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Adolescence: Growing Up in America Today is a follow-up to Joy Dryfoos' landmark study, Adolescents at Risk. The new volume takes a close look at the lives of young people, identifies their problems, and addresses solutions based on state-of-the-art prevention and treatment. Dryfoos and Barkin examine major aspects of adolescent life -- sex, violence, drugs, health, mental health, education, and quality of life. Reviewing successful prevention programs and policy studies, they demonstrate that we know what to do to prevent high risk-behaviors and that there are many similarities across domains.
Relationships, especially close relationships, are among the most important aspects of life for most of us. Close relationships reach to the very heart of our happiness --but exactly what processes or skills, over the course of a lifetime, help us learn to relate to one another more and more deeply, and to grow past the differences and problems that might divide us? Adult Development applies the concept of complex postformal thought in order to explore how certain cognitive processes support individuals' close relationships such that those relationships grow stronger and richer over time. Complex postformal thought allows a person to deal with everyday logical contradictions by letting that person understand that "reality" and "meaning" are co-created. In this way, postformal thought enables adults to bridge two contradictory but logical positions and reach an adaptive synthesis of them through a higher-order logic. Taking this inquiry a step further, Sinnott examines the role played by postformal thought in intimate relationships -- those between spouses, partners, parents and children, siblings, and close friends. Sinnott argues that postformal thought seems to develop later in life and is somewhat akin to the concept of wisdom. Based on 30 years of research, this book diverges from typical contributions to this field by discussing positive adult development in the context of close relationships. Rather than focusing on the emergence of deficits of adulthood and particularly aging, Sinnott instead explores the cognitive processes that are important in creating and sustaining close ongoing relationships.
One of the most important questions about children's development involves how knowledge acquisition depends on the effect of language experience. To what extent, and in what ways, is a child's cognitive development influenced by their early experience of, and access to, language? Likewise, what are the effects on development of impaired access to language? This book is the first to confront directly the issue of how possessing an enhanced or impaired access to language influences children's development. Its focus is on learning environments, theory of mind understanding and the process of deriving meaning from conversations. The book features state of the art chapters written by leading scholars - psychologists, linguists and educators - who are concerned with bilingualism, deafness, atypical child development, and development in cultures with limited vocabularies in areas such as number concepts. Throughout, it maps out what is known about the interface between language and cognitive development and the prospects for the future directions in research and applied settings 'Access to Language and Cognitive Development' will be of considerable interest to all those who are concerned with the development and welfare of children. It will be of particular interest to researchers and professionals interested in the effects of bilingualism and deafness on young children and in advances in assessment of atypically developing children - for example, those with autism or cerebral palsy who have an impaired access to participation in conversation.
Decades of research indicate the important connections among academic motivation and achievement, social relationships, and school culture. However, much of this research has been conducted in homogenous American schools serving middle class, average achieving, Anglo-student populations. This edited volume will argue that school culture is a reflection of the society in which the school is embedded and comprises various aspects, including individualism, competition, cultural stereotypes, and extrinsically guided values and rewards. They address three specific conceptual questions: How do differences in academic motivation for diverse groups of students change over time? How do students' social cognitions influence their motivational processes and outcomes in school? And what has been done to enhance academic motivation? To answer this last question, the contributors describe empirically validated intervention programs for improving academic motivation in students from elementary school through college.
Human infants do not seem to be born with concepts of self or joint attention. One basic goal of Agency and Joint Attention is to unravel how these abilities originate. One approach that has received a lot of recent attention is social. Some argue that by virtue of an infant's intense eye gaze with her mother, she is able, by the age of four months, to establish a relationship with her mother that differentiates between "me" and "you." At about twelve months, the infant acquires the non-verbal ability to share attention with her mother or other caregivers. Although the concepts of self and joint attention are nonverbal and uniquely human, the question remains, how do we establish metacognitive control of these abilities? A tangential question is whether nonhuman animals develop abilities that are analogous to self and joint attention. Much of this volume is devoted to the development of metacognition of self and joint attention in experiments on the origin of consciousness, knowing oneself, social referencing, joint action, the neurological basis of joint attention, the role of joint action, mirror neurons, phenomenology, and cues for agency.
