This is an exciting time in the field of child development. The past decade has brought new theories, new ways of thinking, new areas of research, and innumerable new findings to the field. We originally wrote How Children Develop to describe this ever-improving body of knowledge of children and their development and to convey our excitement about the progress that is being made in understanding the developmental process. We are pleased to continue this endeavor with the publication of the fourth edition of How Children Develop.

As teachers of child development courses, we appreciate the challenge that instructors face in trying to present these advances and discoveries—as well as the major older ideas and findings—in a one-semester course. Therefore, rather than aim at encyclopedic coverage, we have focused on identifying the most important developmental phenomena and describing them in sufficient depth to make them meaningful and memorable to students. In short, our goal has been to write a textbook that makes the child development course coherent and enjoyable for students and teachers alike.

Classic Themes

The basic premise of the book is that all areas of child development are unified by a small set of enduring themes. These themes can be stated in the form of questions that child development research tries to answer:

• 1. How do nature and nurture together shape development?
• 2. How do children shape their own development?
• 3. In what ways is development continuous and in what ways is it discontinuous?
• 4. How does change occur?
• 5. How does the sociocultural context influence development?
• 6. How do children become so different from one another?
• 7. How can research promote children’s well-being?

These seven themes provide the core structure of the book. They are introduced and illustrated in Chapter 1, highlighted repeatedly, where relevant, in the subsequent fourteen content chapters, and utilized in the final chapter as a framework for integrating findings relevant to each theme from all areas of development. The continuing coverage of these themes allows us to tell a story that has a beginning (the introduction of the themes), a middle (discussion of specific findings relevant to them), and an ending (the overview of what students have learned about the themes). We believe that this thematic emphasis and structure will not only help students to understand enduring questions about child development but will also leave them with a greater sense of satisfaction and completion at the end of the course.

Contemporary Perspective

The goal of providing a thoroughly contemporary perspective on how children develop has influenced the organization of our book as well as its contents. Whole new areas and perspectives have emerged that barely existed when most of today’s child development textbooks were originally written. The organization of How Children Develop is designed to present these new topics and approaches in the context of the field as it currently stands, rather than trying to shoehorn them into organizations that once fit the field but no longer do.

Consider the case of Piaget’s theory and current research relevant to it. Piaget’s theory often is presented in its own chapter, most of which describes the theory in full detail and the rest of which offers contemporary research that demonstrates problems with the theory. This approach often leaves students wondering why so much time was spent on Piaget’s theory if modern research shows it to be wrong in so many ways.

The fact is that the line of research that began over 40 years ago as an effort to challenge Piaget’s theory has emerged since then as a vital area in its own right— the area of conceptual development. Research in conceptual development provides extensive information on such fascinating topics as children’s understanding of human beings, plants and animals, and the physical universe. As with other research areas, most studies in this field are aimed primarily at uncovering evidence relevant to current claims, not those of Piaget.

We adapted to this changing intellectual landscape in two ways. First, our chapter “Theories of Cognitive Development” (Chapter 4) describes the fundamental aspects of Piaget’s theory in depth and honors his legacy by focusing on the aspects of his work that have proven to be the most enduring. Second, a first-of-its-kind chapter called “Conceptual Development” (Chapter 7) addresses the types of issues that inspired Piaget’s theory but concentrates on modern perspectives and findings regarding those issues. This approach allows us to tell students about the numerous intriguing proposals and observations that are being made in this field, without the artificiality of classifying the findings as “pro-Piagetian” or “anti-Piagetian.”

The opportunity to create a textbook based on current understanding also led us to assign prominent positions to such rapidly emerging areas as epigenetics, behavioral genetics, brain development, prenatal learning, infant cognition, acquisition of academic skills, emotional development, prosocial behavior, and friendship patterns. All these areas have seen major breakthroughs in recent years, and their growing prominence has led to even greater emphasis on them in this edition.

Getting Right to the Point

Our desire to offer a contemporary, streamlined approach led to other departures from the traditional organization. It is our experience that today’s students take child development courses for a variety of practical reasons and are eager to learn about children. Traditionally, however, they have had to wait two or three or even four chapters—on the history of the field, on major theories, on research methods, on genetics—before actually getting to the study of children. We wanted to build on their initial motivation from the start.

Rather than beginning the book, then, with an extensive examination of the history of the field, we include in Chapter 1 a brief overview of the social and intellectual context in which the scientific study of children arose and provide historical background wherever it is pertinent in subsequent chapters. Rather than have an early “blockbuster” theories chapter that covers all the major cognitive and social theories at once (at a point far removed from the content chapters to which the theories apply), we present a chapter on cognitive developmental theories just before the chapters that focus on specific aspects of cognitive development, and we similarly present a chapter on social developmental theories just before the chapters that focus on specific aspects of social development. Rather than have a separate chapter on genetics, we include basic aspects of genetics as part of Chapter 3, “Biology and Behavior,” and then discuss the contributions of genetics to some of the differences among individuals throughout the book. When we originally chose this organization, we hoped that it would allow us, from the first weeks of the course, to kindle students’ enthusiasm for finding out how children develop. Judging by the overwhelmingly positive response we have received from students and instructors alike, it has.

