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Book Details
Abstract
Why do we develop differently? Where does our individuality come from? What do we inherit from our genes, and how does that engage with our environment in influencing our behaviour?
Developing Difference is the first book of its kind to draw developmental and individual differences psychology together to investigate these fascinating questions.
Key features:
* draws on neuroscience and psychology to integrate the evolutionary, genetic, social and behavioural aspects of how we become who we are
* integrates the very latest genetic research
* considers the unanswered questions that still face differential and developmental psychologists
Developing Difference is essential reading for students studying developmental psychology and individual differences.
This is a long-needed textbook, integrating developmental and differential psychology in a concise yet comprehensive way. Engaging and accessible, Developing Difference accounts for the latest genetic research, and considers how evolution, genetics and human behaviour interconnect across the lifespan.
Wendy Johnson is Reader in Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, UK. Her research focuses on individual differences and development of mental abilities and personality, emphasising transactions between genetic and environmental influences.
"Dr. Johnson has produced a scientifically impeccable, clearly written discussion of the interaction between environmental and genetic effects over the life span. Anyone interested in development should read her work." – Earl Hunt, Professor Emeritus, University of Washington, USA
"Wendy Johnson is to be complimented on this excellent piece of work. It is the long-needed textbook that manages to integrate developmental and differential psychology in a concise, yet comprehensive, way." - Manuel Völkle, Researcher in Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Germany
"How do we develop into unique individuals? Wendy Johnson answers this deceptively simple question by weaving together the theories and research from many disciplines including genetics, human development, neuroscience, sociology, gerontology, and historical context. It is a fascinating overview of the many influences on human development. The text is clear and easy to follow, with new information even for experts in any of the fields that contribute to our understanding of how each of us develops differently." - Diane F. Halpern, McElwee Family Professor of Psychology, Claremont McKenna College, USA
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cover | Cover | ||
| Half-Title | i | ||
| Title | iii | ||
| Copyright | iv | ||
| Contents | v | ||
| List of Figures | x | ||
| Preface | xi | ||
| Acknowledgements | xiii | ||
| PART I KEY THEMES | 1 | ||
| 1 The Importance of Individual Differences in Development | 3 | ||
| The two streams of scientific psychology | 3 | ||
| Causation and control | 6 | ||
| Psychology’s ‘two realms’ | 7 | ||
| The process of development | 8 | ||
| The legacy of the trait as the core concept in individual differences research | 13 | ||
| Integrating developmental and individual differences psychology | 16 | ||
| The importance of individual choice in development of individual differences | 18 | ||
| Why this book? | 19 | ||
| Organization of the book | 22 | ||
| 2 Evolution | 28 | ||
| The origins and development of the theory of evolution | 28 | ||
| The theory of evolution itself | 30 | ||
| Evolution and genetics: the modern synthesis | 31 | ||
| Genetics, behaviour and ethology | 33 | ||
| Some lessons on natural selection from modern ethology | 35 | ||
| A long co-existing alternative perspective on evolution | 38 | ||
| A famous example of genetic adaptation to environment during development | 39 | ||
| William Hamilton and inclusive fitness | 40 | ||
| ‘Outcomes’ of evolution | 42 | ||
| Specific aspects of selection that maintain genetic variation | 44 | ||
| Sexual selection | 46 | ||
| Sexual selection in action | 48 | ||
| Speciation | 51 | ||
| Coevolution | 53 | ||
| 3 Brain Neuroanatomy and Genetics | 56 | ||
| Brain and body metabolics | 56 | ||
| Brain neuroanatomy and development | 58 | ||
| Adult brain structure and function | 62 | ||
| Regional communication within the brain | 65 | ||
| Developmental genetics: the homeobox | 67 | ||
| The role of the homeobox in brain development | 69 | ||
| Some basic genetics | 71 | ||
| Chromosomes and DNA | 71 | ||
| Heritability | 75 | ||
| The assumptions underlying heritability estimates and implications of their violation | 77 | ||
| Human genetic variation and identifying the effects of specific genes | 81 | ||
| 4 Stress Response, Coping Capacity and Resilience | 85 | ||
| Just what is stress? | 85 | ||
| Functional and non-functional patterns of response to stress involving the HPA axis | 86 | ||
| Allostasis | 90 | ||
| Other physiological responses to stress | 92 | ||
| Attachment theory | 94 | ||
| Measuring attachment and testing the theory | 96 | ||
| The roles of stress and stress response in development | 99 | ||
| Temperament | 100 | ||
| Current conceptions of temperament dimensions and their biological markers | 102 | ||
| Integrating temperament, attachment and stress response | 106 | ||
| Implications for development | 107 | ||
| Testing stress reactivity, maternal responsiveness and attachment associations in rats | 111 | ||
| Testing stress reactivity, maternal responsiveness and attachment associations in monkeys | 114 | ||
| The differential susceptibility hypothesis and resilience | 117 | ||
| PART II LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT | 121 | ||
| 5 Gestation: The Developmental Foundation | 123 | ||
| Foetal development | 123 | ||
| Sexual differentiation during gestation | 126 | ||
| Organizational and activating effects of hormones in the brain | 128 | ||
