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Human Development

1. The Study of Human Development

HOW THE STUDY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT EVOLVED

Guidepost 1: What is human development, and how has its study evolved?

Human development is the scientific study of processes of change and stability.
The scientific study of human development began with studies of childhood during the nineteenth century. Adolescence was not considered a separate phase of development until the twentieth century, when scientific interest in aging also began.
As researchers became interested in following development through adulthood, life-span development became a field of study.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT TODAY: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELD

Guidepost 2: What are the four goals of the scientific study of human development, and what do developmental scientists study?

The study of human development seeks to describe, explain, predict, and modify development.
Ways of studying human development are still evolving, making use of advanced technologies.
Developmental research has important applications.
Developmental scientists study developmental change, both quantitative and qualitative, as well as with stability of personality and behavior.

Guidepost 3: What are three major domains and eight periods of human development?

The three major domains of development are physical, cognitive, and psychosocial. Each affects the others.
The concept of periods of development is a social construction. In this book, the life span is divided into eight periods: the prenatal period, infancy and toddlerhood, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood. In each period, people have characteristic developmental needs and tasks.

INFLUENCES ON DEVELOPMENT

Guidepost 4: What kinds of influences make one person different from another?

Influences on development come from both heredity and environment. Many typical changes during childhood are related to maturation. Individual differences increase with age.
In some societies, the nuclear family predominates; in others, the extended family.
Socioeconomic status (SES) affects developmental processes and outcomes through the quality of home and neighborhood environments, of nutrition, medical care, supervision, and schooling. The most powerful neighborhood influences seem to be neighborhood income and human capital. Multiple risk factors increase the likelihood of poor outcomes.
Other important environmental influences stem from ethnicity, culture, and historical context. In large, multiethnic societies, immigrant groups may adapt to the dominant culture while preserving aspects of their own.
Influences may be normative (age-graded or history-graded) or nonnormative.
There is evidence of critical or sensitive periods for certain kinds of early development.

BALTES'S LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH

Guidepost 5: What are the six principles of the life-span developmental approach?

The six principles of Baltes's life-span developmental approach include the assumptions that (1) development is lifelong, (2) development involves both gain and loss, (3) the relative influences of biology and culture shift over the life span, (4) development involves a changing allocation of resources, (5) development is modifiable; and (6) development is influenced by the historical and cultural context.

2. Theory and Research

BASIC THEORETICAL ISSUES

Guidepost 1: What purposes do theories serve?

A theory is used to explain data and generate hypotheses that can be tested by research.

Guidepost 2: What are three basic theoretical issues on which developmental scientists differ?

Developmental theories differ on three basic issues: the relative importance of heredity and environment, the active or passive character of development, and the existence of stages of development.
Some theorists subscribe to a mechanistic model of development; others to an organismic model.

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

Guidepost 3: What are five theoretical perspectives on human development, and what are some theories representative of each?

The psychoanalytic perspective sees development as motivated by unconscious emotional drives or conflicts. Leading examples are Freud's and Erikson's theories.
The learning perspective views development as a result of learning based on experience. Leading examples are Watson's and Skinner's behaviorism and Bandura's social learning theory.
The cognitive perspective is concerned with thought processes. Leading examples are Piaget's cognitive-stage theory, the information-processing approach, and the cognitive neuroscience approach.
The evolutionary/sociobiological perspective, represented by E. O. Wilson, focuses on the adaptiveness, or survival value, of behavior. It includes a number of disciplines, such as ethology and evolutionary psychology. Developmental evolutionary psychologists seek to identify behaviors that are adaptive at particular ages.
The contextual perspective focuses on interaction between the individual and the social context. Leading examples are Bronfenbrenner's and Vygotsky's theories.

RESEARCH METHODS

Guidepost 4: How do developmental scientists study people, and what are some advantages and disadvantages of each research method?

Research can be either quantitative or qualitative, or both.
To arrive at sound conclusions, quantitative researchers use the scientific method.
Random selection of a research sample can ensure generalizability.
Three forms of data collection are self-reports (diaries, interviews, and questionnaires); behavioral and performance measures; and observation.
Two basic qualitative designs used in developmental research are the case study and the ethnographic study. Cross-cultural research can indicate whether certain aspects of development are universal or culturally influenced.
Two quantitative designs are the correlational study and experiment. Only experiments can firmly establish causal relationships.
Experiments must be rigorously controlled so as to be valid and replicable. Random assignment of participants can ensure validity.
Laboratory experiments are easiest to control and replicate, but findings of field experiments may be more generalizable beyond the study situation. Natural experiments may be useful in situations in which true experiments would be impractical or unethical.
The two most common designs used to study age-related development are longitudinal and cross-sectional. Cross-sectional studies compare age groups; longitudinal studies describe continuity or change in the same participants. The sequential study is intended to overcome the weaknesses of the other two designs.
A microgenetic study allows direct observation of change over a short period of time.

Guidepost 5: What ethical problems may arise in research on humans?

Ethical issues in research include the rights of participants to informed consent, avoidance of deception, protection from harm and loss of dignity, and guarantees of privacy and confidentiality.

3. Forming a New Life

CONCEIVING NEW LIFE

Guidepost 1: How does conception normally occur?

Fertilization, the union of an ovum and a sperm, results in the formation of a one-celled zygote, which then duplicates itself by cell division.

Guidepost 2: What causes multiple births?

Multiple births can occur either by the fertilization of two ova (or one ovum that has split) or by the splitting of one fertilized ovum. Larger multiple births result from either one of these processes or a combination of the two.
Dizygotic (fraternal) twins have different genetic makeups and may be of different sexes; monozygotic (identical) twins have the same genetic makeup. Because of differences in prenatal and postnatal experience, "identical" twins may differ in temperament and other respects.

MECHANISMS OF HEREDITY

Guidepost 3: How does heredity operate in determining sex and transmitting normal and abnormal traits?

The basic functional units of heredity are the genes, which are made of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). DNA carries the biochemical instructions, or genetic code, that governs bodily functions and determines inherited characteristics. Each gene seems to be located by function in a definite position on a particular chromosome. The complete sequence of genes in the human body is the human genome.
At conception, each normal human being receives 23 chromosomes from the mother and 23 from the father. These form 23 pairs of chromosomes---22 pairs of autosomes and 1 pair of sex chromosomes. A child who receives an X chromosome from each parent will be a female. If the child receives a Y chromosome from the father, a male will be conceived.
The simplest patterns of genetic transmission are dominant and recessive inheritance. Sometimes codominance occurs. When a pair of alleles are the same, a person is homoygous for the trait; when they are different, the person is heterozygous.
Most normal human characteristics are the result of polygenic or multifactorial transmission. Except for monozygotic twins, each child inherits a unique genotype. Dominant inheritance and multifactorial transmission explain why a person's phenotype does not always express the underlying genotype.
Birth defects and diseases may result from simple dominant, recessive, or sex-linked inheritance, from mutations, or from genome imprinting. Chromosomal abnormalities also can cause birth defects.
Through genetic counseling, prospective parents can receive information about the mathematical odds of bearing children with certain defects.
Genetic testing involves risks as well as benefits.

NATURE AND NURTURE: INFLUENCES OF HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT

Guidepost 4: How do scientists study the relative influences of heredity and environment, and how do heredity and environment work together?

Research in behavioral genetics is based on the assumption that the relative influences of heredity and environment can be measured statistically. If heredity is an important influence on a trait, genetically closer persons will be more similar in that trait. Family studies, adoption studies, and studies of twins enable researchers to measure the heritability of specific traits.
The concepts of reaction range, canalization, genotype-environment interaction, genotype-environment correlation (or covariance), and niche-picking describe ways in which heredity and environment work together.
Siblings tend to be more different than alike in intelligence and personality. According to behavior genetics research, heredity accounts for most of the similarity, and nonshared environmental effects account for most of the difference. Critics claim that this research, for methodological reasons, minimizes the role of parenting and the complexity of developmental systems.

Guidepost 5: What roles do heredity and environment play in physical health, intelligence, and personality?

Obesity, longevity, intelligence, and temperament are influenced by both heredity and environment.
Schizophrenia and autism are psychopathological disorders influenced by both heredity and environment.

PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT

Guidepost 6: What are the three stages of prenatal development, and what happens during each stage?

Prenatal development occurs in three stages of gestation: the germinal, embryonic, and fetal stages.
Growth and development both before and after birth follow the cephalocaudal principle (head to tail) and the proximodistal principle (center outward).
Severely defective embryos usually are spontaneously aborted during the first trimester of pregnancy.

Guidepost 7: What can fetuses do?

As fetuses grow, they move less, but more vigorously. Swallowing amniotic fluid, which contains substances from the mother's body, stimulates taste and smell. Fetuses seem able to hear, exercise sensory discrimination, learn, and remember.

Guidepost 8: What environmental influences can affect prenatal development?

The developing organism can be greatly affected by its prenatal environment. The likelihood of a birth defect may depend on the timing and intensity of an environmental event and its interaction with genetic factors.
Important environmental influences involving the mother include nutrition, physical activity, smoking, intake of alcohol or other drugs, transmission of maternal illnesses or infections, maternal age, and external environmental hazards, such as chemicals and radiation. External influences also may affect the father's sperm.

Guidepost 9: What techniques can assess a fetus's health and well-being, and what is the importance of prenatal care?

Ultrasound, amniocentesis, chorionic villus sampling, embryoscopy, preimplantation genetic diagnosis, umbilical cord sampling, and maternal blood tests can be used to determine whether an unborn baby is developing normally.
Early, high-quality prenatal care is essential for healthy development. It can lead to detection of defects and disorders and, especially if begun early and targeted to the needs of at-risk women, may help reduce maternal and infant death, low birthweight, and other birth complications.

4. Psychosocial Development During the First Three Years

THE BIRTH PROCESS

Guidepost 1: What happens during each of the four stages of childbirth?

Birth normally occurs after a preparatory period of parturition and consists of four stages: (1) dilation of the cervix; (2) descent and emergence of the baby; (3) expulsion of the umbilical cord and the placenta; (4) contraction of the uterus and recovery of the mother.
Electronic fetal monitoring is widely used (and may be overused) during labor and delivery. It is intended to detect signs of fetal distress, especially in high-risk births.

Guidepost 2: What alternative methods and settings of delivery are available today?

About 23 percent of births in the United States are by cesarean delivery--an unnecessarily high rate, according to critics.
Natural or prepared childbirth can minimize the need for pain-killing drugs and maximize parents' active involvement. Modern epidurals can give effective pain relief with smaller doses of medication than in the past.
Delivery at home or in birth centers, and attendance by midwives, are alternatives to physician-attended hospital delivery for women with normal, low-risk pregnancies who want to involve family members and make the experience more intimate and personal. The presence of a doula can provide physical benefits as well as emotional support.

THE NEWBORN BABY

Guidepost 3: How do newborn infants adjust to life outside the womb?

