General Processes of Development

Parents' Beliefs About Children ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190874513.003.0003 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 52-87

Author(s):

Scott A. Miller

Keyword(s):

Environmental Factors ◽

Psychological Functioning ◽

Developmental Change ◽

Qualitative Change ◽

Quantitative Change ◽

Relative Importance ◽

Children's Behavior ◽

Children's Development ◽

Children’S Development

Parents hold beliefs not only about specific aspects of their children’s development (the focus of most of the remaining chapters) but also about the general processes through which such developments come about. So, too, do developmental psychologists. This chapter addresses the fit between what parents believe and what psychologists have concluded, concentrating especially on two issues. The nature–nurture issue concerns the interplay of biological and environmental factors in the determination of development, including beliefs about the relative importance of the two forces and about particular environmental contributors, including parents. The continuity–discontinuity issue concerns the extent to which psychological functioning is characterized by consistency or change. As applied to development, the question is whether developmental change is a matter of incremental, quantitative change or whether qualitative change also occurs. As applied to children’s competencies and characteristics, the question is whether children’s behavior and the rules that govern it are consistent or variable across different tasks and different contexts.

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Maternal labelling of novel and familiar objects: implications for children's development of lexical constraints

Journal of Child Language ◽

10.1017/s0305000997003115 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 24 (2) ◽

pp. 427-439 ◽

Cited By ~ 49

Author(s):

ELISE FRANK MASUR

Keyword(s):

Lexical Acquisition ◽

Play Interactions ◽

Conversational Interactions ◽

Children's Development ◽

Lexical Constraints ◽

Vocabulary Spurt ◽

Children’S Development ◽

Familiar Objects ◽

Naming Practices

Mothers' provision of names for novel and familiar toy animals was examined during play interactions with 20 infants observed at ages 0;10, 1;1, 1;5, and 1;9. Of particular interest were characteristics of mothers' speech which might bear on children's development of lexical principles or constraints. Analyses demonstrated that mothers facilitated their children's determination of reference and differentially adjusted their naming practices to novel, comprehended, and familiar animals. They virtually always named the whole object first. More important, the first mention of novel, but not comprehended or familiar animals involved both maternal naming and physical designation of the object 92% or more of the time. Thus, although a novel word's referent may be indeterminate logically, mothers specify it practically. These results support the position that maternal labelling practices may assist children in acquiring lexical principles and that lexical acquisition, perhaps even the vocabulary spurt, can proceed during natural conversational interactions before infants master lexical principles.

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Culture and Human Development

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.581 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Martin J. Packer ◽

Michael Cole

Keyword(s):

Human Development ◽

Psychological Functioning ◽

Cultural Psychology ◽

Psychological Development ◽

Cultural Learning ◽

Human Ontogenesis ◽

Species Specific ◽

Children's Development ◽

Children’S Development

There is growing appreciation of the role of culture in children’s psychological development (also called human ontogenesis). However, there are several distinct approaches to research on this matter. Cross-cultural psychology explores the causal influence of culture on differences in children’s development, treated as dependent variables. Researchers interested in the role of cultural learning in human evolution view culture as beliefs and values that are transferred from the mind of one individual to that of another. By contrast, “cultural psychology” views culture not as a cause, but a constituent of human psychological functioning. It invites us to pay attention to the fact that humans live in societies filled with material artifacts, tools, and signs that mediate human activity; that is to say, they provide the means with which people interact with the world around them and with one another. From this perspective, culture provides constituents that are essential to human development: it has a constitutive role in development. Although there continues to be much debate over how to define culture, it is generally agreed that different human social groups have distinct cultures, and it is common to assume that cultural differences lead to differences in the trajectories of children’s development. This is true, but it is also the case that culture is a universal requirement for development. Every child is born into a family and community with a language, customs, and conventions, and in which people occupy institutional roles with rights and responsibilities. These facts define universal requisites of human psychological development and include the acquisition of language, the development of a social identity, the understanding of community obligations, and the ability to contribute to the reproduction of the community. The interdependence of human communities—which probably had its origins in collaborative foraging and cooperative childrearing—seems to have placed species-specific demands on children’s development, selecting for the capacity to acquire a sensitivity not only to people’s goals and intentions but also to rights and responsibilities.

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