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Contents  vii

Incomplete Understanding of Transformation 171 The Duration of Memories 200


Egocentrism: The Inability to Take Others’ Perspectives 172 Memory in Early Childhood 201
The Emergence of Intuitive Thought 172 Preschoolers’ Understanding of Numbers 201
Cognitive Development in the School Years and Memory: Recalling the Past 201
Adolescence 174 Memory Development in the School Years 202
The Rise of Concrete Operational Thought (Ages 7 to 12) 174 Improving Memory 203
Piaget’s Formal Operational Stage (Ages 12 to 15) 175 The Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory 203
Using Formal Operations to Solve Problems 175 Attention 204
The Consequences of Adolescents’ Use of Formal Operations 177 Attention: The First Step in Information Processing 204
Review, Check, and Apply 177 Review, Check, and Apply 208

Module 6.2: Appraising Piaget: Support and Module 7.3: Applying Information Processing
Challenges 178 Approaches 209
Piaget’s Contributions to Developmental Science 179 Forensic Developmental Psychology: Bringing Child
The Critics Weigh In 179 Development to the Courtroom 209
A Final Summation 181 Information Processing Contributions to the Classroom 211
Review, Check, and Apply 182 How Should We Teach Reading? 211
Teaching Critical Thinking 212
Module 6.3: Vygotsky’s View of Cognitive Information Processing Approaches in Perspective 213
Development: Taking Culture into Account 182 Review, Check, and Apply 214
The Importance of Culture 183 The Case of . . . the Frustrated Fantasy 215
The Zone of Proximal Development 183 Looking Back 215
Cultural Tools 185 Key Terms and Concepts 217
Evaluating Vygotsky’s Contributions 185 Epilogue 217
Review, Check, and Apply 187
The Case of . . . the Risky Bet 187

8 Language Development
Looking Back 188
Key Terms and Concepts 189 218
Epilogue 189
Prologue: The First Word Spoken 219

Module 8.1 The Course of Language

7 Cognitive Development: Information


Development 220
The Fundamentals of Language: From Sounds to
Processing 190 Symbols 220
Early Sounds and Communication 220
Prologue: Forgotten Memories 191 First Words 222
First Sentences 223
Module 7.1: The Basics of Information Language Advances During the Preschool Years 225
Processing 192 Private Speech and Social Speech 226
Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval: The Foundations of Language Development during Middle Childhood: Mastering
Information Processing 192 Language 226
Automatization 193 Mastering the Mechanics of Language 226
Early Abilities 193 Metalinguistic Awareness 227
Information-Processing Perspectives: Gradual Transformations How Language Promotes Self-Control 227
in Abilities 194 Review, Check, and Apply 228
Cognitive Growth during the School Years 194
Explaining the Teenage (Mental) Growth Spurt 194 Module 8.2: The Origins of Language
Egocentrism in Thinking: Adolescents’ Self-Absorption 195 Development 229
Academic Performance and Stereotype Threat 197 Language Acquisition 230
Review, Check, and Apply 198 Learning Theory Approaches: Language as a Learned Skill 230
Nativist Approaches: Language as an Innate Skill 230
Module 7.2: Memory and Attention 199 The Interactionist Approaches 231
The Three-System Approach to Memory 199 How Are Language and Thought Related? 231
Memory During Infancy: They Must Remember This . . . 199 Review, Check, and Apply 233
viii  Contents

Module 8.3: Children’s Conversations: Speaking Looking Back 269


to and With Children 234 Key Terms and Concepts 270
Epilogue 270
The Language of Infant-Directed Speech 234
Gender Differences in Speech Directed toward Children 236
The Links between Language Development and Poverty 236
Bilingualism: Speaking in Many Tongues 237
Review, Check, and Apply 239
10 Social and Emotional
The Case of . . . the Deedio Mystery 240 Development 272
Looking Back 241 Prologue: The Child-Proof Bin 273
Key Terms and Concepts 242
Epilogue 242 Module 10.1 Forming the Roots of
Sociability 274
Attachment: Forming Social Bonds 274

9 Intelligence
The Ainsworth Strange Situation and Patterns of Attachment 275
244 Producing Attachment: The Roles of the Mother and
Father 277
Prologue: The Exceptional Daniel Skandera 245 Mothers and Attachment 277
Fathers and Attachment 278
Module 9.1 Intelligence: Determining Individual Are There Differences in Attachment to Mothers and Fathers? 278
Strengths 246 Infant Interactions: Developing a Working Relationship 279
Intelligence Benchmarks: Differentiating the Intelligent from the Infants’ Sociability with Their Peers: Infant–Infant
Unintelligent 247 Interaction 281
Binet’s Test 247 Review, Check, and Apply 282
Measuring IQ: Present-Day Approaches to Intelligence 248
Fairness in IQ Testing 249 Module 10.2: Emotional Development 283
Reliability and Validity 249 Emotions in Infancy: Do Infants Experience Emotional
The Meaning of IQ Scores 251 Highs and Lows? 283
What IQ Tests Don’t Tell: Alternative Conceptions of Experiencing Emotions 284
Intelligence 252 Stranger Anxiety and Separation Anxiety 285
Smart Thinking: The Triarchic Theory of Intelligence 253 Smiling 286
Emotional Intelligence 254 Decoding Others’ Facial and Vocal Expressions 286
Review, Check, and Apply 255 Social Referencing: Feeling What Others Feel 287
Two Explanations of Social Referencing 288
Module 9.2: Controversies Involving Theory of Mind: Infants’ Perspectives on the Mental Lives of
Intelligence 256 Others—and Themselves 288
Understanding What Others Are Thinking 289
Individual Differences in Intelligence: Is One Infant Smarter
Than Another? 256 Emotional Development in Middle Childhood 289
What Is Infant Intelligence? 257 Emotional Development in Adolescence 290
Developmental Scales 257 The Instability of Emotions in Adolescence 290
Information-Processing Approaches to Infant Intelligence 258 The Neurological Basis of Emotion 291
Emotional Self-Regulation 291
Group Differences in IQ 259
Explaining Racial Differences in IQ 260 Emotional Difficulties in Adolescence: Depression and Suicide 292
Adolescent Depression 292
The Bell Curve Controversy 260
Adolescent Suicide 293
Review, Check, and Apply 262
Review, Check, and Apply 295
Module 9.3: Intellectual Deficits and the
Intellectually Gifted 263
Module 10.3: Personality Development 296
Temperament: Stabilities in Infant Behavior 296
The Least Restrictive Environment 263
Categorizing Temperament: Easy, Difficult, and Slow-to-Warm
Below the Norm: Intellectual Disability 265 Babies 297
Degrees of Intellectual Disability 265 The Consequences of Temperament: Does Temperament Matter? 298
Above the Norm: The Gifted and Talented 266 The Biological Basis of Temperament 298
Educating the Gifted and Talented 266 Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development 299
Review, Check, and Apply 268 Psychosocial Development During Middle Childhood and
The Case of . . . the Worried Eighth-Grade Teacher 269 Adolescence 300
Contents  ix

Review, Check, and Apply 300


The Case of . . . the Long Good-bye 301
Looking Back 301
12 Gender and Sexuality 326
Prologue: Rules of the Game 327
Key Terms and Concepts 302
Epilogue 303 Module 12.1 Gender: Why Do Boys Wear Blue
and Girls Wear Pink? 328
Gender Differences 328

11 Development of the Self 304 Gender Roles 329


Gender Identity: Developing Femaleness and Maleness 329
Prologue: Who Is Karl Haglund? 305 Explaining Gender Differences 331
Biological Perspectives on Gender 331
Module 11.1 The Development Psychoanalytic Perspectives 332
of the Self 306 Social Learning Approaches 332
The Roots of Self-Awareness: Do Infants Know Cognitive Approaches 333
Who They Are? 306 Review, Check, and Apply 334
Self-Concept in the Preschool Years: Thinking about
the Self 307 Module 12.2: Gender and Social
Culture and Self-Concept 307 Relationships 335
Understanding One’s Self in Middle Childhood 308 Gender and Friendships: The Sex Segregation of Middle
The Shift in Self-Understanding from the Physical to the Childhood 335
Psychological 309
Gender Relations in Adolescence 336
Review, Check, and Apply 309 Gender Expectations and Self-Esteem in Adolescence 337
Dating: Close Relationships in the 21st Century 338
Module 11.2: Adolescence: The Search for The Functions of Dating 338
Identity 311 Dating, Race, and Ethnicity 339

