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Grown-ups love figures.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Li�le Prince
Part One
Star�ng Out
© Image Source/Corbis
Chapter 1:
Studying the Child: Maps and Guides
Chapter 2:
Theories of Development: Map Makers
Chapter 3:
Concep�on, Heredity, and Environment: Many Paths

Chapter 4:
Prenatal Development and Birth: On the Road
"When you tell them that you have made a new friend,"
the li�le prince con�nues, "they never ask you any
ques�ons about essen�al ma�ers. They
never say, 'What does his voice sound like? What games
does he love best? Does he collect bu�erflies?' Instead,
they demand: 'How old is he? How
many brothers has he? How much money does his father
make?' Only from these figures do they think they have
learned anything about him."
Science, too, asks "grown-up" ques�ons that are
impersonal and objec�ve. It asks, "How do average 4-
year-olds think?" "What path will they take on
their journey to maturity?" "How can they be made to
understand reality?" "In what ways must they change to
be more like adults?" It seldom asks
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ques�ons like "What does Marilyn feel about rainbows?"
"What does Cindy know of spiders and sugar and silver
strings?" "Why does Robert
some�mes cry in the middle of the night?"
As is made clear in the four chapters that make up Part
One, the grown-up science that studies children deals

mainly with the composite, average
child. But in this text, we pause o�en to remind
ourselves that there is no average child—that the concept
is simply an inven�on made necessary by
our need to make sense of children. And although we ask
many ques�ons that require figures as answers, we are
always aware that every child is on a
very personal journey, that each may take very different
routes and look at very different things along the way. So
we stop occasionally to no�ce that
Marilyn sings when she sees rainbows, and that Cindy has
dreamt the magic that binds spiders and sugar and silver
strings. And we ask, too, what it is
that makes Robert cry.
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Studying the Child: Maps and
Guides
© Baerbel Schmidt/Thinkstock
1
Focus Ques�ons
1. How have ideas about childhood changed
over the years?
2. What are some of the "universal" rights of
children?

3. How do we study children?
4. What are some of the criteria that should
be used in evalua�ng developmental
research?
1.1 Organiza�on of Children's Journeys:
Exploring Early Childhood
Historical and Current Views of Childhood
Snapshots of Childhood
Why Look at History?
1.2 Children's Rights
Research with Children
United Na�ons Conven�on: Children's
Rights
1.3 Developmental Psychology
Early Explorers of Child Development Later
Explorers
Why Study the Development of Children?
Recurring Issues and Beliefs
1.4 Methods of Studying Children
Observa�on

Correla�onal Studies
Experiments
Longitudinal and Cross-Sec�onal Research
Sources of Developmental Varia�on: Age
and Cohort Influences
1.5 Evalua�ng Developmental Research
Are the Samples Representa�ve?
What Do Intergroup and Cultural
Differences Really Mean?
Do Conclusions Rely on Autobiographical
Memory?
Do Results Depend on Subject Honesty?
Is There a Possibility of Experimenter Bias?
Might There Be Subject Bias?
Is the Research Ethical?
Sec�on Summaries
Focus Ques�ons: Applica�ons
Possible Responses to Thought Challenges
Study Terms
Li�le Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet

Ea�ng her curds and whey
Along came a spider and sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away
Chapter Outline
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—Anonymous Nursery Rhyme
When it was Jason's turn to share during circle �me in
Marie's kindergarten class, he brought to class something
none of the children had ever seen
before: a live black widow spider which he had go�en
from an uncle. "Where my uncle lives," he informed the
class, adjus�ng his glasses, "there's
things that can kill you, like snakes and black widows."
Jason is a solemn li�le guy, dead serious about most
things. When he wears his glasses, he looks like a small
professor.
It was a very large female black widow spider in a glass
jar; the en�re class crowded in to have a closer look.
"Just the lady ones can kill you," Jason
explained. "See the red thing on her belly? That means
she can kill you if she wants. My uncle got bit by one
and he nearly died."
"Is there anything else you want to say about your spider

before we put her away?" the teacher asked. "Yes," Jason
announced solemnly. "My uncle
keeps my aunt under his bed."
There were gasps of amazement; nobody laughed.
"I'm sure he was just joking," said Marie. "Nobody keeps
his wife under their bed."
"My uncle does," said Jason, very gravely. "I heard her
voice under the bed."
He's such a sober li�le child, so honest, so serious. What
if his uncle really . . . ? Shouldn't someone do
something?
Later that week at the parent-teacher mee�ng, Marie
checked with Jason's mother about the story. Jason's
mother laughed. Apparently the uncle
wanted to discourage Jason and his sister from playing
under the bed so he told them that's where their aunt
was. And when they went to look, he
projected his voice and croaked in a high-pitched tone, "If
you come any closer, li�le children, I'll eat you!"
So they didn't go any closer and nothing ate them.
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1.1 Organiza�on of Children's Journeys: Exploring Early

Childhood
You and I are grown up; we're not scared of things under
the bed, are we? Unlike li�le children, we know there's
nothing there. We can look all we
want and nothing will eat us. You can't fool us just by
projec�ng your voice. We recognize lies and we know
that magic isn't real. Don't we?
Li�le children don't know these things. Part of growing
up is learning them—learning what to expect, becoming
familiar with what's out there, sor�ng
fact from fancy, reality from wishes, tears from laughter.
Describing differences among infants and children, and
explaining how these differences come about, is mostly
what this text is about.
Children's Journeys is divided into three parts (Table 1.1).
Part One is a four-chapter introduc�on. Chapter 1 is, in a
sense, about maps and guides. It
explains what developmental psychology is and how
psychologists study children. Chapter 2 introduces the
mapmakers—those who developed the
theories that guide our a�empts to understand
developmental change. Chapter 3 looks at the many paths
the human journey makes possible: It deals
with our gene�c origins and with the influence of
environmental context. Chapter 4 puts our subject, the
developing child, on the road: It looks at
systema�c changes that occur from concep�on through
birth and at important influences on the unborn child.
Parts Two and Three look at physical,
intellectual (cogni�ve), social, and emo�onal changes and
processes during infancy1 (birth to age 2) and early
childhood (ages 2 to 7 or 8).

1 Boldfaced terms are defined in the glossary at the end
of the book.
Historical and Current Views of Childhood
Strange as it may seem to us, childhood as we generally
understand it is not a universal phenomenon. What is
universal is the fact that in all cultures
infants are born at similar levels of biological immaturity.
Also, pa�erns of biological matura�on—such as learning
to walk—are highly similar in all
social groups.
Table 1.1: Organiza�on of Children's Journeys: Exploring
Early Childhood
Part Ages Chapters
One: Star�ng Out — 1. Studying the Child: Maps and
Guides
2. Theories of Development: Map Makers
3. Concep�on, Heredity, and Environment: Many Paths
4. Prenatal Development and Birth: On the Road
Two: Infancy Birth to 2 years 5. Physical and Cogni�ve
Development in Infancy: First Excursions
6. Social and Emo�onal Development in Infancy: Li�le
Forays
Three: Early Childhood 2 to 7 or 8 7. Physical and
Cogni�ve Development in Early Childhood: Side
Expedi�ons
8. Social and Emo�onal Development in Early Childhood:
Happy Jaunts

But the experience of being a child can vary drama�cally
in different social contexts, as shown by studies in
ethnography (studies of different cultures).
For example, in the box Across Cultures: Mari: A Mayan
Child: Liam, A North American Child, we see how Mari's
life is unlike the lives of most children
in the industrialized world. Much of the reason for this
difference, explains Gaskins (1999), is that this Mayan
society has different views of childhood.
Among other things, these Mayans believe that adult work
ac�vi�es are so important that all childhood ac�vi�es
must be structured around them. Play
is given li�le importance, and parents spend li�le �me
speaking with their children other than to admonish them
or give them direc�ons. This is in
sharp contrast with the predominant North American view
that emphasizes and caters to the child's wishes and
interests, and that stresses the
importance of play and of verbal and social interac�on.
It is partly because the experience of childhood is not
universal that our views of childhood, and the theories
that we use to explain human growth and
development, are o�en valid only for children from social
groups similar to our own.
Snapshots of Childhood
Much of this text reflects North America's contemporary
a�tudes toward childhood—a�tudes that are loving,
nurturing, concerned. That she shares
these a�tudes is partly why Liam's mother so willingly
abandons her chores to read to him or to play with him,
and lets him determine when she will
speak on the phone and when she will take him to the
beach and to the zoo and perhaps even to Disneyland or

the moon—or maybe just into the
back yard. His journey through early childhood will be
vastly different from Mari's.
It has not always been so. In fact, even today it isn't
always and everywhere en�rely so, as the following
historical snapshots of children show.
We should note at the outset that historical snapshots are
not always very accurate. For one thing, there are few
records of what life might have been
like before the "print cultures"— those socie�es that leave
wri�en records. When Ariès (1962) a�empted to uncover
what the lives of medieval
European children were like, he was forced to put
together fragments gathered from many sources such as
historical pain�ngs, school and university
regula�ons, and people's diaries. Relying on records such
as these might result in a biased view of what childhood
was really like for medieval children.
Snapshot 1: An�quity
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© Karen Kasmauski/Science Fac�on/Corbis
© Hemera/Thinkstock
Thought Challenge 1.1

