Note: This is only Chapter 1 of the book, "Developmental Psychology - Childhood and Adolescence," which is the only chapter that is provided for free.
'Let’s begin this book with a question: Why did you choose to enroll in a course on human development? For many of you majoring in psychology, family studies, elementary education, or nursing, this class is required and there is no way around it. Expectant parents may take the course in order to learn more about their babies. Occasionally, people choose the course seeking to answer specifi c questions about their own behaviour or that of a friend or family member. Whatever your reasons, at one time or another you have probably been curious about one or more aspects of human development. For example, ■ What does the world look like to newborn infants? Can they make any sense of their new surroundings? ■ When do infants fi rst recognize their mothers? their fathers? themselves (in a mirror)? ■ Why do many 1-year-olds seem so attached to their mothers and wary of strangers? ■ Foreign languages are diffi cult to follow if we merely listen to people conversing in them. Yet infants and toddlers pay close attention to conversations and will acquire their native language without any formal instruction. How is this possible? Is language learning easier for children than for adults? Is a child in a bilingual home at a disadvantage? ■ Why do young children say that objects like the sun and clouds are alive? ■ Why do you remember so little about the fi rst two or three years of your life? ■ Why are some people friendly and outgoing, while others are shy and reserved? Does the home environment infl uence an individual’s personality? If so, why are children from the same family often so different from one another? ■ What are the impacts on children of losing a parent (due to death or divorce) or gaining a stepparent? ■ What roles do close friends play in a child’s or an adolescent’s development? ■ Why is it that all humans turn out similar in many ways and, at the same time, so different from one another?
The aim of this book is to seek answers for these and many other fascinating questions about developing persons by reviewing the theories, methods, discoveries, and many practical accomplishments of the modern developmental sciences. This introductory chapter lays the groundwork for the remainder of the book by addressing important issues about the nature of human development and how knowledge about development is gained. What does it mean to say that people “develop” over time? How is your experience of development different from that of developing persons in past eras or in other cultures? Why are scientifi c studies of human development necessary? And what strategies, or research methods, do scientists use to study the development of children and adolescents? Let’s begin by considering the nature of development'