Self-Concept: What Am I Like? 311 Review, Check, and Apply 339


Identity Formation: Change or Crisis? 312
Societal Pressures and Reliance on Friends and Peers 312
Module 12.3: Sexual Behavior and Teenage
Psychological Moratorium 313
Pregnancy 340
Limitations of Erikson’s Theory 313 Becoming Sexual 340
Marcia’s Approach to Identity Development: Updating Masturbation 340
Erikson 313 Sexual Intercourse 341
Identity, Race, and Ethnicity 314 Sexual Orientation: Heterosexuality, Homosexuality,
Review, Check, and Apply 316 and Bisexuality 342
Teenage Pregnancies 344
The Challenges of Teenage Pregnancy 344
Module 11.3: Evaluating the Self 317 Virginity Pledges 345
Self-Esteem: Developing a Positive—or Negative—View of Review, Check, and Apply 346
Oneself 317 The Case of . . . the Wrong Role Models? 347
Change and Stability in Self-Esteem 318
Looking Back 347
Parenting Styles and Self-Esteem 319
Key Terms and Concepts 348
Self-Esteem in Adolescence: How Do I Like Myself? 320
Epilogue 349
Socioeconomic Status and Race Differences in Self-Esteem 320
Social Identity Theory 321

13
Social Comparison 322
Downward Social Comparison 322 Moral Development
Social Comparison in Adolescence: The Importance of Peer
Groups 322
and Aggression 350
Reference Groups 322 Prologue: Jesse’s Dilemma 351
Review, Check, and Apply 323
The Case of . . . the Failed Star 323 Module 13.1 Developing Morality: Following
Looking Back 324 Society’s Rights and Wrongs 352
Key Terms and Concepts 325 Piaget’s View of Moral Development 352
Epilogue 325 Evaluating Piaget’s Approach to Moral Development 353
x  Contents

Social Learning Approaches to Morality 354 Individual Differences in Friendship: What Makes a Child
Empathy and Moral Behavior 354 Popular? 387
Effective Parenting: Teaching Desired Behavior 355 What Makes Children Popular? 387
Cultural Differences in Childrearing Practices 357 The Social Benefits of Physical Competence 388
Social Problem-Solving Abilities 388
Review, Check, and Apply 358
Teaching Social Competence 389
Module 13.2: Moral Reasoning and Prosocial Review, Check, and Apply 390
Behavior 359
Module 14.2: The Role of Peers in
Kohlberg’s Approach to Moral Development 360
Adolescence 391
Gilligan’s Approach to Moral Development: Gender and
Morality 362 Peer Relationships in Adolescence: The Importance
of Belonging 391
Moral Behavior and Moral Reasoning: Why the
Disconnect? 363 Cliques and Crowds 392
Online Social Networks: Cyberspace Peers 392
Prosocial Reasoning and Prosocial Behavior: The Other Side
of the Coin 364 Popularity: Who’s In, Who’s Out? 394
Gender and Cultural Differences in Prosocial Behavior 365 Personal Qualities and Popularity 394
Review, Check, and Apply 365 Popularity and Rejection 394
Conformity: Peer Pressure in Adolescence 396
Module 13.3: Aggression and Violence 366 Review, Check, and Apply 397
Aggression and Violence in Preschoolers: Sources and
Consequences 366 Module 14.3: Family Relationships 397
Roots of Aggression 367 Family Life 397
Social Learning Approaches to Aggression 368 Preschoolers’ Family Lives 398
Viewing Violence on TV: Does It Matter? 368 Family Life in Middle Childhood 398
Cognitive Approaches to Aggression: The Thoughts Behind Changing Family Relations and the Quest for Autonomy
Violence 370 in Adolescence 398
School Violence 371 Culture and Autonomy 399
Schoolyard—and Cyber-Yard—Bullies 373 The Myth of the Generation Gap 400
Bullies and Their Victims 374 Conflicts with Parents 401
The Lingering Stress of Being Bullied 374 Cultural Differences in Parent–Child Conflicts During Adolescence 402
Juvenile Delinquency: The Crimes of Adolescence 375 Family Constellations: The Array of Possibilities 402
Review, Check, and Apply 376 The Changing Home Environment 403
The Case of . . . the Turncoat Friend 376 When Both Parents Work Outside the Home: How Do
Looking Back 377 Children Fare? 403
Key Terms and Concepts 378 Home and Alone: What Do Children Do? 404
Epilogue 378 The Impact of Divorce on Children 404
Blended Families 405
Single-Parent Families 406
Multigenerational Families 406

14 Friends and Family 380 Families with Gay and Lesbian Parents 407
Race and Family Life 407
Prologue: Rewriting the Rules 381 Poverty and Family Life 407
Group Care: Orphanages in the 21st Century 408
Module 14.1 Friendships in Preschool and Child Abuse and Psychological Maltreatment: The Grim Side
Middle Childhood 382 of Family Life 410
Physical Abuse 410
Preschoolers’ Friendships 382
Psychological Maltreatment 412
Playing by the Rules: The Work of Play 382
Review, Check, and Apply 413
Categorizing Play 383
The Case of . . . Too Much of a Good Thing 414
The Social Aspects of Play 383
How Preschoolers’ Theory of Mind Affects Play 385
Looking Back 415
Building Friendships In Middle Childhood 385 Key Terms and Concepts 416
Stages of Friendship: Changing Views of Friends 386 Epilogue 416
Contents  xi

15 Schooling, Culture, and Society:


Socioeconomic Status and School Performance
Ethnic and Racial Differences in School Achievement
436
436

Living in a Multicultural World 418 Review, Check, and Apply 437

Prologue: First Day 419 Module 15.3: Living in a Multicultural


World 438
Module 15.1 Getting a Start on Schooling 420 How Culture Defines Us 438
Early Childhood Education: Taking the Pre- Out of Acculturation: When Cultures Collide 439
Preschool 420 Developing an Ethnic Identity 440
The Varieties of Early Education 421 Achieving Ethnic Identity 441
The Effectiveness of Child Care 422
Multicultural Education 441
The Quality of Child Care 422
Cultural Assimilation or Pluralistic Society? 442
Does Head Start Truly Provide a Head Start? 424 Fostering a Bicultural Identity 442
Are We Pushing Children Too Hard and Too Fast? 424
The Impact of Socioeconomic Status and Poverty
Learning from the Media 425 on Children and Adolescents 443
Television: Controlling Exposure 426 Prejudice and Discrimination 444
Sesame Street: A Teacher in Every Home? 426
Prejudice, Stereotypes, and Discrimination: The Foundations
Media and Technology Use by Children and of Hate 444
Adolescents 427 The Roots of Prejudice 445
Viewing Television 428 Review, Check, and Apply 448
Computers and the Internet: Living in a Virtual World 428
The Case of . . . the Secret Reader 449
Review, Check, and Apply 429 Looking Back 449
Key Terms and Concepts 451
Module 15.2: Sociocultural Aspects of Epilogue 451
Schooling 430
References 452
Schooling Around the World: Who Gets Educated? 430
Credits 567
What Makes Children Ready for School? 430
Educational Trends: Beyond the Three Rs 431 Name Index 570
The Transition from Elementary to Middle School 432 Subject Index 581
Homeschooling: An Alternative to Traditional Schools 434
School Performance in Adolescence 435
Preface
Child development is a unique field of study. Unlike other disciplines,
each of us has experience with its subject matter in personal ways. It is a discipline that deals
not just with ideas and concepts and theories, but one that above all has at its heart the forces
that have made each of us who we are.
This text, Child Development: A Topical Approach, seeks to capture the discipline in
a way that sparks and nurtures students’ inherent interest in the field. It is meant to excite
readers about the field, to draw them into its way of looking at the world, and to shape their
understanding of developmental issues. By exposing students to both the current content and
the promise inherent in child development, the text is designed to keep interest in the disci-
pline alive long after their formal study of the field has ended.
Child Development: A Topical Approach also addresses two common concerns of
course instructors. First, the field of child development is so vast that it is difficult to cover
within the confines of a traditional college term. Consequently, many instructors see most
child development texts as too long. Second, and more critical, many instructors express
the concern that traditional, chronologically based child development books are arranged
in a way that made it difficult for students to understand the scope of development within
particular topical areas (such as social or personality development across childhood) without
skipping from one chapter to another.
Child Development: A Topical Approach addresses both of these concerns. This book
is shorter than traditional child development books, and it is arranged in a way that helps
students to see the “big picture” of development across the entire span of childhood and ado-
lescence within a specific topical area.
Child Development: A Topical Approach is rich in examples and illustrates the appli-
cations that can be derived from the research and theory of child developmentalists. It pays
particular attention to the applications that can be drawn from theory and research in the field.
To optimize student learning and to provide instructors with maximum flexibility, the
book uses a modular approach. Each chapter is divided into three modules focusing on par-
ticular subtopics. Consequently, rather than facing long, potentially daunting chapters, stu-
dents encounter material that is divided into smaller, more manageable chunks, representing
a structure that research long ago found to be optimum for promoting learning.
The modular approach has another advantage: It allows instructors to customize instruction
by assigning only those modules that fit their course. Because the modules are self-contained,
instructors can pick and choose which modules best contribute to their course. This flexibil-
ity allows instructors who wish to highlight a particular topic to do so easily and—equally
important—have the option of not including specific modules.