The main point of Ariès' account of the lives
of medieval children is that childhood is a
concept that is invented and elaborated by
socie�es. What sort of evidence is there in
this pain�ng that the concept of childhood
had not yet been invented?
Please see Possible Responses to Thought
Challenges at the end of this chapter.
Our view of childhood during an�quity—the historical
period before the Middle Ages—is even less reliable than
that rela�ng to medieval �mes.
Nevertheless, some writers have concluded that prior to
the Middle Ages, and perhaps even into the seventeenth
century, children were not really
considered human beings. There are some who believe that
infan�cide—legally defined as the killing of infants soon
a�er birth—might have been
rela�vely common in an�quity (Harris, 1982; deMause,
1975). Others argue that the examina�on of the skeletal
remains of infants who lived during
that �me suggests that this was not likely the case
(Engels, 1980).
Across Cultures: Mari, A Mayan Child; Liam, A North
American Child
Mari is 18 months old. During a typical morning of a
typical day, explains Gaskins (1999), she
spends all her �me in or close to the small compound
where her family lives. Her parents are
both busy, as are all her older siblings. No one plays
with her; no one even speaks with her
except to tell her not to do things—like going into the

mud or dropping a rock into her sister's
washtub. To stop her from interfering with important
household chores, she is told to feed the
chickens. She takes a gourd filled with dried corn and
sca�ers it near the house. For a while
she watches as the chickens eat. Later her mother tells
her and her 3- and 5-year-old siblings
to go and feed themselves. They spend most of the next
hour picking, cleaning, and slowly
ea�ng the fruit that grows in and around the compound.
"From the beginning to the end of
this scene," writes Gaskins (1999), "Mari has said nothing
to anyone" (p. 32).
Liam is also 18 months old. During his typical morning,
his father is away at work, but his
mother is at home. She, too, like Mari's mother, has
important household chores to perform.
While she works, Liam plays with his toy car, driving it
around the kitchen floor. When he
bangs into his toy box, a book falls out. He picks it up
and toddles over to his mother. "Read
it," he says, and his mother cheerfully puts her work
aside and sits to read the book to Liam.
But she doesn't just read: She asks ques�ons; she
explains and elaborates; she fills her reading
with startling visions of magic. "What's this?" "What's
that?" "Is that a blue fish or a red fish?"
"What would you do if you had a truck like that?" "Let's
pretend you're the �ger."
While they're reading, Liam's father phones. "I wanna
talk," Liam says. His mother hands
him the phone. When Liam �res of his dad, his mother
takes the phone again, but Liam will
not wait. "Read," he says. "I have to go," Liam's mother

explains on the phone, "Liam wants
me to read to him." Smiling, she returns to the book.
To Think About: Young Mayan children, says Gaskins
(1999), spend very li�le �me in
imagina�ve or "pretend" play. Most of their play �me
involves large-motor ac�vi�es such as
climbing trees, chasing each other, or chasing bugs. In
contrast, as we see in Chapter 8,
North American children spend a great deal of �me in
various forms of pretend play.
What sorts of beliefs do you think these cultural
differences reflect? How important are
cultural beliefs about childhood?
Snapshot 2: The Concept of Childhood in Medieval Europe
By the Middle Ages there had been some improvements in
the treatment of children. But
McFarland (1998) notes that these improvements required
centuries, and, in retrospect, were
some�mes not all that significant. In contrast,
improvements in how the world currently treats
its children can be measured in decades rather than in
centuries.
That improvements in the treatment of children were not
very drama�c is implicit in Ariès'
account of medieval childhood. For example, he describes
a mother who has just given birth to
her fi�h child and who is very depressed at the thought
of having one more mouth to feed, one
more body to clothe. A neighbor consoles her: "Before
they are old enough to bother you," she
says, "you will have lost half of them, or perhaps all of

them" (1962, p. 38).
That the idea of childhood was s�ll largely undeveloped is
evident in the many ways in which
children appeared to be viewed as nothing more than
miniature adults. Thus they were seldom
given toys designed especially for them. And they were
quickly sent to work or given adult-like
responsibili�es. Perhaps, suggests Ariès, parents and
society didn't see them as innocent and
helpless creatures in need of nurturing and guidance.
Snapshot 3: Childhood in Eighteenth-Century Europe
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© Ge�y Images
What we know of how children were
viewed and treated in the past is o�en
based on highly unreliable records—
such as this seventeenth-century
pain�ng.
Click here for a possible response
(h�p://content.thuzelearning.com/books/AUECE332.12.1/sec�o
ns/f
Ariés notes that there seemed to be a
tendency for early European ar�sts to

portray children as miniature adults rather
than as children, evident in that the dress,
the ac�vi�es, and the facial expressions of
the children o�en seem more adultlike than
childlike. Also, it was almost as though no
one had yet no�ced that young children's
heads are larger than those of adults rela�ve
to the rest of their bodies, that their legs and
arms are somewhat shorter, that their
expressions are o�en less serious, less
preoccupied.
In fact, however, using the way children were
depicted in old pain�ngs as evidence of a
lack of apprecia�on of childhood would
probably not convince a judge in a court of
law. Science, too, needs more evidence.
© Be�mann/Corbis
Children working in an American tex�le mill, surrounded
by
dangerously spinning machinery. Those who worked in
mines had an
even more difficult lot.
Historical accounts of the lives of eighteenth-century
European children are o�en shocking
descrip�ons of abuse and cruelty—perhaps because, like
today, the most flagrant and horrible
abuses are the most sensa�onal and the most likely to
have been recorded.
For example, Siegel and White (1982) report the case of
a 7-year-old Bri�sh girl who stole a
pe�coat—which doesn't seem like that terrible a crime.

S�ll, she was brought to trial,
convicted, sentenced—and hanged!
Eighteenth-century European a�tudes toward children were
reflected not only in the ways
children were treated by the courts, but also in the ways
many were treated by their parents.
Kessen (1965) reports that in the crowded and disease-
riddled slums of eighteenth-century
European ci�es, thousands of parents abandoned unwanted
children in the streets or on the
doorsteps of churches. Foundling homes—so-called because
they looked a�er found children—
sprang up all over Europe in an a�empt to care for these
children. But most of them died in
infancy (before the age of 2 years). Kessen (1965) reports
that of 10,272 infants admi�ed to one
foundling home in Dublin in the last quarter of the
eighteenth century, only 45 survived to the
age of 5. In fact, before 1700, even if a child were not
abandoned, the chances of surviving �ll
the age of 5 were less than one in two. Most died of
diseases, including the plague.
The high mortality rate of abandoned children was not
restricted to eighteenth-century Europe
but was characteris�c of the other side of the Atlan�c as
well, even into the nineteenth century.
It seems that with few excep�ons, children in infant
asylums in the United States before 1915
died before the age of 2 (Bakwin, 1949). This was mostly
because many were sick before they
were abandoned, or if not, they later succumbed to one of
many serious contagious diseases
such as scarlet fever, whooping cough, or diphtheria.

Snapshot 4: Child Labor in the Nineteenth Century
The nineteenth century brought some improvement in the
status of children in Europe, and
abandonments decreased dras�cally. Sadly, this appears to
have been at least partly because of
children's increasing economic value as workers. In
thousands of factories and mines, children as
young as 5 or 6 years, male and female, worked 10 hours
a day or more at grueling labor in
condi�ons so hazardous that many became ill and died
(Kessen, 1965).
Condi�ons in North America
were, in some instances, not
very different from those
that prevailed in parts of
Europe. Clement (1997)
reports that in ci�es and
industrialized areas, many
children were employed in
factories and co�on mills. In
rural farm families, female
children were expected to
sew and cook and clean
even when they were only 4
or 5. Male children were
expected to work around
the barn and in the fields as
soon as they were physically
able.
Snapshot 5: The Developing World Today
The twen�eth century, too, s�ll has its share of
ignorance, cruelty, needless pain, and suffering. More than

50 of the world's developing na�ons have
under-5 mortality rates (U5MR) greater than 70 per 1,000
children born alive—a rate many �mes higher than is
common in developed countries
(Tracking progress in child survival, 2005). In
Afghanistan, for example, about 257 of every 1,000
newborns die before age 5, a rate 32 �mes higher
than in the United States and more than 60 �mes higher
than in Japan or the Scandinavian countries (see Figure
1.1).
The United Na�ons reports that as recently as 1990, some
4,500 infants died each day from measles, tetanus, and
whooping cough, and another 7,000
from diarrheal dehydra�on (Grant, 1992). Pneumonia added
significantly to this total, and starva�on more than
doubled it. As a result, even in 1990
more than 30,000 children died each day from preventable
causes. That was about 10 million preventable child deaths
a year, almost 2 million of them
from vaccine-preventable diseases.
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Have condi�ons for the world's children improved very
much in recent decades? In some ways, yes. Following
massive worldwide efforts, coverage rates
for immuniza�on have increased drama�cally. As a result,

deaths from the six major diseases for which children are
immunized (measles, tetanus,
whooping cough, tuberculosis, polio and diphtheria) have
been greatly reduced (Figure 1.2). Sadly, however, as
many as one-third of the world's
children are born in poverty, especially in areas such as
Sub-Saharan Africa (Gordon, Nandy, Pantazis, Pemberton,
& Townsend, 2003). Many of them
have limited access to shelter, inadequate nourishment,
scarce clean water, and li�le or no medical care.
Source: UNdata
Figure 1.1:
Under-5 Mortality Rates for
Selected Countries per 1,000
Live Births in 2008
Higher mortality rates are associated with the
least developed countries.
Source: UNdata World Popula�on Prospects: the 2008
Revision. United Na�ons Popula�on Division. Retrieved
July 21,
2011 from
h�p://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=PopDiv&f=variableID%3A77
Figure 1.2:
Declining World Infant Mortality
Rates from 1950 to the Present
with Projec�ons to 2050.
Infant mortality has declined drama�cally since
1950 and is projected to con�nue doing so, but
at a slower rate, un�l at least 2050.

