1. Choose one of the following issues from the semester:
- Physical growth, development in physical skills
- Brain changes
- Threats to health
- Intelligence, learning
- New thinking skills
- Self-concept, personality
- Parent relationships, role of the family
- Peer relationships
and discuss its impact or importance in three of the four developmental stages we have covered: infancy (birth-2), early childhood (2 – 6), middle childhood (6-12), and adolescence (12-19).
Choose 3 of the following questions (Minimum of 300 words each; 8 points each).
2. In covering several topics for this class, we have talked about etiological factors such as biological influences (nature) and family or environmental influences (nurture). Choose a topic in child or adolescent development and discuss how it is influenced by both biological and environmental factors. Include your opinion about the relative importance of these factors overall – that is, do you think more of development is driven by nature or by nurture?
3. We have talked about a number of changes across childhood and adolescence. Some of these changes are continuous and some are discontinuous. Discuss an example of a topic that is a good example of continuity in development, and another topic that is a good example of discontinuity in development.
4. What is one area of child development that you think should be studied further? Describe an experimental research study for that topic, including who you might want to get for participants, what would be the independent variable, what would be the dependent variable, and what would be your hypothesized result. What would be one limitation of this study?
5. Choose a topic from the bullet point list above (a different one than in question #1!) and use two theoretical frameworks (psychoanalytical, behavioral, cognitive, sociocultural) to explain why or how these developmental changes might have occurred.
