Child Development: International Edition

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.   Note: MyDevelopmentLab does not come automatically packaged with this text. To purchase MyDevelopmentLab, please visit: www.mydevelopmentlab.com.

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.