Snapshot 6: The Industrialized World Today
The vast majority of children who are born into rela�ve
affluence are born to parents living in the world's
industrialized countries. These children come
into a world astonishingly rich in resources; they have
access to a staggering wealth of informa�on and
entertainment.
Sadly, this doesn't mean that all is perfect with children
of the industrialized world. For example, even in North
America, immuniza�on is not universal
even though it is mandated for all children prior to
star�ng school. Some parents are afraid of the possible
adverse effects of immuniza�on—which are
very rare. Some believe it might cause au�sm—a
supposi�on now largely discredited (Rudy, 2009). Others
believe that it might damage the child's
immune system, that it might cause diabetes, or that the
diseases it is meant to prevent are no longer sufficiently
common to be dangerous. Some
even believe it doesn't work and that the scien�fic
community is divided about the wisdom of immuniza�on.
Others object on religious, moral, or
ethical grounds.
Although the possibility of adverse reac�ons to
immuniza�on cannot be completely discounted, the medical
and scien�fic community unanimously
believes in its effec�veness and its enormous health
benefits (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2011). Yet
many parents seek and obtain exemp�ons for
their children—an act that not only exposes their children
to unwarranted dangers, but also endangers other children,
especially those who have
compromised immune systems. As a result there are s�ll

outbreaks of preventable and some�mes fatal childhood
illnesses in certain areas.
Even in industrialized countries, many children are
shockingly poor. For example, in the United States, nearly
20% of all children live in families whose
incomes are below the poverty level and about twice that
number live in low-income families (Na�onal Center for
Children in Poverty¸ 2011).
There have been drama�c social changes in recent
decades. For example, the percentage of never-married 25-
to 29-year-old women increased from 27
in 1986 to more than 46 in 2009 (Number, Timing, and
Dura�on of Marriages and Divorces: 2009). Also, divorce
rates increased enormously during the
last century. At any given �me, about 1 in 10 children
in the United States lives in a one-parent family. In about
80% of these families, the mother is
the single parent (America's families and living
arrangements, 2010). Coupled with this, demographic
(popula�on) changes have resulted in smaller
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families, reduced birthrates, more childless couples, and
greater propor�ons of young adults (resul�ng from
previous increases in birthrates) and elderly

people (resul�ng from medical advances).
Another important change, the effects of which are
discussed in Chapter 8, is associated with the role of the
media in people's lives, especially
children's.
Some observers argue that the net effect of these changes
is that recent decades are less child-centered than had
been an�cipated. Among other
things, childhood in our industrialized �mes brings with it
a high probability of being looked a�er by a series of
strangers, most likely outside the child's
home. It includes, as well, the probability of losing a
father or a mother for much of the �me of growing up—
or at least of losing some of their interest
and a�en�on, and perhaps some of their affec�on as
well. Childhood now brings the possibility of major
adjustments if one or the other of the parents
remarries, par�cularly if step-siblings are brought into the
family.
There was a �me, not very long ago, when the things
that most children feared were highly predictable: pain,
death, spinach, supernatural beings, and
things that go bump in the night. Recent decades have
added some new fears: concerns over whether or not
parents will divorce; anxie�es related to
being le� alone; worry associated with the likelihood of
having to make new adjustments; and, too o�en, dread
associated with wars.
But this paints too bleak a picture. The challenges and
the changes of recent decades don't overwhelm all children
and are not always a source of
loneliness or despair. For many children, these are

challenges and changes that result in strength rather than
in weakness, in a sense of community
rather than aliena�on, in joy rather than sadness.
Why Look at History?
These historical snapshots are important not so much for
what they tell us about the lives of children (although
that, too, is interes�ng and important
in its own right), but because they emphasize the extent
to which we are products of our par�cular social,
cultural, and historical reali�es. In today's
jargon, we are products of our contexts. So, to understand
the lives of children, we need to know something of their
contexts—that is, something of
their families, their schools, the economic and poli�cal
reali�es of their �mes, their place in history and in
culture. It's a point that is repeated o�en in
this text and emphasized in the "Across Cultures" inserts,
which look at the lives of children whose contexts are not
the average North American
context.
In a sense, we are all a li�le like the children described
in these inserts; none of us is the typical, average child
of which this text speaks. Not only is
each of us the product of an absolutely unique assortment
of gene�c material (unless we have an iden�cal twin),
but we are also products of
experiences that are influenced more than a li�le by the
social-cultural contexts of our lives.
Imagine how different your life might have been had you
been born in medieval �mes.
This Concept Check is for your own study and will not

affect your grade.
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© Creatas/Thinkstock
Many of the world's children live in
poverty and are abused and exploited.
But in North America, we live in a kinder
age marked by a variety of child
protec�on systems that focus on the
wellbeing of children and on their
op�mal development— as this budding
scien�st well illustrates.
1.2 Children's Rights
If you had been born in early medieval �mes, there is a
chance that you might have been used as a plaything for
the game of baby tossing—one of the
sports by which the gentry amused themselves. Basically,
baby tossing involved throwing infants from one gamesman
to another. One unlucky baby-
tossing vic�m was King Henry IV's infant brother, who
was killed when he fell while being tossed from one
window to another (deMause, 1974).
Throughout history, children have died not only in sport

but for other causes, too. Had you been a
parent in Massachuse�s in 1646, you would not have had
to put up with unruly offspring. Say you had
a son who wouldn't listen to you, who was making your
life miserable. All you would have had to do
was drag him before a magistrate, establish that here was
a defiant and rebellious kid, and, as long as
he was 16 or more, they'd put him to death for you!
That was the law (Westman, 1991).
By the twen�eth century, the courts would no longer hang
or shoot problem children; the once-
absolute control that parents and various agencies had over
the lives of children had been weakened
considerably. Yet it was s�ll possible for parents and
teachers to get rid of the worst troublemakers. One
way of doing this was to "voluntarily" commit them to
mental ins�tu�ons ("voluntarily" because parents
and guardians simply "volunteered" them) (Farleger, 1977).
Un�l recently, such children had no legal
recourse, no ma�er how badly they felt they had been
treated. Now, however, the courts have
determined that children cannot be brought in for
"treatment" without their "informed consent"
(Informed consent, 2011).
In the twenty-first century, evidence of increasing concern
with the rights of children is apparent not
only in court decisions but also in two other important
events: (1) the adop�on of ethical principles to
guide research concerning children; and (2) the
formula�on and widespread interna�onal acceptance of
a code of children's rights. Now most industrialized
countries have developed a variety of child
protec�on systems that typically focus on improving the
well-being of children and ensuring their

op�mal development (Gilbert, Parton, & Skivenes, 2011).
(See In the Classroom: No Child Le� Behind for
an illustra�on of some of the implica�ons of children's
rights for teachers.)
Research with Children
The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
provides an important list of principles for
research with children (SRCD Ethical standards for
research with children, 2007). These principles
recognize that research is unethical when procedures are
stressful or poten�ally harmful, when a child
is coerced into par�cipa�ng, when a child's privacy is
invaded, and when unfair incen�ves or decep�on
are used. The principles specify that permission of
children and their parents must be obtained before
conduc�ng child research. Furthermore, consent
must be "informed" in the sense that all are fully aware
of any aspect of the research that might affect their
willingness to par�cipate.
In the Classroom: No Child Le� Behind
The School: Wes Morland Elementary
The Situa�on: Third-grade students Sam Plotkin, Sarah
Benny, Josh Edwards, Josefina González, and Cheekie Liu
have requested transfers
to Harriet McKinley Elementary School with transporta�on
to be paid for by the district. The parents of five other
third-graders have
asked for free tutoring; several others have demanded
a�er-school programs. Although the district is dangerously
short of funds, it must

agree to each of these requests.
Explana�on: Wes Morland Elementary has failed to meet
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) targets three years
running. These are targets
mandated by a law signed into effect in 2002, known as
the No Child Le� Behind Act. The main purpose of this
act is to ensure that all
students meet specific state-wide standards in mathema�cs
and reading. It also formalizes the right of students to be
taught by highly
qualified teachers. It requires that all publicly funded
schools improve each year, demonstra�ng their
improvement by mee�ng AYP
targets so that by the year 2014, all students will have
achieved mandated levels of proficiency. Schools such as
Wes Morland
Elementary that do not meet AYP targets are required to
take specific steps to improve. If AYP targets are not met
two or more years in
a row, students are given the op�on of transferring to
another school. Schools that don't meet AYP targets for a
third consecu�ve year
must offer free tutoring and supplementary educa�onal
programs for their students. Missing AYP targets yet a
fourth year can lead to
"correc�ve ac�on," including the possibility of replacing
staff and school programs. Con�nuing failure to meet
targets can lead to a
restructuring of the en�re school or even to the school's
closure.
To Think About: Cri�cs agree that the goals of NCLB
are beyond reproach. But many are concerned about the
possible nega�ve
consequences of what is termed "high-stakes" tes�ng,

where student performance on tests can have profound
repercussions for schools
and teachers. What do you suppose some of these
nega�ve consequences might be?
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How many ways can you think of in which
the Monster Study violated accepted ethical
principles of child research?
ns/f
Viola�ons of ethical principles in this study
include: (1) the fact that there was possibility
of harm to the children; (2) use of
par�cipants who, because they were
orphans, would not have the op�on to
decline without nega�ve consequences; (3)
lack of informed consent in that children
were not told what the purpose and possible
effects of the research would be; (4) use of
decep�on in that all children thought they
were receiving speech therapy; (5) use of
research methods that demeaned
par�cipants.

