Cheng, 2006).
One study of 168 young couples found that social homogamy, defined as
similarity in preferred activities and roles, increased long-term commitment
(Houts et al., 1996). When both partners enjoyed (or hated) picnicking, dancing,
swimming, going to the movies, listening to music, eating out, or any of 44 other
activities, they tended to be more “in love” and more committed. Similarly, if they
agreed on roles such as who should cook, pay bills, and shop for groceries, ambiva-
lence and conflict were reduced.
The authors of this study do not believe that “finding a mate compatible on
many dimensions is an achievable goal.” In reality, “individuals who are seeking a
compatible mate must make many compromises if they are to marry at all”
(Houts et al., 1996, p. 18). They found that, for any young adult, fewer than 1 in
100 potential mates shares even three favorite leisure activities and three role
preferences.
homogamy Defined by developmentalists
as marriage between individuals who tend
to be similar with respect to such variables
as attitudes, interests, goals, socioeconomic
status, religion, ethnic background, and
local origin.
heterogamy Defined by developmentalists
as marriage between individuals who
tend to be dissimilar with repect to such
variables as attitudes, interests, goals,
socioeconomic status, religion, ethnic
background, and local origin.
social homogamy The similarity of a couple’s
leisure interests and role preferences.
Intimacy 511
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One thorny issue that arises among contemporary cohabiting couples as well as
married ones is how housework is allocated. Many of today’s couples include a
woman who wants the man to do much more housework than he would prefer. If
a couple cannot agree on division of household labor, cohabitants are more likely
to go their separate ways and married people are less satisfied (Brown et al., 2006;
Hohmann-Marriott, 2006).
A related factor is equity, the extent to which the two partners perceive a rough
equality in the partnership (Hatfield & Rapson, 2006a). According to social
exchange theory, marriage is an arrangement in which each person contributes
something useful to the other (Astone et al., 1999; Edwards, 1969). In earlier
decades, if the husband had a good job and the wife kept the household running
smoothly, each partner was content. Both realized that they would have difficulty
living alone. Today, partners expect each other to be friends, lovers, and confidants
as well as wage earners and caregivers, and men and women both get paychecks,
cook, and care for children.
Because both partners expect sensitivity to their many needs, happier relation-
ships tend to be those in which both partners are adept at emotional perception and
expression (Fitness, 2001). As women earn more money and men do more house-
work, overall marital satisfaction has improved. Indeed, many aspects of romantic
relationships have changed over the decades, some increasing happiness, some
not, but couples overall are as happy with their relationship as they ever were
(Amato et al., 2003).
Conflict
Emotional sensitivity is crucial when couples disagree. According to John Gottman,
who has videotaped thousands of couples, conflict is less predictive of later sepa-
ration than disgust, because disgust closes down intimacy. If a couple “fights fair,”
using humor and attending to each other’s emotions as they disagree, conflict can
contribute to commitment and intimacy (Gottman et al., 2002).
The benefits of conflict are not found by other researchers. Other studies of
young couples (dating, cohabiting, and married) report that conflict may under-
mine a relationship (Kim et al., 2007). Much depends on how the conflict ends—
with better understanding or with resentment.
One particularly destructive pattern of interaction is called demand/withdraw,
when one partner insists and the other retreats (“We need to talk about this” is met
with “No. I’m too busy”). This is “consistently characteristic of ailing marriages,”
according to Gottman (Gottman et al., 2002, p. 22), and is probably evident
among dating couples as well.
An international study of young adults in romantic relationships (some dating,
some cohabiting, some married) in Brazil, Italy, Taiwan, and the United States
found that constructive communication was crucial for satisfaction (Christensen
et al., 2006; see Research Design). Women were more likely to be demanding and
men withdrawing. As the authors explain:
If couples cannot resolve their differences, then demand/withdraw interaction is
likely not only to persist but also to become extreme. We believe that demand and
withdraw may potentiate each other so that demanding leads to greater withdrawal
and withdrawal leads to greater demanding. This repeated but frustrating and
painful interaction can then damage relationship satisfaction.
[Christensen et al., 2006, p. 1040]
Much worse, sometimes an unmet demand leads to domestic abuse. In such rela-
tionships, constructive communication is crucial but may be impossible, as the
following explains.
social exchange theory The view that social
behavior is a process of exchange aimed
at maximizing the benefits one receives
and minimizing the costs one pays.
512 CHAPTER 19 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Research Design
Scientists: Andrew Christensen, Kath-
leen Eldridge, Adriana Bokel Catta-Preta,
Veronica R. Lim, and Rossella Santagata.
Publication: Journal of Marriage and
Family (2006).
Participants: College students, aged 18
to 30, from Brazil, Italy,Taiwan, and the
United States. Participants were self-
selected, were required to be in a rela-
tionship less than 10 years (the average
was 21⁄2 years), and had to speak the
native language.
Design: Participants answered many
written questions, focusing on commu-
nication patterns. Particular attention
was given to the demand/withdraw
pattern and to relationship satisfaction.
Major conclusion:The importance of
communication between members of a
couple and the harm from the demand/
withdraw pattern (which have been
confirmed many times in the United
States) are true for emerging adults in
many nations, including many non-
Western ones.
Comment: Such international research
is needed and welcome.The authors
note several drawbacks:The participants
were volunteers and the data are based
on self-report. Needed are longitudinal,
behavioral, and experimental studies.
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Family Connections
It is hard to overestimate the importance of the family at any time of the life span.
Families are “our most important individual support system” (Schaie, 2002,
p. 318), a “problem-solving system” (Wilson et al., 1995, p. 85) that “persists over
time . . . as households wax and wane” (Troll, 1996, p. 246). Although made up of
Intimacy 513
Domestic Violence
Surveys in the United States and Canada find that each year,
about 12 percent of all men say they have pushed, grabbed,
shoved, or slapped their partner at least once. Between 1 and 3
percent have hit, kicked, beaten up, or threatened with a knife
or a gun (MacMillan & Gartner, 1999; Straus & Gelles, 1995).
Surveys outside North America find higher rates. In China,
14 percent of the women experienced “severe physical abuse”
(hitting, kicking, beating, strangling, choking, burning, threaten-
ing to use or using a weapon) in their lifetime, with 6 percent
reporting such abuse in the past year (almost always at the hands
of their husbands) (Xu et al., 2005). When verbal abuse (hostile
or insulting comments such as “You’re too fat” and “You’re a lousy
lover”) was included, a New Zealand cohort of 25-year-olds re-
ported that 70 percent of those who were in relationships (married
or not) experienced domestic abuse (Fergusson et al., 2005).
These surveys were taken of women, because it was assumed
that women were victims and men were abusers. It is true that
more women are seriously injured or killed by their male lovers
than vice versa, as evident in every hospital emergency room
or homicide summary. However, it is now apparent that abuse
includes threats, insults, and slaps as well as physical battering.
With this expanded definition, more women than men are abu-
sive to their partners (K. L. Anderson, 2002; Archer, 2000,
Fergusson et al., 2005; Moffitt et al., 2001). Gay and lesbian
couples can be abusive to their partners as well.
The original, mistaken male-abuser/female-victim assump-
tion occurred because abusive men are physically stronger and
thus cause more injury, and because socialization makes men
reluctant to admit that they are victims. Likewise, homosexual
couples hesitate to publicly proclaim that they have problems,
although in domestic violence and most other aspects of rela-
tionships, they are very similar to heterosexual couples (Gelles,
1997; Kurdek, 2006).
Social scientists have identified numerous causes of domes-
tic violence, including youth, poverty, personality (such as poor
impulse control), mental illness (such as antisocial disorders),
and drug and alcohol addiction. Developmentalists note that
many children who are harshly punished, who are sexually
abused, or who witness domestic assault grow up to become
abusers and victims themselves (R. E. Heyman & Slep, 2002).
Knowing these causes points toward prevention. Halting
child maltreatment, for instance, averts some later abuse. It is
also useful to learn more about each abusive relationship.
Researchers differentiate two forms of spouse abuse: common
couple violence and intimate terrorism, each of which has dis-
tinct causes, patterns, and prevention (M. P. Johnson, 2005;
M. P. Johnson & Ferraro, 2000).
Common couple violence (also called situational couple
violence) is characterized by mutual outbursts of yelling, insults,
and attack (Caetano et al., 2005). Often, both partners are de-
pressed, both abuse alcohol or drugs, and both physically punish
their children. They need help, but not necessarily separation or
divorce, because the relationship may improve and the abuse
may be halted by counseling, financial security, and addiction
treatment.
Intimate terrorism occurs when one partner systematically
isolates, degrades, and punishes the other. Intimate terrorism
leads to the battered-wife syndrome, with the woman not only
beaten but also psychologically and socially broken and vulnera-
ble to permanent injury and death. This cycle of violence and
submission feeds on itself, because each act that renders one
partner helpless adds to the other’s feeling of control.
Intimate terrorism is much less prevalent but far more
dangerous than common couple violence. The perpetrator is
usually antisocial and violent in many ways, with children and
relatives in danger (M. P. Johnson, 2005; M. P. Johnson &
Ferraro, 2000). The abuser is often irrationally jealous, reluc-
tant for the partner to talk with friends, relatives, or anyone
else or even to leave the house. Victims of intimate terrorism
need immediate shelter, police protection, and help with self-
confidence and independence.
Family members and friends should intervene in both types
of conflict, since abuse hurts every adult and child. However,
since domestic abuse often includes loss of social connections
as both a cause and a consequence, no one may realize that help
is needed. A survey of married Asian immigrants found that
domestic violence was three times as common, and more severe,
when the wife had no family members nearby (Raj & Silverman,
2003). Similar effects of isolation are found in couples from
every ethnic group.
issues and applications
common couple violence A form of abuse
in which one or both partners of a couple
engage in outbursts of verbal and physical
attack. (Also called situational couple
violence.)
intimate terrorism Spouse abuse in which,
most often, the husband uses violent
methods of accelerating intensity to iso-
late, degrade, and punish the wife.
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individuals, a family is much more than the persons who belong to it. In dynamic
synergy, children grow, adults find support, and everyone is part of an ethos that
gives meaning to, and provides models for, personal aspirations and decisions.
Linked Lives
Emerging adults are said to set out on their own, leaving their childhood home and
parents behind. They strive for independence (Arnett, 2004). It might seem as if
they no longer need parental support and guidance, but the data show that parents
continue to be crucial—perhaps even more so than for previous generations.
Fewer emerging adults have established their own families, secured high-paying
jobs, or found a definitive understanding of their identity and their goals.
All members of each family have linked lives, meaning that the experiences
and needs of family members at one stage of life are affected by those at other
stages (Macmillan & Copher, 2005).We have seen this in earlier chapters: Chil-
dren are affected by their parents’ relationship, even if they are not directly in-
volved in domestic disputes, financial stresses, parental alliances, and so on.
Consider parents and emerging adults in the current context. Fewer parents
have young children; both parents are usually employed, often with seniority and
substantial income. In the United States in 2005, the highest incomes were in
households headed by someone aged 45 to 54 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007).
Parents have always wanted to help their adult children, but now more of them are
able to give both money and time.
Not surprisingly, then, one obvious connection between parents and adult chil-
dren is financial. For example, very few young college students pay all their tuition
and living expenses on their own. Parents provide support; loans, part-time employ-
ment, and partial scholarships also contribute.
Many emerging adults still live at home, partly because few entry-level jobs pay
enough for true independence. This varies from nation to nation. Almost all un-
married young adults in Italy and Japan live with their parents, as do half those in
England (Manzi et al., 2006). Fewer do so in the United States, but many parents
underwrite their young adult children’s independent living (Pew, 2007).
About half of all emerging adults receive cash from their parents (averaging
$1,000 a year) in addition to tuition, medical care, food, and other material support.
514 CHAPTER 19 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
The Same Event, A Thousand Miles Apart:
Happy Young Women The British woman
(left) and the Kenyan woman (right) are both
developing just as their families and cultures
had hoped they would. The major difference
is that 23-year-old Kim is not yet married to
Dave, while her contemporary already has a
husband, son, and daughter.
CH
RI
S
RO
UT
E
/ A
LA
M
Y
CH
AR
LO
TT
E
TH
EG
E
/ P
ET
ER
A
RN
OL
D,
IN
C.
➤Response for Social Scientists (from
page 510): First, no other nation has a divorce
rate as high as the United States. Second,
even the 50 percent divorce rate in the United
States comes from dividing the number of
divorces by the number of marriages. Because
some people get married and divorced many
times, that minority provides data that drive
up the ratio and skew the average. (Actually,
even in the United States, only one first
marriage in three—not one in two—ends in
divorce.) Finally, because you have read that
teenage marriages are especially likely to
end, you can deduce that older brides and
grooms are less likely to divorce. The odds of
your friend getting divorced are about one in
five, as long as the couple has established a
fair degree of social homogamy.
linked lives Lives in which the success,
health, and well-being of one generation in
a family are connected to those of another
generation, as in the relationship between
parents and children.
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Most are also given substantial gifts of time, such as help with laundry, moving,
household repairs, and, if the young adult becomes a parent, free child care. This
assistance makes achievement possible (Schoeni & Ross, 2005).
Emerging adults without family support (e.g., foster children who “age out” at
age 18, or those whose families are too poor and overwhelmed to be helpful) find
it difficult to meet the challenges of emerging adulthood (Foster & Gifford, 2005).
Getting a college degree is especially hard without family help.
International Variations
Families can be destructive as well as helpful to emerging adults. For example, a
study of enmeshment (e.g., parents always knowing what their emerging adult
children are doing and thinking) found that British emerging adults were harmed
if their parents were too intrusive. However, emerging adults in Italy seem able to
remain closely connected with their parents without impairing their own develop-
ment (Manzi et al., 2006).
Some Westerners believe that family dependence is more evident in
developing nations. There is some truth in this. For example, many African young
adults marry someone approved by their parents and work to support their many
relatives—siblings, parents, cousins, uncles, and so on. Individuals sacrifice
personal goals for family concerns, and “collectivism often takes precedence and
overrides individual needs and interests,” which makes “the family a source of
both collective identity and tension” (Wilson & Ngige, 2006, p. 248).
There are advantages to this collectivism. Friendships are more practical, prob-
ably because relatives meet intimacy needs (Adams & Plout, 2003). Furthermore,
each new baby is cared for by many people, so young adults are less burdened by
children. This is in contrast to the United States, where parenthood is a major
impediment to higher education and career success (Osgood et al., 2005). This
may be one reason parenthood begins much earlier in poor nations.
However, in every nation young adults are encouraged to do well in school and
get good jobs, partly to make their families proud, partly so that they will be able to
care for their families when necessary, and partly for their own future. Immigrant
young adults tend to be highly motivated to learn and work, and they reciprocate
their parents’ support. These values help them to become more successful than
many native-born young adults (Mollenkopf et al., 2005).
When we look at actual lives, not the cultural image of independence or inter-
dependence, emerging adults worldwide have much in common, including close
family connections and a new freedom from parental limits (Georgas et al., 2006).
Although specifics differ, it is a mistake to assume that emerging adults in West-
ern nations abandon their parents when they leave home. Indeed, some studies
find that family relationships improve when young adults leave (Graber & Brooks-
Gunn, 1996; Smetana et al., 2004). One longitudinal study of four generations
found that “most mothers and daughters had stormy relationships during the
daughters’ adolescence but close and friendly ones once the daughters left home,
whether or not the daughters married” (Troll, 1996, p. 253).
Parents support their adult children indirectly as well, by what they did years
earlier. In many nations, researchers find a connection between early attachment
and adult relationships with friends, lovers, and children (Grossmann et al., 2005;
Mikulincer & Goodman, 2006; Sroufe et al., 2005). Securely attached infants are
more likely to become happily married adults; avoidant infants may hesitate to
marry.
From a developmental perspective, it makes sense that emotional development
and social skills learned in childhood would be relevant to adult relationships
Intimacy 515
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(Mikulincer, 2006). Ponder this as we now look specifically at the emotions of
emerging adults: Are they the outgrowth of early development, or do contextual
factors in early adulthood determine them?
SUMMING UP
Intimacy needs are universal for all young adults, but the ways in which they are met
vary by culture and cohort. In developed nations in the twenty-first century, most
emerging adults have many friends, including some of the opposite sex, and a series of
romantic relationships before marriage. Cohabitation is common, although it does not
necessarily further the passion, intimacy, or commitment that emerging adults seek.
In many other nations, arranged marriages are common. Parental support and linked
lives are typical everywhere. In some nations, this support includes substantial finan-
cial assistance.
■
Emotional Development
As you know, people are at their peak—in strength, sexual impulses, health, cogni-
tive growth, and much else—during emerging adulthood. Emotions, too, seem to
run high during these years. When adults of various ages are asked to recall their
happiest or most important memories, a cluster usually appears during the young-
adult years (Berntsen & Rubin, 2002) (see Figure 19.1). Both positive and nega-
tive emotions seem to be especially strong at this time.
Well-Being
Emerging adults in most developed nations have the freedom to learn, explore,
make friends, find lovers, and take whatever jobs, journeys, and risks they want. If
a person is ever going to travel to another nation, or learn a new sport, or achieve
some athletic, academic, or creative breakthrough, the most likely time is from age
18 to 25. One indication is found in the young-adult lives of highly successful or
very creative adults. Often, the initial breakthrough came in early adulthood.
For example, among the winners of the Nobel Prize in 2005 were Harold Pinter
(British) in literature, Barry Marshall (Australian) in medicine, and Mohamed
516 CHAPTER 19 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Proportion
of memories
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
Reported age at time of event
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Source: Berntsen & Rubin, 2002, p. 643.
Happiest
20s
30s
40s
50s
60s
70s
FIGURE 19.1
The Memory Bump A sizable proportion of
adults of all ages report having had a “happi-
ness bump” in their mid-20s. Participants in
this study ranged in age from their 20s to
their 70s, and the curves in this graph are la-
beled accordingly. To make the graph easier
to read, the curve for each age group is offset
by 0.2 from the curve for the next-oldest
group. As a result, for the group in their 40s,
for example, 0.6 is the equivalent of 0. Thus,
about 15 percent of participants in their 40s
said that they had experienced their happiest
memories at age 10 or younger; 15 percent at
ages 10–20; 35 percent at ages 20–29; 20
percent at ages 30–39; and about 15 percent
at age 40 or older.
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El-Baradei (Egyptian), in efforts to promote world peace. Pinter’s first book of
poems was published when he was just 20, and his first play was produced when
he was 27; El-Baradei began to represent Egypt at the United Nations when he
was 22; Marshall first decided that standard medicine was inadequate when he
was a medical intern at age 22.
Marshall’s example is particularly instructive. His rebellion against standard med-
icine included, by the mid-1980s, his conviction that a bacterium, Helicobacter
pylori, caused peptic ulcers. The medical establishment continued to insist that the
cause was excessive production of stomach acid in response to psychological stress.
In frustration, at age 32, as “a little known trainee doctor in a little known
hospital . . . [Marshall] swallowed a broth of microbe-laced water” (Hamilton,
2001, p. 30). Soon afterward, he became violently ill with the symptoms of stom-
ach ulcers. He cured himself by taking antibiotics, which killed off the H. pylori—
proof that peptic ulcers are caused not by stress but by bacterial infection.
Marshall was technically past emerging adulthood when he swallowed the
toxin, but his creative rebellion started much sooner. Further, some people take
much longer to reach maturity than others. Marshall may have developed slowly;
his wife said he was more like a boy than a man.
Boldness and creativity, evident in many young adults who become leaders, is
not universal. However, the tendency to question authority and to feel pleased
with oneself is common. In one U.S. study, 3,912 people were surveyed every two
years from ages 18 to 24. They were quite happy with themselves at 18, and their
self-esteem kept rising (Schulenberg et al., 2005) (see Figure 19.2). Similarly, 404
young adults in western Canada were repeatedly questioned from ages 18 to 25.
They, too, evidenced rising self-esteem (Galambos et al., 2006).
Positive emotions increase when emerging adults have close relationships with
friends, lovers, and parents, as well as when they undergo successful transitions
such as leaving home, graduating from college, and securing a good job (Schulen-
berg et al., 2005). Some of the severe depressions and anxieties of adolescence lift
when young people leave their high schools and distance themselves from their
dysfunctional families.
Emotional Development 517
Source: Schulenberg et al., 2005, p. 424.
4.25
4
3.75
18 19–20 21–22 23–24
Average rating
Age
Young Adults’ Self-Ratings of Well-Being
Men
Women
Total
FIGURE 19.2
Worthy People This graph shows a steady
increase in young adults’ sense of well-being
from age 18 to age 24, as measured by
respondents’ ratings of statements such as
“I feel I am a person of worth.” The ratings
ranged from 1, indicating complete disagree-
ment, to 5, indicating complete agreement.
The average rating was already quite high at
age 18, and it increased steadily over the
years of emerging adulthood.
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Psychopathology
It is a mistake to assume that every young adult benefits from independence. Al-
though new experiences tend to improve self-esteem, some emerging adults, be-
cause of either their personality or their circumstances, have too many choices
and too little guidance (Schwartz, 2004).
This was one conclusion from a study that began with seniors at 11 colleges
who had requested help finding jobs. Some were “maximizers”: They sought the
best job possible, consulting experts and applying for 20 or so positions. The
others were “satisficers”: They consulted fewer people and submitted half as many
applications as the maximizers. In follow-up research, after the graduating
students had accepted jobs, the maximizers secured higher pay (averaging $7,430
more per year), but they were less pleased with their jobs than the satisficers were
(Iyengar et al., 2006).
The dissatisfaction of the maximizers is one example of the problems that may
detour young-adult growth. Some are overwhelmed by their many choices and
challenges. From ages 18 to 25, “young people are coming to grips with their lives”
(Galambos et al., 2006, p. 360). Some lose their grip. Average well-being increases
in emerging adulthood, as just described, but so does the incidence of psycho-
pathology (Mowbray et al., 2006; Schulenberg & Zarrett, 2006).
Worldwide, adults are more likely to have a mental illness during emerging
adulthood than during any later time. Often, psychopathology continues through-
out adult life. As the World Health Organization reports: “Although mental
disorders cause fewer deaths than infectious diseases, they cause as much or
more disability because they strike early and can last a long time” (G. Miller, 2006,
p. 459).
Why this increase? Substantial research finds that vocational, financial, and
interpersonal stresses are greater in early adulthood than later on (Kessler et al.,
2005). Most developmentalists believe in the diathesis-stress model, which
“views psychopathology as the consequence of stress interacting with an under-
lying predisposition (biological, psychosocial, or sociocultural) to produce a spe-
cific disorder” (Hooley, 2004, p. 204). Thus, the stresses of emerging adulthood
are likely to cause problems when added to preexisting vulnerability. Now some
specifics.
Substance Abuse Disorders
As explained in Chapter 17, emerging adulthood is by far the most common time
for substance abuse. One person in every eight is addicted (including alcohol
addiction) before age 27 (Kessler et al., 2005).
At first, the social setting of many emerging adults may make drug abuse seem
normal, even helpful (Schulenberg et al., 2005). As we have just seen, friends and
romantic partners are chosen in part for similarities and common interests. One
such common interest is drug and alcohol use, which can allow the heavy user to
befriend other young adults who are more addicted than they are. Social norms
within the friendship circle may prevent these young adults from recognizing their
own addictions.
Many sufferers do manage to put an end to their abuse without professional
counseling or residential rehabilitation. As explained in Chapter 17, when social
norms make an emerging adult realize he or she has a problem, the social network
can be helpful. Unfortunately, if professional help is needed, it often is not sought
or even available until years or even decades after the problem has become
evident.
518 CHAPTER 19 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
diathesis-stress model The view that men-
tal disorders, such as schizophrenia, are
produced by the interaction of a genetic
vulnerability (the diathesis) with stressful
environmental factors and life events.
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Mood Disorders
Before age 30, 8 percent of U.S. residents suffer from a mood disorder, most com-
monly major depression, signaled by a “loss of interest or pleasure in nearly all
activities” for two weeks or more. Other difficulties—in sleeping, concentrating,
eating, carrying on friendships, and experiencing hope and meaning in life—are
also present (American Psychiatric Association, 2000, p. 249). About a quarter of
mood disorders in the United States begin in adolescence and another quarter
begin in young adulthood. (Depression is also common among young adults in
other nations, but reliable incidence statistics are unavailable.)
The origins of major depression may be biochemical, involving imbalances in
neurotransmitters and hormones, but the stresses common in adolescence and
emerging adulthood (e.g., a romantic breakup, an arrest) can be triggers. Young
adults with psychological problems are less likely to have supportive friendships,
and that itself can be depressing (King & Terrance, 2006).
Failure to get treatment for depression is a major problem for emerging adults.
They tend to distance themselves from anyone who knows them well enough to
realize that therapy is needed. Furthermore, depressed people of all ages charac-
teristically believe that nothing will help. This makes them unlikely to seek treat-
ment on their own. As a result, although effective treatment has been found for
almost all types of depression, this disorder is a leading cause of impairment and
premature death worldwide (World Health Organization, 2001).
Anxiety Disorders
Another major problem, evident in one-fourth of all U.S. residents below the age
of 25, is anxiety disorders, which include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and panic attacks. Note that anxiety disor-
ders are even more prevalent than depression. Such incidence statistics vary from
study to study, depending partly on definitions and cutoff scores, but all research
finds that many emerging adults are anxious about themselves, their relationships,
and their future.
Age and genetic vulnerability shape the symptoms of anxiety disorders. For
instance, everyone with PTSD has had a frightening experience—near-death in
battle, rape at knifepoint, watching the World Trade Center collapse on Septem-
ber 11, 2001. However, only about 15 percent of the people who experience such
trauma develop PTSD (Ozer & Weiss, 2004). Young adults, especially if they have
no support from close friends or relatives, are more likely to develop the disorder
than people of other ages.
Anxiety disorders are also affected by cultural context. In the United States,
social phobia—fear of talking to other people—is a common anxiety disorder, one
that keeps young adults away from college, unable to make new friends, hesitant
to apply for jobs. Eating disorders, as explained in Chapter 17, are more common
among contemporary young women in college, probably for cultural reasons.
In Japan, a new anxiety disorder has appeared within the last 20 years that is
said to affect more than 100,000 young adults. It is called hikikomori, or “pull
away.” The sufferer stays in his (or, less often, her) room almost all the time for six
months or more. Typically, a person suffering with hikikomori is anxious about the
social and academic pressures of high school and college. Parents bring food to
their self-imprisoned children and “fear that their children won’t survive without
them” (M. Jones, 2005, p. 51).
It is easier to see how another culture or family enables a particular anxiety dis-
order than it is to recognize aspects of the immediate social context that make
Emotional Development 519
hikikomori A Japanese word literally mean-
ing “pull away,” the name of an anxiety
disorder common among young adults in
Japan, in which sufferers isolate them-
selves from the outside world by staying
inside their homes for months or even
years at a time.
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emerging adults anxious. Japanese emerging adults are thought to experience more
pressure, and parents are thought to be more indulgent. Yet everywhere, anxiety
seems to be part of emerging adulthood. Manifestations vary, but the trait is
universal. A U.S. survey found that neuroticism (one of the five basic traits of
temperament, characterized by high anxiety) was highest in emerging adulthood
(Chapman & Hayslip, 2006).
Schizophrenia
About 1 percent of all adults experience at least one episode of schizophrenia.
They are overwhelmed by disorganized and bizarre thoughts, delusions, hallucina-
tions, and emotions (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). This disorder is
present in every nation, but some cultures and contexts have much higher rates
than others (Cantor-Graae & Selten, 2005; Kirkbride et al., 2006).
No doubt the cause of schizophrenia is partly genetic, although most people
with this disorder have no immediate family members suffering from it. Beyond
genetics, some other vulnerabilities are known. One is malnutrition when the
brain is developing: Women who are severely malnourished in the early months of
pregnancy are twice as likely to have a child with schizophrenia than other women
(St. Clair et al., 2005). Another is extensive social pressure. Among immigrants,
the rate of schizophrenia triples when young adults have no familiar supports
(Cantor-Graae & Selten, 2005; Morgan et al., 2007).
Symptoms typically begin in adolescence. Diagnosis is most common from ages
18 to 24, and males are particularly vulnerable (Kirkbride et al., 2006). If no symp-
toms appear by age 35, schizophrenia almost never develops. This raises the ques-
tion: Does something in the bodies, minds, or social surroundings of emerging
adults trigger schizophrenia? The diathesis-stress model of mental illness, which
(as you saw earlier) proposes that a combination of genetic vulnerability and
environmental stresses produces mental disorders, suggests that the answer is yes
for all three.
Continuity and Discontinuity
Fortunately, most emerging adults, like humans at all ages, have strengths as well
as liabilities. Many overcome their anxieties, their substance abuse, and other
problems through “self-righting,” social support, and ongoing maturation. A longi-
520 CHAPTER 19 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Recovering A young Japanese man sits alone
in his room, which until recently was his self-
imposed prison. He is one of thousands of
Japanese young people (80 percent of whom
are male) who have the anxiety disorder
known as hikikomori. JA
M
ES
W
HI
TL
OW
D
EL
AN
O
/ R
ED
UX
Especially for Immigrants What can you
do in your adopted country to avoid or relieve
the psychic stresses of immigration?
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Summary 521
Identity Achieved
1. Although Erikson thought that most people achieved identity
by the end of adolescence, for today’s youth the identity crisis
continues into adulthood.
2. For emerging adults in multiethnic nations, ethnic identity
needs to be established. This is difficult because combining local
traditions and global concerns, or accommodating both parental
wishes and peer pressures, is complex.
3. Vocational identity requires knowing what career one hopes
to have. Few young adults are certain about their career goals.
College is not only a moratorium on identity achievement but also
a preparation for employment.
4. In today’s job market, many adults of all ages switch jobs, with
turnover particularly quick in emerging adulthood. Most short-
term jobs are not connected to the young person’s skills or ambi-
tions. Vocational identity, as Erikson conceived it, is elusive, given
the current job market and economic fluidity.
Intimacy
5. Close friendships are common during emerging adulthood,
typically including some opposite-sex as well as same-sex friend-
ships. Although male–female differences in friendships are di-
minishing, women still exchange more confidences and physical
affection than men do. Male friendships often center on shared
activities.
6. Romantic love is complex, involving passion, intimacy, and
commitment. In some nations, commitment is crucial and par-
ents arrange marriages with that in mind. Among emerging adults
in developed nations, passion is more important but it does not
necessarily lead to marriage.
7. More and more emerging adults are living together and post-
poning marriage. This arrangement does not necessarily improve
marital happiness.
SUMMARY
tudinal study of children who had externalizing or internalizing problems found
that their impact in early adulthood depended partly on what the problem was
(Masten et al., 2005).
To be specific, childhood externalizing problems often become impediments in
early adulthood because they diminish school achievement. This makes college
less likely and thus increases the risk of other problems. By contrast, childhood
internalizing problems are less likely to affect the emerging adult because academic
achievement is typically unaffected and dangerous risks (such as with drugs) are
avoided (Masten et al., 2005).
Every longitudinal study of the emotional development of emerging adults finds
that the links are complex. No doubt, earlier problems have their impact, but
some young adults escape unscathed. A happy marriage, a stellar college career,
good human relationships, a satisfying job—all these are more likely if young
adults have had a supportive childhood. But if a young adult with serious emo-
tional problems manages to have even one of these, he or she stands a better
chance of becoming successful (Hauser et al., 2006).
For example, Barry Marshall, the man who discovered the ulcer-causing bacte-
ria, grew up in poverty and was considered a crank, showoff, and malcontent by
many of his peers. Most people with that kind of background struggle through
adulthood. Fortunately for Marshall, he had a good marriage, which gave him the
support and stability necessary to make great strides in his research. Marshall is
now a wealthy, proud, and widely admired researcher (Sweet, 1997).
SUMMING UP
Regarding emotional development during emerging adulthood, most people are quite
pleased with themselves, and for good reason: Accomplishments begin to accumulate
during these years. However, a sizable minority are emotionally disturbed. Substance
abuse, depression, and anxiety disorders are particularly common. Although genetic
vulnerability and early child rearing are crucial, the transitions and challenges of these
years can either help or harm emotional development.
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522 CHAPTER 19 ■ Emerging Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
vocation and job? Pay attention to their age when they decided on
their jobs. Was age 25 a turning point?
4. Observe couples walking together on your campus. Do your
observation systematically, such as describing every third couple
who walk past a particular spot. Can you tell the difference in
body position or facial expression between men and women, and
between lovers, friends, and acquaintances? Once you have an
answer, test your hypothesis by asking several couples what their
relationship is.
1. Talk to three people you would expect to have contrasting
views on love and marriage (differences in age, gender, upbring-
ing, experience, and religion might affect attitudes). Ask each the
same questions and then compare their answers.
2. Analyze 50 marriage announcements (with photographs of the
couples) in your local paper. How much homogamy and hetero-
gamy are evident?
3. Vocational identity is fluid in early adulthood. Talk with several
people over age 30 about their work history. Are they doing what
they expected when they were younger? Are they settled in their
APPLICATIONS
intimacy versus isolation
(p. 503)
gateways to attraction (p. 504)
exclusion criteria (p. 505)
cohabitation (p. 510)
homogamy (p. 511)
heterogamy (p. 511)
social homogamy (p. 511)
social exchange theory (p. 512)
common couple violence
(p. 513)
intimate terrorism (p. 513)
linked lives (p. 514)
diathesis-stress model (p. 518)
hikikomori (p. 519)
KEY TERMS
6. What are the main reasons for cohabitation?
7. How does cohabitation affect marriage?
8. What factors make romantic relationships endure?
9. What are the differences and similarities between developing
and developed nations in family relationships?
10. Why is emerging adulthood an emotional peak for many
people?
11. What factors increase the risk that a young adult will have an
emotional disorder?
1. Why is vocational identity more complex for today’s young
adults than it was when Erikson developed his theory?
2. When, how, and why do people develop an ethnic identity?
3. What are the three main ways young adults meet their need
for intimacy?
4. What are the differences between men’s friendships and
women’s friendships?
5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of cross-sex
friendships?
KEY QUESTIONS
8. Marriages work best if couples are able to communicate well
and share responsibilities. The pattern called demand/withdraw is
particularly destructive.
9. Family support is needed lifelong. In emerging adulthood this
often means that parents pay college costs and contribute in other
ways to their young-adult children’s independence.
10. In some nations, emerging adults and their parents are more
closely connected than in others, but complete separation of the
two generations is unusual and impairs young-adult achievement.
Everywhere, members of families have linked lives.
Emotional Development
11. Many emerging adults come into their own. They find an
appropriate combination of education, friendship, and achieve-
ment that improves their self-esteem. Some innovative leaders
begin their extraordinary accomplishments during these years.
12. The incidence of many forms of psychopathology, including
substance abuse, anxiety disorders, depression, and schizophrenia,
rises during emerging adulthood. The origin is probably a combi-
nation of genes and early child rearing, but young adulthood is
stressful for many.
➤Response for Immigrants (from page 520): Maintain your social
supports. Ideally, emigrate with members of your close family, and join
a religious or cultural community where you will find emotional
understanding.
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BIOSOCIAL
Growth, Strength, and Health Bodies are strong, healthy, and active. Homeostasis
and organ reserve are two biological processes that work to prevent adult illness and
maintain all the organ systems. The sexual drive is strong, but most emerging adults
do not want to marry or reproduce yet. One result is a high rate of sexually transmitted
infections among this age group.
Health Habits Most young adults meet the ideal of daily exercise and healthy nutrition.
A few, especially women, worry excessively about their weight, becoming vulnerable
to two of the severe eating disorders of our era, anorexia and bulimia nervosa.
Taking Risks Early adulthood is the time of life when edgework is most attractive,
especially for young men. In many ways, individuals find pleasure in, and societies
benefit from, the risk taking of the young. But drug abuse and addiction, as well as
serious injuries, may be destructive consequences.
COGNITIVE
Postformal Thought Emerging adults may reach a fifth stage of cognitive development,
in which they combine rational thought with emotional intuition. This manner of thinking
requires experience and intellectual flexibility. The most advanced thinking may be
dialectical, a dynamic process that synthesizes earlier ideas.
Morals and Religion Changes in moral thinking and religious faith occur in adulthood,
when contact with other beliefs and unexpected experiences tends to make people
think more deeply about their convictions. Since culture is a strong influence in such
matters, it is difficult to conclude that ethical or spiritual thinking advances over the
years of adulthood, although some research suggests that it does.
Education The institution of college is designed to advance thinking, via exposure to
new people and ideas, intellectual challenges, and the mastery of communication and
thinking skills. Current college students are far more numerous and diverse than those
of half a century ago, but tertiary education probably still advances thought.
PSYCHOSOCIAL
Identity Achieved Emerging adults continue to seek identity. Ethnic and vocational
identities are particularly difficult to achieve. Most emerging adults find employment, but
few consider the jobs they have at this point in their lives to be their lifelong careers.
Intimacy Friendships are very important in meeting intimacy needs during emerging
adulthood, as friends provide information as well as relief from stress. Many young
people fall in love and live with a romantic partner, but some hesitate to marry, in part
because divorce is common, as is conflict between partners. Generally, marriages are
most likely to withstand the stresses of a long-term relationship if the two partners
have similar attitudes and preferences. The family of origin continues to influence
young adults, even if adult children live independently, as most do in the United States.
Emotional Development Most emerging adults think well of themselves. Some
develop innovative ideas that will lead to later success. Others, however, experience
psychopathology, including depression, anxiety, and even schizophrenia. Such disorders
are caused in part by genes and childhood experiences, but the added stresses of
growing up push some people over the edge.
523
Emerging Adulthood
PA R T V I The Developing Person So Far:
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Adulthood
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W
e now begin the seventh part of
this text, another trio of chapters
on another period of the life span.
These three chapters cover 40
years (ages 25 to 65), a dramatic shift from the
previous parts, each of which covered between two
and seven years.
Developmentalists believe that much happens
during these years of adulthood. Bodies grow more
mature, minds master new material and consolidate
what is already known; people work productively,
nurture marriages, raise children, care for aging
parents. Adults experience disaster, windfalls, divorce,
illness, recovery, birth, death, travel, job loss, promo-
tion, poverty, wealth.
All these are described in the next three chapters.
A 40-year age span is covered because no particular
age connects to any episode: Adults marry, or lose
jobs, or whatever, at many ages. Thus adulthood is a
long sweep, punctuated by events. Although not
programmed by developmental age, those events
are not random: Adults build on experiences, creat-
ing their own ecological niche, with chosen people,
activities, communities, and habits. For the most
part, these are good years, when each person’s goals
come closer and joys are manifest.
PA R T V I I
525
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Adulthood: Biosocial
Development
How old are you? More important, do you feel your age? Will youfeel young, or middle-aged, or old, when you are in your 60s?People in developed countries do not usually feel “old” untilthey are 70 or older (Lachman & Bertrand, 2001). For the most
part, their bodies remain strong and capable.
Contemporary Western European and North American societies have
been described as “age irrelevant,” although that is not quite accurate (Perrig-
Chiello & Perren, 2005, p. 143). True, adults of the same chronological age
can be at very different points in their careers and family lives, and, true,
bodies age at various rates such that one 60-year-old is dying while another
has the vitality of a 30-year-old.
But age still matters. When a stranger says “Hello, young lady” to me, I
bristle, resenting his attempt to please me. Yet I am pleased, which troubles
me because it means I am caught up in my culture’s view of aging. Particu-
larly as a developmentalist, I know that aging is to be welcomed, not denied.
This chapter describes adult aging. Everybody grows older. As you will
learn, it is not only health habits (smoking, exercising, and so on) but also
gender, income, ethnicity, and nationality that affect how rapidly a body ages.
No wonder I am caught by “young lady.” I am proud that I appear young, but
I guard against self-deception.
In fact, deception is unnecessary. Most of what you will learn here about
adult biosocial development is encouraging. Although 25- to 65-year-olds
show their age in many ways, essential organs work quite well, and adults
of all ages (even those over age 65) are usually active, able, and vital, with
specifics more dependent on habits and attitude than on age. One major
advance is that priorities become clearer. As one woman wrote:
These days I’m into the truth and the truth is I’m not crazy about my looks
but I can live with them. . . . After the third funeral [of a friend], . . . I vowed
to set my priorities straight before some fatal illness did it for me. Since
then I have been trying to focus on the things that really matter. And I can
assure you that being able to wear a bikini isn’t one of them.
[Pogrebin, 1996]
20
527
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� The Aging Process
Senescence
The Sexual-Reproductive System
� The Impact of Poor Health Habits
Tobacco and Alcohol Use
Lack of Exercise
Overeating
Preventive Medicine
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS:
Responding to Stress
� Measuring Health
Mortality and Morbidity
Disability and Vitality
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS:
QALYs and DALYs
� Variations in Aging
Gender Differences
Socioeconomic Status
Conclusion
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The Aging Process
We begin with the facts of aging, which may seem depressing if you are 20 years
old or so. But physical aging is not discouraging to most people who experience it.
Even in the one organ system that shows significant effects of aging, the sexual-
reproductive system, some of the changes are welcome.
Senescence
Everyone ages, each at his or her own rate. When growth stops, senescence (a
gradual physical decline that occurs with age, at a rate that is affected by many
factors other than the passage of time) begins (Masoro, 2006).
Senescence affects every part of the body. For example, two invisible aspects of
aging are increased blood pressure and higher levels of low-density lipoprotein
(LDL), or “bad,” cholesterol. Both of these occur to everyone over time (although
not necessarily reaching dangerous levels) and both are harbingers of heart disease.
In this example, coronary heart disease correlates with senescence, but it is not
directly caused by any one aspect of aging.
Indeed, every known natural substance in the blood, every organ of the body,
every bone and cell, is affected by aging—some more than others but all to some
degree. Variations in the rate of senescence are apparent not only between one
person and another but also between one organ and another within the same
person.
Physical Appearance
Although most adults are strong and healthy, outward signs of senescence are
present long before old age arrives. The first visible age-related changes are seen
in the skin. Collagen, the connective tissue of the body, decreases by about 1 per-
cent per year (M. Timiras, 2003). As a result, the skin becomes thinner and less
flexible, and wrinkles become visible, particularly around the eyes.
Especially on the face (most exposed to sun, rain, heat, cold, and pollution), skin
shows “creases, discoloration, furrows, sagging, and loss of resiliency” (Whitbourne
et al., 2002). This is barely noticeable in young adulthood, but if you know a typi-
cal pair of sisters, one 18 and the other 28, you can tell which one is older because
of her skin. By age 60, all faces are wrinkled, some much more than others.
Aging is visible in dozens of other ways. Hair usually turns gray and gets
thinner; skin becomes drier; “middle-age spread” appears as stomach muscles
weaken; pockets of fat settle on parts of the body—most noticeably around the
abdomen, but also on the upper arms, buttocks, eyelids, and the “infamous ‘double
chin’ ” (Whitbourne et al., 2002, p. 81).
People even get shorter. Back muscles, connective tissue, and bones lose
strength, making the vertebrae in the spine collapse somewhat. This causes
notable height loss (about an inch, or 2 to 3 centimeters) by age 65 (Merrill &
Verbrugge, 1999).
Indeed, all the muscles weaken, not only because of disuse but also because
the number of muscle fibers diminishes with age. The effect on appearance is in
posture and movement, when an older person walks, stands, or sits. Walking “with
a spring in their step” is more common in young adults than old ones.
Not all muscle fibers disappear at the same rate. The fibers for Type II muscles
(the fast ones needed for forceful actions in many sports) are said to be reduced by
26 percent per decade beginning at age 30 (McCarter, 2006). Decline is much
less significant in Type I fibers—those in slower, more routine muscle—and does
not become evident until very old age.
senescence A gradual physical decline
related to aging. Senescence occurs to
everyone in every body part, but the rate
of decline is highly variable.
528 CHAPTER 20 ■ Adulthood: Biosocial Development
DI
GI
TA
L
VI
SI
ON
/
GE
TT
Y
No Wrinkles An injection of botox to plump
the skin beneath her eyebrows is what this
woman decided she needs, although she is
quite beautiful and shows no signs of aging.
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Another visible effect is in breathing, which gets
quicker and shallower with age. The reason is that lung
efficiency is reduced beginning in the 20s, with vital
capacity (the amount of air that can be expired after a
deep breath) dropping by about 5 percent per decade
(faster for smokers) (De Martinis & Timiras, 2003).
Sense Organs
Not only does the rate of senescence vary from person
to person and organ to organ, but the particular parts of
each organ may also be on different timetables. This is
particularly apparent in the organs associated with the
five senses, all of which become less sharp over time.
Each of the sense organs loses some functions faster
than others.
The change in eyesight is perhaps the most obvious
example of the varied rates within one organ. Difficulty seeing objects at a distance,
or nearsightedness, increases gradually beginning in the 20s (see Figure 20.1).
Within another 20 years or so, it also becomes harder to see objects that are close
(called farsightedness), because the lens of the eye becomes less elastic and the
cornea flattens (Schieber, 2006).
This explains why 40-year-olds tend to hold reading matter twice as far away
from their eyes as 20-year-olds do and why many older adults use bifocals
(Meisami et al., 2003). Younger adults with vision problems are usually either
nearsighted or farsighted; most older adults are both.
Losses also occur in hearing. People have more acute hearing at age 10 than at
any later age. Although some middle-aged people hear much better than others,
none hear perfectly. Actually, “perfect” hearing is impossible; hearing is always a
matter of degree. No one can hear a conversation on the other side of town. Deaf-
ness is rarely absolute, which is one reason the gradual hearing losses of age are not
noticed until late middle age, when they begin to cause problems in daily life.
Not until about age 60 is presbycusis (literally, “aging hearing”) often diag-
nosed. One practical measure of presbycusis is the “whisper test.” A person is
asked to repeat a whisper uttered by someone unseen, 3 feet away (Pirozzo et al.,
presbycusis The loss of hearing associated
with senescence. Presbycusis often does
not become apparent until after age 60.
The Aging Process 529
Changes in Aging Vision
Visual
acuity
0 20 40 60 80 100
Age (years)
20/60
20/50
20/40
20/30
20/20
20/10
Accommodation
(diopters)
5 15 25 35 45 55 65
Age (years)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Source: Meisami, 1994.
presbyopia
(a) (b)
FIGURE 20.1
Age-Related Declines in Vision Every as-
pect of bodily functioning follows its own rate
of senescence. Vision is a prime example.
(a) Sharpness of distance vision, as meas-
ured by the ability to see an object at 20 feet,
reaches a peak at about age 20 and declines
gradually until old age. (b) By contrast, ability
to focus on a small point about 12 inches in
front of the eyes declines from childhood on;
at about age 60 the typical person becomes
officially farsighted.
Healthy Eyes Annual examinations of the
lens and retina are crucial for all middle-aged
adults, especially those who are of African
heritage.
M
IC
HA
EL
K
EL
LE
R
/ C
OR
BI
S
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2003). Almost all emerging adults pass this test, as do two-
thirds of those age 50 and half of those over 65.
Again, specifics of hearing are affected differently by
aging. The ability to distinguish pure tones declines faster
than the ability to hear conversation (see Table 20.1), which
means that the first sign of loss may be the inability to hear
a doorbell or a telephone ringing in the next room. Deficits
in hearing conversation begin with high-frequency tones, as
when a young child talks. A 60-year-old may attend more to
a teenage grandson than a preschool granddaughter because
of selective hearing loss, not sexism.
The Aging Brain
Like every other part of the body, the brain slows down with aging. Neurons fire
more slowly, and messages sent from the axon of one neuron are not picked up as
quickly by the dendrite of another neuron. Further, the total size of the brain is
reduced. Gray matter in particular declines; already by middle adulthood, there
are fewer neurons and synapses (Buckner et al., 2006).
Overall, because of brain changes, reaction time is slower and complex memory
tasks (e.g., repeating a series of eight numbers, then adding the first four, deleting
the fifth one, subtracting the next two, and multiplying the new total by the last
one—all in your head) become impossible. Multitasking is more difficult with
every passing decade (Reuter-Lorenz & Sylvester, 2005). For example, driving
while talking on a cell phone is dangerous at any age because the brain seems to
ignore what the driver sees (Strayer & Drews, 2007); but trying to do two things at
once is particularly hazardous with age because distractions are harder to ignore
(Park & Gutchess, 2005). Stress further slows down reactions, especially with age.
Regular sleep becomes increasingly essential. Skipping a night’s sleep slows
down thinking and problem solving. This was proven with medical interns, who
once were required to be “on call” at hospitals for up to 48 hours at a time, snatch-
ing only bits of sleep (Lockley et al., 2004). Errors caused by lack of sleep led to
regulations that doctors-in-training be on duty no more than 24 hours at a time,
with at least 10 hours of rest between assignments.
530 CHAPTER 20 ■ Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Hard Rocking, Hard of Hearing Les Claypool
is an example of the dangers posed by pro-
longed exposure to loud noise. Night after night
of high-decibel rocking with his band, Primus,
has damaged his hearing. When this photo
was taken in 1999, Claypool was not only
performing but also protecting his remaining
hearing. He is active with HEAR—Hearing
Education and Awareness for Rockers. VA
UG
HN
Y
OU
TZ
/
LI
AI
SO
N
TABLE 20.1
Hearing Loss at Age 50
Men Women
Can understand even a whisper 65% 75%
Can understand soft conversation but
cannot understand a whisper 28% 22%
Can understand loud conversation but
cannot understand soft conversation 5% 2%
Cannot understand even loud conversation 2% 1%
Especially for Drivers A number of states
have passed laws requiring that hands-free
headphones be worn by people who use cell
phones while driving. Do those measures cut
down on accidents?
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Some adults risk sleep-walking, sleep-eating, and even sleep-driving. Normally,
circadian rhythms (see Chapter 14) govern the sleep–wake cycle, and brain-
produced chemicals prevent a sleeper from moving. These day–night, awake–
asleep rhythms are disrupted by aging. Even in young adults, sleep deprivation
and drugs can make a person seem awake when brain scans indicate sleep, often
resulting in confused thoughts and dangerous actions (Gunn & Gunn, 2007).
Aging makes the situation worse; disrupted sleep is characteristic of aging (as well
as of diseases of all kinds) (Foley et al., 2004).
Even when they are not overtired, sick, stressed, or drugged, beginning in their
30s adults experience a “shallow decline” in abilities dependent on the brain. A
steeper decline begins at about age 60 (Dangour et al., 2007, p. 54). Adults com-
pensate by using more parts of their brain when called on to perform challenging
tasks. As a result, brain declines are rarely evident throughout adulthood, although
some changes are detected in fMRI or PET brain scans (Buckner et al., 2006;
Reuter-Lorenz & Sylvester, 2005).
A few individuals, however, experience much greater losses. They “encounter a
catastrophic rate of cognitive decline, passing through a threshold of cognitive
functioning . . . sometimes termed the dementia threshold” (Dangour et al., 2007,
p. 54). Less than 1 percent of adults under age 65 cross that frightening threshold.
When dementia does occur before old age, it rarely is a complete surprise: A
person may have inherited a dominant gene for Alzheimer’s, or been born with
Down syndrome or another serious genetic condition, or have suffered major brain
damage through trauma (such as being hit repeatedly on the head), or had a mas-
sive stroke (halting blood flow to the brain long enough that part of the brain dies).
It is reassuring to most adults that dementia is far more prevalent in late adult-
hood than from ages 25 to 65 and that adult brains usually perform as well at 60
as at 20. However, this does not mean that most adults are impervious to brain
impairment. Senescence occurs in the brain as well as elsewhere in the body;
the older a person is, the more likely it becomes that problems with the brain will
reach the point at which illness is apparent.
Among the neurological problems that appear in middle age are Parkinson’s dis-
ease and frontotemporal dementia (Hodges, 2007). A shaky signature may be the
first sign of Parkinson’s; a surprising loss of modesty may signify frontotemporal
dementia. (Our main discussion of these and other types of dementia occurs in
Chapter 24.)
Several other problems that occur in adulthood correlate with loss of brain
cells:
■ Drug abuse. People who consume large quantities of alcohol over decades risk
a disease called Korsakoff ’s syndrome (“wetbrain”), signified by irreversible
brain damage. Although research is not definitive, other psychoactive drugs
are also suspected of permanently damaging the brain. The underlying problem
may be severe vitamin deficiency (Stacey & Sullivan, 2004).
■ Excessive stress. Stress hormones disrupt thought processes (as you may re-
member at a time when you were extremely stressed). This is temporary for
most adults, but excessive stress in childhood disrupts the body’s normal
stress reactions. If adult bodies are flooded with stress hormones, that leads
to depression and an overactive immune system, harming the brain (Pace
et al., 2006).
■ Poor circulation. Everything that protects the circulatory system—such as ex-
ercise, healthy diet, and low blood pressure—also protects brain functioning.
Hypertension (high blood pressure) is particularly destructive of cognition,
beginning in middle age (Elias et al., 2004).
The Aging Process 531
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■ Viruses. Although the “blood–brain barrier” serves to keep viruses out of the
brain, some diseases and infections cross this barrier, with devastating results.
The most dramatic recent example is HIV, which may attack the brain, caus-
ing personality changes and dementia.
What can be done to protect the brain from all these problems? Beyond such
obvious measures as exercise and a healthy diet, two strategies have been sug-
gested:
■ Intellectual challenges. There is a correlation between brain activity (solving
crossword puzzles and the like) and optimal brain functioning. The correla-
tion between intellectual exercises and brain functioning may not be causal,
however: Cognitive strength may lead to activity, not vice versa (Salthouse,
2006). Children and adolescents who are highly intelligent and reflective
(writing in detail about their emotions, for instance) are less likely to become
demented in late adulthood; but again, this may be merely a correlate, not a
cause.
■ Replacing dead neurons. It has recently been discovered that adult brains can
grow new cells when old ones die, especially when a major trauma (such as a
stroke) occurs (Yamashita et al., 2006). It is also known that stem cells (created
very early in development) can become many kinds of body cells, perhaps
replacing malfunctioning or absent neurons. However, the research is very
preliminary, and cells of the cortex seem particularly difficult to replace
(Shen et al., 2006). Aging of the brain may be irreversible.
Thus, it is known that adult brains can grow new cells, especially when a major
brain injury has occurred. It is also known that certain cells of the body that arise
early in development can become crucial body cells—although research has not
yet determined whether this process can compensate for neurological cell death,
as occurs in Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and many other illnesses.
However, it may be that stem cells cannot create new neurons in the cortex and
thus cannot slow senescence in the brain (Bhardwaj et al., 2006). Overall, this
suggests that the best way to keep a well-functioning brain
is to maintain one’s general health.
The Sexual-Reproductive System
Remember from Chapter 17 that the sexual-reproductive
system peaks during early adulthood. But in this chapter we
have seen that most physiological slowdowns are gradual,
with little or no effect on daily life. To some extent, this is
true for the sexual-reproductive system as well. Sexual
responsiveness is slower and fertility is reduced with age,
but adults of all ages enjoy “very high levels of emotional
satisfaction and physical pleasure from sex within their re-
lationships” (Laumann & Michael, 2000, p. 250).
In one study, men and women were most likely to report
that they were “extremely satisfied” with sex if they were in
a committed, monogamous relationship, a circumstance
that was more likely to be true as they grew older (see
Figure 20.2) (Laumann & Michael, 2000). Indeed, for peo-
ple in long-term, committed relationships, sex may actually
improve with age. Distress at slower responsiveness seems
to be more affected by anxiety, the nature of a couple’s rela-
tionship, and each person’s own expectations than by age
532 CHAPTER 20 ■ Adulthood: Biosocial Development
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Percent
Adults Who Reported That They Were “Comfortable Monogamists”
25–29
Source: Laumann et al., 2000.
30–34 35–39 40–44 45–49 50–54 55–59
Age
Men
Women
FIGURE 20.2
Sexually Satisfied with Monogamy In a
cross section of more than 2,000 adults in
the United States, most were “comfortable
monogamists,” a category for those who were
happy with their one partner, with whom they
usually had sex once or twice a week. Note
that the percentages in this category were
quite similar for men and women. The other
categories differed by gender. For example,
women could be “enthusiastic cohabiters,”
a category that included 25 percent of the
women aged 25 to 39 and 10 percent of
those aged 40 to 59. Men could be “enthusi-
astic polygamists,” a category that included
10 percent of the 25- to 39-year-old men and
4 percent of those aged 40 to 59. Almost no
women were polygamists, but about one-
third of the men were called “venturesome
cohabiters.”
➤Response for Drivers (from page 530):
No. Car accidents occur when the mind is
distracted, not the hands.
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itself (Duplassie & Daniluk, 2006; Siegel & Siegel, 2006). There are also physio-
logical reasons for sexual dysfunction, including the use of many prescription
drugs that are more commonly prescribed as people age—but here again, age itself
is not the problem.
Infertility
Historically, fertility was not just expected but also lauded. Women were admired
for having a dozen children, and men were proud of fatherhood at any age. Cur-
rently, such fertility is no longer praised, but infertility, defined as the failure to
conceive a child after a year or more of intercourse without contraception, is still
distressing to many.
As few as 2 percent of healthy couples in their early 20s in medically advanced
nations are infertile, as are almost one-third of 30-year-olds in poor nations. Ironi-
cally, the highest rates of infertility occur in countries with the highest birth rates,
due in part to the lack of contraception as well as to the high incidence of un-
treated sexually transmitted infections (Bentley & Mascie-Taylor, 2000).
Overall in the United States, about 15 percent of all couples are infertile,
primarily because many postpone childbearing until they are well past their peak
reproductive years (Inhorn & van Balen, 2002). If a couple in their 40s wants a
child, about half fail to conceive and the other half have higher rates of miscar-
riage, stillbirth, and seriously impaired births. Most physicians recommend that
would-be mothers try to conceive before age 30 and would-be fathers before age
40. Both sexes are about equally likely to be the source of infertility when it oc-
curs, but modern medicine can often solve the problem if the couple is under age
30. After age 40, medical solutions are less likely to succeed (Bhasin, 2007).
Some men are infertile because of specific problems with their reproductive
organs, such as varicoceles, or varicose veins, in the testes or partially blocked gen-
ital ducts. A low sperm count is another reason for male infertility. Conception is
most likely if a man ejaculates more than 20 million sperm per milliliter of semen,
two-thirds of them mobile and viable, because each sperm’s journey through the
cervix and uterus is aided by millions of fellow travelers. The need for so many
sperm to fertilize a single egg explains the effectiveness of a reversible type of male
contraception that reduces sperm count to less than 3 million (Liu et al., 2006).
About 100 million sperm are developed every day as part of an ongoing cycle
that lasts about 75 days. At any given moment, a man is developing billions of
sperm. Over that two- to three-month period, anything that impairs body func-
tioning (e.g., fever, radiation, prescription drugs, time in a sauna, excessive stress,
environmental toxins, drug abuse, alcoholism, or cigarette smoking) reduces sperm
number, shape, and motility (activity).
Age also reduces sperm count, and the reasons for this are many. One is that
slower homeostasis (see Chapter 17) impedes recovery from, say, a weekend of
drinking or a bout of radiation. Another reason is that male hormone levels are
diminished, resulting in decreased sperm production. Low sperm count is the
probable reason that men take five times as many months to impregnate a woman
when they are over 45 as when they are under 25 (Hassan & Killick, 2003). (This
study controlled for frequency of sex and age of the woman.)
Female infertility also is affected by anything that impairs a woman’s normal
body functioning (including smoking, anorexia, and obesity). In addition, the fal-
lopian tubes of some women can become blocked as a result of pelvic inflamma-
tory disease (PID) if a sexually transmitted infection is not treated. The incidence
of past, untreated STIs increases with age. Senescence also affects the entire
process, from ovulation to implantation to fetal growth to birth, although many
women have quite normal pregnancies in their 30s.
Especially for Young Men A young man
who impregnates a woman is often proud of
his manhood. Is this reaction valid?
The Aging Process 533
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menopause The time in middle age, usually
around age 50, when a woman’s men-
strual periods cease completely and the
production of estrogen, progesterone, and
testosterone drops considerably. Strictly
speaking, menopause is dated one year
after a woman’s last menstrual period.
Assisted Reproduction
Good medical care can prevent many fertility problems. If prevention fails, various
techniques can overcome several of the causes of infertility. Minor physical abnor-
malities are often correctable through surgery; lifestyle changes (no hot tubs!) and
drugs can stimulate ovulation and sperm production. Many of the more elaborate
methods used to restore fertility are collectively called assisted reproductive
technology (ART).
The most common ART method is in vitro fertilization (IVF), in which ova
are surgically removed and fertilized in a laboratory (in vitro as contrasted with
in vivo). Zygotes thus created divide until the eight- or sixteen-cell stage and then
are implanted in the woman’s uterus. IVF sidesteps problems with ovulation, with
blocked fallopian tubes, and with low sperm count.
Currently, a typical IVF cycle also uses intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI),
whereby one sperm is inserted into one ovum. This avoids the possibility that a
viable ovum will not be fertilized and solves the problem of low sperm count. It
also can be used when a man is HIV-positive and his wife is HIV-negative. Such
couples use condoms for sexual intercourse, but sperm are collected and washed
in the laboratory to rid them of the virus before one is inserted into an ovum (Kato
et al., 2006).
Only about one-third of all IVF cycles produce a pregnancy, since implantation
does not always occur. Nonetheless, since 1978, when the world’s first “test-tube
baby” was born in England, IVF has produced more than a million babies from
almost all nations, currently including 1 percent of all U.S. newborns (MMWR,
June 8, 2007).
Complications and birth defects increase with IVF, especially when several
zygotes are implanted at once (MacKay et al., 2006; Shevell et al., 2005). Low-
birthweight twins or triplets are born in almost half of all IVF pregnancies in the
United States (MMWR, June 8, 2007).
No nation allows cloning, or laboratory-induced twinning (when a two-celled
organism is split into monozygotic twins). Regulations vary on other aspects of ART,
such as how many pre-embryos can be implanted at once and whether single or
older women can undergo IVF. The United States has only voluntary guidelines.
The lack of uniform regulations has given rise to international controversies.
Jeanne Salomone, a 62-year-old French woman, was refused ART in Europe be-
cause of her age. She flew to Los Angeles to obtain a donor egg that was fertilized
with sperm she said was from her husband and then implanted in her uterus. She
gave birth to a boy—and then revealed that the sperm came from her only sibling,
her 52-year-old brother. His sperm was also used to impregnate a surrogate
mother, who had a girl. The cost for those two babies was about $200,000
(Ananova, 2001). An international outcry erupted. Since neither sibling had other
children, they were accused of having these babies in order to inherit their aged
mother’s fortune. Jeanne’s response: “I have nothing on my conscience. I treasure
these little ones and I get up three times a night like all mothers. I sing and rock
them to sleep” (quoted in Ananova, 2001).
Menopause
At some point during adulthood, the level of sex hormones in the bloodstream is
reduced, quite suddenly in women, gradually in men. As a result, sexual desire
often decreases, as does the frequency of intercourse. Conception may become
impossible. The specifics for women and men differ, so we discuss each in turn.
For women, sometime between ages 42 and 58 (the average age is 51), ovula-
tion and menstruation stop because of a marked decrease in the production of
several hormones (Wise, 2006). This is menopause. If a hysterectomy (surgical
assisted reproductive technology (ART)
The collective name for the various meth-
ods of medical intervention that can help
infertile couples have children.
in vitro fertilization (IVF) A technique in
which ova (egg cells) are surgically removed
from a woman and fertilized with sperm in
a laboratory. After the original fertilized
cells (the zygotes) have divided several
times, they are inserted into the woman’s
uterus.
534 CHAPTER 20 ■ Adulthood: Biosocial Development
RE
UT
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ST
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A Happy 67-Year-Old Mother This Romanian
woman gave birth after in vitro fertilization.
Other nations would not allow IVF at her age,
but every nation has new fathers who are that
age or older.
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removal of the uterus, experienced by one in nine 35- to 45-year-old U.S. women)
includes removal of the ovaries, then sudden, premature menopause occurs
(MMWR, July 12, 2002).
Barring surgery, which always produces symptoms, most women (60 percent
for women of Asian heritage, 75 percent for European and Hispanic women, 85
percent for women of African descent) experience some symptoms of natural
menopause—most commonly, disturbances of body temperature, including hot
flashes (feeling hot), hot flushes (looking hot), and cold sweats (feeling chilled)
(Gold et al., 2006). Natural lubrication during sexual arousal is reduced, and,
once ovulation stops, conception cannot naturally occur. Some women find that
they become irritable, either because of the changing hormones or because of
tiredness (if hot flashes interrupt sleep).
The psychic consequences of menopause are extremely variable. Although most
women are not especially moody, the rate of depression increases (Cohen et al.,
2006). Although some women become sad, others are relieved that contraception
is no longer needed (Wise, 2003). In contrast to the historical Western notion
that menopausal women “temporarily lose their minds” (Neugarten & Neugarten,
1986), the traditional view among Hindi women in India is that menopause rep-
resents liberation (Menon, 2001).
Over the past 20 or 30 years, millions of post-menopausal women used hormone
replacement therapy (HRT), taking hormone supplements to replace those no
longer produced by their ovaries. Some did so to alleviate hot and cold symptoms;
others, to prevent osteoporosis (fragile bones), heart disease, or senility. All three of
these conditions, in correlational studies, occur at lower rates in women using HRT.
Researchers now believe that those studies were invalid, because most women
who used HRT were also high in socioeconomic status. Their long-term good
health resulted from their income, education, and better health habits rather than
from HRT. In fact, in controlled longitudinal studies in the United States, the
Women’s Health Initiative found that long-term use of HRT (for 10 years or more)
increased the risk of heart disease, stroke, and breast cancer, and had no proven
effect on dementia (U.S. Preventive Task Force, 2002). It did, however, reduce
hot flashes and decrease osteoporosis, which led the North
American Menopause Society (2007) to urge that physi-
cians and women consider individual needs.
Most women in the United States stopped taking HRT
when they read about this research, but women and doctors
in Europe were less alarmed. One reason is that the particu-
lar form of HRT used in Europe differs from that studied in
the Women’s Health Initiative, and another is that heart
disease and dementia are affected by so many factors that it
is difficult to connect HRT with them (Rosano et al., 2003).
For example, many European women eat lower-fat diets and
walk more, and therefore are at lower risk of heart disease.
Do men undergo anything like menopause? Some say
yes, suggesting that the word andropause should be used
to signify the lower testosterone levels of older men, which
reduce sexual desire, erections, and muscle mass. Even with
erection-inducing drugs such as Viagra and Levitra, sexual
desire and speed of orgasm decline with age, as do many
other physiological and cognitive functions (but not all, as
the next chapter details).
But most experts think that the term andropause (or male
menopause) is misleading, because it implies a sudden drop
hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
Treatment to compensate for hormone
reduction at menopause or following surgi-
cal removal of the ovaries. Such treatment,
which usually involves estrogen and proges-
terone, minimizes menopausal symptoms
and diminishes the risk of osteoporosis in
later adulthood.
andropause A term coined to signify a drop
in testosterone levels in older men, which
normally results in reduced sexual desire,
erections, and muscle mass. Also known
as male menopause.
The Aging Process 535
Could This Be a Grandmother? Yes. Most
middle-aged women are strong and compe-
tent, like this grandmother cutting wood in
rural Italy.
JE
N
S
LU
CK
IN
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/ S
TO
N
E
/ G
ET
TY
IM
AG
ES
➤Response for Young Men (from page
533): The answer depends on a person’s
definition of what a man is. No developmen-
talist would define a man as someone who
has a high sperm count.
524-553_BergerLS7e_CH20.qxp 9/19/07 6:38 PM Page 535

in male reproductive ability or hormone levels, as with meno-
pause. That does not occur (Siegel & Siegel, 2006). Most men
continue to produce sperm indefinitely.
It is not just age but also sexual inactivity and anxiety that
can reduce testosterone in men. As one review explains, “Re-
tirement, financial problems, unresolved anger, and dwindling
social relationships can wreak havoc on some men’s sense of
masculinity and virility” (Siegel & Siegel, 2006, p. 239). If
aging leads to anxiety, that might further reduce testosterone,
a phenomenon similar to menopause but with a psychological,
not physiological, cause.
To combat this loss of testosterone, some men have turned
to hormone replacement. Some women also take testosterone
supplements to increase their sexual desire. But a two-year
longitudinal study with testosterone or placebo supplements
for both men and women found no benefits (sexual or other-
wise) from taking testosterone (Nair et al., 2006). Researchers are understandably
cautious; supplemental doses of hormones may be harmful (Bhasin, 2006;
Moffat, 2005).
SUMMING UP
Growth stops and senescence progresses almost imperceptibly during adulthood (ages
25 to 65). While most adults remain strong and healthy, outward signs of senescence,
such as wrinkles in the skin and weaker muscles, are apparent. All the sensory organs
become less sharp every decade; reductions in visual acuity and auditory perception are
often noticeable by middle age.
The sexual-reproductive system peaks during early adulthood, but most adults enjoy
satisfying sexual relationships as they grow older. Nonetheless, hormone levels, sexual
responsiveness, and fertility decline with age. Medical science can overcome many
fertility problems with procedures such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) and a range of other
techniques of assisted reproductive technology (ART). For women, ovulation ceases at
menopause. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) alleviates menopausal symptoms
(e.g., hot flashes), but researchers report that long-term HRT may increase the risk of
heart disease, stroke, and breast cancer. Men do not undergo a physiological equivalent
of menopause, although some experience significant reductions in testosterone levels
that can result in sexual problems.
■
The Impact of Poor Health Habits
Many age-related declines can be exacerbated and hastened by years of self-
destructive behavior or long-time residence in an unhealthy community. Almost all
diseases and chronic conditions that are normally associated with aging—from
arthritis to strokes—are powerfully affected by the routines of daily life (Abeles,
2007; Crews, 2003). Whether the effects are positive or negative depends largely
on people’s habits.
This is evident even in the senescence just explained. For example, although
the senses inevitably become less acute with age, every loud noise—traffic, music,
construction—damages the eardrums to some extent. Some noise can be avoided,
but many young adults (especially men) work with jackhammers without protec-
tion or listen to music at ear-splitting levels, developing hearing deficits that will
appear later.
536 CHAPTER 20 ■ Adulthood: Biosocial Development
So Happy Together This long-married couple
still demonstrate great affection for each
other after years of familiarity.
CL
EO
P
HO
TO
GR
AP
HY
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T,
IN
C.
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Decreasing sexual interest and reduced fertility depend a great deal on a per-
son’s relationship with a partner and medical care, as just described. Many experts
in sexology insist that sexual changes with age can be improvements, as men’s
eroticism becomes less focused on intercourse and women become more aware of
their sexual wishes. Now we focus on three habits that affect every aspect of
aging: drug use, exercise, and eating.
Tobacco and Alcohol Use
Rates of addiction and drug abuse decrease markedly by age 30 in every nation,
thanks partly to maturity and marriage. This is particularly true for illegal drugs,
discussed in Chapter 17. Here we focus on two legal addictions for many adults:
nicotine and alcohol.
Tobacco
Tobacco in all its forms—pipes, cigars, cigarettes, and chews—contains several
harmful drugs. Nicotine is the most addictive. Which particular form of tobacco is
used depends partly on culture and cohort; cigarettes are by far the most common
in North America.
There is some good news about North American cigarette smokers: Fewer
people are starting to smoke, and almost everyone quits by late adulthood. In 1970
in the United States, one-half of all adult men and one-third of all adult women
smoked. Current rates are much lower (see Figure 20.3) (U.S. Bureau of the
Census, 2007). Canadian and Mexican data also indicate a quitting trend over the
last few decades (Franco-Marina et al., 2006; Shields, 2006).
Death rates for lung cancer (by far the leading cause of cancer deaths in North
America) reflect smoking patterns of earlier decades, which differed for men and
women. Because North American men have been quitting since 1970, lung
cancer deaths for 35- to 65-year-old men are down 20 percent from the 1980
peak (see Appendix A, p. A-17). Currently in the United States, almost as many
women smoke as men, and female lung cancer deaths increased 20 percent from
1980 to 1995.
Medical advances have been reducing deaths from all cancers, so women’s lung
cancer death rates are no longer rising. However, it is ironic that 50 years ago
The Impact of Poor Health Habits 537
Proportion of U.S. Adults Who Smoke, by Age Group
10
0
20
30
40
50
60
1970 1990 2004
Percent
Emerging Adults
Year
10
0
20
30
40
50
60
1970 1990 2004
Percent
Adults (ages 25–64)
Year
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1981, 2007.
10
0
20
30
40
50
60
1970 1990 2004
Percent
Older Adults (over age 65)
Year
Men
Women
FIGURE 20.3
Quitters Win This figure shows the well-
known historical declines in the number of
people who start smoking and also shows
that many adults quit. Half of all men aged 25
to 64 in 1970 smoked; 35 years later almost
all were over age 65 and almost all had quit.
(Of course some had died, but most of that
cohort were still alive and smoke-free.)
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 538):
Are the two sexes growing closer together or
farther apart in rates of smoking in the United
States?
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about twice as many women died from cancers of the breast, uterus, or ovary as of
the lung; in 2005 about twice as many women died from lung cancer as from
those other three forms of cancer combined (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2006).
Worldwide trends are opposite those in North America, in that smoking is in-
creasing. Almost half the adults in Germany, Denmark, Poland, Holland, Switzer-
land, and Spain are smokers. In developing nations, more than half of the men
smoke, but only one-tenth of the women do—though women’s rates are rising
rapidly. The incidence of smoking and smoking-related cancers (lung, stomach,
kidney, and so on) is increasing worldwide, especially in developing nations
(Mackay & Eriksen, 2002; Mascie-Taylor & Karim, 2003). A news release by the
World Health Organization (WHO) (2007) concluded:
Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death globally, causing more than
five million deaths a year. Tobacco use continues to expand most rapidly in the
developing world, where currently half of tobacco-related deaths occur. By 2030,
if current trends continue, 8 out of every 10 tobacco-related deaths will be in the
developing world.
The wide variations from one nation, cohort, or gender to another are evidence
that smoking is affected by social norms, laws, and advertisements. It now seems
hard to believe that 50 years ago the U.S. government provided free cigarettes to
everyone in the armed forces and some doctors agreed to endorse cigarettes in
advertisements. In terms of developmental health over the years of adulthood, the
history of smoking in North America is heartening—yet it shows that an enormous
challenge still lies ahead.
Alcohol
The harm from cigarettes is directly dose-related—each additional puff, each
additional day of smoking, each breath of secondhand smoke makes cancer, heart
disease, emphysema, and strokes more likely. No such linear harm results from
alcohol use. Adults who drink wine, beer, spirits, or other alcohol in moderation—
no more than two moderate-sized drinks a day—live longer than those who never
drink (Smith & Hart, 2002). But because it is widely abused, alcohol is nonethe-
less a major killer.
The major benefit of moderate drinking is a reduction in coronary heart disease.
Alcohol increases HDL (high-density lipoprotein), the “good” cholesterol, and
reduces LDL (low-density lipoprotein), the “bad” cholesterol that causes clogged
arteries and blood clots. It also lowers blood pressure. High blood pressure (hyper-
tension) correlates with heart attacks and strokes (Panagiotakos et al., 2007;
Wannamethee & Shaper, 1999).
However, moderation is impossible for some drinkers. It is easier for an alco-
holic to drink nothing than to have one, and only one, drink a day. Heavy drinking
increases the risk of death from 60 diseases, including cancer of the breast, stom-
ach, and throat (Hampton, 2005). Most of the 27,000 deaths from liver disease in
the United States each year are caused by alcohol (U.S. Bureau of the Census,
2006). Worldwide, alcohol causes as many premature deaths as tobacco does
(Room et al., 2005).
Further, alcohol destroys brain cells, contributes to osteoporosis, decreases
fertility, and accompanies many suicides, homicides, and accidents. It has also
wrecked many families, harming children in the process. Even moderate alcohol
consumption is unhealthy if it leads to smoking or overeating. In the United States,
people who are HIV-positive who never drink live, on average, three years longer
than moderate drinkers and six years longer than heavy drinkers (Braithwaite
et al., 2007).
538 CHAPTER 20 ■ Adulthood: Biosocial Development
AP
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Working to Save Lives Ronald Bowell smoked
for 30 years, and now his emphysema requires
constant oxygen, a wheelchair, and his wife
Lyliod’s assistance. He tries to save lives
through activism. He is shown here leaving a
Florida courtroom, where he had testified in a
class-action suit that eventually led to hard-
hitting antismoking advertisements (showing
teenagers hauling body bags). In the wake of
this ad campaign, teen smoking was signifi-
cantly reduced in Florida.
Especially for Doctors and Nurses If you
had to choose between recommending
various screening tests and recommending
various lifestyle changes to a 35-year-old,
which would you do?
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 537): They are growing closer together.
In fact, some data indicate that teenage girls
are more likely to smoke than boys are.
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During the years between emerging and late adulthood, people
are particularly subject to the deadly effects of alcohol. About half
the deaths in Russia of men under age 60 are alcohol-related
(Leon et al., 2007). Increased vodka consumption is one reason
homicides skyrocketed and death from other causes rose there in
the 1990s (Pridemore, 2002). All in all, the benefits of moderate
drinking for the heart should not delude anyone. For millions of
people, alcohol is deadly.
Lack of Exercise
Chapter 17 described the many health benefits of regular exer-
cise and recommended that adults bike to work, walk to school,
play sports, or take classes in dance, aerobics, or karate. Three
factors make it easier to exercise regularly: personal commitment,
supportive friends, and community environment. Even though
the health benefits of exercise, and the need for these three
factors, are as apparent after age 25 as before it, adults in every nation tend to
exercise less as they age. Figure 20.4 shows rates in the United States; other
nations, even developing countries, show similar trends.
Low exercise rates can be blamed on any of the three factors. There may be a
lack of individual commitment (why doesn’t that person walk to work?), or a lack
of support in the immediate social context (why doesn’t that family go swimming
together?), or the community’s failure to provide appropriate facilities (why doesn’t
that city have bike paths?).
The Impact of Poor Health Habits 539
10
0
20
30
40
50
60
70
18–29 30–44 45–64 65–74 75
and older
Percent
Males
Exercise Among U.S. Adults, by Sex and Age
Age
10
0
20
30
40
50
60
70
18–29 30–44 45–64 65–74 75
and older
Percent
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, 2006.
Females
Age
Meets exercise standard
Inactive
FIGURE 20.4
Even Worse Than It Seems If you are troubled to see that less than one-half of all adults meet
the U.S. government’s recommended standard for exercise and almost one-fourth are completely
inactive, then you will be even more distressed to learn that these graphs portray adult exercise in
the best light. These data are based on self-reports (which are generally rosier than reality) and
combine three categories: transportation, work, and leisure. Further, the “standard” is only a
weekly total of 21⁄2 hours of moderate activity (including walking) or 1 hour of vigorous activity
(such as running). Ideally, every adult should get more exercise than that.
AP
P
HO
TO
/
KA
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Y
W
IL
LE
N
S
Staying on the Ball Professional athletes
like New York Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte
know the value of regular exercise, especially
as they get older—a lesson that many inac-
tive adults need to learn.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 541):
Who is less likely to exercise: the typical 70-
year-old man or the typical 50-year-old woman?
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Overeating
Nutrition and exercise are closely connected. Too much eating combined with too
little activity can worsen virtually every adult health problem.
Resistance to Good Nutrition
The basics of good nutrition are well known (He et al., 2006). Fresh fruits and
vegetables, whole grains, fish with omega-3 fatty acids but no toxins, clean water,
low-fat milk and cheese—all these reduce the risk of almost every adult disease.
But resistance to good nutrition is common; people tend to look for excuses to
avoid a healthy diet. One way they do so is by misinterpreting scientific research.
One recent example is from an eight-year study (part of the Women’s Health
Initiative) that compared 24,000 women who ate a low-fat diet (the goal was to
obtain no more than 20 percent of daily calories from fat) with 24,000 who ate a
regular diet (Howard et al., 2006; Prentice et al., 2006). Women on the low-fat
diet were found to be marginally less likely to develop breast cancer (significant
only at the 0.09 level) but had rates of heart disease similar to those of women on
the regular diet. Skeptics concluded that a low-fat diet makes no difference to
general health. For instance, Fox News proclaimed, “Low fat diet myth busted”
(Milloy, 2006) and the Washington Post headlined, “Low-Fat Diet’s Benefits
Rejected” (Stein, 2006).
However, although the harm done to health by eating a high-fat diet (as from
heavy drinking and smoking) takes decades to kill a person, this study lasted only
eight years. Further, the experimental group never reached the goal of 20 percent
calories from fat, and the control group did not consume the 40 percent level of
fat that was the average for U.S. adults. The actual contrast in fat consumption
was between 24 percent for the experimental group and 35 percent for the control
group. Given the 11 percent rather than 20 percent difference in fat content, and
given that cancer and heart disease are multifactorial, scientists were impressed
that any benefits at all were found. No scientist would say that a myth was
“busted” or that benefits were “rejected.”
The same rush to dismissal occurs whenever specific foods (recently, apricots,
spinach, nuts, garlic) are celebrated as fostering health and then later discovered
to be less protective than the first research found. As scientists, developmentalists
540 CHAPTER 20 ■ Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Lettuce Eat Healthy If this couple regularly
eats a well-balanced diet, with lots of vegeta-
bles, statistics predict that they are likely to
continue enjoying each other’s company into
their 80s. AR
IE
L
SK
EL
LE
Y
/ C
OR
BI
S
➤Response for Doctors and Nurses
(from page 538): Obviously, much depends
on the specific patient. Overall, however, far
more people develop disease or die because
of years of poor health habits than because
of various illnesses not spotted early. With
some exceptions, age 35 is too early to detect
incipient cancers or circulatory problems, but
it’s prime time for stopping cigarette smoking,
curbing alcohol abuse, and improving exercise
and diet.
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analyze the data from many studies and are convinced that a varied diet high in
fruits, vegetables, and grains is better than one high in fat. Ignoring the evidence
has resulted in a health crisis, as you will now see.
Obesity
The World Health Organization recognizes obesity as a leading cause of prema-
ture adult death. As an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association
warned, “Obesity is a worldwide epidemic and will be followed by a worldwide
epidemic of diabetes” (Bray, 2003, p. 1853). Virtually every chronic disease becomes
more common and more lethal with excess weight.
The United States is the world leader of the obesity and diabetes epidemics.
Weight is increasing significantly for both sexes of every age group, cohort, and
ethnicity, although members of some ethnicities (e.g., Latinos) tend to be heavier
than others (e.g., Asians), as do some age groups (the highest rates of obesity are
among adults aged 45 to 65). Of all adults in the United States, 66 percent are
overweight (defined as having a body mass index, or BMI, above 25), 33 percent
are obese (a BMI of 30 or more), and 5 percent are morbidly obese (a BMI of
40 or more) (NHANES, 2003–2004). (BMI is explained in Chapter 17; see Table
17.2 on page 450.)
To make these BMI guidelines seem less abstract, picture a person who is 5
feet, 8 inches tall. If that person weighs 150 pounds, the BMI is about 24 and that
person is of normal weight. If he or she weighs 200 pounds or more, the BMI is 30
or higher and that person is obese. If he or she weighs more than 300 pounds, the
BMI is over 40 and that person is morbidly obese.
The United States is the global leader, but every nation has seen an increase
in obesity. In the United Kingdom, the rate of obesity has tripled since 1980
(Mascie-Taylor & Karim, 2003). Obesity was previously not a problem in Asia, but
that is changing. As income is rising, so are the rates of obesity and heart disease
in China, India, and other Asian nations (Lee, 2007).
Just to maintain the same weight, adults need to eat less each year. Even if
a person eats and exercises as much as ever, metabolism slows down by a third
between emerging adulthood and late adulthood. But few adults cut down on
calories as they should. In the United States, adults now gain 1 to 2 pounds a year
before age 65, much more than their grandparents did during those years (U.S.
Bureau of the Census, 2006).
In late adulthood, fewer people are obese. It is not known whether the reason is
that (1) the thinner ones are more likely to survive, (2) older people eat less, (3) the
current cohort have always been thinner, or (4) older people are more protective of
their health.
Similarly, there are several possible reasons for the high incidence of over-
weight among children and adults:
■ Genes (regulating hunger, metabolism, and fat accumulation)
■ Parental attitudes and practices (children are taught to overeat)
■ Environment (modern cultures encourage overeating)
In all likelihood, all three of these factors contribute to overweight. The genetic
theory has been bolstered by studies searching for genetic factors in diabetes.
Researchers have found several such genes (diabetes is multifactorial) but have
also stumbled upon two alleles that correlate with weight. One of those alternate
gene forms is carried by about 10 percent of the population (Herbert et al., 2006);
the other is carried by about 16 percent (Frayling et al., 2007). This and other
research confirms that some people’s genetic makeup makes it very difficult for
them to lose weight.
The Impact of Poor Health Habits 541
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 539): The typical 50-year-old woman,
but not by much. About one-fourth of both
groups report that they never exercise.
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But remember that genes don’t change much over the decades. That points to
the influence of culture on the rate of obesity. Cultures do vary in this regard. For
instance, Italians are less obese than the British, perhaps because of their lower-
fat “Mediterranean diet”; rural Chinese weigh much less than urban Chinese,
probably because they are more active; France has far fewer obese adults than the
United States, perhaps because the French talk more during meals, eat more
slowly, and consume smaller portions (Rozin et al., 2003).
Mentioning genes and culture raises another question: Are the international
standards for overweight (a BMI between 25 and 30) and obesity (a BMI above 30)
equally valid for every ethnic group? The answer is no. Obesity is always an indica-
tor of medical risk for heart disease and diabetes, but the danger is not equivalent
for every group. A high BMI is less risky for the Inuit in Canada, Alaska, and
Greenland and more risky for East Asians than for Europeans (Asia Pacific Cohort
Studies Collaboration, 2004; Young et al., 2007; see Research Design).
For everyone, however, obesity is unhealthy but sustained weight loss is diffi-
cult. Given the trends, people who weigh at age 60 what they did at 25 are to be
congratulated; they weigh much less than the average (Hill, 2002). However, loss,
not maintenance, of body weight is what millions want. Researchers have ana-
lyzed various weight-loss strategies in thousands of studies that compare results
over time (see Table 20.2).
542 CHAPTER 20 ■ Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Sources: Dansinger et al., 2005; Estruch et al., 2006; Gardner et al., 2007;
Trichopoulou et al., 2005; Truby et al., 2006.
TABLE 20.2
Some Weight-Loss Methods Assessed
Diets
Name Description Results
Mediterranean
Atkins
Weight Watchers
Ornish
Weight maintenance, longer life,
less body fat
Quick loss, then stable; better
cholesterol, lower blood pressure
Weight loss over time; good on
maintenance
Quick loss; hard to sustain
Lots of vegetables, legumes,
fruits, grains, fish, olive oil; low
in meat, dairy, saturated fat
Low in carbohydrates
Low in calories; group support
Low in fat
Research Design
Scientists:T. Kue Young, Peter Bjerre-
gaard, Eric Dewailly, Patricia Risica,
Marit E. Jorgensen, & Sven E. O.
Ebbesson.
Publication: American Journal of Public
Health (2007).
Participants: In four separate surveys
conducted between 1990 and 2001,
participants included 2,545 adults from
Inuit groups in Alaska, Canada, and
Greenland. Data were compared with
findings from 2,200 people of European
heritage living in Manitoba, northern
Canada.
Design: Many biophysiological meas-
ures were taken for each individual, in-
cluding weight, height, blood pressure,
cholesterol level, and glucose level.
Major conclusions: Although increased
weight correlated with various measures
of risk for heart disease and diabetes,
weight-related risk was lower for the
Inuit than for the European Canadians.
The authors point out that the Inuit
have relatively high sitting height com-
pared with leg length and that centuries
of adaptation to the Arctic climate may
have resulted in increased body fat
without the same mortality risk as for
other peoples.
Comment:This research reminds us
that no one indicator—such as BMI—
has the same effect on health for every-
one. Although obesity is a health hazard
no matter what a person’s genetic back-
ground, inherited body types differ, as
do health risks with weight.
Weight-Loss Drugs
Experience with weight-loss drugs urges caution (Li et al., 2005). Phen-fen was found to
increase the risk of heart disease; commercial diet drugs are addictive and ineffective over
time; other drugs upset the stomach. Thousands of researchers seek a low-risk weight-loss
drug because profits would be in the billions of dollars. Two current candidates for such a
miracle drug are rimonabant and sibutramine, but their long-term consequences are not yet
known (Després et al., 2005; Wadden et al., 2005).
Surgery
Gastric bypass surgery, which permanently alters the anatomy of the digestive system, is
increasingly common in every developed nation. In the United States, the number of such
surgeries increased from 14,000 in 1998 to almost 100,000 in 2003 and continues to climb
(Mitka, 2003; Smoot et al., 2006). The operations almost always produce substantial weight
loss, but complications are common. Almost half the patients require another hospital visit,
often for additional surgery. Deaths occur, but rates are lower for the morbidly obese than if
they had never lost weight (Adams et al., 2007; Flum et al., 2005; Maggard et al., 2005;
Torquati et al., 2007; Weber et al., 2004; Zingmond et al., 2005).
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Preventive Medicine
The damage and death caused by tobacco, alcohol, and obesity make it obvious
that prevention is less risky than treatment. It is also more effective at increasing
health, reducing disability, and prolonging life. As one review of midlife health
concludes: “For most conditions and diseases, it’s the way we live our lives that has
the greatest influence on delaying and preventing physiological decline” (Merrill &
Verbrugge, 1999, p. 86).
Although much of prevention involves choices people make on their own each
day, some is medical, involving early detection and prompt treatment. As dramatic
evidence, the rate of death from heart attacks in developed nations is only half
that of 50 years ago. Less smoking and better diets are partly responsible, but so are
drugs that reduce hypertension and cholesterol, surgery to repair heart damage,
and quick treatment when an attack occurs (Unal et al., 2005).
No doubt some preventive screening and medical measures are helpful: Routine
mammograms, for instance, have saved many lives (Otto et al., 2003). However,
too much reliance on medical screening can be harmful. For prostate cancer, for
example, false positives (test results indicating a problem where none really exists)
cause needless surgery and anxiety (Kaplan, 2000; Welch et al., 2005).
Each patient has his or her own particular risks and needs; ideally, each has a
personal doctor who knows the patient well. National incentives for preventive
care may explain a surprising finding: Adults in England are healthier on almost
every medical measure than adults in the United States, despite the fact that
twice as much money is spent per capita on health care in the United States
(Banks et al., 2006). Self-reported good health also tends to be higher in England
than in the United States (Sacker et al., 2007).
Prevention depends not only on individuals and their doctors but also on social
measures that protect against harm (such as seatbelts and earthquake-proof
construction) and help for those who suffer from trauma. This was evident in the
aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina on the people of Louisiana and Mississippi.
Many say that the worst effects could have been prevented by better policies
and public health measures, with some individuals resilient and others crushed.
Primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention were all inadequate.
The Impact of Poor Health Habits 543
Looking for Trouble A technician examines
mammograms for breast abnormalities, such
as tiny lumps that cannot be felt but may
be malignant. The National Cancer Institute
recommends a screening mammogram
every one to two years for women who are
40 or older or who have certain risk factors
for breast cancer.JO
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544 CHAPTER 20 ■ Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Responding to Stress
Adults learn to ignore some stresses and perceive others
as challenges, even if outsiders would consider them
threats. When challenges are successfully met, not only
do people feel more effective and powerful, but also the
body’s damaging response to stress—increased heart and
breathing rates, hormonal changes, and so on—is averted
(Bandura, 1997). Effective coping may produce physio-
logical changes, especially in the immune system, that
promote health, not sickness. Among adults, potential
stressors can become positive turning points (Aldwin &
Levenson, 2001).
There are limits to this stress/challenge/victory process.
For instance, psychologists are following the psychological
reactions of the hundreds of thousands of people in
Louisiana and Mississippi who were uprooted by Hurricane
Katrina in 2005. Many of them lost their homes and jobs, went
without food and water, knew people who died. Not surprisingly,
their stress increased. For instance, one study of survivors from
New Orleans six months after the flood (Kessler et al., 2006)
found that most had stress reactions: Almost all reported feeling
irritable and having upsetting thoughts, and half had nightmares
(see Figure 20.5).
The accumulation of stressors led to psychological problems
in many survivors. One in nine suffered serious mental health
problems, twice as many as before Katrina. Another 20 percent
had mild to moderate mental illness, again double the earlier
rate (Kessler et al., 2006). Given the trauma of the storm and
the frustratingly slow and inept official response, this is sad but
not surprising.
However, there is one surprise. The same stresses led to in-
creased resilience, with 3 out of 4 (including many who had psy-
chological problems) reporting that they found a deeper sense of
purpose after Katrina. Only 1 in 250 reported that they had made
plans to commit suicide—only one-tenth of the rate reported
before the storm. Adults aged 40–65 were particularly likely to
cope well with the trauma (Kessler et al., 2006). Children were
more likely to suffer (Abramson & Garfield, 2006).
Studies of the reactions of other groups to unexpected trauma
find similar results: more stress-related symptoms but also more
resilience and social support (Galea et al., 2002; Weissman et al.,
1999). A college student who traveled to Mississippi to help
Katrina survivors cope provides a firsthand account of this phe-
nomenon. In her words:
During spring break last March, I, along with more than 300 stu-
dents from the University of Akron and Kent State University,
came to Pass Christian, Miss., wanting to help alleviate the suf-
fering that tugged at my conscience when I watched the news.
What I didn’t expect was how profoundly affected our group
would be by the reality. More than six months after Katrina
brought a vicious wall of sea water crashing down upon Pass
Christian, it remained as if the hurricane had hit yesterday.
Skeletons of homes littered the beachfront. Abandoned cars sat
rusting in the street, clothing was strewn across tree branches
and a crumbling doorstep signaled the spot where a home once
issues and applications
Survivors Who Reported Having Stress Reactions in the Past 30 Days
Percent
100 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Irritable
or angry
Easily
startled
Upsetting
thoughts
Nightmares
Source: Kessler et al., 2006.
FIGURE 20.5
Lingering Effects of Hurricane Katrina Showing
strong reactions to their stressful situation, the mother
and child in the photograph above were among thou-
sands of New Orleans residents who sought refuge in
the city’s convention center after the levees broke in
September 2005. Typically, most people involved in a
natural disaster recover within weeks, but, as the chart
shows, most Katrina victims were still feeling the psy-
chological effects 6 months later. Two years after the
hurricane, death rates from all causes in New Orleans
were double what they had been.
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SUMMING UP
Health habits are crucial to physical well-being. If no adult smoked, drank heavily, under-
exercised, or overate, most would be active and vital throughout adulthood, living to at
least 80. Cigarette smoking is decreasing in North America but increasing in most of the
world. Overweight and obesity are rising to epidemic levels, especially in the United
States. Regular exercise—even at moderate levels—averts many diseases and increases
vitality. Preventive medicine, involving daily habits and good medical care, can maintain
health and lessen the ill effects of senescence.
■
Measuring Health
Being healthy means much more than merely being alive. There are at least four
distinct measures of health: mortality, morbidity, disability, and vitality.
Mortality and Morbidity
At the farthest extreme, death is the ultimate sign that efforts to protect health
have failed. This basic indicator, mortality, is usually expressed as the number of
deaths each year per 1,000 individuals in a particular population. For example, the
mortality rate among people in the United States in 2004 was 8.1. The figure for
various age, gender, and racial groups in the United States ranged from about 0.1
(1 in 10,000) for Asian American girls aged 5 to 14 to 153 (about 1 in 6 per year)
for European American men over age 85 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007).
Mortality statistics are compiled from death certificates, which indicate age,
sex, and immediate cause of death. This allows valid international and historical
comparisons, because deaths have been counted and recorded for decades, even
(in some nations) for centuries. Mortality rates are often age-adjusted to take into
account the higher death rate among the very old. By that measure, Japan has the
lowest annual mortality (about 5 per 1,000) and Sierra Leone the highest (about
35 per 1,000).
A more comprehensive measure of health is morbidity (from the Latin word for
“disease”), which refers to illnesses of all kinds—chronic as well as fatal. People
are asked in surveys to identify any diseases they have, or doctors are asked to
report on illnesses among a sample of their patients. Morbidity can be high even
mortality Death. As a measure of health,
mortality usually refers to the number of
deaths each year per 1,000 members of a
given population.
morbidity Disease. As a measure of health,
morbidity refers to the rate of diseases of
all kinds in a given population—physical
and emotional, acute (sudden) and chronic
(ongoing).
Measuring Health 545
stood. As I adjusted to the devastation, the last thing I expected
to see was resilient optimism rising above the rubble.
“You don’t have time to sit down and cry. You’ve just got to get
to work,” said Ruby Blackwell, principal of the First Baptist
Preschool. I met Blackwell as part of a group that assisted the
school’s teachers and helped sort through a mountain of donated
books.
I was awed when Blackwell told me that a month after the
hurricane, teachers were already asking how soon the school could
reopen, even as many were reeling from their own disasters. . . .
From Blackwell and countless others, I learned a humbling
truth. A local volunteer summarized the lesson in a simple, un-
forgettable phrase, “You make a living with what you earn; you
make a life with what you give.”
[Feerasta, 2006]
Of course, this does not mean that trauma and stress are
benevolent. Many observers worry that ongoing stress may un-
dermine even the most resilient survivors of Katrina, and some
other research questions the conclusions of the Kessler study
(Weissler et al., 2006).
However, humans seem to have a recovery reserve (similar to
the organ reserve explained in Chapter 17) that is activated
under stress. A related set of studies seemed to show that a re-
serve of effort and alertness is summoned when an emergency
arises, even if the people involved are overtired and in a noisy
environment. This reserve works well for the moments of the
emergency, especially if people are expert at the task, although it
takes a toll later on, when the emergency is over and the person
must recover, unwind, sleep, relax, and so on (Hockey, 2005).
Working Out at Work Regular exercise
enhances health as measured all four ways.
Companies that provide exercise facilities at
the workplace usually see declines in
employee absenteeism and health-related
expenses.
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when mortality is low (Michaud et al., 2001). For example, in many African nations,
a parasite causes “river blindness,” destroying energy and eyesight in millions but
not directly causing death (Basáñez, 2006); in the United States, arthritis affects
almost half of all women after age 50 but never kills them.
Disability and Vitality
Health is not only the absence of death and disease (mortality and morbidity) but
also the ability to enjoy life. Two more indicators, disability and vitality, measure
this aspect of health.
Disability refers to difficulty in performing normal activities of daily life because
of a “physical, mental, or emotional condition” (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2006).
Limitation in functioning (not severity of disease) is the hallmark of disability.
Limitations, and hence disability, depend partly on the social context. For
example, if heart disease prevents one from walking 200 feet without resting, that
is a disability if a person’s job requires a great deal of walking (a mail carrier, for
instance) but not if the job is mostly sedentary (a post office clerk). Similarly,
mental illness may be disabling for someone who lives alone in a city but not for
someone who lives in a stable rural family, where there is less social isolation and
more opportunity for meaningful routine work. (Specifics depend on the severity
of the illness.)
Disability has a higher social cost than mortality or morbidity, because a disabled
person needs special care and is less able to contribute to society. Social measures
to reduce disability (e.g., public areas redesigned to include handrails and wheel-
chair ramps) therefore may also benefit society in the long run by making it possible
for people with disabilities to participate more fully. Thanks to such measures, fewer
adults aged 50 to 70 in the United States were disabled in 2005 than in 1960.
The fourth measure of health, vitality, refers to how healthy and energetic—
physically, intellectually, and socially—an individual feels. Vitality is joie de vivre,
the zest for living, the love of life (Gigante, 2007). A person can feel terrific de-
spite having a chronic or fatal disease and disability. For example, in a Japanese
study, most cancer survivors who were still in pain were also low in vitality, but
others, even though they had cancer and were in pain, still scored high in vitality
(Fujimori et al., 2006).
Personality correlates with vitality (van Straten et al., 2007), as does national
culture. However, vitality does not always reflect more objective measures of
health. For instance, the Danes seem to be the happiest people in the world (as
measured by subjective reports of well-being), but they are not the longest living
(Kahneman et al., 2003).
disability Long-term difficulty in performing
normal activities of daily life because of
some physical, mental, or emotional condi-
tion.
vitality A measure of health that refers to
how healthy and energetic—physically,
intellectually, and socially—an individual
actually feels.
QALYs (quality-adjusted life years) A way
of comparing mere survival without vitality
to survival with good health. QALYs indi-
cate how many years of full vitality are lost
to a particular physical disease or disability.
They are expressed in terms of life
expectancy as adjusted for quality of life.
546 CHAPTER 20 ■ Adulthood: Biosocial Development
©
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Disabled but Vital Therapists find that the
most serious consequence of losing a limb is
losing the will to live. This young man not only
learned to cope with crutches after losing a
leg but also regained his spirit: He completed
the 26.2-mile New York City marathon.
QALYs and DALYs
Every nation, every hospital, and every person makes hundreds of
decisions regarding health. Public health advocates are troubled
when decisions are made that seem to ignore measures that
would protect the health of the population. Developmentalists
note that sometimes actions that seem harmless at the moment
will cause disabilities later on. Yet how can the impact of a partic-
ular decision be evaluated?
To answer this question, health economists have developed
units of measure known as QALYs (quality-adjusted life
years). If people are completely well, physically and psycholog-
ically, they have a top-notch quality of life. If that state of full
well-being lasts a year, one quality-adjusted life year is counted.
If a person lives to be 70 and is vital and active throughout, that
is expressed as 70 QALYs.
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Measuring Health 547
DALYs (disability-adjusted life years) A measure of the
impact that disability has on quality of life. DALYs are
the reciprocal of quality-adjusted life years: A reduction
in QALYs means an increase in DALYs.
When people die prematurely, before reaching the end of
their life expectancy, then the years between actual and expected
death are completely lost. For example, if a man’s life expectancy
is 70 but he is shot dead at age 30, then 40 QALYs are lost.
The calculation becomes more complicated when a person
does not die but has a life of less than full quality. That necessi-
tates measuring how much of a reduction in life’s fullness is
caused by a particular condition. If a 30-year-old is shot and per-
manently disabled—perhaps severely brain-injured—then each
remaining year might be only of half quality, and thus 20 QALYs
(40 divided by 2) would accrue by age 70.
In another scenario, if a 30-year-old is shot, undergoes 4
years of recovery that are so painful and disabling that he is
thought to experience only one-fourth of full vitality, and then
recovers completely to live fully until age 70, he would lose only
3 years (4 × 1⁄4 = 1, subtracted from 4) which would give him 37
QALYs between ages 30 and 70.
To further complicate matters, it is even possible to have a
negative QALY, if a person is alive but in extreme pain and un-
able to do anything. That state might well be considered even
worse than death. Obviously, any estimate of the quality of
someone’s life is highly subjective.
Nonetheless, the concept is very useful. Doctors want to
know how various medical treatments affect quality of life. For
example, one group assessed patients who had spinal surgery
(Mannion et al., 2007) and another group studied the effects of
radiation on cancer patients (Strauss et al., 2007). Other indica-
tors (pain, fatigue, disability) are also measured, but future qual-
ity of life is crucial in deciding on treatment.
DALYs (disability-adjusted life years) approaches the
same concept from the other direction. A person with no dis-
ability incurs no DALYs. Each year lost due to premature death
(earlier than would ordinarily be expected) adds one DALY, just
as it would subtract one QALY. Similarly, a fraction of a DALY is
added if the person is disabled.
Again, the problem is figuring out what that fraction should
be. An outsider might think that someone is severely disabled,
but that person may feel quite capable and be angry that others
emphasize disability more than ability.
Professionals disagree about how to calculate DALYs and
QALYs, especially when a person’s vitality or well-being is part
of the equation (Fayers & Machin, 2007; Ryan & Deci, 2001).
One strategy is to assume that “people know the quality of their
life and, if asked directly, will honestly and accurately report it”
(Fleesen, 2004, p. 253). But some people, by nature, are more
optimistic about their own lives than others are about theirs
(Lawton et al., 1999).
One developmental disagreement concerns chronological
age. The World Health Organization considers each year of life
lost by a suddenly dead 30-year-old as a full DALY (40 years lost
before age 70), but less than that (not 70 years) if a newborn
dies. Many other professional organizations assign a lower value
to disability after age 70 than before, assuming that the 70-year-
old is already past the fullness of life (Kaiser, 2003).
Both of these assessments may seem callous, but no society
spends enough on public health to enable everyone to live life to
the fullest. Calculating DALYs provides a cost-benefit analysis
to guide decisions about, for example, whether to subsidize a
new well that will provide clean water for a village or intensive
care for an extremely-low-birthweight newborn. Obviously, if
care of 500-gram babies costs $10 million per life saved (with
survivors being severely brain-damaged and disabled) and if
clean water costs $10,000 per life saved (with survivors being
vital adults), then clean water would be the priority.
This example is hypothetical; real choices are rarely so simple.
Nations spend money on the health of their own citizens, and
people want to save those they love—who would put a price on
the life of their own tiny newborn? Calculating QALYs and
DALYs helps doctors and public officials; it may not help indi-
viduals.
Feeling Better The principles of quality-of-life self-assessment and
attitude change were known thousands of years ago in India. At this
ayurvedic-medicine clinic in New Delhi, a patient is treated with oils
and massage prescribed for his particular needs. The desired results
are lower blood pressure and increased vitality.
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SUMMING UP
There are four main measures of health used by developmentalists: mortality, morbidity,
disability, and vitality. Mortality in itself is not exclusively a measure of health, as it does
not distinguish whether death comes as a result of disease, violence, or an overall
weakening and aging of the body. The other three measures, however, indicate wide-
spread health problems among adults. These can be quantified in terms of quality-
adjusted life years (QALYs) and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs); such calculations
are useful in setting public health priorities.
■
Variations in Aging
Rates of aging vary, but they are not random. Gender, genes, ethnicity, income, edu-
cation, location, lifestyle, and culture speed up some aspects of senescence and
slow down others. Indeed, a study of more than 7,000 adults in the United States
found differences in physical and psychological health on dozens of dimensions,
including income, gender, ethnicity, religion, personality, and residence (Brim
et al., 2004; see Research Design).
Gender Differences
In some ways, senescence affects women more than men, because small, super-
ficial signs of aging—changes in skin, hair, weight—are of more concern (to both
sexes) in women. In most ways, however, women age more slowly. Females live
longer, by 5 years on average, with a wide range from one nation to another. For
example, there are few gender differences in longevity in Africa, but men die 14
years earlier, on average, in Russia (see Table 20.3) (World Factbook, 2007).
Worldwide, there are more old women than old men (twice as many in the
United States by age 85), not primarily because old men die at higher rates but
because at every age (especially in infancy and adolescence) more males die. The
effect is cumulative.
548 CHAPTER 20 ■ Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Research Design
Scientists: Orville G. Brim, Carol D. Ryff,
Ronald C. Kessler, and many others.
Publication: Hundreds of publications
use these data, including the 2004 book
How Healthy Are We?, edited by Brim,
Ryff, and Kessler.This book is the out-
come of a study called MIDUS (midlife,
United States), sponsored by the John D.
and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Participants: A nationwide sample of
7,189 U.S. residents, aged 25 to 74, com-
pleted a telephone interview; 3,032 of
them also filled out a lengthy question-
naire.
Design: Answers were analyzed and
compared by age (with ages 40 to 60
considered midlife), sex, and other ways.
Major conclusion: A person’s health is
affected by numerous aspects of his or
her background and context, with those
in midlife healthier in some respects
(especially mental health) than those
who are younger.
Comment:The extensive data from this
study have led to many insights about
midlife, a time given “surprisingly little
attention” by developmentalists.
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Blue Skies Ahead Turkey is one of the nations
where children still die at high rates, but some
adults live long, happy, and active lives. The
social context, illustrated by this man riding a
donkey, is the reason.
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Paradoxically, women are more likely to have every chronic dis-
ease—with one notable exception: heart disease under age 50
(Cleary et al., 2004). Some gender differences may be biological
—the second X chromosome or extra estrogen could provide pro-
tection from some illnesses (Crews, 2003). Or the reason may be
cultural. One public health expert wrote that, in the United
States,
Men are socialized to project strength, individuality, autonomy,
dominance, stoicism, and physical aggression, and to avoid demon-
strations of emotion or vulnerability that could be construed as
weakness. These . . . combine to increase health risks.
[Williams, 2003, p. 726]
For their part, women spend more time and effort on their
health, and they are more likely to marry, have close friends, and
seek help—all of which protect health. Most specific health
habits also favor women, who drink and smoke less, eat less meat,
and wear seat belts more often. Are such habits biological or
cultural?
Socioeconomic Status
High SES is protective of health in every nation. Well-educated,
financially secure people live longer, avoid chronic illness and dis-
ability, and feel healthier than the average person of their age, sex,
and ethnicity. This explains a difference within nations: People
who live near major cities generally are healthier than are people
who live in the countryside.
Internationally, people in rich nations have lower rates of al-
most every disease, injury, and cause of death than people in poor
nations. Thus, for example, babies born in the Asian Pacific region
are expected to live to 73; in Southeast Asia to 63; and in sub-
Saharan Africa to 48 (WHO, 2006).
Within nations and ethnic groups, economic disparities are evi-
dent (Marmot & Fuhrer, 2004). In the United States, among His-
panics, Cuban Americans live several years longer, on average, than Puerto Ricans
and, among Asians, Japanese Americans live several years longer than Filipino
Americans. The “10 million Americans with the best health” outlive—by about 30
years—the tens of millions who are low-SES and reside in neglected neighbor-
hoods (Murray et al., 2006).
Certain “diseases of affluence” seemed to be exceptions to the generality that
poverty is linked with poor health (Krieger, 2002, 2003). For example, at one time
both lung and breast cancer were more common among the rich than among the
poor, among the more educated than among the less educated, and, in the United
States, among European Americans than among others. No longer. When smoking
became cheaper and diagnosis of cancer improved and became more accessible,
the diseases of affluence became more common in the poor.
This switch was detailed in a study of rates of cigarette smoking among three
cohorts of Italians—those born in the 1940s, the 1950s, and the 1960s. A total of
58,727 people were surveyed as to whether they started smoking or not (Federico
et al., 2007). An SES switch was apparent for both sexes, especially for the women.
Among low-SES (and less educated) women, smoking increased: 28 percent of
those born in the 1940s and 35 percent of those born in the 1960s started smoking.
Variations in Aging 549
Women Live Longer The actual life spans of
individuals will vary and the totals change
from decade to decade. Nonetheless, the
trend for women to live longer than men is
evident almost everywhere. The opposite
was true in the nineteenth century, when
many women died in childbirth, and the oppo-
site is now true in only one nation, South
Africa, where many women die of AIDS.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 551):
The 25 nations listed here are only about 10
percent of all the nations of the world. Can
you think of criteria that may have been used
to decide which countries to include?
TABLE 20.3
Life Expectancy by Gender,
in Years, Selected Countries, 2007
Years More
Nation Men Women for Women
Argentina 76 79 3
Australia 78 84 6
Brazil 71 74 3
Canada 77 84 7
China 71 75 4
Cuba 75 80 5
Dominican Republic 71 75 4
Ethiopia 48 50 2
Germany 76 82 6
Ghana 58 60 2
Haiti 55 59 4
India 66 71 5
Indonesia 68 73 5
Israel 78 82 4
Japan 74 86 12
Mexico 73 79 6
Niger 44 44 0
Nigeria 47 49 2
Peru 68 72 4
Russia 59 73 14
Sierra Leone 38 43 5
South Africa 43 42 -1
Spain 77 83 5
United Kingdom 76 81 5
United States 75 81 6
Source: World Factbook, 2007.
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Among high-SES (and well-educated) women, smoking decreased: 35 percent of
those born in the 1940s started smoking, as did 31 percent of those born in the
1960s. Educated Italians were also more likely to quit, so that, by the year 2000,
high-SES Italians smoked (and had cancer) at lower rates than their low-SES
contemporaries (see Figure 20.6).
Social context always affects health. For example, a study comparing adults in
England and France found that, as expected, wealthier people were healthier.
Reasons differed by social context, however. In England, but not in France, the
rich ate more fruits and vegetables and smoked less than the poor; in France, but
not in England, the wealthy drank less alcohol. According to these researchers,
employment and neighborhood stresses for low-SES people in both nations led to
poorer health habits, with the particulars (smoking in England and alcohol in
France) dependent on the culture (Fuhrer et al., 2002).
Conclusion
All in all, when it comes to health-related variations in aging:
There is a complex causal web involving socioeconomic determinants such as
income, education, employment, . . . environmental factors such as tobacco use,
physical activity, diet, . . . [and] physiological factors such as cholesterol levels,
blood pressure, and genes that influence mortality and disability.
[Michaud et al., 2001, p. 537]
This complex web cannot be disentangled, but it is obvious that health messages
and practices should not be the same for everyone. The basics—avoiding drugs,
eating healthy, exercising—are always useful, but specifics vary. Soon treatment
will be tailored to each individual’s genetic profile rather than to their ethnicity or
gender. But in the meantime, practitioners are increasingly aware that many med-
ical measures were validated mostly on European American men, who sometimes
differ from members of other groups (Kee & Chiriboga, 2004).
For instance, heart failure is a leading cause of death for people of both sexes
and all ethnicities, but the symptoms are different for women than for men. BiDil,
a drug treatment for African Americans with congestive heart failure, is the first
550 CHAPTER 20 ■ Adulthood: Biosocial Development
The Same Event, A Thousand Miles Apart:
Female Heartbeats Nurses worldwide know
that heart disease now kills more women
than does any other disease, including can-
cer. Early diagnosis is protective, and that is
why the woman in the United States (left) is
taking a stress test of heart function and why
the Indonesian women (right) are participat-
ing in a public health day.
BR
AN
D
X
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ES
/
AL
AM
Y
AH
M
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I /
A
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/
GE
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IM
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E
5
0
10
15
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Years of
smoking
before
age 40
Men
Socioeconomic Status and
Smoking Rates of Italians,
by Sex and Age Cohort
Decade Born
10
5
0
15
20
1940s
Source: Federico et al., 2007.
1950s 1960s
Years of
smoking
before
age 40
Women
Decade Born
Low SES
High SES
FIGURE 20.6
The Rich Get Sick? It used to be that high-
SES educated Italians, especially women,
were more likely to get lung cancer, breast
cancer, and all the other diseases that corre-
late with cigarette smoking. That trend has
been reversed because low-SES Italians are
more likely to start smoking.
524-553_BergerLS7e_CH20.qxp 9/19/07 6:38 PM Page 550

