Reading Notes for
Human Development, 9th Edition,
Papalia,
Olds, & Feldman
Lawrence G.
Shelton, Angela Albeck, & Julie Leaf
[last updated 07 December 2005]
[Paragraphs are counted from the top of the page, with those
continued from prevous pages being numbered 1.]
Page
32. How is Erikson's theory used in understanding each
stage of the life course, in the text?
35. Piaget was trained as a biologist. Each of the
concepts in his theory highlighted on page 36 are adapted from biology.
37. Paragraph 7: What would make a child more
"efficient" at processing information? How would efficiency
develop?
39. Bronfenbrenner's framework is never mentioned
again in the text. You can learn about it in HDFS 60, The Family
Context of Development.
52. How are longitudinal and cross-sectional
research designs different? What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each? Can you spot examples later in the text
that demonstrate how they yield different information?
66. Third paragraph describes the role of the
context,
or environment, in genetic actions.
67. Third paragraph: What does it mean to carry
a hereditary characteristic? And to express it? How are the
two different?
69. The distinction between genotype and phenotype is
important.
79. Reaction range refers to the potential expression
of a genetic characteristic, the possible phenotypes.
81. This section discusses the various ways heredity
and environment can be related to each other.
83. Paragraph 2: What does QTL refer to?
86. The zygote is a single cell with the full
complement of 46 chromosomes.
87. Paragraph 4: The 800 billion cells become
specialized, many different types of cells, through the process of
differentiation. [See the note for page 131.]
90. First sentence: All these organs are
part of the conceptus, not the mother.
99. Paragraph 4: This applies to American
adolescents, not all adolescents. Why?
Paragraph 6: Why
would the 8 - 15 week period be critical?
109. The "false" contractions described are known as
Braxton-Hicks contractions, and are part of the process of coordinating
the actions of the uterus, practice for productive labor.
112. Paragraph 2: How is this material connected to
page 118, paragraph 2?
114. Paragraph 5: Neonatal jaundice is caused by
hyperbilirubinemia. Why would it result in brain damage?
122. The Kauai Study illustrates transactions between
biological and interpersonal developments. Its results are
important.
125. What other examples of the cephalocaudal [head
to toe] and proximodistal [near to far] principles are given earlier
and later in the text?
127. Paragraph 2: The changes in growth over historic
time are referred to as "secular trends."
130. Paragraph 1. What does it mean for an area
of the frontal lobe to be “immature”?
131. Differentiation and integration are important
processes throughout development. The text misleadingly suggests
they happen only in neurons.
134. The notion that experience shapes the brain is crucial.
137. The section on Sight misrepresents infants' visual
skills.
138. Differentiation followed by integration into
“systems of action.”
139. Where else were the cephalocaudal and
proximodistal principles applied?
140. The box provides a fine example of the
integration of the three domains as the child learns to crawl.
141. The description of Esther Thelen’s analysis of
motor development is particularly important. How would you
explain differences in babies’ rates of motor development? Why
are some children slower to walk than others? How might similar
principles apply to other achievements in development?
189. What is an emotion? How do emotions develop?
190. Paragraph 3: Would "complex emotions unfold from
simpler ones" be an example of differentiation and integration?
How?
194. The section on brain growth and emotional
development is a
useful
description of the biological basis for emotions and the transactional
relationship
between emotional experience and brain development.
195. What is "temperament"? Is it biological or
psycho-social, or both? If temperament changes, what
changes?
197. What experiences modify the expression of temperament?
202. The process of constructing attachments is fundamental
to psycho-social development.
206. The discussion of long-term effects of attachment is
consistent
with a constructivist view of interpersonal relationships, and supports
the
notions of Erikson and Sullivan.
207. Paragraph 4: What are "the intimacy of secure
attachment" and "the intimacy of friendship"?
212. Paragraph 5 incorporates one of the key notions in Bowen's
theory:
individuation and connectedness.
233. What "systems of action" do you use?
250. Paragraph 1: What is fast mapping? Does
this represent a sensitive period for vocabulary? Or do we do the
same thing in adulthood when we learn a new word? Is it just that
children learn so many new words each day?