Overview of Child Development:


A Topical Approach
Child Development: A Topical Approach provides a broad overview of the field of child
development. It covers major topics such as physical development, cognitive development,
and social and personality development. In addition, separate chapters focus on language
development, intelligence, development of the self, moral development and aggression, gen-
der, relationships, and living in a multicultural world.
The book seeks to accomplish the following four major goals:
• First, the book is designed to provide a broad, balanced overview of the field of child
development. It introduces readers to the theories, research, and applications that consti-
tute the discipline, examining both the traditional areas of the field as well as more recent
innovations. It pays particular attention to the applications developed by child development

xii
Preface  xiii

specialists, demonstrating how child developmentalists use theory, research, and applica-
tions to help solve significant social problems.
• The second goal of the text is to explicitly tie development to students’ lives. Findings
from the study of child development have a significant degree of relevance to students,
and this text illustrates how these findings can be applied in a meaningful, practical sense.
Applications are presented in a contemporaneous framework, including current news items,
timely world events, and contemporary uses of child development that draw readers into the
field. Numerous descriptive scenarios and vignettes reflect everyday situations in children’s
and adolescents’ lives, explaining how they relate to the field.
• The third goal is to highlight both the commonalities and diversity of today’s multicultural
society. Consequently, the book incorporates material relevant to diversity in all its forms—
racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and cultural diversity—throughout every
chapter. In addition, every chapter has at least one “Developmental Diversity and Your
Life” section. These features explicitly consider how cultural factors relevant to develop-
ment both unite and diversify our contemporary, global society.
• Finally, the fourth goal is one that is implicit in the other three: making the field of child
development engaging, accessible, and interesting to students. Child development is a joy
both to study and teach, because so much of it has direct, immediate meaning to our lives.
Because all of us are involved in our own developmental paths, we are tied in personal ways
to the content areas covered by the book. Child Development: A Topical Approach, then,
is meant to engage and nurture this interest, planting a seed that will develop and flourish
throughout readers’ lifetimes.
In accomplishing these goals, the book strives to be user-friendly. Written in a direct,
conversational voice, it duplicates as much as possible a dialogue between author and student.
The text is meant to be understood and mastered on its own by students of every level of
interest and motivation. To that end, it includes a variety of pedagogical features that promote
mastery of the material and encourage critical thinking.
Child Development: A Topical Approach is meant to be a book that readers will want to
keep in their personal libraries, one that they will take off the shelf when considering prob-
lems related to that most intriguing of questions: How do children and adolescents come to
be the way they are?

Features of Child Development:


A Topical Approach
In addition to its modular structure, Child Development: A Topical Approach includes fea-
tures designed to engage students and help them learn the material effectively. These include:
CHAPTER-OPENING PROLOGUES
Each chapter begins with a short vignette, describing an individual or situation that is relevant to the
basic developmental issues being addressed in the chapter.

LOOKING AHEAD SECTIONS


These opening sections orient readers to the topics to be covered, bridging the opening prologue with the
remainder of the chapter and providing orienting questions.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Every chapter includes sequentially numbered learning objectives, stated as engaging questions and based
on Bloom’s taxonomy. They allow students to understand clearly what they are expected to learn. The
learning objectives are tied to the Looking Back summary at the end of each chapter and are also keyed to
test bank items.

FROM RESEARCH TO PRACTICE


Each chapter includes a box that describes current developmental research or research issues, applied to
everyday problems.
xiv  Preface

DEVELOPMENTAL DIVERSITY AND YOUR LIFE


Every chapter has at least one “Developmental Diversity and Your Life” section incorporated into the text.
These sections highlight issues relevant to today’s multicultural society.

ARE YOU AN INFORMED CONSUMER OF DEVELOPMENT?


Every chapter includes information on specific uses that can be derived from research conducted by
developmental investigators.

NEUROSCIENCE AND DEVELOPMENT


To illustrate the influence of neuroscience throughout the field of child development, most chapters in-
clude a box presenting the latest neuroscientific advances and their impact on our understanding of child
development.

CAREERS IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT


Many chapters include an interview with a person working in a field that uses the findings of child and
adolescent development. Among those interviewed are a counselor for a treatment center serving teenag-
ers confronting substance abuse, a childcare provider, a neonatal nurse, and a preschool teacher.

FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF …


These questions, interspersed throughout the margins of each chapter, ask students to take the perspec-
tive of someone working in an occupation that relies on findings of child development, including the fields
of health care, education, and social work.

THE CASE OF …
Every chapter includes a case study. Case studies describe an intriguing situation related to the topics
discussed in the chapter, and they end by asking students questions designed to evoke critical thinking
about the case and the chapter content.

REVIEW, CHECK, AND APPLY SECTIONS


Interspersed throughout each chapter are short recaps of the chapters’ main points, followed by questions
designed to provoke mastery of the material and critical thinking.

RUNNING GLOSSARY
Key terms are defined in the margins of the page on which the term is presented.

END-OF-CHAPTER MATERIAL
Each chapter ends with an Epilogue that refers back to the opening Prologue, a summary, and a list of key
terms and concepts. This material is designed to help students study and retain the information in the
chapter.

Finally, in addition to the features described above, Child Development: A Topical Approach
provides complete integration between the book and a huge array of digital media in MyPsychLab,
comprising online electronic exercises, videos, assessments, and literally hundreds of activities
that extend the text and make concepts come alive. The online material is referenced throughout
the book in a way meant to entice students to go online and make use of the electronic materials
that will help them understand the material in the book more deeply.
I am very excited about this book. I believe its topical approach, length, modular struc-
ture and other features, and media and text integration presents the material in a highly
effective way and will help students learn it. Just as important, I hope the book will spark
and nurture students’ interest in the field of child development, drawing them into its way of
looking at the world, building their understanding of developmental issues, and showing them
how the field can have a significant impact on their own and others’ lives.

Ancillaries
Child Development: A Topical Approach is accompanied by a superb set of teaching and
learning materials.