race-based prescription medication in the United States (Taylor et al., 2004).* In
another example, Vietnamese American women have lower rates of breast cancer
but a rate of cervical cancer four times higher than that of other women in the
United States; accordingly, for them, Pap tests may be more essential than breast
self-examination (Ro, 2002).
This leads to a final point. As you remember from Chapter 1, each of us is power-
fully affected by all the contexts and cultures that surround us, but none of us is
just like everyone else in our group. Social norms influence men to avoid doctors,
women to worry about their appearance, low-income people to eat high-fat diets,
and so on. Each of us is affected by our family and friends. However, no individual
is permanently bound to the health customs of his or her group. Habits can
change for individuals as well as for groups—as evidenced by the reduced smok-
ing rates among North Americans of all ethnicities. Medical care can improve for
groups as well.
For 20-year-old African American men, notable improvement in health has
occurred in the past 35 years. In 1970 projections for such a man’s life were death
at age 60; today death is projected at age 71 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2006).
Variations in Aging 551
symptoms would be catheterization; but for the younger, White, or male
patients, catheterization was recommended 90, 91, and 91 percent of
the time, respectively; for the older, female, or Black patients, 86, 85,
and 85 percent of the time, respectively. Are you surprised that the bias
differences were less than 10 percent? Or are you surprised that physi-
cian bias existed at all?
All Equally Sick? These photographs were used in a study that as-
sessed physicians’ biases in recommending treatment (Schulman et al.,
1999). These supposed “heart patients” were described as identical in
occupation, symptoms, and every other respect except age, race, and
sex. However, the participating physicians who looked at the photos and
the fictitious medical charts that accompanied them did not make identi-
cal recommendations. The appropriate treatment for the supposed
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* Since race is a social construction more than a biological category, many people object to this race-
based approval for BiDil (Kahn, 2007). Nonetheless, the idea that diseases, drugs, and treatments are
not the same for every person is endorsed by many developmentalists.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 549): With apologies to all the nations
that were excluded, in general the countries
included are large, geographically close, or
similar (developed, democratic, English-
speaking) to the United States.
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552 CHAPTER 20 ■ Adulthood: Biosocial Development
7. At menopause, as a woman’s menstrual cycle stops, ovulation
ceases, and levels of estrogen are markedly reduced. This hor-
monal change produces various symptoms, although most women
find menopause much less troubling than they had expected.
8. Hormone production declines in men also, though not as sud-
denly as in women. For both sexes, hormone replacement therapy
(HRT) should be used cautiously, if at all.
The Impact of Poor Health Habits
9. Adults in North America are smoking cigarettes much less
than they once did, and rates of lung cancer and other diseases
are falling, largely for that reason. Alcohol abuse remains a major
health problem, however.
10. Good health habits include exercising regularly and not gain-
ing weight. On both these counts, today’s adults worldwide are
faring worse than did previous generations. There is a worldwide
“epidemic of obesity,” as more people have access to abundant
food and overeat as a result.
11. When used in conjunction with good health habits, preventive
medicine (such as mammograms and other cancer screening, for
example) and better treatment have been effective in extending
life. The rate of fatal heart attacks in middle-aged men has been
cut in half.
Measuring Health
12. Variations in health can be measured in terms of mortality,
morbidity, disability, and vitality. Although death and disease are
easier to quantify, in terms of the health of a population, disabil-
ity and vitality may be more significant. Quality-adjusted life
years (QALYs) and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) help
The Aging Process
1. With each year of life, signs of senescence (a gradual physical
decline associated with aging) become more apparent. All the
body systems gradually become less efficient, though at varying
rates, not only between different people but also between differ-
ent organs within the same person.
2. A person’s appearance undergoes gradual but noticeable
changes as middle age progresses, including more wrinkles, less
hair, and more fat, particularly around the abdomen. With the
exception of excessive weight gain, changes in appearance have
little impact on health.
3. The rate of senescence is most apparent in the sense organs.
Vision becomes less sharp with age, with both nearsightedness
and farsightedness increasing gradually beginning in the 20s.
Hearing also becomes less acute, with noticeable losses being
more likely for pure tones (such as doorbells) and high-frequency
sounds (such as a child’s excited speech).
4. The brain slows down and begins a slow, usually imperceptible
decline. Beyond measures to protect overall health, the brain is
affected by psychoactive drugs, lack of sleep, and lack of exercise.
5. Fertility problems become more common with increased age,
for many reasons. The most common one for men is a reduced
number of sperm, and for women, ovulation failure or blocked fal-
lopian tubes. For both sexes, not only youth but also overall good
health—especially sexual health—correlates with fertility.
6. A number of assisted reproductive technology (ART) proce-
dures, including IVF (in vitro fertilization), offer potential answers
to infertility. In the laboratory, a technician can fertilize an ovum
by inserting a single sperm, thus avoiding the problem of low
sperm count.
SUMMARY
Those are averages: Some African Americans live to 100 or more, as 3,000 African
American men were doing in 2005, beating all odds (U.S. Bureau of the Census,
2006).
This point is relevant to us all. The averages and generalities noted in this chap-
ter do not apply equally to everyone. Each of us makes choices that change the
outcome of the predictions; some of us will live vital lives to age 100 or beyond.
SUMMING UP
Marked variations are apparent in the risk of poor health between one person and an-
other and in the quality of each day of each person’s life. Men have higher mortality
(death) rates, but women have higher morbidity (illness) rates. Income, within nations
and among nations, has a dramatic impact on health no matter how it is measured. Low-
income people are much more likely to experience poor health, get sick, and die. Health
disparities are also evident between ethnic groups for many reasons, including variable
genetic risks, cultural norms, stress, care provider prejudices, attitudes about preventive
care, and social bias.
■
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Summary 553
mous or another 12-step program, an introductory session of
Weight Watchers or Smoke Enders, or a meeting of prospective
gym members. Report on who attended, what you learned, and
what your reactions were.
4. Use behaviorist strategies (see Chapter 2 and/or read other
sources) to change something you do. Take baseline data on one
specific behavior (e.g., regarding talking in class, eating, exercis-
ing, watching TV, sleeping). The behavior must be operationally
defined (see Appendix B). Use reinforcement or other measures
to change the frequency or intensity of your behavior. Remove the
reinforcement and continue to collect data to see if your pattern
changed.
1. Guess the age of five people you know, and then ask them how
old they are. Analyze the clues you used for your guesses and the
people’s reactions to your question.
2. Find a speaker who is willing to come to your class and who is
an expert on weight loss, adult health, smoking, or drinking.
Write a one-page proposal explaining why you think this speaker
would be good and what topics he or she should address. Give
this proposal to your instructor, with contact information for your
speaker. The instructor will call the potential speakers, thank
them for their willingness, and decide whether or not to actually
invite them to speak.
3. Attend a gathering for people who want to stop a bad habit or
start a good one, such as an open meeting of Alcoholics Anony-
APPLICATIONS
senescence (p. 528)
presbycusis (p. 529)
assisted reproductive technology
(ART) (p. 534)
in vitro fertilization (IVF)
(p. 534)
menopause (p. 534)
hormone replacement therapy
(HRT) (p. 535)
andropause (p. 535)
mortality (p. 545)
morbidity (p. 545)
disability (p. 546)
vitality (p. 546)
QALYs (quality-adjusted life
years) (p. 546)
DALYs (disability-adjusted life
years) (p. 547)
KEY TERMS
8. What is the effect of alcohol on a person’s risk of mortality?
9. How does obesity affect physical and psychological health?
10. In what way(s) can preventive medicine have a positive effect
on health?
11. What are the four measures of health, and what does each
signify?
12. Why does health vary between and within ethnic groups?
1. What age-related changes in appearance typically occur dur-
ing adulthood?
2. How do vision and hearing change during adulthood?
3. As a person ages, how is the brain affected?
4. How do age and other factors affect a typical couple’s sex life?
5. What are some of the factors that diminish fertility?
6. Why might a woman welcome menopause?
7. What changes in rates of tobacco use have occurred over the
past few decades, and what are the consequences of those changes?
KEY QUESTIONS
doctors and public health advocates figure out how to allocate
limited resources.
Variations in Aging
13. Aging and health status vary by gender. Women tend to age
more slowly and live longer than men, though they also have more
chronic diseases. These differences may be biological, though cul-
ture is also thought to be influential. In general, women are more
likely than men to engage in practices that are protective of health.
14. Both genes and culture affect the overall health of various eth-
nic groups. Social, economic, and psychological factors may be
even more influential. Members of certain ethnic groups in certain
settings are much more prone to health risks and to ongoing stress.
Quality of care is powerfully affected by socioeconomic factors.
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Adulthood: Cognitive
Development
21
555
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� What Is Intelligence?
Research on Age and Intelligence
A CASE TO STUDY:
“At Very Different Levels”
Components of Intelligence: Many and Varied
Diversity and Intelligence
A CASE TO STUDY:
Jenny: “Men Come and Go”
� Selective Gains and Losses
Optimization with Compensation
Expert Cognition
Expertise and Age
IN PERSON: An Experienced Parent
asked my class if people get smarter or dumber as they grow older.
Opinions were divided until one student, himself over age 30, said:
“Both.”
Exactly. This chapter explains how we get smarter in some ways and
dumber in others. Specifically, this chapter describes adult cognitive devel-
opment as measured by various tests. Scores for people from ages 18 to 88
are reported, although the focus is on the central adult years (between
emerging adulthood and late adulthood), ages 25–65.
Remember that many ways are used to depict cognition throughout adult-
hood. Chapter 18 described postformal thinking as well as the impact of a
college education. Chapter 24 will take an information-processing perspec-
tive and then highlight the aspects of processing that slow down cognition.
This chapter takes a psychometric approach (metric means “measure”;
psychometric refers to measuring psychological characteristics). We consider
various kinds of intelligence, including those that result from practical expe-
rience, producing experts of one sort or another.
Surprisingly, conclusions about adult IQ change every few decades, al-
though the raw data remain the same. This paradox occurs because each
generation of scholars finds new answers to the crucial question: How
should intelligence be measured? Answers lead to different tests, subtests,
and interpretations, and thus conclusions change (Perfect & Maylor, 2000).
As you will see, intelligence was once thought to decline from age 20
on; now it is thought to rise throughout most of adulthood and to begin
declining at age 60, or 70, or 80. In adulthood, chronological age is no longer
the prime determinant of IQ; contexts, cultures, and personal choices are
equally influential.
I
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What Is Intelligence?
For most of the twentieth century, almost everyone—scientists and the general
public alike—assumed that there is such a thing as “intelligence,” that some peo-
ple are smarter than others because they have more intelligence than others. One
leading theoretician who expressed this idea was Charles Spearman (1927), who
proposed that there is a single entity, general intelligence, which he called g.
Spearman contended that, although g cannot be measured directly, it can be in-
ferred from various abilities, such as vocabulary, memory, and reasoning. A person
could be assigned one overall IQ score, based on carefully standardized tests of in-
telligence, and that score would indicate whether the person was a genius, aver-
age, or retarded, as explained in Chapter 11.
The idea that there is a g continues to influence thinking on this subject
(Jensen, 1998; Sternberg & Grigorenko, 2002). Many scientists are trying to find
the one common factor that undergirds IQ. Is it genetic inheritance, prenatal
brain development, experiences in infancy, or physical health? Some psychologists
have an “unwavering hope” that some neurological construct will be found that
explains how the mind works, and this would tell us why, how, and when people
get smarter and dumber as they grow older (Frensch & Buchner, 1999, p. 164).
Although many still believe that “there are abilities and processes in intellectual
functioning that are truly general” (Demetriou et al., 2002, p. 5), many others who
study adulthood have abandoned this hope and belief.
Research on Age and Intelligence
Psychometricians throughout the twentieth century believed that intelligence
could be measured and quantified, and many tried to develop an IQ test to do so.
But they disagreed about how to interpret the data, especially about whether gen-
eral intelligence rises or falls after age 20 or so. Methodology
was one reason for that disagreement.
Cross-Sectional Research
For the first half of the twentieth century, psychologists were
convinced that intelligence rises in childhood, peaks in ado-
lescence, and then gradually declines. This belief seemed to
be confirmed by the evidence. For instance, the U.S. Army
tested the aptitude of all literate draftees during World War
I. When the scores of men of various ages were compared, it
seemed apparent that intellectual ability reached its peak at
about age 18, stayed at that level until the mid-20s, and then
began to decline (Yerkes, 1923).
Similar results came from a classic study of 1,191 individ-
uals, aged 10 to 60, from 19 carefully selected New England
villages. Most of those studied had lived in the same village
all their lives, as had all their relatives. This was ideal for the
researchers, who wanted to measure the intelligence of peo-
ple who differed in age but not significantly in genetic makeup or life experience.
The IQ scores of these New Englanders peaked between ages 18 and 21 and then
gradually fell, with the average 55-year-old scoring the same as the average 14-
year-old (Jones & Conrad, 1933).
Hundreds of other cross-sectional studies of IQ in many nations confirmed
that younger adults outscored older adults. The case for an age-related decline in
IQ was considered proven, and the norms for the two classic IQ tests, the
556 CHAPTER 21 ■ Adulthood: Cognitive Development
Smart Enough for the Trenches? These
young men were drafted to fight in World
War I. Younger men (about age 17 or 18) did
better on the military’s intelligence tests than
did slightly older ones.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 558):
Beyond the test itself, what conditions of the
testing favored the teenaged men?
N
AT
IO
N
AL
A
RC
HI
VE
S
general intelligence (g) The idea that
intelligence is one basic trait, underlying
all cognitive abilities. According to this
concept, people have varying levels of this
general ability.
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Stanford-Binet and the WISC/WAIS (discussed in Chapter 11), were set so that
IQ peaked in late adolescence.
Longitudinal Research
in the 1950s, Nancy Bayley and Melita Oden (1955) analyzed the adult intelli-
gence of the people who had been originally selected by Lewis Terman in 1921 for
his study of child geniuses (and who have been studied by a succession of re-
searchers ever since). Bayley was an expert in intelligence testing. She knew that
“the invariable findings had indicated that most intellectual functions decrease
after about 21 years of age” (Bayley, 1966, p. 117). But she found, instead, that the
IQ scores of these gifted individuals increased between ages 20 and 50.
Bayley wondered whether this group was atypical: Perhaps their high intelli-
gence in childhood protected them against the usual age-related declines. To find
out, she retested another group of adults who had been tested as children and who
were then 36 years old. They had been selected in infancy as being representative
of the population of Berkeley, California. Bayley found that, far from peaking at
age 21, most of them had improved on tests of vocabulary, comprehension, and
information. She concluded that the “intellectual potential for continued learning
is unimpaired through [the first] 36 years” of life, and probably beyond (Bayley,
1966, p. 136).
Why did these data contradict previous conclusions? Recall that Bayley’s stud-
ies were longitudinal, whereas earlier studies were cross-sectional. As you remem-
ber from Chapter 1, cross-sectional research can be misleading because each
cohort has unique life experiences. People born in the first years of the twentieth
century developed different cognitive skills from people born decades later. Over
time, improvements in the quality and extent of education, the wider variety of
cultural opportunities provided by innovations like the automobile and movies,
and new sources of information from newspapers and radio (and, later, television
and the Internet) resulted in intellectual growth. That allowed adults to improve
on their own earlier performance.
When cross-sectional research compared adults of various ages, it did not take
into account the fact that many older adults had left school before eighth grade
and thus might not have developed their full intelligence. By contrast, people who
grew up later were likely to attend high school and thus to develop their intellect
earlier. If they went on to college, their IQ scores would keep rising, partly be-
cause the kinds of tests used to measure IQ measure the skills reinforced and
practiced in college classes. On IQ tests, each generation might seem smarter
than the previous one, but longitudinal data show the older adults still learning.
Comparing teenagers with adults might lead to the conclusion that the teenagers
were actually smarter, not just better educated, than their parents.
The Flynn Effect
Powerful evidence for the rise in average IQ over the generations (not just stability,
as researchers thought) has come from research that compares test scores in many
nations over time. In every country where data allow a valid comparison, more re-
cent cohorts outscore older ones. This trend toward increasing average IQ is
called the Flynn effect, after James Flynn, the researcher who first reported it
(Flynn, 1984, 1999). He found “massive gains” (Flynn, 1987, p. 171) in IQ scores
over the twentieth century in every developed nation, both longitudinally and
cross-sectionally.
Because of the Flynn effect, widely used IQ tests are now renormed (that is,
new levels are set for converting raw scores into IQ) about every 15 years. People
must answer more questions correctly just to maintain the same IQ score (Kanaya
Flynn effect A trend toward increasing aver-
age IQ, found in all developed nations
during the twentieth century.
What Is Intelligence? 557
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Seattle Longitudinal Study The first cross-
sequential study of adult intelligence. This
study began in 1956; the most recent test-
ing was conducted in 2005.
et al., 2003). The many possible reasons for the overall rise in intelligence include
wider education and experience, as mentioned earlier, and direct influences on
the brain, such as better nutrition, fewer toxins (e.g., lower lead levels), and
smaller family size (allowing more intellectual stimulation for each child) (Neisser,
1998). Note that all these hypotheses assume something that was heresy to most
social scientists early in the twentieth century: IQ is the result of environmental
influences as well as of heredity—of nurture, not just nature.
No matter what the reasons for the Flynn effect, it is unfair—and scientifically
invalid—to compare IQ scores of a cross section of adults of various ages. Older
adults will score lower, but that does not mean that they have lost intellectual
power. Adults should be studied longitudinally—that is, compared with them-
selves at younger ages. Such research shows most adults gaining over time.
Cross-Sequential Research
Longitudinal research is better than cross-sectional research, but it is not perfect.
One problem is that, because they are tested repeatedly, participants accumulate
practice. Practice leads to learning. That means a longitudinal rise in IQ may show
learning on specific test questions, not increased intelligence.
Another problem is that participants who drop out of longitudinal studies tend
to be the very ones whose IQ scores were low and getting lower (Sliwinski et al.,
2003). Thus, longitudinal research that finds average IQ scores increasing may be
biased, partly because the people who return for retesting are those who continue
to improve.
A third problem is that the scientists must devote decades to one study. Finally,
when those decades are over, the results reflect only one cohort; as a result, the
particular historical events these individuals experienced (e.g., a major war or a
breakthrough in public health) may make their data less applicable to other co-
horts. Did the adults in Bayley’s study increase in IQ not because intelligence gen-
erally increases, but because they happened to belong to a fortunate cohort whose
social context improved?
The best way to combine the advantages of both kinds of research is with
cross-sequential research, which, as you learned in Chapter 1, was pioneered by
K. Warner Schaie (Schaie, 2005; see Research Design). In 1956, as a doctoral
student, Schaie tested a cross section of 500 adults, aged 20 to 50, on five primary
mental abilities that are widely considered to be the foundation of intelligence:
(1) verbal meaning (vocabulary comprehension), (2) spatial orientation, (3) inductive
reasoning, (4) number ability, and (5) word fluency (rapid verbal associations).
Schaie’s initial results showed a gradual decline in each of these abilities with
age, as others had found with cross-sectional comparisons. He knew that longitu-
dinal research reported an increase, so he planned to retest his population seven
years later. He then had a brilliant idea: In addition to retesting his initial sample,
he would test a new group who were the same age that his earlier sample had been
at their first test. He did this for more than 50 years, retesting each group and
adding a new group every seven years. By comparing the scores of the retested in-
dividuals with their own earlier scores (a longitudinal analysis) and with the scores
of a new group at that age (a cross-sectional analysis), he obtained a more accurate
view of IQ development than was possible from either kind of research alone.
Cross-age comparisons allow analysis of potential influences, including retest-
ing, cohort differences, experience, and gender. The results of Schaie’s ongoing
project, known as the Seattle Longitudinal Study, confirmed and extended
what others had found: People improve in most mental abilities during adulthood.
As Figure 21.1 shows, each particular ability for each gender has a distinct pattern.
558 CHAPTER 21 ■ Adulthood: Cognitive Development
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 556): Sitting on the floor with no back
support, with a test paper at a distance on
your lap, and with someone standing over
you holding a stopwatch—all are enough to
rattle anyone, especially people over 18.
Research Design
Scientist: K.Warner Schaie.
Publication: More than 100 articles and
several books, including Developmental
Influences on Adult Intelligence (2005).
Participants: A total of 4,850 adults,
originally from Seattle,Washington. In-
cluded are some groups of family mem-
bers, allowing analysis of marriage,
genes, and upbringing.
Design: Longitudinal, then cross-
sequential. About half of the participants
(2,193) were retested seven years after
their first test; 36 people were tested six
times over 42 years.This study included
more than 25 tests of cognitive ability,
as well as measures of health, personal-
ity, family and work environment, and
leisure activities.
Major conclusion: Everyone experiences
intellectual decline after about age 60,
but individuals differ markedly in timing
and patterns of change.
Comment:This study continues to be a
model and a treasure because of the
extensive cross-sequential data. Note,
however, that the number of participants
declined at each seven-year interval.
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Note the gradual rise and the eventual decline of all abilities, with men initially
better at spatial orientation and numbers and women later excelling at verbal skills
—but the two genders are quite similar overall and eventually come together.
Other researchers from many nations agree. For example, Paul Baltes (2003)
tested hundreds of older Germans in Berlin and found that only at age 80 did
every cognitive ability show age-related average declines. Aduthood is usually a
time of increasing, or at least maintaining, IQ (Martin & Zimprich, 2005).
Schaie has noted substantial cohort effects. Each successive cohort (born at
seven-year intervals from 1889 to 1973) tends to score higher in adulthood than
the previous cohorts in verbal memory and inductive reasoning, and lower in num-
ber ability. The most recent cohorts postpone the overall drop in scores (Schaie,
2005). These cohort effects may be attributed to the fact that younger cohorts
complete more years of education, especially education that emphasizes logic and
self-expression more than memorization of number facts.
One correlate of higher intelligence scores in the Seattle Longitudinal Study is
intellectual complexity at work and in personal life, which is highest from age 39
to 53, and which favors more recent cohorts. Another correlate is social status,
which peaks at age 46. Although these factors are among the reasons that IQ
usually increases throughout adulthood, Schaie adds that “individual decline prior
to 60 years of age is almost inevitably a symptom or precursor of pathological
age changes” (Schaie, 2005, p. 418). In other words, most adults at some time
between age 40 and 60 reach their peak of intellectual ability; those who show
substantial decline are probably ill in some way.
Another crucial finding is that “virtually every possible permutation of individual
profiles has been observed in our study” (Schaie, 1996, p. 351). One replication
of the Seattle Longitudinal Study occurred in Sweden, among monozygotic and
dizygotic twins aged 41 to 84 (Finkel et al., 1998). The results, markedly similar to
Schaie’s, reveal “vast individual differences in the aging process,” even for mono-
zygotic twins. Intellectual abilities sometimes rise, fall, stay the same, or fall and
then rise higher than before. This can happen in one person even when it does
not happen to a genetically identical twin. IQ is multidirectional and epigenetic
(Fischer et al., 2003; Neisser, 1998). The following provides an example.
What Is Intelligence? 559
Mean
T scores
32 39 53 6025 67 74 81 8846
Age
55
50
45
40
35
Source: Schaie, 2005, p. 116.
Mean
T scores
32 39 53 6025 67 74 81 8846
Age
55
50
45
40
35
WomenMen
Verbal Meaning Spatial Orientation Inductive Reasoning Number Word Fluency
FIGURE 21.1
Age Differences in Intellectual Abilities
Cross-sectional data on intellectual abilities
at various ages would show much steeper
declines. Longitudinal research, in contrast,
would show more notable rises. Because
Schaie’s research is cross-sequential, the tra-
jectories it depicts are more revealing: None
of the average scores for the five abilities at
any age is above 55 or below 35. Because the
methodology takes into account the cohort
and historical effects, the age-related differ-
ences from age 25 to 60 are very small.
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560 CHAPTER 21 ■ Adulthood: Cognitive Development
a case to study
“At Very Different Levels”
Adult intelligence may seem abstract when it is based on group
averages, but individual cases also reveal remarkable growth,
decline, and stability. Using data from his Seattle Longitudinal
Study, K. Warner Schaie (1989) traced individual changes in
one of the five primary mental abilities, verbal meaning. Exam-
ine the four patterns in Figure 21.2 and then read Schaie’s
explanations.
The first two profiles represent two . . . women who throughout
life functioned at very different levels. Subject 155510 is a high
school graduate who has been a homemaker all of her adult life
and whose husband is still alive and well-functioning. She
started our testing program at a rather low level, but her perform-
ance has had a clear upward trend. The comparison participant
subject (154503) had been professionally active as a teacher.
Her performance remained fairly level and above the population
average until her early sixties. Since that time she has been
divorced and retired from her teaching job; her performance in
1984 dropped to an extremely low level, which may reflect her
experiential losses but could also be a function of increasing
health problems.
The second pair of profiles shows the 28-year performance of
two . . . men. . . . Subject 153003, who started out somewhat
below the population average, completed only grade school and
worked as a purchasing agent prior to his retirement. He showed
virtually stable performance until the late sixties; his perform-
ance actually increased after he retired, but he is beginning to
experience health problems and has recently become a widower,
and his latest assessment was below the earlier stable level. By
contrast, subject 153013, a high school graduate who held
mostly clerical types of jobs, showed gain until the early sixties
and stability over the next assessment interval. By age 76, how-
ever, he showed substantial decrement that continued through
the last assessment, which occurred less than a year prior to his
death.
Predictions about adult cognition are imprecise. No one
could anticipate the late-life intellectual performance of these
participants based on their early scores. In order to fully explore
his data, Schaie added many other measures to his original five
over the years, including QALYs (quality-adjusted life years; see
Chapter 20); genetic analysis; and tests of latent abilities, per-
sonality, cognitive flexibility, and practical intelligence (Schaie,
2005). All these aid prediction of IQ, but even so, prediction is
imperfect.
Education, occupation, and health—all of which vary from
person to person—contribute to unique profiles. The lesson: Intel-
lectual changes are woven into life circumstances. Eventually
old age and poor health slow thinking; but this decline may not
occur until late in life; moreover, the decline may be so gradual
that those who were once high scorers slow down so little that
they still score at the average for young adults (Salthouse, 2006).
Other researchers might downplay the importance of educa-
tion, marriage, vocation, and health, all of which Schaie stresses.
Instead they might focus on the economic background and
ethnicity of each of these four individuals. Which do you think
are the important factors in maintaining intelligence? If all the
influential factors were in place, might someone’s scores keep
rising, even after age 80?
Scores 75
65
55
45
35
25
43 50 57 7164
Age at test
(a) Two women
155510
154503
Scores 70
60
50
40
30
55 62 69 8376
Age at test
(b) Two men
Source: Schaie, 1989.
153013
153003
FIGURE 21.2
Profiles of Verbal Memory These fig-
ures index changes in word-recognition
scores (which are used as a measure of
crystallized intelligence) for two pairs of
comparable adults over time. Notice how
distinctly different the profiles are of indi-
vidual change for each person—even
though each is the same age, the same
sex, and part of the same birth cohort.
These differences underscore how much
intellectual change in adulthood is affected
by occupational, marital, health, and other
experiences that vary from one person to
another.
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Components of Intelligence:
Many and Varied
Responding to all these data, developmentalists are now looking
closely at patterns of cognitive gains and losses over the adult
years. Because virtually every pattern is possible, it is misleading
to ask whether intelligence either increases or decreases; it does
not move in lockstep, often zigzagging from one ability to another
or within the same person over time. The questions to be asked
are how many distinct abilities should be tested and whether it
matters that a particular ability increases or decreases.
Although some psychologists believe that there may be a g,
with perhaps speed or working memory underlying all the mani-
festations of intelligence, the data make it difficult to find such an
ability. One reason for this difficulty is that there are no “pure”
measures of intelligence. Every aspect of brain functioning is af-
fected by health, emotions, and history, so proving that one partic-
ular ability underlies all IQ changes is impossible—especially
from age 25 to 65, when a cognitive reserve compensates for any
physiological loss (Kramer et al., 2006).
The search for a “single global factor . . . may make empirical
findings uninterpretable” (Rabbitt et al., 2003). Many psycholo-
gists instead envision several intellectual abilities, each of which
independently rises and falls. The debate concerns how many
such abilities there are and how each might be affected by age.
We now consider proposals that there are two, three, or eight such
abilities.
Two Clusters: Fluid and Crystallized
In the 1960s a leading personality researcher, Raymond Cattell, teamed up with a
promising PhD student, John Horn, to study the results of intelligence tests. They
concluded that adult intelligence is best understood if it is clustered into two cat-
egories, called fluid and crystallized intelligence.
As its name implies, fluid intelligence is like water, flowing until it reaches
its own level, no matter where that happens to be. Fluid intelligence is quick and
flexible, enabling a person to learn anything, even things that are unfamiliar and
unconnected to what is already known. Fluid intelligence allows people to draw
inferences, to understand relations between concepts, to readily process new
ideas and facts. Underlying fluid intelligence are basic mental abilities, such as in-
ductive reasoning, abstract analysis, and working memory. Someone high in fluid
intelligence is quick and creative with words and numbers and enjoys intellectual
puzzles. The kind of question that tests fluid intelligence among Western adults
might be:
What comes next in each of these two series?*
4 9 1 6 2 5 3
V X Z B D
Puzzles are often used to measure fluid intelligence, with speedy solutions
given bonus points (as on many IQ tests). Immediate recall—of nonsense words,
of numbers, of a sentence just read—is one indicator of fluid intelligence, because
working memory is considered crucial.
fluid intelligence Those types of basic intel-
ligence that make learning of all sorts
quick and thorough. Abilities such as short-
term memory, abstract thought, and
speed of thinking are all usually consid-
ered part of fluid intelligence.
Not Brain Surgery? Yes, it is! Both these
adults need to combine fluid and crystallized
intelligence, insight and intuition, logic and
experience. One (top) is in fact a neurosur-
geon, studying brain scans before picking
up his scalpel. The other (bottom) is a court
reporter for a TV station, jotting notes during
a lunch recess before delivering her on-
camera report on a trial.
What Is Intelligence? 561
* The correct answers are 6 and F. These are fairly easy; some series are much more difficult to complete.
JE
FF
G
RE
EN
BE
RG
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T
UP
PE
RC
UT
IM
AG
ES
/
PU
N
CH
ST
OC
K
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Crystallized intelligence is the accumulation of facts, information, and
knowledge as a result of education and experience. The size of vocabulary, the
knowledge of chemical formulas, and long-term memory for dates in history all in-
dicate crystallized intelligence. Tests designed to measure this intelligence might
include questions like these:
What is the meaning of the word misanthrope?
Who would hold a harpoon?
Explain the formula for the area of a circle.
What was Sri Lanka called in 1950?
Although such questions seem to measure achievement more than aptitude,
intelligent people do take in more information and remember what they learn.
Vocabulary, for example, is a mainstay of most IQ tests, including
the Wechsler and Stanford-Binet. The more people know, the more
they can learn, which explains why high crystallized intelligence at
one point in life predicts a high IQ later on.
To reflect the total picture of a person’s intellectual potential,
both fluid and crystallized intelligence must be measured. Age com-
plicates the IQ calculation, because scores on items measuring fluid
intelligence decrease with age whereas scores on items measuring
crystallized intelligence increase. (Scores on subtests also follow
one or the other of these patterns [Horn & Masunaga, 2000].)
These two clusters, changing in opposite directions, make IQ
scores fairly steady from ages 30 to 70, even though many particular
abilities change.
The reason that age impairs fluid intelligence is that everything
slows down with age, not only catching a speeding baseball but also
processing a puzzle. Fluid intelligence is called aging-sensitive.
Although brain slowdown (resulting from slower cerebral blood cir-
culation and fewer new neurons and dendrites, among other things)
begins at age 20 or so, it is rarely apparent until massive declines in
fluid intelligence begin to affect crystallized intelligence and IQ scores overall
start to fall (Lindenberger, 2001).
Horn and Cattell (1967) wrote that they had
shown intelligence to both increase and decrease with age—depending upon the
definition of intelligence adopted, fluid or crystallized! Our results illustrate an
essential fallacy implicit in the construction of omnibus measures of intelligence.
[p. 124]
In other words, it is foolish to try to measure g as a single omnibus intelligence,
because both components need to be measured separately. Otherwise the real
changes over time will be masked, because changes in fluid and crystallized abili-
ties cancel each other out.
Three Forms of Intelligence: Sternberg
Robert Sternberg (1988, 2003) agrees that a single intelligence score is mislead-
ing. He has proposed three fundamental forms of intelligence: analytic, creative,
and practical, each of which can be tested.
Analytic intelligence includes all the mental processes that foster academic
proficiency by making efficient learning, remembering, and thinking possible.
Thus, it draws on abstract planning, strategy selection, focused attention, and
information processing, as well as on verbal and logical skills. Strengths in those
crystallized intelligence Those types of
intellectual ability that reflect accumulated
learning. Vocabulary and general informa-
tion are examples. Some developmental
psychologists think crystallized intelligence
increases with age, while fluid intelligence
declines.
562 CHAPTER 21 ■ Adulthood: Cognitive Development
The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test This is
a timed, one-on-one exam that involves 10
separate subtests, including the spatial-design
item shown here.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 564):
Can you see three reasons why this test-taker
might be made anxious by the testing context
and thus score lower than he otherwise
might?
LA
UR
A
DW
IG
HT
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T
analytic intelligence A form of intelligence
that involves such mental processes as
abstract planning, strategy selection,
focused attention, and information pro-
cessing, as well as verbal and logical skills.
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areas are valuable in emerging adulthood, particularly in college, in graduate school,
and in job training. Multiple-choice tests, with one and only one right answer, and
brief essays that call forth remembered information assess analytic intelligence.
Creative intelligence involves the capacity to be intellectually flexible and in-
novative. Creative thinking is divergent rather than convergent, producing unex-
pected, imaginative, and unusual responses rather than standard and conventional
answers.
Tests of creative intelligence that Sternberg developed include writing a short
story titled “The Octopus’s Sneakers” and planning an advertising campaign for a
new doorknob. High scores are earned by those who come up with many unusual
ideas.
Practical intelligence involves the capacity to adapt one’s behavior to the de-
mands of a given situation. This capacity includes an accurate grasp of the expec-
tations and needs of the people involved and an awareness of the particular skills
that are called for, along with the ability to use these insights effectively. Practical
intelligence is sometimes described as the product of “the school of hard knocks”
or as “street smarts,” not “book smarts.”
Practical intelligence is useful for managing the conflicting personalities in a
family or for convincing members of an organization (e.g., business, social group,
school) to take some sort of action. Without practical intelligence, a solution found
by analytic intelligence, or a stunningly creative idea, is doomed to fail. The reason
is that many people resist academic brilliance when it is not coupled with practical
intelligence, because they think it is unrealistic; likewise, they fear creative thinking
because they think it is weird. For example, imagine a business manager, or a school
principal, or a political leader without practical intelligence trying to change proce-
dures. Unless the new policies are compatible with the organization and understood
by at least some of the people, the workers or voters will
misinterpret them, predict that they will fail, and balk
at implementing them (Beach et al., 1997).
To assess practical intelligence, no abstract IQ test
will do, because of the “centrality of context for under-
standing practical problem-solving” (Sternberg et al.,
2001, p. 226). Adults must be observed dealing with
their lives, not taking tests, to assess their practical in-
telligence. In a study of bank employees aged 24 to 58,
the most successful workers (measured by authority,
salary, and ratings) were not necessarily the ones who
scored highest on standard measures of intelligence.
Instead, they scored well on a measure of practical
intelligence about bank management (Colonia-Willner,
1998).
Sternberg believes that each of these three forms of
intelligence—analytic, creative, and practical—is use-
ful and that adults should deploy the strengths and
guard against the limitations of each:
People attain success, in part, by finding out how to exploit their own patterns of
strengths and weaknesses. . . . Analytic ability involves critical thinking; it is the
ability to analyze and evaluate ideas, solve problems, and make decisions. Cre-
ative ability involves going beyond what is given to generate novel and interesting
ideas. Practical ability involves implementing ideas; it is the ability involved
when intelligence is applied to real world contexts.
[Sternberg et al., 2000, p. 31]
creative intelligence A form of intelligence
that involves the capacity to be intellectu-
ally flexible and innovative.
practical intelligence The intellectual skills
used in everyday problem solving.
What Is Intelligence? 563
Listening Quietly This elementary school
teacher appears to be explaining academic
work to one of her students, a boy who
seems attentive and quiet.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 565):
If this situation is typical in this classroom,
what kind of intelligence is valued?
TO
N
Y
FR
EE
M
AN
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T
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Eight Intelligences: Gardner
As noted in Chapter 11, Howard Gardner (1983, 1998) believes that there are
eight distinct intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bod-
ily-kinesthetic, naturalistic, social-understanding, and self-understanding. Gard-
ner believes that each intelligence has a discrete neurological network in a
particular section of the brain.
The fact that these intelligences are brain-based, according to Gardner, ex-
plains why brain-damaged people can be amazingly skilled in some intelligences
(able to draw, play music, or calculate) despite enormous deficits in others (such
as social interaction or language). Their patterns are part of the proof, Gardner ar-
gues, that there are eight intelligences.
Gardner believes that most people can achieve at least minimal proficiency in
all eight. Each of us is more gifted in some areas than in others because of the par-
ticular patterns of our brains. However, our innate gifts may atrophy. Gardner ex-
plains that families and communities value, and life circumstances reward, some
of these eight intelligences more than the others. Parents recognize and encourage
prized abilities, and schools emphasize them. As a result, children develop and
adults maintain certain talents, while allowing other skills to wither.
Consider school. Most American high schools value athletics: The popular stu-
dents are star athletes (not captains of the chess team), and sports contests are oc-
casions for rallies, cheers, dances, awards, and parental involvement. In effect,
bodily-kinesthetic intelligence is celebrated, so students practice their athletic
skills more than their academic or musical skills. An urban North American child
who is naturally gifted in naturalistic intelligence might, for instance, be able to
detect at a glance the difference in various types of trees but would never be ac-
claimed for this talent. This example illustrates that each social context evokes
some intelligences more than others.
Diversity and Intelligence
Which kind of intelligence is most valued depends partly on age and partly on
culture. Think about Sternberg’s three over the life span. Analytic intelligence is
usually valued in high school and college, as students are expected to remember
and analyze various ideas.
Creative intelligence is prized if life circumstances change and new challenges
arise; it is much more valued in some cultures and eras than in others (Kaufman &
Sternberg, 2006). In times of social upheaval, creativity is a better predictor of
accomplishment than are traditional measures, which tend to be too narrow.
Creativity allows people to find “a better match to one’s skills, values, or desires”
(Sternberg, 2002, p. 456). However, creativity can be so innovative and out of touch
with the mainstream that creative people are scorned, ignored, or even killed.
Practical intelligence may be particularly useful after the college days are over,
when the demands of daily life are omnipresent (Berg & Klaczynski, 2002). Inter-
estingly, scores on tests of practical intelligence do not always correlate with
scores on traditional IQ tests (Sternberg et al., 2000), which are designed to corre-
late with school achievement.
The benefits of practical intelligence in adult life are obvious once we remem-
ber that few adults need to define obscure words or deduce the next element in a
number sequence (analytic intelligence); nor do they need to imagine better ways
to play music, to structure local government, or to write a poem (creative intelli-
gence). Instead, adults need to solve real-world challenges: maintaining a home;
advancing a career; managing family finances; analyzing information from media,
564 CHAPTER 21 ■ Adulthood: Cognitive Development
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 562): The pressure is on him, as is
made clear by the test-giver’s timekeeping
(he is looking at his watch), clothing (his
white shirt and tie are signs of formal high
status), and sex (men often feel more
pressure when performing in front of other
men). In addition, the test item, block design,
is an abstract, out-of-context measure of
performance IQ, which usually declines with
age.
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mail, and the Internet; addressing the emotional needs of family members, neigh-
bors, and colleagues. Schaie found that, even more than the five primary abilities,
scores on tests of practical intelligence were steady, with no notable decrement,
until people were in their 70s (Schaie, 2005).
Think about these three intelligences cross-culturally. Analytic intelligence has
been looked at with suspicion if the “intellectuals” disagree with popular culture.
Creative individuals would be critical of traditional authority, and hence would be
tolerated only in some political situations (Sternberg, 2006). Practical intelli-
gence, although valued less within school settings, might generally be most impor-
tant, especially if food was scarce.
An Example of Practical Intelligence
Sternberg gives an example from rural Kenya, where a smart child is one who
knows which herbal medicines cure which diseases, not one who excels in school.
As Sternberg reported:
Knowledge of these natural herbal medicines was negatively correlated both with
school achievement in English and with scores on conventional tests of crystal-
lized abilities. . . . [In rural Kenya,] children who spend a great deal of time on
school-based learning may be viewed as rather foolish because they are taking
away from the time they might be using to learn a trade and become economically
self-sufficient. These results suggest that scores on ability or achievement tests
always have to be understood in the cultural context in which they are obtained.
[Sternberg et al., 2000, p. 19]
This example highlights a problem: At every stage of life, people’s intellectual
abilities should be encouraged by their context as well as be useful in their com-
munities. If a child is schooled in analytic intelligence but practical intelligence is
more valued in the immediate environment, then that is a problem. If an adult is
encouraged to develop creative intelligence but his or her only outlet for creativity
is the decoration of birthday cakes, then that is a problem as well.
For that reason, if a school curriculum is only analytic, and if analytic intelli-
gence is useless for adults in a certain culture, then children with high practical
intelligence will not seek academic achievement because they realize that, practi-
cally speaking, school success is irrelevant. In Western cultures, children with
high IQs will learn well in school and will therefore secure high-paying jobs. How-
ever, this may not be true in Kenya or other developing countries.
Which Intelligence Is Valued?
Broad cultural and historical contexts often emphasize one form of intelligence
over the others. For example, as you read in Chapter 18, Chinese culture may be
more dialectical and inclusive than others, placing a high priority on social com-
promises. As a result, Chinese people may emphasize interpersonal intelligence.
Likewise, the effect of the historical context is illustrated by the Puritans in
colonial America in the seventeenth century. They considered dance and the
visual arts the work of the devil. In that community, children’s musical and spatial
intelligences were never developed; whatever artistic talent (or any other manifes-
tation of Sternberg’s creative intelligence) they might have had would have faded
by adulthood (Laplante, 2005).*
Especially for Prospective Parents In
terms of the intellectual challenge, what type
of intelligence is most needed for effective
parenthood?
What Is Intelligence? 565
* This may overstate the case, in that some seventeenth-century creative adults designed practical
objects (a pitcher, a chair) and others wrote sermons that were works of art. Nonetheless, every culture
values some kinds of intelligence more than others, and children try hard to shine in whatever ways
their community appreciates.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 563): Solely academic learning. Neither
practical nor creative intelligence is fostered
by a student working quietly at her desk (the
girl at right) or the boy coming up to the
teacher for private instruction. Fortunately,
there are signs that this moment is not typical;
notice the teacher’s sweater, earrings, lipstick,
and, especially, the apple on her desk.
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Every intelligence test and school curriculum reflects assumptions about the
construct being measured. Psychometricians are increasingly aware that most
tests of intelligence originated in western Europe (France and England) and have
been refined and standardized by the academic elite in the United States. They
are valid measures of the verbal and logical skills of North American, native-born,
English-speaking children (who have always been the basis for setting the norms),
but they may not be valid for other people or other skills.
Education, both deliberate (as in school) and inadvertent (as in a marriage) is a
powerful expression of social values. Older adults can learn the skills valued by
psychometricians if their particular cultural setting encourages it. In the Seattle
Longitudinal Study, a group of 60-year-olds who had declined markedly in spatial
or reasoning skills were given five one-hour sessions of personalized training. Forty
percent of them improved so much that they reached the level they had been at
14 years earlier, and their gains were still evident 7 years later (Schaie, 2005). For
them, time didn’t just stop—it moved backward.
One overall conclusion from the array of intellectual tests and abilities is that
cultural assumptions affect concepts of intelligence and the construction of IQ
tests. How does this connect to developmental changes over adulthood? If a cul-
ture values youth and devalues age, this might explain why the very abilities that
favor the young (quick reaction time, capacious short-term memory) are central to
psychometric intelligence tests, whereas the strengths of older adults are not. Fluid
intelligence is valued more in a youth-oriented culture than crystallized intelli-
gence is. Curiously, a highly intelligent person is often described as quick whereas
a stupid person is said to be slow—and slow is exactly what older adults are.
Often a person who values one kind of intelligence does not recognize the mer-
its of another set of values. I became keenly aware of this when I counseled Jenny,
one of my best students. I thought she would use her analytic intelligence to reach
the same conclusions I did—but not so, as the following explains.
566 CHAPTER 21 ■ Adulthood: Cognitive Development
a case to study
Jenny: “Men Come and Go”
My students, especially the older ones who already have fami-
lies of their own, seem surrounded by crushing stresses. Experi-
ence has taught me to listen when they talk about their
problems. I ask questions, but I try not to recommend solutions.
Jenny was an A student in my child development class. She
told us all that she was divorced, raising her own two children
and two nephews of her former husband. The boys’ parents had
died—one from AIDS and the other from a bullet. She told her
fellow students about free activities she had found for her chil-
dren—parks, museums, the zoo, Fresh Air camps, and so on. I
was awed by her ability to cope.
After that course ended, I didn’t see Jenny again for two
years. Then I chanced to meet her in the hall.
“God must have put you in my path,” she said. “I need to talk
with you.”
I told her my office hours, and she came the next day.
Jenny told me she was four weeks pregnant—and the father
was a married man named Billy. She thought she would abort,
but she remembered a promise she’d made when her second
child was born precipitously on her living room couch. He was
blue from lack of oxygen; she prayed that he would live and
promised God right then and there that she would never have an
abortion. She wanted my theological opinion: Did she need to
keep that promise, which had been made in desperation?
I asked more questions. Billy would not leave his wife and
son, would not promise to stay with Jenny if she had the baby,
but would pay for an abortion. Jenny was on public assistance, a
single mother with two biological children and two unsubsidized
foster children, living in the South Bronx. She was about to
graduate with honors, and she had planned to get a job and
leave her dangerous neighborhood before it destroyed her chil-
dren. This embryo might develop sickle-cell anemia, since she
was a carrier and Billy had not been tested. And, she added, she
worried she was too old (31!) to have another baby.
As she spoke, the answer became obvious to me, as it did (or
seemed to do) to her.
➤Response for Prospective Parents
(from page 565): Because parenthood
demands flexibility and patience, Sternberg’s
practical intelligence or Gardner’s social-
understanding is probably most needed.
Anything that involves finding a single correct
answer, such as analytic intelligence or
number ability, would not be much help.
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SUMMING UP
Although psychometricians once believed that intelligence decreased beginning at
about age 20, more sophisticated longitudinal testing demonstrates that many abilities
increase throughout adulthood. Crystallized abilities such as vocabulary and general
knowledge improve throughout adulthood, although some aspects of fluid intelligence,
particularly speed, decrease. Intelligence may be not a single entity (g) but rather a
combination of various abilities, which have been categorized as fluid and crystallized;
analytic, creative, and practical; or linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-
kinesthetic, naturalistic, social-understanding, and self-understanding. These abilities
rise and fall partly because of events in each person’s life, partly because of culture and
cohort, and partly because of age. The overall picture of adult intelligence, as measured
by various tests, is complex.
■
Selective Gains and Losses
Thus far we have discussed intellectual changes over adulthood as if factors be-
yond individual control affected the patterns of change. In many ways, this as-
sumption is valid. Aging neurons, cultural pressures, past education, and current
life events all affect intelligence. None of these are under direct individual con-
trol, although, as Chapter 20 emphasized, some health habits (exercise, nutrition,
drug use) are a personal choice.
Beyond that, many researchers believe that adults make deliberate choices
about their intellectual development. For example, number skills have declined
more for recent cohorts than for earlier ones, which may be the result not of past
math curricula (as was suggested) but of modern adults’ tendency to use calcula-
tors instead of doing paper-and-pencil (or mental) calculations. Any adult could
choose to do otherwise.
Optimization with Compensation
Paul and Margaret Baltes (1990) developed a theory, called selective optimiza-
tion with compensation, which holds that people seek to optimize their devel-
opment, looking for the best ways to compensate for physical and cognitive losses
and to become more proficient at activities they can already do well.
One example might be an expert on China who notices that, with age, she is
beginning to have difficulty reading the newspaper. She might buy reading glasses
(compensation) and read only those articles (selection) whose headlines suggest
selective optimization with compensation
The theory, developed by Paul and Margaret
Baltes, that people try to maintain a balance
in their lives by looking for the best way to
compensate for physical and cognitive
losses and to become more proficient in
activities they can already do well.
Selective Gains and Losses 567
“Thank you; I know what I am going to do,” she said.
Then the surprise. “I’ll have the baby. Men come and go, but
children are always with you.”
Instead of attacking the problem, by having the abortion and
getting rid of the man, Jenny, by thinking intuitively, reinter-
preted this unexpected stress as an opportunity, another child
to love.
It turned out to be a smart choice. Billy’s wife hired a detec-
tive, who found out about Jenny. The wife told Billy he must
never see Jenny again or she would sue for divorce. Two years
later, the divorce became final, and Billy and Jenny were mar-
ried. They moved to Florida, found good jobs, bought a house
with a pool, and together raised their unplanned child well—a
daughter who has now graduated from college. The son born on
the couch now has his PhD in psychology.
None of this means that everyone, or even anyone, should
follow Jenny’s path. It does mean, however, that “we know more
than we can tell” (Polanyi, quoted in Myers, 2002, p. 57); that
is, experience sometimes leads to expert intuition that cannot be
easily expressed. Jenny knew more about her baby’s father than
she conveyed to me, and talking helped her clarify her values
and priorities. Her choice was wise, even expert, although quite
different from the choice other experts might have made if they
had only the facts, not the intuition.
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they are about China, thus building on her existing expertise (optimization). Simi-
larly, a 55-year-old aircraft mechanic might talk and walk more slowly than
younger workers but might maintain his spatial and sequential abilities—and thus
remain a valuable employee.
One father tried to explain this concept to his son as follows:
I told my son: triage
Is the main art of aging.
At midlife, everything
Sings of it. In law
Or healing, learning or play,
Buying or selling—above all
In remembering—the rule is
Cut losses, let profits ring.
Specifics rise and fall
By selection.
[Hamill, 1991]
Selective optimization with compensation applies to every aspect of life, from
choosing friends to playing baseball. To be specific, as people grow older their
friendship circles become smaller but more intense,
as they find ways to ensure intimacy without need-
ing to socialize as widely (Schaie & Carstensen,
2006). Each adult seeks to maximize gains and min-
imize losses, therefore choosing to practice some
abilities and ignore others (Wellman, 2003).
Such choices are critical, because every ability
can be enhanced or diminished, depending on how,
when, and why a person uses it. It is possible to
“teach an old dog new tricks,” but learning requires
that the adult choose and practice those “new
tricks.” As Baltes and Baltes (1990) explain, selec-
tive optimization means that each person selects as-
pects of intelligence to optimize and neglects the
rest. If those aspects that are ignored happen to be
the ones measured by IQ tests, then intelligence
scores will fall, even if a person’s selection results in
improvement (optimization) in other areas.
Another way to express this idea is that everyone develops expertise. Each per-
son becomes a selective expert, specializing in activities that are personally
meaningful, whether they involve car repair, gourmet cooking, illness diagnosis, or
fly-fishing. As people develop expertise in some areas, they pay less attention to
others. For example, each adult tunes out most channels on the TV, ignores some
realms of human experience, and has no interest in attending particular events
that other people would wait in line for. This selectivity becomes increasingly
evident with age, as is apparent when we note which age group is likely to try the
latest food, fashion, or electronic gadgets.
Culture and context guide all of us in selecting our areas of expertise. Many
adults born 60 years ago are much better than more recent cohorts at writing let-
ters with distinctive but legible handwriting. Because of their childhood culture,
they selected and practiced penmanship, becoming expert in it and maintaining
that expertise. Today’s schools and children make other choices: Reading, for in-
stance, is now crucial for every child—unlike a century ago, when adult illiteracy
was common.
568 CHAPTER 21 ■ Adulthood: Cognitive Development
selective expert Someone who is notably
more skilled and knowledgeable than the
average person about whichever activities
are personally meaningful.
Handicapped Learner? This woman is using
a computer in her ESL (English as a Second
Language) class.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 570):
Do you see any evidence that this is a good
way for her to learn a new language?
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Expert Cognition
Experts are not necessarily those with rare and outstanding proficiency. Although
sometimes expert signifies an extraordinary genius, to researchers the term means
more—and less—than that (Ericsson, 1996; Ericsson & Charness, 1994). As two
scholars conclude, “There is more to human intelligence, namely expertise abilities,
than has been measured in traditional IQ tests” (Masunaga & Horn, 2001, p. 308).
Developmentalists use a broader, more inclusive definition: An expert is no-
tably more skilled, proficient, and knowledgeable at a particular task than the av-
erage person. Expertise is not innate; it does not necessarily correlate with basic
abilities (such as those measured by IQ tests).
Although experts do not necessarily have extraordinary intellectual ability, what
distinguishes them is not simply more knowledge about a subject (Wellman,
2003). At a certain point, the accumulation of knowledge, practice, and experi-
ence becomes transformative, putting the expert in a different league from the
less adept person. The quality, as well as quantity, of cognition is advanced. Expert
thought is intuitive, automatic, strategic, and flexible, as we now describe.
Intuitive
Novices follow formal procedures and rules. Experts rely more on their past expe-
riences and on immediate contexts. Their actions are therefore more intuitive and
less stereotypic. For example, when they look at X-rays, expert physicians interpret
them more accurately than do young doctors, though they cannot always verbalize
how they reached their diagnosis. As one team explains:
The expert physician, with many years of experience, has so “compiled” his
knowledge that a long chain of inference is likely to be reduced to a single asso-
ciation. This feature can make it difficult for an expert to verbalize information
that he actually uses in solving a problem. Faced with a difficult problem, the
apprentice fails to solve it at all, the journeyman solves it after long effort, and
the master sees the answer immediately.
[Rybash et al., 1986]
The role of experience and intuition is also evident during surgery. Another
study begins by noting that outsiders might think medicine is straightforward, but
that experts realize the hazards:
Hospitals are filled with varieties of knives and poisons. Every time a medication
is prescribed, there is potential for an unintended side effect. In surgery, collateral
damage is inherent. External tisssue must be cut to allow internal access so that a
diseased organ may be removed, or some other manipulation may be performed
to return the patient to better health.
[Dominguez, 2001, p. 287]
In this study, surgeons all saw the same videotape of a gallbladder operation and
were asked to talk about it. The experienced surgeons anticipated and noted prob-
lems twice as often as the surgical residents (who also had removed gallbladders)
(Dominguez, 2001).
Another example of expert intuition is chicken-sexing, the ability to tell if a new-
born chicken is male or female. As David Myers (2002) tells it:
Poultry owners once had to wait five to six weeks before the appearance of adult
feathers enabled them to separate cockerels (males) from pullets (hens). Egg
producers wanted to buy and feed only pullets, so they were intrigued to hear
that some Japanese had developed an uncanny ability to sex day-old chicks. . . .
Hatcheries elsewhere then gave some of their workers apprenticeships under the
Japanese. . . . After months of training and experience, the best Americans and
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Australians could almost match the Japanese, by sexing 800 to 1,000 chicks per
hour with 99 percent accuracy. But don’t ask them how they do it. The sex dif-
ference, as any chicken sexer can tell you, is too subtle to explain.
[p. 55]
Automatic
Many elements of expert performance are automatic; that is, the complex action and
thought they involve have become routine, making it appear that most aspects of the
task are performed instinctively. Experts process incoming information more quickly
and analyze it more efficiently than nonexperts, and then they act in well-rehearsed
ways that make their efforts appear nonconscious. In fact, some automatic actions
are no longer accessible to the conscious mind. For example, adults are much better
at tying their shoelaces than children are (adults can do it efficiently in the dark) but
much worse at describing how they do it (McLeod et al., 2005).
This is no doubt apparent if you are an experienced driver and have attempted to
teach someone else to drive. Excellent drivers who are inexperienced instructors
find it hard to recognize or verbalize aspects of driving that have become automatic
for them, such as noticing pedestrians and cyclists on the far side of the road, or
feeling the car shift gears as it heads up an incline, or hearing the tires lose traction
on a bit of sand. Yet such factors differentiate the expert from the novice.
This explains why, despite powerful motivation, quicker reactions, and better
vision, teenagers have far more car accidents than middle-aged drivers. Some-
times teenage drivers deliberately take risks, of course, but more often they simply
misjudge and misperceive conditions that a more experienced driver would auto-
matically notice.
Automatic processing is thought to be a crucial reason that expert chess and Go
players are much better than novices. They see a configuration of game pieces and
automatically encode it as a whole, rather than analyzing it bit by bit. Interestingly,
one study of expert Go players (aged 23–76) found that recognition memory of Go
pieces did not show age-related effects among experts, although recall memory di-
minishes with age. Apparently, automatic cognition is not abstract; it depends on a
visual cue to trigger the process (Masunaga & Horn, 2001).
Another study of expert chess players (aged 17–81) found some age-related de-
clines, but expertise was much more important than age. This was particularly ap-
parent for speedy recognition that a player’s king was threatened, even though
standard tests of memory and speed showed a decline among older chess experts.
They were still quick to defend the king (Jastrzembski et al., 2006).
Strategic
Experts have more and better strategies, especially when problems are unexpected
(Ormerod, 2005). Indeed, strategy may be the most crucial difference between a
skilled person and an unskilled one. For example, expert team leaders use ongoing
communication, especially during slow times, so that when stress builds, no team
member misinterprets plans, commands, and requirements. This strategy is used
by effective military commanders as well as by civilian leaders in business and
government (Sternberg et al., 2000).
Of course, strategies themselves need to be updated as situations change and
people gain knowledge. The monthly fire drill required by some schools, the stan-
dard lecture given by some professors, and the pat safety instructions read by air-
line attendants before each flight may be less effective than they once were. I
recently heard a flight attendant precede his standard talk with, “For those of you
who have not ridden in an automobile since 1960, this is how you buckle a seat
belt.” That was one of the few times I actually listened to the words.
Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
568): Individual learning styles differ, but
there are three signs that this may be an
effective method of language instruction: The
equipment is new; both oral and auditory
exercises are part of the curriculum; and she
and each of her fellow students can learn at
their own pace.
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The superior strategies of the expert permit selective optimization with com-
pensation. Many developmentalists regard the capacity to accommodate to
changes over time (compensation) as essential to successful aging (M. M. Baltes
& Carstensen, 2003; Rowe & Kahn, 1998). People need to compensate for any
slippage in their fluid abilities.
Such compensation was evident in a study of airplane pilots, who were allowed
to take notes on directions given by air traffic controllers in a flight simulation
(Morrow et al., 2003). Experienced pilots took notes that were more accurate and
complete. They used better graphic symbols (such as arrows) than did pilots who
were trained to understand air traffic instructions but who did not have much
flight experience. In other words, even though nonexperts were trained and had
the proper tools (paper, pencil, and a suggestion that they might take notes), they
did not use them as well as the experts did.
In actual flights, too, older pilots take more notes than younger ones do, because
they have mastered this strategy, perhaps to compensate for their slower working
memory. Probably as a result, these researchers found no differences in the ability
to repeat complex instructions and conditions among experienced pilots of three
age groups: 22–40, 50–59, and 60–76 (Morrow et al., 2003). People who are not
experts show age-related deficits in many studies (including this one, on other abil-
ities), but experts of all ages often maintain their proficiency at their occupation.
Flexible
Finally, perhaps because they are intuitive, automatic, and strategic, experts are
also more flexible. The expert artist, musician, or scientist is creative and curious,
deliberately experimenting and enjoying the challenge when things do not go ac-
cording to plan (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996).
Consider the expert surgeon, who takes the most complex cases and prefers
unusual patients over typical ones because operating on them might bring sudden,
unexpected complications. Compared with the novice, the expert surgeon not
only is more likely to notice telltale signs (an unexpected lesion, an oddly shaped
organ, a rise or drop in a vital sign) that may signal a problem but also is more flex-
ible, more willing to deviate from standard textbook procedures if they prove inef-
fective (Patel et al., 1999).
In the same way, experts in all walks of life adapt to individual cases and excep-
tions—somewhat like an expert chef who adjusts ingredients, temperature, tech-
nique, and timing as a dish develops and seldom follows a recipe exactly. Expert
chess players, auto mechanics, and violinists do the same (Myers, 2002). Interest-
ingly, a study of forensic scientists, who must find very individualized clues from a
mishmash of relevant and irrelevant things, found that the most expert were more
methodical as well as more flexible, using more strategies to study the most rele-
vant objects (Schraagen & Leijenhorst, 2001).
Expertise and Age
The relationship between expertise and age is not straightforward. One of the essen-
tial requirements for expertise is time. Not everyone becomes an expert as he or she
grows older, but everyone needs months or years (depending on the task) of practice
to develop expertise. The study of chess and Go players found that “if there is in-
tense, well-focused practice to attain expertise . . ., there may be no aging decline of
abilities in the domain of that expertise” (Masunaga & Horn, 2001, p. 309).
Some researchers think practice must be extensive, involving at least 10 years
and several hours a day (Charness et al., 1996; Ericsson, 1996). They were study-
ing highly skilled experts, such as musicians. Motivation is crucial as well. As the
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authors of a study of figure skaters explain, “Everyone has the will to
win, but there are only a few who have the will to prepare to win”
(Starkes et al., 1996). Circumstances, training, talent, ability, practice,
and age all affect expertise.
Expertise sometimes—but not always—overcomes the effects of age.
For example, in one study, participants aged 17 to 79 were asked to
identify nine common tunes (such as “Happy Birthday” and “Old Mac-
Donald Had a Farm”) when notes from midsong were first played very
slowly and then gradually faster until the listener identified the tune.
The listeners were grouped according to their musical experience, from
virtually none to 10 or more years of training and performing.
In this slow-to-fast phase of the experiment, responses correlated
with expertise but not with age. Those individuals who had played more
music themselves were quicker to recognize songs played very slowly
(Andrews et al., 1998). In other words, no matter what their age,
novices were similar to one another and were slower than the experts,
who were equally proficient at all ages.
In another phase of this study, the songs were played very fast at first
and then gradually slowed down. In this condition, the older adults took
longer to recognize the tunes. Although all the experts of every age did
better than the novices, the older expert adults were slower than the
younger expert adults (Andrews et al., 1998). Note that pace made the
difference here; speed is one part of fluid intelligence. This harkens
back to the question raised a few pages ago: What abilities should be
tested on IQ tests? Perhaps “all measures of intelligence measure a form
of developing expertise” (Sternberg, 2002, p. 452) and the specific
measures used should depend on which kind of expertise is valued.
Older Workers: Experts or Has-Beens?
Research on cognitive plasticity confirms that experienced adults often use selec-
tive optimization with compensation. This is particularly apparent in the everyday
workplace (Sterns & Huyck, 2001). The best employees may be the older ones—
if they are motivated to do their best.
Complicated work requires more cognitive practice and expertise than routine
work and may, as a result, have intellectual benefits for the workers themselves. In
the Seattle Longitudinal Study, the cognitive complexity of the occupations of more
than 500 workers was measured, including the complexities involved in the work-
ers’ interactions with other people, with things, and with data. All three kinds of oc-
cupational challenges maintained the workers’ intellectual prowess (Schaie, 2005).
In another longitudinal study of adults, the authors found that
the level of complexity of their paid work continued to affect the level of their in-
tellectual functioning as it had when they were 20 and 30 years younger. Doing
paid work that is substantially complex appears to raise the level of participants’
intellectual functioning; doing paid work that is not intellectually challenging ap-
pears to decrease their level of intellectual functioning. Furthermore, the posi-
tive effect . . . appears even greater for older than for somewhat younger workers.
[Schooler et al., 1999, p. 491]
An intriguing study of age and job effectiveness comes from an occupation
everyone knows, waitressing. Waiting on tables in a restaurant demands many
skills, including communication of menu items, memory for orders, knowledge of
delivery procedures, time management of several groups at various stages, and the
ability to smooth social interactions with customers and coworkers—as well as
physical stamina! Adolescent and young adult waitresses have an advantage over
572 CHAPTER 21 ■ Adulthood: Cognitive Development
Make No Mistake Humans are not always
expert at judging other humans. Juries have
convicted some defendants who were later
proved to be innocent and acquitted others
who were actually guilty. If this lab technician
is an expert at her work, and if the genetic evi-
dence she is testing was carefully collected,
DNA test results can provide objective proof
of guilt or innocence.
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older adults in their strength as well as in their speed and
memory. Are older employees necessarily less efficient, or can
they compensate?
Marion Perlmutter and her colleagues sought to answer this
question. They identified the skills required for successful
waitressing and then assessed those skills in 64 waitresses
who varied in age (from 19 to 60) and work experience (from
2 months to 31 years) (Perlmutter et al., 1990).
The women were assessed on memory, strength, dexterity,
knowledge of the technical and organizational requirements of
the job, and social skills. They were also observed during dif-
ferent times of the workday, including rush and slack periods,
to determine their effectiveness. Perlmutter and her colleagues
wanted to know if younger and older employees differed in
their overall job performance—and if so, whether the cause
was physical and cognitive skills, work experience, or both.
They were surprised to discover that experience had little impact on work per-
formance or on work-related physical or cognitive skills. Apparently, expertise at
waiting on tables takes far less than 10 years to attain. As others have also found,
after one has learned the basic requirements of some jobs, additional experience
does not necessarily yield better performance (Ceci & Cornelius, 1990).
However, in the waitress study, the employees’ age (independent of their expe-
rience) made a significant difference (Perlmutter et al., 1990). Younger women, as
expected, had better physical skills and memory abilities, and they were quicker in
calculating customers’ checks. Nevertheless, older women outperformed their
younger counterparts in the number of customers served, even during rush peri-
ods. One owner learned this the hard way. He said:
A pretty girl is an asset to any business, but we tried them and they fell apart on
us. . . . They could not keep up the pace of our fast and furious lunch hours. . . .
Our clients want good service; if they want sex appeal they go elsewhere.
[quoted in Perlmutter et al., 1990, p. 189]
The researchers noted that many restaurant managers
consistently reported that older workers chunk tasks to save steps by combining
orders for several customers at several tables and/or by employing time manage-
ment strategies such as preparing checks while waiting for food delivery. . . .
Although younger experienced food servers may have the knowledge and skills
necessary for such organization and chunking, they do not seem to use the skills
as often, perhaps because they do not believe they need to.
[Perlmutter et al., 1990, pp. 189–190]
Thus, older waitresses developed strategies to compensate for their declining
job-related abilities. The researchers concluded that “adaptive competence in
adulthood represents functional improvements that probably are common, partic-
ularly in the workplace” (Perlmutter et al., 1990, p. 196).
Human Relations Expertise
Probably the most important skill for people of every age to learn is how to get
along with other people, understanding their emotional needs and helping them
function well. Think of an expert coach, therapist, or judge, and it becomes appar-
ent that something is gained from life experience. The most common test of expert
human relations occurs with parenting. Ideally, a parent is patient, good-humored,
and consistent—all traits that become more common with age, as the following
illustrates.
Selective Gains and Losses 573
Voilà! This chemist is thinking intensely and
watching carefully for a result that will merit an
excited “Voilà!” (“There it is!”) He is in France,
so we can guess his linguistic expertise; but
unless we are also experienced chemists, we
would not recognize an important result if it
happened. Expertise is astonishingly selective.
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What Is Intelligence?
1. It was traditionally assumed that there is one general entity
called intelligence that individuals have in greater or lesser quan-
tity and that it decreases over the years of adulthood. However,
current evidence does not support this idea.
2. Longitudinal research has found that each person tends to in-
crease in IQ, particularly in vocabulary and general knowledge,
until age 60 or so. In addition, James Flynn found that average IQ
scores increased over the twentieth century, perhaps because
later cohorts had more education.
SUMMARY
SUMMING UP
People choose to become adept at some aspects of cognition, charting their course by
using selective optimization with compensation. Choices and practice produce expert-
ise, which is intuitive, automatic, strategic, and flexible. Expertise allows people to con-
tinue performing well throughout adulthood. This is evident in many occupations:
Experienced workers can continue to hold their own even when some intellectual abili-
ties start to slip.
■
574 CHAPTER 21 ■ Adulthood: Cognitive Development
An Experienced Parent
A mother I know joked, “I wish children were like pancakes, and
I could throw out the first batch if they didn’t turn out right.”
Her comment reflected the widespread belief that first-born
children are more difficult to raise than later-borns. Children
raise their parents while their parents raise them, which ex-
plains why first-time parents often seem bewildered and experi-
enced parents seem more relaxed. I was much more worried
about fevers, rashes, and laundry soap for my first-born than for
my last-born, because I became more expert about babies.
When they were teenagers, Bethany, my eldest, told Rachel:
“You have it easy, because I broke them in.” I see the truth in
that, although Rachel did not appreciate that Bethany had laid
the groundwork. In fact, she complained, “It’s not fair, Mommy.
You like Bethany best because you’ve known her longer.” As an
experienced parent, I smiled; I had learned to take comments
from teenagers “not too seriously, not too personally.” With each,
adolescence had become easier for me.
Bethany had a point. Research on parents of adolescents has
found that parenting skills improve with experience. Specifi-
cally, mothers and fathers know more about the daily lives of
their second teenager than their first, and such parental aware-
ness, or monitoring, is thought to be pivotal in raising children
well (Whiteman et al., 2003). Similarly, grandparents are be-
lieved to be more patient and playful (both qualities that benefit
children) than they were when they were parents.
I do not doubt that. I have learned about parenthood from my
years of practice, and I am more confident and skilled because of
it. For example, I readily hold other people’s children who reach
out to me, something I was afraid to do before I had experience
with my own. Many of my students ask me questions about their
children, instead of asking my colleagues who know the research
as well as I do but who have less personal experience. My stu-
dents believe that parenting skills are learned on the job.
Like other parents, I am astonished at aspects of human ex-
perience that my children know about but I do not (current
music being the most blatant example). They are amazed at
things I do not know (Elissa once asked me how I dared teach
American history when I didn’t know how George Washington
died), and I am troubled that there are things they have not
learned (Bible stories, Shakespearean quotes, and, of course,
psychology). They are experts and so am I, but our expertise
does not necessarily overlap. The impact of culture, cohort, and
context becomes obvious to every parent.
An enormous challenge of family life is to know when to ad-
vise, guide, or outright insist on certain actions from people you
love—and when to bite your tongue, letting children make their
own choices and learn their own lessons. This becomes easier
with experience. I know more, but I say less.
The hardest challenge at any age is knowing when to take ad-
vice. I sometimes heed my daughters’ suggestions about my
clothes and hair; I know their expertise outshines mine. I resist
their suggestions about other areas of my life, just as they resist
mine. When I am old, I may recognize more of their expertise.
Not yet.
in person
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5. How and why do context and cohort affect patterns of cognitive
growth?
6. How is the plasticity of cognitive development related to edu-
cation?
7. What are the differences between a selective expert and a
novice?
8. What does research say about becoming an expert?
9. How do people compensate for the losses that come with age?
1. Why do cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of intelligence
reach different conclusions?
2. How is fluid intelligence different from crystallized intelligence?
How does each change in adulthood?
3. How do Sternberg’s three fundamental forms of intelligence—
analytic, creative, and practical—tend to vary with age?
4. Which of Gardner’s eight intelligences tend to increase during
adulthood in North America, and why?
KEY QUESTIONS
general intelligence (g) (p. 556)
Flynn effect (p. 557)
Seattle Longitudinal Study (p. 558)
fluid intelligence (p. 561)
crystallized intelligence (p. 562)
analytic intelligence (p. 562)
creative intelligence (p. 563)
practical intelligence (p. 563)
selective optimization with
compensation (p. 567)
selective expert (p. 568)
3. K. Warner Schaie found that some primary abilities decline
with age while others (such as vocabulary) increase. Education,
vocation, and family, as well as age, seem to affect these abilities.
4. Cattell and Horn concluded that while crystallized intelligence,
which is based on accumulated knowledge, increases with time,
one’s fluid, flexible reasoning skills inevitably decline with age.
5. Sternberg proposed three fundamental forms of intelligence:
analytic, creative, and practical. Most adults believe that while an-
alytic and creative abilities decline with age, their practical intelli-
gence improves as they grow older; research supports this belief.
6. Gardner identified eight intelligences: linguistic, logical-
mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalistic,
social-understanding, and self-understanding. The individual’s
genetic heritage and culture influence which of these intelli-
gences are valued and thus more highly developed.
7. Overall, cultural values and changing demands with age reward
some cognitive abilities more than others. Each person and each
culture responds to these demands, which may not be reflected in
psychometric tests.
Selective Gains and Losses
8. As people grow older, they select certain aspects of their lives
to focus on, optimizing development in those areas and compen-
sating for declines in others, if need be. Applied to cognition, this
means that people become selective experts in whatever intellec-
tual skills they choose to develop. Meanwhile, abilities that are
not exercised may fade.
9. In addition to being more experienced, experts are better
thinkers than novices are because they are more intuitive; their
cognitive processes are automatic, often seeming to require little
conscious thought; they use more and better strategies to perform
whatever task is required; and they are more flexible.
10. Expertise in adulthood is particularly apparent at the work-
place. Experienced workers often surpass younger workers
because of their ability to specialize and harness their efforts,
compensating for any deficits that may appear.
KEY TERMS
three or four people who play them. What abilities do they think
video games require? What do you think these games reflect in
terms of experience, age, and motivation?
3. People choose to develop their expertise. Which of Gardner’s
eight intelligences are you least proficient in? Why is that? (Con-
sider genes, family influences, culture, and personal choice.)
1. The importance of context and culture is illustrated by the
things that people think are basic knowledge. Write four ques-
tions that you think are hard but fair as measures of general intel-
ligence. Then give your test to someone else, and answer the four
questions that person has prepared for you. What did you learn
from the results?
2. Skill at video games is sometimes thought to reflect intelligence.
Go to a public place where people play such games, and interview
APPLICATIONS
Summary 575
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Adulthood:
Psychosocial
Development
Throughout the past five chapters, you have read many times thatchronological age does not determine adult development. Ageboundaries are fluid, sometimes crossed in unexpected ways.Emotional reactions to events in adulthood are fluid, too, as I
learned when I invited two married couples to our home for a dinner party.
“George and I will be arriving separately,” one of the wives told me.
“No problem,” I assured her. “I guess one or both of you will be coming
directly from work.”
“Actually, we will both be coming from our homes. We are divorced.”
I was taken aback. I had no idea their marriage was in trouble.
“I’m so sorry. Should I have invited only one of you?”
“Don’t be sorry. It’s good for both of us. We are happier now, and good
friends.”
I was stunned. I thought divorce meant a “failed” marriage, a “broken”
home, and at least one bitter spouse. Obviously, I was wrong. (The dinner
party was a success, with lots of laughter.)
To avoid repetition, some topics (e.g., choosing friends, cohabitation)
that affect people throughout life are discussed primarily in the emerging
adulthood psychosocial chapter (19) and some events (grandparenthood, re-
tirement) that often occur before age 65 are nonetheless assigned to the last
psychosocial chapter (25). Marriage, parenthood, divorce, and the empty
nest—each sometimes joyous and sometimes not—are in this chapter. That
placement does not signify that these four necessarily occur between ages
25 and 65; fluid boundaries mean that these can occur at other ages, or
never.
To tie all this together, we begin with a discussion of ages and stages of
adulthood, which, like the divorce of my friends, may not be what you expect.
22
577
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� Ages and Stages
A CASE TO STUDY: She “Began to
Make a New Life on Her Own”
The Social Clock
Personality Throughout Adulthood
� Intimacy
Friends
Family Bonds
IN PERSON: Childhood Echoes
Marriage
Homosexual Partners
Divorce
� Generativity
Caregiving
Employment
A CASE TO STUDY:
Linda: “A Much Sturdier Self”
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Ages and Stages
Often when developmentalists describe the psychosocial stages of adults, they
begin with Erik Erikson, who was the first to realize that significant development
occurs in adulthood. He emphasized the importance of the social context, using
the term psychosocial instead of psychosexual (Freud’s word).
[Erikson] stands alone as the one thinker who changed our minds about what it
means to live as a person who has arrived at a chronologically mature position
and yet continues to grow, to change, and to develop.
[Hoare, 2002, p. 3]
Erikson originally envisioned all eight stages in sequence, but it is apparent that
adult age boundaries are not rigid. In Chapters 16 and 19, we stressed that, al-
though the identity crisis begins in adolescence, finding identity is ongoing. Nei-
ther of Erikson’s adult stages, intimacy versus isolation and generativity versus
stagnation, is age invariant (Hoare, 2002; McAdams, 2006).
Erikson himself reassessed his eighth and final stage, integrity versus despair,
when he reached retirement, writing that “the demand to develop integrity and
wisdom in old age seems to be somewhat unfair, especially when made by middle-
aged theorists—as, indeed, we then were” (Erikson, 1984, p. 160). He decided
that the psychosocial virtues and concerns of late adulthood could and should be
found much earlier (Hoare, 2002). A more detailed description of these four
stages is shown in Table 22.1.
Erikson may have been the first to describe the psychosocial tensions and goals
of adulthood, but he was not the only one. Social scientists who study adulthood
typically recognize two complementary needs, similar to Erikson’s intimacy and
Especially for People Under 20 Will
future “decade” birthdays—30, 40, 50, and
so on—be major turning points in your life?
578 CHAPTER 22 ■ Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
TABLE 22.1
Erikson’s Stages of Adulthood
Unlike Freud or other early theorists who thought adults simply worked through the legacy of
their childhood, half of Erikson’s eight stages described psychosocial needs after puberty. His
most famous book, Childhood and Society (1963), devoted only two pages to each adult stage,
but published and unpublished elaborations in later works led to a much richer depiction
(Hoare, 2002).
Identity versus Role Diffusion
Although the identity crisis was originally set for adolescence, Erikson realized that identity
concerns could be lifelong. Identity combines values and traditions from childhood with the
current social context. Since contexts keep evolving, many adults reassess all four types of
identity (sexual/gender, vocational/work, religious/spiritual, and political/ethnic).
Intimacy versus Isolation
Adults seek intimacy—a close, reciprocal connection with another human being. Intimacy is
mutual, not self-absorbed, which means that adults need to devote time and energy to one
other. This process begins in emerging adulthood and continues lifelong. Isolation is especially
likely when divorce or death disrupts established intimate relationships.
Generativity versus Stagnation
Adults need to care for the next generation, either by raising their own children or by mentor-
ing, teaching, and helping younger people. Erikson’s first description of this stage focused on
parenthood, but later he included other ways to achieve generativity. Adults extend the legacy
of their culture and their generation with ongoing care, creativity, and sacrifice.
Integrity versus Despair
When Erikson himself was in his 70s, he decided that integrity, with the goal of combating
prejudice and helping all humanity, was too important to be left to the elderly. He also thought
that each person’s entire life could be directed toward connecting a personal journey with the
historical and cultural purpose of human society, the ultimate achievement of integrity.
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generativity. Some write about affiliation and achievement, others affection and in-
strumentality, or interdependence and independence, or communion and agency, or
love/belonging and success/esteem.
Each of these pairs has a somewhat different meaning, but all developmental-
ists realize that, as Freud (1935) succinctly put it, a healthy adult is one who can
“love and work,” as illustrated by the following feature.
social clock Refers to the idea that the
stages of life, and the behaviors “appropri-
ate” to them, are set by social standards
rather than by biological maturation. For
instance, “middle age” begins when the
culture believes it does, rather than at a
particular age in all cultures.
Ages and Stages 579
a case to study
She “Began to Make a New Life on Her Own”
Linda was a client of therapist James Marcia, famous for inter-
preting the identity crisis. She had never established her own
identity, and thus intimacy was difficult and generative work
and parenthood were beyond her. Marcia (2002) wrote:
Linda was the middle of three siblings in a blended family. . . .
Although she had grown up Roman Catholic, she had not been
at all religious and had never felt this to be an important issue to
her. She said that she had been somewhat sexually promiscuous
in high school—as a way of gaining attention and affection.
She made several attempts at postsecondary education. The
first was a brief stay in nursing school. This had been her mother’s
plan for her, but Linda found herself uninterested in school as
well as unwelcome there. She then made several brief forays into
courses in fashion design at two other institutions. . . .
After she defaulted on her higher education, Linda went back
to her small hometown and found a job waiting tables. She met
and fell in love with Jacqueline, a French Canadian woman. . . .
[Then] Linda met Greg, who took it on himself to “rescue” her. . . .
Although she could have moved in with Greg after leaving
Jacqueline, Linda decided to leave the whole area and move 3,000
miles away to the Pacific Northwest, to a strange city, and began
to make a new life on her own . . . independent from her mother’s
designs, Jacqueline’s demands, and Greg’s directions.
Her major issues were relationships and career, both of
which had at their base questions of self-esteem. . . . Linda was
still emotionally attached to Jacqueline and Greg, neither of
whom provided her with any support. Jacqueline had cut off
communication, and Greg was unreliable in contacting her and
was emotionally unavailable when he did.
[pp. 23–24]
As you see, Linda’s failure to establish her own sexual, reli-
gious, or vocational identity made it difficult for her to move for-
ward with her life. Her problems may be more dramatic than
those of most adults, but her “major issues” bedevil adults of all
ages—relationships and career, or intimacy and generativity.
Linda’s progress is described at the end of this chapter.
The Social Clock
Half a century ago, researchers already realized that the biological clock that
measures physical aging in children does not apply to adulthood. Many nonbiolog-
ical factors make one adult’s body and brain age more quickly, or more slowly, than
those of other people the same age, as emphasized in the previous chapters.
However, although the ticking of the biological clock is muted, adults still seem
to check their developmental timing using a social clock, a timetable based on
social norms (Neugarten & Neugarten, 1986). These norms set “best” ages for
men or women to finish school, marry, establish a career, and have children
(Greene, 2003; Keith, 1990; Settersten & Hagestad, 1996).
The social clock guides adult social expectations for behavior. When people say
that a woman is “too young to marry” or a man is “too old to become a father,” they
are referring to the social clock, not the biological one. Some markers on the social
clock have been enacted into law, with minimum ages for driving, drinking, voting,
getting married, or signing a mortgage. Cultures expect certain timing of adult
transitions. As two psychologists who criticize standards for the expected age of
marriage explain:
Although life cycles are becoming more fluid, people are still at risk for being
judged harshly if they do not reach developmental milestones on the timetable
set by the social clock (defined by prevailing cultural norms).
[DePaulo & Morris, 2005]
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Culture, Cohort, and SES
The specific ages of the social clock vary from nation to nation. In some South
American countries, marriage is legal at age 12 for women and 14 for men. More
than half of all new brides in Ecuador, Paraguay, Venezuela, and the Dominican
Republic are under age 22 (Fussell & Palloni, 2004). By contrast, Germans can-
not legally marry until they are at least 18. Most wait considerably longer; the
median age in all of Germany for first marriage is 28 for women and 31 for men
(EuroStat, 2006).
Historical conditions affect the social clock as well. In most nations a century
ago, women were expected to have a baby before age 20. By contrast, in devel-
oped nations today, first births after age 30 are common (Bornstein & Putnick,
2007). For example, in Australia the median age of first birth is 31 (Lee &
Gramotnev, 2007).
Beyond national and historical norms, the social clock is powerfully affected
by socioeconomic status (SES): The lower the SES, the faster the social clock
and the sooner life’s major turning points occur, evident between nations as well
as within them. Worldwide, many low-SES women still finish childbearing by
age 30. Indeed, a recent cohort of women in India averaged marriage at age 16
and surgical sterilization (typically after two or three births) at age 26 (Padmadas
et al., 2004).
In the United States, low-SES employed men expect to retire five years sooner
than those of higher income (Pew Research Center, 2006). Of course, the social
clock reflects economic reality as well as culture, since employment is harder to
find for poor older men than wealthier ones. Health is also relevant: Disability
and illness increase as income falls. Some men may anticipate inability to work or
may want a few years of leisure. Cultures set social clocks to reflect reality as well
as ideals.
Although many factors influence expectations, everywhere the social clock now
moves more slowly and variably. That explains the appearance of “emerging adult-
hood” and the variation in age of marriage, parenthood, completion of education,
and so on. The clock is quieter than it was a few decades ago.
The “Midlife Crisis”
If the social timetable is variable, why do people expect an age 40 midlife crisis,
a time of anxiety and radical change? Midlife crisis is often referenced in popular
movies and books. It was described in the Wall Street Journal as a time of unhappi-
ness and anxiety for many successful men (Clements, 2005). A 2007 Google
search found more than a million sites for “midlife crisis.”
The idea of a midlife crisis was popularized 30 years ago, by Gail Sheehy
(1976), who referred to the “age 40 crucible,” and by Daniel Levinson (1978), who
studied midlife men who experienced
tumultuous struggles within the self and with the external world. . . . Every aspect
of their lives comes into question, and they are horrified by much that is revealed.
They are full of recriminations against themselves and others.
[p. 199]
Contrary to Levinson and Sheehy, no large study in the United States or else-
where has found anything like a midlife crisis. Adults quit jobs and abandon
spouses, but they are no more likely to do so at age 40 than at any other age. Some
adults quit work and leave marriages several times, and other adults never do.
Developmentalists are convinced that a midlife crisis is not typical for either men
or women.
midlife crisis A period of unusual anxiety,
radical reexamination, and sudden trans-
formation that is widely associated with
middle age but which actually has more to
do with developmental history than with
chronological age.
580 CHAPTER 22 ■ Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
➤Response for People Under 20 (from
page 578): Probably not. While many younger
people associate certain ages with particular
attitudes or accomplishments, few people
find those ages significant when they actually
live through them.
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How could earlier developmentalists have been misled? Men who were age 40
in 1970, who provided the data for Levinson and Sheehy, were affected by histori-
cal upheavals in their own families, with radically rebellious teenagers (the 60s
generation) and suddenly assertive wives (the first wave of feminism). For some,
being middle-aged during that era elicited questions and recriminations, creating
an existential crisis. But their midlife crises were a result of history, not age.
In the twenty-first century, matching birthdays with stages or crises appears
narrow, insensitive, and perhaps racist, classist, and sexist. Why do some people
still imagine that a midlife crisis occurs? One theory is that the concept makes
people feel better: They expect the worst and are “pleasantly surprised”
(Heckhausen, 2001, p. 378). In other words, a midlife myth enables adults to cope
with the specific frustrations of growing older and nonetheless feel fortunate.
Personality Throughout Adulthood
Personality is a major source of continuity, providing coherence and identity, al-
lowing people to know themselves and be known (Caspi & Roberts, 1999;
Cloninger, 2003). Genes, parental practices, culture, and adult experiences all
contribute to personality. Of these four, genes are usually found to be the most in-
fluential, according to longitudinal studies of monozygotic and dizygotic twins and
other research, but variations are evident (Pedersen et al., 2006).
The Big Five
As already mentioned in Chapter 7, extensive longitudinal, cross-sectional, and
multicultural research has discovered basic clusters of personality traits—now
referred to as the Big Five—that remain quite stable throughout adulthood
(Digman, 1990; McCrae & Costa, 2003; Roberts et al., 2006). Although various
experts use somewhat different terms to describe these clusters, five dimensions
are often described:
■ Openness—imaginative, curious, artistic, creative, open to new experiences
■ Conscientiousness—organized, deliberate, conforming, self-disciplined
■ Extroversion—outgoing, assertive, active
■ Agreeableness—kind, helpful, easygoing, generous
■ Neuroticism—anxious, moody, self-punishing, critical
Personality tests assess whether a person is high or low on each of these five di-
mensions (arranged here to spell the word ocean, to facilitate memory). Personality
traits correlate with almost every aspect of adulthood, not only expected career
choices and health habits but even college (conscientious people are more likely to
graduate), marriage (extroverts do it more), and divorce (correlates with neuroti-
cism) (Duckworth et al., 2007; Pedersen et al., 2006). Paradoxically, when disconti-
nuity occurs, the continuity of personality becomes especially apparent. Under
stress, people react in ways that reflect their distinctive traits.
Beginning in early adulthood, people choose a setting, called their ecological
niche, that tends to stabilize their personality. Adults select vocations, neighbor-
hoods, mates, and routines that led two researchers to quip, “Ask not how life’s ex-
periences change personality; ask instead how personality shapes lives” (McCrae
& Costa, 2003, p. 235). This may be why personality is particularly stable from
age 30 to 50 (Roberts et al., 2006).
A hypothetical example helps clarify the ecological niche. A person high in
extroversion is likely to find an outgoing mate. The couple’s social life would
include many friends and acquaintances, who would enjoy going to parties and
Big Five The five basic clusters of person-
ality traits that remain quite stable
throughout adulthood: openness, consci-
entiousness, extroversion, agreeableness,
and neuroticism.
ecological niche The particular lifestyle and
social context that adults settle into because
that setting is compatible with their individ-
ual personality needs and interests.
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other gatherings. An extrovert’s chosen career would require extensive social in-
teraction (perhaps in sales, politics, or public relations). Niche-building would
situate this couple in a busy neighborhood close to their sports league, political
club, and religious group.
After 20 years together, this couple would have more friends and several chil-
dren (extroverts tend to have large families), who would also have many friends
(inheriting temperament from their parents). The couple would lead
Parent–Teacher Associations, Scouts, Little League, and so on. Thus, their extro-
version would be increasingly expressed as well as rewarded with social acclaim.
Although personality certainly begins with genes and is manifest in the deci-
sions that form the ecological niche, adult personality can shift if the context
shifts. For example, choosing a warm, supportive spouse affects the personality of
the person who made that choice. Although those high in neuroticism are less
likely to find an affectionate, loyal mate, if they do so, they become less neurotic
(Rönkä et al., 2002). Hostile workplaces, ill health, and poverty—if experienced—
affect personalities.
If life circumstances are dramatically altered (perhaps by divorce or widow-
hood, recovery from addiction, emigration, a treated depression, a disabling dis-
ease), people may behave in new ways (Mroczek et al., 2006). More often, new
events bring out old personality patterns (McCrae & Costa, 2003; Roberts &
Caspi, 2003). As two researchers note:
People undoubtedly do change across the life span. Marriages end in divorce,
professional careers are started in mid-life, fashions and attitudes change with
the times. Yet often the same traits can be seen in new guises: Intellectual cu-
riosity merely shifts from one field to another, avid gardening replaces avid ten-
nis, one abusive relationship is followed by another. Many of these changes are
best regarded as variations on the “uniform tune” played by individuals’ enduring
dispositions.
[McCrae & Costa, 1994, p. 174]
People are often quite unaware of their distinctive characteristics, unless a par-
ticular trait (such as a violent temper) is one they seek to change. In describing
their past personality and predicting their future one, college students imagine
marked improvements (Haslam et al., 2007). When asked whether their personali-
ties had changed since young adulthood, middle-aged adults usually say yes, believ-
ing they have improved more than the data suggest (Lachman & Bertrand, 2001).
The Same Event, A Thousand Miles Apart:
Culture or Personality? Personality is more
evident here than is culture, according to re-
search on the ecological niche. The women in
both of these photographs studied biology,
but the more introverted one in Iceland (left)
prefers to analyze samples of fish tissue on
her own, while the more extroverted one in
China (right) takes blood pressure readings in
a city square.
582 CHAPTER 22 ■ Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
AP
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Only small improvement occurs, on average. The MIDUS study of midlife (see
Chapter 20, page 548) found that, of the Big Five, agreeableness and conscien-
tiousness increased slightly in adulthood and that openness and neuroticism
decreased (Lachman & Bertrand, 2001). Other research confirms this finding
(Pulkkinen et al., 2005; Schaie, 2005). Although the average North American
becomes a little less neurotic with maturity, those high in this trait at age 30 are
still high at age 60 compared with other 60-year-olds.
Culture and Personality
The Big Five are also found in many other nations, again with relatively slight age-
related trends (McCrae et al., 1999; McCrae & Allik, 2002; Schmitt et al., 2007).
National and political upheavals have almost no impact. For example, East and
West Germany experienced radically different political systems from 1945 to
1995, but that did not seem to affect basic personality patterns (Bode, 2003).
Overall, personality variations are more evident between one person and another
in the same nation than between one nation and another.
However, there do seem to be some national differences in the proportions of
people within each nation who are high or low in each of the Big Five. A sixth per-
sonality dimension, known as dependence on others, is significant in Asia
(Hofstede, 2007). Worldwide, adults strive to express those traits that are valued
within their culture. For instance, a survey of 52 nations found that conscientious-
ness may be particularly valued in China, extroversion in Australia, openness in
the United States, and agreeableness in the Philippines (McCrae & Allik, 2002;
Schmitt et al., 2007).
We need to be careful with national stereotypes, however. Similarities are more
apparent than differences. A case in point is that, although people tend to believe
that Canadians are agreeable and U.S. citizens are anxious, assessments of per-
sonality in both nations show very similar distributions of these traits (McCrae &
Terracciano, 2006).
If people are similar worldwide, why do stereotypes emerge? Perhaps people
equate national policies with personality. For instance, “Canadians are proud of
their benevolent universal health care system; Americans defiantly cherish their
right to bear arms” (McCrae & Terracciano, 2006, p. 160). But policies are more a
result of national history than of national personality. Canadian agreeableness and
U.S. neuroticism are more myth than reality.
Gender Convergence
Reality may clash with stereotypes in gender as well. Men tend to express aggres-
sion and women nurturance; men take more risks and women are more cautious.
Expression may differ, but that does not mean that underlying traits differ. On the
Big Five, young men are only slightly more extroverted and young women slightly
more conscientious, and the two sexes probably become even more similar as they
mature, a phenomenon known as gender convergence (Gutmann, 1994).
Gender convergence seemed evident, for example, in one longitudinal study
that began with a representative sample of all the third-grade children in Finland
and then followed them for 30 years (Pulkkinen et al., 2005). The Big Five scales
had not been developed when this study began, but other personality measures
found that, by age 42, the men had become less aggressive and more conforming
while the opposite was true for the women. Scores on these two personality traits
differed for the two sexes in adolescence but were almost identical by middle age.
Gender convergence in middle age has been described by Erikson and many
others (Hoare, 2002). The psychoanalyst Carl Jung theorized that everyone has both
a masculine and a feminine side but that young adults express only those traits
gender convergence A tendency for men
and women to become more similar as
they move through middle age.
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that “belong” to their own gender. Thus, young women strive to be more tender
and deferential than they might naturally be, while young men try to be brave and
assertive even when they feel afraid. Eventually, adults realize that
the achievements which society rewards are won at the cost of a diminution of
personality. Many—far too many—aspects of life which should have been expe-
rienced lie in the lumber-room among dusty memories.
[Jung, 1933, p. 104]
Jung believed that adults eventually come to explore the shadow side of their
personality—women, their repressed masculine traits and men, their repressed
feminine traits.
Evidence for convergence can be found internationally. In every nation, war-
riors tend to be young men while caregivers tend to be young women. By late
adulthood, older men are supposed to be judges and peacemakers and older
women can be more assertive. Particularly in Asia, young women are expected to
584 CHAPTER 22 ■ Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
JO
SE
L
UI
S
PE
LA
EZ
, I
N
C.
/
CO
RB
IS
AP
P
HO
TO
/
DA
VI
D
GU
TT
EN
FE
LD
ER
PE
TE
R
HO
RR
EE
/
AL
AM
Y
The Same Event, A Thousand Miles Apart: Caregiving Dads Fathers are often
caregivers for their young children, as shown here in the United States (left) and
Indonesia (right). Most developmentalists think that men have always nurtured
their children, although in modern times employed mothers, plastic bottles, and
sturdy baby carriers are among the specifics that have changed.
From Warrior to Peacemaker Ariel Sharon
joined the Haganah (a Jewish underground
military organization that some called a
terrorist group) when he was 14, earning a
reputation as a brave commando. He served
in the Israeli army until he was 45. Elected
prime minister in 2001 at age 62, he became
known as a champion of peace. He is shown
here praying at the Western Wall in
Jerusalem.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 586):
Is the man on the left really sleeping?
576-609_BergerLS7e_CH22.qxp 9/20/07 4:40 PM Page 584

be submissive to their husbands and mothers-in-law, but older women are free to
be dominant. Similarly, young Asian men are expected to be active, but older men
are expected to be more meditative (Menon, 2001). A similar developmental shift
may be evident in the West—if the stereotype of the bossy mother-in-law and the
fun-loving grandfather reflect reality, not just prejudice.
SUMMING UP
Adulthood is the time for two universally acknowledged psychosocial needs. Develop-
mentalists have many names for these: Erikson called them intimacy and generativity.
Although originally Erikson thought generativity followed intimacy, both are sought
throughout adulthood. In current times, the social clock is not as rigid as it was, and no
midlife crisis seems to occur.
Personality characteristics have been clustered into the Big Five: openness, consci-
entiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Each individual in every cul-
ture is relatively high or low on each of these traits. Enduring traits become especially
evident in the individual’s reaction to unexpected or disruptive life events. Cultural, gen-
der, and developmental differences may be found in the levels of the Big Five (over the
years, neuroticism and openness may decrease slightly while agreeableness and con-
scientiousness may increase), but similarities are far more evident than differences. The
two genders may move toward convergence in personality as adulthood progresses.
■
Intimacy
Intimacy needs are lifelong. As you remember from Chapter 19, adults meet their
need for social connection with relatives, friends, coworkers, and romantic part-
ners. Each adult gathers a specific set of personal relationships: Some adults are
distant from their parents and close to partners and friends; others are close to
their family members but not to any nonrelatives. Such variation is affected by
culture, age, and circumstances. For example, as parents become elderly, family
roles change. With time, friendships and marriages begin, continue, or end.
Each person has a social convoy, a group of people who “provide a protective
layer of social relations to guide, encourage, and socialize individuals as they go
through life” (Antonucci et al., 2001, p. 572). Convoys originally referred to pro-
tective groups, such as the pioneers in ox-drawn wagons headed for California or
soldiers marching across unfamiliar terrain. In those examples, each individual
was strengthened by being part of the convoy as well as buoyed by sharing the
same conditions (hunger, cold, fear) with others. The social convoy works in the
same way as people move through life (Crosnoe & Elder, 2002). Isolation is harm-
ful, companionship is beneficial, and intimacy appears in many ways.
Friends
Friends are typically the most supportive members of the social convoy, partly be-
cause they are chosen for the very traits that make them reliable fellow travelers
through life. They are usually about the same age, with similar experiences and
values, and thus they are a source of help and advice when serious problems—
death of a family member, personal illness, loss of a job—arise.
Perhaps equally important, in daily life friends provide companionship, infor-
mation, and laughter, helping each adult figure out how to get a child to eat his
carrots, whether to remodel or replace the kitchen cabinets, what to do when a boss
asks for coffee, or, as time goes on, how to deal with college children, menopause,
or retirement.
social convoy Collectively, the family mem-
bers, friends, acquaintances, and even
strangers who move through life with an
individual.
Intimacy 585
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A comprehensive research study (Fingerman et al., 2004) found that friend-
ships tend to improve with age. As you see from Figure 22.1, friendships were
usually rated as “close” by adolescents and emerging adults, but a significant mi-
nority of young people considered their friendships “ambivalent” or “problematic.”
By adulthood, almost all friendships are close, few are ambivalent, almost none
are problematic. (Ironically, the same research found that more than half of the
adults felt their relationship to their spouse was ambivalent or problematic.)
Protection Against Stress
Many psychologists have studied the effects of stress on adult development (Ald-
win, 2007). Life is stress-filled, including both major stressors, such as a parent’s
serious illness, disability, or death and one’s own employment crisis, and ongoing
hassles, such as commuting to work, helping children with homework, paying
bills, and hearing criticism. The total burden of stress and disease carried by each
person is called allostatic load. A large allostatic load increases the risk of major
disease, premature aging, and death (Geronimus et al., 2006). Friends can play an
important role in alleviating some of the stress adults face.
Both age and gender affect how a person responds to stress and thus affect
allostatic load (Aldwin, 2007). Younger adults tend to be more problem-focused,
attacking the issue directly. For example, if their work situation is difficult, they
quit their job, complain to their boss, transfer to another location, or find some
other way to solve the problem. Older adults tend to be more emotion-focused.
For example, in a stressful work context, they might cope by reminding them-
selves that the boss’s opinions are uninformed or singing as they perform an
unpleasant task or joking with a coworker. They change their thinking and their
feelings, not their jobs.
Men often respond to stress in problem-focused “fight-or-flight” manner. Their
sympathetic nervous systems (faster heart rate, increased adrenaline) prepare
them for attack or escape. Women may be more emotion-focused, likely to “tend
and befriend,” as their bodies produce oxytocin, a hormone that leads them to
seek confidential and caring interactions (Taylor, 2006; Taylor et al., 2000).
Problem- and emotion-focused coping are each effective in some situations; all
adults need to fight sometimes and to befriend at others. Friends help adults cope
in two crucial ways. First, they help analyze the situation, giving advice about the
most effective responses. Second, companionship reduces cortisol, the stress hor-
allostatic load The total, combined burden
of stress and disease that an individual
must cope with.
586 CHAPTER 22 ■ Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Closeness in Friendships at Different Ages
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Percent
13–16 20–29 40–49 60–69 80+
Age
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007.
Close Ambivalent Problematic
FIGURE 22.1
Good Friends In a survey in which people of
various ages rated their relationships as close,
ambivalent, or problematic, friends overall
scored highest on closeness, with fewer
ambivalent or problematic relationships. One
reason that friendships seem to improve with
age, of course, is that friends are chosen. If a
particular friendship is problematic over time,
that friendship may end.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 588):
At what age are virtually no friendships
problematic?
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
584): Probably not, as some clues indicate the
photograph is posed. Look at the angle of the
bottle, the age of the baby (old enough to hold
the bottle himself), and the father’s hand—
securely holding on to his son.
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mone, which is one reason people call each other and gather together whenever
tragedy occurs. Thus, having close friends helps with both physical and psycholog-
ical health, reducing allostatic load (Krause, 2006).
Gender Differences
Many gender differences in friendship were already discussed in Chapter 19, and
these differences continue in adulthood. Same-sex as well as opposite-sex friend-
ships are valuable lifelong, although many married partners are suspicious of
friendships, especially when a wife has a close friendship with another man. Partly
for this reason, married adults tend to have fewer personal friends than unmarried
adults, although many couples develop “couple friends,” who are other married
couples with whom they socialize.
This scarcity of personal friends may be unwise. Two psychologists explain:
Adults in couples look to each other for companionship, sexual intimacy, soul-
matery, coparenting, economic partnership, advice, sharing of household tasks,
and just about everything else. . . . No mere mortal should be expected gra-
ciously and lovingly to fulfill every important role to another human.
[DePaulo & Morris, 2005, pp. 76, 77]
Men often rely on their wives for companionship. That may explain some of the
data on health that were reviewed in Chapter 20. Adult men who have recently
been divorced or widowed are more likely to die than are women in the same cir-
cumstances. Men without wives tend to die of stress-related causes—heart at-
tacks, drug abuse, and suicide. Friendless men and women are vulnerable to
stress, illness, and depression.
Family Bonds
No other group system has replaced the family in any nation or
century, although the form taken by “family” varies among different
cultures (Georgas et al., 2006). Family members are an important
part of the social convoy. They tend to have linked lives, which
means that each person’s triumphs and tragedies are shared by
everyone (Elder et al., 2003).
As already noted in Chapter 13, family should not be confused
with household—who are people who live in the same dwelling.
Increasingly, adults live apart from their parents. This is reflected in
the decrease in the size of U.S. households. As Figure 22.2 shows,
more than half of the U.S. population today live alone or with one
other person, usually a spouse.
Living in separate households does not necessarily weaken family
ties. A seven-nation study found that, whether they share a house-
hold or not, adults provide substantial help to other family members,
ranging from advice and emotional support to gifts, loans, babysitting,
home repair, and health care (Connidis, 2001; Farkas & Hogan,
1995). A large U.S. study found that, if anything, relationships
between parents and adult children worsen when they live together, especially
since the reason is usually that the children are unable to live on their own (Ward
& Spitze, 2007).
A Developmental View
Parents and adult children typically increase in closeness, forgiveness, and pride
as both generations gain maturity (Connidis, 2001). Current cohorts of younger
linked lives The notion that family members
tend to share all aspects of each other’s
lives, from triumph to tragedy.
household A group of people who live
together in one dwelling and share its
common spaces, such as kitchen and
living room.
Intimacy 587
Number of Persons Living in Household, United States
25
30
35
20
15
10
5
Percent
One person Two persons Five or more
persons
Size of household
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007
1970
2005
1990
FIGURE 22.2
The Shrinking U.S. Household As the U.S.
population has become less rural, less married,
and longer living, the average household has
gotten smaller.
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adults often have friendly relationships with their parents, partly because the par-
ents are usually healthy, active, and independent. Some of this is cultural: In
North America, western Europe, and Australia, adults cherish their independence
and dread burdening other generations; in most Asian and African nations that is
not the case (Harvey & Yoshino, 2006).
The specifics depend on many factors, including childhood attachments, cul-
tural norms, and the financial and practical resources of each generation. A partic-
ularly influential variable is familism, the belief that family members should care
for each other, sacrificing personal freedom and success to do so. Members of
some families believe they should always help each other, even if a relative is drug-
addicted, abusive, or wanted by the law. Other families believe that adults should
be independent and that those who have violated social standards do not deserve
to be protected from their own mistakes.
Health, single parenthood, and poverty also affect the likelihood of family
members supporting each other. In many nations, immigrants and members of mi-
nority groups are more likely to live in three-generation households for practical as
well as cultural reasons (Burr & Mutchler, 1999).
When adult children have serious problems—financial, legal, marital, and so
on—their parents’ overall well-being is also likely to suffer, as does the
parent–child relationship. This is particularly true for middle-aged parents with no
marriage partner to buffer their disappointment with their offspring (Greenfield &
Marks, 2006).
Adult Siblings
Although only about one-third of adolescents consider themselves close to their
siblings, two-thirds of adults do, as do almost all of the oldest adults (Fingerman et
al., 2004) (see Figure 22.3). Adult siblings help each other with their teenage chil-
dren, stressful marriages, and elderly relatives.
familism The idea that family members
should support one another because fam-
ily unity is more important than individual
freedom and success.
588 CHAPTER 22 ■ Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Like Parent, Like Child Even when a child becomes bigger than a parent,
as is evident with this Mexican son and California daughter, parents and
adult children continue to admire each other.
DI
GI
TA
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VI
SI
ON
/
GE
TT
Y
IM
AG
ES
TR
UJ
IL
LO
-P
AU
M
IE
R
/ S
TO
N
E
/ G
ET
TY
IM
AG
ES
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 586): Age 60 to 69.
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Particularly in large families subject to stresses (for example, poverty, divorce,
prejudice), siblings are connected throughout life. In adolescence, they may criti-
cize each other, and in emerging adulthood many strive for independence. Then
they become closer. One researcher described the usual sibling relationship as an
hourglass: close during childhood, increasingly distant during adolescence and
early adulthood, then closer together again, especially if a sibling’s marriage ends
(Bedford, 1995).
The possibility of adult sibling closeness is demonstrated by one woman who
lived thousands of miles from her two brothers and two sisters but said:
I have a good relationship with my brothers. . . . Every time I come they are very
warm and loving, and I stayed with my brother for a week. . . . Sisters is another
story. Sisters are best friends. Sisters is like forever. When I have a problem, I
phone my sisters. When I’m feeling down, I phone my sisters. And they always
pick me up.
[quoted in Connidis, 2007, p. 488]
Some adults keep their distance from their blood relatives, perhaps becoming
fictive kin in another family; that is, becoming accepted and treated like a family
member. Fictive kin are usually brought into a family by a peer who considers them
like a brother or sister, and then they are gradually accepted by the rest of the
family. Especially for people rejected by their family of origin (perhaps because of
their sexual orientation) or far from home (perhaps an immigrant), being “adopted”
by a new family is beneficial (Ebaugh & Curry, 2000; Muraco, 2006).
Siblings’ relationships can be strained if a parent becomes frail and needs care.
One (and only one) sibling usually becomes the chief caregiver. The inequity of
one sibling becoming the primary caregiver may be resented by other siblings. For
example, in one family, the caregiving sister described one of her two siblings as
“real immature . . . a little slow” and the other as “very irresponsible,” adding,
“When it came right down to having to bathe and having to take care of physical
[tasks], neither of them would be able to handle it” (quoted in Ingersoll-Dayton
et al., 2003, p. 209). A brother in another family resented his caregiving sister. “My
sister reminds me all the time that she’s taking care of them. They’re actually pretty
self-sufficient” (quoted in Ingersoll-Dayton et al., 2003, pp. 208–209).
fictive kin A term used to describe some-
one who becomes accepted as part of a
family to which he or she has no blood
relation.
Intimacy 589
Closeness with Siblings at Different Ages
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Percent
20–2913–16 60–6940–49 80+
Age
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007.
Close Ambivalent Problematic
FIGURE 22.3
From Rival to Friend Adolescents are not
usually close to their siblings, but that often
changes with time. By late adulthood, brothers
and sisters usually consider each other among
their best friends.
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The reality is that linked lives mean that everyone in the family, caregiver or
not, is strained when a family member becomes ill or disabled (Amirkhanyan &
Wolf, 2006). Old jealousies and resentments can reemerge as readily as old pat-
terns of support, as I saw with my mother’s siblings.
590 CHAPTER 22 ■ Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Childhood Echoes
My mother and father were raised by their immigrant parents
with a strong sense of familism. When I was 6 years old, my
family moved to Pennsylvania, far from our Minnesota home.
We kept in contact with the relatives back in the Midwest; we
often visited aunts, uncles, and cousins. Later, when my parents
retired, they decided not to go to sunny Arizona or Florida
(where some of their friends had gone), but back to snowy Min-
nesota, near their 15 siblings. They returned to their linked
lives.
Once they were surrounded by their siblings, I heard more
about sibling support and rivalry. One of my aunts, a widow, ap-
parently had developed a serious drinking problem. My mother
and I were worried at first, but then I learned that two of my un-
cles, her brothers, had intervened. I had never known that they
had been early members of Alcoholics Anonymous, but I quickly
understood that they could help their sister when she needed it.
They did, and she quit drinking.
My mother became distressed when her sisters Harriet and
Laura became so angry at each other that they stopped speaking.
Dumbfounded that aging siblings could hold a grudge, I asked
my mother what the fight was about.
“It began long ago,” Mom explained. “Papa favored Laura.
She’s the pretty one.”
My mother’s father died long before I was born, and the only
difference I could see between my aunts was that Aunt Laura’s
eyes were blue and Aunt Harriet’s were brown. Neither was “the
pretty one” any longer; each had warmth and sparkle, but both
were overweight and wore thick glasses.
Outside intervention can help resolve family conflict at any
age, especially if it comes from someone who is part of the social
convoy. My father told each of my aunts, individually, that the
other really missed her and wished they were talking again.
Harriet and Laura were both pleased to hear that the other was
sorry, and each said she missed her sister. They resumed daily
phone conversations several months before Laura died. As I
watched the family dynamics, I understood why my parents had
retired to their childhood home.
in person
Marriage
As detailed earlier, people in every nation take longer than previous generations
did to make a public commitment to one long-term sexual partner. Nonetheless,
although specifics differ (in some cultures, age 18 is “late” to marry), adults still
seek committed sexual partnerships to help meet their needs for intimacy as well
as to raise children, share resources, and provide care.
U.S. statistics show that less than 3 percent marry before age 20, but by age 40,
85 percent have married (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007). Of those 15 percent
not yet married, about a third have been cohabiting for years with a romantic
partner. Probably only about 10 percent of adults now living in the United States
will never make a marriage-like commitment.
That minority is even smaller in other nations and in prior centuries. Only 4
percent of U.S. residents now over age 65 have never been married (U.S. Bureau
of the Census, 2007). They are not necessarily lonely or unhappy; they meet their
intimacy needs in other ways (DePaulo, 2006).
Marriage and Happiness
From a developmental perspective, marriage is useful. Adults thrive if another per-
son is committed to caring for them, children benefit when they have two parents
legally and emotionally dedicated to them, societies benefit if individuals sort
themselves into families. Generally, married people are a little happier, healthier,
and richer than unmarried ones of the same age and background.
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But not that much happier. When married adults are compared with those
who have never married, their advantage is slight. Indeed, a survey of adults in
16 nations found one nation (Portugal) where single people were happier than
married ones, another (France) where both groups were equal, and several
where married adults were only slightly more often “very happy” than ones who
never married. The largest differences were in the United States, where more
married people than single people were “very happy” (37 versus 26 percent)
(Inglehart, 1990).
One major factor affecting marital happiness is how old the newlyweds were. If
a couple wed as teenagers, they are likely to be more depressed, more violent, and
less educated than those who marry later (Glick et al., 2006; Teti et al., 1987).
Generally speaking, longitudinal research on individuals before and during
long-term marriages finds that people tend to become happier during the honey-
moon period (a year or so), with husbands tending throughout to be more pleased
with marriage than are wives (Kiecolt-Glaser & Newton, 2001; Lucas et al.,
2001). Adults between ages 25 and 40 are more likely to be pleased with their
marriages than are adults at other ages (Lucas & Dyrenforth, 2005).
Another major factor is the quality of the relationship (Kiecolt-Glaser &
Newton, 2001). In a large longitudinal study, those who stayed married tended to
be slightly happier than those who did not. But there is a caveat:
There were as many people who ended up less happy than they started as there
were people who ended up happier than they started (a fact that is particularly
striking given that we restricted the sample to people who stayed married).
[Lucas et al., 2003, p. 536]
Thus, most adults will marry and will expect ongoing happiness because of it,
but some will be disappointed (Coontz, 2005). This leads to the next two topics—
how a marriage can get better over time and what happens after divorce.
Long-Term Marriage
Some of the long-term quality of a marriage relationship is affected by family rela-
tionships in childhood (Overbeek et al., 2007), some by factors explained in
Chapter 19 (homogamy, cohabitation before marriage), and some by the Big Five
traits described earlier in this chapter. In addition, there are reasons why adults
find that marriages improve with time.
Older couples have less child-rearing stress (young children tend to increase
marital dissatisfaction), fewer arguments, higher incomes, and more time together.
In fact, in a survey of long-married people, most of them said they stayed married
because of the love, trust, and joy in their partner, not primarily because it was dif-
ficult to break up (Previti & Amato, 2003). The empty nest—so named because it
is the time when the children have gone, launched into their own lives—is often a
happy time for a married couple, who now can spend time together again.
There are also reasons for dissatisfaction during the course of a marriage. Mar-
riages take work; wedded bliss is not guaranteed. Children cause financial pres-
sure and provoke arguments about child-rearing assumptions that parents may not
have known they held. If the couple married only because of sexual passion, then
the other two parts of love (intimacy and commitment) may not appear.
Fortunately, the advantages and disadvantages of marriage seem to balance
each other out. Comparing marriages in recent decades with marriages of previous
decades (Amato et al., 2007) reveals that husbands are now doing more house-
work, which makes them somewhat less happy but their wives happier, and more
wives are employed, which eases financial stress but reduces time together.
Although husbands and wives are each more independent today than they were in
the past, marital satisfaction is as high as earlier.
empty nest A time in the lives of parents
when their grown children leave the family
home to pursue their own lives.
Intimacy 591
Especially for Young Couples Suppose
you are one-half of a turbulent relationship in
which moments of intimacy alternate with
episodes of abuse. Should you break up?
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Some marriages bring notable improvement to a person’s life. One example
comes from a longitudinal study of all the newborns of five distinct ethnicities
born in 1955 in Kauai, Hawaii. As children, they had many health and family
problems. By age 40, most were happier and more successful than was pre-
dicted. A marriage before age 30 that endured over the years was one of the best
sources of resilience and satisfaction (Werner & Smith, 2001). Similar findings
have been reported by researchers in many other nations (Rönkä et al., 2002;
Rutter, 2004).
Of course, generalities obscure specifics. Some long-term marriages are bliss-
ful; others are horrific. Economic stress creates marital friction, no matter how
many years a couple has been together (Conger et al., 1999), and contextual fac-
tors can undermine a couple’s willingness to communicate and compromise
(Karney & Bradbury, 2005). A long-standing relationship might crumble, espe-
cially with major financial and relationship stresses (such as demanding in-laws or
angry children).
The opposite is also true: A relationship might improve with time. Several lead-
ing researchers (Fincham et al., 2007) cite evidence that many marriages are
stressful and then rebound, with unhappy spouses becoming happy again as they
learn to understand and forgive each other.
Homosexual Partners
Almost everything just described applies to homosexual partners as well as to het-
erosexual ones (Herek, 2006). Some same-sex couples are very supportive of each
other, and their emotional well-being benefits from their interaction. Others are
conflicted, with problems of finances, communication, and so on that resemble
those of traditional marriages.
Partly because political and cultural contexts for homosexual couples are
changing markedly, research on homosexual couples done 20 years ago may not be
accurate today. Current research with a large, randomly selected sample of gay
592 CHAPTER 22 ■ Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
The Same Event, A Thousand Miles Apart: More Than Yesterday Some
older couples worldwide experience greater joy in being together than when
they were younger. Culture influences the form of expression, not the level
of affection.
➤Response for Young Couples (from
page 591): There is no simple answer, but you
should bear in mind that, while abuse usually
decreases with age, breakups become more
difficult with every year, especially if children
are involved.
GA
RE
TH
B
RO
W
N
/
CO
RB
IS
RO
LF
B
RU
DE
RE
R
/ B
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N
D
/ J
UP
IT
ER
IM
AG
ES
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and lesbian couples is not yet available. It is not even known how many such cou-
ples there are. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census (2007), only 0.6 percent
(about 1 in 150) of households are headed by a homosexual couple. All gay and
lesbian groups, and most social scientists, consider this an underestimate.
One reason this may be an underestimate is that homosexual couples were un-
counted until recently, and many such couples are still reluctant to proclaim their
status. Evidence for an undercount comes from data published by the Bureau of
the Census. No official count of homosexual couples was available until 2000 be-
cause before that year an “unmarried couple” was defined as a cohabiting man and
woman. Now “unmarried partners” are allowed to specify male/female, male/male,
or female/female.
U.S. data (see Table 22.2) over four years show a 19 percent increase in homo-
sexual couples (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2002, 2007), a jump suggesting that
more homosexual couples are willing to declare themselves. The next data wave
will reveal whether the number continues to increase.
One recently published study of 5,000 adults (more than 1,000 each of the four
kinds of couples—gay, lesbian, heterosexual unmarried, heterosexual married)
found that, in most ways, the four kinds of couples were very similar (Kurdek,
2006; see Research Design). For instance, there were no significant differences in
overall satisfaction with the relationship or in distribution of household chores.
(Married heterosexuals with children were less equitable in household labor, but
similar in satisfaction.)
The greatest difference among the types of child-free couples was in accept-
ance by their parents. Fathers were less likely to treat the mates of their homosex-
ual children “like family” than the mates of their married heterosexual children.
(Parental acceptance of cohabiting heterosexual partners was halfway between the
two.) Homosexual couples scored higher on contact with friends. Apparently, these
couples met their intimacy needs in somewhat different ways. Other research on
homosexual couples also finds more similarities than differences between them
and heterosexuals (Herek, 2006).
Divorce
Throughout this text, developmental events that seem isolated, personal, and tran-
sitory are shown to be interconnected and socially mediated, with enduring conse-
quences. Divorce is a prime example. Marriages never improve or end in a vacuum;
they are influenced by the social and political context (Fine & Harvey, 2006).
Divorced adults are often affected (for better or for worse) in ways they never
anticipated. The negative impacts tend to be greater as more years of marriage
precede the divorce. Decades after divorce, the couple’s income, family welfare,
Intimacy 593
How Many Homosexual Couples? The 19
percent increase is probably the result of more
gay and lesbian couples being willing to de-
clare themselves in official U.S. statistics. It is
not known how many more such couples are
still undeclared. The 5 percent jump among
heterosexuals may indicate increased willing-
ness to publicly acknowledge their status, or it
may reflect a genuine shift in the committed
couples who do not want to marry. However,
since the homosexual increase is four times
as high as the heterosexual one, there were
probably many undeclared gay and lesbian co-
habitants in 2000 who were braver in 2004.
TABLE 22.2
Number of Unmarried Partner Households in the United States*
Male/Female Male/Male Female/ Female Total homosexual couples
2000 4,881,377 301,026 293,365 594,391
2004 5,133,637 374,397 332,799 707,196
Increase from 2000 to 2004: Number and Percent
252,260 (5%) 73,371 (24%) 39,434 (14%) 112,805 (19%)
*Officially declared.
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2002, 2007.
Research Design
Scientist: Lawrence Kurdek.
Publication: Journal of Marriage and
Family (2006).
Participants: More than 5,000 couples
(10,000 individuals) from Seattle, San
Francisco, and New York filled out ques-
tionnaires for a study (Blumstein &
Schwartz, 1983).Two-thirds of the cou-
ples provided follow-up data, via inter-
views or questionnaires. All the couples
were volunteers.
Design:The Kurdek (2006) research ana-
lyzed data from that 1983 study to com-
pare four types of couples without
children (gay, lesbian, heterosexual un-
married, heterosexual married) and one
type with children (married heterosex-
ual). Data were collected on measures
thought to predict couple satisfaction
and stability (predispositions, social
support, attitudes, interactions).
Major conclusions:The differences be-
tween the types of couples were quite
small, especially when the homosexual
couples were compared with the hetero-
sexual cohabiting couples. Of the five,
the most different group was the mar-
ried heterosexuals with children, who
were least likely to separate. Parents
accepted the married partners signifi-
cantly more than the cohabiting ones
of any sexual orientation.
Comments:This study is noteworthy
for comparing many homosexual and
heterosexual couples. However, as the
author recognizes, there were two seri-
ous drawbacks: (1) The couples were
questioned 25 years ago, and (2) they
selected themselves. Results may differ
for recent couples, randomly selected.
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and self-esteem tend to be lower, on average, than those of nondivorced adults
(married or single) of the same age. When the divorced couple have children, the
separation is harder on the adults (Amato & Cheadle, 2005).
Although divorce is always stressful for adults and children, it is also sometimes
beneficial. According to results in 39 nations, adults whose parents fought con-
stantly but stayed married report less happiness than those with equally conflicted
parents who divorced (Gohm et al., 1998). Much depends on the community and
other relatives, who can punish (inadvertently) or support the children of divorce.
This helps explain a curious phenomenon: African American marriages are more
likely to end in divorce or separation, but the children are less troubled by it than
are European American children whose parents split up (Fomby & Cherlin, 2007).
Divorce Rates
The power of the social context is evident in variations in divorce rates. In the
United States, almost one out of every two marriages ends in divorce, a rate
matched by several other nations. Compared to a decade ago, marriage rates have
decreased and divorce rates have increased in almost every developed nation.
Even in Ireland and Italy, where the divorce rate used to be close to zero, about
one in every seven marriages now ends in divorce (see Figure 22.4).
Historical variations are more marked than national ones. In many countries
(including the United States), divorces increased markedly in the 1970s. New
laws allowed many long-troubled marriages to end. Rates have been stable, or
even declining, since then. About half of the teenage marriages before 1970 that
ended in divorce were precipitated by pregnancy. This is no longer the case
(Wolfinger, 2005).
Social scientists have many explanations for divorce, as listed in Table 22.3. In
addition, economists suggest that the marriage rate is falling because of lower in-
come for young men and more employment for women. Since the divorce rate is
calculated by dividing the number of divorces by the number of marriages, fewer
marriages mean an increase in the rate of divorce even with no change in the num-
ber of divorces. Stress of all kinds, particularly chronic financial pressure, reduces
a couple’s ability to discuss their problems and forgive each other’s faults (Karney
& Bradbury, 2005).
Over the Years, Divorce and Remarriage
Divorce is most likely to occur within the first five years after a wedding. Divorced
individuals usually try to re-establish friendships and romances. Often they marry
again, especially if they are men who were relatively young (under age 30) when
the divorce occurred. Women with children are less likely to remarry, but those
who do often marry a man who also has children from a previous marriage (Gold-
scheider & Sassler, 2006). About half of all U.S. marriages are remarriages for at
least one of the partners.
For long-term marriages, divorce is less likely but more devastating when it hap-
pens (Lucas et al., 2003). For both husbands and wives, divorce can reduce in-
come, sever friendships (many couples had only other couples as friends), and
weaken family ties, not only with children but also with all the relatives (Amato,
1999; Anderson, 2003; King, 2003). The severity of the impact depends partly on
whether or not the adult has close relationships with family members, friends, or a
new partner.
Initially, remarriage typically brings happiness, intimacy, and other benefits, in-
cluding better health for men and financial security for women (Hetherington &
Kelly, 2002). For remarried fathers, bonds with a new wife’s custodial children or
594 CHAPTER 22 ■ Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
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with a new baby may replace strained relationships with their children from the
previous marriage (Hofferth & Anderson, 2003).
Such happiness may not endure. Second marriages end in divorce more often
than first marriages, with each divorce stressful on both adults and children
(Coleman et al., 2000; Hetherington & Kelly, 2002). According to an 80-year lon-
gitudinal study (Terman’s 1921 research on “gifted” children, described in Chapter
21), those who never married and those who had one and only one marriage were
notably healthier and more successful than those who married, divorced, and
remarried (Tucker et al., 1996).
SUMMING UP
Intimacy is a universal need that is met in many ways, through friendship, family bonds,
and romantic partnerships. No intimate relationship is carefree; adults need to spend
time and emotional energy on them. Friends buffer against stress in many ways.
Throughout life, family members may be crucial, whether or not the family lives to-
gether in one household. Siblings may become more important as time goes by. Mar-
riage provides companionship and emotional support for many of the 85 percent of
adults who wed. However, the quality of marriages varies. Some adults avoid long-term
romantic partnerships (about 10 percent) and many divorce, often disrupting family ties
and friendships. Remarriage may also be problematic, especially if children are involved
and the new marriage ends.
■
Intimacy 595
FIGURE 22.4
Many Troubled Couples Divorce rates are high in most developed countries. One consoling fact
is that in the United States, the first nation that saw its divorce rate skyrocket, the rate has held
steady for the past 15 years.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 597): What do the two nations with the lowest divorce
rates have in common?
TABLE 22.3
Factors That Make Divorce
More Likely
Before Marriage
Parents were divorced
Either partner is under age 21
Family is opposed
Cohabitation before marriage
Previous divorce of either partner
Large discrepancy in age, background,
interests, values (heterogamy)
During Marriage
Divergent plans and practices regarding
childbearing and child rearing
Financial stress, unemployment
Substance abuse
Communication difficulties
Lack of time together
Emotional or physical abuse
Relatives who do not support the
relationship
In the Culture
High divorce rate of others in cohort
Weak religious values
Laws that make divorce easier
Approval of remarriage
Acceptance of single parenthood
Sources: Fine & Harvey, 2006; Gottman et al.,
2002; Thompson & Wyatt, 1999; Wolfinger, 2005.
Divorce Rates, Selected Countries
Percent
(divorces divided by marriages)
10 20 30 40 50 60
Germany
United Kingdom
Sweden
United States
Canada
France
Spain
Japan
Italy
Ireland
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007.
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Generativity
According to Erikson, after intimacy comes generativity versus stagnation, when
adults seek to be productive in a caring way, usually through work or parenthood.
Without generativity, adults experience “a pervading sense of stagnation and per-
sonal impoverishment” (Erikson, 1963, p. 267).
Generativity is more likely with maturity, although, as already emphasized,
chronological age is not a necessary marker for the unselfish caring and loving that
characterize generativity (Sheldon, 2001). Those who are generative at any age
tend to believe that it is because they themselves are fortunate that they need to
help others (McAdams, 2006).
Adults satisfy their need to be generative in many ways, including creative en-
deavors, caregiving, and employment. Of these three, the link between creativity
and generativity has been least studied, although (as seen in Chapters 21 and 24)
creative expression is a recognized intellectual activity and avenue for self-
expression. Brain functioning as well as life satisfaction are enhanced by creativity.
We now explore what has been learned about the two other activities that are
generative for adults: caregiving, particularly caring for young children, and em-
ployment, particularly working at a job that allows personal growth while produc-
ing goods or services that allow the community to prosper.
Caregiving
As Erikson wrote, a mature adult “needs to be needed” (Erikson, 1963, p. 266).
Some caregiving is physical—feeding, cleaning, and so on—but much of it is psy-
chological. As one study concludes, “The time and energy required to provide
emotional support to others must be reconceptualized as an important aspect of
the work that takes place in families. . . . Caregiving, in whatever form, does not
just emanate from within, but must be managed, focused, and directed so as to
have the intended effect on the care recipient” (Erickson, 2005, p. 349).
Caregiving includes responding to the emotions of others, who might need
someone to share secrets with, to boost a shattered ego, or to listen sympatheti-
cally and give good advice or practical help when requested. Thus, parents care for
children and children care for parents.
Families also need someone who encourages intergenerational caregiving. This
is the kinkeeper, who gathers the relatives for holidays; e-mails about anyone’s
illness, relocation, or accomplishments; and reminds people of birthdays, anniver-
saries, and so on. Guided by the kinkeeper, every adult in a family cares for every-
one else.
Fifty years ago, kinkeepers were almost always women, usually the mother and
grandmother of a large family. Now families are smaller and gender equity is
more apparent. Men are sometimes kinkeepers, although women more often do
it. This may seem unfair, but there is both satisfaction and power in caregiving.
Indeed, the best caregivers and kinkeepers share the job with others, itself a sign
of generativity.
Caring for Children
As Erikson points out, while generativity can take many forms, its chief form is
“establishing and guiding the next generation,” usually through parenthood
(Erikson, 1963, p. 267). Thus, adults pass on their values as well as their genes as
they decide how to respond to the hundreds of requests and unspoken needs of
each child each day.
Parenting has been discussed many times in this text, primarily focusing on its
impact on children. Now we concentrate on the adult half of this interaction.
kinkeeper The person who takes primary
responsibility for celebrating family achieve-
ments, gathering the family together, and
keeping in touch with family members who
do not live nearby.
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Bearing and rearing children are labor-intensive expressions of generativity.
Erikson says, “The fashionable insistence on dramatizing the dependence of chil-
dren on adults often blinds us to the dependence of the older generation on the
younger one” (1963, p. 266).
This dependence apparently is satisfied as much by having one child as by hav-
ing several (Kohler, 2005). Adults want to be generative, but they also want the
benefits of employment, so currently they limit childbearing. As a result, although
there are fewer marriages without children, the birth rate is lower than the re-
placement rate in 31 nations.
Although the intimacy and satisfaction of marriage often decrease with parent-
hood, the level of commitment increases (Bradbury et al., 2000). Ideally, a
parental alliance forms as the parents cooperate in child rearing. This is a chal-
lenge. Every parent is tested and transformed by the dynamic experiences of rais-
ing children. Just when adults think they have mastered the art of parenting, their
child’s advancement to the next stage requires major adjustment. Generativity is
required.
Over the decades in any family, new babies arrive and older children grow up,
job opportunities emerge or disappear, financial burdens increase or decrease, in-
come is almost never adequate, and seldom is every child thriving in every way.
Extra caregiving may be suddenly needed if illness strikes a child or an elderly par-
ent. Throughout, many families cope, evidence of generativity.
Many Paths to Parenthood
A parental alliance assumes two cooperating parents. However, as described in
Chapter 13, children can develop well in any family structure—nuclear or ex-
tended; heterosexual or homosexual; single-parent, two-parent, or grandparent.
Can adults also thrive in any kind of parenting relationship? The challenges for
nonbiological parents are great, but opportunities for generativity for such adults
are great as well.
Roughly one-third of all North American adults become stepparents, adoptive
parents, or foster parents at some point in their lives. In such relationships, devel-
oping secure attachment is more difficult for both generations. The social con-
struction about “real” parents (meaning biological parents) is misleading, but it
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 595): The populations of both Ireland
and Italy are predominantly Roman Catholic,
but that is also true of France and Spain. The
probable reason for the low divorce rates in
Ireland and Italy is that the laws of both those
nations make divorce very difficult to obtain.
Generativity 597
W
AY
N
E
SC
AR
BE
RR
Y
/ A
P
/ W
ID
E
W
OR
LD
P
HO
TO
S
Not Lonely When they were 2, 4, and 6 years
old, these boys went to live with their grand-
parents in Virginia. The family is attending a
picnic for grandparents who have become sur-
rogate parents for their grandchildren. Events
like this fill a need: Many such grandparents
feel isolated from their peers.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page
599): This family is typical of grandparent–
grandchild families in age and sex. Can you
guess how?
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may affect both parent and child. Further, some foster children are strongly
attached to their birth parents, an attachment that can be especially troublesome
because of the conditions that led to their separation. Other children have never
been attached to anyone; they are suspicious of their new parents. Secure attach-
ment between foster parents and children is further hampered because the con-
nection can be severed regardless of the quality of caregiving.
Strong bonds are particularly hard to create if a child already has strong attach-
ments to other available caregivers. This is usually the case with stepchildren,
since the average new stepchild is about 9 years old. Stepmothers may enter a
marriage hoping to heal a broken family through love and understanding, while
stepfathers may believe that their new children will welcome a benevolent disci-
plinarian. Not necessarily so. Stepparent families sometimes become well-
functioning ones (especially if the new parent is authoritative) and sometimes not,
depending largely on the personality and relationship of the adults (Ganong &
Coleman, 2004).
Often a stepparent becomes an “intimate outsider,” more distant from the child’s
personal life than the stepparent hoped but much closer than any stranger
(Hetherington & Kelly, 2002). Some stepchildren are fiercely loyal to the absent
parent, sabotaging any effort by a new adult to fill the traditional parental role,
perhaps directly challenging authority (“You’re not my father, you can’t tell me
what to do” ) or perhaps interfering as much as possible with the new marriage.
Stepchildren and foster children also evoke guilt by getting hurt, sick, lost, or (if
the child is a teenager) pregnant, drunk, or arrested. Such childish reactions,
often unconscious, may cause adult overreaction or anger, further alienating the
two generations (Coleman et al., 2000).
Adoptive families have an advantage here: Parents are legally connected to their
adopted children for life and biological parents are usually absent. Nevertheless,
during adolescence, emotional bonds may stretch and loosen. Some adoptive
children become intensely rebellious, rejecting family control, even as they seek
reunification with their birth parents (Kohler et al., 2002). The children’s
reasons—whether to test their parents’ devotion or to discover their roots or to
establish an identity—are understandable, but the adoptive parents need every
ounce of selfless generativity they can muster.
598 CHAPTER 22 ■ Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Can You Make Rice Cakes? If you can, it’s
probably because you, like these Japanese
American girls, were fortunate enough to have
a grandmother nearby to teach you. Note how
intently and carefully all three are working to
prepare the food for a large family gathering. DA
VI
D
YO
UN
G-
W
OL
FF
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T,
IN
C.
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Despite such complications, most adoptive and foster parents cherish their
parenting experiences, typically seeking a second child within a few years of the
arrival of the first. Similarly, stepparents usually find satisfaction in their role
(Ganong & Coleman, 2004). For their part, children usually reciprocate—if not
immediately, then later on.
Nonparents (grandparents, teachers, neighbors, aunts, and uncles) may also
develop close relationships with children, cherishing their generative role. As one
uncle explained about his nephew:
I find I just like talking with him. He needs to express his ideas . . . and I think
anything that develops companionship . . . really I don’t mind.
[quoted in Milardo, 2005, p. 1230]
Grandparents are often crucial during divorce, providing continuity and often a
home.
Perhaps even more than biological parenthood, alternative routes to child rear-
ing may make adults more humble, less self-absorbed, and more aware of the
problems facing children everywhere. When this occurs, adults become true ex-
emplars of generativity, as Erikson and others (1986) described it, characterized
by the virtue that is perhaps the most important of all—caring for others.
Caregiving for Aging Parents
In the twenty-first century, the following demographic trends are evident:
■ More than half of all mothers of young children, and more than two-thirds of
middle-aged women, are employed. (In the United States, 74 percent of mar-
ried women and 80 percent of single women aged 35 to 44 are in the labor
force.)
■ People are living longer: Many adults have two living parents and four living
grandparents.
■ Fewer children per family (down from five to two, on average, over the past
century) mean fewer adult caregivers.
Each of these trends changes the patterns of care for the frail elderly family
members. Because of their position in the generational hierarchy, many adults are
expected to help both older and younger generations. They have been called the
sandwich generation, a term that evokes an image of two slices of bread with a
substantial filling in the middle. The analogy to a sandwich, making it seem as if
the middle generation is squeezed by obligations to those younger and older, is
vivid—but it is not very accurate (Grundy & Henretta, 2006).
It is true that many adults in their late 20s and early 30s, including those who
have partners and children, are active participants in the lives of their family of
origin. As already explained, siblings remain connected to each other, and some-
times they are stressed by caregiving for parents. It is not true, however, that most
adults are burdened by such obligations. Some hire professional caregivers, but
most find that even that is not needed.
Here are some specifics that show that most adults do not provide major finan-
cial or caregiving help to any of the older generation. One study of married people
aged 51 to 61 with living parents found that less than 20 percent committed sig-
nificant income or time to aid their parents (Shuey & Hardy, 2003).
Similarly, a study in England found that most adults did not provide care for
anyone, but when employed professionals began caring for someone sick, dis-
abled, or elderly, they were unlikely to leave their jobs. Those who became full-
time caregivers were already less engaged in their work (e.g., they worked
Generativity 599
sandwich generation A term for the gener-
ation of middle-aged people who are
supposedly “squeezed” by the needs of
the younger and older generations. Some
adults do feel pressured by these obliga-
tions, but most are not burdened by them,
either because they enjoy fulfilling them or
because they choose to take on only some
of them or none.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 597): The grandparents are relatively
young, and the grandchildren are boys, as is
the case for most such surrogate parents and
children.
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part-time at routine jobs) and had neither dependent children nor a needy spouse
(Henz, 2006). In a study of Chinese American adults in California, all felt a filial
duty to their aging parents, but when extensive care was needed, many hired an
unemployed Chinese American to provide it (Lan, 2002).
Interestingly, care for elderly parents does not flow equally to all parents of a
married couple. A detailed breakdown found that in the United States, both hus-
bands and wives tend to tilt toward the wife’s parents (Lee et al., 2003) (see Table
22.4). In some other nations, such as China, it is the husband’s parents who are
more likely to receive support (Lin et al., 2003; Zhan et al., 2006).
Personality and familism are as influential as need
in determining caregiving (Grundy & Henretta, 2006).
The U.S. study which found that only 20 percent of
married adults contributed care to any of their four
parents also found that those same 20 percent were
likely to provide support for their adult children.
The researchers suggest that a personality trait (gen-
erosity), more than need, may be the reason (Shuey
& Hardy, 2003).
This is a positive personality trait since caregiving
may be vital for all the generations. Specifics of care-
giving for the elderly are discussed in more detail in
Chapter 25, since people over age 65 are often both
caregivers and care receivers. Here we need to em-
phasize that although “sandwich generation” is a
misleading term, the crucial role of mutual caregiv-
ing for the benefit of all family members should be
recognized.
Employment
For most of the history of social science research, employment has been studied
as part of the macrosystem (e.g., the correlation between unemployment and do-
mestic abuse) or as a small part of individual development (e.g., matching an ado-
lescent’s talents and interests with a specific career). Both these approaches have
merit, but missing has been the study of how work affects personal and family de-
velopment, integrating “thinking about working into the broader fabric of psycho-
logical theory and practice” (Blustein, 2006, p. xiv).
600 CHAPTER 22 ■ Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
TABLE 22.4
Contacts and Help Provided by Middle-Aged Couples to Parents and In-Laws
Phone Calls per Month Visits per Month Minutes of Help per Week
Wife to own parents 11 6 120
Husband to wife’s parents 8 5 70
Total to wife’s parents 19 11 190
Husband to own parents 7 4 100
Wife to husband’s parents 5 4 58
Total to husband’s parents 12 8 158
Source: Lee et al., 2003.
Four Generations of Caregiving These four
women, from the great-grandmother to her
17-year-old great-granddaughter, all care for
one another. Help flows to whoever needs it,
not necessarily to the oldest or youngest.
PH
OT
OD
IS
C
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Exactly how work affects development is not clear, however, especially consid-
ering the current employment scene, where much is changing. It is apparent,
however, that work during adulthood has a major effect on each person’s develop-
mental well-being (Bianchi et al., 2005).
Many Benefits
A paycheck is only one of many benefits of employment. Work provides a struc-
ture for daily life, a setting for human interaction, a source of status and fulfill-
ment (Wethington, 2002). Work meets generativity needs by allowing people to do
the following:
■ Develop and use their personal skills
■ Express their creative energy
■ Aid and advise coworkers, as a mentor or friend
■ Support the education and health of their families
■ Contribute to the community by providing goods or services
The pleasure of “a job well done” is universal, as is the joy in supportive super-
visors and friendly coworkers. Job satisfaction correlates more strongly with chal-
lenge, creativity, productivity, and relationships among employees than with high
pay or easy work. Abusive supervisors and hostile coworkers tend to reduce em-
ployee motivation (Le Blanc & Barling, 2004).
One important developmental distinction is between the extrinsic rewards of
work, such as salary, health benefits, pension, and other aspects not connected
with the actual job, and the intrinsic rewards of work, such as job satisfaction,
friendship, pride, and self-esteem. Young adults tend to look for work that has high
extrinsic rewards, choosing a job for the paycheck and benefits, for instance. How-
ever, the “intrinsic rewards of work, satisfaction, relationships with coworkers, and
a sense of participation in meaningful work become more important as an individ-
ual ages” (Sterns & Huyck, 2001, p. 452). This is the probable explanation for
lower rates of absenteeism and less job change among older workers. Many enjoy
the work, not just the money.
extrinsic rewards of work The tangible
rewards, usually in the form of compensa-
tion, that one receives for a job (e.g.,
salary, benefits, pension).
intrinsic rewards of work The intangible
benefits one receives from a job (e.g., job
satisfaction, self-esteem, pride) that come
from within oneself.
Generativity 601
Tomorrow’s Fresh-Cut Bouquet For guests
to take imported fresh flowers to their host-
ess was impossible until relatively recently.
This gardener in Chile takes satisfaction from
growing and carefully tending flowers to be
cut and flown overnight to the United States.STE
VE
R
UB
IN
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
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Human Needs
The work environment is changing in many ways. For instance, globalization has
resulted in each nation exporting what it does best (and cheapest) and importing
what it needs. Developed nations are shifting from industry-based economies to
information and service economies; developing nations are shifting from subsis-
tence agriculture to larger businesses. Multinational corporations are replacing
small, local endeavors.
Financial and managerial companies seek to coordinate all this growth and
change, with the goal of efficiency and profit. This is only the first step. It is cru-
cial to learn how new work conditions support development, especially the gener-
ative functions of family caregiving, personal creativity, satisfaction and esteem
from a job well done, and mentoring other workers (Bianchi et al., 2005). Re-
search on this has not yet reached firm conclusions. Here we present some initial
findings to encourage more study of the developmental implications of employment.
Companies downsize, level, outsource, merge, and hire temporary employees
to produce goods “just in time.” Workers increasingly change jobs several times
during adulthood. As you can see from Figure 22.5, job change is particularly com-
mon in emerging adulthood but continues throughout adulthood. Even at age 40,
about one-fourth of all workers have been at their current job for less than two
602 CHAPTER 22 ■ Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
5
4
3
2
1
18–22 28–27
Age
28–32 33–38
Number
of jobs
Average Number of Jobs Held During
Different Age Periods, United States
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
20–24 25–34
Age
35–44 45–54 55–64 65+
Percent of Adults at Current Job Less Than 1 and 2 Years, 2004
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2004; U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007.
Less than 1 year
Less than 2 years
FIGURE 22.5
No Longer Married to the Job Most of our
grandparents had one job in one place for
their entire working lives. Today’s workers fre-
quently change jobs and locations. This kind
of mobility affects their friendships, identity,
and pension status in various ways.
576-609_BergerLS7e_CH22.qxp 9/20/07 4:40 PM Page 602

