UNIT 1. Genetic and Prenatal Influences on Development

A. GENETIC INFLUENCES

1. Cellular Divide, Sharon Begley, Newsweek,July 9, 2001.

This article explains how embryonic stem cells could beused to cure diseases if embryo research is allowed to continue.Genetics research has documented the blank slatenature of these cells and the possibility of making them into varioustypes of tissue. The question is not can we do it, but, rather anethical and moral one, should we?

2. Baby, It's You! and You, and You..., Nancy Gibbs,Time, February 19, 2001.

Cloning, creating a new human with the exact DNA of itsdonor, may already have occurred in some underground researchfacility. Genetics research has made it possible, butethical concerns have kept it, so far, from happeningpublicly.

B. PRENATAL INFLUENCES

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

Prenatal diagnosis in the twenty-firstcentury will assess the health of unborn babies andpredict future physical development very early inpregnancy. Fetal DNA analysis will also allow more fetal surgery torepair malformations. A transmitter in the uterus may prevent pretermdeliveries. This article also gives 10 tips for a healthy pregnancywithout using technological assistance.

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

The genetic basis of diabetes and otherdiseases is undisputed. However, new research suggests that conditionsduring gestation influence the risk of manifesting adult disease. Thisnew health paradigm is creating a plethora ofsuggestions for altering nutrition, stress, exercise,and drug use during the prenatalperiod.

5. Fetal Psychology, Janet L. Hopson, PsychologyToday, September/October 1998.

Two months before birth, the fetus has emotions andpersonality that predict infant behavior. Very active fetusesbecome irritable babies, while fetuses with high heart rates becomeunpredictable, inactive babies. A well-nourished, low stress,drug-free prenatal environment has the best chance ofproducing a baby with an easy temperament and also enhancesphysical development and cognition.

UNIT 2. Development During Infancy and Early Childhood

A. INFANCY

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

In this article, Joanna Lipari explains the synthesis ofimportant aspects of areas of infant development-geneticinheritance, physical development, cognitive skills, andemotional attachment-into a new view that equatesparenting behaviors to software that promotes thegrowth of the baby's brain (hardware). Lipari discussesattachment theory and compares "old thinking" aboutraising 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 withphysically developed senses, which are fine-tuned at arapid pace. The most rapid brain metabolism occurs in the areas thatprocess vision, hearing, and touch in the first 3 months. This articledescribes each of the senses and gives suggestions for how they can beexercised to maximize cognitiveabilities.

8. Kids, Start Your Engines, Joan Raymond,Newsweek, Special Issue, Fall/Winter 2000.

Joan Raymond investigates individual differences inphysical maturation during infancy.She advises parents that comparative measures show averages, not whateach baby's timetable should be; motor skills do not predict futurecognition. The article stresses the importance ofemotional satisfaction and nurturing for optimal braindevelopment.

9. A Sense of Self, Thomas Hayden, Newsweek,Special Issue, Fall/Winter 2000.

Emotions/personality have agenetic basis. Parenting is shaped bybabies' behaviors and vice-versa. Gender and birthorder also affect self-esteem and self-regulation.Given these facts and others, Thomas Hayden concludes that nurture canamplify or quiet down nature's "pre-set" personality.

B. EARLY CHILDHOOD

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

The "Mozart effect" suggests that playing classical musicin early childhood stimulatescognition. New research supports the idea thatgenetically preprogrammed children's brains learnearly and quickly. Education should emphasizelanguage and playful interactions withemotionally attached caregivers as well asmusic.

11. Psychosexual Development in Infants and YoungChildren, Alice Sterling Honig, Young Children, September2000.

Early childhood is a time of sexualcuriosity. Parenting and caregiving practices that areopen, honest, and accepting of this fact encourage emotionalhealth, self-esteem, and gender identity. Theauthor discusses physical and cognitive development,sexuality, and the major theories regarding psychosexualdevelopment.

