HDFS 005                                 Human Development                                L. G. Shelton

Here are some suggestions for what you need to read, at minimum, to do each of the exercises.  Most of the issues will be addressed in lectures and discussion, as well.

Observations and Interviews:

1.  Infant Observation.        @ Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 6

2.  Second Infant Observation, with Comparison to first infant.    @ Same

3.  Take Me Out to the Ballgame.    @ Chapters through 12

4.  Piaget Interview.                 @ Chapter 2 and the material on cognitive development

5.  Second Piaget Interview, with Comparison to first interview.       @ Same

6.  Adolescent Interview.       @ Chapters 11, 12

7.  Young Adult Interview.       @ Chapters 13, 14

8.  Middle Adult Interview        @ Chapters 15, 16

9.  Older Adult Interview         @ Chapters 17, 18, 19

10.  Comparison of Two Interviews, Different Stages.        @ Chapters for both stages

11.  Comparison of Two Interviews, Same Stage, Different Gender, Race, or Sexual Orientation        
    @ Material on gender, ethnicity, and/or sexual orientation

12.  Personal Timeline         @ Everything.



Essays:

1.  What is the most useful way to describe the roles that heredity and environment play in regulating the course of development across the life-span?  Is it reasonable to argue that the relative influence of heredity and environment changes across the life-span?  Is it truly possible to talk about the influence of one independent of the influence of the other?
    @ Material on genetics and heredity, and role of environmental differences across the life span.

2.  What are the factors that contribute to longevity and good health across the adult years?  Is there much a person can do to influence her or his life span?  If so, at what ages can the individual be most effective in doing so?
    @ All the chapters on physical development and health.

3.  How do the changes of puberty affect development in the cognitive and personal domains?  Would it be accurate to say that without puberty, there can be no adolescence?
    @ Chapters 9 - 12

4.  What causes development to happen?  Why don't infants and children or anybody else just stay the same?  To what extent are people active agents of their own development?
    @ ?

5.  What are the three most important differences between a typical 3 year old and an 8 year old?  Why are these differences important?  
    @ Chapters 7 - 10

6.  In what significant ways is the development of women different from that of men during the years after adolescence?  Is it reasonable to assert that women and men follow different paths of development?
    @ All the material on sex differences and gender

7.  What, if any, changes occur in cognitive abilities across the middle and later years of adulthood?  Are these changes positive or negative in nature?  How are they related to the personal and social domains?
    @ All the material on cognitive development and psychosocial development in adulthood.

8.  Do the social relationships one experiences have any impact on one's physical or cognitive development?
    @ Everything

9.  What is temperament?  Does it influence parent-child relationships?  Does infant temperament have any long-term predictive value?
    @ Pertinent material [see index]
                  
10.  Developmentalists say that parents and children participate in "mutual regulation", or "reciprocal development", or that development is "transactional".  What do we mean, and why are these concepts helpful in understanding the process of development?
    @ Chapter 4

11.  How do people become emotionally connected, or "attached" to each other?  Does the nature of attachment change across the life span?
    @ Psychosocial Chapters

12.  What does it mean to say that biological, cognitive, and personal/social development are interrelated?  How does interrelatedness differ from juxtaposition?  Describe and explain one example of the interrelatedness, from any part of the life span.
    @ ?

13.  Views of development often rely on the process of differentiation and integration.  Explain and illustrate the notions of differentiation and integration and their relationship to each other.
    @ ?

14.   Shelton asserts that development can be viewed as a life-long series of transactions with people and events (including events within one's own body), transactions which one interprets, adapts to, and sometimes initiates.  Describe two ways you might apply this view to your own personal and/or professional life.  Then explain how applying it would make a difference to you or to your work in the future.
    @ ?

15.  Can development be speeded up or slowed down?  How?  Describe and explain examples to illustrate how the rate of development can be affected.
    @ ?

16.  What are the three most important differences between a typical 8 year old and a 15 year old?  Why are these differences important?  
    @ Chapters 9 - 12

17.  What are the three most important differences between a typical 35 year old and a 60 year old?  Why are these differences important?  
    @ Chapters 13 - 19

18.  Across adulthood, what important changes occur in a person’s relation to family?
    @ Psychosocial development chapters, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19

19.  How are changes in the brain related to changes in behavior, across the life span?
    @ Material about brain changes