Features

The most important feature of this book is the exposition, which we have tried to make as clear, compelling, and interesting as possible. As in previous editions, we have given extra attention to making it accessible to a broad range of students.

To further enhance the appeal and accessibility of the text, we have retained three types of discussion boxes that explore topics of special interest. “Applications” boxes focus on how child development research can be used to promote children’s well-being. Among the applications that are summed up in these boxes are board-game procedures for improving preschoolers’ understanding of numbers; the Carolina Abecedarian Project; interventions to reduce child abuse; programs, such as PATHS, for helping rejected children gain acceptance from their peers; and Fast Track interventions, which help aggressive children learn how to manage their anger and antisocial behavior. “Individual Differences” boxes focus on populations that differ from the norm with regard to the specific topic under consideration, or on variations among children in the general population. Some of these boxes highlight developmental problems such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, specific language impairment, and conduct disorder, while others focus on differences in the development of children that center on attachment status, gender, and cultural differences. “A Closer Look” boxes examine important and interesting research in greater depth than would otherwise be possible: the areas examined range from brain imaging techniques to discrepant gender identity to the developmental impact of homelessness.

We have also retained a number of other features intended to improve students’ learning. These features include boldfacing key terms and supplying definitions both within the immediate text and in marginal glossaries; providing summaries at the end of each major section, as well as summaries for the overall chapter; and, at the end of each chapter, posing critical thinking questions intended to promote deeper consideration of essential topics.

New to the Fourth Edition

We have expanded our coverage of a number of research areas that have become increasingly important in recent years for both the students of child development and the instructors who teach it. In the following paragraphs, we outline some of the highlights of the fourth edition. Thank you for taking the time to look through this new edition of How Children Develop. We hope that you find it to be useful and appealing.

New and Expanded Coverage

In selecting what to cover from among the many new discoveries about child development, we have emphasized the studies that strike us as the most interesting and important. While retaining and thoroughly updating its essential coverage, the fourth edition of How Children Develop continues to explore a number of fascinating areas in which there has been great progress in the past few years. Following is a very brief sampling of the many areas of new and expanded coverage:

• Epigenetics
• Gene–environment relations, including methylation
• The role of specific gene variants in certain behaviors
• Differential susceptibility to the environment
• Brain development and functioning
• Mechanisms of infants’ learning
• Infants’ understanding of other people
• Executive functioning
• Cultural influences on development
• Relations among understanding of time, space, and number
• Mathematics anxiety
• Applications of research to education
• The growing role and impact of social media in children’s and adolescents’ lives
• Interventions to foster children’s social adjustment

Supplements

How Children Develop, Fourth Edition, features a wide array of multimedia tools designed for the individual needs of students and teachers. For more information about any of the items below, visit Worth Publishers’ online catalog at www.worthpublishers.com.

LaunchPad with LearningCurve Quizzing

A comprehensive Web resource for teaching and learning psychology

LaunchPad combines Worth Publishers’ awarding-winning media with an innovative platform for easy navigation. For students, it is the ultimate online study guide with rich interactive tutorials, videos, e-Book, and the LearningCurve adaptive quizzing system. For instructors, LaunchPad is a full course space where class documents can be posted, quizzes are easily assigned and graded, and students’ progress can be assessed and recorded. Whether you are looking for the most effective study tools or a robust platform for an online course, LaunchPad is a powerful way to enhance your class.

LaunchPad for How Children Develop, Fourth Edition, includes the following resources:

• The LearningCurve quizzing system was designed based on the latest findings from learning and memory research. It combines adaptive question selection, immediate and valuable feedback, and a game-like interface to engage students in a learning experience that is unique to them. Each LearningCurve quiz is fully integrated with other resources in LaunchPad through the Personalized Study Plan, so students will be able to review with Worth’s extensive library of videos and activities. And state-of-the-art question analysis reports allow instructors to track the progress of individual students as well as their class as a whole.
• An interactive e-Book allows students to highlight, bookmark, and make their own notes, just as they would with a printed textbook. Digital enhancements include full-text search and in-text glossary definitions.
• Student Video Activities include more than 100 engaging video modules that instructors can easily assign for student assessment. Videos cover classic experiments, current news footage, and cutting-edge research, all of which are sure to spark discussion and encourage critical thinking.
• The Scientific American Newsfeed delivers weekly articles, podcasts, and news briefs on the very latest developments in psychology from the first name in popular science journalism.