The neonatal period is a time of transition from intrauterine to extrauterine life. During the first few days, the neonate loses weight and then regains it; the lanugo (prenatal hair) falls off and the protective coating of vernix caseosa dries up. The fontanels (soft spots) in the skull close within the first 18 months.
At birth, the circulatory, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and temperature regulation systems become independent of the mother's. If a newborn cannot start breathing within about 5 minutes, brain injury may occur.
Newborns have a strong sucking reflex and secrete meconium from the intestinal tract. They are commonly subject to neonatal jaundice, due to immaturity of the liver.
A newborn's state of arousal is governed by periodic cycles of wakefulness, sleep, and activity, which seem to be inborn. Sleep takes up the major, but a diminishing, amount of a neonate's time. Newborns' activity levels show stability and may be early indicators of temperament. Parents' responsiveness to babies' states and activity levels is an important influence on development.

SURVIVAL AND HEALTH

Guidepost 4: How can we tell whether a new baby is healthy and is developing normally?

At 1 minute and 5 minutes after birth, a neonate's Apgar score can indicate how well he or she is adjusting to extrauterine life. The Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale can assess responses to the environment and predict future development.
Neonatal screening is done for certain rare conditions, such as PKU and congenital hypothyroidism.

Guidepost 5: What complications of childbirth can endanger newborn babies' adjustment or even their lives?

A small minority of infants suffer lasting effects of birth trauma. Other complications include low birthweight and postmature birth.
Low-birthweight babies may be either preterm (premature) or small-for-date (small-for-gestational age). Low birthweight is a major factor in infant mortality and can cause long-term physical and cognitive problems. Very-low-birthweight babies have a less promising prognosis than those who weigh more.

Guidepost 6: How can we enhance babies' chances of survival and health?

A supportive postnatal environment and other protective factors often can improve the outcome for babies suffering from birth complications.
Although infant mortality has diminished, it is still disturbingly high for African American babies, who are more likely to have low birthweight.
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the leading cause of death of U.S, infants after the first month. Major risk factors include exposure to smoke and, prenatally, to caffeine, and sleeping in the prone position.
Vaccine-preventable diseases have declined as rates of immunization have improved, but many preschoolers are not fully protected.

EARLY PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

Guidepost 7: What influences the growth of body and brain?

Normal physical growth and sensory and motor development proceed according to the cephalocaudal and proximodistal principles.
A child's body grows most dramatically during the first year of life; growth proceeds at a rapid but diminishing rate throughout the first 3 years.
Breastfeeding offers many health advantages and sensory and cognitive benefits, but only about two-thirds of mothers begin breastfeeding.
Obese babies are not at special risk of becoming obese adults, unless they have obese parents. However, too much fat and cholesterol intake may lead to eventual cardiac problems.
Sleep patterns change dramatically; by the second half of the first year, babies do most of their sleeping at night. Cultural customs affect sleep patterns.
The central nervous system controls sensorimotor activity. Lateralization enables each hemisphere of the brain to specialize in different functions.
The brain grows most rapidly during the months before and immediately after birth as neurons migrate to their assigned locations, form synaptic connections, and undergo integration and differentiation. Cell death and myelination improve the efficiency of the nervous system.
Reflex behaviors--primitive, locomotor, and postural--are indications of neurological status. Most early reflexes drop out during the first year as voluntary, cortical control develops.
Especially during the early period of rapid growth, environmental experience can influence brain development positively or negatively.

Guidepost 8: When do the senses develop?

Sensory capacities, present from birth and even in the womb, develop rapidly in the first months of life. Very young infants show pronounced abilities to discriminate between stimuli.
Touch seems to be the first sense to develop and mature. Newborns are sensitive to pain. Smell, taste, and hearing also begin to develop in the womb.
Vision is the least well developed sense at birth. Peripheral vision, color perception, acuteness of focus, binocular vision, and the ability to follow a moving object with the eyes all develop within the first few months.

Guidepost 9: What are some early milestones in motor development, and what are some influences on it?

Motor skills develop in a certain sequence, which may depend largely on maturation but also on context, experience, and motivation. Simple skills combine into increasingly complex systems.
Self-locomotion seems to be a "setting event," bringing about changes in all domains of development.
Perception is intimately related to motor development. Depth perception and haptic perception develop in the first half of the first year.
According to Eleanor and James Gibson's theory of ecological perception, awareness of affordances affects infants' and toddlers' ability to get around.
Environmental factors, including cultural practices, may influence the pace of early motor development.

5. Cognitive Development During the First Three Years

STUDYING COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: CLASSIC APPROACHES

Guidepost 1: How do infants learn, and how long can they remember?

Two types of learning that behaviorists study are classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
Rovee-Collier's research suggests that infants' memory processes are much like those of adults, but their memories fade quickly without periodic reminders.

Guidepost 2: Can infants' and toddlers' intelligence be measured, and how can it be improved?

Psychometric tests measure factors presumed to make up intelligence.
Developmental tests, such as the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, can indicate current functioning but are generally poor predictors of later intelligence.
Socioeconomic status, parenting practices, and the home environment may affect measured intelligence.
If developmental priming mechanisms are not present, early intervention may be needed.

Guidepost 3: How did Piaget describe infants' and toddlers' cognitive development, and how have his claims stood up?

During Piaget's sensorimotor stage, infants' schemes become more elaborate. They progress from primary to secondary to tertiary circular reactions and finally to the development of representational ability, which makes possible deferred imitation, pretending, and problem solving.
Object permanence develops gradually. Piaget saw the A, not-B, error as a sign of incomplete object knowledge and the persistence of egocentric thought.
Research suggests that a number of abilities develop earlier than Piaget described. He may have underestimated young infants' grasp of object permanence and their imitative abilities.

STUDYING COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: NEWER APPROACHES

Guidepost 4: How can we measure infants' ability to process information, and how does this ability relate to future intelligence?

Information-processing researchers measure mental processes through habituation and other signs of perceptual abilities. Contrary to Piaget, such research suggests that representational ability is present virtually from birth.
Indicators of the efficiency of infants' information processing, such as speed of habituation, tend to predict later intelligence.

Guidepost 5: When do babies begin to think about characteristics of the physical world?

Violation-of-expectations research suggests that infants as young as 3½ to 5 months may have a rudimentary grasp of object permanence, a sense of number, the beginning of an understanding of causality, and an ability to reason about other characteristics of the physical world. Some researchers suggest that infants may have innate learning mechanisms for acquiring such knowledge. However, the meaning of these findings is in dispute.

Guidepost 6: What can brain research reveal about the development of cognitive skills?

Brain studies have found that some forms of implicit memory and a primitive form of preexplicit memory develop during the first few months of life. Explicit memory and working memory emerge between 6 and 12 months of age. Neurological developments help explain the emergence of Piagetian skills and information-processing abilities.

Guidepost 7: How does social interaction with adults advance cognitive competence?

Social interactions with adults contribute to cognitive competence through shared activities that help children learn skills, knowledge, and values important in their culture.

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Guidepost 8: How do babies develop language?

The acquisition of language is an important aspect of cognitive development.
Prelinguistic speech includes crying, cooing, babbling, and imitating language sounds. By 6 months, babies have learned the basic sounds of their language and begin to become aware of its phonological rules and to link sound with meaning.
Use of gestures is an important part of language development.
Babies begin to recognize and understand words before they can say them. The first word typically comes sometime between 10 and 14 months, initiating linguistic speech. A "naming explosion" typically occurs sometime between 16 and 24 months of age.
The first brief sentences generally come between 18 and 24 months. By age 3, syntax and communicative abilities are fairly well developed.
Early speech is characterized by simplification, underextending and overextending word meanings, and overregularizing rules.
Two classic theoretical views about how children acquire language are learning theory and nativism. Today, most developmentalists hold that an inborn capacity to learn language may be activated or constrained by experience.

Guidepost 9: What influences contribute to linguistic progress?

Influences on language development include brain maturation and social interaction.
Family characteristics, such as socioeconomic status and household size, may affect language learning.
Child-directed speech (CDS) seems to have cognitive, emotional, and social benefits, and infants show a preference for it. However, some researchers dispute its value.
Reading aloud to a child from an early age helps pave the way for literacy.

6. Psychosocial Development During the First Three Years

FOUNDATIONS OF PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Guidepost 1: What are emotions, when do they develop, and how do babies show them?

The repertoire of emotions seems to be universal, but there are individual and cultural variations in their expression.
Emotional development is an orderly process, in which complex emotions unfold from simpler ones.
Emotions, by guiding and regulating behavior, serve protective needs.
The emergence and expression of emotions seem to be tied to brain maturation and cognitive development. Complex emotions seem to develop from earlier, simpler ones.
Crying, smiling, and laughing are early signs of emotion.
Self-conscious and evaluative emotions arise after the development of self-awareness.
Separate but interacting regions of the brain may be responsible for various emotional states.

Guidepost 2: How do infants show temperamental differences, and how enduring are those differences?

Many children seem to fall into three categories of temperament: "easy," "difficult," and "slow-to-warm-up." Temperamental patterns appear to be largely inborn and to have a biological basis. They are generally stable but can be modified by experience.
Cross-cultural differences in temperament may reflect childraising practices.

Guidepost 3: What roles do mothers and fathers play in early personality development?

Childraising practices and caregiving roles vary around the world.
Infants have strong needs for maternal closeness and warmth as well as physical care.
In most cultures, mothers do more infant care than fathers. Mothers and fathers in some cultures have different styles of play with babies.
Although significant gender differences typically do not appear until after infancy, parents begin gender-typing boys and girls almost from birth.

DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES IN INFANCY

Guidepost 4: How do infants gain trust in their world and form attachments?

According to Erikson, infants in the first 18 months experience the first stage in personality development, basic trust versus basic mistrust. Sensitive, responsive, consistent caregiving is the key to successful resolution of this crisis.
Research based on the Strange Situation has found four patterns of attachment: secure, avoidant, ambivalent (resistant), and disorganized-disoriented.
Newer instruments measure attachment in natural settings and in cross-cultural research.
Attachment patterns may depend on a baby's temperament, as well as on the quality of parenting, and may have long-term implications for development. A parent's memories of childhood attachment can influence his or her own child's attachment.

Guidepost 5: How do infants and caregivers "read" each other's nonverbal signals, and what happens when communication breaks down?

Mutual regulation enables babies to play an active part in regulating their emotional states.
A mother's depression, especially if severe or chronic, may have serious consequences for her infant's development.
Separation anxiety and stranger anxiety may arise during the second half of the first year and appear to be related to temperament and circumstances.
There is evidence that 1-year-olds show social referencing.

DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES IN TODDLERHOOD

Guidepost 6: When and how do the self and self-concept arise?

William James identified two "selves": the I-self and the Me-self, or self-concept.
The I-self is believed to develop early in infancy, in the context of emotional experiences involving the relationship with a caregiver.
The Me-self is believed to emerge between 15 and 30 months in conjunction with the development of self-awareness.

Guidepost 7: How do toddlers develop autonomy and standards for socially acceptable behavior?

Erikson's second stage concerns autonomy versus shame and doubt. Negativism is a normal manifestation of the shift from external control to self-control.
Socialization, which rests on internalization of societally approved standards, begins with the development of self-regulation.
Parenting practices, a child's temperament, the quality of the parent-child relationship, and cultural and class standards may be factors in the ease and success of socialization.
Toddlers who show committed compliance tend to internalize adult rules more readily than those who show situational compliance.