Throughout history there have been efforts to help deaf children develop spoken language through which they could have full access to the hearing world. These efforts, although pursued seriously and with great care, frequently proved fruitless, and often only resulted in passionate arguments over the efficacy of particular approaches. Although some deaf children did develop spoken language, there was little evidence to suggest that this development had been facilitated by any particular education approach, and moreover, many, even most deaf children--especially those with profound loss--never develop spoken language at all. Recent technological advances, however, have led to more positive expectations for deaf children's acquisition of spoken language: Innovative testing procedures for hearing allow for early identification of loss that leads to intervention services during the first weeks and months of life. Programmable hearing aids allow more children to make use of residual hearing abilities. Children with the most profound losses are able to reap greater benefits from cochlear-implant technologies. At the same time, there have been great advances in research into the processes of deaf children's language development and the outcomes they experience. As a result, we are, for the first time, accruing a sufficient base of evidence and information to allow reliable predictions about children's progress that will, in turn, lead to further advances. The contributors to this volume are recognized leaders in this research, and here they present the latest information on both the new world evolving for deaf and hard-of-hearing children and the improved expectations for their acquisition of spoken language. Chapters cover topics such as the significance of early vocalizations, the uses and potential of technological advances, and the cognitive processes related to spoken language. The contributors provide objective information from children in a variety of programming: using signs; using speech only; using cued speech, and cutting-edge information on the language development of children using cochlear implants and the innovations in service provision. Along with its companion volume, Advances in Sign-Language Development of Deaf Children, this book will provide a deep and broad picture of what is known about deaf children's language development in a variety of situations and contexts. From this base of information, progress in research and its application will accelerate, and barriers to deaf children's full participation in the world around them will continue to be overcome.
Although there has been a surge in our understanding of children's vocabulary growth, theories of word learning lack a primary focus on verbs and adjectives. Researchers throughout the world recognize how our understanding of language acquisition can be at best partial if we cannot comprehend how verbs are learned. This volume represents a proliferation of research on the frontier of early verb learning, enhancing our understanding of the building blocks of language and considering new ways to assess key aspects of language growth.
The use of sign language has a long history. Indeed, humans' first languages may have been expressed through sign. Sign languages have been found around the world, even in communities without access to formal education. In addition to serving as a primary means of communication for Deaf communities, sign languages have become one of hearing students' most popular choices for second-language study. Sign languages are now accepted as complex and complete languages that are the linguistic equals of spoken languages. Sign-language research is a relatively young field, having begun fewer than 50 years ago. Since then, interest in the field has blossomed and research has become much more rigorous as demand for empirically verifiable results have increased. In the same way that cross-linguistic research has led to a better understanding of how language affects development, cross-modal research has led to a better understanding of how language is acquired. It has also provided valuable evidence on the cognitive and social development of both deaf and hearing children, excellent theoretical insights into how the human brain acquires and structures sign and spoken languages, and important information on how to promote the development of deaf children. This volume brings together the leading scholars on the acquisition and development of sign languages to present the latest theory and research on these topics. They address theoretical as well as applied questions and provide cogent summaries of what is known about early gestural development, interactive processes adapted to visual communication, linguisic structures, modality effects, and semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic development in sign. Along with its companion volume, Advances in the Spoken Language Development of Deaf and Hard-of Hearing Children, this book will provide a deep and broad picture about what is known about deaf children's language development in a variety of situations and contexts. From this base of information, progress in research and its application will accelerate, and barriers to deaf children's full participation in the world around them will continue to be overcome.
