Topics to Know for Midterm 2
PSC 140: Winter 2013
th th
For 6 and 7 edition main textbook: CHAPTERS 7, 8, 9
Small (Our Babies, Ourselves): CHAPTERS 3, 4, 6, 7
You may also want to review in the main textbook:
pp. 166-168; 217-222; 376-378 (sixth edition)
pp. 166-168; 214-221; 380-382 (seventh edition)
Material from lecture on “Topics in Parenting 2” included information from these sections
of the textbook. Reading (or re-reading) these sections of the textbook will help you
understand this material more completely.
SMALL BOOK, AND TOPICS IN PARENTING 1 & 2
What is “culture?” Why are cross-cultural studies important? Give a few examples of developmental
DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES across cultures (e.g., biological, cognitive, motivational).
What defines an individualist (independent) (IND) culture? What defines a collectivist (interdependent)
(COL) culture? (Be familiar with the chart from lecture) Give some examples of cultures that tend to be
either more IND or COL.
Be able to describe several measurement and data collection issues that cross-cultural researchers face and
what strategies they use to resolve (fix) these problems.
What is a “traditional” v. an “industrialized” society? Why are scientists so interested in looking at
“traditional” societies?
What is a developmental niche?
Be familiar with parenting of infants, philosophies on motor development, and parental goals in the Kung
San, Ache, Gusii, American, and Japanese cultures as described lecture and in the Small book.
Small presents a great deal of research on the variability of child-rearing practices and goals across
cultures. What implications does this have for finding a “perfect” way of raising a child? What lessons
can you take away from this book as a current or future parent?
Be familiar with historical trends in birth practices in the U.S. (e.g., hospital vs. home birth, midwives vs.
ob, c-section rates)
What is meant by the “medicalization” of the birth process? What are some of the negative effects of the
“medicalization” of the birth process?
What are key differences between obstetricians and certified midwives? What are similarities?
1 How have C-Section rates changed in the past 10 years? What is the problem with this? What factors are
leading to this rise in C-Sections?
TOPICS IN PARENTING 2
Be familiar with historical trends in breastfeeding vs. bottle (formula) feeding
What are the benefits in breastfeeding for the infant? For the mother?
Why is it not a good idea for some mothers to breastfeed? (i.e., when can it be harmful to the infant?)
What are the AAP recommendations regarding how long to breastfeed an infant? How does this compare
to how long infants are typically breastfed in many cultures around the world (as well as humans for most
of our evolutionary history)?
How does mainstream American culture compare to other cultures (and human history) in its views on
where infants should sleep?
How are sleeping arrangements influenced by parental values and beliefs (e.g., desire to promote
interdependence vs. independence)?
What are some of the benefits for co-sleeping for the infant? Be familiar with the central findings of the
sleep research presented in the Small book (sleep studies by McKenna and Mosko).
Be familiar with historical trends in beliefs about the role of mothers. What is particularly challenging
about mothering today? Why does Warner refer to the 2000s as the “Age of Anxiety?”
What is meant by the term “work-life balance?”
What are the main conclusions from studies on the effects of daycare in relation to language, attachment,
and cognitive development?
Why may the Strange Situation not be the best assessment for measuring attachment in babies who have
frequent separations from the mother?
Be able to identify variables that moderate the effect of daycare on development. What are the two most
important of these variables?
What are characteristics of high quality daycare? Are most day care centers in the U.S. of high quality?
How do beliefs in “optimal development” depend on the culture and living conditions of a particular
group of people (e.g., poverty stricken areas of Brazil vs. U.S.)?
Be familiar with Dennis’ (1973) main findings regarding the effects of low quality orphanages on the
development of IQ. How is the outcome dependent upon the age of adoption? How do these findings on
the importance of the timing of adoption related to Chisholm’s (1998) studies on the relationship between
adoption age and development of secure attachment?
Are there negative outcomes for children even if they come from relatively high quality orphanages?
2 What factors influence the developmental effects of deprivation?
How do the findings about the effects of early deprivation inform parents about what factors to consider
when adopting a child? What issues are particular to international adoption? What can parents to do help
their internationally adopted children develop a healthy sense of ethnic identity?
Be familiar with the developmental outcomes of secure vs. insecure attachment
What is a risk factor? What is a protective factor? Be able to identify risk and protective factors at the
CHILD level, the FAMILY level, and the COMMUNITY level.
What are transactional models of development? Why are they useful for evaluating the influence of risk
factors and protective factors on child development?
What are some reasons for why early experience does NOT necessarily determine later development?
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Be able to identify evidence for a biological basis for language learning
What is statistical learning? How is it studied in infants? How does this new viewpoint potentially
challenge biological theories of language development?
Be able to describe the developmental progression of language sounds from crying to first words (know
the approx. ages for the beginnings of each step). How is this different for deaf children?
Be familiar with Janet Werker’s research on infants’ ability to detect phonemic contrasts in native vs.
non-native languages. At what age do these perceptual abilities disappear? Why is a good thing that they
do? What is meant by “maintenance-loss?”
What is the conditioned head turn technique? How is it done?
What do Baldwin’s studies reveal about the connection between the development of joint attention skills
and language learning in young children?
What is the difference between a morpheme and a phoneme?
Be able to contrast productive vs. receptive vocabulary—w
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