CONTACT WITH OTHER CHILDREN

Guidepost 8: How do infants and toddlers interact with siblings and other children?

Siblings influence each other's socialization, partly through practice in conflict resolution.
Even during the first few months, infants show interest in other babies. This interest increases during the second half of the first year.
Sociability may depend on temperament and culture.

CHILDREN OF WORKING PARENTS

Guidepost 9: How do parental employment and early child care affect infants' and toddlers' development?

Mothers' workforce participation during a child's first three years seems to have little impact on development.
Substitute child care varies widely in type and quality. The most important element in quality of care is the caregiver.
Although quality, quantity, stability, and type of care have some influence on psychosocial and cognitive development, the influence of family characteristics seems greater.
Low-income children, especially, benefit from good child care.

7. Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

ASPECTS OF PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

Guidepost 1: How do children's bodies change between ages 3 and 6, and what are their nutritional and dental needs?

Physical growth increases during the years from 3 to 6, but more slowly than during infancy and toddlerhood. Boys are on average slightly taller, heavier, and more muscular than girls. Internal body systems are maturing, and all primary teeth are present.
Preschool children generally eat less for their weight than before--and need less--but the prevalence of obesity has increased.
Tooth decay has decreased since the 1970s but remains a problem among disadvantaged children.

Guidepost 2: What sleep patterns and problems tend to develop during early childhood?

Sleep patterns change during early childhood and are affected by cultural expectations.
It is normal for preschool children to develop bedtime rituals that delay going to sleep. Prolonged bedtime struggles or persistent sleep terrors or nightmares may indicate emotional disturbances that need attention.
Bed-wetting is common and is usually outgrown without special help.

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

Guidepost 3: What are the main motor achievements of early childhood?

Children progress rapidly in gross and fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination, developing more complex systems of action.
Stages of art production, which appear to reflect brain development and fine motor coordination, are the scribbling stage, shape stage, design stage, and pictorial stage.
Handedness is usually evident by age 3, reflecting dominance by one hemisphere of the brain.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Guidepost 4: What are the major health and safety risks for young children?

Although major contagious illnesses are rare today in industrialized countries due to widespread immunization, preventable disease continues to be a major problem in the developing world.
Minor illnesses, such as colds and other respiratory illnesses, are common during early childhood and help build immunity to disease.
Accidents, most commonly motor vehicle injuries, are the leading cause of death in childhood in the United States. Most fatal nonvehicular accidents occur at home.
Environmental factors such as exposure to smoking, poverty, and homelessness increase the risks of illness or injury. Lead poisoning can have serious physical, cognitive, and behavioral effects.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

PIAGETIAN APPROACH: THE PREOPERATIONAL CHILD

Guidepost 5: What are typical cognitive advances and immature aspects of preschool children's thinking?

Children in the preoperational stage show several important advances, as well as some immature aspects of thought.
The symbolic function enables children to reflect upon people, objects, and events that are not physically present. It is shown in deferred imitation, pretend play, and language.
Early symbolic development helps preoperational children make more accurate judgments of spatial relationships. They can understand the concept of identity, link cause and effect, categorize living and nonliving things, and understand principles of counting.
Centration keeps preoperational children from understanding principles of conservation. Their logic also is limited by irreversibility and a focus on states rather than transformations.
Preoperational children appear to be less egocentric than Piaget thought.
The theory of mind, which develops markedly between the ages of 3 and 5, includes awareness of a child's own thought processes, social cognition, understanding that people can hold false beliefs, ability to deceive, ability to distinguish appearance from reality, and ability to distinguish fantasy from reality. Hereditary and environmental influences affect individual differences in theory-of-mind development.

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT AND OTHER COGNITIVE ABILITIES

Guidepost 6: How does language improve, and what happens when its development is delayed?

During early childhood, vocabulary increases greatly, and grammar and syntax become fairly sophisticated. Children become more competent in pragmatics.
Private speech is normal and common; it may aid in the shift to self-regulation and usually disappears by age 10.
Causes of delayed language development are unclear. Although many children who speak late catch up, treatment may be needed to avoid serious cognitive, social, and emotional consequences.
Interaction with adults can promote emergent literacy.

Guidepost 7: What memory abilities expand in early childhood?

Information-processing models describe three steps in memory: encoding, storage, and retrieval.
At all ages, recognition is better than recall, but both increase during early childhood.
Early episodic memory is only temporary; it fades or is transferred to generic memory. Autobiographical memory begins at about age 3 or 4 and may be related to early self-recognition ability and language development.
Children are more likely to remember unusual activities that they actively participate in. The way adults talk with children about events influences memory formation.

Guidepost 8: How is preschoolers' intelligence measured, and what are some influences on it?

The two most commonly used psychometric intelligence tests for young children are the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Revised (WPPSI-R).
Intelligence test scores may be influenced by social and emotional functioning, as well as by parent-child interaction and socioeconomic factors.
Newer tests based on Vygotsky's concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) indicate immediate potential for achievement. Such tests, when combined with scaffolding, can help parents and teachers guide children's progress.

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Guidepost 9: What purposes does early childhood education serve, and how do children make the transition to kindergarten?

Goals of preschool education vary in different cultures. Since the 1970s, the academic content of early childhood education programs in the United States has increased.
For low-income U.S. children, academically oriented programs seem less effective than child-centered ones.
Compensatory preschool programs have had positive outcomes, but participants generally have not equaled the performance of middle-class children. Compensatory programs that begin early and extend into the primary grades have better long-term results.
Adjustment to kindergarten may depend on interaction among the child's characteristics and those of the home, school, and neighborhood environments.

8. Psychosocial Development in Early Childhood

THE DEVELOPING SELF

Guidepost 1: How does the self-concept develop during early childhood, and how do children advance in understanding their emotions?

The self-concept undergoes major change in early childhood. According to neo-Piagetians, self-definition shifts from single representations to representational mappings. Young children do not see the difference between the real self and the ideal self.
Understanding of emotions directed toward the self and of simultaneous emotions develops gradually.

Guidepost 2: How do young children develop initiative and self-esteem?

According to Erikson, the developmental conflict of early childhood is initiative versus guilt. Successful resolution of this conflict results in the "virtue" of purpose.
Self-esteem in early childhood tends to be global and unrealistic, reflecting adult approval.

GENDER

Guidepost 3: How do boys and girls become aware of the meaning of gender, and what explains differences in behavior between the sexes?

Gender identity is an aspect of the developing self-concept.
The main gender difference in early childhood is boys' greater aggressiveness. Girls tend to be more empathic and prosocial and less prone to problem behavior. Some cognitive differences appear early, others not until preadolescence or later.
Children learn gender roles at an early age through gender-typing. Gender stereotypes peak during the preschool years.
Four major perspectives on gender development are biological, psychoanalytic, cognitive, and socialization-based.
Evidence suggests that some gender differences may be biologically based.
In Freudian theory, a child identifies with the same-sex parent after giving up the wish to possess the other parent.
Cognitive-developmental theory maintains that gender identity develops from thinking about one's gender. According to Kohlberg, gender constancy leads to acquisition of gender roles. Gender-schema theory holds that children categorize gender-related information by observing what males and females do in their culture.
According to social cognitive theory, children learn gender roles through socialization. Parents, peers, and the media influence gender-typing.

PLAY

Guidepost 4: How do preschoolers play, and how does play contribute to and reflect development?

Play has physical, cognitive, and psychosocial benefits. Changes in the types of play children engage in reflect cognitive and social development.
According to Piaget and Smilansky, children progress cognitively from functional play to constructive play, pretend play, and then formal games with rules. Pretend play becomes increasingly common during early childhood and helps children develop social and cognitive skills. Rough-and-tumble play also begins during early childhood.
According to Parten, play becomes more social during early childhood. However, later research has found that nonsocial play is not necessarily immature.
Children prefer to play with (and play more socially with) others of their sex.
Cognitive and social aspects of play are influenced by the culturally approved environments adults create for children.

PARENTING

Guidepost 5: What forms of discipline do parents use, and how do parenting styles and practices influence development?

Discipline can be a powerful tool for socialization.
Both positive reinforcement and prudently administered punishment can be appropriate tools of discipline within the context of a positive parent-child relationship.
Power assertion, inductive techniques, and withdrawal of love each can be effective in certain situations. Reasoning is generally the most effective and power assertion the least effective in promoting internalization of parental standards. Spanking and other forms of corporal punishment can have negative consequences.
Baumrind identified three childrearing styles: authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative. A fourth style, neglectful or uninvolved, was identified later. Authoritative parents tend to raise more competent children. However, Baumrind's findings may be misleading when applied to some cultures or socioeconomic groups.
Family conflict can help children learn negotiating skills.

Guidepost 6: Why do young children help or hurt others, and why do they develop fears?

The roots of altruism and prosocial behavior appear early. This may be an inborn disposition, which can be cultivated by parental modeling and encouragement.
Instrumental aggression--first physical, then verbal--is most common in early childhood.
Most children become less aggressive after age 6 or 7, but the proportion of hostile aggression increases. Boys tend to practice overt aggression, whereas girls often engage in relational aggression.
Preschool children show temporary fears of real and imaginary objects and events; older children's fears tend to be more realistic.

Guidepost 7: What causes child abuse and neglect, and what are the effects of maltreatment?

The incidence of reported maltreatment of children has increased greatly.
Forms of maltreatment are physical abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, and emotional maltreatment.
Characteristics of the abuser or neglecter, the victim, the family, the community, and the larger culture all contribute to child abuse and neglect.
Maltreatment can interfere with physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development, and its effects can continue into adulthood. Still, many maltreated children show remarkable resilience.

RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER CHILDREN

Guidepost 8: How do young children get along with (or without) siblings?

Sibling and peer relationships contribute to self-efficacy.
Most sibling interactions are positive. Older siblings tend to initiate activities, and younger ones to imitate. Same-sex siblings, especially girls, get along best.
Siblings tend to resolve disputes on the basis of moral principles. Parental intervention in sibling conflict, especially among younger siblings, may prevent worse conflict later.
The kind of relationship children have with siblings often carries over into other peer relationships.
Only children seem to develop at least as well as children with siblings.

Guidepost 9: How do young children choose playmates and friends, and why are some children more popular than others?

Preschoolers choose playmates and friends who are like them. Aggressive children are less popular than prosocial children.
Friends have more positive and negative interactions than other playmates.
Parenting can affect children's social competence with peers.

9. Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

ASPECTS OF PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

Guidepost 1: What gains in growth and motor development occur during middle childhood, and what nutritional hazards do children face?

