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Child and Adolescent Development
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Child and Adolescent Development
A Behavioral Systems Approach



November 2003 | 632 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
"The book very nicely incorporates behavior analysis and modern developmental theories. . . . Another nice feature is that it is not encyclopedic; it organizes the disparate developmental phenomena in terms of principles and mechanisms. . . . The writing style is easy to follow and suitable for college students. The scholarship and coverage are excellent."

                                                    —Jesus Rosales-Ruiz, University of North Texas  

"The book is a very good read. It is also truly unique in the field of developmental psychology…a field in which far too little attention is typically paid to the obvious fact that children's development involves learning."

                                                    —Michael W. Vasey, The Ohio State University

"Presents behavioral principles in a systematic and fairly sophisticated manner (as contrasted with the simplistic treatment those principles often receive in textbooks of introductory or developmental psychology), while linking up with contemporary conceptions of dynamic systems. . .straightforward and clear, accessible to undergraduates without coming across as simplistic."

                                                             —Philip N. Hineline, Temple University  

"Most useful for the subset of college instructors who are process oriented and focus upon a sophisticated multilevel conceptual approach that considers the environmental impact on behavioral development and the concurrent impact of the developing individual upon the significant figures in its environment. . . . No other undergraduate text presents such a clear interweaving of developmental considerations and concepts with learning concepts."

                                                       —Jacob L. Gewirtz, Florida International  

"This book is unique because of its blending of behavior analysis and its dynamical systems point of view. . . . The authors' writing style is very engaging and accessible to undergraduate level students [and] the level of scholarship is excellent, particularly in its depth when dealing with theoretical issues. . . . A cutting-edge look at a behavior analytic view of child and adolescent development."

                                        —Pete Peterson, Johnson County Community College  

There are two fundamental questions in developmental psychology – what develops and how does it develop? The "what" is largely a question of developmental structure and describes development, while the "how" is primarily a question of function or process and explains development. Developmental psychology has become increasingly focused on the process aspect, but many texts do not provide readers with a clear perspective of how development actually occurs.

Child and Adolescent Development: A Behavioral Systems Approach integrates the views of dynamical systems concepts with a behavioral view of development. This combination of perspectives is unique and from it something new emerges – a "behavioral systems approach" to development. It is an approach that incorporates both personal and environmental influences and the constant reciprocal interactions between nature and nurture.

The book emphasizes learning as the major process for change in development and the integration of environmental influences with genetic and historical factors. Authors Gary Novak and Martha Pelaez provide a coherent understanding of the learning process in childhood and adolescence and present successful interventions to minimize typical problematic behavior during this period.  

Features of this text:
  • Unique. Connects development with learning concepts, a topic neglected in most developmental psychology books.
  • Concise. Provides a coherent framework for exploring selected features of development in greater depth and detail rather than an encyclopedic volume of facts, figures, and theories. Accessible. Written in an engaging style that clearly conveys even sophisticated theoretical material and difficult, advanced topics.
  • Pedagogical. Includes highlight boxes, chapter-opening outlines, chapter summaries, key words, and an end-of-book glossary that enhance student understanding. 
 
Child and Adolescent Development is an exceptional, process oriented textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students taking child development and developmental psychology courses in Psychology, Human Development & Family Studies, Education, and related fields.

 
Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
 
1. Introduction
A Behavioral Systems Approach

 
A Dynamical Systems Approach

 
What Is Development?

 
A Natural Science Approach to Development

 
The Continuum of Scientific Disciplines

 
Metaphors for Understanding Developmental Levels

 
Reductionism and Antireductionism

 
Behavioral Systems and Developmental Psychology

 
The Central Role of Learning for Development

 
The Evolutionary Significance of Learning

 
A Parallelism Between Evolution and Learning

 
What Do Developmental Psychologists Do?

 
Summary

 
Note

 
 
2. Modern Developmental Theory
The Importance of Theory

 
Four Dimensions on Which Theories Differ

 
Judging Developmental Theories: Seven Criteria

 
Research Designs in Behavioral Development

 
A Behavioral Systems Approach

 
Principles of Dynamical Systems

 
Organism-Environment Model

 
Developmental Questions for Research

 
Summary

 
Notes

 
 
3. Behavior Genetics
The Human Genome

 
Controversy: The Role of Genetics in Development

 
Behavior Genetics: The Structures

 
Genetic Functions

 
Genetic Variability

 
Sources of Development: The Combined Roles of Heredity and Environment

 
Does Behavioral Development Result From Interactions?