Supplements for the Instructor


• Instructor’s Resource Manual (ISBN: 0205948197). Each chapter of the Instructor’s
Resource Manual includes sample syllabi, learning objectives, key terms and concepts,
Preface  xv

chapter outlines and lecture notes, lecture suggestions and discussion topics, class activi-
ties, demonstrations, and assignments, out-of-class assignments and projects, supplemental
reading lists, multimedia/video resources, and handouts.
The Instructor’s Resource Manual will be available for download via the Pearson In-
structor’s Resource Center (www.pearsonhighered.com) or on the MyPsychLab® plat-
form (www.mypsychlab.com).
• Video Enhanced PowerPoint Slides. These slides, available on the Instructor’s Resource
DVD (ISBN 0205947972), bring the Feldman design right into the classroom, drawing
students into the lecture and providing wonderful interactive activities, visuals, and videos.
• PowerPoint Lecture Slides (ISBN: 0205948219). The lecture slides provide an active
format for presenting concepts from each chapter and feature prominent figures and tables
from the text. The PowerPoint Lecture Slides are available for download via the Pearson
Instructor’s Resource Center (www.pearsonhighered.com) or on the MyPsychLab® plat-
form (www.mypsychlab.com).
• Test Item File (ISBN: 020592350X). The test bank contains more than 3,000
­m ultiple-choice, true/false, and essay questions, each referenced to the relevant
page in the textbook and given a rationale explaining the correct answer. Each
question was accuracy checked to ensure that the correct answer was marked and
the page reference was accurate. An additional feature of the test bank is the iden-
tification of each question as factual, conceptual, or applied. This allows professors
to customize their tests and to ensure a balance of question types. Each chapter of
the test item file begins with the Total Assessment Guide: an easy-to-reference grid
that makes creating tests easier by organizing the test questions by text section,
question type, and whether it is factual, conceptual, or applied.
• MyTest (ISBN: 0205948200). The test item file comes with the Pearson MyTest, a
powerful assessment generation program that helps instructors easily create and print quiz-
zes and exams. Questions and tests can be authored online, allowing instructors ultimate
flexibility and the ability to efficiently manage assessments anytime, anywhere. For more
information, go to www.PearsonMyTest.com.
• MyVirtualChild is an interactive simulation that allows students to raise a child from birth
to age 18 and monitor the effects of their parenting decisions over time. MyVirtualChild
helps students think critically as they apply their course work to the practical experiences
of raising a virtual child. MyVirtualChild is available in MyPsychLab or standalone. To
package the student text with MyVirtualChild use ISBN 0205941931.
• MyPsychLab (ISBN: 0205948855). Available at www.mypsychlab.com, this
learning and assessment tool can be used to supplement a traditional lecture course or to
administer a course entirely online. Instructors decide the extent of integration—from inde-
pendent self-assessment for students to total course management. Students benefit from an
easy-to-use site where they can test themselves on key content, track their progress, and use
individually tailored study plans. MyPsychLab is an all-inclusive tool, including a Pearson
eText, plus teaching and learning resources organized by chapter in the form of videos,
simulations, animations, assessments, and other tools to engage students and reinforce
learning. Fully customizable and easy to use, MyPsychLab meets the individual teaching
and learning needs of every instructor and every student. To package MyPsychLab with the
student text, use ISBN 0205959881.
• MyClassPrep. Available for instructors within MyPsychLab, this exciting instructor
resource makes lecture preparation easier and less time consuming. MyClassPrep collects
the best class preparation resources—art and figures from our leading texts, videos, lec-
ture activities, classroom activities, demonstrations, and much more—in one convenient
online destination. You can search through MyClassPrep’s extensive database of tools by
content topic or by content type. You can select resources appropriate for your lecture,
many of which can be downloaded directly; or you can build your own folder of resources
and present from within MyClassPrep.
xvi  Preface

Video Resources for Instructors


• The Development Video Series in MyPsychLab engages students and brings to life a
wide range of topics spanning prenatal through the end of the lifespan. New international
videos shot on location allow students to observe similarities and differences in human
development across various cultures.
• Pearson Teaching Films Life Span Development Video, ISBN: 0205656021.

Print and Media Supplements for the Student


• MyPsychLab. With this exciting new tool students are able to self-assess using
embedded diagnostic tests and instantly view results along with a customized study plan.
The customized study plan will focus on the student’s strengths and weaknesses, based on
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Preface  xvii

Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the following reviewers who provided a wealth of comments, constructive
criticism, and encouragement:
Kristi Almeida-Bowin—Moorpark College
Bruce Anthony—Tabor College
Stephanie Babb—University of Houston–Downtown
Susan Bowers—Northern Illinois University
Heidi Burross—University of Arizona
Pamela Chibucos—Owens Community College
Marguerite Clark—California State Polytechnic University Pomona
Myra Cox—Harold Washington College
Charlene A. Drake—University of Massachusetts, Lowell
William Elmhorst—Marshfield High School
Roseanne L. Flores—Hunter College, CUNY
Karen Frye—University of Nevada, Reno
Nadine Garner—Millersville University
Jerry Green—Tarrant County College
Michael Green—University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Donnell Griffin—Davidson County Community College
Eugene Grist—Ohio University
Vivian Harper—San Joaquin Delta College
Sandra Hellyer—Ball State University
Earleen Huff—Amarillo College
Alisha Janowsky—University of Central Florida
Sara Lawrence—California State University
Mary Clare Munger—Amarillo College
Brian Parry—San Juan College
Mary Kay Reed—York College of Pennsylvania
Alesia Williams Richardson—Chicago State University
Peggy Skinner—South Plains College
Mary Hughes Stone—San Francisco State University
Patricia Weaver—Fayetteville Technical Community College
Lois Willoughby—Miami Dade College

Many others deserve a great deal of thanks. I am indebted to the numerous people who
provided me with a superb education, first at Wesleyan University and later at the University
of Wisconsin. Specifically, Karl Scheibe played a pivotal role in my undergraduate educa-
tion, and the late Vernon Allen acted as mentor and guide through my graduate years. It was
in graduate school that I learned about development, being exposed to such experts as Ross
Parke, John Balling, Joel Levin, Herb Klausmeier, and many others. My education continued
when I became a professor. I am especially grateful to my colleagues at the University of
Massachusetts, who make the university such a wonderful place in which to teach and do
research.
Several people played central roles in the development of this book. John Bickford and
Christopher Poirier provided important research and editorial input, and I am thankful for
their help. Most of all, John Graiff was essential in juggling and coordinating the multiple
aspects of writing a book, and I am very grateful for the substantial role he played.
xviii  Preface

I am also grateful to the superb Pearson team that was instrumental in the inception and
development of this book. Erin Mitchell, Executive Editor, has brought enthusiasm, creativ-
ity, and good ideas to this book. Editorial Project Manager Diane Szulecki went way beyond
the call of duty to provide direction in every respect. I am grateful for their support. Finally,
I’d like to thank (in advance) marketing managers Nicole Kunzmann and Jeremy Intal, on
whose skills I’m counting.
I also wish to acknowledge the members of my family, who play such an essential
role in my life. My brother, Michael, my sisters-in-law and brother-in-law, my nieces and
­nephews—all make up an important part of my life. In addition, I am indebted to the older
generation of my family, who led the way in a manner I can only hope to emulate. I will
always be obligated to the late Harry Brochstein, Mary Vorwerk, and Ethel Radler. Most of
all, the list is headed by my father, the late Saul Feldman, and my mother, Leah Brochstein.
In the end, it is my immediate family who deserve the greatest thanks. My terrific kids,
Jonathan and wife Leigh, Joshua and wife Julie, and Sarah and husband Jeffrey, not only
are nice, smart, and good-looking, but my pride and joy. My grandsons Alex and Miles
have brought immense happiness from the moment of their births. And my wife, Katherine
Vorwerk, provides the love and grounding that makes everything worthwhile. I thank them
all, with my love.

Robert S. Feldman
University of Massachusetts Amherst
About the Author
Robert S. Feldman is Professor of Psychology and Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral
Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. A recipient of the College Distinguished
Teacher Award, he teaches psychology classes ranging in size from 15 to nearly 500 students.
During more than two decades as a college instructor, he has taught both undergraduate and
graduate courses at Mount Holyoke College, Wesleyan University, and Virginia Commonwealth
University in addition to the University of Massachusetts.
A Fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the Association for
Psychological Science, Professor Feldman received a B.A. with High Honors from Wesleyan
University (and from which he received the Distinguished Alumni Award). He has an M.S.
and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is a winner of a Fulbright Senior
Research Scholar and Lecturer award, and he has written more than 100 books, book chap-
ters, and scientific articles.
Professor Feldman has edited Development of Nonverbal Behavior in Children and
Applications of Nonverbal Behavioral Theory and Research, and co-edited Fundamentals of
Nonverbal Behavior. He is also author of Development Across the Life Span, Understanding
Psychology, and P.O.W.E.R. Learning: Strategies for Success in College and Life. His books
have been translated into a number of languages, including Spanish, French, Portuguese,
Dutch, Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, and Japanese. His research interests include honesty and
deception in everyday life, work that he described in The Liar in Your Life, a trade book. His
research has been supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the
National Institute on Disabilities and Rehabilitation Research.
Professor Feldman loves music, is an enthusiastic pianist, and enjoys cooking and travel-
ing. He has three children, two young grandsons, and he and his wife, a psychologist, live in
western Massachusetts in a home overlooking the Holyoke mountain range.

xix
1 An Introduction to Child
Development

M o d u l e 1.1 M o d u l e 1.2

An Orientation to Child Children: Past, Present,


Development and Future
• Characterizing Child Development: The Scope • Early Views of Children
of the Field • The 20th Century: Child Development as a
Discipline
Developmental Diversity and your life:
How Culture, Ethnicity, and Race Influence • Today’s Key Issues and Questions: Child
Development Development’s Underlying Themes
• The Future of Child Development
• Cohort Influences on Development:
Developing with Others in a Social World From Research to Practice: Preventing
Review, Check, and Apply Violence in Children
are you an Informed Consumer of Development?
Assessing Information on Child Development
Review, Check, and Apply

The Case of … Too Many Choices


Looking Back
Key Terms and Concepts
Epilogue
Learning Objectives
Module 1.1
Prologue: Conceptions, LO1 What is child development?