Growth slow in middle childhood, and wide differences in height and weight exist.
Children with retarded growth due to growth hormone deficiency may be given synthetic growth hormone.
Proper nutrition is essential for normal growth and health.
The permanent teeth arrive in middle childhood. Dental heath has improved, in part because of use of sealants on chewing surfaces.
Malnutrition can affect all aspects of development.
Obesity, which is increasingly common among U.S. children, entails health risks. It is influenced by genetic and environmental factors and can be treated.
Concern with body image, especially among girls, may lead to eating disorders.
Because of improved motor development, boys and girls in middle childhood can engage in a wide range of motor activities.
About 10 percent of schoolchildren's play, especially among boys, is rough-and-tumble play.
Many children, mostly boys, go into organized, competitive sports. A sound physical education program should aim at skill development and fitness for all children.
Many children, especially girls, do not meet fitness standards.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Guidepost 2: What are the principal health and safety concerns about school-age children?

Middle childhood is a relatively healthy period; most children are immunized against major illnesses, and the death rate is the lowest in the life span.
Respiratory infections and other acute medical conditions are common. Chronic conditions such as asthma are most prevalent among poor and minority children.
Children's understanding of health and illness is related to their cognitive level. Cultural beliefs affect expectations regarding health care.
Vision becomes keener during middle childhood, but some children have defective vision or hearing.
Most children who are HIV-positive function normally in school and should not be excluded from any activities of which they are physically capable.
Accidents are the leading cause of death in middle childhood. Use of helmets and other protective devices and avoidance of trampolines, snowmobiling, and other dangerous sports can greatly reduce injuries.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

PIAGETIAN APPROACH: THE CONCRETE OPERATIONAL CHILD

Guidepost 3: How do school-age children's thinking and moral reasoning differ from those of younger children?

A child at about age 7 enters the stage of concrete operations. Children are less egocentric than before and are more proficient at tasks requiring logical reasoning, such as spatial thinking, understanding of causality, categorization, inductive and deductive reasoning, conservation, and working with numbers. However, their reasoning is largely limited to the here and now.
Cultural experience, as well as neurological development, seems to contribute to the rate of development of conservation and other Piagetian skills.
According to Piaget, moral development is linked with cognitive maturation and occurs in two stages as children move from rigid to more flexible thinking.

INFORMATION PROCESSING AND INTELLIGENCE

Guidepost 4: What advances in memory and other information-processing skills occur during middle childhood?

Although sensory memory shows little change with age, the capacity of working memory increases greatly during middle childhood.
The central executive, which controls the flow of information to and from long-term memory, seems to mature between ages 8 and 10.
Reaction time, processing speed, selective attention, and concentration also increase. These gains in information-processing abilities may help explain the advances Piaget described.
Metamemory, selective attention, and use of memory strategies improve during these years.

Guidepost 5: How accurately can schoolchildren's intelligence be measured?

The intelligence of school-age children is assessed by group or individual tests.
IQ tests are fairly good predictors of school success but may be unfair to some children.
Differences in IQ among ethnic groups appear to result to a considerable degree from socioeconomic and other environmental differences.
Schooling seems to increase measured intelligence.
Attempts to devise culture-free or culture-fair tests have been unsuccessful.
IQ tests tap only three of the "intelligences" in Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences.
According to Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory, IQ tests measure mainly the componential element of intelligence, not the experiential and contextual elements.
New directions in intelligence testing include the Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Tests (STAT), Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC), and tests based on Vygotsky's concept of dynamic testing.

LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

Guidepost 6: How do communicative abilities and literacy expand during middle childhood?

Use of vocabulary, grammar, and syntax become increasingly sophisticated, but the major area of linguistic growth is in pragmatics.
Despite the popularity of whole-language programs, early phonics training is a key to reading proficiency.
Metacognition contributes to reading comprehension.
Acquisition of writing skills accompanies development of reading.

THE CHILD IN SCHOOL

Guidepost 7: What influences school achievement?

Because schooling is cumulative, the foundation laid in first grade is very important.
Parents influence children's learning by becoming involved in their schooling, motivating them to achieve, and transmitting attitudes about learning. Socioeconomic status can influence parental beliefs and practices that, in turn, influence achievement.
Although the power of the self-fulfilling prophecy may not be as great as was once thought, teachers' perceptions and expectations can have a strong influence.
Historical philosophical shifts affect such issues as amount of homework assigned, methods of teaching math, social promotion, and computer literacy.
The superior achievement of children of East Asian extraction seems to stem from cultural factors. Minority children may benefit from educational programs adapted to their cultural styles.

Guidepost 8: How do schools meet the needs of non-English-speaking children and those with learning problems?

Methods of second-language education are controversial. Issues include speed and facility with English, long-term achievement in academic subjects, and pride in cultural identity.
Three frequent sources of learning problems are mental retardation, learning disabilities (LDs), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Dyslexia is the most common learning disability.
In the United States, all children with disabilities are entitled to a free, appropriate education. Children must be educated in the least restrictive environment possible, often in the regular classroom.

Guidepost 9: How is giftedness assessed and nurtured?

An IQ of 130 or higher is a common standard for identifying gifted children. Broader definitions include creativity, artistic talent, and other attributes and rely on multiple criteria for identification.
Minorities are underrepresented in programs for the gifted.
In Terman's classic longitudinal study of gifted children, most turned out to be well adjusted and successful, but not outstandingly so.
Creativity and IQ are not closely linked. Tests of creativity seek to measure divergent thinking, but their validity has been questioned.
Special educational programs for gifted, creative, and talented children stress enrichment or acceleration.

10. Psychosocial Development in Middle Childhood

THE DEVELOPING SELF

Guidepost 1: How do school-age children develop a realistic self-concept, and what contributes to self-esteem?

The self-concept becomes more realistic during middle childhood, when, according to neo-Piagetian theory, children form representational systems.
According to Erikson, the chief source of self-esteem is children's view of their productive competence. This "virtue" develops through resolution of the conflict of industry versus inferiority. According to Susan Harter's research, however, self-esteem arises primarily from social support and self-evaluation.

Guidepost 2: How do school-age children show emotional growth?

School-age children have internalized shame and pride and can better understand and control negative emotions.
Empathy and prosocial behavior increase.
Emotional growth is affected by parents' reactions to displays of negative emotions.

THE CHILD IN THE FAMILY

Guidepost 3: How do parent-child relationships change in middle childhood?

School-age children spend less time with, and are less close to, parents than before; but relationships with parents continue to be important. Culture influences family relationships and roles.
Development of coregulation may affect the way a family handles conflicts and discipline.

Guidepost 4: What are the effects of parents' work and of poverty on family atmosphere?

The most important influence of the family environment on children's development comes from the atmosphere in the home.
The impact of mothers' employment depends on many factors concerning the child, the mother's work and her feelings about it; whether she has a supportive mate; the family's socioeconomic status; and the kind of care the child receives.
Homes with employed mothers tend to be more structured and more egalitarian than homes with at-home mothers. Maternal employment has a positive influence on school achievement in low-income families, but boys in middle-class families tend to do less well.
Parents living in persistent poverty may have trouble providing effective discipline and monitoring and emotional support.

Guidepost 5: What impact does family structure have on children's development?

Many children today grow up in nontraditional family structures. Children tend to do better in traditional two-parent families. The structure of the family, however, is less important than its effects on family atmosphere.
Adopted children are generally well adjusted, though they face special challenges.
Children's adjustment to divorce depends on factors concerning the child; the parents' handling of the situation; custody and visitation arrangements; financial circumstances; contact with the noncustodial parent (usually the father); and a parent's remarriage.
The amount of conflict in a marriage and the likelihood of its continuing after divorce may influence whether or not children are better off if the parents stay together.
Unwed motherhood creates more single-parent families than does divorce. Children living with only one parent are at heightened risk of behavioral and academic problems, in part related to socioeconomic status.
Remarriages are more likely to fail than first marriages. Boys tend to have more trouble than girls in adjusting to divorce and single-parent living but tend to adjust better to the mother's remarriage.
Studies have found no ill effects on children living with homosexual parents.
Grandparents' relationships with their grandchildren may be altered in nontraditional families.

Guidepost 6: How do siblings influence and get along with one another?

The roles and responsibilities of siblings in nonindustrialized societies are more structured than in industrialized societies.
Siblings learn about conflict resolution from their relationships with each other. Relationships with parents affect sibling relationships.

THE CHILD IN THE PEER GROUP

Guidepost 7: How do relationships with peers change in middle childhood, and what influences popularity and choice of friends?

The peer group becomes more important in middle childhood. Peer groups generally consist of children who are similar in age, sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, and who live near one another or go to school together.
The peer group helps children develop social skills, allows them to test and adopt values independent of parents, gives them a sense of belonging, and helps develop the self-concept. It also may encourage conformity and prejudice.
Popularity influences self-esteem and future adjustment. Popular children tend to have good cognitive abilities and social skills. Behaviors that affect popularity may derive from family relationships and cultural values.
Intimacy and stability of friendships increase during middle childhood. Boys tend to have more friends, whereas girls have closer friends.

Guidepost 8: What are the most common forms of aggressive behavior in middle childhood, and what influences contribute to it?

During middle childhood, aggression typically declines. Relational aggression becomes more common than overt aggression, especially among girls. Also, instrumental aggression gives way to hostile aggression. Highly aggressive children tend to be unpopular and maladjusted.
Aggressiveness promoted by exposure to televised violence can extend into adult life.
Middle childhood is a prime time for bullying; patterns may be established in kindergarten. Victims tend to be weak and submissive, or argumentative and provocative, and to have low self-esteem.

MENTAL HEALTH

Guidepost 9: What emotional disorders may develop in childhood, and how are they treated?

Common emotional and behavioral disorders among school-age children include anxiety or mood disorders and disruptive behavioral disorders.
Childhood depression often emerges during the transition to middle school; its prevalence increases during adolescence.
Treatment techniques include individual psychotherapy, family therapy, behavior therapy, play therapy, art therapy, and drug therapy. Often therapies are used in combination.

Guidepost 10: How do the stresses of modern life affect children, and why are some children more resilient than others?

As a result of the pressures of modern life, many children experience stress. Children tend to worry about school, health, and personal safety.
Resilient children are better able than others to withstand stress. Protective factors involve cognitive ability, family relationships, personality, degree of risk, and compensating experiences.

11. Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence

ADOLESCENCE: A DEVELOPMENTAL TRANSITION

Guidepost 1: What is adolescence, when does it begin and end, and what opportunities and risks does it entail?

Adolescence, in modern industrial societies, is the transition from childhood to adulthood. It lasts from age 11 or 12 until the late teens or early twenties.
Legal, sociological, and psychological definitions of entrance into adulthood vary.
Adolescence is full of opportunities for physical, cognitive, and psychosocial growth, but also of risks to healthy development. Risky behavior patterns, such as drinking alcohol, drug abuse, sexual and gang activity, and use of firearms, tend to be established early in adolescence. About 4 out of 5 young people experience no major problems.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT-

PUBERTY: THE END OF CHILDHOOD

Guidepost 2: What physical changes do adolescents experience, and how do these changes affect them psychologically?