Further Reading: The main details of the
study can be found at
h�p://www.ny�mes.com/2003/03/16/magazine/the-
stu�ering-doctor-s-monster-study.html?
src=pm. But for other research that suggests
that the ini�al study did not support the
hypothesis that non-stu�erers can be "talked
into" becoming stu�erers, see Ambrose, N.
G., & Yairi, E. (2002). The Tudor Study.
American Journal of Speech-Language
Pathology, 11(2), 190-203.
In spite of the wide-scale acceptance of the
Charter of Children's Rights, thousands of
children die needlessly each day—mainly of
vaccine-preventable diseases, starva�on,
diarrheal dehydra�on, and wars. What should
be done about this situa�on? What can be
done?
ns/f
What should be done is a ma�er for our
consciences; what can be done is clearer.
Each of these causes of child mortality can
be prevented or reversed through a
combina�on of global immuniza�on,
distribu�on of food supplies, and oral
rehydra�on therapy (for diarrheal
dehydra�on). Further, the effects of each of
these causes of infant and child death—

vaccine-preventable diseases, diarrheal
infec�on, and poor nutri�on—can be
lessened enormously through something as
simple as breast-feeding. For wars, the
solu�ons are not quite so simple.
A 1939 study of stu�ering among children is o�en used
as an illustra�on of unethical research.
Some�mes called the Monster Study, it was conducted on
22 orphan children, some of whom
had normal speech, but 10 of whom were iden�fied as
stu�erers (Reynolds, 2003). Half of each
group received "posi�ve" speech therapy: Experimenters
praised their verbal fluency and their
pronuncia�on. The other half received "nega�ve" therapy:
They were ridiculed and beli�led.
Those who had been iden�fied as stu�erers were told
their speech was even worse than other
people thought. And those whose speech had been normal
were told that the staff had
concluded they had all the symptoms of a child who is
beginning to stu�er, that they would
eventually wind up like so-and-so who was the worst
stu�erer in the orphanage. Sadly, these
fic��ous predic�ons and diagnoses apparently became true
in some cases—a fact that has
allegedly ruined some lives and led to a number of
lawsuits.
United Na�ons Conven�on: Children's Rights
A United Na�ons conven�on on the rights of the child
held in 1989 culminated in the
formula�on of an extensive charter of children's rights
(Conven�on on the Rights of the Child,
2011).

The interna�onal charter of children's rights is based on
the following four general principles:
The rights are to apply to all of the world's children
equally, without discrimina�on or
dis�nc�ons of any kind.
In all ac�ons that involve children, their best interests
shall be the most important
considera�on.
All the world's states shall do their utmost to ensure
child survival and op�mal
development.
Children have the right to be heard.
These four principles are reflected in the specific rights
discussed in the charter (Table 1.2).
Table 1.2: The Charter of Children's Rights
t_matter/books/AUECE332.12.1/sections/front_matter#
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© Tim Pannell/Corbis

Six-year-old Elvira has many rights of protec�on—but
fewer of
choice. Her parents may well allow her the right to
choose not to
eat her broccoli. But it is their responsibility to make
sure her
nutri�onal choices are not harmful.
A universally accepted proclama�on of the United Na�ons
asserts that, among other things, every child has specific
birthrights.
Category of Rights Examples of Rights
Civil rights and
freedoms
A name and a na�onality from birth
Freedom of thought, conscience, and religion
Protec�on of privacy
Protec�on from torture or other degrading treatment or
punishment
Protec�on from capital punishment and life imprisonment
A family environment Parents having the primary, but
state-assisted, responsibility for care and upbringing of
children
From which children cannot be taken unless it is clearly
in their best interests
The responsibili�es of which will be assumed by the state
should the child be deprived of a
family
Safeguarding of health
and welfare

The right to life
The right to the highest a�ainable standard of health
The provision of special care for those with special needs
The right to an adequate standard of living
Educa�on, leisure and
recrea�on
Free and compulsory educa�on for all children
School discipline that respects the child's dignity
School programs geared toward social and physical as well
as mental development
Special protec�on
measures
The assurance that no child under 15 shall take direct
part in war or be recruited into armed
forces
Special treatment by courts of law, taking into
considera�on the child's age, and directed
mainly toward rehabilita�on rather than punishment
Freedom from fear of exploita�on
Rights of Protec�on versus Rights of Choice
As Jones and Welch (2010) point out, children's rights as
outlined by the United
Na�ons Commi�ee on Rights of the Child are geared
toward (1) providing op�mal,
growth-fostering condi�ons for them; (2) protec�ng them
from abuse and
exploita�on; and, (3) allowing them to par�cipate in
decisions that affect them.
Note that the first two of these are essen�ally rights of

protec�on whereas the
third is a right of choice.
In many instances, as Runeson, Proczkowska-Bjorklund,
and Idvall (2010) note,
gran�ng children rights of choice as though they were
mini-adults is a misuse of
the concept of children's rights. Young children lack the
maturity and the
knowledge required for making the best choices in their
own lives. Six-year-old
Elvira has the right to adequate nutri�on, medical care,
and educa�on. But,
understandably, she does not have the right to make all
her own nutri�onal,
educa�onal, and medical choices. Many of those choices
are her parents'
responsibility. And even if her parents are unable to
convince her that she should
eat her broccoli because it's good for her, they can at
least ensure that she doesn't
eat only candy bars.
It's important to note that these United Na�ons "rights"
of the child are principles
and not enforceable laws. As a consequence, there are
uncounted viola�ons of
children "rights" throughout the world—and at home, too.
(See Figure 1.3 and Across Cultures: Children and War for
examples of viola�ons of children's
rights.)
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© iStockphoto/Thinkstock
Manzanar na�onal historic site monument—site of one of
the best-known World War II "reloca�on" camps.
Source: U.S.Census Bureau, 1011, Table 711
Figure 1.3:
Children Living In Poverty
in the United States
This figure includes only children under
18 living at home. Black and hispanic
children are more likely to live in
poverty than are white children.
Across Cultures: Children and War
My good friend, Joseph Minimoto, died in 1987. He died
largely as a result
of World War II, although he was only a child when that
war started and
he lived in California, where none of the figh�ng took
place. But when the
Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt,
caught up in the general hysteria that swept the United
States, issued
order number 9066 giving the U.S. military the right to
exclude from
certain areas and ac�vi�es all U.S. ci�zens of Japanese
ancestry. It also

established the right to detain these ci�zens, without legal
recourse, in
what were termed "reloca�on camps." Ten such camps
were set up in the
United States and some 120,000 people of Japanese
ancestry—some no
more than one-eighth Japanese—were imprisoned in remote
encampments surrounded by barbed wire. Joe and his
family were sent to
Heart Mountain Camp in Wyoming. It opened on August
12, 1942, and
didn't close un�l November 10, 1945.
Joe never forgot those sad, frightened, and hungry years.
Both of his
Japanese grandparents and his father died in the camp. All
three suffered
from tuberculosis. His mother, a descendent of the
Cheyenne Dog Soldier tribe of Wyoming, was heartbroken
and never recovered. She
died a few years a�er their release from the camp.
Joe survived another four decades. He spent his last years
figh�ng the ravages of a long-undiagnosed case of
tuberculosis. The doctors
guessed he had contracted the disease in the camp.
One year a�er Joe died, the U.S. government passed the
Civil Liber�es Act of 1988—popularly referred to as the
Japanese-American
Redress Bill. It provided for a wri�en apology, signed by
the president of the United States, for every person of
Japanese ancestry who
had been interned during the war. It also awarded
monetary compensa�on of $20,000 per person.

Joe received neither.
To Think About: During the twen�eth century alone, more
than 60 million people have been killed in wars—of
which there are
approximately 30 ongoing as of this wri�ng. Nearly a
dozen of these are described as major conflicts, in which
more than 1,000 people
are killed each year ( GlobalSecurity.org, 2011). In
medieval �mes, wars typically killed only soldiers. Even
as recently as the First World
War, 95% of those killed were military personnel. But
now, wars kill about four �mes more civilians than
fighters, and the majority of
those killed are women and children (Bellamy, 1996).
During the last decade of the twen�eth century, more
than 1.5 million children
have been killed by wars. Even if they are not killed or
physically wounded, many children who are exposed to
war or interned in war
camps subsequently manifest a variety of psychological
symptoms, including depression and behavioral problems
(Jordans, Tol, Komproe,
& de Jong, 2009).
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1.3 Developmental Psychology
Psychology is the science that studies human behavior and
mental processes. Developmental psychology is the division

of psychology concerned
specifically with the journey through the lifespan,
beginning with concep�on and prenatal development, and
ending with death. It looks at changes that
occur over �me and at the processes and influences that
account for these changes. Development itself includes all
the processes and changes
whereby individuals adapt to their environment. Because
adapta�on involves growing, maturing, and learning, these
processes are important concepts
in the study of development.
Growth refers to physical changes such as increasing
height and weight. Note that these are mainly quan�ta�ve
changes: they involve increments
(addi�ons) rather than transforma�ons. Matura�on describes
changes that are more closely related to biology and
heredity than to a child's
environment. Sexual unfolding during pubescence is an
example of matura�on.
Learning refers to changes that occur as a result of
environmental influences. Learning is defined as all
rela�vely permanent changes that result from
experience rather than simply from matura�on, growth, or
the temporary effects of factors such as drugs or fa�gue.
Note that in almost all aspects of human development,
matura�on, growth, and learning interact to make
adapta�on possible. This is especially evident
in early childhood. For example, learning to walk requires
not only that the child's physical strength and muscular
coordina�on be sufficiently advanced
(growth and matura�on) but also that there be an
opportunity to prac�ce the different skills involved
(learning).

