Chapter 1: History, Theories, and Methods

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to generate well-thought-out responses to demonstrate your understanding of the following learning objectives (sample answer comments are included at the end of this chapter):

1. Explain what child development is.
2. Describe why it is important to study child development.
3. Discuss the history of child development. Have views about childhood and child development changed across time? If so, how?
4. Describe the major theories of child development.
5. Discuss the major controversies in the study of child development.
6. Describe how psychologists study child development.