UNIT 1. Genetic and Prenatal Influences on Development

Part A. Genetic Influences

1. Brave New World, James Trefil, Smithsonian, December 2001

James Trefil articulates the who, what, where, when, and why of stem-cell research in this article. He answers most of the questions you wanted to know about stem cells, cloning, and genetic engineering. The history of in-vitro fertilization and DNA manipulation in the 1970s is followed by an up-to-date statement of President George Bush’s position on stem cells.

2. The First Human Cloned Embryo, Jose B. Cibelli, Robert P. Lanza, Michael D. West, and Carol Ezzell, Scientific American, January 2002

Will human cloning represent the dawn of a new age in biology and medicine? What are the moral and ethical concerns of making genetic materials from cloned humans? Will researchers stop with therapeutic cloning for treatment of diseases or move to reproductive cloning to make new humans? These issues are discussed by three researchers who are very involved in cloning.

Part B. Prenatal Influences

3. A State of the Art Pregnancy, Karen Springen, Newsweek, Special Issue, Spring 1999

Prenatal diagnosis in the twenty-first century will assess the health of unborn babies and predict future physical development very early in pregnancy. Fetal DNA analysis will also allow more fetal surgery to repair malformations. A transmitter in the uterus may prevent preterm deliveries. This article also gives 10 tips for a healthy pregnancy without using technological assistance.

4. Shaped by Life in the Womb, Sharon Begley, Newsweek, September 27, 1999

The genetic basis of diabetes and other diseases is undisputed. However, new research suggests that conditions during gestation influence the risk of manifesting adult disease. This new health paradigm is creating a plethora of suggestions for altering nutrition, stress, exercise, and drug use during the prenatal period.

5. The Mystery of Fetal Life: Secrets of the Womb, John Pekkanen, Current, September 2001

Environment affects prenatal development. This article reviews known dangers (e.g., alcohol and drug use, viral infections) and recently discovered endocrine disrupters (e.g., chemicals in our air, food, and water). The author gives advice on exercise, nutrition, and health maintenance to optimize the physical and cognitive status of the offspring.

UNIT 2. Development During Infancy and Early Childhood

Part A. Infancy

6. Four Things You Need to Know About Raising Baby, Joanna Lipari, Psychology Today, July/August 2000

In this article, Joanna Lipari explains the synthesis of important aspects of areas of infant development—genetic inheritance, physical development, cognitive skills, and emotional attachment—into a new view that equates parenting behaviors to software that promotes the growth of the baby’s brain (hardware). Lipari discusses attachment theory and compares “old thinking” about raising baby with research-guided “new thinking.”

7. The World of the Senses, Joan Raymond, Newsweek, Special Issue, Fall/Winter 2000

The human infant arrives in the world with physically developed senses, which are fine-tuned at a rapid pace. The most rapid brain metabolism occurs in the areas that process vision, hearing, and touch in the first 3 months. This article describes each of the senses and gives suggestions for how they can be exercised to maximize cognitive abilities.

8. Who’s Raising Baby?, Anne R. Pierce, The World & I, February 2002

What happens to self-esteem and emotional/personality development when babies are rushed to do everything sooner and better than others? The author contends that parenting and infancy should be more about love of learning. Through play, babies discover their individuality and genetically driven interests. Pressuring them to conform to gender-appropriate activities (e.g., sports, ballet) or academic pursuits is miseducation.

Part B. Early Childhood

9. Wired for Thought, Sharon Begley, Newsweek, Special Issue, Fall/Winter 2000

The “Mozart effect” suggests that playing classical music in early childhood stimulates cognition. New research supports the idea that genetically preprogrammed children’s brains learn early and quickly. Education should emphasize language and playful interactions with emotionally attached caregivers as well as music.

10. Psychosexual Development in Infants and Young Children, Alice Sterling Honig, Young Children, September 2000

Early childhood is a time of sexual curiosity. Parenting and caregiving practices that are open, honest, and accepting of this fact encourage emotional health, self-esteem, and gender identity. The author discusses physical and cognitive development, sexuality, and the major theories regarding psychosexual development.

11. Raising a Moral Child, Karen Springen, Newsweek, Special Issue, Fall/Winter 2000

Parents are held responsible for ethics and morality training during early childhood. Our culture has fewer moral role models than before and more and more aggression and violence, increasing the urgency for moral lessons. Karen Springen relays the advice of several experts on how to help preschoolers learn right from wrong.

UNIT 3. Development During Childhood: Cognition and Schooling

Part A. Cognition

12. Intelligence: The Surprising Truth, Stephen Ceci, Psychology Today, July/August 2001

How much intelligence is genetically predetermined and how much depends on education? Stephen Ceci presents a dozen research-supported facts about cognition and IQ that will surprise many readers. There are many types of intelligences and some of them are correlated with simple things like nutrition and reflex speed.