Developmental psychology undertakes two important tasks:
observing children and their progress in adap�ng to the
world, and trying to explain that
adapta�on. (See Concept Summary: Important Defini�ons
in Child Development.)
Concept Summary: Important Defini�ons in Child
Development
Term Defini�on
Psychology The science that studies human thought and
behavior
Developmental
psychology
Division of psychology concerned with changes that occur
over �me and with the
processes and influences that account for these changes
Development
involves:
Growth
Matura�on
Learning
Physical changes; primarily quan�ta�ve

Naturally unfolding changes, rela�vely independent of the
environment (for example,
physical changes of the brain during prenatal development;
the changes of pubescence
that lead to sexual maturity)
Rela�vely permanent changes in behavior that result from
experience (rather than from
matura�on, fa�gue, or drugs)
Early Explorers of Child Development
The study of children is a rela�vely recent enterprise,
closely �ed to social changes that occurred in
seventeenth- and eighteenth-century a�tudes
toward children and to intellectual movements reflected in
the wri�ngs of philosophers and early scien�sts. In
addi�on, advances in biology and
medicine and the increasing availability of elementary
educa�on contributed significantly to the development of
child psychology.
Closely associated with the beginnings of the study of
children were people such as the Bri�sh philosopher John
Locke and the French philosopher
Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
John Locke
The child is basically a ra�onal creature, Locke informed
his late seventeenth-century colleagues. Children have
nothing in their minds when they are
born: Their minds are like blank slates—the tablets on
which ancient philosophers wrote before there were
chalkboards and smartboards. This belief is
known as the doctrine of the tabula rasa. It holds that at

first there is nothing in the infant's mind. But experience
changes that, said Locke, because
children quickly absorb the knowledge and habits that are
given to them. Furthermore, he explained, children are
highly responsive to rewards and
punishments and must be carefully and firmly disciplined.
In the highly puritanical age in which Locke lived,
discipline and self-control were considered absolutely
fundamental to successful child rearing. And
discipline tended to be harsh and unforgiving. In Locke's
(1699) words, "If you take away the Rod on one hand,
and these li�le Encouragements which
they are taken with, on the other, How then (will you
say) shall Children be govern'd? Remove Hope and Fear,
and there is an end of all Discipline" (p.
33).
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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© Rolf Brenner/Corbis
G. Stanley Hall believed that children's
interest in climbing trees (or crawling into
small spaces) is evidence that individual
development parallels the development
of the en�re species. This belief
(ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny) has

been largely discredited.
Rousseau's child, described in his book Émile (first
published in 1762), is not at all like Locke's child. This
is not a child who is a "blank slate," neither
good nor bad un�l the rewards and punishments of
experience exert their influence. The child is "naturally
good" (a "noble savage"), Rousseau insists:
If children were allowed to develop in their own fashion,
untainted by the corrup�on and evil in the world, they
would undoubtedly be good when
grown: "God makes all things good; man meddles with
them and they become evil" (Rousseau, 2004/1762, p. 3).
Although both Locke and Rousseau are closely associated
with the beginning of the study of children, their ideas
led to very different concep�ons of
childhood. Locke's descrip�on of the child as a passive
creature molded by the rewards and punishments of
experience parallels B. F. Skinner's theory
(Chapter 2). Rousseau's view of an ac�ve, exploring child
developing through deliberate interac�on with the
environment is reflected in the work of
Jean Piaget (also Chapter 2).
Later Explorers
Although the science of child psychology owes much to
early "child philosophers" such as Rousseau and Locke, its
beginnings are usually a�ributed to
the first systema�c observa�ons and wri�en accounts of
children, undertaken by people such as G. Stanley Hall,
Jean Piaget, and John Broadus Watson.
G. Stanley Hall

The American, G. Stanley Hall (1891), who became the
first president of the American Psychological
Associa�on, was profoundly influenced by Charles
Darwin's theory of evolu�on. "Ontogeny recapitulates
phylogeny," Hall insisted, borrowing a phrase popularized
by German scien�sts such as Haeckel
(Richards, 2008). This one short phrase summarizes Hall's
convic�on that the development of each
individual in a species (ontogeny) parallels the evolu�on
of the en�re species (phylogeny).
As evidence for this theory, Hall described the evolu�on
of children's interest in games, no�ng how
these seem to correspond to the evolu�on of human
occupa�ons and lifestyles. No�ce, said Hall, how a
child becomes progressively interested in games
corresponding to each of the major periods in human
evolu�on: an arboreal existence (for example, climbing on
chairs and tables); a cave-dwelling existence
(crawling into small spaces, making �ny shelters with old
blankets); a pastoral existence (playing with
animals); an agricultural existence (tending flowers and
plants); and finally an industrial existence
(playing with vehicles).
One of Hall's most important contribu�ons to the study of
children was his pioneering use of
ques�onnaires, lists of ques�ons designed to uncover the
thoughts, the emo�ons, and the behaviors of
children. He o�en presented his ques�onnaires to adults,
asking them to remember what they had felt
and thought as children. Always, he tabulated, summed,
averaged, and compared the results of his
ques�onnaires, a true pioneer of the applica�on of
scien�fic procedures and principles to the study of
human development. Also, Hall wrote extensively for the

lay public, and was highly regarded as one of
the important "popularizers" of psychology and purveyors
of child-rearing advice (Brooks-Gunn &
Duncan Johnson, 2006).
Jean Piaget
Like G. Stanley Hall, the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget
was heavily influenced by Charles Darwin.
Piaget's early training was in biology, a field in which he
received a PhD at the age of 22. Uncertain
about what to do next, he spent a year wandering around
Europe, working at a psychoanaly�c clinic
and in a pair of psychological laboratories, one of which
was under the direc�on of Théodore Simon, the originator
of the famous Stanford Binet
intelligence test. While working with Simon, Piaget
became fascinated by children's responses to test
ques�ons, and especially by their incorrect
answers. This marked the beginning of his very long and
enormously produc�ve career as an inves�gator of the
development of children's minds.
Children, Piaget explains, are born with a small repertoire
of reflexive behaviors and corresponding mental
underpinnings. As a result of interac�ng with
the world, exercising these behaviors (assimila�ng, in
Piaget's terminology) and modifying them (accommoda�ng),
the brain structures that underlie
them change. These changes are reflected in a series of
stages that describe the systema�c development of the
child's capabili�es. At each stage, the
child's ability to reason and understand becomes
progressively more logical, culmina�ng in the intellectual
power of the adult. Piaget's model of the

child's cogni�ve development became one of the most
highly researched and applied descrip�ons of child
development in the twen�eth century.
John B. Watson
A well-known American pioneer of child psychology was
John B. Watson (1914), who introduced an experimental,
learning-based approach to the study
of development. His influence, as well as that of Skinner,
shaped a model that came to dominate child study through
the early part of the twen�eth
century. This model looked for the causes of
developmental change among the rewards and punishments
of the environment and viewed the child as
the passive recipient of these influences, much as had
Locke.
The theories of Watson and Piaget, along with other
important contributors to the study of children, such as
Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, Burrhus F.
Skinner, John Bowlby, Lev Vygotsky, Urie Bronfenbrenner,
and Albert Bandura, are discussed in Chapter 2. (See
Concept Summary: Pioneers in the Study
of Children.)
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© Jim Cornfield/Corbis

In Peter Pan, James Barrie informs us that
"When the first baby laughed for the first
�me, its laugh broke into a thousand
pieces, and they all went skipping about,
and that was the beginning of fairies."
This is not one of the beliefs that
currently drives developmental research—
although it's not hard to imagine that this
urchin's laughter might well awaken
fairies.
Concept Summary: Pioneers in the Study of Children
Pioneers Iden�fying Belief
John Locke (1632–
1704)
Tabula rasa: Children are like empty vessels, passive
recipients of the effects of
experience, in need of direc�on and discipline.
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau (1712–
1778)
The natural child: Children are ac�ve, inquiring, and
basically good unless society
corrupts them.
G. Stanley Hall
(1884–1924)
Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny: The development of the
individual mirrors the
development of the human race.

Jean Piaget (1896–
1980)
Stage-bound cogni�ve development: Development progresses
through a series of stages
as a result of assimila�ng (using the environment for
already-learned ac�vi�es) and
accommoda�ng (changing behaviors—and mental structure—
in the face of
environmental demands).
John Broadus
Watson (1878–1958)
Give me a dozen healthy infants and I will make of them
what I will: Children are shaped
by the rewards and punishments of their environments
Why Study the Development of Children?
In this child-centered age, we study children for various
reasons, not least because we want to understand how we
become what we are. Our study of
child development is intended to provide us with
informa�on about (1) the sorts of behaviors we might
expect from children at different ages, (2) the
op�mal experiences for children at different developmental
levels, and (3) the nature of developmental problems and
the best treatments for them.
As a result, the study of children provides a wealth of
informa�on that is of tremendous prac�cal importance for
teachers, nurses, counselors,
physicians, child welfare professionals, clergy, and parents.
With greater understanding, we become be�er parents,

be�er teachers, be�er clinicians—
and the children in our care have a be�er chance of
becoming happy, produc�ve, healthy individuals.
Recurring Issues and Beliefs
A number of important ques�ons have served as recurring
themes in developmental psychology. The issues that
underlie these ques�ons have guided
much of its research and theorizing, and are reflected in
its most important beliefs.
Is it best to view the child as an ac�ve, exploring
organism, discovering or inven�ng meaning for the
world, as Rousseau argued? Or is it more useful to
emphasize, as did Locke, the effects of rewards
and punishments on a more passive child? Today, the
predominant view is of an ac�ve, exploring
child deliberately a�emp�ng to create meaning out of the
world (Rousseau's view, reflected in
Piaget's theory). At the same �me, most psychologists
recognize the importance of reward and
punishment (Locke's view, reflected in learning-based
approaches such as Skinner's).
What are the rela�ve effects of gene�cs and environments
on the developmental process?
This ques�on has been the source of one of the main
controversies in psychology: the nature-nurture
controversy. Extreme points of view on this issue maintain
either that the environment is mainly
responsible for whatever children become (nurture) or that
gene�c background (nature) determines
the end result of the developmental process. The dominant
posi�on today is that nature and nurture
aren't forces that act in opposi�on; rather, their