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

Parents are held responsible forethics and morality training during earlychildhood. Our culture has fewer moral rolemodels than before and more and more aggression andviolence, increasing the urgency for moral lessons. KarenSpringen relays the advice of several experts on how to helppreschoolers learn right from wrong.

UNIT 3. Development During Childhood: Cognition and Schooling

A. COGNITION

13. From Brain Scan to Lesson Plan, Bridget Murray,Monitor on Psychology, March 2000.

Cognitive psychologists can help bridgethe gap between neuroscience and education. Thisarticle reviews what brain imaging tells about how children learn andhow failure to learn occurs. Cognitivists can use this new informationto correct learning problems. It will require collaboration andresolution to translate neuroimaging to education.

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

Jean Piaget, named one of the top 100 people of thetwentieth century, was neither an education nor apsychology expert, yet he founded cognitive science.His creative genius took children's thoughts andlanguage seriously. Children, he correctly states, arecreative. They test theories like scientists do. Theirways of learning require that they be given time to doso.

15. Metacognitive Development, Deanna Kuhn,Current Directions in Psychological Science, October2000.

Cognitive development that reflects onitself is called metacognition. Understanding intellectual performancewill allow parents, teachers, and others to help children developeffective metacognitive awareness. Deanna Kuhn suggests that knowledgeof metastrategies will help us understand howeducation occurs, or fails to occur.

B. SCHOOLING

16. "High Stakes Are for Tomatoes", Peter Schrag, TheAtlantic Monthly, August 2000.

This article raises questions about the widespread use ofassessment tests to judge the performance of students andschools. The frenzy for higher performance andaccountability is shackling creative teaching, drivingout good teachers, and creating undue student stress.Are tests culturally biased? Will a testing backlashlower educational standards?

17. In Search of . . . Brain-Based Education, John T.Bruer, Phi Delta Kappan, May 1999.

This essay supplies rebuttals to the brain-basedliterature that advocates changing education to complywith right-left (gender differentiated) brainfunctions and a sensitive period for cognitivedevelopment between ages 4 and 10. Critical evaluation ofscientific brain research reveals that neurobiology has not yetrevealed answers to questions of how children learn, remember, andthink.

18. Choosing to Learn, Bobby Ann Starnes and CynthiaParis, Phi Delta Kappan, January 2000.

In the Foxfire approach to education,students help create curriculum and decide how theywill learn. Their self-esteem as well as their gradesimprove when they are allowed to make academic andethics choices. The authors argue that academic choiceand academic integrity can be interdependent withoutanarchy.

19. Doctor's Orders, Barbara Kantrowitz and PatWingert, Newsweek, October 2, 2000.

Dr. Mel Levine, a pediatrician, wants teachers toindividualize education to the many ways in whichchildren learn. Through books and seminars, he instructs teachers andparents about neurodevelopmental constructs. He says that complexitiesof the brain, such as language disabilities orattention deficits, benefit from specific diagnoses and specific"learning profile" remedies.

20. Positive Peer Solutions: One Answer for the RejectedStudent, Steven L. Rosenberg, Loren M. McKeon, and Thomas E.Dinero, Phi Delta Kappan, October 1999.

The education establishment has beenblamed for failing to curb students' negative attitudes and behaviors.This article describes school-based positive peergroup intervention. Students from diverse culturalbackgrounds learn work, discipline, and responsibility in ateam. Both individual and schoolwide problems are identified andsolved. Problem students become part of the solution and gainself-esteem.

UNIT 4. Development During Childhood: Family and Culture

A. FAMILY

21. Father Love and Child Development: History and CurrentEvidence, Ronald P. Rohner, Current Directions inPsychological Science, October 1998.

Parental influence has historically viewedmother love as prime mover. New research shows that father love andacceptance is very important to a child's cognitiveand emotional development in bothgenders and in all cultures. RonaldRohner reviews six types of studies that demonstrate the power offather love. Depression, drug abuse, andviolence outcomes, for example, are more linked tofather love than to mother love.