The transition from adolescence to adulthood has undergone significant changes in recent decades. Unlike a half century ago, when young people in industrialized countries moved from adolescence into young adulthood in relatively short order at around age 20, now the decade from the late teens to the late twenties is seen as an extended time of self-focused exploration and education in pursuit of optimally fulfilling relationships and careers. Recognition of this new period is stronger than ever, but an important question remains: should emerging adulthood be considered a developmental stage, or a process? In Debating Emerging Adulthood: Stage or Process? two pairs of developmental psychologists take sides in a debate that is central to the very concept of emerging adulthood. Arnett and Tanner argue that as young people around the world share demographic similarities, such as longer education and later marriage, the years between the ages 18 and 25 are best understood as entailing a new life stage. However, because the experiences of emerging adults worldwide vary according to cultural context, educational attainment, and social class, these two scholars suggest that there may not be one but many different emerging adulthoods. An important issue for this burgeoning area of inquiry is to explore and describe this variation. In contrast, Hendry and Kloep assert that stage theories have never been able to explain individual transitions across the life course; in their view, stage theories-including the theory of emerging adulthood-ought to be abolished altogether, and explanations found for the processes and mechanisms that govern human change at any age. This engaging book maps out the argument of "stage or process" in detail, with vigorous disagreements, conflicting alternatives, and some leavening humor, ultimately even finding some common ground. Debating Emerging Adulthood is an absolute must-read for developmental psychologists as well as anyone interested in this indisputably important time of life.
Music therapy is an internationally recognised field of professional evidence-based practice. Qualified music therapists use the engaging, non-verbal aspects of music to create relationships in which therapeutic goals can be pursued and needs of clients addressed. This is the first book to focus specifically on the ways that music therapists provide support for the development of the special and necessary bond between parents and their infants, where some vulnerability is experienced. In the book, music therapists from four countries, Australia, Ireland, the UK and the US describe their practices with reference to contemporary theory and research. Throughout, the chapters are illustrated with engaging case material. Many of the authors are the world leaders in the area of music therapy to promote parent and infant bonding. Others are having their first opportunity to describe their work publicly in print. The focus in each chapter is on the need for this work, the theoretical underpinnings of the practice, and the music therapy practice itself. The book is arranged in 3 sections. The first section covers work in therapy sessions with children and their parents. The second section describes programmes where the music therapist leads a group of parents with their infants, such as the renowned Sing & Grow in Australia. The final section presents work with medical patients and their families including in the neonatal intensive care unit, and for cancer patients. The book will be valuable for music therapy practitioners and students, and more broadly for all those in the field of infant mental health.
Violent video games are successfully marketed to and easily obtained by children and adolescents. Even the U.S. government distributes one such game, America's Army, through both the internet and its recruiting offices. Is there any scientific evidence to support the claims that violent games contribute to aggressive and violent behavior? As the first book to unite empirical research on and public policy options for violent video games, Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents will be an invaluable resource for student and professional researchers in social and developmental psychology and media studies.
Research has traditionally shown high schools to be hostile environments for LGBT youth. Boys have used homophobia to prove their masculinity and distance themselves from homosexuality. Despite these findings over the last three decades, The Declining Significance of Homophobia tells a different story. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews of young men in three British high schools, Dr. Mark McCormack shows how heterosexual male students are inclusive of their gay peers and proud of their pro-gay attitudes. He finds that being gay does not negatively affect a boy's popularity, but being homophobic does. Yet this accessible book goes beyond documenting this important shift in attitudes towards homosexuality: McCormack examines how decreased homophobia results in the expansion of gendered behaviors available to young men. In the schools he examines, boys are able to develop meaningful and loving friendships across many social groups. They replace toughness and aggression with emotional intimacy and displays of affection for their male friends. Free from the constant threat of social marginalization, boys are able to speak about once feminized activities without censure. The Declining Significance of Homophobia is essential reading for all those interested in masculinities, education, and the decline of homophobia.