interac�on determines developmental outcomes.
Is development a con�nuous, rela�vely uninterrupted
process, or does it consist of separate stages?
As is true for most of the recurring ques�ons in human
development, there is no simple answer.
Stages in developmental psychology are a dis�nct sequence
of age-based steps in the development of
understanding or competencies. Many important
developmental theories are stage theories (for
example, those of Piaget or Freud). But it has been
difficult to iden�fy abili�es or competencies that
invariably appear at a predetermined age and develop in a
fixed, predictable sequence. We don't
develop like caterpillars—cocoon to bu�erfly to egg to
caterpillar to cocoon to bu�erfly, each stage
undeniably different from the one that precedes or follows
it. Many of our characteris�cs appear to
be subject more to con�nuous development than to stages.
Nevertheless, stage theories are useful in
organizing the facts of human development and in helping
us understand and talk about them.
None of these issues has been completely resolved.
Perhaps they cannot be, and perhaps history will show
that they weren't very important in any
case. What is important is to keep in mind that what we
think and say about children—the ques�ons we ask and
some�mes the answers we are
prepared to accept—are strongly influenced by our
assump�ons and beliefs.
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affect your grade.
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Some argue that basic research, while
interes�ng, is largely a waste of �me. What
arguments can be made for and against
funding basic, as opposed to applied
research?
ns/front_ma�er/books/AUECE332.12.1/sec�ons/front_ma�er#)
Advocates of applied research cau�on that
because there are so many pressing
problems that urgently require solu�ons,
research funding should go to prac�cal,

applied research. Otherwise, they argue, the
human journey as we know it is in danger of
ending. Others counter that basic research is
an essen�al precursor to applied research. If
we had done only applied research, they
insist, we would s�ll be inves�ga�ng how to
improve our clubs and our spears.
1.4 Methods of Studying Children
In all scien�fic fields, there is basic research and applied
research. Basic research, also called pure research, is driven
by curiosity and is designed to
expand our fundamental knowledge. Its goal is not to
invent or produce something. In early childhood research,
for example, basic research might try
to answer ques�ons such as: What happens in children's
brains when they look at colors? What can the child hear
at birth?
In contrast, applied research is mo�vated by a desire to
solve prac�cal problems. Applied research in early
childhood development might be designed
to find ways of teaching language skills to children with
au�sm, or of improving social rela�ons among
kindergarten children.
Research in early childhood is both basic and applied:
Some of it is designed to expand our
knowledge, and some is aimed at very prac�cal ques�ons.
But doing research with children is
not always an easy undertaking.
As we shall see in Chapter 5, most of us are vic�ms of
a curious phenomenon labeled infan�le
amnesia: We remember virtually nothing—at least
consciously—of our infancies or even of our

early preschool days. So powerful and general is infan�le
amnesia that Newcombe and Fox
(1994) found that 9- and 10-year old children were
generally completely incapable of recognizing
photos of their preschool classmates. Yet, years later, most
adults can iden�fy photos of over
90% of their elementary school classmates.
As a result of our infan�le amnesia, when we try to
make sense of the mind and emo�ons of
infants, we can't rely on our memory of what it was like
to be an infant. Nor can preverbal
infants speak of their own thoughts and feelings. Hence,
much of what we know of the private
lives of young children is based on inferences we make.
However, these are scien�fic inferences:
They are based on careful, controlled, and replicable
observa�ons.
Observa�on
Observa�on is the basis of all science; so the study of
children always begins with observa�on.
Child development researchers use two types of
observa�on: naturalis�c and nonnaturalis�c.
Naturalis�c Observa�on
Naturalis�c observa�on occurs when children are observed
without interference in natural
(rather than contrived) situa�ons—for example, at home or
on the playground or in school. Psychologists who observe
children and write diary
descrip�ons of their behavior (sequen�al descrip�ons of
behavior at predetermined intervals) are using naturalis�c
observa�on. Similarly, psychologists

might describe con�nuous sequences of behavior (specimen
descrip�ons), behaviors observed during specified �me
intervals (�me sampling), or
specific behaviors only (event sampling). All are examples
of naturalis�c observa�on. Note that in each of these
methods, children's behavior remains
unaffected by the observa�on (Table 1.3).
Table 1.3: Naturalis�c methods of observing children
Method Descrip�on Main uses Example
Diary
descrip�on
Regular (o�en daily or weekly)
descrip�ons of important
events and changes
Detec�ng and understanding
major changes and
developmental sequences in
specific areas
Inves�gator makes daily notes
about child's behavior, no�ng
specific changes such as
increases in vocabulary
Specimen
descrip�on
Detailed descrip�on of
sequences of behavior,
detailing all aspects of behavior

Studying individual children in
depth; not restricted to only
one or two predetermined
characteris�cs
Inves�gator makes video
records of uninterrupted
sequences of child's behavior
for later analysis
Time sampling Behaviors are recorded
intermi�ently during brief,
regular �me periods
Detec�ng and assessing
changes in specific behaviors
over �me
Inves�gator records
kindergarten child's disrup�ve
behaviors during 5-minute
spans, once every 30 minutes
Event sampling Specific behaviors (events) are
recorded during the
observa�onal period; other
behaviors are ignored
Understanding the nature and
frequency of specific behaviors
(events)
Inves�gator notes each �me
child bangs her head on the
wall

Source: Based in part on Wright, 1960.
The methods of naturalis�c observa�on may be used in
combina�on. For example, �me and event sampling are
o�en used together. Time sampling
specifies when observa�ons will be made; event sampling
specifies what behavior will be observed. For example, in a
study of preschoolers' playground
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behavior, an inves�gator might use a checklist to record
instances of specific behaviors such as laughing, yelling,
figh�ng, or coopera�ng (event
sampling), and observe each child for five-minute periods
at two-hour intervals (�me sampling).
Nonnaturalis�c Observa�on
Nonnaturalis�c observa�on involves methods and situa�ons
designed to have an effect on children's behavior—in
contrast with naturalis�c
observa�on, where children are observed in natural se�ngs
and the inves�ga�on is designed not to affect ongoing
behavior. Nonnaturalis�c
observa�ons are some�mes termed clinical if they involve
the use of interviews or ques�onnaires. When
inves�gators a�empt to manipulate or change

a child's environment, the resul�ng studies are
experimental. Experiments are described later in this
chapter.
Correla�onal Studies
Many studies in child development try to discover whether
there is a rela�onship between two variables
(characteris�cs that can vary). Does parental
divorce affect first-graders' school performance? Are
a�rac�ve children be�er liked by teachers?
Studies designed to answer ques�ons such as these
typically result in a measure of correla�on—a
mathema�cal indica�on of rela�onship. Say, for
example, you look at the rela�onship between physical
child abuse and later criminality, and you find, as did
Currie and Tekin (2006), that about twice
as many abused children—compared with those who aren't
abused—are later charged with criminal offenses. This
would be an example of a posi�ve
correla�on: As incidence of physical abuse increases,
incidence of criminal behavior also increases.
Similarly, if two variables decrease jointly, that too is a
posi�ve correla�on. For example, a Swedish study
indicates that programs that are effec�ve in
decreasing alcohol consump�on also have the effect of
decreasing instances of violence toward officials
(Mansdo�er, Rydberg, Wallin, Lindholm, &
Andreasson, 2007). Hence there is a posi�ve correla�on
between declining alcohol consump�on and declining
violence.
Now suppose you look at the rela�onship between social
phobia (an intense fear of social situa�ons and

interac�ons) and paren�ng styles, and you
find, as did Bitaraf, Shaeeri, and Javadi (2010), that
authorita�ve (as opposed to authoritarian) paren�ng is
closely associated with social phobia. This
would be an example of a nega�ve correla�on: The more
authorita�ve the paren�ng, the lower children's scores on
measures of social phobia (Figure
1.4). (The effects of paren�ng styles are discussed in
Chapter 8.)
Many correla�onal studies in developmental psychology are
retrospec�ve studies. They are retrospec�ve because they
try to iden�fy rela�onships by
looking back at a child's history (retro means backward)
to see how factors in the past are related to present
behavior.
Figure 1.4:
Graphic Representa�on of
Correla�on
In A (high posi�ve correla�on), those who
scored well on test 1 also scored well on test 2
—and vice versa. In B (high nega�ve
correla�on), those who did well on test 1 did
poorly on test 3. And in C, there is li�le
rela�onship between scores on the two tests.
What Does Correla�on Mean? The Correla�on Fallacy
The Currie and Tekin (2006) study found a high posi�ve
correla�on between child abuse and criminal charges in
adulthood. Is this evidence that abuse
causes criminal behavior?
The simple answer is no, there is no proof of causa�on

here: To conclude that there is illustrates the correla�on
fallacy. A high correla�on between
two variables never tells us what causes what. Nor does
it exclude the possibility that an unexpected, confounding
variable—termed a third variable—
might be involved. In this study, for example, one
possible third variable might be that the personality
characteris�cs of children who later engage in
criminal acts contribute to parents abusing them. It is also
possible that the personality characteris�cs of abusive
parents, rather than the abuse itself,
is a more direct cause of criminality—as might also be
the economic and social condi�ons of the abusive home.
Each of these is a possible,
confounding, third variable.
As an example of the occasional absurdity of determining
causa�on solely on the basis of correla�on, consider that
there is a clear, posi�ve correla�on
between the number of teeth young children have at any
given �me and their language sophis�ca�on. That, of
course, does not prove that having
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The "immuniza�on causes au�sm"
experiment has been conducted in a number
of ways and by a variety of people. The

hypothesis has been firmly rejected (see
Rudy, 2009). Yet many have no�ced a
correla�on between immuniza�on and
au�sm. How might this be explained?
ns/f
Au�sm is o�en diagnosed at around the age
of 2—which is about the �me that most
children have recently been vaccinated.
Hence the correla�on—but not the
causa�on.
For Further Explora�on: Psychology,
Experiments and Research Design
For Further Explora�on: Developmental
Psychology
many teeth helps youngsters speak and understand
languages—nor that increasing language skills leads to the
growth of new teeth! Instead, other
third variables related to learning and matura�on account
for this correla�on.
Even though correla�onal studies cannot establish that one
thing causes another, the presence of a correla�on is a
necessary condi�on for inferring
causality—necessary but insufficient. If child abuse does
lead to criminality, there will be a posi�ve correla�on
between measures of the two. So,
though a correla�on may be highly sugges�ve, only a
carefully controlled experiment can come close to
establishing causa�on.