Additional Student Supplements

CourseSmart e-Book

The CourseSmart e-Book offers the complete text of How Children Develop, Fourth Edition, in an easy-to-use, flexible format. Students can choose to view the CourseSmart e-Book online or download it to a personal computer or a portable media player, such as a smart phone or iPad. The CourseSmart e-Book for How Children Develop, Fourth Edition, can be previewed and purchased at www.coursesmart.com.

Scientific American Reader to Accompany How Children Develop

The authors have compiled fifteen Scientific American articles relevant to key topics in the text. The selections range from classics such as Harry Harlow’s “Love in Infant Monkeys” and Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk’s “The ‘Visual Cliff ‘” to contemporary articles on such topics as the interaction of games and environment in the development of intelligence (Robert Plomin and John DeFries), the effects of child abuse on the developing brain (Martin Teicher), balancing work and family (Robert Pleck), and moral development (William Damon). These articles should enrich students’ learning and help them to appreciate the process by which developmental scientists gain new understanding. This premium item can be packaged with the text at no additional cost.

Presentation and Faculty Support

Presentation Slides

Presentation slides are available in three formats that can be used as they are or can be customized. One set includes all the textbook’s illustrations and tables. The second set consists of lecture slides that focus on key themes and terms in the book and include text illustrations and tables. A third set of PowerPoint slides provides an easy way to integrate the supplementary video clips into classroom lectures. All these prebuilt PowerPoint presentations are available through http://www.worthpublishers.com/launchpad/siegler4e.

Presentation Videos

Worth’s video clips for development psychology span the full range of topics for the child development course. With hundreds of clips to choose from, this premium collection includes research and news footage on topics ranging from prenatal development to the experience of child soldiers to empathy in adolescence. These clips are made available to instructors for lecturing in the classroom and also through LaunchPad.

Instructor’s Resource Manual

Written by Lynne Baker-Ward, North Carolina State University, this innovative Instructor’s Resource Manual includes handouts for student projects, reading lists of journal articles, course-planning suggestions, and supplementary readings, in addition to lecture guides, chapter overviews, and learning objectives. The Instructor’s Resource Manual can be downloaded at http://www.worthpublishers.com/launchpad/siegler4e.

New! Faculty Lounge

Faculty Lounge is an online forum provided by Worth Publishers where teachers can find and share favorite teaching ideas and materials, including videos, animations, images, PowerPoint slides, news stories, articles, Web links, and lecture activities. Sign up to browse the site or upload your favorite materials for teaching psychology at www.worthpublishers.com/facultylounge.

Assessment

Test Bank

The Test Bank for How Children Develop by Jill L. Saxon features 80 multiple-choice and 20 essay questions for each chapter. Each question is keyed to the textbook by topic, type, and level of difficulty.

Test Bank on CD-ROM

The Diploma Test Bank CD-ROM, on a dual platform for Windows and Macintosh, guides instructors through the process of creating a test and allows them to add, edit, and scramble questions; to change formats; and to include pictures, equations, and media links. The CD-ROM is also the access point for Diploma Online Testing, which allows creating and administering examinations on paper, over a network, or over the Internet.

iClicker

The iClicker Classroom Response System is a versatile polling system developed by educators for educators that makes class time more efficient and interactive. iClicker allows you to ask questions and instantly record your students’ responses, take attendance, and gauge students’ understanding and opinions. iClicker is available at a 10% discount when packaged with How Children Develop, Fourth Edition.

Course Management

Worth Publishers supports multiple Course Management Systems with enhanced cartridges for upload into Blackboard, Angel, Desire2Learn, Sakai, and Moodle (and others upon request). Cartridges are provided free upon adoption of How Children Develop, Fourth Edition, and can be downloaded through the catalog page at www.worthpublishers.com.

Acknowledgments

So many people have contributed (directly and indirectly) to this textbook that it is impossible to know where to start or where to stop in thanking them. All of us have been given exceptional support by our spouses and significant others—Jerry Clore, Jerry Harris, Xiaodong Lin, and Seth Pollak—and by our children—Benjamin Clore; Michael Harris; Todd, Beth, and Aaron Siegler; Avianna McGhee; and Eli and Nell Pollak—as well as by our parents, relatives, friends, and other loved ones. Our advisors in college and graduate school, Richard Aslin, Ann Brown, Les Cohen, Harry Hake, Robert Liebert, Jim Morgan, Paul Mussen, Ellisa Newport, and Jim Pate, helped to launch our careers and taught us how to recognize and appreciate good research. We also have all benefited from collaborators who shared our quest for understanding child development and from a great many exceptionally helpful and generous colleagues, including Karen Adolph, Martha Alibali, Renee Baillargeon, Sharon Carver, Zhe Chen, Richard Fabes, Cindy Fisher, Melanie Jones, David Klahr, Patrick Lemaire, Angeline Lillard, John Opfer, Kristin Shutts, Tracy Spinrad, David Uttal, Erica Wojcik and Carlos Valiente. We owe special thanks to our assistants, Sheri Towe and Theresa Treasure, who helped in innumerable ways in preparing the book.