13. Child Psychologist: Jean Piaget, Seymour Papert, Time, March 29, 1999

Jean Piaget, named one of the top 100 people of the twentieth century, was neither an education nor a psychology expert, yet he founded the field of cognitive science. His creative genius took children’s thoughts and language seriously. Children, he correctly states, are creative. They test theories like scientists do. Their ways of learning require that they be given time to do so.

14. Metacognitive Development, Deanna Kuhn, Current Directions in Psychological Science, October 2000

Cognitive development that reflects on itself is called metacognition. Understanding intellectual performance will allow parents, teachers, and others to help children develop effective metacognitive awareness. Deanna Kuhn suggests that knowledge of metastrategies will help us to understand how education occurs or fails to occur.

Part B. Schooling

15. “High Stakes Are for Tomatoes”, Peter Schrag, The Atlantic Monthly, August 2000

This article raises questions about the widespread use of assessment tests to judge the performance of students and schools. The frenzy for higher performance and accountability is shackling creative teaching, driving out good teachers, and creating undue student stress. Are tests culturally biased? Will a testing backlash lower educational standards?

16. The Future of Computer Technology in K–12 Education, Frederick Bennett, Phi Delta Kappan, April 2002

The author argues that the computer culture will benefit education. Creative individuals can develop software with many cognitive advantages. However, the improvements will not happen until teaching undergoes a major alteration. Parents, politicians, and citizens must want this to happen.

17. Choosing to Learn, Bobby Ann Starnes and Cynthia Paris, Phi Delta Kappan, January 2000

In the Foxfire approach to education, students help create curriculum and decide how they will learn. Their self-esteem as well as their grades improve when they are allowed to make academic and ethics choices. The authors argue that academic choice and academic integrity can be interdependent without anarchy.

18. The Trauma of Terrorism: Helping Children Cope, Ilene R. Berson and Michael J. Berson, Social Education, October 2001

The violence in New York and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001, touched the lives of schoolchildren in a profound way. A culture of terrorism fed their imaginations and rocked their self-esteem. Ilene and Michael Berson suggest the importance of education about diversity in peers and others. Adults help when they understand students’ vulnerabilities, hopelessness, powerlessness, and impaired performance. Students need to discuss feelings and regain a sense of safety.

UNIT 4. Development During Childhood: Family and Culture

Part A. Family

19. Raising Happy Achieving Children in the New Millennium, Alice Sterling Honig, Early Child Development and Care, Volume 163, 2000

This article is packed with excellent advice on care that creates self-esteem and emotionally happy and cognitively achieving children. Alice Honig stresses the need to educate parents early, even before the birth of their child, especially if parents have experienced depression, drug abuse, or family violence. Family aides must be sensitive to different cultures.

20. Generation XXL, Geoffrey Cowley, Newsweek, July 3, 2000

Obese children suffer physically and emotionally. In the United States, one in three children is overweight or at risk of becoming so. Health problems due to obesity affect 6 million American children. Physical education classes have vanished in a majority of schools. Family/parenting recommendations include more exercise and better nutrition, including portion control, for children to achieve vigor and self-esteem benefits.

21. Kids Who Don’t Fit In, Pat Wingert, Newsweek, March 22, 1999

A child’s emotional intelligence may have a genetic basis, but family/parenting skills can help children fit in better with peers and in social situations. This article discusses early signs of emotional disability. Play and kindness stories in school and at home can foster more empathy. Social skills therapy may also help both parents and children.

Part B. Culture

22. Are Boys the Weaker Sex?, Anna Mulrine, U.S. News & World Report, July 30, 2001

American culture, parents, and schools are struggling with boys. Gender differences include more aggression and impulsivity but less efficient learning, less emotional control, and less peer intimacy. Male emotions are linked more with action than words. Consequences include moral problems, insults to self-esteem, and depression.

23. Effects of Maltreatment and Ways to Promote Children’s Resiliency, Barbara Lowenthal, Childhood Education, Summer 1999

Violence (abuse, severe injuries, natural disorders) leaves children at risk for stress disorders, emotional/personality disorders, health problems, cognitive disorders, and depression. Such negative experiences cause abnormal neuronal activity that, in turn, disrupts brain development, creating greater risks to the neurons now than in adulthood. Interventions to prevent further maltreatment and to promote resiliency are suggested.

UNIT 5. Development During Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Part A. Adolescence

24. Meet the Gamma Girls, Susannah Meadows, Newsweek, June 3, 2002

Is gender convergence creating more aggression in the peer culture of bitchy adolescent girls? This article describes “mean girls,” “wannabes,” and “Gamma girls.” The latter are emotionally healthy, attached to their parents, self-confident, and physically fit, engaging in exercise and extracurricular activities.

