Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Developmental psychology
- The historical roots of developmental psychology
- Globalization
- Typical and atypical development
- Some recurrent issues in developmental psychology
- Genes, environment and culture
- Learning and development
- Continuity and discontinuity
- Stages
- Critical and sensitive periods
- Equifinality and multifinality
- Process and outcome
- Multiple levels of analysis
- Modeling development
- Main effects
- Interaction models
- Transaction models
- Dynamic systems
- Cascades
- Vulnerability, risk, resilience and protection
- The developmental way of thinking
- Developmental psychopathology
Chapter 2: Theoretical Perspectives
- The function of developmental theories
- Psychodynamic psychology
- Behaviourism
- Logical constructivism
- Social constructivism
- Evolutionary psychology
- Ethological psychology
- Ecological psychology
- Information processing
- Critical developmental psychology
- Distinguishing between theories
Chapter 3: Methods of gaining knowledge about children
- Observations
- Experiments
- Some common problems when observing children
- Questionnaires and interviews
- Archival methods
- Methodologies
- Quantitative and qualitative methods
- Group and case studies
- Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies
- Prospective and retrospective studies
- Cross-cultural studies
- Special methods for investigating infants
- Habituation and dehabituation
- Conditioning
- Visual exploration
- Physiological reactions
- The methods are important but difficult to interpret
- Criteria for research methodology
- Reliability
- Validity
- Assessment
- Conversations and interviews
- Observations
- Tests
- Checklists
- Analyzes and interpretation
- Dynamic assessment
- Response to intervention
- Ethical considerations
Chapter 4: Child and Adolescent Disorders
- Categorization of disorders
- Classification systems
- Sensory impairments
- Motor impairments
- Neurodevelopmental disorders
- Behavioral and emotional disorders
- Trauma and stressor-related disorders
- Addictions
- Acquired disorders
- Disorders can be related
Chapter 5: Genes, evolution, heredity and environment
- Chromosomes and genes
- Genetic inheritance
- Dominant and recessive traits
- Autosomal and sex-related inheritance
- Mutation
- Genetic imprinting
- Evolution
- Gene regulation, epigenesis and development
- Heredity and environment in individual difference
- Family studies
- Heritability estimates
- Gene studies of typical and atypical development
- Genes and development: Constraints and plasticity
Chapter 6: Stimulation and activity during fetal development
- Fetal development
- The biochemical environment
- Prenatal stimulation
- Movement and activity
- Prenatal learning
- Fetal experiences and later development
- Maternal emotional states
Chapter 7: Brain Development
- Methods of studying the brain
- Brain structure
- The brain and experience
- Brain development
- Early and later plasticity
- Gender differences
- Brain organization and atypical development
- Stimulating development
Chapter 8: Perceptual development
- Two theoretical explanations
- Piaget’s constructivism
- Gibson’s ecological theory
- Comparison between the two theories
- Vision
- Early development of vision
- Further development of the visual sense
- Pictorial competence
- Visual impairment
- Hearing
- Early perception of sound
- Localization
- The development of hearing through childhood and adolescence
- Hearing impairment
- Deaf-blindness
- Development of musical skills
- Other senses
- Smell
- Taste
- Intermodal perception
Chapter 9: Motor development
- From action systems to complex actions
- Gross motor development
- Development of fine motor skills
- Fine and gross motor skills are related
- Individuals and cultural differences
- Theories of motor development
- Development of drawing
- Atypical motor development
Chapter 10: Theories of cognitive development
- Domains, modules and activities
- Logical constructivism
- Information processing
- Nativism
- Social constructivism
- Disparity and integration
Chapter 11: Attention, memory and executive function
- Attention
- Attention in the first year of life
- Attention development during childhood and adolescence
- Attention in atypical development
- Memory
- Memory in infancy
- The development of memory during childhood and adolescence
- Memory and language
- Scripts
- Autobiographical memory
- Memory of negative and traumatic events
- Childhood amnesia
- False memories
- Memory and atypical development
- Children as witnesses
- Executive functions
- Executive functions and atypical development
Chapter 12: Conceptual development and reasoning
- Early conception of space, time and causality
- Object concepts
- Reasoning
- Atypical development
Chapter 13: Mind understanding
- Visual perspective
- Private speech
- Early understanding of desires and beliefs
- Further development of mind understanding
- Individual and cultural differences
- Atypical mind understanding
- Social cognitive disorders
Chapter 14: Intelligence
- Theories of intelligence
- Triarchial model
- Multiple intelligences
- Intelligence tests
- Stadardization
- Norm-based and criteria-based tests
- Other observations of intelligent action
- Stability and variation in IQ scores
- Early prediction
- Stability and variation in later childhood
- Nature, Nurture and intelligence
- Genetic variation
- Environmental factors
- Gender differences
- Ethnicity and intelligence
- Changing norms: The Flynn effect
- School performance and intelligence
- Atypical development: Intellectual disability
- Atypical development: Giftedness and talent