We would also like to thank the many reviewers who contributed to this and previous editions: Daisuke Akiba, Queens College, City University of New York; Kimberly Alkins, Queens College, City University of New York; Lynne Baker- Ward, North Carolina State University; Hilary Barth, Wesleyan University; Christopher Beevers, Texas University; Martha Bell, Virginia Tech; Cynthia Berg, University of Utah; Rebecca Bigler, Texas University; Margaret Borkowski, Saginaw Valley State University; Eric Buhs, University of Nebraska–Lincoln; G. Leonard Burns, Washington State University; Wendy Carlson, Shenandoah University; Kristi Cordell-McNulty, Angelo State University; Myra Cox, Harold Washington College; Emily Davidson, Texas A&M University–Main Campus; Ed de St. Aubin, Marquette University; Marissa Diener, University of Utah; Sharon Eaves, Shawnee State University; Urminda Firlan, Grand Rapids Community College; Dorothy Fragaszy, University of Georgia; Jeffery Gagne, University of Texas–Austin; Jennifer Ganger, University of Pittsburgh; Alice Ganzel, Cornell College; Janet Gebelt, Westfield State University; Melissa Ghera, St. John Fisher College; Susan Graham, University of Calgary; Andrea Greenhoot, University of Kansas; Frederick Grote, Western Washington University; John Gruszkos, Reynolds University; Hanna Gustafsson, University of North Carolina; Alma Guyse, Midland College; Lauren Harris, Michigan State University; Karen Hartlep, California State University–Bakersfield; Patricia Hawley, University of Kansas–Main; Susan Hespos, Northwestern University; Doris Hiatt, Monmouth University; Susan Holt, Central Connecticut State University; Lisa Huffman, Ball State University; Kathryn Kipp, University of Georgia; Rosemary Krawczyk, Minnesota State University; Raymond Krukovsky, Union County College; Tara Kuther, Western Connecticut State University; Richard Lanthier, George Washington University; Elida Laski, Boston College; Kathryn Lemery, Arizona State University; Barbara Licht, Florida State University; Angeline Lillard, University of Virginia; Wayne McMillin, Northwestern State University; Martha Mendez-Baldwin, Manhattan College; Scott Miller, University of Florida; Keith Nelson, Pennsylvania State University–Main Campus; Paul Nicodemus, Austin Peay State University; Katherine O’Doherty, Vanderbilt University; John Opfer, The Ohio State University; Ann Repp, Texas University; Leigh Shaw, Weber State University; Jennifer Simonds, Westminster College; Rebekah Smith, University of Texas–San Antonio; Mark Strauss, University of Pittsburgh–Main; Spencer Thompson, University of Texas–Permian Basin; Lisa Travis, University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign; Roger Webb, University of Arkansas–Little Rock; Keri Weed, University of South Carolina–Aiken; Sherri Widen, Boston College.

We would especially like to thank Campbell Leaper, University of California– Santa Cruz, for his major contributions to the revision of our chapter on gender development (Chapter 15). We are indebted to Campbell for bringing to the fourth edition his expertise and keen insight in this important area.

Thanks are particularly due to our friends and collaborators at Worth Publishers. As acquisitions editor and publisher, respectively, Daniel DeBonis and Kevin Feyen provided exceptional support and any number of excellent suggestions. We would also like to thank Marge Byers, who nurtured our first edition from its inception and helped us to realize our vision. Peter Deane, our development editor, is in a class by himself in both skill and dedication. Peter’s creative thinking and firm understanding of the field enhanced the content of the book in innumerable ways. We are deeply grateful to him. Our thanks go also to assistant editor Nadina Persaud, senior project editor Vivien Weiss, director of development (print and digital) Tracey Kuehn, art director Barbara Reingold, cover and text designer Kevin Kall, photo editor Bianca Moscatelli, photo researcher Elyse Rieder, production manager Sarah Segal, and compositor Northeastern Graphic for their excellent work. They have helped to create a book that we hope you will find a pleasure to look at as well as to read. Marketing manager Katherine Nurre provided outstanding promotional materials to inform professors about the book. Anthony Casciano and Stacey Alexander managed the superb package of ancillary material.

Finally, we want to thank our “book team” of sales representatives and managers. Tom Kling, Julie Hirshman, Kari Ewalt, Greg David, Tom Scotty, Cindy Rabinowitz, Glenn Russell, and Matt Dunning provided a sales perspective, valuable suggestions, and unflagging enthusiasm throughout this project.