269. How is self-concept
constructed? How is it related to self-esteem?
273. Paragraph 4: What parenting style is reflected
in the last sentence? Refer to pages 288ff. for parenting styles.
281. Paragraph 1: The possible "bidirectional
relationship" referred to here would illustrate a transaction between
the biological domain and the psycho-social domain. Can you
explain it?
288 ff. How are the parenting styles different from each
other? What do children construct from their transactions with
each? Check out the related material in later chapters to see how
development progresses in transaction with each style.
313. Paragraph 2. The hormonal differences
between boys and girls in middle childhood are not likely to be large
enough to account for the sex difference in rough and tumble play, or
the difference in general level of physical activity. The
differences may be
due to prenatal hormonal differences, which affect the structure or
wiring of the brain.
369. How does the material on concepts of friendship
connect to Sullivan's interpersonal theory of development?
389. Paragraph 1. Puberty doesn't begin "with a sharp
increase in production of sex hormones." It begins with increases
in hormones from the pituitary, which affect the organs that produce
sex hormones.
392. Paragraph 3. While early maturing boys may like
maturing early after
they finish puberty, like early-maturing girls, they also have a more
difficult time during
puberty. Why might pubescing early be more difficult
psychologically and socially than average or later puberty?
414. Connect the information here about parenting styles to the
discussions
of the same concepts earlier in the sections on early and middle
childhood.
415. The first full paragraph is misleading. It starts to
assert
that in some ethnic groups, authoritative parenting may not be better
than
authoritarian or permissive parenting, but the studies cited are not
pertinent
to that point, since neither of them actually measured and compared
parenting
styles within a particular ethnic group. Elsewhere, Steinberg
concludes
that when compared to authoritarian or permissive styles, the
authoritative
style always leads to more favorable outcomes, regardless of ethnic or
cultural
background.
426-428. Marcia's categories are not entirely consistent with
Erikson's
presentation of identity development. While the text reports
"Marcia
defines crisis as a period of conscious decision making,....",
this
usage implies that an adolescent who was actively exploring, trying out
roles,
without significant anxiety, would be in a state of crisis.
Erikson
called such a state experimentation. Erikson uses crisis
when the person is experiencing considerable anxiety and turbulence
because
of inability to explore possible identities or inability to match
commitments
with action, suggesting the person needed to renegotiate commitments or
explore
further.
On 428, Moratorium is equated with "crisis, with no commitment
yet."
Moratorium is the condition when the person is exploring, but it
does
not imply anxiety or crisis.
435. Paragraph 7: Is the last sentence a valid
interpretation of the research described? Could the research mean
that people who have more sexual experience are more interested in
programs that deal with sexual issues and are more able to identify with the
characters? Might there be a transactional relationship between
experience and interest?
443. The discussion here is about the effects of
authoritative parenting. What might be the effects of the other
parenting styles?
448. In the discussion on delinquency, what parenting styles are
being described? What might be the role of temperament in
delinquency?
462. How might obesity affect relationships and other aspects of
development during development?
469. Paragraph 2. Why would PMS be an "abnormal response"
to hormone surges?
493. How does each of the models explain development?
What kind of research might each employ?
500. How might Sullivan's theory relate to the material here on
intimacy?
528. Note the discussion of the arbitrariness of defining
adulthood stages by chronological age. What factors contribute to
the variabilities among middle aged people?
532. Menopause. Does ovulation decline as the ovaries
produce less estrogen, or do the ovaries roduce less estrogen because
fewer ova are maturing? If fewer ova are maturing, and ovulation
is becoming less frequent, how does one explain the greater tendency of
older mothers to have twins, as indicated on page 65?
568. What happens between early and middle adulthood, in
each model?
584. What is the U-shaped curve of marital satisfaction?
[See page 514 for more information.]
617. Jeanne Calment died at age 123.
648. Paragraph 6: What might be contributing to
increasing flexibility across cohorts/generations?
650-652. How might the two coping styles described by
Vaillant and Lazarus relate to Bowen's notion of emotional
differentiation?
670. Paragraphs 2 & 3: this is interesting
material about the relation between social relationships and health.