 
What Factors Transact In Human Development?

 
How Do Genes and Environment Interact?

 
A Behavioral View: Person-Environment Interactions

 
A Behavioral Systems Approach

 
Summary

 
Notes

 
 
4. Prenatal, Birth, and Postnatal Periods
Periods of Prenatal Development

 
Principles of Prenatal Development

 
The Earliest Environment

 
A Closer Look at Teratogens

 
Reproductive Risk Versus Caretaking Casuality

 
Getting Ready for the World

 
Postnatal Development: The Remarkable Newborn

 
The Neonate's Ability to Respond to the Environment

 
Sensory Abilities

 
Perceptual Abilities as Universal Behaviors

 
Reflexes as Universal Behaviors

 
How Do Reflexes Change?

 
Summary

 
Note

 
 
5. Learning I: Habituation and Respondent Learning
Learning as a Natural Selection Process

 
Classifying Stimuli

 
Functional Stimulus Classes

 
Types of Learning

 
Habituation

 
Contiguity and Learning

 
Respondent Learning

 
The Treatment of Fears and Phobias: An Application of Respondent Learning

 
Operant Learning

 
Response Classes and Operants

 
How Do Operants and Respondents Differ?

 
Summary

 
Notes

 
 
6. Operant Learning
The Contributions of B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)

 
What Is a Contingency?

 
The Three-Term Contingency

 
The Four-Term Contingency

 
The First Term: The Response

 
The Second Term: The Consequence

 
The Third Term: The Discriminative Stimulus (Sd)

 
The Fourth Term: The Setting Event (SE) or Establishing Operation (EO)

 
What Changes? The Development of Acquired Reinforcing Stimuli

 
Operant Learning and Dynamical Principles of Development

 
Summary

 
Notes

 
 
7. Cognitive Development
Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

 
Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

 
Vygotsky's Theory of Cognitive Development

 
Behavioral Approaches to Cognitive Development

 
Fischer's Skill Learning Approach to Cognitive Development

 
Skill Theory and Behavior Analysis

 
Stimulus Equivalence and Cognitive Development

 
Summary

 
Notes

 
 
8. The Development of Communication
Structure Versus Function: Clashing Theories

 
A Structural Approach: Psycholinguistics

 
A Functional Approach: The Analysis of Verbal Behavior

 
Early Stages of Language Development

 
Language Development as Skill Learning

 
Summary

 
 
9. Personality and the Self
Personality: Biological Theories

 
Personality: Behavioral Approaches

 
A Behavioral Systems Approach to Personality

 
Gender Differences

 
The Self

 
Summary

 
Note

 
 
10. Social and Emotional Development
Why Study Social and Emotional Development?

 
Processes in Social Behavior

 
Social Behaviors as Reinforcers

 
Observational Learning

 
Prosocial Transactions: Intuitive Parenting

 
The Origins of Social Phenomena

 
The Power of Touch

 
Fear

 
Social Referencing

 
Sibling Rivalry and Jealousy

 
Social Cognition and Environment

 
Prosocial Behaviors in Early Childhood

 
The Development of Morality

 
Summary

 
Note

 
 
11. Development of Antisocial Behaviors
What Are Antisocial Interactions?

 
The Origins of Aggression

 
A Behavioral Systems Approach

 
Coercive Family Process: Basic Training of Antisocial Behavior in the Home

 
The Development of Aggression

 
Changing the Behavioral Systems: Parent Training

 
Three Keys to Effective Parenting

 
A Behavioral Systems View of Physical Child Abuse

 
Summary

 
 
12. The Family System
Families as the Mediators of Society and Culture

 
The Universal Functions of Parenting

 
The Social and Cultural Context of Families

 
The Family as a System of Systems

 
The Functions of Family Members

 
Levels of Systems: How Society Influences Child Development

 
What Happens When the Role is Absent or Changed?

