Computer vision algorithms have made tremendous advances in recent years. We now have algorithms that can detect and recognize objects, faces, and even facial actions in still images and video sequences. This is wonderful news for researchers that need to code facial articulations in large data sets of images and videos, because this task is time…

In this article, the author states that it is a delight to walk into a Montessori classroom to the hum of children engaged in a variety of activities, especially when there is an accompanying feeling of joy and happiness. In desiring the peaceful calm of the classroom, educators may inadvertently hinder the joy, enthusiasm, and imagination that…

Behavioral inhibition is a temperament characterized in infancy and early childhood by a tendency to withdraw from novel or unfamiliar stimuli. Children exhibiting this disposition, relative to children with other dispositions, are more socially reticent, less likely to initiate interaction with peers, and more likely to develop anxiety over time.…

Developmental contexts play a pivotal role in shaping the psychosocial adaptation and development of young people. Family, school, peer groups, and community provide the opportunities and constraints for the attainment of major developmental tasks of adolescence, and changing relations between the individual and these contexts constitute the basic…

Children rely extensively on others' testimony to learn about the world. However, they are not uniformly credulous toward other people. From an early age, children's reliance on testimony is tempered by selective trust in particular informants. Three- and 4-year-olds monitor the accuracy or knowledge of informants, including those that are…

Many concepts in developmental psychology are inferred or confirmed from very particular experimental or naturalistic observations but investigators often generalize their validity to a broad domain of situations. This permissiveness is affecting progress. This paper provides examples of this error and criticizes the tendency to award essences to…

This chapter argues for the essential role of culture in forming the basic constructs and theories of developmental psychology. The case is made for the need to overcome the cultural insularity of core developmental concepts and methods in order to create a psychology that is more truly universal.

Research by Nathan Fox and other scientists shows how changes in environmental conditions can help temper the negative effects of a child's predisposition toward fearfulness and anxiety. If certain negative triggers are eliminated or modified, a child's genetic tendency toward inappropriate fearfulness and anxiety may be overcome--or not expressed…

Neuroscience and developmental psychology can give useful insight into adolescent behavior that is believed to be the result of the interplay between body chemistry, brain development and cognitive growth. The new findings offer guidance to educators on how to channel adolescent energy into healthy directions.

This paper describes a three-phase developmental process which often occurs following the termination of an ongoing and intimate relationship. The phases are separation, individuation and reconnection. Each phase has a unique but interrelated matrix of psychosocial reactions, needs and potential for personal and interpersonal development. The…

The psychosocial difficulties that usually accompany learning disabilities are examined from a framework of developmental theory, particularly that of Erik Erikson. The implications of this perspective for treatment of adolescents with learning problems is discussed, and the summer residential program at Goddard College described. (Author)

Described results of the alteration of Hyson and Lee's Caregiver's Beliefs about Feelings questionnaire for use with parents in order to assess emotional understanding of children. Found mothers' developmental beliefs scores were positively related to mothers' negative emotional expressiveness, and mothers' emotion language scores were positively…

The impact of divorce upon the children's adaptation has increasingly become a topic of concern in developmental research. This study investigates how specific coping resources (self-efficacy, self-esteem) vary according to age and as a correlate of developmental level in children from divorced and intact homes. Researchers also examined the…