years. From a developmental perspective, this is problematic. As with divorce and
other family change, losing a job and finding another is more devastating the older
the worker is, for three reasons.
1. Many of the skills and much of the knowledge required for a new job were
never learned by older workers. The most obvious example is computer liter-
acy. Almost every job now requires computer knowledge, often with software
developed within the past few years. Yet adults who began work 20 or more
years ago (now older than 40) were not exposed to computers in school or
college.
2. Seniority means that older workers are paid more, are often mentors, and have
become experts. This is an advantage when they stay put but a disadvantage
when they seek work, because each area of expertise is specialized.
3. Older workers have established roots. Relocation is more difficult with age
because friends and family must be left behind or move. The unemployment
rate in Mississippi is more than three times the rate in Hawaii (U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics, 2007). If you were a middle-aged adult in Mississippi, would
you leave your family, church, and community for work? What if you were in
Mexico?
Another major change in the current economy is an increase in shift work.
Once, most employees worked from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. and only on weekdays, but
companies now seek to meet customers’ demands for goods and services 24/7. In
the United States in 2005, less than half of all full-time workers had traditional
work schedules (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005). Some (27 percent) had
flexible schedules, some (15 percent) worked odd shifts, some (4 percent) were
temporary employees, some (7 percent) were independent contractors, and some
(4 percent) were looking for work. In addition, 20 percent were working part time,
usually by choice. All of these schedules disrupt family life.
Generativity 603
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The Global Market These women sorting
cashews (left) and the men working on an
offshore oil rig (right) are participants in glob-
alization—a phenomenon that has changed
the economies of every nation and every
family in the world. Radical changes coexist
with traditional inequities. For instance, the
women here are said to have easy, unskilled
work, which is the reason they are paid less
than 10 percent of the men’s wages.
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About one-third of all working couples with young children schedule their
hours so that one parent provides child care while the other works (Presser, 2000).
This is a logical solution that allows both parents to earn money and care for the
children. But the emotional costs to the family may outweigh the benefits, espe-
cially when either parent works a night shift. Couples without young children do
not seem to suffer when one of them has a night schedule, but those with small
children and nighttime jobs are at high risk of divorce (see Figure 22.6). Remem-
ber that relationships require time together to sustain. As one woman explained:
Right now I feel torn between a rock and a hard place—my husband and I work
opposite shifts, so we do not have to put our children in day care. . . . Opposite
shifts [are] putting a strain on our marriage. . . . It is very stressful.
[quoted in Glass, 1998]
Shift work creates a practical problem as well: Adult body rhythms do not allow
deep sleep at any time of the day or night, and a sleep-deprived parent is often
cranky and impatient. While employees may like the flexibility of variable work
schedules, from the perspective of optimal biosocial development of individuals
and families, a regular schedule (even if it always includes odd hours) is better
than an irregular one, and a steady job is better than one with intense overtime al-
ternating with periods of no work.
When there is not enough time for everything, human relationships and family
life tend to suffer. Developmentalists find that family bonds take time to develop,
and child care is not always recognized as a family priority. This may be a negative
side effect of economic pressure, at least according to one middle-class U.S.
worker, who says that people are
so pressed for time that they’re always looking for a shortcut. . . . You look for a
quick way to be able to juggle, you know, because you’ve got a lot of things you need
to do. You need to go home and clean your house, you need to get groceries. . . .
People are always trying to kind of shortcut the system. And society has encour-
aged that. I mean, you no longer have to wait in line for a bank teller. So we’re
getting to the point where we’re always looking for a shortcut. Everybody, every-
body is.
[quoted in Wolfe, 1998, pp. 244–245]
Ironically, much of the stress begins with the misperception that mothers used
to spend long hours caring for their children, reading and playing with them as well
as providing direct care, while fathers earned all the money to support the family.
604 CHAPTER 22 ■ Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
0 321 4
Fixed days
Fixed nights
Rotating shifts
Unemployed
Fixed evenings
5 6 7
Odds of Divorce within Next Five Years (for Parents Married Less Than 5 Years)
Source: Presser, 2000.
Work
pattern
Father
Mother
FIGURE 22.6
Parents’ Work Schedules and the Risk of
Divorce Both the wife’s and the husband’s
work schedules affect their chances of getting
divorced. To interpret this graph, you need to
know that the odds of divorce are set at a
baseline of 1.0 for those who are working
“fixed days” (i.e., most work hours occur be-
tween 8 A.M. and 4 P.M.). The odds of divorce
for other couples are higher or lower than 1,
depending on whether the risk is greater or
less than that of the fixed-days group.
This study was longitudinal, measuring
work schedules of 3,476 married couples over
five years. Of those who initially had been
married less than five years, 21 percent had
divorced; of those who had been married
more than five years, 8 percent had divorced.
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This makes many modern parents worry that their dual-
income paychecks are hurting their children. However, time
studies show that parents are actually spending more time
with each child than they once did (partly because house-
work is easier and families are not as large), yet “the emer-
gence of intensive mothering and involved fathering norms
over recent decades has intensified feelings among parents
that time with children is never sufficient” (Mattingly &
Sayer, 2006, p. 207).
One solution to potential conflict between work and
family roles, made possible by modern technology, is
telecommuting, in which employees use their home com-
puters, phones, and faxes to do many tasks that once had to
be done at the office. This saves office rent and commuting
time, but developmentalists are not sure this is good for
human growth.
A recent study found that families probably benefit, especially when telecom-
muters have flexibility as to what they do and when they do it (Golden et al.,
2006). A worker can take a relative to the doctor, help a child with homework, or
do a load of laundry in the middle of the workday. Fewer distractions and interrup-
tions from the office but more from home benefits family life but may reduce
work efficiency.
This study looked at how many family members each telecommuter had and
found that the larger the family, the more likely family life interfered with work.
However, “they may also experience the benefits of greater family enrichment,”
which makes the authors caution that the advantages of telecommuting may out-
weigh the problems for some workers (Golden et al., 2006, p. 1348). A noteworthy
finding is that those who benefit least may be those who live alone, who miss
the friendships and social interactions that work brings. Telecommuting has “an
upside and a downside” (Golden et al., 2006, p. 1348), as do most changes in the
workplace. Much depends on the individual situation of the worker and on his or
her ability to balance intimacy and generativity needs.
Diversity
One of the benefits of the modern economy is increased diversity, with more em-
ployed women and members of minority groups (see Table 22.5). Since it is appar-
ent that having a job adds to self-esteem as well as income, higher employment
rates have helped those who were shut out before.
In many developed nations, almost half the civilian labor force is female. In the
United States, two-thirds of the mothers of dependent children are employed.
Some occupations continue to be segregated by sex or ethnicity, but less so than
Generativity 605
Not Happy with Mommy Working at home
sounds like an ideal way to combine mother-
hood and a career—until one tries it. Letting a
child chew on a cord is risky, but so is asking
your client to call you back at naptime.
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TABLE 22.5
Adults in Different Groups Who Are Employed
Black Latino Asian White Men (any ethnicity) Women (any ethnicity)
Year
1980 52% 58% 65% 60% 72% 48%
2000 61% 66% 65% 65% 72% 58%
2005 58% 64% 63% 63% 70% 56%
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007.
More Work to Be Done For every
group, some of the adults who are not
in the labor force may choose their sta-
tus, often because they are retired or
doing unpaid child care. Nonetheless,
this table indicates improvements that
have occurred and more that are
needed. One bright spot in bad news:
The recession at the beginning of the
twenty-first century affected all groups
equally.
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before: For example, 8 percent of nurses are men and 5 percent of firefighters are
women, more than double the proportions in 1980 (U.S. Bureau of the Census,
2006). Rates of minority employment have increased as well. For example, from
1980 to 2005, the proportion of African Americans in the labor force has in-
creased from 52 to 58 percent and that of Hispanic Americans has increased from
58 to 64 percent (as illustrated in Table 22.5).
Functioning effectively and happily in a diverse workplace requires a mature
perspective. Being a generative worker in a generative workplace is a goal recently
articulated by psychologists but not often achieved (Blustein, 2006). Human re-
sources counselors are developing selection procedures that assess personal skills
and traits that predict whether a prospective employee will work effectively with
others (Chan, 2005).
Diversity means that employees differ in what they expect and need from their
jobs, which increases the need for mentors who show new employees what is re-
quired as well as the need for work conditions that take into account the specific
needs of each person. This was already evident in the previous discussion of relo-
cation and telecommuting.
It is also evident in the policies for reducing job stress. A study of employees in
the United States and China found that the former were more stressed by lack of
control and direct conflict with supervisors and the latter were more stressed by
the possibility of negative job evaluations and indirect conflicts (Liu et al., 2007).
The implications of different coping patterns (problem-focused versus emotion-
focused) are that, in a diverse workplace, managers must be sensitive to various
signals that all is not well.
Obviously, work can further the well-being of every adult, but the modern
economy includes hazards to adult development. Much remains to be discovered,
but adults of both sexes are physically and psychologically healthier if they have
multiple roles—as workers, friends, partners, and parents. Job and home stresses
are buffered by intimacy and caregiving in all their variations (Grzywacz & Bass,
2003; Rogers & May, 2003; Voydanoff, 2004).
SUMMING UP
Generativity needs are met by caregiving, creative work, and employment. Each of
these areas can be problematic. For example, parents experience pride and joy as they
watch their children grow, but raising children requires substantial time, patience, and
606 CHAPTER 22 ■ Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Stress or Stressor Facing a desk overflowing
with income tax forms and checks is stressful,
and this woman is new to the job—she began
it less than a year ago. Will she quit? Probably
not. She is mature enough to establish priori-
ties and to cope with any unreasonable de-
mands from her supervisor. KA
TH
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Off to Work We Go Even from the back,
this European mother and daughter seem to
be thriving. Note that the mother is carrying
a laptop computer, the daughter is well
dressed, and the two are in step, literally as
well as figuratively.
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Especially for Entrepreneurs Suppose
you are starting a business. In what ways
would middle-aged adults be helpful to you?
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flexibility. This is sometimes difficult for parents raising their biological children and even
harder (but perhaps more rewarding) for step-, foster, and adoptive parents. Caregiving
in general is satisfying, eased by other family members and by the mutual relationships
that sustain families, but stress can overwhelm some caregivers and kinkeepers. Simi-
larly, work can provide many psychic rewards, but the current economic scene makes
work satisfaction elusive for many people.
■
Summary 607
a case to study
Linda: “A Much Sturdier Self”
Remember Linda, whose story began this chapter? Her therapist
reports on her progress:
Linda decided that she wanted to apply to university to try again
in an arena where she felt she had failed so badly. This move was
not easy, particularly for someone haunted by shame. It would be
difficult to describe the fear, ambivalence, and procrastination
with which she approached this challenge. However, after much
equivocation, Linda did send off her application and she was ac-
cepted for university admission. . . .
She lost her job as an office receptionist because of the com-
pany’s downsizing. Previously this would have been such a blow
to her self-esteem that she would have given up on her plans to
go to university. However, Linda picked herself up, got a job with
another firm, finally let go emotionally of Jacqueline, gave Greg
his ultimatum (on which he defaulted), began a relationship
with an eligible partner in the new company, and made plans to
move back east to begin university. . . .
Linda’s story is not over by any means. I do not know whether
she will be the criminology major and psychological counselor
she aims to be. I do not know what will become of her current
relationship. However, I do know that she takes a much sturdier
self and a much stronger identity into her new world.
[Marcia, 2002, pp. 24–25]
Linda discovered her identity, found better ways to achieve
intimacy, and is seeking more education in part to become more
generative. She is on her way to a happier life, despite complica-
tions (with her earlier relationships, with downsizing) and, like
other adults, has the potential to develop “a much sturdier self.”
Given the complexity of intimacy and generativity in the
current context, psychosocial growth for Linda and other adults
is not guaranteed. Many are “on their way,” however, taking a
“much sturdier self and a much stronger identity into a new
world.”
Ages and Stages
1. Adult development is remarkably diverse, yet it appears to be
characterized by two basic needs. Throughout adulthood, people
seek intimacy, which is achieved through friendships, family attach-
ments, and romantic partnerships. The second need is for genera-
tivity, which is achieved through caregiving, parenthood, and work.
2. Traditional patterns of development following specific tasks at
specific ages have been replaced by more varied and flexible
patterns. The social clock still influences behavior, but less pro-
foundly than it once did. The midlife crisis does not usually occur.
3. Personality traits are a source of continuity. The Big Five
traits—openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness,
and neuroticism—are evident throughout the life span and are
particularly stable in adulthood.
4. Each person selects an ecological niche of career and partner,
which reinforces personality patterns. Although such choices typ-
ically strengthen traits, unexpected events (for instance, a major
illness or financial windfall) can temporarily disrupt personality.
5. Culture and gender have some influence on personality, but this
is more evident in expression than in underlying temperament.
Asians may be more likely than other ethnic groups to depend on
others, and the two sexes may become more similar to each other
as people age.
Intimacy
6. Each person has a social convoy of other people with whom
they travel through life. Friends are crucial for buffering stress
and sharing secrets.
7. Family members have linked lives, continuing to affect one
another as they all grow older. Siblings typically become closer
over the years of adulthood, and adult children and their parents
continue to help one another in practical and emotional ways.
8. Almost all adults find a partner to share life with, usually rais-
ing children together.
9. Although some research finds that marriage and parenthood
increase happiness in adulthood, this is not always true and the
SUMMARY
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social clock (p. 579)
midlife crisis (p. 580)
Big Five (p. 581)
ecological niche (p. 581)
gender convergence (p. 583)
social convoy (p. 585)
allostatic load (p. 586)
linked lives (p. 587)
household (p. 587)
familism (p. 588)
fictive kin (p. 589)
empty nest (p. 591)
kinkeeper (p. 596)
sandwich generation (p. 599)
extrinsic rewards of work (p. 601)
intrinsic rewards of work (p. 601)
KEY TERMS
608 CHAPTER 22 ■ Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
6. How are family relationships affected by the passage of time?
7. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of biological and
nonbiological parenthood.
8. Women are more often kinkeepers and caregivers than are
men. How is this role both a blessing and a burden?
9. Pick one of the changes in work over the past decades and ex-
plain how it has affected family life and adults’ development.
10. Who benefits and who suffers from the increased diversity of
the workplace?
1. Describe the two basic needs of adulthood, using the words of
several theorists as well as your own descriptions.
2. How does the social clock affect life choices for both high-
income and low-income adults?
3. Explain how the midlife crisis, the empty nest, and gender
convergence might reflect cohort rather than maturational
changes.
4. Compare the three main sources of intimacy.
5. What are the psychological and social factors that make di-
vorce better or worse for an adult?
3. Think about becoming a foster or adoptive parent yourself.
What would you see as the personal benefits and costs?
4. Ask several people how their personalities have changed in the
past decade. The research suggests that changes are usually
minor. Is that what you found?
1. Describe a relationship that you know of in which a middle-
aged person and a younger adult learned from each other.
2. Did your parents’ marital and employment status affect you?
How would you have fared if they had chosen other marriage or
work patterns?
KEY QUESTIONS
APPLICATIONS
relationship may be more correlational than causal. Some mar-
riages improve with time; others do not.
10. Homosexual partnerships are similar in most ways to hetero-
sexual ones. Single people fare well if they have close friends.
Given the changing social contexts, research has not yet discov-
ered all the similarities and differences in various types of part-
nerships.
11. Divorce is difficult for both partners and their family members.
Remarriage solves some of the problems (particularly financial
and intimacy troubles) that are common among divorced adults,
but remarriage is complicated and may end in a second divorce.
Generativity
12. Adults need to feel generative, achieving, successful, instru-
mental—all words used to describe a major psychosocial need.
This need is met through creative work, employment, and care-
giving, especially those activities aimed toward supporting and
assisting the next generation.
13. Caring for partners, parents, children, and others is a major
expression of generativity. Often one family member becomes the
chief kinkeeper and caregiver, usually by choice. The “sandwich
generation” metaphor is misleading.
14. Parenthood typically begins with biological childbearing and
then continues as a parental alliance forms between mother and
father. Adults are changed by their children as they grow.
15. Many adults care for children who are not their biological off-
spring. Step-, foster, and adoptive parenting can be both challeng-
ing and satisfying. Aunts and uncles also can be generative for the
next generation.
16. Employment brings many rewards to adults, particularly in-
trinsic benefits such as pride and friendship. Changes in employ-
ment pattern—including job switches, shift work, and diversity of
fellow workers—can affect other aspects of adult development.
17. Combining work schedules, caregiving requirements, and
intimacy needs is not automatic; adults find varied ways to fill
numerous roles, some more successful than others.
income is likely to be higher at about age 50 than at any other time, so
middle-aged adults will probably be able to afford your products or
services.
➤Response for Entrepreneurs (from page 606): As employees and
as customers. Middle-aged workers are steady, with few absences and
good “people skills,” and they like to work. In addition, household
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BIOSOCIAL
The Aging Process Senescence begins as soon as growth stops. The signs of aging in
the skin, hair, muscles, and body shape are benign but can be disconcerting. Losses of
acuity in hearing and vision are usually gradual and are not debilitating for most people.
Senescence of the sexual-reproductive system includes reduced levels of hormones and
less urgent sexual desire as people age from 25 to 65. Some men become concerned
about less reliable erections; some women are troubled by menopause, when estrogen
levels fall dramatically, making reproduction impossible. For some younger adults, con-
cerns about infertility have led to alternate means of reproduction.
Health Habits Avoiding tobacco and obesity, maintaining daily exercise and good
nutrition, and moderate use of alcohol keep most adults healthy. In addition, medical
treatment for some conditions that may begin in middle age (high blood pressure and
diabetes among them) prevents mortality, morbidity, and disability. Income, culture,
gender, and genes all affect health throughout life, notably during the adult years.
COGNITIVE
What Is Intelligence? Researchers describe adult intelligence in many ways, noting
that some intellectual abilities improve with age, while others decline. Some believe that
there is a general intelligence that underlies all cognitive abilities, but most find several
distinct kinds of intelligence that vary with culture and age. For example, fluid intelligence
decreases and crystallized intelligence increases; academic intelligence becomes less
important after college, but practical intelligence is increasingly necessary. Overall,
cohort differences and individual variations are more notable than age differences.
Selective Gains and Losses To cope with the effects that aging has on cognition,
adults become selective, compensating for losses and specializing in tasks they do
well (optimization). Choice and motivation lead to practice and thus expertise, which is
characterized by cognition that is intuitive, automatic, strategic, and flexible.
PSYCHOSOCIAL
Ages and Stages Chronological age and the social clock are no longer as influential
as they were, as adults develop in ways that reflect their Big Five personality traits and
their ecological niches more than their age. The midlife crisis is more myth than reality.
Nonetheless, gender, age, and culture affect personality to some degree, especially in
the expression of various characteristics.
Intimacy Throughout adulthood, including before and after the ages (25–65) that are
the focus of this period, people depend on friends, family members, and life partners to
meet their needs for respect and affection. Adults usually have rewarding relationships
with friends, with partners (heterosexual or homosexual), with adult children, and with
aging siblings and parents. All these intimate connections can be problematic, especially
the relationship with a spouse, which ends in divorce almost half the time.
Generativity Adults often become caregivers, typically as parents (whether biological
or otherwise) or as children of elderly parents. Employment is another source of gener-
ativity as well as of income, status, and stress. Globalization and diversity have changed
the careers of many adults, who today are more likely to change jobs and to work with
people of many backgrounds. Many adults of both sexes successfully coordinate the
demands of partner, children, and employers.
609
Adulthood
PA RT VII The Developing Person So Far:
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Late
Adulthood
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611
W
hat emotions do you anticipate as
you read about development in
late adulthood? Given the myths
that abound, you might expect to
feel discomfort, depression, resignation, and sorrow.
At moments in the next three chapters, such emo-
tions may be appropriate. However, your most fre-
quent emotion might be surprise. For example, you
will learn in Chapter 23 that thousands of centenari-
ans are active, alert, and happy; in Chapter 24 that
marked intellectual decline (“senility”) is unusual; in
Chapter 25 that relationships between older and
younger generations are neither as close as some
imagine nor as distant as others claim. Overall, late
adulthood continues earlier patterns rather than
breaks from them. Instead of resigning themselves
to lonely isolation, most older adults remain social
and independent.
This period of life, more than any other, is a mag-
net for misinformation and prejudice. Why? Think
about the answer when the facts and research pre-
sented in the next three chapters surprise you.
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
PA R T V I I I
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23
613
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� Prejudice and Predictions
Ageism
Gerontology
The Demographic Shift
Dependents and Independence
� Senescence
Aging and Disease
Selective Optimization with Compensation
Health Habits
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS:
Getting from Place to Place
The Brain
Physical Appearance
Dulling of the Senses
Compression of Morbidity
� Theories of Aging
Wear and Tear
Genetic Adaptation
Cellular Aging
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST:
Can the Aging Process Be Stopped?
� The Centenarians
Other Places, Other Stories
The Truth About Life After 100
Late Adulthood:
Biosocial Development
Now we begin our study of the last phase of life, from age 65 or sountil death. This chapter describes biosocial changes—in thesenses, the vital organs, morbidity, and mortality—and thenraises the crucial question: Why does aging occur? The answer
might allow you to live to age 100 or beyond.
If the thought of living more than a century evokes feelings of dread, re-
member that personal knowledge usually softens prejudice (both negative
and positive). One way to combat prejudice is simply to ask someone old, as
I did on my mother’s 90th birthday.
“How does it feel to be 90?”
“Okay, but 89 felt better.”
She looked old, but her wit was intact.
Another way is to take the following quiz to see how much you know
about the realities of life after age 65.
1. In 2007, the proportion of the U.S. population over age 65 was about
(a) 3 percent.
(b) 13 percent.
(c) 25 percent.
(d) 33 percent.
(e) 50 percent.
2. In 2005, the proportion of the world’s population over age 65 was about
(a) 2 percent.
(b) 8 percent.
(c) 12 percent.
(d) 20 percent.
(e) 35 percent.
3. Happiness in older people is
(a) rare.
(b) much less common than in younger adults.
(c) at least as common as in younger adults.
(d) apparent only in those who are grandparents.
(e) apparent only among those who have dementia.
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4. Which senses become less acute in old age?
(a) Sight and hearing
(b) Taste and smell
(c) Varied, as each sense improves in some people and declines in others
(d) None if the person is healthy
(e) All
5. The automobile accident rate for licensed drivers over age 65 is
(a) higher than for those under 65.
(b) about the same as for those under age 65.
(c) lower than for those under age 65.
(d) unknown, because such statistics are not reported.
(e) close to zero, because almost no one over age 65 drives.
6. About what percent of U.S. residents over age 65 are in nursing homes
or hospitals?
(a) 4 percent
(b) 10 percent
(c) 25 percent
(d) 35 percent
(e) 50 percent
7. Compared with that of younger adults, the reaction time of older adults is
(a) slower.
(b) about the same.
(c) faster.
(d) slower for men, faster for women.
(e) faster for men, slower for women.
8. Lung capacity (measured by how much air a person expels in one breath)
(a) is reduced with age.
(b) stays the same among nonsmokers.
(c) increases among healthy old people.
(d) is unrelated to age.
(e) is unaffected by smoking.
9. The most common living arrangement for a person over age 65
in the United States is
(a) with a husband or wife.
(b) with a grown child.
(c) alone.
(d) with an unrelated elderly person.
(e) in a nursing home.
10. Compared with people under age 65, an older adult’s chance of being a
victim of a violent crime is
(a) lower.
(b) about the same.
(c) higher.
(d) lower for men, higher for women.
(e) higher for men, lower for women.
This quiz is adapted from a much larger one called Facts on Aging (Palmore,
1998). Current data come primarily from the U.S. Bureau of the Census (2006),
which includes some international statistics.
As you read this chapter, you will find the answers to these questions (on the
following pages: 1, p. 617; 2, p. 617; 3, p. 616; 4, p. 620; 5, p. 624; 6, p. 619;
7, p. 620; 8, p. 622; 9, p. 619; 10, p. 627). Most people get at least half wrong,
sometimes because they simply lack knowledge but usually because prejudice—
more negative than positive—clouds their judgment (Palmore et al., 2005).
Especially for People Who Guess on
Quizzes On a multiple-choice quiz, it is
better to guess than to leave an answer
blank. People tend to choose b as a guess
when they are not certain of the answer. Is
this true for you?
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Prejudice and Predictions
Prejudice about late adulthood is common among people of all ages, including
children and older adults themselves. As an example of the latter, most people
over age 70 think that they themselves are doing well compared with other people
their age, who, they believe, have worse problems and are too self-absorbed
(Cruikshank, 2003; Townsend et al., 2006).
Ageism
Two leading scientists who study old age noted:
Common beliefs about the aging process result in negative stereotypes—
oversimplified and biased views of what old people are like. The “typical” old
person is often viewed as uninterested in (and incapable of) sex, on the road to
(if not arrived at) senility, conservative and rigid. The stereotype would have us
believe that old people are tired and cranky, passive, without energy, weak, and
dependent on others.
[Schaie & Willis, 1996, p. 17]
All these stereotypes are false. They arise from a widespread prejudice called
ageism, the tendency to categorize and judge people solely on the basis of
chronological age. “Ageism is a social disease, much like racism and sexism” in
that it relies on stereotypes, creating “needless fear, waste, illness, and misery”
(Palmore, 2005, p. 90).
Ageism Against Young and Old
You read in Chapter 20 that calculation of QALYs (quality-adjusted life years)
often discounts the years of late adulthood. That is ageist. Some curfew laws re-
quire all teenagers to be off the streets by 10 P.M. That, too, is ageist. (Imagine the
public outcry if curfews applied only to all males or all non-Whites) Ageism is
“pigeon-holing people and not allowing them to be individuals with unique ways
of living their lives” (Butler et al., 1998, p. 208).
Teenagers rebel against ageism. Fortunately for them, they soon become adults,
and anti-teen ageism no longer affects them. Unfortunately for the elderly, as they
grow older, ageism gets worse. Restaurant staff patronize them, neighbors do not
invite them to parties, employers refuse to hire them—all because they are old.
Ageism is particularly damaging during late adulthood, because the targets suc-
cumb to policies and attitudes that reduce their pride, activity, health, and social
involvement (Hess, 2006).
Elderspeak
One common expression of ageism is the demeaning kind of speech called elder-
speak. Like baby talk, elderspeak uses simple and short sentences, exaggerated
emphasis, slower talk, higher and louder pitch, and frequent repetition (See et al.,
1999). Elderspeak often involves the use of demeaning clichés (“second child-
hood,” “dirty old man,” “senior moment,” “doddering”) or patronizing compliments
(“spry,” “having all her marbles”). Elderspeak is especially patronizing when people
enunciate artificially, or call an older person “honey” or “dear,” or use a nickname
instead of a surname (“Johnny” instead of “Mr. White”). Some features of elder-
speak reduce comprehension (Kemper & Harden, 1999): Lower pitch is more
audible than higher pitch; stretching out words makes it harder to understand
them. Elderspeak is often used by service providers (such as social workers and
nurses) who know only the age, not the person (O’Conner & St. Pierre, 2004).
Older adults react with anger or, worse, self-doubt.
ageism A prejudice in which people are cat-
egorized and judged solely on the basis of
their chronological age.
elderspeak A condescending way of speak-
ing to older adults that resembles baby
talk, with simple and short sentences,
exaggerated emphasis, repetition, and a
slower rate and a higher pitch than normal
speech.
Prejudice and Predictions 615
Especially for Young Adults Should you
always speak louder and slower when talking
to a senior citizen?
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At least with racism, the targets of the prejudice are taught to disbelieve the
negative assumptions that others have. Many become proud of being members of
their race. However, when children believe an ageist idea, no one teaches them
otherwise. When those children become old, their lifetime prejudice is “extremely
resistant to change,” becoming a “self-fulfilling prophecy” that undercuts their
health and intellect (Golub & Langer, 2007, pp. 12–13). They may tolerate elder-
speak without realizing its effect on them.
Gerontology
Ageism is increasingly recognized as a prejudice, partly because of gerontology,
the multidisciplinary study of old age. Many developmentalists who study the life
span find late adulthood to be a continuation of earlier life, influenced by the same
genetic, contextual, and familial factors that affect children and younger adults.
Thus, gerontologists see late adulthood as similar to younger ages, with gains and
losses, contextual influences, and plasticity as described in Chapter 1 (see page 15).
The people studied by gerontologists are typically community-dwelling adults
(as opposed to older people who are living in nursing homes or other institutions).
This population repeatedly provides evidence that they are usually healthy, active,
and as happy and satisfied with their lives as younger adults (Myers, 2000)
(question 3).
Gerontologists, benefiting from the life-span perspective as well as the data they
collect, conclude that aging is not necessarily problematic unless it is “socially
constructed as a problem” (Cruikshank, 2003, p. 7). For example, with the inev-
itable declines that accompany aging, older people walk more slowly than younger
ones; this is not a problem unless someone else is in a hurry or a red light is timed
for faster-moving pedestrians.
Gerontology reaches conclusions quite different from geriatrics, the traditional
medical specialty devoted to aging. Since geriatric physicians and nurses see
hundreds of patients who are ill and infirm, they equate aging and illness; that is
their experience. One geriatrician described “the patient seen in most geriatric
practices—old, somewhat frail, with multiple medical conditions and taking mul-
tiple medications, possibly with some cognitive, functional, or mood impairment”
(Leipzig, 2003, p. 4).
More specialists are needed in both disciplines. Geriatricians must help their
patients cope with chronic, disabling diseases (such as arthritis and emphysema),
which are undertreated, underresearched, and underfinanced (Cassel et al., 2003;
Kane & Kane, 2005). The challenge for gerontologists is different—not preventing
morbidity as much as increasing older people’s joy in life: “From a gerontologist’s
perspective, the twenty-first century will be a time of unprecedented promise
and excitement . . . [for a] life of great quality, great longevity” (Hazzard, 2001,
pp. 452, 455).
The Demographic Shift
Ageism is decreasing somewhat because millions of people worldwide are reach-
ing old age, and it is harder to be ageist when many of one’s neighbors and rela-
tives are old. The increase in the number of elderly people is being studied in
demography (population study), the science that describes the characteristics of
people of a particular age, gender, or region. We are witnessing what demogra-
phers call a demographic shift in the proportions of the population of various ages.
Once there were 20 times more children than older people; a shift is occurring
as more people survive to later adulthood.
gerontology The multidisciplinary study of
old age.
geriatrics The medical specialty devoted to
aging.
demography The study of the characteristics
of human populations, including size, birth
and death rates, density, and distribution.
616 CHAPTER 23 ■ Late Adulthood: Biosocial Development
➤Response for People Who Guess on
Quizzes (from page 614): If you chose b as
the answer to more than two of these quiz
questions, you have made at least one wrong
guess.
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The World’s Aging Population
The United Nations estimates that nearly 8 percent of the world’s population today
is over age 65, compared with only 2 percent a century ago (question 2). In devel-
oped nations, the proportion is larger: 13 percent of the population in Canada,
Australia, and the United States (question 1), 16 percent in Great Britain, 19
percent in Italy, and 20 percent in Japan are 65 years old or older. Some nations,
notably Japan, have more people over 65 than under 15. This is a worldwide shift:
People over age 65 are projected to make up 9 percent of the world’s population by
2015 and 16 percent by 2050 (United Nations, 2007).
Most nations still have more children than older adults (worldwide in 2005
there were four times more people under age 15 as over 65), but every country’s
population is aging. The fastest-growing age group is the centenarians, people
over age 100. Their numbers are still small, far fewer than 1 percent in any nation
(0.02 percent in the United States in 2005, or 71,000 individuals). Given current
survival rates, however, the United States will have more than 241,000 people
over age 100 in 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census (2006). The
world will have 3.2 million centenarians by the year 2050 (United Nations, 2007).
Graphing the Change
Demographers often depict a given population as a series of stacked bars, one bar
for each age cohort, with the bar representing the youngest cohort at the bottom
and the bar for the oldest cohort at the top (see Figure 1.8, p. 24). Historically, the
result is a shape called a demographic pyramid. Like a wedding cake, this diagram
is widest at the base, and each higher level is narrower than the one beneath it.
There were three reasons for this traditional pyramidal shape. First, far more chil-
dren were born than the replacement rate of one per adult, so each new cohort was
bigger than the last. Second, before modern sanitation and nutrition, about half of
all children died before age 5. Finally, those who lived to be middle-aged rarely
survived adult diseases like cancer or heart attacks. As a result, after age 50 or so,
each five-year cohort was about 20 percent smaller than the next-younger group.
Sometimes unusual world events have caused a deviation from this wedding-
cake pattern. For example, the Great Depression and World War II reduced the
birth rate in every nation. Then postwar prosperity increased rates of marriage,
home-buying, and births; a “baby boom” occurred between 1946 and 1964,
notably in the United States but in most other nations as well. The survival rate of
children also increased. Indeed, in the 1960s many demographers feared a world-
wide population explosion, a disaster that would result in mass starvation and only
a few feet of living space per person (Ehrlich, 1968).
That fear has subsided. Birth rates have fallen throughout the developed world
and in some developing nations. Some experts now warn of a new and very differ-
ent population problem: not enough babies (Booth & Crouter, 2005). Each new
cohort may be no larger than the previous one, as death before late adulthood
becomes less common. The demographic stacks for Germany, Italy, and Japan are
already almost square.
The populations of some nations still reflect the pyramid pattern. For example,
less than 3 percent of the populations of Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and
Sudan are over age 65, because medical care is scarce and war has killed many
adults. However, even in the poorest nations, family size is shrinking, with a re-
duction from an average of eight to four children per woman. In those places
almost no one lived past 65 twenty years ago; now about 1 person in 40 does.
Demographic data are often reported in ways designed to alarm. If you got ques-
tion 1, about the proportion of elderly people, wrong, you can blame the media.
centenarian A person who has lived 100
years or more.
Prejudice and Predictions 617
➤Response for Young Adults (from page
615): No. Some seniors hear well, and they
would resent it.
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For instance, some reports state that people over age 85 are the fastest-growing
age group and that their numbers will double by 2050. That is true, and it sounds
frightening. But “fastest-growing” could mean that the number of elderly people
will double from two to four! Those over 85 are now 2 percent of the U.S. popula-
tion. Even with an unprecedented increase in longevity that would allow many
baby boomers to live until their 90s, which would double the proportion over age
85 by 2050, only 1 in 25 of U.S. residents would be that old. The other 24 would
not be overwhelmed.
If the new shape of the demographic stack is interpreted in ageist terms, it
becomes a burden for younger adults. Or it can be welcomed as providing more
volunteers, voters, and grandparents, benefiting everyone (Lloyd-Sherlock, 2004;
Longino, 2005). Which of these opposite possibilities turns out to be more accu-
rate depends partly on how healthy and socially active those over age 65 will be.
Dependents and Independence
Every society has independent, self-sufficient adults and “dependents” who need
care. Traditionally, it was assumed that those aged 15 to 64 were independent and
productive (either in the labor force or at home) while those under age 15 and over
65 were dependent. This assumption was invalid for some individuals, but it was
used as a generality to calculate the dependency ratio, the number of self-
supporting people (aged 15 to 65) in a given population divided by the number of
dependents, young and old.
In most industrialized countries, the current dependency ratio—about 2:1, or
two independent adults for every one dependent—is lower than it has been for a
century. That’s because the birth rate has been declining since 1970 and low birth
rates during the Depression mean that relatively few people are now over age 65.
By contrast, the poorest developing nations have so many children that their de-
pendency ratio is 1:1.
What will happen worldwide as more people live longer? Especially as young
people need more education to become self-sufficient (which typically does not
happen until they are in their 20s) and as more baby boomers retire before age 65,
the tax and caregiving burden may fall on a shrinking middle cohort. If people live
to 90 or 100, and only the middle third of the population—young and middle-aged
adults—are working, the dependency ratio will flip from 2:1 to 1:2.
dependency ratio The ratio of self-sufficient,
productive adults to dependents (children
and the elderly) in a given population.
618 CHAPTER 23 ■ Late Adulthood: Biosocial Development
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Determined to Vote Older voters tend to
have stronger political opinions, more party
loyalty, and higher voting rates than younger
adults. This Punjabi woman takes an active
interest in politics, even though she must
depend on her son to carry her to the polling
place.
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One geriatrician has warned:
America [is] facing financial and sociological destruction, burning in the flashpoint
of a 76 million megaton age bomb . . . as 76 million aging baby boomers cause an
unprecedented crisis in geriatric medicine and in our social and economic support
system. . . . The coming juggernaut of the aged and infirm will crush our most
beloved and important social support systems—Medicare, Social Security, and
quality private health insurance—and, if not deflected, will bankrupt America.
[Klatz, 1997]
Although this alarmist was from the United States, the demographic shift
worries social scientists and demographers in every nation (Lloyd-Sherlock,
2004; Walker, 2005). For example, China has by far the largest population (more
than a billion), an excellent dependency ratio (about 2.5:1), and twice as many
citizens under 15 as over 65. Nonetheless, Chinese demographers ask, “Who
will care for the elderly in China?” and fear the same “megaton age bomb”
(Zhang & Goza, 2006).
Not So Bleak a Future
Fortunately, this time bomb is unlikely to explode, for three reasons.
First, modern technology means that fewer and fewer workers are needed to
provide the food, shelter, and other goods that society needs. A century ago, 90
percent of the world’s workers were farmers, who harvested just barely enough to
feed themselves, their large families, and the other 10 percent. Now a few farmers
feed everyone. For example, less than 2 percent of the current U.S. labor force are
in agriculture (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2006; see Research Design). No nation
has more farmers than workers in any other category. Worldwide, a third of the
people can produce adequate food and other necessities for everyone.
Second, there is an inverse relationship between birth rates and longevity (Kirk-
wood, 2003). Studies of human birth and death rates from many nations, as well
as studies of animals from many species, find fewer births among long-lived social
groups. This means that the birth rate will continue to fall as the aged population
increases, reducing the caregiving demands on younger adults.
Finally and most important, the assumption that people over age 65 are
“dependent” is ageist. Elders are “caregivers, guardians, leaders, stabilizing centers,
teachers . . . culture bearers” (Carey, 2003, p. 231). Most of them are fiercely
independent, providing for themselves and contributing to society. Older adults
are more likely to care for others than to be cared for: They have high rates of
voting, participating in community and religious groups, and donating to charity.
Contrary to the idea that most older people are infirm, only 10 percent of those
over age 65 need extensive daily care, and in the United States less than half of
those (about 4 percent of the total) are in nursing homes or hospitals (question 6).
(Rates are even lower worldwide.)
In the United States, most people over 65 (about 55 percent) live with a
spouse, about 30 percent (usually widows) live alone, and almost 10 percent live
with grown children—half within the child’s household and the other half as
householders who allow their grown children to live with them (question 9) (U.S.
Bureau of the Census, 2006). These percentages vary from nation to nation (in
some cultures widows almost never live alone), but everywhere most older adults
care for themselves.
People tend to overestimate the dependency of the elders (this question is most
often missed on the quiz), because the frail and confused attract notice. However,
think about your relatives over age 65. Most of them are probably self-sufficient,
and if anyone is in a nursing home, he or she was probably self-sufficient for years.
Prejudice and Predictions 619
Research Design
Scientists: Lars B. Johanson and hun-
dreds of others.
Publication: Statistical Abstract of the
United States (2007 and previous years).
Participants:The entire resident United
States population is surveyed by the
U.S. Bureau of the Census every 10
years, and samples are surveyed every
year.The findings are analyzed, collated,
and printed in the Statistical Abstract,
published every year. Efforts are made
to include the homeless, the hospital-
ized, the undocumented, although such
groups are still undercounted.
Design: Questions are carefully crafted,
asked by people with the same culture
and language as the respondents. By
law, answers are confidential and are
safeguarded from inquiries by the immi-
gration authorities. Other national and
international agencies also provide
data, which are checked for accuracy.
Major conclusion: Most results are what
researchers would expect, but recent
surprises include rising rates of low-
birthweight infants, falling rates of teen
pregnancy, more centenarians, and
fewer serious crimes.
Comment: Social scientists rely on these
data. Although not 100 percent accurate,
the Statistical Abstract is more compre-
hensive than other sources.The main
problems are omissions: questions not
asked, data not collected, statistics not
included. Ethnic backgrounds are not
well distinguished: Mexicans and Puerto
Ricans are placed in the same category,
as are Jamaicans and African Americans,
Germans and Greeks, Navajos and
Hawaiians, Pakistanis and Japanese.
Until 2000, mixed-race respondents had
to identify themselves as belonging to
only one racial group.
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primary aging The universal and irreversible
physical changes that occur to all living
creatures as they grow older.
secondary aging The specific physical ill-
nesses or conditions that become more
common with aging but are caused by
health habits, genes, and other influences
that vary from person to person.
Young, Old, and Oldest
It is ageist to lump all the older adults together, as often occurs the Statistical
Abstract of the United States. Gerontologists distinguish among the young-old,
the old-old, and the oldest-old, a distinction based not exclusively on age but
also on health and well-being. The young-old make up the largest group of older
adults. They are healthy, active, financially secure, and independent.
Many leaders in politics, entertainment, and business are young-old, although
not usually perceived that way. One example is Dolly Parton, country singer, song-
writer (“Jolene”), and actress (9 to 5), who is now in her 60s and still selling out
concert halls.
The old-old suffer from some losses in body, mind, or social support, although
they still have some strengths as well. The oldest-old (about 10 percent of the aged)
are dependent, at risk for illness and injury. In general, the young-old are age 60 to
75 and the oldest-old are over age 85. However, age does not equate with depend-
ency; some of the old-old are 100 years old, but others are only 60.
Many gerontologists prefer to label groups of people over 60 using terms that do
not refer to age—optimal aging, usual aging, and impaired aging (Aldwin & Gilmer,
2003; Powell, 1994). The term successful aging is also used (Rowe & Kahn, 1998),
signifying levels of social interaction and activity that are beyond the capacity of
some people in their 60s and almost everyone over 100 (Motta et al., 2005).
SUMMING UP
Ageism is a common but destructive prejudice. Ageism is evident in the patronizing
tones of elderspeak as well as the more common prejudice behind fearful predictions
concerning the growing numbers of older people. The numbers of the population who
are over age 65 are indeed increasing (from the current 13 percent in the United States
and 7 percent worldwide), but most elders are quite self-sufficient and independent.
They are far more likely to live with a spouse or alone than to be dependent on a grown
child or to be in a long-term-care facility. Most elderly people may be considered the
young-old, aging successfully, far more likely to support younger generations than to be
dependent on them. Only the oldest-old (at most, 10 percent of the total number of
people over age 65) need full-time care, whether at home with their family members or
in residential care facilities.
■
Senescence
Senescence, you remember, is the aging process, which is evident from adoles-
cence on. As discussed in Chapters 17 and 20, with each decade reaction time
slows (question 7), all the senses become less acute (question 4), organ reserves
are diminished, and homeostasis takes longer. In late adulthood, the visible signs
of senescence become more obvious; as an unfortunate result, they may “serve as
physical markers” for ageism (Calasanti, 2005, p. 9). Underlying those superficial
signs are the invisible changes that take place in the internal organs.
Aging and Disease
Gerontologists distinguish between primary aging, the universal changes that
occur with senescence, and secondary aging, the consequences of particular
diseases. A leading gerontologist explains:
young-old Healthy, vigorous, financially
secure older adults (generally, those aged
60 to 75) who are well integrated into the
lives of their families and communities.
old-old Older adults (generally, those over
age 75) who suffer from physical, mental,
or social deficits.
oldest-old Elderly adults (generally, those
over age 85) who are dependent on others
for almost everything, requiring supportive
services such as nursing homes and hos-
pital stays.
620 CHAPTER 23 ■ Late Adulthood: Biosocial Development
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At Age 60 As one of 12 children, Dolly Parton
grew up “dirt poor” in Tennessee; as a young-
old woman, she is still a very popular singer,
songwriter, and actress. Her Imagination Li-
brary program distributes more than 2.5 mil-
lion free books to children every year. She
maintains her image as a full-figured blonde
bombshell via extensive cosmetic surgery,
quipping, “It takes a lot of money to look this
cheap.”
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Primary aging is defined as the universal changes occurring with age that are not
caused by diseases or environmental influences. Secondary aging is defined as
changes involving interactions of primary aging processes with environmental in-
fluences and disease processes.
[Masoro, 2006, p. 46]
High Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular Disease
As you might imagine, the distinction between primary and secondary aging is not
clear-cut. For example, the leading cause of death for both men and women is
cardiovascular disease, which is disease that involves the heart (cardio) and
circulatory system (vascular).
Cardiovascular disease is secondary aging, because, although common, it is far
from universal and is more risk-related than age-related (Supiano, 2006). For ex-
ample, the Cardiovascular Health Study began with more than 5,000 people over
age 65 in the United States who did not have heart disease. After six years, some
participants had developed heart disease that was not related to aging as much as
to diabetes, smoking, abdominal fat, high blood pressure, lack of exercise, and
high cholesterol (Fried et al., 1998).
However, the distinction between primary and secondary aging here is not as
simple as it may seem. For example, high blood pressure (also called hypertension)
is a risk factor for heart disease, stroke, cognitive impairment, and many other
ailments of late adulthood. Hypertension is powerfully affected not only by some
aspects of life style (salt consumption, weight) but also by genes and age. For
example, a large sample of 65-year-old women with normal blood pressure were
followed for 20 years. Most of them maintained their health habits, exercising and
eating at age 85 as they had at age 65. Nonetheless, nearly 90 percent of them
developed high blood pressure (Vasan et al., 2002).
Apparently hypertension is age-related, and cardiovascular disease is
hypertension-related, so it is an oversimplification to conclude that hypertension
is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease but age is not (Supiano, 2006). This kind
of interaction between factors applies to almost every disease (Masoro, 2006).
The mere passage of time does not cause secondary aging, but many biological
changes of primary aging increase vulnerability to disease. For example, in addi-
tion to hypertension, other risks for heart disease that increase with age are
cholesterol level, lipids (fats) in the blood, and stiffened arteries.
Diseases of the Elderly
The distinction between primary and secondary aging highlights an important
fact: Most elderly people, even the oldest-old, do not have any particular disease.
Less than half have cardiovascular disease, or diabetes, or dementia. But we
cannot ignore another fact: Almost everyone has at least one disease, and many
have several.
The precise meaning of “almost everyone” varies, depending on: (1) the medical
cutoff point (for example, high blood pressure was traditionally diagnosed at a sys-
tolic reading of 160 or higher but is now diagnosed at 140 or higher), (2) detection
methods (diabetes is more often detected than it used to be), (3) the population
studied (some groups are healthier), and (4) definitions. One study defined dis-
ease as any condition that requires ongoing medical attention and/or interferes
with daily life for at least a year. By that definition, 84 percent of U.S. residents
over age 65 had at least one disease and 62 percent had two or more (Anderson &
Horvath, 2004).
Senescence 621
cardiovascular disease Disease that involves
the heart and the circulatory system.
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All the vital bodily systems—cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, and renal/
urinary—sustain life. Organ reserve and homeostasis enable each system to func-
tion well, even under stress, during most of adulthood, unless some particular
problem (such as smoking, a virus, or drug abuse) results in illness.
Although primary aging is not the cause, it makes every bodily system slower
and less efficient and thus makes disease more likely (Masoro, 2006). The heart
pumps more slowly and the vascular network is less flexible, so blood pressure
rises and increases the risk of stroke and heart attacks. The lungs take in and expel
less air with each breath (question 8), so that the level of oxygen in the blood is
reduced. The digestive system slows, becoming less able to absorb nutrients and
expel toxins. The kidneys are less efficient at regulating levels of water, potassium,
and other substances, a situation that is particularly problematic if the older adult
drinks less to reduce incontinence—which itself can be caused by an imperfect
renal/urinary system.
As a result of this slowdown and loss of efficiency, serious diseases—heart
attacks, strokes, lower-respiratory diseases (e.g., emphysema), and most forms of
cancer—are much more common in late adulthood. These examples of secondary
aging are only indirectly caused by primary aging. Compared with 25- to 34-year-
olds, those over age 85 in the United States today are:
■ 1,000 times more likely to die of heart disease
■ 1,000 times more likely to die of a stroke
■ 800 times more likely to die of respiratory disease
■ 200 times more likely to die of cancer
■ 18 times more likely to die overall
The overall death rate (the last item on the list) is lower than the rate for any of
the individual major diseases on the list because some causes of death are more
common in the young than the old. Notably, the rate of homicide is eight times
higher among those in their early 20s than among those 85 and older (National
Center for Health Statistics, 2005).
Recuperation is slower in the very old, and weakened organs make the elderly
more vulnerable if illness or an accident occurs (see Figure 23.1) (Arking, 2006).
Young adults who contract pneumonia recover in a few weeks, but pneumonia can
cause death if a person has no organ reserve. One in every five older people hospi-
talized for pneumonia dies of it (O’Meara et al., 2005).
622 CHAPTER 23 ■ Late Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Heart disease
Cancer
Cerebrovascular
diseases (stroke)
Accidents
Pneumonia/flu
Diabetes
Arteriosclerosis
Suicide
Death Rates of Adults over Age 65 Relative to Rates of Adults Under 65, United States
Same 2× 3× 4× 5× 6× 7× 8× 9× 10×
Source: Arking, 2006.
FIGURE 23.1
Leading Causes of Death Among the
Elderly This chart shows approximate ratios
between the death rates for Americans over
and under 65. (The text compares adults
aged 85 and over with those aged 25–34.)
The death rate among people over age 65 is
higher even for conditions that are not age-
related. In fact, older adults do not have more
accidents or flu than do younger adults, but
if an elderly person’s organs have lost their re-
serve capacity, an accident may cause heart
failure, and the flu may lead to pneumonia.
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Selective Optimization with Compensation
Secondary aging undermines quality of life. Primary aging is increasingly stressful
as aging continues. A crucial factor is how well people respond with selective
optimization with compensation (which was first discussed in Chapter 21, on page
567). Some people choose projects and activities (selecting) that they can do well
(optimizing) as their adjustment (compensation) to aging.
Individual Compensation: Sleep
The need for selective optimization with compensation is illustrated by sleep
patterns. Older adults spend more time in bed, take longer to fall asleep, wake up
often (about 10 times per night), take naps, feel drowsy in the daytime, and, be-
cause of all this, are more distressed by their sleep patterns than younger adults
are. Some experts find that “sleep deficit problems are widespread in the elderly,
adversely affect[ing] memory, performance capabilities, and general quality of life”
(Dunlap et al., 2004, p. 363). Insufficient deep sleep is particularly likely for
smokers and for older men (Redline et al., 2004; Zhang et al., 2006).
One medical response is to prescribe narcotics, which may be harmful in late
adulthood (Glass et al., 2005). The usual dose can overwhelm an older person’s
capacity for homeostasis, causing heavy sleep and rebound wakefulness, with
confusion, nausea, depression, impaired cognition, and unsteadiness resulting in
falls. A self-administered drug chosen by some elderly
insomniacs is alcohol—which can create rebound
symptoms (Aldwin & Gilmer, 2003). Many doctors ad-
vise people with insomnia to avoid all drugs, including
caffeine.
The best solution may be cognitive and psychologi-
cal, not medical (McCurry et al. 2007; Silversten et al.,
2006). Not everyone should “sleep like a baby.” As Fig-
ure 23.2 shows, sleep patterns change with age. Most
of the elderly awaken several times a night to urinate, to
move the legs, to adjust the blankets. With advancing
years, the brain’s electrical activity is reduced, which
means less deep sleep, more half-awake time, and
shorter dreams (Wise, 2006). Body rhythms change
with age.
Optimization means making good use of sleep time.
Evidence suggests that people with insomnia should restrict time in bed, avoid
naps, and compress the time of their nightly sleep. Eventually, these measures will
induce their bodies and brains to compensate by making good use of the limited
sleep time (McCurry et al., 2007).
Social Compensation: Driving
Selective optimization with compensation is needed for the sake of families and
societies, too. One example is in driving. Many family members question the
driving ability of their oldest relatives but hesitate to do anything about it. Very
few physicians advise their elderly patients about driving (Hakamies-Blomqvist &
Wahlstrom, 1998). Most U.S. jurisdictions and many other nations renew driver’s
licenses automatically, without retesting (McKnight, 2003). Many of the elderly
depend on their cars to preserve their health and independence (Scialfa & Fernie,
2006) and therefore continue to drive even when they should not.
If an older driver crashes, people blame the driver but not the family or laws
that allowed driving. The ageist assumption is either that all older adults can drive
or that none can. All older drivers are suspect, and some who can drive safely are
Senescence 623
Ages
16–35
Proportion of Time in Bed Spent in Various
Sleep Stages (percent)
Ages
36–50
Ages
51–60
Age 61
and
over
Source: Van Cauter et al., 2000.
55% 15%10% 20%
50%35%
65% 20%
60%20% 15%
10% 5%
5%
5%
10%
Awake in bed
Light sleep
Deep sleep
REM sleep
FIGURE 23.2
Don’t Just Lie There One of the most com-
mon complaints of the elderly is that they
spend too much time in bed but not sleeping.
The solution is to get up and do something,
not wait for sleep to come.
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afraid to do so. Ideally, everyone would periodically be required to take a road and
vision test that mimicked actual driving conditions.
The fact is that elderly drivers have fewer auto accidents than younger adults
(see Figure 23.3) (question 5), even though sign-reading takes longer, head-turning
is reduced, and night vision is worse. Most older drivers use selective optimization
with compensation on their own—taking their time, traversing familiar routes,
getting home by dark, driving less.
Although many individuals compensate, few laws, highways, and automobile
designers do so (Satariano, 2006). Bigger signs alerting drivers long before a turn,
mirrors that make head-turning less crucial, direction and location devices, dash-
board lighting, less glare from headlights or hazard flashes, and warnings of ice or
fog ahead would reduce accidents for everyone, but especially for the aged. Cell
phones, for instance, are dangerous for drivers of any age, especially the elderly
(Scialfa & Fernie, 2006).
If protection were provided by well-designed cars, roads, and laws, then good
elderly drivers would still be mobile, while dangerous drivers would be taken off
the road. Families, societies, and the elderly themselves would benefit.
Health Habits
As emphasized in previous chapters, establishing and maintaining good health
habits depend on a combination of individual choice and social context. Although
all the habits we now discuss have been stressed many times in previous chapters,
here we apply them specifically to the aging body.
Nutrition
With age, bodies become less efficient at digesting food and using its nutrients.
Merely to stay at a steady weight, people need fewer daily calories as they grow
older. Because more nutrients need to be packed into fewer calories, a varied and
healthful diet, emphasizing fresh fruits and vegetables and complex carbohydrates
(cereals and grains), is even more essential in late adulthood than earlier in life.
Indeed, deficits of B vitamins, particularly B12 and folic acid, correlate with
memory deficiencies (Rosenberg, 2001).
An added problem arises from drugs that affect nutrition. Aspirin (taken daily
by many who have arthritis or who are trying to reduce their risk of stroke or heart
attack) increases the need for vitamin C; antibiotics reduce the absorption of iron,
624 CHAPTER 23 ■ Late Adulthood: Biosocial Development
19 and
younger
25–34 35–44 45–54 55–64 65–74
50
45
40
35
30
20
25
5
10
15
Number per
100 licensed
drivers in
age group
Age group
20–24 75 and
older
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2006.
Motor-Vehicle Accidents by Age Group, United States
FIGURE 23.3
Nine Times as Many Accidents Among
Teenagers This graph is based on data from
licensed drivers only. Omitted are elderly
drivers who have given up their licenses and
unlicensed drivers of all ages.
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Moving Along Her stiffening joints have
made a walker necessary, but this elderly
woman in Gujarat, India, is maintaining her
mobility by walking every day.
calcium, and vitamin K; antacids reduce absorption of protein; oil-based laxatives
deplete vitamins A and D (Lamy, 1994); caffeine reduces the water in the body.
Even multivitamins can do more harm than good—if they include too much iron,
for instance.
Thus, the elderly have additional demands for a balanced diet. As you can see
in Figure 23.4, the basics are the same at every age but the quantities are adjusted
to help the elderly avoid overeating. Another problem is undereating, which often
occurs if an older person has low income, has dental problems, has digestive diffi-
culties, or is newly widowed.
Exercise
Like nutrition, exercise may be even more important in later life than earlier, but
it is increasingly difficult for an older person to walk as much as he or she did
when younger. Wet leaves or ice on a sidewalk can keep a person inside; team
sports are rarely organized for the elderly; traditional dancing is more difficult at
an age when the sex ratio has changed so that there are more women than men;
many yoga, aerobic, and other classes are paced for younger adults.
Moreover, muscles stiffen and atrophy, causing less range of motion in, for ex-
ample, kicking from the knee, swinging the arms, and turning the torso (Masoro,
1999). With less flexibility, a sudden twist might lead to an aching back. For both
sexes, reductions in balance and strength are especially apparent in the legs, ne-
cessitating a slower, stiffer gait and perhaps the use of a walker or cane (Newell
et al., 2006).
Senescence 625
20
02
T
UF
TS
U
N
IV
ER
SI
TY
FIGURE 23.4
Modified for Seniors Nutritionists at Tufts
University in Massachusetts prepared this food
pyramid, which is a modification of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s food pyramid for
younger adults. One notable difference appears
in the bottom row. Homeostasis for hydration
(thirst) is diminished in late adulthood, so many
older people need to consciously drink eight
glasses of fluid each day.
AG
E
FO
TO
ST
OC
K
/ S
UP
ER
ST
OC
K
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Self-perception is crucial. One 92-year-old man who used a cane explained:
I look like a cripple. I’m not a cripple mentally. I don’t feel that way. But I am
physically. I hate it. . . . You know, when I hear people, particularly gals and ladies,
their heels hitting the pavement . . . I feel so lacking in assurance—why can’t I
walk that way? . . . I have the same attitude now, toward life and living, as I did
30 years ago. That’s why this idea of not being able to walk along with other
people—it hurts my ego. Because inside, that’s not really me.
[quoted in Kaufman, 1986, pp. 10–11]
Older adults walk less if they start to think that they “look like a cripple.” This
change becomes debilitating if it leads to a fear of falling, which is “a common
and modifiable cause of excess disability” (Lach, 2002–2003, p. 37). Note the
phrase “excess disability,” which means more disability than can be attributed
to actual loss.
Falls can be serious, partly because osteoporosis (fragile bones) can cause
a broken hip from a tumble that would have merely bruised a younger person.
(Osteoporosis is both primary and secondary aging, because it is caused by both
the normal aging process and by specific behaviors—including a diet low in cal-
cium, cigarette smoking, and lack of exercise.) Falls are the leading cause of injury
leading to death after age 60, and the risk increases: Mortality rates from falls are
10 times higher at age 90 than at age 70 (Stevens, 2002–2003).
However, falls less often result in death than in functional decline (Satariano,
2006). Lack of movement increases the risk of every illness. A prospective, longi-
tudinal study of Dutch elders (Stel et al., 2004) found that a third of those who
fell became fearful and reduced their activity. Especially if they were female and
already somewhat depressed and the accident occurred outside the home, all their
organs often became less efficient. Ironically, only 6 percent of the falls resulted in
serious injury, and those 6 percent were no more likely to lead to functional de-
cline than the other, less serious 94 percent.
Exercise is another example of the need for compensation, because those who
become unsteady need to strengthen their muscles, benefiting their cardiovascu-
lar, respiratory, and digestive bodily systems as well as their balance. Elders bene-
fit more from weight-lifting than younger adults do, because “strength training has
the greatest impact on the most debilitated subjects” (Rice & Cunningham, 2002,
p. 138). Walking may need to replace running and care needs to be taken to make
sure falling will not occur (walkers can be found that are very stable), but it is
important for health at any age that a person exercise at least half an hour per day.
Indeed, weight-bearing exercise slows down osteoporosis and thus protects should
a fall occur.
626 CHAPTER 23 ■ Late Adulthood: Biosocial Development
SO
N
DA
D
AW
ES
/
TH
E
IM
AG
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W
OR
KS
Guess Her Age According to the stereotype,
muscle-building equipment is for young men,
but this 78-year-old grandmother works out at
a gym four days a week.
Getting from Place to Place
One crucial indicator of elderly persons’ physical and psycho-
logical health is mobility. Those who move around are healthier
and more likely to maintain their well-being for years to come.
This beneficial activity includes walking inside the house, but
the correlation is especially strong between health (physical
and psychological) and trips outside the house. By contrast,
those who are homebound are likely to become sick, frail,
depressed, and, especially if they spend most of their time in
bed, mortally ill.
Yet ageism, younger adults, and society seem to discourage
the elderly from leaving home. For example, whenever an older
person is robbed, conned, raped, or assaulted, sensational news
headlines make the elderly afraid and the young sympathetic
toward their reluctance to venture outside. In fact, however, the
issues and applications
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Senescence 627
aged are far less likely to be victims of street crime than are
younger adults (see Figure 23.5) (question 10). News reports
and advertisements work on the emotions of younger adults to
induce them to buy locks and medical-alert devices for their
older relatives, when it would be much better to go walking with
them.
When it becomes necessary for an older person to stop driv-
ing, that could mean simply switching to public transportation.
Yet, as the elderly complain, some areas have no public trans-
port. Even when they are available, buses and trains run infre-
quently, waiting areas have no protection from weather or places
to sit, and fellow passengers are rude—refusing to give up a
seat, to move aside at the door, and to wait when a slower walker
enters. Interestingly, such social complaints about public trans-
portation are far more common than complaints about safety or
crime (Mollenkopf et al., 2005).
Another possible form of transportation is the bicy-
cle. Lest you think that bikes are only for children, an
extensive study of five European nations (Germany,
Italy, Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands) found that
15 percent of Europeans over age 75 ride their bicy-
cles every day (Tacken & van Lamoen, 2005). In the
United States, however, far fewer of the elderly ride
bikes, perhaps because few bike paths are available
and most bikes are designed for speed, not stability.
Laws requiring bike helmets usually apply only to
children—an example of ageism.
Finally, walking improves health and mobility.
However, in many cities and suburbs, sidewalks are
narrow or even nonexistent, traffic lights change
quickly, few crosswalks have stop signs, young cyclists
and skateboarders speed by, pedestrian bridges are
scarce and require climbing. Those elderly who per-
sist in walking despite such impediments are very
determined, as is this legally blind man:
I move about New York as much as ever, but with a healthy
caution crossing streets. I slavishly wait for the light to change (I
can usually see that) . . . and I have taken to crossing alongside
other pedestrians—especially women with baby carriages, next
to whom I feel safe.
[quoted in Grunwald, 2003, p. 103]
Despite any precautions, the pedestrian death rate rises in
late adulthood, because the social context—speeding drivers,
streets without sidewalks, and so on—is hostile to older walkers.
In the United States, the proportion of pedestrian deaths among
the elderly is twice as high as their proportion of the popula-
tion (U.S. Department of Transportation, 2003). In Europe also,
especially among older women, the pedestrian accident rate is
higher than for other forms of mobility (Mollenkopf et al.,
2005).
12–15 20–24 25–34 35–49 50–64 65+
60
50
40
30
20
10
Rate per
1,000 people
age 12 or older
Age group
16–19
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics,
National Crime Victimization Survey, 2006.
Rates of Violent Crime Victimization, by Age Group, 2005
FIGURE 23.5
Victims of Crime As people grow older, they
are less likely to be crime victims. These fig-
ures come from personal interviews in which
respondents were asked whether they had
been the victim of a violent crime—assault,
sexual assault, rape, or robbery—in the past
several months. This approach yields more
accurate results than official crime statistics,
because many crimes are never reported to
the police.
DA
VI
D
W
. H
AM
ILT
ON
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
BA
N
K
/ G
ET
TY
IM
AG
ES
His Daily Bread An older man rides his bicycle home in Fecamp, France, after
buying a loaf of fresh bread.
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Drug Use
As mentioned in Chapter 20, cigarette smoking is a leading killer at every age. In
late adulthood, cigarettes contribute to virtually every health problem (not just
with the lungs but also with the cardiovascular system and the brain). Cessation of
smoking brings health benefits even if it does not occur until age 70.
Alcohol use is complicated, partly because many of the elderly are well aware
of the moral prohibitions against alcohol, and thus they drink either not at all or,
in rebellion against abstinence, too much. In fact, moderation is key: Elders are
likely to be much healthier if they drink one or two glasses of wine or beer a day,
but not more (Mukamal et al., 2006). The benefits of moderate drinking are well
known for the heart, but they also apply to dementia.
The elderly tend to use legal drugs and are not usually at great risk of becoming
addicted to the illegal drugs that ensnare young adults. However, prescription drugs
do pose some risk, since many of them can be addictive. Here the social context is
crucial, as family and physicians sometimes are unaware of or indifferent to over-
use of drugs by elderly people. This topic is discussed further in Chapter 24, as
overmedication is one cause of dementia.
The Brain
The fluid boundaries among the three major domains are particularly apparent in
discussing the brain, which can be described in biological terms, as an organ
subject to the same senescence and health habits that affect all the other organs,
or in cognitive terms, emphasizing how the brain functions. This point is dis-
cussed extensively in the next chapter, on cognition in late adulthood. As with
other aspects of secondary aging, the diseases of the brain (such as Alzheimer’s,
Pick’s, and Parkinson’s diseases) are not the usual outcome of senescence.
Primary aging, however, causes one cognitive change in everyone: The elderly
think more slowly than younger adults do. This should come as no surprise: You
have already read about the slowdown in reaction time, which affects walking, ad-
justing to sensory losses, and talking. The brain slowdown is part of the overall
slower transmission of impulses from one cell to another, but it can also be traced
to reduced production of neurotransmitters—glutamate, acetylcholine, serotonin,
and especially dopamine—that allow nerve impulses to jump across the synapses
between neurons (Bäckman & Farde, 2005). Furthermore, less neural fluid, a
smaller prefrontal cortex, and slower cerebral blood flow all affect speed within
the brain.
Beyond the overall slowdown, there is a second crucial aspect of the physical
aging of the brain: It gets smaller. Not only does the brain shrink in overall size,
but some areas shrink more than others. For example, the hypothalamus—a key
area for memory—and the prefrontal cortex—the area for planning ahead, in-
hibiting unwanted responses, and coordinating thoughts—markedly decrease
(Kramer et al., 2006). As a result, both motor reaction time and brain processing
are impaired.
A curious finding from brain scans (PET and fMRI) performed while a person
is thinking is that, when presented with a problem, older adults use more parts of
their brains, including both hemispheres, when younger adults may use more
targeted areas of their brains, perhaps only in one hemisphere. This is thought to
be compensation: Since older adults find that one small part of the brain is inade-
quate for complex thinking, they automatically use more of their brains. In this
way, the ability to think may be unimpaired, even though the process of thinking is
different (Daselaar & Cabeza, 2005).
Especially for People Who Are Proud of
Their Intellect What can you do to keep
your mind sharp all your life?
628 CHAPTER 23 ■ Late Adulthood: Biosocial Development
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As a part of the body, the brain is affected not only by the same senescence that
affects the rest of the body but also, particularly, by inadequate nutrition and
impaired circulation. High blood pressure, which, as you have read, is common in
late adulthood, slows down cognition markedly, which means that controlling
hypertension through diet or medication is as important for the brain as for the
heart (Raz, 2005).
It is also important to keep the brain exercised throughout life, building up cog-
nitive reserves so that thinking continues even as a person reaches age 90 or 100.
This was shown in a study of the relationship between past education (used as an
indicator of cognitive reserve) and infarcts, which are strokes that stop brain circu-
lation for a few moments. Such strokes cause speech and motor problems as well
as cognitive impairment. Education does not protect the elderly from infarcts.
Those with and without college degrees have a similar incidence of strokes, in the
same parts of their brains. However, education does help with recovery: Those
stroke victims with greater cognitive reserve are more likely to recover their intel-
lectual abilities (Elkins et al., 2006).
The implications of all this are discussed in Chapter 24. Much still needs to be
understood about normal age-related changes in the brain, but it is safe to say here
that selective optimization with compensation works for the brain as well as the
body; people need to keep their brains working by keeping their overall health and
circulation good.
Physical Appearance
Changes in appearance with senescence have been discussed in earlier chapters.
These changes continue among the elderly, often with emotionally destructive re-
sults. In an ageist society, people who look old are treated as old, in a stereotyped
way (Butler et al., 1998). When older people notice how they are treated or, for
that matter, when they catch an unguarded glimpse of themselves in the mirror,
they may be surprised by their own internalized ageism, even in late-late adult-
hood. As one 92-year-old woman related:
There’s this feeling of being out of one’s skin. The feeling that you are not in your
own body. . . . Whenever I’m walking downtown, and I see my reflection in a store
window, I’m shocked at how old it is. I never think of myself that way.
[quoted in Kaufman, 1986, p. 9]
What does the mirror typically show?
Skin and Hair
The skin reveals the first signs of aging: It becomes drier, thinner, and less elastic;
wrinkles, visible blood vessels, and pockets of fat under the skin appear as
“irrefutable evidence of the passage of time” (M. Timiras, 2003, p. 397). By late
adulthood, dark patches known as “age spots” appear, and the overall reduction of
the cells under the skin’s surface makes people more vulnerable to cold, heat, and
scratches (Whitbourne, 2002).
The hair becomes grayer and, in many people, turns white. Hair all over the
body thins with age. Many men experience male pattern baldness because they
have inherited a gene that becomes activated in adulthood. Ironically, although
lower testosterone levels do not cause baldness, many men feel that hair loss
signals loss of virility. Similarly, many women feel that sexual attractiveness
depends on the color and thickness of their hair. Accordingly, both sexes seek to
compensate, with dyes, transplants, and other means.
Senescence 629
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Body Shape and Muscles
Other visible physical changes include altered body shape (Spirduso et al., 2005).
Older people are shorter than they were in early adulthood, losing a centimeter or
so every decade, because the vertebrae of the spine begin settling closer together
in middle age. Shape is also affected by redistribution of fat, which disappears
from the arms, legs, and upper face and collects in the torso (especially the
abdomen) and the lower face (especially the jowls and chin).
The change in shape obviously affects appearance, but it may also pose a health
risk. If two people have the same BMI, the “apple-shaped” person, with a very
wide waist, is more likely to develop heart disease than the pear-shaped person,
with heavier hips and legs.
Older adults often weigh less than they did in middle age, partly because they
have less muscle tissue, which is relatively dense and heavy. This difference is
particularly notable in men. Earlier in life, losing weight meant less fat and better
health, but in old age it may indicate weakness, thinner bones, fracture risk, and
disease onset (Aldwin & Gilmer, 2003).
Dulling of the Senses
For many of the elderly, the most troubling part of senescence is the loss of sensory
ability. Much of social interaction depends on quick and accurate sensory re-
sponses, yet the senses become slower and less sharp with each decade (Meisami
et al., 2003) (question 4). This is true for touch (particularly in the extremities),
taste (particularly for sour and bitter), and smell as well as for the more critical
senses of sight and hearing. Only 10 percent of people over age 65 see well with-
out glasses; by age 90, the average man is almost deaf, hearing only 20 percent of
what he once did (Aldwin & Gilmer, 2003).
As already described in earlier chapters, sensory decline begins as soon as
puberty is over, but it is not usually devastating until old age. These losses may
render the aged lonely and vulnerable.
The crucial factor to emphasize in this chapter is not the ongoing loss but the
many ways technology can modify that loss (Scialfa & Fernie, 2006). For instance,
preservatives protect against food poisoning, making taste less crucial; smoke
alarms and carbon monoxide alarms compensate for a diminished ability to smell;
and visual and auditory losses can be moderated with aids of various kinds. To be
specific, although only about 10 percent of the elderly see well, most visual losses
of primary aging can be remedied. Simple corrections include brighter lights and
more vivid colors, because the ability to see contrast diminishes with age. Another
aid is glasses, typically two pairs (reading and distance) or bifocals, because the
eyes are much less able to adjust than they used to be (Madden & Whiting, 2004).
About 17 percent of people aged 65 and over and 26 percent of those over age
75 have more serious vision impairment (not correctable with eyeglasses), usually
cataracts, glaucoma, or macular degeneration (Houde, 2007):
■ Cataracts involve a thickening of the lens, causing vision to become cloudy,
opaque, and distorted. As early as age 50, about 10 percent of adults have
such clouding, with 3 percent experiencing a partial loss of vision. By age 70,
30 percent have some visual loss because of cataracts. These losses are ini-
tially treatable with eyeglasses and then with outpatient surgery, in which the
cloudy lens is removed and replaced with an artificial lens.
■ Glaucoma is less common but more devastating if not detected. About 1 per-
cent of those in their 70s and 10 percent in their 90s have glaucoma, a buildup
of fluid within the eye. The pressure that results from this excess fluid damages
the optic nerve, causing the visual field to narrow and eventually causing
➤Response for People Who Are Proud
of Their Intellect (from page 628): If you
answered, “Use it or lose it” or “Do crossword
puzzles,” you need to read more carefully.
No specific mental activity has been proved
to prevent brain slowdown. Overall health is
good for the brain as well as for the body, so
exercise, a balanced diet, and well-controlled
blood pressure are some smart answers.
630 CHAPTER 23 ■ Late Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Current Events If you had to choose between
staying informed about current events and
being able to see well without glasses, which
one would you pick? Most elderly people can
no longer see well without glasses, but, like
this man reading a newspaper in Cairo, Egypt,
older adults tend to be more knowledgeable
than people half their age.
JO
SE
F
PO
LL
ER
OS
S
/ T
HE
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sudden blindness. Until then, the person has no symptoms, but an ophthal-
mologist or optometrist can detect early signs and relieve the problem with
eye drops or laser surgery. Glaucoma is partly genetic; it occurs at younger
ages among African Americans and people with diabetes (Whitbourne,
2002).
■ Macular degeneration is deterioration of the retina and is the most common
cause of blindness. It affects one in twenty-five people in their 60s and one
in six over age 80 (O’Neill et al., 2001). It can be diagnosed early by having
regular eye exams or by noticing spotty vision (such as reading with some let-
ters missing). Macular degeneration is progressive, becoming severe five
years after it starts (Mukesh et al., 2004). Medication (ranibizumab) can re-
store some vision if treatment begins early enough (Rosenfeld et al., 2006).
For all sensory problems, including these three, early detection and treatment
are needed. Ophthalomologists have many measures to prevent impairment but
almost none to reverse damage once it has occurred. At that point, technology
(from lighting to sound waves) can be useful. With accommodation, even those
who are blind can be productive employees and self-sufficient family members
(Houde, 2007).
As you remember from Chapter 20, age-related hearing loss, called presbycusis,
affects every adult. People typically wait five years or more between getting the
first hint that their hearing is fading and visiting an audiologist. By age 65, 40 per-
cent have difficulty hearing normal conversation. If a hearing aid is recommended,
ageism interferes. Many people refuse even tiny, digital, personalized hearing aids
because they associate any such device with looking old (Meisami et al., 2003).
Senescence 631
Through Different Eyes These photographs
depict the same scene as it would be per-
ceived by a person with (a) normal vision,
(b) cataracts, (c) glaucoma, or (d) macular
degeneration. Thinking about how difficult it
would be to find your own car if you had one
of these disorders may help you remember
to have your vision checked regularly.
AL
L:
P
HO
TO
DI
SC
/
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TT
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IM
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(a)
(c)
(b)
(d)
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Ironically, individuals who mishear and misunderstand conversation may strike
others not only as old but also as mentally deficient, and they may therefore be ex-
cluded from social give-and-take. Then the hard-of-hearing person may withdraw.
Even compared to the visually impaired, “hard-of-hearing individuals are often
mistakenly thought to be retarded or mentally ill . . . [and] are more subject to
depression, demoralization, and even at times psychotic symptomatology” (Butler
et al., 1998, p. 181).
When people first notice the loss of some sensory abilities—when a newspaper
page blurs or a dinner conversation is misunderstood—their usual reaction is dis-
belief. Then the problem seems to disappear—eyes refocus, the brain completes
the half-heard comments—so the person can blame the situation, not his or her
own aging sensory system. This reaction may be life-threatening if, for example,
diminished taste and smell cause an older person to eat spoiled food or fail to
detect smoke or gas, or if hearing or vision impairment leads to crossing the street
when a truck is coming.
More generally, many people become depressed when they realize that their
senses are not functioning as well as they once did; they avoid social situations or
even avoid leaving their home, sadly concluding that things will only get worse.
Unless something is done, depression continues—and things do get worse, since
primary aging is ongoing.
Recognition and compensation, not denial or passive acceptance, are crucial
(Horowitz & Stuen, 2003). Fortunately, compensation is available for every sen-
sory loss. Specific technological advances include not only smaller hearing aids
and lighter glasses but also attachments to televisions, radios, and telephones,
headsets for particular occasions, canes that sense when an object is near, infrared
lenses that illuminate the darkness, closed-captioned TV programs, service animals
(not just dogs, but birds and monkeys, too), computers that scan printed text and
“speak” the words, or, for the hearing-impaired, computers that turn speech into
print.
Millions of people are disabled by sensory losses, not only because advanced
technology may be too expensive but also because “the technology is not yet so ad-
vanced as to prescribe itself for the person who needs it, nor does it teach people
how to integrate it into their lives” (Goodrich, 2003, p. 69). Technology is not nec-
essarily user-friendly, and those who care for the elderly are sometimes inclined to
do things for them rather than help them learn to help themselves.
Remedies must be subsidized and individualized in order for people to be
taught how to use them properly, so that frustration, denial, and resignation are
prevented (Charness & Schaie, 2003). People with new hearing aids, for instance,
need help to master the best settings, positioning, and maintenance procedures.
Typically, six sessions over two months are required, because the equipment
requires fine adjustment and new social patterns must be allowed to develop
(Weinstein, 2000).
Thus far we have focused primarily on individuals adjusting to their losses. We
should also take note of the adjustments that society makes—or, more often, fails
to make—for children, the disabled, or the elderly.
Just about everything, from airplane seats to fashionable shoes, is designed for
young, able-bodied adults. Many disabilities would disappear if the social setting
were better designed (Satariano, 2006). Look around at the built environment
(the layout and lighting of stores, streets, colleges, and homes) and notice the
print on medicine bottles, the garbled public address systems in train stations,
even the stairs on buses.
Like society as a whole, many individuals fail to take the needs of others into
account. Relatives and friends need to remember that sensory loss does not mean
632 CHAPTER 23 ■ Late Adulthood: Biosocial Development
AP
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, S
TE
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K
OH
LS
Taking Her Ears for a Walk This profoundly
deaf woman is greatly helped by Murphy, who
is trained to get her attention whenever the
telephone or doorbell rings or the smoke alarm
goes off. Murphy’s assistance enables her to
remain in her home in Brainerd, Minnesota.
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brain loss. Instead of yelling at an older person who does not hear well or oversim-
plifying what is communicated, younger people can pronounce their words clearly
and speak slowly in settings where lip reading is easy (a well-lit living room, not a
crowded, dimly lit restaurant).
Compression of Morbidity
Unlike childhood diseases that can be prevented by vaccination, most adult dis-
eases are impossible to prevent, since they are caused by a combination of genes
(present since conception), early childhood influences (too late to change), and
senescence (increasing every year). As one editorial explains, “Aging . . . predis-
poses our bodies to fall apart. Organs, tissues, and even individual cells start
misbehaving, rendering us susceptible to the familiar conditions that, for example,
weaken our bones, scramble our neural messages, and condemn us to pain”
(Chong et al., 2004). Often, however, the onset of illness can be postponed and
its impact can be limited, reducing the amount of time that a person is seriously
ill, disabled, or in pain. This is compression of morbidity, a shortening of the
time spent in illness before death.
Morbidity has, in fact, been compressed among the aged. Compared to 30
years ago, a smaller proportion of older adults report that their activity is limited,
and fewer people are in hospitals. Many people have serious diseases but
nonetheless continue to be independent and without pain (Hamerman, 2007;
Manton et al., 2006).
Compression of morbidity is the result of lifestyle and attitude as well as medi-
cine, as can be illustrated with a hypothetical example (see Figure 23.6). Say that
pair of identical twins have the same genes and are exposed to the same
compression of morbidity A shortening of
the time a person spends ill or infirm,
accomplished by postponing illness.
Senescence 633
0 10050 Death
Prototypic lingering chronic illness
Compression of Morbidity
Age (years)
Stroke
Stroke
Lung cancer
Heart attack
Heart attack
Pneumonia
Pneumonia
Emphysema
Emphysema
0 10050 Death
Effects of the postponement of chronic disease
Age (years)
Source: Fries, 1994.
Lung
cancer
FIGURE 23.6
Primary and Secondary Aging The interplay
of primary and secondary aging is shown in
this diagram of the illness and death of a
hypothetical pair of monozygotic twins. Both
are equally subject to certain illnesses—so
both experience a bout of pneumonia at about
age 25. Both also carry the same genetic
clock, so they both die at age 80. However,
genetic vulnerabilities to circulatory, heart, and
lung problems affect each quite differently.
The nonexercising smoker (top) suffers from
an extended period of morbidity, as his various
illnesses become manifest when his organ
reserve is depleted, beginning at about age
45. By contrast, the healthy lifestyle of his
twin (bottom) keeps disability and disease at
bay until primary aging is well advanced.
Indeed, he dies years before the emergence
of lung cancer—which had been developing
throughout late adulthood but was slowed by
the strength of his organ reserve and immune
system.
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pathogens, but one “smokes like a chimney, is fat, doesn’t exercise, and has a poor
diet,” while the other has “fairly good health habits” (Fries, 1994, p. 314). Both get
pneumonia at about age 25 (environmental exposure), and both recover quickly,
because their organ reserves and immune systems have barely begun to age. Both
are genetically predisposed to the same illnesses—emphysema, heart attack,
stroke, and lung cancer.
Beginning in middle age, one twin is sick with several serious illnesses, but his
brother is protected. Even if they die at the same age (not typical), the morbidity
of the healthy twin is so delayed that his genetic vulnerability to cancer is not yet
evident. He has only a few compressed weeks of illness after a long, healthy life.
This example is hypothetical, but it echoes reality: Monozygotic twins experience
dozens of nongenetic differences in QALYs (Finch & Kirkwood, 2000).
Reducing Risk The woman at left has
some lifestyle factors, especially her exces-
sive weight, that increase her risk of illness.
On the plus side, however, she evidently
has a cheerful attitude and sees her doctor
regularly.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 636):
Can you spot another sign that this patient is
making an effort to protect her health?
634 CHAPTER 23 ■ Late Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Happy Days Ahead This proud and happy
couple in Romania are homeowners and gar-
deners and are likely to remain quite healthy
until a series of illnesses occur in the last
year of their lives. This is compression of
morbidity at its best.
GI
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Compression of morbidity is a social and psychological blessing as well as a
biological one. A healthier person is likely to remain more intellectually alert and
socially active—in other words, to experience the optimal aging of the young-old
person, not the impaired life of the oldest-old. Medical science has made com-
pression of morbidity possible: Improved prevention, detection, and, most impor-
tant, treatment allow today’s older persons to live with less pain, more mobility,
better vision, stronger teeth, sharper hearing, clearer thinking, and enhanced
vitality.
SUMMING UP
Primary aging is inevitable and universal, its effects becoming apparent in many ways as
people age. Secondary aging involves diseases that occur as a result of poor health
habits and environmental toxins combined with primary aging. Successful coping with
senescence requires selective optimization with compensation on the part of societies
as well as individuals. The most obvious signs of senescence are superficial—in skin,
hair, and body shape. Some of the most troubling developments relate to the senses,
particularly vision and hearing, because sensory impairment often results in depression
and social isolation. External compensation is available but requires a combination of
technology, specialist help, and personal determination. The goal is compression of mor-
bidity, so that aging is not accompanied by serious disease or severe disability except
for a short time, right before death.
■
Theories of Aging
Can aging and even death itself be postponed, allowing the average person to live
100 healthy years or more instead of 75 or 85? There are many intriguing possibil-
ities but not many definitive answers. Almost two decades ago, one expert catego-
rized 300 theories of aging (Medvedev, 1990). Here we describe three that are still
widely debated: wear and tear, genetic adaptation, and cellular aging.
Wear and Tear
The oldest, most general theory of aging is known as wear and tear (Masoro,
1999). Just as the parts of an automobile begin giving out as time and distance add
up, so the body wears out, part by part, after years of exposure to pollution, radia-
tion, unhealthy foods, drugs, diseases, and other stresses. This theory holds that
just by living our lives, we wear out our bodies. In more technical terms, human
bodies are built with a certain redundancy, with organ reserve and repair processes
to overcome the inevitable assaults from time, pollution, illness, and injury
(Gavrilov & Gavrilova, 2006).
Can this be true? For some body parts, yes. Athletes who put repeated stress on
their shoulders or knees have chronically painful joints by middle adulthood; peo-
ple who regularly work outdoors in strong sunlight damage their skin; industrial
workers who inhale asbestos and smoke cigarettes destroy their lungs.
These examples of unusual wear and tear are not typical, but by late adulthood,
everyone’s body has accumulated signs of wear. Scars leave their mark, bones re-
veal past fractures, eye lenses get cloudy, the inner ear has fewer hairs, fingernails
become ridged, and so on.
At least three findings support the wear-and-tear theory. First, according to the
“disposable soma” theory of aging, each body (soma) has a certain amount of phys-
ical energy and strength, which gradually is spent (disposed of) over a lifetime
(Finch & Kirkwood, 2000). For this reason, women who have never been pregnant
wear-and-tear theory A view of aging as a
process by which the human body wears
out because of the passage of time and
exposure to environmental stressors.
Theories of Aging 635
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live longer than others with the same health habits; perhaps pregnancy
helps to wear out a person’s body.
Second, people who are overweight tend to sicken and die at younger
ages, perhaps because it takes more energy to maintain their bodies and
thus less life force is available to them as they approach old age. Gastric
surgery on morbidly obese people increases the risk of death during re-
cuperation, but seems to add years over the long term, because their
bodies have a smaller day-to-day burden (Torquati et al., 2007).
Third, one breakthrough of modern medical technology is the ability
to replace worn-out body parts. Transplanted hearts and livers, artificial
knees and hips, implanted dentures add years to life.
The analogy to a machine does not explain all of human aging, because
“unlike inanimate objects, living systems utilize external matter and
energy to repair wear and tear” (Masoro, 1999, p. 50). In other words, we
eat, we breathe, we move—and we get better! Unlike a machine, the
human body benefits from use. Aerobic exercise improves heart and lung
functioning; tai chi improves balance; weight training increases strength;
sexual activity stimulates the sexual-reproductive system; digestion is
improved by eating fruits and vegetables that require vigorous intestinal activity.
The converse is also true: Inactivity breeds illness. It seems as if people are
more likely to “rust out” from disuse or suffer effects of misuse and abuse than to
wear out. Thus, although the wear-and-tear theory applies to some aspects of
aging and seems relevant for some people, it probably does not describe human
aging overall (Austad, 2001).
Genetic Adaptation
Humans may have a kind of genetic clock, a mechanism in the DNA of cells
that regulates the aging process by triggering hormonal changes and controlling
cellular reproduction and repair. Just as a genetic clock “switches off” genes that
promote growth (at about age 15), it might “switch on” genes that promote aging.
Evidence for genetic aging comes from several genetic conditions that produce
premature aging and early death. People with Down syndrome (trisomy-21) de-
velop heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease in middle age. Children born
with a genetic disease called progeria stop growing at about age 5 and begin to look
old, with wrinkled skin and balding heads. These children develop many other
signs of premature aging and die in their teens of heart diseases typically found in
the elderly (Clark, 1999; Spirduso et al., 2005).
How Long Is a Normal Life?
Genes seem to bestow on every living species an inherent maximum life span,
defined as the oldest possible age that members of that species can live. Under
ideal circumstances, the maximum that rats live seems to be 4 years; rabbits, 13;
tigers, 26; house cats, 30; brown bears, 37; chimpanzees, 55; Indian elephants,
70; finback whales, 80; humans, 122; lake sturgeon, 150; giant tortoises, 180
(Clark, 1999; Finch, 1999).
Such variations between species, and limits of life for each species, suggest
that the maximum is set by the genes of each animal. Of course, everyone has dif-
ferent genes. Centenarians probably inherit genes for a long life (their siblings also
tend to live about 15 years longer than average) (Perls, 2005), but every human
has some genes that signal the end of life.
Maximum life span is quite different from average life expectancy, which is
the average life span of individuals in a particular group. In human groups, average
average life expectancy The number of
years the average newborn in a particular
population group is likely to live.
genetic clock A purported mechanism in
the DNA of cells that regulates the aging
process by triggering hormonal changes
and controlling cellular reproduction and
repair.
maximum life span The oldest possible age
that members of a species can live, under
ideal circumstances. For humans, that age
is approximately 122 years.
636 CHAPTER 23 ■ Late Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Use It So You Don’t Lose It Although wear-
and-tear theory might predict otherwise, the
single most critical failure of body functions
that accelerates aging is loss of mobility.We
now know that after a stroke or other
mobility-restricting event, the best therapy is
to start walking again.
LA
W
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M
IG
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PH
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SE
AR
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S
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 634): She is wearing a medical alert
pendant, which enables her to summon help
if she should fall or become ill. Not visible in
the photograph is the fact that this doctor has
practiced in Marseille, France, for 14 years;
continuity in health care is life-prolonging.
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life expectancy varies a great deal, depending on historical, cultural, and socio-
economic factors.
In ancient times, the average life expectancy was about 20 years (because many
infants died). In 1900, in developed nations, it was about 50. The main reasons for
the increase were public health measures, including better sanitation and nutri-
tion, that meant survival of young children. Since the middle of the twentieth
century, immunization and antibiotics have further extended the life span (Crews,
2003).
More recent increases in life expectancy are attributed to reduction in deaths
from adult diseases (heart attack, pneumonia, cancer, childbed fever). Many
middle-aged men once died of heart attacks; now they usually survive. Childbirth
was a leading killer for young women a century ago, was still hazardous 50 years
ago, but now is virtually never fatal in the developed world. Cancer was once a
death sentence; today more than half the people with cancer survive for at least
five years.
In the United States in 2007, average life expectancy at birth was about 75
years for men and 81 years for women (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007). Those
who are already 65 years old (no longer at risk of early death) are expected to live
to 84; those who are already 80 die at age 89, on average. At about 90, the death
rate seems to level off, which means that someone who is 95 is as likely to die
within that year as is someone who is 105.
The marked historic variations in average life expectancy are mirrored by geo-
graphical variations. If your aunt lives in Boston and is now 60, she will probably
live 35 more years, but if she lives in Botswana, it is astonishing that she is still
alive (life expectancy at birth in Botswana is 34) and chances are she has only a
few more years to live.
Theories of Aging 637
Celebrating a Dozen Decades Only a few people in the world have lived much beyond 100 years. Two of those oldest of the old
are shown here. (left ) Jeanne Calment of France celebrates her 121st birthday; she died at 122 in 1997. (right) Maria do Carmo
Jeronimo of Brazil celebrates her 125th. Jeronimo was born in slavery and had no reliable birth records; she died in 2000, sup-
posedly aged 129. Several other people are known to have lived to 120, and that age seems to be the upper limit for the human
species. Even with the best medical care, most people die before age 80.
DI
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Despite such variations, the genetic theory of aging contends that the maxi-
mum life span is fixed at a few years past age 100, which was the maximum
human life span a millennium or two ago. (The biblical patriarch Methuselah’s
age, 969, was probably measured in “years” that had fewer days than the modern
year.) Thus, in ancient times those few who avoided accidents and illnesses died
of the same aging-related causes that are evident in the twenty-first century. Just
as we humans are genetically programmed to reach sexual maturity during the
teen years, we may be genetically programmed to die during late adulthood.
Selective Adaptation
Epigenetic theory (discussed in Chapter 2) provides an explanation for the genetic
diseases of late life. Since reproduction and child care are essential for the survival
of the species, when genes appeared that were fatal to young adults, they were not
transmitted; their existence ended when the person died or when their parentless
children died.
However, “after the vagaries of reproductive adulthood, genetics begin to exert
their effects” (Crews, 2003, p. 158). Thus, genes for diseases of late adulthood
were already passed on to the next generation. This would explain why the disease
rate does not merely increase year by year but accelerates sharply at the age when
childbirth and child rearing are usually over (see Figure 23.7)
Consequently, death in early adulthood is almost always caused by nongenetic
events (accidents, suicide, war, infections), but diseases that kill people after age
50 frequently result from genes that have been maintained (Finch & Kirkwood,
2000). Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, type 2 dia-
betes, coronary heart disease, and osteoporosis are among the many examples of
genetic conditions that evolutionary processes allow (Satariano, 2006). These con-
ditions begin in midlife but do not kill until later, perhaps because of the “grand-
mother hypothesis”—the idea that middle-aged people need to devote their
energy to the well-being of future generations (Alvarez, 2000).
An alternative version of the genetic theory of aging is that each species has
particular genes that directly cause aging and death, in order for a new generation
to be born. This theory is bolstered by the discovery of alleles—SIR2, ApoE4,
def-2, and several others—that cause aging (Hekimi & Guarente, 2003; R. Miller,
2001). For instance, the ApoE2 gene is protective. Of U.S. men in their 70s,
638 CHAPTER 23 ■ Late Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Age group
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007.
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
15–24 25–34 35–44 45–54 55–64 65–74 75–84 85+
Number of deaths
per 1,000
population,
per year
Mortality Rates for Heart Disease and Cancer, by Age Group, United States, 2005
Heart disease
Cancer
FIGURE 23.7
Not a Straight Line The two leading causes
of human death, cancer and heart disease,
are fatal to less than 1 person in 1,000 under
age 55, but after that the death toll from
these two conditions increases markedly, es-
pecially after age 65. The reason may be that
younger adults are genetically protected from
death but, after their child-rearing days are
over, their genetic weaknesses are allowed
expression.
Progeria This 16-year-old South African boy,
embraced by his 81-year-old grandmother,
has progeria, a genetic disorder that pro-
duces accelerated aging, including baldness,
wrinkled skin, arthritis, heart and lung difficul-
ties, and early death.
DA
VI
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antioxidants Chemical compounds that
nullify the effects of oxygen free radicals
by forming a bond with their unattached
oxygen electron.
12 percent have that gene, as do 17 percent of those over age 85; these statistics
mean that a higher proportion of those without it die before age 85 (Crews, 2003).
But another common allele of the same gene, ApoE4, causes senescence in the
cardiovascular system and the brain. According to this theory, everyone has at least
some genes, like ApoE4, that cause aging.
Cellular Aging
A related cluster of theories about aging begin with the idea that aging occurs at
the cellular level: Perhaps people grow old because the cells of their bodies
become old, damaged, or exhausted. Humans are composed of trillions of cells,
many of which reproduce throughout life (although cell reproduction slows down
with age). An obvious example is the outer cells of the skin, which normally are
completely replaced every few years. When the skin gets cut or scraped, cell re-
placement occurs within a few days. Blood and tissue cells also duplicate rapidly.
Cells of the ear, eye, and brain duplicate more slowly or not at all. New cells are
continually created, each designed as the exact copy of an old cell.
Errors in Duplication
This ongoing cell duplication may produce aging, because each cell is so complex
that minor errors inevitably accumulate (Fossel, 2004). Mutations occur because
of toxins and stresses and also because DNA instructions for creating new cells
become imperfect over thousands of duplications.
Since new cells are not quite exact copies of the old, some of them contain
damaged elements. This transmission of cellular errors begins at conception. If
the imperfection is severe (e.g., a missing chromosome anywhere except the 23rd
pair), the organism is spontaneously aborted. If just one cell is imperfect, that
does not cause the death of the entire organism, since bodies have many ways to
repair cellular errors or destroy an abnormal cell. Over time, an “error catastrophe”
may occur as imperfections multiply to the point that the organism can no longer
repair or overcome all the damage. With the rapidly reproducing skin cells, for
example, inexact replication results in slower replacement, benign growths, color
changes, or skin cancer (P. Timiras, 2003). Invisibly, throughout the rest of the
body, cellular imperfections accumulate (Vijg et al., 2005).
One specific theory that explains why cellular accidents increase over time
begins with the fact that electrons of some atoms in our bodies are unattached to
their nuclei. Such atoms are called free radicals. Free radicals are highly unstable,
because unpaired electrons can react violently with other molecules, splitting
them or tearing them apart.
Such damage is especially likely when free radicals of oxygen scramble DNA
molecules or the mitochondria that provide energy for DNA duplication. These
oxygen free radicals (also called ROS, reactive oxygen species) produce errors
in cell maintenance that can eventually cause cancer, diabetes, and arteriosclero-
sis as a result of “oxidative stress” (Halliwell & Gutteridge, 2007).
Indeed, although oxygen is essential for life and some oxygen free radicals are
normal, every part of the body suffers if too many oxygen free radicals bombard
the cells. As many as 10,000 hits per cell can occur per day (Sinclair & Howitz,
2006). Some believe that an abundance of oxygen free radicals, over time, is what
causes aging. Slowing down the hit rate would thus slow down aging.
One way to do this would be to increase the body’s supply of antioxidants,
which are chemical compounds that bind with the unattached electrons of oxygen
free radicals, preventing them from causing damage. Many people take supple-
ments of antioxidants (vitamins A, C, and E and the mineral selenium) in hopes of
oxygen free radicals Atoms of oxygen that,
as a result of metabolic processes, have an
unpaired electron. These atoms scramble
DNA molecules or mitochondria, producing
errors in cell maintenance and repair that,
over time, may cause cancer, diabetes,
and arteriosclerosis.
Theories of Aging 639
A Sun Worshipper When this Australian
man was a young lifeguard, he says, “We
rubbed our bodies with coconut oil”—which
did nothing to protect his skin from the sun’s
damaging rays. Deep tanning damaged his
skin cells. Every dot of light represents a
lesion that was removed to halt the spread
of skin cancer.
SA
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living longer. However, research does not confirm that ingested antioxidants slow
the aging process even in birds and mice, much less in humans (Barga, 2003;
Halliwell & Gutteridge, 2007).
The Immune System
A variant of the cellular theory of aging focuses on the immune system, whose
cells become less numerous as the person ages. In a young person, many cells in
the body recognize foreign or abnormal substances in the circulatory system,
isolate them, and destroy them. Among these immune cells, one type is called
B cells, because they are manufactured in the bone marrow. B cells produce anti-
bodies to destroy specific invading bacteria and viruses. These antibodies remain
in the body lifelong, protecting it against a second bout of infectious diseases such
as measles, mumps, and specific strains of influenza.
Another type of attack cells, called T cells (manufactured by the thymus
gland), produce substances that destroy infected cells. They help the B cells
produce more efficient antibodies and strengthen other aspects of the immune
system. The immune system also includes NK (“natural killer”) cells, K (“killer”)
cells, and white blood cells. Altogether, since humans are very complex and long-
living creatures, they have developed an elaborate array of immune cells, which is
necessary because humans are exposed to thousands of pathogens and parasites
(Promislow et al., 2006).
In all age groups, individuals with weaker immune systems (measured by analy-
sis of T and B cells in the blood) die sooner than others (Effros, 2001), and those
with a high count of NK cells are likely still to be quite healthy at age 85. As the
immune system declines, cancers may grow and shingles (caused by a latent her-
pes virus, which younger immune systems are able to keep in check) may appear.
Measures to stop cancer often involve killing all rapidly producing cells, which
means temporarily shutting down the immune system. Measures to prevent shin-
gles include a new inoculation to add immunity, which is not completely effective
because the immune system of the aging body is more difficult to activate (Oxman
et al., 2005).
Throughout life, immune systems are stronger in women than in men. The fe-
male thymus gland is larger. That is why females tend to live longer and, in many
families, why fathers are more often incapacitated by a cold than are mothers.
This advantage has a downside, because women have more autoimmune diseases
(e.g., rheumatoid arthritis and lupus), which occur when a person’s immune
system turns against the body.
Replication No More
The idea that cellular aging limits the life span is also supported by laboratory re-
search, beginning with the work of Leonard Hayflick (1994; Hayflick &
Moorhead, 1961). At first Hayflick thought that cells, given the right conditions,
would continue duplicating forever. Like thousands of other scientists worldwide,
he worked with cultures of cells that duplicated time and time again. When the
cells stopped duplicating, Hayflick and others believed, something in the environ-
ment was at fault (no laboratory could be completely free of contaminants in the
air).
In a famous series of experiments, Hayflick allowed cells taken from human
embryos to age “under glass” by providing them with all the nutrients necessary for
cell growth and protecting them from external stress or contamination that would
produce errors. In such ideal conditions, he expected the cells to double again and
again, indefinitely.
B cells Immune cells manufactured in the
bone marrow that create antibodies for
isolating and destroying bacteria and
viruses that invade the body.
T cells Immune cells manufactured in the
thymus gland that produce substances
that attack infected cells in the body.
640 CHAPTER 23 ■ Late Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Normal Killers The immune system is always
at war, attacking invading bacteria, viruses, and
other destructive agents. Here two “natural
killer” cells are overwhelming a leukemia cell.
How healthy we are and how long we live are
directly related to the strength and efficiency
of our immune system.
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Instead, cells stopped multiplying after about 50 divisions. This time Hayflick
hypothesized that something other than laboratory contaminants was at work. In
further research, he found that cells from adults divided fewer times than did cells
from children and that children’s cells doubled fewer times than did cells from
embryos. Something was counting and keeping track of age.
Over the past several decades, this research has been replicated many times by
hundreds of scientists, using various techniques and cells from people and
animals. Healthy cells always stop replicating at a certain point, which is referred
to as the Hayflick limit; it is roughly proportional to the maximum life span of
the particular species.
When the Hayflick limit is reached, the aged cells differ from young cells in
many ways. One major discovery is that the very ends of the chromosomes—
called the telomeres—are much shorter in older cells. The length of telomeres
signals longevity. Each cell duplication results in a shorter telomere, fewer remain-
ing duplications, and therefore shorter life (Hornsby, 2007). Eventually, the telo-
mere is completely gone, the cell stops duplicating, and the creature dies.
Some experts believe that “relengthening telomeres is the most efficient way
to reset gene expression” (Fossel, 2004, p. 284), slowing the aging process. An
enzyme called telomerase increases the length of telomeres; adding telomerase to
an organism may slow down aging. There is one serious drawback: Cancer cells
multiply more rapidly when telomerase is abundant (Feldser & Greider, 2007).
Another possibility is to implant stem cells with long telomeres and natural
telomerase from embryos into an aging person, in the hope that the cells will
duplicate and thus slow the aging process. This approach is highly speculative,
and much more research is needed (Hiyama & Hiyama, 2007).
Hayflick himself believes that the Hayflick limit, and therefore aging, is caused
by a natural loss of molecular fidelity—that is, by inevitable errors in transcription
as each cell reproduces itself (Hayflick, 2001–2002). He does not dispute the
telomere research, but believes that telomere shortening is a symptom of a basic
process rather than the direct cause of aging.
Hayflick limit The number of times a human
cell is capable of dividing into two new
cells. The limit for most human cells is
approximately 50 divisions, an indication
that the life span is limited by our genetic
program.
telomeres The ends of chromosomes in the
cells, whose length decreases with each
cell duplication and seems to correlate
with longevity.
Theories of Aging 641
Especially for Biologists What are some
immediate practical uses for research on the
causes of aging?
thinking like a scientist
Can the Aging Process Be Stopped?
Leonard Hayflick (2004) calls anti-aging an oxymoron, a term
that contradicts itself. He believes that aging is a natural process
built into the very cells of our species. Humans can stave off
morbidities and premature mortality, but they cannot (and
should not) halt senescence. We can “add life to years” but we
cannot “add years to life.” Another scientist agrees, vehemently
criticizing anyone who hopes to extend life as
an utterly irresponsible citizen if you would dump this radical
life extension on the rest of us, as if you expect your friends and
neighbors to pay for your Social Security at age 125 and your
Medicare at 145.
[Stock & Callahan, 2005, p. 218]
Few scientists are that impassioned, but most agree that the
research has not proven the effectiveness of any of the anti-aging
methods now in use. Many people are already eating special
foods or taking pills, with no proof that doing so will have any
effect (Huang et al., 2006). One Australian scientist notes that
“sixty-one percent of Australians and probably a larger percentage
of Americans are already” taking dietary supplements, hoping for
longer life and better health. “We’re talking while the horse has
already bolted, the stable is empty” (Dransfield, 1998, p. 471).
Some scientists are looking for effective ways to extend
human life, pursuing leads from research on lower animals.
One group has found a gene (UCP-2) in the mouse brain that
regulates temperature. By changing the expression of that gene,
they lowered core body temperature and extended mouse life
(Conti et al., 2006). Might humans also be able to lower their
body temperature and live longer?
As one skeptical scientist notes, however, no one knows “why
this temperature [98.6º F, or 37º C] has been selected by evolu-
tion [as normal for humans]. . . . One would certainly want to
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SUMMING UP
There are hundreds of theories of aging. The wear-and-tear theory proposes that bodies
wear out with age, but this theory does not explain the entire aging process. Genetic
theories explain the evolutionary limits on the maximum life span for various species.
One such theory holds that selective adaptation for humans may have required, or at
least allowed, humans to inherit genes for aging and death that did not become active
until after they had raised their replacement generation. Cellular theories reflect the fact
that living organisms are collections of cells, which usually replicate themselves and re-
pair damage—processes that become less effective with age. Some cellular theories
642 CHAPTER 23 ■ Late Adulthood: Biosocial Development
know the consequences of hypothermia before pursuing it as a
way to increase life span” (Saper, 2006, p. 774). As stressed
throughout this book, scientists have good reason to be wary.
Some measures that once seemed very promising (thalidomide
to prevent miscarriage, abstinence education to prevent teen
pregnancy, the D.A.R.E. program to stop adolescent drug use,
hormone replacement therapy to stave off heart disease) have
proven to be more harmful than helpful.
There is, however, one promising possibility that few humans
—scientists or not—seem ready to pursue: calorie restriction,
drastically reducing the intake of dietary energy (that is, food
calories) while maintaining an adequate intake of vitamins, min-
erals, and other important nutrients. In dozens of experiments,
first with fruit flies and mice and recently with dogs, monkeys,
and chimpanzees, the animals that were given healthy foods,
but only half their usual calories, lived much longer. For hu-
mans, this would mean eating about 1,000 calories a day, none
of which would be fried, buttered, or sugared.
Groups of genetically similar animals have been compared
after one group has been fed restricted meals since infancy
while the other group has been allowed free access to food. The
life span of the calorie-restricted animals doubles, and that
group experiences fewer diseases of aging, such as cardiovascu-
lar disease, diabetes, and dementia (Sinclair & Howitz, 2006).
The main explanation for this extension of the life span in
lower mammals is at the cellular level: Restricted nutrition
slows down cell growth and duplication, resulting in fewer free
radicals and slower metabolism. This allows much more time
before the Hayflick limit is reached. The crucial question re-
mains: Would restricted eating work for people?
About 1,000 North Americans belong to the Calorie Restric-
tion Society, eating only about 1,000 nutritious calories a day.
One is Michael Rae, from Calgary, Canada, who explained to a
reporter:
Aging is a horror and it’s got to stop right now. People are pop-
ping antioxidants, getting face lifts, and injecting Botox, but
none of that is working. At the moment, C.R. [calorie restriction]
is the only tool we have to stay younger longer.
[quoted in Hochman, 2003, p. 5]
The reporter notes, “Mr. Rae is 6 feet tall, weighs just 115
pounds, and is often very hungry.” Are he and his fellow mem-
bers merely deluding themselves? One scientist comments:
We won’t know whether calorie restriction really would extend
life span in humans for a long time. . . . Actual studies are going
to be brutally difficult, and it would be a very cruel irony if after
years of trials, life span were not extended.
[Cutler et al., 2005, p. 59]
Another says:
The only proven method of life extension for mammals is caloric
restriction in infancy, which is impractical for human purposes.
Search for a Fountain of Youth has always been a delusion.
[Moody, 2001–2002, p. 34]
Perhaps. Or perhaps most people (including most scientists)
are deluding themselves by continuing to eat as much as they do.
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112/63, 6 Feet, 135 Pounds These numbers are this man’s blood
pressure, height, and weight after six years on a calorie-restricted
diet. So far, so good—he is now 36 years old.
calorie restriction The practice of limiting
dietary energy intake (while consuming
sufficient quantities of vitamins, minerals,
and other important nutrients) for the pur-
pose of improving health and slowing
down the aging process.
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focus on damage from oxygen free radicals; others on accumulated errors in cell dupli-
cation; others on telomere shortening, when cells no longer reproduce. Although not
yet proven with humans, calorie restriction extends the life of many other species of
mammals and raises the question: What are humans willing to do to live longer?
■
The Centenarians
According to some scientists, most babies born today in developed countries will
live to become centenarians (Kinsella, 2005). How might your life be at age 100?
Other Places, Other Stories
In the 1970s, three remote places—one in the Republic of Georgia, one in Pakistan,
and one in Ecuador—were in the news because many vigorous old people were
found to live there. As one researcher wrote:
Most of the aged [about age 90] work regularly. . . . Some even continue to chop
wood and haul water. Close to 40 percent of the aged men and 30 percent of the
aged women report good vision; that is, that they do not need glasses for any sort
of work, including reading or threading a needle. Between 40 and 50 percent have
reasonably good hearing. Most have their own teeth. Their posture is unusually
erect, even into advanced age. Many take walks of more than two miles a day
and swim in mountain streams.
[Benet, 1974]
Among the people described in this report are a woman said to be over 130 who
drank a little vodka before breakfast and smoked a pack of cigarettes a day, a man
who claimed to be 100 when he fathered a child, and a village storyteller who had
an excellent memory at a reported age of 148.
A more comprehensive study (Pitskhelauri, 1982) found that the lifestyles in all
three of these regions are similar in four ways:
■ Diet is moderate, consisting mostly of fresh vegetables and herbs, with little
consumption of meat and fat. A prevailing belief is that it is better to leave
the dining table a little bit hungry than too full.
■ Work continues throughout life. In these rural areas, even very elderly adults
help with farm work and household tasks, including child care.
■ Family and community are important. All the long-lived people are well inte-
grated into families of several generations and interact frequently with
friends and neighbors.
■ Exercise and relaxation are part of the daily routine. Most of the long-lived
take a stroll in the morning and another in the evening (often up and down
mountains); most take a midday nap and socialize in the evening, telling
stories and discussing the day’s events.
Perhaps these factors—diet, activity, social respect, and exercise—lengthen life.
That the social context promotes longevity is buttressed by evidence from
bumblebees. Genetically, worker bees and queen bees are the same, but worker
bees die at about age 3 months while queen bees, which are fed special food and
given respect, do not die until about age 5 years, living 20 times longer than their
genetic relatives. Only when a queen dies is another worker bee chosen to become
a queen. Could diet and respect extend the human life as well?
Surely your suspicions were raised by the preceding paragraphs. Humans have
almost nothing in common with bumblebees, or mice or fruit flies for that matter,
The Centenarians 643
➤Response for Biologists (from page
641): Although ageism and ambivalence limit
the funding of research on the causes of
aging, the applications include prevention of
AIDS, cancer, senility, and physical damage
from pollution—all urgent social priorities.
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and the information about those long-lived people came out more than 30 years
ago. The phrases “reported age,” “said to be,” and “claimed” were used.
Indeed, the three regions famous for long-lived humans have no verifiable birth
or marriage records from 100 years ago. Beginning at about age 70, many people
in these areas systematically exaggerate their age (Thorson, 1995). Everyone who
claimed to be a centenarian was probably exaggerating, and every researcher
who believed them was too eager to accept the idea that life would be long and
wonderful if only the ills of modern civilization could be avoided. The oldest well-
documented person lived to be 122.
The Truth About Life After 100
Do not give up on centenarians too quickly. Several modern nations with good
records report communities where many people live long, productive lives, includ-
ing an island of Japan (Okinawa), an area of the United States (rural North
Dakota), and a religious group (Seventh Day Adventists). Those who study the
aged, wherever they live, are surprised to find many quite happy (Jopp & Rott,
2006). As one woman explained:
644 CHAPTER 23 ■ Late Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Longevity Three remote regions of the world are renowned for the longevity of their people (although verified birth certificates are
unavailable). In Vilcabamba, Ecuador, (a) 87-year-old Jose Maria Roa stands on the mud from which he will make adobe for a new house,
and (d ) 102-year-old Micaela Quezada spins wool. In Abkhazia in the Republic of Georgia, companionship is an important part of late
life, as shown by (b) Selekh Butka, 113, posing with his wife, Marusya, 101, and (c) Ougula Lodara talking with two “younger” friends.
Finally, Shah Bibi (e), at 98, and Galum Mohammad Shad (f ), at 100, from the Hunza area of Pakistan, spin wool and build houses.
(a) (b) (c)
(d) (e) (f) AL
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Francisco Ayala at 100 Ayala wrote his first
novel at age 18. Eighty-one years later, he
noted that he had always maintained his
“curiosity and fundamental skepticism.”
Ayala left his native Spain after the civil war
that brought a fascist regime to power in the
1930s. He taught in Argentina and the United
States for 25 years. Since age 60 he has
been writing and lecturing in his homeland,
winning every Spanish literary prize.
At 100, I have a sense of achievement and a sense of leisure as well. I’m not
pushed as much as I was. Old age can be more relaxing and more contemplative.
I’m enjoying it more than middle age.
[quoted in Adler, 1995]
Researchers in western Europe, East Asia, and North America find similarities
between the centenarians in their research and the aged individuals (many of
whom, while not reaching 100, were at least in their 80s) in Georgia, Pakistan,
and Ecuador: moderate diet, hard work, an optimistic attitude, intellectual curios-
ity, and social involvement. Fewer calories, more respect, lots of vegetables, and
strong religious faith seem to be part of their lives.
Disease, disability, and dementia may eventually set in; studies disagree about
how common these problems are at age 100. However, there is no doubt that
many people celebrate a 100th birthday with energy, awareness, and optimism
(Ellis, 2002; Hitt et al., 1999; Jopp & Rotte, 2006).
Virtually no centenarian is completely disease-free, but many seem to have es-
caped or delayed the serious infirmities of late adulthood, and some are intellectu-
ally intact (Perls, 2005). People who live past 100 tend to have achieved a
compression of morbidity. They tend to minimize whatever problems they have
and are quite upbeat about their health (Aldwin & Gilmer, 2003). That attitude
may be one reason they have lived so long.
If this surprises you, you are not alone; many older people themselves would be
surprised. Ironically, the older a person is, the less likely he or she is “to imagine
large numbers of their peers as favored as they are” (Cruikshank, 2003, p. 11),
instead believing that they are “exceptions to the usual pattern of aging, and that
their health is superior to that of most of their age peers” (Hirslaho & Ruopplia,
2005, p. 79). Ageism affects all of us, at every age.
SUMMING UP
Research on centenarians finds no proof that anyone has lived longer than 122 years,
but more and more people throughout the world are reaching 100. Many of them are
quite happy and active. If people reach late adulthood in good health, their attitudes and
activities may be crucial in determining the length and quality of their remaining years. It
may be ageist to assume that a human will be less happy, less alert, and less interested
in life at age 100 than at age 30 or 60.
■
The Centenarians 645
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646 CHAPTER 23 ■ Late Adulthood: Biosocial Development
Prejudice and Predictions
1. Contrary to ageist stereotypes, most older adults are happy,
quite healthy, and active. Although elderspeak persists, ageism is
weakening because gerontologists provide a more optimistic pic-
ture of late adulthood than geriatricians do and an increasing
percentage of the population is over age 65.
2. The dependency ratio expresses the relationship between the
number of self-sufficient, productive adults and the number of
children and elderly dependents in a population. Most elderly
people are not dependent on younger generations.
3. Gerontologists sometimes distinguish among the young-old,
the old-old, and the oldest-old, according to each age group’s
relative degree of dependency. Only 10 percent of the elderly are
dependent, and only 4 percent are in nursing homes or hospitals.
Senescence
4. The many apparent changes in skin, hair, and body shape that
began earlier in adulthood continue in old age. The senses all
become less acute, including vision (90 percent of older people
need glasses, and many have cataracts, glaucoma, or macular
degeneration) and hearing (most older men are significantly hard-
of-hearing, as are a smaller number of elderly women).
5. Selective optimization with compensation for sensory losses
requires a combination of technology, specialist advice, and per-
sonal determination. These three have been underutilized in the
past (exemplified by the underuse of hearing aids). The next cohort
may compensate more than today’s elderly do.
6. Primary aging happens to everyone, reducing organ reserve in
body and brain. Although the particulars differ depending on the
individual’s past health habits and genes, eventually morbidity,
disability, and risk of mortality increase. Compensation is possible
and brings many benefits, including compression of morbidity,
which means that the person suffers only a short period of infir-
mity right before death.
Theories of Aging
7. Hundreds of theories address the causes of aging. Wear-and-
tear theory suggests that living wears out the body; it applies to
some parts of the body, but not to overall aging.
8. Another theory is that genes allow humans to survive through
the reproductive years but then to become seriously ill and in-
evitably die. Each species seems to have a genetic timetable for
decline and death, expressed in the length of telomeres. Cell
reproduction slows down and eventually stops.
9. Cellular theories of aging include the idea that the processes
of DNA duplication and repair are affected by genetic factors that
cause errors to accumulate as new cells are made. Oxidative
stress, caused by oxygen free radicals, hinders cell maintenance
and repair.
10. Age-related decline in the immune system may cause aging,
as it contributes to elderly people’s increasing vulnerability to
disease.
11. One approach to extending life is calorie restriction, an ap-
proach that has been successful with many species of mammals.
The Centenarians
12. It was once believed that many people in certain parts of the
world lived long past 100 as a result of moderate diet, high altitude,
hard work, and respect for the aged. Such reports turned out to be
exaggerated.
13. The number of centenarians is increasing, and many of these
oldest-old are quite healthy and happy. The personality and atti-
tudes of the very old suggest that long-term survival may be wel-
comed more than feared.
ageism (p. 615)
elderspeak (p. 615)
gerontology (p. 616)
geriatrics (p. 616)
demography (p. 616)
centenarian (p. 617)
dependency ratio (p. 618)
young-old (p. 620)
old-old (p. 620)
oldest-old (p. 620)
primary aging (p. 620)
secondary aging (p. 620)
cardiovascular disease (p. 621)
compression of morbidity
(p. 633)
wear-and-tear theory (p. 635)
genetic clock (p. 636)
maximum life span (p. 636)
average life expectancy (p. 636)
oxygen free radicals (p. 639)
antioxidants (p. 639)
B cells (p. 640)
T cells (p. 640)
Hayflick limit (p. 641)
telomeres (p. 641)
calorie restriction (p. 642)
SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
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6. Evaluate the validity of the wear-and-tear theory for senescence.
7. In what ways do the cellular theories of aging seem plausible?
8. What is the relationship between the immune system and aging?
9. How do genes contribute to the length of life?
10. Describe an epigenetic explanation for the the aging process.
11. What conclusions can be drawn from Hayflick’s research?
12. What are some of the characteristics of people who live to a
very old age?
1. How is ageism comparable to racism or sexism?
2. Why is the increasing number of people living past the age of
65 less of a problem than some people imagine it to be?
3. What is the difference between primary aging and secondary
aging?
4. What changes occur in the sense organs in old age, and how
can their effects be minimized?
5. Explain several factors that affect how long a person is sick be-
fore he or she dies.
while wearing dark glasses.) Report on your emotions, the re-
sponses of others, and your conclusions.
3. Ask five people of various ages if they want to live to age 100,
and record their responses. Would they be willing to eat half as
much, exercise much more, experience weekly dialysis, or undergo
other procedures in order to extend life? Analyze the responses.
1. Analyze Web sites that have information about aging for evidence
of ageism, anti-aging measures, and exaggeration of longevity.
2. Compensating for sensory losses is difficult, because it in-
volves learning new habits. To better understand the experience,
reduce your hearing or vision for a day by wearing earplugs or dark
glasses that let in only bright lights. (Use caution and common
sense: Don’t drive a car while wearing earplugs or cross streets
KEY QUESTIONS
APPLICATIONS
Summary 647
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Late Adulthood:
Cognitive Development
As you saw in the two earlier chapters on adult cognition (Chapters18 and 21), during adulthood some abilities increase, others wane,and some remain stable. By the end of adulthood, physical impair-ment, reduced perception, decreased energy, and slower reactions
take an increasing toll. Yet, even among the oldest-old, decline is not the
entire story. The information-processing perspective, a focus of this chapter,
highlights the complexity and variability of cognition in late adulthood.
Whenever I flew to Minnesota to visit my parents, who were in their 90s,
friends would ask me, “How are their minds?”
“Good,” I would answer.
“Isn’t that wonderful!” they sometimes replied.
I wanted to shout “No! Not wonderful!” and then lecture about cognition
in late adulthood. Instead I was quiet, thinking and remembering.
My parents were forgetful and repetitive; they could be stuck in the past,
telling stories I had already heard. But my friends were asking if my parents
were senile, and they were relieved to learn that this was not the case.
Like most of their peers, my parents were neither senile nor wonderful.
Late-adulthood cognition is too complex to be captured in a brief social con-
versation.
The previous chapter explained that biosocial development in later adult-
hood may be “impaired,” “usual,” or “optimal.” As you will see in this chapter,
cognitive development can be separated into the same trio. Severe cognitive
impairment (dementia) is discussed, as is optimal cognition (wisdom). Before
describing the worst and the best, we begin with the usual, neither sad nor
wonderful.
The Usual: Information
Processing After Age 65
One helpful way to understand intellectual ability in late adulthood is to use
an information-processing approach, breaking down cognition into the steps
of input (sensing), storage (memory), program (control processes), and output.
As you will see, some parts of the process decline and others do not.
Most intellectual abilities change little throughout early and middle
adulthood (as documented in Chapter 21). At some point, however, every-
one slows down in every domain. In the Seattle Longitudinal Study, the aver-
ages in all five primary mental abilities (verbal meaning, spatial orientation,
24
649
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� The Usual: Information Processing
After Age 65
Sensing and Perceiving
A CASE TO STUDY:
“That Aide Was Very Rude”
Memory
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST:
John, Paul, Ringo, and . . .
Control Processes
THINKING LIKE A SCIENTIST:
Neuroscience and Brain Activity
Staying Healthy and Alert
Ageism
� The Impaired: Dementia
Alzheimer’s Disease
Many Strokes
Subcortical Dementias
Reversible Dementia
A CASE TO STUDY: Is It Dementia
or Drug Addiction?
Prevention and Treatment
� The Optimal: New Cognitive
Development
Aesthetic Sense and Creativity
The Life Review
Wisdom
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inductive reasoning, number ability, and word fluency) began to fall
at about age 60, a decline particularly notable in the subtests that
measure spatial perception and processing speed (Schaie, 2005).
Other longitudinal research finds that, for some abilities, cognitive
decline does not begin until age 80 or so (Singer et al., 2003). Still
other researchers report losses earlier, by age 50 (Rabbitt & Anderson,
2006). Although scientists differ on timing, they agree that people
do not think as quickly or remember as well at age 80 as they did at
age 40.
Two impediments are often cited as typically contributing to this
general decline and slowdown: too much interference and not enough
inhibition. The information-processing perspective helps clarify at
what point interference and lack of selectivity have an impact as well
as what that impact is.
Sensing and Perceiving
Information processing starts with input—that is, with stimuli taken
in by the senses. In order for stimuli to become information that is
perceived by the mind, they must cross the sensory threshold; that
is, the person must be able to sense them. Here significant decline
begins with age. Remember that none of the senses are as sharp at
age 65 as at age 16. Some information—the details of a road sign 300 feet away
or the words of a conversation in a noisy place—never reaches sensory memory
because the senses never detect the relevant stimuli.
Attention Deficits
Sensory-input problems are insidious because people miss information without
realizing it. Cognition depends on perception, and perception depends on sensa-
tions, so elderly people whose senses are less sharp might be oblivious to their
cognitive handicap.
Research confirms that reduced sensory input (missed sounds, sights, and even
smells) impairs cognition (Anstey et al., 2003; Dulay & Murphy, 2002; Wingfield
et al., 2005). One study of people of all ages found that 11 percent of the variance
in cognitive scores for young adults, and 31 percent of the variance for older
adults, was related to sensory impairment (Lindenberger & Baltes, 1997). That is,
31 percent of the difference in test scores between two older people could proba-
bly be attributed to the sharper senses (better sight or hearing, for example) of
the “smarter” person.
Results like this imply that one simple way to predict an older person’s intellect
may be to measure vision, hearing, or smell. This raises another issue: How impor-
tant is intellectual sharpness near the end of life? Consider the following.
650 CHAPTER 24 ■ Late Adulthood: Cognitive Development
From Ten-Hut to Plant-Tending This man
needed all his senses when he was on active
duty as a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Now, nearing age 90, he is partially deaf and
has problems with balance. These sensory
impairments don’t keep him from enjoying
the sights, smells, and textures of the plants
he tends at a senior center’s greenhouse in
Louisiana.
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a case to study
“That Aide Was Very Rude”
I knew an elderly couple, married 65 years, who shared a room
in a nursing home because neither could walk far without help.
They were loving, protective, and proud of each other. This led
to trouble.
Once an aide lifted the woman from her bed.
“Stop, you’re hurting me!” she yelled. The aide kept lifting
until the husband hit him with his cane. One outcome was an
“incident report,” casting doubt on the husband’s intellect since
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dual-task deficit A situation in which a per-
son’s performance of one task is impeded
by interference from the simultaneous
performance of another task.
The Usual: Information Processing After Age 65 651
Interference
Reduced sensory input affects cognition in a second way, by increasing the power
of interference. Interference is thought to be a major impediment to effective and
efficient cognition in the elderly (Park & Payer, 2006). Not only is less information
perceived by the mind because of reduced sensory input, but some vital informa-
tion is obscured because other, less important information interferes by capturing
attention.
For example, if reduced auditory input means that the word interference is
faintly heard as ear ants, then cognitive resources are required to ignore back-
ground noises in order to analyze the sounds and the context to figure out what
was probably said. This process might tire the mind, depleting the mental energy
needed to take the next step in information processing—that is, to judge whether
the words should be remembered or not. Thus, interference impedes thought
because it slows down thinking (Kramer et al., 2006).
Memory
In the information-processing model of cognition (see Chapter 12), storage refers to
memory. Some aspects of memory remain virtually unimpaired with age, but others
become weaker. For example, memory for words (semantic memory) is usually quite
good, but memory for events (episodic memory) usually declines. Here we will
begin by discussing the two basic types of storage: working memory (previously
called short-term memory) and long-term memory (see also Chapter 6).
Working Memory
You learned in Chapter 12 that working memory is the capacity to keep information
in mind for a few seconds while processing it—evaluating, calculating, inferring,
and so on. That is, working memory functions as both a repository and a processor
(Baddeley, 1986, 2003).
Older individuals tend to have difficulty with working memory. Problems with
reduced sensory input and interference are among the reasons. A dual-task deficit
is often evident: The greater the number of tasks, the worse performance becomes
(Kemper et al., 2003; Voelcker-Rehage & Alberts, 2007). The dual-task deficit has
been demonstrated in experiments in which a person must simultaneously walk
he did not understand that the aide was helping his wife. The
other outcome, from the wife, was “I love you more than ever.”
Another aide, in changing the man’s bed, said, “This stinks.”
The man was almost deaf, so he didn’t hear the comment, but
his wife did and complained for weeks, saying things like,“That
aide was very rude. How do you think my husband would feel if
he heard that?”
In fact, the bed did stink, because the husband was inconti-
nent. Neither he nor his wife could smell the stale urine on his
bedsheets. She would have been ashamed; almost all her life
she had cleaned and tidied for both of them, ensuring that he
was always well-dressed and sweet-smelling.
In late adulthood, their reduced sensitivity, plus habituation,
meant that neither noticed the odor and thus neither was
ashamed—he of his incontinence and she of her failure to make
sure the bed was clean.
Were their sensory limitations and their love a better combi-
nation than the aides’ normal senses and insensitive behavior? If
you had to choose between reduced sense of smell and reduced
emotional awareness, which would you pick?
A similar situation was explored in a psychological study of
decision making between older mothers (aged 65–94) and their
caregiving children (aged 34–66). Researchers found that, in
most cases, rather than exploring the six or more rational
options for resolving a dilemma, the mother and child did “no
evaluation of alternatives because the first one proposed was
quickly selected” (Cicirelli, 2006, p. 215). Usually the adult
child’s solution was accepted by the mother. This can be inter-
preted either as evidence for “age-related declines” (p. 219) in
decision making or as evidence that these dyads valued mutual
respect and affection more than following a strictly logical
process.
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and read or tap a finger and add. Particularly difficult is performing a
motor task and cognitive task simultaneously (Albinet et al., 2006).
The dual-task deficit is evident in daily life as well. Suppose a
grandfather, reading the newspaper, is interrupted by a grandchild’s
questions, or a grandmother is getting dressed while figuring out what
bus to take. Most likely the grandfather will put the newspaper down
(or tell the child to be quiet) and the grandmother will first dress and
then figure out transportation (avoiding mismatched shoes).
In fact, some scholars believe that the inability to multitask, which
requires screening out distractions and inhibiting irrelevant thoughts,
is the main reason that working memory suffers in late adulthood:
The brain cannot handle too much at once. Others suggest that a
decline in total mental energy—making it too hard to filter and think
at the same time—may be at the root of weakening working memory.
Usually, if people can slow down and focus, performance is as
good as in younger years (Verhaeghen et al., 2003). However, such
focus may preclude other mental tasks that a younger person could
be doing simultaneously, and make substantial storage and processing
impossible, as in answering comprehension questions about a passage just read
and repeating the last word of each sentence (a common challenge to working
memory).
Long-Term Memory
Intellectual processing depends not only on input and working memory but also on
the knowledge base—that is, the information already stored in long-term memory.
Do you remember that definition of knowledge base from Chapter 12? If so, your
long-term memory is good.
An important aspect of the knowledge base is vocabulary. Evidence suggests
that long-term memory for words remains unimpaired over the decades. In fact,
vocabulary typically increases at least until age 80 (Uttl & Van Alstine, 2003;
Verhaeghen, 2003).
However, other aspects of long-term memory are vulnerable to alteration.
Some memories are distorted by interference from other memories or from hopes
and fears.
Some errors in long-term memory are to be expected, since at every age, “it is
the rule rather than the exception for people to change, add, and delete things
from a remembered event” (Engel, 1999, p. 6). However, especially with regard to
recent long-term memory (covering the past five years), the particular details that
an older person stores may not be what a younger person thinks should be stored.
In this case, selection becomes a generational problem.
Selective Memory
Both working memory and long-term memory remain quite strong if the items to
be remembered relate to the person’s expertise (Krampe & Charness, 2006). As
you learned in Chapter 21, when people become experts in particular areas, their
knowledge base holds steady in those areas; in addition, their working memory re-
mains adequate because some cognitive tasks in those areas have become habitual
and require little thought. Certainly, expertise among the young-old continues at
full strength, as seen in the performance of judges, businesspeople, artists, clergy,
and many others who can make and execute decisions as well as ever.
However, in areas not related to expertise, selective deficits in long-term mem-
ory appear. Older adults often are less able to recall details of events in the recent
past (Piolino et al., 2006).
652 CHAPTER 24 ■ Late Adulthood: Cognitive Development
Learning New Tricks Most older adults read-
ily learn how to use anything that expands
their memory capacity, from handwritten
to-do lists to computer programs.
PA
UL
T
HO
M
AS
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
BA
N
K
/ G
ET
TY
IM
AG
ES
Especially for Students If you want to
remember something you learn in class for
the rest of your life, what should you do?
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This selectivity results in interesting patterns in long-term memory. Happy
events that occurred between ages 10 and 30 are remembered better than events
of any kind that happened earlier or later (Berntsen & Rubin, 2002). Emotions are
also remembered better than are factual details. For example, people remember
how they felt (“I was thrilled to hold my baby”) more than exactly where, how, and
when the events occurred. A mother with grown children may remember her thrill
at holding a newborn and forget which child was born in the morning and which
at night.
Source amnesia, forgetting who or what was the source of a specific fact, idea,
or snippet of conversation, is another common problem among the elderly (Craik
& Salthouse, 2000). An older person may sometimes feel sure that something
was true that, in reality, was only a rumor from an unreliable source (Jacoby &
Rhodes, 2006).
Bias toward happy events, especially from adolescence and young adulthood,
emphasis on subjective emotions, and source amnesia are common at every age,
but they are increasingly so in late adulthood. Such selective memories can be
adaptive. For example, Tina was married for 56 years to Tim, who developed
Parkinson’s disease. She says:
I think of him as a young man. I see him the same. He doesn’t look any older to
me. . . . I feel sorry that he can’t walk. I can’t believe it, because he would always
be walking ahead of me as if we were from another culture . . . men in front, you
know.
[quoted in Koch, 2000, p. 72]
Tina’s adult children complained that she put Tim’s needs above her own; caring
for him interfered with her sleep, exercise, and social life. Tina insisted that the
children did not understand. This was true, since their impressions of their
parents’ relationship had been solidified during their emerging adulthood and thus
were based on perceptions (such as the sexism of women walking behind men)
that were quite different from Tina’s.
The Usual: Information Processing After Age 65 653
thinking like a scientist
John, Paul, Ringo, and . . .
How can we measure the impact of age on long-term memory?
One way might be to test people’s memory for past public events.
Older adults do well on this measure (Baier & Ackerman, 2001),
but the test may not be objective.
For example, asking people to remember
the names of the heads of state at Yalta is an
easier question for those who were politi-
cally aware in 1945; asking for the names of
the four Beatles gives an advantage to
women who were teenagers in the 1960s;
asking for the names of the current stars of
the NBA gives an edge to North American
young men who are interested in sports. (If
this is not you, you may not know that NBA
stands for National Basketball Association.
If this is you, are you surprised that others
do not know?)
Every question favors particular interests—here politics,
music, and sports. Each cohort has its particular concerns, which
are magnified by the media. For example, detailed accounts of
battles and treaties filled the newspapers
during World War II. Today celebrity gos-
sip has largely replaced serious journalism.
For all these reasons, scientists can find no
kinds of questions that objectively measure
long-term memory among all types of peo-
ple at all ages, from 15 to 45 to 75.
Recognition At every age, recognition mem-
ory is much better than recall. Chances are
that few of my high school classmates could
describe how I looked back then, but all of
them could point out my picture among the
hundreds of photos in our yearbook.CO
UR
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SY
O
F
KA
TH
LE
EN
B
ER
GE
R
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control processes That part of the
information-processing system that regu-
lates the analysis and flow of information.
Memory and retrieval strategies, selective
attention, and rules or strategies for
problem solving are all useful control
processes.
654 CHAPTER 24 ■ Late Adulthood: Cognitive Development
Another approach to assessing long-term memory is to mea-
sure knowledge that was learned in high school. One researcher
found that those who had studied Spanish within the past three
years remembered it best (Bahrick, 1984). Thereafter, forgetting
was gradual: Those who had studied Spanish 50 years earlier re-
membered about 80 percent of what the young adults who had
studied it five years earlier remembered.
The most significant variable was not how long ago the person
had studied Spanish in high school but how well the person had
learned the language at that time: Those who had gotten
an A 50 years earlier outscored those who had gotten a C
just 1 year before (Bahrick, 1984). Thus, as you might
expect, many people who became fluent in a language in
childhood but have rarely used it since are often able to
converse in that language decades later. Memories are
stored for decades, and neither age nor time erases them.
In long-term memory, much depends on the specifics.
One researcher cites the example of a “lady of 100 years
old who could still play (and win) Scrabble in three lan-
guages, even though she had marked difficulty remem-
bering what she just had for lunch” (Parkin, 1993). Her
Scrabble playing required that she remember words and
their spelling in three languages and many Scrabble
skills. Similarly, given 15 minutes to work on a crossword puzzle,
participants filled in more words correctly the older they were
(see Figure 24.1) (Salthouse, 2004).
Overall, then, although interference and sensory decline
impair working memory, the picture is more complicated for
long-term memory: “There are replicable findings of age-related
decline, stability and even in some cases increase” (Zacks &
Hasher, 2006, p. 162). Scientists hesitate to predict whether
and when any of these things will occur.
Source: Salthouse, 2004.
Number of
words correctly
completed
30 40 60 7020 8050
Age (years)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Hambrick, Salthouse, & Meinz (1999), Study 2
Hambrick et al. (1999), Study 3
Hambrick et al. (1999), Study 4
Salthouse (2001)
Crossword-Puzzle Ability as a Function of Age
FIGURE 24.1
Quick Retrieval Experienced solvers were given
15 minutes to work on a New York Times crossword
puzzle. Almost no one filled in all the blanks, but
some of the oldest solvers came close.
➤Response for Students (from page 652):
Learn it very well now, and you will probably
remember it in 50 years, with a little review.
Control Processes
Cognitive problems in later life seem greater than the input and memory impair-
ments just described might suggest. If these problems involved merely senses and
memory, then eyeglasses, hearing aids, and PDAs or written lists would correct
them. But older adults also seem “impaired in controlled cognitive processes”
(Jacoby et al., 2001, p. 250), and this difficulty is hard to remedy.
Control processes include strategies, selective attention, and storage mecha-
nisms, already discussed, and logical analysis and retrieval—all the methods that
help people think clearly and well. Such processes usually depend on activity in
the prefrontal cortex (as first explained in Chapter 12), which shrinks with age
more than most other parts of the brain do (Raz, 2005). Perhaps as a result, older
adults do not seem to gather and consider all the relevant information as well as
younger people do (Cicirelli, 2006; Zwahr et al., 1999).
Analysis
One aspect of impaired analysis is that the elderly are more likely to stick to pre-
conceived ideas rather than consider new evidence and change their minds (Pierce
et al., 2004). For example, political opinions are influenced by impressions formed
in early adulthood. United States citizens who were young when a Republican was
president are more likely to vote Republican, and the corresponding pattern holds
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for those who were young adults during Democratic administrations (see Figure
24.2). Some older people (about age 60) chose the Republican George W. Bush
in 2004 because they had liked the Republican Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s;
others (about age 75) chose the Democrat John Kerry because they had liked the
Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s. Of course, every voter of every age
believes he or she makes a rational choice on current issues, but voters are much
more influenced by past emotions and memories than they realize (Westen, 2007).
In general, the elderly rely on prior knowledge, general principles, familiarity,
and rules of thumb in their decision making instead of learning new and novel
approaches (Jacoby & Rhodes, 2006). This is called a top-down strategy, using
deductive rather than inductive reasoning.
Attitudes about homosexuality, civil liberties, racial profiling, and many other
issues shift among all generations, depending on current events and opinions; how-
ever, they also differ according to the age of the person, partly because each older
generation maintains its “old-fashioned” attitudes (T. Smith, 2005). This resistance
to change is not necessarily a disadvantage, but it does indicate less active analysis.
Retrieval
Another control process involves using retrieval strategies. The ability to use this
approach also worsens with age. Trying to recall the name of a childhood acquain-
tance, for example, a young adult might run through an alphabetical mental
The Usual: Information Processing After Age 65 655
President
when those
voters were 20
years old (G.O.P.
administrations
are shaded)
The most
Democratic
voters: age 21
Least
Democratic:
age 71
Most
Republican:
age 36
Least
Republican:
age 24
Percentage of today’s voters,
by their current age, who say:
Party affiliations for those
who turned 20 during
each administration:
They are or they lean
DEMOCRATIC
They are or they lean
REPUBLICAN
DEMOCRATIC
REPUBLICAN
Democratic advantage
Source: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (data compiled from more than 23,000 voters surveyed, January through October 2006).
Voter’s current age 7080
48%
41%
7%
50%
45%
40%
ROOSEVELT TRUMAN EISENHOWER KENNEDY NIXON FORD
CARTER
REAGAN BUSH I BUSH IICLINTON
JOHNSON
50
39
11
45
45
0
47
42
5
50
41
9
51
38
13
51
40
11
47
44
3
47
43
4
49
40
9
52
37
15
45
46
–1
60 50 40 30 2090
Today’s Voters: How Generation Influences Party
FIGURE 24.2
They Still Like Ike In the 2006 congressional elections, U.S. voters generally preferred Democratic
candidates. The blue and red curves in this graph show their party preferences by age. Almost half
the voters in two age cohorts leaned toward the Republican party: the 71-year-olds, who may have
had good memories of Eisenhower, who was president when they were young, and the 36-year-
olds, who may have felt loyal to Reagan for the same reason.
AP
P
HO
TO
/
SA
LI
SB
UR
Y
DA
ILY
T
IM
ES
, B
RI
CE
S
TU
M
P
Don’t Forget As a retrieval strategy, this
Maryland shop owner posts dozens of
reminders for herself on the wall.
648-677_BergerLS7e_CH24.qxp 9/20/07 3:46 PM Page 655