Experiments
The experiment is science's most powerful tool for
gathering observa�ons. An experiment is dis�nguished
from naturalis�c observa�ons in that it
requires the systema�c manipula�on of some aspect of a
situa�on. In an experiment, the observer controls certain
variables (characteris�cs that can
vary)—called independent variables—to inves�gate their
effect, or lack of effect, on other variables, termed
dependent variables.
For example, researchers wan�ng to conduct an experiment
to examine the hypothesis
(scien�fic predic�on) that immuniza�on causes au�sm
would need to immunize a large group of
children. The incidence of au�sm in this group would
later be compared with that in another
group of children who were not immunized but are
comparable to the first group in all
important ways. In this illustra�on, immuniza�on is the
independent variable; it is under the
experimenter's control. Incidence of au�sm is the
dependent variable.
A simple experiment of this kind uses an experimental
group made up of par�cipants who are
treated in some special way (for example, immunized).
The object is usually to discover whether
the special treatment (independent variable) has a
predictable effect on some outcome
(dependent variable). To ensure that any changes in the
dependent variable are due to the
treatment, the experimental group is compared to a control
group. The control group must be

as similar as possible to the experimental group in all
relevant ways except that it does not
experience the special treatment (Figure 1.5).
Figure 1.5:
A simple experimental design.
In this illustra�on, inves�gators are tes�ng the
hypothesis, labeling items in the home fosters
language skills in 4- and 5-year-olds. Note that
hypotheses can generally be worded as "if-
then" statements. The "if" part of the
statement is the independent variable (if I label
items in the home . . .); the "then" part is the
dependent variable (then children will develop
more advanced language skills).
It is important to recognize that the results of experiments
can be believed with confidence only when those results
have been replicated—that is,
when the same outcome can be observed in repe��ons of
similar experiments. In addi�on, the measurements that are
used need to have validity
(they need to measure what they claim to measure) and
reliability (they need to measure accurately).
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An experiment is a controlled test of a hypothesis.
Independent variables are manipulated under controlled
condi�ons to see if there is a change in the dependent
variable. Proper research design is cri�cal to achieve
reliable results.
Design an experiment to test the outcome of soy-based
infant formula versus dairy-based infant formula. Name
the independent variable and iden�fy at least one
dependent variable.
Developmental psychologists study growing children in
longitudinal studies. They repeat assessments of a child's
func�oning or the experiences they are having over �me.
What kinds of variables would be effec�ve to study in a
longitudinal design? What are some drawbacks?
Measuring personality characteris�cs or developmental
progress is not like measuring weight or height. Much of
our measurement is indirect, and our
measuring instruments are o�en crude and inexact. Even
measures of characteris�cs such as intelligence, which has
been extensively inves�gated,
theorized about, and for which there are hundreds of
different tests, have limited validity and reliability. This
always needs to be taken into account
when looking at developmental research.
Longitudinal and Cross-Sec�onal Research
There are two broad approaches to studying human
development: A longitudinal study observes the same
subjects over a period of �me; a cross-
sec�onal study compares different subjects at one point in
�me. For example, there are two ways of inves�ga�ng

differences in the rules used in
games played by 2-year-olds and 6-year-olds. One way is
to observe a group of 2-year-old children at play, and
then four years later observe the same
children again. This is the longitudinal approach, which,
for these purposes, is more �me-consuming than
necessary. Similar results could be obtained
by simultaneously observing several groups of 2- and 6-
year-old children and then comparing them directly.
Some�mes a longitudinal inves�ga�on is designed to
con�nue beyond the life�me of a single inves�gator (or
team of inves�gators). For example, the
Terman study of gi�edness began in the early 1920s and
con�nues today (Terman, 1925; Millar, 2010). This can
present problems and disadvantages,
among which are the following:
Higher cost in money and �me
The fact that instruments and methods may become
outdated before comple�on
The possibility that some of the research ques�ons will
be answered in some other way before the project is
finished
The loss of par�cipants over �me
It should be noted that many of the problems associated
with longitudinal research apply only to longer-term
research. But not all longitudinal research
is very long-term. Longitudinal studies of infant
development might span only weeks, or perhaps only days
or hours.

Cross-sec�onal and longitudinal approaches are both
essen�al for studying human development. For some
ques�ons, a longitudinal approach is
necessary despite the �me and cost involved. If
inves�gators want to discover whether intelligence test
scores change with age or remain stable, they
need to observe the same children at different �mes. A
cross-sec�onal approach cannot give us informa�on about
changes that occur over �me within
a single individual because it looks at each individual
only once.
Sources of Developmental Varia�on: Age and Cohort
Influences
Human development is defined as change over �me.
Developmental researchers
are mainly interested in changes related to age: For
example, how are 5-year-olds
different from 3-yearolds? However, change in human
development isn't always
related only to age: It can also be related to other
influences.
Cohort-Related Effects
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© iStockphoto/Thinkstock

A longitudinal study of development follows the same
people over a
period of �me. It is highly useful for providing
informa�on about
changes that occur within individuals over �me. To study
the
development of this li�le girl from the first photo to the
second
photo would have taken more than two decades.
For example, let's say that in 1970, I gave a vocabulary
test to eight groups of 5-
year-olds represen�ng all geographic, ethnic, and social
dimensions in my country.
Then, 10 years later, I retest the same eight groups (a
longitudinal study) and I find
that there has been a 300% increase in vocabulary size.
Can I conclude that this
300% increase is a normal age-related change?
Perhaps not. Maybe something quite unrelated to age has
happened between 1970
and 1980 to account for this 300% increase in vocabulary
(like the prolifera�on of
computers, startlingly effec�ve educa�onal television
programming, changes in
nutri�on, or other factors). The observed changes might
be a func�on of factors
related to experiences specific to this birth cohort
(individuals born during the
same period).
Birth cohorts are always of a specific ini�al size and
composi�on. But the size
decreases as members die, un�l it finally disappears
completely. And before it

disappears, its composi�on o�en changes as well. For
example, because men die
sooner than women, the male-female ra�o of a cohort
usually changes over �me.
Similarly, racial composi�on might also change as a result
of different mortality
rates.
What is especially important for the developmental
psychologist is that a cohort
may be subject to a variety of experiences that are very
different from those to
which members of other cohorts are exposed. For example,
my grandmother's
cohort dates to the turn of the twen�eth century and
includes people who were
born into a world without electricity, television, computers,
and airline travel. These
cohort-related influences might be important in explaining
why an 8-year-old in
2015 might be quite different from an 8-year-old in either
2025 or 1925.
Separa�ng the Effects of Age and Cohort
One of the challenges that developmental researchers face
is that of separa�ng the effects of age and cohort. For
example, because two different
cohorts are involved, a cross-sec�onal study doesn't allow
the inves�gator to determine whether differences between
age groups are due to age- or
cohort-related factors. Similarly, generaliza�ons based on a
longitudinal study might apply only to the specific cohort
under inves�ga�on and not to
other cohorts who have had different historical
experiences.

Figure 1.6:
Representa�on of Three
Research Designs
Years inside the figure indicate �me
of tes�ng. Ver�cal columns
represent possible �me-lag studies
(different birth cohorts; different
�mes of measurement; same age).
Horizontal rows represent possible
longitudinal studies (same birth
cohorts measured at different
�mes). Diagonals represent
possible cross-sec�onal studies
(different birth cohorts examined at
one point in �me).
One way of overcoming these problems is to use what are
termed sequen�al designs (Tudge, Shanahan, & Valsiner,
1997). Essen�ally, these studies
involve taking series of samples at different �mes of
measurement. One well-known sequen�al design is the
�me-lag study in which different cohorts
are compared at different �mes. For example, a �me-lag
study might compare 10-year-olds in 2006 with 10-year-
olds in 2008, 2010, and 2012 (Figure
1.6). Because subjects are of the same age when tested
but were born in different years, they belong to different
cohorts. Consequently, observed
differences among the groups might reveal important
cohort-related influences. (See Concept Summary: Methods
of Studying Children.)
Concept Summary: Methods of Studying Children

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Method Main Characteris�cs
Observa�on The basis of all science. Observa�on is
naturalis�c when children are observed without
interference in natural rather than contrived situa�ons
(�me or event sampling, diary
descrip�ons, or specimen descrip�ons). Nonnaturalis�c
observa�on may involve
structured interviews or ques�onnaires, and may be
experimental.
Correla�onal study Looks for rela�onships between two
(or more) variables. A correla�on exists when
changes in one variable are accompanied by systema�c
changes in another. The existence
of a correla�on is necessary but insufficient for inferring
causality.
Experiment Involves systema�c a�empts to manipulate the
environment to observe the effects of
independent variables on dependent variables. Science's
most powerful means of
establishing cause-and-effect rela�onships.
Longitudinal study A study in which the same par�cipants
are followed over a period of �me.