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

Obese children suffer physically andemotionally. In the United States one in threechildren is overweight or at risk of becoming so.Health problems due to obesity affect 6 millionAmerican children. Physical education classes have vanished in amajority of schools. Family/parenting recommendationsinclude more exercise and betternutrition, including portion control, for children toachieve vigor and self-esteem benefits.

23. Kids Who Don't Fit In, Pat Wingert, Newsweek,March 22, 1999.

A child's emotional intelligence may havea genetic basis, but family/parenting skills can helpchildren fit in better with peers and in socialsituations. This article discusses early signs of emotionaldisability. Play and kindness stories in school and athome can foster more empathy. Social skills therapy may also help bothparents and children.

B. CULTURE

24. Boys to Men: Emotional Miseducation, Bridget Murray,APA Monitor, July/August 1999.

Sadness and depression are increasing inboys. Parents cultivate genderdifferences and the culture emphasizeshypermasculinity/bravado. Schools tend to disciplineboys more harshly. Moral lessons, such as caring,empathy, and trust are generally not directed toward boys. Gentle boysare victims of jeering and aggression.Emotional education would help boys to develop neededself-esteem.

25. Effects of Maltreatment and Ways to Promote Children'sResiliency, Barbara Lowenthal, Childhood Education,Summer 1999.

Violence (abuse, severe injuries, naturaldisorders) leaves children at risk for stressdisorders, emotional/personality disorders,health problems, cognitive disorders,and depression. Such negative experiences causeabnormal 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 promoteresiliency are suggested.

26. The Power of Memes, Susan Blackmore,Scientific American, October 2000.

Memes are learned stories, songs, habits, skills, andother cultural charactieristics that spread fromperson to person within a culture through imitation. They are notbased in genetics, but help explain human behaviorsthat are based in genetics (meme-gene coevolution). The theory ofmemes helps explain language acquisition, creativity,self-esteem, peer pressure, and today's informationexplosion.

UNIT 5. Development During Adolescence and Young Adulthood

A. ADOLESCENCE

27. Inside the Teen Brain, Shannon Brownlee, U.S. News& World Report, August 9, 1999.

Brain research shows that the emotionalcenters are the last to mature inadolescence. This explains howattachment dissolves into declarations of independencewith rash peer compliance and oddmoral/ethical standards. Teendepression predisposes the brain toward adult depression.Gender makes a difference; for example, female brainsmature earlier. Recommendations are given forexercises to assist in the development of emotionalmaturity.

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

Quotes from experts on adolescentpsychology and neurobiology show thataggression/violence probably requires a particularenvironment of stress, lack ofmorality training, and/or negligentparenting imposed on a temperamentally vulnerablechild with a genetic predisposition to an antisocialpersonality. Such doubly jeopardized youth lack theskills to restore their sense of self-esteem whenfaced with perceived injustices.

29. The Secret Life of Teens, John Leland,Newsweek, May 10, 1999.

This selection points out the importance ofparents entering the secret world ofadolescence. Parents need to learn the secretlanguage used to communicate about sex anddrugs. Television, videos, and computer games presentteens with a landscape of aggression/violence andsex/gender fantasies. Parental incursions can helpreplace poor quality role models with ethics/moralitytraining.

B. YOUNG ADULTHOOD

30. The New Gender Wars, Sarah Blustain,Psychology Today, November/December 2000.

This article explores how researchers use personaltheories to analyze data that support either thegenetics (nature) or culture (nurture)explanations for gender differences. People who wantto preserve existing conditions will argue biological evolution, whileresearchers wanting change will argue societal constructs (differencesrelatively permanent vs. differences altered easily).

31. Finding Real Love, Cary Barbor, PsychologyToday, January/February 2001.

Young adults often sabotage their intimaterelationships, which reflects unresolved childhoodattachment issues. Fears of intimacy createemotional problems and depression.Marriages can be improved with moral/ethicalfocus and honesty about inner languagedialogues.