checklist or try to associate the person with a specific context—both effective
strategies. In contrast, older adults might just give up, saying “I forget” or, more
ominously, “My memory is failing.”
The hypothesis that declines in control processes, more than declines in memory,
are the reason for impaired cognition (i.e., that the problem is less in storage than
in recall) is supported by the fact that older adults’ impressive and extensive vocab-
ulary is not matched by their verbal fluency. Compared with younger adults, they
show more tip-of-the-tongue forgetfulness, less accurate memory for names, and
poorer spelling (Burke & Shafto, 2004). All these deficits suggest that something
is amiss with retrieval rather than with storage.
One part of a multifaceted study illustrates this (Thomas & Bulevich, 2005).
Adults were given props with which they could perform 30 simple but bizarre (and
therefore memorable) actions, such as kissing an artificial frog or stepping into a
large plastic bag. Fifteen of these actions they were told to imagine (closing their
eyes for 15 seconds) and fifteen they actually did.
Two weeks later, they were shown (one by one) a list of 45 bizarre actions and
were asked whether they had imagined, performed, or never experienced each of
them in the previous session. Half the participants were just presented with the
list, with no special instructions; in that half, youth outscored age. For instance,
on average, the young adults misjudged 22 percent of the actions on the list as
imagined, performed, or never seen, while the older people mistakenly identified
48 percent.
The other half (both young and old) were given strategies for distinguishing
imagined from experienced actions, such as trying to remember “how an object felt
in your hand, how something looked or smelled . . . how you felt performing
the action.” These instructions helped the older adults: Their error rate was 34
percent. The younger participants were not helped by the strategy suggestion:
They tied their counterparts in the other group, with 22 percent. Since the
instructions were given two weeks after the first part of the experiment, the
researchers concluded that the elderly had less of a problem with initially putting
information into memory than with using strategies to retrieve that information
later (Thomas & Bulevich, 2005).
656 CHAPTER 24 ■ Late Adulthood: Cognitive Development
thinking like a scientist
Neuroscience and Brain Activity
Neurological research has found that, over the life span, the
brain is more multifaceted, and thought processes more diverse,
than was once believed. Brains do become smaller with age, but
the shrinkage varies substantially from part to part (Raz, 2005).
Older adults tend to use more areas of the brain, from both
hemispheres, than younger adults do.
Until recently, most aspects of the brain’s complexity over
the life span were obscure to scientists. They had only crude
measures, such as overall volume and analysis at autopsy. Re-
search on the effects of massive strokes or surgery also provided
information, but it was not known whether conclusions from
such research applied to healthy people. Today, however, non-
invasive neuroimaging in vivo (that is, in living brains) allows re-
searchers to observe the dynamic workings of the brain (Cabeza
et al., 2005).
Although neuroscientists still have much work to do, they
have already found that many parts of the brain can be used for
almost every task. They no longer believe that the human brain
has just one or two language areas; a dozen areas might be acti-
vated when people listen and talk. Neuroscience has also shown
that neurons and dendrites can grow in adulthood (Yang et al.,
2006), that intellectual ability does not correlate with brain size,
that the prefrontal cortex is crucial for control processes, and
that brain use changes with age (Kramer et al., 2006).
It has been widely assumed that brain activity decreases with
age because older people themselves are less active. This assump-
tion is often false. As one expert explains:
When the neuroimaging techniques are applied to . . . young and
old adults, there are three possible outcomes in terms of task-
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Reminding People of What They Know
Everyone’s memory benefits from priming, as when a person is given a clue
before being asked to remember something or when some technique is used to jog
the person’s memory. For example, hearing a word in some context before being
asked to remember it primes the brain to recall the word later. And when your
professor begins class with a review of previously learned material, that teaching
technique helps you connect what you already know to what you are about to learn,
which is also a form of priming.
Some people use priming on their own as a retrieval strategy, such as recalling a
person’s name by remembering the first letter. Priming may benefit older people
more than younger ones, although older people are less likely to use it on their
own.
One way to understand why priming helps is to compare implicit and explicit
memory. Explicit memory involves facts, definitions, data, concepts, and the
like. Most of what is in explicit memory was consciously learned, usually through
links made with verbal information already in memory and through deliberate
repetition and review designed to facilitate later recall.
Implicit memory is less conscious, more automatic. It involves habits, emo-
tional responses, and routine procedures. For the most part, the contents of im-
plicit memory were never deliberately memorized for later recall. Items in implicit
memory are, accordingly, difficult to retrieve verbally on demand. However, they
are easy to retrieve when priming provides a context.
priming Preparation that makes it easier to
perform some action. For example, it is
easier to retrieve an item from memory if
we are given a clue about it beforehand.
explicit memory Memory that is easy to
retrieve on demand (as in a specific test),
usually with words. Most explicit memory
involves consciously learned words, data,
and concepts.
implicit memory Unconscious or automatic
memory that is usually stored via habits,
emotional responses, routine procedures,
and various sensations.
The Usual: Information Processing After Age 65 657
related activity in a given brain region: the two groups could have
equivalent activity, the young group could have greater activity,
or the older group could have greater activity. All three of these
outcomes have been found, depending on the task and the
particular brain region.
[Grady, 2002, p. 4]
The third outcome, that sometimes older brains show more
activity, was unexpected, yet it now has been replicated in many
studies. Younger adults usually think within one hemisphere or
the other, while older adults use both hemispheres. This “age-
related decrease in lateralization” occurs in many cognitive tasks
(Cabeza, 2002, p. 97).
One explanation involves compensation: Older adults may
naturally compensate for cognitive slowdown by recruiting extra
brain areas when they think. As one team explains: “The brain
has the apparent ability to reorganize in the face of neural
insults of aging in what is an apparently compensatory manner”
(Park & Payer, 2006, p. 138).
A second, less optimistic explanation for greater brain activ-
ity among older adults is that, since control processes become
weaker, the brain “dedifferentiates,” no longer using a different
region for each function. Inhibition fails, attention wanders, and
thinking becomes diffuse (Nielson et al., 2002).
Interpretation of this evidence may be influenced by benign
or hostile ageism, the prejudice against the elderly that we first
discussed in Chapter 23. Is diffusion an admirable adaptation,
combining intellectual and emotional skills, and a sign of
“strategic diversity” that helps optimized cognition (Lindenberger
& von Oertzen, 2006, p. 310), or does it represent a pathetic loss
of focus?
Thinking like a scientist means suspending judgment until
sufficient information is collected and avoiding ageist prejudices
—favorable as well as unfavorable. Such objectivity is difficult
to achieve, but that is the scientist’s task (Salthouse, 2006; see
Research Design).
Research Design
Scientist:Timothy A. Salthouse.
Publication: Perspectives on Psychological Science (2006).
Participants: Unlike most Research Designs reported in this
book, this one consists primarily of reviews of other research
on a topic of interest to the scientist. Included, however, are
1,200 adults, ages 18 to 97, who participated in a study in
Salthouse’s laboratory.
Design: Salthouse analyzed evidence for the “use it or lose it”
hypothesis, that mental exercise reduces mental aging. In
Salthouse’s study, participants’ time spent in various cognitive
activities (of varied complexity) was compared with their age
and intellect.
Major conclusion: “Although my professional opinion is that . . .
the mental-exercise hypothesis is more of an optimistic hope
than an empirical reality, my personal recommendation is that
people should behave as if it is true” (p. 84).
Comment: Some good science, such as in this article, combines
analysis of other studies with further exploration. Salthouse
highlights inconsistencies and biases in the research.
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Explicit memory is especially shaky in elderly people who lack adequate control
processes. For example, if older adults were asked to describe the face of their
best friend in third grade, they might find that impossible, but if they were primed
by being shown a class photo, they could pick out that friend immediately. When
Jean Piaget (1970) asked people to explain how to crawl, most of them got it
wrong. (What moves when—hands, feet, elbows, knees, right, left?) However,
almost everyone, if primed by getting on the floor, can demonstrate crawling.
That’s implicit memory.
Children, brain-damaged people, and older adults are better at implicit than
explicit memory (Rowe et al., 2006; Schneider & Björklund, 2003). With priming,
healthy and intellectually sharp older adults access implicit memory as well as
much younger adults do (Zacks & Hasher, 2006). Consider high school Spanish
again. Implicit memory (comprehending an overheard Spanish phrase) is easier
for the elderly than is performing an explicit task (translating a list of English
words into Spanish).
Brain Slowdown
Even with good priming and adequate stimulation, the unavoidable process called
senescence (see Chapters 17, 20, and 23) causes one cognitive change in every-
one: The elderly react more slowly than younger adults do. This brain slowdown
can be traced partly to reduced production of neurotransmitters—glutamate,
acetylcholine, serotonin, and especially dopamine—that allow a nerve impulse to
jump across the synapse from one neuron to another (Bäckman & Farde, 2005).
Speed of cognition is also affected by a decrease in neural fluid, a smaller pre-
frontal cortex, and slower cerebral blood flow.
Speed is crucial for many aspects of cognition, especially working memory,
since information stays in working memory for only a short time. If people cannot
quickly process that information, some of it will be lost in order for other relevant
information to be put into working memory.
As a result of this slowdown, people cannot hold all the relevant information in
their minds, cannot sequentially analyze information that is lost before they get to
it, and cannot respond to new information on the basis of prior information (now
lost). Slower thinking also tends to be simpler and shallower because of these
losses (Salthouse, 2000, 2006). Not surprisingly, fluid intelligence (requiring quick
analysis) is powerfully affected by speed of processing (Zimprich & Martin, 2002).
Cognition that is unaffected by speed is usually unaffected by primary aging.
For this reason, “aging impairs cognition on some tasks but spares it in others. . . .
Individuals adapt, sometimes with great success” (Stern & Carstensen, 2000, p. 3).
Fortunately, although slower processing is detrimental in traditional tests of
intelligence, speed is less relevant for everyday cognition, when
decision time is controlled more by “appropriate programming” that uses our
brains efficiently than by raw speed of information processing. . . . In most cases
involving everyday activity, the young–old contrast should not be thought of as a
contrast between a fast and a slow computer, but as a contrast between a fast
computer with a limited library of programs and a slow computer with a large
library.
[Hunt, 1993]
An analysis of many measurements of cognition found that older adults were
slower at almost everything, but were not always less accurate, than younger
people (Verhaeghen et al., 2003). Many compensate for loss of speed by allowing
additional time to solve problems, repeating instructions that might be confusing,
asking others to slow down, focusing on meaningful cognitive tasks and ignoring
658 CHAPTER 24 ■ Late Adulthood: Cognitive Development
Does She Need Her Shopping List? A
shopping list may help when explicit memory
fails. If this shopper wrote a list and then mis-
placed it, however, she could scan the store
shelves and imagine her kitchen cupboards.
Implicit memory would probably enable her
to choose almost every item she needed.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 660):
What are two signs that this woman is over
60?
M
IC
HA
EL
N
EW
M
AN
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
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IN
C.
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terminal decline An overall slowdown of
cognitive abilities in the weeks and months
before death. (Also called terminal drop.)
irrelevant ones. All these strategies help older adults adjust to their slower rate of
information processing. Further, expertise continues to buffer the effects of overall
slowdown. For example, expert older chess players were almost as fast at assessing
risks to the king as were expert younger players, and they were far faster than less
experienced players who were accurate in their judgments but slower to decide
(Jastrzembski et al., 2006; see Research Design).
Thus far, our discussion of compensation, control, and intellectual strengths
has ignored the cognitive breakdown suffered by some of the elderly. Many people
demonstrate a marked loss of intellectual power when death is near, even before a
physician notices anything amiss. Changes in cognition and increased depression
often precede a final worsening of health (Rabbitt et al., 2002). This terminal
decline (also called terminal drop) is an overall slowdown of cognitive abilities in
the weeks and months before death.
With terminal decline, a compression of morbidity (see Chapter 23) is evident,
with the sudden drop in cognition followed by declines in many other functions
(Bäckman et al., 2002; Small et al., 2003). Terminal decline is not directly caused
by age; it is the result of being close to death (Maier et al., 2003).
Staying Healthy and Alert
We have focused thus far on primary aging, the inevitable and universal process of
growing older and eventually dying. However, secondary aging, the particular ill-
nesses and conditions that affect one person but not another, probably has more
influence on the cognition of any particular individual. Secondary aging is a major
reason for the remarkable variation in intellectual ability between one older per-
son and another. Detailed studies support the conclusion that “variability pervades
cognitive aging” (Lindenberger & von Oertzen, 2006, p. 297).
A study of 900 people in their 70s, 80s, and 90s living in the community (not
in institutions) found “both greater-than-expected deterioration as well as less-
than-expected deterioration (including improvement)” over a four-year period
(Christensen et al., 1999). Another group of researchers agreed that “in some
people cognition declines precipitously, but in many others cognition declines only
slightly or not at all, or improves slightly” (Wilson et al., 2002, p. 179). Studies of
the brain find that “older adults may activate less, more, or even different neural
structures to perform a memory task than young adults do” (Park & Gutchess,
2005, p. 219).
The reasons for the variation include gender, education, biological aging, and
the person’s own assessment of whether everyday activities are restricted by the
state of his or her health (Wahlin et al., 2006). Many diseases that are common
among the elderly impair cognition (Raz, 2005). In addition to those that directly
attack the brain (discussed later in this chapter), hypertension (high blood pres-
sure), diabetes, arteriosclerosis, emphysema, and many other chronic conditions
slow down cognition; their effects are most evident in middle age. Physical and
mental health are crucial for intellectual health throughout adulthood (Caplan &
Schooler, 2003; Elias et al., 2004). One review found that “aerobic fitness
emerged as a potential modifier of brain aging” (Raz, 2005, p. 44).
Unfortunately, perhaps because of the poor eating and exercise habits de-
scribed in previous chapters, few older adults are free from all the conditions that
lead to secondary aging and cognitive decline. Of all 50- to 64-year-olds, 75 per-
cent have at least one risk factor; for half of them, it is hypertension (MMWR,
January 16, 2004). Thus, when older adults are cognitively impaired, secondary
aging may be to blame. Exercise, moderate eating, and avoiding cigarettes may be
as important for the mind as for the body.
The Usual: Information Processing After Age 65 659
Research Design
Scientists:Tiffany S. Jastrzembski, Neil
Charness, and Catherine Vasyukova.
Publication: Psychology and Aging
(2006).
Participants: A total of 59 chess players
from Russia and the United States, at
three levels of expertise: unranked,
intermediate, and expert, according to
international criteria.They were consid-
ered young (ages 17 to 44, average age
33) or old (45 to 81, average age 61).
Design:The participants were tested on
general response speed and on working
memory and then presented with a seg-
ment of a chess board, with a king and
one other piece.They judged whether
the king was in check, or one move from
check, or not threatened. Judgments
were very accurate, but some took
longer than others to decide.
Major conclusion: Expertise overcomes
most age effects. At the same skill level,
the older participants were slower—in
chess by about 20 percent (200 milli-
seconds) and in general speed by about
50 percent. However, the older experts
were quicker than the intermediate
young players and far quicker than the
young unranked players.Thus, “experts
maintain an earlier perceptual advan-
tage over less skilled players in chess”
(p. 405).
Comment:This is one of many studies
that compare age and expertise. Con-
clusions vary depending on the specific
skill. Age-related declines affect some
skills, but experts in many areas (includ-
ing chess) experience only minor age
deficits.
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Ageism
Some cognitive decline is rooted not in the older person’s body and brain but in
the surrounding social context. Cultural attitudes can lead directly to age differ-
ences in cognition (Hess, 2005).
Stereotype Threat Again
Stereotypes do most harm when individuals—regardless of age, sex, or ethnicity—
internalize other people’s prejudices and react with helplessness, self-doubt, or
misplaced anger (as we saw in the discussion of stereotype threat in Chapter 18).
If the elderly fear losing their minds because they have internalized the idea that
old age brings dementia, that fear may become a stereotype threat, undermining
normal thinking (Hess, 2005).
Influenced by expectations of decline, people aged 50 to 70 tend to overesti-
mate the memory skills they had in young adulthood. They selectively forget their
earlier forgetfulness! Lack of confidence impairs memory, as every student who
has panicked about an exam knows. Confidence is further eroded when others
interpret slow responses as failing memory. If they use elderspeak (explained in
Chapter 23), not only is the older person made to feel stupid, but also to become
less intelligent because of consistently oversimplified conversations (Levy, 2003).
In many ways, expectations and responses affect cognition (Hess, 2005).
In one experiment, words that expressed either positive or negative ageism were
flashed on a screen so quickly that the participants didn’t even know they had
seen them. Nonetheless, older adults performed better on cognitive tests after
they saw words that reflected positive stereotypes (such as guidance, wise, alert,
sage, accomplished, learned, improving, creative, enlightened, insightful, and astute)
than they did after seeing words that reflected negative stereotypes (Alzheimer’s,
decline, dependent, senile, misplaces, dementia, dying, forgets, confused, decrepit,
incompetent, and diseased) (Levy, 1996).
When the same experiment was repeated with younger adults, no significant
differences in test scores were found. Apparently, negative stereotypes do damage
only if a person identifies with them. The researcher concludes:
Two messages emerge from this research. The pessimistic one is that older indi-
viduals’ memory capabilities can be damaged by self-stereotypes that are derived
from a prevalent and insidious stereotype about aging. Specifically, the stereo-
type that memory decline is inevitable can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This research also offers an optimistic message. The findings indicate that mem-
ory decline is not inevitable. In fact, the studies show that memory performance
can be enhanced in old age.
[Levy, 1996, p. 1105]
Similar results were found when adults aged 24 to 86 were tested after reading
an article confirming the stereotype that memory declines in old age. The perform-
ance of the youngest participants was unaffected, the middle-aged ones actually
improved, and the oldest-old, like the young, were unfazed. However, the young-
old, in their late 60s, were negatively affected, especially if they believed what
they read (Hess & Hinson, 2006).
The influence of stereotyping was also apparent in a study that began with a
novel idea: Find people who are not influenced by ageism. The researchers found
two groups: residents of China, where the old are traditionally venerated, and
deaf people in North America, whose lack of hearing limits their exposure to
ageist stereotypes (Levy & Langer, 1994). Memory tests were given to the two
groups and to a third group, hearing North Americans. For that hearing group,
Especially for Busy People When does
“speed reading” make sense?
660 CHAPTER 24 ■ Late Adulthood: Cognitive Development
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 658): Her gray hair and poor vision. She
is holding the paper about 24 inches away
from her face, a sign of aging eyes. Younger
people see best if an object is about 10
inches away.
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the gap between scores of the younger and older test-takers was twice as great
as the old/young gap among the deaf North Americans and five times as great as
that for the Chinese. Similar trends were found in a study that compared recent
Chinese immigrants to Canada with Chinese Canadians who had emigrated
decades ago and presumably had been more influenced by North American
ageism (Yoon et al., 2001).
Ageism Among Scientists
Traditionally, scientists measured age differences in memory in the same way they
had always studied memory: in laboratories on university campuses, in the after-
noon, using nonsense syllables. The researchers counted how many syllables
participants could remember within a specific time. (Nonsense syllables were
used so that the material to be remembered would be culturally neutral.)
However, each of these factors works against older adults, who tend to perform
best in familiar settings, in the morning, with familiar words (Baltes et al., 1998).
In addition, the young participants are usually college students, who have lots of
practice with taking tests under pressure. Older adults, by contrast, have less
practice and tend to be more fearful of performing poorly on memory tests. If
stereotype threat is evoked, they may become anxious or ignore the instructions of
the research assistant (who is often a young graduate student).
For example, in one experiment, adults were taught a memory technique called
the method of loci, in which the person creates a mental picture of unusual loca-
tions in which the items to be remembered are “placed.” Many older adults quietly
resisted using the new method, even though the experiment required it. Instead,
they used their own memory strategies. The older participants scored lower, but
half of that difference could be traced to this resistance rather than to age-related
decline (Verhaeghen & Marcoen, 1996).
The same problem may occur in daily life. Many older people, of their own
accord, use compensatory strategies such as carrying a grocery list, keeping a cal-
endar, or programming a phone to dial numbers automatically. However, if some-
one else tells them to do these things, they may refuse, either directly or indirectly
(as by writing a grocery list but not bringing it to the store). Of course, resistance
to suggestions from other generations is common among everyone—not every
college student follows Mother’s advice.
Older adults are more cautious, less inclined to take risks, so they would rather
not guess if they think their answer might be wrong. But when they think they
know something, they are more certain that they are right than young adults are
(Jacoby & Rhodes, 2006). Because they use “more conservative decision criteria,”
the elderly may appear less accurate or slower on psychological tests, and less able
to learn from mistakes, than they actually are (Ratcliffe et al., 2006, p. 353).
Beyond Ageism
Although laboratory experiments indicate memory loss in late adulthood, few older
adults consider memory problems a significant handicap in their daily lives. They
worry at the beginning of late adulthood or if they think they are experiencing
symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, but otherwise, they take memory problems in
stride. They think that they are better than the young at remembering to pay bills,
take medicine, and keep appointments. They may be right (Park & Hedden,
2001).
One classic study was designed to mimic the memory demands of daily life
(Moscovitch, 1982). Older and younger adults (all living busy lives) were asked to
call an answering service every day for two weeks at a specific time of their own
The Usual: Information Processing After Age 65 661
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choice. Only 20 percent of the younger adults made every call, but 90 percent of
the older adults did. Why did the younger adults do so poorly? One reason is that
many put excessive trust in their memories (“I have an internal alarm that always
goes off at the right time”) and therefore did not use memory aids. Older adults
were more likely to use reminders, such as a note on the telephone or a shoe near
the door.
The experimenters then attempted to increase forgetting. They required only
one call per week at a time selected by the researchers, and they told the partici-
pants not to use visible reminders. About half of both groups, old and young, failed
to call at the appointed time. More old people would probably have forgotten, but
some of them bent the rules, using a memory-priming measure (such as carrying
the phone number in plain sight in their wallets).
One of the researchers concluded:
With more effort, we are sure we can bring old people’s memory to its knees . . .
but that hardly seems to be the point of this research. The main lesson of this
venture into the dangerous real world is that old people have learned from expe-
rience what we have so consistently shown in the laboratory—that their memory
is getting somewhat poorer—and they have structured their environment to
compensate.
[Moscovitch, 1982]
Many other researchers have assessed memory in older adults, not only in tradi-
tional experiments but also in more novel studies designed to accommodate the
special abilities and needs of the elderly. Almost invariably, the more realistic the
circumstances, the better an older person remembers. As one series of studies
concludes, “Older adults, in their everyday life, are capable of accurate and reli-
able performance of important tasks” (Rendell & Thompson, 1999).
Fortunately, most older adults develop supportive environments for themselves.
They use routines, memory strategies, and cues to “help ameliorate, and sometimes
eliminate, age-related memory impairment” (Moscovitch et al., 2001). Ordinarily,
compared with college students, older adults are less likely to forget birthdays,
vitamins, or even brushing their teeth.
SUMMING UP
Cognitive processing among the elderly is hindered by diminished sensation and per-
ception, more interference, and less inhibition. Working memory is affected, especially
as reactions slow down. Control processes are particularly impaired. Exercise can
prevent some of the secondary aging known to affect cognition, such as hypertension,
diabetes, and lung diseases. Ageism and stereotype threat may make the elderly
appear less intelligent than they actually are, especially in performing the activities of
daily life.
■
The Impaired: Dementia
Loss of intellectual ability in elderly people has traditionally been called senility.
That term is ageist, however, because senile, which simply means “old,” is being
used to signify cognitive impairment. The implication is that old age itself causes
severe intellectual failure.
A more precise term for pathological loss of brain functioning is dementia—
literally, “out of mind,” referring to severely impaired judgment, memory, or problem-
solving ability. Traditionally, when dementia occurred before age 60, it was called
dementia Irreversible loss of intellectual
functioning caused by organic brain dam-
age or disease. Dementia becomes more
common with age, but it is abnormal and
pathological even in the very old.
662 CHAPTER 24 ■ Late Adulthood: Cognitive Development
➤Response for Busy People (from page
660): Faster is not always better, and people
who believe a stereotype and develop
research to prove it often find what they
expect. Therefore, take a skeptical view of
any claim that is made about speed reading.
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presenile dementia, when it occurred after age 60, it was called senile dementia or
senile psychosis. However, age 60 is a meaningless marker: A person may develop
dementia at age 40 or age 80; the symptoms are the same at every age.
More than 70 diseases can cause dementia, each different in sequence, sever-
ity, and particulars, although all are characterized by mental confusion and forget-
fulness (Fromholt & Bruhn, 1998). Dementia is chronic, which means it is
long-lasting, unlike delirium, which refers to acute, severe memory loss and con-
fusion that disappears in hours or days (Inouye, 2006).
The precise cause of dementia is difficult to determine in the early stages.
When adults become confused and memory fails, many assume that the problem
is Alzheimer’s disease. However, even when Alzheimer’s disease is diagnosed by a
physician, autopsies reveal that about 15 percent of the diagnoses were wrong.
Doctors are stuck in a dilemma: How much evidence should they collect
before they diagnose the cause of dementia? A correct early diagnosis can lead to
treatment that slows down or even halts dementia, but a wrong early diagnosis
often leads to ineffective treatment and false hope or needless despair.
Alzheimer’s Disease
The most feared yet most common cause of dementia (about half of cases world-
wide, a total of 20 million people) is Alzheimer’s disease (AD), also called senile
dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT) (Goedert & Spillantini, 2006). Alzheimer’s
disease is characterized by the proliferation of plaques and tangles in the brain.
These are abnormalities in the cerebral cortex that destroy the ability of neurons
to communicate with each other and thus stop brain functioning.
Plaques are clumps of a protein called beta-amyloid, which is found in the
tissues surrounding the neurons; tangles are twisted masses of threads made of a
protein called tau within the neurons. A normal brain contains some beta-amyloid
and tau, but in AD the amounts are excessive, and the resulting plaques and
tangles disrupt brain communication. This disturbance usually begins in the
hippocampus, a brain structure that plays a vital role in memory, and memory loss
is usually the first, and the dominant, symptom of AD.
New techniques for analyzing brain tissue after death (the only sure way to
diagnose AD) show that the amount of plaques and tangles correlates with the
degree of intellectual impairment before death but not with the victim’s age. In a
living person, a diagnosis is typically based on reports of symptoms, a medical his-
tory, and some cognitive tests. This method is about 85 percent accurate, although
autopsies find plaques and tangles in the brains of some very old people who had
never been diagnosed as having dementia.
Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s Disease
Gender, ethnicity, and especially age affect a person’s odds of developing
Alzheimer’s disease. Women are at greater risk than men, and fewer East Asians
than Europeans (no matter where they live) develop the disorder (Jellinger, 2002).
Alzheimer’s disease may also be less common among people of African descent,
but life expectancy is far lower in Africa than on any other continent and diagnosis
of illness in late adulthood is less certain. This means that the lower rates of AD in
Africa may reflect earlier death or less frequent diagnosis rather than any genetic
or cultural protection. Some experts believe childhood, adult context, and specific
toxins in the environment affect Alzheimer’s; others disagree.
In every nation, age is the chief risk factor for AD. According to a compilation
of 13 studies from several nations (Ritchie et al., 1992), the incidence rises from
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) The most
common cause of dementia, characterized
by gradual deterioration of memory and
personality and marked by the formation
of plaques of beta-amyloid protein and
tangles in the brain.
The Impaired: Dementia 663
The Alzheimer’s Brain This computer
graphic shows a vertical slice through a brain
ravaged by Alzheimer’s disease (left) com-
pared with a similar slice of a normal brain
(right). The diseased brain is shrunken as the
result of the degeneration of neurons. Not
viewable in this cross section are tangles of
protein filaments within the nerve cells as
well as plaques that contain decaying den-
drites and axons.
AL
FR
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AS
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KA
/
SC
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CE
P
HO
TO
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IB
RA
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/
PH
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SE
AR
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S
delirium A temporary loss of memory,
often accompanied by feelings of fear or
grandiosity and irrational actions.
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about 1 percent of people age 65 to about 20 percent of people over age 85. Other
research finds a doubling of incidence every 5 years after age 65, with about half
of those over age 100 having the disease (Czech et al., 2000; Samuelsson et al.,
2001). These data are approximate and are not found by every study, partly
because diagnostic variations affect incidence rates.
As you learned in Chapter 3, Alzheimer’s disease is partly genetic. When AD
appears in middle age, the person either has trisomy-21 (Down syndrome) or
has inherited at least one of three genes: APP (amyloid precursor protein),
presenilin 1, or presenilin 2. Those genes are powerful: The disease in middle age
progresses quickly, reaching the last phase within three to five years. However,
most cases begin at age 75 or so, with much less genetic influence.
Many other genes probably have some impact, including genes called SORL1
and ApoE4 (allele 4 of the ApoE gene) (Marx, 2007). A person who inherits
ApoE4 from only one parent, as one-fifth of all people in the United States do, has
about a 50/50 chance of developing Alzheimer’s by age 80; those who inherit the
gene from both parents almost always develop Alzheimer’s by their 90s. ApoE4
also increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, so many carriers die before de-
mentia begins (Crews, 2003). Genetic tests are not used diagnostically before
symptoms appear, because predictions and prevention are so uncertain.
Genes can also reduce the risk of developing AD. For example, ApoE2 (allele 2
of ApoE) dissipates the amyloid that causes plaques. There is another allele that
probably reduces the risks associated with exposure to Arctic weather as well as
the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, although it increases the risk of some
other diseases (Ruiz-Pesini et al., 2004). For unknown reasons, the incidence of
ApoE4 is higher in African Americans, but it is less predictive of Alzheimer’s.
People with no known genetic or environmental risk can nonetheless develop AD.
Stages: From Confusion to Death
Alzheimer’s disease usually runs through a progressive course of five identifiable
stages, beginning with forgetfulness and ending in death.
The first stage is characterized by absentmindedness about recent events or
newly acquired information, particularly the names of people and places. A person
in the first stage of the disease might be unable to remember where he or she just
put something or might forget people’s names after being introduced to them. In
this early stage, most people recognize that they
have a memory problem and try to cope with it,
writing down names, addresses, appointments, shop-
ping lists, and other items much more often than
they once did.
This first stage is sometimes confused with nor-
mal aging. For example, in a study of 1,883 people
over age 65 (average age 75), 5 percent complained
about memory problems. Three years later, 15 per-
cent of those who complained, and 6 percent of
those who had not, had developed dementia (Wang
et al., 2004). Even experts cannot always distin-
guish early Alzheimer’s disease from other condi-
tions. For example, in retrospect, it seems clear that
President Ronald Reagan had early AD symptoms
while in office, but no doctor diagnosed it. Many
tests, both cognitive and physiological, provide
clues, but none are definitive (Peterson, 2003).
Especially for Genetic Counselors Would
you perform a test for ApoE4 if someone
asked for it?
664 CHAPTER 24 ■ Late Adulthood: Cognitive Development
I Love You, Dad This man, who is in the last
stage of Alzheimer’s disease, no longer re-
members his daughter, but she obviously has
fond memories of his fatherly affection.
AL
AN
O
DD
IE
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PH
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OE
DI
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IN
C.
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In the second stage, generalized confusion develops, with deficits in concentra-
tion and short-term memory. Speech becomes aimless and repetitious, vocabulary
becomes much more limited, and words get mixed up. People at stage two are
likely to read a newspaper article and forget it completely the next moment; they
may put down their keys or eyeglasses and within seconds have no idea where
they could be.
People with Alzheimer’s disease who have always been suspicious by nature
may decide that others have stolen the things that they themselves have mislaid.
Then, “in the firm conviction of having been robbed, the patient starts hiding
everything, but promptly forgets the hiding place. This reinforces the belief that
thieves are at work” (Wirth, 1993).
Personality changes are common. The person begins to express long-repressed
impulses as rational thought disappears. A previously tidy person may become
compulsively neat; a person with a quick temper may begin to display explosive
rages; a person who is asocial may become even more withdrawn. One writer, who
worked obsessively to chronicle his losses, used spell-check to figure out how to
write but quit in frustration after spending five minutes struggling to spell hour
(DeBaggio, 2002).
In the third stage, memory loss becomes dangerous. Individuals with Alzheimer’s
disease may take to eating only one food, or they may forget to eat entirely. Often
they fail to dress properly, leaving home barefoot in winter or walking naked about
the neighborhood, crossing streets against the light. They might leave
a lit stove or a hot iron, causing a fire. They might go out on some
errand and then lose track not only of the errand but also of the way
back home. And they cannot ask neighbors for help because they do
not recognize them. Getting lost is a valid fear for people in this stage
(Sabat, 2001).
The part of the brain that visualizes an object and realizes that it
is a K, a hat, or a person may become tangled. In such cases, a per-
son appears more helpless and incompetent than his or her overall
cognitive losses would indicate.
By the fourth stage, people with AD need full-time care. They
cannot care for themselves or respond normally to others, and they
sometimes become irrationally angry or paranoid. They can no
longer communicate or even recognize their closest loved ones, not
because they have forgotten them completely but because the part
of the brain that recognizes people has further deteriorated. A man
might want to see his wife but refuse to believe that the person
before him is, indeed, his wife.
Finally, in the fifth stage, people with AD become almost com-
pletely unresponsive, no longer even talking. Death usually comes
10 to 15 years after the beginning of stage one.
Many Strokes
The second most common cause of dementia is a stroke (a temporary
obstruction of a blood vessel in the brain) or, more often, a series of
many strokes, called TIAs (transient ischemic attacks, or ministrokes).
Insufficient oxygen to the affected area of the brain, caused by the
interruption in blood supply, results in the destruction of brain tissue,
which produces immediate symptoms (blurred vision, weak or para-
lyzed limbs, slurred speech, and mental confusion).
The Impaired: Dementia 665
Vascular Dementia Rehabilitation after a stroke is easier for the
body than the mind because progress in physical therapy is more
apparent to the patient and the therapist.
PA
UL
C
ON
KL
IN
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PH
OT
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IN
C.
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In a TIA, symptoms typically disappear quickly—in hours or even minutes—
and may be so slight that no one (including the victim) notices. Nevertheless, brain
damage has occurred, and after a series of TIAs, the repeated brain damage leads
to vascular dementia (VaD), also called multi-infarct dementia, or MID
(Fromholt & Bruhn, 1998).
In North America and Europe, VaD causes 10 to 15 percent of all cases of de-
mentia. The incidence is much higher in Japan and China, where VaD is more com-
mon than Alzheimer’s disease (De la Torre et al., 2002). Worldwide, both VaD and
Alzheimer’s disease often occur in the same person. Some clinicians believe that
most older people are affected by both VaD and AD, and that one or the other is di-
agnosed only when the combination of symptoms is too noticeable to be ignored.
The progression of “pure” VaD differs from that of Alzheimer’s disease (see
Figure 24.3). Typically, the person suddenly loses some intellectual functioning
following a ministroke. Other neurons take over, dendrites grow, and the person
becomes better. People may think that the problem is solved, but that first mini-
stroke is a warning that other strokes are likely (Van Wijk et al., 2005).
With each successive infarct, it becomes harder and harder for the remaining
parts of the brain to compensate. If heart disease, major stroke, diabetes, or
another illness does not kill the VaD victim, ministrokes continue to occur. The
person’s behavior eventually becomes indistinguishable from that of someone
suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. In pure VaD, autopsy reveals that parts of the
brain have been completely destroyed while other parts seem normal; the prolifer-
ation of plaques and tangles characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease is not apparent.
Subcortical Dementias
Many other dementias are associated with conditions that originate not in the
cortex, as with Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, but in the subcortex,
the parts of the brain under the cortex. Because the brain damage resulting from
these conditions is below, not inside, the cortex, thinking and memory are not
initially affected. Instead, subcortical dementias cause a progressive loss of
motor control.
Causes of subcortical dementias include Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s dis-
ease, and multiple sclerosis. All begin with the person’s realization that a serious,
chronic illness has taken hold in the body and that his or her control of the move-
ments of hands, legs, and other body parts is not what it once was. In later stages,
when and if dementia appears, one sign that it is subcortical is that short-term
memory is better than long-term memory, exactly the opposite of people with
cortical degeneration.
The most common type of subcortical dementia results from Parkinson’s dis-
ease, which begins with rigidity or tremor of the muscles. Neurons degenerate in
a brain region that produces dopamine, a neurotransmitter essential to normal
brain functioning. If destruction of neurons and slowed transmission reach a
certain threshold, dementia may begin. Because cognitive reserve declines with
age, older people with Parkinson’s disease are more likely to develop dementia
than are younger ones (Starkstein & Merello, 2002). An estimated 8 percent of
newly diagnosed individuals are under age 40, but most are much older.
A related form of dementia is called Lewy body dementia, because of the round
deposits of protein (Lewy bodies) seen in neurons (Whitbourne, 2002). These
bodies are always found in Parkinson’s disease, but in Lewy body dementia they
are dispersed throughout the brain. Motor movements and cognition are both
affected, but these effects are not as severe as the motor effects of Parkinson’s or
the memory loss of Alzheimer’s. The main symptom is loss of inhibition.
subcortical dementias Forms of dementia
that begin with impairments in motor abil-
ity (which is governed by the subcortex)
and produce cognitive impairment in later
stages. Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s
disease, and multiple sclerosis are subcor-
tical dementias.
Parkinson’s disease A chronic, progressive
disease that is characterized by muscle
tremor and rigidity, and sometimes
dementia, caused by a reduction of
dopamine production in the brain.
666 CHAPTER 24 ■ Late Adulthood: Cognitive Development
5 10 15
Alzheimer’s
VaD
Time (in years)
Intellect
FIGURE 24.3
The Progression of Vascular Dementia and
Alzheimer’s Disease Cognitive decline is
apparent in both Alzheimer’s disease and
multi-infarct dementia. However, the pattern
of decline for each disease is different. Victims
of AD show steady, gradual decline, while
those who suffer from VaD get suddenly
much worse, improve somewhat, and then
experience another serious loss.
vascular dementia (VaD)/multi-infarct
dementia (MID) A form of dementia char-
acterized by sporadic, and progressive,
loss of intellectual functioning caused by
repeated infarcts, or temporary obstruc-
tions of blood vessels, which prevent
sufficient blood from reaching the brain.
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Various infectious agents and toxins can also affect the brain. For instance,
people with AIDS often develop a brain infection that produces dementia, as do
those in the last stages of syphilis. Eating beef infected with bovine spongiform
encephalitis (BSE, or “mad cow disease”) eventually leads to dementia and death.
Any psychoactive drug can produce delirium, and chronic use can lead to
dementia. When alcohol abuse is chronic, disruptions in the functioning of the
central nervous system impair learning, reasoning, perception, and other mental
processes. Over the long term, severe alcohol abuse can lead to Korsakoff ’s
syndrome, with loss of short-term memory and increased confusion caused by
brain lesions.
Reversible Dementia
The cortical and subcortical dementias already described damage the brain, and
once brain damage has occurred, it cannot be reversed. However, proper treat-
ment can slow the progression of dementia, and that is one reason early diagnosis
is important.
Symptoms are sometimes caused by something whose effects can be reversed,
such as medication, inadequate nutrition, alcohol abuse (short of Korsakoff ’s
syndrome), depression, or other mental illness. Reversible dementia can also be
caused by a brain injury or tumor; normal cognition may be restored by surgery
and rehabilitation therapy.
Overmedication and Undernourishment
In hospitals, many forms of anesthesia can trigger delirium in the aged, and pain
medication plus sleep deprivation in an unfamiliar setting can lead to ongoing de-
mentia. At discharge, dementia may continue if the person is given medications
that interact harmfully (Hajjar et al., 2005).
At home or in a nursing home, many elderly people take numerous different
drugs each day—not only prescription medicines but also over-the-counter drugs,
alcohol, and herbal remedies. The interaction of all these drugs often produces
confusion and psychotic behavior. Also, doses given to the elderly may not be
correct, since doses are usually determined by clinical trials using younger adults,
whose metabolism and digestive systems differ from those of older adults and who
are unlikely to be taking the same array of other medications.
Even without considering interactions, many drugs commonly taken by the
elderly (such as most of those used to reduce high blood pressure, to combat
Parkinson’s disease, or to relieve pain) slow down mental processes (Davies &
Thorn, 2002). The solution seems simple—moderation or elimination of problem
drugs—but this solution requires that the cause be recognized and that the prob-
lem drugs not be necessary at their current dosages.
No drug is proven to protect against dementia, although many such drugs have
been suggested. For example, as explained in Chapter 20, women who took estro-
gen after menopause were found to be less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease
(Marriott & Wink, 2004). However, those who took the hormones were also more
likely to exercise regularly, to be well-educated, and to eat healthy foods—all of
which also correlate with a reduced incidence of dementia. As you remember
from Chapter 1, correlation does not prove causation; so in this case, no conclu-
sions can be drawn about the extent to which any or all of these factors reduce the
risk of Alzheimer’s.
Hormones are probably not protective. The same debate now focuses on
statins, a group of drugs used to reduce cholesterol levels: Some believe that statins
are protective against dementia, but they probably are not (Zandi et al., 2005).
The Impaired: Dementia 667
And the Print Is Too Small Patients, physi-
cians, and pharmacists have reason to be
confused about the eight or more drugs that
the average elderly person takes. Very few
patients take their medicines exactly as pre-
scribed. Moreover, in addition to prescription
drugs, most elderly people also take over-the-
counter medications, vitamins, herbal reme-
dies, and caffeinated or alcoholic drinks. It is
no wonder that drug interactions cause
drowsiness, unsteadiness, and confusion in
about half of all elderly persons.
TO
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➤Response for Genetic Counselors
(from page 664): A general guideline for
genetic counselors is to provide clients with
whatever information they seek; but because
of both the uncertainty and the devastation
of Alzheimer’s disease, the ApoE4 test is
not available at present. This may change (as
was the case with the test for HIV) if early
methods of prevention and treatment
become more effective.
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Anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin and ibuprofen, may be protective but
they, too, probably are not.
Inadequate nutrition is connected to overmedication, not only because some of
the poorest elderly skimp on food in order to be able to afford their medications
but also because many medications reduce absorption of vitamins. Undernutrition
can also stem from reduced income, loss of appetite, loneliness, and impaired
digestive processes. Extreme vitamin deficiencies and dehydration can lead to
depression, confusion, and cognitive decline (Rosenberg, 2001), but vitamin pills
are not a good substitute for a healthy diet.
Adequate healthy eating and drinking (water, not wine or coffee) correlate with
reduced incidence of dementia. As was noted in Chapter 23, however, many
elderly people, at home or in nursing homes, overmedicate and do not eat well or
drink enough water (Wendland et al., 2003).
668 CHAPTER 24 ■ Late Adulthood: Cognitive Development
a case to study
Is It Dementia or Drug Addiction?
Many gerontologists are becoming aware of the problem of over-
medication and drug abuse among the elderly, although ageism
often prevents family members from realizing that an elderly
relative’s mood swings, rage, and confusion are not normal. As
at every age, addicts hide their addiction and become angry at
those who confront them. Fortunately, treatment and recovery
are possible at any age. Consider Audrey.
A 70-year-old widow named Audrey . . . was covered with large
black bruises and burns from her kitchen stove. Audrey no longer
had an appetite, so she ate little and was emaciated. One night
she passed out in her driveway and scraped her face. The next
morning, her neighbor found her face down on the pavement in
her nightgown.
Audrey couldn’t be trusted with the grandchildren anymore,
so family visits were fewer and farther between. She rarely show-
ered and spent most days sitting in a chair alternating between
drinking, sleeping, and watching television. She stopped calling
friends, and social invitations had long since ceased.
Audrey obtained prescriptions for Valium, a tranquilizer, and
Placydil, a sleep inducer. Both medications, which are addictive
and have more adverse effects in patients over age 60, should
only be used for short periods of time. Audrey had taken both
medications for years at three to four times the prescribed dosage.
She mixed them with large quantities of alcohol. She was a full-
fledged addict . . . close to death.
Her children knew she had a problem, but they . . . couldn’t
agree among themselves on the best way to help her. Over time,
they became desensitized to the seriousness of her problem—
until it progressed to a dangerously advanced stage. Luckily for
Audrey, she was referred to a new doctor who recognized her
addiction. . . . Once Audrey was in treatment and weaned off
the alcohol and drugs, she bloomed. Audrey’s memory improved;
her appetite returned; she regained her energy; and she started
walking, swimming and exercising every day. Now, a decade
later, Audrey plays an important role in her grandchildren’s lives,
gardens, and she lives creatively and with meaning.
[Colleran & Jay, 2003, p. 11]
Audrey is a stunning example of the danger of ageist assump-
tions about senility. Her children did not realize that she could
once again have an intellectually and socially productive life.
Psychological Illness
Elderly people have a lower incidence of psychological disorders than younger
adults do. The rates of anxiety, antisocial personality disorder, bipolar disorder,
schizophrenia, and depression are lower after age 65. One reason is that these
problems can lead to poor health and thus higher mortality at younger ages.
Another is that many disorders become less severe with age. Nonetheless, about
10 percent of the elderly who seem demented are experiencing psychological,
more than physiological, illness.
Anxiety is particularly likely to be mistaken for dementia (Scogin, 1998) because
anxiety can make even a healthy person forgetful. When an older person arrives at
a hospital or nursing home, crippling anxiety may cause disorientation and mem-
ory loss. If the patient is assessed immediately, misdiagnosis is a real possibility.
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It might lead to prescriptions for psychotropic medicine, resulting in ongoing,
though reversible, dementia.
Careful diagnosis is essential. If an older person is depressed, lonely, and inactive
but is not treated, symptoms of dementia may occur (Davies & Thorn, 2002). Clues
to the person’s true condition are evident in his or her behavior. For example,
many depressed older adults exaggerate minor memory losses or refuse to answer
questions. Quite the opposite reaction comes from people with Alzheimer’s, who
try to answer and are embarrassed by their inability to do so (Sabat, 2001). People
who suffer from mental illness are often impaired in episodic memory (memory of
what happened) but not in short-term memory, unlike people with Alzheimer’s
disease (Vidailhet et al., 2001).
The most common problem in this regard is that many older adults who are de-
pressed are not treated, even though therapy and careful use of medication usually
bring improvement in a few weeks, and pseudodementia disappears (Davies &
Thorn, 2002). However, as when they miss signs of addiction, some younger
people expect the elderly to be sad and confused, so the depression goes untreated.
The result may be suicide, which occurs almost twice as often in the United
States among those over age 85 than among teenagers (U.S. Bureau of the Census,
2007). Rates are particularly high among men of European background (see
Appendix A, p. A-27).
Prevention and Treatment
Irreversible dementia is not easy to prevent. The idea that people who keep their
minds active will never develop dementia is simplistic. Doing the daily crossword
puzzle will not prevent dementia. In short, there is no cure—or even effective
prevention as yet.
However, many lifestyle factors that slow down senescence also delay the onset
of dementia. For example, the underlying cause of the blood-vessel obstructions
that lead to strokes and vascular dementia is arteriosclerosis (hardening of the
arteries). Measures to improve circulation (such as regular exercise) or to prevent
and control hypertension and diabetes (such as proper diet and drugs) slow
arteriosclerosis and may delay the onset of dementia.
The Impaired: Dementia 669
KA
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Waiting for a Bath This woman is in a Tokyo
facility that provides baths for physically or
cognitively impaired elderly people—not just
as a hygienic necessity, but also as a soothing,
sensual experience.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 670):
Should someone take that doll away?
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➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page 669): No. Note that the woman is
holding the doll close, with both hands and
her chin. The photograph makes a valid point
about the universal need for comfort.
In fact, regular exercise can reduce the incidence of dementia by half (Marx,
2005), especially if exercise also prevents overweight. One large study found
that people who were obese in middle age were almost twice as likely to develop
dementia by their 70s as were people of normal weight (Whitmer et al., 2005).
Exercise and therapy to retrain the brain’s automatic responses and to repair
the damaged links between neurons can sometimes restore intellectual health,
and “some brain-cellular changes seen in normal aging can be slowed or reversed
with exercise” (Woodlee & Schallert, 2006, p. 203). Antidepressants can also help
if the person feels like giving up and doing nothing, as is often the case (Okamoto
et al., 2002).
Once dementia begins, early diagnosis can signal the need for various drugs
(Jellinger et al., 2002; Peterson, 2003). Several of these, especially cholinesterase
inhibitors (e.g., donepezil) slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease
(Kaduszkiewicz et al., 2005).
Many scientists are seeking to halt the production of beta-amyloid or tau
(Marx, 2007; Roberson & Mucke, 2006). Some drugs succeed with mice that
have been genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer’s. Clinical trials with
human participants are now underway to learn which drugs have unexpected toxic
effects and to discover whether they slow the human disease. Hope is replacing
despair because
researchers have made tremendous progress toward understanding the molecular
events that appear to trigger the illness, and they are now exploring a variety of
strategies for slowing or halting these destructive processes. Perhaps one of these
treatments, or a combination of them, could impede the degeneration of neurons
enough to stop Alzheimer’s disease in its tracks.
[Wolfe, 2006, p. 73]
Similarly, while Parkinson’s disease is incurable, many drugs are now used to
relieve its symptoms. Surgery to repair the specific area of the brain affected by
Parkinson’s has had some success (Deuschl et al., 2006).
From a developmental perspective, the possibility of cure is thrilling, but even in
the most optimistic scenario, millions now suffering from dementia will die before
such therapy is available. Although research seeking a medical cure is necessary
and thrilling, there is currently a much more pressing need to provide services and
treatment for the millions of people with dementia and their caregivers.
SUMMING UP
Dementia, characterized by memory loss and confusion, is not rare among the elderly,
but it is not the usual pattern. The three main causes of dementia are Alzheimer’s dis-
ease, small strokes (TIAs) resulting in vascular dementia, and Parkinson’s disease. Each
of these conditions follows a somewhat different pattern. There are many other reasons
for dementia, including drug addiction and mental disorders, which can be reversed.
Researchers are discovering the causes of dementia and testing drugs that might stop
its insidious progression.
■
The Optimal: New Cognitive Development
You have learned that, in adapting to later life, most adults maintain sufficient
intellectual power. Their focus may shift from details to principles, from negative
to positive, from criticism to acceptance, from speed to accuracy. It may be ageist
to fault thinking at age 80 for not being as detailed, critical, or quick as at younger
670 CHAPTER 24 ■ Late Adulthood: Cognitive Development
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years. Wouldn’t it be just as illogical to blame the young for undervaluing faith,
tradition, and community?
Erik Erikson finds that older people are more interested than the young in
the arts, in children, and in human experience as a whole. The elderly are “social
witnesses” to life, more aware of the interdependence of the generations (Erikson
et al., 1986). Abraham Maslow maintained that older adults are much more likely
than younger people to reach what he considered the highest stage of develop-
ment—self-actualization—which includes heightened aesthetic, creative, philo-
sophical, and spiritual understanding (Maslow, 1970).
Erikson and Maslow have been criticized for selective perception (they chose
their interviewees) (Hoare, 2002). But even Paul Baltes, with his data-based study
of a representative cohort of the elderly in West Berlin, finds gains as well as losses
at every stage of life (Baltes, 2003). What are some of the gains?
Aesthetic Sense and Creativity
Many elderly people seem to gain a greater appreciation of nature and aesthetic
experiences. As one team of gerontologists explains:
The elemental things of life—children, friendship, nature, human touching
(physical and emotional), color, shape—assume greater significance as people
sort out the more important from the less important. Old age can be a time of
emotional sensory awareness and enjoyment.
[Butler et al., 1998, p. 65]
For many older people, this heightened appreciation finds active expression.
They may begin gardening, bird-watching, making ceramics, painting, or playing a
musical instrument—and not simply because they have nothing better
to do. The importance that creativity can have for some in old age is
wonderfully expressed by a 79-year-old man, who was not famous, little
educated, yet joyful at his workbench:
This is the happiest time of my life. . . . I wish there was twenty-four
hours in a day. Wuk hours, wake hours. Yew can keep y’ sleep; plenty of
time for that later on. . . . That’s what I want all this here time for now—
to make things. I draw and I paint too. . . . I don’t copy anything. I make
what I remember. I tarn wood. I paint the fields. As I say, I’ve niver bin
so happy in my whole life and I only hope I last out.
[quoted in Blythe, 1979]
For this man, the creative impulse did not suddenly arise in late adult-
hood; it was present, although infrequently expressed, in earlier years.
Many older adults decide to stop deferring their creative expression.
One of the most famous examples of late creative development is
Anna Moses, who was a farm wife and mother in upstate New York.
For most of her life, she expressed her artistic impulses by stitching
quilts and doing embroidery during the long winters on the farm. At
age 75, arthritis made needlework impossible, so she took to “dabbling
in oil” instead. Four years later, three of her oil paintings, displayed in a
local drugstore, caught the eye of a New York City art dealer who was
passing by. He bought them, drove to Anna Moses’s house, bought 15
more, and began to exhibit them. One year later, at age 80, “Grandma
Moses” had her first one-woman show in New York, receiving inter-
national recognition for her unique “primitive” style. She continued to
paint, “incredibly gaining in assurance and artistic discretion,” into her
90s (Yglesias, 1980).
The Optimal: New Cognitive Development 671
It Pleases Me In young adulthood and mid-
dle age, many people feel that they must
meet social expectations and conform to
community values. With a strong hand, a
vivid imagination, and bold colors, the elderly
are finally free to express themselves as they
never did before.
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For those who have been creative all their lives, old age is often a time of con-
tinuing productivity and even of renewed inspiration. There is something called
the “old-age style” in the arts, when established artists change their usual pattern,
developing a new style that may be more creative then the previous style
(Lindauer, 2003). Famous examples abound: Michelangelo painted the amazing
frescoes in the Sistine Chapel at age 75; Giuseppe Verdi composed the opera
Falstaff when he was 80; Frank Lloyd Wright completed the design of the Guggen-
heim Museum in New York City, an innovative architectural masterpiece, when
he was 91.
In a study of extraordinarily creative people (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996), almost
none of the respondents felt that their ability, their goals, or the quality of their
work had been much impaired with age. What had changed was their sense of
urgency, sharpened by their realization that fewer years lay ahead and that their
energy and physical strength were diminishing. The researcher observed, “In
their seventies, eighties, and nineties, they may lack the fiery ambition of earlier
years, but they are just as focused, efficient, and committed as before . . . perhaps
more so” (p. 503).
Another reviewer of artistic expression in late adulthood drew similar conclu-
sions, which the author feels apply to all the aged. He writes:
The study of art in older age increases our awareness of the growth possibilities
of aging. . . . A realization that old age can be a time of gains as indicated by the
work of aging artists, or a time of cognitive stability, as shown by older non-artists’
response to art and arts-related activities, gives a positive perspective on late life
potential.
[Lindauer, 1998, p. 248]
The Life Review
Many older people become more reflective and philosophical. Sometimes they
think about their own history, putting their lives in perspective, assessing accom-
plishments and failures in narrative form (Birren & Schroots, 2006).
One form of this attempt to assess one’s own life is called the life review, as
people recall and recount their lives, comparing the past with the present. In
general, the life review helps elders connect their past with the future, as they
tell their stories to younger generations. At the same time, it renews links with
former generations as people remember parents, grandparents, and even great-
grandparents. A person’s relationship to humanity, to nature, to God, and to
the whole of life becomes a topic of reflection, as various memories are revived,
reinterpreted, and finally reintegrated (Kotre, 1995).
The life review is more social than solitary. Elderly people want to tell their
stories to others, and often their tales are not solely about themselves but also about
their family, cohort, or ethnic group. Such stories tend to be richer in interesting
details than those told by younger adults (Pratt & Robins, 1991). Of course, not
everyone, old or young, is a gifted storyteller. The authors of one study explain:
Most of us can recall older family members or acquaintances from our youth who
were legendary (sometimes, perhaps, notorious) as champion storytellers. These
individuals shared important cultural and personal knowledge and information on
a variety of topics with younger generations through the recounting of their own
past experiences. Yet other adults may come to mind who were terrible storytellers.
Clearly, adults vary dramatically in their capacities and motivation to engage in
such adult storytelling with young persons.
[Pratt et al., 1999, p. 414]
life review An examination of one’s own
part in life, engaged in by many elderly
people.
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To someone who knows how to listen, the stories are often worth hearing (Kasten-
baum, 2003). Even if the life review is merely nostalgia or reminiscence, that may
still be helpful to older people, although not always easy for others to hear. It may
be crucial to the elder’s feelings of self-worth that others appreciate the signifi-
cance of these reminiscences. As Robert Butler and his colleagues explain:
We have been taught that this nostalgia represents living in the past and a preoccu-
pation with self and that it is generally boring, meaningless, and time-consuming.
Yet as a natural healing process it represents one of the underlying human capac-
ities on which all psychotherapy depends. The life review should be recognized
as a necessary and healthy process in daily life as well as a useful tool in the
mental health care of older people.
[Butler et al., 1998, p. 91]
The reflectiveness of old age may intensify attempts to put broader historical
and cultural contexts into perspective (Cohen, 1999). A comparison of autobio-
graphical memories found that younger people recalled more specific details but
that older ones gave more integrative accounts, stressing social roles and broader
implications (Levine et al., 2002). In other words, young adults used autobiogra-
phy to say what occurred, older adults to gain insight. No wonder their own life
review is meaningful to them.
Wisdom
Wisdom is the most positive attribute associated with older people. The idea that
wisdom may be common in old age has become a “hoped-for antidote to views that
have cast the process of aging in terms of intellectual deficit and regression”
(Labouvie-Vief, 1990). Although many people believe that wisdom increases with
age, this belief, like the belief that aging inevitably means intellectual decline, may
not be generally true (Brugman, 2006).
Certainly, younger adults do not always believe that their own parents are wiser
than they are. This is notable among immigrants to the United States from places
where respect for the wisdom of the elderly is integral to the culture. Sometimes
adult immigrants bring their aged parents to live with them. This situation often
leads to disappointment: The elderly feel that their wisdom is devalued, and
younger family members feel that the elderly do not understand the current
context.
One spouse complained of his Italian in-laws, “Parents won’t let go. They want
to bury their child” (quoted in Olson, 2001, p. 201). A Haitian elder said, “The
children are not well educated. Yet they make fun of me” (p. 109). Many elders feel
that their children and grandchildren are “too American,” a phrase that signifies
rudeness and disrespect. Wisdom is not evident in either generation.
What is wisdom, after all? Any definition is subjective. Whether any given indi-
vidual is perceived as wise depends on the immediate social context in which that
person’s thoughts or actions are being judged. Wisdom is a social virtue, one that
involves recognizing and responding to both the enduring cultural values and the
current human needs of one’s social group (Staudinger & Werner, 2003).
Given these obstacles to precision, consider one of the more comprehensive,
all-purpose definitions of wisdom, offered by Paul Baltes: “Expertise in the
fundamental pragmatics of life, permitting exceptional insight and judgment
involving complex and uncertain matters of the human condition” (Baltes et al.,
1998, p. 1070). Wisdom includes dialectical thinking that emerges in early adult-
hood (Chapter 18) and expertise in human relations gained from experience
(Chapter 21).
The Optimal: New Cognitive Development 673
wisdom A cognitive perspective character-
ized by a broad, practical, comprehensive
approach to life’s problems, reflecting
timeless truths rather than immediate
expediency; said to be more common in
the elderly than in the young.
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Is wisdom characteristic of late adulthood? Maybe not. In one study, adults of
all ages were asked to advise four fictitious persons who faced difficult decisions
regarding their future (Smith & Baltes, 1990). Here is an example:
Elizabeth, 33 years old and a successful professional for 8 years, was recently
offered a major promotion. Her new responsibilities would require an increased
time commitment. She and her husband would also like to have children before
it is too late. Elizabeth is considering the following options: She could plan to
accept the promotion, or she could plan to start a family.
[p. 497]
The other three stories concerned parental responsibilities at home, accepting early
retirement, and intergenerational commitments, respectively. Participants were
asked to think out loud to decide what each person should do, indicating when
they thought additional information was needed. Responses were transcribed.
Professionals who did not know the ages of the respondents assessed their wisdom.
They found that wisdom was in short supply. Of 240 respondents, only 5 percent
were judged as truly wise, and those were about equally likely to be of any age
(Smith & Baltes, 1990). The professionals were chosen because they were consid-
ered good judges, but again, the definition of who is wise is complex.
More recent research likewise finds wisdom at many ages—although it is rare
at any age and the very wise are more likely to be old. Experience and practice in
dealing with the problems of life tend to increase wisdom, but intelligence and
chronological age do not (Baltes et al., 1998).
If wisdom includes warm social interactions, humor, and altruistic concern, an-
other study also found little correlation between intelligence and wisdom (Vaillant
& Davis, 2000). This study found that when boys who had low IQ scores (between
60 and 86) grew up, some led wise and good lives. For example, one man, called
“slovenly, tardy, and lazy” by his boyhood teacher, became a pastor, first of a small
parish, then of progressively larger ones. He loved “helping and teaching” people,
and he excelled at it. Wisely, he appreciated that his wife did the paperwork and
math, and he was thrilled that all his children attended college.
674 CHAPTER 24 ■ Late Adulthood: Cognitive Development
So Much to Learn When it comes to com-
puter savvy, these children will probably soon
surpass their elderly volunteer teacher. But
wisdom includes patience, appreciation of
diversity, and willingness to learn, and on
these qualities some older adults surpass the
typical schoolchild.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 676):
What is it about the man’s posture that
suggests he is a dedicated teacher? JA
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Not everyone achieved such success, but about half of the low-IQ participants
in this study attained joy, connection, devotion, and caring that matched those
attained by peers who had much higher IQs. One author of a longitudinal study of
814 people (including these low IQ boys) concludes that wisdom is not reserved
for the old, although humor, perspective, and altruism often increase over the
decades. He then writes:
To be wise about wisdom we need to accept that wisdom does—and wisdom
does not—increase with age. Age facilitates a widening social radius and more
balanced ways of coping with adversity, but thus far no one can prove that wis-
dom is great in old age. Perhaps we are wisest when we keep our discussion of
wisdom simple and when we confine ourselves to words of one and two syllables.
Winston Churchill, that master of wise simplicity and simple wisdom, reminds
us, “We are all happier in many ways when we are old than when we are young.
The young sow wild oats. The old grow sage.”
[Vaillant, 2002, p. 256]
SUMMING UP
On balance, it seems fair to conclude that the mental processes in late adulthood can
be adaptive and creative—not necessarily as efficient as thinking at younger ages, but
more appropriate to the final period of life. These qualities are particularly apparent in the
work of artists, who seem as creative and passionate about their work in later adulthood
as they were earlier. Many others, who are not artistic, also have a strong aesthetic
sense and seek to tell their life story to other people. Wisdom is not the sole domain
of the old, nor are all older people wise. Nonetheless, many are insightful, creative, and
reflective, using their life experience to gain wisdom.
■
Let us conclude with an exemplary case, the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
who wrote these lines at age 68:
. . . But why, you ask me, should this tale be told?
Of men grown old, or who are growing old?
Ah, nothing is too late
Till the tired heart shall cease to palpitate;
Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles
Wrote his grand Oedipus, and Simonides
Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers,
When each had numbered more than four score years,
And Theophrastus, at four score and ten,
Had just begun his Characters of Men.
Chaucer, at Woodstock with the nightingales,
At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales;
Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last,
Completed Faust when eighty years were past.
These are indeed exceptions, but they show
How far the gulf-stream of our youth may flow
Into the arctic regions of our lives
When little else than life itself survives. . . .
Shall we then sit us idly down and say
The night hath come; it is no longer day?
The night hath not yet come; we are not quite
Cut off from labor by the failing light;
Some work remains for us to do and dare;
Even the oldest tree some fruit may bear; . . .
And as the evening twilight fades away
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.
The Optimal: New Cognitive Development 675
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676 CHAPTER 24 ■ Late Adulthood: Cognitive Development
The Usual: Information Processing After Age 65
1. Although thinking processes become slower and less sharp
once a person reaches late adulthood, there is much individual
variation in this decline, and each particular cognitive ability
shows a different rate of age-related loss.
2. As the senses themselves become dulled, some material never
reaches the sensory memory. Working memory shows notable
declines, especially when the older person must simultaneously
store and process information in complex ways. Processing takes
longer with age.
3. Control processes are less effective with age, as retrieval strat-
egies become less efficient. More parts of the brain are activated.
4. With increasing age, adults experience greater difficulty ac-
cessing information from working memory and long-term memory.
Knowledge stored in implicit memory is more easily retrieved
than are the facts and concepts stored in explicit memory.
5. One reason older adults perform less well than younger adults
on tests of cognitive functioning is that more of the older group
experience stereotype threat, forming negative self-perceptions.
Some laboratory research creates contexts that impede the effi-
cient use of adult cognition.
6. In daily life, most of the elderly are not seriously handicapped
by cognitive difficulties. Usually, once they recognize problems in
their memory or other intellectual abilities, they develop strategies
to compensate.
The Impaired: Dementia
7. Dementia, whether it occurs in late adulthood or earlier, is
characterized by memory loss—at first minor lapses, then more
serious forgetfulness, and finally such extreme losses that recog-
nition of even the closest family members fades.
8. The most common cause of dementia in the United States is
Alzheimer’s disease, an incurable ailment that becomes more
prevalent with age. Genetic factors (especially the ApoE4 gene)
play a role in Alzheimer’s disease. Drug therapy offers some prom-
ise for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
9. Vascular dementia (also called multi-infarct dementia) results
from a series of ministrokes (transient ischemic attacks, or TIAs,
that occur when impairment of blood circulation destroys portions
of brain tissue. Measures to improve circulation and to control
hypertension can prevent or slow the course of vascular dementia.
10. Subcortical abnormalities, such as Lewy body dementia and
Parkinson’s disease, are also leading causes of dementia. Severe
alcoholism and AIDS can cause dementia as well.
11. Dementia is sometimes mistakenly diagnosed when the indi-
vidual is actually suffering from a reversible problem. Overuse or
misuse of medication, anxiety, depression, and poor nutrition can
cause dementia symptoms.
The Optimal: New Cognitive Development
12. Many people become more responsive to nature, more inter-
ested in creative endeavors, and more philosophical as they grow
older. The life review is a personal reflection that many older
people undertake, remembering earlier experiences and putting
their entire lives into perspective.
13. Wisdom does not necessarily increase as a result of age, but
some elderly people are unusually wise or insightful.
dual-task deficit (p. 651)
control processes (p. 654)
priming (p. 657)
explicit memory (p. 657)
implicit memory (p. 657)
terminal decline (p. 659)
dementia (p. 662)
delirium (p. 663)
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (p. 663)
vascular dementia (VaD)/multi-
infarct dementia (MID)
(p. 666)
subcortical dementias (p. 666)
Parkinson’s disease (p. 666)
life review (p. 672)
wisdom (p. 673)
SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page 674): He is kneeling in
order to be at the right level and distance. Kneeling is harder for the old
than for the young; the fact that he has made the effort is a sign of his
dedication to instructing the children.
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Summary 677
6. Does everyone develop dementia if they live long enough?
7. What are the similarities between Alzheimer’s disease and
vascular dementia? What are the differences?
8. How reversible is dementia?
9. What are the purpose and the result of the life review?
10. What is a definition of wisdom, and how does this relate to
aging?
1. How is each part of the information-processing system—
sensory register, working memory, knowledge base, and control
processes—affected by age?
2. How could a slowdown within the brain lead to cognitive de-
cline?
3. Compare age differences in explicit and implicit memory.
4. What are the problems with, and the conclusions derived
from, research on long-term memory?
5. How do stereotypes about aging held by researchers, by cul-
tures, and by individuals affect research on memory?
How did the contexts of the two experiences differ? How might
those differences affect the performance of elderly and young
adults who go to a university laboratory for testing?
3. Visit someone in a hospital. Note all the elements in the
environment—such as noise, lights, schedules, and personnel—
that might cause an elderly patient to seem demented.
1. At all ages, memory is selective. People forget much more than
they remember. Choose someone—a sibling, a former classmate,
or a current friend—who went through some public event with
you. Sit down together, write separate lists of all the details each
of you remembers about the event, and then compare your ac-
counts. What insight does this exercise give you into the kinds of
things older adults remember and forget?
2. Many factors affect intellectual sharpness. Think of an occa-
sion when you felt stupid and an occasion when you felt smart.
KEY QUESTIONS
APPLICATIONS
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Late Adulthood:
Psychosocial
Development
The range of possibilities for life after age 65 is vast, greater than atany earlier age. You already learned that some elderly people runmarathons, while others hardly move; some write timeless poetry,while others cannot speak. This chapter describes some of the
psychosocial possibilities, particularly regarding family relationships and other
social interactions. Some problems, such as poverty, frailty, and elder abuse,
are also discussed.
As a preview, consider a couple married for 80 years, retired for 40, both
over age 100. They live together, without outside help. Gilbert is proud of his
wife, Sadie:
“She gets out of bed—I timed her this morning, just for fun. I got up first,
but while I was in the bathroom, she gets up, she comes out here first and
puts the coffee on. Got back and washed up and got dressed and just twelve
minutes after she got out of bed—just twelve minutes this morning—I had
her right on the watch.”
Sadie chuckles. “I don’t have any secrets anymore.”
“So then you have breakfast together?” I ask.
“Oh, yes!”
“And then read the paper?”
“After we get the dishes washed, we sit down and read the paper for a
couple of hours.”
[quoted in Ellis, 2002, pp. 107–108]
Few centenarians live as well as Gilbert and Sadie: Many are widowed, most
are no longer independent. Gilbert and Sadie are unusual in being still to-
gether and independent, but they are not unusual in taking comfort in their
families, pleasure in their daily routines, and interest in current events.
Remember them as we describe the variability and complexity of develop-
ment in later life. We begin with theories of psychosocial development in
late adulthood and then focus on a range of possible activities in retirement,
social relationships, and frailty.
679
25
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� Theories of Late Adulthood
Self Theories
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS:
Thinking Positively
Stratification Theories
A CASE TO STUDY: Doing Just Fine?
Dynamic Theories
� Coping with Retirement
Deciding When to Retire
Retirement and Marriage
Aging in Place
Continuing Education
Volunteer Work
Religious Involvement
Political Activism
� Friends and Relatives
Long-Term Marriages
Losing a Spouse
Relationships with Younger Generations
Friendship
� The Frail Elderly
Activities of Daily Life
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS:
Buffers Between Fragile and Frail
Caring for the Frail Elderly
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Theories of Late Adulthood
Dozens of theories have been formulated to help us understand psychosocial
development in late adulthood. To simplify, we consider these theories in three
clusters: self theories, stratification theories, and dynamic theories.
Self Theories
Self theories begin with the premise that adults seek to be themselves. They
make choices, confront problems, and interpret reality in such a way as to define,
become, and express themselves as fully as possible. As Maslow (1968) described
it, people attempt to self-actualize, or achieve their full potential.
Self theories emphasize “the ways people negotiate challenges to the self”
(Sneed & Whitbourne, 2005, p. 380), an ability that is particularly crucial when
older adults are confronted with multiple challenges: illnesses, retirement, death
of loved ones. The central idea of self theory is that each person ultimately de-
pends on him- or herself. As one woman explained:
I actually think I value my sense of self more importantly than my family or
relationships or health or wealth or wisdom. I do see myself as on my own,
ultimately. . . . Statistics certainly show that older women are likely to end up
being alone, so I really do value my own self when it comes right down to things
in the end.
[quoted in Kroger, 2007, p. 203]
Integrity Versus Despair
The most comprehensive self theory came from Erik Erikson, who was still writing
in his 90s (Erikson et al., 1986). The developmental crisis of Erikson’s final stage
is integrity versus despair, when older adults seek to integrate their unique
experiences with their vision of community. Many develop pride and contentment
with their personal story, as well as with their community. Others despair, “feeling
that the time is now short, too short for the attempt to start another life and to try
out alternate roads to recovery” (Erikson, 1963, p. 269).
As at every other stage, tension between the two opposing aspects of the devel-
opmental crisis helps advance the person toward a fuller understanding. In this
eighth stage,
life brings many, quite realistic reasons for experiencing despair: aspects of the
present that cause unremitting pain; aspects of a future that are uncertain and
frightening. And, of course, there remains inescapable death, that one aspect
of the future which is both wholly certain and wholly unknowable. Thus, some
despair must be acknowledged and integrated as a component of old age.
[Erikson et al., 1986, p. 72]
Ideally, the reality of death brings a “life-affirming involvement” in the present—
for oneself, one’s children, one’s grandchildren, and all of humanity (Erikson et al.,
1986).
To maintain integrity, older people are proud to be alert, independent, and re-
spected. As you remember, each of Erikson’s stages builds on the previous ones.
Elders who have many close friends and family members, including a partner
(intimacy), and who can look back on a productive life (generativity) are most able
to feel integrity, approaching the end of life without despair. Integrity itself begins
to build long before old age (Hoare, 2002).
An older person who is no longer independent can be buffered from despair
by love and by the reassurance of his or her remaining abilities (Rothermund &
self theories Theories of late adulthood that
emphasize the core self, or the search to
maintain one’s integrity and identity.
integrity versus despair The final stage of
Erik Erikson’s developmental sequence, in
which older adults seek to integrate their
unique experiences with their vision of
community.
680 CHAPTER 25 ■ Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
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Brandstädter, 2003; Steverink & Lindenberg, 2006). Thus, Gilbert and Sadie were
delighted with each other and with the “just twelve minutes” it took her to get
dressed (intimacy and generativity again).
Identity Theory
A second self theory originates in Erikson’s fifth stage, identity versus role confusion.
Throughout life, each new experience, each gain or loss, requires a reassessment
of identity (Cross & Markus, 1991; Kroger, 2007; van der Meulen, 2001; Zucker
et al., 2002).
Identity is challenged in old age. The usual pillars of the self-concept crumble,
specifically appearance, health, and employment. One 70-year-old said, “I know
who I’ve been, but who am I now?” (quoted in Kroger, 2007, p. 201).
Knowing oneself often means accepting one’s key personality traits—
generosity, shyness, good nature, and so on. Most older people consider their per-
sonalities and attitudes to have remained quite stable over their life span. One
103-year-old woman observed, “My core has stayed the same. Everything else has
changed” (Troll & Skaff, 1997, p. 166). One nursing home resident,
when asked whether she had changed much over the years, extracted a photo
from a stack in her dresser drawer, one taken when she was in her early twenties,
and said, “That’s me, but I changed a little.” She had indeed changed. She was
now neither curvaceous nor animated, but was physically distorted from crip-
pling arthritis and sullen from pain. To herself, however, she was still the same
person she had always been.
[Tobin, 1996]
When older adults are asked to select a “cherished object,” most pick ordinary
and inexpensive things that had great personal meaning (Sherman & Dacher,
2005). Objects and places become more precious in late adulthood than earlier, a
way to hold on to identity (Kroger, 2007; Whitmore, 2001).
This trait may be problematic if it leads to compulsive hoarding, an urge that
causes some elderly people to save so many old papers, pieces of furniture, and
mementoes that little space is left in their homes for themselves (Thobaden, 2006).
Hoarding becomes increasingly common with age. Many older people resist mov-
ing from a drafty and dangerous dwelling into a smaller, safer place, not because
Theories of Late Adulthood 681
On the Same Page This school volunteer,
working with “high-risk” children, pays close
attention to the picture that has captured the
boy’s interest. The ability to care for others is
one sign of integrity, as older adults realize all
the “high risks” they have personally over-
come.AP
/
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ID
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W
OR
LD
P
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TO
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they do not recognize the social and health benefits of the move but because they
fear that parting with objects may mean that they will lose themselves.
Unfortunately, some elderly people, instead of balancing past identity and cur-
rent conditions, go to one extreme or the other. Some choose assimilation (reinter-
preting every new experience as part of the same old pattern); others choose
accommodation (abandoning old identity in the face of new contexts).
In assimilation, identity remains unchanged and new experiences are incorpo-
rated, or assimilated, into earlier structures. The individual distorts reality to deny
that anything is new. To protect self-esteem, a person might refuse to eat an unfa-
miliar food or to learn to use e-mail, or might insist that the only way to worship
God is with words from childhood. Older adults, by far, are the age group least
likely to use technology of any kind, from cell phones to faxes, from microwaves to
Internet shopping (Czaja et al., 2006). If an older person is nostalgic about “the
good old days,” believing that life was once uniformly better (ignoring the facts
that racism, sexism, childhood diseases, and death in middle age were more preva-
lent), that may be assimilation.
Assimilation is useful in protecting the self-concept from ageism (Sneed &
Whitbourne, 2005). However, assimilation may result in a refusal to take medica-
tion or ask for help. An assimilating person might ignore “shaky balance” to “ven-
ture out on an icy day wearing shoes that do not have nonskid soles” (Whitbourne,
2002, p. 11). Assimilation leads to rigidity.
The opposite strategy, accommodation, is worse for self-esteem (Whitbourne,
2002). In accommodation, people adapt to changes by abandoning their identity,
adjusting too much. Accommodating individuals might accept ageist stereotypes,
deciding that nothing can “stave off the onset of old age” (Whitbourne, 2002,
p. 11). Incorporating the negative stereotypes of ageism leads to depression and
poorer health. This outlook leads to deterioration and hastens mortality. Life is
over, integrity is impossible, and all that is left is despair and death.
Ideally, then, a person combines long-standing identity with changing circum-
stances, avoiding both mindless resistance (assimilation) and total defeat (accom-
modation). Constructive identity “consists of both more or less enduring, stable
beliefs as well as more short-term, variable ones” (van der Meulen, 2001, p. 29),
as “individuals select pathways, act and appraise the consequences of their actions
in terms of their self-identity” (Heinz, 2002, p. 58).
Selective Optimization
As you remember from Chapter 23, people can choose to cope successfully with
the changes of late adulthood through selective optimization with compensation.
This concept is central to self theories. Individuals can set goals, assess their own
abilities, and figure out how to accomplish what they want to achieve despite the
limitations and declines of later life. Although at every age people seek new
achievements, in later years the goal of simply maintaining abilities correlates with
well-being (Ebner et al., 2006). In this way, optimization combines with compen-
sation, assimilation with accommodation.
As an example of selective optimization, consider Artur Rubinstein, a world-
famous concert pianist who “continued to perform with great success” in his 80s
(Baltes et al., 2006, p. 592). He did this by limiting his repertoire to pieces he
knew he could perform well (selection) and by practicing them more than he had
when he was younger (optimization). Since he was slower at playing fast passages,
he slowed the tempo of other parts, making the fast passages seem quicker by con-
trast (compensation) (Baltes et al., 2006).
More common examples are provided by elders who restructure their daily
lives. One woman shopped for food at a distant store at the end of the bus line, so
682 CHAPTER 25 ■ Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Selective Optimization with Compensation
Max Roach has was leading jazz drummer for
over 50 years. His approach to his work at
age 73 clearly reflects the idea of selective
optimization with compensation: “I joined a
health club. . . . I thought I’d tune up, you
know, tone up. Playing my instrument is a lot
of exercise. All four limbs going. . . . I don’t
play the way I did back in the 52nd Street
days. We were playing long, hard hours in all
that smoke. It would kill me now if I played
like I did then. Now I play concerts, and the
show goes on for just an hour.” Roach died in
2007 at the age of 83.
CH
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that empty seats were always available for her and her bags of groceries on her
return trip. Similarly, an elderly driver, aware of slower reaction time, made three
right turns to avoid a left turn across a dangerous intersection (Johnson & Barer,
1993).
Both men and women show selective optimization, but there are gender differ-
ences. Elderly women think they continue to be effective with their friendships
and spiritual lives; men focus on continuing to be able to manage money and get
things done. In general, “with advancing old age, men and women selectively
focus on cultivating areas and domains of positive self-appraisals and competency
. . . in coping with threats, challenges, fears and anxieties of old age” (Fry, 2003,
p. 483).
positivity effect The tendency for elderly
people to perceive, prefer, and remember
positive images and experiences more
than negative ones.
Theories of Late Adulthood 683
Thinking Positively
Longitudinal studies confirm continuity from early childhood to
late adulthood in the Big Five personality traits, which were dis-
cussed in Chapter 22: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion,
agreeableness, and neuroticism (OCEAN) (Caspi & Shiner, 2006;
Trzesniewski et al., 2004). Of course, contexts make “predicting
all of the behavior all of the time” impossible (Caspi & Shiner,
2006, p. 344), but people continue with the same personality
configuration in late adulthood as they had earlier.
Dramatic changes in personality are rare. Slight shifts occur
over time, typically gradually drifting toward personality traits
that are most valued by the culture. For example, the shy person
can become more extroverted, but not by much. One general
shift occurs between emerging adulthood and old age; it is
known as the positivity effect. Elderly people are more likely
to perceive, prefer, and remember positive images and experi-
ences than negative ones (Carstensen et al., 2006). The positiv-
ity effect includes both cognitive and social aspects, which have
been identified by many researchers.
For example, in a laboratory experiment to test memory, peo-
ple were shown first one batch of photographs and then another.
They were asked which photos they had seen before. Older
people (aged 64–80) were more likely to remember the positive
photos (such as of a baby seal) in contrast to younger people
(aged 18–28), who remembered the negative ones (such as a
photo of a snake) better (Mikels et al., 2006).
In another study, the responses of older and younger adults
to confrontation were compared. Almost 1,000 people over age
65 were asked how often they experienced 12 types of negative
social exchanges (Sorkin & Rook, 2006), through such ques-
tions as: “In the past month, how often did the people you know
interfere or meddle in your personal matters?” More than a third
(39 percent) of the older people reported no negative interac-
tions. Most of those who described upsetting exchanges said
that their primary goal in the interaction was to maintain good-
will. Some said that their goal was to minimize their own emo-
tional distress. Only a few sought to change the other person
(see Figure 25.1).
The goal of achieving harmony led to effective strategies,
such as compromise rather than assertion:
Participants whose primary coping goal was to preserve goodwill
reported the highest levels of perceived success and the least in-
tense and shortest duration of distress. In contrast, participants
whose . . . goal was to change the other person reported the low-
est levels of perceived success and the most intense and longest
lasting distress.
[Sorkin & Rook, 2006, p. 723]
In a study of long-lasting marriages, 86 percent of the part-
ners surveyed thought their relationship was about equal in
give-and-take (Gurung et al., 2003). Outsiders would judge
many of these long-term marriages as unequal, since one part-
ner or the other usually provided most of the money, needed
most of the care, or did most of the housework. Such disparities
did not seem to affect older couples’ judgments of equity.
issues and applications
Goal in a Negative Interaction:
People Over Age 65
Source: Sorkin & Rook, 2006.
Minimize
personal distress
23%
Change the
other person
17%
Maintain
goodwill
60%
FIGURE 25.1
Keep the Peace When someone does something mean or unpleas-
ant, what is your goal in your interaction with that person? If your
goal is to maintain goodwill, as was the case for a majority of older
adults studied, you are likely to be quicker to forgive and forget.
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Stratification Theories
Stratification theories maintain that it is not factors within the individual but
social forces and cultural influences that limit choice and direct life at every stage
(O’Rand, 2006). Stratification theories explore how societies organize people. If a
child, for reasons of race, immigration, gender, or parents’ economic status, is con-
signed to the bottom of the social heap, that person suffers lifelong. As an example
of this process of stratification, early disadvantage in quality or quantity of educa-
tion, at home or at school, leads to low levels of employment and inadequate
medical care, which themselves lead to further disadvantage. By late adulthood,
the buildup of past stratification is great.
Age, gender, and ethnicity are three major stratification categories, causing
“triple jeopardy” when all three combine. That combination endangers the well-
being of many older people (Cruikshank, 2003).
stratification theories Theories that empha-
size that social forces, particularly those
related to a person’s social stratum or
social category, limit individual choices
and affect the ability to function in late
adulthood as past stratification continues
to limit life in various ways.
684 CHAPTER 25 ■ Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
As evidence of the positivity effect, another trait, dependence
on others (cited on page 618), may increase over time. This trait,
which incorporates social harmony, interpersonal sensitivity,
reciprocity, and politeness, is sometimes considered a sixth uni-
versal trait. Dependence on others, like all the Big Five traits,
may be either high (extreme dependence) or low (extreme self-
sufficiency) in any particular person. It is particularly prominent
in Asian cultures, where social dependence becomes stronger
with age (Fung & Ng, 2006).
The most troubling of the Big Five traits, neuroticism, tends
to decrease over the years of adulthood. If it does not decrease
in an individual, however, it takes a toll. Decades of past anxiety
and worry correlate with increased cognitive impairment in later
life (Crowe et al., 2006). Ironically, signs of intellectual loss
make a person worry, and that anxiety in itself might increase
neuroticism.
A six-year longitudinal study of development among elders
found that fearful and asocial people became less happy and
more likely to die. Those neurotic personality traits were more
predictive of decline than were measures of intellect or physical
strength (Gerstorf et al., 2006). High anxiety was recently found
to be the most common psychological disorder in the United
States (identified in 28 percent of the population), often begin-
ning quite early in life (in children as young as age 11) and
diminishing with age (Kessler et al., 2005). Young adults may
apply this finding by trying to reduce their worries and fears.
Apparently, although people want to postpone some aspects of
aging, the positivity effect is one aspect that everyone should
cultivate.
How They Got That Way Almost 91 years before this photo
was taken, a zygote split in half, and these monozygotic twins
were the result. Their genetic similarities may be even more ap-
parent now than when they were babies—not only their height
and their hair but also less obvious features like the curl of their
fingers and the wrinkles on their necks. The fact that they are
celebrating their 90th birthday is testimony to shared nature
as well as nurture. In their cohort and place of residence (Los
Angeles), only one male in 20 reaches age 90. A.
RA
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Stratification by Age
Industrialized nations segregate older people. Increasingly as they grow older,
people may be consigned to their own places and activities. This is especially true
in modern societies (Achenbaum, 2005), where ageism harms everyone because
“age segregation creates socialization deficits for members of all age groups”
(Hagestad & Dannefer, 2001, p. 13).
The deficit arises from the fact that younger and older people are less often in
places where they are equals, especially if the older people live in communities
that exclude residents under age 55 and if they are forced to retire, leaving work
to the younger adults. These structural aspects of age segregation are echoed in
personal lives. When was the last time you went to a party of friends and people of
all ages came?
The most controversial version of age stratification theory is disengagement
theory (Cummings & Henry, 1961). According to this theory, traditional roles be-
come unavailable or unimportant, the social circle shrinks, coworkers stop asking
for help, and adult children focus on their own children. Once people reach their
60s, infirmity and slowness lead them to voluntarily avoid life’s hustle and bustle.
Thus, not only do younger people disengage from the old but the elderly also
disengage, relinquishing past roles, withdrawing, and becoming passive.
A study found that older adults were less upset at past mistakes than younger
adults were, not because they had fewer regrets but because they cared less about
wanting to undo the past. This could be seen as the positivity effect, or it could be
seen as disengagement from their own past lives. The older people were happier
than the younger adults, who were less able to disengage and thus felt their regrets
more intensely. According to this researcher, disengagement was the best choice
(Wrosch et al., 2005).
Disengagement theory provoked a storm of protest because people thought it
encouraged age segregation and thus ageism. Many gerontologists insisted that
older people need new involvements. Some developed an opposite theory, called
activity theory, which holds that the elderly seek to remain active with relatives,
friends, and community groups. If the elderly do disengage and withdraw, activity
theorists contend, they do so unwillingly (Kelly, 1993; Rosow, 1985).
disengagement theory The view that aging
makes a person’s social sphere increasingly
narrow, resulting in role relinquishment,
withdrawal, and passivity.
activity theory The view that elderly people
want and need to remain active in a variety
of social spheres—with relatives, friends,
and community groups—and become
withdrawn only unwillingly, as a result of
ageism.
Theories of Late Adulthood 685
Silver on Display In the foreground is Layla
Eneboldsen, enjoying the company of three
other elderly people who live with her. Since
more than 90 percent of the elderly in the
United States are White (and mostly female),
like this group of friends, and since the furni-
ture, lights, and artwork date from 60 years
ago, this might seem to be a scene from the
1940s in the United States. In fact, this is
twenty-first-century Denmark. STE
PH
AN
IE
M
AZ
E
/ C
OR
BI
S
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Research has shown that, in general, the more active the elderly are and the
more roles (worker, wife, mother, neighbor) they have, the greater their satisfac-
tion and the longer their lives (Rowe & Kahn, 1998). Indeed, literally being active
—bustling around the house, climbing stairs, walking to work—can lengthen a
person’s life as well as increase satisfaction (Manini et al., 2006). Other research
also finds support for activity theory. A longitudinal study of 77- to 98-year-olds in
Sweden found that quality of life was directly related to having many leisure activ-
ities. Over a 10-year period, one-third of those studied added activities rather than
cutting back, with some of them substituting new activities if old ones were no
longer available (Silverstein & Parker, 2002).
Another leading gerontologist suggests that both disengagement theory and
activity theory may be too extreme:
Care providers have reported that their feelings are very mixed when trying to
“activate” certain old people. The workers say that while they believe activity is
good, they nevertheless have the feeling that they are doing something wrong
when they try to drag some older people to various forms of social activity or
activity therapy.
[Tornstam, 1999–2000].
This comment applies to every aspect of age segregation. If people of a certain age
prefer to be with each other rather than with younger or older people, is that to be
allowed, encouraged, or resisted? The same question can be asked about the other
two forms of segregation apparent among the elderly: segregation by gender and
by ethnicity.
Stratification by Gender
Feminist theory draws attention to gender separation. From the newborn’s pink or
blue blanket, continuing through childhood education, adult career choices, fam-
ily caregiving, and older-adult living arrangements, males and females are guided
and pressured into following divergent paths.
Feminists are particularly concerned about late adulthood, partly because “the
study of aging, by sheer force of demography, is necessarily a woman’s issue” (Ray,
1996, p. 674). A disproportionate number of the elderly are female. The ratio in
the United States is almost two women to one man by age 70; that ratio is reached
worldwide by age 80. Everywhere older women are segregated and, perhaps as a
result, poorer than old men.
Past sexual discrimination is one reason for high rates of female poverty. Pen-
sion plans are often pegged to continuous employment, which is less common
among wives and mothers than among men; Social Security pays more to a former
worker than to his spouse; medical insurance covers men’s illnesses (which are
more likely to be acute problems, such as heart attacks) at a higher rate than
women’s (which are more often chronic problems, such as arthritis).
The ongoing implications of gender differences were revealed by a study of
retirement and caregiving among older married couples. Both men and women
provided care if their spouse needed it, but they did it in opposite ways: Women
quit their jobs, but men worked longer. To be specific, employed women whose
husbands needed care were five times more likely to retire than other older
women who were not caregivers. By contrast, when employed husbands had a sick
wife, they retired only half as often as other men (Dentinger & Clarkberg, 2002).
Both responses make sense (the men could afford household help), but the
female strategy is more likely to lead to poverty than the male one.
Irrational fear also limits women’s independence. For example, adult children
persuade their elderly mothers more than their fathers to stop traveling or living
Especially for Social Scientists The
various social-science disciplines tend to
favor different theories of aging. Can you tell
which theories would be more acceptable to
psychologists and which to sociologists?
686 CHAPTER 25 ■ Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
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alone (even though only 2 percent of violent crime victims are women over age
65). The rate of violent-crime victimization among older women is only 1/50 that
of young adults of both sexes; among older men it is 1/20 (Klaus, 2005).
Ethnic Discrimination
Another view of stratification comes from critical race theory, which sees ethnicity
and race as “social construct[s] whose practical utility is determined by a particu-
lar society or social system” (King & Williams, 1995). According to this theory,
long-standing ethnic discrimination and racism result in stratification, shaping
experiences and attitudes throughout the life span.
How powerful such stratification is for young adults today is disputed. Cer-
tainly it has not disappeared. But there is no doubt that today’s elderly were raised
when most non-White populations worldwide were ruled by Europeans. In the
United States, schools, hospitals, and even cemeteries were segregated until the
1960s. Children of color were often poor, dependent, and undereducated, and,
since stratification effects are cumulative, the results are felt by today’s elders.
This effect is apparent physically, in allostatic load (see Chapter 23), and also
financially and cognitively.
According to this theory, people who have experienced discrimination all their
lives are, by old age, more likely to be poor and frail. Not only are they more often
sick, but discrimination continues: They are less welcome at senior-citizen centers,
clinics, and nursing homes. As a result, their health, vitality, and survival are at risk
(Gelfand, 2003; Williams & Wilson, 2001).
Elderly immigrants experience similar exclusions—partly because of the major-
ity culture and partly because of their own cultural values (Olson, 2000). In the
United States, Hispanics over age 65 (the majority of them born in Mexico, re-
ceiving little education there) are twice as likely to be poor as are European Amer-
icans (21 percent compared to 9 percent) (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007).
Following the common cultural pattern of most of the world, many immigrant
elders expect their adult children to care for them. However, that is not the cus-
tom in many modern developed nations; therefore, housing designs and locations,
employment patterns, and cultural values make elder care difficult for grown chil-
dren as well as for the elders. As an example, an elderly man born in Russia was
placed by his U.S.-born son in an assisted-living center for senior citizens. The
man hated the place and left. Instead he rented a room from an 85-year-old Russ-
ian widow, to whom he became very attached. But his son moved him out when
the landlady became frail and the elderly man began taking care of her. Once
again, the father was on his own and unhappy. He said:
Would I like to live with my kids? Of course. But I know that’s impossible. They
don’t want me. . . . It’s not that they don’t love me. I understand that. In the old
days, a hundred years ago, old people stayed at home.
[quoted in Koch, 2000, p. 53]
As a result of this cultural divide, the man’s life was described as one of “lonely
independence . . . a quintessentially American tragedy” (Koch, 2000, p. 55).
Better to Be Female, Non-European, and Old?
The stratification theories just discussed may distort reality to some extent. El-
derly African and Hispanic Americans are often nurtured and respected within
their families and churches. It is true that African Americans are more likely to be
in poor health and to die at younger ages, but Asian and Hispanic elders often
outlive their European American contemporaries (Angel & Angel, 2006).
Theories of Late Adulthood 687
Dig Deeper A glance at this woman at her
outdoor pump might evoke sympathy. Her
home’s lack of plumbing suggests that she is
experiencing late adulthood in poverty, in a
rural community that probably offers few
social services. Her race and gender put her
at additional risk of problems as she ages.
However, a deeper understanding might
reveal many strengths: religious faith, strong
family ties, and gritty survival skills.
SO
N
DA
D
AW
ES
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
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One study focused on mortality among Californians over age 65 in various ethnic
groups (see Figure 25.2). In all groups, women outlived men, and Latinos, Asian
Americans, and Native Americans outlived European Americans (Hayes-Bautista
et al., 2002). European American men may seem to be advantaged, in that they
have more education and money, but—in California at least—they die sooner.
Because women tend to be the caregivers and kinkeepers in their families, they
are less likely than men to be lonely and depressed. One review finds that,
because men are socialized to be self-sufficient, “gender is more problematic for
men than women” (Huyck, 1995). Grown children are more nurturing toward
their aging mothers than toward their aging fathers. This preference may reduce
an older woman’s independence but also may bring her joy. When elderly parents
are divorced or never married, children maintain contact with mothers more than
with fathers. It is the old men who suffer from loneliness more than the old
women; men over age 65 have a suicide rate eight times as high as that for women
that age (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007).
What seems to be the disadvantage of race or gender may actually be the disad-
vantage of low income, since those three factors overlap (Achenbaum, 2006). A
detailed study of the income of various U.S. groups over the life span found that,
as expected, non-White elders had less income and that poverty correlated with
poor health. But then the researchers compared people of various groups living in
similar neighborhoods (presumably with similar income). When housing quality
was equal, elders of non-European ethnicity had a health advantage (Robert &
Lee, 2002).
In other words, poverty and poor medical care are always problematic, but
something else may benefit non-European elders. Two possibilities are familism
and large family size. Interesting correlations appear between religious faith and
aged women of all groups as well as between religious faith and African Americans
and Hispanics of both sexes. Those groups are particularly likely to have a strong
religious faith, to attend church regularly, and to feel that the church has helped
them (Idler, 2006).
Other research, focusing particularly on gender, finds that gender stratification
has eased, especially since more women are employed (Blau et al., 2006; Moen &
Spencer, 2006). Further, some leading gerontologists contend that age stratifica-
tion is lessening (Bengston & Putney, 2006).
Let us look closely at one case to study, Mrs. Edwards.
➤Response for Social Scientists (from
page 686): In general, psychologists favor self
theories, and sociologists favor stratification
theories. Of course, each discipline respects
the other, but each believes that its perspec-
tive is more honest and accurate.
688 CHAPTER 25 ■ Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Mortality Among Californians Age 65 and Older
7,000
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0
Deaths per
100,000
European
American
Source: California Department of Health Services, in Hayes-Bautista et al., 2002, p. 18.
Latino African
American
Asian/
Pacific
Islander
Native
American
Male
Female
FIGURE 25.2
Longevity in California Greater family sup-
port may be one reason that Latino, Asian
American, and Native American Californians
over age 65 die at lower rates than do their
White peers.
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Predictions are difficult, but several ongoing changes might affect future strati-
fication. In many nations, almost as many women are employed as men, and in the
future more of the U.S. elderly will be of non-European ancestry (Jackson et al.,
2004). Younger adults are less often married, have fewer children, and are less
often church members than their counterparts were 50 years ago. Each of these
changes will make a difference for future cohorts of the elderly.
Dynamic Theories
In contrast to self theories and stratification theories, dynamic theories focus on
the transformations of late adulthood and on how individuals react to such events.
Dynamic theories view each person’s life as an active, ever-changing, largely
self-propelled process, occurring within specific social contexts that are also
dynamic theories Theories of psychosocial
development that emphasize change and
readjustment rather than either the ongoing
self or the impact of stratification. Each
person’s life is seen as an active, ever-
changing, largely self-propelled process,
occurring within specific social contexts
that are also constantly changing.
Theories of Late Adulthood 689
a case to study
Doing Just Fine?
Mrs. Edwards is a 76-year-old African American widow, a retired
practical nurse living in her small Victorian house (not in good
repair) in San Francisco. She has eight children by her first hus-
band and two by her second as well as several stepchildren and
52 grandchildren. One son and three grandchildren live with her.
When she was 72, Mrs. Edwards had surgery for breast
cancer, which recently reappeared and is being treated with
radiation. She takes taxis to visit her children and attend church,
with the fare paid by city-issued vouchers that require her to
contribute 10 percent. She feels busy and blessed, explaining:
After this interview I will go to my daughter’s for dinner. I can get
up and go any time I want. I’m not nervous about my health now.
I have cancer, so I can’t say my health is excellent, but it is not
poor. I guess it’s fair. I don’t worry about it. I’m more concerned
about starting my fruitcakes for Thanksgiving dinner than I am
about the cancer. The whole family will be here.
I am fortunate that I have enough money. My children help
me when I’m sick. I get social security and a pension and my
children give me money. The only help I had after surgery was a
visiting nurse who stopped by to show my son and daughter-in-
law how to change the bandages. The social worker wanted to
give me a nurse and someone to clean my house, but why should
I pay for that when I have so many children and grandchildren to
help me? My daughter gave me four nightshirts. She said she’d
kill me if I was sitting in bed in an old sweater. . . .
My eight children by Mr. Houston include my eldest son,
who lives in Kentucky. He has a son who is a pediatrician. Next
I have a daughter who works for the phone company. My third
son has lost two children. A daughter died of crib death and a
son died of an automobile accident.
My fourth, a son, works for the state. His son got killed.
Someone shot him over a drug deal. My fifth is Raymond, who
has three children. He is a parole officer. His daughter, Angela, is
asleep upstairs. Lots of my grandchildren stop by to spend the
night. My sixth is David. He has a son who is paraplegic who
lives here. His other son is in prison. I don’t know when he will
get out.
My seventh is Kenneth who is also in prison at Vacaville.
When I took sick, my doctor wrote a letter requesting he be
transferred to a closer prison, but that didn’t work out. As it is, I
don’t get to see him much. He has a wife and two children.
My eighth son by Mr. Houston, oh I can’t think who it is.
Let’s see. . . Oh, it’s Richard. Richard came in the other day with
a bottle of brandy and passed out on the couch. I took his brandy
and hid it. It’s what I need for my fruitcake. I talk to his wife
every day. My daughter and my son from Mr. Moore are also
around here a lot.
[quoted in Johnson & Barer, 2003, pp. 116–117]
On a second visit, the researchers found Mrs. Edwards
“much the same. She was still actively involved with her very
large family and in the community. Some of her children and
grandchildren moved out only to be replaced by other children
and grandchildren” (Johnson & Barer, 2003, p. 117). She
seemed quite happy, with her church, her family, and her large
color television. Here is her idea of a good day:
Nothing hurting and I can lie down and watch TV. I’ve lost a lot
of weight, so I am a little bit depressed. And I am distressed
about my son in prison. At least he didn’t kill anyone. I read that
the punishment is strict for that. But freedom and your health
are the best things in life. If your freedom is taken from you, you
have nothing.
[quoted in Johnson & Barer, 2003, p. 117]
The authors of this case study believe that Mrs. Edwards is
strong, has high spirits, and has living conditions and a social
context that work well for her. Do you agree, or do you think she
suffers from “triple jeopardy,” being harmed by age, race, and
gender stratification?
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constantly changing. These theories are the most recent way to look at late adult-
hood; they have been inspired in part by the dynamic-systems approach described
in Chapter 1.
The best-known dynamic theory is called (somewhat ironically) continuity
theory; it focuses on how selfhood shifts with social and biological changes.
Continuity theory “assumes that a primary goal of adult development is adaptive
change, not homeostatic equilibrium” (Atchley, 1999). Continuity is possible as
people respond to their context. Thus, an intellectually curious person who had
dropped out of high school in adolescence might earn a college degree in old age;
this would be an example of continuity as well as dynamic change.
One source of continuity is temperament. Reinforced by the ecological niches
that individuals have carved out for themselves, the Big Five personality traits
(see Chapter 22) are maintained throughout old age as in younger years, shifting
somewhat but always oriented toward the same life goals (Cook et al., 2005).
Therefore, a person’s reactions to potentially disruptive problems reflect continuity,
as do attitudes toward all other topics—drugs, sex, money, neatness, privacy,
health, government.
How is this a dynamic theory and not an identity theory? The distinction is not
clear-cut. Self theories have aspects of continuity, but the emphasis differs: Conti-
nuity theory stresses how people adjust to aging and circumstances, not how they
protect their core. For example, elderly wives whose husbands are terminally ill
will adjust their social lives, first becoming less socially active as they tend their
husbands and then becoming more sociable after their husbands die. This is
dynamic adjustment (Utz et al., 2002).
As another, more specific example of continuity in the midst of change, a young
woman became a teacher because she liked to help others. When she retired, she
did volunteer work and then, when she could no longer walk, she welcomed high
school students who interviewed her at home. She finally entered a nursing home,
where her presence made the entire staff and residents more outgoing. She still
affected her former students, who visited her often, although the home was
several miles away from the town where she had taught (Atchley, 1999).
Dynamic theories consider early experiences as psychic events that are incor-
porated throughout life, sometimes in unanticipated ways. A child of a very neat
housekeeper might turn out to be either tidy or messy, but either way would prob-
ably not be indifferent to neatness. A specific example of the psychic continuity of
long-ago events comes from a study of older adults who had suffered Nazi occupa-
tion and imprisonment as adolescents. In old age, they were more pessimistic
about life than were other people their age, although many of them had had satis-
fying lives as adults (Berntsen & Rubin, 2006).
SUMMING UP
Self theories emphasize the idea that people define and express themselves, especially
in late adulthood, when external pressures are reduced. Erikson’s stages, including his
final stage, integrity versus despair, and his fifth stage, identity versus role confusion,
can be seen as self theories.
Arising from a sociocultural perspective, stratification theories emphasize the power
of social groupings (often giving some groups an advantage over others) in shaping
development from childhood on. Disengagement theory and activity theory reach oppo-
site conclusions, but both focus on age stratification. Past and present stratification by
gender and ethnicity also affects older people, although some argue that the gender
and ethnic categories are no longer as potent.
Dynamic theories, such as continuity theory, stress fluctuations caused by interac-
tions of the self, social context, and personal and historical events. The difference
continuity theory The theory that each
person experiences the changes of late
adulthood and behaves toward others in
much the same way he or she did in
earlier periods of life.
690 CHAPTER 25 ■ Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Especially for People Who Are Unhappy
If the circumstances of your life changed,
would you be much happier?
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among the three groups of theories is viewpoint and practicality. The crucial question to
answer is when it is best to focus on the self, or on the society, or on the dynamic rela-
tionship between the individual and the circumstances.
■
Coping with Retirement
All people fill their days with activities that they find useful in one way or another.
Work is one such activity, recognized by “a growing body of research [that] points
to the positive physical and psychological impacts, for women as well as men, of
employment” (Moen & Spencer, 2006, p. 135). Both paid and unpaid work are a
source of social support and status, bringing self-esteem. For many people, work
allows generativity, the main task of middle age, and is symbolic of “productivity,
effectiveness, and independence,” which are cherished values in Western cultures
(Tornstam, 2005, p. 23).
Many adults believe that employment is beneficial not only for society (employ-
ment rates are often used to indicate economic health) but also for individuals.
Indeed, for younger adults, depression, drug abuse, and family stress all correlate
with unemployment. For that reason, many social scientists have warned about
“the presumed traumatic aspects of retirement” (Tornstam, 2005, p. 19).
Deciding When to Retire
Social scientists and political leaders have therefore assumed that older adults
wanted employment; activity theory led to the conclusion that employed adults
would be healthier and happier than unemployed ones. To curb the ageism that
led to forced retirement, U.S. laws were passed in the 1980s to make mandatory
retirement policies illegal (including for professors), except in certain occupations
(e.g., police work).
However, more recent sociological and psychological research has found that
most older adults want to stop working as soon as they are eligible to do so, even
when employers want to keep them (Hardy, 2006). Some occupations, nursing
and teaching among them, are losing too many experienced workers to early retire-
ment. When pensions are adequate, as they are in more than a dozen European
nations, half the people retire before age 60, and only 23 percent of those aged
60–64 are still working (Walker, 2005).
The age at which people choose to retire is strongly influenced by national poli-
cies (many nations are reversing inducements to early retirement) and specifics
of the job. Work may “subject workers to physical strain, emotional stress, and
hazardous conditions,” making early retirement a desirable choice (Hardy, 2006,
p. 215). Developmentalists now believe that each person’s health status, job con-
ditions, social networks, and financial reserves should determine retirement age.
By these criteria, some people may be wise to retire at age 50 and some, never.
Among people over age 65 in the United States, 20 percent of the men and 15
percent of the women are still in the labor force (U.S. Bureau of the Census,
2007), almost always by choice as well as from economic necessity.
Retirement and Marriage
Because many couples now have two earners, researchers have begun to look at
the relationship between retirement and marriage. If both spouses are employed, it
is best for them to retire together (Smith & Moen, 2004). In a study of 790 retirees,
aged 57 to 67, most were quite happy with retirement (Szinovacz & Davey, 2005).
However, if a husband retired but his wife was still working and made most family
Coping with Retirement 691
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➤Response for People Who Are Unhappy
(from page 690): Continuity theorists would say
no, reasoning that your core temperament will
be expressed no matter what your circum-
stances are. You can assess the validity of this
conclusion by recalling whether your mood
changed markedly in the past when your
situation changed.
decisions, the husband was rarely (only 25 percent) “very satisfied” with retirement,
unlike 80 percent of the retired men whose wives were not working or who felt
that they made most family decisions.
Retired wives followed the same pattern (Szinovacz & Davey, 2005). They were
very satisfied unless their husbands were employed and dominant. Apparently
older adults have two main sources of satisfaction: work and home. They are dis-
satisfied if they have control over neither sphere, which means that those who had
more control at their workplace than they did at home need to carefully balance
their retirement.
For both sexes (married or not), a major problem with retirement is inadequate
planning (Moen et al., 2005). A common mistake is to plan how to manage the
finances but not how to spend the time. There are many nonwork activities that
are satisfying. However, it takes thought and planning to find the right mix. Older
people often need to reorder their lives, “expanding, reducing, concentrating and
diffusing” their former goals and activities (Nimrod, 2007, p. 91).
Although some new retirees flounder and have difficulty adjusting to retire-
ment, most of them eventually find satisfying patterns of activity and leisure. In
the previous chapter, you learned that many elders create works of art, write
books, and make crafts. There is much else that retirees do, as we now describe.
Aging in Place
One of the favorite activities of many of the elderly is caring for their own homes
and gardens. Many older people have become so firmly attached to their sur-
roundings that they prefer to age in place, staying in the same house in the same
neighborhood, adjusting but not leaving when health fades.
The age distribution of residents in each of the 50 U.S. states reveals the
strength of the desire to age in place. Not everyone wants to retire to the sunny
Southwest. A higher proportion of people over age 64 (15 percent) live in Maine,
West Virginia, and North Dakota than in California (11 percent), New Mexico (12
percent), or Arizona (13 percent) (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007). Rather than
moving to a place where falling on the ice is impossible, people remain in the
chilly places they settled down in to raise their children. Sometimes a suburban
development, large city apartment building, or rural town becomes a NORC, a
naturally occurring retirement community. This is a neighborhood that has gradu-
ally become home to many older people, who stay there
partly because their social convoy is there.
One result of aging in place is that many of the elderly
live alone, staying behind after family members move away
and spouses die. Most prefer it that way (Cook et al.,
2007). They appreciate neighbors, friends, relatives,
nurses, and other people in their community who help
them maintain their independence. Sometimes they allow
children and grandchildren to move in with them (as Mrs.
Edwards did). But the home is theirs.
Typically both men and woman do more housework
after retirement (Kleiber, 1999; Szinovacz, 2000). They
also take on longer-term projects in addition to their daily
household chores: yard work, redecorating, building. Gar-
dening is one leisure activity that becomes more common
with age; more than half the elders in the United States
cultivate a garden each year (see Figure 25.3).
age in place Refers to a preference of elderly
people to remain in the same home and
community, adjusting but not leaving when
health fades.
692 CHAPTER 25 ■ Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Popularity of Gardening, by U.S. Age Group
60
50
40
30
20
10
Percent
who garden
18–24 25–34 35–44
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007.
45–54 55–64
Age group
65–74 75+
FIGURE 25.3
Dirty Fingernails Almost three times as
many 60-year-olds as 20-year-olds are garden-
ers. What is it about dirt, growth, and time
that makes gardening an increasingly popular
hobby as people age?
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Continuing Education
Retirement offers the time and opportunity to take classes, which appeal partic-
ularly to those who have already been to college. Even more of the elderly will
probably seek education in the future because the baby boomers, approaching
retirement, are much better educated than the current generation of elderly
people.
About one out of four U.S. adults age 66 and older was enrolled in continuing
education in 2005, most studying the practical arts (such as carpentry and quilt-
ing) and a few seeking advanced academic degrees (U.S. Bureau of the Census,
2007). Most elderly students (76 percent) are motivated primarily by a desire for
personal or social development through such skills as mastering hobbies, man-
aging income, learning about their roots, or understanding their grandchildren
(Jeanneret, 1995).
Many elderly people hesitate to take college courses with younger students.
When they do so, however, they usually earn excellent grades, because motivation,
conscientiousness, and crystallized intelligence compensate for declines in reac-
tion time and fluid intelligence. They also enjoy the experience. One man, who
surprised himself by taking drawing, painting, and Spanish classes at a community
college, explains:
When I first retired, I couldn’t wait to pack up and go to a warm climate and just
goof off. But now, retirement is an enormous challenge. Once you start learning
about yourself, you get the feeling that anything is possible.
[quoted in Goldman, 1991]
Programs designed for the elderly circumvent that hesitation. One example is
Elderhostel, a nonprofit program of continuing education for people aged 55 and
over that started in New England in 1975 with 220 students. About 160,000
students enrolled in Elderhostel courses in 2005, usually taking short courses on
college campuses while the regular students are on vacation. Some elders prefer
more active learning. For example, a 2007 Elderhostel course in Belize involved
snorkeling and sand analysis as well as classroom lectures on coral ecology.
Thousands of other learning programs worldwide are filled with retirees. At
least a dozen European nations have Universities of the Third Age, which are
college programs dedicated to older learners (Achenbaum, 2005). Many nations
encourage and sponsor education for older people. For example, the Chinese
government offers free courses in calligraphy, traditional arts, exercise, and health
under “Five Guarantees”—a policy promising that “older people should be sup-
ported, have medical care, contribute to society, be engaged in lifelong learning,
and have a happy life” (Peng & Phillips, 2004, p. 114).
Volunteer Work
Volunteer work offers the social advantages of working without the financial com-
pensation of paid employment. Accordingly, volunteer work is especially suitable
for elderly people who have adequate pensions or other sources of income.
Many feel a strong commitment to their community and believe that older peo-
ple should be of service to others. Volunteering allows them to gain status and to
find “new meaning . . . to perform useful services . . . [to] function as mentors,
guides, and repositories of experience” (Settersten, 2002, p. 65).
In the United States, the rate of volunteering seems to decrease with age, al-
though older volunteers put in more hours (see Figure 25.4 on page 694). The ten-
dency for older adults to volunteer less often than younger adults, but to spend
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more hours when they do, is found in many nations
(Walker, 2005). The overall rate of elderly volunteering
varies by culture; Nordic nations (e.g., Sweden and Nor-
way) have far more older volunteers than do Mediter-
ranean nations (e.g., Italy and Greece). These differences
persist when health is taken into account (Erlinghagen &
Hank, 2006). This suggests that culture and opportunities
affect whether an older person will do volunteer work.
A vital but undercounted service is the assistance that
the elderly provide to their frail neighbors. Many people
over age 65 run errands, make meals, repair broken appli-
ances, and perform other services that help the disabled
elderly to stay in their homes. Such neighborhood help is
particularly notable within a NORC.
Volunteering has many benefits for retirees. A study
that measured how excited, enthusiastic, alert, and in-
spired older adults felt found that such positive emotions
did not correlate with feeling loved but did correlate with
feeling recognized for accomplishments (which few of the
elderly felt) (Steverink & Lindenberg, 2006). Other stud-
ies find that, particularly for the aged, the desire for social interaction and appreci-
ation is a motivating force for becoming a volunteer (Tang, 2006).
There are many reasons volunteering should be encouraged among the elderly,
not only to benefit those they serve but also to benefit the elderly themselves.
Volunteers tend to live longer than people who do not volunteer, especially if they
volunteer for only one organization (Musick et al., 1999). Volunteers also tend to
be more involved with friends and religious organizations. Social involvement cor-
relates with volunteering, probably as both a cause and a consequence (Okun et al.,
2007). Feelings of well-being seem to come from volunteering, particularly among
older adults (George, 2006).
Especially for Social Workers Your
agency needs more personnel but does not
have money to hire anyone. Should you go to
your local senior-citizen center and recruit
volunteers?
694 CHAPTER 25 ■ Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Mutual Help Senior citizens are steady vol-
unteers at this Tokyo day-care center. Small
children benefit from personal attention as
they learn new skills. The elders benefit from
social interaction with the children. KA
RE
N
K
AS
M
AU
SK
I /
C
OR
BI
S
Adult Volunteers, by U.S. Age Group
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
Percent
who volunteer
25–34 35–44 45–54
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007.
55–64 65–74
Age group
75
FIGURE 25.4
Giving Their Time These statistics count
only hours spent in formal volunteer work,
usually for a church or hospital. In addition,
many older adults informally provide free
services to friends and family members. Al-
most every grandparent babysits; many eld-
ers care for older relatives (spouses, siblings,
parents). If these services are counted, the
percentage who volunteer is much higher
(Choi et al., 2007).
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Religious Involvement
Some form of religious involvement is another area of activity available to retired
older adults. Perhaps surprisingly, the oldest-old are less likely to attend religious
services than are the middle-aged. However, attendance is a poor indicator of spir-
ituality. Many places of worship are not particularly welcoming to the old: They
may be located far from senior housing; stairs may restrict access; the lighting and
acoustics may be bad.
Belief is a better measure of religious involvement than is attendance at reli-
gious services. Faith increases with age, as do prayer and other religious practices
(Ingersoll-Dayton et al., 2002). Many studies show that religious involvement of
all kinds correlates with physical and emotional health as well as long life (Idler,
2006). Interestingly, religious faith does not necessarily speed recovery in the seri-
ously ill as much as it reduces the risk of illness (Powell et al., 2003).
Many social scientists have wondered why this is true. The data come from
longitudinal as well as cross-sectional research, which points toward cause and
effect, not just a spurious correlation. Among the hypotheses offered to explain
this connection are that faith encourages people to have a healthier life style (with
less drug and alcohol use, for instance), to connect with other people, and to expe-
rience less stress.
As already mentioned, religious identity and religious institutions are a founda-
tion for many older members of American minority groups, who may feel a
stronger commitment to their religious heritage than to their national or cultural
background. For example, although Westerners may note national background for
Iranians or Iraqis or Turks, the immigrant elderly of those groups may focus on
their Muslim, or Christian, or Jewish faith. They identify with a particular branch
of their religion more than with national origin (Gelfand, 2003).
Religious institutions play many essential roles for the elderly, offering reasons
to age in place. For example, “Little Tokyo” in Los Angeles is home to many Japan-
ese elders who could move to better housing but who want to be able to walk to
Japanese Christian churches and Buddhist temples (Shibusawa et al., 2001).
Many African American elderly find cherished spiritual and practical activities,
and close friends, in church (Billingsley, 1999).
For all elderly, no matter what their particular faith, confronting death and
ensuring historical continuity are crucial for psychological health, as already ex-
plained with Erikson’s integrity stage. At least one gerontologist believes that there
is “increasing cosmic communion” with age, that older people are better able to
see beyond their own immediate needs and care about other people, ask enduring
questions, and emphasize spiritual concerns (Tornstam, 2005, p. 58). Every reli-
gion helps elders deal with these concerns (Idler, 2006).
Political Activism
On some measures, the elderly are more politically active than any other age
group. Compared with younger people, they tend to be better informed, to write to
their elected representatives, to vote in off-year elections, to identify with a politi-
cal party, and to join groups that lobby on behalf of certain interests (Torres-Gil,
1992). Like Sadie and Gilbert in the anecdote that opens this chapter, many read
newspapers and watch TV news.
However, they tend to be less active when it comes to attending rallies and
door-to-door campaigning. Analyses in Europe as well as in the United States find
that the elderly as a group are not particularly involved in such political activities
(Walker, 2006).
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The elderly have the potential, however, to be very
powerful politically. Hundreds of organizations, in the
United States and elsewhere, advocate for the elderly,
who are often leaders as well as followers. In the United
States, some are organized around a particular ethnicity
or some other category of older people. Many organiza-
tions are multinational: The AARP cites 59 interna-
tional or regional organizations focused on aging.
The AARP (originally the American Association of
Retired Persons) is the major U.S. organization repre-
senting the elderly. It is also the largest organized inter-
est group in the world. In 2006, the AARP had a
membership of 37 million (many of them baby boomers
in their 50s—members must be over 50 but need not be
retired). The political influence of this organization is
one reason that Social Security has been called “the
third rail” of domestic politics, fatal to any politician who touches it to try to cut
benefits—even though most economists and social scientists believe that reform
of Social Security policies is needed (Delea, 2005; The Economist, 2007).
Worldwide, many government policies affect the elderly, especially those related
to poverty, housing, pensions, prescription drugs, and medical costs. As you learned
in Chapter 23, the population of the elderly is growing in every nation, and choices
about allocation of public resources need to be made. However, the elderly do not
necessarily vote to protect their economic interests. One reason is that, like
younger adults, they care about the environment, world affairs, crime, and many
other issues of general concern. Their opinions tend to reflect national trends and
their own history more than their age (Walker, 2006). Most have enough money to
get by; today the median income of men over age 65 (including income from pen-
sions) is 68 percent of the median income of all men of working age—far better
than the 42 percent figure of 1960 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007).
The suggestion that the political or economic concerns of the elderly clash
with those of the young is not confirmed by the data: Most older people are
concerned about the well-being of future generations. Often older and younger
voters are divided along ideological or regional lines, not according to age. In fact,
one analyst believes that “the idea of grey power” is a myth, designed to reduce
support among younger people for programs to support health care for the elderly
(Walker, 2006, p. 349).
SUMMING UP
Retirement, whether by choice or necessity, requires careful planning by both the retiree
and his or her spouse. Many retired people have a strong preference for aging in place.
Besides working around the home, retired people may keep active by taking courses,
doing volunteer work, participating in religious activities, or getting involved in politics.
■
Friends and Relatives
Remember from Chapter 22 that people travel the life course in the company of
others, a reality captured by the term social convoy (Antonucci et al., 2001). At
various points, other people join or leave the convoy. But, just as covered wagons
grouped together to head west or ships formed convoys to cross the high seas, life’s
journey has a better chance of success if it is taken with fellow travelers.
social convoy Collectively, the family mem-
bers, friends, acquaintances, and even
strangers who move through life with an
individual.
AARP A U.S. organization of people aged 50
and older, which advocates for the elderly.
It was originally called the American Asso-
ciation of Retired Persons, but now only
the initials AARP are used, to reflect the
fact that the organization’s members do
not have to be retired.
696 CHAPTER 25 ■ Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Still Politically Active The man with the
microphone is Floyd Red Crow Westerman,
a Lakota Sioux who is an actor (in Dances
with Wolves, among many other films) and
director. Many members of his cohort fought
in Vietnam. Disapproval of the war in Iraq was
greater among his generation than among
both older and younger cohorts.
DA
VI
D
YO
UN
G-
W
OL
FF
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T,
IN
C.
➤Response for Social Workers (from
page 694): Yes, but be careful. If people want
to volunteer and are just waiting for an
opportunity, you will probably benefit from
their help and they will also benefit. But if you
convince reluctant seniors to help you, the
experience may benefit no one.
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Bonds formed over a lifetime allow people to share triumphs with and to gather
sympathy from those who understand their victories and defeats. Siblings, old
friends, and spouses are ideal convoy members, but anyone (famous people,
neighbors, acquaintances) from the same cohort can be part of a person’s social
convoy, especially in late adulthood.
We now discuss the typical components of the social convoy, beginning with
life partners.
Long-Term Marriages
A spouse buffers against the problems of old age and extends life, as was shown by
a meta-analysis of numerous studies with a combined total of 250,000 partici-
pants (Manzoli et al., 2007). More than in younger years, married adults are
healthier, wealthier, and happier than other people their age who are unmarried.
Separate studies of unmarried couples in long-term partnerships (usually homo-
sexual relationships) have not been done, but research on younger homosexual
couples suggests that gay people also benefit from having an intimate partner
committed to their well-being.
Generally, personal happiness increases with the quality of the marriage or
intimate relationship; this association shows up more clearly in longitudinal than
in cross-sectional research (Proulx et al., 2007). Among the usual reasons for the
advantages of long-lasting marriages are these: Children have left the house
(young children are a major source of disputes); income is more predictable; both
partners feel comforted by their familiarity (remember Sadie chuckling that she
didn’t have any more secrets); and equitable division of tasks has been achieved.
A lifetime of shared experiences—living together, raising children, and dealing with
financial and emotional crises—brings partners closer in memories and values as
“spouses . . . increasingly internalize each other’s ideas about appropriate behavior”
(Huston, 2000, p. 314).
In general, older couples have learned how to disagree. A study that compared
happy and unhappy couples reported that older couples discussed disputes with
Friends and Relatives 697
The Same Event, A Thousand Miles Apart:
Partners Whether in the living room of their
home in the United States (left) or
at a senior center in the Philippines (right),
elderly people are more likely to smile when
they are with one another than when they
are alone.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 698):
What does the clothing of the people in
these photographs indicate about their
economic status?
JE
AN
M
IC
HE
L
FO
UJ
OL
S
/ Z
EF
A
/ C
OR
BI
S
SE
AN
S
PR
AG
UE
/
TH
E
IM
AG
E
W
OR
KS
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more warmth, humor, and respect than younger couples
did (Carstensen et al., 1995). I know a couple in their 60s
who seem happily married and are both politically active,
yet they vote for opposing candidates. That puzzled me
until I heard the wife explain: “We sit together on the
fence, seeing both perspectives, and then, when it is time
to get off the fence and vote, Bob and I fall on opposite
sides.” Was she fooling herself, since I always knew which
of them would fall where? No matter. Her explanation kept
disagreements from becoming fights. Other long-married
couples do the same.
Another aspect of long marriages also suggests mutual
respect. Generally, older spouses accept each other’s frail-
ties, assisting with physical and psychological needs. When
elders are disabled (have difficulty walking, bathing, and
performing other activities of daily life), they are less depressed and anxious when
they are in a close marital relationship (Mancini & Bonanno, 2006).
What about the nondisabled spouse in such a marriage? One study found that
wives caring for disabled husbands usually felt more affection and less burden in
the later stages of caregiving (when demands were greater) than at the start
(Seltzer & Li, 1996). Other caregivers tend to be less tolerant. In the same study,
caregiving daughters of frail parents felt less affection and more burden as time
went on.
In part, a caregiver’s response depends on intimate understanding. When men
whose wives had severe arthritis were asked to estimate how much pain their
wives felt (after watching them do a standard task), some husbands were much
more accurate than others. Those who had the more accurate understanding were
more helpful and less irritated. Husbands who overestimated pain were far more
stressed (Martire et al., 2006).
Besides caregiving, sexual intimacy is another major aspect of long-lasting
marriages. For many couples, their sexual relationship has changed but remains
important (Johnson, 2007). This was evident when one elderly couple was asked
about their sex life.
Husband: We have sex less frequently now, but it’s satisfying to me. Now that we
are both home, we could spend all our time in bed. But it’s still more
amorous when we go away. When we travel, it’s like a second honeymoon.
Wife: Sex has been important in our marriage, but not the most important.
The most important thing has been our personal relationship, our fond-
ness, respect, and friendship.
[quoted in Wallerstein & Blakeslee, 1995, p. 318]
Losing a Spouse
Some older adults have always been single, and some have been divorced for
decades. Together these two groups account for about 12 percent of those over
age 65 in the United States (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007) (see Figure 25.5).
Research usually finds that health and happiness are slightly lower in elderly sin-
gle people than in those who are married, but income and personality, not the un-
married status, may be the reason for the discrepancy (Manzoli et al., 2007).
Usually these unpartnered older adults have arranged their lives so that the absent
spouse is not missed.
Widowhood among the elderly is common. It may also be problematic, particu-
larly in the first two years after the death (Hagedoorn et al., 2006). The experience
698 CHAPTER 25 ■ Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
ZA
VE
S
M
IT
H
/ C
OR
BI
S
Shared Laughter One characteristic of long-
married couples is that they often mirror each
other’s moods. Thanks to the positivity effect,
the mood is often one of joy.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
697): The U.S. couple is relatively rich (their
nightclothes look new, and pajamas are mostly
the preference of well-to-do men); the Filipina
women are relatively poor (they are wearing
identical dresses, a gift from the agency that
runs this senior center).
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of losing a spouse differs for men and women. Because women tend to marry older
men (by three years, on average) and live longer than men (about three years, on
average), the average married woman experiences six years or so of widowhood
and the average man, none. Among the current cohort of older women,
many centered their lives on their activities as spouse, caregiver, and
homemaker, and thus the death of a husband is more than loss of a
companion—it also reduces status, activities, identity, and income.
With time, many widows learn to enjoy their independence, typically
not seeking to remarry. A prospective study found that 18 months after
the death of their husbands, only 19 percent of widows were interested
in remarrying and only 9 percent were currently dating (Carr, 2004).
Widows rely on women friends (who are often widows as well) and
grown children, typically increasing their social connections after a hus-
band’s death (Utz et al., 2002). Widows feel much more supported and
comforted by their relatives than widowers do (Ha et al., 2006).
Widowers not only feel less supported by their families; they also
have fewer men friends who have lost a partner, and they have more
trouble seeking help. If they married when traditional gender divisions
were still the custom, they depended on their mothers and wives for
emotional and practical support (listening and encouraging, cooking
Friends and Relatives 699
Marital Status of Older U.S. Adults, by Sex, 2005
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Percent
Men
Ages 55–64
Women Men
Ages 65–74
Women Men
Age 75+
Women
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007.
DivorcedCurrently married
Never married Widowed
FIGURE 25.5
Gender Differences in Marital Status In old age, the differences in marital status between men and women become
dramatic. There are more than four times as many widows as widowers after age 74. In the current cohort of the old-old,
less than 10 percent are divorced or never married, but 20 percent of the baby boomers will fall into those categories.
Alone, but Not Lonely Ten million women in
the United States are widows. Most, like this
woman, are over age 60 and live alone. Many,
though not all, are financially secure and well
adjusted to their newly independent way of life. MA
RK
O
HA
GE
RT
Y
/ T
HE
IM
AG
E
BA
N
K
/ G
ET
TY
IM
AG
ES
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and cleaning) (Gurung et al., 2003). That pattern of dependency makes it particu-
larly hard for them to keep house, to share their emotions, or even to ask someone
over for dinner.
In the months following the death of their spouse, widowers are more likely
than widows to be physically ill and socially isolated. Their risk of suicide in-
creases, not only in the United States but also in Taiwan (Liu et al., 2006),
Denmark (Erlangsen et al., 2004), and every other nation that reports data by age
and marital status. Although most widowers do not seek to remarry, their likeli-
hood of remarriage is far higher than that of widows, for two reasons: They tend to
be lonelier than the women, and the sex ratio is in their favor. For widowers, but
not widows, interest in remarriage or dating is particularly likely if the man has
few friends (Carr, 2004; see Research Design).
Relationships with Younger Generations
In past centuries, most adults died before their grandchildren were born
(Uhlenberg, 1996). Now most older adults live to see two or more generations of
younger family members; often a member of their parents’ generation is still alive
as well. Some families today span five generations, often in a pattern called the
beanpole family, with multiple generations but only a few members at each age
(see Figure 25.6).
As more adults are having only one child, many children will have no aunts,
uncles, cousins, brothers, or sisters—a pattern hard for many of today’s elderly to
imagine. It is predicted that intergenerational relationships will become even
more important when each grandparent has fewer grandchildren (Bengtson, 2001;
Silverstein, 2006). Fortunately, family ties across generations are as strong as or
stronger than ever, even in nations such as Spain, where the beanpole family type
is new (Meil, 2006).
Although relationships with younger generations are positive for the most part,
they may also include tension and conflict, as explained in Chapter 22. Few older
adults stop parenting simply because their children are fully grown and independ-
ent. As one 82-year-old woman put it: “No matter how old a mother is, she
watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement” (quoted in Scott-
Maxwell, 1968). Obviously, the correlation between well-being in old age and
marriage, parenthood, or grandparenthood depends on the specifics. A good rela-
tionship with one’s successful children enhances well-being, but a poor relation-
ship makes life worse (Greenfeld & Marks, 2006; Koropeckyj-Cox, 2002).
Adult Children
Generally, engagement and interaction are common between older adults and
their grown children, with conflict more likely in emotionally close relationships
than in distant ones (Van Gaalen & Dykstra, 2006). The mother–daughter rela-
tionship is particularly likely to be both close and conflicted. For example, in one
study of 48 mother–daughter pairs (ages averaging 76 and 44, respectively) 75
percent of mothers and almost 60 percent of daughters included the other as one
of the three most important persons in their lives. Yet 83 percent of the mothers
and 100 percent of the daughters acknowledged recently being “irritated, hurt, or
annoyed” by the other. The mothers usually blamed someone else for the tension
(“Her husband kept on turning up the radio every time I turned it down”), while
the daughters were more likely to blame their mother directly (“She tells me how
to discipline my kids”) (quoted in Fingerman, 1996).
Intergenerational relationships are affected by many factors (Hareven, 2001;
van Geelan & Dykstra, 2006). In general:
700 CHAPTER 25 ■ Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Research Design
Scientist: Deborah Carr.
Publication: Journal of Marriage and
Family (2004).
Participants:This study began with
1,531 married people age 65 and older
from the Detroit area. After the initial
interview, careful checking of death
notices revealed that 319 of them had
become widows or widowers. As many
as possible (some refused, some died,
some were seriously sick) were reinter-
viewed 6, 18, or 48 months after the
death.This study is based on 210 partic-
ipants who were interviewed 6 months
after the death, 155 of whom were
reinterviewed at 18 months.
Design: Data on social support, depres-
sion, quality of past marriage, interest in
dating and remarriage, and other factors
were collected. Since this was a longi-
tudinal study, developmental change
was assessed.
Major conclusions: Most widows and
widowers were not eager to begin a
new relationship. In fact, none of the
155 were interested in dating and re-
marriage at both 6 and 18 months after
the death. Although sex differences
were evident (at 6 months, 15 percent
of the men and only 1 percent of the
women were dating), most men were
not eager to find a new wife, especially
if their marriage had been satisfying
and they had supportive friends.
Comment: By beginning with married
elders, and then interviewing those who
lost a partner, this study overcame many
selection and memory biases. However,
as the author points out, those who
consented to be reinterviewed tended
to be physically healthier than those
who refused. Although efforts were
made to account for this difference, an
even smaller proportion of widows and
widowers may be interested in remar-
riage than this study revealed.
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■ Assistance arises both from need and from the ability to provide it.
■ Personal contact depends mostly on geographical proximity.
■ Affection is influenced by the pair’s history of mutual love and respect.
■ Sons feel stronger obligation; daughters feel stronger affection.
Contrary to popular perceptions, financial and emotional assistance typically
flows from the older generation to their children instead of vice versa, although
much depends on the specific needs of each family member (Silverstein, 2006).
As one expert describes it, the older generation is like a family National Guard:
“Although remaining silent and unobserved for the most part, grandparents (and
great-grandparents) muster up and march out when an emergency arises regarding
younger generation members’ well-being” (Bengtson, 2001, p. 7).
If the older generation becomes dependent on the younger generation, conflict
may arise. The problem is that the specifics of assistance—how much, where,
provided by whom—can be a source of hurt feelings and disagreement, although
the idea of assistance is endorsed by almost everyone (Silverstein, 2006). The
least satisfactory situations occur when parents want assistance but complain
about the children or when children provide help but are critical of their parents.
Mutual respect is crucial. As parents grow old, every family needs to adjust to
“changing conditions and circumstances [by] renegotiating relationships”
(Connidis, 2002, p. 565).
Such adjustments are often influenced by filial responsibility, the idea (often
part of familism) that adult children are obligated to care for their aging parents.
This idea is found in every culture and does not seem to depend on particulars of
filial responsibility The idea that adult chil-
dren are obligated to care for their aging
parents.
Friends and Relatives 701
Great-great-grandmother
(widow)
Child (only child;
no first cousins)
Great-grandfather
(widower)
Paternal Line Maternal Line
The Beanpole Family
Grandmother and
grandfather
Father
Aunt (father’s only
sibling; not married)
Great-grandmother
(widow)
Grandmother (widow)
Mother (only child)
Another great-grandmother
and great-grandfather
Grandmother and grandfather
FIGURE 25.6
Many Households, Few Members The tra-
ditional nuclear family consists of two par-
ents and their children living together. Today,
as couples have fewer children, the beanpole
family is becoming more common. This kind
of family has many generations, each typi-
cally living in its own household, with only a
few members in each generation.
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economic self-interest. Although financial support is sometimes considered part
of filial responsibility, emotional support seems more crucial and sometimes in-
creases when financial support is not needed (Silverstein, 2006).
A longitudinal study of attitudes about filial responsibility in the United States
found no evidence that changes in family structures (including increases in divorce)
reduce the sense of filial responsibility (Gans & Silverstein, 2006). In fact, trends
were in the opposite direction: Younger cohorts (born in the 1950s and 1960s)
endorsed more responsibility from younger generations to older ones “regardless of
the sacrifices involved” than did earlier cohorts (born in the 1930s and 1940s).
Amazingly, support for filial responsibility was weaker among those who were
most likely to need care from their children. After midlife and especially after the
death of their own parents, members of the older generation were less likely to
express the belief that children should provide substantial care for their parents.
The authors conclude that, as adults realize that they are more likely to become
receivers than givers of intergenerational care, “reappraisals are likely the result of
altruism (growing relevance as a potential receiver) or role loss (growing irrele-
vance as a provider)” (Gans & Silverstein, 2006, p. 974).
Grandchildren
Grandparenthood often begins in middle age. By age 70, 85 percent of all people
in the current cohort are grandparents, which makes this a significant role for
many older people, in the United States and elsewhere. The experience is highly
variable, ranging from fulfilling to frustrating, from pivotal to peripheral. Not sur-
prisingly, personality, ethnicity, national background, and past parent–child rela-
tionships all influence the nature of the grandparent–grandchild relationship, as
do the age and the personality of the child (Mueller & Elder, 2003).
Ongoing grandparent–grandchild relationships usually reveal one of three ap-
proaches to grandparenting:
■ Remote grandparents are emotionally distant. They are esteemed elders who
are honored, respected, and obeyed by children, grandchildren, and great-
grandchildren.
■ Companionate grandparents entertain and “spoil” their grandchildren—
especially in ways, or for reasons, that the parents would not—and do not
discipline them.
■ Involved grandparents are active in the day-to-day life of the grandchildren.
They live in or near the grandchildren’s household, see them daily, and
provide substantial care.
Although remote grandparents were common in the past and are evident currently
in rural areas of some nations, they are rare in most modern nations. Instead, grand-
parents “strive for love and friendship rather than demand respect and obedience”
(Gratton & Haber, 1996), choosing to be companions rather than authority figures
(Hayslip & Patrick, 2003).
Some elders who become involved grandparents do not do so by choice. One
reason is cultural. If their values and traditions differ from those that surround
their grandchildren, they attempt to transmit “the values, beliefs, language, and
customs” of their cultural heritage (Silverstein & Chen, 1999; Taylor et al.,
2005). Particularly if an elder lives with the grandchildren and is responsible for
daily child care, this physical proximity precludes either the remote or compan-
ionate roles.
Although all three generations can benefit from involved grandparenting, close-
ness can cause conflicts. If an elder hoped to be a remote grandparent, respected
702 CHAPTER 25 ■ Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
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and obeyed, but instead is thrust into the role of involved grandparent, frustration
arises in all three generations. As one 60-year-old Cambodian immigrant explained:
I’m afraid they might not be what I want them to be because in this country the
children are very unpredictable. . . . I don’t like to talk too much, because the
more you talk the less respect they have toward you.
[quoted in Detzner, 1996, p. 47]
Sometimes involved grandparents become surrogate parents (see Chapter 22),
raising their grandchildren because the parents cannot. In 2005, an estimated 3
percent of all U.S. children were living with grandparents, without either parent
(U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007). Most grandparents have several grandchildren;
this statistic refers to only one year. Therefore, when a grandparent’s entire life span
is considered, a far higher proportion of grandparents (about 20 percent) provide
exclusive care of at least one grandchild for a month or more—and often for years.
Young parents with special problems (poverty, drug addiction, severe illness)
are more likely to send their children to live with their parents, especially their
most difficult children. Drug-affected infants and rebellious school-age boys, for
example, are more likely to live with grandparents than preschool girls are. If the
parents are judged to be neglectful or abusive, grandparents may provide kinship
care for the children (see Chapter 8), with government subsidy and authority.
However, most surrogate parents are not formally designated caretakers and may
very well wonder whether they are up to the job. One grandmother explains:
I don’t know if God thought I did a poor job and wanted to give me a second
chance, or thought I did well enough to be given the task one more time. My
daughter tells me she cannot handle the children anymore, but maybe I won’t be
able to manage them either.
[quoted in Strom & Strom, 2000, p. 291]
Sometimes surrogate parenting impairs the grandparent’s own health and well-
being, increasing the risk of physical illness, depression, and marital problems
(Kelley & Whitley, 2003; Solomon & Marx, 2000). Having another child to raise
“off-time” is part of the problem. As one surrogate parent says:
We are participating in a life that in no way resembles that which was antici-
pated. . . . I grieve for my future, my hopes and aspirations for myself as well as
those for my son, my loss of freedom, and my relationship with my husband and
daughters. . . . And to make it worse, I cannot give voice to my grief for fear my
granddaughter will feel it is her fault.
[quoted in Baird, 2003, pp. 62, 65]
The special problems of surrogate parenting, while serious, are not the usual
pattern. Most grandparents enjoy their role and are usually appreciated by younger
family members. Given the longevity and health of today’s grandparents, it is not
unusual for an elder to have close friendships with adult grandchildren (Kemp,
2005). Indeed, international college students, despite being thousands of miles
away from their grandparents, often express warmth, respect, and affection for at
least one grandparent (usually their maternal grandmother) (Taylor et al., 2005).
Friendship
Of those currently over age 65 in the United States, only 4 percent (1.4 million)
have never married, making this the most married cohort in history (U.S. Bureau
of the Census, 2007). Most of these people also have children and grandchildren.
As you have seen, in late life spouses and offspring provide social support for
Friends and Relatives 703
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many of the elderly—but not for all. The next cohort to reach old age will include
far more unmarried people. Further, many older adults, both married and unmar-
ried, will have no children or grandchildren. Will they be lonely and unsupported?
Probably not. All indications are that members of the current elder generation
who never married are quite content. In future generations, as the numbers of un-
married older adults increase, their social networks are likely to increase as well.
Since they have spent a lifetime without a spouse, they have usually developed
friendships, activities, and social connections that keep them busy and happy
(DePaulo, 2006). For instance, a Dutch study of 85 single elders found that their
well-being was similar to that of people in long-term equitable marriages and better
than that of people who were less satisfied with their social networks because they
were recently widowed or were in an unequal marriage (Hagedoorn et al., 2006).
One problem with the research on single older adults is that some are not really
single; they are partnered homosexuals, with longtime companions who are confi-
dants and caregivers. In terms of health and well-being (although not always health
benefits or hospital policies), they benefit from the partnerships just as longtime
married couples do. More research is needed on single elders who are truly alone.
The research that has been published suggests that having a partner and chil-
dren is not necessary for happiness in old age. In a study that asked older women
to rank their regrets, older child-free women put the highest priority on such areas
as education, occupation, and artistic expression. Those who were voluntarily
child-free did not regret their decision. Those who were involuntarily childless re-
gretted not having a child, but they regretted other things more. Ironically, older
women who were mothers had more regrets related to their children than the non-
mothers had about the absence of children (Jeffries & Konnert, 2002).
Life satisfaction in old age correlates more closely with friendships than with
contact with younger relatives (Lawton et al., 1999; Newsom & Schultz, 1996).
The reason is probably that friendships are voluntary and mutual, providing bene-
fits beyond those provided by obligatory family relationships (Krause, 2006).
Quality (not quantity) of friendship is crucial. Having at least one close confi-
dant acts as a buffer against many forms of lost status, poor health, and reduced
companionship, especially among the oldest-old (Krause, 2006). Every old person
experiences unwelcome changes in his or her social convoy, as dynamic theory
would predict (Fung & Carstensen, 2004). Ideally, new intimates are added to the
inner circle when death or distance cuts off old friends.
704 CHAPTER 25 ■ Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Good to See You Again Older men, like
younger ones, appreciate each other’s friend-
ship but seldom get together just to talk.
These Delaware farmers met again at a
melon auction and took the opportunity to
get caught up on their families, their aches
and pains, and the price of watermelon. KEV
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These adjustments to changes in the social convoy demonstrate selection,
compensation, and optimization (Baltes & Carstensen, 2003). Successful aging
requires that people keep themselves from becoming socially isolated, a task that
most of the elderly manage to accomplish. With fewer friends and relatives still
alive, elders become more supportive (phoning more often, providing practical
help) of those remaining (Gurung et al., 2003). Having a reliable, although small,
social network buffers against almost any problem that can arise (Atchley, 1999).
Remember the elderly widower whose son insisted he move out of the home of
the Russian widow who had become his friend? The man did not want to leave,
but he said that his son
probably couldn’t understand because he told me all the time, “She’s not your
mother. Come on, you’re free. You’re young enough to live somewhere else.”
But I had a very hard time making up my mind what was the right thing to do
because my landlady wanted me to stay.
[quoted in Koch, 2000, p. 51]
In retrospect, this man should have maintained his friendship with the elderly
woman, but instead he listened to his son. He moved to Florida, regretfully leaving
his landlady friend. He died alone, with one child in Berlin, another in Hong
Kong, and the third estranged and angry.
SUMMING UP
As at younger ages, each person’s social convoy provides emotional and psychological
support as well as practical help. People in long-term partnerships (heterosexual or
homosexual) typically live longer, healthier, and happier because of their mutual depend-
ence. Widows often have close friends to ease the loss; widowers have greater
problems initially but are more likely to remarry. Grandparenting is usually companion-
ate, bringing joy to elders, although stress as well as joy comes to grandparents who
are remote, involved, or surrogate parents. Younger generations typically want to be
supportive, but many older adults prefer to be independent. Friends are needed and
wanted in late adulthood, by everyone. This is particularly true for those elderly people
who are without close social support from relatives; for them, friends help maintain
their health and happiness.
Friends and Relatives 705
Together by Choice Elderly women out-
number elderly men in China by a very wide
margin. Chinese cultural traditions include
respect for the aged, group spirit, and self-
efficacy. These six women in a public park in
Guangzhou seek one another out for daily
conversation.BO
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The Frail Elderly
Remember that aging can be categorized as usual, impaired, or optimal. Thus far
we have focused on the usual and optimal, those who are active and supported by
friendship and family. Now we look at the frail elderly, those who are infirm, very
ill, or cognitively impaired. Usually the frail are the oldest-old, past age 85.
Most older adults become frail if they live long enough, although, as you re-
member from the discussions of compression of morbidity in Chapter 23 and ter-
minal decline in Chapter 24, ideally a person is frail only for a short period. Some
elderly people, however, are frail for years, even decades.
Activities of Daily Life
Beyond age and illness, the crucial marker of frailty is the inability to perform,
safely and adequately, the physical and cognitive tasks of self-care needed to
maintain independence. Gerontologists refer to five physical activities of daily
life, abbreviated ADLs—namely, eating, bathing, toileting, dressing, and transfer-
ring from a bed to a chair. If a person needs help with even one of these five tasks,
he or she may be considered frail, although for some purposes (such as insurance)
frailty does not begin until a person is unable to perform three or more ADLs.
In the aftermath of many illnesses and operations, doctors and nurses consider
the ability to perform ADLs the crucial sign of recovery. ADL ability is affected by
age as well as health status and pain (e.g., Osnes et al., 2004). Medical personnel
strive to help all elderly persons perform their ADLs, providing occupational ther-
apy or special equipment (such as a higher toilet seat) to help a person remain
self-sufficient.
Equally important may be the instrumental activities of daily life, or
IADLs, which require intellectual competence and forethought (Stone, 2006). It
is more difficult to measure competence at IADLs because they vary from culture
to culture. In developed nations, IADLs include shopping for groceries, paying
bills, driving a car, taking medications, and keeping appointments (see Table
25.1). In rural areas of other nations, feeding the chickens, cultivating the garden,
activities of daily life (ADLs) Actions that
are important to independent living, typi-
cally consisting of five tasks of self-care:
eating, bathing, toileting, dressing, and
transferring from a bed to a chair. The
inability to perform any of these tasks is
a sign of frailty.
instrumental activities of daily life (IADLs)
Actions that are important to independent
living and that require some intellectual
competence and forethought. The ability
to perform these tasks may be even more
critical to self-sufficiency than ADL ability.
706 CHAPTER 25 ■ Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
TABLE 25.1
Instrumental Activities of Daily Life
Domain Exemplar Task
Managing medications Determining how many doses of cough medicine can be
taken in a 24-hour period
Completing a patient medical history form
Shopping for necessities Ordering merchandise from an online catalogue
Comparison of brands of a product
Managing one’s finances Comparison of Medigap Insurance Plans
Completing income tax returns
Using transportation Computing taxi rates versus bus rates
Interpreting driver’s right-of-way laws
Using the telephone Determining amount to pay from a phone bill
Determining emergency phone information
Maintaining one’s household Following instructions for operating a household appliance
Comprehending appliance warranty
Meal preparation and nutrition Evaluating nutritional information on food label
Following recipe directions
Source: Adapted from Willis, 1996.
Another Test The items in the right-hand
column are adapted from a questionnaire to
assess IADL competence. As you can see,
managing daily life is not easy, but most of
the elderly do it.
frail elderly People over age 65 who are
physically infirm, very ill, or cognitively
impaired.
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mending clothes, getting water from the well, and baking might be
IADLs. Everywhere the inability to perform IADLs makes people
frail, even if they can perform all five ADLs (Stone, 2006).
Worldwide, relatively few of the elderly are frail (Ahearn, 2001);
less than 2 percent of the world’s total population are unable to
perform their ADLs or IADLs. However, this proportion is rising,
for three reasons:
■ People are living longer.
■ Medical care emphasizes preventing death more than en-
hancing life.
■ Adequate nutrition, safe housing, and health aids are able to
prevent or postpone frailty, but some mobility, planning,
and/or money is needed to access such measures, and that
tends to exclude many who are already somewhat frail.
These factors mean that frailty may soon be a serious problem in
many nations. Ideally, compression of morbidity and good medical
care will reduce the amount of time during which the average elderly person
needs help with ADLs or IADLs. Some nations already depend on family
members to care for the frail. Many Asian and African cultures emphasize family
responsibility and respect for the aged. However, gerontologists criticize over-
reliance on family obligation, noting that many families are unfairly burdened and
some elderly people are inadequately supported (Aboderin, 2004; Ogawa, 2004;
Phillipson, 2006).
Governments, families, and aging individuals sometimes blame one another for
frailty. The responsibility actually rests with all three. To take a simple example, a
person whose leg muscles are weakening might choose to start strength training,
purchase a walker, avoid stairs, or become bed-bound. Family members can make
each of those possibilities more or less attractive, and public policies can help as
well. In this example, family members could walk with the elderly person on path-
ways that their city has constructed to be safe and unobstructed. Family members
could purchase a steady walker, designed to further mobility, and public funds
could pay for it. The older person could use those pathways and the walker safely.
As dynamic theories remind us, some people enter late adulthood well sup-
ported by family members and friends, prepared by past education and creative
problem solving, possessed of an adequate pension and work opportunities, pro-
tected by a lifetime of good health habits. Others lack these buffers. Consider the
differences between two hypothetical 80-year-olds.
The Frail Elderly 707
Buffers Between Fragile and Frail
Imagine two 80-year-old childless widows, each living in a U.S.
city on a small pension, with failing eyesight, adequate hearing,
and advanced osteoporosis. These basics are identical, but their
current state of mind and projected health are very different.
One widow lives alone in her old, rundown house with un-
even hardwood floors covered with braided scatter rugs, a flight
of steep stairs separating the bedroom and the kitchen, dimly
lit hallways, and rumors of a recent robbery two blocks away.
Temperamental fearfulness combines with her good hearing to
make her cringe at every frightening creak of the old house.
Since falling and fracturing her wrist on the way to the toilet
one night, she has been apprehensive about walking. She refuses
to go downstairs to prepare meals. She never ventures outside or
answers the doorbell or the phone. Further, she no longer tries
issues and applications
Mobility Is Crucial The best help is the kind
that permits self-sufficiency. This man’s legs
can no longer carry him everywhere, but his
motorized wheelchair (with room for his furry
companion) lets him get around on his own,
without having to depend on other people for
transportation. Thus, although he is not
strong, he is also not frail.
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Caring for the Frail Elderly
Often the caregivers of the elderly are themselves elderly, typically a husband or
wife. If the frail person has no living partner, often a sibling or an aging daughter
takes over the care.
The Demands of Family Care
Family caregivers often experience substantial stress. Their health suffers and
depression increases, especially if the care receiver has dementia (Pinquart &
Sörensen, 2003). One daughter described the strain that she and her father expe-
rienced as her mother succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease:
I worked the entire time through four pregnancies . . . returning to work within
six weeks of delivery. It was a piece of cake compared to trying to cope with a
combative, frustrated adult who cannot dress, bathe, feed herself; who wanders
constantly. A person faced with this situation . . . having to work a full day, raise
a family, and take care of an “impaired” relative would be susceptible to suicide,
“parent-abuse” . . . possibly murder.
My father tried very hard to take care of her, but a man 84 years old cannot
go without sleep, and cannot force her to take care of her personal cleanliness.
Up until two years ago, she was taking care of the finances and household. Her
signature was beautiful. . . . Now it’s just a wavy line. An 84-year-old man does
not learn to cook and balance the budget very easily, and he becomes bitter. He
did not want to put her in the nursing homes he visited, and so he reluctantly sold
his house and moved to a city he didn’t like so that his children could help with
her care. It has been a nightmare. . . . She obviously belonged in a secondary-care
facility because no one can give her 24-hr. care and still maintain their sanity
and families.
[quoted in Lund, 1988]
708 CHAPTER 25 ■ Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
to wash or dress herself, or even to eat as much as she should,
citing some lingering pain in her fingers and her belief that “no
one cares.”
Obviously, this widow is very frail, requiring ongoing care.
She has trouble with four of the five ADLs. At present, she has a
home health aide, who comes daily to bathe her, bring in the
mail, and prepare the day’s food. This aide fears that one day she
will arrive to find her patient dead, but health aides have almost
no authority, so this aide is neither trained nor expected to inter-
vene. A professional might set up an exercise program; arrange
transportation to a senior center; send a housing consultant who
would change the rugs, lights, and stairs; and find a program
providing nutritious meals.
In the United States, assistance (e.g., Meals on Wheels) is
available, but this widow is unlikely to find it. Family members
usually locate public programs and augment them with private
support; this woman has no one to do that. Her income is spent
on utility bills, medicine, and subscriptions to magazines she
no longer reads. A reverse mortgage, canceled subscriptions,
public subsidies, and better insulation would make her finan-
cially secure, but each of those takes more planning than she is
able to do.
The other widow is equally bereft of family, but she sold her
old house and, with two lifelong friends, bought a large co-op
apartment (with no stairs) near a small shopping center. As all
three women are aging, they consulted an expert (recommended
by the city’s senior service agency) who suggested that they
equip their apartment with bright lighting, sturdy furniture, grab
rails, wall-to-wall carpeting, a telephone programmed to dial
important numbers, a stove that automatically shuts off, and a
front door that buzzes until locked.
The three housemates compensate for one another’s impair-
ments: The one who sees best reads the fine print on medicine
bottles, legal papers, and cooking directions; the sturdiest one
sweeps, mops, and vacuums; and our widow hears the phone,
doorbell, and alarm clock. They regularly eat, converse, and
laugh together—good for the digestion as well as the spirits.
Their arrangement works partly because they chose each other;
forced communal housing (when elders are placed together by
outsiders in a home) is less successful (Folts & Muir, 2002).
Unlike the first widow, who will be institutionalized if she
does not die soon, the second widow, with the same physical
problems, cares for herself, socializes, and shops. Her buffers
prevent frailty. If her health worsens, her friends will make sure
she obtains good care, including cataract surgery, home delivery
of audiobooks, a hip replacement, a motorized wheelchair—
whatever is needed.
Just as a fine crystal goblet—admired, lovingly handled,
and carefully stored—is unlikely to break despite its fragility,
so an older person, surrounded by crucial buffering, may not
become frail.
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Sometimes caregivers feel fulfilled by their experience because everyone, in-
cluding the care receiver, appreciates their efforts. In fact, when a caregiver feels
supported by family, even if the caregiving demands increase, the caregiver be-
comes less stressed (Roth et al., 2005).
Nonetheless, after listing the problems and frustrations of caring for someone
who is mentally incapacitated but physically strong, one overview notes:
The effects of these stresses on family caregivers can be catastrophic. Family
caregiving has been associated with increased levels of depression and anxiety as
well as higher use of psychotropic medicine, poorer self-reported health, com-
promised immune function, and increased mortality.
[Gitlin et al., 2003, p. 362]
The designated caregiver is chosen less for practical reasons (such as who has
the most time and skill) than because of cultural expectations. In the United
States, a spouse is the usual caregiver, but in Asian nations the son and his wife
feel responsible. In Korea, for instance, 80 percent of elderly people with demen-
tia are cared for by daughters-in-law and only 7 percent by a spouse. That shifts
for Korean Americans who have dementia: 19 percent are cared for by daughters-
in-law and 40 percent by the spouse (Youn et al., 1999).
Even in ideal circumstances, caregivers may feel resentful, for three reasons:
■ If one adult child is the primary caregiver, other siblings tend to feel relief or
jealousy. The primary caregiver wants them to do more; they resist being told
what to do.
■ Care receivers and caregivers often disagree about schedules, menus, doctor
visits, and so on. Resentments on both sides disrupt affection and appreciation.
■ Public agencies rarely provide services unless an emergency arises. For example,
respite care, when a professional caregiver takes over for a few hours, is not
paid for by public funds in the United States (although it is in England), but
hospital care is (Butler et al., 1998).
The result of public policy and cultural values may be “a system that places in-
appropriate burdens of elder care upon the family” (Seki, 2001, p. 101). Develop-
mentalists, concerned about the well-being of people of all ages, advocate more
help for families of the frail elderly (see Fortinsky et al., 2007; Stone, 2006).
respite care An arrangement in which a pro-
fessional caregiver relieves a frail elderly
person’s usual family caregiver for a few
hours each day or for an occasional week-
end.
The Frail Elderly 709
Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Bedtime
Less than half of all adults follow doctors’ or-
ders about medication. For seniors, this negli-
gence can lead to dementia or even death.
Family caregiving usually begins with IADLs,
as with this daughter, who is sorting her
mother’s 16 medications into a tray that is
marked to help the older woman remember
when to take them.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page 710):
Do this mother and daughter live together?DE
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Elder Abuse
When caregiving results in resentment and in social isolation, the risk of depres-
sion, poor health, and abuse (of the frail person or the caregiver) escalates. Most
family members provide adequate care despite the stress, but abuse is likely if
the caregiver suffers from emotional problems or substance abuse (Brandi et al.,
2006). Maltreatment ranges from direct physical attack to ongoing emotional
neglect.
Analysis of elder abuse is complicated because three distinct elements con-
tribute to the problem: the victim, the abuser, and the setting (Gordon & Brill,
2001). Thus, an old person who is cranky and feeble, with severe memory loss
(the care receiver), cared for by an alcoholic grandchild (the caregiver), in a place
where visitors are few (the community), is a recipe for abuse. If only one of those
three factors were different, abuse would be less likely.
The typical case of elder maltreatment begins benignly, as an outgrowth of
caregiving. For example, an elder may provide money to a younger relative, who
gradually spends all the elder’s assets; or a family member may be pressured to
care for an increasingly frail relative, only to become so overwhelmed and isolated
that neglect occurs; or a husband may feel resentment when he unexpectedly
must care for his wife, who no longer recognizes him. Benign beginnings make
elder abuse difficult to recognize. Other family members are reluctant to notify
authorities, and, as with other forms of abuse, the dependency of the victim
makes prosecution difficult (Mellor & Brownell, 2006).
Researchers are not sure whether family abusers are more often husbands or
wives or adult children, but it is clear that, while most caregivers do a good job,
some do not. Sadly “perpetrators tend to be dependent on the individual they were
mistreating,” with that dependence usually including housing and financial assis-
tance (Bonnie & Wallace, 2003, p. 96).
Overall, in “worldwide studies based on community surveys,” elder abuse occurs
in 5 to 6 percent of all caregiver–care receiver pairs (Wolf, 1998, p. 161). Because
those who are mistreated by family members are ashamed to admit it, the actual
rate is probably higher. Adding to the problem of accurate measurement are dis-
agreements among elders, caregivers, and professionals regarding standards of
care.
Families are less prepared to cope with difficult patients than professionals
are, yet they typically provide round-the-clock care, with little outside help or
supervision. Some caregivers believe that overdrugging, locked doors, and phys-
ical restraints (all abusive) are their only options. Extensive public and personal
safety nets for the frail are needed to prevent maltreatment (Mellor &
Brownell, 2006).
Long-Term Care
Many elders and their relatives feel that nursing homes should be avoided no mat-
ter what, although the reality of elder abuse—more easily detected in nursing
homes, where physical restraints are now illegal except temporarily in exceptional
circumstance—makes it apparent that many of the elderly would receive better
care outside their homes. In North America and particularly in western Europe,
good care is available for those who can afford it and know what to look for. The
key elements are independence and privacy for the residents and a sufficient
number of well-trained and well-paid staff.
Elderly people who are not self-sufficient have many options. Most prefer to
age in place, remaining in their own home with help from family members and
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
709): Probably not. Clues include the small
(not family-size) refrigerator, the mother’s
medical alert pendant, and the fact that the
daughter is organizing medications for an
entire week (as indicated by the large number
of compartments in the tray), not just a single
day.
710 CHAPTER 25 ■ Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
AP
P
HO
TO
/
SE
RG
E
J-
F.
LE
VY
Even in the Best Families The question of
elder abuse became front-page news in the
last months of Brooke Astor’s life. The wealthy
philanthropist and socialite is shown here at
age 95; she died in 2007 at age 105. Her
grandson accused his father, her only child,
of plundering her fortune and neglecting her
care. The truth of the accusation has not been
established.
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home health aides. At the other extreme are skilled nursing facilities, with medical
personnel available and help with all ADLs available around the clock. Advanced
age and mental impairment are the strongest correlates for admission to a nursing
home (Adler, 1995). In the United States, the trend over the past 20 years has
been toward fewer nursing home residents (still about 1.5 million people), more of
whom are impaired than previously, typically needing assistance with both ADLs
and IADLs (Stone, 2006).
An intermediate form of elder care between one’s own residence and a nursing
home is assisted living, which provides some of the privacy and independence of
living at home, along with some medical supervision (Imamoglu, 2007). For exam-
ple, an assisted-living home might include a private room for each person, one
communal meal per day, and a nurse who counts out pills and makes sure they are
taken on time. There are many variations in assisted living, from a small group of
three or four elderly people who live together to a large facility for hundreds of
people (Stone, 2006).
Each state in the United States has its own standards for assisted-living
arrangements, but many such places are unlicensed. International variation is
also wide: Some nations have many more residential options for older residents
than do others. The traditional choice—a person is either well enough to stay at
home or so frail that he or she must be in an institution—is no longer accepted
by political leaders, medical personnel, developmentalists, families, or the elderly
themselves.
In the United States and most other nations, nursing homes are licensed and
must conform to certain standards, but quality varies. If a nursing home is profit-
making and has many patients subsidized entirely by Medicare and Medicaid,
then costs will be tightly controlled. The easiest way to save money is to overwork
and underpay the staff who provide direct services. Family members who visit
their elderly relatives in places that offer substandard care are likely to feel de-
pressed and guilty (Aneshensel et al., 1995).
Overall, the abuses that occurred 50 years ago with unregulated expansion of
nursing homes are rare today. Many professionals consider it their mission to help
Help with an ADL A frail elderly man who
can no longer bathe himself (one of the basic
activities of daily living) is assisted by trained
attendants in a model home for the aged in
Tokyo.
The Frail Elderly 711
KA
RE
N
K
AS
M
AU
SK
I /
C
OR
BI
S
Especially for Those Uncertain About
Future Careers Would you like to work in a
nursing home?
assisted living A living arrangement for eld-
erly people that combines privacy and
independence with medical supervision.
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each resident retain independence, control, and self-respect (Hill et al., 2002).
Not only is this good health practice (self-management and independence corre-
late with physical and mental well-being), it also is the law (Allen, 2007).
The best long-term-care facilities encourage individual choice. Such minor
things as when, where, and what a person eats can be controlled by either the
resident or the facility. Individualized care is expensive; the national average for
nursing-home care in the United States is $75,000 a year. Some facilities cost
three times that amount. An AARP survey of people over age 40 in the United
States found that only 8 percent could accurately (within 20 percent) estimate the
cost of a year of such care in their community. Most people underestimate the
amount and mistakenly think that Medicare or Medicaid will pay for it (Barrett,
2006).
Actually, in the United States, only a fraction of long-term care is paid by public
insurance (precise numbers vary, depending on the specifics of illness and care).
Sometimes care is more readily funded if it occurs in a hospital than at home,
but that situation is changing. Almost every American family spends substantial
private funds if an elderly person becomes frail.
This is a topic that should concern everyone. About one in two North Ameri-
cans will probably need nursing-home care at some point, and one in eight will
need such care for more than a year (Stone, 2006). Since admission usually begins
with a medical emergency, it is wise to plan ahead, before such a crisis occurs.
SUMMING UP
Some elderly people become frail, unable to perform the activities of daily life (such as
bathing and dressing) or the instrumental activities of daily life (such as taking medica-
tion and paying bills). Frailty is not inevitable with age or illness; it can be prevented or
postponed with the help of family, friends, and community. If an elderly person needs
full-time care, usually the spouse or another family member provides it, usually with
major self-sacrifice. Stress on the caregiver and care receiver can be reduced if the en-
tire family and many public agencies are supportive, but that is seldom the case. Some-
times caregiving stress leads to abuse, and sometimes the elderly person is best cared
for in an assisted-living setting or a nursing home, where good care may be available.
■
We close with an example of family and nursing-home care at their best. A
young adult named Rob related that his 98-year-old great-grandmother “began to
fail. We had no idea why and thought, well, maybe she is growing old” (quoted in
Adler, 1995, p. 242). All three younger generations of the family conferred and
reluctantly decided that it was time to move her from her suburban home, where
she had lived for decades, into a nursing home.
Fortunately, this nursing home encouraged independence and did not assume
that decline is always a sign of “final failing.” The doctors there discovered that the
woman’s pacemaker was not working properly. As Rob explains:
We were very concerned to have her undergo surgery at her age, but we finally
agreed. . . . Soon she was back to being herself, a strong, spirited, energetic,
independent woman. It was the pacemaker that was wearing out, not Great-
grandmother.
[quoted in Adler, 1995, p. 242]
This story contains a lesson repeated throughout this book. When an older per-
son seems to be failing, or a preschooler is selfish, or a teenager uses alcohol, or an
emerging adult takes dangerous risks, one might conclude that such problems are
712 CHAPTER 25 ■ Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
➤Response for Those Uncertain About
Future Careers (from page 711): Why not?
The demand for good workers will obviously
increase as the population ages, and the
working conditions will improve. An
important problem is that the quality of
nursing homes varies, so you need to make
sure you work in one whose policies
incorporate the view that the elderly can be
quite capable, social, and independent.
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normal for that particular age. It is true that each of these behaviors is more com-
mon at those stages. But just because people act their age, we cannot assume that
they do not need protection and guidance. The life-span perspective holds that, at
every age, people can be “strong, spirited, and energetic” if the rest of us do our
part. At every age, life can be lived to the fullest.
Summary 713
Theories of Late Adulthood
1. Several self theories hold that adults make personal choices
in ways that allow them to become fully themselves. Erikson
believed that individuals seek integrity that connects them to the
human community. Identity theory suggests that people try to
maintain a sense of themselves.
2. A dominant interpretation of the goal of later life is that selec-
tive optimization with compensation can help in adjusting to
physical and cognitive decline. This is a way of preserving the self.
Most older adults compensate for their decline partly by taking a
more positive view of life.
3. Stratification theories maintain that social forces limit personal
choices, especially the disengagement that may come with age.
Activity theory predicts the opposite, that older people who are
active are also healthier and happier.
4. Lifelong stratification by gender or race may also limit an
elder’s ability to live a full life. However, many older members of
minority groups function very well, primarily because of strong
family and religious connections.
5. Dynamic theories see human development as an ever-changing
process, influenced by social contexts, which themselves are
constantly changing, as well as by genetic and historical factors
that are unique to each person. For instance, continuity theory
emphasizes that the changes that occur with age may be much
less disruptive than they appear to be.
Coping with Retirement
6. Retirement is often welcomed by the elderly, especially when
their jobs are no longer satisfying and their finances are adequate.
Some older people prefer to keep working, deriving satisfaction
from continued productivity.
7. Many retired people continue their education or perform vol-
unteer work in their communities. Both of these activities enhance
the health and well-being of the elderly and benefit the larger
society. Even more common is involvement in home and garden
enhancement. Most elderly people prefer to age in place, staying
in their own homes.
Friends and Relatives
8. A spouse is the most important member of a person’s social
convoy. Older adults in long-standing marriages tend to be quite
satisfied with their relationships and to safeguard each other’s
health. As a result, married elders tend to live longer, happier, and
healthier lives than unmarried elders.
9. The death of a spouse is always difficult, but wives are more
likely to experience this loss and, partly for that reason, are more
likely to adjust and continue with their lives.
10. Relationships with adult children and grandchildren are usu-
ally mutually supportive. Most of the elderly prefer to maintain
their independence, living alone, but some become surrogate par-
ents, raising their grandchildren. This situation has many benefits
for the families and society as a whole, but it adds to the stress of
the older generation.
The Frail Elderly
11. Most elderly people are self-sufficient, but some eventually
become frail. They need help with their activities of daily life,
either with physical tasks (such as eating and bathing) or with in-
strumental ones (such as paying bills and arranging transportation).
12. Care of the frail elderly is usually undertaken by family mem-
bers, either spouses or children (who are often elderly them-
selves). Many families have a strong sense of filial responsibility,
although elder abuse may occur when the stress of care is great
and social support is lacking.
13. Nursing homes, assisted living, and professional home care
are of varying quality and availability. Each of these arrangements
can provide necessary and beneficial care, but good care for the
frail elderly cannot be taken for granted.
SUMMARY
self theories (p. 680)
integrity versus despair (p. 680)
positivity effect (p. 683)
stratification theories (p. 684)
disengagement theory (p. 685)
activity theory (p. 685)
dynamic theories (p. 689)
continuity theory (p. 690)
age in place (p. 692)
AARP (p. 696)
social convoy (p. 696)
filial responsibility (p. 701)
frail elderly (p. 706)
activities of daily life (ADLs)
(p. 706)
instrumental activities of daily
life (IADLs) (p. 706)
respite care (p. 709)
assisted living (p. 711)
KEY TERMS
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714 CHAPTER 25 ■ Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
7. How does reaction to the death of a spouse differ for men and
women?
8. What factors affect the ability to perform ADLs and IADLs?
9. What accounts for the increasing prevalence of the frail
elderly?
10. What problems might arise in caring for a frail elderly person?
11. What are the advantages and disadvantages of nursing home
care?
1. What are the similarities and differences between self theories
and identity theories?
2. Compare the three types of stratification in late adulthood.
3. How can continuity theory be considered a dynamic theory?
4. What kinds of activities do older people undertake after they
retire?
5. What changes typically occur in long-term marriages in late
adulthood?
6. Compare the roles of friends and family in late adulthood.
whose views on this issue will probably differ. Ask their opinions,
and analyze the results.
3. Visit a nursing home or assisted-living residence in your com-
munity. Notice details of the physical setting, the social interac-
tion of the residents, and the staff. Would you like to work or live
in this place? Why or why not?
1. Attitudes about disabilities are influential. Visit the disability
office on your campus, asking both staff and students what they
see as effects of attitude on the performance of students. How do
you think attitudes toward disability affect the elderly?
2. People of different ages, cultures, and experiences vary in their
values regarding family caregiving, including the need for safety,
privacy, independence, and professional help. Find four people
KEY QUESTIONS
APPLICATIONS
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BIOSOCIAL
Prejudice and Predictions As a result of ageism, the functioning of the elderly is
restricted and younger people overestimate how many of the aged are impaired.
Although people are living longer in every nation, most of the elderly are “young-old”—
quite healthy and independent.
Senescence Primary aging is inevitable. Appearance changes, and the brain slows
down. Deficits in vision and hearing are widespread, although much can be done to pre-
vent or remedy sensory losses. Because of declines in organ reserve, both primary and
secondary aging put older adults at risk of chronic and acute diseases. Compression
of morbidity can improve the quality of life for the elderly.
Theories of Aging Research on the causes of aging indicates that genes and cell
senescence are both crucial. Specific theories of aging focus on the immune system,
a genetic clock, damage from oxygen free radicals, or innate maximum life span.
Calorie restriction has not yet been shown to prolong life in humans.
COGNITIVE
The Usual: Information Processing After Age 65 As the senses become less acute
and as senescence slows down brain functioning, some aspects of cognition become
less effective in late adulthood. Working (or short-term) memory is the first to slow down;
long-term memory is more durable. Deficits may result from a decrease of neurotrans-
mitters and blood flow in the brain, from reliance on less effective strategies, and from
ageist social expectations. Keeping healthy aids cognition. Most older adults develop
ways to compensate for memory loss and slower thinking.
The Impaired: Dementia Symptoms of dementia (memory loss, confusion) may be
caused by Alzheimer’s disease, strokes, Parkinson’s disease, other diseases, depres-
sion, or drugs. There is no cure for dementia, but several methods slow down decline.
Sometimes a temporary problem or mental illness is misdiagnosed as dementia.
Optimal: New Cognitive Development Many older individuals develop or intensify
their aesthetic and philosophical interests and values in later life. An opportunity to
remember and to recount the past, called life review, can be very useful. Wisdom is
rare at any age, but the elderly who benefit from their experiences may become wise.
PSYCHOSOCIAL
Coping with Retirement Variability is evident throughout late adulthood, with some
choosing to retire in their 50s and others wanting to keep working in their 70s. Couples
need to plan and coordinate their retirements. Most retired people prefer to age in
place, fixing up their homes and gardens. Many find ways to expand their horizons after
retirement, through education, volunteer work, and political involvement.
Friends and Relatives Older adults’ satisfaction with life depends in large part on
continuing contact with friends and family. Generally, marital satisfaction continues to
improve. The greatest source of social support is likely to be other elders, either relatives
or friends. Family members continue to be connected to one another; adult children
generally embrace filial responsibility.
The Frail Elderly The number of elderly people needing help with the activities of daily
life is growing, although most are proud of their ability to manage their own lives. Social
support can reduce caregiver stress and guard against elder abuse.
715
Late Adulthood
PART VIII
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Death and Dying
Death mirrors the complexity of life, as each death highlightscultural differences and ethical dilemmas. Neither complexitynor morbidity should deter us, however, because understandingdeath and dying helps people live their lives to the fullest. That
is the goal of thanatology, the study of death and dying, especially social
and emotional aspects.
We begin this epilogue as we did Chapter 1, with a multicultural and
developmental perspective. Humans have always had beliefs, practices, and
rituals that bring hope in death, acceptance of dying, and reaffirmation of life
through bereavement.
The diversity of death rituals is often striking. In India, mourners sit on
the floor and neither eat nor wash until the funeral pyre is extinguished; in
the southern United States and elsewhere, funerals may include food,
music, and dancing. In many Muslim cultures, the dead person is bathed by
the next of kin; among the Navajo, no one touches the dead person, for fear
that his or her restless spirit will return.
But in all cultures, death has been regarded as a passage, not an endpoint,
and as a reason for people to come together, not a time when differences are
magnified. Hope, acceptance, and reaffirmation of the family, faith, and
community have been the result.
That may be changing. Modern medicine and the structures of daily life
undercut many customs and beliefs related to death and bereavement.
People often argue over when death should occur, what should happen to
the corpse, and who deserves the inheritance. Death separates as often as it
unites. This is tragic, because our entire study makes it apparent that humans
need each other for dying and mourning as well as for living and rejoicing.
Perhaps this chapter will help.
Death and Hope
What is death? This simple question has no simple answer. Death could be
an end or a beginning, a private and personal event or a part of the larger
culture, something to deny or avoid or something to welcome.
A life-span perspective (which, as you learned in Chapter 1, is multidi-
rectional, multicontextual, multicultural, multidisciplinary, and plastic) con-
siders age, culture, training, and experience. Those complexities are further
complicated by historical changes (see Table EP.1). A new understanding of
death is required.
Ep-1
Epilogue
CHAPTER OUTLINE
� Death and Hope
Death Throughout the Life Span
Many Religions, Many Cultures
� Dying and Acceptance
Attending to the Needs of the Dying
A CASE TO STUDY: “Ask My Son
and My Husband”
Choices and Controversies
ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS:
Let Terri Schiavo Live/Die/Live/Die
� Bereavement
Normal Grief
IN PERSON: Blaming Martin,
Hitler, and Myself
Complicated Grief
Diversity of Reactions
thanatology The study of death and dying,
especially in their social and emotional
aspects.
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Death Throughout the Life Span
In order to understand what death means to people, we begin with developmental
differences. The meaning assigned to death—either the person’s own death or
the death of another person—depends partly on cognitive maturation and personal
experience.
Death in Childhood
Some adults mistakenly think that children do not understand death; others
believe that children should participate in the rituals accompanying the death of a
loved one exactly as adults do. You know from your study of childhood cognition
that neither approach is correct.
Children as young as 2 have some understanding of death, but their perspec-
tive differs from that of older family members. Adults should listen carefully to
children who have lost a loved one or who themselves are dying, neither ignoring
nor dismissing their concerns (Kenyon, 2001).
Dying children often fear that death means being abandoned by the people
they love. Consequently, parents must stay with very sick children day and night,
holding their hands, reading to them, telling them they are loved. For a child who
loses a friend, a relative, or a pet, sadness, loneliness, and other signs of mourning
are typical and should not be ignored.
Current, frequent contact is more important to a child than logic. Thus, one
7-year-old boy who lost three grandparents and an uncle within two years was
especially upset when his dog, Twick, died. His parents, each grieving for a dead
mother, were taken aback by the depth of the boy’s emotions, and regretted that
they had not taken their son to the veterinarian’s office to see the dog before it
Ep-2 EPILOGUE ■ Death and Dying
DE
N
IS
FA
RR
EL
L
/ A
P
/ W
ID
E
W
OR
LD
P
HO
TO
S
Not Forgotten Archeologists have deter-
mined that remembrance of the dead is one
of the oldest rituals of humankind. Each
generation and circumstance evoke different
rituals. Here, in one of the most recent and
tragic circumstances, a worker at the Cotlands
Baby Sanctuary of South Africa places the
ashes of a young child who died of AIDS into
a wall of remembrance in a cemetery. The
baby had been found abandoned after both
of its parents died of AIDS.
TABLE EP.1
How Death Has Changed in the Past 100 Years
Death occurs later. A century ago, the average life span worldwide was less than 40 years
(though it was 47 in the rapidly industrializing United States). Half of the world’s babies died
before age 5. Now newborns are expected to live to age 78; in many nations, elderly people
age 85 and over are the fastest-growing age group.
Dying takes longer. In the early 1900s, death was usually fast and unstoppable; once the
brain, the heart, or other vital organs failed, the rest of the body quickly followed. Now death
can often be postponed through medical intervention: Hearts can beat for years after the brain
stops functioning, respirators can replace lungs, and dialysis can do the work of failing
kidneys. As a result, dying is often a lengthy process.
Death often occurs in hospitals. A hundred years ago, death almost always occurred at
home, with the dying person surrounded by familiar faces. Now many deaths occur in
hospitals, surrounded by medical personnel and technology.
The main causes of death have changed. People of all ages once died of infectious
diseases (tuberculosis, typhoid, smallpox), and many women and infants died in childbirth.
Now disease deaths before age 50 are rare, and almost all newborns (99 percent) and their
mothers (99.99 percent) live, unless the infant is very frail or medical care of the mother is
grossly inadequate.
And after death . . . People once knew about life after death. Some believed in heaven and
hell; others, in reincarnation; others, in the spirit world. Many prayers were repeated—some
on behalf of the souls of the deceased, some for remembrance, some to the dead asking for
protection. Believers were certain that their prayers were heard. Today’s young adults are
aware of cultural and religious diversity, which makes them question what earlier generations
believed, raising doubts that never occurred to their ancestors.
Source: Adapted from Kastenbaum, 2006; data from U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007 and earlier editions.
EP0-EP25_BergerLS7e_EPIL.qxp 9/20/07 4:36 PM Page Ep-2

