A best-selling, topically organized child development text, Berk’sChild Development is relied on in classrooms worldwide for its clear, engaging writing style, exceptional cross-cultural and multi-cultural focus, rich examples, and long-standing commitment to presenting the most up-to-date scholarship while also offering students research-based, practical applications that they can relate to their personal and professional lives.
Berk takes an integrated approach to presenting development in the physical, cognitive, emotional, and social domains; emphasizes the complex interchanges between heredity and environment; and provides exceptional attention to culture.
Laura Berk, renowned professor and researcher, presents the latest theories and findings in the field to students in a manageable and relevant way. Berk’s signature storytelling style invites students to actively learn beside the text’s “characters,” who experience real issues in development, including physical, cognitive, and peer challenges, as well as parenting and educational concerns. Berk also helps students connect their learning to their personal and professional areas of interest. Her voice comes through when speaking directly about issues students will face in their future pursuits as parents, educators, heath care providers, social workers, and researchers. As members of a global and diverse human community, students are called on to intelligently approach the responsibility of understanding and responding to the needs and concerns of children.
While carefully considering the complexities of child development, Berk presents classic and emerging theories in an especially clear, engaging writing style, with a multitude of research-based, real-world, and cross-cultural examples. Strengthening the connections among developmental domains and among theory, research, and applications, this edition's extensive revision brings forth the most recent scholarship, representing the changing field of child development.
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Table of Contents:
Part I: Theory and Research in Child Development
1 History, Theory, and Applied Directions
The Field of Child Development
Basic Issues
Historical Foundations
Mid-Twentieth-Century Theories
Recent Theoretical Perspectives
Comparing Child Development Theories
Applied Directions: Child Development and Social Policy
2 Research Strategies
From Theory to Hypothesis
Common Research Methods
Reliability and Validity: Keys to Scientifically Sound Research
General Research Designs
Designs for Studying Development
Part II: Foundations of Development
3 Biological Foundations, Prenatal Development, and Birth
Genetic Foundations
Reproductive Choices
Prenatal Development
Prenatal Environmental Influences
Childbirth
Approaches to Childbirth
Birth Complications
Heredity, Environment, and Behavior: A Look Ahead
4 Infancy: Early Learning, Motor Skills, and Perceptual Capacities
The Organized Newborn
Motor Development in Infancy
Perceptual Development in Infancy
Early Deprivation and Enrichment: Is Infancy a Sensitive Period of Development?
5 Physical Growth
The Course of Physical Growth
Brain Development
Factors Affecting Physical Growth
Puberty: The Physical Transition to Adulthood
The Psychological Impact of Pubertal Events
Puberty and Adolescent Health
Part III: Cognitive and Language Development
6 Cognitive Development: Piagetian, Core Knowledge, and Vygotskian Perspectives
Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory
The Sensorimotor Stage: Birth to 2 Years
The Preoperational Stage: 2 to 7 Years
The Concrete Operational Stage: 7 to 11 Years
The Formal Operational Stage: 11 Years and Older
Piaget and Education
The Core Knowledge Perspective
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Vygotsky and Education
Evaluation of Vygotsky’s Theory
7 Cognitive Development: An Information-Processing Perspective
The Information-Processing Approach
General Models of Information Processing
Developmental Theories of Information Processing
Attention
Memory
Metacognition
Applications of Information Processing to Academic Learning
Evaluation of the Information-Processing Approach
8 Intelligence
Definitions of Intelligence
Recent Advances in Defining Intelligence
Measuring Intelligence
What Do Intelligence Tests Predict, and How Well?
Ethnic and Socioeconomic Variations in IQ
Explaining Individual and Group Differences in IQ
Early Intervention and Intellectual Development
Giftedness: Creativity and Talent
9 Language Development
Components of Language
Theories of Language Development
Prelinguistic Development: Getting Ready to Talk
Phonological Development
Semantic Development
Grammatical Development
Pragmatic Development
Development of Metalinguistic Awareness
Bilingualism: Learning Two Languages in Childhood
Part IV: Personality and Social Development
10 Emotional Development
Functions of Emotions
Development of Emotional Expression
Understanding and Responding to the Emotions of Others
Temperament and Development
Development of Attachment
Attachment, Parental Employment, and Child Care
11 Self and Social Understanding
Emergence of Self and Development of Self-Concept
Self-Esteem: The Evaluative Side of Self-Concept
Constructing an Identity: Who Should I Become?
Thinking About Other People
Understanding Conflict: Social Problem Solving
12 Moral Development
Morality as Rooted in Human Nature
Morality as the Adoption of Societal Norms
Morality as Social Understanding
Development of Morally Relevant Self-Control
The Other Side of Self-Control: Development of Aggression
13 Development of Sex Differences and Gender Roles
Gender Stereotypes and Gender Roles
Influences on Gender Stereotyping and Gender-Role Adoption
Gender Identity
To What Extent Do Boys and Girls Really Differ in Gender-Stereotyped Attributes?
Developing Non-Gender-Stereotyped Children
Part V: Contexts for Development
14 The Family
Origins and Functions of the Family
The Family as a Social System
Socialization Within the Family
Family Lifestyles and Transitions
Vulnerable Families: Child Maltreatment
15 Peers, Media, and Schooling
Peer Relations
Media
Schooling
About the Author :
Laura E. Berk is a distinguished professor of psychology at Illinois State University, where she has taught child and human development to both undergraduate and graduate students for more than three decades. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and her master’s and doctoral degrees in child development and educational psychology from the University of Chicago. She has been a visiting scholar at Cornell University, UCLA, Stanford University, and the University of South Australia.
Berk has published widely on the effects of school environments on children’s development, the development of private speech, and recently, the role of make-believe play in development. Her research has been funded by the U.S. Office of Education and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. It has appeared in many prominent journals, includingChild Development, Developmental Psychology, Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, Development and Psychopathology, andEarly Childhood Research Quarterly. Her empirical studies have attracted the attention of the general public, leading to contributions toPsychology Today andScientific American. She has also been featured on National Public Radio’sMorning Edition and inParents Magazine, Wondertime, andReader’s Digest.
Berk has served as research editor ofYoung Children and consulting editor ofEarly Childhood Research Quarterly. Currently, she is associate editor of theJournal of Cognitive Education and Psychology. She is a frequent contributor to edited volumes on early childhood development, having recently authored chapters on the importance of parenting, on make-believe play and self-regulation, and on the kindergarten child. She has also written the chapter on development forThe Many Faces of Psychological Research in the Twenty-First Century (Society for the Teaching of Psychology), the article on social development forThe Child: An Encyclopedic Companion, the article on Vygotsky for theEncyclopedia of Cognitive Science, and the chapter on storytelling as a teaching strategy forVoices of Experience: Memorable Talks from the National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology (Association for Psychological Science).
Berk’s books includePrivate Speech: From Social Interaction to Self-Regulation, Scaffolding Children’s Learning: Vygotsky and Early Childhood Education, Landscapes of Development: An Anthology of Readings, andA Mandate for Playful Learning in Preschool: Presenting the Evidence. In addition toChild Development, she is author of the best-selling textsInfants, Children, and Adolescents andDevelopment Through the Lifespan, published by Pearson. Her book for parents and teachers isAwakening Children’s Minds: How Parents and Teachers Can Make a Difference.
Berk is active in work for children’s causes. In addition to service in her home community, she is a member of the national board of directors and chair of the Chicago advisory board of Jumpstart, a nonprofit organization that provides intensive literacy intervention to thousands of low-income preschoolers across the United States, using college and university students as interveners. Berk is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, Division, 7: Developmental Psychology.
