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Child Development in Evolutionary Perspective

Author : David F. Bjorklund

Publisher : Cambridge University Press

Page : 121 pages

File Size : 43,11 MB

Release : 2020-10-29

Category : Psychology

ISBN : 1108853862

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Book Description

Natural selection has operated as strongly or more so on the early stages of the lifespan as on adulthood. One evolved feature of human childhood is high levels of behavioral, cognitive, and neural plasticity, permitting children to adapt to a wide range of physical and social environments. Taking an evolutionary perspective on infancy and childhood provides a better understanding of contemporary human development, predicting and understanding adult behavior, and explaining how changes in the early development of our ancestors produced contemporary Homo sapiens.



Origins of the Social Mind

Author : Bruce J. Ellis

Publisher : Guilford Press

Page : 572 pages

File Size : 29,13 MB

Release : 2005-01-01

Category : Psychology

ISBN : 9781593851033

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Book Description

Applying an evolutionary framework to advance the understanding of child development, this volume brings together leading figures to contribute chapters in their areas of expertise. Researcher- and student-friendly chapters adhere to a common format.



Evolutionary Perspectives on Infancy

Author : Sybil L. Hart

Publisher : Springer Nature

Page : 379 pages

File Size : 28,18 MB

Release : 2022-01-01

Category : Psychology

ISBN : 3030760006

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Book Description

This unique volume is one of the first of its kind to examine infancy through an evolutionary lens, identifying infancy as a discrete stage during which particular types of adaptations arose as a consequence of certain environmental pressures. Infancy is a crucial time period in psychological development, and evolutionary psychologists are increasingly recognizing that natural selection has operated on all stages of development, not just adulthood. The volume addresses this crucial change in perspective by highlighting research across diverse disciplines including developmental psychology, evolutionary developmental psychology, anthropology, sociology, nutrition, and primatology. Chapters are grouped into four sections: Theoretical Underpinnings Brain and Cognitive Development Social/Emotional Development Life and Death Evolutionary Perspectives on Infancy sheds new light on our understanding of the human brain and the environments responsible for shaping the brain during early stages of development. This book will be of interest to evolutionary psychologists and developmental psychologists, biologists, and anthropologists, as well as scholars more broadly interested in infancy.



How Children Invented Humanity

Author : David F. Bjorklund

Publisher : Oxford University Press

Page : 393 pages

File Size : 11,96 MB

Release : 2020-10-30

Category : Psychology

ISBN : 0190066881

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Book Description

Infants and children are the often-ignored heroes when it comes to understanding human evolution. Evolutionary pressures acted upon the young of our ancestors more powerfully than on adults, and changes over the course of development in our ancestors were primarily responsible for the species and the people we have become. This book takes an evolutionary developmental perspective, emphasizing that developmental plasticity--the ability to change our physical and psychological selves early in life--is the creative force in evolution, with natural selection serving as a filter, eliminating novel developmental outcomes that did not benefit survival. This book is about becoming--of becoming human and of becoming mature adults. Bjorklund asks, "How can an understanding of human development help us better understand human evolution?" Then, turning the relation between evolution and development on its head, Bjorklund demonstrates how an understanding of our species' evolution can help us better understand current development and how to better rear successful and emotionally healthy children.



The Gardener and the Carpenter

Author : Alison Gopnik

Publisher : Macmillan

Page : 317 pages

File Size : 42,13 MB

Release : 2016-08-09

Category : Family & Relationships

ISBN : 0374229708

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Book Description

"Alison Gopnik, a ... developmental psychologist, [examines] the paradoxes of parenthood from a scientific perspective"--



Human Infancy

Author : Daniel G. Freedman

Publisher : Routledge

Page : 227 pages

File Size : 43,92 MB

Release : 2016-07-07

Category : Psychology

ISBN : 1317210492

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Book Description

Originally published in 1974, this volume is primarily devoted to what is known about human infancy from an ethological, evolutionary viewpoint. Included are discussions of pan-specific traits, presumably shared by all infants; individual genetic variations on these behaviours (as judged by twin-studies); sex differences, presumably shared by infants of all ethnic groups; and genetically based ethnic differences. However, the author favours neither biological determinism nor cultural determinism, and does not consider ‘interactionism’ to be a viable solution. Instead, a monistic position is taken, stressing the inseparability of the innate and the acquired, of genetics and environment, and of biology and culture. The heredity-environment issue is tackled head-on throughout the volume. The interaction between the two (an implied dualism) is described as a statistical abstraction from measured populations, while the position here is that heredity and environment are not separable in any single organism. In the same vein, the author argues that on logical grounds everything one does, every ‘cultural’ act, has within it some biological component.