25. Why the Young Kill, Sharon Begley, Newsweek, May 3, 1999

Quotes from experts on adolescent psychology and neurobiology show that aggression/violence probably requires a particular environment of stress, lack of morality training, and/or negligent parenting imposed on a temperamentally vulnerable child with a genetic predisposition to an antisocial personality. Such doubly jeopardized youth lack the skills to restore their sense of self-esteem when faced with perceived injustices.

26. Generation 9-11, Barbara Kantrowitz and Keith Naughton, Newsweek, November 12, 2001

Adolescents are reexamining their moral values, drug use, language, racism, gender roles, and career choices in the wake of September 11, 2001. Family and patriotism have become cool again. Many more students want to understand Arabs and Islam than react aggressively against them. Reducing stress and seeking peace are goals of youth.

Part B. Young Adulthood

27. The Feminization of American Culture, Leonard Sax, The World & I, October 2001

Emotional maturity is equated with expressing feelings in contemporary culture. In 50 years, gender stereotypes have reversed: women are how being considered more mature than men. School girls are 3 years ahead of boys in language skills. Male self-esteem is plummeting. Are males’ genetic traits being feminized by estrogen-like modern chemicals? The author explores this possibility.

28. The Happy Divorce: How to Break Up and Make Up, Nora Underwood, Maclean’s, January 21, 2002

In the United States and Canada, collaborative law is making happier divorces as well as happier marriages possible for young adults. Old gender interests are set aside and neither man nor woman seeks to be victor over loser. The couple’s primary interests are to remain friends and not to harm children. These win-win methods leave everyone emotionally healthier.

29. The Coming Job Boom, Daniel Eisenberg, Time, May 6, 2002

The author contends that the young adult culture can create jobs for themselves by attending to trends and getting training and education in coming boom areas. Stressful jobs such as those in health care (e.g., nursing, pharmacy) are already plentiful. Skilled tradespeople, computer experts, administrators, and geologists will be in greater demand as the baby boomers retire.

UNIT 6. Development During Middle and Late Adulthood

Part A. Middle Adulthood

30. Man Power, Jim Thornton, AARP Modern Maturity, January/February 2001

Testosterone gel does not a man make, according to Jim Thornton. It may increase stamina and contribute to physical status and health. For a while, these changes can boost self-esteem and masculine self-worth. It also increases aggression and reduces sensible self management, occupational achievement, and the wisdom of age.

31. Sorting Through the Confusion Over Estrogen, Jane E. Brody, New York Times, September 3, 2002

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) replaces estrogen. This improves physical status and feelings of health but increases the risks of breast cancer and blood clots in menopausal women. New studies strongly urge women to stop using HRT because its harmful effects are now considered to outweigh its beneficial ones.

32. An American Epidemic: Diabetes, Jerry Adler and Claudia Kalb, Newsweek, September 4, 2000

Middle-aged adults are experiencing a galloping rate of physical decline due to type-2 diabetes. Nutrition (especially sugar consumption) and lack of exercise as well as genetics affect this health threat. This article gives warning signs to look for and discusses many new treatment options.

33. 12 Things You Must Know to Survive and Thrive in America, Ellis Cose, Newsweek, January 28, 2002

The author lays out rules for defeating depression and soul-crushing emotions at work and in life and emerging a survivor. Ellis Cose’s prescription can contribute to better physical and mental health, improved stress management, and happier marriages and parenting.

Part B. Late Adulthood

34. The New Unretirement, Marc Freedman, AARP Modern Maturity, January/February 2001

Many retirees are becoming involved in education of the next generation rather than disengaging and/or pursuing leisure after retiring. They want to stay active and “feed their souls.” This contributes to greater physical and emotional health, cognitive stimulation, and late-life creativity.

35. The Disappearing Mind, Geoffrey Cowley, Newsweek, June 24, 2002

Geoffrey Cowley discusses new brain scans that may be able to provide early warning that the brain is beginning to experience dementia. More importantly, it reviews possible ways to prevent cognitive decline in late adulthood. A vaccination may reduce amyloid deposits. New drugs may prevent neuro-fibrillary tangles. Physical and emotional decline may be delayed in the future.

36. The Nun Study: Alzheimer’s, Michael D. Lemonick and Alice Park, Time, May 14, 2001

Almost 700 late adulthood nuns have been part of an innovative study on Alzheimer’s disease since 1986. The results are surprising. Use of complex language, education, and positive emotions are correlated with cognitive maintenance. Mental exercise keeps neurons in better health. Genetic factors, cardiovascular disease, nutritional deficiencies, and lack of exercise may predict or contribute to dementia.

37. Start the Conversation, AARP Modern Maturity, September/October 2000

This compilation of data about death and dying was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It includes information about late adulthood, medical and emotional care, and legal and financial assistance. Descriptions of types of end-of-life care (e.g., hospices) and advance directives about such choices are included. The ethics and legality of assisted suicide is also presented.

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