died. The boy refused to go back to school, saying, “I wanted to see him one more
time. . . . You don’t understand. . . . I play with Twick every day” (Kaufman &
Kaufman, 2006. pp. 65– 66).
Because loss of companionship is a crucial concern, telling children that
Grandma is sleeping or that God wanted their sister in heaven or that Grandpa
went on a long trip is not helpful; children may take such statements literally. In
the child’s preoperational or concrete operational mind, someone should wake up
Grandma, complain to God, or get angry at Grandpa.
Although children have some comprehension of death, adults cannot assume
that children share their perceptions. This was shown by a Florida study (Bering &
Bjorklund, 2004; see Research Design) in which children saw a puppet skit about
a sick mouse that was eaten by an alligator. When questioned afterward, nearly
all the children asserted that the mouse was dead and would never be alive again,
but most of the younger children thought the dead mouse still felt sick, and most
children of all ages thought the mouse still loved his mother (see Figure EP.1).
This study was replicated in Spain (Bering et al., 2005). Children from Spanish
public and religious schools followed the same pattern as the Florida children,
although children in Catholic schools were more likely to believe that biological
functions, such as hearing and tasting, continued.
Death in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood
“Live fast and leave a good-looking corpse. . . . Never have a normal day or a boring
night” (Kastenbaum, 2004, p. 356). At what age would a person be most likely to
agree? Ages 15 to 25, of course, when death is less feared, risk taking increases,
appearance is valued, and thrills are sought. Worldwide, fear of death diminishes
and life is considered less precious once puberty occurs (Chikako, 2004; Gullone
& King, 1997).
Especially when people age 15 to 24 have guns and cars, this developmental
trend can be deadly (see Figure EP.2). Adolescents and emerging adults die in sui-
cides, accidents (e.g., car accidents resulting from drunk driving), and homicides
Death and Hope Ep-3
Research Design
Scientist: James Bering and David
Bjorklund.
Publication: Developmental Psychology
(2004).
Participants: A total of 199 children, age
3 years 2 months to 12 years 10 months,
all enrolled in schools affiliated with
Florida Atlantic University.
Design:Three experiments, each with
different children who answered ques-
tions about a skit they saw about a
mouse that was eaten by an alligator.
Specifics varied (the mouse was lost,
sick, jealous of brother, loved mother).
Major conclusion: Children usually
expect biological functions (hearing,
tasting) to cease at death, but not psy-
chological ones (desires, emotions,
ideas).
Comment: Although replication has
begun in Spain, replication by other
researchers, using participants at other
locales and of other ages (including
adults), is needed.
0 302010 40
Percent answering yes
Will he ever be alive
again?
Is he still thirsty?
Does he still feel sick?
Does he still want to
go home?
Does he still love
his mother?
50 60 70 80 90 100
Now That the Mouse Is Dead . . .
Source:

Bering & Bjorklund, 2004.
Youngest (5)
Groups of participants (average age)
Oldest (10)
Middle (7)
FIGURE EP.1
Love Endures Even the youngest children
knew that the mouse was dead, but most of
them believed that it still had feelings, needs,
and wishes. For children, death does not
stop life. These researchers also surveyed
20 college students, 13 of whom (65 percent)
thought that love for one’s mother continues
after death. (In this series of studies, not
every age group was asked every question;
that explains why only two sets of responses
are shown for two of the questions here.)
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partly because they romanticize death. This outlook makes young people vulnera-
ble to cluster suicides (see Chapter 16), fatal gang wars, and foolish dares (see
Chapter 17).
Death in Adulthood
A major shift in attitudes about death occurs when adults become responsible
for work and family. Death is not romanticized, but is dreaded as something to
be avoided, or at least postponed. These are the years when many people stop
taking addictive drugs and start wearing seat belts. They do not want to think
about their own death, nor do they accept the death of others. Thus, when Dylan
Thomas was about 30, he addressed his most famous poem to his dying father:
“Do not go gentle into that good night. / Rage, rage against the dying of the light”
(Thomas, 1957).
From age 25 to 60, terminally ill adults do not fear their own death as much as
they worry about leaving something undone: One dying 30-year-old mother of a 3-
year-old and a 9-month-old strained
to stay alert for as long as possible so that she could take care of all her unfinished
business . . . [including writing] letters to her children for . . . graduation, marriage,
and the birth of their first children. She wanted them to know that she would
love them always.
[Deremo & Meert, 2004, p. 66]
Many scholars have noted that adults’ attitudes about death are quite different
for a public tragedy and for a private one (Lattanzi-Licht & Doka, 2003). Reasons
are many, including the circumstances of death and the fame of the person, but
age is one factor, as is evident in news reports that highlight the ages of the dead
and the bereaved.
Consider the contrast between public sadness at the death of two U.S. presi-
dents: John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Even though the latter was president
for longer, survived an assassination attempt, and had far more supporters
(Kennedy was elected with 34,220,984 popular votes, Reagan with 43,903,230),
Kennedy’s death, at age 46, evoked more public sorrow.
Ep-4 EPILOGUE ■ Death and Dying
Early twentieth century Early twenty-first century
Causes of Death for 15- to 24-Year-Olds, United States
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1907, 2007.
Suicide 2%
Diseases
27%
Diseases
85%
Accidents
45%
Homicide
16%
Suicide
12%
Accidents
12%
Homicide 1%
FIGURE EP.2
Typhoid versus Driving into a Tree In 1905,
most young adults in the United States who
died were victims of diseases, usually infec-
tious ones like tuberculosis and typhoid. In
2005, 25 times more died in the most common
type of accident (motor vehicle) than died of
the most common lethal disease (leukemia).
Observation Quiz (see answer, page Ep-6):
Do these two pie charts show that 16 times
more 15- to 24-year-olds were victims of
homicide in 2005 than in 1907?
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As another example, fewer than 3,000 people died in the terror attack on the
World Trade Center; in the United States, more people than that die each day of
heart disease. The former was a public tragedy, one that still affects government
policy and people’s emotions, while heart disease is a private and insidious problem.
Death in Late Adulthood
Finally, in late adulthood, anxiety about death decreases. Many developmentalists
believe that a sign of mental health in older adults is acceptance of their mortality
(e.g., Baltes & Carstensen, 2003; Erikson et al., 1986). Older people write their
wills, designate health proxies, read scriptures, reconcile with family members,
and, in general, tie up all the loose ends that young adults avoid dealing with
(Kastenbaum, 2006).
Performing these actions does not mean that the elderly have given up on life.
Even after age 85 people still work to maintain their health and independence.
But developing an understanding of death is one of the normal tasks of late adult-
hood (Schindler et al., 2006). Many older people make quite specific death plans,
such as deciding who will get which heirloom, choosing funeral music, buying a
burial plot, and ending each family visit with loving goodbyes.
Belief in life after death is directly related to people’s estimate of how likely it is
that they themselves might die. This is one reason that the aged in the United
States tend to be more religious than the young. It is also why nations in which
many people die young tend to be more devout (Idler, 2006).
Research has described the difference in priorities between those who think
about their death and those who do not. In an intriguing series of studies, people
were presented with the following scenario:
Imagine that in carrying out the activities of everyday life, you find that you have
half an hour of free time, with no pressing commitments. You have decided that
you’d like to spend this time with another person. Assuming that the following
three persons are available to you, which of them would you choose to spend
that time with?
A member of your immediate family
The author of a book you have just read
An acquaintance with whom you seem to have much in common
Older adults, more than younger ones, choose the family member, presumably
because such conversations become more important when death may occur soon.
This explanation is supported by a comparison of three groups of middle-aged
homosexual men—one group that had AIDS, one
that was HIV-positive without symptoms, and one
that was HIV-negative. Those with AIDS more
often chose to spend their half-hour with a family
member (Carstensen & Fredrickson, 1998).
Another study of these three choices began
with 329 people recently diagnosed with cancer
and another group of 170 people (matched for
age and education) who had no life-threatening
illness (Pinquart & Silbereisen, 2006). The most
marked difference in choices was between those
who had cancer and those who did not, regardless
of age (see Figure EP.3). Adults who were cancer-
free were more likely to choose an author or a
potential friend over a family member.
Death and Hope Ep-5
0 302010 40
Percent choosing to spend time with a family member
Healthy people
younger than 60
Healthy people
age 60 or older
Young people
with cancer
Older people
with cancer
50 60 70 80 90 100
Would you spend a free half-hour with a family member,
a book author, or an acquaintance?
Source: Pinquart & Silbereisen, 2006.
FIGURE EP.3
Turning to Family as Death Approaches
Both young and old people diagnosed with
cancer (a fourth of whom died within five
years) were found to be more likely to prefer
to spend a free half-hour having a conversa-
tion with a family member rather than with
an interesting person whom they did not
know well. A larger difference was found
between older and younger adults who did
not have a serious disease: The healthy
younger people were less likely to say that
they would prefer to spend the time with a
family member rather than with an interesting
acquaintance.
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Many Religions, Many Cultures
A second major contextual factor involved in people’s understanding of
death is religion. First, a disclaimer: As one review notes, “Rituals in the
world’s religions, especially those for the major tragic and significant events
of bereavement and death, have a bewildering diversity” (Idler, 2006,
p. 285). The summaries offered in this brief overview are greatly simplified;
readers are encouraged to read more deeply about each faith.
Views of Death in Major Religions
Buddhism Among Buddhists, disease and death are regarded as inevitable
sufferings, which may eventually bring enlightenment (Nakasone, 2000).
Birth, life, and death are merely phases of the great circle of existence: “Life
melds gradually into death. And death itself is part of the recurring cycle of
being and becoming” (Kastenbaum, 2004, p. 337).
In Buddhism, death occurs in eight stages: Eyesight dims, hearing di-
minishes, smell disappears, breathing ceases, white moonlight is perceived,
red sunlight appears, darkness descends, the clear light of death arrives.
Note that the last four stages occur after a physician would certify death
(Kastenbaum, 2006).
The task of the individual is to gain insight from dying. Relatives and
friends help by ensuring that the person does not receive mind-altering
medication or death-delaying intervention. Death is not an end of the individual,
who will be reborn and, if all goes well, will eventually reach nirvana—a state of
perfect enlightenment, in which all desires end and reincarnation stops. If a dying
person feels hope or fear, the reason is not death itself but rebirth.
Hinduism Among Hindus, helping the dying person to surrender his or her ties to
this world and prepare for the next is a particularly important obligation for the
immediate family. A holy death is one that is welcomed by the dying person, who
should be resting on the ground, chanting prayers, lips moistened with water from
the sacred Ganges River, surrounded by family members who are reciting sacred
texts. Such a holy death is believed to ease entry into the next life.
Achieving a holy Hindu death is elusive in Western hospitals, where, in addi-
tion to other problems, the dying person cannot be placed on the floor. It is crucial
for a Hindu family to know when someone is about to die so that preparations can
be made and the entire family can be present when the soul leaves the body.
A dying Hindu woman, Shanti, had lived in the United States for 32 years.
She did not want to know the cause of her fatal illness because, she said, “It is in
the hands of the gods.” She refused medication because she believed that pain
would purify her spirit; she insisted on dying at home. A nurse who understood
her culture reported:
Shanti died in relatively unrelieved pain, but the beauty of her story is that she
died with strong karma, at home, with her family around her . . . with her head
facing North, with the water of the river Ganges sprinkled in her mouth . . .
at peace.
[Doorenbos, 2005, pp. 178–179]
For some people, including many Hindus, death is a way toward spiritual enlight-
enment, a part of karma; achieving enlightenment is more important than avoiding
pain.
Native American Traditions Although the more than 400 tribes of Native Ameri-
cans (called Indians, Aboriginals, or members of First Nations in Canada) vary
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page
Ep-4): No. The charts show the proportion of
deaths, not the absolute number.
Ep-6 EPILOGUE ■ Death and Dying
Last Rites This colorful Balinese funeral pro-
cession on its way to a Buddhist cremation is
a marked contrast to the somber memorial
service that is more common in the West. No
matter what form it takes, community involve-
ment in death and dying seems to benefit the
living.
ST
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significantly in their customs, all consider death an affirmation of nature and com-
munity. This contrasts with the Western emphasis on individualism and science
(Van Winkle, 2000). Unless this is appreciated by medical personnel, Native
Americans may shun dying in hospitals.
In one example, the adult sons of a Lakota Sioux man began chanting in his
hospital room as soon as he died, a ritual affirmation of their dedication to their
father and his legacy:
A nurse entered the room, heard the chants and called hospital security to remove
“those drunken Indians.” . . . A doctor arrived to announce that an autopsy should
be performed . . . [although the] tribe was firmly opposed to autopsies.
[Brokenleg & Middleton, 1993]
A contrasting example comes from the death of a 76-year-old Ojibwa woman
in Canada. Perhaps because Mary (the dying woman’s daughter) was a nurse, the
hospital allowed the family to have a private room, which they cleansed with sweet
grass and sage. At first, some younger family members wanted life-prolonging
measures (such as a stomach tube when the woman stopped eating), but Mary
insisted that her mother should die “the Indian way . . . taking cues from the
universe, the earth” (quoted in Chapleski, 2005, p. 52).
Perhaps respect for Indian customs was the reason that the hospital allowed
death without medication or other measures. According to Mary, however, the
reason was indifference: “It didn’t matter to them. In Canada it was just another
Indian dying, . . . but that was okay, it made my work [of caring for Mother] easier”
(quoted in Chapleski, 2005, p. 52).
Judaism Jews believe that life should be celebrated and hope sustained. Death is
not emphasized, nor final judgment stressed. The person is never left alone during
and after the process of dying, because each person is regarded as part of the
community, deserving attention and respect. On the day after death, the body is
buried, unembalmed and in a plain wooden coffin to symbolize that physical
preservation is not possible.
The family mourns at home for a week (a ritual called sitting shiva), joined by
many visitors, who bring food and comfort, tears and laughter. “The Jew is forbid-
den to mourn alone. . . . The door of the house of mourning is never locked: the
assumption is that the community will come in and out, and the mourner should
not have to open or close the door” (Gillman, 2005, p. 148).
The immediate family recites a prayer called the Kaddish (which does not men-
tion death) every evening and curtails social activities for a year. Family members
also attend services and say the Kaddish on each anniversary of the death. The
person lives on in the memory and respect of mourners, not in heaven or hell.
Christianity Many Christians believe that death is not an end but rather the
beginning of eternity in heaven or hell. Therefore, death may be either welcomed
or feared, depending on the person’s belief (and sometimes on his or her behavior
and piety as well).
Particular customs vary widely from denomination to denomination and from
place to place. Funerals may involve gathering relatives and neighbors (a “wake”)
to view the body, to express sorrow, to eat and drink; or funerals may be quiet
events only for those who were close to the deceased, with emotional restraint and
a closed coffin.
The variability is such that in Mexico, for example, Christianity blends with
Aztec customs in the Day of the Dead on November 1 and 2, the holiday on which
people visit the cemetery to bring flowers and food. They tell stories about the
Death and Hope Ep-7
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dead person, leave sweets on the grave, and eat a festive meal at the graveside,
celebrating life and death (Talamantes et al., 1999; Younoszai, 1993).
In the United States, the equivalent holiday is Halloween (from All Hallows Eve,
the night before All Saints Day, November 1). Among African American Christians,
death is a community event, with family sorrow blending with community hopes in
a crowded church, which echoes with joyful as well as mournful gospel music
(Collins & Doolittle, 2006; Rosenblatt & Wallace, 2005).
Islam The prophet Muhammad said, “Live as though one is going to live forever
and, at the same time, live as though one is going to die tomorrow.” Allah, or God,
is part of every aspect of life, from the mundane to the sublime, thus death is not
seen as separate from living or believing (Lord et al., 2003).
For Muslims, death affirms faith. Islam teaches that the achievements, prob-
lems, and pleasures of this life are fleeting; everyone should be mindful of, and
ready for, death at any time. Therefore, caring for the dying is a holy reminder of
mortality and of the potential for a happy life in the afterworld.
Rituals before and after death (including reciting prayers, washing the body,
carrying the coffin, and attending the funeral) are performed by devout strangers
as well as by relatives and friends; death is meaningful for every Muslim.
Public and noisy lamenting over death may be expressed by everyone (Nobles
& Sciarra, 2000), especially in the first three days after death. Mourners need also
accept Allah’s will, remembering that the end of mortal life is the transition to a
better world (Hai & Husain, 2000). In Islam, there is a judgment before that pas-
sage into a better world, although, as in Christianity, various branches of Islam dif-
fer in the specifics.
Respect for Ancestors
In many African and Asian religions, adults gain new status through death, joining
other ancestors who watch over their descendants. The entire community (most
members of which are related to one another) participates in each adult’s funeral,
preparing the body and providing food and money for the journey to the ancestral
realm. Mourning helps everyone to celebrate their connection with each other
and with their history (Opoku, 1989).
Ep-8 EPILOGUE ■ Death and Dying
Differences and Similarities An open coffin,
pictures of saints, and burning candles are
traditional features of many Christian funerals,
like this Ukrainian Orthodox ceremony. ED
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In many Asian homes, a special altar is set up for the dead person, with photo-
graphs, flowers, and other memorial objects. In Japan, the person’s spirit is be-
lieved to stay with the family for seven weeks and to return on each anniversary of
death (Morgan & Laungani, 2005). In Borneo, the head of the dead person was
once preserved and hung above the family’s living area, to be fed and respected.
The idea of all these practices is that the spirits of the dead are still around, pro-
tecting (or, in some cases, disturbing) the living (Kastenbaum, 2004).
Spiritual and Cultural Affirmation
Some people who survive a very serious injury or illness report having had a near-
death experience in which they left their body and moved toward a bright, white
light while feeling peacefulness and joy. The following report is typical:
I was in a coma for approximately a week. . . . I felt as though I were lifted right
up, just as though I didn’t have a physical body at all. A brilliant white light ap-
peared. . . . The most wonderful feelings came over me—feelings of peace, tran-
quility, a vanishing of all worries.
[quoted in Moody, 1975, p. 56]
Near-death experiences often include religious elements (angels have been
seen, celestial music heard), and survivors often adopt a more spiritual, less mate-
rialistic view of life. Note that Buddhists also describe a white light after breathing
ceases. To some, near-death experiences prove that there is “life after life” (Moody,
1975). However,
there is no evidence that what happens when a person really dies and “stays dead”
has any relationship to the experience reported by those who have recovered from
a life-threatening episode. In fact, it is difficult to imagine how there could ever
be such evidence.
[Kastenbaum, 2006, p. 448]
Nonetheless, the role of religion in providing hope at
death is evident in every tradition (Kemp & Bhungalia,
2002). In addition to those just described, for example,
detailed descriptions of life after death have been provided
by the ancient Greeks and the ancient Egyptians (whose
focus on the afterlife is evidenced by their Book of the Dead,
magnificent pyramid tombs, and preservation of mummies
for eternal life).
For all people throughout history, religious and spiritual
concerns often become particularly important at death
(Idler, 2006). Many elderly people seek to return to their re-
ligious roots through devotion to traditional rituals, deeper
spirituality, or an actual journey. Many dying adults ask that
their bodies or ashes be returned to their birthplace.
In one study, seriously ill Hindus who had emigrated to
Canada spoke nostalgically about their origins (Fry, 1999).
Contrary to assumptions about acculturation, the more time an immigrant had
spent in Canada, the more he or she wanted a Hindu funeral (see Figure EP.4). In
the words of one woman who had spent 22 years abroad:
I long to die among my relatives in the old country. . . . I miss the music, the
chantings, the smells and sounds and the ringing of the temple bells in my
hometown. I worry whether my own Hindu God will take me back or reject me
because I am not a pure Hindu any more and have not been in communion with
the elders of the Hindu faith for the years and years I have spent in Canada.
[quoted in Fry, 1999]
near-death experience An episode in which
a person comes close to dying but survives
and reports having left his or her body and
having moved toward a bright, white light
while feeling peacefulness and joy.
Death and Hope Ep-9
Immigrants’ Final Homecoming
Wish to die in
India
Strongly object to
non-Hindu rituals
after death
10–12 years
15–20 years
More than
20 years
Percent
Source: Fry, 1999.
How long in Canada
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
FIGURE EP.4
Strong Homeland and Religious Impulses
Open-ended interviews with seriously ill
Indians who had emigrated to Canada found
that the longer they had been away, the more
important India and Hinduism became as
they thought about their deaths.
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Spiritual beliefs and a connection to religious community give hope that is
desperately needed at death, a sense “that individual lives cannot be reduced to
insignificance, that they can and do make a difference worth making, that the
world is better for their existing” (Attig, 2003, pp. 62–63).
SUMMING UP
A major concern regarding death is the hope that the dying person and his or her family
have for the future. This concern is affected by modern medical measures (which pro-
long life and make death more lonely), by age (both mourners and the dying are affected
by their stage of life), and by religion. All the world’s religions have rituals and beliefs
regarding death and the afterlife. These are very important to both the dying and the
mourners, but they differ among and within the various traditions.
■
Dying and Acceptance
People in all religious and cultural contexts hope for a good death: one that is
peaceful and quick and occurs at the end of a long life; in familiar surroundings;
with family and friends present; and without pain, confusion, or discomfort
(Abramovitch, 2005). By contrast, a bad death is dreaded, particularly by the
elderly, who do not want to die over months or years, semiconscious and alone,
surrounded only by medical technology.
Attending to the Needs of the Dying
In some ways, modern medicine has made a good death more likely. Because of
clean drinking water, improved sanitation, and widespread immunization, billions
of lives are saved, mostly of the young. Doctors, not priests, are sought when
someone is ill. Surgery, drugs, radiation, and rehabilitation mean that, in devel-
oped countries, people of all ages get sick, go to the hospital, and . . . return home,
well again.
However, modern medicine can also make a bad death more likely. When a cure
is impossible, physical and emotional care can deteriorate. A study by a leading
thanatologist, Robert Kastenbaum, found that when a patient was known to be
dying, doctors spent fewer minutes with the patient, inadequate medication was
given, visitors were kept away, and nurses responded more slowly to the call button:
Nurses took a significantly longer time before going to the bedside of a dying
patient. . . . The nurses were surprised and upset when told of this differential
response pattern . . . [and] resolved to . . . respond promptly to terminally ill
patients. After a few weeks, however, the original pattern reinstated itself. As
much as they wanted to treat all patients equally, the nurses found it difficult to
avoid being influenced by their society’s fear of contact with dying people.
[Kastenbaum, 2006, p. 113]
Has modern medicine made dying better or worse? It depends, but Kasten-
baum and many others report that three recent trends make a good death more
likely: truthful talk, the hospice, and palliative care.
Honest Conversation
In about 1960, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1969, 1975) asked the administrator of a
large Chicago hospital for permission to speak with dying patients. He informed
good death A death that is peaceful, quick,
and painless and that occurs at the end of
a long life, in the company of family and
friends, and in familiar surroundings.
Ep-10 EPILOGUE ■ Death and Dying
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her that none of the patients were dying! Eventually she found a few terminally ill
patients, who, to everyone’s surprise, were grateful for the opportunity to talk.
From ongoing interviews, Kübler-Ross described many emotions of the dying,
which she divided into a sequence of five stages:
1. Denial (“I am not really dying.”)
2. Anger (“I blame doctors, or family, or God for my death.”)
3. Bargaining (“I will be good from now on if I can live.”)
4. Depression (“I don’t care about anything; nothing matters anymore.”)
5. Acceptance (“I accept my death as part of life.”)
Another set of stages of dying is based on Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of
human needs:
1. Physiological needs (freedom from pain)
2. Safety (no abandonment)
3. Love and acceptance (from close family and friends)
4. Respect (from caregivers)
5. Self-actualization (spiritual transcendence) (Zalenski & Raspa, 2006)
Other researchers have not found sequential stages in dying people’s approach
to death. Denial, anger, and depression disappear and reappear; bargaining is brief
because it’s fruitless; and acceptance may never occur. Comfort, safety, love, and
respect are important throughout the dying process, and achieving transcendence
does not depend on completion of Maslow’s first four stages.
However, as Kübler-Ross and others have proven, dying people want to spend
time with loved ones and to talk honestly with medical and religious professionals.
As a result of this knowledge, the patient’s right to know about his or her impend-
ing death is now widely accepted in Western hospitals. Many medical personnel
are taken aback when Asian or Latino family members assert that giving their
dying loved one too much information would destroy hope. Consider, for example,
the experience of Mrs. Y, in the following.
Dying and Acceptance Ep-11
a case to study
“Ask My Son and My Husband”
Mrs. Y’s case was referred to the ethics committee by a hospital staff
person who was concerned about a violation of her autonomy. . . .
Mrs. Y was an alert 83-year-old Japanese woman who was admitted
to the hospital for shortness of breath. During the evaluation of this
symptom, she was found to have an advanced case of lung cancer.
Her physician informed her older son and her husband, both of
whom told the physician that they did not want Mrs. Y to be in-
formed about the diagnosis. They told the physician that, in Japan-
ese culture, cancer is felt to be a diagnosis that robs the patient of
hope. The physician asked Mrs. Y whether she would like to be told
of her diagnosis when it was discovered and whether she would like
to make decisions about her treatment. . . . Mrs. Y clearly answered,
“No, you ask my son and my husband.”
[quoted in Kogan et al., 2000, p. 320]
This case was brought to the hospital ethics committee be-
cause the wishes of Mrs Y. and her family were contrary to the
belief that patients need to be informed. This belief is expressed
in respect for individuals, as reflected in medical ethics, incor-
porated in lists of patients’ rights, and upheld by Western law. In
Mrs. Y’s case, this value conflicted with Japanese beliefs in
hope, death, and family. The discrepancy may also reflect the
status of women in Japanese culture, which led Mrs. Y to defer
to her husband and son.
Is truthful communication and individual autonomy more
important than family wishes and cultural taboos? The hospital
ethics committee allowed Mrs. Y to die without knowing her
diagnosis or prognosis. Is that what you would have done?
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The Hospice
In London in the 1950s, Cecily Saunders opened the first modern hospice,
where terminally ill people could spend their last days in comfort (Saunders,
1978). Thousands of other such places have since opened throughout the world.
Instead of moving into a hospice facility, many patients remain in their
homes, receiving services from visiting hospice workers.
Hospice caregivers provide skilled treatment but avoid desperate mea-
sures to try to delay death; their focus is on making dying easier. There are
two principles for hospice care: (1) Each patient’s autonomy and decisions
are respected (for example, pain medication is given when requested, not
on a schedule); (2) family members and friends are counseled and helped
before the death, as well as being shown how to provide care. When the
patient’s home is the hospice, family members provide most of the care;
when a person is in a hospice facility, relatives and close friends are
encouraged (sometimes required) to be with the patient day and night.
After death, the hospice staff attends to the needs of the bereaved.
Originally hospices were designed for adults dying of cancer. Few
people with other illnesses (such as heart disease or kidney failure, both
of which cause many deaths among the elderly) entered hospices. There
were also few children and few patients of non-European ancestry. This is
changing, as demonstrated by two statistics: The United Kingdom has 40
hospices for children, and in South Carolina African Americans are as
likely to be in hospice as European Americans (Han et al., 2006; Mash &
Lloyd-Williams, 2006).
Nonetheless, there are several reasons why many of the dying never
begin hospice care or begin only in the last days before death. These rea-
sons are detailed in Table EP.2. One report says that half of all hospice pa-
tients have less than three weeks of specialized care before they die; that
is too short a time for all the individualized medical and emotional needs
of a dying person to be assessed and satisfied (Brody, 2007). In the United States,
the number of patients in hospice care doubled from 2000 to 2005 (to 1.2 million)
hospice An institution in which terminally ill
patients receive palliative care.
Ep-12 EPILOGUE ■ Death and Dying
AP
/
W
ID
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W
OR
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P
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S
To Meet a Need The idea of hospice care has
traveled far from its birthplace in London. Dr.
Theodore Turnquest, shown here speaking with
a patient in Lifepath Hospice House in Florida,
plans to open the first hospice in his native
country, the Bahamas.
TABLE EP.2
Barriers to Entering Hospice Care
■ Hospice patients must be terminally ill, with death anticipated within six months, but such
predictions are difficult to make. For example, in one study of noncancer patients, physician
predictions were 90 percent accurate for those who died within a week but only 13 percent
accurate when death was predicted in three to six weeks (usually the patients died sooner)
(Brandt et al., 2006).
■ Patients and caregivers must accept death. Traditionally, entering a hospice meant the end
of curative treatment (chemotherapy, dialysis, and so on). This is no longer true (Abelson,
2007; Sulmasy, 2006). About 12 percent of patients live longer than expected, and about 2
to 3 percent are discharged (Finn, 2005). Nonetheless, many people avoid hospice because
they want to keep hope alive.
■ Hospice care is expensive, especially if curative therapy continues. Many skilled workers—
doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, clergy, music therapists, and so on—
provide individualized care day and night.
■ Availability varies. Hospice care is more common in England than in mainland Europe and
is a luxury in poor nations. In the United States, western states have more hospices than
southern states do. Even in one region (northern California) and among clients of one
insurance company (Kaiser), the likelihood that people with terminal cancer will enter
hospice depends on exactly where they live (Keating et al., 2006)
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and now includes almost half of all dying people. In other nations, from 1 to 50
percent of deaths occur in hospice (Abelson, 2007; Loewy, 2004).
Comfort Care
The same “bad death” conditions that inspired the hospice movement have led to
the creation of a new field of medicine called palliative care, designed not to
treat illness but to relieve suffering (Hallenbeck, 2003). Many people fear pain
more than any other symptom of fatal illness, and most doctors now recognize the
importance of controlling pain.
Good palliative care can control most pain through the use of morphine and
many other drugs. Medications are also available to control symptoms such as
nausea, constipation, itchy skin, bedsores, and muscle aches (Hallenbeck, 2003;
Preston et al., 2003).
Pain medication was once sparingly prescribed to prevent addiction—until
medical policy makers realized that drug dependence is not a problem in dying
people. There is another possible problem with morphine and other opiates:
They improve the dying person’s quality of life but also hasten death by slowing
respiration. This is called double effect, and it is considered acceptable in law,
ethics, and practice. In England, for instance, almost no physician does anything
intended primarily to cause death, but about a third of all deaths are hastened
because of double effect (Seale, 2006).
Choices and Controversies
Because talking with the dying and providing hospice and palliative care are now
widely accepted by doctors and nurses, a good death is more likely today than it
was 50 years ago. But new controversies have emerged as a result of medical ad-
vances: A dying person’s breathing can be continued with respirators, a heart that
has stopped can be restarted, and nutrition can be provided via a PEG (percuta-
neous endoscopic gastronomy—i.e., a stomach tube).
Choices are made in almost every hospital death: Treatments are avoided,
started, or stopped, with life-prolonging or death-hastening effects (Rosenfeld,
2004). People disagree vehemently about appropriate care, not only between na-
tions but also within them, not only between families and experts but also within
families (Engelhardt, 2005).
When Is a Person Dead?
With life-support measures so widely available, when does death occur? In the
late 1970s, a group of Harvard physicians decided that the crucial organ was the
brain. When brain waves ceased, the brain was dead, and therefore the person
was dead. This definition was accepted by a U.S. presidential commission in 1981
and is now used worldwide. But what if some primitive brain activity continues,
but the person is in a vegetative state? In such a situation, the definition of death
is not so clear-cut (see Table EP.3).
Words can fuel conflicts. People who want to “let nature take its course” or
“halt suffering” would not want to “cause death,” even though all these phrases
can be used to describe the same action. Thanatologists use terms carefully; we
will try to do the same here, as we discuss the various aspects of the controversy
over how people should respond to dying.
In passive euthanasia, a person is allowed to die. No respirators facilitate
breathing, no shocks restart the heart, no PEG provides nutrition, no antibiotics
halt infections. The chart of a patient who is dying may be coded DNR (do not
resuscitate), which directs the medical staff not to try to restore breathing if it
palliative care Care designed not to treat an
illness but to relieve the pain and suffering
of the patient and his or her family.
double effect An ethical situation in which a
person performs an action that is good or
morally neutral but has ill effects that are
foreseen, though not desired.
Especially for Relatives of a Person
Who Is Dying Why would a healthy person
want the attention of hospice caregivers?
Dying and Acceptance Ep-13
passive euthanasia A situation in which a
seriously ill person is allowed to die natu-
rally, through the cessation of medical
interventions.
DNR (do not resuscitate) A written order
from a physician (sometimes initiated by a
patient’s advance directive or by a health
care proxy’s request) that no attempt
should be made to revive a patient if he or
she suffers cardiac or respiratory arrest.
EP0-EP25_BergerLS7e_EPIL.qxp 9/20/07 4:36 PM Page Ep-13

stops. Passive euthanasia is legal everywhere, although a distinction can be made
between removing life-support equipment and not starting it in the first place.
Both have the same result.
Active euthanasia involves doing something to bring about death, such as
giving a person a drug. Some physicians perform active euthanasia when they
are confronted with suffering that they cannot relieve and they believe that the
person would want death to be hastened. It is definitely legal in the Nether-
lands, probably legal in Belgium and Switzerland, and considered unethical and
illegal (but rarely prosecuted) everywhere else (Laurie, 2005; Magnusson, 2004;
Rosenfeld, 2004).
In physician-assisted suicide, a person takes his or her own life, using
medication provided by a doctor. In the state of Oregon, a law permits physician-
assisted suicide under certain conditions but explicitly states that such a death
should be considered not suicide, but “death with dignity.”
The morality of suicide is controversial. In Eastern nations, suicides can be
noble, as when Buddhist monks burned themselves publicly to protest the war in
Vietnam or when people choose to die for their nation or their honor. In Western
nations, suicide is illegal for any reason. Even prisoners on death row are rescued
from suicide attempts.
Nonetheless, physician-assisted deaths occur everywhere. Some patients hoard
sedatives or other drugs and then swallow an overdose to die, with or without their
doctors’ awareness. In the United Kingdom, a disabled, dying woman named
Diane Pretty sued the government because her disability meant she could not
hoard and overdose, which prevented her from exercising her “right to die.” She
lost and had to wait for death to occur naturally.
Many healthy people and medical professionals think that the primary reason
for passive and active euthanasia as well as for physician-assisted suicide is to avoid
intense pain. One physician complained, “It is criminal the way my colleagues fail
to treat pain. . . . Physician-assisted suicide . . . is a problem of physical ignorance
and abandonment” (quoted in Curry et al., 2002). In fact, however, pain is not the
primary motivation for patients who wish to die in either the Netherlands or
Oregon. Loss of dignity, of cognition, of choice is much more crucial.
The Netherlands
The law in the Netherlands (Holland) has permitted voluntary euthanasia and
physician-assisted suicide since 1980. A doctor must approve and report each
such death, and only half the patients who ask for help in dying receive it (a fourth
Ep-14 EPILOGUE ■ Death and Dying
TABLE EP.3
Dead or Not? Yes, No, and Maybe
Brain death: Prolonged cessation of all brain activity with complete absence of voluntary
movements; no spontaneous breathing; no response to pain, noise, and other stimuli. Brain
waves have ceased; the EEG is flat; the person is dead.
Locked-in syndrome: The person cannot move, except for the eyes, but brain waves are still
apparent; the person is not dead.
Coma: A state of deep unconsciousness from which the person cannot be aroused. Some peo-
ple awaken spontaneously from a coma; others enter a vegetative state; the person is not dead.
Vegetative state: A state of deep unconsciousness in which all cognitive functions are absent,
although eyes may open, sounds may be emitted, and breathing may continue; the person is not
dead. This state can be transient, with recovery possible, persistent, or permanent. No one has
ever recovered after two years; most who do recover (about 15 percent) improve within three
weeks (Preston & Kelly, 2006). After time has elapsed, the person may, effectively, be dead.
AP
P
HO
TO
/
M
AR
K
BA
KE
R
Speaking Out in Australia Philip Nitschke
speaks in favor of voluntary euthanasia on
the tenth anniversary of the first such death
legally allowed in the Northern Territory of
Australia. Since that time, the national
government has ruled that states cannot
make such laws. The controversy continues,
in Australia and elsewhere.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page Ep-16):
Does something in this photograph indicate
how passionate Mr. Nitschke is about making
death easier for the terminally ill?
active euthanasia A situation in which
someone takes action to bring about
another person’s death, with the intention
of ending that person’s suffering.
physician-assisted suicide A form of active
euthanasia in which a doctor provides the
means for someone to end his or her own
life.
EP0-EP25_BergerLS7e_EPIL.qxp 9/26/07 8:17 AM Page Ep-14

die before approval and a fourth are denied or dissuaded) (Jansen-van der Weide,
2005). One doctor explains:
The process and procedure take so much emotional energy that physicians hope
that nature will take its course before matters reach the point where euthanasia
is appropriate. I am grateful when patients die peacefully on their own.
[quoted in Thomasma et al., 1998]
Most (but not all) Dutch physicians believe that hospice and palliative care have
improved in their country since euthanasia became legal and regulated (Georges
et al., 2006). Nonetheless, the number of people dying with medical help in the
Netherlands has been increasing slightly, to 2 or 3 percent of all deaths.
Oregon
Oregon voters approved physician-assisted suicide (but not active euthanasia) in
1994 and again in 1997. Under the new law, only 28 percent of requests are approved,
according to one account (Orentlicher & Callahan, 2005). The law states that:
■ The person must be an adult and an Oregon resident.
■ The dying person must request the lethal drugs twice orally and once in writing.
■ Fifteen days must elapse between the first request and the prescription.
■ Two physicians must confirm that the person is terminally ill, with less than
six months to live, and is competent to make a decision (i.e., is not mentally
impaired or depressed).
Between 1998 and 2005, of the 75,000 people in Oregon who died of a termi-
nal illness, only 246 were assisted suicides. As Table EP.4 shows, the reasons for
requesting physician-assisted suicide were more psychological than biological
(Oregon Department of Human Services, 2006).
In 2005, 64 Oregonians obtained a lethal prescription. Half of them did not use
it; 15 died naturally, and 17 were still alive at year’s end. Doctors explain alterna-
tives to patients who request the drugs, often recommending a hospice (where
physician-assisted death may occur). Oregon hospices are said to be excellent
(Kastenbaum, 2006).
Many are concerned that legalizing euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide
will create a slippery slope (Foley & Hendin, 2002; Rosenfeld, 2004). That is, if
societies begin hastening death, they may slide into killing people—especially the
old and the poor—who are not ready to die.
Data from the Netherlands and Oregon do not support this fear. People whose
doctors legally help them to die tend to be advantaged, not disadvantaged (unless
being unmarried is considered a disadvantage) (see Table EP.5). It could be less
slippery slope The argument that a given
action will start a chain of events that will
culminate in an undesirable outcome.
Dying and Acceptance Ep-15
TABLE EP.4
Reasons Oregon Residents
Gave for Requesting Physician
Assistance in Dying, 1998–2005
Reason Patients Giving
Reason (%)
Loss of autonomy 86
Less able to enjoy life 85
Loss of dignity 83
Loss of control over body 57
Burden on others 37
Pain 22
Source: Oregon Department of Human Services,
2006.
TABLE EP.5
Characteristics of People Who Request and
Consume Lethal Drugs in Oregon
Compared with those who die of the same diseases, those dying with a doctor’s help are:
■ Younger: The average age was 69, compared to 76. The range of ages was 25 to 94.
■ Better educated: 41 percent were college graduates.
■ More often divorced or never married: 33 percent, compared to 19 percent.
■ Richer: 62 percent had private health insurance.
■ Less often of minority ethnicity: 97 percent were European Americans.
Source: Oregon Department of Human Services, 2006.
➤Response for Relatives of a Person
Who Is Dying (from page Ep-13): Death
affects the entire family, including children
and grandchildren. I learned this myself when
my mother was dying. A hospice nurse not
only gave her pain medication (which made it
easier for me to be with her) but also
counseled me. At the nurse’s suggestion, I
asked for forgiveness. My mother indicated
that there was nothing to forgive. We both
felt a peace that would have eluded us
without hospice care.
EP0-EP25_BergerLS7e_EPIL.qxp 9/20/07 4:36 PM Page Ep-15

Especially for People Without Advance
Directives Why do very few young adults
have living wills?
slippery for these practices to be regulated than for them to exist illegally, as may
occur in every community (Magnusson, 2004).
Voters are not convinced that Oregon and the Netherlands are moving in the
right direction. In five states of the United States, and in the legislative bodies of
many nations (e.g., the British House of Lords in 2006), proposals to legalize
physician-assisted suicide have been defeated.
Advance Directives
A massive effort in Hawaii to inform people about end-of-life issues resulted in less
support for physician-assisted suicide but more support for advance directives—an
individual’s instructions regarding end-of-life medical care (Braun et al., 2005). At
least in Hawaii, once people understood the processes and complications of dying,
they realized that they already had substantial control over their own deaths. That
control is exerted via two documents, a living will and a health care proxy.
A living will indicates what medical intervention is wanted or not wanted if a
person is unable to express any preferences. Living wills use phrases such as “in-
curable,” “reasonable chance of recovery,” and “extraordinary measures,” but each
of these phrases is a generality that may not be interpreted the same way by every-
one else when the time comes. Accordingly, people also designate a health care
proxy, a person who will make more specific medical decisions if need be. Only
about 25 percent of all North Americans (mostly older adults) have both these
documents, although they are recommended for everyone (Preston & Kelly, 2006).
Even with a living will and a proxy, care may not always be what a person wants.
For one thing, it is difficult for a proxy to choose death for a loved one. Further,
hospital staff members do not necessarily agree with a patient’s advance directives,
yet they are the ones who must take the final action. For example, many medical
people think the PEG is overused, as it prolongs life but does not cure. Most
laypeople, however, regard eating as a basic function, and thus they are unlikely to
consider a PEG an “extraordinary measure” (Orentlicher & Callahan, 2004).
The discrepancy between care providers and care receivers was evident in a
survey conducted in six European nations. Doctors were more likely than family
members to choose quality of life over length of life (see Figure EP.5) (Sprung
et al., 2007).
Many patients choose their doctors for their values as well as their training, and
most doctors who provide ongoing care discuss treatment issues with them. The
data show that doctors in the Netherlands and in Oregon who assisted with death
living will A document that indicates what
medical intervention an individual wants if
he or she becomes incapable of express-
ing those wishes.
health care proxy A person chosen by
another person to make medical decisions
if the second person becomes unable to
do so.
Ep-16 EPILOGUE ■ Death and Dying
0 302010 40
Percent
Regard quality of life
as more important
than length of life
Patients in
intensive care
Would prefer not
to be in a hospital
if they were
terminally ill
50 60 70 80 90 100
Attitudes Toward End-of-Life Decisions
Source: Sprung et al., 2007.
Physicians
Nurses
Family members
Patients in
intensive care
FIGURE EP.5
Interesting Discrepancies Responding to a
survey based in intensive-care units in six
European nations, higher percentages of ICU
doctors and nurses than of ICU patients and
their families said that they considered qual-
ity of life more important than a long life; they
would rather be at home (or in a hospice)
than in a hospital if they were terminally ill
and had only a short time left to live.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page Ep-14): On his computer is a sticker
reading “I’d rather die like a dog”—a sardonic
but emphatic way of expressing a preference
for being painlessly euthanized if suffering
from a terminal illness.
EP0-EP25_BergerLS7e_EPIL.qxp 9/20/07 4:36 PM Page Ep-16

usually knew the dying person well, typically hastening death for fewer than one
person per year.
Demographic characteristics may influence decisions about dying. In the past
30 years, passive euthanasia has been publicly debated for three young U.S.
women who had no advance directives: Karen Ann Quinlan, Nancy Cruzan, and
Teresa Schiavo. The following feature presents six reasons why Terri Schiavo cap-
tured national attention, unlike thousands of other U.S. patients who are in per-
sistent vegetative states. Should her youth, female gender, and European ethnicity
be counted as additional reasons?
Dying and Acceptance Ep-17
Let Terri Schiavo Live/Die/Live/Die
On February 25, 1990, 26-year-old Theresa Marie Schiavo col-
lapsed in her Florida home. She had had an eating disorder and
had recently been treated for infertility. The combination may
have triggered her heart failure. Her heart was restarted, but
she never recovered.
At first, Terri’s parents and her husband of six years, Michael,
cooperated to care for her at home. Later they paid for her care
in a good nursing home. They refused to believe that her vege-
tative state was permanent, visiting her every day, talking with
her, making sure that her PEG was working properly and that her
body was turned regularly to avoid bedsores. They even flew
her to California to try an experimental treatment to reawaken
her brain. It failed. Because Terri had no advance directive, the
court designated Michael as her health care proxy.
Four years after Terri’s collapse, Michael finally accepted the
medical diagnosis of persistent vegetative state and had a DNR
order put on her chart. Seven years later, Michael petitioned to
have the feeding tube removed. Amid growing public contro-
versy, the court agreed, partly because witnesses said that before
her illness, Terri had told them that she never wanted to be on
life support. The judges did not order the PEG removed imme-
diately, because Terri’s parents appealed the decision. They lost,
and the PEG was taken out (a quick and painless procedure).
Immediately, Florida governor Jeb Bush and the state legisla-
ture passed “Terri’s Law,” requiring that the tube be reinserted.
It was.
Florida courts ruled that Terri’s Law was unconstitutional.
Three more years of court cases ensued. Finally, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled that the lower courts were correct. By that
point, every newspaper and TV station in the nation was follow-
ing the case. Terri’s parents insisted that she had some degree of
consciousness and accused her husband of having abused her.
Thousands of people joined vigils, some supporting Terri’s “right
to life” and others supporting her “right to die.”
The U.S. Congress passed, and President George W. Bush
signed, a law requiring that artificial feeding be continued, but
that law, too, was overturned by the Supreme Court. A week
after the tube was removed, Terri died, on March 31, 2005. Or
had she really died 15 years earlier? An autopsy found that her
brain was half the normal size.
“The battle over the death of Theresa Marie Schiavo left the
entire country drained and frustrated” (Cerminara, 2006, p. 101).
There were at least six reasons why this case unfolded as it did
and caused such powerful reactions:
1. Terri had no advance directive (few 26-year-olds do), so peo-
ple were free to think that she would want what they them-
selves would want.
2. Family disputes capture the attention of all of us. Terri’s par-
ents wanted her kept alive, but her husband wanted to let
her die. Both thought they were advocating for Terri.
3. Conflicts between branches of government (in this case,
between the judiciary on one side and the executive and the
legislative on the other) can be virulent. The courts at all
levels consistently upheld the legality of removing Terri’s
feeding tube, and the executive and legislative branches
consistently disputed the courts’ rulings.
4. There is no universally accepted definition of death. Doc-
tors consider a persistent vegetative state a kind of death, al-
lowing withdrawal of life support. Some laypeople believe
that the heart, not the brain, is critical.
5. People disagree about medical judgment. All the doctors
who examined Terri diagnosed a persistent vegetative state,
while others, including U.S. Senator Bill Frist, a physician,
insisted that Terri was conscious after watching a home
video that showed her seeming to smile at her mother and
respond to her surroundings.
6. Social values made people on both sides predict dire conse-
quences. The courts imagined being overwhelmed with sim-
ilar family disputes, hospitals feared providing extensive free
care for people who had no hope of cure, and many others
feared that slippery slope toward widespread euthanasia.
Given these historic conflicts and deep convictions, “in the
end there were no winners” in the Terri Schiavo case (Cerminara,
2006, p. 101)—and it is hard to see how there could have been
any.
issues and applications
EP0-EP25_BergerLS7e_EPIL.qxp 9/20/07 4:36 PM Page Ep-17