32. The Science of a Good Marriage, Barbara Kantrowitz andPat Wingert, Newsweek, April 19, 1999.

This article contradicts the Mars-Venus genderdifferences in emotion/personality as afactor in divorce. Young adults with happyrelationships share power. They keep the demons of criticism,contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling at bay. The birth of a firstbaby requires extra work in household and child-care roles. Happymarriages have a significant effect on goodhealth.

33. The Power of Play, Hara Estroff Marano, PsychologyToday, July/August 1999.

Is play a language? A culturalform? Yes, and play also can attract marriagepartners, stimulate creativity, provideexercise, improve emotional and physicalhealth, lift stress, and stimulate the brain.Is the opposite of play depression? The authorbelieves that our fears that play will waste time and undermine oursuccess come from not playing.

UNIT 6. Development During Middle and Late Adulthood

A. MIDDLE ADULTHOOD

34. Religion and the Brain, Sharon Begley,Newsweek, May 7, 2001.

Spirituality is an important new dimension ofneurobiology. One's physical status, health, stress management,creativity, and self-esteem are positivelyaffected by spiritual experiences. During prayer or meditation, theorientation area of the parietal lobe quiets down and the prefrontalcortex, the sear of attention, activates. Answers are tentative inthis new science, but perhaps inner reflection can free the brain toperceive an another dimension.

35. The Betrayal of the American Man, Susan Faludi,Newsweek, September 13, 1999.

Middle-aged men face a crisis inmasculinity in the twenty-first century. Antiheroic examples abound:deadbeat dads, harassers, batterers, stalkers, militiamen. Is manhooddefined by Promise Keepers? The Million Man March? Viagra? Isgender equality hurting marriage andplacing undue stress on the American man? Susan Faludiexplains her views.

36. An American Epidemic: Diabetes, Jerry Adler andClaudia Kalb, Newsweek, September 4, 2000.

Middle-aged adults are experiencing agalloping rate of physical decline due to type-2diabetes. Nutrition (especially sugar consumption) andlack of exercise as well as geneticsaffect this health threat. This article gives warningsigns to look for and discusses many new treatmentoptions.

B. LATE ADULTHOOD

37. Age and Emotion in Adulthood, Daniel K. Mroczek,Current Directions in Psychological Science, June 2001.

Depression declines in lateadulthood. This article reviews studies that suggest positiveemotions increase with age. Emotions can be acornerstone of physical status. Stress management,marital status, gender, good health,and an extraverted personality all contribute to positive affect. Moreresearch is needed to separate age from other factors.

38. New Nerve Cells for the Adult Brain, Gerd Kempermannand Fred H. Gage, Scientific American, May 1999.

Until recently it was accepted as truth that neurons couldnot undergo mitosis after birth. Scientists have discovered thatneurons in the hippocampus can regenerate. Stem cells in other brainlocations may also have this potential. If so, many neurologicaldiseases of late adulthood may be cured. This articlereviews the current knowledge about this startlingdiscovery.

39. Successful Aging: The Second 50, Joe Volz, Monitoron Psychology, January 2000.

In order to maintain good physical and cognitvehealth in late adulthood, the author suggestsneurobic exercises: experiencing the unexpected and using all thesenses. Aerobic exercise and nutritionhelp. Close relationships such as marriage and socialsupport also ensure that longevity is accompanied by wholesomeemotions and personality.

40. The Nun Study: Alzheimer's, Michael D. Lemonickand Alice Park, Time, May 14, 2001.

Almost seven hundred late adulthood nunshave been part of an innovative study on Alzheimer's disease since1986. The results are surprising. Use of complex language,education, and positive emotions arecorrelated with cognitive maintenance. Mental exercise keeps neuronsin better health. Genetic factors, cardiovasculardisease, nutritional deficiencies, and lack ofexercise may predict or contribute todementia.

41. Start the Conversation, Modern Maturity,September/October 2000.

This compilation of data about death and dying was fundedby The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It includes information aboutlate adulthood, medical and emotionalcare, and legal and financial assistance. Descriptions oftypes of end-of-life care (e.g., hospices) and advance directivesabout such choices are included. The ethics andlegality of assisted suicide is also presented.

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