that sex remains the same no matter the situation. The gender schema view, in contrast, states that the environment affects a child’s understanding of gender through schemas, or mental frameworks, which guide them to act in gender appropriate ways. A gender schema is a mental model containing information about males and females that is used to process gender‐relevant information (Martin & Ruble, 2004).
Chapter Summary
In this chapter, we focused on theories of normal development that developmental psychopathologists study in order to understand better how deviations in development might result in risk for psychopathology. In particular, we focused on individual factors—like a child’s temperament, physical development, cognitive development, social‐emotional development, moral development, and sex‐role development. We also emphasized that the child’s context, which includes their parents, siblings, peers, and societies, play a role in these developmental processes, particularly though attachment experiences, parenting styles, socialization, and goodness of fit. Across the chapter, we highlighted multiple levels of analysis, which you learned about in Chapter 2 as a guiding principle of developmental psychopathology, by reviewing how bodies, hormones, cognitions, emotions, and context all interact with one another during the course of healthy development.
Further Reading
1 Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (2006). The bioecological model of human development. In R. M. Lerner & W. Damon (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Theoretical models of human development (vol. 1, 6th ed., pp. 793–828). Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
2 Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, A., & Spinrad, T. L. (1998). Parental socialization of emotion. Psychological Inquiry, 9(4), 241–273.
3 Rothbart, M. K., & Bates, J. E. (2006). Temperament. In W. Damon and N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology, vol. 3: Social, emotional, and personality development (pp. 105–176). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. doi: 10.1002/9780470147.
4 Vygotsky, L. (1978). Interaction between learning and development. Readings on the Development of Children, 23(3), 34–41.
Discussion/Essay Questions
1 Explain how one of the guiding principles that you learned about in Chapter 2 relates to the theories and research reviewed in this chapter. That is, how do the developmental theories reviewed in this chapter fit, or fail to fit, with a developmental psychopathology approach? Pick one example to support your answer.
2 Use the goodness‐of‐fit concept described in this chapter to explain how infant temperament and parenting style might interact. Which parenting style would you expect would fit best with which child temperament style? Do a quick literature search to see if scientists have proven your hypothesis to be correct.
3 Think of an example of child behavior from your own life—either your behavior or the behavior of a child you know. Describe the example, including the age of the child, and how it fits into the various theories of moral development included in this chapter.
Glossary
Altruism is the motivation to help other people, even if it comes at a cost.
Authoritarian style of parenting in which parents value obedience, impose a forceful imposition of their will on their child, and offer little warmth or affection.
Authoritative style of parenting in which parents maintain consistent boundaries, use reasoning, and control their children within reasonable limits while also offering consistent affection and support for their child.
Conformity refers to the degree to which friends are similar to each other in their behavior, interests, style, and goals and aspirations for the future.
Effortful control is the ability to inhibit an action that is already underway.
Egocentrism is a child’s inability to take another person’s perspective.
Empathy is the sharing of another person’s emotions and feelings.
Executive function involves cognitive flexibility, attention, memory, and inhibitory control.
Fine motor skills involve the development and coordination of the small muscles of the body.
Gender identity refers to how a person feels inside; it is one’s personal conception, or feeling, as male or female (or sometimes, both, or neither).
Gender segregation is the phenomenon characterized by girls generally preferring to play with other girls and boys tending to play with other boys.
Goodness of fit is the compatibility between the environment and a child’s temperament.
Gross motor skills involve the large muscles of the body and allow for locomotion to occur.
Hostile aggression is characterized by the intent to harm or injure the victim.
Identification is a psychological process in which children try to look, act, feel, and be like significant people in their social environment, such as peers and adults.
Instrumental aggression is directed at achieving a particular goal.
Morality is defined as principles that determine how people treat one another in regard to justice, the welfare of others, and human rights.
Myelination is the formation of myelin sheaths that allow for the increase in speed of electrical transmissions between neurons.
Neglectful or non‐conformist style of parenting in which parents are generally low on warmth and control, and tend to be uninvolved parents.
Neurons are specialized nerve cells found in the brain.
Permissive style of parenting in which parents are non‐intrusive and lax but are available as resources to their child when needed and offer high levels of warmth.
Primary sex characteristics include the reproductive organs or gonads (e.g., sperm‐producing testes in males and egg‐producing ovaries in females).
Prosocial behaviors are voluntary actions intended to benefit others.
Puberty is the biological process in both males and females that signifies a human’s physical and sexual maturation, as individuals become capable of reproduction.
Secondary sex characteristics include the outward physiological indicators or traits of sex (e.g., breasts and facial hair) that distinguish males from females; these are not involved in sexual reproduction.
Self‐regulation is the ability to control one’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
Sex (male or female) is a label that is assigned at birth based on outward physical characteristics.
Socialization is the process by which children learn to behave in a way that is socially acceptable by developing habits, skills, values, and motives that are deemed appropriate by society’s standards.
Sympathy is the emotional component of empathy and involves feeling sorrow or concern for another person.
Synaptogenesis is the process of synapse formation between neurons.
Temperament is a term used to describe individual differences in behavioral styles, emotions, and characteristic ways of responding.
References
1 Baumrind,