Puberty is triggered by hormonal changes, which may affect moods and behavior. Puberty takes about four years, typically begins earlier in girls than in boys, and ends when a person can reproduce. A secular trend toward earlier attainment of adult height and sexual maturity began about 100 years ago, probably because of improvements in living standards.
During puberty, both boys and girls undergo an adolescent growth spurt. Primary sex characteristics (the reproductive organs) enlarge and mature, and secondary sex characteristics appear.
The principal signs of sexual maturity are production of sperm (for males) and menstruation (for females). Spermarche typically occurs at age 13. Menarche occurs, on average, between the ages of 12 and 13 in the United States.
Psychological effects of early or late maturation depend on how adolescents and others interpret the accompanying changes.

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH

Guidepost 3: What are some common health problems in adolescence, and how can they be prevented?

For the most part, the adolescent years are relatively healthy. Health problems often are associated with poverty or a risk-taking lifestyle. Adolescents are less likely than younger children to get regular medical care.
Many adolescents, especially girls, do not engage in regular, vigorous physical activity.
Many adolescents do not get enough sleep, in part because the high school schedule is out of sync with their natural body rhythms.
Concern with body image often leads to obsessive dieting.
Three common eating disorders in adolescence are obesity, anorexia nervosa, and bulimia nervosa. All can have serious long-term effects. Anorexia and bulimia affect mostly girls. Outcomes for bulimia tend to be better than for anorexia.
Adolescent substance abuse and dependence have lessened in recent years; still, drug use often begins as children move into middle school.
Marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco are the most popular drugs with adolescents and can lead to the use of hard drugs.
The prevalence of depression increases in adolescence, especially among girls.
Leading causes of death among adolescents include motor vehicle accidents, firearm use, and suicide.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

ASPECTS OF COGNITIVE MATURATION

Guidepost 4: How do adolescents' thinking and use of language differ from younger children's?

People in Piaget's stage of formal operations can engage in hypothetical-deductive reasoning. They can think in terms of possibilities, deal flexibly with problems, and test hypotheses.
Brain maturation and environmental stimulation play important parts in attaining this stage. Schooling and culture also play a role.
Not all people become capable of formal operations; and those who are capable do not always use it.
Piaget's theory does not take into account accumulation of knowledge and expertise and the growth of metacognition. Piaget also paid little attention to individual differences, between-task variations, and the role of the situation.
Vocabulary and other aspects of language development, especially those related to abstract thought, Adolescents enjoy wordplay and create their own "dialect."
According to Elkind, immature thought patterns can result from adolescents' inexperience with formal thinking. These thought patterns include idealism and criticalness, argumentativeness, indecisiveness, apparent hypocrisy, self-consciousness, and an assumption of specialness and invulnerability. Research has cast doubt on the special prevalence of the latter two patterns during adolescence.

Guidepost 5: On what basis do adolescents make moral judgments?

According to Kohlberg, moral reasoning is based on a developing sense of justice and growing cognitive abilities. Kohlberg proposed that moral development progresses from external control to internalized societal standards to personal, principled moral codes.
Kohlberg's theory has been criticized on several grounds, including failure to credit the roles of emotion, socialization, and parental guidance. The applicability of Kohlberg's system to women and girls and to people in nonwestern cultures has been questioned.

EDUCATIONAL AND VOCATIONAL ISSUES

Guidepost 6: What influences affect school success, and why do some students drop out?

Self-efficacy beliefs, academic motivation, socioeconomic status, parental involvement, parenting styles, ethnicity, peer influences, and quality of schooling affect adolescents' educational achievement. Poor families whose children do well in school tend to have more social capital than poor families whose children do not do well.
Although most Americans graduate from high school, the dropout rate is higher among poor, Hispanic, and African American students and among those not living with both parents. Active engagement in studies is an important factor in keeping adolescents in school.

Guidepost 7: What factors affect educational and vocational planning and preparation?

Educational and vocational aspirations are influenced by several factors, including students' and parents' self-efficacy beliefs and parents' values and aspirations. Gender stereotypes still have an influence, but less so than in the past.
About 37 percent of high school graduates do not immediately go on to college. These students can benefit from vocational training.
Part-time work seems to have both positive and negative effects on educational, social, and occupational development.

12. Psychosocial Development in Adolescence

THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY

Guidepost 1: How do adolescents form an identity?

A central concern during adolescence is the search for identity, which has occupational, sexual, and values components. Erik Erikson described the psychosocial conflict of adolescence as identity versus identity confusion. The "virtue" that should arise from this conflict is fidelity.
James Marcia, in research based on Erikson's theory, described four identity statuses: identity achievement, foreclosure, moratorium, and identity diffusion.
Researchers differ on whether girls and boys take different paths to identity formation. Although some research suggests that girls' self-esteem tends to fall at adolescence, later research does not support that finding.
Ethnicity is an important part of identity. Minority adolescents seem to go through stages of ethnic identity development much like Marcia's identity statuses.

SEXUALITY

Guidepost 2: What determines sexual orientation?

Sexual orientation appears to be influenced by an interaction of biological and environmental factors and may be at least partly genetic.

Guidepost 3: What sexual practices are common among adolescents, and what leads some to engage in risky sexual behavior?

Sexual behaviors are more liberal than in the past. Teenage sexual activity involves risks of pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Adolescents at greatest risk are those who begin sexual activity early, have multiple partners, do not use contraceptives, and are ill-informed about sex.
Regular condom use is the best safeguard for sexually active teens.
Comprehensive sex education programs delay sexual initiation and encourage contraceptive use. Abstinence-only programs have not been effective.
Many teenagers get misleading information about sexuality from the media.

Guidepost 4: How common are sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancy, and what are their usual outcomes?

Rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the United States are highest in the world; one in three cases occurs among adolescents. STDs can be transmitted by oral sex as well as intercourse. They are more likely to develop undetected in girls than in boys and can lead to serious health problems.
Teenage pregnancy and birthrates in the United States have declined but are still highest in the industrialized world. Most of the pregnancies are unintended, and of the births are to unmarried mothers.
Teenage pregnancy and childbearing often have negative outcomes. Teenage mothers and their families tend to suffer ill health and financial hardship, and the children often suffer from ineffective parenting.

RELATIONSHIPS WITH FAMILY, PEERS, AND ADULT SOCIETY

Guidepost 5: How typical is "adolescent rebellion"?

Although relationships between adolescents and their parents are not always smooth, full-scale adolescent rebellion is unusual.

Guidepost 6: How do adolescents relate to parents, siblings, and peers?

Adolescents in the United States, who have a large amount of discretionary time, spend an increasing amount of it with peers, but relationships with parents continue to be close and influential, especially among some ethnic minorities.
Family interactions change during the teenage years. There is more intimacy, but also more conflict over issues of autonomy. Conflict with parents tends to be most frequent during early adolescence and most intense during middle adolescence. Authoritative parenting is associated with the most positive outcomes.
Effects of divorce and single parenting on adolescents' development depend on the way they affect family atmosphere. Genetic factors may affect the way young adolescents adapt to divorce.
Effects of maternal employment depend on such factors as the presence or absence of the other parent, how closely parents monitor adolescents' activity, and the mother's workload. A mother's working may help shape attitudes toward gender roles.
Economic stress affects relationships in both single-parent and two-parent families.
Relationships with siblings tend to become more equal and more distant during adolescence.
The peer group can have both positive and negative influences. Adolescents who are rejected by peers tend to have the greatest adjustment problems.
Friendships, especially among girls, become more intimate and supportive in adolescence.

Guidepost 7: What are the root causes of antisocial behavior and juvenile delinquency, and what can be done to reduce these and other risks of adolescence?

Chronic delinquency is associated with multiple interacting risk factors, including ineffective parenting, school failure, peer influence, neighborhood influences, and low socioeconomic status. Programs that attack such risk factors from an early age have had success.

13. Physical and Cognitive Development in Young Adulthood

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL CONDITION

Guidepost 1: In what physical condition is the typical young adult, and what factors affect health and well-being?

The typical young adult is in good condition; physical and sensory abilities are usually excellent.
Accidents are the leading cause of death in young adulthood, followed by cancer, heart disease, suicide, AIDS, and homicide.
The mapping of the human genome is enabling the discovery of genetic bases for certain disorders.
Lifestyle factors such as diet, obesity, exercise, smoking, and substance use or abuse can affect health and survival.
Good health is related to higher income and education. In addition, African Americans and some other minorities tend to be less healthy than other Americans, in part due to lower quality health care.
Women tend to live longer than men, in part for biological reasons, but perhaps also because they are more health-conscious.
Social relationships, especially marriage, tend to be associated with physical and mental health.

SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE ISSUES

Guidepost 2: What are some sexual and reproductive issues at this time of life?

Premenstrual syndrome, sexually transmitted diseases, and infertility can be concerns during young adulthood.
While some STDs have become less prevalent, others are on the rise.
The AIDS epidemic is coming under control in the United States, but heterosexual transmission has increased, particularly among minority women. Worldwide, AIDS is the fourth leading cause of death.
The most common cause of infertility in men is a low sperm count; the most common cause in women is blockage of the fallopian tubes.
Infertile couples now have several options for assisted reproduction, but these techniques may involve thorny ethical and practical issues. Fertility clinics are expensive and have low success rates, and there is heightened risk of birth defects and low birthweight.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

PERSPECTIVES ON ADULT COGNITION

Guidepost 3: What is distinctive about adult thought and intelligence?

Some investigators propose a distinctively adult stage of cognition beyond formal operations, called postformal thought. It is generally applied in social situations and involves intuition and emotion as well as logic. Criteria include ability to shift between reasoning and practical considerations; awareness that problems can have multiple causes and solutions; pragmatism in choosing solutions; and awareness of inherent conflict.
Schaie proposed seven stages of age-related cognitive development: acquisitive (childhood and adolescence), achieving (young adulthood), responsible and executive (middle adulthood), and reorganizational, reintegrative, and legacy-creating (late adulthood). This model suggests a need to develop intelligence tests that have ecological validity for adults.
According to Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence, the experiential and contextual elements become particularly important during adulthood. Tests that measure tacit knowledge are useful complements to traditional intelligence tests.
Emotional intelligence may play an important part in life success. However, emotional intelligence as a distinct construct is controversial and hard to measure.

MORAL DEVELOPMENT

Guidepost 4: How do moral reasoning and faith develop?

According to Lawrence Kohlberg, moral development in adulthood depends primarily on experience, though it cannot exceed the limits set by cognitive development. Experience may be interpreted differently in various cultural contexts.
Kohlberg, shortly before his death, proposed a seventh stage of moral development, which involves seeing moral issues from a cosmic perspective. This is similar to the highest stage of faith proposed by James Fowler.
Carol Gilligan initially proposed that women have an ethic of care, whereas Kohlberg's theory emphasizes justice. However, later research, including her own, has not supported a distinction between men's and women's moral outlook.

EDUCATION AND WORK

Guidepost 5: How do higher education and work affect cognitive development?

Depending on their major field, college students often show specific kinds of improvement in reasoning abilities.
According to Perry, college students' thinking tends to progress from rigidity to flexibility to freely chosen commitments.
Research has found a relationship between substantive complexity of work and cognitive growth. Also, people who do more complex work tend to engage in more intellectually demanding leisure activities.
The workplace poses special challenges for adults who lack college education.
Although more women than men now are going to college, they tend to choose different major fields. Still, an increasing number of women are pursuing careers in traditionally male-dominated fields and are moving into managerial and professional positions.

