This handbook offers comprehensive coverage of the topics that are relevant to the field of adolescent and young adult development. The "APA Handbook of Adolescent and Young Adult Development" reviews the many factors that impact youth development across varying themes including biological underpinnings, cognitive and emotive processes,…

Discusses how genetic data on present human population relationships and data from the Pleistocene fossil hominid record are being used to compare two contrasting models for the origin of modern humans. (TW)

A critical evaluation of the relevant literature provides some support for an association between depression and chronic pain. Common conceptual and methodological problems are discussed. Current biological and psychological models of the mechanisms by which the two syndromes may interact are summarized, and suggestions are made for future…

The modern history of biology shows how Darwin's selectionist theory has replaced instructionist theories in explaining the operations of living things: first with inheritance through the gene pool of the 1850s, and second with the replacement of a template theory of immune system function in the 1960s. Today scholars in several disciplines…

The exploratory study examined patterns of regional cerebral blood flow in a surface and a deep dyslexic during reading. Significant differences in gray matter blood flow were found between subjects and normal controls. Also differences existed between the surface and deep dyslexic in the distribution of cortical perfusion. (Author/DB)

Examines the interplay between genes and environment and argues that the development of much individual variation can be explained in terms of relatively simple forms of underlying regulation. Looks at "sensitive periods," during which variation is produced by experience received at a particular age. Includes a discussion of the…

The article reports research supporting a view which sees learning disabilities as resulting from the interplay between a poorly elaborated knowledge base (especially in language related domains), the biologically determined efficiencies of such processes as encoding, and the physical and social meaning attached to performance (i.e. the context).…

This paper presents two case studies of children who developed herpes virus infection in the intrauterine or early postnatal period and presented with features of autism around two years of age. Other research suggesting a link between herpes and autism is reviewed. (DB)

The correspondence of left-right confusion in children to the bilateral symmetry in the nervous system was tested by presenting left-right and up-down discrimination-learning tasks to 80 preschoolers who viewed these stimuli from either an upright or 90-degree-rotated body position. The data contradict anatomical model predictions. (Author/BN)

Discusses ways in which Myron Hofer's work (1987), which draws on studies of rodents and primates, alters the traditional perspective on human attachment. Emphasizes the importance of the component of attachment that does not develop in explaining attachment in the first six months of life. (PCB)

This study provides support for a potential subclinical marker in the executive function domain of siblings (n=18, ages 8-18) of autistic individuals, compared to learning-disabled controls. No group differences in theory-of-mind abilities were found. The need to develop more sensitive measures is discussed. (Author/JDD)

This paper examines relevant research in comparative sociology, social anthropology with primitive societies, the behavior of primates, the hormonal control of social behavior, and contemporary social psychology. The reciprocal influence of social and biological factors on human societies is discussed. Moreover, the effect of attitudes on social…

Discusses research on human development from an interactional perspective; methodological problems connected with interindividual differences in biological maturation (using empirical studies from a longitudinal program); and major implications for further development research in an interactional perspective. (Author/BE)

This paper discusses language and communication deficits observed in autism within the framework of the "theory of mind" hypothesis, which posits that autistic individuals have profound difficulty interpreting a person's actions within a mentalistic framework. Placing language and communicative deficits within a theory of mind framework…

This paper explores the neural systems underlying social behaviors as they pertain to autism. It discusses major channels for transmission of social-emotional information, neural pathways subserving social behaviors, and social cognition in autism. A hypothesis of autism based on deviant development of the widely distributed neural system…