Critical Thinking Questions

  1. Do children have different natures, or are differences among children purely due to differences in their experiences? What personal observations, research findings, and reasoning lead to your conclusion?
  2. Why do you think that the children who spent less than 6 months in orphanages in Romania were able to catch up physically, intellectually, and socially, whereas those who spent more time there have not been able to catch up? Do you think that they will catch up in the future?
  3. In what ways is it fortunate and in what ways unfortunate that children shape their own development to a substantial extent?
  4. Did reading about sleeping arrangements in the United States and in other cultures influence what you would like to do if you have children? Explain why or why not.
  5. Given what you learned in this chapter about child-development research, can you think of practical applications of the research (other than the ones described) that seem both feasible and important to you?