Old and New LO2 What is the scope of the field of


child development?
She was famous from the moment she was born. But it wasn’t who she was that LO3 What are major societal influences
made others curious about her: It was how she was conceived. that determine development?
Louise Brown, who is now in her mid-30s, has always been known as the
world’s first “test tube baby.” She was born by in vitro fertilization (IVF), a proce- Module 1.2
dure in which fertilization of a mother’s egg by a father’s sperm takes place outside LO4 How have views of childhood
of the mother’s body. changed historically?
Louise was a preschooler when her parents told her about how she was con- LO5 What are the key issues and
questions in the field of child
ceived, and throughout her childhood she was bombarded with questions. It became
development?
routine to explain to her classmates that she in fact was not born in a laboratory.
LO6 What is the future of child
As a child, Louise sometimes felt isolated. “I thought it was something peculiar
development likely to hold?
to me,” she recalled. But as she grew older, her isolation declined as more and more
children were born in the same manner.
Today, Louise is hardly
isolated. More than 1.5 mil-
lion babies have been born
using the procedure, which
has become almost routine.
And at the age of 28, Lou-
ise became a mother her-
self, giving birth to a baby
boy named Cameron—­
conceived, by the way, in the
old-fashioned way (Moreton,
2007; Hastings, 2010). Louise Brown and son.

L o o k i n g A h e ad
Louise Brown’s conception may have been novel, but her development, from infancy on-
ward, has followed predictable patterns. While the specifics of our development vary—
some encounter economic deprivation or live in war-torn territories; others contend with
family issues such as divorce and stepparents—the broad strokes of the development
set in motion in that test tube three decades ago are remarkably similar for all of us.
Louise Brown’s conception in the lab is just one of the brave new worlds of the
21st century. Issues ranging from cloning to the consequences of poverty on develop-
ment to the effects of culture and race raise significant developmental concerns. Un-
derlying these are more fundamental issues: How do children develop physically? How
(continued)

3
4  C hapte r 1      An Introduction to Child Development

does their understanding of the world grow and change over time? And how do our personalities
and social world develop as we move from birth through adolescence?
These questions, and many others we’ll encounter throughout this book, are central to the
field of child development. Consider, for example, the range of approaches that different spe-
cialists in child development might take when considering the story of Louise Brown:

• Child development researchers who investigate behavior at the level of biological processes
might determine if Louise’s physical functioning before her birth was affected by her con-
ception outside the womb.
• Specialists in child development who study genetics might examine how the biological en-
dowment from Louise’s parents affects her later behavior.
• For child development specialists who investigate the ways thinking changes during child-
hood, Louise’s life might be examined in terms of how her understanding of the nature of
her conception changed as she grew older.
• Other researchers in child development who focus on physical growth might consider
whether her growth rate differed from children conceived more traditionally.
• Child development experts who specialize in the social world of children might look at the
ways that Louise interacted with other children and the kinds of friendships she developed.

Although their interests take many forms, these specialists in child development share one
concern: understanding the growth and change that occur during the course of childhood and
adolescence. Taking many differing approaches, developmentalists study how both our biologi-
cal inheritance from our parents and the environment in which we live jointly affect our behavior.
Some researchers in child development focus on explaining how our genetic background can
determine not only how we look but also how we behave and how we relate to others—that is,
matters of personality. These professionals explore ways to identify how much of our potential as
human beings is provided—or limited—by heredity. Other child development specialists look to
the environment in which we are raised, exploring ways in which our lives are shaped by the world
that we encounter. They investigate the extent to which we are shaped by our early environments
and how our current circumstances influence our behavior in both subtle and obvious ways.
Whether they focus on heredity or environment, all child development specialists hope that
their work will ultimately inform and support the efforts of professionals whose careers are de-
voted to improving the lives of children. Practitioners in fields ranging from education to health
care to social work draw on the findings of child development researchers, using those findings
to advance children’s welfare.
In this chapter, we orient ourselves to the field of child development. We begin with a discus-
sion of the scope of the discipline, illustrating the wide array of topics it covers and the range
of ages it examines, from the moment of conception through the end of adolescence. We also
survey the foundations of the field and examine the key issues and questions that underlie child
development. Finally, we consider where the child development field is likely to go in the future.

M o d u l e 1.1

An Orientation to Child Development


LO 1-1 What is child development?
LO 1-2 What is the scope of the field of child development?
LO 1-3 What are major societal influences that determine development?
Chapter 1     An Introduction to Child Development   5

Have you ever wondered how it is possible that an infant tightly grips your finger with tiny,
perfectly formed hands? Or marveled at how a preschooler methodically draws a picture? Or
pondered the way an adolescent can make involved decisions about whom to invite to a party
or the ethics of downloading music files?
If you’ve ever wondered about such things, you are asking the kinds of questions that
scientists in the field of child development pose. Child development is the scientific study of
the patterns of growth, change, and stability that occur from conception through adolescence.
Although the definition of the field seems straightforward, the simplicity is somewhat
misleading. To understand what child development is actually about, we need to look under-
neath the various parts of the definition.
In its study of growth, change, and stability, child development takes a scientific ap-
proach. Like members of other scientific disciplines, researchers in child development test
their assumptions about the nature and course of human development by applying scien-
tific methods. As we’ll see in the next chapter, they develop theories about development,
and they use methodical, scientific techniques to validate the accuracy of their assumptions
systematically.
Child development focuses on human development. Although there are some devel-
opmentalists who study the course of development in nonhuman species, the vast majority
examine growth and change in people. Some seek to understand universal principles of devel-
opment, while others focus on how cultural, racial, and ethnic differences affect the course of
development. Still others aim to understand the unique aspects of individuals, looking at the
traits and characteristics that differentiate one person from another. Regardless of approach,
however, all child developmentalists view development as a continuing process throughout
childhood and adolescence.
As developmental specialists focus on the ways people change and grow during their
lives, they also consider stability in children’s and adolescents’ lives. They ask in which areas
and in what periods people show change and growth and when and how their behavior reveals
consistency and continuity with prior behavior.
Finally, although child development focuses on childhood and adolescence, the process
of development persists throughout every part of people’s lives, beginning with the moment
of conception and continuing until death. Developmental specialists assume that in some
ways people continue to grow and change right up to the end of their lives, while in other
respects their behavior remains stable. In other words, developmentalists believe that no par-
ticular, single period of life governs all development. Instead, they believe that every period
of life contains the potential for both growth and decline in abilities and that individuals
maintain the capacity for substantial growth and change throughout their lives.

Characterizing Child Development: The Scope of the Field


Clearly, the definition of child development is broad and the scope of the field is extensive.
Consequently, professionals in child development cover several quite diverse areas, and a
typical developmentalist will specialize in both a topical area and age range.