Guidepost 6: How can continuing education help adults meet workplace demands?

Workplace education can help adults develop basic job skills, which many lack.
Adults with low literacy skills are at a severe disadvantage in a modern economy. The average American's literacy level is mediocre as compared with other high-income countries, and there are greater disparities between those with high and low literacy levels. In developing countries, illiteracy is more common among women than among men.

14. Psychosocial Development in Young Adulthood

PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT: FOUR VIEWS

Guidepost 1: Does personality change during adulthood, and if so, how?

Whether and how personality changes during adulthood is an important issue among developmental theorists. Four important perspectives on adult personality are offered by normative-stage models, the timing-of-events model, trait models, and typological models.
Normative-stage models hold that age-related social and emotional change emerges in successive periods sometimes marked by crises. In Erikson's theory, the major issue of young adulthood is intimacy versus isolation. In Levinson's theory, transitions lead to reevaluation and modification of the life structure. In the Grant study, mature adaptive mechanisms were associated with greater well-being.
The timing-of-events model, advocated by Neugarten, proposes that adult psychosocial development is influenced by the occurrence and timing of normative life events. As society becomes less age-conscious, however, the social clock has less meaning.
The five-factor model of Costa and McCrae is organized around five groupings of related traits: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. Studies find that people change very little in these respects after age 30.
Typological research, pioneered by Jack Block, has identified personality types that differ in ego-resiliency and ego-control. These types seem to persist from childhood through adulthood.
Recently there have been attempts to synthesize various approaches to adult personality development.

FOUNDATIONS OF INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS

Guidepost 2: What is intimacy, and how is it expressed in friendship, love, and sexuality?

Young adulthood is a time of dramatic change in personal relationships. Young adults seek emotional and physical intimacy in relationships with peers and romantic partners.
Self-disclosure and a sense of belonging are important aspects of intimacy. Intimate relationships are associated with physical and mental health.
While the Internet offers expanded opportunities for communication, it may lead to a weakening of intimacy and a decline in psychological well-being.
Most young adults have friends but have increasingly limited time to spend with them. Women's friendships tend to be more intimate than men's.
According to Sternberg's triangular theory of love, love has three aspects: intimacy, passion, and commitment. These combine into eight types of love relationships.
People tend to choose partners like themselves.
Attitudes toward premarital sex have been greatly liberalized, but men and women are less promiscuous than is sometimes believed. Disapproval of homosexuality has declined but remains strong. Disapproval of extramarital sex is even greater.

NONMARITAL AND MARITAL LIFESTYLES

Guidepost 3: Why do some people remain single?

Today more adults than in the past postpone marriage or never marry. Reasons for staying single include career opportunities, travel, sexual and lifestyle freedom, a desire for self-fulfillment, women's greater self-sufficiency, reduced social pressure to marry, fear of divorce, and difficulty in finding a suitable mate.

Guidepost 4: How do homosexuals deal with "coming out," and what is the nature of gay and lesbian relationships?

For homosexuals, the process of coming out may last well into adulthood, and complete openness about their sexual orientation may never be fully achieved. Both gay men and lesbians form enduring sexual and romantic relationships. Gays and lesbians in the United States are fighting for rights married people enjoy.

Guidepost 5: What are the pros and cons of cohabitation?

Cohabitation has become common and is the norm in many countries. Cohabitation can be a "trial marriage" or a substitute for marriage. Couples who cohabit before marriage tend to have weaker marriages.

Guidepost 6: What do adults gain from marriage, what cultural patterns surround entrance into marriage, and why do some marriages succeed while others fail?

Marriage (in a variety of forms) is universal and meets basic economic, emotional, sexual, social, and childraising needs.
Mate selection and marrying age vary across cultures. People in industrialized nations have been marrying later than in past generations.
Frequency of sexual relations in marriage declines with age and loss of novelty. Fewer people appear to be having extramarital sexual relationships than in the past.
Success in marriage may depend on strength of commitment and patterns of interaction set in young adulthood. Age at marriage is a major predictor of whether a marriage will last. Resilience in facing economic hardship, compatibility, emotional support, and men's and women's differing expectations may be important factors.

PARENTHOOD

Guidepost 7: When do most adults become parents, and how does parenthood affect a marriage?

Family patterns vary across cultures and have changed greatly in western societies. Today women are having fewer children and having them later in life, and an increasing number choose to remain childless.
Fathers are usually less involved in child raising than mothers, but some share parenting equally and some are primary caregivers.
Marital satisfaction typically declines during the childbearing years. Expectations and division of tasks can contribute to a marriage's deterioration or improvement.

Guidepost 8: How do dual-earner couples divide responsibilities and deal with role conflicts?

Nearly 2 out of 3 families with children are dual-earner families. Dual-earner families show several patterns. They offer both benefits and drawbacks.
Women and men are equally affected by the stress of a dual-earner lifestyle, but they may be affected in different ways. Family-friendly workplace policies may help alleviate stress.
In most cases, the burdens of a dual-earner lifestyle fall most heavily on the woman. Whether an unequal division of labor contributes to marital distress may depend on how the spouses perceive their roles.
A new theory of gender roles proposes that both men and women generally benefit from combining multiple roles, but this depends on the number of roles they carry, time demands, and satisfaction derived.

WHEN MARRIAGE ENDS

Guidepost 9: Why have divorce rates risen, and how do adults adjust to divorce, remarriage, and stepparenthood?

The United States has one of the highest divorce rates in the world. Among the reasons for the rise in divorce are women's greater financial independence, reluctance to expose children to parental conflict, and the greater "expectability" of divorce.
Divorce usually entails a painful period of adjustment. Adjustment may depend on the way the divorce is handled, people's feelings about themselves and their ex-partners, emotional detachment from the former spouse, social support, and personal resources.
Adjusting to divorce is a long-term process that tends to reduce well-being.
Most divorced people remarry within a few years, but remarriages tend to be less stable than first marriages.
Stepfamilies may go through several stages of adjustment. Women tend to have more difficulty being stepparents than men do.

15. Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Adulthood

MIDDLE AGE: A CULTURAL CONSTRUCT

Guidepost 1: What are the distinguishing features of middle age?

The concept of middle age is socially constructed. It came into use as an increasing life span led to new roles at midlife.
Middle adulthood is a time of both gains and losses.
The span of middle adulthood can be defined chronologically, contextually, or biologically.
Most middle-aged people are in good physical, cognitive, and emotional condition. They have heavy responsibilities and multiple roles and feel competent to handle them.
Middle age is a time for taking stock and making decisions about the remaining years.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

PHYSICAL CHANGES

Guidepost 2: What physical changes generally occur during the middle years, and what is their psychological impact?

Although some physiological changes result from aging and genetic makeup, behavior and lifestyle can affect their timing and extent.
Most middle-aged adults compensate well for gradual, minor declines in sensory and psychomotor abilities, including such age-related conditions as presbyopia and presbycusis, increases in myopia, and loss of endurance due to slowing of basal metabolism. Losses in bone density and vital capacity are common.
Menopause occurs, on average, at about age 51, following the physiological changes of perimenopause. Attitudes toward menopause, and symptoms experienced, may depend on personal characteristics, past experiences, and cultural attitudes.
Although men can continue to father children until late in life, many middle-aged men experience a decline in fertility and in frequency of orgasm.
Sexual activity generally diminishes only slightly and gradually, and the quality of sexual relations may improve.
Among women, sexual dysfunction decreases with age; in men, it is just the opposite. A large proportion of middle-aged men experience erectile dysfunction. Sexual dysfunction can have physical causes but also may be related to health, lifestyle, and emotional well-being.
The "double standard of aging" causes women to seem less desirable as they lose their youthful appearance. For both men and women, anxiety about getting older is heightened in a society that places a premium on youth.

HEALTH

Guidepost 3: What factors affect health at midlife?

Most middle-aged people are healthy and have no functional limitations.
Diet, exercise, alcohol use, and smoking affect present and future health. Preventive care is important.
Hypertension is a major health problem beginning in midlife. AIDS tends to be more severe in older people because of weakened immune functioning.
Leading causes of death in middle age are cancer, heart disease, liver disease, and stroke. Diabetes also is a major cause of death.
Low income is associated with poorer health, in part because of lack of insurance.
African Americans' elevated health risks may be due to a combination of hereditary factors, lifestyle factors, poverty, and stress caused by discrimination.
Postmenopausal women become more susceptible to heart disease and bone loss leading to osteoporosis. Chances of developing breast cancer also increase with age, and routine mammography is recommended for beginning at age 40.
About one in three U.S. women has a hysterectomy by age 60, usually because of uterine fibroids, abnormal uterine bleeding, or endometriosis. Many experts believe this procedure is overused.
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is often prescribed for symptoms related to menopause, but there is mounting evidence that its risks may outweigh its benefits in long-term use. Alternative treatments are being tested.
Personality and negative emotionality can affect health.
Stress is related to a variety of physical and psychological problems. An accumulation of minor, everyday stressors can be more harmful than major life changes. Everyday hassles tend to decrease with age, perhaps because people learn strategies for managing stress.
Causes of occupational stress include work overload, interpersonal conflict, sexual harassment, a combination of high pressure and low control, and inability to "unwind." Continual stress may lead to burnout.
Unemployment creates psychological as well as financial stress. Physical and psychological effects may depend on coping resources.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

MEASURING COGNITIVE ABILITIES IN MIDDLE AGE

Guidepost 4: What cognitive gains and losses occur during middle age?

The Seattle Longitudinal Study found that most basic mental abilities peak during middle age. Fluid intelligence declines earlier than crystallized intelligence.

THE DISTINCTIVENESS OF ADULT COGNITION

Guidepost 5: Do mature adults think differently than younger people do?

Some theorists propose that cognition takes distinctive forms at midlife. Advances in expertise, or specialized knowledge have been attributed to encapsulation of fluid abilities within a person's chosen field. Expertise also depends on the social context.
Postformal thought seems especially useful in situations calling for integrative thinking.
The ability to solve practical problems is strong, and may peak, at midlife.

CREATIVITY

Guidepost 6: What accounts for creative achievement, and how does it change with age?

Creative performance depends on personal attributes and environmental forces, as well as cognitive abilities.
Creativity is not strongly related to intelligence. However, according to Sternberg, the insightful, analytic, and practical aspects of intelligence play a part in creative performance.
An age-related decline appears in both psychometric tests of divergent thinking and actual creative output, but peak ages for output vary by occupation. Losses in productivity with age may be offset by gains in quality.

WORK AND EDUCATION: ARE AGE-BASED ROLES OBSOLETE?

Guidepost 7: How have work patterns changed, and how does work contribute to cognitive development?

A shift from age-differentiated to age-integrated roles appears to be occurring in response to longer life and social change.
Ginzberg's theory, based on more recent changes in work life, describes two basic career paths: stability and change.
Complex work may improve cognitive flexibility. Changes in the workplace may make work more meaningful and cognitively challenging for many people.

Guidepost 8: What is the value of education for mature learners?