| Physical sexual dimorphism v. prenatal differences in exposure to sex hormones | 130 | ||
| Theories of effects of hormones on cerebral organization | 132 | ||
| Theories of genetic influences on sexual differentiation | 134 | ||
| Prenatal programming, foetal origins theory and the Barker hypothesis | 135 | ||
| Prenatal effects of maternal emotion | 136 | ||
| Evidence of prenatal effects of maternal stress in nonhuman animals | 138 | ||
| Evolutionary explanations for prenatal programming effects | 140 | ||
| Prenatal learning | 142 | ||
| Risks to foetal development | 146 | ||
| Birth and perinatal complications | 148 | ||
| Individual differences and development during gestation | 150 | ||
| 6 Infancy: Building a Brain | 153 | ||
| The primitive neonatal reflexes | 153 | ||
| Infant crying | 155 | ||
| Infant smiling | 156 | ||
| Measuring infant competencies | 157 | ||
| Developmental stages or continuous development | 161 | ||
| If there are stages, what changes from one to the next? | 164 | ||
| Brain development in infancy supporting the existence of stages | 166 | ||
| Imitation and mimicry | 166 | ||
| Mechanisms of imitation and mimicry: mirror neurons? | 167 | ||
| Object permanence and the ‘A-not-B error’ | 171 | ||
| Generalizing the guided reaching model to abilities considered cognitive | 174 | ||
| Emotional expression and the emergence of attachment | 175 | ||
| Emerging theories of emotional development in infants | 177 | ||
| Operationalization for empirical test | 179 | ||
| Development of individual differences in infancy | 179 | ||
| Randomness in development | 183 | ||
| 7 Childhood: Emerging as a Person | 185 | ||
| Basic toddler skills | 185 | ||
| The role of culture in the development of individual agency | 188 | ||
| The process of skill development | 190 | ||
| Classical learning principles | 192 | ||
| Mindsets about ability | 195 | ||
| Operant conditioning in teaching | 196 | ||
| Motivation and interest | 197 | ||
| Experience producing drive theory | 199 | ||
| Testing and applying EPD Theory | 204 | ||
| Childhood in the context of EPD Theory | 206 | ||
| Adaptation to the school environment | 207 | ||
| Emerging as a person | 211 | ||
| 8 Adolescence: Transition to Physical Adulthood | 213 | ||
| Biological v. social changes | 214 | ||
| Mechanisms of puberty | 216 | ||
| Emergence of sex dimorphisms | 218 | ||
| Individual age at puberty as facultative adaptation | 219 | ||
| Brain development during adolescence | 226 | ||
| Maintenance of goal-directed behaviour in adolescence | 229 | ||
| Emotion and incentive-driven behaviours in adolescence | 232 | ||
| Models to understand risk taking in adolescence | 233 | ||
| Gonadal hormones as links between brain and social development? | 235 | ||
| Associations between delinquency and timing of puberty in girls | 237 | ||
| Other associations with pubertal timing in girls | 241 | ||
| Associations with timing of puberty in boys | 242 | ||
| Epigenetic landscape and robustness | 243 | ||
| 9 Young Adult Development: Finding a Place in the World | 246 | ||
| Erik Erikson and the stages of psychosocial development | 247 | ||
| The crisis of identity v. role confusion | 249 | ||
| Incorporating a sociological perspective in understanding development of identity | 252 | ||
| Gottfredson’s theory of the development of occupational identity | 253 | ||
| The role of parental social class in development of occupational aspirations | 256 | ||
| Identity formation and desire for marriage and family | 257 | ||
| The role of salience in understanding the psychological consequences of loosening occupational sex differences, and thus in understanding identity more generally | 259 | ||
| Salience of race in the development of occupational identity | 262 | ||
| Perspectives on racial identity beyond racial salience | 264 | ||
| Empirical studies of racial identity | 269 | ||
| Why all this? | 272 | ||
| Illustrating individuality of outcomes in empirical data | 274 | ||
| 10 Adult Development: Balancing Work and Family | 278 | ||
| Early romantic attraction | 279 | ||
| Early romantic experiences | 282 | ||
| Adolescent sexual relationships and delinquency | 283 | ||
| Selection of sexual and romantic partners: evolutionary perspective | 285 | ||
| Other perspectives on mate selection | 287 | ||
| Cognitive and intuitive processes of mate selection | 288 | ||
| Pair-bonding | 292 | ||
| The transition to living in partnership | 295 | ||
| Consequences of mature pair-bonding | 297 | ||
| Current social challenges to the stability of the pair-bond: maintaining work–life balance | 298 | ||
| Parenthood and parenting | 303 | ||
| Adapting to parenthood in modern industrialized societies | 305 | ||
| 11 Ageing and Longevity: Managing Decline | 309 | ||
| The social importance of understanding ageing | 309 | ||
| Physiological characteristics of ageing | 311 | ||
| Cognitive ageing | 311 | ||
| Well-being in older age | 313 | ||
| Research involving socioemotional selectivity theory | 314 | ||
| Relative stability of psychological characteristics in older age | 317 | ||
| Robustness | 318 | ||
| Robustness and ageing | 323 | ||
| Intra-individual variability in old age | 324 | ||
| Threats to robustness – managing stress | 325 | ||
| Theories of senescence | 328 | ||
| The role of menopause in human evolution | 331 | ||
| Managing senescence | 333 | ||
| Use it or lose it | 337 | ||
| 12 Conclusion: Historical Context | 339 | ||
| The Flynn effect | 340 | ||
| Analogous trend of increasing height | 343 | ||
| Trends in longevity | 344 | ||
| And some contrasting historical cycles | 346 | ||
| How might these historical cycles relate to development of individual psychological differences? | 349 | ||
| Trends or cycles? | 351 | ||
| Individual differences v. developmental change | 353 | ||
| Addressing the challenges ahead | 354 | ||
| References | 357 | ||
| Index | 393 |