Topical Areas in Child Development. The field of child development includes three
major topics or approaches:
• Physical development child development The field that involves
• Cognitive development the scientific study of the patterns of growth,
change, and stability that occur from concep-
• Social and personality development tion through adolescence
A child developmentalist might specialize in one of these topical areas. For example, physical development Development involv-
some developmentalists focus on physical development, examining the ways in which the ing the body’s physical makeup, including the
body’s makeup—the brain, nervous system, muscles, and senses and the need for food, drink, brain, nervous system, muscles, and senses
and sleep—helps determine behavior. For example, one specialist in physical development and the need for food, drink, and sleep
might examine the effects of malnutrition on the pace of growth in children, while another cognitive development Development in-
might look at how an athlete’s physical performance changes during adolescence. volving the ways that growth and change in
Other developmental specialists examine cognitive development, seeking to un- intellectual capabilities influence a person’s
derstand how growth and change in intellectual capabilities influence a person’s behavior
6  C ha pt e r 1      An Introduction to Child Development

behavior. Cognitive developmentalists examine learning, memory, problem solv-


ing, and intelligence. For example, specialists in cognitive development might
want to see how problem-solving changes over the course of childhood or if cul-
tural differences exist in the ways people explain the reasons for their academic
successes and failures. They would also be interested in how a person who expe-
riences significant or traumatic events early in life remembers them later in life
(Alibali, Phillips, & Fischer, 2009; Dumka et al., 2009; van Wesel et al., 2011).
Finally, some developmental specialists focus on personality and social develop-
ment. Personality development is the study of stability and change in the enduring char-
acteristics that differentiate one person from another. Social development is the way in
which individuals’ interactions with others and their social relationships grow, change,
and remain stable over the course of life. A developmentalist interested in personality
development might ask whether there are stable, enduring personality traits throughout
the life span, while a specialist in social development might examine the effects of rac-
ism, poverty, or divorce on development (Lansford, 2009; Vélez et al., 2011; Carter et al.,
2011). These three major topic areas—physical, cognitive, and social and personality de-
velopment—are summarized in Table 1-1.

Age Ranges and Individual Differences. As they specialize in chosen topical


areas, child developmentalists typically look at particular age ranges. They usually di-
vide childhood and adolescence into broad age ranges: the prenatal period (the period
from conception to birth), infancy and toddlerhood (birth to age 3), the preschool period
(ages 3 to 6), middle childhood (ages 6 to 12), and adolescence (ages 12 to 20).
It’s important to keep in mind that these broad periods—which are largely accepted by
This wedding of two children in India is an example of child developmentalists—are social constructions. A social construction is a shared notion
how cultural factors play a significant role in determining
the age when a particular event is likely to occur.
of reality, one that is widely accepted but is a function of society and culture at a given time.

Table 1-1   Approaches to Child Development

Orientation Defining Characteristics Examples of Questions Asked*

Physical Examines how brain, What determines the sex of a child? (3)
Development nervous system, muscles, What are the long-term consequences of
sensory capabilities, and premature birth? (4)
needs for food, drink, and What are the benefits of breastfeeding? (4)
sleep affect behavior What are the consequences of early or late sexual
maturation? (5)

Cognitive Emphasizes intellectual What are the earliest memories that can be
Development abilities, including recalled from infancy? (7)
learning, memory, language What are the consequences of watching
development, problem television? (15)
solving, and intelligence Are there benefits to bilingualism? (8)
Are there ethnic and racial differences in
intelligence? (9)
How does an adolescent’s egocentrism affect his
or her view of the world? (6)

Personality Examines enduring Do newborns respond differently to their mothers


personality development Development and Social characteristics that than to others? (4)
involving the ways that the enduring charac- Development differentiate one person What is the best procedure for disciplining
teristics that differentiate one person from from another and how children? (13)
another change over the life span interactions with others and When does a sense of gender develop? (12)
social development The way in which social relationships grow and How can we promote cross-race friendships? (14)
­individuals’ interactions with others and their change over the life span What are the causes of adolescent suicide? (10)
social relationships grow, change, and remain
stable over the course of life *Numbers in parenthesis indicate in which chapter the question is addressed.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Critical
difference
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and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
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Title: Critical difference

Author: Murray Leinster

Illustrator: H. R. Van Dongen

Release date: August 5, 2022 [eBook #68686]

Language: English

Original publication: United States: Street & Smith Publications, Inc,


1956

Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed


Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRITICAL


DIFFERENCE ***
CRITICAL DIFFERENCE
BY MURRAY LEINSTER

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from


Astounding Science Fiction, July 1956.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
I
Massy waked that morning when the only partly-opened port of his
sleeping-cabin closed of itself and the room-warmer began to whir.
He found himself burrowed deep under his covering, and when he got
his head out of it the already-bright room was bitterly cold and his
breath made a fog about him.
He thought uneasily, It's colder than yesterday! But a Colonial Survey
officer is not supposed to let himself seem disturbed, in public, and
the only way to follow that rule is to follow it in private, too. So Massy
composed his features, while gloom filled him. When one has just
received senior service rating and is on one's very first independent
survey of a new colonial installation, the unexpected can be
appalling. The unexpected was definitely here, on Lani III.
He'd been a Survey Candidate on Khali II and Taret and Arepo I, all of
which were tropical, and a Junior Officer on Menes III and Thotmes—
one a semiarid planet and the other temperate-volcanic—and he'd
done an assistant job on Saril's solitary world, which was nine-tenths
water. But this first independent survey on his own was another
matter. Everything was wholly unfamiliar. An ice planet with a minus
point one habitability rating was upsetting in its peculiarities. He knew
what the books said about glacial-world conditions, but that was all.
The denseness of the fog his breath made seemed to grow less as
the room-warmer whirred and whirred. When by the thinness of the
mist he guessed the temperature to be not much under freezing, he
climbed out of his bunk and went to the port to look out. His cabin, of
course, was in one of the drone-hulls that had brought the colony's
equipment to Lani III. The other emptied hulls were precisely ranged
in order outside. They were duly connected by tubular galleries, and
very painstakingly leveled. They gave an impression of impassioned
tidiness among the upheaved, ice-coated mountains all about.
He gazed down the long valley in which the colony lay. There were
monstrous slanting peaks on either side. They partly framed the
morning sun. Their sides were ice. The flanks of every mountain in
view were ice. The sky was pale. The sun had four sun-dogs placed
geometrically about it. It shone coldly upon this far-out world. Normal
post-midnight temperatures in this valley ranged around ten below
zero—and this was technically summer. But it was colder than ten
below zero now. At noon there were normally tiny trickling rills of
surface-thaw running down the sunlit sides of the mountains—but
they froze again at night and the frost replaced itself after sunset. And
this was a sheltered valley—warmer than most of the planet's
surface. The sun had its sun-dogs every day, on rising. There were
nights when the brighter planets had star-pups, too.

The phone-plate lighted and dimmed and lighted and dimmed. They
did themselves well on Lani III—but the parent world was in this same
solar system. That was rare. Massy stood before the plate and it
cleared. Herndon's face peered unhappily out of it. He was even
younger than Massy, and inclined to lean heavily on the supposedly
vast experience of a Senior Officer of the Colonial Survey.
"Well?" said Massy—and suddenly felt very undignified in his
sleeping-garments.
"We're picking up a beam from home," said Herndon anxiously, "but
we can't make it out."
Because the third planet of the sun Lani was being colonized from the
second, inhabited world, communication with the colony's base was
possible. A tight beam could span a distance which was only light-
minutes across at conjunction, and not much over a light-hour at
opposition—as now. But the beam communication had been broken
for the past few weeks, and shouldn't be possible again for some
weeks more. The sun lay between. One couldn't expect normal
sound-and-picture transmission until the parent planet had moved
past the scrambler-fields of Lani. But something had come through. It
would be reasonable for it to be pretty well hashed when it arrived.
"They aren't sending words or pictures," said Herndon uneasily. "The
beam is wabbly and we don't know what to make of it. It's a signal, all
right, and on the regular frequency. But there are all sorts of stray
noises, and still in the midst of it there's some sort of signal we can't
make out. It's like a whine, only it stutters. It's a broken-up sound of
one pitch."
Massy rubbed his chin reflectively. He remembered a course in
information theory just before he'd graduated from the Service
Academy. Signals made by pulses, and pitch-changes and
frequency-variations. Information was what couldn't be predicted
without information. And he remembered with gratitude a seminar on
the history of communication, just before he'd gone out on his first
field job as a Survey Candidate.
"Hm-m-m," he said with a trace of self-consciousness. "Those noises
—the stuttering ones. Would they be, on the whole, of no more than
two different durations? Like—hm-m-m—Bzz bzz bzzzzzz bzz?"
He felt that he lost dignity by making such ribald sounds. But
Herndon's face brightened.
"That's it!" he said relievedly. "That's it! Only they're high-pitched like
—" His voice went falsetto. "Bzz bzz bzz bzzzzz bzz bzz!"
It occurred to Massy that they sounded like two idiots. He said with
dignity:
"Record everything you get, and I'll try to decode it." He added:
"Before there was voice communication there were signals by light
and sounds in groups of long and short units. They came in groups,
to stand for letters, and things were spelled out. Of course there were
larger groups which were words. Very crude system, but it worked
when there was great interference, as in the early days. If there's
some emergency, your home world might try to get through the sun's
scrambler-field that way."
"Undoubtedly!" said Herndon, with even greater relief. "No question,
that's it!"
He regarded Massy with great respect as he clicked off. His image
faded. The plate was clear.