 
The Effects of Divorce

 
Patterns of Family Discipline

 
Children in the Context of Poverty

 
Summary

 
Note

 
 
13. Schools
The Schools as Agents of Society and Culture

 
The Functions of Education

 
Type S and Type F Systems

 
Learning and Teaching

 
Teaching as Applied Developmental Psychology

 
What Makes for Effective Teaching

 
What and How to Teach: Final Comments

 
Summary

 
Notes

 
 
14. Adolescence
What Is Adolescent Behavioral Development?

 
Physical Development and Behavior

 
Environmental Factors Affecting Puberty

 
Moral Behavior and Reasoning

 
Personality Development During Adolescence

 
Parenting Style

 
Family and Social Support Systems

 
Behavioral Disorders During Adolescence

 
Love and Romantic Relations

 
Adolescent Attachment and Separation

 
Summary

 
 
15. Behavior Disorders of Childhood
What Are Behavioral Disorders?

 
Behavior Disorders Usually First Diagnosed in Infancy, Childhood, or Adolescence

 
What Causes Behavior Disorders?

 
Assessment of Behavior Disorders

 
Types of Behavioral Disorders

 
Summary

 
 
Glossary
 
References
 
Name Index
 
Subject Index

"The book very nicely incorporates behavior analysis and modern developmental theories. . . . Another nice feature is that it is not encyclopedic; it organizes the disparate developmental phenomena in terms of principles and mechanisms. . . . The writing style is easy to follow and suitable for college students. The scholarship and coverage are excellent."

Jesus Rosales-Ruiz
University of North Texas

"The book is a very good read. It is also truly unique in the field of developmental psychology…a field in which far too little attention is typically paid to the obvious fact that children’s development involves learning."

Michael W. Vasey
The Ohio State University

"Presents behavioral principles in a systematic and fairly sophisticated manner (as contrasted with the simplistic treatment those principles often receive in textbooks of introductory or developmental psychology), while linking up with contemporary conceptions of dynamic systems. . .straightforward and clear, accessible to undergraduates without coming across as simplistic."

Temple University
Temple University

"Most useful for the subset of college instructors who are process oriented and focus upon a sophisticated multilevel conceptual approach that considers the environmental impact on behavioral development and the concurrent impact of the developing individual upon the significant figures in its environment. . . . No other undergraduate text presents such a clear interweaving of developmental considerations and concepts with learning concepts."

Jacob L. Gewirtz
Florida International

“This book is unique because of its blending of behavior analysis and its dynamical systems point of view. . . . The authors’ writing style is very engaging and accessible to undergraduate level students [and] the level of scholarship is excellent, particularly in its depth when dealing with theoretical issues. . . . A cutting-edge look at a behavior analytic view of child and adolescent development."

Pete Peterson
Johnson County Community College

Reviewed behavioural development across the lifespans linking the child psychology theorists

Miss Bernadette Bradley
School Of Health And Life Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University
November 19, 2015

An excellent research guide for level 6, Masters & PhD students. A complex but diverse book for all aspects of child development. Very rich in detail and research, an excellent resource!

Ms Lisa M Bradley
Applied Social Science (Lancaster), University of Cumbria
September 30, 2015

always good to have such well written back ground reading

Ms Ros Sanders
Faculty of health and science, University of Cumbria
June 24, 2014

The students on my course require a more practically focussed textbook. This is a textbook with very little application of theory and practice and so would not be suitable. It is probably more suited to a non-vocational course looking at child and adolescent development.

Mrs Pamela Schultz
Interdiscipline , University Campus Suffolk
January 28, 2013

A valuable book that will support students to meet thier development module

Mrs Maria Johnson
Community Learning Service, North East Lincolnshire Council
December 19, 2012
Key features
  • The authors' behavioral systems approach to development breaks new ground by integrating dynamical systems concepts with a contextualistic behavioral view of development.  
  • The unified perspective presents students an in-depth, systematic, and coherent approach to development that emphasizes the process (or the "how") of development in contrast to the potpourri of disassociated theories and facts found in more conventional developmental texts that emphasize the facts and figures (or the "what") of developmental research.
  • An accessible, engaging style clearly conveys even sophisticated theoretical material and difficult advanced topics, and other pedagogical features include highlight boxes in each chapter, chapter-opening outlines, chapter summaries, and highlighting of key words that are then defined in an end-of-book glossary.
  • Emphasizes interweaving of development with learning concepts, a topic neglected in most developmental psychology books; this combined emphasis on learning and developmental theory is unique in the field.

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