Chapter 15: Learning and instruction
- Types of learning
- Habituation and conditioning
- Imitation and observational learning
- Learning by trial and error, insight and heuristics
- Two developmental perspectives on education
- Logical constructivism
- Social constructivism
- Cooperation among children
- Atypical development: Learning disorders
- Reading and writing disorders
- Mathematics disorders
- Learning disorders and mental disorders
Chapter 16: The development of communication and language
- Early development of communication
- Joint attention
- Theories of communicative development
- Early dialogues
- Gestures
- The development of language
- Main theories
- The emergence of speech
- Early word learning
- Further growth in vocabulary
- From single words to sentences
- Language in use
- Conversation skills
- Narratives
- Child-directed language
- Gender differences
- Multilingualism
- Language in other modalities
- Sign language
- Manual signs and graphic symbols for children with severe speech and language impairment
- Language disorders
- Language disorders and emotional and behavioral disorders
Chapter 17: Emotions and emotion regulation
- Emotions
- Emotion regulation
- Cultural differences
- Main theories of emotional development
- Early emotional development
- Emotional expressions
- Understanding emotional expressions in others
- Imitation of emotional expressions
- Emotion regulation
- Emotional development in childhood and adolescence
- Self-referential emotions
- Further emotional development
- Emotion regulation
- Emotionality in adolescence
- The influence of the environment on children’s emotions
- Sensitivity
- Talking about emotions
- Reacting to emotions in others
- Empathy and sympathy
- Reactions to negative emotions in others
- Parents with depressive traits
- Peers
- Emotional disorders
- Anxiety disorders
- Depression
- Regulation disorders
Chapter 18: Temperament and personality
- Temperament
- Measuring temperament
- Heritability
- Stability of temperament
- Temperament and parental behaviour
- Early temperament and later disorders
- Personality
- Personality traits
- Theories of personality development
- Freud’s theory
- Erikson’s theory
- McCrae and Costa’s five-factor theory
- Behaviourism
- Cognitive behavior theory
- The emergence of personality
- Personality in childhood
- Personality development in adolescence
- Factors that affect personality development
- Heritability
- Childhood environment
- The significance of early experiences
- Personality deevlopment and later disorders
- Personality development is a transactional process
Chapter 19: Attachment
- Theoretical perspectives on attachment
- Ethological theory
- Primary needs
- Separation theory
- The development of attachment Exploration
- Individual differences in attachment
- Measures of attachment
- Attachment and adult sesitivity
- Temperament
- Attachment in atypical deevlopment
- Continuity of attachment
- Cultural differences
- Attachment and later functioning
- Attachment-related disorders
- Attachment theory and social work in practise
Chapter 20: Sibling and peer relations
- Sibling relations
- Siblings with atypical development
- Peer relations
- The development of friendship
- Developing perceptions of friendship
- Stability of friendships
- Similarities between friends
- Enemies
- Popular and rejected children
- Social strategies and popularity
- Stability of popularity
- Friends, popularity and adaptation
- Adolescent groups
- Peer relations and later disorders
Chapter 21: Self and identity
- The beginnings of self-perception
- Theories of self development
- Separation-individuation theory
- Six senses of self
- Four levels of a representational self
- Other views on early self-perception
- Further development of self-perception
- Self descriptions
- Autobiographical narrative
- Cultural perspectives
- Self-disclosure
- Self-evaluation
- Self-perception in atypical development
- Self-perception and emotional and behavioral disorders
- Eating disorders
- Self-esteem and narcissism
- Identity formation
- Ethnic identity
Chapter 22: Moral development
- Theoretical perspectives
- Logical constructivism
- Evolutionary theory
- Social domain theory
- The development of moral understanding
- Morality and emotions
- Conscience
- Callous-unemotional traits and psychopathy
Chapter 23: Prosocial and antisocial development
- Pro-social behaviour
- Development in childhood
- Development in adolsecnce
- Antisocial behavior
- Prevalence of antisicial behavior
- Bullying
- Individual differences in antisocial behavior
- Pathways to antisocial behavior
- A social-cognitive model
- Parenting influences
- Society and prevention
Chapter 24: Gender development
- The development of gender understanding
- Gender identity, stability and constancy
- Gender roles
- Gender stereotypes
- Construction of understanding of gender
- Sex typing
- Activity preferences
- Gender segregated interaction
- Differential treatment
- Atypical development
- Theoretical perspectives on gender-typical behavior
Chapter 25: Play
- Forms of play
- Solitary, parallel and group play
- The development of play
- Helping children play
- The functions of play
- Play in different contexts
- Play among children with atypical development
Chapter 26: Media and understanding of society
- Children and adolescents in a media society
- Extent of media use
- Parental attitudes and children’s media environment
- Media and learning
- Prosocial and antisocial effects of media
- Social media
- Societal knowledge
- Economics and social structure
- Social inequality
- Becoming citizens
Chapter 27: Toward adulthood
- Bibliography