Prenatal Development Outline

chapter

8 development chapter outline
Nature, Nurture, and Prenatal Development
Determining the Relative Influence of Nature and Nurture Developmental Research Techniques Prenatal Development: Conception to Birth

module 25

module 28
Adulthood
Physical Development: The Peak of Health Social Development: Working at Life Marriage, Children, and Divorce: Family Ties The Later Years of Life: Growing Old Physical Changes in Late Adulthood: The Aging Body Cognitive Changes: Thinking About—and During—Late Adulthood The Social World of Late Adulthood: Old but Not Alone Becoming an Informed Consumer of Psychology: Adjusting to Death Try It! How Do You Feel About Death? Psychology on the Web The Case of . . . Jean Sweetland, the Woman with
In one approach, researchers can experimentally control the genetic makeup of laboratory animals by carefully breeding them for specific traits. For instance, by observing animals with identical genetic backgrounds placed in varied environments, researchers can learn the effects of specific kinds of environmental stimulation. Although researchers must be careful when generalizing the findings of nonhuman research to a human population, findings from animal research provide important information that cannot be obtained, for ethical reasons, by using human participants. Human twins serve as another important source of information about the relative effects of genetic and environmental factors. If identical twins (those who are genetically identical) display different patterns of development, those differences have to be attributed to variations in the environment in which the twins were raised. The most useful data come from identical twins who are adopted at birth by different sets of adoptive parents and raised apart in differing environments. Studies of nontwin siblings who are raised in totally different environments also shed some light on the issue. Because they have relatively similar genetic backgrounds, siblings who show similarities as adults provide strong evidence for the importance of heredity (Gottesman, 1997; Sternberg,
Longitudinal studies assess change in behavior over time, whereas crosssectional studies assess differences among groups of people. For instance, consider how we might investigate intellectual development during adulthood by using a longitudinal research strategy. First, we might give an IQ test to a group of 25-year-olds. We’d then come back to the same people 20 years later and retest them at age 45. Finally, we’d return to them once more when they were 65 years old and test them again. By examining changes at several points in time, we can clearly see how individuals develop. Unfortunately, longitudinal research requires an enormous expenditure of time (as the researcher waits for the participants to get older), and participants who begin a study at an early age may drop out, move away, or even die as the research continues. Moreover, participants who take the same test at several points in time may become “test-wise” and perform better each time they take it, having become more familiar with the test. To make up for the limitations in both cross-sectional and longitudinal research, investigators have devised an alternative strategy. Known as sequential research, it combines cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches by taking a number of different age groups and examining them at several points in time. For example, investigators might use a group of 3-, 5-, and 7-year-olds, examining them every six months for a period of several years. This technique allows a