He thinks I'm wonderful, thought Massy wryly. Because I'm Colonial


Survey. But all I know is what's been taught me. It's bound to show up
sooner or later. Damn!
He dressed. From time to time he looked out the port again. The
intolerable cold of Lani III had intensified, lately. There was some idea
that sunspots were somehow the cause. He couldn't make out
sunspots with the naked eye, but the sun did look pale, with its
accompanying sun-dogs. Massy was annoyed by them. They were
the result of microscopic ice-crystals suspended in the air. There was
no dust on this planet, but there was plenty of ice! It was in the air
and on the ground and even under it. To be sure, the drills for the
foundation of the great landing-grid had brought up cores of frozen
humus along with frozen clay, so there must have been a time when
this world had known clouds and seas and vegetation. But it was
millions, maybe hundreds of millions of years ago. Right now, though,
it was only warm enough to have an atmosphere and very slight and
partial thawings in direct sunlight, in sheltered spots, at midday. It
couldn't support life, because life is always dependent on other life,
and there is a temperature below which a natural ecological system
can't maintain itself. The past few weeks, the climate had been such
that even human-supplied life looked dubious.
Massy slipped on his Colonial Survey uniform with its palm-tree
insignia. Nothing could be much more inappropriate than palm-tree
symbols on a planet with sixty feet of permafrost. Massy reflected
wryly, The construction gang calls it a blast, instead of a tree,
because we blow up when they try to dodge specifications. But
specifications have to be met! You can't bet the lives of a colony or
even a ship's crew on half-built facilities!
He marched down the corridor from his sleeping room, with the
dignity he painstakingly tried to maintain for the sake of the Colonial
Survey. It was a pretty lonely business, being dignified all the time. If
Herndon didn't look so respectful, it would have been pleasant to be
more friendly. But Herndon revered him. Even his sister Riki—
But Massy put her firmly out of his mind. He was on Lani III to check
and approve the colony installations. There was the giant landing-grid
for spaceships, which took power from the ionosphere to bring
heavily loaded space-vessels gently to the ground, and in between
times took power from the same source to supply the colony's needs.
It also lifted visiting spacecraft the necessary five planetary diameters
out when they took off again. There was power-storage in the remote
event of disaster to that giant device. There was a food-reserve and
the necessary resources for its indefinite stretching in case of need.
That usually meant hydroponic installations. There was a reason for
the colony, which would make it self-supporting—here a mine. All
these things had had to be finished and operable and inspected by a
duly qualified Colonial Survey officer before the colony could be
licensed for unlimited use. It was all very normal and official, but
Massy was the newest Senior Survey Officer on the list, and this was
the first of his independent operations. He felt inadequate,
sometimes.
He passed through the vestibule between this drone-hull and the
next. He went directly to Herndon's office. Herndon, like himself, was
newly endowed with authority. He was actually a mining-and-minerals
man and a youthful prodigy in that field, but when the director of the
colony was taken ill while a supply ship was aground, he went back to
the home planet and command devolved on Herndon. I wonder,
thought Massy, if he feels as shaky as I do?