Disadvantages: Time-consuming; expensive; possibility of
subject loss; looks at only one
cohort.
Advantages: Essen�al for studying change within
individuals.
Cross-sec�onal
study
A study in which par�cipants of different ages are
studied at one point in �me.
Disadvantages: Not sensi�ve to change within individuals;
cannot separate the effects of
age from cohort effects.
Advantages: Less �me consuming; less expensive; provides
clear answers for some
ques�ons rela�ng to group differences.
Time-lag study A study in which par�cipants of the same
age are compared to each other at different
points in �me (hence comparisons of different birth
cohorts when they are the same
age).
affect your grade.
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© Comstock/Thinkstock
Research samples need to represent the popula�on to
which results
are to be generalized. Inves�gators limi�ng their research
to this
convenient sample of bright li�le infants a�ending a
private
educa�onal center might discover amazing cogni�ve and
social
achievements by age two. But those results would tell us
li�le
about how average 2-year-olds develop.
How many plausible explana�ons can you
think of for apparent interna�onal
differences in achievement— such as in
mathema�cs? How might you a�empt to
determine whether these differences are
real?
ns/f
The group that achieves at the highest level
might do so for a variety of reasons: they are
more intelligent; they have higher levels of
the ability or talent being measured; their
teachers are be�er; they spend more �me
studying the tested subjects; their mo�va�on

1.5 Evalua�ng Developmental Research
In prac�ce, research methods are determined by the
ques�ons researchers want to answer. If you are interested
in knowing whether children have
more affec�on for cats than for dogs, you might simply
compare the number of children who have dogs with the
number who have cats (naturalis�c
observa�on). Alternately, you might ask a sample of
children which they like best (interview technique). Or
you might arrange for different children,
alone and in groups, to meet different cats and dogs and
assess the children's reac�ons (perhaps through simple
visual observa�on, or by measuring
their heart rates and other physiological func�ons).
Note that each of these approaches might lead to
somewhat different answers for the same ques�ons. Even
if there are more cats than dogs in the
homes of your subjects, children might really like dogs
be�er (but their parents do not). And maybe, even if they
do like dogs be�er, more would be
afraid of dogs than of cats because strange dogs are
somewhat more frightening than strange cats. An important
point to keep in mind as you evaluate
some of the studies described in this text is that answers
are some�mes partly a func�on of research methods used.
Truth in psychology, as in most disciplines, is rela�ve.
The validity of research conclusions can seldom be judged
as absolutely right or wrong, but must
instead be evaluated in terms of how useful, clear,
consistent, and generalizable the conclusions are. If
research results apply only to the situa�on in
which they were obtained, they are not very valuable.
When evalua�ng psychological research, there are a

number of important ques�ons you should ask.
Are the Samples Representa�ve?
As we just saw, the conclusions of developmental research
are usually intended to
be generalized to an en�re popula�on—that is, to the
en�re group of individuals
(or objects, or situa�ons) with similar characteris�cs. For
example, all fi�h-grade
American children defines a popula�on; all le�-handed,
brown-eyed 4-year-olds
make up another popula�on.
In most cases, the popula�ons that are of interest to a
researcher are too large to
be en�rely included in the study. What the inves�gator
does, instead, is select a
representa�ve sample from this larger popula�on. One of
the simplest and most
effec�ve ways of ensuring that the sample is
representa�ve is to use random
sampling. Chances are that a large enough sample picked
at random from a
popula�on will be very similar to the popula�on in all
important ways.
In many cases, however, experimenters are limited to
samples that are convenient
and available. Psychologists who want to study vocabulary
development among 3-
year-olds seldom have access to a random sample of 3-
year-olds drawn from the
en�re popula�on. Their sample will more likely be
limited to one or two local pre-
school groups. And although their findings might have far-

ranging applicability,
there is always the possibility that these convenient
samples differ in important
ways from the general popula�on.
What Do Intergroup and Cultural Differences Really
Mean?
There is a large body of research indica�ng that some
Asian groups perform be�er than
American students on measures of mathema�cs
achievement (for example, Liu, 2009). Does this
mean that Asian students are more intelligent than
American students? That their educa�onal
system is be�er? That their curriculum is more
deliberately aimed at producing good "test-
takers"? That they are more highly mo�vated?
The fact that children from different cultures, or from
different groups within one culture, o�en
perform differently on various tests and in different
situa�ons underlines the importance of
asking two ques�ons: (1) Are the tests and assessment
procedures we're using suitable for
different cultures? and (2) What might cause the observed
differences? Conclusions based on
research conducted only with North American samples may
not be valid in Western Europe or in
third-world countries—that is, they may lack ecological
validity. Similarly, research conducted
only with white middle-class subjects in North America
should not be generalized to the en�re
popula�on. (See In the Classroom: Hiroki's About Average,
Like Everybody Else.)

t_matter#
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is higher; parents help them more; they
spend less �me watching television or
playing video games; they spend less �me
working outside of school; they have be�er
test-taking skills; the tests are biased…and on
and on. There are always many plausible
reasons for believing, or not believing, what
we think (want?) to be correct.
© Hemera/Thinkstock
Children from different cultures some�mes perform very
differently
on the same test, a fact whose meaning is o�en
completely unclear.
In the Classroom: Hiroki's About Average; Like Everybody Else
The Place: Komatsudani preschool
The Situa�on: A group of American educators has come
to observe this East-side Tokyo preschool. A�er school,
they meet with the
teacher, Fukui-sensei.
Observer 1: The li�le boy with the yellow shirt, over on
that side . . .

Fukui-sensei: His name is Hiroki.
Observer 1: He's so intelligent compared to the others.
Observer 2: Yes, wow, so quick . . .
Fukui-sensei: Oh no, he's average like everybody else.
Observer 1: But he seems so gi�ed.
Observer 2: Yeah, he always finished his work first. And
then he sang that song for everybody.
Fukui-sensei: But surely you don't think speed is the same
thing as intelligence. And he sings not because he's so
intelligent, but because
of his great need for a�en�on.
(Source: Based in part on Tobin, Wu, & Davidson, 1989,
p. 24.)
To Think About: Different cultures some�mes have
drama�cally different views of important characteris�cs
such as intelligence—and
very different a�tudes toward compe��on, coopera�on,
and achievement. How might these differences impact the
behavior of children
from different cultures?
Do Conclusions Rely on Autobiographical Memory?
When Hampsten (1991) studied the diaries and le�ers of
American pioneer women,
she found that life had been harsh and difficult for their
children. Most children

had to work hard at very young ages, many were exposed
to a variety of physical
dangers, and many died or were maimed. But when the
children, as adults, wrote
accounts of their childhoods, they described tons of happy
experiences—and
almost no bad �mes. Would the accounts have been
different had they wri�en
them when they were children?
Perhaps. We don't really know. But we do know that
autobiographical memory is
highly unreliable. Researchers who use people's
recollec�ons to understand the
past must take into considera�on the possibility of
uninten�onal distor�ons.
Do Results Depend on Subject Honesty?
Researchers must also consider whether subjects might
distort the facts
inten�onally, especially when personal ma�ers are being
researched. Comparisons
of adolescent sexual behavior today with behavior
characteris�c of adolescents
several genera�ons ago are typically unreliable, at least
partly for this reason. Given
prevailing a�tudes toward sexual behavior, it is not
unreasonable to suppose that
today's adolescents are more likely to be more open about
sexual behavior than adolescents of the 1920s might have
been.
Is There a Possibility of Experimenter Bias?

8/24/2018 Print
Some research indicates that inves�gators some�mes
unconsciously bias their observa�ons to conform to their
expecta�ons. One way of guarding
against experimenter bias is the double- blind procedure,
where experimenters, examiners, and par�cipants remain
unaware of either the expected
outcomes of the research or of which par�cipants are
members of experimental and control groups.
Might There Be Subject Bias?
Subject bias may also affect the outcomes of an
experiment. In a highly publicized experiment, two
psychologists compared ways to increase
produc�vity among workers in the Hawthorne plant of the
Western Electric Company in Chicago. In successive
experiments, workers were subjected to
shorter working periods, longer working periods, be�er
ligh�ng condi�ons, poorer ligh�ng condi�ons, long
periods of rest, short periods of rest,
bonuses or no bonuses, and a variety of other condi�ons.
Under most of these condi�ons, produc�vity apparently
increased, an observa�on that led to
the conclusion that if subjects are aware that they are
members of an experimental group, performance may
improve simply because of that fact
(Roethlisberger & Dickson, 1939).

Although the Hawthorne effect, as it is now called, is
usually accepted as fact in social science research, more
recent research has shown that it is not
always apparent or very significant (Chiesa & Hobbs,
2008). Nevertheless, the possibility that the outcome of an
experiment might be affected by
par�cipants' desire to please inves�gators should always
be taken into account.
Is the Research Ethical?
Finally, as an informed and concerned consumer of
research, you need to ask how ethical the research is.
Were par�cipants informed or were they
duped into par�cipa�ng? Was their privacy safeguarded?
Was the research jus�fied by its poten�al contribu�on to
basic or applied research?
Developmental psychology no longer tolerates research that
in any way jeopardizes the physical or mental well-being
of children, or that fails to
recognize their uniqueness and worth. And it recognizes
more clearly than ever that each child's journey is
different. Some take a direct, highly
predictable passage to their des�na�on; others saunter
along different paths. (See Concept Summary: Evalua�ng
Developmental Research.)
Concept Summary: Evalua�ng Developmental Research
Issues Checklist of Important Ques�ons
Sampling Is the sample a good representa�on of the
popula�on to which the observa�ons and
conclusions are meant to apply?

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