SUMMING UP
Hospice and palliative care help people achieve a “good death” by relieving pain, dis-
comfort, and deception. Passive euthanasia (allowing a seriously ill person to die) is
generally accepted and legal, but active euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are
usually opposed. Both the Netherlands and Oregon have made it legal for doctors to
help with dying, but few terminally ill people in those places request that service. In
preparing for death, about one North American in four signs a living will and designates
a health care proxy. Thanatologists wish far more people would do so, because without
those advance directives, patients’ families and doctors may become embroiled in
painful conflicts over whether and how a dying person should be treated.
■
Bereavement
Humans sometimes act and think in ways that make no sense. This is apparent at
every stage of development and continues to be evident when a loved one dies. In
her book The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion, a highly respected author
known for logical thinking, explains that for a long time after her husband died,
she did not give away his shoes because she believed that he was coming back and
would need them (Didion, 2005). With similar illogic, many people wonder, when
a loved one dies, how the world seems to continue as it did before.
Normal Grief
When someone dies, those who loved the person typically feel powerful emotions,
including anger and shock, sadness and depression. Denial, as in Didion’s refusal
to accept that the person is never coming back, is combined with deep waves of
sadness. Humans may be overwhelmed by one death and yet indifferent to mil-
lions of others who die each day. As one woman said:
Although I’m 62 I still miss my mother. . . . Since 9/11 it has been even harder.
People make me feel ashamed. After all, they’re right when they say to me, “Look
at all the youngsters who were killed; their lives were just beginning. Your mother
lived a full life, what more do you want?”
[quoted in Schachter, 2003, p. 20]
Grief and Mourning
Bereavement is the sense of loss following a death. Grief and mourning are both
aspects of bereavement, but they are quite different from each other. (Small, 2001).
Grief is a powerful and personal emotion, a sadness that overtakes daily life. It is
manifested in uncontrollable crying, sleeplessness, and irrational and delusional
thoughts—the “magical thinking” of Didion’s title:
Grief has no distance. Grief comes in waves, paroxysms, sudden apprehensions
that weaken the knees and blind the eyes and obliterate the dailiness of life. . . .
I see now that my insistence on spending that first night alone was more com-
plicated than it seemed, a primitive instinct. . . . There was a level on which I
believed that what had happened remained reversible. That is why I needed to
be alone. . . . I needed to be alone so that he could come back. This was the
beginning of my year of magical thinking.
[Didion, 2005, pp. 27, 32, 33]
Mourning is a more public and ritualistic expression of bereavement. It is
manifested in ceremonies and behaviors that a religion or culture prescribes to
bereavement The sense of loss following a
death.
grief An individual’s emotional response to
the death of another.
mourning The ceremonies and behaviors
that a religion or culture prescribes for
bereaved people.
Ep-18 EPILOGUE ■ Death and Dying
➤Response for People Without Advance
Directives (from page Ep-16): Young adults
tend to avoid thinking realistically about their
own deaths. This attitude is emotional, not
rational. The actual task of preparing the
documents is easy (the forms can be
downloaded; no lawyer is needed). Young
adults have no trouble doing other future-
oriented things, such as getting a tetanus shot
or enrolling in a pension plan.
EP0-EP25_BergerLS7e_EPIL.qxp 9/20/07 4:36 PM Page Ep-18

honor all who die. These may include special clothing, food,
prayers, or informal shrines at the place where someone died,
as well as the gestures of friends, who may send cards, bring
food, and stay near the bereaved person.
Mourning customs are designed to move grief toward reaf-
firmation (Harlow, 2005). For this reason, eulogies emphasize
the dead person’s good qualities; people who did not know the
deceased attend wakes, funerals, or memorial services.
Mourning is needed because the grief-stricken are vulnerable
not only to irrational thoughts but also to self-destructive acts.
Health, physical as well as mental, dips in the recently be-
reaved, and the rate of suicide increases (Stroebe & Stroebe,
1993). After natural or human-caused disasters, including
war, many people who die are those who fall victim to their
own diminished self-care and the indifference of others. More
people died of human violence and negligence after Hurricane Katrina than died
in the catastrophe itself. Grief splinters a person into jumbled pieces; mourning
reassembles him or her, making the person whole again, once more a part of the
larger community.
Mourning is often time-limited—the week of sitting shiva at home in Judaism,
three days of active sorrow for Muslims and Catholics, and so on. Since memories
spontaneously return on the anniversary of a death, many religions prescribe an-
niversary rituals such as visiting a grave or lighting a candle. Having a specific
time, prayer, and place for remembering the dead (such as a home altar in China
or a gravesite in most places) helps the bereaved express grief without being over-
whelmed by it.
Seeking Blame and Meaning
A common impulse after death is for the survivors to assess blame, such as for
medical measures not taken, laws not enforced, habits not changed. The bereaved
sometimes blame the dead person, sometimes themselves, and sometimes distant
others. For public tragedies, nations blame each other. Blame is not necessarily
rational, as when the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo in
1914 led to the four years of World War I. On a much smaller scale, I have experi-
enced this blaming impulse myself.
Bereavement Ep-19
The Flowers of Youth In many cultural tradi-
tions, mourners bring a token of their presence
to funeral rites. Such items as pebbles, stuffed
animals, notes, candles, and flowers are left at
gravesites throughout the world. These young
women are placing flowers on the coffin of a
friend who was killed in a drive-by shooting.
A.
R
AM
EY
/
PH
OT
OE
DI
T,
IN
C.
Blaming Martin, Hitler, and Me
On September 11, 2001, I left lower Manhattan at 7:00 in the
morning to teach in the Bronx. Two hours later, students told
me about the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. I
thought first about my family (not about the thousands of other
people who might be affected). Three of my daughters were far
away. I phoned Elissa, who was on a Brooklyn street corner. My
husband, Martin, worked near the towers, but when I left home
that morning, he had been dressing for an 8:00 A.M. appoint-
ment uptown. I felt relief. When classes were canceled, I felt
gratitude for a chance to mark papers.
When I finally got home (having had to walk for miles, with
subway and bus service suspended), I learned that Martin had
been less than logical. After his appointment, he had taken a
taxi to his office. When all traffic stopped, he got out to walk—
while thousands of people fled in the other direction. Finally the
police made him turn around. He also said that he had tried to
give blood but was rejected because two years before he had had
surgery for lung cancer.
Martin died 16 months later. The immediate cause was an
infection, which quickly became virulent because he was taking
in person
EP0-EP25_BergerLS7e_EPIL.qxp 9/20/07 4:36 PM Page Ep-19

As you remember, denial and blame are early on the list of reactions to death;
ideally, people move on to accept the deeper meaning of life and death. It seems
that the need to find meaning is crucial to the reaffirmation that fol-
lows grief. In some cases, this search starts with preserving memo-
ries: Photographs, personal effects, and anecdotes are central to
many memorial services.
Mourners may also be helped by strangers who have experienced
a similar loss, especially when friends are unlikely to understand.
This explains why there are gatherings of parents of murdered chil-
dren, of mothers whose adolescents were killed by drunk drivers, of
widows of firefighters who died at the World Trade Center, of rela-
tives of passengers who died in the same plane crash, and so on.
Sometimes “meaning becomes grounded in action” to honor the
dead (Armour, 2003, p. 538). Organizations devoted to causes such
as fighting cancer and banning handguns are supported by people
who have lost a loved one to that particular enemy. Often when
someone dies, the close family designates a charity and others send
contributions in the name of the deceased. One mother carries a bag
with the personal effects of her murdered son and shows them, item
by item, to groups of young gang members, telling them
“This is all I had left of my son. A pair of tennis shoes and a pair of underwear
that had no blood on them. He loved this little chain he had on. And you see it’s
broken up, with a shot?” . . . These groups of young kids are sitting there . . . and
I tell them exactly about my son. . . . Driving home from that group, I just get
warm, like affirmation.
[quoted in Armour, 2003, p. 532]
The normal grief reaction is intense and irrational at first but gradually eases, as
time, social support, and traditions help with both the initial outpouring of
emotion and then with the search for meaning and reaffirmation. The individual
may engage in grief work, experiencing and expressing strong emotions and then
moving toward wholeness, which includes recognizing the larger story of human
life and death.
Complicated Grief
In recent times, mourning has become more private, less emotional, and less re-
ligious. As a result, new complications in the grieving process have emerged.
Emblematic of this change are funeral trends in the United States: Whereas older
Ep-20 EPILOGUE ■ Death and Dying
massive doses of steroids. His lung cancer had returned, and the
drugs helped him breathe. Perhaps the cancer came back partly
because of the toxins he had breathed as he walked downtown
on 9/11 and for weeks afterward, when the smell of smoke was
constantly in our home.
The reason he walked downtown is the same reason I
marked papers; we could not comprehend what had occurred;
we were experiencing denial. The origin of the lung cancer was
50 years of cigarette smoking. Martin was to blame for that. So
was I, since I never got him to quit.
The U.S. military was also at fault, because when Martin was
a 17-year-old recruit, the army provided free cigarettes. He ac-
cepted that free gift because of a cultural belief: Smoking
helped boys think they were men. Even Adolf Hitler might be
to blame, because Martin grew up wanting to kill him. Hitler
had died before Martin was old enough to join the army, but his
boyhood hatred of the German dictator may be one reason he
volunteered.
I would like to pinpoint a single target to blame for my hus-
band’s death, but a life-span perspective recognizes too many
causes: steroids, 9/11, cancer, pollution, his habits, my failure,
military policy, machismo, tobacco advertising, Hitler, and more.
I am a scientist, but I am not always rational. I am even more
anti-tobacco than most other scientists are. Now you know why.
Shared Grief When Seung-Hui Cho, a dis-
turbed student, killed 32 people and wounded
17 on the campus of Virginia Tech in April 2007,
many outsiders looked for something or some-
one to blame—the university’s security
arrangements and mental health policies, the
state’s gun laws, even Korean Americans as a
group. Students, preferring to seek meaning
rather than blame, gathered to pray, sing, and
embrace one another.
AP
P
HO
TO
/
RO
BE
RT
F.
B
UK
AT
Y
EP0-EP25_BergerLS7e_EPIL.qxp 9/20/07 4:36 PM Page Ep-20

generations prefer burial after a traditional funeral, younger generations are likely
to prefer small memorial services after cremation (Hayslip et al., 1999).
As mourning rituals diminish, many bereavement counselors have noted spe-
cific problems that may become pathological. One is absent grief, in which a
person who is bereaved is not expected, or even allowed, to go through a mourning
period. If an aged parent or a close friend dies, a person might not have any rituals
or time to grieve. In such a situation, grief is “absent.”
Since many people now live and work where no one knows about their personal
lives, they are cut off from the community and the customs that allow and expect
grief. This leads to social isolation, exactly the opposite of what bereaved people
need. Absent grief may erupt later in unexpected ways.
For workers or students at large corporations or universities, grief becomes “an
unwelcome intrusion (or violent intercession) into the normal efficient running of
everyday life” (Anderson, 2001, p. 141). Many counselors fear that, without grief
work, absent grief will interfere with the person’s life (Rando, 1993).
Modern life also increases the incidence of disenfranchised grief, a situation
in which certain people, although they are bereaved, are not allowed to mourn
publicly (Doka, 2002). Unmarried lovers (of the same or opposite sex) of the de-
ceased, an ex-spouse, the dead person’s young children, grandparents, or siblings,
and his or her best friends at work may be excluded from seeing the dying person
or participating in the aftermath of death. Sometimes only adults of the immediate
family (a spouse or parents) are allowed to make decisions about the funeral, dis-
posing of the body, and so on.
Another problem is incomplete grief. Murders and suicides often trigger
police investigations and press reports, which interfere with the grief process. An
autopsy complicates grieving for those who believe that the body will rise again or
that the soul does not leave the body immediately. Death without a body impedes
mourning and hence halts reaffirmation, as for relatives of soldiers who are re-
ported to be missing in action.
Sometimes events interrupt the responses of the community. The bereaved
need attention to their particular loss, and the grief process may be incomplete if
mourning is cut short. When death occurs on a major holiday, after another death
or disaster, or during wartime, it is harder for the survivors to grieve.
absent grief A situation in which overly pri-
vate people cut themselves off from the
community and customs of expected
grief; can lead to social isolation.
disenfranchised grief A situation in which
certain people, although they are bereaved,
are not allowed to mourn publicly.
incomplete grief A situation in which circum-
stances, such as a police investigation or
an autopsy, interfere with the process of
grieving.
Bereavement Ep-21
Empty Boots The body of a young army cor-
poral killed near Baghdad has been shipped
home to his family in Mississippi for a funeral
and burial, but his fellow soldiers in Iraq also
need to express their grief. The custom is to
hold an informal memorial service, placing
the dead solder’s boots, helmet, and rifle in
the middle of a circle of mourners, who
weep, pray, and reminisce.AP
P
HO
TO
/
JO
HN
M
OO
RE
EP0-EP25_BergerLS7e_EPIL.qxp 9/20/07 4:36 PM Page Ep-21

One widow whose husband died of cancer on September 10, 2001, com-
plained, “People who attended the funeral talked only about the [terrorist] attack
[of September 11], and my husband wasn’t given the respect he deserved” (quoted
in Schachter, 2003, p. 20). Although she was expressing concern for her husband’s
memory, it is apparent that this woman was also upset because she herself did not
get the sympathy she needed.
Diversity of Reactions
Bereaved people depend on the customs and attitudes of their culture to guide
them through their irrational thoughts (remember Joan Didion’s “magical think-
ing”) and personal grief. The particulars depend on the specific culture. For ex-
ample, mourners who, four months after a loved one’s death, still kept the dead
person’s possessions, talked to the deceased, and frequently reviewed memories
are, at 18 months after the death, notably less well adjusted if they are in the
United States but notably better adjusted if they are in China (Lalande &
Bonanno, 2006).
Childhood experiences also affect bereavement. A person whose parents died
when he or she was younger than 18 is more vulnerable to adult losses. Attach-
ment history may be important (Hansson & Stroebe, 2007). Older adults who
were securely attached may be more likely to experience normal grief; those
who were resistant may have absent grief; and those who were anxious may be-
come stuck, unable to find meaning in the living and dying of someone they love,
and thus may be unable to reaffirm their own lives.
Research on Grief
Reaffirmation of life does not necessarily mean forgetting the person, because
many continuing bonds are evident years after death. There is a
lack of empirical support for the presumed necessity of working through loss
[which] has prompted a reversal of the historical trend in bereavement theory;
moving away from the traditional focus on severing the attachment bond.
[Field & Friedrichs, 2006]
As this quotation implies, bereavement theory once held that everyone should do
grief work and then move on, realizing that the person was gone forever. If this did
not happen, pathological grief could result, with the person either not grieving
enough (absent grief) or grieving too long (incomplete grief). Current research
finds a much wider variety of reactions.
It is easy to see why some earlier studies overestimated the frequency of patho-
logical grief. For obvious reasons, scientists often began their research on mourn-
ing with mourners—that is, with people who had recently experienced the death
of a loved one. Further, they often studied people who needed to express their
absent grief; who felt disenfranchised; who were overcome by unremitting sad-
ness many months after the loss; or who could not find meaning in a violent,
sudden, unexpected death.
Such mourners are not typical. Almost everyone experiences several deaths over
their lifetime, of parents and grandparents, of a spouse or close friend. Most feel
sadness at first but then resume their customary activities, functioning as well a
few months later as they had before.
This was evident in a longitudinal study that began by interviewing and assess-
ing married older adults who lived in greater Detroit. Over several years, 319
became widows or widowers. Most (205) were reinterviewed at 6 and 18 months
Ep-22 EPILOGUE ■ Death and Dying
EP0-EP25_BergerLS7e_EPIL.qxp 9/26/07 8:17 AM Page Ep-22

after the death (Bonanno et al., 2004; see Research Design). Some (92) were seen
again three years later, or 41⁄2 years after the death (Boerner et al., 2005).
General trends were evident: Almost all the widows and widowers idealized
their marriages, remembering them as better than when they had assessed them
while their spouse was still living. With time, most thought less about their dead
spouse.
Reactions to the spouse’s death varied but can be clustered into five categories:
■ 11 percent experienced normal grief, with increased depression for 6 months
after the death but recovery at 18 months.
■ 11 percent were slow to recover, not approaching pre-loss levels until four
years after the death.
■ 50 percent were resilient. They may have been grief-stricken at first, but by
6 months they were about as happy and productive as when their spouse
was alive.
■ 18 percent were less depressed after the death than before, perhaps because
they had been caregivers for their seriously ill partners.
■ 10 percent were depressed at every assessment after the loss, but they also
had been depressed while they were married. If this study had begun only
after the death, one might conclude that the loss caused the depression.
However, because of the pre-loss assessment, it can more legitimately be
claimed that these individuals were chronically depressed, not stuck in grief.
Practical Applications
Could this research help someone who is grieving or suggest what friends can do
to help? The first step is simply to be aware that powerful, complicated, and unex-
pected emotions are likely: A friend should listen and sympathize, never implying
that the person is too grief-stricken or not grief-stricken enough.
The bereaved person might or might not want to visit the grave, light a candle,
cherish a memento, pray, or sob. Those who have been taught to bear grief sto-
ically may be doubly distressed if they are advised to cry and cannot. Those whose
cultures expect loud wailing may become confused and resentful if they are told to
hush.
Even so-called absent grief—in which the bereaved refuses to do any of these
things—might be appropriate. In contrast, some people may want to talk about
their loss, especially to assess blame and find meaning. If such emotions can find
expression in action—joining a bereavement group, protesting some government
policy, walking, running, or biking to raise money for some cause—that may help.
Remember the 7-year-old whose grandparents, uncle, and dog died? The boy
wrote a memorial poem only for the dog, and his parents framed the poem and
hung it in the living room. A wide variety of reactions to death are normal. No
specific emotion or timetable is required (Kaufman & Kaufman, 2006).
No matter what rituals are followed or what pattern is evident in human reac-
tions to death, the result may give the living a deeper appreciation of themselves
as well as of the value of human relationships. In fact, a theme frequently sounded
by those who work with the dying and the bereaved is that the lessons of death
may lead to a greater appreciation of life, especially of the value of intimate, caring
relationships.
It is fitting to end this chapter, and this book, with a reminder of the creative
work of loving. As first described in Chapter 1, the study of human development is
a science, with topics to be researched, understood, and explained. But the
process of living is an art as well as a science, with strands of love and sorrow and
resilience woven into each person’s unique tapestry. Dying, when accepted; death,
Bereavement Ep-23
Especially for Educators How might a
teacher help a young child cope with death?
Research Design
Scientists: George Bonanno and col-
leagues.
Publication: Reported in many journals,
including Psychology and Aging (2004).
Participants: Out of a group of 1,522
married participants (English-speaking,
from Detroit, with the husband age 65
or older), this study included the 205 in-
dividuals whose spouse later died and
who were reinterviewed at 6 and 18
months after the death, and 92 of
whom were interviewed again 3 years
after that.
Design: Interviews and questionnaires,
including a standard measure of depres-
sion and responses to questions such as
“During the past month, how often have
you had thoughts or memories of your
husband/wife?”
Major conclusion: Many people cope
quite well with the death of a spouse.
A majority “appeared to make an excel-
lent adjustment” (p. 269).
Comment:These encouraging results of
a large, prospective, longitudinal study
add to several smaller studies that find
that pathological and delayed grief are
not typical, nor is grief work necessary.
However, the specifics may be limited.
The participants were English-speaking,
living in Michigan, and many did not
complete three follow-up interviews.
Some dropouts had died, but others
may have been too depressed or stuck
in grief.
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Ep-24 EPILOGUE ■ Death and Dying
Death and Hope
1. Death has various meanings, depending partly on the age of
the person involved, whether that person is dying or mourning.
For example, children are more concerned about being separated
from those they see every day; older adults are hopeful that their
values and contributions will live on.
2. Each of the many religions of the world has rituals and beliefs
regarding death. Although there are many variations, all religions
affirm that individual lives and deaths have an enduring significance.
Dying and Acceptance
3. People who are dying need to be treated with honestly and
respect. Their emotions may change over time; for example, they
may move from denial to acceptance of impending death.
4. A hospice is a place where the needs of fatally ill people and
their families are met. Some people prefer to die at home, and in
those cases a hospice professional can help the patient’s family
and friends care for him or her and can allow everyone to cope
emotionally with the impending death.
5. Palliative care, particularly care that relieves pain, has become
part of modern hospitals as well as hospices. Such care makes a
good death much more possible.
6. The range of medical measures is vast, and doctors as well as
patients have varied opinions about their use. A living will and a
health care proxy can help to clarify what steps should be taken
when the need arises.
7. Whether or not passive or active euthanasia or physician-assisted
suicide is legal is controversial. At the moment, such deaths occur
everywhere but are legal in only two jurisdictions, the Netherlands
and the U.S. state of Oregon.
8. One of the problems in dying is deciding when a person is
dead. The definition used to be that death occurred when the
brain waves stopped. A person in a “persistent vegetative state” is
dead in every function, but people disagree over whether life
support should continue in that case.
Bereavement
9. Grief may be irrational and complicated. Many bereavement
counselors believe that absent or disenfranchised grief will even-
tually take a psychic toll on those who have lost a loved one.
10. Mourning rituals are cultural or religious expressions which
aid survivors and the entire community. Variations in grief and
mourning are so great that it now seems that there is no single
best way to cope with death.
thanatology (p. Ep-1)
near-death experience (p. Ep-9)
good death (p. Ep-10)
hospice (p. Ep-12)
palliative care (p. Ep-13)
double effect (p. Ep-13)
passive euthanasia (p. Ep-13)
DNR (do not resuscitate)
(p. Ep-13)
active euthanasia (p. Ep-14)
physician-assisted suicide
(p. Ep-14)
slippery slope (p. Ep-15)
living will (p. Ep-16)
health care proxy (p. Ep-16)
bereavement (p. Ep-18)
grief (p. Ep-18)
mourning (p. Ep-18)
absent grief (p. Ep-21)
disenfranchised grief (p. Ep-21)
incomplete grief (p. Ep-21)
SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
➤Response for Educators (from page
Ep-23): Death has varied meanings, so a
teacher needs to take care not to contradict
the child’s cultural background. In general,
however, specific expressions of mourning
are useful, and acting as if the death did not
happen is destructive.
when it leads to hope; grief, when it is allowed expression; and mourning, when it
fosters reaffirmation—all give added meaning to birth, growth, development, and
human relationships.
SUMMING UP
Rituals help the bereaved come to terms with both mourning (the public process) and
grief (the private emotion). Grief is not necessarily rational or predictable. Each person’s
childhood, recent experiences, and personality affect the experience of grief. Modern
lifestyles have added to the complications of grief, as close relationships are not always
family ones, yet family members usually make decisions regarding dying and mourning.
Unlike traditional communities, in which everyone knew who died and who was grieving,
modern societies do not recognize mourners. Further, reactions to death are varied; out-
siders must be especially responsive to whatever needs a grieving person may have.
■
EP0-EP25_BergerLS7e_EPIL.qxp 9/20/07 4:36 PM Page Ep-24

Summary Ep-25
6. Why did Kübler-Ross initially have trouble interviewing dying
people?
7. Why do many people not die in hospice care?
8. What is the difference between passive and active euthanasia?
9. Why do relatively few people in Oregon die via physician-
assisted suicide?
10. What are the differences among bereavement, grief, and
mourning? Give examples of each.
1. How is a contemporary death different from a death a century
ago?
2. How do dying people tend to feel about family members?
3. What is the goal of a holy death in Buddhism, Hinduism, and
Islam?
4. What are the similarities and differences in death rituals of
Jews and Christians?
5. How does a near-death experience relate to developmental
science?
3. Every aspect of dying is controversial in modern society. Do an
Internet search for a key term such as euthanasia or grief. Analyze
the information and the underlying assumptions. What is your
opinion, and why?
4. People of varying ages have different attitudes toward death.
Ask at least three people (ideally one teenager, one adult under
60, and one older person) what thoughts they have about their
own death. What differences do you find?
1. Death is sometimes said to be hidden, even taboo. Ask 10 peo-
ple if they have ever been with someone who was dying. Note not
only the yes and no answers, but also the details and reactions.
For instance, how many of the deaths occurred in the hospital,
how many at home?
2. Find quotes about death in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations or a
similar collection. Do you see any historical or cultural patterns of
acceptance, denial, or fear?
KEY QUESTIONS
APPLICATIONS
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Appendix A
Supplemental Charts,
Graphs, and Tables
Often, examining specific data is useful, even fascinating, to developmental re-
searchers. The particular numbers reveal trends and nuances not apparent from a
more general view. For instance, many people mistakenly believe that the inci-
dence of Down syndrome babies rises sharply for mothers over 35, or that even
the tiniest newborns usually survive. Each chart, graph, or table in this appendix
contains information not generally known.
More Children, Worse
Schools? (Chapter 1)
Nations that have high birth rates also have
high death rates, short life spans, and more
illiteracy. A systems approach suggests that
these variables are connected: For example,
the Montessori and Reggio Emilia early-child-
hood education programs, said to be the best
in the world, originated in Italy, and Italy has
the lowest proportion of children under 15.
A-1
Brazil
Canada
China
Congo
Egypt
France
Germany
Ghana
Guatemala
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Korea
Malawi
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Niger
Nigeria
Norway
Pakistan
Philippines
Poland
Saudi Arabia
South Africa
Spain
United Kingdom
United States
Source: United Nations Secretariat, Statistics Division and Population Division, unstats.un.org,
updated April 22, 2005.
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 5045
Children as a Proportion of a Nation’s Population
Percent of population under age 15
A1-A30_Berger_LS_7E_AppA.qxp 9/17/07 3:01 PM Page A-1

Ethnic Composition of the U.S. Population (Chapter 2)
Thinking about the ethnic makeup of the U.S. population can be an interesting exercise in social
comparison. If you look only at the table, you will conclude that not much has changed over the
past 30 years: Whites are still the majority, Native Americans are still a tiny minority, and African
Americans are still about 12 percent of the population. However, if you look at the chart, you can
see why every group feels that much has changed. Because the proportions of Hispanic Ameri-
cans and Asian Americans have increased dramatically, European Americans see the current non-
white population at almost one-third of the total, and African Americans see that Hispanics now
outnumber them. There are also interesting regional differences within the United States; for ex-
ample, Los Angeles County has the largest number of Native Americans (156,000) and the largest
number of Asians (1.3 million).
Observation Quiz (see answer, page A-4): Which ethnic group is growing most rapidly?
A-2 APPENDIX A ■ Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables
Population, by Ethnic Group, 1970–2006
85
80
75
70
65
60
15
10
5
0
2000 200619901980
Year
European (White)
Hispanic (Latino)
African (Black)
Asian
Native American
1970
Percent
of U.S.
population
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, August 2007.
Percent of U.S. population
Ethnic origin 1970 1980 1990 2006
European (White) 83.7 80 75 68.4
African (Black) 10.6 11.5 12 12
Hispanic (Latino) 4.5 6.4 9 14.5
Asian 1.0 1.5 3 4.3
Native American .4 .6 .7 0.82
A1-A30_Berger_LS_7E_AppA.qxp 9/17/07 3:01 PM Page A-2

The Genetics of Blood Types (Chapter 3)
Blood types A and B are dominant traits, and type O is recessive. The percentages given in the
first column of this chart represent the odds that a child born to the parents with the various com-
binations of genotypes will have the genotype given in the second column.
Odds of Down Syndrome
by Maternal Age and
Gestational Age
(Chapter 4)
The odds of any given fetus, at the end of
the first trimester, having three chromo-
somes at the 21st site (trisomy 21) and
thus having Down syndrome is shown in the
10-weeks column. Every year of maternal
age increases the incidence of trisomy 21.
The number of Down syndrome infants
born alive is only half the number who sur-
vived the first trimester. Although obviously
the least risk is at age 20 (younger is even
better), there is no year when the odds sud-
denly increase (age 35 is an arbitrary cut-off).
Even at age 44, less than 4 percent of all
newborns have Down syndrome. Other chro-
mosomal abnormalities in fetuses also in-
crease with mother’s age, but the rate of
spontaneous abortion is much higher, so
births of babies with chromosomal defects is
not the norm, even for women over age 45.
Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables ■ APPENDIX A A-3
Age Gestation (weeks) Live
(yrs) 10 35 Births
20 1/804 1/1,464 1/1,527
21 1/793 1/1,445 1/1,507
22 1/780 1/1,421 1/1,482
23 1/762 1/1,389 1/1,448
24 1/740 1/1,348 1/1,406
25 1/712 1/1,297 1/1,352
26 1/677 1/1,233 1/1,286
27 1/635 1/1,157 1/1,206
28 1/586 1/1,068 1/1,113
29 1/531 1/967 1/1,008
30 1/471 1/858 1/895
31 1/409 1/745 1/776
32 1/347 1/632 1/659
33 1/288 1/525 1/547
34 1/235 1/427 1/446
35 1/187 1/342 1/356
36 1/148 1/269 1/280
37 1/115 1/209 1/218
38 1/88 1/160 1/167
39 1/67 1/122 1/128
40 1/51 1/93 1/97
41 1/38 1/70 1/73
42 1/29 1/52 1/55
43 1/21 1/39 1/41
44 1/16 1/29 1/30
Source: Snijders & Nicolaides, 1996.
Genotypes of Genotype of Phenotype Can Donate Blood Can Receive Blood
Parents* Offspring to (Phenotype) from (Phenotype)
AA + AA (100%) AA A A or AB A or O
AA + AB (50%) (inherits
AA + AO (50%) one A
AB + AB (25%) from each
AB + AO (25%) parent)
AO + AO (25%)
AA + OO (100%) AO A A or AB A or O
AB + OO (50%)
AO + AO (50%)
AO + OO (50%)
AB + AO (25%)
AB + BO (25%)
BB + BB (100%) BB B B or AB B or O
AB + BB (50%)
BB + BO (50%)
AB + AB (25%)
AB + BO (25%)
BO + BO (25%)
BB + OO (100%) BO B B or AB B or O
AB + OO (50%)
BO + BO (50%)
BO + OO (50%)
AB + AO (25%)
AB + BO (25%)
AA + BB (100%) AB AB AB only A, B, AB, O
AA + AB (50%) (“universal
AA + BO (50%) recipient”)
AB + AB (50%)
AB + BB (50%)
AO + BB (50%)
AB + BO (25%)
AO + BO (25%)
OO + OO (100%) OO O A, B, AB, O O only
AO + OO (50%) (“universal
BO + OO (50%) donor”)
AO + AO (25%)
AO + BO (25%)
BO + BO (25%)
*Blood type is not a sex-linked trait, so any of these pairs can be either mother-plus-father or father-plus-mother.
Source: Adapted from Hartl & Jones, 1999.
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Saving Young Lives: Childhood and Adolescent Immunizations (Chapter 5)
A-4 APPENDIX A ■ Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables
Recommended Childhood and Adolescent Immunization Schedule, United States, 2005
Vaccine
Diphtheria, tetanus,
and pertussis
Measles, mumps,
rubella
Hepatitis B
Inactivated polio
Varicella
(chicken pox)
Pneumococcal
Hepatitis A
Influenza
BCG*
Haemophilus
influenzae type b
Birth
1
Mo.
2
Mos.
4
Mos.
6
Mos.
12
Mos.
15
Mos.
18
Mos.
24
Mos.
4–6
Yrs.
11–12†
Yrs.
13–18†
Yrs.
DTaP DTaP DTaP
Hib Hib
IPV IPV
DTaP
IPV
MMR #2
Hib
PCV
X
PCV PCV
Hep B #1
Hep B #2 Hep B #3
Hep B series
Hepatitis A series
DTaP Td Td
Hib
IPV
MMR #1
Varicella Varicella
MMR #2
PCV PCV PPV
only if mother HBsAg (-)
Note: For many diseases, repeated doses are recommended, as shown.
†See HPV, in Adult Immunizations table that follows.
*BCG vaccine is highly recommended in most nations, but is not required in the
United States because the prevalence of tuberculosis is low.
Range of recommended ages for vaccination
Catch-up immunization—age groups that warrant special effort to
administer those vaccines not given previously
Preadolescent assessment
Age
Influenza (yearly) Influenza (yearly)
Vaccines below this line are for selected populations.
Source: CDC Web site (http://cdc.gov/nip/recs/child-schedule), accessed July 24, 2007.
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from page A-2):
Asian Americans, whose share of the U.S. population has
quadrupled in the past 30 years. Latinos are increasing
most rapidly in numbers, but not in proportion.
Adult Immunizations (Chapter 5)
Vaccine Recommended Immunization Schedule
Tetanus, diphtheria, Dtap: Before age 65—Dtap every 10 years. Adults
pertussis older than 65—1 dose Td booster every 10 years.
Human papillomavirus Females age 9–26 (before any sexual activity)
(HPV)
Influenza Before age 50—recommended if some other risk
factor is present. Adults older than 50—every year.
Pneumococcal Before age 65—recommended if some other risk
factor is present. Adults older than 65—every year.
Meningococcal Recommended if other risk factor is present.
First Sounds and First Words: Similarities
Among Many Languages (Chapter 6)
Baby’s word for:
Language Mother Father
English mama, mommy dada, daddy
Spanish mama papa
French maman, mama papa
Italian mamma babbo, papa
Latvian mama te-te
Syrian Arabic mama baba
Bantu ba-mama taata
Swahili mama baba
Sanskrit nana tata
Hebrew ema abba
Korean oma apa
A1-A30_BergerLS7e_AppA.qxp 9/21/07 12:28 PM Page A-4

Which Mothers Breast-feed? (Chapter 7)
Differentiating excellent from destructive mothering is not easy, once
the child’s basic needs for food and protection are met. However, as
the Jacob example in Chapter 7 makes clear, psychosocial develop-
ment depends on responsive parent–infant relationships. Breast-
feeding is one sign of intimacy between mother and infant.
Regions of the world differ dramatically in rates of breast-
feeding, with the highest worldwide in Southeast Asia, where half
of all 2-year-olds are still breast-fed. In the United States, factors
that affect the likelihood of breast-feeding are ethnicity, maternal
age, and education.
Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables ■ APPENDIX A A-5
Breast-feeding Rates by Socio-demographic Factors, 2005
Breast- Breast- Exclusive Exclusive
Ever feeding feeding breast- breast-
Socio-demographic breast- at 6 at 12 feeding* at feeding* at
factors feeding months months 3 months 6 months
U.S. National 72.9% 39.1% 20.1% 38.7% 13.9%
Sex of baby
Male 72.7 38.7 19.6 38.2 13.6
Female 73.2 39.5 20.5 39.3 14.2
Birth order
First born 74.0 36.6 17.7 36.4 12.3
Not first born 72.1 41.2 22.1 40.7 15.2
Ethnicity
Native American 67.3 33.7 16.7 30.7 11.3
Asian or
Pacific islander 81.4 47.5 24.5 43.1 18.1
Hispanic or Latino 79.0 42.0 22.0 43.9 14.1
African American
(non-Hispanic) 55.4 24.8 11.9 26.8 9.2
European (non-Hispanic) 74.1 41.1 21.0 39.3 14.7
Mother’s age
Less than 20 50.0 14.8 5.4 17.5 6.7
20–30 68.4 31.7 15.8 32.8 10.1
More than 30 77.7 46.2 24.2 44.6 17.3
Mother’s education
Less than
high school 63.6 32.2 17.9 33.6 12.3
High school 64.8 29.3 14.9 30.6 10.2
Some college 76.8 39.3 19.5 39.5 13.3
College graduate 84.5 52.5 26.6 49.3 18.6
Mother’s marital status
Married 78.4 45.2 23.7 43.7 16.1
Unmarried† 60.3 25.0 11.6 27.2 8.8
Residence
Central city 74.2 41.0 21.9 40.2 15.1
Urban 74.8 40.7 20.2 40.3 13.9
Suburban and rural 64.9 30.0 14.8 30.6 10.8
*Exclusive breast-feeding is defined in this 2005 study as only breast milk—no solids, no water, and no other liquids.
†Unmarried includes never married, widowed, separated, and divorced.
Source: Adapted from CDC’s National Immunization Survey, Table 1: http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/data/NIX_data/socio-demographic.htm, accessed July 24, 2007.
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Same Data, Different Form
The columns of numbers in the table at the right provide detailed and
precise information about height ranges for every year of childhood.
The illustration above shows the same information in graphic form for
ages 2–6. The same is done for weight ranges on page A-7. Ages 2–6
are singled out because that is the period during which a child’s eating
habits are set. Which form of data presentation do you think is easier
to understand?
Height Gains from Birth to Age 18
(Chapter 8)
The range of height (on this page) and weight (see page A-7) of chil-
dren in the United States. The columns labeled “50th” (the fiftieth
percentile) show the average; the columns labeled “90th” (the nineti-
eth percentile) show the size of children taller and heavier than 90 per-
cent of their contemporaries; and the columns labeled “10th” (the
tenth percentile) show the size of children who are taller than only 10
percent of their peers. Note that girls are slightly shorter, on average,
than boys.
A-6 APPENDIX A ■ Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables
Height by Age Percentiles: 2 to 6 Years
Height in
centimeters
Height
in inches
3 5 62
125
120
115
110
105
100
95
90
85
80
49.2
47.2
45.3
43.3
41.3
39.4
37.4
35.4
33.5
31.5
4
Age in years
90th
50th
10th
BoysGirls
Length in Centimeters (and Inches)
Boys: percentiles Girls: percentiles
AGE 10th 50th 90th 10th 50th 90th
Birth 47.5 50.5 53.5 46.5 49.9 52.0
(183⁄4) (20) (21) (181⁄4) (193⁄4) (201⁄2)
1 51.3 54.6 57.7 50.2 53.5 56.1
month (201⁄4) (211⁄2) (223⁄4) (193⁄4) (21) (22)
3 57.7 61.1 64.5 56.2 59.5 62.7
months (223⁄4) (24) (251⁄2) (221⁄4) (231⁄2) (243⁄4)
6 64.4 67.8 71.3 62.6 65.9 69.4
months (251⁄4) (263⁄4) (28) (243⁄4) (26) (271⁄4)
9 69.1 72.3 75.9 67.0 70.4 74.0
months (271⁄4) (281⁄2) (30) (261⁄2) (273⁄4) (291⁄4)
12 72.8 76.1 79.8 70.8 74.3 78.0
months (283⁄4) (30) (311⁄2) (273⁄4) (291⁄4) (303⁄4)
18 78.7 82.4 86.6 77.2 80.9 85.0
months (31) (321⁄2) (34) (301⁄2) (313⁄4) (331⁄2)
24 83.5 87.6 92.2 82.5 86.5 90.8
months (323⁄4) (341⁄2) (361⁄4) (321⁄2) (34) (353⁄4)
3 90.3 94.9 100.1 89.3 94.1 99.0
years (351⁄2) (371⁄4) (391⁄2) (351⁄4) (37) (39)
4 97.3 102.9 108.2 96.4 101.6 106.6
years (381⁄4) (401⁄2) (421⁄2) (38) (40) (42)
5 103.7 109.9 115.4 102.7 108.4 113.8
years (403⁄4) (431⁄4) (451⁄2) (401⁄2) (423⁄4) (443⁄4)
6 109.6 116.1 121.9 108.4 114.6 120.8
years (431⁄4) (453⁄4) (48) (423⁄4) (45) (471⁄2)
7 115.0 121.7 127.9 113.6 120.6 127.6
years (451⁄4) (48) (501⁄4) (443⁄4) (471⁄2) (501⁄4)
8 120.2 127.0 133.6 118.7 126.4 134.2
years (471⁄4) (50) (521⁄2) (463⁄4) (493⁄4) (523⁄4)
9 125.2 132.2 139.4 123.9 132.2 140.7
years (491⁄4) (52) (55) (483⁄4) (52) (551⁄2)
10 130.1 137.5 145.5 129.5 138.3 147.2
years (511⁄4) (541⁄4) (571⁄4) (51) (541⁄2) (58)
11 135.1 143.33 152.1 135.6 144.8 153.7
years (531⁄4) (561⁄2) (60) (531⁄2) (57) (601⁄2)
12 140.3 149.7 159.4 142.3 151.5 160.0
years (551⁄4) (59) (623⁄4) (56) (593⁄4) (63)
13 145.8 156.5 167.0 148.0 157.1 165.3
years (571⁄2) (611⁄2) (653⁄4) (581⁄4) (613⁄4) (65)
14 151.8 63.1 173.8 151.5 160.4 168.7
years (593⁄4) (641⁄4) (681⁄2) (593⁄4) (631⁄4) (661⁄2)
15 158.2 169.0 178.9 153.2 161.8 170.5
years (621⁄4) (661⁄2) (701⁄2) (601⁄4) (633⁄4) (671⁄4)
16 163.9 173.5 182.4 154.1 162.4 171.1
years (641⁄2) (681⁄4) (713⁄4) (603⁄4) (64) (671⁄4)
17 167.7 176.2 184.4 155.1 163.1 171.2
years (66) (691⁄4) (721⁄2) (61) (641⁄4) (671⁄2)
18 168.7 176.8 185.3 156.0 163.7 171.0
years (661⁄2) (691⁄2) (73) (611⁄2) (641⁄2) (671⁄4)
Source: These data are those of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS),
Health Resources Administration, DHHS. They were based on studies of The Fels
Research Institute, Yellow Springs, Ohio. These data were first made available with
the help of William M. Moore, M.D., of Ross Laboratories, who supplied the conver-
sion from metric measurements to approximate inches and pounds. This help is
gratefully acknowledged.
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Weight Gains from Birth to Age 18
(Chapter 8)
These height and weight charts present rough guidelines; a child might
differ from these norms and be quite healthy and normal. However, if a
particular child shows a discrepancy between height and weight (for in-
stance, at the 90th percentile in height but only the 20th percentile in
weight) or is much larger or smaller than most children the same age, a
pediatrician should see if disease, malnutrition, or genetic abnormality
is part of the reason.
Comparisons
Notice that the height trajectories for boys and girls on page A-6 are
much closer together than the weight trajectories shown above.
By age 18, the height range amounts to only about 6 inches, but
there is a difference of about 65 pounds between the 10th and the
90th percentiles.
Critical Thinking Question (see answer, page A-8): How can this
discrepancy between height and weight ranges be explained?
Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables ■ APPENDIX A A-7
Weight by Age Percentiles: 2 to 6 Years
Weight in
kilograms
Weight
in pounds
3 5 62
25
22
20
17
15
12
10
55.1
48.5
44.1
37.4
33.0
26.4
22.0
4
Age in years
90th
BoysGirls
50th
10th
Weight in Kilograms (and Pounds)
Boys: percentiles Girls: percentiles
AGE 10th 50th 90th 10th 50th 90th
Birth 2.78 3.27 3.82 2.58 3.23 3.64
(61⁄4) (71⁄4) (81⁄2) (53⁄4) (7) (8)
1 3.43 4.29 5.14 3.22 3.98 4.65
month (71⁄2) (91⁄2) (111⁄4) (7) (83⁄4) (101⁄4)
3 4.78 5.98 7.14 4.47 5.40 6.39
months (101⁄2) (131⁄4) (153⁄4) (93⁄4) (12) (14)
6 6.61 7.85 9.10 6.12 7.21 8.38
months (141⁄2) (171⁄4) (20) (131⁄2) (16) (181⁄2)
9 7.95 9.18 10.49 7.34 8.56 9.83
months (171⁄2) (201⁄4) (231⁄4) (161⁄4) (183⁄4) (213⁄4)
12 8.84 10.15 11.54 8.19 9.53 10.87
months (191⁄2) (221⁄2) (251⁄2) (18) (21) (24)
18 9.92 11.47 13.05 9.30 10.82 12.30
months (213⁄4) (251⁄4) (283⁄4) (201⁄2) (233⁄4) (27)
24 10.85 12.59 14.29 10.26 11.90 13.57
months (24) (273⁄4) (311⁄2) (221⁄2) (261⁄4) (30)
3 12.58 14.62 16.95 12.26 14.10 16.54
years (273⁄4) (321⁄4) (371⁄4) (27) (31) (361⁄2)
4 14.24 16.69 19.32 13.84 15.96 18.93
years (311⁄2) (363⁄4) (421⁄2) (301⁄2) (351⁄4) (413⁄4)
5 15.96 18.67 21.70 15.26 17.66 21.23
years (351⁄4) (411⁄4) (473⁄4) (333⁄4) (39) (463⁄4)
6 17.72 20.69 24.31 16.72 19.52 23.89
years (39) (451⁄2) (531⁄2) (363⁄4) (43) (523⁄4)
7 19.53 22.85 27.36 18.39 21.84 27.39
years (43) (501⁄4) (601⁄4) (401⁄2) (481⁄4) (601⁄2)
8 21.39 25.30 31.06 20.45 24.84 32.04
years (471⁄4) (553⁄4) (681⁄2) (45) (543⁄4) (703⁄4)
9 23.33 28.13 35.57 22.92 28.46 37.60
years (511⁄2) (62) (781⁄2) (501⁄2) (623⁄4) (83)
10 25.52 31.44 40.80 25.76 32.55 43.70
years (561⁄4) (691⁄4) (90) (563⁄4) (713⁄4) (961⁄4)
11 28.17 35.30 46.57 28.97 36.95 49.96
years (62) (773⁄4) (1023⁄4) (633⁄4) (811⁄2) (1101⁄4)
12 31.46 39.78 52.73 32.53 41.53 55.99
years (691⁄4) (873⁄4) (1161⁄4) (711⁄4) (911⁄2) (1231⁄2)
13 35.60 44.95 59.12 36.35 46.10 61.45
years (781⁄2) (99) (1301⁄4) (801⁄4) (1013⁄4) (1351⁄2)
14 40.64 50.77 65.57 40.11 50.28 66.04
years (891⁄2) (112) (1441⁄2) (881⁄2) (1103⁄4) (1451⁄2)
15 46.06 56.71 71.91 43.38 53.68 69.64
years (1011⁄2) (125) (1581⁄2) (953⁄4) (1181⁄4) (1531⁄4)
16 51.16 62.10 77.97 45.78 55.89 71.68
years (1123⁄4) (137) (172) (101) (1231⁄4) (158)
17 55.28 66.31 83.58 47.04 56.69 72.38
years (1213⁄4) (1461⁄4) (1841⁄4) (1033⁄4) (125) (1591⁄2)
18 57.89 68.88 88.41 47.47 56.62 72.25
years (1271⁄2) (1513⁄4) (195) (1043⁄4) (1243⁄4) (1591⁄4)
Source: Data are those of the National Center for Health Statistics, Health Resources
Administration, DHHS, collected in its Health Examination Surveys.
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Day Care and Family Income (Chapter 9)
Note that, in both years, the wealthier families were less likely to have children exclusively in
parental care and more likely to have children in center-based care.
➤Answer to Critical Thinking Question
(from page A-7): Nutrition is generally
adequate in the United States, and that is
why height differences are small. But as a
result of the strong influence that family and
culture have on eating habits, almost half of
all North Americans are overweight or obese.
A-8 APPENDIX A ■ Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables
0
10
20
30
40
50
Annual income (in thousands)Annual income (in thousands)
1995 2005
$25 or less $25–50 $50–75 $75–100 $100+$10 $10–30 $30–40 $40–50 $50–75 $75+
Annual income (in thousands)Annual income (in thousands)
$25 or less $25–50 $50–75 $75–100 $100+$10 $10–30 $30–40 $40–50 $50–75 $75+
Percent
of families
using
parental
care only
Parental Care Only
1995 2005
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Percent
of families
using
center-
based
care
Center-Based Care
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Web site, nces.ed.gov, accessed September 7, 2007.
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Children Are the Poorest Americans
(Chapter 10)
It probably comes as no surprise that the rate of poverty is twice
as high in some states as in others. What is surprising is how
much the rates vary between age groups within the same state.
Observation Quiz (see answer, page A-10): In which nine states
is the proportion of poor children more than twice as high as the
proportion of poor people over age 65?
Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables ■ APPENDIX A A-9
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
United States
Source: 2006 American Community Survey (http://factfinder.census.gov).
10 15 20 305
overall
25 35
Percentage living in households
below the poverty line
Rates of Poverty, by State and by Age Group
Under 18
18–64
65+
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DSM-IV-TR Criteria for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD), Conduct Disorder (CD), Oppositional
Defiant Disorder (ODD), Autistic Disorder, and Asperger’s
Disorder (Chapter 11)
The specific symptoms for these various disorders overlap. Many other childhood disorders also
have some of the same symptoms. Differentiating one problem from another is the main purpose
of DSM-IV-TR. That is no easy task, which is one reason the book is now in its fourth major revi-
sion and is more than 900 pages long. Those pages include not only the type of diagnostic criteria
shown here but also discussions of prevalence, age and gender statistics, cultural aspects, and
prognosis for about 400 disorders or subtypes, 40 of which appear primarily in childhood. Thus,
the diagnostic criteria reprinted here for three disorders represent less than 1 percent of the con-
tents of DSM-IV-TR.
Diagnostic Criteria for Attention-
Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
A. Either (1) or (2):
(1) Six (or more) of the following symptoms of inattention have persisted for at
least 6 months to a degree that is maladaptive and inconsistent with develop-
mental level:
Inattention
(a) often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in
schoolwork, work, or other activities
(b) often has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities
(c) often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly
(d) often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish school-
work, chores, or duties in the workplace (not due to oppositional behavior
or failure to understand instructions)
(e) often has difficulty organizing tasks and activities
(f) often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to engage in tasks that require sus-
tained mental effort (such as schoolwork or homework)
(g) often loses things necessary for tasks or activities (e.g., toys, school as-
signments, pencils, books, or tools)
(h) is often easily distracted by extraneous stimuli
(i) is often forgetful in daily activities
(2) Six (or more) of the following symptoms of hyperactivity-impulsivity have
persisted for at least 6 months to a degree that is maladaptive and inconsis-
tent with developmental level:
Hyperactivity
(a) often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat
(b) often leaves seat in classroom or in other situations in which remaining
seated is expected
(c) often runs about or climbs excessively in situations in which it is inappro-
priate (in adolescents or adults, may be limited to subjective feelings of
restlessness)
(d) often has difficulty playing or engaging in leisure activities quietly
(e) is often “on the go” or often acts as if “driven by a motor”
(f) often talks excessively
➤Answer to Observation Quiz (from
page A-9): Alaska, Arizona, California,
Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Oklahoma,
West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
A-10 APPENDIX A ■ Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables
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Impulsivity
(g) often blurts out answers before questions have been completed
(h) often has difficulty awaiting turn
(i) often interrupts or intrudes on others (e.g., butts into conversations or
games)
B. Some hyperactive-impulsive or inattentive symptoms that caused impair-
ment were present before age 7 years.
C. Some impairment from the symptoms is present in two or more settings
(e.g., at school [or work] and at home).
D. There must be clear evidence of clinically significant impairment in so-
cial, academic, or occupational functioning.
Diagnostic Criteria for Conduct Disorder
A. A repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of
others or major age-appropriate societal norms or rules are violated, as mani-
fested by the presence of three (or more) of the following criteria in the past
12 months, with at least one criterion present in the past 6 months:
Aggression to people and animals
(1) often bullies, threatens, or intimidates others
(2) often initiates physical fights
(3) has used a weapon that can cause serious physical harm to others (e.g., a bat,
brick, broken bottle, knife, gun)
(4) has been physically cruel to people
(5) has been physically cruel to animals
(6) has stolen while confronting a victim (e.g., mugging, purse snatching, extor-
tion, armed robbery)
(7) has forced someone into sexual activity
Destruction of property
(8) has deliberately engaged in fire setting with the intention of causing serious
damage
(9) has deliberately destroyed others’ property (other than by fire setting)
Deceitfulness or theft
(10) has broken into someone else’s house, building, or car
(11) often lies to obtain goods or favors or to avoid obligations (i.e., “cons” others)
(12) has stolen items of nontrivial value without confronting a victim (e.g.,
shoplifting, but without breaking and entering; forgery)
Serious violations of rules
(13) often stays out at night despite parental prohibitions, beginning before age
13 years
(14) has run away from home overnight at least twice while living in parental or
parental surrogate home (or once without returning for a lengthy period)
(15) is often truant from school, beginning before age 13 years
B. The disturbance in behavior causes clinically significant impairment in so-
cial, academic, or occupational functioning.
Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables ■ APPENDIX A A-11
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Diagnostic Criteria for Oppositional Defiant
Disorder
A. A pattern of negativistic, hostile, and defiant behavior lasting at least 6 months,
during which four (or more) of the following are present:
(1) often loses temper
(2) often argues with adults
(3) often actively defies or refuses to comply with adults’ requests or rules
(4) often deliberately annoys people
(5) often blames others for his or her mistakes or misbehavior
(6) is often touchy or easily annoyed by others
(7) is often angry and resentful
(8) is often spiteful or vindictive
Note: Consider a criterion met only if the behavior occurs more frequently
than is typically observed in individuals of comparable age and developmental
level.
B. The disturbance in behavior causes clinically significant impairment in social,
academic, or occupational functioning.
Source: American Psychiatric Association, 2004.
Diagnostic Criteria for Autistic Disorder
A. A total of six (or more) items from (1), (2), and (3), with at least two from (1)
and one each from (2) and (3):
(1) qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of
the following:
(a) marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as
eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate
social interaction
(b) failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
(c) a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achieve-
ments with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing
out objects of interest)
(d) lack of social or emotional reciprocity
(2) qualitative impairments in communication as manifested by at least one of
the following:
(a) delay in, or total lack of, the development of spoken language (not accom-
panied by an attempt to compensate through alternative modes of com-
munication such as gesture or mime)
(b) in individuals with adequate speech, marked impairment in the ability to
initiate or sustain a conversation with others
(c) stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language
(d) lack of varied, spontaneous make-believe play or social imitative play ap-
propriate to developmental level
A-12 APPENDIX A ■ Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables
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(3) restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activ-
ities, as manifested by at least one of the following:
(a) encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted
patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
(b) apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rit-
uals
(c) stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flap-
ping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)
(d) persistent preoccupation with parts of objects
B. Delays or abnormal functioning in at least one of the following areas, with
onset prior to age 3 years: (1) social interaction, (2) language as used in social
communication, or (3) symbolic or imaginative play
C. The disturbance is not better accounted for by Rett’s Disorder or Childhood
Disintegrative Disorder.
Diagnostic Criteria for Asperger’s Disorder
A. Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of
the following:
(1) marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as
eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate
social interaction
(2) failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
(3) a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achieve-
ments with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing
out objects of interest to other people)
(4) lack of social or emotional reciprocity
B. Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activ-
ities, as manifested by at least one of the following:
(1) encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted
patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
(2) apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rit-
uals
(3) stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flap-
ping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)
(4) persistent preoccupation with parts of objects
C. The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment in social, occupa-
tional, or other important areas of functioning.
D. There is no clinically significant general delay in language (e.g., single words
used by age 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 years).
E. There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the de-
velopment of age-appropriate self-help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in
social interaction), and curiosity about the environment in childhood.
F. Criteria are not met for another specific Pervasive Developmental Disorder or
Schizophrenia.
Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables ■ APPENDIX A A-13
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Changes in Ranking of 16 Nations on Science and
Math Knowledge Between Fourth and Eighth Grades
(Chapter 12)
Only the 16 highest-scoring nations are included in these rankings. Many other countries, such as
Chile and Morocco, rank much lower. Still others, including all the nations of Latin America and
Africa, do not administer the tests on which these rankings are based. Identical rankings indicate
ties between nations on overall scores. International comparisons are always difficult and often
unfair, but two general conclusions have been confirmed: Children in East Asian countries tend to
be high achievers in math and science, and children in the United States lose ground in science
and just hold their own in math between the fourth and eighth grades.
A-14 APPENDIX A ■ Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables
Science Knowledge
Rank in Rank in Change in
Nation Fourth Grade Eighth Grade Rank
Singapore 1 1 0
Chinese Taipei 2 2 0
Japan 3 6 –3
Hong Kong 4 4 0
England 5 * —
United States 6 9 –3
Latvia 7 18 –11
Hungary 8 7 +1
Russian Federation 9 17 –8
Netherlands 10 8 +2
Australia 11 10 +1
New Zealand 12 13 –1
Belgium 13 16 –3
Italy 14 22 –8
Lithuania 15 14 +1
Scotland 16 19 –3
Math Knowledge
Rank in Rank in Change in
Nation Fourth Grade Eighth Grade Rank
Singapore 1 1 0
Hong Kong 2 3 –1
Japan 3 5 –2
Chinese Taipei 4 4 0
Belgium 5 6 –1
Netherlands 6 7 –1
Latvia 7 11† –4
Lithuania 8 13 –5
Russian Federation 9 11† –2
England 10 * —
Hungary 11 9 –2
United States 12 12 0
Cyprus 13 26 –13
Moldova 14 25 –11
Italy 15 19 –4
Australia 16 11 +5
*Did not participate.
†Average scale scores were tied.
Source: Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), 2003.
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Changes in the Average Weekly Amount of Time Spent
by 6- to 11-Year-Olds in Various Activities (Chapter 12)
Data can be presented graphically in many ways. The data given here were collected in the same
way in 1981, 1997, and 2004, so the changes are real (although the age cutoff in 1997 was 12, not
11). What do you think would be the best way to show this information? What is encouraging and
what is problematic in the changes that you see? What were children doing in 2004 that is not ac-
counted for in this list of activities and wasn’t even available in 1981?
Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables ■ APPENDIX A A-15
Average Amount of Time Spent
in Activity, per Week, United States
Change in Time
Activity In 1981 In 1997 In 2004 Spent Since 1981
School 25 hrs, 17 min. 33 hrs, 52 min. 33 hrs, 33 min. +8 hrs, 16 min.
Organized sports 3 hrs, 5 min. 4 hrs, 56 min. 2 hrs, 28 min. –32 min.
Studying 1 hr, 46 min. 2 hrs, 50 min. 3 hrs, 25 min. +1 hr, 21 min.
Reading 57 min. 1 hr, 15 min. 1 hr, 28 min. +31 min.
Being outdoors 1 hr, 17 min. 39 min. 56 min. –21 min.
Playing 12 hrs, 52 min. 10 hrs, 5 min. 10 hrs, 25 min. –2 hrs, 27 min.
Watching TV 15 hrs, 34 min. 13 hrs, 7 min. 14 hrs, 19 min. –1 hr, 15 min.
Percentage Change in Time Spent in Activity 1981–2004
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
10
20
30
Percent
increase
Percent
decrease
Source: University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, Changing Times of American Youth,
November 2004.
School
Being
outdoors
Organized
sports
Playing
Watching
TV
Studying
Reading
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Who Is Raising the Children? (Chapter 13)
Most children still live in households with a male/female couple, who may be the children’s mar-
ried or unmarried biological parents, grandparents, stepparents, foster parents, or adoptive par-
ents. However, the proportion of households headed by single parents has risen—by 500 percent
for single fathers and by almost 200 percent for single mothers. (In 2005, 52 percent of U.S.
households had no children under age 18.)
A-16 APPENDIX A ■ Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables
90
88
86
84
82
80
78
76
74
72
70
68
66
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
2000 200619901980
Year
1970
Percent
of all
households
with
children
Source: Data from childstats.ed.gov/americaschildren, accessed July 24, 2007.
Households with Children, by Marital Status of Head, 1970–2006
Headed by
two married
parents
Headed by
a single
mother
Headed by
a single
father
Headed
by no
parent
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Smoking Behavior Among U.S. High
School Students, 1991–2005 (Chapter 14)
The data in these two tables reveal many trends. For example, do you
see that African American adolescents are much less likely to smoke
than Hispanics or European Americans, but that this racial advantage is
decreasing? Are you surprised to see that White females smoke more
than White males?
Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables ■ APPENDIX A A-17
Percentage of High School Students Who Reported
Smoking Cigarettes
Smoking Behavior 1991 1995 1999 2003 2005
Lifetime (ever smoked) 70.1 71.3 70.4 58.4 54.3
Current (smoked at least 27.5 34.8 34.8 21.9 23.0
once in past 30 days)
Current frequent (smoked 20 12.7 16.1 16.8 9.7 9.4
or more times in past 30 days)
Percentage of High School Students Who Reported Current
Smoking, by Sex, Ethnicity, and Grade
Characteristic 1991 1995 1999 2003 2005
Sex
Female 27.3 34.3 34.9 21.9 23.0
Male 27.6 35.4 34.7 21.8 22.9
Ethnicity
White, non-Hispanic 30.9 38.3 38.6 24.9 25.9
Female 31.7 39.8 39.1 26.6 27
Male 30.2 37.0 38.2 23.3 24.9
Black, non-Hispanic 12.6 19.2 19.7 15.1 12.9
Female 11.3 12.2 17.7 10.8 11.9
Male 14.1 27.8 21.8 19.3 14.0
Hispanic 25.3 34.0 32.7 18.4 22.0
Female 22.9 32.9 31.5 17.7 19.2
Male 27.9 34.9 34.0 19.1 24.8
Grade
9th 23.2 31.2 27.6 17.4 19.7
10th 25.2 33.1 34.7 21.8 21.4
11th 31.6 35.9 36.0 23.6 24.3
12th 30.1 38.2 42.8 26.2 27.6
Source: MMWR (2006, July 7)
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Sexual Behaviors of U.S. High School Students, 2005
(Chapter 15)
These percentages, as high as they may seem, are actually lower than they were in the early
1990s. (States not listed did not participate fully in the survey.) The data in this table reflect re-
sponses from students in the 9th to 12th grades. When only high school seniors are surveyed, the
percentages are higher. In every state, more than half of all high school seniors say they have had
sexual intercourse, and about 20 percent have had four or more sex partners.
A-18 APPENDIX A ■ Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables
Had first sexual Has had four or
Ever had sexual intercourse more sex partners Is currently sexually
intercourse (%) before age 13 (%) during lifetime (%) active (%)
State Female Male Total Female Male Total Female Male Total Female Male Total
Alabama 46.8 54.6 50.6 4.9 12.8 8.8 9.5 21.1 15.1 37.7 38.0 38.0
Arizona 42.8 42.9 42.8 3.6 7.9 5.7 10.5 16.5 13.5 32.9 27.4 30.2
Arkansas 53.6 54.3 54.0 5.5 12.7 9.2 15.8 21.0 18.3 42.3 38.8 40.6
Colorado 37.2 41.3 39.3 2.3 7.0 4.7 8.7 13.9 11.3 29.3 29.4 29.5
Delaware 51.3 58.6 55.1 4.5 16.9 10.8 15.7 22.1 19.1 39.8 38.6 39.2
Florida 47.1 53.5 50.5 4.0 13.6 8.8 11.5 21.1 16.3 35.3 36.7 36.2
Hawaii 37.6 33.7 35.7 4.4 5.8 5.1 7.9 10.0 9.0 29.4 18.7 24.1
Idaho 39.5 37.4 38.5 4.2 9.0 6.7 — — — — — —
Iowa 44.0 43.0 43.5 3.0 5.4 4.2 11.8 13.7 12.7 34.5 31.2 32.8
Kansas 44.3 45.3 44.8 2.8 7.9 5.5 11.7 14.7 13.3 36.3 30.0 33.3
Kentucky 44.6 48.0 46.3 4.1 11.5 7.9 10.6 16.6 13.6 34.5 32.5 33.5
Maine 46.4 43.0 44.8 3.0 6.1 4.5 10.6 13.4 11.9 36.9 30.1 33.5
Massachusetts 42.9 47.9 45.4 2.2 8.1 5.2 10.5 14.5 12.6 35.4 32.7 34.1
Michigan 41.2 43.2 42.2 3.9 8.5 6.2 9.6 14.1 11.8 31.1 27.7 29.4
Missouri 47.1 46.3 46.7 3.5 8.4 5.9 11.3 16.7 14.0 34.7 31.5 33.2
Montana 42.6 44.4 43.6 2.8 7.0 5.1 12.5 13.3 13.1 32.4 30.0 31.2
Nebraska 40.9 40.6 40.8 3.3 5.5 4.4 12.2 11.7 11.9 29.6 30.2 29.9
Nevada 39.6 48.5 44.1 3.8 11.5 7.7 11.5 18.7 15.2 30.6 30.8 30.8
New York 39.3 44.6 42.0 3.0 8.6 5.8 8.6 16.3 12.5 29.2 29.0 29.2
North Carolina 47.6 54.3 50.8 5.0 11.2 8.1 13.9 20.6 17.2 35.3 39.1 37.1
North Dakota 40.7 41.6 41.2 1.7 4.7 3.3 10.7 12.0 11.3 33.3 31.4 32.4
Ohio 46.5 49.0 47.8 3.5 7.2 5.3 15.1 18.5 16.9 35.5 37.2 36.4
Oklahoma 48.2 50.2 49.3 4.0 8.9 6.5 14.3 21.2 17.8 37.0 35.4 36.3
Rhode Island 44.9 48.3 46.7 2.3 9.4 5.9 9.3 16.8 13.0 36.4 36.6 36.5
South Carolina 49.7 55.1 52.3 4.8 13.9 4.7 14.5 23.5 18.8 38.2 36.7 37.5
South Dakota 47.1 41.4 44.3 3.6 8.0 5.8 16.9 11.5 14.2 33.7 28.7 31.2
Tennessee 55.6 53.7 54.7 5.8 11.2 8.5 14.7 19.1 17.0 41.1 35.3 38.2
Texas 49.6 55.2 52.5 4.0 10.7 7.4 13.1 19.5 16.3 37.5 37.6 37.6
West Virginia 51.1 53.8 52.5 3.7 11.0 7.3 11.0 18.5 14.8 41.1 37.3 39.3
Wisconsin 40.3 40.2 40.3 2.6 5.0 3.9 9.9 10.9 10.4 31.8 27.3 29.5
Wyoming 47.4 46.9 47.1 3.7 6.6 5.2 15.2 15.9 15.5 37.6 32.0 34.7
U.S. median 44.9 46.3 44.8 3.6 8.4 5.8 11.3 16.3 13.6 35.3 31.4 33.3
Source: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, MMWR, June 9, 2006.
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United States Homicide Victim and Offender Rates, by
Race and Gender, Ages 14–17 (Chapter 16)
Teenage boys are more often violent offenders than victims. The ratio of victimization to offense
has varied for teenage girls over the years. The good news is that rates have decreased dramati-
cally over the past ten years for every category of adolescents—male and female, Black and
White. (Similar declines are apparent for Asian and Hispanic Americans.) The bad news is that
rates are still higher in the United States than in any other developed nation.
All the charts, graphs, and tables in this Appendix offer readers the
opportunity to analyze raw data and draw their own conclusions.
The same information may be presented in a variety of ways. On
this page, you can create your own bar graph or line graph, depict-
ing some noteworthy aspect of the data presented in the three ta-
bles. First, consider all the possibilities the tables offer by
answering these six questions:
1. Are white male or female teenagers more likely to be victims of
homicide?
2. These are annual rates. How many African Americans in 1,000
were likely to commit homicide in 2006?
3. Which age group is most likely to commit homicide?
4. Which age group is least likely to be victims of homicide?
5. Which age group is almost equally likely to be either perpetra-
tors or victims of homicide?
6. Of the four groups of adolescents, which has shown the great-
est decline in rates of both victimization and perpetration of
homicide over the past decade? Which has shown the least de-
cline?
Answers: 1. Boys—at least twice as often. 2. Less than one.
3. 18–24. 4. 0–13. 5. 35–49. 6. Black males had the greatest de-
cline, and White females had the least (but these two groups have
always been highest and lowest, respectively, in every year).
Now —use the grid provided at right to make your own graph.
Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables ■ APPENDIX A A-19
Overall Rate of Homicide by Age, 2005,
United States (Chapter 16)
Late adolescence and early adulthood are the peak times for murders—
both as victims and offenders. The question for developmentalists is
whether something changes before age 18 to decrease the rates in
young adulthood.
Homicide Victimization Rates per 100,000
Population for 14- to 17-Year-Olds
Male Female
Year White Black White Black
1976 3.7 24.6 2.2 6.4
1981 4.4 23.6 2.4 6.2
1986 4.2 27.4 2.3 6.6
1991 8.7 73.6 2.6 9.6
1996 8.4 53.3 2.1 8.9
2002 3.6 22.6 1.5 6.1
2006 4.4 26.4 1.1 4.0
Source: U. S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2006.
Tabulations based on FBI Supplementary Homicide Reports and U.S. Census
Bureau, Current Population Reports.
Homicide Offending Rates per 100,000 Population
for 14- to 17-Year-Olds
Male Female
Year White Black White Black
1976 10.4 72.4 1.3 10.3
1981 10.9 73.1 1.3 8.6
1986 12.3 72.2 1.1 5.6
1991 21.9 199.1 1.3 12.1
1996 17.4 134.8 1.7 7.8
2002 9.2 54.5 .9 3.7
2006 7.9 64.1 .7 4.0
Source: U. S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2006.
Tabulations based on FBI Supplementary Homicide Reports and U.S. Census Bu-
reau, Current Population Reports. Rates include both known perpetrators and esti-
mated share of unidentified perpetrators.
Victims Killers
(per 100,000 (per 100,000 in
Age group in age group) age group)
0–13 1.4 .1
14–17 4.8 9.3
18–24 14.9 26.5
25–34 11.6 13.5
35–49 5.7 5.1
50–64 2.6 1.4
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Too Young for Motherhood (Chapter 17)
These numbers show dramatic shifts in family planning, with teenage births continuing to fall and
births after age 30 rising again. These data come from the United States, but the same trends are
apparent in almost every nation (see top of page A-21). Can you tell when contraception became
widely available?
A-20 APPENDIX A ■ Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
15–19 30–34 35–39 40–44 45–4920–24 25–29
Age group
Live
births
per
1,000
women
Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Vital Statistics of the United States, Preliminary Data for 2005.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/prelimbirths05_tables #4. Accessed August 19, 2007.
1960
1970
1980
1990
2002
2005
Cohort
Fertility by Age Cohort, 1960–2005
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Education Affects Income (Chapter 18)
Although there is some debate about the cognitive benefits of college education, there is no
doubt about the financial benefits. No matter what a person’s ethnicity or gender is, an associate’s
degree more than doubles his or her income compared to that of someone who has not com-
pleted high school. These data are for the United States; similar trends, often with steeper in-
creases, are found in other nations.
Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables ■ APPENDIX A A-21
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Czech
Republic
Finland Hungary Iceland Japan Netherlands Slovak
Republic
Sweden Switzerland United
States
Age of
mothers
at birth
of first
child
Mean Age of Mothers at First Live Birth for Selected Countries, 1970 and 2000
1970 2000
Sources: Council of Europe. Recent Demographic Developments in Europe 2001. Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, 2001. Statistics Bureau. Statistical
Handbook of Japan 2001. Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Ports, and Telecommunications, 2001. Japan Information Network. Women’s Life Cycle
(1983–2000). Released August 29, 2001. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr51/nvsr51_01 .
Countries
$80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
0
Some
high school
Bachelor’s
degree
Associate’s
degree
Some
college,
no degree
High school
diploma
Master’s
degree
Doctoral
degree
Professional
degree (MD,
JD)
Median
annual
income
Median Annual Income, by Educational Attainment European American African American Hispanic American Asian American
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2006.
Level of education attained
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Child Support Enforcement, by State, 2006 (Chapter 19)
Everyone loses when fathers do not support their children. Mothers become poor and angry, fa-
thers feel burdened (the less income a man has, the less likely he is to pay what the courts re-
quire), and children suffer the most, in that fathers who do not support their children financially
often withdraw emotionally. The ranks here are the percent of fathers who have court-ordered
payment and who pay it. Note that even in the best state (South Dakota), a third of the fathers did
not pay what was needed.
A-22 APPENDIX A ■ Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables
Number of Percent with Percent with
State cases court order collection Rank
Alabama 226,838 50.91 52.87 50
Alaska 44,989 92.24 54.9 23
Arizona 211,039 76.48 46.55 42
Arkansas 122,667 83.61 59.02 25
California 1,705,561 80.57 50.39 33
Colorado 142,154 86.29 59.09 21
Connecticut 202,174 70.99 54.99 38
Delaware 56,971 75.11 60.48 29
District of Columbia 77,651 45.43 52.53 51
Florida 742,584 73.79 54.38 34
Georgia 482,495 75.67 51.93 37
Hawaii 102,023 58.53 56.93 47
Idaho 110,112 79.49 55.86 31
Illinois 602,533 66.86 51.76 44
Indiana 355,757 68.44 53.82 40
Iowa 184,197 85.87 65.66 9
Kansas 130,845 74.72 55.29 32
Kentucky 320,412 79.73 56.64 30
Louisiana 284,244 73.1 54.05 36
Maine 67,045 87.67 61.05 14
Maryland 265,146 77.66 64.19 24
Massachusetts 273,213 74.85 65.44 26
Michigan 958,128 79.79 61.38 27
Minnesota 249,944 82.54 68.83 8
Mississippi 301,355 54.13 54.32 49
Missouri 367,918 82.81 55.68 28
Montana 40,048 87.96 61.49 12
Nebraska 104,974 78.42 67.44 18
Nevada 111,258 66.8 45.92 48
New Hampshire 36,747 82.54 64.38 16
New Jersey 359,530 82.03 65.57 13
New Mexico 68,210 63.24 52.97 46
New York 893,768 81.6 64.91 17
North Carolina 410,399 81.05 65.64 15
North Dakota 41,029 87.5 73.42 2
Ohio 956,541 73.33 69.14 22
Oklahoma 174,065 69.63 52.68 41
Oregon 251,412 66.36 60.42 35
Pennsylvania 550,150 84.5 74.65 3
Rhode Island 58,171 58.57 58.57 45
South Carolina 212,085 75.65 49.31 39
South Dakota 45,746 92.98 69.47 1
Tennessee 386,180 63.87 55.68 43
Texas 980,497 82.74 62.33 20
Utah 78,083 87.83 63.57 10
Vermont 22,711 85.87 67.46 6
Virginia 351,930 85.19 61.61 19
Washington 344,972 89.86 64.33 7
West Virginia 113,473 85.42 64.48 11
Wisconsin 359,126 83.81 70.64 4
Wyoming 35,099 89.09 65.85 5
United States 15,574,199 76.92 59.8
Source: Office of Child Support Enforcement, Fiscal Year 2006 Preliminary Report, March 2007. Department of
Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Child Support Enforcement.
www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/pubs/2007/preliminary_report/ accessed August 19, 2007.
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Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables ■ APPENDIX A A-23
Obesity in the United States, 1976 to 2004 (Chapter 20)
About a third of all adults in the United States have a BMI of 30 or higher, which is not just over-
weight but seriously too heavy. Other data show that another third are overweight, again with in-
creases over the past decades.
the rate for Black men went down as the rate for some other groups
rose. (These are “age-adjusted” rates, which means that they reflect the
fact that more Asians reach old age and fewer Native Americans do. In
other words, the sex and ethnic differences shown here are real—not
artifacts of the age distribution.)
Dying of Lung Cancer: It’s Not Just Genes
and Gender (Chapter 20)
For lung cancer as well as most other diseases, the male death rate is
markedly higher than the female death rate in the United States. More-
over, the death rate for African Americans is almost twice the average,
and for Asian Americans it is almost half the average. Genes and gender
do not explain these discrepancies, however. As you can see, White
women are at greater risk than Hispanic or Native American men, and
Percent
obese
50%
40
30
20
10
0
20–34 35–44
Age group
45–54 55–65 66–74 75 and
over
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Health, United States, 2006.
2001–2004 men
1976–1980 men
1976–1980 women
2001–2004 women
Rates of Obesity, by Age and Sex
Lung cancer
deaths
per 100,000
Female Female FemaleMale Male Male
Source: U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group. United States Cancer Statistics: 2003 Incidence and Mortality. Atlanta (GA):
Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Cancer Institute; 2007.
White BlackHispanic
Female FemaleMale Male
Asian Native American
130
120
110
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Lung Cancer Death Rates, by Ethnicity and Gender
1990
1980
2003
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Continuing Education (Chapter 21)
This chart shows the percentage of adults (aged 24 –64) involved in job-related training.
A-24 APPENDIX A ■ Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables
0
Percent
15105 20
France
Canada
United Kingdom
United States
Sweden
Italy
Poland
Ireland
Germany
25 30 35 40 45
Percentage of Adults in Job-Related Continuing Education
Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Education at a Glance 2006: Tables on Participation
in Adult Learning, Data from 2002. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/46/21/37368749.xls.
A1-A30_BergerLS7e_AppA.qxp 9/21/07 12:28 PM Page A-24

Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables ■ APPENDIX A A-25
Grandparents Parenting Grandchildren (Chapter 22)
In 2005, 3.6% of U.S. households included grandparents living with grandchildren. In 40 percent
of those households, 2.45 million grandparents were directly responsible for the care of their
grandchildren.
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Percent
Gender Age Ethnic category
Characteristics of U.S. Grandparent–Grandchild Households
M
en
W
om
en
60
a
nd
ol
de
r
30
–6
0
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2005 American Community Survey.
At
poverty
level
E
ur
op
ea
n
A
m
er
ic
an
A
fr
ic
an
A
m
er
ic
an
H
is
pa
ni
c
A
m
er
ic
an
A
si
an
A
m
er
ic
an
N
at
iv
e
A
m
er
ic
an
A1-A30_Berger_LS_7E_AppA.qxp 9/17/07 3:02 PM Page A-25

