Web Links

Box 2-1Around the World- Purposes of Cross Cultural Research [see p.38 of your text]

After you read the above named box in your text, and the accompanying "Check it out!" question, go to http://zzyx.ucsc.edu/Psych/psych.html. This is the Web site for the Department of Psychology at the University of Santa Cruz. Select the "Faculty" link and read about the work of faculty members who conduct cross-cultural research in human development: Barbara Rogoff, David Harrington, Ronald Tharp, or Stephen Wright.

In comparison with other animals, and even with other primates, human beings take a long time to grow up. For example, chimpanzees reach reproductive maturity in about eight years, rhesus monkeys in about four years, and lemurs in only two years or so. Human beings, by contrast, do not mature physically until the early teenage years and, at least in modern industrialized societies, typically reach cognitive and psychosocial maturity even later.

From the point of view of Darwinian evolutionary theory, this prolonged period of immaturity is essential to the survival and well-being of the species. Human beings, more than any other animal, live by their intelligence. Human communities and cultures are highly complex, and there is much to learn in order to "know the ropes." A long childhood serves as essential preparation for adulthood.

Some aspects of immaturity serve immediate adaptive purposes. For example, some primitive reflexes, such as rooting for the nipple, are protective for newborns and disappear when no longer needed. The development of the human brain, despite its rapid prenatal growth, is much less complete at birth than that of the brains of other primates; if the fetus's brain attained full human size before birth, its head would be too big to go through the birth canal. Instead, the human brain continues to grow throughout childhood, eventually far surpassing the brains of our simian cousins in the capacities for language and thought.

The human brain's slower development gives it greater flexibility, or plasticity, as not all connections are "hard wired" at an early age. "This behavioral and cognitive flexibility is perhaps the human species's greatest adaptive advantage" (Bjorklund, 1997, p. 157).

The extended period of immaturity and dependency during infancy and childhood allows children to spend much of their time in play; and, as Piaget maintained, it is largely through play that cognitive development occurs. Play also enables children to develop motor skills and experiment with social roles. It is a vehicle for creative imagination and intellectual curiosity, the hallmarks of the human spirit.

Research on animals suggests that the immaturity of early sensory and motor functioning may protect infants from overstimulation. By limiting the amount of information they have to deal with, it may help them make sense of their world and focus on experiences essential to survival, such as feeding and attachment to the mother. Later, infants' limited memory capacity may simplify the processing of linguistic sounds and thus facilitate early language learning.

Limitations on young children's thought also may have adaptive value. For example, Piaget observed that young children are egocentric; they tend to see things from their own point of view. This tendency toward egocentrism may actually help children learn. In one study (Ratner & Foley, 1997), 5-year-olds took turns with an adult in placing furniture in a doll house. In a control group, the adult had already placed half of the items, and the children were then asked to place the other half. When questioned afterward, the children who had taken turns with the adult remembered more about the task and were better able to repeat it. It may be that an "I did it!" bias helps young children's recall by avoiding the need to distinguish between their own actions and the actions of others. Young children also tend to be unrealistic in assessing their own abilities, believing they can do more than they actually can. This immature self-judgment can encourage children to try new things by reducing their fear of failure.

All in all, evolutionary theory and research suggest that immaturity is not necessarily equivalent to deficiency, and that some attributes of infancy and childhood have persisted because they are appropriate to the tasks of a particular time of life.

Source: Bjorklund, 1997.

For more information on this topic, go to http://www.brazelton-institute.com/

This is the Web site for the Brazelton Institute at Harvard Medical School. Follow the link "The Brazelton Scale: What Is It?" to learn about the Scale. The Scale shows how much such immature creatures as newborns can do in responding to the world. This Web site also offers a preview for the discussion of the Brazelton Scale which appears in Chapter 5 of your text.

When research involves children, potential participants are in a highly vulnerable position. As we have mentioned, young children are less capable than adults of understanding what they are getting into and of making an informed decision on whether or not to participate. Also, children, accustomed to obeying adults, have limited power to make truly independent decisions, especially if parents and school authorities have given their consent. These considerations are especially worrisome with regard to children with special risks, such as maltreated infants and adolescent drug abusers.

Assessment of a child's vulnerability should take developmental differences into account. Younger children are not always more vulnerable than older ones; it depends on the particular kind of risk and on the child. One ethicist (Thompson, 1990) has suggested research-based guidelines (discussed here and briefly summarized in Table 2-6), which you may wish to review after you have read the relevant chapters in this book.

Young children generally cope with stress (brought on, for example, by a mother's absence from the scene) less easily than older ones. Infants' and very young children's ability to cope may hinge on the presence of a parent or trusted caregiver, a familiar setting and procedure, and familiar objects.

Preschool children, who are just beginning to be aware of such emotions as shame, guilt, and embarrassment, often extend these emotions to situations in which they are not appropriate. For example, children this age may be especially vulnerable to feeling guilty about a mishap for which they were not responsible.

Young children are more trusting of authority than older ones, and thus are more vulnerable to coercion and deception and less aware of their own rights if a researcher makes unreasonable or inappropriate demands. Also, because of their more limited conceptual skills, young children are less likely to benefit from debriefing that explains the true nature of a research procedure in which they were deceived or given false feedback. As children grow older, they are more able to make inferences about another person's motives, attitudes, and feelings, including approval or disapproval of their own performance. They also may be more skeptical about the true purpose of a task they are given to do.

Threats to self-esteem, such as being set up for failure, are more stressful as children grow older and become more engrossed in developing a lasting self-concept. Older children are increasingly sensitive to express or implied comparisons with others. Older children also tend to be more sensitive to implied biases that reflect negatively on their families or racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic groups. And they are more sensitive about threats to privacy--not only concerning their bodies and possessions, but also concerning information about themselves.

Attention to such developmental concerns might help researchers ask questions about proposed research that go beyond a simple risk-benefit analysis. Even research that seems to involve minimal risk may be too risky for a particular child at a particular level of development. An important task for developmental scientists serving on ethics committees, teaching in graduate schools, or serving as members or consultants of university review boards, is to encourage the development of standards for age-appropriate treatment of children in research.

• At what age do you think a child becomes capable of giving informed consent to participate in research? (You may want to return to this question after you have read the parts of this book dealing with young children's cognitive and emotional development.)
• If deception is to be used in a study, is it possible to obtain informed consent? If not, does that mean that studies using deception should not be done?
• Behavioral, ethological, neurological, and medical research is often done with animals. What contributions can animal research make to the study of people? What might be some ethical or other limitations of such research?

Interesting related links:

http://www.apa.org/ethics/code.html -Ethical Principles Of Psychologists and Code of Conduct from the American Psychological Association.

http://www.research.umn.edu/ethics/ - Guidelines on ethics for research, scholarship and practice from the University of Minnesota.

http://www.cehn.org/cehn/resourceguide/research.html - A Resource Guide from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development