Many adults go to college at a nontraditional age or participate in continuing education. Adults go to school chiefly to improve work-related skills and knowledge or to prepare for a change of career.
Mature adults have special educational needs and strengths.

16. Psychosocial Development in Middle Adulthood

LOOKING AT THE LIFE COURSE IN MIDDLE AGE

Guidepost 1: How do developmental scientists approach the study of psychosocial development in middle adulthood?

Developmental scientists view midlife psychosocial development both objectively, in terms of trajectories or pathways, and subjectively, in terms of people's sense of self and the way they actively construct their lives.
Change and continuity must be seen in context and in terms of the whole life span.

CHANGE AT MIDLIFE: CLASSIC THEORETICAL APPROACHES

Guidepost 2: What did classic theorists have to say about psychosocial change in middle age?

Although some theorists hold that personality is essentially formed by midlife, there is a growing consensus that midlife development shows change as well as stability. Change can be maturational (normative) or nonnormative.
Humanistic theorists such as Maslow and Rogers see middle age as an opportunity for positive change.
Carl Jung held that men and women at midlife express previously suppressed aspects of personality. Two necessary tasks are giving up the image of youth and acknowledging mortality.
Erikson's seventh psychosocial stage is generativity versus stagnation. Generativity can be expressed through parenting and grandparenting, teaching or mentorship, productivity or creativity, self-development, and "maintenance of the world." The "virtue" of this period is care.
Vaillant and Levinson found major midlife shifts in men's lives. Their findings echo Jung's and Erikson's theories.
Despite the greater fluidity of the life cycle today, people still tend to expect and assess important events in their lives by a "social clock."

THE SELF AT MIDLIFE: ISSUES AND THEMES

Guidepost 3: What issues concerning the self come to the fore during middle adulthood?

Key psychosocial issues and themes during middle adulthood concern the existence of a midlife crisis, identity development (including gender identity), and psychological well-being.
Research does not support a normative midlife crisis. It is more accurate to refer to a transition that often involves a midlife review, which may be a psychological turning point.
According to Whitbourne's model, identity development is a process in which people continually confirm or revise their self-perceptions based on experience and feedback from others. Identity style can predict adaptation to the onset of aging.
Generativity is an aspect of identity development. Current research on generativity finds it most prevalent at middle age but not universally so. Generativity may be affected by social roles and expectations and by individual characteristics.
Narrative psychology describes identity development as a continuous process of constructing a life story.
Research has found increasing "masculinization" of women and "feminization" of men at midlife, but this may be largely a cohort effect and may reflect the types of measures used. Research generally does not support Gutmann's proposed gender crossover.
Research based on Ryff's six-dimensional scale has found that midlife is generally a period of positive mental health and well-being, though socioeconomic status is a factor.
Generativity is related to psychological well-being in middle age. It may derive from involvement in multiple roles, but not necessarily in all roles equally.
Much research suggests that for women the fifties are a "prime time" of life.

CHANGES IN RELATIONSHIPS AT MIDLIFE

Guidepost 4: What role do social relationships play in the lives of middle-aged people?

Two theories of the changing importance of relationships are Kahn and Antonucci's social convoy theory and Laura Carstensen's socioemotional selectivity theory. According to both theories, social-emotional support is an important element in social interaction at midlife and beyond.
Relationships at midlife are important to physical and mental health but also can present stressful demands.

CONSENSUAL RELATIONSHIPS

Guidepost 5: Do marriages become happier or unhappier during the middle years?

Research on the quality of marriage suggests a dip in marital satisfaction during the years of child rearing, followed by an improved relationship after the children leave home.

Guidepost 6: How common is divorce at this time of life?

Divorce at midlife is relatively uncommon but is increasing. Marital capital, socioeconomic status, and the timing and effects of the empty nest may play a part.
Divorce today may be less threatening to well-being in middle age than in young adulthood.

Guidepost 7: How do gay and lesbian relationships compare with heterosexual ones?

Because many homosexuals delay coming out, at midlife they are often just establishing intimate relationships.
Gay and lesbian couples tend to be more egalitarian than heterosexual couples but experience similar problems in balancing family and career commitments.

Guidepost 8: How do friendships fare during middle age?

Middle-aged people tend to invest less time and energy in friendships than younger adults do, but depend on friends for emotional support and practical guidance.
Friendships may have special importance for homosexuals.

RELATIONSHIPS WITH MATURING CHILDREN

Guidepost 9: How do parent-child relationships change as children approach and reach adulthood?

Parents of adolescents have to come to terms with a loss of control over their children's lives, and some parents do this more easily than others.
The "emptying of the nest" is liberating for most women but may be stressful for couples whose identity is dependent on the parental role or those who now must face previously submerged marital problems.
Today, more young adults are delaying departure from their childhood home or are returning to it, sometimes with their own families. This situation can be disturbing to both sides; adjustment tends to be smoother if the parents see the adult child as moving toward autonomy and if parents and child negotiate roles and responsibilities.
Middle-aged parents tend to remain involved with their adult children, and most are generally happy with the way their children turned out. Conflict may arise over grown children's need to be treated as adults and parents' continuing concern about them.

OTHER KINSHIP TIES

Guidepost 10: How do middle-aged people get along with parents and siblings?

Relationships between middle-aged adults and their parents are usually characterized by a strong bond of affection. The two generations generally maintain frequent contact and offer and receive assistance. Aid usually flows from parents to children.
As life lengthens, more and more aging parents become dependent for care on their middle-aged children. Acceptance of these dependency needs is the mark of filial maturity and may be the outcome of a filial crisis.
The chances of becoming a caregiver to an aging parent increase through middle age, especially for women.
Caregiving can be a source of considerable stress but also of satisfaction. Community support programs can help prevent caregiver burnout.
Although siblings tend to have less contact at midlife than before and after, most middle-aged siblings remain in touch, and their relationships are important to well-being.

GRANDPARENTHOOD

Guidepost 11: How has grandparenthood changed, and what roles do grandparents play?

Most U.S. adults become grandparents in middle age and have an average of six grandchildren.
Although most American grandparents today are less intimately involved in grandchildren's lives than in the past (often because of geographic separation), they can play an important role.
Grandmothers tend to be more involved in "kinkeeping" than grandfathers.
Divorce and remarriage of an adult child can affect grandparent-grandchild relationships and create new stepgrandparenting roles.
An increasing number of grandparents are raising grandchildren whose parents are unable to care for them. Raising grandchildren can create physical, emotional, and financial strains.

17. Physical and Cognitive Development in Late Adulthood

OLD AGE TODAY

Guidepost 1: How is today's older population changing?

Efforts to combat ageism are making headway, thanks to the visibility of a growing number of active, healthy older adults.
The proportion of older people in the United States and world populations is greater than ever before and is expected to continue to grow. People over 80 are the fastest-growing age group.
Today, many older people are healthy, vigorous, and active. Although effects of primary aging may be beyond people's control, they often can avoid effects of secondary aging.
Specialists in the study of aging sometimes refer to people between ages 65 and 74 as the young old, those over 75 as the old old, and those over 85 as the oldest old. However, these terms may be more useful when used to refer to functional age.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

LONGEVITY AND AGING

Guidepost 2: How has life expectancy changed, and how does it vary?

Life expectancy has increased dramatically. The longer people live, the longer they are likely to live.
In general, life expectancy is greater in developed countries than in developing countries, among white Americans than among African Americans, and among women as compared to men.
Recent gains in life expectancy come largely from progress toward reducing death rates from diseases affecting older people. Further large improvements in life expectancy may depend on whether scientists can learn to modify basic processes of aging.

Guidepost 3: What theories have been advanced for causes of aging, and what does research suggest about possibilities for extending the life span?

Theories of biological aging fall into two categories: genetic-programming theories and variable-rate, or error theories.
Research on extension of the life span through genetic manipulation or caloric restriction has challenged the idea of a biological limit to the life span.

PHYSICAL CHANGES

Guidepost 4: What physical changes occur during old age, and how do these changes vary among individuals?

Changes in body systems and organs with age are highly variable and may be results of disease, which in turn may be affected by lifestyle.
Most body systems generally continue to function fairly well, but the heart becomes more susceptible to disease. Reserve capacity declines.
Although the brain changes with age, the changes are usually modest. They include loss or shrinkage of nerve cells and a general slowing of responses. However, the brain also seems able to grow new neurons and build new connections late in life.
Visual and hearing problems may interfere with daily life but often can be corrected. Irreversible damage may result from age-related macular degeneration or glaucoma. Losses in taste and smell may lead to poor nutrition. Training can improve muscular strength, balance, and reaction time. Older adults tend to be susceptible to accidents and falls.
Many older people are sexually active, though the frequency and intensity of sexual experience are generally lower than for younger adults.

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH

Guidepost 5: What health problems are common in late adulthood, and what factors influence health at that time?

Most older people are reasonably healthy, especially if they follow a healthy lifestyle. Most do have chronic conditions, but these usually do not greatly limit activities or interfere with daily life. The proportion of older adults with physical disabilities has declined. Still, older adults do need more medical care than younger ones.
Exercise and diet are important influences on health. Loss of teeth can seriously affect nutrition.

Guidepost 6: What mental and behavioral disorders do some older people experience?

Most older people are in good mental health. Depression, alcoholism, and many other conditions can be reversed with treatment; others, such as Alzheimer's disease, are irreversible.
Alzheimer's disease becomes more prevalent with age. It is highly heritable, but diet, exercise, and other lifestyle factors may play a part. Behavioral and drug therapies can slow deterioration. Mild cognitive impairment can be an early sign of the disease, and researchers are attempting to develop tools for early diagnosis.
Major depressive disorder tends to be underdiagnosed in older adults.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

ASPECTS OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Guidepost 7: What gains and losses in cognitive abilities tend to occur in late adulthood, and are there ways to improve older people's cognitive performance?

Physical and psychological factors that influence older people's performance on intelligence tests may lead to underestimation of their intelligence. Cross-sectional research showing declines in intelligence may reflect cohort differences.
Measures of fluid and crystallized intelligence show a more encouraging pattern, with crystallized abilities increasing into old age.
In Baltes' dual-process model, the mechanics of intelligence often decline, but the pragmatics of intelligence may continue to grow.
A general slowdown in central nervous system functioning may affect the speed of information processing. However, this slowdown may be limited to certain processing tasks and may vary among individuals.
The Seattle Longitudinal Study found that cognitive functioning in late adulthood is highly variable. Few people decline in all or most areas, and many people improve in some. The engagement hypothesis seeks to explain these differences.
Although the ability to perform instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) generally declines with age, ability to solve interpersonal or emotionally charged problems does not.
Older people show considerable plasticity in cognitive performance and can benefit from training.
Some aspects of memory, such as sensory memory, semantic and procedural memory, and priming appear nearly as efficient in older adults as in younger people. Other aspects, mainly the capacity of working memory and the ability to recall specific events or recently learned information, are often less efficient.
Neurological changes, as well as declines in perceptual speed, may account for much of the decline in memory functioning in older adults. However, the brain can compensate for some age-related declines.
According to studies of metamemory, some older adults may overestimate their memory loss, perhaps because of stereotypes about aging.
According to Baltes's studies, wisdom is not age-related, but people of all ages give wiser responses to problems affecting their own age group.