Trouble with Personal Care (Chapter 23)
As you see, with age people are more likely to need help with daily activities, such as taking a
shower, getting dressed, and even getting out of bed. What is not shown is who provides that
help. Usually it is a husband or wife, sometimes a grown child (who often is elderly), and, only for
the oldest and least capable, the aides in a nursing home.
A-26 APPENDIX A ■ Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables
Percent
needing
help
People Who Need Help with Personal Care, by Age, Sex, and Ethnicity
50
40
30
20
10
1
.9
.8
.7
.6
.5
.4
.3
.2
.1
0
18–24 25–44 45–64 65–74
Age group
75–84 85 and over
Source: CDC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health
Statistics, Trends in Health and Aging, 2005 (http://209.217.72.34/aging/ ReportFolders/reportFolders.aspx,
accessed August 1, 2007).
Men
Total
European American
Women
Hispanic American
African American
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Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables ■ APPENDIX A A-27
Dementia Around the World (Chapter 24)
More than 24 million of the 6 billion people worldwide have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s dis-
ease. This number is expected to double by 2020, since one of the major risk factors is advanced
age. That also is the main reason rates are lower in nations with poor medical care—-most people
with health problems die and fewer are diagnosed. At the moment, 60 percent of people with
Alzheimer’s disease live in developing countries, making it a “disease of affluence.”
Region Percentage of population
over 60 with dementia, 2001
Africa 1.6
India and South Asia 1.9
Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand 2.7
Middle East and North Africa 3.6
Developing western Pacific countries
(including China, Korea, Vietnam) 4.0
Developed countries in the western Pacific
(including Japan, Australia, New Zealand) 4.3
Europe 4.36
Latin America 4.6
North America 6.4
Source: C. P. Ferri et al. (2005). Global prevalence of dementia: A Delphi consensus study. The Lancet,
366: 2112–2117. Adapted from Table 2.
Suicide Rates in the United States (Chapter 25)
These are the rates per 100,000. When there is no bar for a given age group, that means there are
too few suicides in that age group to calculate an accurate rate. Overall, the highest rates are
among older European American men.
Suicides
per
100,000
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Health, United States, 2006.
Men Women Men Women Men WomenMen Women Men Women
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
25–44
15–24
45–64
65–74
75–84
85+
Suicide Rates by Ethnicity, Sex, and Age Group
European American African American Asian American Native AmericanHispanic American
Age group
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Suicide Rates Around the World (Chapter 25)
In almost every nation, unmarried older men are most likely to kill themselves. The
major exception is China. China’s sexism is one explanation, but the difference
may be simply accessible poison. Usually people kill themselves with guns, and
men have more guns than women. In China, swallowing pesticides is the most
common means, and lethal pesticides are readily available to every rural woman.
Aging Around the World
(Chapter 25)
Almost always, the nations with the fewest older people
have the most children, and generally, the more older
people a nation has the wealthier the nation is.
A-28 APPENDIX A ■ Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables
0 15105 20
Nigeria
Population Aged 60+ in Selected Countries, by Gender
3525 30
South Africa
Egypt
Brazil
India
Indonesia
France
Germany
Japan
China
Argentina
Russia
United States
Canada
Percent of total national population
Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs,
Statistical Databases. Statistics and Indicators on Women and Men,
Table 1b—Composition of the Population (http.//un.stats.un.org/unsd/
demographic/products/indwm/tab1b.htm, accessed September 11, 2007).
Women
Men
0 40 50
Suicides per 100,000 population
20 3010 60 70
Sources: World Health Organization, May 2007; Japanese data: J. Sean Curtin (2004).
Suicide in Japan: Part Eleven—Comparing International Rates of Suicide. Social
Trends #79, August 8, 2004. U.S. data: from Health, United States, 2006. Chinese
data: M. R. Phillips (2002). Suicide rates in China, 1995–99. Lancet, 359: 835–840.
Russia
Japan
China
Canada
United States
India
Mauritius
Mexico
Greece
Argentina
France
Poland
Suicide Rates for Selected Countries, by Gender
Men
Women
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Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables ■ APPENDIX A A-29
Hospice Care Patients (Epilogue)
Hospice helps people die without pain and other discomforts, and with family and friends nearby.
As you see, most of the people in hospice care are over age 75 and diagnosed with cancer. Is this
ageism, or are they the ones most likely to die soon?
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Percent
Age Sex Diagnosis
People in Hospice Care by Age, Sex, and Diagnosis
Under
65
65–74 75–84 85 plus FemaleMale
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Home and Hospice Care Survey, 2000.
Alzheimer’s
disease
Cancer Infectious
diseases
Heart
disease
and stroke
Respiratory
disease
Other
diseases
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The Human Brain
A-30 APPENDIX A ■ Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables
Front
of brain
Right
hemisphere
Corpus callosum:
axon fibers connecting
two cerebral hemispheres
Thalamus:
relays messages between
lower brain centers
and cerebral cortex
Pituitary:
master endocrine gland
Cerebellum:
coordinates voluntary
movement and balance
Cerebral cortex Limbic system Brainstem
Left
hemisphere
Auditory cortex
(on temporal lobe):
conscious processing
of auditory input
Prefrontal cortex
(outer layers):
performs brain’s
“executive functions”—
planning, selecting, and
coordinating thoughts
Hypothalamus:
controls maintenance
functions such as eating;
helps govern endocrine
system; linked to emotion
and reward
Reticular formation:
helps control arousal
Medulla:
controls heartbeat and
breathing
Spinal cord:
pathway for neural fibers
traveling to and from brain;
controls simple reflexes
Amygdala:
neural centers
in the limbic
system linked
to emotion
Hippocampus:
a structure in
the limbic
system linked
to memory
Visual cortex
(on occipital lobe):
conscious processing
of visual input
Right hemisphere (cross-section)
Cerebral cortex (outer layers):
ultimate control and
information-processing center
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Appendix B
More About
Research Methods
Appendix A provides charts and numbers that lead to questions, hypotheses, sur-
prises, and conclusions. The Research Design boxes in every chapter illustrate
some ways to study any topic and show why additional research is needed. Appen-
dix C guides students who want to conduct an observational or experimental study.
Here Appendix B explains how to learn about any topic. It is crucial that you
distinguish valid conclusions from wishful thinking. This begins with your per-
sonal experience.
Make It Personal
Think about your life, observe your behavior, and watch the people around you.
Pay careful attention to details of expression, emotion, and behavior. The more
you see, the more fascinated, curious, and reflective you will become. Then, as is
often suggested in the Applications that appear at the end of each chapter, listen
carefully and respectfully to what other people say regarding development.
Whenever you ask specific questions as part of an assignment, remember that
observing ethical standards (see Chapter 1) comes first. Before you inter-
view anyone, inform the person of your purpose and assure him or her of confiden-
tiality. Promise not to identify the person in your report (use a pseudonym) and do
not repeat any personal details that emerge in the interview to anyone (friends or
strangers).Your instructor will provide further ethical guidance. If you might pub-
lish what you’ve learned, inform your college’s Institutional Research Board (IRB).
Read the Research
No matter how deeply you think about your own experiences, and no matter how
intently you listen to others whose background is unlike yours, you also need to
read scholarly published work in order to fully understand whatever topic interests
you. Don’t believe magazine or newspaper reports; some are bound to be simpli-
fied, exaggerated, or biased.
Professional Journals and Books
Part of the process of science is that conclusions are not considered solid until
they are corroborated in many studies, which means that you should consult sev-
eral sources on any topic. Four professional journals in human development
that cover all three domains (biosocial, cognitive, and psychosocial) are:
■ Developmental Psychology (published by the American Psychological
Association)
■ Child Development (Society for Research in Child Development)
■ Developmental Review (Elsevier)
■ Human Development (Karger)
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These journals differ in the types of articles and studies they publish, but all are
well respected. Every article includes references to other recent work.
Beyond these four are literally thousands of other professional journals, each
with a particular perspective or topic. To judge them, look for journals that are
peer-reviewed, which means that scientists (other than the authors of each article)
read the submissions and decided whether each should be accepted, rejected, or
revised. Also consider the following details: the background of the author (re-
search funded by corporations tends to favor their products); the nature of the
publisher (professional organizations, as in the first two journals above, protect
their reputations); how long the journal has been published (the volume number
tells you that). Some interesting work does not meet these criteria, but these are
guides to quality.
Many books cover some aspect of development. Single-author books are likely
to present only one viewpoint. That view may be insightful, but it is limited. You
might consult a handbook, which is a book that includes many authors and many
topics. Two good handbooks in development, both now in their sixth editions (a
sign that past scholars have found them useful) are:
■ Handbook of Child Psychology (2006), four volumes, published by Wiley
■ Handbook of Aging (2006), three volumes (Biology, Psychology, and Social
Sciences), published by Academic Press
The Internet
The Internet is a mixed blessing, useful to every novice and experienced re-
searcher but dangerous as well. Every library has computers that provide access to
journals and other information. Ask for help from the librarians; many are highly
skilled. In addition, other students, friends, and even strangers can be helpful.
Virtually everything is on the Internet, not only massive national and interna-
tional statistics but also very personal accounts. Photos, charts, quizzes, ongoing
experiments, newspapers from around the world, videos, and much more are avail-
able at the click of a mouse. Every journal has a Web site, with tables of contents,
abstracts, and sometimes full texts (an abstract gives the key findings; for the full
text, you may need to consult the library’s copy of the print version).
Unfortunately, you can spend many frustrating hours sifting through informa-
tion that is useless, trash, or tangential. Directories (which list general topics or
areas and then move you step by step in the direction you choose) and search en-
gines (which give you all the sites that use a particular word or words) can help you
select appropriate information. Each directory or search engine provides some-
what different lists; none provides only the most comprehensive and accurate
sites. With experience and help, you will find the best sites for you, but you will
also encounter some junk no matter how experienced you are.
Another problem is that anybody can put anything on the Web, regardless of its
truth or fairness, so evaluate with a very critical eye everything you find. Make sure
you have several divergent sources for every “fact” you find; consider who provided
the information and why. Every controversial issue has sites that forcefully advocate
opposite viewpoints, sometimes with biased statistics and narrow perspectives.
Here are nine Internet sites that are quite reliable:
■ www.worthpublishers.com/berger Includes links to Web sites, quizzes, Power-
Point slides, and activities keyed to every chapter of the textbook.
■ embryo.soad.umich.edu The Multidimensional Human Embryo. Presents
MRI images of a human embryo at various stages of development, accompa-
nied by brief explanations.
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■ www.cdipage.com A useful site, with links and articles on child development
and information on common childhood psychological disorders.
■ ericeece.org/ ERIC Clearinghouse. Provides links to many education-related
sites and includes brief descriptions of each.
■ site.educ.indiana.edu/cafs Adolescence Directory online (ADOL) is an elec-
tronic guide to information on adolescent issues. It is a service of the Center
for Adolescent and Family Studies at Indiana University.
■ www.nih.gov.nia/ National Institutes on Aging. Includes information about
current research on aging.
■ www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus.htm The National Center for Health Statistics issues
an annual report on health trends, called “Health, United States.”
■ www.aarp.org/life/grandparents The AARP’s Web site provides a wealth of in-
formation on grandparenting.
■ www.psy.pdx.edu/PsiCafe/Areas/Developmental/CogDev-Adult/ A good site
for information on learning, memory, creativity, and other aspects of adult
cognition.
Every source—you, your interviewees, journals, books, and the Internet— is help-
ful. Do not depend on any particular one. Especially if you use the Web, also
check print resources. Avoid plagiarism and prejudice by citing every source and
noting objectivity, validity, and credibility. Your own analysis, opinions, words, and
conclusions are crucial.
Additional Terms and Concepts
As emphasized throughout this text, the study of development is a science. Social
scientists study methods and statistics for years. Chapter 1 touches on some of
these matters (observation and experiments; correlation and statistical signifi-
cance; independent and dependent variables; experimental and control groups;
cross-sectional, longitudinal, and cross-sequential research), but there is much
more. A few additional aspects of research are presented here, to help you evalu-
ate research wherever you find it.
Who Participates?
The entire group of people about whom a scientist wants to learn is called the pop-
ulation. Generally, a research population is quite large—not usually the world’s
entire population of almost 7 billion, but perhaps all the 4 million babies born in
the United States last year, or all the 25 million Japanese currently over age 65.
The particular individuals who are studied in a specific research project are
called the participants. They are used as a sample of the larger group. Ideally, a
large number of people are used as a representative sample, that is, a sample
who reflect the entire population. Every published study reports details on the
sample.
Selection of the sample is crucial. Volunteers, or people with telephones, or
people treated with some particular condition, are not a random sample, in which
everyone in that population is equally likely to be selected. To avoid selection bias,
some studies are prospective, beginning with an entire cluster (for instance, every
baby born on a particular day) and then tracing the development of some particu-
lar characteristic.
For example, prospective studies find the antecedents of heart disease, or child
abuse, or high school dropout rates—all of which are much harder to find if the
study is retrospective, beginning with those who had heart attacks, experienced
More About Research Methods ■ APPENDIX B B-3
population The entire group of individuals
who are of particular concern in a scientific
study, such as all the children of the world
or all newborns who weigh less than 3
pounds.
participants The people who are studied in
a research project.
sample A group of individuals drawn from a
specified population. A sample might be
the low-birthweight babies born in four
particular hospitals that are representative
of all hospitals.
representative sample A group of research
participants who reflect the relevant char-
acteristics of the larger population whose
attributes are under study.
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abuse, or left school. Thus, although retrospective research finds that most high
school dropouts say they disliked school, prospective research finds that some
who like school still decide to drop out and then later say they hated school, while
others dislike school but stay to graduate. Prospective research discovers how
many students are in these last two categories; retrospective research on people
who have already dropped out does not.
Research Design
Every researcher begins not only by formulating a hypothesis but also by learning
what other scientists have discovered about the topic in question and what meth-
ods might be useful and ethical in designing research. Often they include meth-
ods to guard against inadvertently finding the results they expect. Often the
people who actually gather the data do not know the purpose of the research. Sci-
entists say that these data gatherers are blind to the hypothesized outcome. Adult
participants are sometimes blind as well, because otherwise they might, for in-
stance, answer a survey question the way they think they should.
Another crucial aspect of research design is to define exactly what is to be stud-
ied. Researchers establish an operational definition of whatever phenomenon
they will be examining, defining each variable by describing specific, observable be-
havior. This is essential in quantitative research (see Chapter 1), but it is also use-
ful in qualitative research. For example, if a researcher wants to know when babies
begin to walk, does walking include steps taken while holding on, and is one un-
steady step enough? Some parents say yes, but the usual operational definition of
walking is “takes at least three steps without holding on.” This operational defini-
tion allows comparisons worldwide, making it possible to discover, for example,
that well-fed African babies tend to walk earlier than well-fed European babies.
Operational definitions are difficult but essential when personality traits are
studied. How should aggression or sharing or shyness be defined? Lack of an opera-
tional definition leads to contradictory results. For instance, some say that infant
day care makes children more aggressive, but others say it makes them less pas-
sive. For any scientists, or any parent, operational definitions are crucial.
Reporting Results
You already know that results should be reported in sufficient detail so that an-
other scientist can analyze the conclusions and replicate the research. Various
methods, population, and research designs may produce divergent conclusions.
For that reason, handbooks, some journals, and some articles are called reviews:
They summarize past research. Often, when studies are similar in operational def-
initions and methods, the review is a meta-analysis, combining the findings of
many studies to present an overall conclusion.
You also remember statistical significance, which indicates whether or not a par-
ticular result could have occurred by chance. Many studies report other statistics
and statistical measures—all helpful to scientists as they evaluate the conclusions.
One other statistic that is often crucial is effect size, a way of measuring how
much impact one variable has on another. Effect size ranges from 0 (no effect) to
1 (total transformation, never found in actual studies). Effect size may be particu-
larly important when the sample size is large, because a large sample often leads to
highly “significant” results (unlikely to have occurred by chance) that have only a
tiny effect on the variable of interest.
This is the case for many gender differences, which are statistically significant
but minuscule (Hyde, 2001). For example, if, after testing thousands of high
blind The condition of data gatherers (and
sometimes participants as well) who are
deliberately kept ignorant of the purpose
of the research so that they cannot unin-
tentionally bias the results.
operational definition A description of the
specific, observable behavior that will con-
stitute the variable that is to be studied, so
that any reader will know whether that
behavior occurred or not. Operational defi-
nitions may be arbitrary (e.g., an IQ score
at or above 130 is operationally defined as
“gifted”), but they must be precise.
meta-analysis A technique of combining
results of many studies to come to an
overall conclusion. Meta-analysis is power-
ful, in that small samples can be added
together to lead to significant conclusions,
although variations from study to study
sometimes make combining them impos-
sible.
effect size A way to indicate, statistically,
how much of an impact the independent
variable had on the dependent variable.
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school students, researchers found that the average boy scored a point higher on a
test of math ability than the average girl (see Chapter 15), that would be highly
significant but only a very small effect of gender.
A specific example involved methods to improve student’s writing ability be-
tween grades 4 and 12. A meta-analysis found that many methods of writing in-
struction have a significant impact, but effect size is much larger for some
methods (teaching strategies and summarizing) than for others (prewriting exer-
cises and studying models). For teachers, this statistic is crucial, for they want to
know what has a big effect, not merely what is better than chance (significant).
To read examples of meta-analysis and effect size, you might look at the following:
■ Dixon, Kim E., Keefe, Francis J., & Scipio, Cindy D. (2007). Psychological in-
terventions for arthritis pain management in adults: A meta-analysis. Health
Psychology, 26, 241–250. [The overall effect size was 0.17, considered small,
but some pain-management methods were found to be better than others.]
■ Graham, Steve, & Perin, Dolores. (2007). A meta-analysis of writing instruc-
tion for adolescent students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 445–476.
[This article, mentioned above, contains many interesting details, including
operational definitions and specific effect sizes.]
■ Grissom, R. J., & Kim, J. J. (2005). Effect sizes for research: A broad practi-
cal approach. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. [This article provides many specifics
about this statistical measure; it makes for heavy reading but is useful for
researchers.]
■ Hyde, Janet Shibley. (2001). Reporting effect sizes: The roles of editors, text-
book authors, and publication manuals. Educational and Psychological Mea-
surement, 61, 225–228. [Explains why effect size is important, using gender
differences as an example.]
■ Olatunji, Bunmi O., Cisler, Josh M., & Tolin, David F. (2007). Quality of life
in the anxiety disorders: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review,
2, 572–581. [This review concludes that anxiety disorders reduce the quality
of life, but some of them, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, have a
greater negative effect than others.].
■ Oosterman, Mirjam, Schuengel, Carlo, & Slot, N. Wim. (2007). Disruptions
in foster care: A review and meta-analysis. Children and Youth Services Re-
view, 29, 53–76. [This review finds that a child with behavior problems is
likely to experience more changes in placement, but kinship care is unex-
pectedly stable.]
More About Research Methods ■ APPENDIX B B-5
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The best way to study human development is to do some investigation yourself,
not only by reading the textbook and expressing your ideas in speech and writing
but also by undertaking some research of your own. Writing a term paper is the
usual mode in most college courses: You and your instructor already know the im-
portance of setting a deadline for each stage (topic selection, outline, first draft,
final draft), of asking several readers to evaluate your paper (perhaps including
other students or a professor), and of having the final version typed with refer-
ences correctly cited and listed. Some suggestions for effective use of journals and
the Internet are given in Appendix B.
The subject of human development is also ideal for more personal study, so
suggestions for conducting observations, case studies, surveys, and experiments
are offered here.
Learning Through Observation
Much can be learned by becoming more systematic in your observations of the
adults and children around you. One way to begin is to collect observations of ten
different children, in differing contexts, during the semester. Each profile should
be approximately one page and should cover the following four items:
1. Describe the physical and social context. You will want to describe where you
are, what day and time it is, and how many people you are observing. The
weather and age and gender of those who are being observed might also be
relevant. For example:
Neighborhood playground on (street), at about 4 P.M. on (day, date), 30 children
and 10 adults present.
OR
Supermarket at (location) on Saturday morning (day, date), about 20 shoppers
present.
2. Describe the specific child who is the focus of your attention. Estimate age, gen-
der, and so on of the target child and anyone else who interacts with the child.
Do not ask the age of the child until after the observation, if at all. Your goal is
to conduct a naturalistic observation that is unobtrusive. For example:
Boy, about 7 years old, playing with four other boys, who seem a year or two
older. All are dressed warmly (it is a cold day) in similar clothes.
OR
Girl, about 18 months old, in supermarket cart pushed by woman, about 30
years old. The cart is half full of groceries.
3. Write down everything that the child does or says in three minutes. (Use a watch
with a second hand.) Record gestures, facial expressions, movements, and
words. Accurate reporting is the goal, and three minutes becomes a surpris-
ingly long time if you write down everything. For example:
Child runs away about 20 feet, returns, and says, “Try to catch me.” Two boys
look at him, but they do not move. Boy frowns. He runs away and comes back in
10 seconds, stands about four feet away from the boys, and says, “Anyone want
to play tag?” [And so on.]
Appendix C
Suggestions for Research Assignments
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OR
Child points to a package of Frosted Flakes cereal and makes a noise. (I could
not hear if it was a word.) Mother says nothing and pushes the cart past the ce-
real. Child makes a whining noise, looks at the cereal, and kicks her left foot.
Mother puts pacifier in child’s mouth. [And so on.]
4. Interpret what you just observed. Is the child’s behavior typical of children that
age? Is the reaction of others helpful or not helpful? What values are being
encouraged, and what skills are being mastered? What could have happened
differently? This section is your opinion, but it must be based on the particu-
lars you have just observed and on your knowledge of child development, ide-
ally with specific reference to concepts (e.g., the first may be a rejected child;
the second child’s language development may not be encouraged).
Structuring a Case Study
A case study is more elaborate and detailed than an observation report. Select one
child (ask your instructor if family members can be used), and secure written per-
mission from the caregiver and, if the child is old enough, the child him- or her-
self. Explain that you are not going to report the name of the child, that the
material is for your class, that the child or caregiver can stop the project at any
time, and that they would be doing you a big favor in helping you learn about child
development. Most people are quite happy to help in your education, if you ex-
plain this properly.
Gather Your Data
First, collect the information for your paper by using all the research methods you
have learned. These methods include:
1. Naturalistic observation. Ask the caregiver when the child is likely to be awake
and active, and observe the child for an hour during this time. Try to be as un-
obtrusive as possible; you are not there to play with, or care for, the child. If
the child wants to play, explain that you must sit and write for now and that
you will play later.
Write down, minute by minute, everything the child does and that others
do with the child. Try to be objective, focusing on behavior rather than inter-
pretation. Thus, instead of writing “Jennifer was delighted when her father
came home, and he dotes on her,” you should write “5:33: Her father opened
the door, Jennifer looked up, smiled, said ‘dada,’ and ran to him. He bent
down, stretched out his arms, picked her up, and said, ‘How’s my little angel?’
5:34: He put her on his shoulders, and she said, ‘Giddy up, horsey.’”
After your observation, summarize the data in two ways: (a) Note the per-
centage of time spent in various activities. For instance, “Playing alone, 15
percent; playing with brother, 20 percent; crying, 3 percent.” (b) Note the fre-
quency of various behaviors: “Asked adult for something five times; adult
granted request four times. Aggressive acts (punch, kick, etc.) directed at
brother, 2; aggressive acts initiated by brother, 6.” Making notations like these
will help you evaluate and quantify your observations. Also, note any circum-
stances that might have made your observation atypical (e.g., “Jenny’s mother
said she hasn’t been herself since she had the flu a week ago,” or “Jenny kept
trying to take my pen, so it was hard to write”).
Note: Remember that a percentage can be found by dividing the total
number of minutes spent on a specific activity by the total number of minutes
C-2 APPENDIX C ■ Suggestions for Research Assignments
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you spent observing. For example, if, during your 45-minute observation, the
child played by herself for periods of 2 minutes, 4 minutes, and 5 minutes,
“playing alone” would total 11 minutes. Dividing 11 by 45 yields 0.244; thus
the child spent 24 percent of the time playing alone.
2. Informal interaction. Interact with the child for at least half an hour. Your goal
is to observe the child’s personality and abilities in a relaxed setting. The par-
ticular activities you engage in will depend on the child’s age and tempera-
ment. Most children enjoy playing games, reading books, drawing, and
talking. Asking a younger child to show you his or her room and favorite toys is
a good way to break the ice; asking an older child to show you the neighbor-
hood can provide insights.
3. Interview adults responsible for the child’s care. Keep these interviews loose and
open-ended. Your goals are to learn (a) the child’s history, especially any ill-
nesses, stresses, or problems that might affect development; (b) the child’s
daily routine, including play patterns; (c) current problems that might affect
the child; (d) a description of the child’s temperament and personality, includ-
ing special strengths and weaknesses.
You are just as interested in adult values and attitudes as in the facts;
therefore, you might concentrate on conversing during the interview, perhaps
writing down a few words. Then write down all you remember as soon as the
interview has been completed.
4. Testing the child. Assess the child’s perceptual, motor, language, and intellec-
tual abilities by using specific test items you have prepared in advance. The ac-
tual items you use will depend on the age of the child. For instance, you might
test object permanence in a child between 6 and 24 months old; you would
test conservation in a child between 3 and 9 years old. Likewise, testing lan-
guage abilities might involve babbling with an infant, counting words per sen-
tence with a preschooler, and asking a school-age child to make up a story.
Write Up Your Findings
Second, write the report, using the following steps:
1. Begin by reporting relevant background information, including the child’s
birth date and sex, age and sex of siblings, economic and ethnic background
of the family, and the educational and marital status of the parents.
2. Describe the child’s biosocial, cognitive, and psychosocial development, citing
supporting data from your research to substantiate any conclusions you have
reached. Do not simply transcribe your interview, test, or observation data, al-
though you can attach your notes as an appendix, if you wish.
3. Predict the child’s development in the next year, the next five years, and the
next ten years. List the strengths in the child, the family, and the community
that you think will foster optimal development. Also note whatever potential
problems you see (either in the child’s current behavior or in the family and
community support system) that may lead to future difficulties for the child.
Include discussion of the reasons, either methodological or theoretical, that
your predictions may not be completely accurate.
Finally, show your report to a classmate (your instructor may assign you to a
peer mentor) and ask if you have been clear in your description and predictions.
Discuss the child with your classmate to see if you should add more details to your
report. Your revised case study should be typed and given to your professor, who
will evaluate it. If you wish, send me a copy (Professor Kathleen Berger, c/o Worth
Publishers, 41 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10010).
Suggestions for Research Assignments ■ APPENDIX C C-3
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Experiments and Surveys
As you learned in Chapter 1, experiments and surveys are wonderful ways to learn
more about development, but each study needs to be very carefully designed and
undertaken to avoid bias and to ensure that all the ethical considerations are taken
into account. Accordingly, I recommend that an experiment or survey be under-
taken by a group of students, not by an individual. Listening carefully to other
opinions, using more than one person to collect data, and checking with your pro-
fessor before beginning the actual study are ways to make sure that your results
have some validity.
If you do this, structure your work in such a way that everyone contributes and
that contrary opinions are encouraged. (The normal human response is for every-
one to agree with everyone else, but, as you learned in Chapter 15, seeking alter-
nate, logical explanations can move an entire group forward to deeper, more
analytic thought.) You might designate one person to be the critic, or your group
might spend one day designing your study and another day finding problems with
the design. (Some problems simply need to be recognized and acknowledged, but
some of them can be fixed by changing the design.)
Specific topics for experiments or surveys depend on your group’s interests and
on your professor’s requirements for the course. For ideas, check this book’s Sub-
ject Index or Study Guide. Since development is multidisciplinary and multicon-
textual, almost any topic can be related to it. Just remember to consider theory
and practice, change and continuity, social interaction and cultural impact . . . and
then try to limit your initial experiment or survey to one small part of this fascinat-
ing, ever-changing subject!
C-4 APPENDIX C ■ Suggestions for Research Assignments
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G-1
Glossary
anoxia A lack of oxygen that, if prolonged
during birth, can cause brain damage or
death to the baby.
antioxidants Chemical compounds that
nullify the effects of oxygen free radicals by
forming a bond with their unattached oxygen
electron.
antipathy Feelings of anger, distrust, dislike,
or even hatred toward another person.
antisocial behavior Feeling and acting in
ways that are deliberately hurtful or destruc-
tive to another person.
antithesis A proposition or statement of be-
lief that opposes the thesis; the second stage
of the process of dialectical thinking.
Apgar scale A quick assessment of a new-
born’s body functioning. The baby’s color,
heart rate, reflexes, muscle tone, and respi-
ratory effort are given a score of 0, 1, or 2
twice—at one minute and five minutes after
birth—and the total of all the scores is com-
pared with the ideal score of 10.
apprentice in thinking Vygotsky’s term for
a person whose cognition is stimulated and
directed by older and more skilled members
of society.
aptitude The potential to master a particu-
lar skill or to learn a particular body of knowl-
edge.
Asperger syndrome A specific type of autis-
tic spectrum disorder characterized by ex-
treme attention to details and deficient social
understanding.
assisted living A living arrangement for eld-
erly people that combines privacy and inde-
pendence with medical supervision.
assisted reproductive technology (ART)
A general term for the techniques designed
to help infertile couples conceive and then
sustain a pregnancy.
asthma A chronic disease of the respiratory
system in which inflammation narrows the
airways from the lungs to the nose and
mouth, causing difficulty in breathing. Signs
and symptoms include wheezing, shortness
of breath, chest tightness, and coughing.
attachment According to Ainsworth, “an af-
fectional tie” that an infant forms with the
caregiver—a tie that binds them together in
space and endures over time.
A
AARP A U.S. organization of people aged
50 and older, which advocates for the elderly.
It was originally called the American
Association of Retired Persons, but now only
the initials AARP are used, to reflect the fact
that the organization’s members do not have
to be retired.
absent grief A situation in which overly pri-
vate people cut themselves off from the com-
munity and customs of expected grief; can
lead to social isolation.
achievement tests Measures of mastery or
proficiency in reading, math, writing, science,
or any other subject.
active euthanasia A situation in which
someone takes action to bring about another
person’s death, with the intention of ending
that person’s suffering.
activities of daily life (ADLs) Actions
that are important to independent living, typ-
ically consisting of five tasks of self-care: eat-
ing, bathing, toileting, dressing, and
transferring from a bed to a chair. The in-
ability to perform any of these tasks is a sign
of frailty.
activity theory The view that elderly peo-
ple want and need to remain active in a vari-
ety of social spheres—with relatives, friends,
and community groups—and become with-
drawn only unwillingly, as a result of ageism.
additive gene A gene that has several al-
leles, each of which contributes to the final
phenotype (such as skin color or height).
adolescence-limited offender A person
whose criminal activity stops by age 21.
adolescent egocentrism A characteristic
of adolescent thinking that leads young peo-
ple (ages 10 to 13) to focus on themselves to
the exclusion of others. A young person might
believe, for example, that his or her thoughts,
feelings, and experiences are unique, more
wonderful or awful than anyone else’s.
adrenal glands Two glands, located above
the kidneys, that produce hormones (includ-
ing the “stress hormones” epinephrine
[adrenaline] and norepinephrine).
affordance An opportunity for perception
and interaction that is offered by a person,
place, or object in the environment.
age in place Refers to a preference of eld-
erly people to remain in the same home and
community, adjusting but not leaving when
health fades.
age of viability The age (about 22 weeks
after conception) at which a fetus can survive
outside the mother’s uterus if specialized
medical care is available.
ageism A prejudice in which people are cat-
egorized and judged solely on the basis of
their chronological age.
aggressive-rejected Rejected by peers be-
cause of antagonistic, confrontational behav-
ior.
allele A slight, normal variation of a partic-
ular gene.
allostatic load The total, combined burden
of stress and disease that an individual must
cope with.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) The most com-
mon cause of dementia, characterized by
gradual deterioration of memory and person-
ality and marked by the formation of plaques
of beta-amyloid protein and tangles in the
brain.
amygdala A tiny brain structure that regis-
ters emotions, particularly fear and anxiety.
analytic intelligence A form of intelli-
gence that involves such mental processes as
abstract planning, strategy selection, focused
attention, and information processing, as well
as verbal and logical skills.
analytic thought Thought that results from
analysis, such as a systematic ranking of pros
and cons, risks and consequences, possibili-
ties and facts. Analytic thought depends on
logic and rationality.
androgyny A balance, within a person, of
traditionally male and female psychological
characteristics.
andropause A term coined to signify a drop
in testosterone levels in older men, which
normally results in reduced sexual desire,
erections, and muscle mass. Also known as
male menopause.
anorexia nervosa A serious eating disorder
in which a person restricts eating to the point
of emaciation and possible starvation. Most
victims are high-achieving females in early
puberty or early adulthood.
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behaviorism A grand theory of human de-
velopment that studies observable behavior.
Behaviorism is also called learning theory be-
cause it describes the laws and processes by
which behavior is learned.
bereavement The sense of loss following a
death.
bickering Petty, peevish arguing, usually re-
peated and ongoing.
Big Five The five basic clusters of person-
ality traits that remain quite stable through-
out adulthood: openness, conscientiousness,
extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
bilingual education A strategy in which
school subjects are taught in both the
learner’s original language and the second
(majority) language.
binocular vision The ability to focus the
two eyes in a coordinated manner in order to
see one image.
blastocyst A cell mass that develops from
the zygote in the first few days after concep-
tion, during the germinal period, and forms a
hollow sphere in preparation for implanta-
tion.
blended family A family that consists of
two adults and the children of the prior rela-
tionships of one or both parents and/or the
new partnership.
body image A person’s idea of how his or
her body looks.
body mass index (BMI) The ratio of a per-
son’s weight in kilograms divided by his or her
height in meters squared.
bulimia nervosa An eating disorder in which
the person, usually female, engages repeatedly
in episodes of binge eating followed by purging
through induced vomiting or use of laxatives.
bully-victim Someone who attacks others,
and who is attacked as well. (Also called
provocative victims because they do things
that elicit bullying, such as taking a bully’s
pencil.)
bullying aggression Unprovoked, repeated
physical or verbal attack, especially on vic-
tims who are unlikely to defend themselves.
bullying Repeated, systematic efforts to in-
flict harm through physical, verbal, or social
attack on a weaker person.
butterfly effect The idea that a small effect
or thing can have a large impact if it happens
to tip the balance, causing other changes that
create a major event.
C
calorie restriction The practice of limiting
dietary energy intake (while consuming suf-
ficient quantities of vitamins, minerals, and
other important nutrients) for the purpose of
improving health and slowing down the aging
process.
cardiovascular disease Disease that in-
volves the heart and the circulatory system.
carrier A person whose genotype includes
a gene that is not expressed in the phenotype.
Such an unexpressed gene occurs in half of
the carrier’s gametes and thus is passed on to
half of the carrier’s children, who will most
likely be carriers, too. Generally, only when
the gene is inherited from both parents does
the characteristic appear in the phenotype.
case study A research method in which one
individual is studied intensively.
centenarian A person who has lived 100
years or more.
center day care Child care in a place es-
pecially designed for the purpose, where sev-
eral paid providers care for many children.
Usually the children are grouped by age, the
day-care center is licensed, and providers are
trained and certified in child development.
centration A characteristic of preopera-
tional thought in which a young child focuses
(centers) on one idea, excluding all others.
cerebral palsy A disorder that results from
damage to the brain’s motor centers. People
with cerebral palsy have difficulty with mus-
cle control, so their speech and body move-
ments are impaired.
cesarean section A surgical birth, in which
incisions through the mother’s abdomen and
uterus allow the fetus to be removed quickly,
instead of being delivered through the vagina.
(Also called c-section or simply section.)
child abuse Deliberate action that is harm-
ful to a child’s physical, emotional, or sexual
well-being.
child maltreatment Intentional harm to or
avoidable endangerment of anyone under 18
years of age.
child neglect Failure to meet a child’s ba-
sic physical, educational, or emotional needs.
child sexual abuse Any erotic activity that
arouses an adult and excites, shames, or con-
fuses a child, whether or not the victim protests
and whether or not genital contact is involved.
child-directed speech The high-pitched,
simplified, and repetitive way adults speak to
infants. (Also called baby talk or motherese.)
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD) A condition in which a person not
only has great difficulty concentrating for
more than a few moments but also is inat-
tentive, impulsive, and overactive.
authoritarian parenting Child rearing with
high behavioral standards, punishment of mis-
conduct, and low communication.
authoritative parenting Child rearing in
which the parents set limits but listen to the
child and are flexible.
autism A developmental disorder marked by
an inability to relate to other people normally,
extreme self-absorption, and an inability to
acquire normal speech.
autistic spectrum disorder Any of several
disorders characterized by inadequate social
skills, unusual communication, and abnormal
play.
automatization A process in which repeti-
tion of a sequence of thoughts and actions
makes the sequence routine, so that it no
longer requires conscious thought.
autonomy versus shame and doubt Erik-
son’s second crisis of psychosocial develop-
ment. Toddlers either succeed or fail in
gaining a sense of self-rule over their own ac-
tions and bodies.
average life expectancy The number of
years the average newborn in a particular
population group is likely to live.
axon A nerve fiber that extends from a neu-
ron and transmits electrical impulses from
that neuron to the dendrites of other neu-
rons.
B
B cells Immune cells manufactured in the
bone marrow that create antibodies for iso-
lating and destroying bacteria and viruses that
are invading the body.
babbling The extended repetition of certain
syllables, such as ba-ba-ba, that begins be-
tween 6 and 9 months of age.
balanced bilingual A person who is fluent
in two languages, not favoring one or the
other.
behavioral teratogens Agents and condi-
tions that can harm the prenatal brain, im-
pairing the future child’s intellectual and
emotional functioning.
G-2 GLOSSARY
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common couple violence A form of abuse
in which one or both partners of a couple en-
gage in outbursts of verbal and physical at-
tack. (Also called situational couple violence.)
comorbidity The presence of two or more
unrelated disease conditions at the same time
in the same person.
comparison group/control group A group
of participants in a research study who are
similar to the experimental group in all rele-
vant ways but who do not experience the ex-
perimental condition (the independent
variable).
compression of morbidity A lessening of
the time a person spends ill or infirm, ac-
complished by postponing illness.
concrete operational thought Piaget’s term
for the ability to reason logically about direct
experiences and perceptions.
conditioning According to behaviorism, the
processes by which reponses become linked
to particular stimuli and learning takes place.
The word conditioning is used to emphasize
the importance of repeated practice, as when
an athlete gets into physical condition by
training for a long time.
conservation The idea that the amount of
a substance remains the same (i.e., is con-
served) when its appearance changes.
continuity theory The theory that each per-
son experiences the changes of late adulthood
and behaves toward others in much the same
way he or she did in earlier periods of life.
control processes Mechanisms (including
selective attention, metacognition, and emo-
tional regulation) that combine memory, pro-
cessing speed, and knowledge to regulate the
analysis and flow of information within the
information-processing system.
conventional moral reasoning Kohlberg’s
second level of moral reasoning, emphasizing
social rules.
corpus callosum A long band of nerve
fibers that connect the left and right hemi-
spheres of the brain.
correlation A number indicating the degree
of relationship between two variables, ex-
pressed in terms of the likelihood that one
variable will (or will not) occur when the
other variable does (or does not). A correla-
tion is not an indication that one variable
causes the other, only that the two variables
are related to the indicated degree.
cortex The outer layers of the brain in hu-
mans and other mammals. Most thinking,
feeling, and sensing involve the cortex.
(Sometimes called the neocortex.)
creative intelligence A form of intelli-
gence that involves the capacity to be intel-
lectually flexible and innovative.
critical period In prenatal development,
the time when a particular organ or other
body part of the embryo or fetus is most sus-
ceptible to damage by teratogens. Also, a time
when a certain development must happen if
it is ever to happen. For example, the embry-
onic period is critical for the development of
arms and legs.
cross-sectional research A research de-
sign that compares groups of people who dif-
fer in age but are similar in other important
characteristics.
cross-sequential research A hybrid re-
search method in which researchers first
study several groups of people of different
ages (a cross-sectional approach) and then
follow those groups over the years (a longitu-
dinal approach). (Also called cohort-sequen-
tial research or time-sequential research.)
crowd A larger group of adolescents who
have something in common but who are not
necessarily friends.
crystallized intelligence Those types of
intellectual ability that reflect accumulated
learning. Vocabulary and general information
are examples. Some developmental psychol-
ogists think crystallized intelligence increases
with age, while fluid intelligence declines.
culture of children The particular habits,
styles, and values that reflect the set of rules
and rituals that characterize children as dis-
tinct from adult society.
D
DALYs (disability-adjusted life years) A
measure of the impact that disability has on
quality of life. DALYs are the reciprocal of
quality-adjusted life years: A reduction in
QALYs means an increase in DALYs.
deductive reasoning Reasoning from a gen-
eral statement, premise, or principle, through
logical steps, to figure out (deduce) specifics.
(Sometimes called top-down thinking.)
deferred imitation A sequence in which
an infant first perceives something that some-
one else does and then performs the same ac-
tion a few hours or even days later.
Defining Issues Test (DIT) A series of
questions developed by James Rest and de-
signed to assess respondents’ level of moral
development by having them rank possible
solutions to moral dilemmas.
children with special needs Children who,
because of a physical or mental disability, re-
quire extra help in order to learn.
chromosome One of the 46 molecules of
DNA (in 23 pairs) that each cell of the hu-
man body contains and that, together, con-
tain all the genes. Other species have more
or fewer chromosomes.
classical conditioning The learning process
that connects a meaningful stimulus (such as
the smell of food to a hungry animal) with a
neutral stimulus (such as the sound of a bell)
that had no special meaning before condi-
tioning. Also called respondent conditioning.
classification The logical principle that
things can be organized into groups (or cate-
gories or classes) according to some charac-
teristic they have in common.
clinical depression Feelings of hopeless-
ness, lethargy, and worthlessness that last two
weeks or more.
clique A group of adolescents made up of
close friends who are loyal to one another
while excluding outsiders.
clone An organism that is produced from
another organism through artificial replica-
tion of cells and is genetically identical to that
organism.
cluster suicides Several suicides commit-
ted by members of a group within a brief pe-
riod of time.
co-sleeping A custom in which parents and
their children (usually infants) sleep together.
(Also called bed-sharing.)
code of ethics A set of moral principles
that members of a profession or group are ex-
pected to follow.
cognitive equilibrium In cognitive theory,
a state of mental balance in which people are
not confused because they can use their ex-
isting thought processes to understand cur-
rent experiences and ideas.
cognitive theory A grand theory of human
development that focuses on changes in how
people think over time. According to this the-
ory, our thoughts shape our attitudes, beliefs,
and behaviors.
cohabitation An arrangement in which a
man and a woman live together in a commit-
ted sexual relationship but are not formally
married.
cohort A group of people who were born at
about the same time and thus move through
life together, experiencing the same histori-
cal events and cultural shifts.
GLOSSARY G-3
G-3
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diathesis-stress model The view that men-
tal disorders, such as schizophrenia, are pro-
duced by the interaction of a genetic
vulnerability (the diathesis) with stressful en-
vironmental factors and life events.
disability Long-term difficulty in perform-
ing normal activities of daily life because of
some physical, mental, or emotional condi-
tion.
disenfranchised grief A situation in which
certain people, although they are bereaved,
are not allowed to mourn publicly.
disengagement theory The view that ag-
ing makes a person’s social sphere increas-
ingly narrow, resulting in role relinquishment,
withdrawal, and passivity.
disorganized attachment A type of attach-
ment that is marked by an infant’s inconsis-
tent reactions to the caregiver’s departure and
return.
distal parenting Parenting practices that
focus on the intellect more than the body,
such as talking with the baby and playing
with an object.
diversity For developmentalists, diversity in-
volves differences among groups of people
based on such characteristics as race, gender,
culture, age, family income, and sexuality.
dizygotic (DZ) twins Twins who are formed
when two separate ova are fertilized by two
separate sperm at roughly the same time.
(Also called fraternal twins.)
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) The mole-
cule that contains the chemical instructions
for cells to manufacture various proteins.
DNR (do not resuscitate) A written order
from a physician (sometimes initiated by a
patient’s advance directive or by a health care
proxy’s request) that no attempt should be
made to revive a patient if he or she suffers
cardiac or respiratory arrest.
dominant–recessive pattern The interac-
tion of a pair of alleles in such a way that the
phenotype reveals the influence of one allele
(the dominant gene) more than that of the
other (the recessive gene).
double effect An ethical situation in which
a person performs an action that is good or
morally neutral but has ill effects that are
foreseen, though not desired.
doula A woman who helps with the birth
process. Traditionally in Latin America, a
doula was like a midwife, the only profes-
sional who attended childbirths. Now doulas
are likely to work alongside a hospital’s med-
ical staff to help mothers through labor and
delivery.
Down syndrome A condition in which a per-
son has 47 chromosomes instead of the usual
46, with three rather than two chromosomes
at the 21st position. People with Down syn-
drome typically have distinctive characteris-
tics, including unusual facial features, heart
abnormalities, and language difficulties. (Also
called trisomy-21.)
drug abuse The ingestion of a drug to the
extent that it impairs the user’s biological or
psychological well-being.
drug addiction A condition of drug de-
pendence in which the absence of the given
drug in the individual’s system produces a
drive—physiological, psychological, or
both—to ingest more of the drug.
dual-process model The notion that two
networks exist within the human brain, one
for emotional and one for analytical process-
ing of stimuli.
dual-task deficit A situation in which a
person’s performance of one task is impeded
by interference from the simultaneous per-
formance of another task.
dynamic perception Perception that is
primed to focus on movement and change.
dynamic theories Theories of psychosocial
development that emphasize change and
readjustment rather than either the ongoing
self or the impact of stratification. Each per-
son’s life is seen as an active, ever-changing,
largely self-propelled process, occurring
within specific social contexts that are also
constantly changing.
dynamic-systems theory A view of human
development as always changing. Life is the
product of ongoing interaction between the
physical and emotional being and between
the person and every aspect of his or her en-
vironment, including the family and society.
Flux is constant, and each change affects all
the others.
dyslexia Unusual difficulty with reading;
thought to be the result of some neurological
underdevelopment.
E
eclectic perspective The approach taken
by most developmentalists, in which they ap-
ply aspects of each of the various theories of
development rather than adhering exclusively
to one theory.
ecological niche The particular lifestyle
and social context adults settle into that are
compatible with their individual personality
needs and interests.
delay discounting The tendency to under-
value, or downright ignore, future conse-
quences and rewards in favor of more
immediate gratification.
delirium A temporary loss of memory, often
accompanied by emotions of fear or grandios-
ity and irrational actions.
dementia Irreversible loss of intellectual
functioning caused by organic brain damage
or disease. Dementia becomes more common
with age, but it is abnormal and pathological
even in the very old.
demography The study of the characteristics
of human populations, including size, birth
and death rates, density, and distribution.
dendrite A nerve fiber that extends from a
neuron and receives electrical impulses trans-
mitted from other neurons via their axons.
dependency ratio The ratio of self-suffi-
cient, productive adults to dependents (chil-
dren and the elderly) in a given population.
dependent variable In an experiment, the
variable that may change as a result of what-
ever new condition or situation the experi-
menter adds. In other words, the dependent
variable depends on the independent variable.
developmental psychopathology The field
that uses insights into typical development to
study and treat developmental disorders, and
vice versa.
developmental theory A group of ideas,
assumptions, and generalizations that inter-
pret and illuminate the thousands of obser-
vations that have been made about human
growth. In this way, developmental theories
provide a framework for explaining the pat-
terns and problems of development.
deviancy training The process whereby
children are taught by their peers how to
rebel against authority or social norms.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-R) The Amer-
ican Psychiatric Association’s official guide to
the diagnosis (not treatment) of mental dis-
orders. (IV-R means “fourth edition, revised.”)
dialectical thought The most advanced
cognitive process, characterized by the abil-
ity to consider a thesis and its antithesis si-
multaneously and thus to arrive at a
synthesis. Dialectical thought makes possible
an ongoing awareness of pros and cons, ad-
vantages and disadvantages, possibilities and
limitations.
G-4 GLOSSARY
G-4
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epigenetic theory An emergent theory of
development that considers both the genetic
origins of behavior (within each person and
within each species) and the direct, system-
atic influence that environmental forces
have, over time, on genes.
ESL (English as a second language) An
approach to teaching English in which all
children who do not speak English are placed
together and given an intensive course in ba-
sic English so that they can be educated in
the same classroom as native English speak-
ers.
estradiol A sex hormone, considered the
chief estrogen. Females produce more estra-
diol than males do.
ethnic group People whose ancestors were
born in the same region and who often share
a language, culture, and religion.
ethnotheory A theory that underlies the
values and practices of a culture and that be-
comes apparent through analysis and com-
parison of those practices, although it is not
usually apparent to the people within the cul-
ture.
exclusion criteria A person’s reasons for
omitting certain people from consideration as
close friends or romantic partners. Exclusion
criteria vary from one individual to another,
but they are strong filters.
experience-dependent Refers to brain
functions that depend on particular, variable
experiences and that therefore may or may
not develop in a particular infant.
experience-expectant Refers to brain
functions that require certain basic common
experiences (which an infant can be expected
to have) in order to develop normally.
experiment A research method in which
the researcher tries to determine the cause-
and-effect relationship between two variables
by manipulating one variable (called the in-
dependent variable) and then observing and
recording the resulting changes in the other
variable (called the dependent variable).
experimental group A group of participants
in a research study who experience some spe-
cial treatment or condition (the independent
variable).
explicit memory Memory that is easy to re-
trieve on demand (as in a specific test), usu-
ally with words. Most explicit memory
involves consciously learned words, data, and
concepts.
extended family A family of three or more
generations living in one household.
externalizing problems Difficulty with
emotional regulation that involves outwardly
expressing emotions in uncontrolled ways,
such as by lashing out in impulsive anger or
attacking other people or things.
extreme sports Forms of recreation that in-
clude apparent risk of injury or death and that
are attractive and thrilling as a result.
Motocross is one example.
extremely low birthweight (ELBW) A
body weight at birth of less than 3 pounds
(1,360 grams).
extrinsic motivation The need for rewards
from outside, such as material possessions or
someone else’s esteem.
extrinsic rewards of work The tangible re-
wards, usually in the form of compensation,
that one receives for a job (e.g., salary, bene-
fits, pension).
F
familism The idea that family members
should support one another because family
unity is more important than individual free-
dom and success or failure.
family day care Child care that occurs in
another caregiver’s home. Usually the care-
giver is paid at a lower rate than in center
care, and usually one person cares for several
children of various ages.
family function The way a family works
to meet the needs of its members. Children
need families to provide basic material ne-
cessities, encourage learning, develop self-
respect, nurture friendships, and foster
harmony and stability.
family structure The legal and genetic re-
lationships (e.g., nuclear, extended, step)
among relatives in the same home.
fast-mapping The speedy and sometimes
imprecise way in which children learn new
words by mentally charting them into cate-
gories according to their meaning.
fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) A cluster
of birth defects, including abnormal facial
characteristics, slow physical growth, and re-
tarded mental development, caused by the
mother’s drinking alcohol while pregnant.
fetal period The stage of prenatal develop-
ment from the ninth week after after con-
ception until birth, during which the organs
grow in size and mature in functioning.
ecological-systems approach A vision of
how human development should be studied,
with the person considered in all the contexts
and interactions that constitute a life.
edgework Occupations or recreational ac-
tivities that require a degree of risk or danger;
it is this prospect of “living on the edge” that
makes edgework compelling to some individ-
uals.
effortful control The ability to regulate
one’s emotions and actions through effort,
not simply through natural inclination.
egocentrism Piaget’s term for children’s
tendency to think about the world entirely
from their own personal perspective.
elderspeak A condescending way of speak-
ing to older adults that resembles baby talk,
with simple and short sentence, exaggerated
emphasis, repetition, and a slower rate and a
higher pitch than normal speech.
Electra complex The unconscious desire
of girls to replace their mother and win their
father’s exclusive love.
embryo The name for a developing organ-
ism from about the third through the eighth
week after conception.
embryonic period The stage of prenatal de-
velopment from approximately the third
through the eighth week after conception,
during which the basic forms of all body struc-
tures, including internal organs, develop.
emergent theories Theories that bring to-
gether information from many disciplines in
addition to psychology and that are becom-
ing comprehensive and systematic in their in-
terpretations of development but are not yet
established and detailed enough to be con-
sidered grand theories.
emotional regulation The ability to control
when and how emotions are expressed. This
is the most important psychosocial develop-
ment to occur between the ages of 2 and 6,
though it continues throughout life.
empathy The ability to understand the emo-
tions of another person, especially when
those emotions differ from one’s own.
empirical Based on observation, experience,
or experiment; not theoretical.
empty nest A time in the lives of parents
when their grown children leave the family
home to pursue their own lives.
English-language learner (ELL) A child
who is learning English as a second language.
GLOSSARY G-5
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G
gamete A reproductive cell; that is, a sperm
or ovum that can produce a new individual if
it combines with a gamete from the other sex
to make a zygote.
gateways to attraction The various quali-
ties, such as appearance and proximity, that
are prerequisites for the formation of close
friendships and intimate relationships.
gender convergence A tendency for men
and women to become more similar as they
move through middle age.
gender differences Differences in the
roles and behavior of males and females that
originate in the culture.
gender identity A person’s acceptance of
the roles and behaviors that society associates
with the biological categories of male and fe-
male.
gene A section of a chromosome and the ba-
sic unit for the transmission of heredity, con-
sisting of a string of chemicals that code for
the manufacture of certain proteins.
general intelligence (g) The idea that intel-
ligence is one basic trait, underlying all cogni-
tive abilities. According to this concept, people
have varying levels of this general ability.
generational forgetting The idea that each
new generation forgets what the previous
generation learned about harmful drugs.
genetic clock A purported mechanism in
the DNA of cells that regulates the aging
process by triggering hormonal changes and
controlling cellular reproduction and repair.
genetic counseling Consultation and test-
ing by trained experts that enable individuals
to learn about their genetic heritage, includ-
ing harmful conditions that they might pass
along to any children they may conceive.
genome The full set of genes that are the
instructions to make an individual member
of a certain species.
genotype An organism’s entire genetic in-
heritance, or genetic potential.
geriatrics The medical specialty devoted to
aging.
germinal period The first two weeks of
prenatal development after conception, char-
acterized by rapid cell division and the be-
ginning of cell differentiation.
gerontology The multidisciplinary study of
old age.
gonads The paired sex glands (ovaries in fe-
males, testicles in males). The gonads pro-
duce hormones and gametes.
good death A death that is peaceful, quick,
and painless and that occurs at the end of a
long life, in the company of family and
friends, and in familiar surroundings.
goodness of fit A similarity of temperament
and values that produces a smooth interac-
tion between an individual and his or her so-
cial context, including family, school, and
community.
grammar All the methods—word order,
verb forms, and so on—that languages use to
communicate meaning, apart from the words
themselves.
grand theories Comprehensive theories of
psychology, which have traditionally inspired
and directed psychologists’ thinking about
child development. Psychoanalytic theory,
behaviorism, and cognitive theory are all
grand theories.
grief An individual’s emotional response to
the death of another.
gross motor skills Physical abilities involv-
ing large body movements, such as walking
and jumping. (The word gross here means
“big.”)
growth spurt The relatively sudden and
rapid physical growth that occurs during pu-
berty. Each body part increases in size on a
schedule. Weight usually precedes height,
and the limbs precede the torso.
guided participation In sociocultural the-
ory, a technique in which skilled mentors
help novices learn not only by providing in-
struction but also by allowing direct, shared
involvement in the activity. Also called ap-
prenticeship in thinking.
H
habituation The process of getting used to
an object or event through repeated exposure
to it.
Hayflick limit The number of times a hu-
man cell is capable of dividing into two new
cells. The limit for most human cells is ap-
proximately 50 divisions, an indication that
the life span is limited by our genetic program.
head-sparing The biological protection of
the brain when malnutrition affects body
growth. The brain is the last part of the body
to be damaged by malnutrition.
fetus The name for a developing organism
from the ninth week after conception until
birth.
fictive kin A term used to describe some-
one who becomes accepted as part of a fam-
ily to whom he or she has no blood relation.
filial responsibility The idea that adult
children are obligated to care for their aging
parents.
fine motor skills Physical abilities involv-
ing small body movements, especially of the
hands and fingers, such as drawing and pick-
ing up a coin. (The word fine here means
“small.”)
fluid intelligence Those types of basic in-
telligence that make learning of all sorts
quick and thorough. Abilities such as short-
term memory, abstract thought, and speed of
thinking are all usually considered part of
fluid intelligence.
Flynn Effect The rise in average IQ scores
that has occurred over the decades in devel-
oped nations.
fMRI Functional magnetic resonance im-
aging, a measuring technique in which the
brain’s electrical excitement indicates activa-
tion anywhere in the brain; fMRI helps re-
searchers locate neurological responses to
stimuli.
focus on appearance A characteristic of
preoperational thought in which a young
child ignores all attributes that are not ap-
parent.
foreclosure Erikson’s term for premature
identity formation, which occurs when an
adolescent adopts parents’ or society’s roles
and values wholesale, without questioning
and analysis.
formal operational thought In Piaget’s
theory, the fourth and final stage of cognitive
development, characterized by more system-
atic logic and the ability to think about ab-
stract ideas.
foster care A legal, publicly supported plan
in which a maltreated child is removed from
the parents’ custody and entrusted to another
adult, who is paid to be the child’s caregiver.
fragile X syndrome A genetic disorder in
which part of the X chromosome seems to be
attached to the rest of it by a very thin string
of molecules. The actual cause is too many
repetitions of a particular part of a gene’s
code.
frail elderly People over age 65 who are
physically infirm, very ill, or cognitively im-
paired.
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HPA axis The hypothalamus-pituitary-ad-
renal axis, a route followed by many kinds of
hormones to trigger the changes of puberty
and to regulate stress, growth, sleep, appetite,
sexual excitement, and various other bodily
changes.
Human Genome Project An international
effort to map the complete human genetic
code. This effort was essentially completed
in 2001, though analysis is ongoing.
hypothalamus A brain area that responds
to the amygdala and the hippocampus to pro-
duce hormones that activate other parts of
the brain and body.
hypothesis A specific prediction that is
stated in such a way that it can be tested and
either confirmed or refuted.
hypothetical thought Reasoning that in-
cludes propositions and possibilities that may
not reflect reality.
I
identification An attempt to defend one’s
self-concept by taking on the behaviors and
attitudes of someone else.
identity The logical principle that certain
characteristics of an object remain the same
even if other characteristics change. Also, a
consistent definition of one’s self as a unique
individual, in terms of roles, attitudes, beliefs,
and aspirations.
identity achievement Erikson’s term for
the attainment of identity, or the point at
which a person understands who he or she is
as a unique individual, in accord with past ex-
periences and future plans.
identity diffusion A situation in which an
adolescent does not seem to know or care
what his or her identity is.
identity versus diffusion Erikson’s term
for the fifth stage of development, in which
the person tries to figure out “Who am I?” but
is confused as to which of many possible
roles to adopt.
imaginary audience The other people
who, in an adolescent’s egocentric belief, are
watching, and taking note of, his or her ap-
pearance, ideas, and behavior. This belief
makes many teenagers very self-conscious.
immunization A process that stimulates
the body’s immune system to defend against
attack by a particular contagious disease. A
person may acquire immunization either nat-
urally (by having the disease) or through vac-
cination (by having an injection, wearing a
patch, swallowing, or inhaling).
implantation The process, beginning about
10 days after conception, in which the de-
veloping organism burrows into the placenta
that lines the uterus, where it can be nour-
ished and protected as it continues to de-
velop.
implicit memory Unconscious or auto-
matic memory that is usually stored via
habits, emotional responses, routine proce-
dures, and various sensations.
in vitro fertilization (IVF) Fertilization that
takes place outside a woman’s body (as in a
glass laboratory dish). Sperm are mixed with
ova that have been surgically removed from the
woman’s ovary. If the combination produces a
zygote, it is inserted into the woman’s uterus,
where it may implant and develop into a baby.
incidence How often a particular behavior
or circumstance occurs.
inclusion An approach to educating children
with special needs in which they are included
in regular classrooms, with “appropriate aids
and services,” as required by law.
incomplete grief A situation in which cir-
cumstances, such as a police investigation or
an autopsy, interfere with the process of
grieving.
independent variable In an experiment,
the variable that is introduced to see what ef-
fect it has on the dependent variable. (Also
called experimental variable.)
individual education plan (IEP) A doc-
ument that specifies educational goals and
plans for a child with special needs.
induced abortion The intentional termi-
nation of a pregnancy.
inductive reasoning Reasoning from one
or more specific experiences or facts to a gen-
eral conclusion; may be less cognitively ad-
vanced than deduction. (Sometimes called
bottom-up reasoning.)
industry versus inferiority The fourth of
Erikson’s eight psychosexual development
crises, during which children attempt to mas-
ter many skills, developing a sense of them-
selves as either industrious or inferior,
competent or incompetent.
infertility The inability to produce a baby
after at least a year of trying to conceive via
sexual intercourse.
information-processing theory A per-
spective that compares human thinking
processes, by analogy, to computer analysis of
data, including sensory input, connections,
stored memories, and output.
health care proxy A person chosen by an-
other person to make medical decisions if the
second person becomes unable to do so.
heterogamy Defined by developmentalists as
marriage between individuals who tend to be
dissimilar with repect to such variables as at-
titudes, interests, goals, socioeconomic status,
religion, ethnic background, and local origin.
hidden curriculum The unofficial, un-
stated, or implicit rules and priorities that in-
fluence the academic curriculum and every
other aspect of learning in school.
high-stakes test An evaluation that is critical
in determining success or failure. If a single test
determines whether a student will graduate or
be promoted, that is a high-stakes test.
hikikomori A Japanese word meaning “pull
away,” a common anxiety disorder in Japan in
which emerging adults refuse to leave their
rooms.
hippocampus A brain structure that is a
central processor of memory, especially the
memory of locations.
holophrase A single word that is used to ex-
press a complete, meaningful thought.
homeostasis The adjustment of the body’s
systems to keep physiological functions in a
state of equilibrium. As the body ages, it takes
longer for these homeostatic adjustments to
occur, so it becomes harder for older bodies
to adapt to stress.
homogamy Defined by developmentalists as
marriage between individuals who tend to be
similar with respect to such variables as atti-
tudes, interests, goals, socioeconomic status,
religion, ethnic background, and local origin.
hormone An organic chemical substance
that is produced by one body tissue and con-
veyed via the bloodstream to another to af-
fect some physiological function. Various
hormones influence thoughts, urges, emo-
tions, and behavior.
hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
Treatment to compensate for hormone reduc-
tion at menopause or following surgical re-
moval of the ovaries. Such treatment, which
usually involves estrogen and progesterone,
minimizes menopausal symptoms and dimin-
ishes the risk of osteoporosis in later adulthood.
hospice An institution in which terminally
ill patients receive palliative care.
household A group of people who live to-
gether in one dwelling and share its common
spaces, such as kitchen and living room.
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intrinsic motivation Goals or drives that
come from inside a person, such as the need
to feel smart or competent. This contrasts
with external motivation, the need for re-
wards from outside, such as material posses-
sions or someone else’s esteem.
intrinsic rewards of work The intangible
benefits one receives from a job (e.g., job sat-
isfaction, self-esteem, pride) that come from
within oneself.
intuitive thought Thought that arises from
an emotion or a hunch, beyond rational ex-
planation. Past experiences, cultural as-
sumptions, and sudden impulses are the
precursors of intuitive thought. (Also called
contextualized or experiential thought.)
invincibility fable An adolescent’s egocen-
tric conviction that he or she cannot be over-
come or even harmed by anything that might
defeat a normal mortal, such as unprotected
sex, drug abuse, or high-speed driving.
IQ tests Tests designed to measure intellec-
tual aptitude, or ability to learn in school.
Originally, intelligence was defined as mental
age divided by chronological age, times 100—
hence the term intelligence quotient, or IQ.
irreversibility The idea that nothing can be
undone; the inability to recognize that some-
thing can sometimes be restored to the way
it was before a change occurred.
K
kangaroo care A form of child care in which
the mother of a low-birthweight infant spends
at least an hour a day holding the baby be-
tween her breasts, like a kangaroo that carries
her immature newborn in a pouch on her ab-
domen. If the infant is capable, he or she can
easily breast-feed in this position.
kinkeeper The person who takes primary
responsibility for celebrating family achieve-
ments, gathering the family together, and
keeping in touch with family members who
do not live nearby.
kinship care A form of foster care in which
a relative of a maltreated child becomes the
approved caregiver.
knowledge base A body of knowledge in a
particular area that makes it easier to master
new information in that area.
kwashiorkor A disease of chronic malnu-
trition during childhood, in which a protein
deficiency makes the child more vulnerable
to other diseases, such as measles, diarrhea,
and influenza.
L
language acquisition device (LAD)
Chomsky’s term for a hypothesized mental
structure that enables humans to learn lan-
guage, including the basic aspects of gram-
mar, vocabulary, and intonation.
latency Freud’s term for middle childhood,
during which children’s emotional drives and
psychosocial needs are quiet (latent). Freud
thought that sexual conflicts from earlier
stages are only temporarily submerged, to
burst forth again at puberty.
lateralization Literally, sidedness. The spe-
cialization in certain functions by each side
of the brain, with one side dominant for each
activity. The left side of the brain controls the
right side of the body, and vice versa.
learning disability A marked delay in a
particular area of learning that is not caused
by an apparent physical disability, by mental
retardation, or by an unusually stressful home
environment.
least restrictive environment (LRE) A
legal requirement that children with special
needs be assigned to the most general edu-
cational context in which they can be ex-
pected to learn.
life review An examination of one’s own
part in life, engaged in by many elderly peo-
ple.
life-course-persistent offender A person
whose criminal activity typically begins in
early adolescence and continues throughout
life; a career criminal.
linked lives The notion that family mem-
bers tend to share all aspects of each other’s
lives, from triumph to tragedy.
“little scientist” Piaget’s term for the stage-
five toddler (age 12 to 18months) who ex-
periments without anticipating the results.
living will A document that indicates what
medical intervention an individual wants if
he or she becomes incapable of expressing
those wishes.
long-term memory The component of the
information-processing system in which vir-
tually limitless amounts of information can
be stored indefinitely.
longitudinal research A research design in
which the same individuals are followed over
time and their development is repeatedly as-
sessed.
low birthweight (LBW) A body weight at
birth of less than 51⁄2 pounds (2,500 grams).
initiative versus guilt Erikson’s third psy-
chosocial crisis. Children begin new activi-
ties and feel guilty when they fail.
injury control/harm reduction Practices
that are aimed at anticipating, controlling,
and preventing dangerous activities; these
practices reflect the beliefs that accidents are
not random and that injuries can be made
less harmful if proper controls are in place.
insecure-avoidant attachment A pattern
of attachment in which an infant avoids con-
nection with the caregiver, as when the infant
seems not to care about the caregiver’s pres-
ence, departure, or return.
insecure-resistant/ambivalent attachment
A pattern of attachment in which anxiety and
uncertainty are evident, as when an infant is
very upset at separation from the caregiver and
both resists and seeks contact on reunion.
instrumental activities of daily life
(IADLs) Actions that are important to in-
dependent living and that require some in-
tellectual competence and forethought. The
ability to perform these tasks may be even
more critical to self-sufficiency than ADL
ability.
instrumental aggression Hurtful behavior
that is intended to get or keep something that
another person has.
integrity versus despair The final stage of
Erik Erikson’s developmental sequence, in
which older adults seek to integrate their
unique experiences with their vision of com-
munity.
interaction effect The result of a combina-
tion of teratogens. Sometimes risk is greatly
magnified when an embryo or fetus is exposed
to more than one teratogen at the same time.
internalizing problems Difficulty with
emotional regulation that involves turning
one’s emotional distress inward, as by feeling
excessively guilty, ashamed, or worthless.
intimacy versus isolation The sixth of
Erikson’s eight stages of development. Adults
seek someone with whom to share their lives
in an enduring and self-sacrificing commit-
ment. Without such commitment, they risk
profound aloneness and isolation.
intimate terrorism Spouse abuse in which,
most often, the husband uses violent meth-
ods of accelerating intensity to isolate, de-
grade, and punish the wife.
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monozygotic (MZ) twins Twins who orig-
inate from one zygote that splits apart very
early in development. (Also called identical
twins.) Other monozygotic multiple births
(for example, quadruplets) can occur as well.
morality of care In Gilligan’s view, the ten-
dency of females to be reluctant to judge
right and wrong in absolute terms because
they are socialized to be more nurturant,
compassionate, and nonjudgmental.
morality of justice In Gilligan’s view, the
tendency of males to emphasize justice over
compassion, judging right and wrong in ab-
solute terms.
moratorium A way for adolescents to post-
pone making identity achievement choices by
finding an accepted way to avoid identity
achievement. Going to college is the most
common example.
morbidity Disease. As a measure of health,
morbidity refers to the rate of diseases of all
kinds in a given population—physical and
emotional, acute (sudden) and chronic (on-
going).
mortality Death. As a measure of health,
mortality usually refers to the number of
deaths each year per 1,000 members of a
given population.
mosaic Having a condition (mosaicism) that
involves having a mixture of cells, some nor-
mal and some with an odd number of chro-
mosomes or a series of missing genes.
motor skill The learned ability to move
some part of the body, from a large leap to a
flicker of the eyelid. (The word motor here
refers to movement of muscles.)
mourning The ceremonies and behaviors
that a religion or culture prescribes for be-
reaved people.
multifactorial Referring to a trait that is af-
fected by many factors, both genetic and en-
vironmental.
myelination The process by which axons
become coated with myelin, a fatty substance
that speeds the transmission of nerve im-
pulses from neuron to neuron.
N
naming explosion A sudden increase in an
infant’s vocabulary, especially in the number
of nouns, that begins at about 18 months of
age.
National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP) An ongoing and nation-
ally representative measure of children’s
achievement in reading, mathematics, and
other subjects over time; nicknamed “the
Nation’s Report Card.”
nature A general term for the traits, capac-
ities, and limitations that each individual in-
herits genetically from his or her parents at
the moment of conception.
near-death experience An episode in which
a person comes close to dying but survives and
reports having left his or her body and having
moved toward a bright, white light while feel-
ing peacefulness and joy.
neuron One of the billions of nerve cells in
the central nervous system, especially the
brain.
No Child Left Behind Act A U.S. law
passed by Congress in 2001 that was in-
tended to increase accountability in educa-
tion by requiring standardized tests to
measure school achievement. Many critics,
especially teachers, say the law undercuts
learning and fails to take local needs into con-
sideration.
norm An average, or standard, measurement,
calculated from the measurements of many in-
dividuals within a specific group or population.
nuclear family A family that consists of a
father, a mother, and their biological children
under age 18.
nurture A general term for all the environ-
mental influences that affect development af-
ter an individual is conceived.
O
obesity In an adult, having a BMI (body
mass index) of 30 or more. In a child, being
above the 95th percentile, based on the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control’s 1980 standards
for his or her age and sex.
object permanence The realization that
objects (including people) still exist when
they cannot be seen, touched, or heard.
objective thought Thinking that is not in-
fluenced by personal qualities, such as facts
and numbers that are considered true and
valid by every observer.
Oedipus complex The unconscious desire
of young boys to replace their father and win
their mother’s exclusive love.
old-old Older adults (generally, those over
age 75) who suffer from physical, mental, or
social deficits.
M
marasmus A disease of severe protein-calo-
rie malnutrition during early infancy, in which
growth stops, body tissues waste away, and
the infant eventually dies.
maximum life span The oldest possible age
that members of a species can live, under
ideal circumstances. For humans, that age is
approximately 122 years.
menarche A girl’s first menstrual period,
signaling that she has begun ovulation.
Pregnancy is biologically possible, but ovula-
tion and menstruation are often irregular for
years after menarche.
menopause The time in middle age, usually
around age 50, when a woman’s menstrual
periods cease completely and the production
of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone
drops considerably. Strictly speaking,
menopause is dated one year after a woman’s
last menstrual period.
mental retardation Literally, slow, or late,
thinking. In practice, people are considered
mentally retarded if they score below 70 on
an IQ test and if they are markedly behind
their peers in adaptation to daily life.
metacognition “Thinking about thinking,”
or the ability to evaluate a cognitive task to
determine how best to accomplish it, and
then to monitor and adjust one’s performance
on that task.
middle childhood The period between
early childhood and early adolescence, ap-
proximately from age 7 to 11.
middle school A school for the grades be-
tween elementary and high school. Middle
school can begin with grade 5 or 6 and usu-
ally ends with grade 8.
midlife crisis A period of unusual anxiety,
radical reexamination, and sudden transfor-
mation that is widely associated with middle
age but which actually has more to do with
developmental history than with chronologi-
cal age.
mirror neurons Brain cells that respond to
actions performed by someone else, as if the
observer had done that action. For example,
the brains of dancers who witness another
dancer moving onstage are activated in the
same movement areas as would be activated
if they themselves did that dance step, be-
cause their mirror neurons reflect the activ-
ity.
modeling The central process of social learn-
ing, by which a person observes the actions of
others and then copies them.
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peer facilitation The encouragement ado-
lescent peers give one another to partake in
activities or behaviors they would not other-
wise do alone, whether constructive or de-
structive.
peer pressure Encouragement to conform
with one’s friends or contemporaries in be-
havior, dress, and attitude; usually considered
a negative force, as when adolescent peers
encourage one another to defy adult author-
ity.
peer selection An ongoing, active process
whereby adolescents select friends based on
shared interests and values.
people preference A universal principle of
infant perception, consisting of an innate at-
traction to other humans, which is evident in
visual, auditory, tactile, and other preferences.
percentile A point on a ranking scale of 1
to 99. The 50th percentile is the midpoint;
half the people in the population rank higher
and half rank lower.
perception The mental processing of sen-
sory information, when the brain interprets a
sensation.
permanency planning An effort by au-
thorities to find a long-term living situation
that will provide stability and support for a
maltreated child. A goal is to avoid repeated
changes of caregiver or school, which can be
particularly harmful for the child.
permissive parenting Child rearing with
high nurturance and communication but rare
punishment, guidance, or control.
perseveration The tendency to persevere
in, or stick to, one thought or action for a long
time.
phallic stage Freud’s third stage of devel-
opment, when the penis becomes the focus
of concern and pleasure.
phenotype The observable characteristics
of a person, including appearance, personal-
ity, intelligence, and all other traits.
phenylketonuria (PKU) A genetic disor-
der in which a child’s body is unable to me-
tabolize an amino acid called phenylalanine.
Unless phenylalanine is eliminated from the
child’s diet, the resulting buildup of that sub-
stance in body fluids causes brain damage,
progressive mental retardation, and other
symptoms.
phonics approach Teaching reading by
first teaching the sounds of each letter and of
various letter combinations.
physician-assisted suicide A form of ac-
tive euthanasia in which a doctor provides the
means for someone to end his or her own life.
pituitary gland A gland that, in response to
a signal from the hypothalamus, produces
many hormones, including those that regu-
late growth and control other glands, among
them the adrenal and sex glands.
placenta The organ that surrounds the de-
veloping embryo and fetus, sustaining life via
the umbilical cord. The placenta is attached
to the wall of the uterus.
polygenic Referring to a trait that is influ-
enced by many genes.
positivity effect The tendency for elderly
people to perceive, prefer, and remember
positive images and experiences more than
negative ones.
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
A delayed reaction to a trauma or shock,
which may include hyperactivity and hyper-
vigilance, displaced anger, sleeplessness, sud-
den terror or anxiety, and confusion between
fantasy and reality.
postconventional moral reasoning Kohl-
berg’s third level of moral reasoning, empha-
sizing moral principles.
postformal thought A proposed adult stage
of cognitive development, following Piaget’s
four stages, that goes beyond adolescent
thinking by being more practical, more flexi-
ble, and more dialectical (that is, more capa-
ble of combining contradictory elements into
a comprehensive whole).
postpartum depression A new mother’s
feelings of inadequacy and sadness in the
days and weeks after giving birth.
practical intelligence The intellectual
skills used in everyday problem solving.
preconventional moral reasoning Kohl-
berg’s first level of moral reasoning, empha-
sizing rewards and punishments.
prefrontal cortex The area of cortex at the
front of the brain that specializes in antici-
pation, planning, and impulse control.
preoperational intelligence Piaget’s term
for cognitive development between the ages
of about 2 and 6; it includes language and
imagination (in addition to the senses and
motor skills of infancy), but logical, opera-
tional thinking is not yet possible.
presbycusis The loss of hearing associated
with senescence. Presbycusis often does not
become apparent until after age 60.
oldest-old Elderly adults (generally, those
over age 85) who are dependent on others for
almost everything, requiring supportive serv-
ices such as nursing homes and hospital stays.
operant conditioning The learning process
by which a particular action is followed by
something desired (which makes the person
or animal more likely to repeat the action) or
by something unwanted (which makes the ac-
tion less likely to be repeated). Also called in-
strumental conditioning.
organ reserve The capacity of young adults’
organs to allow the body to cope with stress.
overregularization The application of rules
of grammar even when exceptions occur, so
that the language is made to seem more “reg-
ular” than it actually is.
overweight In an adult, having a BMI (body
mass index) of 25 to 29. In a child, being
above the 85th percentile, based on the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control’s 1980 standards
for his or her age and sex.
oxygen free radicals Atoms of oxygen that,
as a result of metabolic processes, have an
unpaired electron. These atoms scramble
DNA molecules or mitochondria, producing
errors in cell maintenance and repair that,
over time, may cause cancer, diabetes, and
arteriosclerosis.
P
palliative care Care designed not to treat
an illness but to relieve the pain and suffer-
ing of the patient and his or her family.
parasuicide Any potentially lethal action
against the self that does not result in death.
parental alliance Cooperation between a
mother and a father based on their mutual
commitment to their children. In a parental
alliance, the parents agree to support each
other in their shared parental roles.
parental monitoring Parents’ ongoing aware-
ness of what their children are doing, where,
and with whom.
parent–infant bond The strong, loving
connection that forms as parents hold their
newborn.
Parkinson’s disease A chronic, progressive
disease that is characterized by muscle
tremor and rigidity, and sometimes dementia,
caused by a reduction of dopamine produc-
tion in the brain.
passive euthanasia A situation in which a
seriously ill person is allowed to die naturally,
through the cessation of medical interven-
tions.
G-10 GLOSSARY
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puberty The time between the first onrush
of hormones and full adult physical develop-
ment. Puberty usually lasts three to five
years. Many more years are required to
achieve psychosocial maturity.
Q
QALYs (quality-adjusted life years) A
way of comparing mere survival without vi-
tality to survival with good health. QALYs in-
dicate how many years of full vitality are lost
to a particular physical disease or disability.
They are expressed in terms of life ex-
pectancy as adjusted for quality of life.
qualitative research Research that con-
siders qualities instead of quantities.
Descriptions of particular conditions and par-
ticipants’ expressed ideas are often part of
qualitative studies.
quantitative research Research that pro-
vides data that can be expressed with num-
bers, such as ranks or scales.
R
race A group of people who are regarded (by
themselves or by others) as genetically dis-
tinct from other groups on the basis of phys-
ical appearance.
reaction time The time it takes to respond
to a stimulus, either physically (with a re-
flexive movement such as an eye blink) or
cognitively (with a thought).
reactive aggression An impulsive retalia-
tion for another person’s intentional or acci-
dental actions, verbal or physical.
Reading First A federal program that was
established by the No Child Left Behind Act
and that provides states with funding for early
reading instruction in public schools, aimed
at ensuring that all children learn to read well
by the end of the third grade.
reflex A responsive movement that seems
automatic because it almost always occurs in
reaction to a particular stimulus. Newborns
have many reflexes, some of which disappear
with maturation.
reinforcement A technique for condition-
ing behavior in which that behavior is fol-
lowed by something desired, such as food for
a hungry animal or a welcoming smile for a
lonely person.
REM sleep Rapid eye movement sleep, a
stage of sleep characterized by flickering eyes
behind closed lids, dreaming, and rapid brain
waves.
reminder session A perceptual experience
that is intended to help a person recollect an
idea, a thing, or an experience, without test-
ing whether the person remembers it at the
moment.
replication The repetition of a scientific
study, using the same procedures on a simi-
lar (but not identical) group of participants,
in order to verify, or refine, or dispute the
original study’s conclusions.
reported maltreatment Harm or endan-
germent about which someone has notified
the authorities.
resilience The capacity to develop opti-
mally by adapting positively to significant ad-
versity.
resource room A room in which trained
teachers help children with special needs, us-
ing specialized curricula and equipment.
respite care An arrangement in which a
professional caregiver relieves a frail elderly
person’s usual family caregiver for a few hours
each day or for an occasional weekend.
reversibility The logical principle that a
thing that has been changed can sometimes
be returned to its original state by reversing
the process by which it was changed.
risk analysis The science of weighing the
potential effects of a particular event, sub-
stance, or experience to determine the likeli-
hood of harm. In teratology, risk analysis
attempts to evaluate everything that affects
the chances that a particular agent or condi-
tion will cause damage to an embryo or fetus.
rumination Repeatedly thinking and talk-
ing about past experiences that can con-
tribute to depression.
S
sandwich generation A term for the gen-
eration of middle-aged people who are sup-
posedly “squeezed” by the needs of the
younger and older generations. Some adults
do feel pressured by these obligations, but
most are not burdened by them, either be-
cause they enjoy fulfilling them or because
they choose to take on only some of them, or
none.
scaffolding Temporary support that is tai-
lored to a learner’s needs and abilities and
aimed at helping the learner master the next
task in a given learning process.
science of human development The sci-
ence that seeks to understand how and why
people change or remain the same over time.
Developmentalists study people of all ages
and circumstances.
preterm birth A birth that occurs three or
more weeks before the full 38 weeks of the
typical pregnancy has elapsed—that is, at 35
or fewer weeks after conception.
prevalence How widespread within a popu-
lation a particular behavior or circumstance is.
primary aging The universal and irre-
versible physical changes that occur to all liv-
ing creatures as they grow older.
primary circular reactions The first of
three types of feedback loops in sensorimotor
intelligence, this one involving the infant’s own
body. The infant senses motion, sucking,
noise, and so on, and tries to understand them.
primary prevention Actions that change
overall background conditions to prevent
some unwanted event or circumstance, such
as injury, disease, or abuse.
primary sex characteristics The parts of
the body that are directly involved in repro-
duction, including the vagina, uterus, ovaries,
testicles, and penis.
priming Preparation that makes it easier to
perform some action. For example, it is eas-
ier to retrieve an item from memory if we are
given a clue about it beforehand.
private speech The internal dialogue that
occurs when people talk to themselves (ei-
ther silently or out loud).
Progress in International Reading Lit-
eracy Study (PIRLS) Inaugurated in
2001, a planned five-year cycle of interna-
tional trend studies in the reading ability of
fourth-graders.
prosocial behavior Feeling and acting in
ways that are helpful and kind, without obvi-
ous benefit to oneself.
protein-calorie malnutrition A condition
in which a person does not consume suffi-
cient food of any kind. This deprivation can
result in several illnesses, severe weight loss,
and sometimes death.
proximal parenting Parenting practices
that involve close physical contact with the
child’s entire body, such as cradling and
swinging.
psychoanalytic theory A grand theory of
human development that holds that irra-
tional, unconscious drives and motives, often
originating in childhood, underlie human be-
havior.
psychological control A disciplinary tech-
nique that involves threatening to withdraw
love and support and that relies on a child’s
feelings of guilt and gratitude to the parents.
GLOSSARY G-11
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selective attention The ability to concen-
trate on some stimuli while ignoring others.
selective expert Someone who is notably
more skilled and knowledgeable than the av-
erage person about whichever activities are
personally meaningful.
selective optimization with compensa-
tion The theory, developed by Paul and
Margaret Baltes, that people try to maintain
a balance in their lives by looking for the best
way to compensate for physical and cognitive
losses and to become more proficient in ac-
tivities they can already do well.
self theories Theories of late adulthood
that emphasize the core self, or the search to
maintain one’s integrity and identity.
self-awareness A person’s realization that
he or she is a distinct individual, with body,
mind, and actions that are separate from
those of other people.
self-concept A person’s understanding of
who he or she is. Self-concept includes ap-
pearance, personality, and various traits.
self-efficacy In social learning theory, the
belief that some people have that they are
able to change themselves and effectively al-
ter the social context.
self-esteem How a person evaluates his or
her own worth, either in specifics (e.g., in-
telligence, attractiveness) or overall.
self-righting The inborn drive to remedy a
developmental deficit.
senescence The process of aging, whereby
the body becomes less strong and efficient.
sensation The response of a sensory system
(eyes, ears, skin, tongue, nose) when it de-
tects a stimulus.
sensitive period A time when a certain
type of development is most likely to happen
and happens most easily. For example, early
childhood is considered a sensitive period for
language learning.
sensorimotor intelligence Piaget’s term
for the way infants think—by using their
senses and motor skills during the first period
of cognitive development.
sensory memory The component of the in-
formation-processing system in which in-
coming stimulus information is stored for a
split second to allow it to be processed. (Also
called the sensory register.)
separation anxiety An infant’s distress
when a familiar caregiver leaves; most obvi-
ous between 9 and 14 months.
set point A particular body weight that an
individual’s homeostatic processes strive to
maintain.
sex differences Biological differences be-
tween males and females, in organs, hor-
mones, and body type.
sexual orientation A person’s impulses and
internal direction regarding sexual interest. A
person may be oriented to people of the same
sex, of the other sex, or of both sexes. Sexual
orientation may differ from sexual expression,
appearance, identity, or lifestyle.
sexually transmitted infection (STI) A
disease spread by sexual contact, including
syphilis, gonorrhea, genital herpes, chlamy-
dia, and HIV.
shaken baby syndrome A life-threatening
condition that occurs when an infant is force-
fully shaken back and forth, rupturing blood
vessels in the brain and breaking neural con-
nections.
single-parent family A family that consists
of only one parent and his or her biological
children under age 18.
slippery slope The argument that a given
action will start a chain of events that will
culminate in an undesirable outcome.
small for gestational age (SGA) A term
for a baby whose birthweight is significantly
lower than expected, given the time since
conception. For example, a 5-pound (2,200-
gram) newborn is considered SGA if born on
time but not SGA if born two months early.
(Also called small for dates.)
social clock Refers to the idea that the
stages of life, and the behaviors “appropriate”
to them, are set by social standards rather
than by biological maturation. For instance,
“middle age” begins when the culture be-
lieves it does, rather than at a particular age
in all cultures.
social cognition The ability to understand
social interactions, including the causes and
consequences of human behavior.
social comparison The tendency to assess
one’s abilities, achievements, social status,
and other attributes by measuring them
against those of other people, especially one’s
peers.
social construction An idea that is built
more on shared perceptions than on objec-
tive reality. Many age-related terms, such as
childhood, adolescents, yuppies, and senior
citizens are social constructions.
science of human development The sci-
ence that seeks to understand how and why
people change or remain the same over time.
Developmentalists study people of all ages
and circumstances.
scientific method A way to answer ques-
tions that requires empirical research and
data-based conclusions.
scientific observation A method of testing
hypotheses by unobtrusively watching and
recording participants’ behavior in a system-
atic and objective manner, either in a labora-
tory or in a natural setting.
Seattle Longitudinal Study The first cross-
sequential study of adult intelligence. This
study began in 1956; the most recent testing
was conducted in 2005.
secondary aging The specific physical ill-
nesses or conditions that become more com-
mon with aging but are caused by health
habits, genes, and other influences that vary
from person to person.
secondary circular reactions The second
of three types of feedback loops in sensori-
motor intelligence, this one involving people
and objects. The infant is responsive to other
people and to toys and other objects the in-
fant can touch and move.
secondary education Literally the period
after primary education and before tertiary
education. It usually occurs from about age
12 to 18, although there is some variation by
school and by nation.
secondary prevention Actions that avert
harm in a high-risk situation, such as stop-
ping a car before it hits a pedestrian.
secondary sex characteristics Physical
traits that are not directly involved in repro-
duction but that indicate sexual maturity,
such as a man’s beard and a woman’s breasts.
secular trend A term that refers to the ear-
lier and greater growth of children due to im-
proved nutrition and medical care over the
last two centuries.
secure attachment A relationship in which
an infant obtains both comfort and confi-
dence from the presence of his or her care-
giver.
selective adaptation The process by which
humans and other organisms gradually adjust
to their environment. Specifically, the fre-
quency of a particular genetic trait in a pop-
ulation increases or decreases over
generations, depending on whether or not the
trait contributes to the survival and repro-
ductive ability of members of that population.
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still-face technique An experimental prac-
tice in which an adult keeps his or her face
unmoving and expressionless in face-to-face
interaction with an infant.
Strange Situation A laboratory procedure
for measuring attachment by evoking infants’
reactions to stress.
stranger wariness An infant’s expression of
concern—a quiet stare, clinging to a familiar
person, or sadness—when a stranger appears.
stratification theories Theories that em-
phasize that social forces, particularly those
related to a person’s social stratum or social
category, limit individual choices and affect
the ability to function in late adulthood as
past stratification continues to limit life in
various ways.
subcortical dementias Forms of dementia
that begin with impairments in motor ability
(which is governed by the subcortex) and pro-
duce cognitive impairment in later stages.
Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease,
and multiple sclerosis are subcortical de-
mentias.
subjective thought Thinking that is strongly
influenced by personal qualities of the indi-
vidual thinker, such as past experiences, cul-
tural assumptions, and goals for the future.
substantiated maltreatment Harm or en-
dangerment that has been reported, investi-
gated, and verified.
sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) A
situation in which a seemingly healthy infant,
at least 2 months of age, suddenly stops
breathing and dies unexpectedly while
asleep. The cause is unknown, but it is cor-
related with sleeping on the stomach and
having parents who smoke.
suicidal ideation Thinking about suicide,
usually with some serious emotional and in-
tellectual or cognitive overtones.
sunk cost fallacy The belief that if time or
money has already been invested in some-
thing, then more time or money should be in-
vested. Because of this fallacy, people spend
money trying to fix a “lemon” of a car or send-
ing more troops to win a losing war. Ample
amounts of these expenditure have already
been made. It is an error made by people of
all ages.
superego In psychoanalytic theory, the judg-
mental part of the personality that internal-
izes moral standards of the parents.
survey A research method in which infor-
mation is collected from a large number of
people by interviews, written questionnaires,
or some other means.
synapse The intersection between the axon
of one neuron and the dendrites of other neu-
rons.
synchrony A coordinated, rapid, and smooth
exchange of responses between a caregiver
and an infant.
synthesis A new idea that integrates the
thesis and its antithesis, thus representing a
new and more comprehensive level of truth;
the third stage of the process of dialectical
thinking.
T
T cells Immune cells manufactured in the
thymus gland that produce substances that
attack infected cells in the body.
telomeres The ends of chromosomes in the
cells, whose length decreases with each cell
duplication and seems to correlate with
longevity.
temperament Inborn differences between
one person and another in emotions, activity,
and self-control. Temperament is epigenetic,
originating in genes but affected by child-
rearing practices.
teratogens Agents and conditions, includ-
ing viruses, drugs, and chemicals, that can
impair prenatal development and result in
birth defects or even death.
terminal decline An overall slowdown of
cognitive abilities in the weeks and months
before death. (Also called terminal drop.)
tertiary circular reactions The third of
three types of feedback loops in sensorimo-
tor intlligence, this one involving active ex-
ploration and experimentation. The infant
explores a range of new activities, varying his
or her responses as a way of learning about
the world.
tertiary prevention Actions, such as im-
mediate and effective medical treatment, that
are taken after an adverse event such as ill-
ness or injury occurs, and are aimed at re-
ducing the harm or preventing disability.
testosterone A sex hormone, the best known
of the androgens (male hormones); secreted in
far greater amounts by males than by females.
thanatology The study of death and dying,
especially in their social and emotional as-
pects.
social homogamy The similarity of a cou-
ple’s leisure interests and role preferences.
social learning Learning by observing oth-
ers.
social learning theory An extension of be-
haviorism that emphasizes the influence that
other people have over a person’s behavior.
Even without specific reinforcement, every
individual learns many things via observation
and imitation of other people.
social mediation A function of speech by
which a person’s cognitive skills are refined
and extended through both formal instruction
and casual conversation.
social norms The standards of behavior
within a given society or culture.
social norms approach A method of re-
ducing risky behavior that uses emerging
adults’ desire to follow social norms by mak-
ing them aware, through the use of surveys,
of the prevalence of various behaviors within
their peer group.
social referencing Seeking information
about how to react to an unfamiliar or am-
biguous object or event by observing some-
one else’s expressions and reactions. That
other person becomes a social reference.
social smile A smile evoked by a human
face, normally evident in infants about 6
weeks after birth.
sociocultural theory An emergent theory
that holds that development results from the
dynamic interaction between each person
and the surrounding social and cultural
forces.
socioeconomic status (SES) A person’s
position in society as determined by income,
wealth, occupation, education, place of resi-
dence, and other factors.
spermarche A boy’s first ejaculation of
sperm. Erections can occur as early as in-
fancy, but ejaculation signals sperm produc-
tion. Spermache occurs during sleep (in a
“wet dream”) or via direct stimulation.
spontaneous abortion The naturally oc-
curring termination of a pregnancy before the
embryo or fetus is fully developed. (Also
called miscarriage.)
static reasoning Thinking that nothing
changes: Whatever is now has always been
and always will be.
stereotype threat The possibility that one’s
appearance or behavior will be misread to
confirm another person’s oversimplified, prej-
udiced attitudes.
GLOSSARY G-13
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type 2 diabetes A chronic disease in which
the body does not produce enough insulin to
adequately metabolize carbohydrates (glu-
cose). It was once called adult-onset diabetes
because it typically developed in people aged
50 to 60; today, however, it often appears in
younger people.
V
vascular dementia (VaD)/multi-infarct
dementia (MID) A form of dementia char-
acterized by sporadic, and progressive, loss of
intellectual functioning caused by repeated
infarcts, or temporary obstructions of blood
vessels, which prevent sufficient blood from
reaching the brain.
very low birthweight (VLBW) A body
weight at birth of less than 3 pounds, 5
ounces (1,500 grams).
visual cliff An experimental apparatus that
gives an illusion of a sudden drop between
one horizontal surface and another.
vitality A measure of health that refers to
how healthy and energetic—physically, intel-
lectually, and socially—an individual actually
feels.
W
wear-and-tear theory A view of aging as a
process by which the human body wears out
because of the passage of time and exposure
to environmental stressors.
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
(WISC) An IQ test designed for school-age
children. The test assesses potential in many
areas, including vocabulary, general knowl-
edge, memory, and spatial comprehension.
whole-language approach Teaching read-
ing by encouraging early use of all language
skills—talking and listening, reading and
writing.
wisdom A cognitive perspective character-
ized by a broad, practical, comprehensive ap-
proach to life’s problems, reflecting timeless
truths rather than immediate expediency;
said to be more common in the elderly than
in the young.
withdrawn-rejected Rejected by peers be-
cause of timid, withdrawn, and anxious be-
havior.
working memory The component of the
information-processing system in which cur-
rent conscious mental activity occurs. (Also
called short-term memory.)
working model In cognitive theory, a set of
assumptions that the individual uses to or-
ganize perceptions and experiences. For ex-
ample, a person might assume that other
people are trustworthy, and be surprised
when this model of human behavior seems in
error.
X
X-linked Referring to a gene carried on the
X chromosome. If a boy inherits an X-linked
recessive trait from his mother, he expresses
that trait, since the Y from his father has no
counteracting gene. Girls are more likely to
be carriers of X-linked traits but are less likely
to express them.
XX A 23rd chromosome pair consisting of
two X-shaped chromosomes, one each from
the mother and the father. XX zygotes be-
come female embryos, female fetuses, and
girls.
XY A 23rd chromosome pair consisting of an
X-shaped chromosome from the mother and
a Y-shaped chromosome from the father. XY
zygotes become male embryos, male fetuses,
and boys.
Y
young-old Healthy, vigorous, financially se-
cure older adults (generally, those aged 60 to
75) who are well integrated into the lives of
their families and communities.
Z
zone of proximal development (ZPD) In
sociocultural theory, a metaphorical area, or
“zone,” surrounding a learner that includes all
the skills, knowledge, and concepts that the
person is close (“proximal”) to acquiring but
cannot yet master without help.
zygote The single cell formed from the fus-
ing of two gametes, a sperm and an ovum.
thanatology The study of death and dying,
especially in their social and emotional as-
pects.
theory of mind A person’s theory of what
other people might be thinking. In order to
have a theory of mind, children must realize
that other people are not necessarily thinking
the same thoughts that they themselves are.
That realization is seldom possible before
age 4.
theory-theory The idea that children at-
tempt to explain everything they see and hear
by constructing theories.
thesis A proposition or statement of belief;
the first stage of the process of dialectical
thinking.
threshold effect A situation in which a cer-
tain teratogen is relatively harmless in small
doses but becomes harmful once exposure
reaches a certain level (the threshold).
time-out A disciplinary technique in which
a child is separated from other people for a
specified time.
TIMSS (Trends in Math and Science
Study) An international assessment of the
math and science skills of fourth- and eighth-
graders. Although the TIMSS is very useful,
scores are not always comparable, because
sample selection, test administration, and
content validity are hard to keep uniform.
total immersion A strategy in which in-
struction in all school subjects occurs in the
second (majority) language that a child is
learning.
transient exuberance The great increase
in the number of dendrites that occurs in an
infant’s brain during the first two years of life.
trust versus mistrust Erikson’s first psy-
chosocial crisis. Infants learn basic trust if the
world is a secure place where their basic needs
(for food, comfort, attention, etc.) are met.
23rd pair The chromosome pair that, in hu-
mans, determines the zygote’s (and hence the
person’s) sex. The other 22 pairs are auto-
somes, the same whether the 23rd pair is for
a male or a female.
G-14 GLOSSARY
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R-1
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NI-1
Name Index
Anderson, Kermyt G., 595
Anderson, Kristin L., 513
Anderson, Mark, 148
Anderson, Michael, Ep-21
Anderson, Mike, 650
Anderson, Robert N., 436
Andrade, Miriam, 378
Andrade, Susan E., 100, 101
Andrews, Elizabeth B., 99, 104
Andrews, Glenda, 234
Andrews, Melinda W., 572
Aneshensel, Carol S., 711
Angel, Jacqueline L, 687
Angel, Ronald J., 687
Angelou, Maya, 12–13
Angold, Adrian, 298
Anis, Tarek, 453
Anstey, Kaarin J., 650
Antonucci, Toni C., 585, 696
Apgar, Virginia, 110
Archer, John, 439, 466, 513
Argyle, Michael, 8
Arita, Isao, 144
Arking, Robert, 622
Arlin, Patricia Kennedy, 472
Armour, Marilyn, Ep-20
Armour-Thomas, Eleanor, 293
Armson, B. Anthony, 111
Arnett, Jeffrey Jensen, 20–21, 420,
447, 455, 484, 485, 502, 503,
504, 514
Aron, Arthur, 504, 508
Aronson, Joshua, 479, 480
Aronson, Stacey Rosenkrantz, 192,
198
Artistico, Daniele, 476
Aseltine, Robert H., Jr., 436
Asher, Steven R., 338, 339
Ashman, Sharon B., 119
Ashmead, Daniel H., 141
Aslin, Richard N., 96
Aspinall, Richard J., 449, 450
Astin, Alexander W., 479
Astington, Janet Wilde, 238, 239
Astone, Nan Marie, 512
Astuti, Rita, 309
Atchley, Robert C., 690, 705
Atkinson, Janette, 137, 141
Attig, Thomas, Ep-10
Aunola, Kaisa, 267
Austad, Steven N., 636
Ayoob, Keith-Thomas, 370
Azmitia, Margarita, 504, 505
Bäckman, Lars, 628, 658, 659
Baddeley, Alan D., 651
Badgaiyan, Rajendra D., 166
Bagwell, Catherine L., 339, 422
Bahrick, Harry P., 654
Baier, Margaret E., 653
Baildam, Eileen M., 192
Baillargeon, Renée, 158, 159
Baird, Annabel H., 703
Bakeman, Roger, 169
Baker, Jeffrey P., 144
Baker, Susan P., 221
Baker, Timothy B., 51
Baldwin, Dare A., 174, 175, 196
Ball, Helen L., 128
Balmford, Andrew, 312
Baltes, Margret M., 567, 568, 571,
705, Ep-5
Baltes, Paul B., 4, 7, 50, 134, 475,
480, 559, 567, 568, 650, 661,
671, 673, 674, 682
Bamford, Christi, 356
Banaji, Mahzarin R., 477
Bandura, Albert, 43, 184, 274, 335,
544
Banerjee, Robin, 274
Bank, Lew, 421
Banks, James, 543
Barbaree, Howard E., 382
Barber, Bonnie L., 425
Barber, Brian K., 267, 268, 422
Barer, Barbara M., 683, 689
Barga, Eustave, 640
Barinaga, Marcia, 131, 133
Barkley, Russell A., 297
Barling, Julian, 601
Barnard, Kathryn E., 191
Barnes, Grace M., 421, 441
Barnett, Rosalind C., 433
Baron, Andrew Scott, 477
Baron-Cohen, Simon, 239
Barrett, Linda L., 712
Barrett, Martyn, 242
Barros, Fernando C., 111
Barry, John M., 452
Bartsch, Robert A., 412
Basáñez, María-Gloria, 546
Basili, Marcello, 451
Bass, Andrew H., 276
Bass, Brenda L., 606
Basseches, Michael, 480
Bateman, Belinda, 56
Bates, Elizabeth, 243
Bates, John E., 127, 185, 187
Bateson, Patrick, 29
Bau, Claiton H. D., 75
Bauer, Patricia J., 160, 166, 271
Baughman, Fred A., Jr., 298
Baumeister, Roy F., 353, 373, 418,
428
Baumrind, Diana, 264–265, 271
Baxter, Leslie A., 481
Bayer, Carey Roth, 454
Bayley, Nancy, 557
Beach, Lee Roy, 563
Beal, S. M., 147
Bearison, David J., 289
Bearman, Peter S., 429
Beaton, Albert E., 321, 407
Beauvais, Fred, 436
Beck, Martha Nibley, 107, 118
Bedford, Victoria Hilkevitch, 589
Begley, Sharon, 131, 134
Behne, Tanya, 158
Behrend, Douglas A., 242
Belamarich, Peter, 370
Belizan, Jose M., 111
Belka, David, 287
Bell, Joanna H., 392, 394
Bell, Ruth, 386, 393, 394
Beller, Andrea H., 349
Bem, Sandra Lipsitz, 276
Benes, Francine M., 311
Benet, Sula, 643
Bengtson, Vern L., 688, 700
Ben-Itzchak, Esther, 301
Benjamin, Georges C., 219
Benjamin, Roger, 494
Benner, Aprile D., 407
Bennett, Mark, 261
Benson, Peter L., 420
Bentley, Gillian R., 71, 93, 533
Bentley, Tanya G. K., 100
Benton, David, 286
Beppu, Satoshi, 301
Berg, Cynthia A., 564
Berg, Sandra J., 118
Berger, Bethany, 53, 142–143, 221,
273, 394, 423 574
Berger, Elissa, 53, 143, 273, 423,
447, 574, Ep-19
Berger, Kathleen Stassen, 341, 342
Berger, Martin, 61, 67, 273, Ep-19
Berger, Rachel, 53, 61, 67–68, 143,
241, 244, 273, 363, 423, 574
Berger, Sarah, 53, 143, 233, 241,
273, 423, 447, 574
Berger, Sarah E., 136, 140, 142,
158, 164
Bering, Jesse M., Ep-3
Berkey, Catherine S., 368
Berkowitz, Alan D., 467
Berliner, David C., 409
Berman, Alan L., 435, 436, 437
Berndt, Thomas J., 423
Berninger, Virginia Wise, 291, 301,
325
Berntsen, Dorthe, 516, 653, 690
Berrick, Jill Duerr, 227
Berry, John W., 501
Bertenthal, Bennett I., 140
Bertrand, Rosanna M., 527
Bhardwaj, R.D., 532
Bhasin S., 533, 536
Bhungalia, Sonal, Ep-9
Bialystok, Ellen, 240, 244, 316
Bianchi, Suzanne M., 510, 601, 602
Biddle, Stuart, 453, 457
Bidell, Thomas R., 397
Bienvenu, Thierry, 300
Bigler, Rebecca S., 335
Billingsley, Andrew, 695
A
Abbott, Lesley, 242, 247
Abeles, Ronald P., 536
Abelson, Reed, Ep-12, Ep-13
Abikoff, Howard B., 297
Aboderin, Isabella, 707
Aboud, Frances E., 339
Abramovitch, Henry, Ep-10
Abramson, David, 544
Abramson, Lyn Y., 434
Achenbaum, W. Andrew, 685, 688,
693
Achilles, Charles M., 327
Ackerman, Phillip P., 653
Adams, Glenn, 515
Adams, Ted D., 542
Adamson, Lauren B., 169
Adams-Price, Carolyn E., 478
Adenzato, Mauro, 14
Adler, Lynn Peters, 645, 711, 712
Adler, Nancy E., 467, 489
Adolph, Karen E., 136, 140, 142,
158, 164
Afifi, Tamara D., 23
Agarwal, Dharam P., 74
Aguirre-Molina, Marilyn, 116
Ahearn, Frederick L., 707
Ahmed, Saifuddin, 118
Ainsworth, Mary D. Salter, 193, 194
Airaghi, Lorena, 289
Akhtar, Nameera, 173
Akiba, Daisuke, 356
Akinbami, Lara J., 288
Alberts, Jay L., 651
Albinet, Cédric, 652
Aldwin, Carolyn M., 544, 586, 620,
623, 630, 645
Alexander, Karl L., 312
Alexander, Robin, 318
Alexander, Ron, 242
Allen, James E., 712
Allen, Joseph P., 402
Allhusen, Virginia D., 251
Allik, Jüri, 583
Alloy, Lauren B., 434
Alsaker, Françoise D., 366, 367, 368
Alvarado, Rose, 441
Alvarez, Helen Perich, 638
Amato, Maria, 339
Amato, Paul R., 23, 267, 511, 512,
591, 594
Amirkhanyan, Anna A., 590
Ammerman, Robert T., 467
Amsel, Eric, 34
Ananiadou, Katerina, 342
Ananth, Cande V., 114
Andersen, Hans Christian, 299
Anderson, Carol, 594
Anderson, Craig A., 269
Anderson, Daniel R., 270
Anderson, Gerard F., 621
N1-N12_BergerLS7e_NI.qxp 9/26/07 12:47 PM Page NI-1

Brendgen, Mara, 337
Brennan, Patricia A., 440
Brenner, Ruth A., 219
Bretherton, Inge, 184
Breunlin, Douglas C., 412
Bridge, Jeffrey A., 436
Briley, Mike, 83
Brill, Deborah, 710
Brim, Orville G., 548
Brinkman, Cobie, 211
Brint, Steven, 493
Brody, Gene H., 421
Brody, Jane E., Ep-12
Broidy, Lisa M., 438, 441
Brokenleg, Martin, Ep-7
Bromnick, Rachel D., 392, 394
Bronfenbrenner, Urie, 5–6
Brooks, Jeanne, 182
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, 149, 197,
515
Brown, B. Bradford, 369, 400,
422, 423, 424, 427, 428, 429,
432
Brown, Christia Spears, 335
Brown, Kathryn, 298
Brown, Sandra A., 386
Brown, Susan L., 348, 510
Brownell, Kelly D., 459
Brownell, Partricia J., 710
Bruck, Maggie, 215
Brückner, Hannah, 429
Brugman, Gerald M., 673
Bruhn, Peter, 663, 666
Buccino, Giovanni, 14
Buchner, Axel, 556
Buckhalt, Joseph A., 288
Buckner, John C., 350
Buckner, Randy L., 530, 531
Buddha, 487
Buehler, Cheryl, 349, 421
Buelga, Sofia, 384, 385
Bugental, Daphne Blunt, 222, 266
Bukowski, William M., 504
Bullock, Bernadette Marie, 266,
334
Bulpitt, Christopher J., 451
Bumpass, Larry, 350
Buriel, Raymond, 257, 264, 265,
420
Burke, Deborah M., 656
Burnett, Matthew L., 455
Burns, James, 420
Burns, Linda Hammer, 71, 72
Burr, Jeffrey A., 588
Burton, Sarah, 352
Buschman, Nina A., 115
Bush, George W., 45, 655, Ep-17
Bushman, Brad J., 269
Buss, David M., 52, 506
Busse, William W., 289, 373
Bussey, Kay, 274
Butler, Merlin Gene, 83
Butler, Robert N., 615, 629, 632,
671, 673, 709
Buzsáki, György, 378
Byard, Roger W., 147, 148
Bybee, Jane, 257
Byram, Michael S., 316
Byrnes, James P., 476
Cabeza, Roberto, 628, 656, 657
Cabrera, Natasha J., 197
Caetano, Raul, 513
Cairns, Beverley D., 38, 40, 340
Cairns, Robert B., 38, 40, 340
Calasanti, Toni M., 620
Caldwell, Christopher, 449
Calkins, Susan D., 192
Callaghan, Tara C., 163, 239
Callahan, Christopher M., Ep-15,
Ep-16
Callahan, Daniel, 641
Calment, Jeanne, 637
Calvert, Karin, 142
Calvo-Merino, Beatriz, 14
Calzo, Jerel P., 404
Cameron, James D., 451
Cameron, Judy L., 94, 258, 365,
366
Camilli, Gregory, 325
Campbell, Frances A., 250
Campos, Joseph J., 138
Campos, Paul F., 371
Canary, Daniel J., 505
Canetto, Silvia Sara, 466
Canli, Turhan, 342
Cantor-Graae, Elizabeth, 520
Caplan, Leslie J., 659
Caprara, Gian Vittorio, 260
Caretta, Carla Mucignat, 368
Carey, James R., 619
Carey, Susan, 241
Carlo, Mara S., 315
Carlson, Marcia J., 347
Carlson, Stephanie M., 259
Carnethon, Mercedes R., 456, 457
Carr, Deborah, 699, 700
Carroll, Kathleen, 466
Carskadon, Mary A., 378, 379
Carstensen, Laura L., 571, 658,
683, 698, 704, 705, Ep-5
Casey, Patrick H., 114
Cashon, Cara A., 158
Casper, Lynne M., 510
Casper, Regina C., 434
Caspi, Avshalom, 23, 51, 69, 185,
187, 258, 343–344, 581, 582,
683
Cassel, Christine, 616
Cassell, Justine, 404
Cassidy, Jude, 193
Cattell, Raymond B., 561, 562
Cauffman, Elizabeth, 412
Cavanaugh, Sean, 326
Ceci, Stephen J., 573
Cedergren, Marie I., 100
Cerminara, Kathy L., Ep-17
Chamberlain, Patricia, 440
Chan, David, 606
Chandler, Michael J., 329, 416
Chantala, Kim, 428
Chao, Ruth K., 265
Chapleski, Elizabeth E., Ep-7
Chapman, Benjamin P., 520
Charness, Neil, 569, 571, 652, 682
Charney, Dennis, 259
Chassin, Laurie, 386, 387
Chawarska, Katarzyna, 300
Cheadle, Jacob, 594
Chen, Kevin, 463
Chen, Xin, 14
Chen, Xinyin, 337
Chen, Xuan, 702
Cheney, Richard, 48
Cheng, Yen-Hsin Alice, 511
Cherbuin, Nicolas, 211
Cherlin, Andrew J., 594
Chess, Stella, 186
Cheurprakobkit, Sutham, 412
Chhabra, Vinita, 325
Chikako, Tange, Ep-3
Chiriboga, David A., 550
Chisholm, Kim, 135
Choi, Incheol, 482
Choi, Namkee G., 694
Chomsky, Noam, 173, 174
Chong, Lisa, 633
Christensen, Andrew, 512
Christensen, Helen, 659
Christenson, Sandra L., 410
Christoffel, Tom, 219, 221
Chumlea, William C., 367
Churchill, Winston, 299
Cianciolo, Anna T., 293
Cicchetti, Dante, 257, 259, 296,
355, 434
Cicirelli, Victor G., 651, 654
Cicognani, Elvira, 374
Cillessen, Antonius H. N., 337, 402
Clark, Eve Vivienne, 240
Clark, William R., 636
Clarkberg, Marin, 686
Clarke, Alan D. B., 135
Clarke, Ann M., 135
Clarke-Stewart, Alison, 251
Claypool, Les, 530
Cleary, Paul D., 549
Clements, Jonathan, 580
Cleveland, Michael J., 421, 422
Clifton, Rachel K., 140
Clinchy, Blythe McVicker, 490
Cloninger, C. Robert, 581
Coatsworth, J. Douglas, 355, 357
Cockerham, William C., 455, 467
Cohan, Catherine L., 511
Cohen, G., 673
Cohen, Jean, 72
Cohen, Jon, 65
Cohen, Larry, 220
Cohen, Lee S., 114, 535
Cohen, Leslie B., 158
Cohen, Robert, 337
Cohen, William I., 80
Cokley, Kevin O., 478
Colder, Craig R., 259
Cole, Michael, 10
Cole, Tim J., 458, 459
Coleman, Marilyn, 509, 595, 598,
599
Coles, Robert, 335
Colleran, Carol, 668
Collins, Michael F., 288
Collins, W. Andrew, 419, 420, 421,
422, 425, 504
Collins, Wanda Lott, Ep-8
Colonia-Willner, Regina, 563
Comer, Ronald J., 295, 298
Compas, Bruce E., 377
Bingham, C. Raymond, 474
Bin Laden, Osama, 400
Birch, Leann L., 460
Birch, Susan A. J., 238
Birney, Damian P., 155
Biro, Frank M., 364
Birren, James E., 672
Björklund, David F., 73, 658, Ep-3
Blackburn, Susan Tucker, 109
Blackhart, Ginnette C., 418, 428
Blair, Peter S., 128
Blake, Susan M., 430
Blakeslee, Sandra, 698
Blanchard-Fields, Fredda, 473, 475
Blatchford, Peter, 327
Blau, Francine D., 688
Bleske-Rechek, A. L., 506
Block, Lauren G., 387
Bloom, Floyd E., 129, 130
Bloom, Lois, 168, 169, 174, 175,
217
Bloom, Paul, 238
Blum, Deborah, 27, 40, 42
Blum, Robert W., 370, 381, 431, 453
Blustein, David Larry, 600, 606
Blythe, Ronald, 671
Boaler, Jo, 326
Bode, C., 583
Boerger, Elizabeth A., 257
Boerner, Kathrin, Ep-23
Bolger, Kerry E., 135
Bolonyai, Agnes, 316
Bonanno, George A., 686, 698,
Ep-22, Ep-23
Bonner, Barbara L., 224
Bonnie, Richard J., 710
Booth, Alan, 447, 617
Borgaonkar, Digamber S., 79
Borkowski, John G., 381, 421
Borland, Moira, 333, 355
Bornstein, Marc H., 125, 128, 137,
160, 164, 170, 264, 266, 580
Bornstein, Robert F., 505
Boroditsky, Lera, 169, 170
Bortz, Walter M., 146
Borzekowski, Dina L. G., 404
Bossé, Yohan, 288
Botto, Lorenzo D., 100
Bouchard, Geneviéve, 510
Bouchard, Thomas J., 49
Bousquet, Jean, 288
Bowell, Ronald, 538
Bower, Bruce, 70
Bowlby, John, 193
Bowman, Shanthy A., 458
Boyd, William L., 328
Bozik, Mary, 490
Bradbury, Thomas N., 592, 594,
597
Braddick, Oliver, 137, 141
Bradley, Robert H., 352
Braithwaite, R. S., 538
Brandi, Bonnie, 710
Brandstädter, Jochen, 680–681
Brandt, Hella E., Ep-12
Branson, Ruth, 460
Braun, Kathryn L., Ep-16
Bray, George A., 541
Breggin, Peter R., 57, 298
NI-2 NAME INDEX
N1-N12_BergerLS7e_NI.qxp 9/26/07 12:47 PM Page NI-2

Curtis, W. John, 134, 355
Cutler, Richard, 642
Cycowicz, Yael M., 214
Czaja, Sara J., 682
Czech, Christian, 80, 664
Dacher, Joan, 681
Dahl, Ronald E., 361, 377, 378,
400
Dales, Loring, 301
Damasio, Antonio R., 366
Danel, Isabella, 119
Dangour, Alan, 531
Daniluk, Judith C., 533
Danis, Agnes, 235
Dannefer, Dale, 685
Dansinger, Michael L., 542
Daro, Deborah, 222
Daselaar, Sander, 628
Dasen, Pierre R., 188
Datan, Nancy, 273
Daulaire, Nils, 111
Davey, Adam, 691, 692
David, Barbara, 273, 274, 275
Davidson, Julia O’Connell, 382
Davidson, Richard J., 212
Davies, Chris G., 667, 669
Davies, Patrick T., 14, 296
Davis, Elysia Poggi, 214
Davis, J. Timothy, 674
Dawson, Geraldine, 119
Day, James, 487
DeBaggio, Thomas, 665
De Bellis, Michael D., 223, 224,
386
Deci, Edward L., 258, 547
de Haan, Michelle, 131, 132, 213
Deil-Amen, Regina, 494
DeKeyser, Robert, 315
Delaney, Carol, 148
De la Torre, Jack C., 666
Delea, Peter, 696
De Lee, Joseph Bolivar, 111
Delva, Jorge, 385
De Martinis, Massimo, 529
DeMartino, Robert, 436
Demetriou, Andreas, 312, 556
De Neys, Wim, 398
Denham, Susanne A., 255
Denney, N. W., 478
Dennis, Tracy A., 261
Denny, Dallas, 418
Dentinger, Emma, 686
DePaulo, Bella, 579, 587, 590, 704
Deremo, Dorothy, Ep-4
Derryberry, Douglas, 187
Dershewitz, Robert A., 146
de Schipper, Elles J., 199
Després, Jean-Pierre, 542
Detzner, Daniel F., 703
Deuschl, Günther, 670
Deveraux, Lara L., 72
DeVos, Julie, 158
Diamond, Adele, 212, 399
Diamond, David M., 134
Diamond, Lisa M., 57, 428, 508
Dick-Niederhauser, Andreas, 181
Didion, Joan, Ep-18, Ep-22
Diener, Ed, 181
Diener, Marissa, 142
DiGirolamo, Ann, 150
Digman, John M., 581
Dijk, Jan A. G. M. van, 404
Dijkstra, Lewis, 457
Dilworth-Bart, Janean E., 288
Dindia, Kathryn, 509
Dion, Karen Kisiel, 500
Dionne, Ginette, 171
DiPietro, Janet A., 96
Dishion, Thomas J., 266, 334, 385,
423
Diwadkar, Vaibhav A., 210
Dixon, Roger A., 55
Dodge, Kenneth A., 262, 439
Doffing, Melissa A., 297
Doka, Kenneth J., Ep-4, Ep-21
Dominguez, Cynthia O., 569
Donnellan, M. Brent, 348
Doolittle, Amy, Ep-8
Doorenbos, Ardith Z., Ep-6
Douglas, Ann, 112
Doumbo, Ogobara K., 28
Dounchis, Jennifer Zoler, 459
Dow, Gina Annunziato, 166
Dransfield, Carl, 641
Dray, Elizabeth, 402
Drews, Frank A., 530
Duckworth, Angela L., 581
Dugger, Celia W., 65, 146
Dulay, Mario F., 650
Dumke, Heike A., 476
Dunlap, Jay C., 623
Dunphy, Dexter C., 427
Duplassie, Daniella, 533
Durvasula, Srinivas, 453
Duster, Troy, 85
Dye, Jane Lawler, 448
Dykstra, Pearl A., 700
Dyrenforth, Portia S., 591
East, Patricia L., 421
Ebaugh, Helen Rose, 589
Ebner, Natalie C., 682
Eccles, Jacquelynne S., 402, 403,
411, 433
Eckert, Penelope, 422
Eckstein, Daniel G., 394
Eddleman, Keith A., 105
Edwards, Carolyn, 247
Edwards, John N., 512
Edwards, Laura, 74
Edwards, Oliver W., 293
Effros, Rita B., 640
Egan, Kieran, 246
Ehrenberg, Ronald G., 328
Ehrlich, Paul, 617
Eid, Michael, 181
Eidelman, Arthur I., 72, 191
Einstein, Albert, 299
Eisenberg, Marla E., 430
Eisenberg, Nancy, 255, 260, 335,
338, 484
Eisenhower, Dwight, 655
Eisner, Manuel, 384, 463, 464
El-Baradei, Mohamed, 516–517
Elder, Glen H., Jr., 23, 585, 587,
702
Elias, Merrill F., 531, 659
Elkind, David, 392, 394
Elkins, Jerome S., 629
Elliott, Leslie, Jr., 289
Ellis, Bruce J., 73, 366, 368, 369,
431
Ellis, Neenah, 645, 679
Ellison, Peter Thorpe, 368
Elmore, Richard, 321
Else-Quest, Nicole, 247
El-Sheikh, Mona, 350
Ely, Richard, 276
Emanuel, Ezekiel J., 451
Emmers-Sommer, Tara M., 505,
509
Eneboldsen, Layla, 685
Engel, Susan, 652
Engelhardt, H. Tristram, Jr., Ep-13
Engels, Rutger C. M. E., 400
Enserink, Martin, 451, 452
Epstein, Leonard H., 370
Erickson, Rebecca J., 596
Ericsson, K. Anders, 569, 571
Eriks-Brophy, Alice, 329
Eriksen, Michael P., 538
Erikson, Erik H., 36–37, 46, 49, 54,
183–184, 189, 190, 196, 203,
256, 257, 263, 351, 357, 415,
416–417, 428, 499, 500,
503–504, 578–579, 583,
596–597, 599, 671, 680, 681,
695, Ep-5
Eriksson, Birgitta Sandén, 116
Erlangsen, Annette, 700
Erlinghagen, Marcel, 694
Erwin, Phil, 339
Estruch, Ramon, 542
Evans, David W., 209
Evans, Jane A., 81
Eyer, Diane E., 119
Fabes, Richard A., 335
Fackelmann, Kathy A., 85
Fagan, Mary K., 169
Fagioli, Igino, 127
Fagot, Beverly I., 274
Fairburn, Christopher G., 459
Faircloth, Beverly S., 422, 424
Faraone, Stephen V., 56, 298
Farbrother, Jane E., 76
Farde, Lars, 628, 658
Farkas, Janice I., 587
Farley, Frank, 400, 429
Farrington, David P., 438
Fausey, Caitlin M., 316
Fayers, Peter, 547
Federico, Bruno, 549
Fedson, David S., 451
Feerasta, Aniqa, 545
Fehr, Beverley, 504, 505
Feiring, Candice, 425
Feldman, Ruth, 72, 117, 191, 192
Feldser, David M., 641
Feng, Anwei, 316
Fenson, Larry, 168
Ferguson, Mark W. J, 50
Fergusson, David M., 353, 439, 513
Fernie, Geoff R., 623, 624, 630
Ferrari, Joseph R., 491
Ferraro, Kathleen J., 513
Compian, Laura, 369
Comstock, George, 268, 269
Conboy, Barbara T., 171
Congdon, Nathan G., 77
Conger, Rand D., 348, 349, 592
Connell-Carrick, Kelli, 224, 225
Connidis, Ingrid Arnet, 587, 589,
701
Connolly, Jennifer, 427
Connor, David J., 303
Connor, Paul D., 102
Conrad, Herbert S., 556
Conti, Bruno, 641
Cook, Christine C., 692
Cook, Diane B., 690
Coontz, Stephanie, 429, 591
Coovadia, Hoosen M., 141
Copher, Ronda, 514
Corbetta, Daniela, 141
Corcoran, Mary E., 347
Cornelius, Steven W., 573
Correa-Chavez, Maricela, 313
Corsaro, William A., 27
Corwyn, Robert F., 352
Costa, Paul T., 23, 186, 581, 582
Costello, E. Jane, 349
Côté, James E., 416, 499
Cottrell, Jennifer M., 399
Courage, Mary L., 163, 164
Coutinho, Sonia Bechara, 150
Covington, Martin V., 402
Covington, Sharon N., 71, 72
Cowan, Nelson, 97
Cox, Maureen V., 218
Coyle, Karin, 431
Crabbe, John C., 71
Crago, Martha, 329
Craighero, Laila, 14
Craik, Fergus I. M., 653
Crain, William C., 232
Cramer, Duncan, 511
Crawford, Joy, 370
Crews, Douglas E., 536, 549, 637,
638, 639, 664
Crick, Nicki R., 439
Crinion, Jenny, 243
Criss, Michael M., 333
Crncec, Rudi, 29
Crockett, Lisa J., 441
Crombag, Hans S., 51
Crosnoe, Robert, 402, 425, 585
Cross, Susan, 681
Croteau, Agathe, 105
Crouter, Ann C., 447, 617
Crow, James F., 79
Crowe, Michael, 684
Cruikshank, Margaret, 615, 616,
645, 684
Cruzan, Nancy, Ep-17
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, 429, 571,
672
Cubbage, Amy Stephens, 251
Cullen, Karen Weber, 370
Cummings, Elaine, 685
Cummings, E. Mark, 349
Cummings, Michael R., 83
Cunningham, David A., 450, 626
Curry, Leslie, Ep-14
Curry, Mary, 589
NAME INDEX NI-3
N1-N12_BergerLS7e_NI.qxp 9/26/07 12:47 PM Page NI-3

Frohna, John, 148
Fromholt, Pia, 663, 666
Fry, Prem S., 683, Ep-9
Fuhrer, Rebecca, 549, 550
Fujimori, Maiko, 546
Fujita, Hidenori, 409
Fuligni, Andrew J., 355, 379, 425,
426
Fung, Helene H., 684, 704
Furman, Wyndol, 428, 506, 508
Furrow, James L., 356
Fussell, Elizabeth, 580
Gagnon, John H., 454
Galambos, Nancy L., 264, 418,
517, 518
Galea, Sandro, 544
Gall, Stanley, 70
Gallagher, Susan Scavo, 219, 221
Gallup, Gordon G., 182
Galotti, Kathleen M., 397, 398
Ganain sisters, 74
Gandhi, Mahatma, 36–37, 487
Ganong, Lawrence H., 509, 598, 599
Gans, Daphna, 702
Gantley, M., 147
Garbarini, Francesca, 14
Garber, Judy, 368, 369
Garcia, Cristina, 4
García Coll, Cynthia, 356
Gardner, Christoper D., 542
Gardner, Howard, 294, 295, 564
Gardner, Margo, 424
Garfield, Richard, 544
Garofalo, Robert, 428
Gartner, Rosemary, 513
Garvin, James, 394
Gaspar de Alba, Alicia, 502
Gathercole, Susan E., 311
Gauvain, Mary, 47
Gavrilov, Leonid A., 635
Gavrilova, Natalia S., 635
Gdalevich, Michael, 289
Ge, Xiaojia, 369, 434
Geil, Molly, 475
Gelfand, Donald E., 687, 695
Gelles, Richard J., 513
Gennetian, Lisa A., 348
Gentner, Dedre, 169, 170
Georgas, James, 345, 346, 347, 348,
506, 507, 509, 515, 587
George, Linda K., 694
Georges, Jean-Jacques, Ep-15
Georgieff, Michael K., 96, 127
Gerard, Jean M., 349
Gerhardstein, Peter, 166
Geronimus, Arline T., 116, 586
Gerris, Jan, 71
Gershoff, Elizabeth T., 267, 348
Gerstel, Naomi Ruth, 509
Gerstorf, Denis, 684
Getahun, Darios, 111
Ghuman, Paul A. Singh, 502
Gibbons, Ann, 52
Gibson, Eleanor J., 162, 163
Gibson, James Jerome, 162
Gibson-Davis, Christina M., 149,
507
Giele, Janet, 490
Gifford, Elizabeth J., 515
Gifford-Smith, Mary E., 338
Gigante, Denise, 546
Gigerenzer, Gerd, 400
Gilbert, Daniel, 8
Gilhooly, Mary, 28
Gillen, Meghan M., 453, 455
Gilligan, Carol, 396, 484
Gilliom, Miles, 258
Gillman, Neil, Ep-7
Gilmer, Diane F., 620, 623, 630,
645
Gimpel, Gretchen A., 352
Ginsburg, Herbert P., 326
Gitlin, Laura N., 709
Glass, Jennifer, 604, 623
Glass, Roger I., 144
Glauber, James H., 289
Gleason, Jean Berko, 276
Glenn, Norval D., 507
Glick, Jennifer E., 591
Glover, Evam Kofi, 374
Gluckman, Peter D., 208, 209, 285
Goedert, Michel, 663
Goel, Mita Sanghavi, 208
Gogate, Lakshmi J., 172
Gohm, C. Oichi S., 594
Gold, Ellen B., 535
Goldberg, Wendy A., 128
Golden, Timothy D., 605
Goldin-Meadow, Susan, 169, 232
Goldman, Connie, 693
Goldman, Herbert I., 173
Goldscheider, Frances, 594
Goldsmith, Marshall, 447
Goldsmith, Sara K., 435
Goldstein, Sara E., 422
Goleman, Daniel, 294
Golub, Sarit A., 616
Good, Catherine, 477
Goodman, Gail S., 36, 515, 516
Goodrich, Gregory L., 632
Gopaul-McNicol, Sharon-Ann, 293
Gopnik, Alison, 173, 236, 238
Gordon, Peter, 241
Gordon, Richard Allan, 461
Gordon, Robert M., 710
Gore, Jonathan S., 505
Gorenstein, Ethan E., 295, 298, 461
Gorski, Peter A., 298
Goss, David A., 77
Gotham, Heather J., 464
Gottlieb, Alma, 142
Gottlieb, Gilbert, 49, 50, 66, 67
Gottman, John M., 512, 595
Gould, Madelyn, 436
Goza, Franklin W., 623, 629
Graber, Julia A., 352, 434, 515
Gradin, Maria, 137
Grady, Cheryl L., 657
Graham, John W., 349
Graham, Sandra, 407
Graham, Susan A., 163
Gramotnev, Helen, 580
Granic, Isabela, 420
Grantham-McGregor, 150
Gratton, Brian, 702
Gray, Nicola J., 404
Green, Christa L., 321
Green, Nancy S., 111
Greenberger, Ellen, 429
Greene, Melissa L., 369, 422, 426,
432
Greene, Sheila, 579
Greenfield, Emily A., 588, 700
Greenfield, Patricia M., 188
Greenough, William T., 132, 134
Greenspan, Stanley I., 200, 301
Greider, Carol W., 641
Grewal, Daisy, 294
Grey, Courtney M., 466
Griebel, Wilfried, 248
Grigorenko, Elena L., 68, 294, 311,
337, 556
Grolnick, Wendy S., 259, 334
Grossmann, Klaus E., 193, 515
Grosvenor, Theodore, 77
Grundy, Emily, 599, 600
Grunwald, Henry, 627
Grusec, Joan E., 266
Grzywacz, Joseph G., 606
Gu, Dongfeng, 285
Guarente, Leonard, 638
Guggenheim, Jeremy A., 76
Guilamo-Ramos, Vincent, 430
Guillaume, Michele, 207, 284, 285
Gullone, Eleonora, Ep-3
Gunn, Shelly R., 531
Gunn, W. Stewart, 531
Gunnar, Megan R., 132
Gurney, James G., 301
Gurung, Regan A. R., 683, 700, 705
Gustafson, Kathryn E., 87
Gutchess, Angela H., 530, 659
Gutmann, David, 583
Gutteridge, John, 639, 640
Guzell, Jacqueline R., 43
Ha, Jung-hwa, 699
Haber, Carole, 702
Hack, Maureen, 116
Haden, Catherine A., 236
Hagedoorn, Mariët, 698, 704
Hagerman, Paul J., 84
Hagerman, Randi Jenssen, 84
Hagestad, Gunhild O., 579, 685
Hagin, Rosa A., 301
Hai, Hamid Abdul, Ep-8
Hajjar, Emily R., 667
Hakamies-Blomqvist, Liisa, 623
Hakuta, Kenji, 240
Haley, David W., 192
Halford, Graeme S., 234, 308
Hallenbeck, James, Ep-13
Halliday, Christopher, 451
Halliwell, Barry, 639, 640
Halpern, Carolyn Tucker, 370
Hamerman, David, 633
Hamermesh, Daniel S., 453
Hamerton, John L, 81
Hamill, Paul J., 568
Hamilton, Brady E., 110
Hamilton, Garry, 517
Hamm, Jill V., 422, 424, 425
Hammen, Constance, 353
Hammerman, Ann Jackoway, 72
Hammond, Christopher J., 76
Hampton, Terry, 538
Ferri, Beth A., 303
Field, Nigel P., Ep-22
Field, Tiffany, 116
Finch, Caleb E., 634, 635, 636, 638
Fincham, Frank D., 508, 592
Fine, Mark A., 593, 595
Fingerman, Karen L., 586, 588, 700
Finkel, Deborah, 559
Finkelhor, David, 383
Finn, Hohn W., Ep-12
Finn, Jeremy D., 327
Fischer, Kurt W., 397, 555
Fish, Jefferson M., 52
Fishbein, Martin, 387
Fisher, Helen E., 428, 454, 481,
506
Fisher, Jennifer O., 460
Fitness, Julie, 512
Flake, Dallan F., 510
Flammer, August, 366, 367, 368
Flanders, Joseph L., 261
Flavell, John H., 397
Fleeson, William, 547
Fletcher, Anne C., 421
Flook, Lisa, 352
Flory, Richard W., 400
Flum, David R., 542
Flynn, James R., 292, 557
Foehr, Ulla G., 269, 270, 271, 312
Fogel, Alan, 7, 180, 191
Foley, Daniel, 531
Foley, Kathleen M., Ep-15
Folts, W. Edward, 708
Fomby, Paula, 594
Fong, Rowena, 225
Forste, Renata, 510
Fortinsky, Richard H., 709
Fossel, Michael, 639, 641
Foster, E. Michael, 515
Fowler, Frieda, 267
Fowler, James W., 486–487, 488
Fox, Nathan A., 186, 187, 199, 259
Foxman, Betsy, 456
Fraley, R. Chris, 188
Franco-Marina, Francisco, 537
Frankenburg, William K., 141
Franklin, Sam, 391, 397, 398, 399,
400, 409
Franzini, Maurizio, 451
Fraser, Mark W., 353, 354
Frayling, Timothy M., 285, 541
Fredricks, Jennifer A., 410, 411, 433
Fredrickson, Barbara L., Ep-5
Fredriksen, Katia, 379
Freeman, Kassie, 479
French, Howard W., 65
French, Sabine Elizabeth, 418
Frensch, Peter A., 556
Freud, Anna, 36, 417, 437
Freud, Sigmund, 35–36, 37, 38, 46,
47, 54, 183, 184, 185, 190, 200,
203, 272–273, 351, 578, 579
Frey, Karin S., 341, 342
Fried, L. P., 621
Friedrichs, Michael, EP-22
Friedlander, Samuel L., 285
Friedman, Michael S., 289
Fries, James F., 633, 634
Frist, Bill, Ep-17
NI-4 NAME INDEX
N1-N12_BergerLS7e_NI.qxp 9/26/07 12:47 PM Page NI-4

Herschkowitz, Elinore Chapman,
210, 259, 290, 314, 376
Hertenstein, Matthew J., 138
Hess, Thomas M., 615, 660
Hetherington, E. Mavis, 23, 349,
594, 595, 598
Heuveline, Patrick, 348, 450, 465
Heyman, Richard E., 513
Hiebert, James, 323, 326
Higgins, Matt, 462, 463
Highfield, Roger, 71
Higuchi, Susumu, 75
Hilden, Katherine, 313
Hildyard, Kathryn L., 78, 222
Hill, James O., 542
Hill, Robert D., 712
Hill, Shirley A., 507
Hillman, Richard, 86
Himelfarb, Elaine, 135
Hinds, David A., 73, 81
Hines, Melissa, 271, 276
Hinkel, Eli, 316, 319
Hinson, Joey T., 660
Hirslaho, Nina, 645
Hitler, Adolph, 400
Hitt, Rachel, 645
Hiyama, E., 641
Hiyama, K., 641
Hoare, Carol, 578, 583, 671, 680
Hobbes, Thomas, 4
Hobbins, John, 98, 104, 108
Hobbs, Frank, 587
Hochman, David, 642
Hockey, Robert J., 545
Hodges, John, 531
Hofer, Myron A., 52
Hoff, David J., 410
Hoff, Erika, 241, 242, 317
Hofferth, Sandra L., 595
Hofmann, Adele Dellenbaugh, 371
Hofstede, Geert, 583
Hogan, Dennis P., 587
Hohmann-Marriott, Bryndl E., 511,
512
Holden, Constance, 67, 262–263
Holder, Harold D., 466
Hollich, George J., 174
Holliday, Robin, 451
Holtz, Sara A., 111
Hong, Ying-yi, 258
Hooley, Jill M., 518
Hoover-Dempsey, Kathleen V., 321
Horn, John L., 561, 562, 569, 571
Hornsby, Peter J., 641
Horowitz, Amy, 632
Horvath, J., 621
Horwood, L. John, 353, 439
Hosaka, Toru, 324
Houde, Susan Crocker, 630, 631
Houts, Renate M., 511
Howard, Barbara V., 540
Howard, Jeffrey A., 472, 491
Howe, Christine, 309, 310
Howe, Mark L., 313
Howitz, Konrad, 639, 642
Hrdy, Sarah Blaffer, 53
Hsu, Hui-Chin, 168
Hu, Frank B., 457
Huang, Han-Yao, 641
Huang, Jannet, 453
Hubbs-Tait, Laura, 236
Hudson, Thomas J., 288
Huesmann, L. Rowell, 269
Hugdahl, Kenneth, 212
Hulanicka, Barbara, 368
Hunt, Earl, 658
Hunt, Ruskin H., 96
Husain, Asad, Ep-8
Husain, N., 118
Hussey, Jon M., 223, 225
Huston, Aletha C., 192, 198
Huston, Ted L., 697
Huyck, Margaret Hellie, 572, 601,
688
Hyde, Janet Shibley, 322
Hyson, Marilou, 245
Ichikawa, Shin’ichi, 324
Idler, Ellen, 688, 695, Ep-5, Ep-6,
Ep-9
Imamoglu, Çagri, 711
Ingersoll-Dayton, Berit, 588, 695
Inglehart, R., 591
Inhelder, Bärbel, 44, 231, 307, 395,
396
Inhorn, Marcia C., 533
Inouye, Sharon K., 663
Inzlicht, Michael, 477
Irwin, Scott, 132
Isolauri, Erika, 149
Iverson, Jana M., 169
Iyengar, Sheena S., 518
Izard, Carroll E., 180
Jaccard, James, 430
Jackson, James S., 689
Jackson, Linda A., 405
Jackson, Richard J., 457
Jackson, Yo, 355
Jacobs, Janis E., 334, 434
Jacob’s father, 179–180, 200–201
Jacobson, Linda, 410
Jacoby, Larry L., 653, 654, 655, 661
Jaffee, Sara R., 192, 267
Jahns, Lisa, 208, 209
James, Raven, 382, 455, 456
Jansen-van der Weide, Marijke C.,
Ep-15
Jastrzembski, Tiffany S., 570, 659
Jay, Debra, 668
Jeanneret, Rene, 693
Jeffries, Sherryl, 704
Jellinger, Kurt A., 663, 670
Jenkins, Jennifer M., 238, 239
Jensen, Arthur Robert, 556
Jenson, Jeffrey M., 353, 354
Jeronimo, Maria de Carmo, 637
Joanen, Ted, 50
Joe, Sean, 436
Johnson, Beverly, 698
Johnson, Colleen L., 683, 689
Johnson, Dana E., 135
Johnson, Jeffrey G., 269
Johnson, Kevin R., 501
Johnson, Kirk A., 429
Johnson, Mark H., 130, 131, 132,
134, 137, 160, 161, 212, 463,
464
Johnson, Michael P., 513
Johnson, Ruth S., 321
Johnson, Scott P., 159
John-Steiner, Vera, 315
Johnston, Lloyd D., 383, 384, 385,
387, 463, 464
Johnston, Timothy D., 74
Joiner, Thomas E., 436
Jones, Daniel, 509
Jones, Diane, 370
Jones, Edward P., 317
Jones, Elizabeth W., 100
Jones, Harold Ellis, 556
Jones, Howard W., Jr., 72
Jones, Ian, 119
Jones, Lisa M., 383
Jones, Maggie, 519
Jones, Mary Cover, 369
Jones, Steve, 285
Jongbloed, Ben W. A., 489
Jopp, Daniela, 644, 645
Joseph, Rhawn, 95
Joseph, Stephen, 54
Jung, Carl G., 583–84
Juujrävi, Soile, 484
Juvonen, Jaana, 341, 403
Kaduszkiewicz, Hanna, 670
Kaestle, Christine E., 381
Kagan, Jerome, 180, 181, 186, 187,
188, 210, 259, 290, 314, 376
Kagitcibasi, Cigdem, 188
Kahn, Jonathan, 551
Kahn, Robert Louis, 571, 620, 686
Kahneman, Daniel, 546
Kaiser, Jocelyn, 547
Källén, Bengt, 114
Kalmijn, Matthijs, 504
Kalmuss, Debra, 429
Kamlin, C. Omar F., 110
Kamp Dush, Claire M., 511
Kanaya, Tomoe, 557–558
Kandel, Denise B., 463
Kane, Robert L., 616
Kane, Rosalie A., 616
Kang, Jennifer Yusun, 315, 316
Kanner, Leo, 299
Kaplan, Robert M., 543
Karasawa, Kaori, 484
Karim, Enamul, 538, 541
Karney, Benjamin R., 592, 594
Karpov, Yuriy V., 47
Kashubeck, Susan, 459
Kastenbaum, Robert J., 334, 673,
Ep-2, Ep-3, Ep-5, Ep-6, Ep-9,
Ep-10
Kato, S., 534
Kaufman, James C., 564
Kaufman, Joan, 259
Kaufman, Kenneth R., Ep-3
Kaufman, Nathaniel D., Ep-3
Kaufman, Sharon R., 626, 629
Kazdin, Alan E., 40
Kearny, Andrew, 326
Keating, Daniel P., 376, 378, 397,
398
Keating, Nancy L., Ep-12
Kedar, Yarden, 171
Kee, Barbara W. K., 550
Han, Beth, Ep-12
Hand, Laura Shaffer, 506, 508
Hane, Amie Ashley, 259
Hank, Karsten, 694
Hankin, Benjamin L., 434
Hanson, Mark A., 208, 209, 285
Hansson, Robert O., Ep-22
Hanushek, Eric A., 327
Happaney, Keith, 222
Hard, Steven F., 485
Harden, Tamara, 615
Hardway, Christina, 379
Hardy, Melissa, 599, 600, 691
Hareven, Tamara K., 700
Harger, JoAnn, 350
Harlow, Clara Mears, 40
Harlow, Harry F., 40–42
Harlow, Ilana, Ep-19
Harmon, Amy, 108
Harris, James C., 14
Harris, Judith Rich, 343
Hart, Betty, 249, 317
Hart, Carole L., 102, 464, 538
Hart, Daniel, 258
Harter, Susan, 182, 313, 333, 352,
432
Hartl, Daniel L., 100
Hartmann, Donald P., 24, 27, 160
Harvey, Carol D. H., 588
Harvey, John H., 593, 595
Harwood, Robin L., 258
Hasebe, Yuki, 421
Hasher, Lynn, 654, 658
Haskins, Ron, 197
Haslam, Nick, 582
Hassan, Mohamed A. M., 453, 533
Hassold, Terry J., 80
Hastie, Peter A., 287
Hatfield, Elaine, 508, 512
Hauser, Stuart T., 521
Hawley, Patricia H., 263
Hayes, Brett K., 308
Hayes, Richard, 456, 462
Hayes-Bautista, David E., 688
Hayflick, Leonard, 640, 641
Hayne, Harlene, 165
Haynes, Brenda Pitts, 294
Hayslip, Bert, Jr., 520, 702, Ep-21
Haywood, H. Carl, 47
Hazzard, William R., 616
Heath, Andrew C., 74
Hechtman, Lily, 297, 298
Heckhausen, Jutta, 581
Hedden, Trey, 661
Heinz, Walter R., 682
Hekimi, Siegfried, 638
Hendin, Herbert, Ep-15
Henig, Robin Marantz, 460
Henretta, John C., 599, 600
Henry VIII, 65
Henry, William E., 685
Henson, Sian M., 450
Henz, Ursula, 600
Herbert, Alan, 541
Herek, Gregory M., 592, 593
Herman, Melissa, 501
Herman-Giddens, Marcia E., 364,
367, 368
Hern, Matt, 404
NAME INDEX NI-5
N1-N12_BergerLS7e_NI.qxp 9/26/07 12:47 PM Page NI-5

Klug, William S., 83
Klute, Christa, 423, 424
Knoblich, Günther, 14
Knudsen, Eric I., 133
Koch, Tom, 653, 687, 705
Kochanska, Grazyna, 196, 197, 265
Kogan, Shari L., Ep-11
Kohlberg, Lawrence, 274, 336, 486,
488
Kohler, Hans-Peter, 597
Kohler, Julie K., 598
Kohn, Alfie, 324, 327
Koivisto, Maila, 342
Kolb, Bryan, 95, 129, 214
Komives, Susan R., 483, 489
Konnert, Candace, 704
Koolhaas, Jaap M., 50
Koops, Willem, 3
Koropeckyj-Cox, Tanya, 700
Kotre, John N., 672
Kovas, Yulia, 243
Kramer, Arthur F., 628, 651, 656
Krampe, Ralf, 652
Krause, Neal, 504, 587, 687, 704
Krieger, Nancy, 11, 549
Kroger, Jane, 680, 681
Kroger, Rolf O., 499
Krueger, Robert F., 51
Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth, Ep-10–11
Kuh, George D., 490, 492
Kuhn, Deanna, 376, 391, 397, 398,
399, 400, 409
Kuller, Jeffrey A., 98
Kumar, Rajesh, 456
Kumpfer, Karol L., 441
Kupersmidt, Janis B., 337, 341
Kurdek, Lawrence A., 509, 513, 593
Kurtzman, Howard S., 57
Labouvie-Vief, Gisela, 473, 474,
480, 481, 486, 673
Lach, Helen W., 626
Lachman, Margie E., 527, 582, 583
Lacourse, Eric, 424
Ladd, Gary W., 338, 339, 340, 342
Lagattuta, Kristin H., 256, 356
Lahey, Benjamin B., 440
Lalande, Kathleen M., Ep-22
Lamb, Michael E., 119, 197, 264
Lamy, Peter P., 625
Lan, Pei-Chia, 600
Landry, David J., 431
Lane, Scott D., 386
Langer, Ellen, 616, 660
Lansford, Jennifer E., 348
Lapsley, Daniel K., 392
Larcombe, Duncan, 326
Larson, Nicole I., 370
Larson, Reed W., 400, 410, 411,
420
Larson-Hall, Jenifer, 315
Lattanzi-Licht, Marcia E., Ep-4
Laumann, Edward O., 428, 454,
455, 532
Laungann, Pittu, Ep-9
Laurendeau, Jason, 462
Laurie, Graeme, Ep-14
Laursen, Brett, 420, 421, 428, 429
Lawton, M. Powell, 547, 704
Layden, Tim, 287
Lazar, Mitchell A., 77, 78
Leach, Penelope, 256
Leaper, Campbell, 272, 274, 275,
276
LeBlanc, Manon Mireille, 601
Lee, C. M. Y., 541
Lee, Christina, 580
Lee, Eunju, 600
Lee, Keun, 192
Lee, Kum Yi., 688
Lefkowitz, Eva S., 453, 455
Lehn, Hanne, 57
Lei, Joy L., 369
Leijenhorst, Henk, 571
Leipzig, Rosanne M., 616
Lemanske, Robert F., 289
Lemire, Ronald J., 104
Lenneberg, Eric H., 168
Lenton, Alison P., 506
Leon, David A., 539
Leonard, Christiana M., 133, 136,
167
Leone, Tiziana, 65
Lepage, Jean-Francois, 14
Lepper, Mark R., 258
Lerner, Richard M., 5, 55
Leslie, Alan M., 260
Leslie, Douglas, 298
Levenson, Michael R., 544
Levesque, Roger J. R., 356
Levine, Brian, 673
Levine, James A., 19
Levinson, Daniel J., 580, 581
Levy, Becca R., 660
Lewin, Kurt, 34
Lewis, C., 264
Lewis, Hunter, 488
Lewis, Lawrence B., 169
Lewis, Michael, 57, 180, 182
Lewis, Pamela, 79
Lewit, Eugene M., 208
Li, De-Kun, 148
Li, Lydia Wailing, 698
Li, Xiaoming, 422
Li, Zhaoping, 542
Lidz, Jeffrey L., 170
Lieberman, Debra, 508
Lieu, Tracy A., 145
Lightfoot, Cynthia, 424
Lillard, Angeline Stoll, 247
Lin, I. Fen, 600
Lindauer, Martin S., 672
Lindenberg, Siegwart, 681, 694
Lindenberger, Ulman, 7, 562, 650,
657, 659
Lindsay, Geoff, 27
Ling, Michael, 246
Linn, Marcia C., 322
Lintern, Vicki, 274
Lippa, Richard A., 55, 417
Lissau, Inge, 207, 284, 285, 370
Little, Emma, 411
Little, Peter, 67
Liu, Cong, 606
Liu, Hui-li, 700
Liu, Peter Y., 533
Liu, Ping, 316
Lloyd-Sherlock, Peter, 618, 619
Lloyd-Williams, Mari, Ep-12
Lockhart, Kristi L., 256–257, 309
Lockley, S.W., 530
Loeb, Susanna, 197, 199
Loeber, Rolf, 263
Loewy, Erich H., Ep-13
Loichinger, Elke, 503
Loland, Sigmund, 286
Lombardi, Joan, 251
Long, Lynellyn, 502
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 675
Longino, Charles F., Jr., 618
López, Frank A., 56
Lopez, Miguel G., 244
Lopez, Nestor L., 259
Lord, Janice, Ep-8
Lorenz, Edward, 8
Low, Jason, 29
Lu, Hsien-Hen, 350
Lu, Luo, 482
Lubienski, Christopher, 321
Lubienski, Sarah Theule, 321
Lucas, Richard E., 591, 594
Luciana, Monica, 133, 212
Ludington-Hoe, Susan M., 117
Lund, Dale 708
Lundy, Jean E. B., 239
Luo, Ye, 511
Luthar, Suniya S., 349, 352, 353,
354
Lutz, Donna J., 396, 475
Lykken, David T., 342
Lynch, Jessica E., 459
Lynch, Robert G., 251
Lyng, Stephen, 462, 466
Lynn, Richard, 292
Lyons, Peter, 410
Lyons-Ruth, Karlen, 196
Maccoby, Eleanor E., 265, 271,
276, 428–429
Machin, David., 547
MacIver, Douglas J., 317
MacKay, Andrea P., 534
Mackay, Judith, 538
MacKenzie, Michael J., 296
MacMillan, Ross, 513, 514
Madden, David J., 630
Madsen, Kreesten Meldgaard, 301
Magara, Keiichi, 324
Magen, Zipora, 374
Maggard, Melinda A., 542
Magnusson, Roger S., Ep-14, Ep-16
Maguen, Shira, 428
Maguire, Kathleen, 435, 439
Mahler, Margaret S., 182
Mahmoud, Adel, 146
Mahoney, Joseph L., 411
Maier, Heiner, 659
Makarov, Sergei, 80
Malatesta, Carol Z., 191
Malina, Robert M., 284, 364, 365,
366, 367, 368, 372
Malone, Fergal D., 105
Mancini, Anthony D., 686, 698
Mandler, Jean Matter, 158, 161,
166, 170, 241
Mange, Arthur P., 83
Mange, Elaine Johansen, 83
Keil, Frank C., 309
Keith, Jennie, 579
Keith-Spiegel, Patricia, 485
Kelemen, Deborah, 237
Keller, Heidi, 189–190
Keller, Meret A., 128
Kelley, Sue A., 182
Kelley, Susan J., 703
Kelly, John, 23, 349, 594, 595, 598
Kelly, John R., 685
Kelly, Michael, Ep-14, Ep-16
Kelly, Michelle M., 95
Kemp, Candace L., 703
Kemp, Charles, Ep-9
Kempe, C. Henry, 222
Kempe, Ruth S., 222
Kemper, Susan, 615, 651
Kendall-Tackett, Kathleen, 225
Kendler, Howard H., 484
Kennedy, Colin R., 133
Kennedy, John F., Ep-4
Kennell, John H., 119
Kenyon, Brenda L., Ep-2
Keogh, Barbara K., 324
Kerr, Margaret, 422
Kerrebrock, Nancy, 208
Kerry, John, 655
Keshavan, Matcheri S., 210
Kessler, Ronald C., 518, 544, 684
Khaleque, Abdul, 265, 349
Khawaja, Marwan, 111
Kiberstis, Paula A., 78
Kidd, Kenneth K., 11
Kidder, Jeffrey L., 462
Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., 591
Kiefer, Heather Mason, 485
Kiernan, Elizabeth A., 421
Kildea, D., 663
Killen, Melanie, 335
Killgore, William D. S., 393
Killick, Stephen R., 453
Kim, Hyoun K., 512
Kim, Jungmeen, 257
Kim-Cohen, Julia, 356
Kimmel, Michael S., 275
Kincheloe, Joe L., 294
Kinder, Donald R., 418
King, Alan R., 519
King, Gary, 687
King, Jacqueline E., 493
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 487
King, Neville J., Ep-3
King, Pamela Ebstyne, 356
King, Patricia M., 490
King, Valarie, 348, 510, 594
Kinsella, Kevin G., 643
Kirby, Douglas, 430, 431
Kirkbride, James B., 520
Kirkham, Natasha, 212
Kirkwood, Thomas B. L., 68, 69,
619, 634, 635, 638
Kitchener, Karen S., 490
Kitzinger, Sheila, 112
Klaczynski, Paul A., 398, 399, 407,
474, 476, 564
Klatz, Ronald M., 619
Klaus, Marshall H., 119
Kleiber, Douglas A., 692
Kleinbaum, Stacey, 511
NI-6 NAME INDEX
N1-N12_BergerLS7e_NI.qxp 9/26/07 12:47 PM Page NI-6

McCarthy, Emily J., 481
McCarthy, Helen, 459
McCarty, Michael E., 141
McClearn, Gerald, 11
McCloskey, Laura Ann, 339
McCrae, Robert R., 23, 186, 581,
582, 583
McCurry, Susan M., 623
McDonald, C., 105
McElroy, Mary, 457
McGuffin, Peter, 68
McKelvie, Pippa, 29
McKinley, Jesse, 410
McKinstry, Leo, 298
McKnight, A. James, 623
McLanahan, Sara, 350
McLeod, Bryce D., 342
McLeod, Peter, 570
McLoyd, Vonnie C., 265, 349
McNeil, Michele, 409
McQuaid, Elizabeth L., 290
Mealey, Linda, 460
Meaney, F. John, 83
Medvedev, Zhores A., 635
Meert, Kathleen L, Ep-4
Meil, Gerardo, 701
Meisami, Esmail, 529, 630, 631
Mell, Loren K., 146
Mellor, M. Joanne, 710
Meltzoff, Andrew N., 160, 166
Menacker, Fay, 380
Mendelson, Morton J., 339
Mendle, Jane, 369
Menna-Barreto, Luiz, 378
Menon, Usha, 535, 585
Merello, Marcelo J., 666
Merline, Alicia C., 387
Merrell, Kenneth W., 352
Merrill, Susan S., 528, 543
Merriman, William E., 168
Mervis, Jeffrey, 326, 327
Merzenich, Michael M., 311
Michael, Robert T., 454, 455, 532
Michaud, Catherine, 546, 550
Michaud, Pierre-Andre, 382
Michels, Tricia M., 432
Middleton, David, Ep-7
Mikels, Joseph A., 683
Mikk, Jaan, 292
Mikulincer, Mario, 36, 515, 516
Milardo, Robert M., 599
Miller, Brent C., 430
Miller, Cynthia, 348
Miller, Donald E., 400
Miller, Greg, 14, 291, 518
Miller, Joan G., 258, 266
Miller, Orlando J., 79
Miller, Patricia H., 33, 351, 395
Miller, Patricia Y., 417
Miller, Richard A., 638
Miller, Thomas E., 475
Miller, William R., 466, 487
Miller-Day, Michelle A., 481
Milloy, Steven, 540
Mills, James L., 100
Min, Pyong Gap, 244
Mintz, Laurie B., 459
Mintz, Toben H., 241
Mitchell, Jean, 459
Mitchell, Katharyne, 328
Mitchell, Peter, 352
Mitka, Mike, 542
Mix, Kelly S., 236
Miyashita, Yasushi, 14
Mocan, H. Naci, 453
Moen, Phyllis, 503, 688, 691, 692
Moffat, Scott D., 536
Moffitt, Terrie E., 50, 51, 55, 368,
378, 437, 439, 440, 513
Mohammad, 487
Molenaar, Peter C. M., 26
Molinari, Luisa, 27
Mollenkopf, Heidrun, 627
Mollenkopf, John, 515
Monastersky, Richard, 376, 378
Moneta, L., 492
Monsour, Michael, 505, 506
Monteiro, Carlos A., 208
Montessori, Maria, 247
Montgomery, Barbara M., 481
Moody, Harry R., 642
Moody, Raymond A., Ep-9
Mooney, Karen S., 428, 429
Moore, Celia L., 14
Moore, Colleen F., 288
Moore, Ginger A., 192
Moore, Keith L., 79, 83, 92, 93, 94,
97, 98, 99, 105, 109
Moore, M. Keith, 160, 166
Moore, Susan, 374
Moorhead, Paul S., 640
Moran, Seana, 294
Morgan, Alice, 86
Morgan, Craig, 520
Morgan, Ian G., 76, 77
Morgan, John D., Ep-9
Morgenstern, Hal, 219
Morris, Jenny, 28
Morris, Pamela A., 5–6
Morris, Wendy L., 579, 587
Morrison, India, 14
Morrongiello, Barbara A., 137
Morrow, Daniel G., 571
Morry, Marian M., 505
Morse, Stephen S., 451
Morton, J. Bruce, 260
Morton, John, 137
Moscovitch, Morris, 661, 662
Moses, 487
Moshman, David, 396, 397, 398,
475
Moss, Ellen, 260
Moster, Dag, 110
Mother Teresa, 487
Motta, M., 620
Mouzos, Jenny, 510
Mowbray, Carol T., 518
Mpofu, Elias, 310
Mroczek, Daniel K., 582
Mucke, Lennart, 670
Mueller, Margaret M., 702
Muir, Kenneth B., 708
Mukamal, K. J., 628
Mukesh, B. N., 631
Müller, Fabiola, 104
Müller, Gerd B., 51
Müller, Ulrich, 212
Mullis, Ina V. S., 321, 322
Mulvey, Edward P., 412
Munakata, Yuko, 212, 310
Munholland, Kristine A., 184
Muraco, Anna, 589
Murphy, Claire, 650
Murphy, Gregory L., 308
Murphy, Lonna M., 423
Murray, Christopher J. L., 549
Murray, Lynne, 434
Musick, Kelly, 346
Musick, Marc A., 694
Mustillo, Sarah, 285
Mutchler, Jan E., 588
Muter, Valerie, 325
Mutrie, Nanette, 453, 457
Myers, David G., 567, 569–570,
616
Myers-Scotton, Carol, 316
Naedts, Myriam H. L., 487
Nagda, Biren A., 494
Nagin, Daniel S., 263
Naigles, Letitia, 241, 242
Nair, K. S., 536
Nakahara, Kiyoshi, 14
Nakamura, Suad, 130
Nakasone, Ronald Y., Ep-6
Nakazawa, Jun, 350
Nathan, Rebekah, 485
Neal, David T., 38
Needham, Belinda, 425
Neisser, Ulric, 558, 559
Nelson, Charles A., III, 131, 134,
166, 167, 210, 212, 213, 214,
215
Nelson, Jennifer A., 208
Nelson-Mmari, Kristin, 370, 381
Nemy, Enid, 242
Nerlich, Brigitte, 451
Nesdale, Drew, 261, 335
Nesselroade, John R., 26
Netting, Nancy S., 455
Neugarten, Bernice L., 535, 579
Neugarten, Dail A., 535, 579
Newell, Karl M., 625
Newirth, Joseph, 481
Newman, Stuart A., 51
Newnham, John P., 105
Newschaffer, Craig J., 301
Newsom, Jason T., 704
Newton, Christopher R., 72
Newton, T. L., 591
Ng, Siu-Kei, 684
Ngige, Lucy W., 515
Nguyen, Huong Q., 146
Nguyen, Simone P., 308
Nichols, Sharon L., 409
Nichols, Tracy R., 439
Nicoladis, Elena, 243
Nielsen, David A., 75
Nielsen, Mark, 182
Nielson, Kristy A., 657
Niesel, Renate, 248
Nieto, Sonia, 318, 335, 337
Nimrod, Galit, 692
Nisbett, Richard E., 481, 482
Nishina, Adrienne, 341
Normile, Dennis, 409
Norris, Joan E., 483
Manlove, Jennifer, 432
Manly, Jody Todd, 222, 223, 225,
259
Mann, Ronald D., 99, 104
Mannion, A. F., 547
Manson, JoAnn E., 456
Manton, Kenneth G., 633
Manzi, Claudia, 514, 515
Manzo, Kathleen Kennedy, 319,
320, 328
Manzoli, Lamberto, 697, 698
Mao, Amy, 128
March, John, 209, 436
Marcia, James E., 416, 579, 607
Marcoen, Alfons, 661
Marcus, Gary, 62, 67
Marian, Viorica, 316
Markman, Ellen M., 240
Markon, Kristian E., 51
Marks, Nadine F., 588, 700
Markus, Hazel, 681
Marlow, Neil, 95
Marlow-Ferguson, Rebecca, 318,
319
Marmot, Michael G., 549
Marriott, L. K., 667
Marshall, Barry, 516, 517, 521
Marshall, William L., 382
Marsiske, Michael, 476, 478
Martel, Jane, 237
Martell, Louise K., 191
Martin, Andres, 298
Martin, Carol Lynn, 274
Martin, Joyce A., 115
Martin, Mike, 559, 658
Martino, Steven C., 25, 26
Martire, Lynn M., 698
Marx, Jean, 664, 670
Marx, Jonathan, 703
Mascie-Taylor, C. G. Nicholas, 71,
538, 541
Mascolo, Michael F., 184
Mash, Elisabeth, Ep-12
Maslow, Abraham H., 671, 680,
Ep-11
Masoro, Edward J., 449, 528, 621,
622, 625, 635, 636
Massetti, Greta M., 249
Masten, Ann S., 355, 357, 406, 521
Masterpasqua, Frank, 8
Masunaga, Hiromi, 562, 569, 571
Maton, Kenneth I., 354
Matsumoto, David, 255, 258, 266
Mattingly, Marybeth J., 605
Maughan, Angeline, 259
May, Dee C., 606
May, Henry, 404
May, Philip A., 102
May, Stephen, 315
Mayberry, Rachel I., 243
Mayeux, Lara, 337, 402
Maylor, Elizabeth A., 555
Maynard, Ashley E., 234, 235
McAdams, Dan P., 34, 54, 578, 596
McCabe, Donald L, 485
McCardle, Peggy, 325
McCarter, Roger J. M., 528
McCarthy, Barry W., 481
McCarthy, Carolyn, 481
NAME INDEX NI-7
N1-N12_BergerLS7e_NI.qxp 9/26/07 12:47 PM Page NI-7

Patel, Vimla L., 571
Paterson, David S., 148
Patrick, Julie Hicks, 702
Patrick, Kevin, 286
Patterson, Charlotte J., 56, 135
Patterson, David, 80
Paul, David, 95
Pauli-Pott, Ursula, 187
Pavlov, Ivan, 39, 47, 171
Payer, Doris, 651, 657
Pearce, K. A., 478
Pedersen, Nancy L, 581
Pehrsson, Gunnel, 116
Pelzel, Kelly E., 24, 27
Peng, Du, 693
Peng, Kaiping, 482
Pennington, Bruce Franklin, 87,
293, 297, 299
Pepler, Debra, 341
Perfect, Timothy J., 555
Perfetti, Jennifer, 118
Perie, Marianne, 320
Perlmutter, Marion, 573
Perls, Thomas, 636, 645
Perna, Phyllis A., 8
Perner, Josef, 238, 239
Perren, Sonja, 527
Perrig-Chiello, Pasqualina, 527
Perry, William G., Jr., 490, 491
Persaud, Trivedi V. N., 79, 83, 92,
93, 94, 97, 98, 99, 105, 109
Peter, Jochen, 405
Peterson, Jordan B., 261
Peterson, Ronald C., 664, 670
Pettit, Gregory S., 23, 342
Philip, John, 105
Phillips, David R., 693
Phillips, Deborah A., 249
Phillipson, Chris, 707
Phinney, Jean S., 418, 500
Piaget, Jean, 43–46, 44, 47, 49,
136, 155, 156, 158, 159, 160,
161, 185, 196, 203, 231–234,
239, 242, 247, 307–309, 310,
313, 314, 325, 326, 328, 336,
359, 395, 396, 397, 400, 401,
472, 473, 474, 486, 658
Pierce, Benton H., 654
Pierce, W. David, 258
Pinborg, Anja, 115
Pine, Daniel S., 213
Pinheiro, Paulo Sèrgio, 382
Pinker, Steven, 240
Pinquart, Martin, 708, Ep-5
Pinter, Harold, 516, 517
Piolino, Pascale, 652
Piontelli, Alessandra, 69, 70, 94
Pirozzo, Sandi, 529–530
Pitskhelauri, G.Z., 643
Pittman, Cathy, 418
Plank, Stephen B., 317
Plaut, Victoria C., 515
Plomin, Robert, 68, 73, 84, 302,
342
Plutchik, Robert, 180, 191
Pogrebin, Letty Cottin, 527
Poland, Gregory A., 451
Pollack, Harold, 148
Pollak, Seth D., 338
Pomerantz, Eva M., 352
Pong, Suet-ling, 349
Ponsonby, Anne-Louise, 148
Porche, Michelle V., 411
Porte, Daniel, 77
Porter, C., 147
Portes, Alejandro, 425, 502
Posthuma, Daniëlle, 73
Powell, Douglas H., 620
Powell, Douglas R., 249
Powell, Lynda H., 695
Powlishta, Kimberly, 271, 275, 339
Pratt, Michael W., 483, 672
Prentice, Ross L., 540
Presser, Harriet B., 604
Pressley, Michael, 236, 313
Preston, Fredrica, Ep-13
Preston, Tom, Ep-14, Ep-16
Previti, Denise, 591
Pridemore, William Alex, 539
Promislow, Daniel E. L., 640
Proulx, Christine M., 697
Pruden, Shannon M., 175
Pucher, John, 457
Pulkkinen, Lea, 583
Putney, Norella M., 688
Putnick, Diane L., 580
Qing, Li, 405
Quas, Jodi A., 215, 259
Quinlan, Karen Ann, Ep-17
Quinn, Paul C., 161, 308
Quintana, Stephen M., 12
Raaijmakers, Quinten A. W., 486
Rabbitt, Patrick, 561, 650, 659
Rabiner, David L., 338
Radmacher, Kimberley, 504, 505
Rae, Michael, 642
Rahman, Rumaisa, 96
Raikes, H. Abigail, 184, 192–193,
196
Raikes, Helen, 172
Raj, Anita, 513
Raley, R. Kelly, 347
Ramachandran, Vilayanur S., 300
Ramchandani, Paul, 119
Ramey, Craig T., 199
Ramsay, Douglas, 180
Rando, Therese A., Ep-21
Rankin, Jane L., 392
Rao, Raghavendra, 96
Rapson, Richard L., 508, 512
Raspa, Richard, Ep-11
Ratcliff, Roger, 661
Rauscher, Frances H., 29
Ray, Ruth E., 686
Rayco-Solon, Pura, 116
Rayner, Keith, 321, 324
Raz, Naftali, 629, 654, 656, 659
Read, Jennifer S., 105
Reagan, Ronald, Ep-4
Ream, Geoffrey L., 400
Rector, Robert, 429
Redline, Susan, 623
Reece, E. Albert, 98, 104, 108
Reeve, Christopher, 8
Regnerus, Mark D., 430
Reis, Harry T., 504
Reiss, David, 55, 73, 343
Reith, Gerda, 463
Remage-Healey, Luke, 276
Rendell, Peter G., 662
Renninger, K. Ann, 34
Rentner, Diane Stark, 319
Rest, James, 483, 486, 490, 494
Rettig, Michael, 294
Retting, Richard A., 220, 221
Reuter-Lorenz, Patricia A., 530, 531
Reyna, Valerie F., 398, 400, 429
Reynolds, Arthur J., 250
Reynolds, Heidi W., 380
Rhodes, Frank Harold Trevor, 491,
492
Rhodes, Jean E., 420
Rhodes, Matthew G., 653, 655, 661
Riccio, Cynthia A., 299
Rice, Charles L., 450, 626
Rich, John A., 466
Richards, Todd L., 291, 301
Richardson, Rhonda A., 422
Rickert, Vaughn I., 404
Ridley, Matt, 63
Riegel, Klaus F., 480
Riordan, Jan, 149, 150
Risley, Todd R., 249, 317
Ritchie, K., 663
Rivers, Caryl, 433
Rizzolatti, Giacomo, 14
Ro, Marguerite, 551
Roach, Max, 682
Robelen, Erik W., 410
Roberson, Erik D., 670
Robert, Stephanie A., 688
Roberts, Brent W., 581, 582
Roberts, Donald F., 269, 270, 271,
312
Roberts, Eric M., 289
Robin, Daniel J., 141
Robine, J. M., 663
Robins, Lee N., 51
Robins, S., 672
Robinson, Billi, 476
Robinson, Terry E., 51
Robinson-Zañartu, Carol, 485
Robitaille, David F., 321, 407
Rochat, Philippe, 191, 192
Roche, Alex F., 365, 367, 368, 372
Rodgers, Joseph, 423
Rodgers, Joseph Lee, 292
Roehling, Patricia, 503
Roffman, Jennifer G., 420
Rogers, Chrissie, 303
Rogers, Stacy J., 606
Rogoff, Barbara, 46, 47, 48, 180,
182, 189, 231, 234, 310
Rogol, Alan, 366
Rohner, Ronald P., 265, 349
Roid, Gale H., 293
Roisman, Glenn I., 188
Romans, Sarah E., 369
Roney, Kathleen, 403
Rönkä, A., 582, 592
Rook, Karen S., 683
Room, Robin, 538
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 655
Rosano, Giuseppe M. C., 535
Roschelle, Jeremy M., 404
Norris, Pippa, 404
Nurmi, Jari-Erik, 267, 416
Nuss, Elizabeth M., 483, 489
Nutbrown, Cathy, 242, 247
Oberman, Lindsay M., 300
O’Connor, Brian P., 615
O’Connor, Thomas G., 135, 342
Oddy, Wendy H., 149, 150
Oden, Melita H., 557
O’Doherty, Kieran, 85
Ogawa, Tetsuo, 707
Ogbu, John U., 478
Ogden, Cynthia L., 285
Okamoto, Koichi, 670
O’Keefe, Paul A., 311
Okun, Morris A., 694
Olausson, Petra Otterblad, 381
Olson, Laura Katz, 673, 687
Olson, Lynn, 409, 503
Olson, Steve, 81
Olweus, Dan, 340, 341
Ombelet, Willem, 72
O’Meara, E. S., 622
Omoto, Allen M., 57
O’Neal, Keri K., 387
O’Neill, C., 631
Opoku, Kofi Asare, Ep-8
O’Rahilly, Ronan R., 104
O’Rand, Angela, 684
Orentlicher, David, Ep-15, Ep-16
Orfield, Gary, 410
Ormerod, Thomas C., 570
Oseguera, Leticia, 479
Osgood, D. Wayne, 495, 515
Osnes, E. K., 706
Oswald, Debra L, 505
Otto, Suzie J., 543
Overbeek, Geertjan, 591
Owen, Lee D., 385
Oxfeld, Ellen, 502
Oxman, M. N., 640
Ozer, Emily J., 519
Pace, T. W., 531
Padmadas, Sabu S., 580
Pahl, Kerstin, 418
Palloni, Alberto, 580
Palmer, Raymond F., 301
Palmore, Erdman, 614, 615
Pals, Jennifer L., 34, 54
Pan, Xiaochuan, 289
Panagiotakos, D. B., 538
Pang, Jenny W. Y., 111
Parashar, Umesh D., 144
Park, D. J. J., 77
Park, Denise C., 530, 651, 657,
659, 661
Parke, Ross D., 197, 257, 264, 265,
348, 349, 420
Parker, Marti G., 686
Parker, Susan W., 215
Parkin, Alan J., 654
Parsell, Diana, 301
Parton, Dolly, 620
Pascarella, Ernest T., 490, 494, 495
Pascual-Leone, Alvaro, 133
Pastore, Ann L., 435, 439
Patch, Christine, 87
NI-8 NAME INDEX
N1-N12_BergerLS7e_NI.qxp 9/26/07 12:47 PM Page NI-8