Neurobehavioral Disorders of Childhood

Author : Robert Melillo

Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media

Page : 468 pages

File Size : 45,69 MB

Release : 2004-01-31

Category : Medical

ISBN : 9780306478147

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Book Description

Attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, pervasive developmental disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, asperger's syndrome, and autism, to name but a few, may be viewed as points on a spectrum of developmental disabilities in which those points share features in common and possibly etiology as well, varying only in severity and in the primary anatomical region of dysfunctional activity. This text focuses on alterations of the normal development of the child. A working theory is presented based on what we know of the neurological and cognitive development in the context of evolution of the human species and its brain. In outlining our theory of developmental disabilities in evolutionary terms, the authors offer evidence to support the following notions: Bipedalism was the major reason for human neocortical evolution; Cognition evolved secondary and parallel to evolution of motricity; There exists an overlap of cognitive and motor symptoms; Lack of thalamo-cortical stimulation, not overstimulation, is a fundamental problem of developmental disabilities; A primary problem is dysfunctions of hemisphericity; Most conditions in this spectrum of disorders are the result of a right hemisphericity; Environment is a fundamental problem; All of these conditions are variations of the same problem; These problems are correctable; Hemisphere specific treatment is the key to success.



Child Development

Author : Rosalyn H. Shute

Publisher : Routledge

Page : 354 pages

File Size : 32,22 MB

Release : 2015-05-15

Category : Psychology

ISBN : 1317665074

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Book Description

Child Development: Theories and Critical Perspectives provides an engaging and perceptive overview of both well-established and recent theories in child and adolescent psychology. This unique summary of traditional scientific perspectives alongside critical post-modern thinking will provide readers with a sense of the historical development of different schools of thought. The authors also place theories of child development in philosophical and cultural contexts, explore links between them, and consider the implications of theory for practice in the light of the latest thinking and developments in implementation and translational science. Early chapters cover mainstream theories such as those of Piaget, Skinner, Freud, Maccoby and Vygotsky, whilst later chapters present interesting lesser-known theorists such as Sergei Rubinstein, and more recent influential theorists such as Esther Thelen. The book also addresses lifespan perspectives and systems theory, and describes the latest thinking in areas ranging from evolutionary theory and epigenetics, to feminism, the voice of the child and Indigenous theories. The new edition of Child Development has been extensively revised to include considerable recent advances in the field. As with the previous edition, the book has been written with the student in mind, and includes a number of useful pedagogical features including further reading, discussion questions, activities, and websites of interest. Child Development: Theories and Critical Perspectives will be essential reading for students on advanced courses in developmental psychology, education, social work and social policy, and the lucid style will also make it accessible to readers with little or no background in psychology.



Handbook of Life Course Health Development

Author : Neal Halfon

Publisher : Springer

Page : 667 pages

File Size : 34,42 MB

Release : 2017-11-20

Category : Medical

ISBN : 3319471430

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Book Description

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. ​This handbook synthesizes and analyzes the growing knowledge base on life course health development (LCHD) from the prenatal period through emerging adulthood, with implications for clinical practice and public health. It presents LCHD as an innovative field with a sound theoretical framework for understanding wellness and disease from a lifespan perspective, replacing previous medical, biopsychosocial, and early genomic models of health. Interdisciplinary chapters discuss major health concerns (diabetes, obesity), important less-studied conditions (hearing, kidney health), and large-scale issues (nutrition, adversity) from a lifespan viewpoint. In addition, chapters address methodological approaches and challenges by analyzing existing measures, studies, and surveys. The book concludes with the editors’ research agenda that proposes priorities for future LCHD research and its application to health care practice and health policy. Topics featured in the Handbook include: The prenatal period and its effect on child obesity and metabolic outcomes. Pregnancy complications and their effect on women’s cardiovascular health. A multi-level approach for obesity prevention in children. Application of the LCHD framework to autism spectrum disorder. Socioeconomic disadvantage and its influence on health development across the lifespan. The importance of nutrition to optimal health development across the lifespan. The Handbook of Life Course Health Development is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians/professionals, and graduate students in developmental psychology/science; maternal and child health; social work; health economics; educational policy and politics; and medical law as well as many interrelated subdisciplines in psychology, medicine, public health, mental health, education, social welfare, economics, sociology, and law.



The Evolution of Childhood

Author : Melvin Konner

Publisher : Harvard University Press

Page : 964 pages

File Size : 40,17 MB

Release : 2010-05-31

Category : Psychology

ISBN : 9780674045668

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Book Description

A comprehensive Darwinian interpretation of human development which examines both the cross-cultural and universal characteristics of our growth from infancy to adolescence.