1. Describe the results of Werners Kauai study in terms of how children who encountered

Page 1 Chapter 1- Essay

• Describe the results of Werner's Kauai study in terms of how children who encountered

prenatal or birth challenges fared in different environments. What are the implications of these results for the nature‒nurture question?

• The text describes several reasons for the importance of studying child development.

Why is studying child development of interest or importance to you personally?

• Considering the long history on the issue of playing violent video games and child and

adolescent aggression, what advice would you provide to parents?

• Choose two of the following philosophers: Aristotle, Locke, Plato, and Rousseau and

describe one similarity and one difference between the two.

• What do developmental psychologists mean when they say that children play an active

role in their own development? Provide a detailed example of this concept.

• Explain what effortful attention is and describe its components. What has been

associated with difficulty in exerting effortful attention?

• Explain how changes in sociocultural factors are demonstrated with childcare outside of

the home in the United States.

• Explain the characteristics of children who demonstrate resilience, as in Werner's study.

• Katie and Natasha are sisters. Natasha has a lot of friends and is well liked by her peers.

Katie, in contrast, has few friends and is constantly the target of her peers' teasing.Using the four factors Scarr identified as involved in differences among siblings, describe why these sisters might be so different when it comes to their peer relations.For each of the four factors, provide a specific example.

(How Children Develop, 5th Canadian Edition, 5e Robert Siegler, Nancy Eisenberg, Judy DeLoache, Jenny Saffran) (Test Bank, Answer at the end of each Chapter) 1 / 4

Page 2

• A researcher is interested in the impact of a new type of training diaper on the age at

which toddlers become potty trained. The researcher plans to split a group of 100 toddlers into two groups—in one group, members will wear the new training diapers until they are potty trained, and in the other, members will wear their usual diapers.Answer these questions about this study: (1) What is the researcher's hypothesis? (2) How should the researcher split the 100 toddlers into two groups? (3) Which group is the experimental group, and which is the control group? (4) What is the independent variable? (5) What is the dependent variable? (6) What results will the researcher need to make a conclusion about the effectiveness of the new training diaper? (7) Will the researcher be able to conclude that there is a cause-and-effect association? Why or why not?

11. Describe one advantage and one disadvantage of each of these designs: (a)

cross-sectional, (b) longitudinal, and (c) microgenetic.

• Describe what ethical issues researchers must consider when they are conducting

research with children.

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Page 3 Answer Key

• Werner found that children who experienced prenatal or birth challenges were more

likely to develop difficulties. However, the development of these difficulties as well as the degree to the development of the difficulties was dependent on the child's home environment. Specific environmental influences included parents' income, education, mental health, and parental relationships. For instance, by the age of 2, toddlers who lived in middle-income families did not experience complications associated with prenatal or birth challenges. Also, by 10 years of age, prenatal and birth challenges were related to psychological problems if the child was growing up in poor conditions. Those who experienced prenatal and birth challenges along with environmental challenges were more likely to develop serious learning and behavior problems by 10 years of age and by the age of 18 had already been arrested, experienced mental health problems, or even become a parent. However, roughly 33% of those who experienced prenatal or birth challenges and environmental challenges showed signed of resilience.

The results of Werner's work lend support for the implication of nature and nurture interaction to produce developmental outcomes. Nature and nurture work together to shape development. To assume that one is more important than the other, or even that the two are of equal importance, oversimplifies the developmental process and does not accurately reflect the bidirectional interaction of the two on development.

• Answers will vary but should discuss on the relevance of studying child development to

one or more of the following: (1) raising children, (2) developing and choosing social policies, and (3) developing an understanding of human nature.

• Even though the issue of playing violent video games and childhood and adolescent

aggression has been contested by politicians, advocacy groups, and researchers for a considerable amount of time, more recent research indicates a minimal effect of playing violent video games and childhood and adolescent aggression. However, a minimal effect is not the same as a nonexistent relationship between the two. Considering this, advice regarding this issue to parents may be to monitor what their children are playing, to engage and play the game with their child, or to limit unmonitored exposure. Also, recent meta-analysis results indicate that playing violent video games is not a major cause of aggression. This means that other factors at play.

• Answers will vary based on the two philosophers chosen. However, some common

similarities and differences among them are as follows. Both Plato and Aristotle were Greek philosophers who lived in the fourth century B.C. and were interested in how children's development was influenced by their nature and the nurture they received.Also, both Plato and Aristotle believed that the long-term welfare of society was dependent on the proper raising of children. Plato viewed the raising of boys as a difficult challenge for caregivers. Plato viewed self-control and discipline as the major goal of education. Aristotle, on the other hand, was concerned with fitting child rearing to the needs of each child. Additionally, Plato believed that children have innate knowledge while Aristotle believed that all knowledge comes from experience and that the infant mind is blank.

Like Aristotle, Locke, an English philosopher, viewed the child as a blank slate, or 3 / 4

Page 4 tabula rasa. Locke believed that the most important goal of child rearing is the growth of character. Locke believed that parents need to set good examples to children and to avoid indulging children early in life. He also believed that once discipline and reason were instilled in the child that authority over the child should be lessened. Rousseau, a French philosopher, believed that parents and society should give children complete freedom from the beginning.

• Children play an active role in their own development in terms of attention, language

use, and play behaviors. Children first begin to shape their own development through their selection of what they attend to. This is evident in newborns preference for attending to things that move and make noise, which helps them learn about their world, as well as their own mothers' face, which leads to social interaction and strengthening of the mother–infant bond. Once children learn to talk, they will often talk to themselves when left alone, which may help improve speech. Also, through play children not only learn about their environment but find a way in which to entertain themselves.Children's contributions to their own development strengthen and broaden as they grow older and become increasingly able to choose and shape their environments.

• Effortful attention involves voluntary control of one's own emotions and thoughts,

including impulse control, the control of emotions, and focusing one's attention.Difficulty in exerting effortful attention has been associated with behavioral problems, mental illness, and poor academic skills

• General characteristics of society are able to influence development but also reflect

views of development as well. For instance, today many children in the United States will attend a childcare setting outside of their home. This recent change reflects changes in the broader sociocultural context of development. This change demonstrates the historical era, economic structure, as well as cultural beliefs and values. Fifty years ago very few children attended childcare outside of their home. Instead, most were cared for by their stay-at-home mother while their father was the primary breadwinner. However, today there are more opportunities for women who have young children to work outside of their home. This may even be a necessity for many households considering the current economic conditions. Furthermore, the current culture holds that mothers should be able to work outside of the home if they wish to do so. With this change comes the belief that experiencing childcare outside of the home is not detrimental or otherwise harmful to children.

• Resilient children have three main characteristics. They are likely to have positive

personal qualities, such as high intelligence or an optimistic outlook on life. They are also likely to have a close relationship with at least one parent. They are also likely to have a close relationship with at least one adult other than their parents, such as a grandparent or teacher.

• Scarr identified four factors that can lead children from the same family to turn out

different from each other, as is the case for Katie and Natasha. These include (1) genetic differences, (2) differences in treatment by parents and others, (3) differences in reactions to similar experiences, and (4) differences choices of environments. For Katie and Natasha, any one of these can result in stark differences between them. Perhaps their genetic makeup, even though they have the same biological parents, is drastically different. It could be that Natasha was born with a more outgoing personality than Katie, which could explain being well liked and having many friends. Perhaps they were

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