Sanchez, Maria del Mar, 259, 368
Sandstrom, Marlene J., 338, 339,
340
Sanger, David E., 45
Sani, Fabio, 261
Saper, Clifford B., 642
Sapp, Felicity, 232
Saraswathi, T. S., 473
Sarroub, Loukia K., 425, 426
Sassler, Sharon, 594
Satariano, William, 624, 626, 632,
636
Saunders, Cicely M., Ep-12
Savin-Williams, Ritch C., 56, 57,
400, 428, 455
Saw, Seang-Mei, 77
Saxe, Geoffrey B., 310
Sayer, Liana C., 605
Saylor, Megan M., 242
Scalembra, Chiara, 117
Scambler, Douglas J., 299
Scannapieco, Maria, 224, 225
Schachter, Sherry R., Ep-18, Ep-22
Schacter, Daniel L, 166
Schafer, Graham, 169
Schaffer, H. Rudolph, 185
Schaie, K. Warner, 24, 473, 513,
558–559, 560, 565, 566, 572,
583, 615, 632, 650
Schallert, Timothy, 670
Schardein, James L., 98
Scharrer, Erica, 268, 269
Schellenberg, E., 29
Schiavo, Michael, Ep-17
Schiavo, Terry, Ep-17
Schieber, Frank, 529
Schiller, Ruth A., 486
Schindler, Ines, Ep-5
Schlegel, Alice, 275
Schmader, Toni, 477
Schmidt, Louis A., 479
Schmitt, David P., 583
Schneider, Barbara, 429
Schneider, Barry H., 303
Schneider, Wolfgang, 236, 658
Schoen, Robert, 511
Schoeni, Robert F., 515
Schooler, Carmi, 572, 659
Schore, Allan N., 192
Schraagen, Jan Maarten, 571
Schroots, Johannes J. F., 672
Schulenberg, John, 474, 495, 517,
518
Schulman, Kevin A., 551
Schult, Carolyn A., 260
Schultz, P. Wesley, 467
Schulz, Richard, 704
Schumann, Cynthia Mills, 300
Schwab, Jacqueline, 366
Schwartz, Barry, 485, 518
Schwartz, Jeffrey, 131, 134
Schwartz, Michael W., 77
Schwartz, Pepper, 428
Schweinhart, Lawrence J., 250
Scialfa, Charles T., 623, 624, 630
Sciarra, Daniel T., Ep-8
Scogin, Forrest R., 668
Scollon, Christie Napa, 482
Scott, Jacqueline, 20
Scott, Mindy E., 510
Scott-Maxwell, Florida, 700
Seale, Clive, Ep-13
Sears, Malcolm R., 449
See, Sheree, 615
Segal, Nancy L., 73
Segalowitz, Sidney J., 479
Seifer, Ronald, 196
Seitz, Helmut K., 74
Seki, Fusako, 709
Selten, Jean-Paul, 520
Seltzer, Marsha Mailick, 698
Serpell, Robert, 294
Settersten, Richard A., 21, 447,
579, 693
Shackelford, Todd K., 510
Shafto, Meredith A., 656
Shahin, Hashem, 83
Shanahan, Lilly, 403, 421
Shanahan, Michael J., 23
Shannon, Joyce Brennfleck, 459,
460
Shaper, A. Gerald, 538
Shattuck, Paul T., 146
Shaver, Phillip R., 193
Shaw, Gordon L., 29
Sheehy, Gail, 580, 581
Sheldon, Kennon M., 596
Shen, Q., 532
Shepard, Thomas H., 104
Sher, Kenneth J., 464
Sherman, Edmund, 681
Sherman, Stephanie, 84
Shevell, Tracy, 534
Shibusawa, Tazuko, 695
Shields, Margot, 537
Shiner, Rebecca L., 23, 185, 258,
683
Shuey, Kim, 599, 600
Sicar, Debashish, 386
Sicar, Ratna, 386
Siebenbruner, Jessica, 369
Siegal, Michael, 245
Siegel, Larry, 26
Siegel, Lawrence A., 533, 536
Siegel, Richard M., 533, 536
Silbereisen, Rainer K., Ep-5
Silver, Archie A., 301
Silverman, Jay G., 513
Silverman, Wendy K., 181
Silverstein, Alvin, 451
Silverstein, Merril, 686, 702, 799
Silversten, B., 623
Simon, William, 417
Sinclair, David A., 639, 642
Singer, Dorothy G., 269
Singer, Jerome L., 269
Singer, Lynn T., 104
Singer, Tania, 650
Singer, Wolf, 57
Singh, Devendra, 449
Sinnott, Jan D., 472, 474, 476, 480
Siqueira, Lorena M., 392
Sirard, John R., 18, 20
Skaff, Marilyn McKean, 681
Skibo, Jerzy, 75
Skinner, B. F., 39, 47, 171
Skirton, Heather, 87
Slep, Amy M. Smith, 513
Sliwinski, Martin J., 558
Slobin, Dan I., 173
Slonim, Amy B., 451
Small, Brent J., 659
Small, Neil, Ep-18
Smedley, Audrey, 10
Smedley, Brian D., 10
Smetana, Judith G., 420, 515
Smith, Betty L., 436
Smith, Christian, 384, 396,
400–401, 417, 420
Smith, Deborah B., 691
Smith, Derek J., 451
Smith, George Davey, 102, 538
Smith, Gordon C. S., 115, 116
Smith, J. David, 342
Smith, Jacqui, 674
Smith, Julia, 265
Smith, Linda B., 5, 6
Smith, Margaret G., 225
Smith, Peter, 493
Smith, Peter K., 341, 342
Smith, Ruth S., 354, 355, 592
Smith, Tara E., 275, 276
Smith, Tilly, 326
Smith, Tom W., 454, 476–477, 484,
655
Smoot, Tonya M., 542
Sneed, Joel R., 680, 682
Snibbe, Alana Conner, 467, 489
Snidman, Nancy C., 186, 188
Snow, Catherine E., 191, 315, 316,
317, 402, 403
Snow, David, 169, 171
Snyder, Howard N., 439
Snyder, James, 334
Snyder, Thomas D., 246, 318, 321,
327, 353, 404, 410, 411, 492
Sofie, Cecilia A., 299
Solomon, Jennifer Crew, 703
Sommer, Alfred, 76
Sörensen, Silvia, 708
Sorenson, Susan B., 436
Sorkin, Dara H., 683
Sowell, Elizabeth R., 376, 378
Spandorfer, Philip R., 143
Spearman, Charles Edward, 556
Spelke, Elizabeth S., 158
Spencer, Donna, 688, 691
Spencer, John P., 5, 6
Spillantini, Maria Grazia, 663
Spirduso, Waneen W., 630, 636
Spitze, Glenna D., 587
Spock, Benjamin, 148
Sprung, Charles L., Ep-16
Sroufe, L. Alan, 36, 193, 515
Stacey, Phillip S., 531
Staff, Jeremy, 419
Staiger, Annegret Daniela, 369
Stansbury, Kathy, 192
Stansfeld, Stephen A., 354
Stanton, Bonita, 420
Stanton, Cynthia K., 111
Starkes, Janet L., 572
Starkstein, Sergio E., 666
Stassen, David, 15, 76
Stattin, Hakan, 422
Staudinger, Ursula M., 7, 673
Steele, Claude M., 477, 479
Rose, Amanda J., 338, 339, 402
Rose, Richard J., 422
Rosenbaum, James E., 494
Rosenberg, Irwin H., 624
Rosenberg, James H., 668
Rosenblatt, Paul C., Ep-8
Rosenbluth, Barri, 341
Rosenfeld, Barry, Ep-13, Ep-14,
Ep-15
Rosenfeld, Philip J., 631
Rosenthal, Doreen, 374
Rosow, Irving, 685
Ross, Karen E. 515
Roth, David L., 709
Rothbart, Mary K., 185, 186, 187
Rothbaum, Fred, 266
Rothermund, Klaus, 680–681
Rott, Christoph, 644, 645
Rovee-Collier, Carolyn, 136, 165,
166
Rovi, Sue, 133, 224, 226
Rowe, Gillian, 658
Rowe, John W., 571, 620, 686
Rowland, Andrew S., 298
Rozin, Paul, 542
Rubin, David C., 516, 653, 690
Rubin, Kenneth H., 261, 333
Rubinstein, Arthur, 682
Ruble, Diane N., 261, 271, 272,
274, 276, 277, 335
Rudolph, Karen D., 352
Rueda, M. Rosario, 291
Rueter, Martha A., 434
Ruffman, Ted, 158, 239
Ruiz-Pesini, Eduardo, 664
Rumbaut, Rubén G., 425, 502
Ruopplia, Isto, 645
Russell, Mark, 146
Rutstein, Shea O., 109
Rutter, Michael, 135, 243, 438, 592
Ryalls, Brigette Oliver, 242
Ryan, Michael J., 287
Ryan, R. M., 547
Rybash, John M., 569
Saarni, Carolyn, 182, 190, 260
Sabat, Steven R., 665, 669
Sabbagh, Mark A., 242
Sacker, Amanda, 543
Sackett, Paul R., 478
Sacks, Oliver W., 300
Sadeh, Avi, 127
Saffran, Jenny R., 133, 136, 137
Sagi, Abraham, 199
Sahar, Gail, 484
St. Clair, David, 520
St. Paul, 487
St. Pierre, Edouard S., 615
Sakata, Mariko, 104
Salkind, Neil J., 34, 35
Salmivalli, Christina, 353
Salomone, Jeanne, 534
Salovey, Peter, 294
Salthouse, Timothy A., 532, 560,
653, 654, 657, 658
Salzarulo, Piero, 127
Sameroff, Arnold J., 296
Sampaio, Ricardo C., 210
Samuelsson, G., 664
NAME INDEX NI-9
N1-N12_BergerLS7e_NI.qxp 9/26/07 12:47 PM Page NI-9

Tang, Chao-Hsiun, 111
Tang, Fengyan, 694
Tangney, June Price, 257
Tanner, James Mourilyan, 368
Tanner, Jennifer Lynn, 21
Tarter, Ralph E., 51
Tatz, Colin Martin, 436
Tay, Marc Tze-Hsin, 77
Taylor, Alan C., 702, 703
Taylor, Amillia, 96
Taylor, Ann L, 551
Taylor, Shelley E., 53, 586
Tedeschi, Alberto, 289
Teicher, Martin H., 132
Teitler, Julien O., 374, 432
Tekin, Erdal, 453
Tenenbaum, Harriet R., 274
ter Bogt, Tom, 384
Terenzini, Patrick T., 490
Terracciano, Antonio, 583
Terrance, Cheryl, 519
Tester, June M., 220
Teti, D. M., 591
Thal, Donna J., 171
Thelen, Esther, 5, 6, 8, 141
Théoret, Hugo, 14
Therman, Eeva, 79
Thobaben, Marshelle, 681
Thomas, Dylan, Ep-4
Thomas, Gail E., 479
Thomasma, David C., Ep-15
Thompson, Christine, 234
Thompson, Donald M., 662
Thompson, Ross A., 131, 182, 184,
192–193, 196, 595
Thoresen, Carl E., 487
Thorn, Brian L., 667, 669
Thornton, Wendy J. L., 476
Thorson, James A., 644
Thurlow, Martha L., 410
Tiggemann, Marika, 459
Timberlake, Jeffrey M., 348
Timiras, Mary Letitia, 528, 629,
639
Timiras, Paola S., 450, 529
Tishkoff, Sarah A., 11
Tobin, Sheldon S., 681
Todd, Christi, 80
Todd, Mrs., 143
Tomasello, Michael, 170, 174, 243
Tonn, Jessica L., 379
Toogod, Madelyn Gorman, 222
Torgesen, Joseph K., 325
Torney-Purta, Judith, 418
Tornstam, Lars, 686, 691, 695
Torquati, Alfonso, 542, 636
Torres, Fernando, 133
Torres-Gil, Fernando M., 685
Toth, Sheree L., 434
Townsend, Jean, 615
Toyama, Miki, 353
Tremblay, Richard E., 263
Trenholm, Christopher, 431
Trevino, Linda Klebe, 485
Trichopoulou, Antonia, 542
Trillo, Alex, 495
Trimble, Joseph, 419, 500, 501
Troll, Lillian E., 513, 515, 681
Tronick, Edward Z., 192
Truby, Helen, 542
Truwit, Charles L., 210
Trzesniewski, Kali H., 683
Tsao, Feng-Ming, 175
Tse, Lucy, 315
Tseng, Vivian, 425, 426
Tucker, J. S., 595
Tudge, Jonathan R. H., 216
Tulviste, Peeter, 47
Turiel, Elliot, 336
Turnquest, Theodore, Ep-12
Twomey, John G., 87
Udry, J. Richard, 428
Uhlenberg, Peter, 700
Ulrich, Beverly D., 8
Unal, Belgin, 543
Underwood, Marion K., 339, 439
Ungar, Michael T., 425
Unnever, James D., 340
Uttl, Bob, 652
Utz, Rebecca L., 690, 699
Vaillant, George E., 674, 675
Valentino, Kristin, 222, 223
Valkenburg, Patti M., 405
Valsiner, Jaan, 48
Van Alstine, Cory L., 652
van Balen, Frank, 533
Van Brunschot, Erin E. Gibbs, 462
Van Cauter, Eve, 623
van Dam, Rob M., 371
van der Meulen, Matty, 681, 682
van de Vijver, Fons J. R., 310
van Dulmen, Manfred, 425
Van Gaalen, Ruben I., 700
Van Goozen, Stephanie H. M., 466
Vanhanen, Tatu, 292
Van Hoorn, Judith Lieberman, 415
van Lamoen, Ellemieke, 627
Van Leeuwen, Karla G., 265
Van Straten, Annemieke, 546
Van Wijk, I., 666
Van Winkle, Nancy Westlake, Ep-7
Vartanian, Lesa Rae, 394
Vasa, Roma A., 213
Vasan, R. S., 621
Vaupel, James W., 503
Vazquez, Delia M., 132
Venn, John J., 293
Verbrugge, Lois M., 528, 543
Verhaeghen, Paul, 652, 658, 661
Verkuyten, Maykel, 261
Vernon-Feagans, Lynne, 43
Verona, Sergiu, 135
Verté, Sylvie, 290
Viadero, Debra, 354, 355, 409
Vianna, Eduardo, 480
Victoria (Queen of England), 86
Vidailhet, Pierre, 669
Viinanen, Arja, 289
Vijg, J. A. N., 639
Vikan, Arne, 484
Viner, Russell M., 458, 459
Vinyard, Bryan T., 458
Visser, Beth A., 294
Vittes, Katherine A., 436
Voelcker-Rehage, Claudia, 651
Vogler, George P., 73
Volkmar, Fred R., 134
von Oertzen, Timo, 657, 659
Votruba-Drzal, Elizabeth, 199
Voydanoff, Patricia, 606
Vu, Pauline, 319
Vukman, Karin Bakracevic, 481
Vygotsky, Lev S., 47, 231, 234–236,
307, 309, 310, 313, 314, 325,
326, 328, 359, 480
Wachs, Theodore D., 265
Waddell, Charlotte, 227
Wadden, Thomas A., 542
Wahlin, Åke, 659
Wahlstrom, B., 623
Wahlstrom, Kyla L., 379
Wailoo, Michael, 128
Wainright, Jennifer L., 56
Wainryb, Cecilia, 309
Waite, Linda J., 511
Walcott, Delores D., 459
Waldfogel, J., 197, 198
Walk, Richard D., 163
Walker, Alan, 619, 691, 694, 695,
696
Walker, Elaine F., 259, 407
Walker, Lawrence J., 484
Walker-Andrews, Arlene S., 164, 165
Wallace, Beverly R., Ep-8
Wallerstein, Judith S., 698
Walsh, Froma, 354
Wang, Li, 664
Wannamethee, S. Goya, 538
Wänström, Linda, 292
Ward, Russell A., 587
Warren, Charles W., 384, 386
Warren, Jared S., 355
Warshofsky, Fred, 368
Washington, Harriet A., 27
Wassenberg, Renske, 291
Waterhouse, Lynn, 294
Watson, John B., 38, 39, 184
Waxman, Sandra R., 170
Way, Niobe, 418, 422, 424, 425,
426, 432
Wayne, Andrew J., 309
Weaver, Chelsea M., 431
Webb, Sara J., 166, 167, 214
Webber, Laura, 506
Weber, Markus, 542
Wechsler, David, 293
Wechsler, Henry, 467
Weichold, Karina, 369
Weikart, David P., 246, 250
Weil, Elizabeth, 448
Weinberg, M. Katherine, 192
Weinstein, Barbara E., 632
Weisfeld, Glenn E., 427
Weisler, Richard H., 545
Weiss, Daniel S., 519
Weiss, Helen, 456, 462
Weissman, Myrna M., 544
Weizman, Zehava Oz, 317
Welch, H. Gilbert, 543
Wellman, Henry M., 238, 568,
569
Welsh, Marilyn, 87
Wendland, Barbara E., 668
Werner, Emmy E., 354, 355, 592
Stein, Rob, 540
Steinberg, Adria, 393
Steinberg, Laurence, 265, 375–376,
398, 405, 422, 424, 425, 429
Stel, Vianda S., 626
Stern, Daniel N., 191
Stern, Paul C., 658
Sternberg, Robert J., 11, 292, 293,
294, 295, 337, 396, 475, 508,
509, 556, 562–563, 564, 565,
570, 572
Sterns, Harvey L., 572, 601
Stetsenko, Anna, 480
Stevens, Judy A., 626
Stevenson, Harold W., 323
Steverink, Nardi, 681, 694
Stevick, Richard A., 417
Stewart, Susan D., 346
Stigler, James W., 323, 326
Stipek, Deborah, 257
Stock, Gregory B., 641
Stokstad, Erik, 150
Stone, Robyn, 711, 712
Stoops, Nicole, 587
Storch, Eric A., 485
Storch, Jason B., 485
Straus, Murray A., 267, 513
Strauss, Bernhard, 547
Strayer, David L., 530
Streissguth, Ann P., 102
Striano, Tricia, 192
Stroebe, Margaret S., Ep-19, Ep-22
Stroebe, Wolfgang, Ep-19
Strom, Robert D., 703
Strom, Shirley K., 703
Strouse, Darcy L., 423
Stuen, Cynthia, 632
Stuewig, Jeffrey, 339
Styfco, Sally J., 199, 249
Suarez-Orozco, Carola, 244, 425
Suarez-Orozco, Marcelo M., 244,
425
Subrahmanyam, Kaveri, 405
Suellentrop, Katherine, 100, 101
Sugie, Shuji, 324
Sullivan, Karen A., 531
Sullivan, Sheila, 508, 509
Sulmasy, Daniel P., Ep-12
Sulser, Fridolin, 83
Sun, Shumei S., 365, 367, 368, 372
Suomi, Steven J., 119
Supiano, Mark A., 621
Supovitz, Jonathan A., 404
Susman, Elizabeth J., 366
Suzuki, Lalita K., 404
Swanson, R. A., 502
Swartzwelder, H. Scott, 386
Sweet, Melissa, 521
Sylvester, Ching-Yune, 530, 531
Szinovacz, Maximiliane E., 691, 692
Szkrybalo, Joel, 271
Tacken, Mart, 627
Taga, Keiko A., 369
Talamantes, Melissa A., Ep-8
Tallandini, Maria Anna, 117
Tamay, Zeynep, 289
Tamis-LeMonda, Catherine S., 172
Tanaka, Yuko, 350
NI-10 NAME INDEX
N1-N12_BergerLS7e_NI.qxp 9/27/07 12:31 PM Page NI-10

Williams, David R., 549, 687
Williams, Julie, 71
Williams, Justin H. G., 14
Williams, Shirlan A., 506
Willis, Sherry L., 473, 476, 478,
615, 706
Wilmut, Ian, 71
Wilson, Colwick M., 687
Wilson, Margaret, 14
Wilson, Melvin N., 513
Wilson, Robert S., 659
Wilson, Stephan M., 515
Wilson, Suzanne, 411, 420
Wilson-Costello, Deanne, 95
Wingert, Pat, 96
Wingfield, Arthur, 650
Wink, G. I., 667
Winsler, Adam, 235, 244
Wirth, H. P., 665
Wise, Phyllis M., 534, 535, 623
Wishart, Jennifer G., 80
Witt, Whitney P., 298
Wittenberg, D. F., 141
Woessner, Mathhew, 485
Wolery, Mark, 301
Wolf, Douglas A., 590
Wolf, Rosalie S., 710
Wolfe, Alan, 604
Wolfe, David A., 78
Wolfe, Michael S., 670
Wolfinger, Nicholas H., 594, 595
Wolraich, Mark L., 297
Wong, Sau-ling Cynthia, 244
Wong, Sheila, 284
Wong, Wan-chi, 480
Wood, Alex, 54
Wood, Julia T., 505
Woodlee, Martin T., 670
Woodward, Amanda L., 240
Woolley, Jacqueline D., 257
Wright, Dave, 105
Wright, Lawrence, 342
Wrosch, Carston, 685
Wyatt, Jennifer M., 595
Wyman, Peter A., 355
Wynne-Edwards, Katherine E., 118
Xu, Xiao, 513
Yamashita, T., 532
Yang, Lixia, 656
Yarber, William L., 431
Yates, Tuppett M., 355, 405
Yehuda, Rachel, 223
Yerkes, Robert Mearns, 556
Yerys, Benjamin E., 212
Yeung, W. Jean, 348
Yglesias, Helen, 671
Yoo, Seung Hee, 266
Yoon, Carolyn, 661
Yoshino, Satomi, 588
Youn, Gahyun, 709
Young, T. Kue, 542
Younger, Katherine, 308
Young-Hyman, 285
Youngs, Peter, 309
Younoszai, Barbara, Ep-8
Zachor, Ditza A., 301
Zacks, Rose T., 654, 658
Zahn-Waxler, Carolyn, 257
Zakeri, Issa, 370
Zakriski, Audrey L., 338, 339, 340
Zalenski, Robert J., Ep-11
Zandi, Peter P., 667–668
Zani, Bruna, 374
Zarrett, Nicole R., 518
Zeedyk, M. Suzanne, 219
Zehler, Annette M., 315
Zeifman, Debra, 137
Zelazo, Laurel Bidwell, 352
Zelazo, Philip David, 212
Zhan, Heying Jenny, 600
Zhang, L., 623
Zhang, Yuanting, 623, 629
Zigler, Edward, 199, 249
Zimmer-Gembeck, Melanie J., 419
Zimprich, Daniel, 559, 658
Zingmond, David S., 542
Zito, Julie Magno, 298
Zucker, Alyssa H., 681
Zuvekas, Samuel H., 298
Zwahr, Melissa D., 654
Werner, Ines, 673
Wertheimer, Alan, 451
Wertsch, James V., 47, 49
West, Sheila, 76
West, Steven L., 387
Westen, Drew, 655
Westerman, Floyd Red Crow, 696
Wethington, Elaine, 475, 481, 601
Whishaw, Ian Q., 95, 129, 214
Whitbourne, Susan Krauss, 528,
629, 631, 666, 680, 682
White, Aaron M., 386
White, Lynn K., 591
White, Sheldon H., 249
Whitehurst, Grover J., 249
Whiteman, Shawn D., 574
Whitfield, Keith E., 11
Whiting, Wythe L., 630
Whitley, Bernard E., 485
Whitley, Deborah M., 703
Whitlock, Janis L., 405, 406
Whitmer, Rachel A., 670
Whitmore, Heather, 681
Wieder, Serena, 200
Wiener, Judith, 303
Wiesner, Margit, 441
Wigfield, Allan, 411
Wildsmith, Elizabeth, 347
Wilens, Timothy, 298
Wilhelm, Mark O., 486
Willatts, Peter, 158
NAME INDEX NI-11
N1-N12_BergerLS7e_NI.qxp 9/26/07 12:47 PM Page NI-11

death and dying and, Ep-3–Ep-4
delinquent, 437–441
Defining Issues Test for, 486
depression in, 433–434, 434f
education of, 401–407
egocentrism in, 391–394, 399,
400
emotional development in,
433–441
employment of, 419
family relations and, 403,
420–422
friendships of, 422–427. See also
Peer relations
gender identity of, 418
growth of, 371–373, 372f
health status of, 433
identity vs. role confusion (diffu-
sion) in, 36t, 37, 415–416,
500t, 578t
imaginary audience for, 393–394
impulsiveness in, 376–377, 377f
invincibility fable and, 392–393,
394
neglect of, 420
nutrition in, 370
obesity in, 371
political/ethnic identity of,
418–419
pregnancy in, 380–381, 432–433
primary sex characteristics in, 373
psychosocial development in,
415–441
puberty in, 364–380. See also
Puberty
relationships of
with family, 420–422
with nonparent adults, 420
religious beliefs of, 396, 400, 417
risk-taking behavior in, 376
school transitions and, 406–407
secondary characteristics in, 373
self-concept in, 433, 434f
self-destructive behavior in,
437–441
sex education for, 429–432
sexuality of, 366, 373–375, 375f,
427–433
behavioral trends and,
432–433
homosexuality and, 418,
428–429
parental influence and,
430–431
peer relations and, 429
romance and, 427–428
sex education and, 427
sexual orientation and, 418,
428–429
stages of, 427
stress in, 403
sexual behavior and, 368
substance abuse by, 383–388. See
also Substance abuse
suicide in, 434–437, 435f, 435t,
436t
technology and, 404–406
vehicular accidents involving, 624f
young, 402–404
Adoption
of maltreated children, 226–227
parenting in, 346t, 347–348,
597–599
Adoptive family, 346t, 347–348
Adrenal glands, 214, 214f
Adulthood
emerging, 20, 447–523
anxiety disorders in, 519–520
biosocial development in,
447–468
cognitive development in,
471–496
death and dying in, Ep-3–Ep-4
delay discounting in, 464
depression in, 518–519
eating disorders in, 459–461
emotional development in,
474–475, 516–521
ethnic identity in, 500–502
exercise in, 456–457
family relations in, 513–516
gender identity in, 455
happiness bump in, 516
health status in, 447–451,
449f, 450t, 516–521
identity achievement in,
499–521
independence in, 485
intimacy in, 503–516
intimacy vs. isolation in, 36t,
37, 500t, 503–504
milestones in, 448t
moral development in, 483–488
nutrition in, 457
parenthood in, 448t, 454
prejudice in, 476–480
psychopathology in, 518–521
psychosocial development in,
499–521
religious beliefs in, 486–488
risk taking in, 462–468
romantic relationships in.
See Marriage; Romantic
relationships
schizophrenia in, 520
sexual activity in, 453–456
sexually transmitted infections
in, 455–456
social norms and, 466–468
stress in, 454–455, 518
vocational identity in, 502–503
well-being in, 516–517, 517f
Erikson’s stages of, 578–579, 578t
late, 611–715. See also Aging
activities of daily life in,
706–707
activity theory of, 685–686
adult children and, 599–600,
651, 687, 700–702,
701–702, 708–710
ageism and, 660–662
artistic expression in, 671–672
biosocial development in,
613–645
brain changes in, 628–629
causes of death in, 621–622,
622f
cognitive development in,
649–675, 670–675
community support in, 708
compression of morbidity in,
633–635, 633f, 659
continuing education in, 693
continuity theory of, 690
control processes in, 654–659
death and dying in, Ep-5
delirium in, 663, 667–668
dementia in, 531–532,
663–670
demographic shift and,
616–618
dependency and independence
in, 618–620, 684–689,
706–713
diseases of, 621–622, 622f,
638–641, 659
disengagement theory of, 685
driving in, 623–624, 624f
drug therapy in, 667–668
dual-task deficit in, 651–652
dynamic theories of, 689–690
elder abuse in, 710
ethnic discrimination in, 687
exercise in, 625–626
family caregiving in, 599–600,
651, 687, 701–702,
708–710
family relations in, 701–702
frail elderly in, 706–713
friendship in, 703–705
grandchildren in, 702–703
health care for, 616
health status of, 659
hoarding in, 681–682
identity vs. role confusion (dif-
fusion) in, 36t, 37, 500t,
578t, 681–682
information processing in,
649–659
integrity vs. despair in, 36t, 37,
500t, 578, 578t, 680–681
life review in, 672–673
long-term care in, 710–713
marriage in, 697–698
memory in, 651–653,
660–662
Note: Page numbers followed by f
indicate figures; those followed by t
indicate tables; and those preceded
by Ep indicate the Epilogue.
AARP, 696
Abortion
induced, 108, 381, 432, 484
spontaneous, 64
Absent grief, Ep-21
Abstinence-only sex education, 431
Abstract thinking, 397
Abuse
child. See Child maltreatment
elder, 710
sexual, 382–383, 383t
spousal, 513
Academic performance. See also
Cognition; Intelligence
cultural aspects of, 407–409
gender differences in, 408
Accidental injuries
age-related trends in, 219
in preschoolers, 218–222
Accommodation
cognitive, 45
in identity theory, 682
Achievement tests, 291, 292,
319–320, 320f, 321–323
international, 321–323
Acquired immunodeficiency syn-
drome. See AIDS
Acting-out, by adolescents, 437–441
Active aggression, 261
Active euthanasia, Ep-14
Activities of daily life, in late adult-
hood, 706–707
Activity theory, 685
Adaptation
anticipation and, 157
IQ and, 293
reflexes in, 156–157
selective, 51–52
Addiction, 386–387, 463
Additive genes, 67–68
ADLs (activities of daily life), in late
adulthood, 706
Adolescence-limited offender, 440
Adolescents
acting-out by, 437–441
ageism and, 615
anorexia nervosa in, 459–460
autonomy for, 420–421
biosocial development in,
363–388
body image in, 370–371
body rhythms in, 378–379
brain development in, 375–380
cognitive development in,
391–412, 473
communicating with, 421
cutting by, 405–406
SI-1
Subject Index
S1-S15_BergerLS7e_SI.qxp 9/26/07 12:59 PM Page SI-1

morbidity and mortality in,
545–546
obesity in, 541–542
overeating in, 540–542
parenthood in, 596–599. See
also Parents/parenting
preventive medicine in,
543–545
psychosocial development in,
577–607
selective expertise in, 568
selective optimization with
compensation in, 567–568
sensory function in, 529–530
sexuality in, 532–533
sibling relationships in,
588–590, 589f
smoking in, 537–538
social clock and, 579–581
stages of, 448
stress in, 544–545
vitality in, 546
Adult siblings, 588–590, 589f
Advance directives, Ep-16–Ep-17
Affiliation, 504
Affordances, 162–165
African Americans. See also Culture;
Ethnicity; Race
heart disease in, 550–551
life expectancy in, 551–552
stereotype threat and, 477–480
Age
as developmental marker,
447–448
stratification by, 684–686
of viability, 95
Ageism, 615, 660–662
Aggression
active, 261
by adolescents, 438–441
bullying and, 262–263, 339–342
in early childhood, 261–263
gender differences in, 439
genetic vs. environmental factors
in, 57
instrumental, 261
reactive, 261
relational, 262
in school years, 339–342
Aggressive-rejected children, 338
Aging
activity theory of, 685
alcohol use/abuse and, 538–539
appearance and, 528–536
attention deficits and, 650–651
brain function and, 530–532,
628–629, 656–657
cell replication in, 640–641
cellular, 639–640
demographic trends in, 613–614
disability-adjusted life years and,
547
disease and, 621–622, 622f
disengagement theory of, 685
expert cognition and, 571–574
as female issue, 686–687
gender conversion and, 583
gender differences in, 548–549,
686–688
Hayflick limit and, 641
health habits and, 536–545
health status and, 536–548
homeostasis and, 450
immune system in, 640
impaired, 620
inactivity and, 539
infertility and, 533–534
intelligence and, 556–566, 559f,
560f
menopause and, 534–536
nutrition and, 540–542
old-old/oldest-old and, 620,
643–645
optimal, 620
organ reserve and, 450–451
oxygen free radicals in, 639–640
personality changes and, 581–585
in place, 692
positivity effect in, 683–684
preventive medicine and, 543–545
primary, 620–621, 659
quality-adjusted life years and,
546–547
reproductive function and,
533–534
secondary, 620–621, 659
selective adaptation in, 638–639
selective expertise in, 568
selective optimization with com-
pensation in, 567–568,
623–624, 682–684
senescence and, 450, 528–532,
620–622
sensory function and, 529–530,
530t, 650
sexuality and, 532–533
slowing of, 641–642
smoking and, 537–538, 537f
successful, 620
telomeres in, 641
theories of, 635–641
genetic clock, 636–638
wear and tear, 635–636
usual, 620
young-old and, 620
Agreeableness, 186, 581–583,
683–684
AIDS, 103t, 105–106, 382, 456
education about, 429
in pregnancy, 103t, 105–106
Albinism, 82t
Alcohol use/abuse, 538–539. See
also Substance abuse
in adolescence, 384–388, 385f,
387t
in emerging adulthood, 463–464,
464f, 518
environmental factors in, 75
Korsakoff ’s syndrome and, 531,
667
in late adulthood, 628
longevity and, 538
in pregnancy, 102
social norms approach to, 467
Alleles, 64
Allergies, asthma and, 289
Allostatic load, 586
Alpha-fetoprotein assay, 105t
Alzheimer’s disease, 82t, 531–532,
663–665
in Down syndrome, 80
genetic factors in, 664
risk factors for, 663–664
stages of, 664–665
Amino acids, 62
Amnesia, source, 653
Amniocentesis, 105t
Amygdala, 213–214, 214f
Anal personality, 183
Anal stage, 35, 36t, 183
Analytic thinking, 562–563,
564–565
in older adults, 654–655
prefrontal cortex in, 212–213
vs. intuitive thinking, 398–400
Androgens, 365
Androgyny, 275
Andropause, 535–536
Animals, cloning of, 70–71
Anorexia nervosa, 459–461
Anoxia, perinatal, 112–113
Anti-aging strategies, 641–642
Anticipation, adaptation and, 157
Antidepressants, 519
for attention-deficit/hyperactivity
disorder, 298
Antioxidants, 639–640
Antipathy, in preschoolers, 259–261
Antisocial behavior
in adolescents, 437–441
gender differences in, 439
in preschoolers, 260–261
Antithesis, 480
Anxiety
in emerging adulthood, 519–520
in late adulthood, 668–669
separation, 181
cultural aspects of, 190
Apgar score, 110, 110t
ApoE gene, in Alzheimer’s disease,
664
Appearance
in emerging adulthood, 453, 453f
in late adulthood, 629–630
in middle adulthood, 529–530
Appearance of objects, in preopera-
tional stage, 232
Apprenticeship in thinking, 47, 234
Aptitude tests, 291–293
Artificial insemination, 71
Artistic endeavors
of older adults, 671–672
of preschoolers, 217–218, 217f,
218f
Asperger syndrome, 70, 300
Assimilation
cognitive, 44–45
in identity theory, 682
Assisted living, 711
Assisted reproduction, 71–72, 534
Asthma, 288–290
Athletics. See Exercise; Sports
Attachment, 36, 40–41, 192–199
behavioral view of, 40–42
contact-maintaining behaviors in,
193
cross-fostering and, 119
Adulthood (continued)
mental illness in, 668–669
mobility in, 625–627
nutrition in, 624–625, 625f
obesity in, 541
oldest-old and, 620, 643–645
old-old and, 620, 643–645
political activism in, 695–696
positivity effect in, 683–684
psychosocial development in,
680–713
relationships with younger peo-
ple in, 700–703
religious beliefs in, 695
retirement in, 691–696
selective adaptation in,
638–639
selective optimization with
compensation in, 623–624,
682–684
self theories of, 680–684
sensory function in, 630–633
sleep in, 623, 623f
social networks in, 703–705
stratification theories of,
684–689
study of, 616
terminal decline in, 659
volunteering in, 693–694
voting in, 654–655, 655f
wisdom in, 673–675
middle, 525–609. See also
Marriage; Romantic
relationships
aging parents and, 599–600
aging process and, 528. See
also Aging
alcohol use/abuse in, 538–539
andropause in, 535–536
appearance in, 529–530
biosocial development in,
527–552
caregiving in, 596–600
cognitive development in,
530–532, 555–574
death and dying in, Ep-4–Ep-5
disability in, 546
divorce in, 593–595, 595f. See
also Divorce
employment in, 600–606
exercise in, 539
expert cognition in, 569–574,
571–574
family relations in, 587–590
family–work balance in,
603–605
friendship in, 585–586
gender convergence in,
583–585
generativity vs. stagnation in,
36t, 37, 500t, 578, 578t,
596–606
health status in, 536–548
infertility in, 533–534
intimacy in, 585–595
intimacy vs. isolation in, 36t,
37, 500t, 578–579
menopause in, 534–536
midlife crisis in, 580–581
SI-2 SUBJECT INDEX
S1-S15_BergerLS7e_SI.qxp 9/26/07 12:59 PM Page SI-2

definition of, 38
gender differences and, 274
as grand theory, 34
language development and,
171–173, 175
modeling and, 43
psychosocial development and,
184
social learning and, 42–43
vs. psychoanalytic theory, 38t
Bereavement, Ep-18–Ep-24. See
also Grief
Bias, in research, 28
Bickering, 420
Bicycling, in late adulthood, 627
Big Five traits, 186, 581–583,
683–684
Bilingualism, 171, 243–245,
315–317
educational methods and, 316
ESL instruction and, 316
language development and, 171,
243–245
language shift and, 315
total immersion and, 316
Binge drinking, 386–387, 387t, 464f
Binocular vision, 137
Bioecological model, 6, 6f
Biorhythms, in adolescents,
378–379
Biosocial development, 13, 13f
in adolescents, 363–388
in emerging adulthood, 447–468
in infants and toddlers, 125–151
in late adulthood, 613–645
in middle adulthood, 527–552
in preschoolers, 207–228
in school-age children, 283–303,
359
Bird flu, immunization for, 451–452
Birth complications, 112–115
Birth defects. See Congenital
abnormalities
Birth process, 108–112
Birth rates, demographic shift and,
618–620
Birth weight, 95–96
low, 113–115, 113t, 115f, 116t
Blaming, grief and, Ep-18–Ep-19
Blastocyst, 91–93, 93t
Blended family, 346t, 347
Blindness. See Vision impairment
Body fat. See also Obesity
in adolescents, 367–368, 372
distribution of, in older adults, 630
puberty and, 367–368
Body image, in adolescents,
370–371
Body mass index, 458, 458t, 542
cultural aspects of, 542
in preschoolers, 207
Body rhythms, in adolescents,
378–379
Body weight. See also Obesity
in adolescents, 372
age-related changes in, 541
at birth, 95–96
low, 113–115, 113t, 115f, 116t
eating disorders and, 459–461
in emerging adulthood, 457–459
growth spurt and, 371–372
in infants, 125–127
in late adulthood, 541
in middle adulthood, 541
in preschoolers, 207–208
regulation of, 458
set point for, 458
in toddlers, 126
Bonding. See Attachment
Bottle feeding, 150
Boys. See also under Gender
parental preference for, 65
Brain
age-related changes in
in late adulthood, 628–629,
656–657
in middle adulthood, 530–532
executive functions of, 212
hemispheres of, 210–212, 211f
lateralization in, 210–212
myelination in, 210
plasticity of, 131, 132–133,
134–135, 532, 656
size of, 67
structure of, 129–131, 129f
Brain death, Ep-14, Ep-17
Brain development. See also
Cognitive development
in adolescents, 375–380
caregiver influences on, 133–135
emotional regulation and, 259
experience and, 131f, 132–135
hearing and, 133, 136–137
in infants and toddlers, 129–134
lateralization in, 210–212
myelination in, 210, 291, 377,
377f
neural connections in, 131,
132–133, 134–135
plasticity of, 131, 132–133,
134–135, 532, 656
prenatal, 93, 95, 96, 97f
in preschoolers, 210–218, 259
in school-age children, 290–295
sensitive periods in, 134
sensory function and, 133,
136–138
stimulation and, 133–135
stress and, 132, 215
synapse formation in, 131, 131f
synapse pruning in, 131, 132
transient exuberance in, 131
vision in, 133, 136, 137
Brain exercises, 532, 629
Brain imaging, 160–161, 160t
Brain injury, in shaken baby syn-
drome, 133
Brain stem, 129
Brain stimulation, for older adults,
532
Brazelton Neonatal Assessment
Scale, 136
Breast cancer, 82t
Breast development, 364, 364t, 373.
See also Puberty
Breast-feeding, 148–150, 149f, 150t
Breathing, age-related changes in,
529
Breathing reflex, 139
Breech presentation, 108
Buddhism, death in, Ep-6
Bulimia nervosa, 459–460
Bullying, 262–263, 339–342, 404,
412
Bully-victims, 340–341
Butterfly effect, 8
Calcium intake, in adolescents, 370
Caloric restriction, as anti-aging
strategy, 642
Cancer
breast, genetic factors in, 82t
immune system in, 640
lung, smoking and, 537–538
Cardiovascular disease, 621–622,
622t
Carriers, 73
identification of, 84–87
Case studies, 20–21
Cataracts, 630
Causation, vs. correlation, 25–26,
26t
Cell division, in prenatal develop-
ment, 66
Cell replication
in aging, 640–641
Hayflick limit for, 641
Centenarians, 617, 643–645
Center day care, 197
Central nervous system. See also
Brain
development of, 93, 95, 96, 97f
Centration, 232
Cerebral cortex, 129–130, 129f
Cerebral infarction, 629
Cerebral palsy, 113
Cesarean section, 110–111, 111f
Change over time, in development,
7, 21–24
Change theory, 512
Cheating, 485–486
Chicken pox
congenital, 103t
immunization for, 145t, 146
Child abuse. See Child maltreat-
ment
Childbearing. See also Parents/
parenting
age at, 580
demographic shift and, 617–618
Childbirth, 108–112
Child-directed speech, 168,
171–172
Child health, social support and,
116
Child maltreatment, 222–227
definition of, 222
emotional regulation and, 259
foster care and, 227
long-term consequences of, 225
neglect in, 222
in adolescence, 420
brain development and,
134–135
post-traumatic stress disorder and,
223
prevention of, 225–227
day care and, 197–199
definition of, 119, 192–193
disorganized, 194, 194t, 196
epigenetic factors in, 52–53
in foster care, 597–598
Harlow’s study of, 40–42
insecure-avoidant, 194, 194t, 196
insecure-resistant/ambivalent,
194, 194t, 196
kangaroo care and, 117
language development and,
171–172, 172f
measurement of, 194–196
people preference and, 164–165
predictors of, 195t
prenatal, 96
proximity-seeking behaviors in,
193
psychoanalytic view of, 36, 40–42
secure, 193–194,194t
selective adaptation and, 52–53
social referencing and, 196–197
Strange Situation and, 194–195,
195f
Attention
in preschoolers, 213
selective, 290–291
Attention-deficit disorder, 297
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disor-
der, 297–298
genetic vs. environmental factors
in, 56–57
Attention deficits, in older adults,
650
Auditory cortex, 129–130, 129f
Authoritarian parenting, 264–265,
265t
Authoritative parenting, 264–265,
265t
Autism, 299–301
immunizations and, 146
Autistic spectrum disorders,
299–301
Automatization, 291, 312
Autonomy vs. shame and doubt, 36t,
37, 184, 500t
Autosome, 63
Average life expectancy, 636–638
Avian influenza, immunization for,
451–452
Axons, 130, 130f, 131
Babbling, 169, 171–172
Babies. See Infant(s); Newborns
Babinski reflex, 139
Baby boom, 24f
Baby talk, 168, 171–172
Back to sleep program, 148
Balanced bilingual, 245
Balance-scale test, 395–396, 395f
Baldness, 629
Bariatric surgery, 542t
Bases, 62
B cells, 640
Bed-sharing, 128
Behavioral teratogens, 97–98
Behaviorism, 34, 38–43, 54t
benefits of, 40
conditioning and, 39
SUBJECT INDEX SI-3
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development; Intelligence;
Learning
abstract thinking in, 397
adaptation in, 156–157
in adolescents, 391–412, 473
affordances in, 162–165
analytic thought in, 398–400
automatization in, 291, 312
circular reactions in, 156–159,
156t
classification in, 308
cognitive flexibility in, 475–476
concrete operational stage of,
307–309
cultural aspects of, 309–310,
407–409, 473, 481–482
deductive reasoning in, 397
deferred imitation in, 159
dialectical thought in, 480–482
dual-process model of, 398
early childhood education and,
245–251
in emerging adulthood, 471–496
emotion–logic integration in,
474–475
experimentation in, 159
expert cognition and, 571–574
exploration in, 159
formal operational stage in, 43,
44t, 395–396, 395–401
higher education and, 488–496,
491t, 502t
hypothetical thought in, 396–397
identity in, 308
inductive reasoning in, 397
in infants and toddlers, 155–175
information-processing theory of,
161–167, 310–314, 471
intelligence testing and, 292–295
intuitive thought in, 398–400
knowledge base and, 312
language in, 167–175, 235–236,
239, 240–245. See also
Language development
in late adulthood, 649–675
logic in, 308–309
memory and, 311
mental combinations in, 159
in middle adulthood, 556–574
moral development and, 336,
336t
objective thought in, 474
object permanence in, 158, 158f
openmindedness in, 476–480
perception in, 136–137, 162–165
Piaget’s stages of, 43–44, 44t, 136,
155–161, 231–234,
307–309, 310. See also
Piaget’s cognitive theory
in preschoolers, 231–251
processing speed in, 210,
311–312, 628, 650
psychometric approach to, 471
research methods for, 160–161,
160t
reversibility in, 308–309
in school-age children, 307–330,
359
selective optimization with com-
pensation in, 567–568,
623–624, 682–683
sensation in, 136–137
sensorimotor intelligence and,
155–161
stage theory of, 471–483. See also
Postformal thought
in street children, 310
subjective thought in, 474
synchrony in, 191–192
technology and, 404–406
theory of mind and, 231, 238–239
theory-theory of, 236–237
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of,
47–48, 234–236, 309–310
Cognitive disequilibrium, 45, 45f
Cognitive equilibrium, 44–45, 45f
Cognitive schema, 185
Cognitive theory, 43–46, 54t
gender differences in, 274–275
as grand theory, 34
psychosocial development and,
184–185
Cohabitation, 510–511, 593, 593t
Cohort, 9, 9t
Cohort-sequential research, 21f, 24
College. See Higher education
Color blindness, inheritance of, 68,
69t
Colostrum, 149
Coma, Ep-14
Comfort care, in terminal illness,
Ep-13
Commitment, 508, 509t
Common couple violence, 513
Communication
with adolescents, 421
with dying people, Ep-10–Ep-11
with older adults, 615–616
Comorbidity, 297
Comparison group, 19
Complicated grief, Ep-20–Ep-21
Compression of morbidity,
633–635, 633f, 659
Computers
in adolescence, 404–406, 404f
in early childhood, 268–271
Conception, 63, 63f
Concrete operational stage, 43, 44t,
307–309, 396
Conditioning, 39
classical, 39
operant, 39
Condom use
by adolescents, 382, 432
in AIDS prevention, 456
cultural aspects of, 382
Congenital abnormalities
birth complications and, 112–115
in chromosomal abnormalities,
79–84
environmental causes of, 97–106.
See also Teratogens
in genetic disorders, 81–87, 82t–83t
prenatal diagnosis of, 85, 87, 105t
methods of, 104, 105t
prevention of, 100t, 101, 103t
Conscientiousness, 186, 581–583,
683–684
Consent, of research subjects, 28
Conservation, in preoperational
stage, 232, 233f
Contact-maintaining behaviors, 193
Continuing education, 693
Continuity theory, 690
Contraception, 382, 484
for adolescents, 382, 432
cultural aspects of, 382
Control group, 19
Control processes, 312–314,
654–659
Conventional moral reasoning, 336,
336t
Coping mechanisms. See Stress,
coping with
Coronary artery disease, 621–622,
622t
Corporal punishment, 267–268. See
also Discipline;
Punishment
Corpus callosum, 210, 211f
left-handedness and, 211
Correlation, vs. causation, 25–26, 26t
Cortisol, in infants, 180
Co-sleeping, 128
Crawling, 140, 142
Creative intelligence, 563, 564–565
Creativity, in late adulthood, 671–672
Creeping, 140, 142
Criminal behavior. See also
Aggression; Violence
of adolescents, 438–441
Critical period
in development, 98, 99f
in language learning, 240
Critical race theory, 687
Cross-fostering, 119
Cross-sectional research, 21f, 22,
556–566
Cross-sequential research, 21f, 24,
558–559
Cross-sex friendships, 506
Crowds, 422–423
Crystallized intelligence, 562
Cultural diversity
in employment, 605–606
in higher education, 491–492, 494
Cultural factors
in academic performance, 407–409
in alcohol use/abuse, 75
in attention-deficit/hyperactivity
disorder, 298
in childbirth, 111–112
in cognitive development,
309–310, 407–409, 473,
481–482
in condom use, 382
in death and dying, Ep-6–Ep-10
in development, 46–48
in dialectical thought, 481–482
in divorce, 594, 595t
in eating disorders, 459
in education, 318–319, 328–330
in ethnic identity, 500–502
in family structure and function,
348, 420–421
in grief, Ep-22
in identity achievement, 418–419
Child maltreatment (continued)
rates of, 222–223, 223f
reported, 222
reporting of, 224–225
risk factors for, 225
shaken baby syndrome and, 133
substantiated, 222–223, 223f
warning signs of, 223–224, 224t
Childrearing practices. See
Parents/parenting
Children. See also Adolescents;
Infant(s); Preschoolers;
School-age children;
Toddlers
culture of, 334–335
Children with Specific Learning
Disabilities Act, 302t
China, one-child policy in, 65
Chomsky, Noam, 173
Chorionic villus sampling, 105t
Christianity, death in, Ep-7–Ep-8
Chromosomes, 61, 62f
abnormalities of, 79–84
in Down syndrome, 79–81
in fragile X syndrome, 81–84
in Klinefelter syndrome, 81
in Turner syndrome, 81
duplication of, in prenatal develop-
ment, 66
in gamete, 63
genotype and, 63
karyotype of, 64, 64f
pairs of, 63
23rd, 64
sex, 64
abnormalities of, 81–85
Chronic illness, in school-age chil-
dren, 288–290
Chronosystems, in ecological model,
5, 6f
Cigarette smoking. See Smoking
Circular reactions, 156–159, 156t
primary, 156–157, 156t
secondary, 156t, 157–159
tertiary, 156t, 159
Classical conditioning, 39
Classification, 308
in stratification theories, 684–689
Cleft lip/palate, 82t, 100
Clinical depression, 433. See also
Depression
Cliques, 422–423
Clones, 70–71
Club foot, 82t
Cluster suicides, 436
Codes
ethical, 27
language, 315
Cognition, 155
age-related changes in, 530–532
control processes in, 312–314
expert, 569–574
“fast and frugal,” 400
metacognition and, 313
speed of, 311
in older adults, 628, 658
in preschoolers, 210
Cognitive development, 13, 13f,
236. See also Brain
SI-4 SUBJECT INDEX
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Deferred imitation, 159
Defining Issues Test (DIT), 486
Delay discounting, 464
Delinquency, 438–441
Defining Issues Test (DIT) and,
486
Delirium, 663
drug-induced, 667–668
Demand/withdrawal dynamic, 512
Dementia, 531–532, 662–668
alcohol-related, 531, 667, 668
Alzheimer’s, 82t, 531–532,
663–665
in Down syndrome, 80
drug therapy for, 667–668
in Korsakoff ’s syndrome, 531, 667
Lewy body, 666
malnutrition and, 668
multi-infarct, 666, 666f
overmedication and, 667–668
prevention of, 669–670
reversible, 667–668
stroke and, 665–666
subcortical, 666–667
treatment of, 670
vascular, 666, 666f
vs. mental illness, 668–669
vs. substance abuse, 668
Demographic shift, 616–618
Demography, 616
Dendrites, 130, 130f, 131
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), 61
Dependency, in late adulthood,
618–620, 684–689,
706–713
Dependency ratio, 618
Dependent variable, 18
Depression
in adolescence, 433–434, 434f
clinical, 433
in emerging adulthood, 519
in late adulthood, 668–669
postpartum, 119
rumination and, 434
Depth perception, 163–164
Development
biosocial, 13, 13f. See also
Biosocial development
in adolescents, 363–388
in emerging adulthood,
447–468
in infants and toddlers,
125–151
in late adulthood, 613–645
in middle adulthood, 527–552
in preschoolers, 207–228
in school-age children,
283–303, 359
butterfly effect in, 8
change over time in, 7, 21–24
cognitive, 13, 13f. See also
Cognitive development
in adolescents, 391–412, 473
in emerging adulthood,
471–496
in infants and toddlers,
155–175
in late adulthood, 649–675
in middle adulthood, 556–574
in preschoolers, 231–251
in school-age children,
307–330
diversity and, 4
dynamic-systems theory of, 5, 6
ecological-systems approach to,
5–6, 6f
emotional
in adolescents, 433–441
in emerging adulthood,
474–475, 516–521
in infants, 180–183
in preschoolers, 213–215,
255–265
in school-age children, 335
gains and losses in, 7–8, 7f
genetic factors in, 49–53. See also
under Gene(s); Genetic
historical context for, 9
language, 167–175. See also
Language development
moral, 335–337
in emerging adulthood,
483–486, 483–488
in school-age children,
335–337
multicultural aspects of, 10–13
multidirectional nature of, 7–8, 7f
plasticity of, 15–16
prenatal, 63–69. See also Prenatal
development
psychosocial, 13, 13f. See also
Psychosocial development
in adolescents, 415–441
in emerging adulthood,
499–521
in infants, 179–201
in late adulthood, 680–713
in middle adulthood, 577–607
in preschoolers, 255–277
in school-age children,
333–357, 359
science of, 3–4, 16–29. See also
under Research; Science;
Scientific
multidisciplinary approach to,
13–16, 13f
replication in, 17
scientific method in, 16–29
self-righting in, 134
socioeconomic context for, 9–10
Developmental milestones
for emerging adults, 448t
for infants, 200t
for preschoolers, 215t
for toddlers, 200t
Developmental psychopathology,
296
attention-deficit disorders, 297–298
autistic spectrum disorders,
299–301
comorbidity in, 297, 433
definition of, 296
diagnosis of, 296
drug therapy and, 298
education in, 293, 294, 301–303
learning disabilities, 299
educational programs for, 293,
294, 301–303
Developmental stages
Erikson’s, 36–37, 36t. See also
Erikson’s psychosocial
theory
Freud’s, 35, 36t. See also
Psychoanalytic theory
Developmental theories, 33–57, 54t
behaviorism, 38–42, 54t. See also
Behaviorism
cognitive, 43–46, 54t. See also
Cognitive theory
definition of, 33
eclectic perspective on, 55
emergent, 34
epigenetic, 49–53, 54t. See also
Epigenetic theory
grand, 34–46
Kohlberg’s, 336
minitheories, 34
overview of, 34, 54t
psychoanalytic, 35–37, 54t. See
also Psychoanalytic theory
social learning, 42–43, 184
sociocultural, 46–48, 54t,
188–191, 275–276
strengths and limitations of,
54–55
Deviancy training, 334, 335, 423
Diabetes mellitus, 82t
genes vs. environment in, 77–78
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders
(DSM-IV-R), 296
Dialectical thought, 480–482
higher education and, 490
religion and, 488
Diasthesis-stress model, 518
Diet. See also Feeding; Nutrition
of adolescents, 370
aging and, 540–542
anti-aging, 642
of emerging adults, 457
of preschoolers, 208–209
ultra-low calorie, 642
weight-loss, 542t
Difficult temperament, 186
Diphtheria, immunization for, 145t
Disability
in childhood, 546. See also Special
needs children
in late adulthood, 618–620,
684–689, 706–713
Disability-adjusted life years
(DALYs), 547
Discipline
cultural aspects of, 265–266
effects of, 267–268
guidelines for, 266–267, 267t
methods of, 267–268
physical, 267–268
psychological control and,
267–268
time-out in, 268
Discrimination. See Prejudice;
Stereotypes
Diseases/disorders
chromosomal abnormalities in,
79–84
genetic, X-linked, 68
in individuality, 260–261, 261f
in intelligence, 564–566
in intelligence testing, 293
in language development,
169–170
in longevity, 643–645
in motivation, 258
in obesity, 542
in parenting, 265–266
in personality, 583
in psychosocial development,
189–190, 580
in sexual behavior, 374–375
in substance abuse, 384–385
in suicide, 436, 436t
Cultural stereotypes, 583
Culture, 10–13
of children, 334–335
definition of, 10
development and, 46–48
ethnicity and, 11
race and, 11
Cutting, 405–406
Cycling, in late adulthood, 627
Cystic fibrosis, 82t, 84
DALYs, 547
Day care. See also Early childhood
education
infants in, 197–199
for older adults, 709
Deafness
congenital, 82t
language development and, 133
Death and dying, Ep-1–Ep-24
acceptance of, Ep-10–Ep-11
in adolescence, Ep-3–Ep-4
advance directives and,
Ep-16–Ep-17
bereavement and, Ep-18–Ep-24.
See also Grief
brain death in, Ep-14
in childhood, Ep-2–Ep-3
comfort care in, Ep-13
communication in, Ep-10–Ep-11
continuing bonds after, Ep-22
cultural aspects of, Ep-6–Ep-10
determination of death in, Ep-14,
Ep-17
DNR orders in, Ep-13–Ep-14
double effect in, Ep-13
in emerging adulthood, Ep-3–Ep-4
euthanasia in
active, Ep-14
passive, Ep-13–Ep-14
good death in, Ep-10
hope and, Ep-1–Ep-2
hospice care in, Ep-12–Ep-13
in late adulthood, Ep-5
in middle adulthood, Ep-4–Ep-5
near-death experience and, Ep-9
palliative care in, Ep-13
physician-assisted suicide in,
Ep-14–Ep-16
of spouse, 698–700
treatment refusal/withdrawal in,
Ep-13
trends in, Ep-2
Deductive thought, 396–397
SUBJECT INDEX SI-5
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Head Start in, 249
interventional, 249–251
Montessori, 247
Reggio Emilia, 247–248
teacher-directed, 248–250
Easy temperament, 186
Eating disorders, 459–461
Eating habits. See also Feeding
obesity and, 285–286. See also
Obesity
of preschoolers, 208–209
Eclectic perspective, 55
Ecological niche, 581–582
Ecological-systems approach, 5–6,
6f
Economic factors, in family func-
tion, 348–349
Edgework, 462–463, 466
Education. See also Learning;
School(s)
continuing, 693
cultural factors in, 318–319,
328–330
debates in, 323–328
about reading, 324–326
early childhood, 245–251
gifted, 293, 294
hidden curriculum in, 320–321
Japanese, 323–324
mathematics, 326–327
middle school, 402–404
national standards for, 319–320,
320f
No Child Left Behind Act and,
292, 307, 319
parental satisfaction with, 321
primary, 317–330, 401. See also
School-age children
reading, 324–325
religious, 319
secondary, 401–412. See also
Adolescents; Secondary
education
second language, 171, 243–245,
315–317
sex, 429–432
special, 293, 294, 301–303
tertiary, 495. See also Adolescents
Education of All Handicapped
Children Act, 302t, 303
EEG (electroencephalography),
160t
Effect size, 18
Effortful control, 338
Egocentrism
in adolescents, 391–394, 399, 400
in preschoolers, 231, 232
in school-age children, 231, 232
theory of mind and, 231, 238–239
El-Baradei, Mohamed, 517
Elder abuse, 710
Elderly. See Adulthood, late
Elderspeak, 615–616
Electra complex, 273
Electroencephalography (EEG),
160t
Embryonic period, 91, 93–94, 93t,
94f. See also Prenatal de-
velopment
Emergentist coalition, 174–175
Emergent theories, 34, 46–54.
See also Developmental
theories
Emerging adulthood. See Adulthood,
emerging
Emotional development
in adolescents, 366, 433–441
in emerging adulthood, 474–475,
516–521
in infants, 180–183
in preschoolers, 213–215,
255–265
in school-age children, 335
Emotional intelligence, 294
Emotional regulation, 255, 258–259
Emotions
amygdala in, 213–214, 214f
sex hormones and, 366
Empathy, in preschoolers, 259–261
Empirical science, 4
Employment
in adolescence, 419
benefits of, 601
diversity in, 491–492, 494
extrinsic rewards of, 601
globalization and, 602–603
higher education and, 491–492,
493, 502–503
intrinsic rewards of, 601
job loss and, 602–603
in middle adulthood, 600–606
retirement and, 691–696
shift work and, 603–604, 604f
trends in, 602–605
vocational identity and, 419,
502–503
Empty nest period, 591
End-of-life issues. See Death and
dying
English-language learners, 315–317.
See also Bilingualism;
Second language learning
Environmental influences. See
Epigenetic theory;
Genotype–phenotype inter-
actions; Nature–nurture
interactions
Epigenetic theory, 49–53, 54t
gender differences in, 276
psychosocial development and,
185–188
selective adaptation and, 51–52,
638–639
Episodic memory, 167t
Epistasis, 68
Equity, in romantic relationships, 512
Erikson’s psychosocial theory,
36–37, 36t, 500t
autonomy vs. shame and doubt in,
36t, 37, 184, 500t
generativity vs. stagnation in, 36t,
37, 500t, 578, 578t,
596–606
identity vs. role confusion (diffu-
sion) in, 36t, 37, 415–416,
500t, 578t, 681–682
industry vs. inferiority in, 36t, 37,
351–352, 500t
initiative vs. guilt in, 36t, 37,
255–258, 500t
integrity vs. despair in, 36t, 37,
500t, 578, 578t, 680–681
intimacy vs. isolation in, 36t, 37,
500t, 578–579, 578t
trust vs. mistrust in, 36t, 37,
183–184, 500t
ERP (event-related potential), 160t
ESL (English as second language)
instruction, 316
Estradiol, 365
Estrogen replacement therapy, 535,
667
Estrogens, 365
Ethical issues
cheating, 485–486
end-of-life, Ep-13–Ep-14
in genetic counseling, 85
in research, 27–29
Ethnic groups, 11
bilingualism in, 171, 243–245
stratification of, 687
in workforce, 605–606, 605t
Ethnic identity, 418–419, 500–502
Ethnicity. See also Culture; Race
socioeconomic status and, 11–12
stratification by, 687
Ethnotheories, 188–191
Ethology, 49
Euthanasia, Ep-13–Ep-14
active, Ep-14
passive, Ep-13–Ep-14
Event-related potential (ERP), 160t
Evolution, selective adaptation in,
51–52
Evolutionary psychology, 49
Exclusion criteria, 505
Exercise
age and, 539, 539f
dementia and, 670
in emerging adulthood, 456–457
in late adulthood, 625–626
in organized sports, 287–288. See
also Sports
in school-age children, 286–288
Exosystems, in ecological model, 5,
6f
Experience-dependent brain devel-
opment, 131f, 132–135
Experience-expectant brain develop-
ment, 131f, 132–135
Experimental group, 19
Experimental variable, 18
Experiments, 18–19. See also
Research
comparison (control) group in, 19
definition of, 18
dependent variable in, 18
ethical issues in, 27–29
experimental group in, 19
independent variable in, 18
steps in, 19f
Expert cognition
age and, 571–574
automatic, 570
flexible, 571
intuitive, 569–570
strategic, 570–571
Diseases/disorders (continued)
in older adults, 621–622, 622f
cellular aging and, 639–640
compression of morbidity in,
633–635, 633f, 659
selective adaptation and,
638–639
terminal decline in, 659
terminal, 659. See also Death and
dying
Disenfranchised grief, Ep-21
Disengagement theory, 685
Disorganized attachment, 194, 194t,
196
Distal parenting, 189–190
Diversity. See also under Cultural;
Culture
in employment, 605–606
in higher education, 491–492, 494
Divorce, 348, 350, 593–595, 595f
blended family and, 346t, 347
child’s response to, 350
cultural aspects of, 594, 595t
family moves and, 350
rates of, 594–595, 595f
remarriage and, 594–595
single-parent family and, 346,
346t, 348, 350
stepparents and, 346t
Dizygotic twins, 70
DNA, 61
DNR orders, Ep-13–Ep-14
Domestic violence, 513
Dominant-recessive pattern, 68
Do not resuscitate (DNR) orders,
Ep-13–Ep-14
Double effect, Ep-13
Doula, 112
Down syndrome, 79–81, 106–107
Drawings, of preschoolers, 217–218,
217f, 218f
Driving, in late adulthood, 623–624,
624f
Dropouts
from college, 493, 494–495
from high school, 410
Drowning, prevention of, 219
Drugs
of abuse. See Substance abuse
prescription
in late adulthood, 628
in pregnancy, 101, 103t, 114
DSM-IV-R, 296
DTaP vaccine, 144, 145t
Dual-process model, 398
Dual-task deficit, in older adults,
651–652
Due date, 92t
Dynamic perception, 164–165
Dynamic-systems theory, 5, 6, 353
Dynamic theories, 689–690
Dyslexia, 299
Early childhood education, 245–251
child-centered, 246–248
costs and benefits of, 251
curriculum in, 251
experimental programs in,
250–251
SI-6 SUBJECT INDEX
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Fast-mapping, 240–241
Fat
body. See also Obesity
in adolescents, 372
puberty and, 367–368
dietary, 540
Fathers. See also Parents/parenting
of newborns, 117–118, 119
postpartum depression and, 119
social referencing of, 197
Fear
amygdala in, 213
in infants, 181
Feeding. See also Diet; Eating
habits; Nutrition
of infants, 139, 148–151
bottle, 150
breast, 148–151, 150f
of preschoolers, 208
Females. See also under Gender
in workforce, 605–606, 605f
Fertilization, 63, 63f
in vitro, 71
Fetal alcohol syndrome, 102
Fetal period, 91, 93t, 94–96
Fetal sonogram, 104, 105t
Fetus
definition of, 83
viability of, 93t, 95
Fictive kin, 589
Fight-or-flight response, 586
Filial responsibility, 701–703
Financial status. See also
Socioeconomic status (SES)
family function and, 348–349
Fine motor skills, 140–141, 141f.
See also Motor develop-
ment
Flu, bird, immunization for,
451–452
Fluid intelligence, 561
Flynn, James, 292, 557
Flynn effect, 292, 557–558
fMRI, 160–161
Focus on appearance, in preopera-
tional stage, 232
Folic acid, in pregnancy, 100
Foreclosure, identity, 416, 417
Foreign language speakers, bilingual-
ism and, 171, 243–245
Formal operational stage, 43, 44t,
395–401
Formula feeding, 150
Foster care, 227, 597–599
therapeutic, 440–441
Foster family, 346t
Fowler, James, 486
Fractures, in older adults, 626
Fragile X syndrome, 81–84, 132
Frail elderly, 706–713
Fraternal twins, 70
Free radicals, 639–640
Freud, Anna, 36
Freud, Sigmund, 35–36. See also
Psychoanalytic theory
Friendship, 339. See also Peer
relations
change over time in, 586f
in emerging adulthood, 504–506
gateways to attraction in, 504–505
gender differences in, 505–506,
587
in late adulthood, 703–705
male–female, 506
in middle adulthood, 585–586
romance and, 425, 506
vs. romance, 425
Frontal cortex. See Prefrontal cortex
Functional magnetic resonance im-
aging, 160–161
Gametes, 63
Gardner, Howard, 294, 564
Gastric bypass surgery, 542t
Gateways to attraction, 504–505
Gays. See Homosexuality
Gender
definition of, 417
stratification by, 686–687
vs. sexuality, 417
Gender differences, 271–277
in academic performance, 408
in aggression, 439
in aging, 548–549, 686–688
in alcohol use/abuse, 75
androgyny and, 275
culture of children and, 335
decrease over time in, 583–585
in depression, 433–434
in friendship, 505–506, 587
genetic factors in, 276
in immune system, 640
in life expectancy, 548–549, 549f
in moral decision making, 484
in mortality, 464–465, 465f
in risky behavior, 464–466
sex stereotyping and, 274–275
in smoking, 537–538
in substance abuse, 384, 463
in suicide, 436, 436t
theories of, 271–277
behavioral, 274
cognitive, 274–275
epigenetic, 276
psychoanalytic, 272–273
sociocultural, 275–276
vs. sex differences, 271
Gender identity, 417–418
in emerging adulthood, 455
Gender schema, 274
Gene(s), 61–62, 62f
additive, 67–68
alleles and, 64
dominant, 68
in epigenetic theory, 49–53, 54t.
See also Epigenetic theory
epigenetic theory and, 49–53
heterozygosity and, 64
homozygosity and, 64
interactions of, in prenatal devel-
opment, 67–72
mapping of, 67
number of in humans, 63
in protein production, 62, 62f
recessive, 68
regulator, 67
vs. environment. See Epigenetic
theory; Genotype–pheno-
type interactions; Nature–
nurture interactions
X-linked, 68
Gene mapping, 67
General intelligence, 294, 556
Generational forgetting, 387
Generativity vs. stagnation, 36t, 37,
500t, 578, 578t, 596–606
caregiving and, 596–600
for children, 596–599
for parents, 599–600
employment and, 600–605
Genetic clock, 636–638
Genetic code, 61–66
Genetic counseling, 84–87
Genetic disorders, 81–87, 82t–83t
carriers of, 73
diagnosis of, 84–87
dominant-gene, 81
Huntington’s disease, 81
recessive-gene, 84
risk assessment for, 84–87
terminology for, 296
Tourette syndrome, 81
X-linked, 68
Genitals, development of, 364, 364t,
373. See also Puberty
Genital stage, 35, 36t
Genome, 49, 62, 63
mapping of, 67
Genotype, 66
definition of, 63
Genotype–phenotype interactions,
73–78. See also Nature–
nurture interactions
in addiction, 73–75
in obesity, 77–78, 78f
principles of, 73
in type 2 diabetes, 77–78
Geriatrics, 616
Germinal period, 91–93, 93f, 93t
Gerontologic research, 616,
661–662
Gerontology, 616
g (general intelligence), 294, 556
Gifted education, 293, 294
Gilligan, Carol, 484
Glaucoma, 630–631
Goal-directed behavior, in infants,
157–158
Gonadotropin-releasing hormone,
365
Gonads, 365
Good death, Ep-10
Goodness of fit, 187
Gottlieb, Gilbert, 50
Graduate school. See Higher
education
Graduation rates, 409–410, 410,
410f
Graduation requirements, 409–410
Grammar, 171, 242–243
universal, 173
Grandparents, 597–599, 702–703
as surrogate parents, 346t, 703
Grand theories, 34–46. See also
Developmental theories
Grasping, 139, 139f, 141
Greenough, William, 132
Explicit memory, 166, 167t, 657, 658
Extended family, 346, 346t
Externalizing problems, 258, 260
Extremely low birthweight, 113,
113t
Extreme sports, 462–463, 467
Extrinsic motivation, 257–258
Extrinsic rewards, of work, 601
Extroversion, 186, 581–583,
683–684
Eyesight. See Vision
Faith. See Religious beliefs
Falls, by older adults, 626
False positives, 543
Familism, 588, 600
Family, 342–351
adolescent relations with, 403,
420–422
adoptive, 346t, 347–348
adult siblings in, 588–590, 589f
blended, 346t, 347
community support for, 350
conflict in, 348–349, 349–350,
350f, 425–426
in late adulthood, 700–703
developmental view of, 587–588
in emerging adulthood, 513–516
extended, 346, 346t
fictive kin in, 589
financial status and, 348–349
foster, 346t
grandparents-only, 346t, 703
homeless, 350
homosexual, 346t, 592–593, 593f
immigrant, 425–427, 426f
intergenerational relationships in,
700–703
linked lives in, 514, 587
nature–nurture interactions and,
342–343
nuclear, 346, 346t
polygamous, 346t
psychosocial development and,
342–351
shared vs. nonshared environment
of, 343–344
single-parent, 346, 346t
stepparent, 346
stress on, 348–349
vs. household, 587
Family bonds, 587–595
Family caregiving, for older adults,
599–600, 651, 687,
701–702, 708–710
Family day care, 197
Family function, 344–345
family structure and, 347–348
Family harmony, 349–350
Family kinkeeper, 596
Family stability, 349–350
Family-stress model, 348–349
Family structure, 344–347
cultural aspects of, 348
diversity in, 345–348, 346t
family function and, 347–348
Family–work balance, 603–605
Farsightedness, age-related changes
in, 529, 529f
SUBJECT INDEX SI-7
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in infants, 137
language development and, 133,
137, 169, 245
Hearing impairment
age-related, 529–530, 530t,
631–632, 651
congenital, 82t
language development and, 133,
137, 169
sign language for, 169, 245
Heart, age-related changes in, 451
Heart disease, 621–622, 622t
alcohol use and, 538
gender differences in, 549, 550
racial differences in, 550–551
Hegel, Georg, 480
Height
in adolescents, 372
age-related loss of, 528, 630
growth spurt and, 371–372
in preschoolers, 207–208
racial/ethnic variations in, 208
in toddlers, 125–126
Helicobacter pylori infection, 517
Hemispheres, cerebral, 210–212
Hemophilia, 82t
Heredity. See also under Gene(s);
Genetic
additive, 67–68
dominant-recessive, 68
vs. environment, 55–56
epigenetic theory and, 49–53
Heterogamy, 512
Heterozygosity, 64
Hidden curriculum, 320–321
Higher education, 488–496
cognitive development and,
488–496, 491t, 502t
dropouts in, 493, 494–495
educational benefits of, 502t
faculty in, 492
institutional changes in, 492–494
older students in, 494
practical benefits of, 489–490,
493f, 502f
public vs. private, 494–495
student diversity in, 491–492, 494
trends in, 490–495, 492t
High schools, 401–402, 404–412.
See also School(s);
Secondary education
sex education in, 431–432
violence in, 412
High-stakes testing, 409–410
Hikikomori, 520
Hinduism, death in, Ep-6
Hip fractures, in older adults, 626
Hippocampus, 213–214, 214f
Historical context, 9, 9t
HIV infection, 382, 456
education about, 429
in pregnancy, 103t, 105–106
Hoarding, 681–682
Holland, euthanasia in, Ep-14–
Ep-15
Holophrase, 170
Homelessness, 350
Homeostasis, 450
in weight regulation, 458
Homogamy, 511
Homophobia, 506
Homosexual family, 346t, 592–593
Homosexuality
in adolescence, 381, 428–429
disapproval of, 506
genetic vs. environmental factors
in, 56–57
parenting and, 346t
Homozygosity, 64
Hope, death and dying and, Ep-1–
Ep-2
Hormone replacement therapy, 535,
667
Hormones
body rhythms and, 378–379
in pregnancy, 364–366
sex
emotions and, 365–366
in puberty, 364–366
stress, 214–215, 214f
Hospice care, Ep-12–Ep-13
Households, 587, 587f
HPA axis, 214, 214f, 365
in puberty, 365, 365f, 378
Human chorionic gonadotropin
(HCG) test, 105t
Human development. See
Development
Human Genome Project, 67
Human immunodeficiency virus in-
fection. See HIV infection
Huntington’s disease, 81, 85–86,
666
Hurricane Katrina, 543, 544–545
Hydrocephalus, 82t
Hygiene hypothesis, 288–289
Hyperactivity, genetic vs. environ-
mental factors in, 56–57
Hypertension, 621–622, 622t
Hypothalamus, 214, 214f
Hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal cor-
tical axis, 214, 214f, 365
in puberty, 365, 365f, 378
Hypothesis
definition of, 17
testing of, 17, 396
Hypothetical thought, 396–397
IADLs (instrumental activities of
daily life), in late adult-
hood, 706
Identical twins, 69–70, 69f
Identification, gender differences
and, 273
Identity, 415–419
definition of, 415
in Erikson’s psychosocial theory,
36t, 37, 415–416
ethnic, 418–419, 500–502
logical, 308
political, 418–419
religious, 417
sexual/gender, 417–418
vocational, 419, 502–503
vs. role confusion (diffusion), 36t,
37, 415–416, 500t, 578t,
681–682
Identity achievement, 416–419
in emerging adulthood, 499–503
moratorium on, 416, 417
Identity diffusion, 416, 417
Identity foreclosure, 416, 417
Identity politics, 418
IEP (individual education plan), 302
Imaginary audience, 393–394
Imaging techniques, 160–161, 160t
Immigrants
adolescent, peer relations of,
425–427
bilingualism in. See Bilingualism;
Second language learning
Immune system
age-related changes in, 640
in cancer, 640
gender differences in, 640
Immunizations, 144–146, 145t
access to, 451–452
autism and, 301
ethical aspects of, 451–452
for influenza, 451–452
prioritization for, 451–452
Implantation, 92, 92f
Implicit memory, 166, 167t,
657–658
Impulsiveness
in adolescents, 376–377, 377f
in emerging adulthood, 462–468
in preschoolers, 213
Inactivity. See also Exercise
aging and, 539, 539f
Incidence
definition of, 438
of juvenile crime, 438–439
Inclusion, 303
Incomplete grief, Ep-21
Independence
in adolescence, 420–422
in emerging adulthood, 485
in late adulthood, 618–620,
684–689, 706–713
Independent variable, 18
Indifferent gonads, 94
Individual education plan (IEP), 302
Individuality, cultural factors in,
260–261, 261f
Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA),
302t
Induced abortion, 64, 108, 381,
432, 484
Industry vs. inferiority, 36t, 37,
351–352, 500t
Infant(s). See also Newborns
adaptation in, 156–157
biosocial development in,
125–151
bonding of. See Attachment
brain development in, 129–135,
129f, 131f
cognitive development in,
155–175
in day care, 197–199
developmental milestones for, 200t
emotional development in,
180–183
goal-directed behavior in, 157–158
growth of, 125–127
Grief, Ep-18–Ep-24
absent, Ep-21
blaming and, Ep-18–Ep-19
complicated, Ep-20–Ep-21
cultural aspects of, Ep-22
definition of, Ep-18
disenfranchised, Ep-21
incomplete, Ep-21
normal variations in, Ep-22–Ep-23
pathological, Ep-22
research on, Ep-22–Ep-24
Grief work, Ep-20
Gross motor skills, 140, 140f. See
also Motor development
Growth
of adolescents, 371–373, 372f
of infants, 125–127
of preschoolers, 207–208
of school-age children, 284–286
of toddlers, 125–127, 126f, 129f
Growth spurt, 371–373, 372f
Guided participation, 47, 234
Guilt, in preschoolers, 256, 257
Habituation, 160
Haemophilus influenzae, immuniza-
tion for, 145t
Hair, age-related changes in, 629
Handedness, 210–211
Happiness bump, in emerging adult-
hood, 516
Harlow, Harry, 40–41
Harm reduction, 219–221
Hayflick, Leonard, 641
Hayflick limit, 641
HCG test, 105t
Head circumference, in infants, 129
Head sparing, 127
Head Start, 249
Health care, preventive, 543
Health care proxy, Ep-16–Ep-17
Health People 2010, 457
Health status
of adolescents, 372–373, 433
disability and, 546
in emerging adulthood, 447–451,
449f, 450t, 516–521
gender differences in, 548–549
homeostasis and, 450
of infants and toddlers, 143–151
in late adulthood, 624–635, 659.
See also Aging
measures of, 545–548
in middle adulthood, 536–548.
See also Aging
morbidity and, 545–546
mortality and, 545
organ reserve and, 450–451
of preschoolers, 208–209
of school-age children, 283, 284f,
288
socioeconomic status and,
549–550
vitality and, 546
Hearing
age-related changes in
in late adulthood, 630, 631–632
in middle adulthood, 503t,
529–530
SI-8 SUBJECT INDEX
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Integrity vs. despair, 36t, 37, 500t,
578, 578t, 680–681
Intelligence, 556–566. See also
under Cognitive
age-related changes in, 556–566,
559f, 560f
analytic, 562–563, 564–565
in older adults, 654–655
prefrontal cortex in, 212–213
components of, 561–564
creative, 563, 564–565
cross-sectional studies of,
556–566
cross-sequential studies of,
558–559
crystallized, 562
cultural aspects of, 564–566
emotional, 294
fluid, 561
Flynn effect and, 557–558
general, 294, 556
general increase in, 557–558
life satisfaction and, 674–675
longitudinal studies of, 557–558
multiple, 294, 564
practical, 563, 564–565
preoperational, 231–234, 396
sensorimotor, 155–161, 156t
wisdom and, 674–675
Intelligence testing, 292–295, 292f
cultural aspects of, 566
Intensive mothering, 605
Interaction effect, 99
Interference, in older adults, 651
Internalizing problems, 258, 260
Internet, 404–406, 404f
dating via, 509
Intimacy, 508, 509t. See also
Friendship; Marriage;
Romantic relationships
in emerging adulthood, 503–516
in late adulthood, 697–698
in middle adulthood, 585–595
vs. isolation, 36t, 37, 500t,
503–504, 578–579, 578t
Intimate terrorism, 513
Intrinsic motivation, 257–258
Intrinsic rewards, of work, 601
Intuitive thought, 567
in expert cognition, 569–570
Intuitive thought, vs. analytic
thought, 398–400
Invincibility fable, 392–393, 394
In vitro fertilization, 71–72, 534
Involved fathering, 605
IQ tests, 292–295, 292f
cultural aspects of, 566
Irreversibility, 232
Islam, death in, Ep-8
Japan, education in, 323–324
Jobs. See Employment
Jones, E. P., 317
Judaism, death in, Ep-7
Jung, Carl, 583–584
Justice, 484
Juvenile delinquency, 438–441
Defining Issues Test (DIT) and,
486
Kangaroo care, 117, 117f
Karyotype, 64, 64f
Kinkeeper, 596
Kinship care, 227
Klinefelter syndrome, 81
Knowledge base, 312
The Known World (Jones), 317
Kohlberg’s moral reasoning theory,
336–337
Korsakoff ’s syndrome, 531, 667
Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth,
Ep-10–Ep-11
Kwashiorkor, 151
Labeling, 296
Labor and delivery, 108–109
LAD (language acquisition device),
173
Language. See also Speech
in cognitive development,
235–236, 239
fluidity of, 245
grammar and, 171
sign, 169
in social mediation, 235–236
Language acquisition device (LAD),
173
Language codes, 315
Language development, 167–175
babbling in, 169, 171–172
behaviorist view of, 171–173, 175
in bilingual children, 171,
243–245, 315–317. See
also Bilingualism
child-directed speech in, 168
critical period in, 240
cultural aspects of, 169–170
emergentist coalition view of,
174–175
fast-mapping in, 240–241
first words in, 169
gender differences in, 276
grammar in, 171, 173, 242–243
hearing and, 133, 137, 169, 245
as innate process, 173
as learned process, 171–173
logical extension in, 241–242
maternal responsiveness and,
171–172, 172f
naming explosion in, 169
overregularization in, 243
pragmatics in, 314–315
prenatal, 168
in preschoolers, 240–245
in school-age children, 314–317
sensitive period in, 240
sentences in, 170–171
social-pragmatic view of,
173–174
socioeconomic status and, 317
theories of, 171–175
timeline for, 168, 168t
vocabulary growth in, 240–241,
314–315
Language mapping, 240–241
Language shift, 244, 315
Late adulthood. See Adulthood, late
Latency, 35, 36t, 351
Lateralization, 210–212, 211f
Learning. See also Cognitive devel-
opment; Education;
School(s)
accommodation in, 45
assimilation in, 44–45
in behaviorism, 38–39. See also
Behaviorism
in classical conditioning, 39
guided participation in, 47
memory and, 165
modeling and, 43
in operant conditioning, 39
repetition in, 165–166, 311–312
scaffolding in, 235
social, 42–43, 184, 234–236, 309
zone of proximal development and,
48–49, 49f
Learning disabilities, 299
educational programs for, 293,
294, 301–303
Learning theory. See Behaviorism
Least restrictive environment (LRE),
303
Left-handedness, 210–211
Length, of infants, 125
Lesbianism. See Homosexuality
Lewy body dementia, 666
Life-course-persistent offender, 440
Life expectancy. See also Longevity
average, 636–638
gender differences in, 548–549,
549f
race and, 551–552
socioeconomic status and, 549
trends in, 637–638
Life review, 672–673
Life span, maximum, 636–638
Life years
disability-adjusted, 547
quality-adjusted, 546–547
Limbic system, 214, 214f
Linked lives, 514, 587
Little League, 287
Little scientists, 159
Living will, Ep-16–Ep-17
Locked-in syndrome, Ep-14
Logic, 308–309
integration with emotions,
474–475
Logical extension, 241–242
Longevity. See also Life expectancy
alcohol use/abuse and, 538
birth rate and, 619
cultural factors in, 643–645
determinants of, 643–645
genetic factors in, 636–638
Longitudinal research, 21f, 22–23,
23t, 557–558
Long-term care, 710–713
Long-term memory, 311
in older adults, 652, 653–654
Love. See also Intimacy; Romantic
relationships
dimensions of, 508–509, 509t
Low birthweight, 113–115, 113t,
114f, 115f, 116t
Lung cancer, smoking and, 537–538
Lymphoid system, in adolescents,
373
head circumference in, 129
health status of, 143–151
immunizations for, 144–146, 145t
information processing by,
161–167
language development in,
167–175
memory in, 165–167
motor development in, 138–143,
140f–143f, 141t
nutrition in, 148–151
people preference in, 164–165
perception in, 162–165
post-term, 92t, 95–96
preterm, 92t, 95–96, 114, 116
protein-calorie malnutrition in,
150–151
psychosocial development in,
179–201
reflexes in, 7–8, 156–157
self-awareness in, 182
self-righting in, 134
sensory development in, 136–138
shaken baby syndrome in, 133
sleep in, 127–128
stepping reflex in, 7–8
stimulation of, 133–135
sudden infant death syndrome in,
146–147
temperament and, 185–186
trust vs. mistrust in, 36t, 37,
183–184, 500t
Infant care, cultural aspects of,
147–148
Infant feeding, 139, 148–151, 149f,
150t
Infertility, 71–72, 533
assisted reproduction and, 71–72,
534
Influenza
avian, immunization for, 451–452
in pregnancy, 103t
Information-processing theory,
161–167, 310–314,
649–650
Informed consent, of research sub-
jects, 28
Inhalant abuse, 385
Inheritance. See under Genetic;
Heredity
Initiative vs. guilt, 36t, 37, 255–258,
500t
Injuries
accidental
age-related trends in, 219
in preschoolers, 218–222
intentional. See Child maltreat-
ment
prevention of, 219–221
Insecure-avoidant attachment, 194,
194t, 196
Insecure-resistant/ambivalent at-
tachment, 194, 194t, 196
Insomnia, in adolescents, 380
Instrumental activities of daily life,
in late adulthood,
706–707, 706t
Instrumental aggression, 261
Instrumental conditioning, 39
SUBJECT INDEX SI-9
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in preschoolers, 214–215, 214f
priming of, 657
reminders in, 165
repetition in, 165–166, 311–312
retrieval in, 655–656
selective, 652–653
semantic, 167t
sensory, 311
short-term, 311
stress and, 214–215
working, 311, 651–653
Menarche, 364, 364t
Menopause, 534–536
hormone replacement therapy in,
535, 667
Mental combinations, 159
Mental illness
in adolescents, 433–441
comorbid, 297, 433
in emerging adulthood, 518–521
in late adulthood, 668–669
in preschoolers, 258–259
Mental retardation, 293. See also
Special needs children
Me-self, 182
Metacognition, 313
Method of loci, 661
Microcephaly, 100
Microsystems, in ecological model,
5, 6f
Middle adulthood. See Adulthood,
middle
Middle childhood, 283. See also
School-age children
Middle school, 402–404. See also
Secondary education
Midlife crisis, 580–581
Milk, breast, 148–150
Minitheories, 34
Minority groups. See Culture;
Ethnic groups; Race
Mirror neurons, 14
Miscarriage, 64
MMR vaccine, 144, 145t, 146, 452
autism and, 301
Mobility, in late adulthood,
625–627
Modeling, 43
Monogamy
age and, 532f
serial, 454
Monozygotic twins, 69–70, 69f
Montessori schools, 247
Mood disorders. See Anxiety;
Depression
Moral codes, 335–337
Moral development
in emerging adulthood, 483–488
in school-age children, 335–337
Morality of care, 484
Morality of justice, 484
Moratorium, on identity achieve-
ment, 416, 417
Morbidity, 545–546
compression of, 633–635, 633f,
659
Moro reflex, 139, 139f
Mortality, 545–546
age-related causes of, 450t
in school-age children, 283, 284f
Mosaic, 79
Moses, Anna (“Grandma”), 671
Mother. See also Parents/parenting
attachment to. See Attachment
postpartum depression in,
118–119
social referencing of, 196–197
Motherese, 168, 171–172
Motivation
cultural aspects of, 258
intrinsic vs. extrinsic, 257–258
rewards and, 258
Motocross, 462–463
Motor development
ethnic variations in, 141–142
of fine motor skills, 140–141, 141f
of gross motor skills, 140, 140f
in infants, 138–143, 140f–143f,
141t
landmarks in, 141t
in preschoolers, 215–218, 215t
reflexes in, 138–139, 139f
Motor skills, 138
fine, 140–141, 141f
gross, 140, 140f
Motor vehicle accidents, driver age
and, 264f, 623–624
Mourning, Ep-18–Ep-19. See also
Grief
Movement, perception of, 164–165
Moving, in school years, 350
Multiculturalism, 10–12. See also
under Cultural; Culture
Multifactorial traits, 67
Multi-infarct dementia (MID), 666,
666f
Multiple births. See also Twins
breast-feeding in, 150
low birthweight in, 115
from in vitro fertilization, 71–72
Multiple intelligences, 294, 564
Multiple sclerosis, 666
Mumps, immunization for, 144,
145t, 452
Muscle reserve, 450–451
Muscle strength
in adolescents, 372, 372f
age-related changes in, 529
in late adulthood, 630
Muscular dystrophy, 82t
Mutuality, cultural factors in,
260–261, 261f
Myelination
in adolescents, 377, 377f
in preschoolers, 210
in school-age children, 291
Myopia, 75–77
Naming explosion, 169, 240
National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP), 319
National stereotypes, 583
Native Americans, death in, Ep-6–
Ep-7
Naturally occurring retirement com-
munity, 692
Nature–nurture interactions, 55–58
addiction and, 74–75
epigenetic theory and, 49–53
in families, 342–343
genotype–phenotype interactions
and, 73–78
visual acuity and, 75–77
Near-death experience, Ep-9
Nearsightedness, 75–77
age-related changes in, 529, 529f
Neglect
by parents, 222. See also Child
maltreatment
in adolescence, 420
brain development and,
134–135
by peers, 338
Neighborhood play, 286–287
Nerves, myelination of, 210
Netherlands, euthanasia in, Ep-14–
Ep-15
Neural connections, plasticity of,
131, 132–133, 134–135,
532, 656
Neural tube, development of, 93
Neural tube defects, 83t, 100
Neurogenesis, 95
Neurons, 129
development of. See Brain devel-
opment
mirror, 14
Neuroticism, 186, 581–583,
683–684
Newborns. See also Infant(s)
adjustment to extrauterine life by,
109–110
Apgar score for, 110, 110t
development of
family factors in, 116–117
social support and, 116
growth of, 125–127
kangaroo care for, 117, 117f
Nicotine. See Smoking
No Child Left Behind Act, 292,
307, 319, 324
Norms, 126
Nuclear family, 346, 346t
Nursery school, 245–251. See also
Early childhood education
Nursing homes, 710–713
Nutrition. See also Diet; Feeding
in adolescents, 370
age and, 540–542
eating disorders and, 459–461
in emerging adulthood, 457
in infants, 139, 148–151
in late adulthood, 624–625, 625f,
667–668
in preschoolers, 208–209
Obesity
in adolescents, 371
age and, 541
cultural factors in, 542
definition of, 284
in emerging adulthood, 458–459
genes vs. environment in, 77–78,
78f, 541–542
in late adulthood, 541
in middle adulthood, 541–542
in preschoolers, 208
Macrosystems, in ecological model,
5, 6f
Macular degeneration, 631
Mainstreaming, 303
Males. See also under Gender
parental preference for, 65
Malnutrition, 150–151
in anorexia nervosa, 460
in pregnancy, 103t, 114–115
in preschoolers, 208
Mapping
genome, 67
language, 240–241
Marasmus, 151
Marijuana, 384–386
Marriage, 590–595. See also
Romantic relationships
after divorce, 594–595
age at, 448t, 454, 590
benefits of, 590–591
changing expectations for, 507
conflict in, 512. See also Divorce
child’s response to, 349–350
violence in, 513
death of spouse in, 698–700
demand/withdrawal dynamic in,
512
dialectical process in, 481
division of labor in, 511–512, 591
in emerging adulthood, 448t,
453–454, 511–512
empty nest and, 591
happiness and, 590–591
homogamous vs. heterogamous,
512
in late adulthood, 697–698
long-term, 591–592, 697–698
prenatal development and, 117–118
quality of, 591–593
retirement and, 691
social exchange theory and, 512
successful, characteristics of,
511–512
vs. cohabitation, 510–511
Marshall, Barry, 516–517, 521
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Ep-11
Mass media
effects of, 268–271
effects on children, 268–271
Mathematical ability, in street chil-
dren, 310
Mathematics instruction, 326–327
Maximizers, 518
Maximum life span, 636–638
Measles
congenital, 103t
immunization for, 144, 145t
Media exposure, effects on children,
268–271
Memory
episodic, 167t
explicit, 166, 167t, 657, 658
hippocampus in, 213–214
implicit, 166, 167t, 657–658
in infants, 165–167
learning and, 165
long-term, 311, 652, 653–654
in older adults, 651–654,
660–662
SI-10 SUBJECT INDEX
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of preschoolers, 264–271
proximal, 189–190
psychoanalytic view of, 36
single parents, 346
social referencing and, 196–197
stepparents, 346, 597–598
styles of, 264–266, 265t
surrogate, 346t, 703
synchrony and, 191–192
work and, 603–605
as working model, 184–185
Parkinson’s disease, 666, 670
Passion, 508, 509t
Passive euthanasia, Ep-13–Ep-14
Pavlov, Ivan, 39, 39f
Pax6 gene, 67, 76
Peer facilitation, 424
Peer pressure, 423, 424–425
Peer relations. See also Friendship
of adolescents, 385, 402–403,
422–427
age at puberty and, 369
bullying and, 339–342
cliques and crowds in, 422–423
culture of children and, 334–335
deviancy training and, 334, 335,
423
effortful control and, 338
in emerging adulthood, 504–506
exclusion criteria in, 505
gateways to attraction in, 504–505
gender issues and, 335
of immigrant adolescents,
425–427
of middle-school students,
402–403
of school-age children, 333–342
sexual behavior and, 429
social awareness and, 338
social cognition and, 338
social comparison and, 333–334
substance abuse and, 385
Peer selection, 423–425
People, perception of, 164–165
People preference, 164–165
Percentile, 126
Perception, 136, 162–165, 311
affordances and, 162–165
depth, 163–164
dynamic, 164–165
memory and, 311
of movement, 164
of people, 164–165
of sudden drops, 163–164, 163f
Perinatal anoxia, 112–113
Permanency planning, 227
Permissive parenting, 264–265, 265t
Perseveration, 213
Personality
Big Five traits of, 186, 581–583,
683–684
change over time in, 186, 581–583
cultural factors in, 583
ecological niche and, 581–582
epigenetic factors in, 582
Jungian view of, 583–584
shadow side of, 584
stability of, 186, 581–583, 681,
683–684
Pertussis, immunization for, 145t
Pervasive developmental disorder,
179–180, 200–201
PET (positron emission tomogra-
phy), 160t
Phallic stage, 35, 36t, 272–273
Phenotype, 66
definition of, 66
genotype and, 73–78
Phenylketonuria, 83t, 86
Phonics, 324–325
Physical activity. See Exercise
Physical appearance
in emerging adulthood, 453, 453f
in late adulthood, 629–630
in middle adulthood, 529–530
Physical education, 287
Physician-assisted suicide,
Ep-14–Ep-16
Piaget’s balance-scale test, 395–396,
395f
Piaget’s cognitive theory, 43–44,
136, 155–161, 310. See
also Cognitive development
concrete operational stage in, 44t,
307–309
formal operational stage in, 43,
44t, 395–396, 395–401
preoperational stage in, 44t,
231–234, 396
sensorimotor stage in, 43, 44t,
136, 155–161, 156t
Pinter, Harold, 516, 517
PISA examination, 407–408
Pituitary, 214, 214f, 365
Placenta, 92, 109
Planning, prefrontal cortex in,
212–213
Plasticity
brain, 131, 132–133, 134–135,
532, 656
developmental, 15–16
Play
cultural aspects of, 190, 190t
neighborbood, 286–287
in preschool years, 216–218, 216t
in school years, 286–287
Play years, 205. See also
Preschoolers
Pneumonia, immunization for, 145t
Pointing, 169
Poisoning, 221
Polio, immunization for, 144, 145t
Political activism, in late adulthood,
695–696
Political identity, 418–419
Pollutants, teratogenic, 103t
Polygamy, 346t
Polygenic traits, 67
Popularity, in school years, 337–338
Positivity effect, 683–684
Positron emission tomography
(PET), 160t
Postconventional moral reasoning,
336, 336t
Postformal thought, 472–483
higher education and, 490
Post-term infants, 92t, 95–96
Post-term labor, 92t
Post-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD). See also Stress
child abuse and, 223
Poverty
family function and, 348–349
in late adulthood, 686–687,
688–689
Practical intelligence, 563
Pragmatics, 314–315
Praise, of toddlers, 182
Precocious puberty, 369
Preconventional moral reasoning,
336, 336t
Preformism, 49
Prefrontal cortex, 133
in adolescents, 376–377, 377f
in attention, 213
in infants, 129–130, 129f
in preschoolers, 212–213
Pregnancy. See also under Prenatal
adolescent, 380–381, 432–433
alcohol use in, 102
birth process in, 108–109
due date in, 92t
duration of, 92t
folic acid in, 100
implantation in, 92, 92f
malnutrition in, 103t, 114–115
miscarriage in, 64
prenatal care in, 104–106
substance abuse in, 102, 104t
teratogens in, 97–106. See also
Teratogens
termination of, 108, 381, 432, 484
terminology for, 92t
trimesters of, 92t
viability in, 93t, 95
Pregnancy-associated plasma protein
(PAPPA) test, 105t
Prejudice. See also Stereotypes
in emerging adulthood, 476–480
against older adults, 615
in preschoolers, 261
in school-age children, 335
stereotype threat and, 477–480
Prenatal care, 104–106
Prenatal development, 91–119
abnormal. See Congenital abnor-
malities
blastocyst in, 91–93, 93t
cell division in, 66
chromosome duplication in, 66
differentiation in, 66
embryonic period in, 91, 93–94,
93t, 94f
family factors in, 117–118
fertilization in, 63, 63f
fetal period in, 91, 93t, 94–96
gene interactions in, 67–72
germinal period in, 91–93, 93f,
93t
marriage and, 117–118
neurologic, 93, 95, 96, 97f
sex determination in, 64, 65f, 94
social support and, 116
of twins, 104–105
viability in, 93t, 95
Prenatal testing, 85, 87
methods of, 104, 105t
treatment of, 542t
Objective thought, 474
Object permanence, 158, 158f
Observation, 17–18, 27
Occupational status. See
Employment
Oden, Melita, 557
Oedipus complex, 272
Older adults. See Adulthood, late
Oldest-old, 620, 643–645
Old-old, 620, 643–645
Openness, 186, 581–583, 683–684
Open spine, 83t
Operant conditioning, 39
Optimization with compensation,
567–568, 623–624,
682–683
Oral fixation, 183
Oral stage, 35, 36t, 183
Organ reserve, 450–451
Outdoor play, 286–287. See also
Exercise; Play
Overregularization, 243
Overweight, 284, 541. See also Body
weight; Obesity
Ovum, fertilization of, 63, 63f
Oxygen free radicals, 639–640
Palliative care, Ep-13
PAPPA test, 105t
Parasuicide, 434–435, 435t
Parental alliance, 118, 597
Parental monitoring, 421
Parents/parenting, 596–599. See also
Family
adaptation to, 118
of adolescents, 403, 420–422
adoptive, 597–599
aging. See also Adulthood, late
abuse of, 710
family caregiving for, 599–600,
651, 687, 701–702, 708–710
attachment theory and, 36, 40–41.
See also Attachment
authoritarian, 264–265, 265t
authoritative, 264–265, 265t
behaviorist view of, 39–40
cultural aspects of, 189–190,
190t, 265–266
discipline by, 265–268, 267t
distal, 189–190
educational achievement and, 321
in emergent adulthood, 448t, 454
emotional regulation and, 259
empty nest period and, 591
ethnotheories of, 188–191
expert cognition in, 574
family structure and, 345–347
goodness of fit and, 187
by grandparents, 346t, 703
immigrant, 425–427
infant attachment and. See
Attachment
infant temperament and, 186–188
in late adulthood, 701–703
parental alliance and, 118
permissive, 264–265, 265t
postpartum depression and,
118–119
SUBJECT INDEX SI-11
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definition of, 438
of juvenile crime, 438–439
Prevention, 543
levels of, 220–221
screening tests in, 543
Pride
in preschoolers, 256–257
in toddlers, 181–182
Primary aging, 620–621, 659
Primary circular reactions, 156–157,
156t
Primary education, 317–330, 401.
See also Education; School-
age children
Primary prevention, 220
Primary sex characteristics, 373
Priming, 657
Primitive streak, 93
Private speech, 235
Programme for International
Student Assessment
(PISA), 407–408
Progress in International Reading
Literacy Study (PIRLS),
322
Prosocial behavior, in preschoolers,
260–261
Protein, 61
production of, 62, 62f
Protein-calorie malnutrition,
150–151
Proximal parenting, 189–190
Proximity-seeking behaviors, 193
Pruning, 131, 132
Psychoactive drugs, 298, 519
Psychoanalytic theory, 35–37, 54t
anal stage in, 35, 36t, 183
Electra complex in, 273–274
Erikson’s contributions to, 35–36
Freud’s contributions to, 35–36
gender differences in, 272–273
as grand theory, 34
latency in, 35, 36t, 351
Oedipus complex in, 272
oral stage in, 35, 36t, 183
phallic stage in, 35, 36t, 272–273
psychosocial development in,
183–184
vs. behaviorism, 38t
Psychological control, 267–268, 422
Psychometrics, 555. See also
Intelligence testing
Psychopathology
in adolescents, 433–441
comorbid, 297, 433
in emerging adulthood, 518–521
in late adulthood, 668–669
in preschoolers, 258–259
Psychosocial development, 13, 13f,
185
in adolescents, 415–441
attachment in. See Attachment
behaviorist view of, 184
cognitive view of, 184–185
cultural aspects of, 580
day care and, 197–199
dynamic theories of, 689–690
ecological niche in, 581–582
in emerging adulthood, 499–521
emotional, 180–183
epigenetic view of, 185–188
Erikson’s view of, 183–184
family factors in, 342–351
Freudian view of, 183
identity in, 415–419
identity theory and, 681–682
in infants, 179–201
in late adulthood, 680–713
in middle adulthood, 577–607
midlife crisis in, 580–581
in preschoolers, 255–277
psychoanalytic view of, 183–184
in school-age children, 333–357,
359
self-theories of, 680–681
social bonds in, 191–199
social clock in, 579–581
social referencing and, 196–197
sociocultural theory and, 188–191
stratification theories of, 684–689
synchrony in, 191–192
temperament and, 185–186
theories of, 183–190
Puberty, 364–380. See also
Adolescents
biorhythms and, 378–379
body image and, 370–371
emotional lability in, 365–366
growth spurt in, 371–373, 372f
hair growth in, 371
hormones in, 364–366, 378
menarche in, 364, 364t
nutrition and, 370
onset of, 364–369
body fat and, 367–368
early, 369
genetic factors in, 366–367,
367f
late, 369
stress and, 368–369
peer relations in, 369
sex hormones in, 364–366
sexual maturation in, 373–375
spermarche in, 364, 364t
stages of, 364t
Public health measures
immunizations, 144–146, 145t
for infant health, 143–151
Punishment
in conditioning, 39
cultural aspects of, 265–266
effects of, 267–268
guidelines for, 266–267, 267t
methods of, 267–268
physical, 267–268
psychological control and,
267–268
Pyloric stenosis, 83t
Qualitative research, 27
Quality-adjusted life years (QALYs),
546–547
Quantitative research, 26
Race. See also Culture; Ethnicity
definition of, 11
as social construction, 11
socioeconomic status and, 11–12
stereotype threat and, 477–480
stratification by, 687
Racial prejudice. See Prejudice
Radiation, as teratogen, 103t
Reaching, 141
Reaction range, 50
Reaction time, 290
Reactive aggression, 261
Reading, nearsightedness and, 76–77
Reading First, 319–320
Reading instruction
phonics in, 324–325
whole-language approach in, 325
Recessive genes, 68
Redshirting, 448
Reflex(es)
in adaptation, 156–157
Babinski, 139
breathing, 139
in infants, 7–8, 138–139, 139f,
156–157
Moro, 139, 139f
in motor development, 138–139,
139f
palmar grasping, 139, 139f
rooting, 139
stepping, 7–8, 139, 139f
sucking, 156
swimming, 139
Reggio Emilia schools, 247–248
Regulator genes, 67
Reinforcement, 39
Relational aggression, 262
Religious beliefs
about death, Ep-6–Ep-10
of adolescents, 396, 400, 417
in emerging adulthood, 486–488
in late adulthood, 695
morals and, 483–488
of school-age children, 356–357
stages of, 486–487
tolerance and, 488
Religious education, 319
Religious identity, 417
Remarriage, 594–595
in late adulthood, 699
Reminder session, 165
REM sleep, 127
Repetition, in memory, 165–166,
311–312
Replication, of research studies, 17
Reporting, of child maltreatment,
224–225
Research
ageism in, 661
bias in, 28
case studies in, 20–21
correlation vs. causation in, 25
cross-sectional, 21f, 22, 556–566
cross-sequential, 21f, 24, 558–559
ethical issues in, 27–29
experiments in, 18–19
falsified results in, 28
gerontologic, 616, 661–662
habituation in, 160
hypotheses in, 17
testing of, 17–21
imaging techniques in, 160–161,
160t
Preoperational intelligence, 43, 44t,
231–234, 396
Presbycusis, 529–530, 530t,
631–632
Preschool, 245–251. See also Early
childhood education
Preschoolers
accidents and injuries in, 218–222
intentionally caused, 222–227.
See also Child maltreatment
aggression in, 261–263
antipathy in, 259–260
antisocial behavior in, 260–261
artistic expression by, 217–218,
217f, 218f
attention in, 213
biosocial development in, 207–228
brain development in, 210–218
causes of death in, 218–219
cognitive development in,
231–251
death and dying and, Ep-2
early childhood education for,
245–251
egocentrism in, 231, 232
emotional development in,
213–215, 255–265
empathy in, 259–260
externalizing vs. internalizing prob-
lems in, 258, 260
gender differences in, 271–277
growth of, 207–208
handedness in, 210–212
health status of, 208–209
impulsiveness in, 213
initiative vs. guilt in, 36t, 37,
255–258, 500t
intrinsic motivation in, 257–258
language development in,
235–236, 239, 240–245
media effects on, 268–271
memory in, 214–215, 214f
milestones for, 215t
motor development in, 215–218,
215t
nutrition in, 208–209
obesity in, 208–209
parenting of, 264–271
perseveration in, 213
planning and analyzing by,
212–213
play of, 205, 216–218, 216t
prejudice in, 261
pride in, 256–257
prosocial behavior in, 260–261
psychopathology in, 258–259
psychosocial development in,
255–277
rigidity in, 209
safety precautions, 219–221
self-concept in, 256
self-esteem in, 256
shame in, 256, 257
speed of thought in, 210
Prescription drugs, in pregnancy,
101, 103t, 114
Preterm birth, 92t, 95–96, 114, 116
Preterm labor, 92t
Prevalence, 438
SI-12 SUBJECT INDEX
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Schiavo, Terry, Ep-17
Schizophrenia, 83t, 520
School(s). See also Education
bullying in, 262–263, 339–342
immigrant experience in, 425–426
inclusion in, 303
least restrictive environment in,
303
Montessori, 247
physical education in, 287
Reggio Emilia, 247–248
resource room in, 303
sex education in, 431–432
special education in, 293, 294,
301–303
School-age children
activity and exercise in, 286–288
biosocial development in,
283–303, 359
brain development in, 290–295
chronic illness in, 288–290
cognitive development in,
307–330, 359
death and dying and, Ep-2
education of, 317–330. See also
Education; School(s)
cultural aspects of, 318–319
curriculum in, 318–330
religious, 319
standardized testing and,
319–320, 321–323
family function and, 344–348. See
also under Family
family moves and, 350
growth of, 284–286
health status of, 283, 284f, 288
industry vs. inferiority in, 36t, 37,
351–352, 500t
language development in, 314–317
latency in, 351
moral development in, 335–337
mortality in, 283, 284f
obesity in, 284–286, 285f
overview of, 358–359
peer group and, 333–342. See also
Peer relations
psychoanalytic view of, 351–352
psychosocial development in,
333–357, 359
religious concepts of, 356–357, 356f
resilience in, 353–355, 354t
self-concept in, 352–353
self-righting capability in,
356–357
social acceptance of, 337–342. See
also Peer relations
social support for, 355–357
with special needs. See Special
needs children
values of, 336–337
Science, 3–4
benefits and pitfalls of, 25
definition of, 3
empirical, 4
ethical issues in, 27–29
of human development, 3–4,
16–29
Scientific method, 16–29. See also
Experiments; Research
definition of, 16
hypotheses in, 17
testing of, 17–21
observation in, 17–18
steps in, 17
Scientific observation, 17–18
Scientific thinking, vs. intuitive
thinking, 398–400
Screening tests, 543
Seattle Longitudinal Study,
558–560, 649–650
Secondary aging, 620–621, 659
Secondary circular reactions, 156t,
157–159
Secondary education, 401–412
cultural diversity in, 407–409
curriculum in, 407
dropouts from, 410
graduation rates in, 410, 410f
graduation requirements in,
409–410
high-stakes testing in, 409–410
middle school in, 402–404
student engagement in, 410–411
student–teacher relations in,
410–411, 410f
technology in, 404–406
transitions in, 406–407
violence in, 412
Secondary prevention, 220
Secondary sex characteristics, 373
Second language learning, 171,
243–245, 315–317
bilingual education and, 316
educational methods and, 316
ESL instruction and, 316
language development and, 171,
243–245
language shift and, 315
total immersion and, 316
Secular trends, 368
Secure attachment, 193–194, 194t
Selective adaptation, 51–52
in aging, 638–639
Selective attention, 290–291
Selective expert, 568
Selective memory, 652–653
Selective optimization with compen-
sation, 567–568, 623–624,
682–683
Self-awareness, in infants and tod-
dlers, 182
Self-concept, 256
in adolescents, 433, 434f
in school-age children, 352–353
Self-destructive behavior. See also
Substance abuse; Suicide
in adolescents, 437–441
Self-efficacy, 43
Self-esteem, 256, 352–353
parental influence on, 422
Self-righting
by infants, 134
by school-age children, 356–357
Self theories, 680–684
Semantic memory, 167t
Senescence, 450, 528–532,
620–622. See also Aging
Sensation, 136, 311
Sensitive period
in brain development, 134
in language learning, 240
Sensorimotor intelligence, 143–144,
144t, 155–161, 156t
Sensorimotor stage, 43, 44t, 136,
155–161, 156t
Sensory development, in infants and
toddlers, 136–138
Sensory impairment. See also
Hearing impairment;
Vision impairment
brain development and, 133
Sensory memory, 311
Sensory register, 311
Sensory system
age-related changes in. See also
specific senses
in late adulthood, 630–633,
650
in middle adulthood, 529
in infants, 136–138
Sentences, 170–171
Separation anxiety, 181
cultural aspects of, 190
Serial monogamy, 454
Sesame Street, 163
Set point, for weight, 458
Sex characteristics
primary, 373
secondary, 373
Sex chromosomes, 64
abnormalities of, 81–85
XX, 64, 65f
XY, 64, 65f
Y, 64, 65f
Sex determination, 64, 65f
timing of, 94
Sex differences, vs. gender differ-
ences, 271
Sex education, 429–432
Sex hormones
emotions and, 365–366
in puberty, 364–366
Sex ratio, 64, 65
Sex stereotyping, by preschoolers,
274–275
Sexual abuse, 382–383, 383t
Sexual debut, age at, 374–375
Sexual identity, 417–418
Sexuality
adolescent, 366, 369, 373–375,
375f, 380–383, 427–433,
432–433
behavioral trends and, 432–433
complications of, 380
homosexuality and, 428–429
parental influence and,
430–431
peer relations and, 429
pregnancy and, 380–381
romance and, 427–428
sex education and, 427
sexually transmitted infections
and, 381–382
stages of, 427
age-related changes in, 532–533
cultural aspects of, 374–375
in emerging adulthood, 453–456
incidence vs. prevalence in, 438
longitudinal, 21f, 22–23, 23t, 557
observational, 17–18, 18f, 27
participant’s consent for, 28
qualitative, 27
quantitative, 26
replication of, 17
scientific method in, 16–17
secular trends in, 368
sociopolitical implications of, 28
surveys in, 20
twin studies in, 343–344
Resilience, 353–355, 354t, 544–545
Resource room, 303
Respiration, age-related changes in,
529
Respite care, 709
Respondent conditioning, 39
Retirement, 691–696
Retrieval, 655–656
Rett syndrome, 83t
Reversibility, 308–309
Rewards
in conditioning, 39
motivation and, 258
Rhett syndrome, 300
Rigidity, in preschoolers, 209
Risk analysis, 98
Risk-taking behavior
in adolescence, 376, 424
edgework and, 462–463
in emerging adulthood, 462–468
gender differences in, 464–466
social norms and, 466–468
Ritalin, 298
Romantic relationships, 507–511.
See also Marriage
adolescent, 427–428
vs. friendships, 425
cohabitation in, 510–511, 593, 593t
commitment in, 508–509, 509t
compatibility in, 511–512
conflict in, 512
demand/withdrawal dynamic in,
512
division of labor in, 511–512, 591
in emerging adulthood, 507–511
equity in, 512
friendship and, 425, 506
gateways to attraction in, 504–505
homosexual, 346t, 592–593
Internet dating and, 509
intimacy in, 508–509, 509t
love in, 508–509
passion in, 508–509, 509t
successful, characteristics of,
511–512
Rooting reflex, 139
Rotavirus, immunization for, 144
Rubella, 144, 145t
congenital, 103t, 144
Rumination, 434
Sadness, in infants, 180
Safe sex, 382
Safety precautions, for preschoolers,
219–221
Sandwich generation, 599–600
Scaffolding, 235
SUBJECT INDEX SI-13
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Social acceptance, 337–342
Social awareness, 338
Social clock, 579–581
Social cognition, 338
Social comparison, 333–334
Social construction, race as, 11
Social context, 9–10
Social convoy, 585, 696–697
Social efficacy, 335
Social exchange theory, 512
Social homogamy, 511–512
Social learning, 42–43, 184,
234–236, 309
Social mediation, language in,
235–236
Social networks. See also Friendship
in late adulthood, 703–705
Social norms, risky behavior and,
466–468
Social norms approach, 467
Social-pragmatic theory, of language
development, 173–174
Social referencing, 196–197
Social smile, 180
Sociobiology, 49
Sociocultural theory, 46–48, 54t,
188–191
gender differences in, 275–276
Socioeconomic status (SES), 9–10
cultural factors in, 11–12
family function and, 348–349
health status and, 549–550
higher education and, 491–492,
493, 502–503
language development and, 317
in late adulthood, 686–687,
688–689
race/ethnicity and, 11–12
smoking and, 549–550, 550f
social clock and, 580
Sonogram, fetal, 104, 105t
Source amnesia, 653
Spanking, 267–268
Special education, 302t
Special needs children
attention-deficit/hyperactivity dis-
order in, 297–298
autistic spectrum disorders in,
299–301
developmental psychopathology
and, 296
education of, 293, 294, 301–303
identification of, 293. See also
Testing
learning disabilities in, 299
terminology for, 296
Speech. See also Language
child-directed, 168, 171–172
in social mediation, 235–236
Sperm, 63, 63f
age-related changes in, 533,
535–536
infertility and, 533
Spermarche, 364, 364t
Spina bifida, 83t, 100
Spine, open, 83t
Spirituality. See also Moral develop-
ment; Religious beliefs
death and, Ep-6–Ep-10
Spontaneous abortion, 64
Sports
extreme, 462–463, 467
injuries in, 372
redshirting in, 448
for school-age children, 287–288
Stage theory, 471–483. See also
Postformal thought
critiques of, 472–473
Standardized testing, 291–293,
319–320, 320f, 321–323
high-stakes, 409–410
international, 321–323
Stanford-Binet test, 293
Static reasoning, 232
Statistical significance, 18
Stem cells, 532
Stepparents, 346, 346t, 597–599
Stepping reflex, 7–8, 139, 139f
Stereotypes. See also Prejudice
age-based, 615, 660–662
cultural, 583
national, 583
Stereotype threat, 477–480, 660
Still-face technique, 129
Stranger wariness, 181
Stratification theories, 684–689
Street children, mathematical ability
in, 310
Strength
in adolescents, 372, 372f
age-related changes in, 450–451,
529
in late adulthood, 630
muscle reserve and, 450–451
Stress
in adolescence, 403–404
brain development and, 132,
214–215
child maltreatment and,
223–224
cognitive function and, 531
coping with, 353–354, 544–545
gender differences in, 586
religion in, 356–357
resilience and, 353–355, 354t,
544–545
in school years, 353–354
social support and, 355–357
diasthesis-stress model and, 518
in emerging adulthood, 454–455
fight-or-flight response in, 586
job-related, 604–605, 604f
in middle adulthood, 544–545
in middle school years, 403–404
post-traumatic stress disorder and,
223
in pregnancy, 103t
in preschool years, 214–215, 214f
in primary school years, 353–357,
354t
puberty and, 368–369
tend-and-befriend response in, 586
Stress hormones, 214–215, 214f
Stroke, 629
dementia and, 665–666
Studying, nearsightedness and,
76–77
Subcortical dementias, 666–667
Subjective thought, 474
Substance abuse. See also Alcohol
use/abuse; Smoking
addiction in, 386–387, 463
epigenetic factors in, 51
genes vs. environment in,
74–75
in adolescence, 383–388
brain development and, 378
cognitive function and, 531
cultural aspects of, 384–385
definition of, 463
in emerging adulthood, 463–464,
464f, 518
epigenetic factors in, 51
gender and, 384
generational forgetting and, 387
harmful effects of, 386–387
in late adulthood, 628
in pregnancy, 101, 103t, 104t,
114–115
prevention of, 387
psychopathology and, 297, 433
rates of, 384–385, 385f,
387–388
social norms approach to, 467
trends in, 385, 385f, 387–388
vs. dementia, 668
Sucking reflex, 156
Sudden drops, perception of,
163–164, 163f
Sudden infant death syndrome
(SIDS), 146–147
Suicidal ideation, 434
Suicide
in adolescence, 434–437, 435f,
435t, 436t
age and, 435f
attempted, 434
cluster, 436
cultural aspects of, 436, 436t
parasuicide and, 434–435
physician-assisted, Ep-14–Ep-16
rates of, 435f
Sunk cost fallacy, 399
Superego, 272
Surgery, for weight loss, 542t
Surrogate parents, grandparents as,
346t, 703
Surveys, 20
Swimming reflex, 139
Synapses, 130, 130f, 131
formation of, 131, 131f
pruning of, 131, 132
Synaptogenesis, 95
Synchrony, 191–192
Synthesis, 480
Systems, 5
Taste, in infants, 137–138
Tay-Sachs disease, 83t, 84
T cells, 640
Teacher–student relations, in sec-
ondary education,
410–411, 410f
Television, effects of, 268–271
Telomeres, 641
Temperament, 185–186. See also
Personality
Sexuality (continued)
in middle adulthood, 532–533
sexually transmitted infections
and, 381–382
stress and, 368
vs. gender, 417
Sexually transmitted infections. See
also HIV infection
in adolescents, 381–382
in emerging adulthood, 455–456
Sexual maturation, 373–375. See
also Puberty
Sexual orientation, 418. See also
Homosexuality
genetic vs. environmental factors
in, 56–57
Shadow personality, 584
Shaken baby syndrome, 133
Shame
in preschoolers, 256, 257
in toddlers, 182, 184
Sharon, Ariel, 584f
Shift work, 603–604, 604f
Short-term memory, 311
Siblings
adult, 588–590, 589f
theory of mind and, 239
Sickle-cell anemia, 83t, 84
Significance, statistical, 18
Sign language, 169, 245
Single adults. See also Divorce
never-married, 590, 704
Single-parent family, 346, 346t, 348
instability in, 350
Skin
in adolescents, 373
age-related changes in
in late adulthood, 629
in middle adulthood, 529
Skinner, B. F., 39, 171–172
Sleep
in adolescents, 378–379
age-related changes in, 530–531
bed-sharing and, 128
co-sleeping and, 128
in infants, 127–128
in late adulthood, 623, 623f
position in, sudden infant death
syndrome and, 147–148
REM, 127
Slippery slope, Ep-15
Slow-to-warm-up temperament, 186
Small for gestational age, 114
Smallpox, immunization for, 144,
145t
Smell, in infants, 137–138
Smile, social, 180
Smoking
in adolescence, 384–387, 385f,
387t, 392
age and, 537, 537f
in emerging adulthood, 463
gender and, 537–538
in late adulthood, 628
lung cancer and, 537–538
in pregnancy, 114
socioeconomic status and,
549–550, 550f
trends in, 537–538, 537f
SI-14 SUBJECT INDEX
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autonomy vs. shame and doubt in,
36t, 37, 184, 500t
biosocial development in, 125–151
brain development in, 129–135,
129f
cognitive development in, 159–167
developmental milestones for, 200t
emotional development in,
180–181
growth of, 125–127, 126f, 129f
language development in, 168t,
169–175
as little scientists, 159
memory in, 166–167
pride in, 181–182
psychosocial development in,
180–181
self-awareness in, 182
shame in, 182, 184
Toilet training, 183
Total immersion, 316
Touch, in infants, 137–138
Tourette syndrome, 81, 83t
Toxoplasmosis, congenital, 103t
Traits
additive, 67–68
Big Five personality, 186,
581–583, 683–684
multifactorial, 67
polygenic, 67
Transfusion, twin-to-twin, 104
Transient exuberance, 131
Transient ischemic attacks, 665–666
Trends in Math and Science Study
(TIMSS), 321–323
Trimesters, 92t
Trisomy, 79
Trisomy-21, 79–81
Trust vs. mistrust, 36t, 37, 183–184,
500t
Turner syndrome, 81
23rd pair, 64. See also Sex chromo-
somes
abnormalities of, 81
Twins, 69–70
breast-feeding of, 150
dizygotic, 70
monozygotic, 69–70, 69f
prenatal development of, 104–105
from in vitro fertilization, 71–72
Twin studies, 343–344
Twin-to-twin transfusion, 104
Umbilical cord, 109
Unconscious, in psychoanalytic the-
ory, 35, 38t
Universal grammar, 173
Vaccinations, 144–146, 145t
Values, of school-age children,
336–337
Variables
dependent, 18
independent, 18
Varicella, immunization for, 145t, 146
Vascular dementia, 666, 666f
Vegetative state, Ep-14, Ep-17
Very low birthweight, 113, 113t
Video games, 268–271
Violence. See also Abuse; Aggression
adolescent, 438–441
domestic, 513
parental. See Child maltreatment
school, 412
Virginity pledge, 429
Vision
age-related changes in
in late adulthood, 630–631
in middle adulthood, 529, 529f
binocular, 137
in brain development, 133, 136,
137
genes vs. environment in, 75–77
in infants, 137
Vision impairment
age-related, 529, 529f, 630–631
brain development in, 133
environmental causes of, 75–77
in late adulthood, 630–631
in myopia, 75–77
Visual acuity, genes vs. environment
in, 75–77
Visual cliff, 163f, 163–164
Visual cortex, 129–130, 129f
Vitality, 546
Vocabulary explosion, 240–241
Vocabulary growth. See also
Language development
in preschoolers, 240–241
in school-age children, 314, 326
Vocational identity, 419, 502–503
Volunteering, in late adulthood,
693–694, 694f
Voting, age and, 654–655, 655f
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory,
47–48, 480
preschoolers and, 234–236
school-age children and, 309–310
social learning and, 234–236, 309
Walking, mastering of, 140–142,
140f, 141t
Watson, John B., 38
Wealth, family function and, 349
Wear-and-tear theory, 635–636
Wechsler IQ tests, 293
Weight. See Body weight
Whisper test, 529–530, 530t
Whole-language approach, 325
Whooping cough, immunization for,
145t
Widows/widowers, 698–700
WISC (Wechsler Intelligence Scale
for Children), 293
Wisdom, 673
Withdrawn-rejected children, 338
Women. See also under Gender
in workforce, 605–606, 605f
Work. See Employment
Working memory, 311
in older adults, 651–653
Working model, 184–185
X chromosome. See Sex chromosomes
X-linked genes, 68
Y chromosome. See Sex chromosomes
Young adults. See Adulthood,
emerging
Young-old, 620
Yutori kyoiku, 324
Zone of proximal development,
48–49, 49f, 235, 309, 480
Zygote, 63, 63f
cell division in, 66
chromosome duplication in, 66
stability of, 581–583, 681,
683–684, 690
twin studies of, 343–344
Tend-and-befriend response, 586
Teratogens, 97–106
autism and, 301
behavioral, 97–98
exposure to
amount of, 98–99
avoidance of, 101, 103t–104f
critical periods for, 98
interaction effect and, 99
threshold effect and, 98–99
timing of, 98
genetic vulnerability to, 99
risk analysis for, 98
Teratology, 97
Terminal decline, 659
Tertiary circular reactions, 156t,
159
Tertiary education, 401, 495. See
also Higher education
Tertiary prevention, 220–221
Testing
achievement, 291, 292, 319–320,
320f, 321–323
international, 321–323
aptitude, 291–293
intelligence, 292–295, 292f
cultural aspects of, 566
stereotype threat and, 477–480,
660–661
Testosterone, 365
age-related changes in, 535–536
Tetanus, immunization for, 145t
Thalassemia, 83t, 84
Thanatology, Ep-1
Theory of mind, 231, 238–239
Theory-theory, 236
Therapeutic foster care, 440–441
Thesis, 480
Thimerosal, autism and, 301
Threshold effect, 98–99
Time-out, 268
Time-sequential research, 21f, 24
TIMSS (Trends in Math and
Science Study), 321–323
Tobacco use. See Smoking
Toddlers
SUBJECT INDEX SI-15
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Front Matter
About the Author
Brief Contents
Contents
Preface

Part I – The Beginnings
Chapter 1 – Introduction
Chapter 2 – Theories of Development
Chapter 3 – Heredity and Environment
Chapter 4 – Prenatal Development and Birth

Part II – The First Two Years
Chapter 5 – The First Two Years: Biosocial Development
Chapter 6 – The First Two Years: Cognitive Development
Chapter 7 – The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development

Part III – The Play Years
Chapter 8 – The Play Years: Biosocial Development
Chapter 9 – The Play Years: Cognitive Development
Chapter 10 – The Play Years: Psychosocial Development

Part IV – The School Years
Chapter 11 – The School Years – Biosocial Development
Chapter 12 – The School Years – Cognitive Development
Chapter 13 – The School Years – Psychosocial Development

Part V – Adolescence
Chapter 14 – Adolescence – Biosocial Development
Chapter 15 – Adolescence – Cognitive Development
Chapter 16 – Adolescence – Psychosocial Development

Part VI – Emerging Adulthood
Chapter 17 – Emerging Adulthood – Biosocial Development
Chapter 18 – Cognitive Development
Chapter 19 – Emerging Adulthood – Psychosocial Development

Part VII – Adulthood
Chapter 20 – Adulthood – Biosocial Development
Chapter 21 – Adulthood – Cognitive Development
Chapter 22 – Adulthood – Psychosocial Development

Part VIII – Late Adulthood
Chapter 23 – Late Adulthood – Biosocial Development
Chapter 24 – Late Adulthood – Cognitive Development
Chapter 25 – Late Adulthood – Psychosocial Development

Epilogue – Death and Dying
Appendix A – Supplemental Charts, Graphs, and Tables
Appendix B – More About Research Methods
Appendix C – Suggestions for Research Assignments
Glossary
References
Name Index
Subject Index