When he entered the office, Herndon sat listening to a literal hash of


noises coming out of a speaker on his desk. The cryptic signal had
been relayed to him, and a recorder stored it as it came. There were
cracklings and squeals and moaning sounds, and sputters and
rumbles and growls. But behind the façade of confusion there was a
tiny, interrupted, high-pitched noise. It was a monotone whining not to
be confused with the random sounds accompanying it. Sometimes it
faded almost to inaudibility, and sometimes it was sharp and clear.
But it was a distinctive sound in itself, and it was made up of short
whines and longer ones of two durations only.
"I've put Riki at making a transcription of what we've got," said
Herndon with relief as he saw Massy. "She'll make short marks for the
short sounds, and long ones for the long. I've told her to try to
separate the groups. We've got a full half hour of it, already."
Massy made an inspired guess.
"I would expect it to be the same message repeated over and over,"
he said. He added. "And I think it would be decoded by guessing at
the letters in two-letter and three-letter words, as clues to longer
ones. That's quicker than statistical analysis of frequency."
Herndon instantly pressed buttons under his phone-plate. He relayed
the information to Riki, his sister, as if it were gospel. Massy
remembered guiltily that it wasn't gospel. It was simply a trick recalled
from his boyhood, when he was passionately interested in secret
languages. His interest had faded when he realized he had no
secrets to record or transmit.
Herndon turned from the phone-plate.
"Riki says she's already learned to recognize some groups," he
reported, "but thanks for the advice. Now what?"
Massy sat down. He'd have liked some coffee, but he was being
treated with such respect that the role of demigod was almost forced
on him.
"It seems to me," he observed, "that the increased cold out here
might not be local. Sunspots—"
Herndon jittered visibly. He silently handed over a sheet of paper with
observation-figures on top and a graph below them which related the
observations to each other. They were the daily, at-first-routine,
measurements of the solar constant from Lani III. The graph-line
almost ran off the paper at the bottom.
"To look at this," he admitted, "you'd think the sun was going out. Of
course it can't be," he added hastily. "Not possibly! But there is an
extraordinary number of sunspots. Maybe they'll clear. But meanwhile
the amount of heat reaching us is dropping. As far as I know there's
no parallel to it. Night temperatures are thirty degrees lower than they
should be. Not only here, either, but at all the robot weather stations
that have been spotted around the planet. They average forty below
zero minimum, instead of ten. And—there is that terrific lot of
sunspots...."
He looked hopefully at Massy. Massy frowned. Sunspots are things
about which nothing can be done. Yet the habitability of a borderline
planet, anyhow, can very well depend on them. An infinitesimal
change in sun heat can make a serious change in any planet's
temperature. In the books, the ancient mother planet Earth was said
to have entered glacial periods through a drop of only three degrees
in the planet-wide temperature, and to have been tropic almost to its
poles from a rise of only six. It had been guessed that glacial periods
in the planet where humanity began had been caused by
coincidences of sunspot maxima.
This planet was already glacial to its equator. There was a genuinely
abnormal number of sunspots on Lani, its sun. Sunspots could
account for worsening conditions here, perhaps. That message from
the inner planet could be bad, thought Massy, if the solar constant
drops and stays down a while. But aloud he said:
"There couldn't be a really significant permanent change. Not quickly,
anyhow. Lani's a Sol-type star, and they aren't variables, though of
course any dynamic system like a sun will have cyclic modifications
of one sort or another. But they usually cancel out."
He sounded encouraging, even to himself. But there was a stirring
behind him. Riki Herndon had come silently into her brother's office.
She looked pale. She put papers down on her brother's desk.
"But," she said evenly, "while cycles sometimes cancel, sometimes
they enhance each other. They heterodyne. That's what's
happening."
Massy scrambled to his feet, flushing. Herndon said sharply:
"What? Where'd you get that stuff, Riki?"
She nodded at the sheaf of papers she'd just laid down.
"That's the news from home." She nodded again, to Massy. "You
were right. It was the same message, repeated over and over. And I
decoded it like children decode each other's secret messages. I did
that to Ken once. He was twelve, and I decoded his diary, and I
remember how angry he was that I'd found out he didn't have any
secrets."
She tried to smile. But Herndon wasn't listening. He read swiftly.
Massy saw that the under sheets were rows of dots and dashes,
painstakingly transcribed and then decoded. There were letters under
each group of marks.
Herndon was very white when he'd finished. He handed the sheet to
Massy. Riki's handwriting was precise and clear. Massy read:
"FOR YOUR INFORMATION THE SOLAR CONSTANT IS
DROPPING RAPIDLY DUE TO COINCIDENCE OF CYCLIC
VARIATIONS IN SUNSPOT ACTIVITY WITH PREVIOUS
UNOBSERVED LONG CYCLES APPARENTLY INCREASING THE
EFFECT MAXIMUM IS NOT YET REACHED AND IT IS EXPECTED
THAT THIS PLANET WILL BECOME UNINHABITABLE FOR A TIME
ALREADY KILLING FROSTS HAVE DESTROYED CROPS IN
SUMMER HEMISPHERE IT IS IMPROBABLE THAT MORE THAN A
SMALL PART OF THE POPULATION CAN BE SHELTERED AND
WARMED THROUGH DEVELOPING GLACIAL CONDITIONS
WHICH WILL REACH TO EQUATOR IN TWO HUNDRED DAYS
THE COLD CONDITIONS ARE COMPUTED TO LAST TWO
THOUSAND DAYS BEFORE NORMAL SOLAR CONSTANT
RECURS THIS INFORMATION IS SENT YOU TO ADVISE
IMMEDIATE DEVELOPMENT OF HYDROPONIC FOOD SUPPLY
AND OTHER PRECAUTIONS MESSAGE ENDS FOR YOUR
INFORMATION THE SOLAR CONSTANT IS DROPPING RAPIDLY
DUE TO COINCIDENCE OF CYCLIC—"
Massy looked up. Herndon's face was ghastly. Massy said in some
grimness:
"Kent IV's the nearest world your planet could hope to get help from.
A mail liner will make it in two months. Kent IV might be able to send
three ships—to get here in two months more. That's no good!"
He felt sick. Human-inhabited planets are far apart. The average
distance of stars of all types—there is on an average between four
and five light-years of distance between suns. They are two months'
spaceship journey apart. And not all stars are sol-type or have
inhabited planets. Colonized worlds are like isolated islands in an
unimaginably vast ocean, and the ships that ply between them at
thirty light-speeds seem merely to creep. In ancient days on the
mother planet Earth, men sailed for months between ports, in their
clumsy sailing ships. There was no way to send messages faster
than they could travel. Nowadays there was little improvement. News
of the Lani disaster could not be transmitted. It had to be carried, as
between stars, and carriage was slow and response to news of
disaster was no faster.
The inner planet, Lani II, had twenty millions of inhabitants, as against
the three hundred people in the colony on Lani III. The outer planet
was already frozen, but there would be glaciation on the inner world
in two hundred days. Glaciation and human life are mutually
exclusive. Human beings can survive only so long as food and power
hold out, and shelter against really bitter cold cannot be improvised
for twenty million people! And, of course, there could be no outside
help on any adequate scale. News of the need for it would travel too
slowly. One other world might hear in two months, and send what aid
it could in four. But the next would not hear for four months, and could
not send help in less than eight. It would take five Earth-years to get a
thousand ships to Lani II—and a thousand ships could not rescue
more than one per cent of the population. But in five years there
would not be nearly so many people left alive.
Herndon licked his lips. There were three hundred people in the
already-frozen colony. They had food and power and shelter. They
had been considered splendidly daring to risk the conditions here. But
all their home world would presently be like this. And there was no
possibility of equipping everybody there as the colonists were
equipped.
"Our people," said Riki in a thin voice, "all of them.... Mother and
father and—the others. Our cousins. All our friends. Home is going to
be like ... like that!"
She jerked her head toward a port which let in the frigid colony-
world's white daylight. Her face worked.
Massy was aware of an extreme unhappiness on her account. For
himself, of course, the tragedy was less. He had no family. He had
very few friends. But he could see something that had not occurred to
them as yet.
"Of course," he said, "it's not only their trouble. If the solar constant is
really dropping like that ... why things out here will be pretty bad too.
A lot worse than they are now. We'll have to get to work to save
ourselves!"
Riki did not look at him. Herndon bit his lips. It was plain that their
own fate did not concern them immediately. But when one's home
world is doomed, one's personal safety seems a very trivial matter.
There was silence save for the crackling, tumultuous noises that
came out of the speaker on Herndon's desk. In the midst of that
confused sound there was a wavering, whining, high-pitched note
which swelled and faded and grew distinct again.
"We," said Massy without confidence, "are right now in the conditions
they'll face a good long time from now."
Herndon said dully:
"But we couldn't live here without supplies from home. Or even
without the equipment we brought. But they can't get supplies from
anywhere, and they can't make such equipment for everybody!
They'll die!" He swallowed, and there was a clicking noise in his
throat. "They ... they know it, too. So they ... warn us to try to save
ourselves because ... they can't help us any more."
There are many reasons why a man can feel shame that he belongs
to a race which can do the things that some men do. But sometimes
there are reasons to be proud, as well. The home world of this colony
was doomed, but it sent a warning to the tiny group on the colony-
world, to allow them to try to save themselves.
"I ... wish we were there to ... share what they have to face," said Riki.
Her voice sounded as if her throat hurt. "I ... don't want to keep on
living if ... everybody who ... ever cared about us is going to die!"
Massy felt lonely. He could understand that nobody would want to live
as the only human alive. Nobody would want to live as a member of
the only group of people left alive. And everybody thinks of his home
planet as all the world there is. I don't think that way, thought Massy.
But maybe it's the way I'd feel about living if Riki were to die. It would
be natural to want to share any danger or any disaster she faced.
Which he was.
"L-look!" he said, stammering a little "You don't see! It isn't a case of
your living while they die! If your home world becomes like this, what
will this be like? We're farther from the sun! We're colder to start with!
Do you think we'll live through anything they can't take? Food
supplies or no, equipment or no, do you think we've got a chance?
Use your brains!"
Herndon and Riki stared at him. And then some of the strained look
left Riki's face and body. Herndon blinked, and said slowly:
"Why ... that's so! We were thought to be taking a terrific risk when we
came here. But it'll be as much worse here—Of course! We are in the
same fix they're in!"
He straightened a little. Color actually came back into his face. Riki
managed to smile. And then Herndon said almost naturally:
"That makes things look more sensible! We've got to fight for our
lives, too! And we've very little chance of saving them! What do we do
about it, Massy?"
II
The sun was halfway toward mid-sky, and still attended by its sun-
dogs, though they were fainter than at the horizon. The sky was
darker. The mountain peaks reached skyward, serene and utterly
aloof from the affairs of men. This was a frozen world, where there
should be no inhabitants. The city was a fleet of metal hulks, neatly
arranged on the valley floor, emptied of the material they had brought
for the building of the colony. At the upper end of the valley the
landing-grid stood. It was a gigantic skeleton of steel, rising from legs
of unequal length bedded in the hillsides, and reaching two thousand
feet toward the stars. Human figures, muffled almost past recognition,
moved about a catwalk three-quarters of the way up. There was a
tiny glittering below where they moved. They were, of course, men
using sonic ice-breakers to shatter the frost which formed on the
framework at night. Falling shards of crystal made a liquidlike
flashing. The landing-grid needed to be cleared every ten days or so.
Left uncleared, it would acquire an increasingly thick coating of ice. In
time it could collapse. But long before that time it would have ceased
to operate, and without its operation there could be no space travel.
Rockets for lifting spaceships were impossibly heavy, for practical
use. But the landing-grids could lift them out to the unstressed space
where Lawlor drives could work, and draw them to ground with
cargoes they couldn't possibly have carried if they'd needed rockets.
Massy reached the base of the grid on foot. It was not far from the
village of drone-hulls. He was dwarfed by the ground-level upright
beams. He went through the cold-lock to the small control-house at
the grid's base.
He nodded to the man on standby as he got painfully out of his
muffling garments.
"Everything all right?" he asked.
The standby operator shrugged. Massy was Colonial Survey. It was
his function to find fault, to expose inadequacies in the construction
and operation of colony facilities. It's natural for me to be disliked by

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