LIFELONG LEARNING

Guidepost 8: What educational opportunities can older adults pursue?

Lifelong learning can keep older people mentally alert.
Educational programs for older adults are proliferating. Most of these programs have either a practical-social focus or a more serious educational one.
Older adults learn better when material and methods are geared to the needs of this age group.

18. Psychosocial Development in Late Adulthood

THEORY AND RESEARCH ON PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Guidepost 1: What happens to personality in old age?

Personality traits tend to remain stable in late adulthood, but cohort differences have been found.
Emotionality tends to become more positive and less negative in old age, but personality traits can modify this pattern.

Guidepost 2: What special issues or tasks do older people need to deal with?

Erik Erikson's final conflict, ego integrity versus despair, culminates in the "virtue" of wisdom, or acceptance of one's life and impending death.

Guidepost 3: How do older adults cope?

George Vaillant found that the use of mature adaptive mechanisms earlier in adulthood predicts psychosocial adjustment in late life.
In the cognitive-appraisal model, adults of all ages generally prefer problem-focused coping, but older adults do more emotion-focused coping than younger adults when the situation calls for it.
Religion is an important source of emotion-focused coping for many older adults. Older African Americans are more involved in religious activity than elderly white people, and black women are more involved than black men.

Guidepost 4: Is there such a thing as successful aging? If so, how can it be defined and measured?

Two contrasting early models of "successful" or "optimal" aging are disengagement theory and activity theory. Disengagement theory has little support, and findings on activity theory are mixed. Newer refinements of activity theory are continuity theory and a distinction between productive and leisure activity.
Baltes and his colleagues suggest that successful aging may depend on selective optimization with compensation, in the psychosocial as well as cognitive realm.

LIFESTYLE AND SOCIAL ISSUES RELATED TO AGING

Guidepost 5: What are some issues regarding work and retirement in late life, and how do older adults handle time and money?

Some older people continue to work for pay, but most are retired. However, many retired people start new careers or do part-time paid or volunteer work. Often retirement is a phased phenomenon.
Age has both positive and negative effects on job performance, and individual differences are more significant than age differences. Older adults tend to be more satisfied with their work and more committed than younger ones.
The financial situation of older people has improved, but still about 30 percent can expect to live in poverty at some point. For many of today's middle-aged adults, retirement funding is shaky.
Retirement is an ongoing process, and its emotional impact must be assessed in context. Personal, economic, and social resources, as well as the length of time a person has been retired, may affect morale.
Common lifestyle patterns after retirement include a family-focused lifestyle, balanced investment, and serious leisure.

Guidepost 6: What options for living arrangements do older adults have?

In developing countries, the elderly often live with children or grandchildren. In developed countries, most older people live with a spouse, and a growing minority live alone. Minority elders are more likely than white elders to live with extended family members.
Most older Americans prefer to "age in place." Most can remain in the community if they can depend on a spouse or child for help.
Older women are more likely than older men to live alone. Most Americans who live alone are widowed.
Institutionalization is rare in developing countries. Its extent varies in developed countries. In the United States, only about 4.5 percent of the older population are institutionalized at a given time, but the proportion increases greatly with age. Most nursing home residents are older widows.
Fast-growing alternatives to institutionalization include assisted-living facilities and other kinds of group housing.
Elder abuse is most often suffered by a frail or demented older person living with a spouse or child.

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS IN LATE LIFE

Guidepost 7: How do personal relationships change in old age, and what is their effect on well-being?

Relationships are very important to older people, even though frequency of social contact declines in old age.
According to social convoy theory, reductions or changes in social contact in late life do not impair well-being because a stable inner circle of social support is maintained. According to socioemotional selectivity theory, older people prefer to spend time with people who enhance their emotional well-being.
Social support is associated with good health, and isolation is a risk factor for mortality.
The way multigenerational late-life families function often has cultural roots.

CONSENSUAL RELATIONSHIPS

Guidepost 8: What are the characteristics of long-term marriages in late life, and what impact do divorce, remarriage, and widowhood have at this time?

As life expectancy increases, so does the potential longevity of marriage. More men than women are married in late life. Marriages that last into late adulthood tend to be relatively satisfying.
Divorce is relatively uncommon among older people, and most older adults who have been divorced are remarried. Divorce can be especially difficult for older people. Remarriages may be more relaxed in late life.
Although a growing proportion of men are widowed, women tend to outlive their husbands and are less likely to marry again.

Guidepost 9: How do unmarried older people and those in gay and lesbian relationships fare?

A small but increasing percentage of adults reach old age without marrying. Never-married adults are less likely to be lonely than divorced or widowed ones.
Older homosexuals, like heterosexuals, have needs for intimacy, social contact, and generativity. Many gays and lesbians adapt to aging with relative ease. Adjustment may be influenced by coming-out status.

Guidepost 10: How does friendship change in old age?

Friendships in old age focus on companionship and support, not work and parenting. Most older adults have close friends, and those who do are healthier and happier.
Older people enjoy time spent with friends more than with family, but the family is the main source of emotional support.

NONMARITAL KINSHIP TIES

Guidepost 11: How do older adults get along with--or without--grown children and with siblings, and how do they adjust to great-grandparenthood?

Elderly parents and their adult children frequently see or contact each other, are concerned about each other, and offer each other assistance. An increasing number of elderly parents are caregivers for adult children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren.
In some respects, childlessness does not seem to be an important disadvantage in old age, but providing care for infirm elderly people without children can be a problem.
Often siblings offer each other emotional support, and sometimes more tangible support as well. Sisters in particular maintain sibling ties.
Great-grandparents are less involved in children's lives than grandparents, but most find the role fulfilling.

19. Dealing with Death and Bereavement

THE MANY FACES OF DEATH

Death has biological, social, cultural, historical, religious, legal, psychological, developmental, and ethical aspects.

Guidepost 1: How do attitudes and customs concerning death differ across cultures?

Customs surrounding death and mourning vary greatly from one culture to another, depending on the society's view of the nature and consequences of death. Some modern customs have evolved from ancient beliefs and practices.

Guidepost 2: What are the implications of the "mortality revolution," and how does it affect care of the dying?

Death rates dropped drastically during the twentieth century, especially in developed countries.
Today three-quarters of deaths in the United States occur among the elderly, and the top causes of death are diseases that primarily affect older adults.
As death became primarily a phenomenon of late adulthood, it became largely "invisible," and care of the dying took place in isolation, by professionals.
There is now an upsurge of interest in understanding and dealing realistically and compassionately with death. Examples of this tendency are a growing interest in thanatology and increasing emphasis on hospice care and palliative care.

FACING DEATH AND LOSS: PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES

Guidepost 3: How do people change as they confront their own death?

People often undergo cognitive and functional declines shortly before death.
Some people who come close to dying have "near-death" experiences.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross proposed five stages in coming to terms with dying: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These stages, and their sequence, are not universal.

Guidepost 4: Is there a normal pattern of grieving?

There is no universal pattern of grief.
The most widely studied pattern of grief work moves from shock and disbelief to preoccupation with the memory of the dead person and finally to resolution. Research has found several variations, including high to low distress, no intense distress, and prolonged distress.
For some people who have great difficulty adjusting to a loss, grief therapy may be indicated.

DEATH AND BEREAVEMENT ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN

Guidepost 5: How do attitudes and understandings about death and bereavement differ across the life span?

Before ages 5 to 7, children do not understand that death is irreversible, universal, inevitable, and nonfunctional. Young children can better understand death if it is part of their own experience. Although children experience grief, as adults do, there are age-related reactions based on cognitive and emotional development.
Although adolescents generally do not think much about death, violence and the threat of death are part of some adolescents' daily life. Adolescents tend to take needless risks.
Realization and acceptance of the inevitability of death increases throughout adulthood.

Guidepost 6: What special challenges are involved in surviving a spouse, a parent, or a child, or in mourning a miscarriage?

Women are more likely to be widowed, and widowed younger, than men, and may experience widowhood somewhat differently. Coping skills are more important than age in determining how widowed persons adjust. For some people, widowhood can ultimately become a positive developmental experience.
Today, loss of parents often occurs in middle age. Death of a parent can precipitate changes in the self and in relationships with others.
The loss of a child can be especially difficult because it is no longer normative. Often such a loss weakens or destroys the parents' marriage.
Miscarriage is not generally considered a significant loss in U.S. society. People are left to deal with a miscarriage in their own way.

MEDICAL, LEGAL, AND ETHICAL ISSUES: THE "RIGHT TO DIE"

Guidepost 7: How common is suicide?

Although suicide is no longer illegal in modern societies, there is still a stigma attached to it. Some people maintain a "right to die," especially for people with long-term degenerative illness.
Suicide is the eleventh leading cause of death in the United States, lower than in many other countries. The number of suicides is probably underestimated.
Suicide rates tend to rise with age and are more common among men than among women, though women are more likely to attempt suicide. The highest rate of suicide in the United States is among elderly white men. It is often related to depression, isolation, and debilitating ailments.

Guidepost 8: Why are attitudes toward euthanasia ("mercy killing") and assisted suicide changing, and what concerns do these practices raise?

Euthanasia and assisted suicide involve controversial issues concerning the "right to die," protection from abuse, and medical ethics.
To avoid unnecessary suffering through artificial prolongation of life, passive euthanasia is generally permitted with the patient's consent or with advance directives. However, such directives are not consistently followed. Most hospitals now have ethics committees to deal with decisions about end-of-life care.
Active euthanasia and assisted suicide are generally illegal, but public support for physician aid in dying has increased. The state of Oregon has a law permitting physician assisted suicide for the terminally ill. The Netherlands and Belgium have legalized both euthanasia and assisted suicide.
The aid-in-dying controversy has focused more attention on the need for better palliative care and understanding of patients' state of mind.

FINDING MEANING AND PURPOSE IN LIFE AND DEATH

Guidepost 9: How can people overcome fear of dying and come to terms with death?

The more meaning and purpose people find in their lives, the less they tend to fear death.
Life review can help people prepare for death and give them a last chance to complete unfinished tasks.
Even dying can be a developmental experience.

Human Development, 10/e
Diane E. Papalia
Sally Wendkos Olds
Ruth Duskin Feldman

Human Development

1. The Study of Human Development

2. Theory and Research

3. Forming a New Life

4. Psychosocial Development During the First Three Years

5. Cognitive Development During the First Three Years

6. Psychosocial Development During the First Three Years

7. Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

8. Psychosocial Development in Early Childhood

9. Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood

10. Psychosocial Development in Middle Childhood

11. Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence

12. Psychosocial Development in Adolescence

13. Physical and Cognitive Development in Young Adulthood

14. Psychosocial Development in Young Adulthood

15. Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Adulthood

16. Psychosocial Development in Middle Adulthood

17. Physical and Cognitive Development in Late Adulthood

18. Psychosocial Development in Late Adulthood

19. Dealing with Death and Bereavement

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Studies

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